There’s many interesting items to be found on Kickstarter, and here are the coolest ones this week.
Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
I’ve never read the novels this game is based on, but it’s using the Cypher System to create a new world to play in. Plus the sci-fi weirdness of this world seems very interesting, and a pretty great fit for the Cypher System
“Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is an RPG based on the visionary and hallucinatory science fiction of author Jeff Noon (who won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Vurt in 1994). Amid the glass-strewn streets of the lethal and anarchic Manchester England of the near future, players ingest slender Vurt feathers to travel to parallel worlds as vivid, unique, and unpredictable as our wildest dreams. But they’re no mere fantasies. These worlds – and all the wonders and horrors they contain – are as a real, and every bit as dangerous, as the one you were born in.
The ability to seamlessly transition to the shared dreamscapes of the Vurt and then back to Manchester’s gritty cyberpunk scene without missing a beat – without having to change the game in any way or fumble with changing game mechanics – is what makes Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game so perfectly suited to the incredible versatility of the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. (If you’ve already played Numenera or The Strange, then you’re already familiar with the flexibility and ease of the Cypher System rulebook and it’s capacity for facilitating great adventures.) The perfect alignment of Jeff Noon’s prismatic source material with the flexible, low-maintenance framework of the Cypher System rulebook is why Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is the first officially licensed Cypher System game based on an existing fictional universe—and it’s why Jeff Noon allowed us to bring his work to tabletop gamers around the world in the form of a luxurious, 300 page full color hardcover rulebook filled with vivid art.”
At the Mountains of Madness: Interactive Book
This looks like a great way to experience one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories.
“At the Mountains of Madness is a report on the events of a disastrous expedition to Antarctica. The story is told by Geologist William Dyer who is the leader of the expedition. Dyer is lonely and desperate, and he also wants to deter a much publicized planned expedition to Antarctica based on his own experience on the continent. The report is his attempt to save mankind from the Antarctic horror.
At the Mountains of Madness Interactive eBook is a media project in the form of an app for iOS and Android.
Imagine that you’re opening the notes of Dr. William Dyer, the geology professor and leader of the disastrous Miskatonic University Expedition to Antarctica in 1930-1931.
You will find photos of landscapes, drawings and sketches of his colleagues and students who disappeared in the ice.”
Mint Tin Mini Apocalypse
If you like gaming on the go, then this is definitely a project you’ll be interested in. It comes with the dice, pieces, and instructions you’lll need. And the instructions are even waterproof! I think it looks like a lot of fun, and would be a great game to carry around.
“A little worker placement, a lot of resource management, and some area control all in a real-time game.
It’s a nice day in Meepleton. You and your friends are enjoying the day without a care in the world when suddenly . . .BOOM! Transformers blow, cars crash, people fall to the ground. Phew, you’re wobbly but okay. RAWR! Nearby a giant, nefarious monster wreaks havoc! Be forewarned: this is no B-movie monster. It has its own intelligence, specifically level 2 AI (artificial intelligence) as defined by Tom Jolly. Hurry! Get your team to the school’s forgotten fallout shelter.
Once two or more of your team members make it inside the shelter, send out a reconnaissance pair to grab a box of supplies. One box is plenty and it doesn’t matter if you or your opponent gets it. But the monster spots you once you grab a box – so you gotta be fast! The shelter holds a max of 7 meeples and it takes 4 from the same team to pull the door closed. Do what you must to survive – If you’re standing outside, knock down an opponent and make them scramble to their feet again. If you’re in the shelter, shove an opponent out and make room for your team. Once the fallout shelter is closed, it sucks to be outside!
But wait! It might not be over if you spot a manhole cover. Grab it and knock the monster down or use it to pry open the fallout shelter. If you grab the cover before you secure the box of supplies, the nefarious monster will surely notice you. So don’t waste time but be careful! This is a simultaneous, competitive, and frantic 2 player game all packed into a tiny tin. So ridiculously small that it makes other microgames look monstrously huge!”
Chaos of Cthulhu
Have you ever wanted to build a being of unmentionable horror while beating your friends at a game? Now’s your chance! This is a relaunch of a previous Kickstarter, but it looks like a great game, especially if you have a great group of friends to play with.
“A pantheon of Elder Beings from the mind of H. P. Lovecraft has been unwittingly set loose in the basement of the teenager next door. The catch? The Necronomicon, or Book of the Dead, used to summon the creatures was torn asunder in an argument between the teen and her friends. The stars are definitely not aligned, the essential grimoire has been mended with tape, and the monsters appear as hybrid abominations, eager for the chaos of battle. The tournament to find the strongest amongst them begins…
Take hold of the damaged tome and summon forth a unique Lovecraftian nightmare, mix-and-matched from 6 different Old Ones and Dark Minions. Then clash in strategic dice battle to be the first to assemble a fully matched monster. Part strategy, part luck…all madness!”
All Fathomed Out
This game is about ocean exploration to be the first to find a new species and presumably be able to be the first person to name them. It rubs me a little the wrong way that this game only accounts for mustachioed men being at the forefront of scientific exploration, but I can let it slide. The art and set up for this box are gorgeous, and its worth checking out!
“It’s 1878, and All Fathomed Out pits 3-6 players against each other in a family friendly race to discover and catalog the most noteworthy new species brought up from the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. These mustachioed men of science face not only stiff competition from their fellow explorers as they dive (only one man can take credit for discovering each species, after all, and science waits for no one) but also the multitudinous natural dangers and perilous creatures that lurk in the briny deeps.
As you explore the beautiful hex-based ocean you’ll uncover aquatic species ripe for the cataloging, environmental events both fair and foul, and underhanded shenanigans the unscrupulous can use to tip the balance in their favor (the scallywags!).”
Still active!
Dungeons on Demand 2
Marked for Death: A Comedic Fate module about assassins
Cultists of Cthulhu
RPG Coasters
Pennypult
Fablestone Dice
Wheel of Flame Candle
Numenera: Into the Ninth World
AcadeCon 2015
The Things We Leave Behind
Zodiac Empires
Meta Dice
