There’s many interesting items to be found on Kickstarter, but these are the coolest ones this week.

Acadecon 2016: Leveling Up
We love the folks over at RPG Academy and are so excited to see them launch AcadeCon once more! This convention focuses on letting you play games with like-minded enthusiasts and big names in the RPG community. It’s located in Dayton Ohio from November 11th-13th this year. You can get a regular badge, VIP badge, or GM badge. Be sure to check it out if you’re in the area, or even if you’re not so you can have the chance to hang out with people like John Wick, Rob Schwalb, Kenneth Hite, James D’Amato, Kat Kuhl and more!

“With AcadeCon 2016: Leveling Up! we at The RPG Academy are expanding and growing our own regional tabletop gaming convention. This year it will be in the Dayton Convention Center, in Dayton, Ohio. AcadeCon is happening November 11th-13th, 2016.

AcadeCon’s primary focus remains tabletop role playing games. But we welcome board games, card games, tactical miniatures games, LARPs, and anything else that gets people together playing games and having fun!

We have had the extreme fortune of building a wonderful community of gamers that listen to our podcast and play games with us. More than anything, we thrive on interacting with our listeners and fans. This is the true purpose of AcadeCon.”

Tak: A Beautiful Game
This interesting board game comes from Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles. I really like the strategy involved, and it seems like a simple game to pick up and a game with enough strategy to make it interesting to play for a long time. If you like games like chess, go, and mancala, check it out!

“Tak uses a square board, which can be any size from 3×3 up to 8×8, but the most common sizes are 5×5 and 6×6 (the “Tavern” and “Classic” games). Each player has several matching pieces, or “stones,” and one special piece called the “Capstone.” The Capstone can be any shape, and the other pieces should be simple, stackable pieces in a matching style.

The board starts empty, and the goal is to build a road (a connected string of your pieces) connecting opposite sides of the board. On each turn, you will either place a piece in an empty space, or move a stack that you control. Stacks must move in a straight line, dropping pieces as they go, and possibly covering other pieces along the way. You can play a piece upright. This piece is called a “standing stone,” or “wall.” It can’t be part of a road, but other pieces can’t stack on top of it. The Capstone is your power piece. It can be part of a road, it can’t be stacked on, and it can also flatten standing stones.”

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game
I love the Dresden Files, I’ve read the series countless times and it’s a world I love diving into over and over. So this card game is right up my alley. First it’s a co-operative game, where you work with other players to solve the problem. Second, the first set of adventures are from the first five Dresden books. Plus you can generate your own story to solve. The one drawback is that it’s kind of spendy. But I think it looks great and I love to see merchandise surrounding one of my favorite series.

“The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (or DFCO) is a game where the players work together to solve cases from the bestselling Dresden Files novels in the ultimate what-if scenario! Play Harry, Murphy, Susan, Michael, and the Alphas in the first five novels, or take on Side Jobs in a random scenario generator based on the short story collection of the same name. Play your hand, clear the board, and beat the odds in the final showdown at the end of the book. Use teamwork, strategy, and a wee bit of luck to win the day.

DFCO is hotter than pyrofuego and cooler than Mab in a snit. Who doesn’t want to be Harry… or Karrin…Michael…we could go on, but you get the picture. The game has plenty of in-jokes and references for Dresden fans (like the unreliable range of the Blue Beetle), but it’s accessible to people who haven’t read the books.

This is a tightly tuned, strategic, cooperative game that feels intense, vital, and a little bit risky (thanks to dice and other factors) throughout play. At 30 minutes per session, gameplay is fast-paced and down to the wire. You can learn how to play further down this page (cleverly hidden under the “HOW TO PLAY” header).

And all of this awesomeness is set off by the original novel covers and gorgeous box art by Chris McGrath, plus dynamic card art by Tyler Walpole. It’s a feast for any Dresden fan, and a visual treat for folks new to the series!”

Forged in Magic: Reforged
Ever feel like there just isn’t enough cool magic items for your 5e game or need an idea for some awesome new loot? This book will give you hundreds of new items to incorporate into your sessions and reward your players. Plus it comes from Paradigm Concepts who made the Arcanis setting, as well as Cthulhu: Strange Aeons and Rotted Capes. Introducing new items your players haven’t even dreamed of will keep things exciting.

“Forged in Magic: REFORGED adds over 400+ magic items to your 5E campaign – from magical weapons and armors, rings, and shields to mystical potions, magical staffs and a myriad of wondrous items. Forged in Magic: REFORGED doesn’t just provide a list of items and their properties, but many also have a backstory on its creation or history. While these stories are set in the Arcanis: World of Shattered Empires campaign setting, the rich detail can help you place these in any published setting or your own home made campaign.

Back Forged in Magic: REFORGED today and recapture that wonder from even veteran players with magic items they’ve never heard of.”

Critical Hit and Miss Decks

I love the idea of Critical Hit and Critical Miss cards. I think they add another fun element to making those amazing (or devastating) rolls. Plus they add a huge element of randomness that I enjoy. Unfortunately I can’t ever convince my players to use them. But you should! These cards offer simple results that can be used in multiple situations.

“Even in the earliest days of D&D, players and DMs alike have cheered whenever they’ve rolled that magical natural 20 or groaned when they’ve fumbled with that dreaded natural 1. Double damage was the original reward for rolling that wonderful 20…dropping a weapon was standard for the natural 1. But over time, different methods were developed for handling these rolls.

In 1980, Carl Parlagreco published tables in Dragon Magazine #39 which exploded the concept of different damages and locations for various weapons (slashing, piercing, blunt) and even a table for what happens when you crit an animal. While these tables were great, they quickly became cumbersome, and many of the results ended up doing less damage than rolling for normal damage.

Since then, many more ideas have been published, sometimes favoring simplicity, sometimes favoring complexity.

Hrothgar’s Hoard’s Decks of Critical Hits and Misses aims to walk that fine line between simple and complex by keeping the options simple, but offering results which range from doing maximum normal damage to monster crippling special effects and even instant death.”

 

Still active!

Unknown Armies
Gunmetal Polyhedral Dice
Wooden Deck and Counter Box
C is for Cthulhu Coloring Book
Miskatonic School for Boys
Noisy Person Cards
Liber Veneficii: The Book of Poisons
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure