What’s Cool on Kickstarter

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

The Nightmare Gallery
The Nightmare Gallery is a horror movie written by Rob and Jhan of Orpheus Protocol (look for an interview with Rob later this week!). The movie follows a professor of anthropology who receives some cryptic messages that claim to be from a TA that went missing three years earlier, and the path that pushes her and her wife down. What’s really cool is that this professor is played by Amber Benson, aka Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of the goals of this movie is to develop a horror movie with fleshed out LGBTQ characters, and I’m really excited to see a movie that is really thoughtful about this. Plus if you’ve listened to Orpheus Protocol you know the horror is going to be amazing. It’s only $15 to get a digital copy of the movie, and you also get access to a lot of amazing additional material from Seraph Films, including a short film, your name in the credits, and an exclusive episode of Horror Haiku. This is a movie that I never knew was missing from my collection, and I can’t wait to see it!

“Amber Benson stars in The Nightmare Gallery as Professor Rand, an anthropology professor whose life is turned upside-down by the sudden, suspicious disappearance of a star pupil. But when a package of paranormal artifacts arrives on her doorstep three years later, the professor embarks on a nightmarish journey into mystery that will shake her and her wife to their cores. Through a terrifying, Lynchian lens, the film follows Professor Rand’s horrifying loss of self in pursuit of an extra-dimensional truth that could doom the world.”
Continue reading What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Curse of the Masked Jackal 2: Daybreak

A room full of pirates drinking and fighting

The new crew work on putting out the fires, literal and figurative, from the last episode.

GM: Patrick
Players: Aser, Bran, Landan, Jonn, Megan.
System: 7th Sea 1e

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Intended Force.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!

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What’s Cool on Kickstarter

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

Cthulhu Dark
Cthulhu Dark boasts of only two pages of rules, make it a very compact game for you to bring to your table. The rest of the book gives advice for building and running the mysteries for your scenario, creatures and objects, and four very different settings: London 1851, Arkham 1692, Jaiwo 2017, and Mumbai 2037. Most of the material is already written, and will be ready to head to layout as the kickstarter ends. However, you can also pledge for a Season Pass, which gets you the material as it’s finished so that you don’t have to wait too long to begin your game. Aser especially is a fan of the bleak storytelling style of this sort of game, and the futility of fighting against incomprehensible horrors. If you enjoy the mythos, this game looks like a great place to try something a little different.

“Cthulhu Dark is a tabletop roleplaying game of cosmic horror, in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s about the things we fear, amplified until they are unbearable. It’s about stories that genuinely creep you out, not well-worn tropes and creatures you’ve seen hundreds of times before. And it’s about bleak horror, in which humans are powerless when confronted by hyperintelligent alien horrors. You can’t beat them. You can’t fight them. You can only watch, run, hide and fear.

If you love Cthulhu games already, then this is Lovecraftian horror at its most intense. If you’re new to them, then Cthulhu Dark is a great place to start. You’ll enter a world of stories that are both terrifying and terribly human. The rules are incredibly short: they’re tightly focussed on horror and they drive the game.”
Continue reading What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Curse of the Masked Jackal 1: Dry Dock

An old ship  on it's side being careened while in  dry dock

Our heroes gather in a pirate haven to gain information on a hidden threat.

GM: Patrick
Players: Aser, Bran, Landan, Jonn, Megan.
System: 7th Sea 1e

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Intended Force.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!
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What’s Cool on Kickstarter

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

Untold: Adventures Await
I got to talk to one of the creators of Untold last week, and I think this looks like a great fun game to play when someone can’t show up for a session. Or with people who are nervous to try RPGs, or even to introduce your kids to them. You use any combination of Story Cubes you want to build a setting, and then develop characters and a narrative. The games are quick and can be different everytime. Michael recommends combing Clues, Mythic, and Voyages story cubes for your investigative horror game.

“Untold: Adventure Awaits is a customisable storytelling game powered by Rory’s Story Cubes where you play the heroes in your own adventure series. Think of it as throwing you and your friends into a favourite TV show, but rather than passively watching, you’re caught up in every scene and make the decisions on which way the plot will go. Each adventure-packed episode takes less than sixty minutes to play from start to finish and requires no preparation – you jump straight into the adventure! All it takes is a copy of Untold, a set of any nine StoryCubes of your choice, and the combined imagination and inquisitiveness of the players. From there on, anything can happen…”
Continue reading What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Mysteries of the Ninth World 22: Ummm…I’m Debilitated

Map of Innsmouth showing the port, the streets, and all of the important locations from Lovecraft's story

Escaping from Innsmouth is a little more complicated then expected.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Landan, Michael.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!
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Interview: Untold: Adventure Awaits Kickstarter

All the components that come in Untold. There's a board, story cubes, cards, character sheets, and tokens.
All the components that come in Untold. There's a board, story cubes, cards, character sheets, and tokens.
I had the chance to talk to Michael Fox from The Creativity Hub about their new game Untold: Adventures Await, which allows you to build an RPG game out of Story Cubes. You can pull in any Story Cubes you want, and there are a lot of options out there already! The variety of cubes will make it easy for me to run the Batman hospital drama I’ve always wanted to try. But seriously, this looks like a great way to have an evening of wacky fun and you should check it out on Kickstarter!

Tell us a little bit about yourself! When did you start getting into games?
So, I’m Michael Fox, I’m a game designer, sometime publisher, podcaster and occasional writer. I’ve run my own site (called The Little Metal Dog Show) and an accompanying podcast for the past eight years or so where I get to interview all manner of folks from the tabletop industry. For now though, I’m currently working with The Creativity Hub over here in Belfast, Northern Ireland, helping them make games that are not only great to play, but also have a bit more meaning under the surface.
I started getting into games as a kid with the classic nerd titles – Hero Quest was a major influence on me. I’d play it myself with solo rules that I ‘developed’ – basically, making stuff up as I went along, stuff that felt right from a story point of view. That morphed into actual rulesets for other games, and then I grew up, discovered music and girls, and forgot about games until around 2000. I stumbled across a tiny game store in Sydney, Australia, saw the kinds of things on offer there, and was kind of hooked. From then on… well, it’s all been cardboard and meeples and dice.

Continue reading Interview: Untold: Adventure Awaits Kickstarter

What’s Cool on Kickstarter

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

The Skirmish Box
Dog Might Games has another beautiful product for offer with the Skirmish Box. It’s available in all the beautiful colors, woods, and carving options we’ve seen before, but this box includes a metal plate to make it magnetic. This makes it a great way to transport your miniatures without worrying about them moving around in transport or being damaged. You can get also get the box with compartments to store dice, pencils, cards, and whatever else you need to take with you.

“Crafted by the insane Lumberjack Vikings at Dog Might Games, the Skirmish Box is the ultimate mini transport for your next head-to-head battle or campaign encounter. The Skirmish box uses an embedded metal plate that allows your minis with added magnets to stand apart from one another, ensuring safe transport. It also offers a variety of wells to hold cards, tokens, dice, or anything else you need for your game and holds up to 25 minis. Every Skirmish Box is available in a variety of woods and interior designs, just choose the one that works for you. We offer over 30 exterior designs which are sculpted directly into the hardwood lid. Each Box is created from hand selected hardwoods and comes with a Lifetime Guarantee.”
Continue reading What’s Cool on Kickstarter

Mysteries of the Ninth World 21: The Esoteric Order of Dagon

A building that looks like mausoleum in black and white. The sign reads "THe esoteric order of Dagon"

The party travels to a new reality to retrieve a book. Should be easy, right?

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Michael, Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!
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Mysteries of the Ninth World 20: Grand Theft Numenera

A  metal bracelet of a snake eating it's tail

As the heist begins, the party finds that security might be better then expected.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Landan, Michael, Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!
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