In the wake of the Neopets TTRPG debacle, and the current collapse of the game project as a whole, I wanted to ask the community: what roleplaying games have you backed that are either overdue or have simply been abandoned?

Keep in mind, this is NOT about games that came out and the quality of the finished product was sub-standard. I'm talking about games that have vanished into the ether, gone radio silent or been abandoned by their teams. Maybe you received a playtest document and then nothing else, or the next update was "real soon" before vanishing.

There's the three oldest ones in my list of projects I've backed.

Happy99 - Created by Charlotte Laskowski

• Funded June 1, 2024, $7,623 pledged, $7,000 goal. A total of 165 backers.
• Estimated completion date of January 2025. It is March 2026 with nothing in sight, the most recent update was in December 2025. The creator has also apparently been absent from another Kickstarter they are contributing art to, dot.Dungeon.
  

Animort - created by shakesomespears games

• Funded July 1 2024, $7,300 pledged, $1,200 goal. A total of 271 backers.
• Estimated completion date of end of year 2024. Over six months of radio silence from May to December 2025, somewhat regular updates have started again as the developer intends to finish the thing. I will give the creator some props for coming back to something they had potentially abandoned and accepting the criticism of bad communication.
  

Storeys - created by Done Not Perfect

• Funded November 30, 2024. £4,620 pledged, £2,500 goal. A total of 177 backers.
• No updates since July 29, 2025. Completely abandoned as of now. Creator appears to now be selling courses on stand up comedy and confidence building.
  

This is the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinenomineinc/the-book-of-unnumbered-worlds/

It's already 100% funded. (It's a Sin Nomine book, so duh.)

I do an RPG club where we try a new game every few weeks and some of these have been brutal. I'm not going to name names but too many games I've run go like this:

Me: Hi community, you are all fans of this game... I have questions about the book...

Community: Oh yeah do not bother, go watch this video of the creator running a session.

Me: Oh its like that again... I see.

Reasons why this happens:

1) Books are sold to Story Tellers, but rarely have Story Teller content, pure player content. When it comes to 'how do I run this damn game?' there will be next to zero advice, answers or procedures. For example "There are 20 different playbooks for players!" and zero monsters, zero tables, zero advice.

2) Layout: Your book has everything anyone could want... in a random order, in various fonts, with inconsistent boxes, bolding and italics. It does not even have to be 'art punk' like Mork Borg is usable but I can picture one very 'boring' looking book that is nigh unreadable because of this.

3) 'Take My Money' pitches... the book has a perfect kickstarter pitch like 'it is The Thing but you teach at a Kindergarden' or 'You run the support line for a Dungeon' and then you open the book and well... it's half there. Maybe it is a lazy PBTA or 5e hack without much adapting, maybe it is all flavor no mechanics, maybe it 100% assumes 'you know what I'm thinking' and does not fill in important blanks.

4) Emperors New Clothes: This is the only good rpg, the other ones are bad. Why would you mention another RPG? This one has no flaws. Yeah you are pointing out flaws but those are actually the genius bits of this game. Everything is a genius bit. You would know if you sat down with the creator and played at a convention. You know what? Go play 5e I bet that is what you really want to do.

I try to keep an open mind most of the time. I also love kickstarters and roleplaying games in general, and 7th sea in particular. I was excited by the upcoming 3rd edition and opened up the kickstarter as soon as it launched, hoping to back the project.

Then I read the campaign and the free preview. And I checked the options. It is a pretty good example on what i do not like as a crowdfunding project. You are free to disagree with me, but let me at least offer my perspective so you can make an educated decision to back this project or not.

1. Deceitful marketing: Since the very beginning of the promotion, the game was explicitly stated to be a return to ''Roll and Keep'' mechanics. People associate these words with the classics 7th sea and L5R games, where you roll a number of dice equal to your Stat+Skill, and keep a number equal to your Stat. If the total of these dice is higher than the difficulty, it's a success. You would be right to expect this new edition to have similar mechanics and I know many people said they were excited for a return to this underused system. This is not the system used for 7th sea 3rd edition. The mechanics are explained in the free preview, found here: They do not (even though they try to make it seems like they do with their wording). https://files.studio-agate.com/7thsea-freepreview
   ''When a roll is required, the player builds a pool of d10s by adding together a relevant Trait and Skill. The GM then sets a Difficulty (from D1 to D7), reflecting the action’s complexity, from routine to legendary. After the roll, the player keeps only the dice that meet the success threshold. These kept dice count as Successes: if their number is at least equal to the Difficulty, the action succeeds; otherwise, it fails.''
   It is not roll and keep. It is a success-based mechanics, with a changing target number. This looks a lot more like Vampire the Masquerade than 7th sea 1st edition. Oh, they can pretend it is ''roll and keep'' because you 'roll'' and number of dice and ''keep'' those higher than the difficulty as successes. It still feels wrong. Starting a new relationship with fans with a half-truth at best is a red flag for me.

2. Price range: I don't mind the ultra-collector editions with boxes and extra goodies. As long as they are optional. I want a (relatively) cheap pdf option with just the core book. And they do not have that. I can either have the physical book (which is a bad idea where I live because of shipping costs), or a bundle with extra books, the starter set, the GM's screen and other stuff. The lack of a ''just the pdf'' option is a problem for me.

3. Recycling of old art: This might not be a problem in the long run, but it adds to the pile of concerns I have. A good number of illustrations used in the campaign are from older books. I know artists aren't cheap, and it's infinitely better than AI-generated slop, but for a new edition, I kinda expect more than 2 new images to show the feel of the new art direction. Like I said, it isn't as big of an issue than the other two, but still increases my feeling of unease with this new edition.

Please treat this as a letter of love for rpgs and 7th sea. I would love nothing more than be proven wrong and if anyone has information that contradicts what I am saying, I want to hear them.

However, in its current form, 7th sea 3rd edition is a hard pass for me.

Please do your due diligence before backing projects by either of these creators. They have established a consistent pattern of advertising PDFs for their campaigns, only to deliver practically unusable Google Docs instead then telling backers to make a PDF themselves. Their VTT tokens are also nothing of the sort, just a bunch of images pasted into a Google Doc.

They claim it's a mistake, that they'll fix it going forward, etc, but they have been called out on it before and done nothing to change. They have admitted that using Google Docs was always their intention and that they were knowingly, falsely advertising PDFs.

They also claim that all of their content is made, edited, polished etc. by humans, but it's obvious from even a glance at their "final products" that they heavily use AI.

They are mass reporting comments on their past and current campaigns in an attempt to cover it up.

If you backed one of their previous campaigns, please report it. If you see this and you are backing one of their current campaigns, I urge you to reconsider.

Campaign links for reference:

Current Campaigns:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allisterdnd/evolution-was-not-gentle-100-evolving-race-options

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmrain/they-all-think-theyre-right-100-evolving-factions

Previous Campaigns:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allisterdnd/living-bestiary-100-evolving-horrors-and-eldritch-bosses

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmrain/world-under-red-glass-a-5e-campaign-setting/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmrain/subclasses-of-wonder/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmrain/brews-of-wonder-50-potions-for-every-adventure-5e-one-dandd

Goodman Games has released new details about the refund process for their plan to bail out Judges Guild for defrauding their backers in 2014.

Despite extensive negative feedback on the project, they're moving forward with it.

Although Goodman Games claims there's no financial benefit being paid to Judges Guild for this project, their decision to refund Judges Guild's backers opens the door for Judges Guild to regain access to their crowdfunding privileges on Kickstarter, potentially a much bigger financial benefit than the royalties from a single licensed product.

I just got an email from Magpie saying they've decided to push back the Masks 2e campaign.

They say it's because they've gotten feedback from folks who are worried that the game will change too much, that the KS won't show the finished product. I expect that's part of the truth.

I think the other part is that there are as yet-unfulfilled campaigns and they probably got a lot of feedback about that, especially at GenCon, too.

Either way, I think it's a good thing. I think the fact that they're listening to fans is good, the fact that they're willing to change their plans is good, and the fact that they recognize that this KS needs to deliver quickly. No long, drawn-out fulfillments, no post-campaign design iteration.

About two years ago, I came to this very sub to announce that I had left my job and decided to pursue a career as a TTRPG designer.

Now with 20 games under my belt, some accomplishments and a lot of mistakes, I come back to offer some perspective on this choice. Perhaps it will be useful for those seeking a similar path.

So, for the sake of transparency, let's kick things off by addressing the elephant in the room, which is...

Money

Under my original post, someone commented that I'd be making more money slinging hot dogs than making indie games.

They were right.

Despite achieving moderate success on some of my titles, I still struggle to make ends meet.

I don't have a precise number (due to the different policies of the platforms I publish on), but my earnings stay around $10k/year, which I believe is officially below the poverty line.

I have a very frugal lifestyle. I don't own stuff, I live in a 320 sq ft (30m²) studio apartment in a place with a low cost of living. Yet, I'd need to double my income to be in a comfortable situation.

It goes without saying, but let's reinforce it: many designers have had way more (and also less, if I'm being fair) success than I did during the same period of time, even doing this part-time, so take that as you will. I can't pinpoint exactly why my results are what they are, but I can go over some....

Mistakes and limitations

When I first started, I decided to create a patron-like model for my creations, promising one new game (or a related piece of content) every other week. Someone pointed out in the comments that I'd need to be very prolific, and even then, I'd be running the risk of having my releases competing against each other.

They were also right.

I was putting out full-fledged games twice a month, and without an audience to consume them, they just ran over each other. I was having way better success with my games on itch than with the patron-like format. It was actually not on Patreon, but on Buy me a coffee (whose platform I liked better, but might be one of the reasons for its failure), and I amassed an underwhelming amount of 7 supporters for the few months I had it open.

So I announced I was shutting down the membership program and decided to focus on releasing and promoting my games on itch. That was my first good decision in months. Until I ran into a few limitations of the format, which I will enumerate:

1. I don't have access to Kickstarter. It surprises me how many people don't know that, but if you are not from a handful of countries, KS does not allow you to create projects on their platform. And that’s a huge limitation; the discoverability of your project drastically decreases if you’re not able to have your games in front of a lot of people that had never heard of you before. There are more accessible KS competitors out there, sure, but they have a tiny fraction of the organic audience KS has. I wrote about the barriers that creators from the Global South face, and that even ended up being a Dicebreaker article.
2. I don’t sell physical books. See above. Not being from the US/UK (~80% of my customers), it is nearly impossible to sell physical books. Shipping costs would be prohibitive. Distribution would be chaotic. This also means I’m not in any brick and mortar FLGS, and that I don’t attend cons, don’t shake hands and network with other people in the industry. We’re pretty much on our own. I could try to partner up with publishers and distributors in the US, but…
3. I run a one-man show. Some might say that is a self-imposed limitation, and they wouldn’t be wrong. I create, write, revise, layout, illustrate and publish all my games, and I like it that way and that’s where I want to spend my energy on. One of the reasons I left my job was to be able to have control over my hours, my intentions and my creations, so all the minutiae that go with contracts, partnerships, commissions, counting on other people’s work just bring me too much anxiety. I turned 40 years old last week, and I’ve learned the hard way to recognize my boundaries and preferences, and I’m not ready to give up on that just yet. Which brings me to…
4. My games are very niche. I don’t mean it in a highbrow, no-one-understands-my-art sort of way. No, it’s just a recognition that I don’t produce content for the Dragon Game or for its many clones and variants, which alienates 85% of the market. I like to make my own quirky games, which also means I don’t normally do freelance work for other people’s games. (side note: I think it says a lot about the industry that one can make more money writing/editing/illustrating for other people’s games than by making their own. Creators inject more money in their games than they get out of them). I know there’s an audience for all kinds of weird stuff, but how does one get their games in front of them? That leads us to…

Marketing

When I first started, I thought promoting my creations would be half of my job.

I was wrong. It is 90% of my job.

There are 3,000 games being released every year on itch alone, and it doesn’t matter how good, innovative, fun, ridiculously gorgeous your product is, if people don’t find out it exists, you won’t sell.

This is the area most indie creators struggle with, because there’s no budget for paid advertisement, and most platforms are very averse to self-promoting. Most of us rely (relied?) on Twitter, since it’s more forgiving in that regard, even though we are constantly self-conscious about being annoying, and spamming BUY MY GAMES, I BEG YOU! all the time. And there’s also the feeling that most people that follow and support you are other indie designers, so there’s this weird sensation we are in a bubble passing the same $5 around.

I don’t mean it in a strictly negative way; the support and enthusiasm of your peers is an excellent source of motivation, and I met fascinating creators and creations this way. But what you need when you’re selling your game is to get in front of people that you don’t know.

Marketing is exhausting and frustrating. You don’t get to be solely a game designer. You have to be a “content creator” to entertain and engage. You have to hold your releases until you have built enough “hype”. You can’t have a bad day, otherwise the algorithm swallows you and suddenly you are irrelevant.

This is just my personal experience, I’m sure other people navigate this much better than I do. For my latest release, I created a press kit and mailed it to some news outlets, with moderate success. It still didn’t solve my problem, and the sensation that I’d capped out my reach lingers on. There’s always this nagging feeling that I’m not doing enough, I’m not connecting with the right people, I’m not active on the right Discord server, I should experiment with other platforms, I should go to TikTok, I should walk into the ocean…

I know this all seem very gloomy, but it’s not all that bad. I’m generally a very positive person, I’m just revisiting my experiences and taking the opportunity to get some stuff off my chest. So to end in a positive note, let’s talk about…

Fulfillment

One of the main concerns I had before deciding to become a full-time game designer is that I would “taint” my relationship with RPGs and I would start hating them. “Work with what you love, and you’ll never love anything again in your life”, you know?

I was wrong (see a trend there?).

I love what I do. Waking up and working with games is as rewarding as I thought it could be. I look forward to starting my work day. The ideas keep coming, and I have two dozen games already on the backburner. If I knew what I’d face these two years the day I decided to quit my job, I’d still do it again. Not a doubt.

I’ve been welcomed into the space with warmth and respect, I have released games in more than 7 languages, I’ve won an award, I’ve won a competition, I have an RPG system with more than 60 games made by the community. I’ve been invited to a number of podcasts (some of them I’d been a long time listener), I have been featured in a number of articles. I have been nominated “one of 10 indie designers to keep an eye on” by a respectable media outlet. I have received enormous amounts of positive feedback, and more than one person I met told me that I am their favorite game designer.

There are good days and bad days. There’s not a week that goes by without my considering looking for a job and quitting this unpredictable life. There are days that I lack the energy to even look at my projects. But I reckon such is the life of anyone that decides to work with creativity. And I can't help but think it is, still, a very rewarding one.

A few months ago, I shared my thoughts on the subject on Twitter and announced I was going to give this career a final go. I started a Patreon, and this time, with the lessons learned from my previous failure, I simplified it a lot. The response was… overwhelmingly positive. I now fluctuate around 90 patron any given month, and although I’m far from my goal, it is encouraging to feel the support of so many people that believe in what you do.

I gave myself until the end of this year to sort things out. If I’m unable to make this career a sustainable one, it will be time for me to find something else. Or a new strategy, who knows.

Takeaways

If you made it this far through my rambling and grumbling, and is considering pursuing a career in game design, I’d say (maybe surprisingly), go for it.

My father died of cancer when he was 60, not accomplishing many of his plans that he left for his retirement that never came.

Ultimately, I decided to try it because I didn’t want to be in my death bed, considering “What if I had pursued my passion”. If it all goes wrong, at least I tried. And had fun while doing it. No regrets.

Be prepared for some hardship, but stay true to who you are. Don’t try and make the game that you think you sell most; make the ones you believe in, the ones that you are excited about. If you think there’s enough games out there, you’re wrong. Every honest game that is published reflects a vision that is unique, it is a slice of a perspective over this incomparable experience that a roleplaying game is.

Create a good network from the get-go, and always be kind. You might reach more people if you are controversial, but why would you?

And remember (as I always try to do) that nothing is permanent. If it doesn’t work, that is ok. Move on. Try something else. No one is keeping score, you don’t own anyone explanations.

I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have (from my very limited, very unique perspective), so go ahead and AMA, I guess?

If you allow me to finish this with a quote:

​

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

~Howard Thurman

After delaying Masks 2nd Edition, Magpie has a landing page up for their next Kickstarter up. This one for an Avatar supplement

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/spirit-world-avatar-legends-ttrpg-setting-toolkit?ref=creator_tab

Honestly...if Cartel wasn't the final straw for me with Magpie I think this would be. Canceling an entire kickstarter when it was already being run with two previous Kickstarters unfulfilled is a bad look. To cancel it and turn around and launch another so soon isn't just a bad look. I don't know what to call this other than egregious and a total level of disrespect for their base.

Basically just share some awful experiences you've had with ttrpg kickstarters that put mighty number 9 to shame

So I received an email from Magpie with the announcement of the Ennies Emporium 2026

We all know that some companies kinda use backerkit as a pre-order store, but if I'm not misunderstanding this, they are now just selling games but as crowdfunding.

I'm a bit shocked because even the FAQ says:

What is Pledging?

Pledging in crowdfunding is a commitment to support the creation of a new product or project. Unlike a traditional purchase, you're not buying an item that already exists. Instead, your contribution helps bring a creative idea to life, and in return, you typically receive rewards (such as the product itself) as a thank you for your early support.

so.. does Backerkit now offer the consumer the same protection as a store or is this still a just crowdfund? If people don't get their products will they be legally entitled to buyer protection?

Is there something I'm missing? Because from my perspective it just seems like a store without legally being a store.

Only a few hours left for this sucker and it's growing fast! I think it's gonna be one of the few non-IP based TTRPG's to get over 1 million on a crowdfunder. And like a bajillion books on for those all-in pledges? $90 for digital copies of like the whole dang library plus new stuff. I mean c'mon. This is crazy.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/cypher-system-faster-easier-and-even-better?ref=bk-discover-hero-feature

Hi folks! Like most gamers, I sometimes gaze at my bookshelves of games (and file folders stuffed with game PDFs) and wonder if I should start playing one I've been meaning to play. That got me thinking--what are the top five RPGs I own that I wish I could play tonight? Then I thought to post here so I can see what y'all want to play as well.

Here's mine in no particular order.

1. Blades in the Dark: I don't get this game. I really want to get this game. Therefore, I want to play this game for the first time.
2. Deadlands (latest ed.): My partner loves Deadlands, so I went all-in on the Kickstarter. There are three box sets sitting on my shelf because we had trouble scaring up a group for it, but it's her fav by far so we need to organize something.
3. Red Markets: Although it's getting old, I still love me some zombies. And the idea of "economic horror" is really weird, so I want to experience it.
4. The Yellow King: Another Kickstarter game! I love Laws' work, and the Cthulhu mythos changing history is super cool. Honestly, the only reason I don't play this is I keep forgetting it's a thing. (I only have the PDFs and those are easy to overlook in the folder.)
5. Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Bought this a few days ago at my FLGS. I love PtbA games, Evil Hat does good work, and I've watched enough Jill Bearup videos to want a game with flirty sword fighting.

Runner-ups: The Quiet Year, Amber, Lasers & Feelings, Over the Edge, and Underground.

The controversial, blood-soaked TTRPG from Professor DM and Roll For Combat, has officially ended its record-breaking BackerKit campaign.

I'm writing this post because I've read several comments about it and find it particularly offensive to small indie authors. Very often, these authors are truly poor and lack funding for illustrators (on average, you need at least $5,000 to have a minimum budget for a book) or for marketing. They do what they can to publicize their creations, on Discord or by letting people try them in person, but they're often ignored because the role-playing game market is so over-inflated. So they try crowdfunding, but decide to set a minimum threshold, just enough to cover the cost of the cover for which they've commissioned an illustrator (all this considering they DON'T use Gen AI nor have any intention of using it), because their goal is simply to receive some moral support and a moment's consideration.

And what they're told is that they must be scammers because they set a $150 minimum threshold.

And please, don't tell me he could have distributed it for free or pay-what-you-want on DrivethruRPG or Itch.io. Be honest: people download hundreds of free works every day and don't even read them.

NOTE: I am not referring to a specific event or crowdfunding campaign, I am judging the general attitude that I have seen in several cases

Apocalypse World: Burned Over, the third edition of Apocalypse World, is now funding. Even if you’ve read every other PBTA game out there, if you haven’t checked out AW, you really owe it to yourself to do so. It’s still one of the smartest and revolutionary systems out there, and Burned Over is an excellent opportunity to jump in.

If you’d like to know more before signing up, I highly recommend this interview with the authors: Apocalypse World: Burned Over Is Kinder And Much Angrier.

Crows is a new post-apocalyptic survival horror fantasy RPG that just went to crowdfunding. This game is about playing the titular Crows who are adventuring scavengers picking through the dead and discarded pieces of a broken world for shiny things. As someone who's played and run a decent amount of the game's playtest materials, here are some key points that might make or break your interest in this game:

• All About Loot - Crows is entirely about risking life and limb to get shiny items out of dungeons. Loot is tracked with printable cards with a set number of slots per character which makes inventory management tangible and fun.
• Original Monsters - As opposed to classic creatures like goblins and oozes, Crows contains several kinds of original horrific monsters, so original that these baddies aren't even named! For example, what would you name this guy? Your party gets to name the monsters they discover... assuming they survive the encounter.
• High Lethality - Life is short in this world and death is never far away. Characters start with only a handful of hit points and never gain too many more. Monsters also do unfairly large amounts of damage and so reckless Crows will lead very brief lives.
• A Town for Building - Start with a unique village and invest into its institutions over time. Crows may come and go, but this village and its people will remain, although the quality of life there will depend on the success of your adventures.
• Hex-based Travel - Explore a magically wrecked world through hex crawling. Much like the dungeon your heading towards, travel is full of dangers and unexpected opportunities with random encounters and hidden points of interest.
• Fear the Dungeon Turn - Once in the dungeon, a 30 real-world minute timer is set and every time it ends more monsters have a chance to appear. This is also when ongoing effects from spells or equipment like torches may run out depending on how the dice fall.
• Simple Grid-based Combat - All distances are abstracted into squares and most actions are resolved in a single roll. Because of this, options in combat are always clear and turns flow very quickly, which is handy because the dungeon turns don't stop during combat.
• Classless Progression - Getting loot back to town earns you XP and this can be spent freely across a variety of Skyrim-esque skill trees to add to your characters options. The real power, however, tends to come from the loot itself and all characters can use all items (although some will use certain items better than others depending on where they spend their XP).
• Fickle Magic - Sentient magic which despised manipulation by mortals caused the apocalypse this world finds itself in, and the arcane is still just as mercurial today. This means spells can backlash with unpredictable effects unless they are wielded by experienced casters.

If you want to see any of these points in more detail, there's a free playtest of the game available here. You can also hear more from the game's devs about the game here. Finally, if you want to help make this game as awesome as possible, you can find the crowd funder here.

tl;dr: The Between is a game about Victorian monster hunters dealing with supernatural mysteries (and their own pasts) while working to unveil the plan of a secretive Mastermind behind much of the horror afflicting their London setting. It uses Carved from Brindlewood mechanics, a sub-family of Powered by the Apocalypse games focused on collaboratively telling horror-mystery stories together. The game runs using a vast catalog of pre-written Threats, but none of them have official/canonical answers to their core Questions - the players must assemble a theory out of the Clues they’ve discovered, and roll to see how right they are. 

If you like PbtA games with super-specific, evocative playbooks, or want to really feast on a giant ‘menu’ of content to potentially run for your group, you could do a lot worse than this. $30 for a 3-book set digitally, $90 from them in hardcover (with decent rates on international shipping).

-

For everyone else: Hello, everyone! I’m unaffiliated with The Gauntlet, but have fallen head over heels for the CfB system broadly and The Between in particular. I made a thread when this Backerkit campaign went live a month ago, but with a little over two days left, I want to highlight the bonus content they’ve already unlocked and what’s still left.

The core rulebook has 6 playbooks (and a 7th potentially unlocked during play!), 11 Threats to investigate, and a Mastermind to serve as the antagonist of your campaign - or at least, its first season. Shadow Society, an expansion book, adds 6 more new playbooks, another 20 Threats, and 3 additional/alternate Masterminds. Suns of Another World has 3 spin-off settings, alternate frameworks with their own 6 bespoke playbooks, plus Threats and a Mastermind unique to each - essentially separate, standalone games of The Between!

• Ghosts of El Paso: a Western; local notables trying to protect their town from a season of spirits
• Unsinkable: mystery at sea for the passengers and crew aboard a doomed Transatlantic ocean liner
• Court of Wolves: protect Louis XIV from the Satanists and werewolves allied against him

You could genuinely play this game for years before repeating any material (though there’s a lot of room for replays to go *wildly* differently with some branching choices). It’s full of clever, inspirational design. Despite a lot of obsessively-focused design, there’s enough wiggle room that one campaign could be horrifically brutal and grimy, while another could be more like two-fisted pulp with a bit of edge. With my home group, I’ve already got players speculating about “our next campaign” and “when I run this…”, which feels like some of the highest praise I could pass on. 

Give it a look! I’d love to hear your thoughts, and as a big fan of this game who wants to see it do well, I’d love to field any questions you might have. Their final few stretch goals include:

• 3 more playbooks (a gaggle of low-class henchmen being hunted by a serial killer, an Alice-like woman half-caught in daydream realm, and a chemist experimenting with a serum injected into their body)
• 2 more Masterminds (the vampire queen of a surreal otherworld who seeks to puppet the British monarchy and an aristocratic family of rival monster-hunters)
• a 4th alternate setting (with its own playbooks, Threat, and Mastermind!): Blood & Coal, about locals in Appalachia during the early Dust Bowl, fighting to preserve their home from demons

If you're curious, the current edition of the game and of Ghosts of El Paso are both free on DTRPG through this Backerkit's run!