# RPG Crowdfunding News – Sands of Doom, Black Sword Hack, Epic Levels, and more



## Charles Dunwoody

Black Sword Hack looks interesting. I really like the art for Adventurers of Combat & Quest! Intro Edition.


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## dbm

Here’s another one for you, currently with 60 hrs to run:

*Big Box of Dungeon Doors* 






This is by Loke who do great battle mats. The campaign is for standee doors of different kinds to use with your maps and minis. It comes with a bunch of reusable maps, too as a bonus.


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## Egg Embry

Charles Dunwoody said:


> Black Sword Hack looks interesting. I really like the art for Adventurers of Combat & Quest! Intro Edition.



Yes and yes. Both of those games are pretty!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

I honestly don't know why more people don't do what Phil Reed did with this project. The 4 pages/$1 number is pretty well known among publishers now, I think, and it encourages a lot of early sales to get in before prices go up, which then has the net effect of speeding up sales. It seems like a situation where everyone wins, so long as the creator can keep up with the extra content and doesn't mind the possibility of being left with a few pages created for "free" when demand tapers off.


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## Dire Bare

Whizbang Dustyboots said:


> I honestly don't know why more people don't do what Phil Reed did with this project. The 4 pages/$1 number is pretty well known among publishers now, I think, and it encourages a lot of early sales to get in before prices go up, which then has the net effect of speeding up sales. It seems like a situation where everyone wins, so long as the creator can keep up with the extra content and doesn't mind the possibility of being left with a few pages created for "free" when demand tapers off.



Part of Reed's success is name recognition, he's an industry veteran known for good design. And while his projects tend to be small, he's prolific and kicks out a lot of these. Plus, it's his side-hustle and not his main source of income (he still works for SJG, right?).

His style works for me though . . . even when I've busted my budget, pledging a $1 for his latest Kickstarter is easy to do, and all of his projects so far have been fun, quality, and useful! As soon as I discovered him back when he was doing the "Dozen Rumors" series, I've backed everything he's done, except for the Mork Borg stuff (which is good, but not my cuppa tea).


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## agrayday

Phillip Reed is a Machine on KS with 54+ KS projects.... I backed several of them, great content, but he must not sleep.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

Dire Bare said:


> Part of Reed's success is name recognition, he's an industry veteran known for good design. And while his projects tend to be small, he's prolific and kicks out a lot of these. Plus, it's his side-hustle and not his main source of income (he still works for SJG, right?).



For sure. I've been buying his stuff since the 3E days.

But this model of content leveling up is one anyone can do and, in fact, probably benefits lesser-known folks more, since they can put out four pages of content for $1 and more people will be willing to take a risk on an unknown quantity. As more people purchase it, it levels up and expands, providing both more content and the implicit suggestion that other people found the work valuable, since each jump in price and content comes with a corresponding higher tier badge from DriveThruRPG.

Why, I might already be thinking of jumping into DriveThruRPG myself, finally, with a $1/4 pages product that will level up in a similar fashion. I got the idea from the same place I suspect Phil did: M.T. Black's article on the economics of DriveThruRPG.


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## Dire Bare

Whizbang Dustyboots said:


> I got the idea from the same place I suspect Phil did: M.T. Black's article on the economics of DriveThruRPG.



Link? 

I agree, it sounds like Reed's model might be a good one for someone trying to break in to RPG publishing, as well as a veteran like Reed. But Reed's success goes beyond just his model I think, although that's an important element to it.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

Dire Bare said:


> Link?



Oh, man, after stumbling upon it repeatedly over the years, I'm now having a heck of a time finding it. Will circle back when/if I do.

It's a longer piece with a lot of hard numbers about sales, etc., but the figure I was focusing on in this case was that the average price for content on DriveThruRPG is four pages for a dollar, which was used as part of a larger calculation about how many man-hours should be put into a PDF, etc.


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## philreed

Wow. Thanks, everyone! You're far, far too kind with your comments. Thank you.


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## philreed

Whizbang Dustyboots said:


> Why, I might already be thinking of jumping into DriveThruRPG myself, finally, with a $1/4 pages product that will level up in a similar fashion. I got the idea from the same place I suspect Phil did: M.T. Black's article on the economics of DriveThruRPG.



I'm not sure what this article is, but I'll chase it down.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

philreed said:


> I'm not sure what this article is, but I'll chase it down.



I hope you can find it. I am wondering if it was a blog post from a defunct blog or something.


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## Olaf the Stout

Dire Bare said:


> Part of Reed's success is name recognition, he's an industry veteran known for good design. And while his projects tend to be small, he's prolific and kicks out a lot of these. Plus, it's his side-hustle and not his main source of income (he still works for SJG, right?).
> 
> His style works for me though . . . even when I've busted my budget, pledging a $1 for his latest Kickstarter is easy to do, and all of his projects so far have been fun, quality, and useful! As soon as I discovered him back when he was doing the "Dozen Rumors" series, I've backed everything he's done, except for the Mork Borg stuff (which is good, but not my cuppa tea).



Yeah, I back a lot of his stuff that I’m not sure I’ll even use as I know he does great work and it’s only $1. He’s well and truly earned his reputation at this point.


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## Malmuria

Egg Embry said:


> *Sands of Doom** from MrRhexx*



Oh I thought we weren't doing blatant orientalism in dnd anymore in 2023.  Guess I was wrong!


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## J.M

Whizbang Dustyboots said:


> I honestly don't know why more people don't do what Phil Reed did with this project. The 4 pages/$1 number is pretty well known among publishers now, I think, and it encourages a lot of early sales to get in before prices go up, which then has the net effect of speeding up sales. It seems like a situation where everyone wins, so long as the creator can keep up with the extra content and doesn't mind the possibility of being left with a few pages created for "free" when demand tapers off.



I agree, that is a fantastic idea, kudos to Phil. I'm taking notes!


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## Boosty

Malmuria said:


> Oh I thought we weren't doing blatant orientalism in dnd anymore in 2023.  Guess I was wrong!



Touch grass


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## Aldarc

Charles Dunwoody said:


> *Black Sword Hack looks interesting. *I really like the art for Adventurers of Combat & Quest! Intro Edition.



Black Sword Hack is definitely the one that caught my eye too. I do already have Through Sunken Lands, which occupies a similar Sword & Sorcery niche, with Moorcockian Law vs. Chaos.


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## Charles Dunwoody

Aldarc said:


> Black Sword Hack is definitely the one that caught my eye too. I do already have Through Sunken Lands, which occupies a similar Sword & Sorcery niche, with Moorcockian Law vs. Chaos.




I bought the current PDF to check it out. I think my players would get enough out of the game to enjoy both play and character building. I really like the NPCs and monsters which include things I haven't seen before. Having ship rules is a big plus because I always want that option in a campaign. And world building is built right in with guaranteed changes by campaign's end. World building is huge. It seems like I have over a dozen fantasy RPGs with baked in worlds when what I really want is to build my own. This one seems like a real winner checking off most if not all of my RPG want boxes.


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## Umbran

Boosty said:


> Touch grass




*Moderator Note:*
Having your very first post be insulting and dismissive is maybe not the best approach to becoming part of the community.  We at EN World aim for folks to show a little basic respect to each other.  Please treat folks better than this.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

.


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## agrayday

Whizbang Dustyboots said:


> Oh, man, after stumbling upon it repeatedly over the years, I'm now having a heck of a time finding it. Will circle back when/if I do.
> 
> It's a longer piece with a lot of hard numbers about sales, etc., but the figure I was focusing on in this case was that the average price for content on DriveThruRPG is four pages for a dollar, which was used as part of a larger calculation about how many man-hours should be put into a PDF, etc.




That was about 4-5 years ago, and i believe he (M.T. Black) only released it via his Patreon.


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## RoughCoronet0

I’m intrigued by Sands of Doom, though I’m not sure I would end up getting it. Honestly I just want the Egyptian themed magic items and monsters, as well as the Monster Classes that come as addons to the main adventure.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

agrayday said:


> That was about 4-5 years ago, and i believe he (M.T. Black) only released it via his Patreon.



If it was, it was publicly viewable, as I've never paid for Patreon (despite having a long list of people I would like to help finance, if I had the means).


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## Charles Dunwoody

Egg Embry said:


> Yes and yes. Both of those games are pretty!




The new ghost stretch goal for Black Sword Hack is a nice surprise also.


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## Egg Embry

Charles Dunwoody said:


> The new ghost stretch goal for Black Sword Hack is a nice surprise also. View attachment 271391



That looks COOL!


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## Paragon Lost

I'm looking forward to the Black Hack. Fun system, decided to back the Kickstarter and that stretch goal looks very cool.


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## Aldarc

Charles Dunwoody said:


> I bought the current PDF to check it out. I think my players would get enough out of the game to enjoy both play and character building. I really like the NPCs and monsters which include things I haven't seen before. Having ship rules is a big plus because I always want that option in a campaign. And world building is built right in with guaranteed changes by campaign's end. World building is huge. It seems like I have over a dozen fantasy RPGs with baked in worlds when what I really want is to build my own. This one seems like a real winner checking off most if not all of my RPG want boxes.



By the way, @Egg Embry's spotlighting of the Kickstarter plus your snippet here was enough for me to back Black Sword Hack.


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## Charles Dunwoody

Aldarc said:


> By the way, @Egg Embry's spotlighting of the Kickstarter plus your snippet here was enough for me to back Black Sword Hack.




Happy to help! I think the final product should turn out well.


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## Retreater

Anyone else nervous about backing OGL-compatible material now? Sorry to be bringing it up here too, but the entire license could be pulled by next week, which would likely put a hamper on many KS products.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

Retreater said:


> Anyone else nervous about backing OGL-compatible material now? Sorry to be bringing it up here too, but the entire license could be pulled by next week, which would likely put a hamper on many KS products.



No.


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## Charles Dunwoody

Retreater said:


> Anyone else nervous about backing OGL-compatible material now? Sorry to be bringing it up here too, but the entire license could be pulled by next week, which would likely put a hamper on many KS products.




I am not. When Old-School Essentials Dolmenwood comes out on kickstarter I'm likely to back.


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## Paragon Lost

Retreater said:


> Anyone else nervous about backing OGL-compatible material now? Sorry to be bringing it up here too, but the entire license could be pulled by next week, which would likely put a hamper on many KS products.



I feel bad for creators but I'm not surprised nor nervous about it. Its always felt like something that Hasbro/WotC would like to walk back. The Alexandrian did a good historical breakdown of this history BTW, if you wanted to through that history.









						Open Gaming License: A Brief History
					

What the heck is an Open Gaming License?And why should you care?The Open Gaming License, or OGL, is what lets people sell D&D-compatible adventures and supplements without getting Hasbro




					thealexandrian.net


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## mamba

Retreater said:


> Anyone else nervous about backing OGL-compatible material now? Sorry to be bringing it up here too, but the entire license could be pulled by next week, which would likely put a hamper on many KS products.



a little, but not enough to distract me I guess, will see in the next days / weeks 

Ultimately I do not think it matters wrt the result getting delivered and most fall under the threshold


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## Whizbang Dustyboots

I just got word that the Kobold Press city book (a book about DMing urban campaigns) that I backed on Kickstarter is on its way to the printers. They were almost definitely among the folks WotC spoke to in December and, at least at the moment, they're still going full steam ahead. (Also, I'm really looking forward to the book.)


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## Old Dreamer

Umbran said:


> *Moderator Note:*
> Having your very first post be insulting and dismissive is maybe not the best approach to becoming part of the community.  We at EN World aim for folks to show a little basic respect to each other.  Please treat folks better than this.



By the same token, the original post certainly was insulting and dismissive as well.


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