Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Naomi Novik's Temeraire stories get the Kickstarter TTRPG treatment!

2026-02-24T17:43:22Z

Naomi has licensed her work and it has borne fruit. A tabletop RPG has been produced by Magpie Games and has been released on Kickstarter. And is now fully funded! The campaign has 30 days to go, over 800 backers, and the $50,000 goal has exceeded $111,000!

You can get the digital-only edition for $29.

As a quick description, think the campaign against Napoleon - with dragons. Mainly from the British side. There's a good description on the KS page. The dragons speak and are very intelligent. There are several books in the series, I don't know how many as I kind of fell off the wagon.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/temeraire-the-roleplaying-game/

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Toon: the tabletop RPG is being relaunched for a 2nd edition on Backerkit!

2025-12-31T00:40:04Z

Steve Jackson Games is relaunching Toon, the game where you get to play an animated character of your design from Saturday morning cartoons. Recreate a facsimile (or mockery) of your favorite cartoon character, all for $20 for the PDF! If you want a softcover of the rules, you can get that for $35 ($45 with shipping to the USA), which will also get you the PDF. In this game you can't get killed, you just fall down and will be back in the next scene.

Every character has a Schtick, a form of superpower, much like Popeye's spinach gives him temporary super-strength. Your toon has characteristics of Smarts, Brawn, Chutzpah, and Zip, you also have to decide Species, though you don't have to be organic or Earth-based. You wanna be a Martian? Go for it! You wanna be a toaster, or cloud, or imaginary friend? Why not! In this game, the game master is called the Animator, for obvious reasons.

The Backerkit project is open for another 16 days, and is already massively overfunded. They are projecting fulfillment by the end of next year. Presumably that's a massive overprojection and it will be filled well before then.

A family game of silliness suitable for ages six and up! And not for gamers who take things crazily serious. ;-) If someone is incapable of sticking their tongue thoroughly in their cheek, they really ought to witness a game before diving in, and there's really not much preventing them from jumping in in the middle of a session.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/steve-jackson-games/toon-the-cartoon-roleplaying-game

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The first D&D players push back on the legend of Gary Gygax

2019-09-14T03:40:47Z

Very interesting article, and a lengthy one at that, interviewing Roy Kuntz. Roy was a teenager in Lake Geneva, literally living alone in the family house, and got involved with Gary, D&D, and TSR as he grew older. He saw it all happen from an inside perspective, and as the saying goes, "he alone is left to tell the tale" as Gary and Dave Arneson are now both dead.

And it is one heck of a tale!

If you're interested in table top role-playing games, this is pretty much a must-read.

https://kotaku.com/dungeons-deceptions-the-first-d-d-players-push-back-1837516834

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An old RPG, Chivalry & Sorcery, is being relaunched on Kickstarter!

2019-07-10T15:09:03Z

Running through the end of the month, it's blown past its initial funding goal of £12,000 and is close to doubling it. For about $37US, you get the rules and all stretch goals in PDF, add $10~ and get them in print.

They expect everything to ship early next year, so I'm guessing they have everything almost in final production stages.

The Kickstarter page also includes a link to the C&S quickstart rules on DriveThruRPG if you care to check them out. The game has been around forever, I remember friends playing it in the early '80s back when I worked at Flying Buffalo.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cns5/chivalry-and-sorcery-the-medieval-role-playing-game/

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