Project Update #9 - Stretch Goal Progress — Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities
over 1 year ago – Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 06:30:16 AM

Greetings Rabble Rousers! 

This is Collyn and I just wanted to thank you all so much! With your pledges so far we're over 200% funded, have unlocked 5 stretch goals (including Benjamin Franklin Banshee Slayer and The American Turtle), and have been able to hire on Tristan Zimmerman (Creator of Shanty Hunters) as a new contributor! We couldn't have gotten this far without all of you! 

We still have 18 days to go, and we've come up with a lot of new stretch goals to get you excited! We know a lot of players use a Virtual Table Top these days so based on some requests from y'all decided we would add downloadable character tokens for your favorite VTT if we reach 60k! Tokens will be available to all backers at any level in both circular portrait and top-down character views and will support Roll20 integration out of the box.

Next up at 70k, we'll add three new Backgrounds to the new American Crisis book, the cunning Thief-Taker, the noble Abolitionist, and the enterprising Provincial Smuggler. A lot of research goes into creating our in-depth backgrounds for Nations & Cannons to make all of the options feel grounded in history and full of interesting character traits. Each background will have a new feature and detailed rollable tables to help you create a fully realized character!

Projects We Love:  Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities - 5E Ghost Hunting Adventures

Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities is a compendium of ghost-hunting adventures for 5E. these adventures build off the tools provided in Grizelda's Guide to Ghost Hunting. Each of these adventures is based on Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities, a curio shop full of haunted and ghostly items. Every adventure is tied to a specific item within the shop, which can turn a dull shopping session into an instant adventure hook. The book also includes using the shop as a hub for adventurers or simply a spot to pick up some haunted trinkets in the middle of any campaign. The book includes:

• 13 (and counting!) Scalable Ghost-Hunting Adventures for 5th Edition
• New Magical Items and Haunted Trinkets
• Beautifully illustrated maps by Saga Mackenzie
• A collection of new monsters for your next campaign
• A drop-in curio shop full of macabre and haunted objects

Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord ⚗️

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!

Project Update #7 - 200% funded — plus Steam Patriots!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Apr 20, 2023 at 07:50:55 AM

Gather round, Sons of Liberty!

As of writing, we've just crossed the 200% funding threshold and unlocked the New Enemies stretch goal! We're incredibly humbled to have made it this far, and we'll have new exciting stretch goals in our next update! For today's design discussion, let's talk turkey (the USA's national bird, if Ben Franklin would have had his way). What's in a gambit?

These extraordinary abilities function just like spellcasting in a fantastical D&D 5e game; but instead of quickly wiggling your fingers and chanting in Latin, a Ranger or a Firebrand character must to spend time and preparation to enact a gambit. Gambits range from tricks of espionage and spycraft, to inspirational speeches and words of heroism, to skullduggery, poisons, and humoral medicine. 

The throughline for most gambits—what separates them from supernatural effects—is that they often have an extended casting time and specific triggering conditions. By tapping into an intelligence network, or recruiting militiamen for an order volley, you can spend adventuring time to gain a powerful effect within a local area that allows you to influence a nearby battle or narrative moment. So the effect of a gambit can be as impactful as a supernatural spell, but requires careful planning and strategic thinking, just like Patriot light infantry used for irregular warfare!

We're excited to tell you all about another collaboration, this time with the Silverline Comics team and their ongoing Revolutionary War comic! Every backer of The American Crisis will receive Issue #1 for free, and as for Issue #2...

Projects We Love: Steam Patriots

Steampunk meets the American Revolution in Steam Patriots, and chronicles the story of Felix Ward - a young man with an astounding memory - as he uses incredible steam-powered machines to help the hard-pressed colonials defeat the British juggernaut. Back the Kickstarter for Issue #2 here!

Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 🔧

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!

Project Update #7 - New Stretch Goals — Enemies and Tokens!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 07:24:47 AM

Mark me, rebels!

Wow, we're flying through these stretch goals! In the last 2 days, you've unlocked both the Turtle Submarine mechanics and the Benjamin Franklin, Banshee Slayer print-and-play module and we're well on our way to being 200% funded!

We have two new stretch goals on offer, coming from your feedback! At the 50k tier, we’ll add 5 additional Ally and Adversary stat blocks to The American Crisis, including the heroic 1st Maryland Regiment, Butler’s Rangers, Bloodhound light infantry, the Stockbridge Militia, and the Black Company of Pioneers.

At the 60k tier, we'll add downloadable character tokens for your favorite VTT! Tokens will be available in both circular portrait and top-down character views and will support Roll20 integration out of the box.

Ending Soon: The Book of Extinctions Kickstarter!

Our collaborators at Mage Hand Press are wrapping their Kickstarter campaign for the Book of Extinction in just a few days! We're excited to share another extinct colonial-era animal we'll feature in The American Crisis, the Sea Mink—and its fearsome fantastical counterpart in the Book of Extinction, the Skin Trader! 

The Book of Extinction is a new way to spark interest in biology and conservation: using D&D monsters! This supplement teaches readers about real extinct animals and presents them as engaging and magical monsters with captivating artwork. Back the Kickstarter today!

Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 🦦

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!

Project Update #6 - Let's get Subnautical —You're Dad's Gonna Love This Update!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 08:02:28 AM

Guten Morgen Matrosen!

Since the last update we've had some exciting news! Not only did we unlock the bookmark ribbon for the new American Crisis source book, but we're so close to unlocking the one-shot Benjamin Franklin Banshee Slayer adventure, available to our backers as a Print & Play PDF! While the last Stretch Goal introduced some supernatural content, our next Stretch Goal is focused on real history. 

The American Turtle 

Invented by David Bushnell (one of our featured characters!), the Turtle was the world’s first combat submersible! If we meet this Stretch Goal we’ll build a detailed vehicle statblock and new submarine mechanics perfect for oak barrel espionage. We'll include the stat block as a PDF for available to our backers and we'll include and feature the Turtle in The Occupation of New York: The last Days of Nathan Hale the second adventure in the new American Crisis source book. Can you use The Turtle to complete Bushnell’s mission and bomb British ships in New York Harbor?

Games We Love

Speaking of naval combat, we wanted to give a shou out to our friends over at HOMIEandTheDUDE and their upcoming Kickstarter.

SKY ZEPHYRS is a "Swashbuckling Combat" overlay to "lay over" any D&D 5e setting w/ airship, spaceship, sea and/or land vehicle combat (IRL & VTT). Our mission was to build a dynamic, fun, simple, strategic and highly adjustable system to tailor for all DM and PC combat appetites - from mostly RP-based to super crunchy (and anything in between).

Any Questions or suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord ⛵

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!

Project Update #5 - 1st Stretch Goal Unlocked! — Benjamin Franklin Banshee Slayers Stretch Goal Revealed!
over 1 year ago – Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 08:33:32 AM

Salut, Tueur de Fantômes!

We reached our first Stretch Goal for Nations & Cannons themed character sheets! These sheets will be available to all backers at any level as a printable and form-fillable PDF. Our next stretch goal on deck is a beautiful bookmark ribbon for The American Crisis book, and the stretch goal after that is for ....

Benjamin Franklin Banshee Slayers!

Old Benny Franks, or The "Newton of Electricity" as he was sometimes known, was mired by strange occurrences such as the haunting melodies of his Glass Armonica, and the bodies buried underneath his Philadelphia home. In this stand-alone setting for Nations & Cannons the payers join Benjamin Franklin on his mission to rid the planet of the ghouls and ghosts that go bump in the night. A wild idea born out of a fever dream that one of our designers had while writing our core rules, we're ecstatic to offer our first foray into flintlock fantasy with a one-shot adventure, available to our backers as a Print & Play PDF.

For those who have never heard the eerie sound of a Glass Armonica, take a listen to this recording of Tchaikowsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from the Nutcracker (1892) by William Zeitler. What other purpose could this instrument have, other than serving as a banshee lure!

Any Questions or suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 👻

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!