Netherlands-based Eightfold Paper asked Kickstarter to find €30,000 for an arena game that uses D&D’s 5e system.
Boss battles, it seems, are in as the publisher’s first Kickstarter has found an audience, crossed €100,000 and is approaching 1,000 backers. You can see progress or join in from the pitch page.
There’s a free-to-download and 5-page sample available (PDF), but I suspect it’s the models and arena rules that people are backing.
The Eightfold Paper team, Alan and Lia, are computer game concept artists and who are keen on tabletop RPGs. They’re clearly got the visual clout and Loot Tavern publishing, Max and Mo, the team behind Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting and Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt are helping out.
You can chat with people involved, perhaps, and other backers at the studios’ Discord.
Riftborne introduces the Cataclysm System, so you open rifts in your current 5e world. The system also introduces the Applause Mechanic for Arena Mode to (according to Eightfold), “To satiate your players’ bloodlust”. Well!
The book also has 10+ multi-wave boss battles, each with the primal mechanic, for which to use those Arena Mode rules.
There’s new subclasses and races, lots of items and of course, those 12 premium minis (big minis!) to dazzle players with. You’re fighting thonk this!
Riftborne – Champions of the Multiverse is a cataclysmic package for 5e that brings unforgettable boss battles to your table. Flood your world with chaos as rifts between worlds open, bringing catastrophic devastation, inquisitive new races, flavourful subclasses, and a tide of monsters yearning to make a foothold in the land you call home. Complimenting this 300+ page book are hand-drawn battlemaps, incredibly detailed minis (and STLs), and an arena combat system for your battle-hungry players.
You know the drill; you can support the project by telling people about it. With Riftborne, just a pledge of €1 will get you into the add-on system for later.
A pledge of €30 (about £27) will get you the Digital Battle Compendium, battlemaps, arena battlemaps and the monster pogs.
Stepping up to €60 turns the Compendium into a hardcover. There’s a deluxe version in the add-ons.
Battlemap posters and sticker sheets to decorate them are added in at the €95 tier.
It’s actually €195 that Eightfold first suggest you’ve got the game as intended. That’s the core box, and it adds the core minis, Rift dice and the arena battlemap board.
You can also go large, as over 200 gamers have, with a €295 pledge to get the deluxe compendium, the Rift Dragon mini, all the STL files and volume 1 of the magic item cards.
Delivery is slated for early 2024. You’ll have shipping costs to workout as well.
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