My favourite part of this indie RPG pitch to the Kickstarter community to fund a game trying to fill in the gaps in our Irish history is the dread “video voice”. The creative team of William Hellwarth and Karin Malady hear it too and can barely stifle the giggles.
There are Irish team members on board for this tabletop game of romance and intrigue and a funding goal of $9,000 to hit and over a month to do it.
GoodbyeWorld Games are the slightly morbidly named publisher at the helm of this Powered by the Apocalypse-based and historically inspired RPG.
We’re told that The Portal Tomb will get us into a mythical and alternative iron age Ireland complete with Fae and druid magic. Characters will have access to transformative rituals, speak with the dead and, no matter how hidden, flirt with the discovery of queerness.
The accessory maker Dakota Irish are on board to create the Ogham Runes that the system will use.
The Portal Tomb is a single session diceless roleplaying that uses an Ogham casting inspired resolution. Together, a group of players get together and create a Queen, their characters, and their relationships using divination. These are marked on a ritual circle that sits at the center of the table, a changing artifact unique for every playthrough. Each ritual the players progress through is a mini-game that pushes drama to the forefront and impacts the trajectory of the characters’ stories.
You know the drill; people who spread the news of the project or back with some cash help and with The Portal Tomb, every dollar offered at the $1 tier level will be matched with one contributed to the Black Trans Travel Fund.
A PDF copy of the game, complete with an Ogham Rune App, so you don’t need any expensive clickclacks, is the reward for backers at $20. There’s a lower-cost entry point for potential backers who might be struggling for cash too.
At $50, backers get instant access to the demo digital version, and the softcover of the book will be in the rewards.
Those Dakota Irish-made custom Rune tokens? They’re added at $80, but are limited to only 300 sets.
Higher tiers? Plenty! A $160, there’s also a re-usable Ritual Circle Playmat added; at $300, both a credit in the book and a faux leather Rune Pouch and at $500, has a Historic Ogham Rune Set plus a dramatic title in the credits.
You can design a character while unlocking all of the above at $750, but the top tier, limited to 3 and one slot has sold, is $1,250, including a remote meeting with the team and an executive producer credit.
The softcover is signed from tiers $300 and up, with April 2024 being the estimated ETA.
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