The Tanks and Tankards Kickstarter has gone live on Tuesday, along with everyone else, and perhaps easy to miss. I know their UK Games Expo was, having done badly in the random draw of assignments for the indie publishers, tucked away near the cafe corner that few people fought their way to.
Myles Riley is running the Kickstarter, and if Myles was the young teacher who operated that table through the whole event, wearing a neat, fitted British army uniform, then I think it’s worth a look. Should D&D’s RPG engine be touching on the Russian war machine right now? Can 5e do tanks? The Kickstarter wants £5,000 to find out.
To be clear, in this case, “tank” does not apply to the damage-soaking melee fighter in MMORPGs, and it does mean the armoured vehicle introduced by the British to the battlefields of Europe.
The Tanks and Tankards (T&T) offers a detailed (in fact, they say ‘exceedingly detailed’) look at history and some 80 tanks. The Second War stretched worldwide, and this RPG looks at the campaign map in Europe and west Russia.
I don’t doubt the history skills of the team, but typos in the story pitch on Kickstarter won’t reassure people. The text we can see, and it’s a short Kickstarter, is more error-prone than this blogger is!
D&D’s 5e is an abstract system, and T&T talks about a “realistic dice-based simulation of the largest conflict in human history”. I asked why 5e while chatting at UK Games Expo, and you’ll know the answer. 5e is the system people know.
So, that’s the punt backers are taking. Tanks and Tankards is a lovingly but perhaps not precisely crafted 5e RPG, trying something new and brought to life by history buffs, creative minds and gaming geeks. Will it work?
Showing us some 5e tank stats or WWII rules would have gone a long distance.
The Tanks and Tankards game is complete and functional but, was created by a small team of indie developers, all worth their weight in gold as recently emerging professionals. Of course – like all recent graduates of any field, poor and destitute – we require your help to raise the funds for printing. Our dream of bringing a totally unique Tabletop experience to, not only the public but also ourselves can only come to fruition if you help us put the game on shelves.
A pledge of £6 will help bring the book to life and get you a thank you (not a tank you) in the book while stepping up to £30 will get you a signed copy. The latter is restricted to shipping only to some parts of the world and, well, there’s no unsigned copy available!
At £40, backers get a book and a chance to play in some T&T one-shots with the team over Christmas.
Backers who step up to £60, and some have, you’ll get to include their original content (perhaps an NPC) in the game.
There’s an estimated April 2024 delivery date.
What do you think? Sound off in the comment section below.
