It’s December in the United States and everyone has their hand out for money.

It might just be a symptom of 2023, but it seems like this November and December have been packed with TTRPG projects that might be worth the investment if Christmas, etc wasn’t right around the corner. I was almost in hot water with my wife for backing Grimtooth’s Traps in November. Now MCDM RPG is on BackerKit and I’m having serious thoughts about it.

The World of Myrr from Cawood just wrapped up their Kickstarter. Adventurer, Conqueror, King 2 is still going last I checked. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently wrapped up a successful run on Kickstarter. My point is there’s a lot of money going out right before major holidays for several different religions/traditions. Money is a little scarce this time of year, especially if you have family, friends, and loved ones to buy gifts for.

That’s to say nothing of all of the recent releases of note.

November saw the release of the first two Pathfinder 2E Remastered books, Player Core and GM Core. Those books came in at a somewhat reasonable price of $59.99 MSRP each. Don’t try to tell me “Pathfinder rules are free on Archives of Nethys.”

Archives of Nethys is great if I need to look up a rule here and there, maybe some monster or item stats. What if I want to just read the book? Oh, that question answers itself- get the book. I don’t think anyone in their right mind is going to trawl through AoN for hours trying to find new rules and text.

So, $120 if l want to get into Pathfinder Remastered right now and then we start looking at all of the other things that are going on right now. This is also going into holiday charitable donation season. Here in the Northern US we also have the additional concern of people freezing to death in the streets if they don’t have adequate housing, etc, so local donations are a big deal. Back in the TTRPG realm, lots of products are emerging on Kickstarter and in our FLGS every day.

Reviews and Previews go a long way right now.

Please keep an eye open for reviews, previews, playtests and quickstart copies. They’re going to save a ton of money by getting a feel for whether or not you might want to play or run said new games. YouTube is usually pretty full of reviewers, especially for that one fantasy game everyone knows. (Can I go an entire article without bagging on them?)

One of my favorite YouTubers posted a review of Candela Obscura yesterday. It saved me $40 down the road. Sorry, Darrington Press fans, it doesn’t sound like my kind of game. Plus, I have Monster of the Week: Tome of Worlds. I’m hoping other Illuminated Worlds projects are more well-developed because I think the system (Forged in the Dark) has some potential.

I’m going to be working on a few reviews in the next week or two. I might not be giving gift recommendations (that’s another list.) Farther into next year some of these products might bear looking into. I don’t have a massive list of first run product to review, but some things that will work to fill in the gap between new releases if someone is looking for sourcebooks, etc.

We live in interesting TTRPG times.

This is a rare time in TTRPG history. We’ve had an epic year in terms of astonishing failures and newfound creativity. Thanks to the events in the TTRPG industry in January of 2023, there has been a massive rise in the development of fantasy TTRPGs.

Shadowdark led the pack right out of the gate with a millions dollar Kickstarter. Unfortunately, an event known as Shadowbarge delayed the physical development by a few months. (*It’s still my wish to have it in my fuzzy little hands before Christmas.) It’s still my vote for number one TTRPG of the year, but I might be a bit biased.

Then came Project Black Flag aka Tales of the Valiant by Kobold Press. It went over a million dollars as well. A lot of people thought it might be the game to replace the one that had all that OGL drama centered around it. Hopefully it will be on shelves before May of 2024. As an aside, TotV has a Game Master’s Guide coming to Kickstarter in December. I’d be more inclined to back it after the holiday season.

I feel the need to mention Vagabond RPG by Indestructoboy aka Taron Pounds. It made its funding goal on Kickstarter. Sadly, I was not a backer. It does look like a solid game and we receive regular updates via the Indestructoboy YouTube channel.

Daggerheart by Darrington Press continues its path toward success. I hear the playtest at Pax Unplugged went well from what everyone was bragging… er, umm, talking about on YouTube afterward. Good for them, I guess. It’s not a Kickstarter and is due out early in 2024, I think.

Then there’s the elephant in the room- the MCDM RPG by MCDM Productions. The link to it on BackerKit is right here.  As of this writing it has raised over $2.5 million. Funding wraps up in 27 days. Funding does not appear to be slowing down.

I want to call Colville’s timing into question.

How much more money could this MCDM RPG project have made if it were released at any other time during the year? I don’t expect anyone to run on a Judeo-Christian schedule, but why drop it this close to so many major holidays? What was the point of that?

I’d be far more inclined to back this thing, but the asking price is pretty steep at $60+ for two PDFs or $135 for two hardcover books. It makes me wonder about this hobby when people are dropping this kind of money on a project that might not fulfill for years yet. I’ve heard a rumor that MCDM is sometimes slow to fill their crowdfunded projects. At $2.5 million+, I don’t think they’re too worried about one dude from Iowa not backing them.

Yes, thousands of rabid Matt Colville fans have pounced on this project. That’s great. But I keep wondering, what if this had dropped in February 2024? They had to have known it was going to hit the $800,000 funding goal within hours of going online. Why not do a little more development and drop in after US tax season? Right before Origins or GAMA might have been a better time. We may never know what the logic was.

Maybe I don’t fully understand crowdfunding as well as I once thought I did.

It’s possible I still have a lot to learn about Kickstarter, BackerKit, and other crowdfunding sites. That’s one topic I’m hoping to see more about during the Indie RPG Creators Summit in January 2024. They’re going to have speakers talking about the back end of crowdfunding and how TTRPG creators can best make use of their services. I love educational opportunities.

My personal goal for 2024 is to make enough money by selling my own wares to cover some of the new products and/or Kickstarters that are yet to come. At the very least I’m going to cover some of the massive DriveThruRPG wish lists I’ve had growing for years now. I’m not planning on doing any crowdfunded projects at this time. (*More on that in another article.)

Please spend wisely. Please spend within your means. Give generously to those in need when you can. Remember goodwill always comes back around.

Thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a wonderful month of December regardless of what traditions and customs you may follow. Please be kind to one another. I appreciate you.