Now on Kickstarter (Numenera, Vurt, New Bedford, Reboot the Suit)

Welcome to my latest set of crowdfunding projects for your consideration. We’ve got a Cypher-heavy lineup today, with two RPG projects using that system (including one for the original Numenera), a board game that’s going to expire even faster than the whales you’re hunting, and in a bonus non-gaming pick, you can help Reboot the (Space) Suit of the first man on the moon (sorry, French Republican Wall Calendar, you are a nifty historical curiosity, especially for those of us who listen to the Revolutions podcast, but not for $50).

IntoTheNinthWorld

Numenera: Into the Ninth World: You may recall that I had some nice things to say about Monte Cook’s Numenera RPG. Even the core book contained piles of great material to read, and the Into the Ninth World project will fund three new books for the line – Into the Night (space), Into the Deep (the sea), and Into the Outside (other dimensions). Each of these is available as a 160-page hardcover and/or a PDF. In addition to those three books, an Artifact Deck is available, and a there are a mess of stretch goals – poster packs, deck expansions, double-sided poster maps, a novel (pictured above), a character options book, and more. Picking up everything in physical format (my preferred option) is $130 (free shipping in US). As of this date, the Into the Ninth World KS has almost a month left and has already obliterated its funding target.

NewBedford

New Bedford: A last minute special here for you, as this whaling/town building board game from Dice Hate Me Games (makers of the amazing Brew Crafters) is already in its final 48 hours. New Bedford features worker placement within the town, with resources being managed to fund whaling expeditions. Ships need wood, and crews need food for the journey, but you’d also better be able to pay them when the ship comes in, or you aren’t going to get to keep the whale victory points. Saving up for a longer voyage may reap greater rewards, but may also risk diminishing returns as while you’re busy loading up other players may deplete the whale population. Once you add in shipping to the U.S. (more for elsewhere), a pledge of $38 will snag you a copy of the game, which is already fully funded.

Vurt

Vurt: So, full disclosure – this roleplaying game is based on the science fiction work of Jeff Noon, and I must admit to a complete lack of knowledge of the author or the books. So I’m looking at this solely as an RPG, sans literary hook. The characters in Vurt operate in two sorts of worlds. First there’s the “real” world – high-technology, dirty-streets cyberpunk. Even this world is pretty wild, with loads of characters options to choose from, what with the genetic recombination running around. Then, there’s the Vurt world, a hallucinatory – but very real – array of parallel realms where things get really fantastic. The characters can enter Vurt worlds by (not making this part up) ingesting Vurt feathers, and (if lucky/good) can bring back curiosities from the Vurt world to the real one. This should make for a very discovery-oriented game, which may have something to do with why the licensed the Cypher system originally designed for Numenera. Stretch goals announced so far primarily consist of adventures. Picking up a physical copy of the core book will set you back $60 (you also get a variety of digital products), while $100 will add the printed Player’s Guide, a printed adventure, and PDF access to all unlocked stretch goal add-ons. At the time I write this, Vurt is less than a $1,000 from meeting its funding goal, with four weeks left to go.

RebootTheSuit

Reboot the Suit: The space suits used by the Apollo astronauts were, it turns out, designed to hold up very well for the rigors of a multi-day trip to the moon, but not a multi-decade/century trip forward in time. So the space suit worn by Neil Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon is, along with its companions, just hanging out in special storage designed to prevent its further deterioration, unavailable to the public. Through the Reboot the Suit project, the Smithsonian is raising funds to conserve, digitize, and display this suit again (the techniques developed to stabilize and display Armstrong’s suit can then be used on other suits in the future), in time for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and then placement in a permanent display in 2020. They’ve already met their original goal, and are $50,000 away from applying the same treatment to the space suit worn by Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Barring ponying up enough to get a 3D-printed space suit (or parts thereof) of your own, this is more of a “donate money and get random thank-you gift” project, not one where you’re buying something, so there’s no one particular pledge level to point out (although this is really donating money, so your pledge will be tax-deductible). Reboot the Suit ends in about a week.

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