Kickstarters of Note

Hello, fellow Portalites! I’m back again with a bunch of Kickstarters you all might find interesting!
We have some map-generation tools, descriptive aids; useful for GMs, players /and/ budding authors, and some terrain that might be useful to the gamers amongst us who are lucky enough to have local groups they play with.

Gamer’s Tool Kit Presents: Towns and Dungeons
You all may remember a while back I posted a Kickstarter doing Quick Plot cards. The same guys are doing decks for quick map decks. I got a set of the plot cards, and I am very happy with them.
Whether you’re running a one night, one shot adventure, or just starting your 10th year of what was meant to be a “quick” campaign, we believe that running your games and prepping for the session should be simpler than it tends to be. We believe that as the game master, you should have just as much fun, if not more than the players sitting around your table. We believe that the details are what make your worlds immersive and that there is always a better and easier way to GM on the fly and prepare for upcoming sessions.
Next in our lineup of RPG Decks is the Towns and Dungeons Decks. This is a two deck set that is designed to give you town and dungeon layouts on the fly.”

If the quality is comparable, I think you guys will find these decks just as useful.


Conflict Games Presents: Magic Description Cards
 
This might be better titled as ‘spell effect description’ cards, but you know what, either way, this could be very useful to a writer or starting GM, or any one of a dozen players who want to improve their spell use descriptions.
Every tabletop gamer has been around a table when something like this happens:
“I cast Fireball on this area.”
“Cool, that hits all these bad guys, and they fail their save.”
“Sweet, they take 8d6 of damage, so that’s 28 points of damage each.”
Do you see a problem with this? It’s rather boring, isn’t it? It lacks the flavor and the deep  narration that makes role-playing games so fun.
Could you go by the magic descriptions that the books give you? Sure, but do you want your  cool, one of a kind character to use the descriptions we’ve all heard a thousand times before?  Moreover, that assumes that you are using the spells from the book at all, what do you do if  you’ve made your own homebrewed spells?
What if there are multiple spellcasters in your group? Does your elf necromancer cast a certain  spell the same way that a human druid does? Sure, magic could be described uniformly in your  world where all spells look the same, regardless of the kind of caster using them, but doesn’t that  sound terribly dull to you?”

… does to me. How about you guys?


Andy Shiller Presents: Drakenstone Magnetic Modular Castle
 
Now, this is interesting. A fully modular, magnetic terrain set? In unbreakable resin? The former, I can believe; I’ve seen variants. It’s the latter I question – resin is notoriously fragile! But this is not too much money for test pieces, and the creator seems to think he can provide:
I use Hirst Arts blocks (I am a fully licensed Hirst Arts dealer). The process is fun… but painfully  slow, as each block must be cast individually, then glued together. To save time and effort, I’ve  began making molds of ENTIRE ROOMS, so that they can be cast AS ONE SINGLE SOLID  PIECE with no gluing. Instead of using delicate, breakable plaster, I have been casting using  57D Resin, with enormous success. Instead of building a room in several days, I pour the resin in  the mold, and its finished in two minutes. I can cast the entire 29 piece dungeon in one hour.  What took me weeks before, now takes only an afternoon.
The 57D Resin is urethane rubber. It is slightly flexible, making it shatter-proof. The rooms can  be dropped, and they will remain literally undamaged. No more chipping, cracking, or breaking!  Say goodbye to handling delicate pieces. Since they come right out of the mold looking like  granite, there is no paint to chip away or rub off. However, the material is paintable, should you  choose to add your own dry-brush. Colors available are: Black Onyx, Black Granite, OrcSkin  Gray, Gray Granite, White, White Granite, Frost, and Glow in the Dark.
There is no glue involved in any of the pieces.
The magnets are EMBEDDED directly inside the walls during the molding process, and cannot  come loose, break off, or become lost. That makes our terrain suitable for kids of any age. Every  terrain piece “snaps” together.

Players who already own Dwarven Forge sets will enjoy the fact that DrakenStone terrain meets  up perfectly with their existing sets, making it the perfect compliment. The playing surface is  exactly the same height, and the squares are exactly the same size as Dwarven Forge.


Jason Andrew Hite Presents: BIO-CRAFT
 
While we’re on the subject of scenery… I mentioned this in my last Kickstarter post as a restarted campaign. Well, here it is; in all it’s not-quite Giger-esque glory. I still like the effect; I am strongly reminded of Giger’s work in these tiles.
That may or may not have been deliberate; “Bio-Craft Gaming Terrain started out with one simple desire for Jason Hite. “I want to build  highly detailed tabletop environments inspired by surreal art to play RPG games!” Like the  Surreal Dice Tower, this is another project that combines Jason’s love for both surreal art and  gaming. With Bio-Craft, Jason created 20 different sculptures that when combined in sets, can  create strange dark worlds to game in. Pieces will be made in a sturdy gray PVC plastic ready for  you to prime and paint, or fully painted. STL files are also offered as a separate reward.”

Deliberate or not, it is very different from anything else I have seen available. Available in sets, or as an .STL file you can print out your own sets – whatever pieces you need, however many you need – all you need is a 3D printer.


I’d also like to remind those of you who might have come in late that Reaper’s Bones IV Kickstarter is still ‘live’ – their Pledge Manager is still open to late pledges! If you missed the official Kickstarter, you can still get in on the action. Prices will be a little higher, but you will still be able to get your hands on quality plastic monsters!http://www.reapermini.com/bones4