I’m just back from a week’s vacation up near Watersmeet, Michigan, and I’m plowing through my in-box to catch up with everything that’s been happening while I’ve been gone. Among those things are a number of Kickstarters I’d like to recommend.
First off, my pals Robin Laws and Simon Rogers over at Stone Skin Press have launched a drive for a set of four fiction anthologies. I have a story in The New Hero 2 anthology, which was the first Shotguns & Sorcery tale I wrote, and I came up with a short fable in The Lion and the Aardvark too. The books are crammed with all sorts of other great tales, and I’m looking forward to reading them all.
My friend Steve Savile is one of the writers behind the drive for the adaptation of the O3 trilogy of progressive metal albums by former Dream Theater lead singer Charlie Dominici. If you’re into high-concept SF with a cracking soundtrack, be sure to check it out.
My fellow Alliterate Wolfgang Baur is running a drive for the Midgard Bestiary, a monsters book for Dungeons & Dragons. All stretch goals have been unlocked, making this a great value.
Lillian Cohen-Moore has a wild project for an RPG sourcebook/fiction book called The Guide to the Village by the Sea. It incorporates a condition she has called synesthesia, which causes her to taste colors and mix her other senses in unusual ways. It’s edited by my pal Rich Dansky, and his seal of approval is more than enough for me.
Fred Hicks and the rest of my pals at Evil Hat have a drive for their first board game, Race to Adventure. I’ve known one of the designers, Eric Lytle, for years, and he knows great games. If this is even half as good as their RPGs and fiction, it’ll rock.
My pals at Zombie Orpheus Entertainment – the folks behind The Gamers films and Journey Quest – have a drive for The Mask of Death, the Pathfinder version of the adventure the heroes played through in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Too much fun.
Jennifer Steen of Jennisodes has a drive going for her first game: Project Ninja Panda Taco. If that name alone doesn’t sell it to you, I don’t know what will, but she also has a crack production team, including John Adamus, Brian Patterson, and Daniel Solis.
On top of all that, my friend Ryan Macklin has a drive for his excellent Master Plan podcast about game design. He smashed through his first goal and is heading for stretch goals now. Only 30-some hours left here, so don’t delay.
Other drives that caught my eye:
- Mage Knight returns as a video game.
- Hieroglyph of the Human Soul, a film featuring Dean Haglund (had dinner with him once, such an enthusiastic guy).
- B. J. Keeton’s drive for his science-fantasy novel Birthright. Only 40-some hours left.
- My friend Jeff Siadek (designer of Battlestations!) has a drive for his debut SF novel Deep Black.
- Rockford native Travis Legge’s romantic comedy film Dry Spell.
- My friend Lee Garvin (of Tales from the Floating Vagabond RPG fame) has a drive for his game Badass Zombie Killers.
- Gryphon and Eagle Games are bringing back some classic Sid Sackson games, including Sleuth.
- Marc Zicree (with whom I enjoyed a dinner at a World Fantasy con years back) has a drive for a new SF film series called Space Command.
Whew. Now I need to get back to work so I can afford all this cool stuff.
