

RPG Crowdfunding News 030: Shintiara, Harlem Unbound, The Road to Heaven, Sci-Fi RPG Modular Rooms,


Shintiara RPG: a world of Magic and Time Paradoxes by Giovanni Maurizo Ali Pola

(Campaign Ends : Sunday 15th January 2017; 09:07 UTC)

Giovanni Pola has been developing Shintiara for twenty years and now, thanks to Kickstarter, is making Shintiara : A World of Magic and Time Paradoxes a reality. In many ways this is what Kickstarter is for… to help creators projects and dreams come alive that might not otherwise see the light of day. Shintiara has already passed its original funding goal so, with over 30 days left to go, Giovanni can rightly be pleased in the knowledge that the last twenty years of work has been worth it.

Shintiara calls itself “a tabletop role-playing game on the Event Horizon, where Time is broken and Magic blends with Technology”, so what can we expect from his 300 page book and it’s future supplements?

“Shintiara is a planet for which a star and a black hole are competing and this fight is causing great time paradoxes: a fantasy world with strong science-fiction elements, where players are called upon to live incredible adventures and to question themselves on the nature of the universe.

In Shintiara, Adventures on the Event Horizon, players assume the role of heroes called The Recruited. The Recruited are people who received an inner call at a certain point in their lives.

The force that maintains balance in the universe has chosen them to lead the world of Shintiara towards its destiny, without however revealing to anyone what this destiny is. The Recruited possess a deeper comprehension than anyone else about the current clash on the planet.

They know well that Murya, the fallen star, is attracting the world towards a black hole where time and space will disappear and all will be swallowed by The Void. While Shintiara approaches the point of no return of Murya’s gravitational field, the so-called event horizon, unbelievable temporal paradoxes happen on its surface: objects, living beings and whole places appear, recalled from the past or from the future.

On the other side there is Siray’s gravitational field instead, the white star, that tries its best to maintain Shintiara within the Cosmos, i.e. in a reality where facts and events follow one another according to precise laws. Everyone, in the world of Shintiara, is aware of this situation, but only the Recruited know they can make a difference with their actions and that, siding either with Siray or Murya, they can enormously increase their personal power up to becoming god-like beings (the so-called Champions of the Cosmos or the Void).

When too much paradoxical energy accumulates, new disorders arise, because timelines can overlap and generate a Timewarp, a temporal vortex capable of producing further paradoxical events. Places, buildings, people or technology: anything can appear on Shintiara travelling from different eras!”

Harlem Unbound, a Cthulhu roleplaying game sourcebook by Chris Spivey, Darker Hue Studios

(Campaign Ends : Thursday 12th January 2017; 10:41 UTC)

Call of Cthulhu is one of my favourite games, if not my actual favourite, so I’m always very keen on seeing new sourcebooks, adventures and pretty much anything else for the game. So when Harlem Unbound went live I was straight on it. Not only because it was a Call of Cthulhu sourcebook (it also doubles up as a GUMSHOE sourcebook too) but also because it pushes away from the standard stereotypical ‘white’ investigator in many of the stories but places African Americans on the centre stage struggling against cosmic horrors while also fighting for a chance at equality.

New York City in the 1920s: Prohibition is in full swing, and bootleggers are living high. African Americans flee the oppressive South for greener pastures, creating a new culture in Harlem. The music of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington pours out of the city’s windows and doorways, and the sidewalks are crowded with women in stylish skirts with silk stockings, and men in white gloves and Chesterfield coats. There’s a feeling of possibility in the air, like never before. But even in this land of promise, Harlem is a powder keg. While classes and cultures collide, Lovecraftian horrors lurk beneath the streets, creeping through dark alleys and hidden doorways into the Dreamlands. What Great Old One shattered our reality? Can you hold it together and keep the Mythos at bay for one more song?

Harlem Unbound is a unique RPG sourcebook that takes players into the exciting world of the Harlem Renaissance at its height, to face terrifying horrors from the Lovecraftian Mythos.

The Road to Heaven – A Bronze Age Fate Fantasy RPG by Stephen Fleetwood

(Campaign Ends : Sunday 8th January 2017; 06:01 UTC)

The Road to Heaven is a high-powered game with a lot at stake for your heroes. If you want your heroes standing against armies, defeating terrible monsters, doing epic deeds, changing the face of the world and indeed travelling on the path to divinity itself, then The Road to Heaven is certainly a game to check out.

Powered by the Fate system, the game is set in the world of Adnatu, a world where everyone has magical ability, where empires are starting to tear themselves apart, where chaos monsters roam the wilderness and cabals plot in the shadows it the cities.

Road to Heaven is focused on heroes in a fantastic bronze age attempting to become gods. It is set on the fantasy world of Adnatu, a world created from the broken remains of an old reality. The world was built by the first god, who destroyed his own reality to make this one. To make a reality where every human had the potential of divinity.

Adnatu is in its bronze age, and your heroes could be standing atop one of the temple-ziggurats in the great city of Medeen, or they could be at one of the encampments of the hill people out n the hills and forests beyond civilisation.

The world is a world of magic, where every human is able to access the most basic powers of their profession. A farmer will know a charm which drives the crows from his land, and a bandit might know a dance which means she can carry any animal she can get on her back. Every human is an inheritor and practitioner of magic.

This is a game where the characters are beings of great power, and will advance further as they approach the heights of godhood. Being people of importance and might, the world will be forced to adapt to them and around them. On their great road, as he path to heaven is called, eac hero will need to change the world around them. Heaven will not accept one into its ranks who has not even changed the earth below, after all.”

Sci-Fi RPG Modular Rooms + Maps + Artpack by Gaudreau Steve

(Campaign Ends : Monday 23rd January 2017; 04:39 UTC)

After several successful fantasy campaigns artist Steve Gaudreau is turning his hand to sci-fi with this set of twenty useful rooms that you can use for your sci-fi roleplaying games. In additional to this range of rooms Steve is also offering two battlemaps of alien terrain and an artpack full of items enabling you to make, and populate, your own rooms.

Traveller Customizable Card Game by Horizon Games

(Campaign Ends : Monday 9th January 2017; 20:00 UTC)

Branching away slightly from RPGs for a moment, I wanted to include the Traveller Customizable Card Game in this weeks column. Based on Marc Miller’s classic sci-fi roleplaying game the card game has been designed for 2-4 players but also supports solo play. Despite its “customizable” tag the card game is not collectible, has no random allocation of cards and no rarity ratings. Every pack is a fixed set so you’ll know what you’re getting within.

There are initially two Ship Decks available (the Scout and the Free Trader), although more may become available through stretch goals. Each deck has 81 cards (1 Ship card, 20 Adventure cards and 60 Captain’s cards) which is enough to begin your Traveller exploits.

In the game players assume the role of a ship Captain plying the mains of the Third Imperium. “Our basic mechanics are an icon-driven race game, with ample opportunities to interact with, and even engage in piracy against, other players. All Captains must also content with a hostile galaxy and the looming threat of insolvency.”





Until next week, have fun and happy gaming!

Angus Abranson



I don't usually play Collectable Card Games, but that Traveller game looks very well suited for that genre. Even if you don't play the game, I'm guessing the card decks would work great for random events in any space game (e.g Paizo's upcoming Starfinder).


Latest threads