This really, maybe should have been two posts, but fickle fate conspired to let me launch one project just as another completes. So let’s do one big newsflash with two headlines.
Dueling Fops of Vindamere is Live on Kickstarter!
I’ve been waiting for this one a long time. My newest game is a Crankshaft Constellation endeavor, and we’re bringing you Vindamere: a fantasy town that’s like Lankhmar’s dumber, less hygienic sister. Injected into this setting are your characters, irresponsible triflers of the upper class who are (effectively) exempt from the laws, well trained with slinky thin swords, and desperately in love.
I’ve described it as “What if Romeo fell in love with Lady MacBeth?” I’ve said it’s like “Bridgerton, but extremely violent” or “hornier Cobra Kai, with swords!” But you can actually get a taste of its vibe right now by watching me in a game of it via Electric Dice, or by listening to the Big Gay Nerds playthrough.
In less hype-heavy terms, it’s a 44 page no-GM tabletop RPG where everyone plays and nobody’s in charge. Three events are set: The opening dance where every character falls in love, the mid-year cotillion where everything escalates, and the fencing championship where everything comes to a head. Between, the characters go into random events that range from your standard erotic machinations and grog-house brawls up through full-on civil insurrection. There’s even a locked-room mystery!
Your sword-swinging swell could end up dead, growing up and getting serious, becoming enlightened or falling into loveless despair and retiring to the moors. You might even have a happy ending, but whatever occurs, it’s never dull and (in my experience) always hilarious.
Check out the Kickstarter and if it sounds interesting, pledge today! Thanks.
New Stories of Unknown Armies Are Up!
Also, there’s one about zombies. These got funded recently, so now you can read them, share them around under the conditions of the CC: license, and generally delight yourself with them. There’s no catch!
Mick and Amanda and Reesa and Craig is about a used-up rock star and unreliable psychic, but mostly about a narrator with a surprising past. They try to save a child. As one does.
Mick and the Spoonbender gives us a closer focus on our feckless ex-drummer as he interviews a mysterious figure who claims to have been a CIA psychic.
Mick and the Fit sends us once more into our psychic rocker’s orbit, but he’s a pretty minor character only showing up at the end, after the main character’s life is utterly destroyed and she tries to pick some mystic enlightenment out of the wreckage.
Then there’s Like Uber, But For Monsters, which is a very short zombie story.
Thanks as always to the backers, here’s hoping you love them all!
