Sign up for the Gnome Stew blog’s email list for a chance to win DriveThruRPG gift certificates and two RPG ebooks.

Select PDFs from Kenzer & Co. are on sale for 15-30% off.

For the next week everything at Noble Knight Games is at least 10% off. (Well maybe a little less than a week. I think they sent me the email yesterday.)

Scallywags from Gamewright will be debuting at Origins Game Fair in a beginner-level tournament. Prizes will include copies of the game before it’s available in stores.

Avalon Games’ e-book products will be half-off on May 21st.

Everything for sale on Chaosium’s website is 30% off through the 28th.

On Amazon, LEGO Ramses Return is available for only $3.11 and Qwirkle for $17.94.

Father Geek is giving away Dark Horse from Knight Works.

Thanks, Mail Carrier is giving away Classic Battleship Movie Edition and a KRE-O Battleship Combat Chopper set from Hasbro.

My Four Monkeys is giving away Distraction from ThinkFun.

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Crowdfunding has become a major trend in the tabletop games industry. It’s allowed both startup and established game-makers to produce products that otherwise they could not have. And it’s given consumers a forum for voicing their opinions and voting with their dollars before resources are committed to manufacturing.

Discovering what projects are out there, however, has become an increasingly difficult process as the numbers have increased. Many of you, I know, looked forward to our weekly Kickstarter roundup, and some expressed disappointment when it recently lapsed. To be honest, maintaining it takes a lot of work. But we love the games!

So now we’re proud to announce the relaunch of our comprehensive list of all Kickstarter and Indiegogo game projects. We’re going to keep it on its own page (see up top where it says “Kickstarter“), to make it easier to access at any time. Check it out. I think you’ll like all the added features. You can now search the table, as well as sort by project name, dollars raised, percent funded, or closing date. You can even export the data or download a spreadsheet with more information.

If you like it, tell your friends.

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We’re in the last round of playing Off Your Rocker and still having a great time! Don’t miss your chance to win this fun party game. Or you could back Off Your Rocker on Kickstarter.

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Purple Pawn has been on the forefront of covering Kickstarter game projects for some time. With the explosion in both the number and scope of projects, however, that coverage must evolve. We hope to bring back shortly our comprehensive list of projects. In the meantime, though, we’re going to test a weekly roundup of Kickstarter game news that highlights interesting projects, major achievements, sneak peeks, and related stuff from around the web. Please let us know what you think of this approach.

Finished and Finishing

Zombicide successfully funded on Sunday with just over $780,000—39 times its goal! Ogre Designer’s Edition is at $715,000 with about a day-and-a-half left.

Interesting Projects

Ace of Spies is a spy-themed card game set in the 1920s. It’s the first project of new game publisher Albino Dragon, a venture of sometimes contributor to Purple Pawn, Richard Bliss (also currently an advertiser). Watch their intro video. It’s my favorite so far.

Another project with a connection to this site is Off Your Rocker from Stratus Games. It’s a party game, which honestly is not usually my thing. However, we’re currently running a giveaway of Off Your Rocker for Stratus, and as part of that have been playing a version of the game over on our Play page. It’s been a lot of fun!

Polynesian Adventure is the project of a recent business school graduate and Hawaii resident. It’s supposed to teach Polynesian culture but is just roll-and-move—or more precisely, draw-card-and-move, like Candy Land. [Reminds me of a story I did 4 years ago.] It’s passed the 50 percent mark but only has 7 days left to go.

Gen Con or Bust is fiction author Patrick Stutzman’s attempt to finance a trip to Gen Con. He’s been before but can’t afford it this year. He’s asking for $2,250.

Lots of people talk about the difficulties of dealing with sexism, classism, racism, violence, and historical realism in fantasy games. The Farewell to Fear project is trying to address that with a sophisticated “progressive post-fantasy roleplaying game”. Not simply changing the skin color of NPCs, Farewell to Fear presents a medieval-style setting undergoing social revolution.

Think punk rock meets fantasy. Bad Religion meets Tolkien, boot to face.

With the Global GameSpace project, creator Curtis Lacy is hoping to develop a cross-platform, virtual-tabletop application for playing board games over the internet. He plans to give away the software when it’s finished but needs $40,000 to make it happen.

Interesting projects show up on Indiegogo too. One of them is Sharks With Lasers, a game in which the players’ secret agent trainees must dodge sharks, and their lasers, on the way to an island.

Stuff From Around the Web

Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo, talked about crowdfunding on a Gamerati Google+ Hangout and teased about a possible Kickstarter project launching soon. Could the Pathfinder Online Technology Demo from Goblin Works be what she was referring to?

On BoardGameGeek, one user is maintaining a GeekList of the top 10 most funded board game projects on Kickstarter.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group announced that it will announce next week (really) a Kickstarter project for a new Savage Worlds RPG setting.

On Troll in the Corner, Nick reminds donors to be cautious with crowdfunding, noting that there’s no guarantee of quality for supported projects.

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Last week I mentioned a few sites giving away games from Minion Games. Fortress AT is another.

Wired’s GeekDad and Schemer (social activity recommendation service?) are giving away five sets of five games.

To get 75% off closeout titles from Out of the Box Publishing use the code, “DEALS”. Also, the company is running a contest to give away Faux•Cabulary Expansion 1.

Preorder the new print-run of Get Bit direct from Mayday Games for 20% off.

And last, but definitely most important, check out Purple Pawn’s very own Play page for an opportunity to win Off Your Rocker from Stratus Games.

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Come visit our Play page and join us in a game of Off Your Rocker. Guess our quirks for a chance to win a copy of the game. Plus, figuring out what’s wrong with us has been a lot of fun!

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With one week to go, Ogre Designer’s Edition has charged in the lead as the front runner for the prestigious award of the most successful boardgame kickstarter campaign ever. Currently sitting at $500,000 (to help our readers visualise this, 500k worth of 1 dollar bills would weigh just over half a ton) it shows no signs of stopping. To discuss the tremendous success of this classic game, Steve Jackson creator of Ogre, Car Wars and Munchkin has graciously taken a bit of time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Currently almost $535K, but who’s counting? Oh, wait . . . a LOT of us are counting . . .

In a word, no. I knew we had strong support but I didn’t expect it to be so very deep. I would have been delighted to hit $200,000, which was why that was where we set the “two boards become four” stretch goal. When we blew past $400,000, I was just beyond bogglement.

Well, if I say so myself, it’s a good game. And its original release came during a period when a lot of people were just entering the hobby. They enjoyed it and played it over and over. And, from the mail I am getting, that’s why so many of them are ordering it now. It’s a good part of their memories from 20 or 30 years ago, and now they’d like to play it again, but with the type bigger so they can still read it . . .

We were going to do it anyway. We were going to print 3,000 copies, with a lot less stuff in the box, and we didn’t expect ever to do a supplement. Given the enthusiasm we are seeing, I expect we would have sold those 3,000 pretty quickly, been faced with requests to reprint, and not felt able to do it. So this is all around better.

We have already committed, based on hitting stretch goals, to a supplement, a number of extras, SOME kind of digital game, and a re-release of the miniatures. We all have to hang on and see what’s next.

I’d say to them “You’re wrong.” Maybe even “You’re very wrong!” There’s a very good article here: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/05/01/kickstarter-2/   that talks about this point. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some of the world’s top entertainment talent using Kickstarter soon.

I should also point out: If Kickstarter were to become a protected garden limited to small projects and unknown talent, we’d instantly see the emergence of a “Big Kickstarter” to meet the needs of higher-profile creators . . . and that “Big Kickstarter” would soon get all the viewers, and the hopeful beginners would move to the place with the bigger audience, and the original Kickstarter would wither. As it is, though, Kickstarter is very democratic. Every project gets the same amount of space to fill with its appeal. Supporters read that appeal and judge for themselves.

Now you have seen the success of Ogre’s reappearance via Kickstarter, what would you say to your fans that are very keen for a similar rerun of your other classic games like Car Wars?

I don’t think they will be disappointed  :)

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Like an episode of Storage Wars, the game collection of Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, was recently salvaged from an abandoned storage locker and is now being put up for auction. I’m flabbergasted!

According to an announcement by The Collector’s Trove, an online auction service for game designers, here’s what happened… The Collector’s Trove had spoken to Mr. Arneson prior to his death about selling his collection. Before the deal could be finalized, however, Mr. Arneson revealed that he would be leaving his collection to his heirs. Unfortunately, they seem to have been unwilling or unable to care for it. The collection was placed in a storage facility and when the rent was not paid, it was put up for auction, as is the practice in such businesses. (Keep in mind that the collection includes not only Mr. Arneson’s games, but also his game design notes and documents from his days in the industry.) The company that won the bid contacted The Dragon’s Trove, an online retailer with a history of dealing in collectible RPGs. The Dragon’s Trove then contacted The Collector’s Trove. The two agreed to partner and, after evaluating the materials, made an offer. The offer was accepted and 114 boxes with 10,000+ individual items were loaded in to a van to be driven from Minnesota to Nebraska.

Now The Collector’s Trove and The Dragon’s Trove are working together to

…preserve the intellectual property of the collection while trying to carry out Dave’s wishes to have a portion of its value go to his heirs. Through a combined effort of scanning, documentation, and auctions it is hoped that we may achieve both goals. In the process Dave’s fans and collectors alike will have the opportunity to support this effort and have a chance to own a piece of gaming history. Likewise, the gaming community may yet get a chance to see Dave’s unpublished game designs come to fruition.

The first eBay auctions of selected materials are scheduled to launch Sunday evening, May 6th. These will feature rare wargames, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Blackmoor, and Empire of the Petal Throne. Some of the items are autographed.

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Thanks to Stratus Games, one of our readers is going to win a copy of Off Your Rocker!

Talk to the pawns at our swanky new Play page and diagnose which quirky condition they are suffering from.

You: What did you do today?
The Pawns: I built a ship in a bottle and really got in to it.

You: How do you feel?
The Pawns: Not so great. I’m feeling a bit stuffed up right now.

You: What is your biggest fear?
The Pawns: Recycling!

You: I diagnose … that you think you are trapped in a bottle!

The Pawns: Hooray! You’ve won a game!

Come into the Play page, have some fun with us and win a copy of Off Your Rocker!

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