Fashion isn’t something that I usually follow or write about. This Tumblr, however, I thought you’d appreciate. Dungeons and Fashion is a selection of outfits inspired by D&D monsters and character classes.

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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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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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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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As one who appreciates fantasy settings with less magic, I’d like to recognize Open Design for their recent Pathfinder RPG offering, the Expanded Spell-Less Ranger. This 15 page PDF builds on an alternate Pathfinder base class first presented in an issue of Kobold Quarterly.

The Spell-Less Ranger gets by without the ability to cast spells but makes up for it with improved stealth and healing skills in favored environments, and new combat styles, animal companion options, and feats. Further focusing this class on its non-magical skills are a feature Open Design refers to as Ranger Talents (similar in principle to those of the rogue), which include special abilities related to falling, tracking, hunting, trap handling, swimming, and climbing—things you’d expect from a hunter.

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Lots of board game giveaways this time…

Out of the Box Publishing is running a sweepstakes on Facebook.

Minion Games is giving away one a week through RPGShop.com (order required). Type “Purple Pawn” in to the shipping instructions box during checkout so they know that you heard about it from us.

Other websites also giving away games from Minion include Drake’s Flames and Crimson Bastards.

Wee Share is giving away Roll & Play from ThinkFun.

You can get Educational Insight’s The 7 Habits of Happy Kids game from Mommy and Me Giveaways and Mom To Bed By 8.

At Father Geek it’s Zip Zap from Gamewright.

From AEG’s online store, a free copy of Nightfall: Martial Law comes with each order of $100 or more.

And a couple of RPG contests…

Pelgrane Press is running an icon (as in character, not graphic) design contest for 13th Age, the company’s in-development fantasy RPG. The winner will receive a copy of the game.

Kobold Quarterly’s King of the Monsters monster design competition is back. The winning entry will be published in Kobold Quarterly and the winner will receive a free copy of that issue.

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Strange combination, I know, but here’s the story… Heroes in the Dark is a nonprofit organization who’s mission is to produce audio versions of classic comic books for the enjoyment of the blind and visually impaired. As part of an awareness and fundraising campaign—the funds are needed for a recording studio—Heroes in the Dark is running a Cthulhu-themed, roleplaying scenario design competition. Prizes for the winning scenarios include small cash awards and copies of the Cthulhu Dark RPG. But more importantly, the scenarios will be included in Horrors in the Dark, a Lovecraftian art and game book, which the organization is producing to help fund the studio.

Heroes in the Dark intends to finance Horrors in the Dark as a Kickstarter project, with sponsors at a certain level earning spots on the judging panel for the contest. The Kickstarter part of this project, however, has not yet launched.

So that takes care of Cthulhu, the blind, and comics. The Titanic comes in through the involvement of Pelgrane Press, who has not only authorized Trail of Cthulhu scenarios as part of the competition, but has also committed to donate all proceeds from the sale of its own new adventure, RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special, to the Heroes in the Dark cause.

Frankly, I probably would have mentioned a Cthulhu Titanic scenario anyway. Check out this teaser!

The mummy of Hettunaway, Priestess of Amun-Ra, is being shipped to New York and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by its owner, Jefferson Shaw. Legend has it that those who look upon her face are doomed.

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[source: Daniel Solis]

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