The Bodhana Group is a non-profit that uses TTRPG for therapy, skill building and education.
It’s not that common to find a first-time Kickstarter creator, such as Jack Berkenstock Jr from Bodhana, to fund a whole new TTRPG system on their first Kickstarter, but the community has rallied for Branch Riders.
There are eight different worlds in Branch Riders, all connected by the Nexus and all threatened by the Blight.
Player characters are Branch Riders, trained and gifted agents who foil the Blight to keep the worlds safe.
Branch Riders is a narrative game that blends action with investigation and scenarios might including starting a rebellion, helping a superhero become established in a world or sallying forth to rescue a friend.
The eight realms are:
- The Borderland (Western)
- The Boroughs (Noir)
- The Chain (Steampunk)
- The Crags (Fantasy)
- The Heights (Superhero)
- The Party (Dystopian)
- The Rails (Post-Apocalypse)
- The Terminal (Science Fiction)
Branch Riders originally was born from our work as a non-profit as well as our love of tabletop games. The Bodhana Group utilizes tabletop games for education, capacity building and therapy. A large facet of our work is providing training for practitioners, educators and parents on how to best use games in this way.
Backers can support Branch Riders by offering money or by sharing news, and this is a TTRPG connected to helping people.
The $25 tier unlocks rewards such as the Branch Riders core rules and condition cards in PDF, along with a discount code for print-on-demand for both.
The Branch Riders’s Facilitator’s Guide as a PDF is added to the rewards at $30. At $45, there’s no Facilitator’s Guide, but backers can donate a copy of the game to the community and get one of their own, too, in PDF.
Gaming groups or schools might be interested in the $100 tier, which unlocks five of each of the PDFs.
After this tier, backers can name an NPC, describe/design a custom Blight, suggest a gift for Branch Rider PCs, design a character for illustration or even participate in an online game of Branch Riders.
There are even higher pledges! There’s a $250 tier for people who want to learn from a professional how to use Branch Riders for education.
The Bodhana Group will run the Kickstarter until July 11th and estimate project delivery in December 2025.
What are your thoughts? Strike up a discussion and leave a comment below.
