The Fantasy Character Kit from Roll & Play finds an audience

London based Roll & Play Press are on Kickstarter to fund 168 pages of random tables and content generators specifically designed to help you make RPG characters or NPCs.

The idea may seem simple, but Kickstarter backers are enthusiastically endorsing it, and with nearly a whole month still to run as a campaign, Rol & Play have attracted more than £60,000 in pledges. You can see the latest total or join in on the project page.

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This is not Roll & Play Press’ first project. Last year the company ran The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit, which had a similar style, and smashed through 7,500 backers and £200,000 in funding. The mailing list this would have given the company is significant.

So, you’re playing in a new RPG campaign next week. You have some ideas for the character you want to play, but coming up with their detailed appearance, unique personality and fleshed-out backstory can be difficult! Your previous character’s parents died in a fire, so you can’t use that again…

Roll & Play uses A5 wire-bound books to lay flat on tables or be propped up behind GM screens.

It’s a campaign that suits gamers who like the tactile aspect of the tabletop hobby. It’s a paper-based app for RPGs, if you want to think of it in that way.

Example: To generate memorable mantras for your Cleric, roll 1d10 on each of the four Quotable Proverbs tables. This will generate a combined result like ‘Let the torch I hold be a beacon for goodness, grant us the power to heal grievous wounds’ – you can now use this as a thundering battle-cry before your character casts healing spells to rescue the party!

That said, a pledge of £11 will get you started on the digital side of the Kickstarter campaign. The rewards for backing at that level includes access to the Pledge Manager, digital wallpapers, your name in the book and a PDF edition of the Fantasy Character Kit.

The wire-bound physical book swaps out with the PDF for only £5 more at the £16 pledge level.

Both versions are slated for an October 2021 release.

There are higher tiers. At the £18 level, you get both editions (digital and physical) of the book and some digital character cards. The limited editions of the book, exclusive to Kickstarter, are available from £30 or more.