Strangers in the Tangled Wilderness are new to me and Kickstarter, but they’ve been publishing for nearly two decades. The group’s first campaign for a rules-medium RPG and a gorgeous book.
Penumbra City has picked up a “Project We Love” badge with well over 800 backers and is racing towards 1,000 and closing in 300% of the $13,000 asking price. You can see progress on the pitch page.
Games in the setting and with this rule set suit 3t to 6 players with a GM.
Penumbra City uses reputation as currency, as cash isn’t so important. The PCs’ status with gangs and coalitions is what matters in the city with eleven districts and twenty factions.
The game uses classes, and there will be at least nine now, but that number will go up as stretch goals tumble.
The book itself will be (my favourite size) 6×9″ and black-and-white, with a hardcover and foil-stamped.
There’s a black fog that hangs over the city, and it’s not as metaphorical as you might hope. It’s coal dust. Somewhere up through that smoke, there’s a glorious silver city hovering in the sunshine—but don’t concern yourself much with the floating quarter, because only the rich and holy will ever see it. Groundside, orphans dig through rubble and trash to scavenge the parts to fix their motorcycles, street poets sell fungus and brawl over territory, and bureaucrats ride black horses to midnight salons where they plot the death of the god king. The graveyard’s been squatted by immigrants now for longer than you’ve been alive, and there’s a gang of nihilist ex-marines who seem intent on blowing up half of everything.
Welcome to Penumbra City. There’s plenty to do, if you don’t mind the dust. Or the smoke. Or the crime. Or the monsters.
You can support the indie RPG by spreading the word.
Backers at the $10 level get the PDF of Penumbra City, the digital character sheets and a zine bundle too.
The print edition comes with two stickers, and the previous digital content is on offer at $45.
There is a higher tier, and that’s $180 for the “Party Edition”. That’s five copies of the game (with ten stickers) rather than a limited edition intended for the whole group of players.
Strangers in the Tangled Wilderness estimate the Penumbra project will be delivered by February 2024.
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