Upcoming Savage Setting Kickstarter: Olympus, Inc.

Charles White, from Fabled Environments whose products I've reviewed before, dropped me an email regarding a new setting for Savage Worlds they are planning to release: Olympus, Inc.

Art by Mirco Paganessi.

Olympus, Inc answers the question of what would happen if the Olympians were kicked out of the heavens by Gaia and the Titans ruled. Unlike most settings that have tackled the concept of Demigods in the modern world, we are a bit different. 

After she ejected them from the heavens, Gaia was also kind enough to use the Lethe river to cause all humans to forget that the Olympians existed. This nearly killed the Olympians, who began to fade away. However, the Olympians realized that the could draw from our obsession with the almighty dollar and gain power. Therefore, the Olympians traded their stone temples for towers of glass and steel. They formed the world's largest corporations. Now the Titans and Olympians fight a battle for control of the Heavens and Earth with each wielding incredible power. In the midst of all of this are normal humans who are asleep to everything that is around them. 

Interesting. Very interesting. It reads sort of like a cross between Shadowrun and Percy Jackson. I'm already beginning to dream up character ideas.

Gaia has put a few rules in place to ensure that the Titans and Olympians don't tear each other apart as well as the rest of the inhabitants on Earth. This is known as the Nemesis Effect. The Nemesis Effect prohibits the use of visible supernatural abilities in front of sleepers (normal mortals). It also prohibits mythical creatures from appearing in front of a sleeper in their true form. If anyone breaks the rules, the Goddess Nemesis punishes them. It can be anything from being wracked with intense pain to death. It depends on the severity of the infraction.

Therefore, the Titans and Olympians fight a secret proxy war in a world identical to our own. However, most humans don't know that the gods exist and they certainly don't know that monsters and demigods with superhuman abilities roam the earth.

The setting has a strong cyberpunk feel with a bit of superpowers and espionage thrown in for good measure. The core book will present 6 Olympians and two demihuman races as well as new edges, hindrances and weapons all for Savage Worlds.

The Kickstarter for Olympus, Inc is scheduled to start January 15. While Fabled Environments has produced many fine floorplans and Savage Worlds modules in the past, Charles promises to bring in some world-class talent to help make this setting a worthy addition to any gamer's bookshelf (or hand drive, if you've given up on those primitive papery things):

We have several authors that have signed on to created 2000-3000 word adventures as stretch goals: John Dunn, Sean Preston and Umberto Pignatelli just to name a few.

 Mark your calendars for January 15, mere mortals, the Gods command it!

Bones III Kickstarter Is Underway!

Once again, Reaper is running a Kickstarter to fund the production of a new run of Bones miniatures. They are already three days into a short 18-day campaign and they are pretty close to breaking the million dollar mark. So far, for a $100 pledge, you can get...

Click to Enlarge.

As more money comes rolling in, more miniatures will be added to the basic pool. There are also some awesome options you can purchase on top of the basic package. Among the options, these caught my attention...

Oh, I SO want these powered armored figs. I had picked up about two dozen Nova Corp soldiers in Bones for general sci-fi troops or cyberpunk security goons for role-playing. These beauties will fit in nicely with the Nova Corps figs and will work for everything from Traveller to Mutant Future.

Pledge today!

Coming Soon: Béthorm Kickstarter

Some of Jeff's more recent Tékumel-related art.

As many of you know, I am a Tékumel fanatic who is hopelessly in love with everything involving the late Prof. M.A.R. Barker's exotic science fantasy universe. While the system that I usually use to role-play in that setting is the classic Empire of the Petal Throne, there are three other published RPGs set in that  While EPT certainly has its old school charm, it lacks the depth and setting development the the more recent games possess. However, I found those newer games (i.e. Swords & Glory, Gardasiyal: Adventures on Tékumel, and Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne) to either too crunchy or too incomplete for my tastes. That, and the fact that all games but EPT are difficult to get a hold of, makes roping new players 

Well, all that is about to change.

Classic RPG artist and game designer Jeff Dee is getting ready to launch a Kickstarter for Béthorm: the Plane of Tékumel, a new RPG using his Pocket Universe rules. (Long time Tékumel fans will get the inside joke.) I've had a copy of Pocket Universe in my collection for some time now, but it's one of those many systems I've never had a chance to actually play. However, it's a very worthy game system; solid enough to deal with games more complex than simple dungeon crawls, but simple enough to pick up quickly. Béthorm could end up being my go-to RPG for Tékumel gaming from now on.

For the last year, Jeff has been running successful Kickstarters to help fund the artwork for this game. I've contributed to these campaigns and received prints of the finished product in return and I can say that I'm very impressed by the quality of Jeff's work. Jeff has said that EPT was his very first RPG and his love and enthusiasm for that setting shows in that artwork. Since I have no doubt that the same level of dedication will go into the publication of Béthorm, I will proudly contribute what I can to this project as well.

The Kickstarter is slated to launch this Wednesday, Mach 19, at 8 am CST. Let' see what we can do to make this campaign a success!

Otulengba! 

Buddy, can you spare a C-note?

While the Hulks & Horrors crowdsourcing crashed and burned, Reaper Miniatures' Kickstarter to expand its resin "Bones" line of figures has nothing short of a phenomenal success. They're initial goal was $30,000. At this time they are bringing in a whooping $2,127,605! With each funding milestone met they add more and more Stretch Goal rewards. Look at what you can get at the $100 "Vampire" level:

In the immortal words of George Takei: "Oh my!"

CRAP! What I wouldn't GIVE for an extra hundred bucks so I can get in on this cornucopia of sweet, sweet minis before the deadline! Sadly, I'm just a poor call center drone who get's abused by customers and condescended to from management for the princely pittance of $11/hr. (Meanwhile our glorious CEO took home a $24 Million bonus check on top of his huge salary. So much for supply side bullshit, folks!) 

Maybe it's about time I put up a PayPal donation link and start begging like every other self-respecting blogger.

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UPDATE: I done a baaaaaaaaaaaaaad thing. I broke down and chipped in $100. Yeah, I probably can't afford it, but I could not resist the siren song. I'm crazy in the head. I need help.