We’ve all come to know Kickstarter over the last few years. Crowdfunding has become very popular for RPG publishers as a way to generate interest for their project before it exists and reach new customers and markets that they may not normally through social media outreach as the campaigns run. But even for veteran publishers, a campaign on Kickstarter is still a stressful time. Managing all of the moving parts, announcing stretch goals, handling customer feedback, keeping up excitement and momentum through the entire campaign, and then fulfilling that final product within an acceptable timeframe – all of these are incredibly important skills to have.
So to say that I was surprised to see Chamomile’s 12 Kickstarter Campaigns in 12 Months project would be a bit of an understatement. That is a massive project, and I can’t even begin to imagine the time that is committed to each campaign. As with everything, I imagine that the work in some arenas gets easier, but others I can only see it growing exponentially – especially in regards to writing the new material. Regardless, they are already four successful projects into this endeavor and well on their way to a successful fifth – at the time of this article going live, there will be just over one week left on the already fully funded campaign.
These projects are all for the D&D 5th Edition ruleset and cover a wide variety of topics. I got a chance to take a look at the first three released products – Bianca’s Guide to Golems, Irena’s Guide to Intrigue and Illusion, and Natalia’s Guide to Necromancy. The fourth product, Brac’s Guide to Piracy is still in production as of this moment. Chamomile was also generous enough to offer up a preview of the current project Thaemin’s Guide to Gods and Miracles. All in all, I’m very impressed with what I was reading while looking through these products. These aren’t just small supplements dedicated to slightly expanding one or two things within the 5th Edition rules. These are substantial Zines, each of them clocking in anywhere from 40 to 60 pages. Each of them introduces a wealth of new material for a DM to include in their home game from subclasses to options for player ancestry to monster stat blocks as well as general advice around the theme of each Zine.
Bianca’s Guide to Golems for example provides rules to play a golem as a character that is distinct from Eberron’s Warforged and provides a new subclass for the Artificer that focuses around building and maintaining golem servants. It also introduces an entirely new Alchemy subsystem that you can use in your game that lets you gather potent ingredients from fallen enemies and use those to create magical items. Irena’s Guide to Intrigue and Illusion introduces several new subclass options for the Sorcerer and Bard and includes detailed rules and advice for how to run a social engagement like a party with as much focus on tactics and maneuvering as you would a combat encounter, only the weapons in this instance are twisted words and poisoned rumors.
The current Kickstarter is all about the divine and includes rules for how to allow a player to run a full-on angel at the table and several full classes as well as offering advice on building and running pantheons and musings on the nature and limitations of divinity within a fantasy setting.
More simply put – there’s a LOT of material within these Zines, especially when you consider they are only charging $5 for the PDF.
Chamomile’s writing style is fairly conversational and easy to follow for the most part. However, they follow a lot of their own format instead of mimicking the format that Wizard’s of the Coast uses for their publications. This could be for any number of reasons from simple preference on their part to wanting to avoid any legal trouble, but for someone who reads a lot of officially published material, it’s a very different feel. That said, the Zines are laid out in a way that is easy to read and follow.
I will also say that a lot of these additional materials aren’t going to be for everyone. There’s a lot of moving parts and “fiddly bits” to them. For example, I can’t see myself ever using the expanded alchemy rules from Bianca’s Guide to Golems in a game that I run, but I can totally see another DM going absolutely gaga over them and using them to run a game heavily inspired by video games like Monster Hunter.
Again, you still have about a week to get in on the June Kickstarter which you can find here. If you want to take a look at what else Chamomile has to offer, you can find them over on DriveThruRPG. I’m sure you’ll find something to like. And keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the Kickstarters coming down the line. I know I’m definitely interested to see what they have up their sleeves.
Ben Erickson
