May 17, 2015: Crowdfunding Focus: The Planet Mercenary Roleplaying Game

Crowdfunding Focus

As seen . . . RIGHT HERE.

It is unusual for me to plug a game that I have not played. I'm making an exception here because:

(a) I am a fan of Howard Tayler and his Schlock Mercenary universe, and I trust Howard's gaming and quality-control instincts, and

(b) The description and updates tell me that either he and lead designer Alan Bahr are very, vary familiar with where the RPG hobby has been and needs to go, OR they are amazingly good at reinventing the wheel. Either way will do for me. For instance, I see echoes of one of the prime features of Toon (Failure is FUN!!) and Paranoia (You die, you come right back as someone with similar, but not necessarily identical, skills and attitudes). There is also some interesting use of cards, and what I would call a "karma" mechanic. Read the updates; you will spot some more. Like I said, these guys have done their homework, or they are so innovative that they don't NEED no stinkin' homework, and I'm good with both sides of the coin.

The next thing for you to know is that this project is about to end. Like, 1pm CDT Monday. If you act fast you BARELY have time to go support it RIGHT NOW, so don't think about it. Officer is shouting GO GO GO! So do it. You snoozeth, you loseth.

I supported at the $100 level, which gets me a hardcopy of the game, defaced personally by its creators, and a lot of goodies. You can get PDF goodness for a whole lot less if that's your budget or if you are just post-dead-tree in your gaming. I like hardcopies and l like personal defacing.

Whether I ever play in this system or not (and I intend to give it a try if the opportunity appears, like at LibertyCon maybe, hint hint), I know I will spend a lot of happy time reading the book. It's a worldbook for the Schlock universe, and Howard has made the tough and IMHO correct decision to illustrate it NOT in the style of the comic itself - which after all IS a comic - but as though it were images from the real world(s) on which the comic is based. In this way he makes it less of a "cartoon" game and more of a "whatever level of realism you want!!" game.

As I type this, the project is juuuuust short of its final, $300K, goal, which is "take some risky chances." I think we alll want to see what will happen when Howard Tayler, supported by his fans, takes risky chances. It will PROBABLY hit that goal before you read this post. SUPPORT IT ANYWAY. The more extra funding, the more interesting chances Howard will take.