“All the grisly bits wot weren’t enuff on their own”
A true expansion to the Swyvers RPG. More city generator tools, more systems, more grit, more grub, MORE SWYVERS!
You think this city ain't big enuff? Hold my pint...
A true EXPANSION to the Swyvers tabletop role-playing game, with more of everything that makes The Smoke The Smoke.
New Systems
A full pickpocket mini-game
An alchemy system
A grudge-tracking system
And a robust serial killer generationsystem with advice on designing clues
New City Generator Tables & Flavour New Names, bad habits, bad teeth, street graffiti, secret societies, animal fighting, dead drops, posh operas, street performers, pub songs, jobs for kids, court gossip, gravestone epitaphs, execution methods, brothel patrons and more!
And...
New Monsters New Spells New Despots New Building Upgrades
If you pledge in the first 48 hours you'll get instant access to a PDF copy of the Swyvers core rules AND the previously unobtainable adventure, Marlough Docks!
The book is written, edited, and illustrated, all that's left is layout and printing. Easy peasy! But these are two expensive things to do and that's where you, noble patrons of cult tabletop roleplaying games by and for cool people, come in.
We would like to make this book as pretty as the core Swyvers rule book, with it's nice easy-to-open-at-the-table binding and clear but information dense layout. It'll hold together better and longer than any of us! We've got the process and the materials all lined up, we just need to slap down a stack of cash to get them made. The layout will be done by the designer of our beautiful TROIKA! RPG books, Shuyi Zhang.
The book is finished except for layout and printing. These are quick but expensive jobs.
We're keeping it simple with three (and a half) pledge levels
The Book
Get the book in all its physical glory: a sewn hardback with tastefully off-white pages. It'll make your other (non Melsonian) books envious.
The Book & The Rules
Not only will you get this new, handsome, old-yet-new-school piece of TTRPG history, you'll also get a hardback copy of the equally brazen core rule for Swyvers.
The PDF
You'll get a tidy PDF via DriveThruRPG once the layout is finished.
Shop Owners
So you're one of the cool TTRPG shops that actually orders off menu stuff? Nice! Back this level for a default 10 copies at a nice price. After the campaign we will quote custom shipping and arrange any other items you might like manually.
No stretch goals! Well, sort of. We believe we are making the best version of this book already so I'll tell ya what, if we hit £25,000 we'll give every backer a complete collection of Melsonian Arts Council PDFs on DriveThruRPG. Lemme write that down...
£2,500
Rejoice! Print the book. The campaign is a success.
£25,000
Celebrate! Everyone gets the complete Melsonian Arts Council collection of PDFs on DriveThruRPG.
The books will be fulfilled from within the USA and the UK, and we will charge and dispatch them according to whichever is most cost-efficient for you. All post will be arranged duties-paid where possible.
How much?
We expect* postage to be around £14 for the USA and EU, and UK to be around £4.50.
Fulfilment
Iglootree is handling domestic and all international (except USA) fulfillment.
Space Penguin Ink is dealing with USA post.
*Given world events, please take every estimate with a grain of salt
The writing, art, and editing is done, which are BY FAR the slowest part of any production. Layout will be done by Shuyi Zhang and, depending on his availability, will take about a week once started. I'd say June/July is a safe bet for that being completed. Once the layout is done, the PDF will go out to backers at the same time as it's going to the printers. Our printers are reliable and have never surprised us while working on one of our books. Assuming availability on their end is good, the printing and delivery will take roughly a month.
All together one would hope for August to mark the beginning of people receiving their physical books.
As with everything, and even more so lately given world events, things are changeable. However we have put significant efforts into containing our production line inside the EU, meaning we aren't relying on global shipping to finish this book.
This will be our 19th crowdfunding campaign in 9 years of making tabletop roleplaying games. This kind of "betting on the little guy" way of buying books is inherently risky, but so far we have not failed our kind supporters. We've been late, we've had "world events" to contend with, but we've always got there. That's not to say things couldn't change, we could drop dead or another war could pop up, but we have done this long enough to be prepared and resilient. The project is 90% finished so the worst case scenario in most realistic scenarios would be a delay and someone stepping in to complete it.
