The wind whips through your hair as your wheels kick up dirt, or your automated multi-oars churn the surf, or your rear propellers shred through the clouds.
Galleons. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re built to race across the treacherous Thunderosa. They need a full crew to function— are you at the helm, in the engine room, or fending off boarders from other Galleons? You’ll have to work together to cross the finish line first… or cross it at all! Your team just got their invitations to the race. Who sent them? And why you? Only one way to find out…
Galleons of the Thunderosa is a zine that has everything you need to insert team-based racing mechanics into your Dungeons & Dragons campaign, arc, or one-shot! (It's not too hard to hack into other systems, too). There's rules for racing, tools for creating and upgrading your Galleon, and ideas for rival Galleons and NPCs! If we meet some stretch goals, there will be a campaign and some custom classes, too!
"Galleon" is the catch-all name for conveyances each team uses to race in the cross-continent Thunderosa Invitational. Despite the name, most of them aren't giant landships with wheels. Some of them aren't even vehicles!
Every Galleon has at least a "helm" and an "engine," plus slots for optional features. That "helm" could be the reigns to your WereWool (a giant combination of wolf and sheep) and the "engine" could be a literal fire-belching combustion engine, as simple as sails capturing the wind, or as weird as a living cloud with a face blowing as hard as it can. Party members can also crew repair stations, weapons, or be on guard duty to deal with boarders from other Galleons!
Your group can use the suggestions in the book, or use them as a guide to make your own totally original Galleon? Maybe with chicken legs for transferring from land to sea and back again...?
Of course, this stuff is expensive, which is why they'll need to win races to get prize money! If that doesn't work out, there's lots of ways a band of adventurers can get funding...
An illustration from Frank Reade penny dreadfuls. They're nuts.
The Galleons can be used for adventuring, of course, but their real function is for racing across the Thunderosa!
Race rounds have two phases: The Speed Phase and the Map Phase.
In the Speed Phase, the character at the helm makes a Speed roll, buffed by the Galleon's build and the player's actions and nerfed by complications with its engine or chassis, etc. This roll awards (or subtracts!) points from the Galleon's Race Score, which determines its position in the race.
In the Map Phase, The rival Galleons ahead and behind the players' Galleon go through a special round of initiative, moving into position to fire weapons, draft behind other Galleons, or board Galleons for some direct combat and sabotage!
Of course, you'll need other Galleons and their crews. These NPCs also make great story hooks for arcs! NPCs like...
Fog, the wizard wunderkind and their entourage crew a carousel retrofitted with a magical crystal that propels them. The Carousel has nearly non-existent stats, but the wizards can burn spell slots to cast temporary shields, gain bursts of speed, or lob fireballs at their rivals. Be careful, though; they also have to spend spell slots for fuel!
The Kludged Queen on her crudely armor-plated stagecoach, pulled by a team of wild-shaped druids. She wields a unique sword that toggles between giant-and-normal-sized at will.
You can also yoink the NPC Galleons and make it your own!
If we meet some stretch goals, I'll make some custom subclasses that fit the theme of the game, like:
The Navigator Rogue, who has an impeccable sense of direction and can sense the best paths through a race or a dungeon.
Circle of the Gear, an odd druid who hears the voice of The Machine instead of nature. They can repair anything and Born-to-be-Wild shape into machines and small vehicles.
Celerity Wizard, who studies the arcane art of speed and can learn the feat Quick Draw, which allows them to pop off cantrips at a moment's notice.
I'll also include a campaign outline that has players on a cross-continental adventure with multiple races and quests at each stop. Each arc brings the party closer to learning the true purpose of the Thunderosa Invitational.
You can also add-on a "Name Something" to your pledge and name some select NPCs, Galleons, locations, etc.!
If you pledge at any level in the first 48 hours, I'll send you the 20-page ashcan/demo/quickstart guide at no extra cost! This mostly plain-text version of Galleons of the Thunderosa isn't the final product, but it's a basic version that will get you started and works great for a one-shot racing adventure!
I'll send the ashcan version out when funding ends, but if you have an urgent need for it (like if you want it for your podcast/channel/etc.), reach out and I can send it to you sooner.
$1,500: Campaign and subclasses! I'll make some custom subclasses and an outline for a multi-arc Galleons of the Thunderosa campaign with story hooks, lore, magic items, NPCs, and bespoke monsters and bosses! Plus, character art!
$1,700: More Art! This goal allows me to commission some spot illustrations for the interior of the zine!
$2000: Get Paid! I usually break even on my TTRPG projects, and the money up to this point goes to printing and shipping costs and paying artists. But this tier lets me pay myself a little bit and the other people who graciously lent me their time for free, like the playtesters and the people who helped create the concept and mold its aesthetics.
Shipping costs will be calculated after the campaign ends. I don't know exactly how much the zines will weigh, but they will likely be 2-4 oz. (50-100g) each (so less than a pound for three zines and packaging), and prices don't start changing significantly until packages weigh several pounds/kg. So more zines probably won't mean higher shipping costs!
Physical products will be shipped from the U.S. I use Pirate Ship, which finds me good prices automatically; this means some packages will be shipped via USPS and some will be shipped via other means (usually UPS). The U.S. shipping situation has been... unstable over the last year, and will probably continue to be so for at least a few years. If you're outside the U.S., I recommend looking up shipping rates from the U.S. to your country. By my calculations, shipping rates seem like they'll fall into these ranges:
U.S. customers: $5-$10 for most customers.
International customers: $15-40 for most customers.
Much of the zine is written, though some of it depends on stretch goals. This also means the book isn't fully laid out yet, so this gives me plenty of time to make a great zine.
The digital version will be released as soon as it is ready. This likely means before September.
It takes a few weeks to print and ship, so the physical zine will come after.
If you pledge in the first 48 hours, you'll receive the plain text ashcan/demo/quick version when the 48 hour window ends. You can keep it even if you have to cancel your pledge.
If you pledge at the Big Thank You Bundle tier, I'll send everyone PDF versions of the other games as soon as pledges are collected. You'll receive the physical versions of everything (Galleons of the Thunderosa included) in one shipment.
Can I play in a system other than Dungeons & Dragons?
The rules are designed for Dungeons & Dragons 5E, though they can work with lots of systems, especially D20-based ones like Pathfinder, Starfinder, D20 Modern, etc. Games that aren’t D20-based can work with a little hacking. At least one table has used FATE, though they had a couple of headaches. It will probably work with varying degrees of success for any game system that has these features:
Each player plays a distinct character.
The system has a GM.
Characters take turns acting (a system for determining initiative is best, but not required).
Players and the GM perform skill checks.
Success and failure can be influenced by nerfs and buffs.
Can I do spaceships? Mechs? Pirates at sea?
Yes! Yep! Uh-huh! The one thing to keep in mind when hacking to a setting that isn't the D&D fantasy/steampunk vibe is that you need a way to leave your Galleon and board other Galleons. That's where a lot of the fun is.
Another good rule of thumb: Either everyone flies or nobody flies. You can have Galleons that hover a bit off the ground, but if every Galleon is on land and one is just flying over all the obstacles, that's no fun.
Can we race each other?
You'll need at least two people to a Galleon, but that can work! You could also get a bunch of crews together and really make a party out of it, but that might be a lot of work for the GM. The zine has GM tips for making things easy on yourself, though!
Just $5? Really?
I've made it hard on myself in past years. Glossy covers, bespoke decks of cards, all that. I'm taking it easy this year and putting all my focus into the game. It'll still be a nice product, but it'll be a true blue zine and, yeah, I want you to have a lot for a little. If you want to support it at a higher level, consider the "Zines for Everyone!" tier, which gets you physical and digital zines for you and also unlocks community copies and free physical zines that I'll hand out at cons! Or you could get an add-on, like "Name Something," which lets you name an NPC, location, item, etc.
Why is your funding goal so small?
Because I'm a nobody! Well, everybody's somebody, but I don't have Fame to get me those good SEO numbers, so you get a good product for a little money! It costs money to make a zine, but I do it for the love of the game, so I don't mind breaking even.
How'd you come up with this?
Galleons of the Thunderosa is based on a home D&D game I ran for years for my friends, during which I tweaked and overhauled the racing mechanics many times. Many of the characters you see in the cover art are their player characters, and their Galleon, the Halcyon, will show up in the zine in example text.
Did you use AI?
Nope, I wrote every word, and all the illustrations are done by human artists, whether I commissioned them, licensed them, or found them in public domain resources.
