It’s going to happen. The Sword’s Edge Kickstarter is going to be a thing. It should be going live next next week and running for 30 days. It’s going to be in Canadian dollars, which is kind of wonky since most of the backers of my last two successful Kickstarters were from the US, but I’m going to include an approximate cost in US dollars for all rewards.
Unlike my other two successful Kickstarters, Sword’s Edge is done. It’s actually been done for quite some time, but I had neglected it in favour of Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe. Sword’s Edge is the underlying system for both of those games, and both of those games alter it somewhat to make it fit their particular genre. Sword’s Edge has lived in their shadow for a while, but when I decided to update Sword Noir, I chose to update its foundation first.
I’m very glad I did. Getting my hands dirty with Sword’s Edge reminded me how simple the system is while still allowing for generous customization. It rewards optimizing a character for a niche, so playing a generalist is only useful if there a minimum of characters. A generalist in a crowd of specialists will have a hard time getting the spotlight.
And so, after working hard on getting its innards working, I finally have the outards in place also. I printed copies of the Sword’s Edge Ashcan for Breakout Con in Toronto (10-12 March). This is going to be a Kickstarter where I’ll have a finished products though not the finished product to send to backers as soon as it successfully closes. It’s an Ashcan because it needs professional editing and indexing. The Kickstarter will pay for that and also pay me for the costs already sunk into the project mostly art.
The target is going to be $2,700 CAD, which is about $2,020 USD with the current exchange. I believe this is a realistic and reasonable target, lower than both of my other games, and I’d be kind of sad if I missed it. If the Kickstarter fails to fund, Sword’s Edge will still come out, it will simply lack professional editing, won’t have an index, and I’ll be in the red when it hits the streets.
And for those interested in Lawless Heaven, it will likely be a stretch goal, probably at the $4,000 level.
Below are a couple of pages from the Ashcan. Pretty soon, that could be yours. Cool.
You can learn more about Sword’s Edge here.
You can learn more about Lawless Heaven here.
