Dammit, Kickstarter!

OK, so I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't back any more Kickstarters until next year at least. They are pretty easy to promise money to, and they end up being like popcorn. It's hard to stop once you start, and there's always the risk factor involved. Still, I like the concept, and now a Kickstarter has come around that I feel like I need to risk.

So, Kevin Crawford of Stars Without Number has a new project that he's setting up, called Spears of the Dawn. It's an old-school RPG set in a fantasy Africa, so the setting is immediately interesting and different. It breaks the common wisdom that gamers won't buy fantasy that isn't basically either European or Japanese (and rarely Chinese). I love that. It breaks the common wisdom that gamers only want to see white people in the art. I love that. It is going to release all of the art used in the game to the public domain, so that other games can use it. I love that. That's three points in its favor, so it already has a step up over traditionally published games, and much more so over Kickstarter games.

Then there are the other points in its favor. The game is already written, so there won't be a long wait for that to happen, with all of the uncertainty involved in creatives. It's also mostly laid out, so it should go to print pretty quickly once the last of the art is incorporated and paid for (which is the point of the Kickstarter).

With all of that going for it, I just couldn't resist kicking in for one more Kickstarter this year. Maybe you'll want to, as well.