80k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: Custom Murka Soundtrack, Painted Edges, and more minis!
*falls out of bed*
OKAY YES HELLO GOOD MORNING WE UNLOCKED THREE MORE STRETCH GOALS WHILE I WAS SLEEPING BUT I--
*trips*
-- I’M HERE NOW SO I CAN UHHHH DO THE POST NOW OKA...
I swear if I see a single one of you posting that "ALL THE ---" meme in the comments I will riot
My fellow Murkans,
HERE COMES SOME MORE ART. You wanted it, you got ...
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Jaron R. M. Johnson
about 21 hours ago
60k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: ARTIST BONUSES! (open for art previews, including a cool Evil Dead parody!)
Our artists say “thank you,” and so do we!
My fellow Murkans,
As I mentioned in our last update, we REALLY love our artists, and we want our success to be their s...
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Jaron R. M. Johnson
about 22 hours ago
55k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: CHARACTER SHEETS!
Do you have a license to carry that character sheet? You do now.
My fellow Murkans
OKAY SO. YOU JUST KEEP DONATING, WHICH MEANS WE KEEP UNLOCKING STUFF. Now we’ve got Mur...
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Jaron R. M. Johnson
about 23 hours ago
ANOTHER TWO STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED: MINIATURES & RIBBONS
We’re gettin’ minis and ribbons up in this.
My fellow Murkans,
GUYS I LITERALLY JUST POSTED OUR LAST UPDATE LIKE AN HOUR AGO. Y’all are donating so fast my head is ...
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Jaron R. M. Johnson
1 day ago
We're fully funded, and WE ALREADY UNLOCKED OUR FIRST STRETCH GOAL!
!!! WE ARE FULLY FUNDED !!!
My fellow Murkans,
I am filled with immeasurable pride and an awestricken stupor. With your unwavering support, we fully funded in only 20 min...
I’m sure you know by now, but Murka is a high-fantasy playable parody of the all-too-real, capitalist hellscape known as the United States of America.
What makes Murka different, you (didn’t) ask? I’ll tell you. Furry druids, dragons with guns for faces, food magic, Walmoria, gunchucks, explosives, items that aren’t just cursed, but cursed... You get the picture.
This world is a labor of love that my friends and I have been working on for 10 yearsoh my god, has it really only been five years? Are we in the finale episode of some television show jumping its 13th shark? What the hell is going on?
I hope you have fun with this little nearly 60-page sampler PDF. We picked stuff that we thought was bite-sized and funny, but there’s around 800 more pages of content where this came from.
We'd love to meet you, answer your questions about Murka, and welcome you to our community. Just click here to join us on Discord!
Cheers, thanks for reading this far. See you all real soon. Jaron R. M. Johnson, and the Action Fiction Faction
OKAY YES HELLO GOOD MORNING WE UNLOCKED THREE MORE STRETCH GOALS WHILE I WAS SLEEPING BUT I--
*trips*
-- I’M HERE NOW SO I CAN UHHHH DO THE POST NOW OKAY HERE WE GO
My fellow Murkans,
Well y’all were BUSY BEES last night, it would seem.
We have now unlocked:
70k: Minis, Series 2
75k: Murka Soundtrack
80k: Painted Edges
Get strapped in and let’s talk about 'em.
Minis, Series 2
We’ve had some great suggestions for minis on Series 1, including Draguns, the Walrog, and some of our other boss monsters like Das Kapital. Loving these suggestions, keep them coming! I want to make sure whatever minis we design, they’re the ones you guys want. Maybe we should do a poll?
Also, we just revealed MINIS SERIES 3 on our Murkan Roadtrip for stretch goals, so, like... if we keep this up... I’m really gonna need those suggestions from you guys.
Our 3D artist, Hermz, is kicking a bunch of ass on designing these minis so far, so whatever we wind up with, trust that it’s gonna be AMAZING.
Murka Soundtrack
Listen this is the coolest shit ever. So we have had the pleasure of working with Reed Reimer of Fable Factory on a number of our projects, including our sci-fi horror RPG, Cthulhu Dreamt, as well as previous Murka campaigns. For Murka, he once created the Jester’s Jingle Medley, which is (in my humble opinion) the greatest testament to the horrors of capitalism since people started making those spin-off Monopoly games.
So now, Reed will be working with us on a full bardcore/fantasy soundtrack. You can probably safely expect some cursed covers and magnificent medleys. We’re open to your suggestions on this one! Reed’s engine is already revving for this one.
Painted Edges
I teased what this looks like in our last post but I’m just so damn excited that I’m gonna shout it from the rooftops (and in text, that looks like bolding it). Our Deluxe books will now have painted edges, and that’s SO RAD. Each deluxe book will have its edges painted to thematically match the color palette of the book as well as its contents. These deluxe books are probably gonna be the coolest ones in your collection, ESPECIALLY since they’ll be collected together in that box set as well. You simply are not ready for how rad this will be.
asdasfafasdafs look how pretty
Next Stretch Goal: Printed One-shot
At the next stretch goal, we’ll be able to offer our Monsters of Murka: Hometown Heroes one shot adventure in print form! We actually had the pleasure of running this one-shot a few weeks ago (time is an illusion so that may not be precisely accurate), and we livestreamed it here on Backerkit.
A group of adventurers are enjoying the amenities of their hometown when their ONE day off is quite rudely interrupted by a villain who has set their sights on taking over the town. The group will need to work together to uncover the villain’s plans, make a quick pit stop at their local library for a powerful arcane tome, and then put a stop to the machiavellian machinations and become the heroes their hometown needs—and hopefully the ones it deserves.
Hometown Heroes serves as a perfect introductory adventure for low-level players to get a sense for what Murka is, and provides tools for a GM to handcraft a villain for the party, as well as bring their real-world hometown—including some of its most notable characters, locales, and features—into the world of Murka.
The adventure will be available to everyone digitally for free, and we’re still figuring out what print costs will be for something like this. If we can keep costs low, we’d love to include it for our physical backers, but we need to make sure it’s a cost we can sustain first (being a tiny team in Columbus where all of us are also working full-time jobs to pay bills is hard) We’ll keep you posted on what we come up with!
I am filled with immeasurable pride and an awestricken stupor. With your unwavering support, we fully funded in only 20 minutes. This has far outpaced any campaign we have ever done, and I am absolutely gobsmacked. That's right: you've rightly smacked me directly in my gob. My gob is fully, full-on smacked. You gave me gob a good ol' smackeroonie.
Wait... what was I talking about?
We prepare now, on the wings of golden freedom dragons, for what great heights lay ahead, waiting to be reached: Stretch Goals.
Stretch Goals
Our first goal, which we've already unlocked, will see new art added to the book. For every additional bit of content we prepared for this complete reimagining, we wanted art, but had to make tough budgetary choices along the way, picking and choosing only the best. The cream of the crop, as Macho Man was wont to say. Now, though, we can uncork the champagne of ambition and spray it freely all over the entire project.
...
I am acutely aware of how that sounds, and have made the difficult decision to commit to this particular bit.
It’s time to go to the moon. But like, not in a crypto way.
Our next goal will be a first set of Miniatures for Murka, including our new big bad evil guy, Sir Valence. If you haven't read about him yet, we talked about him right here on Backerkit a few weeks ago. We'll be sharing previews VERY soon of the model! Our hope is to make both 3D prints AND the .STL files available as add-ons (and of course, all our ALL-IN backers will get them accordingly).
Thanks again to folks who came out for our 5-hour launch day livestream! We had a blast showcasing sneaky new reveals like economancy spells and the cybertruck monster. Very stoked to share those things with the rest of Backerkit, but also glad we had our own moment in the sun together.
Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,
Jaron R. M. Johnson And the Action Fiction Faction
It is with great pride and exhilaration that I come to you in this hour. Our Grand Ascent is upon us, and with your help, we shall spread our wings and soar stupidly into the sky.
All that to say: The Backerkit campaign for Monsters of Murka: Ratified & Radified is officially LIVE. Like, RIGHT NOW. If you’re reading this on Backerkit, then you probably already know this (and you might be watching our livestream). If you’re reading this in your email or on another campaign of ours, then you should consider it your civic duty as a Murkan to click this link. Should you choose to finish reading this email first, well, that would be alright. But remember to come back and click that link. Or this one.
First time Crowdfunding, or first time with BackerKit?
If you are unfamiliar with the grand endeavor known as crowdfunding, or if you’ve never born witness to a campaign on BackerKit specifically, fear not. The only thing to fear is fear itself.
When you choose to support us in creating Monsters of Murka: Ratified & Radified, your payment is only processed upon our triumphant success at the end of the campaign (August 15th). This gives you the ability—nay, the freedom—to adjust your pledge, add new stuff, and ask all the questions you might have, all the way up until the final moments of the campaign. This is your BackerKit-given right and it shall not be infringed.
Additionally, should your pledge exceed the sum of $150, you may choose to divide thy payments into four monthly installments after the end of our campaign.
How This Wonder of Fiscal Engineering Functions:
Pledge boldly. ($150 or more - if you’re getting a bundle of all three books, you qualify!)
Select "Pay Over Time" at checkout.
When the campaign ends, you'll be charged 25% of your total pledge each month over four months. You’ll still receive all your campaign rewards at the same time other backers do.
You can use Pay Over Time without fear of interest or additional fees; there are none. This system is simply a way to make it easier to support projects like ours! You can read more about this feature of BackerKit here.
Join your Fellow Murkans on Discord!
Want to chat with the creators and with other fans? Want to ask us a bunch of questions or share your ideas with content? Want to check out other folks’ homebrew Murka content? There’s no better place to do that than on our Discord server!
Thank you so much for joining us on this wild journey. I’m so excited for all of you to have these books in your hands and enjoy the work we’ve put in. I hope you have a blast with it.
Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,
Jaron R. M. Johnson And the Action Fiction Faction
