We've cracked £150,000, which means Lin's essay is officially going in the book. This means I have now finished assembling my Marvel-style dream team of contributors. It's a pretty strong lineup, I hope you'll agree.
Next:
£175,000: MORE KIERON If you know Kieron at all, it will not shock you to learn he's got more than one idea for a Metadungeon chapter. He's keeping his cards close to his chest - it'll be something that's either extremely meta, even more than the rest of this dungeon, or something about the historical forerunners to roleplaying games as we know them. RPG prehistory, if you like. I'm not saying it'll be about Kriegsspiel, but I am saying you should go and read about Kriegsspiel just in case.
With 48 hours to go, I think this is our last stretch goal. It's an ambitious target but I think we might just make it, y'all.
Speaking of ambitious, let's meet our penultimate Master. The Master of Ceremonies is from the 2010s, and they represent the movement towards centring players in games: their actions, their decisions, their stories. This is the GM that sets up interesting situations and gives you room to make interesting choices. They're on your side. They're your biggest cheerleader. But you won't have room to play to your full potential if they don't make your characters' lives hard. What's that? The characters are you and if you die (or are traumatised) in the game, that's with you for the rest of your life? Oh. How sad.
Told you I was going to be annoying this week - don't worry, only another three days of me to go!
Anyway, I've got another Master for you. We're into the 2000s now and things are changing fast. The dungeons are different. The players are different. Even the very concept of what a roleplaying game can be is changing - and this Master, The Forge, is happy to take the credit for making that happen. Endlessly, continuously creative - unstoppably creative. As well as feverish, fractured, and fragmented...
I missed a lot of this era of TTRPGs. I was playing at the time, don't get me wrong, but I was mostly playing the same games I played in the '90s. It wasn't until much later I that I realised what had been happening just over there in the corner of my eye. I sort of wish I'd been there for the height of it, but on the other hand maybe it's nice to be able to look back on it and get the best bits. Who knows?
How about you? Were you there? What were your highlights?
OH, YEAH, GM DICE!
Eleven sets left, if you're counting. That's a good sign this'll be the last time we have them on sale. Just so you know.
That was a nice weekend, eh? We're creeping up on getting Lin Codega on board. I'm pretty sure we'll have 'em by the end of the campaign.
Speaking of which: Metadungeon ends on Friday! Apologies in advance, because that means you're going to hear from me a lot this week.
But, for today - come with me into the shadows of 1990s TTRPGs, where everyone's got a leather trenchcoat and you're handed a katana at the door. To the backer who said "the 1990s GM will be Killfuck Soulshitter* the ultimate Edgelord (of Death)"... you're not far off.
If I'd written them, that's what you would have got. (I'm allowed to say this, I was that stereotype.) Fortunately Gareth has a more nuanced view: our 1990s Master isn't just edgy, she's part of the new breed of gamers who came in via routes like Vampire: the Masquerade and even Magic: the Gathering. Bloody hell, the '90s were a colon-heavy era, huh?
She represents a new wave, and if you can't ride it, you're probably not a Real Roleplayer (sorry, this is also a very '90s online joke).
FINALLY! We did it, folks: we're getting a whole delicious slice of Stephanie art in the Metadungeon. Every chapter, a new, spectacular, page of art.
Thank you, especially the new people who pledged today and are directly responsible for us hitting this stretch goal.
Now we've got seven days (basically to the hour) to unlock MORE.
Next up at £150,000: to complement Em Friedman's chapter on play culture, we're getting Lin Codega in to write an essay on what the 2020s looks like... and might continue to look like. That's right, we're going to predict the future, a historically straightforward and universally well-regarded process. We reckon if anyone can do it, it's Lin, who's one of the 2020s' few specialist TTRPG journalists and one of the founders of Rascal (which may currently be the only dedicated TTRPG news site), as well as being a game designer themself.
Watch this space and let's see how wild Lin can get.
MEET THE MASTERS: 1980s
Ah, this guy. He's got ideas, this guy. He's got a story to tell you, and worlds to show you, and such grand dreams to share with you. The first to explore the new frontiers of space, cyberpunk, cosmic horror, and more - and he will bring you along for the ride.
Of all the Masters you're going to see, this is the one in which the placeholder art I've used is most placeholder: if we were making a movie, or even a comic, he'd have a dozen flickering faces for his games of choice: a spacesuit, a Star Wars-esque helment, a 1930s occult investigator... and every one of them would be masked or obscured, because he is the world.
Several of you correctly called out what the 1980s GM would be like in your comments on the last post, and let me tell you: I am relieved. I think he resonates.
Good news: Gareth's Having Ideas. Quietly, backstage, at the moment, but I am watching the Metadungeon being built up around me. It's nice. Cosy. If you think roughly hewn walls and philosophical pit traps are cosy.
Some of those Ideas are about the different Masters for each level of the Megadungeon (yep, it's big enough that every level gets a Master. H.G. Wells and Charlotte Brontë had to oversee entire fantasy kingdoms, our lot have got enough to do sorting out a single dungeon level).
The Masters are, of course, part of the defining character of each level. Their nature shapes what players can expect from that part of the dungeon - the type of conflicts that are to come, and what it wants and expects from the players.
We've got six Masters, and ten days left on Backerkit, so every couple of days from now until 1st May, you get to Meet the Masters.
First up is the 1970s Dungeon Master. He's a practical man. Old school. Set the traps, restock the dungeon, kill the player characters, repeat. Obviously, if you were a GM in the '70s, we're not saying you were like this - but everyone I know who did play in the '70s has stories about this guy.
What do you reckon? Did you play with this guy? Does the concept ring true? And what do you think the '80s version has in store?
