Game Smiths LLC offers Kickstarter backers their choice of a new campaign setting or RPG system—or both, along with a very long list of stretch goals, in conjunction with renowned fantasy illustrator Wayne Reynolds.

October 15th, 2012

BELLEVUE, WA—Game Smiths LLC, a new indie tabletop RPG publisher based out of Bellevue, WA, has launched a “mock” Kickstarter campaign on their website nearly one month before their actual Kickstarter campaign goes live.

“Our company vision is all about community involvement,” says Hank Woon, Game Smiths’ Managing Member and Editor-in-Chief. “We’re putting our Kickstarter up early to get feedback on both our tier rewards and stretch goals so we can make the real deal as perfect as possible for backers.”

Hank Woon, whose day jobs include screenwriting (with two film credits currently to his name) and working at The Pokémon Company International, has been involved in the tabletop RPG industry for nearly a decade with credits including the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Earthdawn Third Edition, Warpath, Dungeon Magazine, and Kobold Quarterly, among others, as well as two published fantasy novels for the Earthdawn campaign setting. For his first efforts with Game Smiths, he is focusing on a new game system as well as a supported campaign setting, turning to other industry professionals to help bring the games to life.

“Wayne Reynolds helped us with our new core rulebook by making a beautiful, beautiful cover (the original of which will be available as its own tier reward in our Kickstarter!), and he’s also participating in our stretch goals by offering to illustrate our 9 iconics for each of our core 9 classes, doing each in turn as we hit our various stretch goal levels. And as each is opened up, the original painting of that iconic will be immediately available as a new, unlocked tier reward as well.

“In addition, our original campaign setting will be available not only in our flagship game system, but also in Pathfinder and Savage Worlds. We want to make all versions as perfect as possible, which is why we enlisted the help of Shane Hensley (Savage Worlds creator) by having him attach his name to an early stretch goal and agreeing to design the game mechanics for the Savage Worlds version once that goal is reached.”

The Kickstarter, which is set to run from Monday, November 12th through Friday, December 14^th, also has a few other innovations.

“Anyone who pledges at the Adventure Lord level or higher during the first week of our run will receive an extra hard cover copy of the N.R.G. Core Rulebook,” says Craig Guarisco, Game Smiths Creative Director. “And we also have our Black Friday Challenge—if backers unlock all of Wayne Reynolds’s iconics by the end of Black Friday, which is 12 a.m. Saturday, November 24th, then every backer who has pledged $25 or more will receive one 28mm metal mini of each Wayne Reynolds’s iconic, produced by Iron Wind Metals, and everything will come in a beautiful traditional boxed set.”

To learn more about Game Smiths and their Kickstarter, please visit www.gamesmithsllc.com. Also be sure to visit their forums and their Facebook page.