Carpe Blogiem: The Final Hours of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG Kickstarter

We’ve done so good, but I wish we could do more. So spread the word. Tell others. Buy games for people. We need to grow the fanbase of GURPS. We’ve needed to do it for a while, but I’m putting out the call now. I’m telling you that if you like GURPS you need to get out and run the game for people who may not know it. If you cannot physically do this you need to use one of the many VTTs out there. Roll20 is free and has a easy learning curve. Maptool and Fantasy Grounds are a bit tougher, but have lots of support for their GURPS users. So you got that? Go run. Go play. Go proselytize. Make them interested. You can do this. I have faith in you. I’ll also personally put it out there if you need help with something get in contact with me. I will do my damnedest to help.zx

Now, to my thoughts. *exhales* This might be a little long and rambly. I’ve not slept in a while. I’ve been hitting up every single person I know (which is not inconsequential) to back the kickstarter and spread the link. I did ok. I wish I had did more. I went all over the place to try and get the word out. Got lots of stores making orders. I hope it was enough. I worked so much getting posts on the blog, working social media, doing some legwork for some other folks, and preaching the kickstarter that last Thursday I collapsed from sheer exhaustion. It wasn’t any thing major. I’d just put a lot of miles on in a short time and had not slept. I’m not young anymore – though still apparently utterly invincible. But it was enough that I passed out for almost a full minute. When I woke up my mother was very concerned and asked when I ate or slept last. It’d been a while. I was in full on writer’s fugue. I didn’t even know what time it was. I’m telling you this not for any kudos or sympathies, but to elucidate how much this game means to me. I spent days awake and working to do my best to help push us to funding and beyond. Now with the kickstarter in it’s final hours I worry did I do enough? Could I have done more? I won’t know that for some time – if ever.

So as the timer slowly ticks away in the corner of my browser window I try to think exactly what GURPS means to me. Honestly? GURPS saved my family. It saved me. It gave me a career path I would never have chosen if I had another choice. I would have just gone back to the things I did before (which I can’t do now). I doubt Steve Jackson will ever know what his company did for me. He must hear it from lots of people how his games have affected lives. But for me it’s personal. My family was on the verge of starving, having mandatory utilities shutdown, and our home taken from us. We were, in a word, screwed. But then I submitted that one article to Steven Marsh/Pyramid and a while later I was published and had a shiny check in my hand (which I then cashed and used said cash to trade up for a few things to pay the bills). It would be several months later when I submitted another. But I never stopped submitting things. I figured if it was wanted it would be taken, otherwise I only wasted my time.

My grandmother was sick and my mother working herself to death. I myself was still extremely ill from the massive septic infection/DKA I’d suffered 10 or so months before (being near death does that I guess). Walking was hard and physical labor was just impossible. I was a broken man with no way to support the people I cared for most. But I could write. I could do that. And I did. I spent hundreds of hours writing and trying to teach myself grammar, style, and voice. It was – and remains – the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m still not even remotely up to par. I’m still learning (or getting it beat into my head by Elizabeth McCoy). People seem to like what I do so I keep at it.

GURPS remains a good chunk of my paycheck these days – but not the only one. (Hey, have you seen my new book? Maybe go buy it?) It’s also my hobby and my passion. It’s the spark that fires my imagination and the flame that burns in the forge of my mind while I’m wordsmithing.

I get occasionally mocked (often lightheartedly) that I have an article for “everything.” And that’s…fair. I kind of do. I love the system. I love the company that puts it out. I love that other people are as equally passionate.

When I saw they were doing a Kickstarter for GURPS I put in as much money as I had and planned to put in more. (I ended up backing at the $550 level so I’ll hopefully see some of y’all at Gen Con.) As some of you may have guessed, I was one of the lucky few that got a peek at the DFRPG. It’s amazing. The new rules are so streamlined it feels like a new edition of GURPS. The way magic has been handled is everything you could have wanted for a revised system. And the slam rules – man, those are great. (No I won’t tell you how they work. And none of this is anything that Kromm or others hasn’t said. I wish I could say more, but I can’t.)

If you like Dungeon Fantasy and GURPS or just “old school” gaming you’ll like this. So go back it. Spread the word. Make it a big finish. Show Steve Jackson Games we want GURPS. Show that we want more standalone boxed sets like the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game. 

With that I’m taking a break as of Sunday this week. (Patreon patrons you’ll be getting your content per normal.) I’ll be back Tuesday, October 11th with more posts and new content. Thanks for reading, thanks for backing, and thanks for making GURPS what it is.

I’m going to go veg on X-Com (I’ve never played it and I figure now is the time t try it out and see if I can relax.)

Humbly,

Christopher R. Rice

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