Pre-Gens Have Powered Up! Plus Signed DLE
over 3 years ago – Sat, Apr 03, 2021 at 12:00:24 AM

Just a quick update, between interviews (it’s been a busy day!). In a few short hours after the last milestone, you pushed the campaign funding and unlocked the $110K stretch goal. Your generous support means we will be designing a pre-gen pack of six 8th-level characters, which will be a free bonus PDF for all backers pledging $13+.

Signed and Numbered Deluxe Editions at $120K

Following on the pre-gen pack’s heels and unlocking at $120K is a unique upgrade to the Anime 5E Deluxe Limited Edition. We will print a frontsheet for the DLE that will be individually signed and numbered by Anime 5E designer, Mark MacKinnon. After all, nothing signals “limited edition” like a number and a signature! The photo below is an example of what the frontsheet looks like for the BESM Fourth Edition DLE, and Anime 5E will be similar to this.

Thanks for reading. I expect we’ll be checking back in a few hours. 😁

Sneaking In One Final Update Tonight
over 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 08:03:49 PM

OK, so we called the day over prematurely because you smoked another pledge goal before we turned off the computer for the night. Since the campaign reached $90K funding, all backers pledging at least $50 will receive a free bonus poster of Anime 5E’s glorious cover art. Thanks everyone!

Big One at $100K: Free Anime RPG!

We want to unlock something big and valuable if the campaign reaches $100K in funding and thought what better reward could there be than another complete, stand-alone anime RPG? If you help us reach this HUGE milestone, every backer who pledges $100 and above will receive a free PDF copy of Dyskami’s multi-genre anime RPG, BESM Naked – a complimentary gift that normally sells for over $17 on DriveThruRPG.

BESM Naked is a stripped-down (see what we did there?) but complete version of the core BESM Fourth Edition, with all the rules in a more compact presentation. At 144 colour pages, BESM Naked gives you everything you need to play nearly any anime or manga character from any genre you can imagine. It’s an excellent sister product to Anime 5E that gives a peek into how a fantasy-specific game could be expanded into any genre or setting. Read more about BESM Naked and BESM Fourth Edition on our website.

If you’re already a proud owner of BESM Naked from an earlier purchase and have no need for a duplicate copy, why not gift the PDF to a gamer friend who would enjoy exploring beyond what Fifth Edition fantasy role-playing offers? Wouldn’t you be popular! After all, we can all use more sweet anime gaming in our lives. 🥳

OK, that’s it, we’re done for tonight. Thanks once again for pushing the Kickstarter campaign so far in such a short period of time.

PS. As mentioned in Update #9, we'd still love to hear from you about your thoughts concerning future stretch goals. Please join our community in the stretch goal thread on the Anime 5E Facebook Group (you’ll need to request access through Facebook if you’re not already a group member), and let us know what you think.

$80K Traps, with $90K Poster to Follow
over 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 04:56:37 PM

Admiral Ackbar would be pleased! Thanks to your generous support, you have collectively (and quickly!) unlocked the five original traps stretch goal, which will be a free bonus PDF for all backers pledging $13+.

Next Up at $90K: A Gorgeous Anime 5E Poster

We love the Anime 5E cover art spread so much, that we were hoping to make it into a poster. The problem is that quality posters don’t come cheap unless they are printed in reasonable volumes.

If the campaign funding reaches $90K, all backers pledging at least $50 will receive a free, high-quality 36” x 24” printed wall poster showcasing that cover art (folded to fit into the pledge shipping boxes). With a retail value of $10, it would be our pleasure to provide this gift for you should we reach $90K.

That’s should wrap things up for us tonight. Thank you for ensuring this Kickstarter had another fantastic day!

$70K Stretch Unlocked and Looking for Stretch Goal Feedback
over 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 02:30:05 PM

Welp, that didn’t take you long! Now that you’ve pushed the Kickstarter to over $70K, everyone whose pledge includes the Anime 5E Game Screen – whether through a reward level, or as an add-on – will also receive a free PDF pre-gen pack of six characters they can use with the adventure scenario bundled with the screen.

Next Up at $80K: Traps!

Everyone loves a good trap. Well, maybe just DMs who inflict them with glee on the player character adventurers. But still, traps are a fun and essential part of all good Fifth Edition adventures.

If campaign funding reaches $80K, Anime 5E designer Mark MacKinnon will create five original traps across the difficulty spectrum, with Anime 5E stat blocks and brief descriptions. These traps will be available as a free bonus PDF download for all backers pledging at least $13 in the Kickstarter.

Feedback Request: Stretch Goal Thread

If you've been following along with the campaign, you'll see that amazing backers (like you!) are blowing through stretch goals at a rapid pace. So we are asking campaign backers to join a stretch goal thread on the Anime 5E Facebook Group, since Facebook posts allow for better threading and conversation. You can still provide your thoughts in the Kickstarter comments, of course, though the platform isn’t optimised for such conversations.

Our Stretch Goal Philosophy

Companies have vastly different ways of approaching stretch goals on Kickstarter, and our approach may be different than many RPG publishers. All the Anime 5E books and products offered here are fully developed, illustrated, laid out, and nearly ready for printing after some final checks and edits. That’s why we have promised the PDFs in May and printed copies in September.

With this in mind, you can see why we are hesitant to introduce stretch goals that physical change the parameters of the offered products. The exception is cosmetic changes during printing, such as UV spot coatings, bookmark ribbons, etc. Changing the physical product – such as adding pages of content – will delay their production. That’s not to say that we couldn’t add 16 more pages to the core book (the minimum signature amount needed at our printer) or add extra story parts to the Game Screen adventure (and thus increasing the page count), just that we shouldn’t.

Here are the important elements of our stretch goal philosolosphy:

✅ A stretch goal can’t require a lot of money to implement. Some expenditures are fine, of course, but since the purpose of crowdfunding is to generate funds from a crowd of backers, the costs should be modest.

✅ A stretch goal shouldn’t require too much time either. Partially since time = money, but also because we don’t want to delay the campaign fulfilment. PDF stretch goals avoid the second concern, which is why we have unlocked many of them in the campaign already.

✅ Stretch goals should be made available for a wide variety of pledge types. You’ll notice that we have some goals that are specific to a single product (like physical book upgrades), while others are offered to anyone pledging the minimal tier amount of $13+. Some physical goals need to be shipped, and so it only makes sense to include them with physical rewards. And yes, some goals are only offered at higher pledge amounts to encourage backers at lower levels to have faith and make the leap to the $100 Adventurer level or above (or equivalent amount, through add-ons). We want to offer bonus stretch goals across the backer spectrum.

So once again, we turn to you as a valued backer. Please join our community in the stretch goal thread on the Anime 5E Facebook Group (you’ll need to request access through Facebook if you’re not already a group member), and let us know what you think. Or post in the comments section if you prefer.

Thanks for your help making this campaign as awesome as it can be!

Artefacts, Pre-Gen Pack, and Omissions, Oh My!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 11:53:03 AM

This campaign is like a runaway freight train! Over 800 amazing backers pledged $60K in just over 24 hours – which is by far the most successful crowdfunding campaign Dyskami has hosted. And now, you have collectively unlocked the five original magical artefacts stretch goal, which will be a free bonus PDF for all backers pledging $13+.

Next Up at $70K: Pre-Gen Character Pack for Game Screen

As indicated in the product write-up, the Anime 5E Game Screen also comes with a bonus 32-page adventure for 2nd-4th level characters called “Carry on Wayward Son”. The adventure provides general guidance concerning the types of characters that would fit well with the scenario, but does not include ready-to-go player characters with it. If this campaign reaches $70K in funding, every backer whose pledge includes the Game Screen will also receive free PDF pre-gen character pack of six adventurers tailored for the adventure.

Purposefully Omitted From Anime 5E

Yesterday, we started a discussion about the foundational objectives behind Anime 5E. Today, we want to reveal what was purposefully omitted. Naturally, it’s impossible to replicate the incredibly vast amount of information from all other Fifth Edition game books in this single volume. Anime 5E is a complete game unto itself, though there are several aspects that we specifically did not include.

➡️ Details on Fifth Edition Races and Classes

Anime 5E provides a point-based rebalancing of the standard Fifth Edition races (ie. Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, etc.) and classes (ie. Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, etc.) for use in your Anime 5E adventures, but does not reproduce the information readily available in the PHB. Instead, this book details the 14 new race and 14 new class options.

➡️ Spells and Magic System

Fifth Edition includes a robust magic system with hundreds of spells that works well for their included races and classes. Anime 5E explores an alternative system for magical and paranormal effects called Dynamic Powers that can be used on its own or integrated with the existing Fifth Edition spells presented in the PHB and other 5E sourcebooks. Consequently, Anime 5E does not include any spells details.

➡️ Minor Rule Details

Anime 5E’s action and combat chapter provide the essential information for undertaking role-playing adventures. There are hundreds of rules and detailed minutia not reproduced from the PHB and other 5E sourcebooks, since they are not critical to the core elements of running anime adventures. This includes such sections as controlling a mount, underwater combat, spellcasting elements, map/grid-based combat, and more. Of course, gaming groups are welcome to integrate these materials into Anime 5E adventures as desired. Since Anime 5E approaches role-playing as a narrative framework for storytelling – rather than a tactical combat game – much of these small additional details are left to the discretion of the DM and players.

➡️ Campaign Setting and In-Depth World Building

The Fifth Edition DMG provides exceptional advice about building fantasy worlds and creating campaign settings. Much of what is written also applies to an Anime 5E game, and consequently those sections are not repeated in this book, though Chapter 12 does provide several pages of high-level background on example anime fantasy worlds that gaming groups can use for inspiration.

➡️ Monsters and Magical Items

Anime 5E includes a modest selection of companions, monsters, objects, and weapons that DMs can integrate into their games directly, or use as templates to create their own (14 monsters and 49 items, if you’re counting). The Fifth Edition core books contain hundreds of additional entries that easily integrate with Anime 5E campaigns and we don’t attempt to replicate them all in this volume.

Thanks for reading!