The Kickstarter campaign for The Frankenstein Wars has one day left to run. Jamie advised me, "Just sell it as zombies meet steampunk." He may very well have been right, but like James Wallis I incline to the doctrine of Madame Yevonde: "Be original or die." (James recently helped to raise $340,000 for a new edition of extended joke RPG Paranoia, which has never been to my taste, but good for him. It will help pay for James's own, much more original, projects.)
The Frankenstein Wars isn't about zombies. Nor is it really steampunk, unless steampunk now stands for "any Victorian or Regency setting with science fictional elements". What it is: a new generation of gamebook app with a richly imagined universe, a cast of fully rounded characters, and a premise that we can carry on into further chapters in both print and digital form. It's a very, very long way from an orc in a room with a riddle and a treasure chest.
The campaign has one day left to run and all you need to pledge to get the game is $4. On the Kickstarter page I describe it as "a dream project I've been waiting to do for over a decade" - and that pretty much sums it up. Now I get to see whether the gamebook projects that interest me these days can still find an audience! That awesome smoke-n-fury picture incidentally is by Rafa Teruel, and even if the campaign fails at least it's been a pleasure to see his visual genius bring the world of The Frankenstein Wars to life.
