CAMPAIGN PAUSED
The drive is paused with permission of the stakeholders due
to emergency circumstances.
ALL DUE REWARDS FULFILLMENT WILL
TAKE PLACE.
Free Our Content
Free your content? What do you mean?
Irrevocably releasing the WHOLE Thought Punks Library under a Creation Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license with your support. By agreement with our stakeholders, anyone will be able to use and adapt ALL of our work royalty-free with no conditions except giving credit, forever.
Didn't you already release the Motif SRD CC-BY?
We do! This is far more: You can help turn all of Thought Punks' intellectual property into open content! All the unique worlds like NEVER Stop Smiling & Arthur's Legacy + all the other content.
What's the ransom for?
#1: Pay off contractual obligations. Primarily lump sum rights buyouts. Some payments increase based on funding level per agreement. | #2: Update the games & engines with refreshed listings, new license, and minor corrections. Updated covers, store copy, files, etc. need to be done. | #3: Title updates, expansions, and support materials with any additional funds. Our hope is to not only open the licenses but to even improve on what we are adding to open gaming commons. |
What about the main creator?
This is solely for ransoming and improving the Thought Punks library. To directly support Motif's creator, drop coins in Rev's hat or visit Rev's birthday wish list.
Main Funding Goals
At each level, the listed titles will be released under a CC-BY license ASAP.
Tier 1: Strange Days ($1000)
Five weird titles, each delivering a different unique experience.
| Bitter Birds Baking Brittle Bread (5B) | An experimental "ungame" TTRPG framework for playing plotless, absurdist, post-modern, and similar "stories". | Eat Trash! Do Crime! | Sentient raccoons powered by trash and compelled to do crime. | Like I Give A BLEEP | Be an unhinged powerful mad scientist. | We Came In Peace | You are a group-mind alien crashed on the horrific individualist Splinter world of Earth. | Once We Were Beautiful | Poignant game of Fair Folk telling their final tales as they fade. |
Tier 2: Rich Worlds ($2000)
Five robust worlds with distinctive concepts.
| Arthur's Legacy | The original game that drove the formation of Thought Punks, an Arthurian modern fantasy world. | Bloodmuse: Murderhobo Modern Art | Advanced adventurers with domain management and a cheeky trash cinema conceit. | SC911: Special Crimes 911 | Unique split voice/text roleplaying game about phone agents responding to supernatural emergency calls. | No Angels Live Here | Neo-noir occult detectives touched by The Dark dealing with the supernatural cases society would prefer to ignore. | NEVER Stop Smiling | Post-apocalyptic weird fiction set in a broken and shifting world featuring the walled metropolis of The Happy Place, where smiling is the law and death is illusion. |
Tier 3: Motif Framework ($3000)
The complete set of flagship bestselling tabletop toolkits that launched it all!
| Motif Story Engine | The flagship title that helped bring us to this point. A system neutral toolkit of oracles and subsystems to unlock low prep, GM-less, and solo modes in tabletop roleplaying games. | Motif Character Engine | The original Motif companion title. Adapts the framework to focus on emulating both characters and players. | Motif World Engine | Similar to the character engine but focused on demonstrating the framework as applied to worldbuilding and scene details. |
Expanded Goals
New SRDs, boost kits, and games will have a public draft or ashcan available within 90 days of being unlocked. All released under CC-BY. Special thanks to Jim Liao for sponsoring and partnering on these expanded goals.
| $250 | SRD #1: New system reference document for building games. | $500 | Rev's Boost Kit #1: New "tech" pack of system neutral guidance and subsystems. | $750 | Game #1: New 1-2 page RPG. | $1250 | SRD #2: New system reference document for building games. | $1500 | Rev's Boost Kit #2: New "tech" pack of system neutral guidance and subsystems. | $1750 | Game #1: New 1-2 page RPG. | $2250 | SRD #3: New system reference document for building games. | $2500 | Rev's Boost Kit #3: New "tech" packs of system neutral guidance and subsystems. | $2750 | Game #1: New 1-2 page RPG. |
Stretch Goals
Final stretch goal selection and reveal influenced by YOUR requests.
[Locked] Secret Goal #1 ($4000) - ????? | [Locked] Secret Goal #2 ($5000) - ?????
| [Locked] Secret Goal #3 ($7500) - ?????
| Ultimate Stretch Goal ($10000) - Public Domain Everything goes into the public domain! |
Risks & Other Details
Risk Management
How we minimize the risks to you and our promises, plus delay risks.
| The CC-BY open content release is guaranteed. | The basic promise is guaranteed. Rev and Thought Punks assumed all obligations for rights clearances and other releases. | There is a firm latest-by release date. | Any remaining locked titles will be unlocked to open licensing 1 October 2023 by the latest. The written agreements include terms for fulfilling the above obligations and set the 1st of October as the latest release date. | Main campaign fulfillment depends on funding levels. | Very simply: At lower funding, less time and assistance can be devoted to updating the works. At higher funding, more time and help can be put toward it. | Rewards are first-come, first-serve by default but may vary by donation and need. | Going by general fairness. If someone drops a generous tip or has a time-sensitive need for an important cause, their order may be prioritized. | For higher funding levels, backers will influence update and expansion priorities. | Higher funding means we can also give a glow up to the released work! Backers will be given the opportunity to propose and vote on development priorities. The roadmap and estimated fulfillment dates will depend on the choices made. |
Reward Fulfillment
Backers purchasing the Thought Punks Collection reward will be contacted to verify the email address they prefer to use for DriveThruRPG fulfillment, which will be completed weekly. All other backers receiving rewards will be contacted for fulfillment details and informed of any waitlist or wait times. Rev reserves the right to reject project requests or appearances in the case of offensive, unsafe, or other bad faith proposals.
Team
Rev Casey | The creator of Motif. A weird indie TTRPG creator from the United States into everything from Battletech to niche storygames. The main principal of Thought Punks and project lead for this campaign. | Jim Liao | The original team manager and old friend who pushed Rev to publish his work. Lover of LARP, Warhammer, and narrative games from Taiwan. The main project manager and business consultant for this campaign. | Leah Cohen | Who took over when Jim needed to travel overseas for work. An old Jewish punk gal living in the United States playing tabletop games for decades. The main copywriter for updates and general consultant for this campaign. |
Video Music Credits
- General background track, "Creedless Faith Drone" by PorchCat@ ccMixter. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
- Outro music, "Transmissions" by PorchCat@ ccMixter. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
About Creative Commons and CC-BY
Creative Commons is an international non-profit dedicated to open content and sharing culture. It is best known for its suite of "some rights reserved" licenses providing permissions for sharing and use.
The
exactly version of the license that will be used for the ransom
release is a
Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY).
It allows the use and adaptation of licensed works in exchange for
credit alone. It is royalty-free and there are no other conditions
or restrictions.
Neither Thought Punks and Rev Casey nor this campaign have any affiliation with Creative Commons and no endorsement or association is implied.
Questions and Requests
Have any other questions? Feedback on the campaign? A specific reward request or suggestion?
- Reach out to Thought Punks on Twitter.
- Contact Rev directly on Discord: Rev (Thought Punk)#9150.
Highlights
See all activity32
- 0 claimed
- 2 remaining
Rev will set aside time to come onto your streaming channel, YouTube show, podcast, or other production for up to 3 hours to do an interview, panel, run a short one shot game, or anything else reasonable in the gaming niche.
Includes the blessings of Lambie Pie, the Thought Punks Collection, and a Thought Punks Collection to give away to one of your viewers/listeners.
- 0 claimed
- 2 remaining
Rev will run any Thought Punks or other game he designed or wrote. Up to a 4 hour session. Up to 5 players. PDFs of the chosen game for all players and pre-session preparation included.
Includes the blessings of Lambie Pie and one full set of the Thought Punks Collection.
