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The Story

Alkenstar City is a paradox born from an impossibility. It is a prosperous city-state rising out of a desert so ravaged by war that magic does not work properly there, independent despite being claimed by powerful neighbors. Alkenstar is immensely prosperous, home of firearms and industries undreamt of elsewhere on Golarion, yet life there hangs by a thread, choked by smog and pressured by robber barons.

In the midst of it all are our unlikely heroes, a group with nothing in common except shared hatred for a powerful mogul and corrupt sheriff who ruined their lives. But there's no time to wallow in self pity, for a new invention threatens to shake the foundations of the world. The eccentric inventor Vashon Gattlebee has invented an explosive hundreds of times more powerful than anything that currently exists. If his formula falls into the wrong hands, the resulting wars could make the wasteland around Alkenstar look like a paradise.

The Grand Duchess of Alkenstar knows the government must obtain and safeguard the formula, but she cannot act overtly lest other nations think she's making an aggressive power grab herself. So she must turn to outlaws who have nothing left to lose and offer them the one thing they want most: revenge.

Theo Thourson (he/him) Game Master Host of The Gallant Goblin TTRPG review channel, winner of a gold Ennie for his adventure writing, and crusher of adventuring parties, Theo Thourson is the creative mastermind behind our actual play and the game master for Love & Hate in the Mana Wastes.

Eric Wright (he/him) Gnoll Barbarian If you've ever wondered what "pineapple on pizza" would be like if it were a person, it would be Eric. Sweet, salty, and divisive as ever, Eric was adopted by the Gallant Goblin family after they found him roleplaying on the side of the road rolling d20s with his imaginary friends. He now resides in an apartment with his two cats, where he spends his time moving from one air conditioner to another while trying to avoid responsibility.

Cay Bartholomew (they/them) Gnome Alchemist Cay has been performing professionally since high school and is a long-time fan of table-top role playing games. This is Cay's first appearance with the Gallant Goblin and their first actual play streaming game.

Benji Cooksey (he/him) Dwarf Gunslinger Benji is the owner and executive director of CSz Houston - the home of ComedySportz. He has been a player on the team for 12 years and is the head of corporate entertainment bookings. Benji's production credits include the founding of Improv! The Musical - Houston's first completely improvised musical, making its way into its 7th year running, Beer Babies - an improvised drinking show, and coming soon, The Bard's Bounty - an improvised D&D comedy adventure.

Grady Wang (he/him) Producer Grady is the co-founder of The Gallant Goblin. While some may call him the technical wizard of the operation, he prefers to be known as a rogue because film equipment is on its best behavior when it never knows when the next sneak attack is coming.

And more... We still have cast members and guest stars to announce, plus other surprises in store as well. Stay tuned...

The show must go on, and it shall! So a very valid question on your mind might be why are we crowdfunding? Where would your money be going?

The Gallant Goblin has always aimed to be as transparent as possible with financial data to help both our audience and other creators understand what it takes to produce content for the tabletop industry, especially since many roles in the industry are drastically underpaid even at top companies. We hope to continue that tradition here so you know where your money is going as well as what it takes for the talented folks on our team to deliver content to you! 

Paying the Cast

Our top priority is ensuring that the talented performers putting on the show get paid. They are all professional actors and comedians, and this show is a substantial time investment for them. The minimum funding goal would enable us to guarantee them each $25 per day of filming. Additional profits related to the show from sales of associated merchandise, access, and supplements will also be split so that as the show grows, everyone benefits!  All of the funds raise up to the funding goal of $1200 would go toward cast pay.

High Standards for Equipment

We intend to produce a program that can stand toe-to-toe with any show backed by a large studio. Construction of a professional film set in our home game room is complete to capture the intimate feeling of friends at a table while delivering high quality video and audio. Total investment exceeds $50k. This campaign is not intended to recover that cost, which was included in The Gallant Goblin's ongoing expenses, but we will continue upgrading our setup as needed and based on feedback from you, our audience!

A couple trial runs for the show are on our YouTube channel. We have included an example below, which is the first episode of our five-part playthrough of Kandlekeep Dekonstruction, an adventure from the Candlekeep Mysteries anthology released for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We plan to have improved sound quality and more dynamic camera shots along with prefilmed content in Love & Hate, but the series gives a sense of what you can expect from our setup.

Post-Production Costs

The show will be edited to be as dynamic and entertaining as possible. Funds raised above the $1200 goal will be split between increasing the cast pay and producing additional content. If our budget permits, that will include art and animated sequences for a more immersive experience. The scope depends on how much revenue the show brings in.

So our breakdowns will look like this:

No show can exist without its fans, so of course we want to make supporting us as rewarding an experience as possible. Everyone will be able to watch the show or listen to it as a podcast for free when it releases, but we have some special perks for folks who invest in us!

Tiers

Tier rewards are rewards where you can back a single reward and get all the perks of the cheaper rewards.

$2+:  Settler

This is the core support tier. You'll get discount codes for any products we release for season 1 (including stretch goals from this campaign), and you get your name (you may specify a name different than the one associated with your Crowdfundr account) listed in a Thank You section on our Love & Hate in the Mana Wastes web page.

$5: Submit a Crit and Fumble

In Pathfinder, a character rolls a critical success if the result of their roll exceeds the target DC or AC by 10 or more and a critical failure if the result falls below the target DC or AC by 10 or more. When that happens, we like to add some extra random fun to the game, and that's where your suggestions come in! We'll randomly draw from a list of backer-submitted crit effects when a player rolls a critical success and fumble effects when a player rolls a critical failure. You get a shout out if your crit or fumble gets drawn, and then you get to be the game master by applying your effect to the game.

$10: Name in the Credits

In addition to the perks in the previous tiers, get your name in the credits scroll that comes up at the end of every episode!

$25: Season Pass

This is a sort of all-in tier for this campaign. You get for free all the digital content we release for sale that's associated for season 1. That includes new stat blocks, magic items, minis, VTT assets, and more! If there's a physical product, you'll get a discount code to buy the product for how much it costs us to produce and ship it to you. That includes all the stretch goals for this campaign. Plus you'll get access to a behind-the-scenes section of our website as well as channels on our Discord server!

Special Tiers

These rewards get you all the rewards from the $2-$25 tiers but not the unique rewards of these tiers.

$100: Wanted Poster

Our characters start the story as wanted criminals, and we've created special Alkenstar-themed Wanted posters.

But they're not the only wanted people in town. At this tier, you can create your own Wanted poster! Submit yourself, a loved one, an enemy, a custom character... whoever you want (within reason). We'll create a sketch and put them on the poster! We'll also send you a printed 8"x10" version of the poster and feature the poster in an episode on the show!

$250: Create an NPC

Instead of a Wanted poster, backing this reward lets you create a full-fledged NPC to include in the show instead! We'll work with you to create artwork of the character as well as their stats and backstory. We guarantee the character will show up in some form or fashion during season 1, though their screen time may be limited depending on what happens. You'll also get an 8"x10" art print of the character art!

Add-ons

Add-ons only give you the specific reward being offered and none of the perks in the tiers, but they let you pick and choose what you'd like to get and you can order multiple of them without incurring the extra costs that come with rolling in the tier perks!

$4: More Crits and Fumbles

This works the same as the $5 tier: you get to submit a crit and a fumble that can be randomly drawn during gameplay when a critical success or a critical failure occurs!

$14: Goblin Gold Inspiration Coin

This hefty coin can be used as currency, an inspiration token, or a throwing star (just kidding... the points are not sharp enough to cut).

$20: Custom Message Recording (Video or Audio)

Choose a member of the cast or crew to record a 30-60 second video or audio message for you that you can use for any non-commercial purpose!

As the campaign progresses and we lock in more pieces of the show, we'll be adding more rewards too! However, we have a few items we already have in mind that we'll be focusing on once we hit our primary funding goal!

What's an adventure without some good random encounters? At $2000 we'll create a collection of desert encounters and commission art for a set of cards from which you can randomly draw when you need one! The digital version will be free for Season Pass holders and available as an add-on with a discount code provided to Settler and higher tier backers.