Posts Tagged ‘charity’

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Random Kindness Encounter Bundle!

575 People

$15,225

In 3 days, 10 hours, 2 minutes and 45 seconds

Damn. We did a thing here, gaming world. Thank you very much.

- Ryan

(Oh, and now my promo widget points to a man who would like to see a dream come true, a dream of ghost piracy. It’s not cancer-fighting, but it’s worthy of support.)

A personal video reaction to how amazing y’all have been:

Too Long; Didn’t Watch:

• We’re capping the donations at $15K, because woah.
• Holy crap, you’re awesome. wut i dont even
• I’ll talk more about Mythender later, because I have my hands full with managing this project. :)
• Holy crap, you’re awesome.
• I drink passable coffee.
• Apologies to David & Filamena for spacing — it’s been a long couple days.
• Incidentally, in the first 24 hours, 395 people raised $11,325. Again, holy crap, you’re awesome.
• My video comment about the amount is awesomely out of date.
• And for Will Hindmarch‘s Always/Never/Now:

- Ryan

Many of you have waited years for me to say this: I’m finally releasing Mythender.

Well, maybe. It depends on you. No maybe about it!

Here’s the deal. The game’s done, and I am not interested in retooling it to use a different die mechanic to make it “marketable.” It rocks the house right now, and over a hundred people have played it throughout the last five years. I love the hell out of this game, and it’s ready to go out and fly and all that paternal jazz.

So I’m going to throw it out there, as a free game for everyone. But only if a charity bundle I’m helping with hits a goal.

Random Kindness Encounter Bundle

Elizabeth Sampat & I have a friend in need, Kelly. Here’s Elizabeth telling you about her. Read this, then keep going for more on Mythender.

Hey guys—

I want to tell you about my friend Kelly. She is a hilarious badass, and a modestly successful food photographer. She’s got a pretty great life at a pretty young age— husband imported from Denmark, two cute cats, and she gets to do what she loves. She is generous to a fault, relentlessly cheerful, and a giant nerd who LOVES D&D and Minecraft.

Last month, she wasn’t feeling so great, so she went to the doctor. Tumors everywhere. That’s not a euphemism.

She had the tumors removed and everything biopsied, and bad news came back. I would have been upset; her husband certainly was. How do you think she reacted?

“Today is a GREAT day! First of all, today is officially 1 week of healing under my belt since surgery, which is 1 week closer to being healed up. Biopsy results on colon, bladder, ovaries and tumors came in…. Colon, bladder & ovaries are CLEAR! Tumors are all benign. Now… To heal up and finish the fight with the last enemy left: Cervical Cancer. I will not accept defeat.”

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine getting yourself psyched about JUST having cervical cancer? I was having a bad day, but shit damn did that put it into perspective. Like I said, relentlessly positive.

Except she’s having trouble staying positive lately. Despite a super-high monthly insurance premium, she owes three grand on the tumor removal— and will probably owe another four grand after this round of radiation.

Elizabeth & I have put together a charity bundle with a half dozen other indie games, including Vincent Baker’s new Murderous Ghosts, to raise money for Kelly’s medical bills. We’re calling it the Random Kindness Encounter Bundle.

Where this fits with Mythender

If it hits $4000 by January 1st, 2012, I’ll release Mythender for free as an electronic game. Donators will get it at least a month before the rest of the world; you’ll get the pre-editor copy, and the world will have to wait for post-editing. I suspect this to be ready for donators in February — I’m nearly done with getting the text where I want it, and the layout will take a bit.

If it doesn’t, then Mythender’s over. If it can’t help sweeten the deal for a charity bundle, then it wasn’t meant to be. Holy shit, you guys are awesome. We hit $4K in around three hours!

There are different rewards at different donations levels (provided the goal’s hit, of course):

• At $10 (Kind Kobold) – You’ll get Mythender a minimum of a month before the public does.
• At $25 (Generous Goblin) – As above, and you’ll get a thank you in Mythender, under “Names Forever Etched In Time”. If your name as is in your PayPal isn’t what you want, please let Ryan know!
• At $50 (Outstanding Owlbear) – As above, and we’ll turn you into a Mythender! You’ll be immortalized on the Mythender website as “Champions of the Warsong”. Ryan will email you about this, once Mythender is out to the donators.
• At $100 (Terrific Tarrasque) – As above, and you’ll get to come up with one of the Myths — the monsters & gods of a world — in a Mythic World playset. Again, Ryan will email once Mythender is out to the donators.
• At $250 (Magnanimous Myth) – as above, and I’ll make a whole Mythic World playset in your name! Once Mythender’s out to the donators, Ryan’ll email you with some questions and start work on the playsets.

When/if it hits $4000, I’ll post more about what I’m doing with the game. I’m pretty damned excited about it, as I’m incorporating new ideas about how to present complicated rules text. But I will start with this: Mythic Norden, the myths of Scandinavia, is just one “Mythic World playset” I have in mind.

So please, check out the bundle and help Kelly out. Let’s End Kelly’s cancer.

- Ryan