What's Shades of Vengeance? And why Patreon?

Shades of Vengeance is a small company that creates Tabletop Roleplaying Games and Card Games. We love gaming and want to bring you fun, immersive and expansive worlds that will give you years of enjoyment.

We always have more ideas and projects in the works because we believe that there are no limits to what can be achieved, even for an indie studio. We also believe that a game doesn't stop needing work when the rulebook is completed - there are always new materials that can be included to improve the experience, from expansions to premade sessions!

We believe that rules should enhance the role-playing experience, supporting whatever the players want to attempt, while giving them a real chance of failure. Based on the criticially-acclaimed Era d10 Rule Set, the games are easy to learn for novices while still provide a challenge, even for the most experienced gamers.

We bring the best writers and artists and combine their skills with the extensive experience of our creative team and expert project management to make sure that the products you receive from us are AAA quality, as well as being delivered on time!

We have run 17 Kickstarters so far, with an excellent record for delivering on time. We have also been running this Patreon for 3 years with similar results.

We often hear from people that they'd like to see more pre-made adventures to play! We totally understand - not everyone has the time to build a campaign plan which has intricately-woven details and cinematic sequences that will leave your players speechless!

We’ve decided to help you with that – the campaigns that we’re creating for this Patreon are unique and inspiring. In Era: The Consortium’s Time Travel Campaign, you travel back to the start of the Consortium to rebuild the society as you see fit. In the Era: Survival Campaign we’re planning, you create and defend a town of your own. We have loads of ideas, which will keep you with new sessions for years to come!

We are about to introduce a brand new set of content as well: every month, we will give you a science fiction creature and adventure seeds that relate to it. We find that there are loads of entries for Fantasy creatures, but few people seem to regularly create the same for science fiction! These creatures are setting-neutral, so you can use them in any game, not just Era: The Consortium.

We believe in what we are creating and want to see it continue to grow. Patreon is giving us the chance to offer you new content for all of our games, as well as Beta Test copies, previews of our upcoming work and much more!

What games do you offer?

Era: The Consortium - Time Travel Campaign

Era: The Consortium offers 500 years of playable history in an ever-changing Sci-Fi Universe. If you've not heard of it, it's had quite a few reviews which you can check out!

Since then, we've added 8 new expansion books to the collection, thanks to tremendous support on Kickstarter. Each of these expansions has allowed us to add a new type of gameplay, from "Aliens"-inspired "Revival", where you fight with Survival Horror rules, to A New Dawn, with which you can gain Psionic abilities to fight your enemies.

We have a long way to go with this campaign - we haven't even got to halfway through the history yet! Thanks to the Kickstarter, we were able to put the sessions we had into printed books (and we also took the opportunity fix and rewrite a few sessions!).

All of those changes were made available to Patrons of this page for free!

Would you like to know more? Check out a 2-page summary of the game's 500-year story (before any changes you make!).

Coming soon... Era: Survival Foundation Campaign

We have begun work on an Era: Survival Campaign, which we call "Foundation".

This brand new campaign guides the characters through the establishment of their own settlement on Gaia. As the founders, they are expected to defend it against all threats... and they will face many!

From Infection and the Mutants and Shamblers that carry it, to Raiders looking to plunder, the first weeks of the new colony are less than ideal. Food shortages, threats from powerful factions with a strategic interest and the sinister Cult of Progression mean that the party will have their work cut out for them: there is never a dull moment on the frontier.

Will you survive? Join us to find out...

Coming soon... Setting-neutral Science Fiction Monsters each month!

We see a lot of Fantasy monsters being created every month for use in games of that genre. As Sci-Fi fans, though (in case you didn't guess from Era: The Consortium!), we see very few Science Fiction monsters being created!

Ed has teamed up with Molecular Biologist and RPG enthusiast Matthew Knighton to create a large number of science fiction monsters, ranging from bacteria to spaceborn creatures which you can encounter. This list will be released at a rate of one per month, initially, to all tiers of Patron.

It gets better, though... these monsters are deliberately designed to be setting-neutral, so that they can be used in any Sci-Fi game you like! We aim to create a resource that anyone can use and enjoy - they would be as home in any other setting as Era: The Consortium.

We hope you'll join us on our exploration of frontier space... who knows what we'll find?

We also believe that several of our other games would be fantastic for monthly Patreon sessions, and we'll be adding them as goals as we move on:

Era Lyres, the low-fantasy game where you pretend to be adventurers to convince the denizens of the taverns in the great City of Yarnolth. Recount your adventures in gripping detail as you amaze everyone in the city in this less-than-serious game!

Era: The Empowered, where you play as a team of superheroes, fighting against supervillains to keep the world in check. Face threats varying from the villain of the week to supervillain teamups and threats from outer space!

Era: Silence sees you through earning your name as a warrior, but what happens next? Will you return safely?

Era: Hitman, where you play as an assassin, and targets are given to you by the mysterious Assassins Guild. Will you be able to survive this very competitive industry?

In order to do all this and continue to create more, we need a core group of people who are willing to put their faith in us to build the budget for the production here on Patreon.

We know that when you back a Kickstarter or Patreon Campaign, you're making a statement: you want to see this project succeed, you're a fan of what we're trying to offer and you think it deserves to happen. We think that the worlds we are building have power, that you will believe in us enough to support this.

We also know the value of this trust. Thank you. We will work to make what we create worthy of your support.

What do I get?

In every Patreon Release (once per month), we make one paid post. This post just charges you the amount you have pledged, but contains none of the content. The content is in separate posts, and everything that relates to your amount will be visible to you.

We create 3 Wallpapers, which feature some of the beautiful artwork from our games, formatted for the most common screen and phone resolutions. These images are often brand new, and the Patrons are the first people outside the development team to see them!
Wallpapers available to all Patrons.

From July 2017, we will be including a Sci-Fi Creature of the month and adventure seeds related to it! These will be setting-neutral and applicable to any science fiction game which involves space travel, including Era: The Consortium.
Sci-Fi Creatures are available to all Patrons.

The Play Sessions are in a post of their own, which features a quick summary of what you can expect from this month's session. These sessions are also unique to Patreon until there are enough to be bound into a collection.
The Play Sessions are available to all Patrons who pledge $5 or more.

We often provide sneak peeks, the opportunity to Beta Test our latest games and other extras, such as the Digital Version of the combined book, fully edited and proofread with any new content. We love creating and we want you to feel the benefit!
The extras are available to Patrons depending on the nature of the reward!

Payment on Release... what does that mean?

Once per month, we release a content pack. This contains a scenario to play, along with wallpapers and other goodies for you to enjoy, such as music, brand new artwork and so on.

The most important thing to understand is that you will only be charged in the month after we do a release; you pay nothing until we produce something. We will release only one paid post per month, no matter how many different campaigns we are running!
N.B. Patreon allows you to cap your payments to be even more secure in that!

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