2026 PWG Pre-orders

Week 1 Update: 400% Funded!
7 months ago – Wed, Apr 08, 2026 at 05:37:04 PM

Wow! Y'all have really kept the momentum going!!

Austin and I continue to be blown away by the enthusiasm folks have shown for this project, and we're excited to share more with you in the weeks to come!Thank you to everyone who's been sharing their excitement on social media, and especially to the early-adopters sharing their experiences with last year's ashcan edition. Even with Austin and my reach, in today's fractured online landscape, your recommendation can be the difference between someone hearing about Realis or not!

Last week's 48-hour update means there isn't much new to report, but I do have two small items:

• Podcasts are on the way! Austin and I both (sometimes together, sometimes seperately) have been working the promo circuit, and we have some very fun interviews and actual play in the works. More soon as they go live, but if you have a podcast or publication and would be interested in talking about Realis, don't hesitate to get in touch!
   
• Local pick-up will be available! For backers in the greater Pittsburgh region, you'll once again have the option to pick your pledge up here in town and eliminate shipping. When and where depends on how much our release window winds up overlapping with other events, but rest assured it will happen. More on that post-campaign when folks are filling out their pledge surverys.

Otherwise, I have some more recommendations of other Kickstarter campaigns for you!

• I'm going to start with The Cosmic Ballad of Layla + Airy since it ends the soonest! I loved Mira Ong Chua's 24/7 Magical Maiden Mimi—a graphic novel about a boy who transforms into a magical girl—and The Cosmic Ballad of Layla + Airy turns that concept on its head, focusing on a girl-turned-magical-boy who falls in love with a pop star. Inspired by retro sci-fi and comedy anime like Dirty Pair, Gravitation, and Ranma 1/2, the art alone is to die for, but Mira's a great storyteller too. You have 48 hours left to pick it up!
   
• Nostos by Erica Bridges is a TTRPG that's been on my radar for a while, and it's similarly kickstarting a full, print edition! The world ended, but somehow your heroes survived beyond the end. Now they have to sort through a fractured reality to find where—and how—they can restart their lives. If you like the travel vibes of The Details of Our Escape or the weirdness and world-hopping of Realis, you'll love Nostos. I was lucky enough to be an early reader, and if the page is any indication, its art will be just as good as its mechanics. You can also get a print copy of Hit!—Erica's very good blackjack-powered space heist TTRPG—as an add-on.
   
• Another TTRPG-related campaign is A Whole New World, a new podcast-meets-playtest project from the One Shot Network. Each three-episode arc, hosts Poorna M. and Valiant Dorian will have a worldbuilding guest one episode, a game design guest the next, and a playtest episode to showcase a vertical slice of the resulting ideas. Collaborations like these rule, and I did something similar when creating The Details of Our Escape with Linnea Sterte and Renee Gladman. I'd love to see this fund so I can listen to it personally.
   
• Lastly, our of left field comes ILLEGAL: Rave Flyers of the 90s. Now I'm not member of nor particularly knowledgable about rave culture, but books like this make for EXCELLENT visual design inspiration. Containing over 500 pages of rave flyers from 90s America, it's a treasure trove of collage, DIY aesthetics, creative typography, bootlegging, and so much more. Hyper-niche visual archives like these can be hard to find (Lock Books is good resource for anyone interested) so fingers crossed this one becomes a reality.

More soon!

I'm trying to resist the urge to compulsively refresh the campaign, but rest assured I'm around keeping an eye on our inbox and chipping away at all things PWG! If you have any questions for me, shoot a message or email my way and I'll get right back to you.

All best,

T

48 Hour Update: Fully Funded!
7 months ago – Fri, Apr 03, 2026 at 11:12:30 AM

Over 300% funded! Thank you for your support!

Hey yinz, Tyler here! 

From Austin and I both, thank you so, SO much for the overwhelming show of support during the campaign's first two days. Realis has been in works for years now, and as confident as we are in the game and its collaborators, it's still a huge relief to see it connecting with so many like-minded people. Whether you're excited for the game's unique mechanics, expansive lore, or even just a beautiful art book, we're grateful to have you with us!

I'll be making weekly updates throughout the campaign detailing any developments and what to expect in the week ahead. My next post will be on Wednesday, April 8, but we already have a few small updates:

• After receiving a number of requests, I've added the option to order additional copies of the hardcover as add-ons! You'll have the same option post-campaign via BackerKit, but for folks looking to order multiple copies (international group-buys, for example) you can do so now by clicking "Manage your pledge" at the top of the page and then "Change your pledge" to select the add-ons.
   
• More art is in the wild! I'll be sharing new art in each update, but all 17 of Realis's illustrators have been given carte blanche to post any of their art for the game—including pieces not yet revealed! If you want even more peeks at Realis, check out their person feeds and support them with a follow! Beyond their links on the main campaign page, I put together a round-up of their Bluesky handles here and have been reposting tags on Instagram.

Speaking of sharing the spotlight, we'll also be highlighting other live Kickstarter campaigns each week we think you might enjoy! Here are a few to start:

• Arcs: Beyond the Reach needs no introduction, but it's worth noting that this is Cole Wehrle, Kyle Ferrin, Drew Wehrle, and Ted Caya's first project since going independent as Buried Giant Studios. No matter the pedigree, it's a scary thing to take your fate into your own hands like that, and Buried Giant is committed to maintaining a full-time staff that is enfranchised in the success of each of their titles. The success of this campaign means a more secure future for the studio as a whole, so if you're looking for a cool board game with trick-taking mechanics, check out Arcs!
   
• Pine Shallows is game by Peter Eijk, a name you might recognize as the designer of A Visit to San Sibilia—an solo RPG about a dreamlike city Friends at the Table played during their Sangfielle season. I'm a huge fan of Peter's work, and was even an editor on Pine Shallows back when it was a digital-only release! Now it's getting a print edition and is already looking gorgeous. If you're looking for a TTRPG about small town kids going on adventures and solving mysteries, this is a really fun one.
   
• Precious Things started as a one-pager before evolving into a zine by Graftbound's Lucas Zellers & Emily Entner. It's another indie darling getting an expanded hardcover release, and it's really great to see Wet Ink Games taking a chance on a creative team steadily making more and more of a name for themselves. Draw cards, roll dice, and hoard treasure in a cozy TTRPG all about dragons.
   
• Space Gits is a dexterity-based, rules-lite, miniature-agnostic skirmish game you can play in under and hour. It welcomes and encourages kitbashing, includes a full-on campaign system, and most importantly, has you stacking and throwing dice at d6 towers. If you're familiar with my game HOUNDs, you'll know I LOVE games with dice-stacking mechanics. If you've been miniature-curious, this is a great place to start, and a reprint of the game is available as well as an expansion!

That's all for now!

Folks have been great about reaching out with any questions already, but if you need anything at all, don't hesitate to shoot me a message on Kickstarter and I'll get back to you! Much more to come, and see you on the Thousand Moons!

All best,

T