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News Roundup: Backerkit's Mothership Month Launches into Stratosphere
The sci-fi/horror TTRPG Mothership has successfully raised more than $600,000 in the first week of its community effort to create new booklets and games via Backerkit crowdfunding.
Christopher Hutton
October 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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This week, we take a look at Backerkit and Tuesday Knight’s MOTHERSHIP MONTH. We also have a short story on the passing of a fellow TTRPG journalist as well as a look at how IP for Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings might change The One Ring.
In This Edition
Mothership Month Successfully Funds a Space Station
Mothership, Tuesday Knight Games’ sci-fi/horror TTRPG, has remained a consistently popular property with an actively loyal player base. If you don’t believe me, look to Mothership Month, Backerkit’s special event hosting 27 Mothership-related crowdfunding campaigns. The original Mothership Month was an outstanding success, raising more than $1 million in November 2024 for 21 different projects. The same can be said of the second, which started on October 14 and has successfully raised enough funds for all of the creators.
This year’s version of the Mothership Month event is focused on Prospero’s Dream, a campaign setting written by the Mothership team that expands the lore of the original Mothership pamphlet A Pound of Flesh by adding new quests, lore and characters. All other projects are focused on the Dream and are providing plot hooks, plot arcs and other things that someone could include to create their own campaign.
This year’s theme—The Dream Returns—calls back to our award-winning module, A Pound of Flesh, and its setting on Prospero’s Dream, the overcrowded space station where ambition and desperation collide. In 2025, that dream resurfaces as we open up the setting for all third party publishers to utilize in their creations. That's right, every module this year will be connected to A Pound of Flesh, and the Dream. The best campaign-hub in sci-fi is about to get even better.
And if you already blew up the Dream in your home campaign, stay tuned, because we've got some special books in store just for you.
Tuesday Knight is also running OVER/UNDER, a “massively multiplayer online real-time play-by-post faction war set on the Dream.” It’s a Discord game that will go on all month, and posts on Bluesky do reflect quite a bit of excitement among fans about the ongoing story there.
The campaign still has over three weeks remaining, but has raised more than $600,000 as of October 18, 2025. I would not be surprised to see the entire project cross the $1 million mark by the end of the event and perhaps raise more than its predecessor. But this event is setting a precedent that will hopefully spark similar levels of excitement for smaller games, such as Backerkit’s upcoming Mausritter Month. It’s also proof that Mothership is maintaining the attention of its fans years after its initial launch.
TTRPG Journalist/Designer Rob Wieland Passes Away at 48
Rob Wieland
The TTRPG community was struck with tragedy last week when Rob Wieland, 48, passed away. We don’t know the cause of death but it struck a lot of us in the space. He regularly wrote for outlets like Geek and Sundry, Forbes, and EN World. He also worked as a game designer and as the organizer of Theatre of the Mind Players, a local AP group. His wife and young daughter succeeded him.
Everyone seemed to have nothing but good things to say about his work as a reporter and as a designer. I never knew Rob myself, but I respected him from afar. TTRPG journalism is already a tiny space, so seeing it grow smaller in light of his sudden death stings even more.
Members of the community are attempting to raise funds to help his family out, while others are organizing a “Remembering Rob Wieland Storytime Hour” at Gamehole Con in Wisconsin this weekend.
Our prayers go out to Wieland’s family.
Other Stories from This Week
D&D teased ‘Circle Magic’, a new mechanic that it is introducing in the upcoming Forgotten Realms-themed expansion later this year.
The Dungeon Dudes, best known for the grimdark Drakkenheim setting, are expanding their world with a conversion of Dungeons of Drakkenheim into a Daggerheart format. The campaign’s preorder page launched on Kickstarter this week.
Mongoose Publishing and Demiplane are teaming up to release character builders for the sci-fi TTRPG Traveller later this winter. No date has been set so far.
Anjali Bhimani, best known as one of the many guest stars on Critical Role, is organizing a sequel to her actual play one-shot known as The Puppy Roll, which raised funds for local pet organizations.
Dungeon Crawler Carl raised more than $1.5 million on Kickstarter just to publish special editions of books 2 and 3 in the series. I really need to pay more attention to DCC.
Mutants and Masterminds publisher Green Ronin is entering into mediation alongside other companies with Diamond Comic Distributors, the logistics company holding hundreds of thousands of dollars of product, intending to sell it off to pay off the distributor’s bankruptcy debt.
The WWII-meets-Lovecraft game Achtung Cthulhu is getting a new campaign set in Norway from Modiphius Entertainment. The book will be released in January 2026.
Kobold Press hired two team members to oversee its online communities and social media.
Asmodee Takes Over Lord of the Rings at the Table, Sparking Uncertainty for The One Ring 2e
Asmodee
Asmodee is best known as one of the largest board game makers. And now it will control all of the IP when it comes to tabletop gaming and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. A new strategic agreement between Asmodee and Middle-earth Enterprises was released on October 7, 2025. The contract basically states that Asmodee holds and controls all the rights when it comes to making LOTR or Hobbit-related board and role-playing games.
“Becoming the exclusive category manager for such iconic works is an exciting milestone and a testament to 25 years of a successful relationship with Middle-earth Enterprises” said Thomas Koegler, CEO of asmodee. “Our teams share a passion for connecting people, creating memorable experiences and immersive storytelling that have resonated with fans around the world. We’re looking forward to ensuring that high-quality, innovative tabletop games set in Middle-earth, whether coming from our studios or external publishers to asmodee, continue to meet and exceed fan expectations. This also speaks to our broader commitment to maximizing strategic collaborations with IP owners to develop worlds that inspire players.”
This shouldn’t be too surprising considering that Asmodee regularly releases games like the Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-taking Game and its upcoming sequels. But it does ask a lot of questions about the LOTR TTRPGs on the market. Free League Publishing currently owns the rights to The One Ring 2e and Lord of the Rings 5e after acquiring the license from Cubicle 7 in 2020. Will the Swedish publisher continue to release One Ring books or is the ownership about to be transferred? What should fans be expecting? Keep an eye out.
Free League has not commented on this development yet, so it remains unclear about the fate of its project. TTRPG Insider will give you an update once we know more.
Reporting from TTRPG Insider
First up this week was our DEFINITIVE GUIDE to the Gamefound 2025 RPG Party, covering 23 creators and their unique projects. Several of them have successfully funded while others are still fighting to do so. Make sure you check them all out if you have not had a chance.
And our second story this week was an interview with Nerdburger Games and its legacy in the TTRPG industry.
That’s all for this week. Have thoughts on a recent story? Want to promote your latest product? Feel free to send us tips or emails at [email protected].