Pinoy Tabletop RPG ‘ARC’ Has Made Six Times Its Kickstarter Goal in Just One Week

Kickstarter has always been championing unique tabletop experiences, and one unique RPG from The Philippines has exceeded the expectations of everyone on board.

ARC is a rules-light, tension-heavy tabletop RPG where humble heroes rise to slay the apocalypse. ARC is not tied to a setting and can be adapted to the player’s favourite world, even their own unique creation and method of ending the world.

Utilizing a real-time Doomsday Clock system that will literally count down to the apocalypse alongside a seamless single-dice system, ARC helps build high-urgency stories with satisfying pay-offs.

Similar to Dungeons and Dragons, players create a hero and role-play across adventures, but unlike the father of all role-playing games, the quests don’t last forever, the clock will eventually run out and doomsday will occur.

Since ARC's launch on June 1, it has gained swift funding, following in the successful footsteps of Our Shores, the very first RPGSEA Kickstarter, and Once More Into The Void, an indie RPG written by fellow Philippine game designer Jamila Nedjadi.

Once More Into the Void recently completed their campaign 10 June, unlocking all stretch goals with the help of over 1400 backers.

ARC is published and managed by Exalted Funeral, whose past Kickstarters have all been successfully funded cumulatively over US$400,000. They are the third publisher to launch a Southeast Asian tabletop Kickstarter since the beginning of the year.

At the time of writing, over US$46,000 has been pledged, making about six times the initial US$ 7,000 goal. The campaign so far has 1,095 backers with three weeks remaining.

ARC is a project of love that is designed, written, illustrated and laid out by Bianca Canoza, a solo indie Filipina game designer.

Known as ‘momatoes’ online, she has steadily worked on ARC since 2019 while juggling a day job, health concerns, and the burden of limited opportunities available to Southeast Asian RPG creators.

ARC spreads the opportunity to fellow creators as it includes three SEA game designers and three SEA illustrators as its content stretch goals. All these goals were unlocked within a few hours of launch.

The fourth stretch goal increases everyone's pay, which is a rarity in Kickstarters. It follows Canoza’s long-term advocacy to uplift the SEA community, beginning with her work as the creator and admin of the website Across RPGSEA.

Check out ARC for yourself over on the Kickstarter page.