Despite its many critics, there's no denying that Kickstarter can be a tremendous force for a unique project. Storium is the perfect example- it's the kind of game you never would have even heard about before, but now it's got thousands of people already signed on, ready to be a part of the community. Designer Stephen Hood managed to successfully fund the game in less than a day!
Storium is in Beta right now but the simple way to explain it is as an online storytelling game. A narrator creates challenges for the characters, who are each controlled by a different player. They complete them by playing cards and writing what their characters do. It seems to require a ton of imagination and creativity and really leave it to players to make their own way through the game, much the same as an RPG. It's also asynchronous and can be played on your computer or even specific interfaces for your mobile devices.
As of this writing the Kickstarter has more than doubled its goal and it still has 21 days to go. A $10 pledge will get you beta access to immediately try out the game. When it's finally released a membership will cost $25 a year, although if you pledge $20 to the game you not only get into the currently-ongoing Beta but access to a year's worth of content after it launches around November 2014. Pledge $40 and you get a year's membership plus early and ongoing access to every world they fund through the Kickstarter. There are currently ten worlds being funded from a diverse group of authors and game creators, from Jason Morningstar (Fiasco) and Stephen Blackmoore (Dead Things). The more funding they get the more writers get paid to create new worlds. It's immediately obvious that the system will work in whatever location you could imagine. It's pretty exciting stuff.
Full disclosure- I backed this game immediately after hearing about it. As someone who's played tabletop games like Fiasco using Google Hangouts and Pathfinder via roll20.net before, this sounds like the best of both worlds, especially since the game is asynchronous. As you get older it's harder to round people up for a regular game night so the option to play at your own pace is a great one. Can't wait to see how this works- back it for yourself right here and expect to hear much more on Storium in the future.
