N.O. Tech Startup Aims to Bring Roleplaying Games to the Blockchain

NEW ORLEANS — Gripnr, a Web3 know-how firm bringing tabletop video games to the blockchain, in the present day introduced its preliminary $2.5M funding spherical alongside its first 5E sport and genesis NFT assortment, The Glimmering.

The corporate stated the oversubscribed funding spherical closed in 60 days. Funds are coming from XBTO Humla Ventures, Sopris Capital, Voodoo Ventures, Higher Angels, Abstraction Ventures and Carl Sparks (managing associate of Interlock), as properly a collection of New Orleans-based traders.

With The Glimmering’s launch, Gripnr hopes to ascertain an industry-standard protocol for all tabletop RPG video games seeking to construct on the blockchain. With its preliminary funding, Gripnr will design the gameplay, construct the on-chain gaming platform, and launch the genesis NFT assortment. As well as, it can finance and help the discharge of extra tabletop video games and different sport designers and artists who wish to use the corporate’s new protocol.

“Web3 has a house in New Orleans, and Gripnr is laying the muse,” stated Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Better New Orleans Inc., in a press launch. GNO Inc. is a nonprofit regional financial growth group primarily based in downtown New Orleans. “This very profitable funding spherical is a sign that traders – native and across the nation – imagine that Gripnr might be a seminal product, porting a basic analogue expertise into the web3 future.”

The Glimmering’s genesis NFTs of 10,000 particular person characters embody hand-drawn attributes designed particularly for gameplay. Every character can have distinctive rarities which embody courses, ancestry, expertise, and background, and ongoing character information might be saved on the blockchain. Members of the Gripnr neighborhood who mint the genesis assortment will obtain advantages straight away whereas ready for the on-chain play to start.

“We’re centered on constructing an lively, respectful and tremendous superior neighborhood of tabletop gaming followers and NFT collectors who wish to be a part of our imaginative and prescient of bringing 5E gameplay to the blockchain,” stated Brent McCrossen, CEO of Gripnr. “Gripnr was created to help the gamers, sport masters, artists and sport designers which have made TTRPGs for the final 50 years.”

To achieve entry to the pre-sale mint listing, followers should take part in Gripnr’s #roll2mint actions to validate curiosity within the sport. Actions included in #roll2mint are:

Be part of and work together with Gripnr’s neighborhood on Discord, Twitter and Instagram
Be part of Twitter Areas or Clubhouse hours
Play fast, one-shot adventures offered throughout the channels that introduce the world of The Glimmering

Gripnr’s workforce of enormous venture-backed tech founders consists of entrepreneur Patrick Comer, whose analysis know-how platform Lucid was acquired final yr for over $1 billion; CEO and music {industry} veteran Brent McCrossen; artistic director and company veteran Kyle Mortensen; lead artist and rock poster designer Justin Kamerer; sport developer Stephen Radney-MacFarland; and CTO Luke Ledet

“After the acquisition of Lucid, I used to be on the lookout for my subsequent frontier,” stated Comer. “As a lifelong Dungeons & Dragons participant, it was clear to me that tabletop roleplaying video games are the right use case for the blockchain, so I made a decision to leap in and produce different players alongside for the experience.”