Monte Cook, co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition and creator of the Cypher System, has launched Jewel in the Sky on BackerKit as part of Mega Dungeon Month, a promotional event spotlighting large-scale dungeon crawl campaigns throughout April. It's already nearly tripled its $50,000 goal, sitting at close to $147,000 from over 1,300 backers with three weeks still to go.
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Start organising for freeJewel in the Sky is two megadungeons in one. The setting is an eight-mile-long island floating 1,000 feet above distant mountains, riddled with mysterious passages, strange inhabitants called "visitors," and a gravity-defying mineral that can power airships. You can run it as a fantasy adventure, complete with magic and whimsy, or flip the premise and play it as sci-fi, exploring what feels like an abandoned alien megastructure. Same physical space, completely different tones.
The deluxe boxed set ($149) ships as three separate books for easier table management, plus maps, creature and cypher cards, handouts, and a "Twin Clocks Timer" that tracks progress. Multiple stretch goals have already unlocked, adding extra content to the boxed set.
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See how it worksBeyond co-designing D&D 3rd Edition with Jonathan Tweet and Skip Williams, Cook created Numenera and the broader Cypher System, which prioritises narrative-first play and streamlined mechanics. If you've bounced off megadungeons before because they felt like a grind, Cypher's focus on story over crunch might be the version that clicks.
The campaign runs until 1 May 2026.
Sources: BackerKit Campaign | Monte Cook Games | Bell of Lost Souls
