A Binghamton University alumnus launched a second campaign for his new novel and adjunct role-playing book earlier this month.
Nicholas Pellegrino ’22, founder and owner of Game Quill LLC, launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to introduce his new fantasy novel, “Wealth Mountain.” The book is about four goblin tribes that send a tribute on a quest into Wealth Mountain with very few survival skills, and follows the difficulties along their journey. According to the Kickstarter website, along with the novel, a separate role-playing book can be purchased that allows readers to incorporate the novel’s fantasy world into their own role-playing game.
Nicholas Pellegrino graduated with degrees in computer science and mathematics. Since his freshman year, Pellegrino has been actively involved in the formation of his company Game Quill LLC. Pellegrino said his company began through the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator (KSTI), a nonprofit outlet that supports the growth of startup businesses — particularly those initiated by student entrepreneurs.
“While being a Watson [School of Engineering and Applied Science] student, I was able to connect to a professor and the [KSTI], which helped me start my company,” Pellegrino said. “I started Game Quill LLC in 2019 at the state final at the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC). I met with some mentors there and that summer I founded the company.”
According to the Game Quill website, his first launch featured a handheld card game that had a successful Kickstarter launch, surpassing its original monetary goal by over 400 percent.
Pellegrino’s second and current project — his fantasy novel — was formed through his experience playing Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) with his friends.
“In 2019, I learned about DnD, and it introduced me to tabletop role-playing games [(TTRPG)] and fantasy as a genre,” Pellegrino said. “A few years later [I] became a gamemaster. Doing that for a while got me into world building, and that directly led me to the book I made. I did a lot of writing classes in scholars. I learned to love writing at the [KSTI] BU.”
Pellegrino began drafting his book in 2022, and continued to edit and revise the story throughout the year, before finalizing it in 2023.
Along with the fantasy novel, the second campaign includes a separate book called the “Yiklar Book of Role-playing Game Enhancement,” also available for purchase. The book is meant to be used by readers to continue the lore of the original novel in their own game.
“This way the book never ends,” Pellegrino said. “With the second book, you can keep experiencing this world further.”
Madison Sassone, a sophomore majoring in psychology, shared her support of a second book being included for purchase.
“I think this really elevates the reading experience,” Sassone said. “Instead of feeling sad that the book ended, you can keep experiencing the story with your own characters and gameplay. You can continue the book however you want to.”
Pellegrino’s second campaign will remain on Kickstarter for the next two months. His current goal is to crowdfund $1000 for this current project. Interested readers can back the project on Kickstarter and preorder the novel and adjunct role-playing book from Yiklar, the game’s official website.
Joey Zhang, a sophomore majoring in computer science, found Pellegrino’s experience developing his game at BU to be fascinating.
“It’s interesting how he started off as a computer science major, but he was still able to incorporate his passion for writing in his career,” Zhang said. “I’m glad BU offers resources that help students reach their goal.”
Pellegrino spoke about taking advantage of the opportunities given in life.
“You’re going to have more than one dream,” Pellegrino said. “You should try out as many things as you can to gain experiences and new skills.”