Forge Your Fate: The Nexus Tracking System

Forge Your Fate: Nexus Tracking System — Kickstarter Story

🎲 The Problem

Every tabletop group has been there: the scribbled-over character sheet, the dry-erase board that smudges mid-combat, the phone app that pulls everyone's eyes off the table and into their screens.

Tracking HP, conditions, spell slots, and resources should feel like part of the game — not a chore that interrupts it.

Nexus helps you track it all with a real, physical click. Every adjustment is a tactile, satisfying click — the result of precisely toleranced, fully 3D-printed parts fitting together just right. No batteries, no app, no automation. Just a system that makes tracking feel like part of the game instead of a break from it.

🛠️ Who's Building This

Hi, I'm Joe.

A few years ago this started as a tabletop and 3D-printing hobby. Today, alongside a regular 9-5, I'm running a real printer farm (3 - Bambu Lab X1-Carbons, H2D and Elegoo Saturn 4) pouring nights and weekends into designing, prototyping, and printing every piece of this system myself, from first sketch to final file.

Nexus is built on more modern manufacturing standards from the ground up — delivered as STEP and 3MF files, not the outdated formats a lot of tabletop gear still ships in.

❤️ Why This Project, Why Me

This isn't just a product I decided to make. It's the table I actually play at and influenced by those around me.

My wife introduced me to a podcast that sparked a renewed interest in immersive tabletop gaming.

My own gaming group — M. Friend, T. Jane, and A. Miller behind the DM screen — has been the test bench for every prototype, every click, every redesign.

Nexus exists because my table needed it. If your table is anything like mine, I think it'll change how you play too.

⚙️ What You're Getting

Backing this campaign gets you the 3D-printable files for the Nexus Tracking System — not a pre-printed physical product. You'll print the parts yourself.

• Modular tracker system built around 5E mechanics, designed to stay flexible enough for other systems too
• The signature "click" comes from carefully toleranced, fully 3D-printed interlocking parts
• Delivered as STEP  and 3MF project files
  • (STEP files are smaller, have higher detail and cleaner edges to create a better quality print and are fully supported by major FDM slicers like Bambu and Prusa Slicer)

🚀 What's On the Horizon

I'm already prototyping magnetic wheel trackers — a version of Nexus where the wheels themselves click magnetically. I've got it working, but haven't cracked how to make it elegant beyond two wheels wide yet. If I solve it in time, this could become a stretch goal or add-on. A full PDF guide is also on the stretch goal list.

Beyond the campaign, this is a living project. I'll be building alongside backers in our Discord, sharing prototypes, taking feedback, and providing updates in the open.

📦 Reward Tiers

• Tier 1 — 9 different-sized bases, plus 70+ interchangeable wheels to mix and match
• Tier 2 — Everything in Tier 1, plus bases purpose-built for the things you're already tracking — money, spell slots, replenishable abilities — each with the item's name recessed right into the base, so you always know what you're looking at
• Tier 3 — Everything in Tiers 1 and 2, plus additional nests with removable nameplates. This is where the magnets come in: swap a nameplate and any tracker can be re-purposed to track something new on the fly

🎯 The Ask

Back Nexus not just because it's a cool idea — back it because you know the table it's designed for. Help me bring this from my print farm to yours.