When Gary Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1986 he founded, along Forrest Baker, a short lived gaming company called New Infinities Productions (NIP). Among its releases therre was the Cyborg Commando SF RPG, signed by Gary Gygax himself, Kim Mohan and Frank Mentzer but actually written just by Mentzer. The game was rushed to print before the design process was completed, according to Mentzer, due to a decision by Don Turnbull (CEO of NIP after Forrest Baker left with a lot of acrimony) who was desperate to have products to sell. To help funding the game, NIP launched a subscription campaign where backers paid the game before its release ($ 12,50) to get a 'special limited edition' of Cyborg Commando. Yes, it looks very similar to the crowdfunding campaigns of today. People got back a special preview booklet (16 pages long with extracts from the game and some promotion) and a copy of the game that was the very same 'normal' buyers got but with a signed and njumbered Certificate of Authenticity (we own Certificate 157).
Today both the Certificate and the 'special preview booklet' are very rare and many collectors do not know about them. As usual such ephemera got thrown away very quickly.
