September Update - Quick Update (TL, DR - PDF Draft One in 1-2 Weeks)
over 1 year ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 10:05:14 AM

Hey Folks-

I had hoped you'd have a shiny new KCLL PDF Draft in your hands by now - even if it wasn't complete - but as I've been trying to get it together I decided to give it another couple weeks here. I expect you'll get the first draft in about 1-2 weeks (which probably means 2 weeks, because since when I have ever been early). That draft will not be complete, but will have most of the player options (classes, subclasses, feats, spells, etc). It may have the Battle System, but it will not have the monster section (monsters + monster feats).

So... what's the hold up? It comes down to how the process of compiling the draft works. Right now most of the work is in art, editing, and playtesting. These all involve me (not offloading who's holding things up here!) but these - ideally - work somewhat in parallel. But as things are loaded into the draft, they become less and less parallel, as only one person (that'd be me) can be updating the draft at a time, and adding things to the draft that need to be immediately updated is terribly inefficient.

At the end of the day, the main hold up has just been that there's a lot of content in the book. While I knew that when setting timelines, the more player focused nature of the content (compared to KCCC) has resulted in longer playtesting windows than I expected, which in turn delayed when editing could get done, which in turn delayed when layout could get done, etc.

That said, we are getting there. The current draft I have open and am hammering out is just shy of 200 pages, and I have lots to shovel in still.

The first draft will still have a ways to go before the final draft. At this point I don't really expect the final draft until toward the end of the year. This does mean that the VTT and the book will both be delayed probably at least a few months. We'll get the first draft soon; after that we'll get the content complete draft, and then we'll get the final edited draft (as the last editing and art is loaded into the draft).

I don't have the exact timeline for all of those, beyond that they should move relatively quick once we get the first draft, but relatively quick when they are beyond schedule and are still behind schedule.

I'll make another update when the Draft is available, which should be in 1-2 weeks. In the meantime, I've been sharing the last few content chunks that are going through playtesting on the Discord over in the Drafting Room, and we can expect a few more things there as we get toward compiling this on the road.

All the best,

-Kibbles

August Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 02, 2023 at 10:44:27 AM

Hey Folks-

Status Update

Very short update this time around, as there's not much to add from last month and hopefully we'll get another update this month when the PDF is available. At this point I do expect the PDF to available this month, but that it won't be the final version. As noted in previous updates, things are definitely running late, but not drastically so.

Backerkit will lock orders when the PDF becomes available (this is because it sort of has to), but folks will still be able to update their address at any time until the books actually ship (which is expected to be early next year still, but I will keep folks updated there as the PDF is ready for print).

Dungeon Scribe Item Kickstarter Shout Out

Like lost month, I have a Kickstarter to share! This time it's the Tome of Magical Oddities by Dungeon Scribe. Dungeon Scribe is long-running item creator and all-around friendly bloke who was happy to share out my Kickstarter back in the day, and I'm more than happy to return that favor now that he's got his Kickstarter up and running, as it looks like a great project for anyone that needs a giant pile of additional magic items for 5e - over 500 of them! Fully illustrated and with all sorts of useful add-ons like very pretty item cards, it's something pretty much any DM could find a good addition to their game.

It's full funded and in its final week, so tarry not and go check it out if it sounds like what you need!

All the best,

-Kibbles

July Update - Hammering away! An update on progress and estimating timelines
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 03, 2023 at 01:35:48 PM

Hey Folks-

The Update

So, not to bury the lead here, I think I'm running a little late at this point against initial estimates. Not majorly but I was hoping to get the first draft into your hands in June, and now I'm think it won't be till later this month. Obviously that's still well ahead of the delivery schedule itself (August), but that's just a draft that needs more editing and art, so if that's this month, the rest of the timelines are likely to be pushed back a little - at this point I estimate a month, but I'll keep folks in the loop. I just want you folks to know what I know as far as estimates go.

Ultimately it's mostly down to there being a lot of a stretch goals to hammer out, as well as some delays around the health issues (not to dwell on such things, but I'm doing better after surgery last month, and seem to be doing well). I think it's mostly good news looking forward on all of those rounds, and I can report quite a bit of progress on hammering out the remaining chunks of stuff. Last update I'd hammered out the Battle System Alpha 2 and Spellblade 1.1, and this time around I can report having just sent along Warden 1.3 to playtesters and editors which brings four new subclasses (Dragon, Astral, Time, and Bone!) which rounds that out to all that'll be in the book.

Next Up

Next up is the Occultist (with Voidwatcher and Witch Doctor), Blood Magic Expansion Update (with the Blood Magic subclass for Spellblade), and the last lingering Warlord option (Spellweaver).

As always, if you want to see the content as it rolls of the presses, you can stop by the drafting room on the Discord, or stay tuned for the first PDF draft.

I do think we'll get the draft this month, though I won't sign anything in blood yet, or promise it'll have every last thing in it. The process is starting to be come parallel at this point with editors, artists, and me all working on stuff in sequence, but as I'm also the layout bloke, it does mean it'll have to filter back through me again before it's finished.

Shout Out - Caliya’s Chronicle of Runes

A good friend of mine is running an excellent 5e Kickstarter at the moment - Caliya's Chronicle of Runes.

This project is made by a long time friend of mine (TheArenaGuy) who's been working on this project for a long time. He was originally going to be launching at the same time as my Kickstarter and I was more than happy to offer cross promotion then - it didn't end up overlapping, but I'm all the more confident he's got things lined up for an excellent project with that, so I'm happy to give it a shout out here.

The theme of the book is runes (with 350+ of them!), but its also got subclasses, races and subraces (50+) and a monster section. He's had smashing success and already cleared a well deserved 100k, but if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. As a cool add on, he's created a bunch of fantasy fonts to include, from fancied up legible ones (like below), to completely exotic scripts of all sorts as a fun bonus. He typed this up for me:

...and even has a full on page over here to translate into a few of his fancy fonts, with even more in the Kickstarter.

Anyway, I highly recommend folks check it out - it's got a book plus all the trappings folks could want from FoundryVTT versions to minis and dice and all that fun stuff, and is well past funded and into stretch goals.

Wrap Up

Hopefully next time you hear from me I'll have a draft for you, but either way I'll have an update for you. As always, you can follow along in the blow by blow on my Discord, and always feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

All the best,

-Kibbles

June Update - Final Voting Results, Spellblade and Warden Updates, Battle System Alpha 2, and general status.
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 08, 2023 at 02:40:03 PM

Hey Folks-

Going forward I'll be doing monthly updates just to give you the general status and expectations. Those that have followed my previous project will remember these, and it's just a goal to give you a general update for those not following on the Discord or similar. Some of these will be short, but they just let you know what's happening. They'll come near the start of each month and summarize the last month and what will probably come in the next month, as well as any updates to the schedules.

There's not too much to say this month yet, but I'm working away on stuff. I'll give a quick rundown of some information:

•  The First PDF Draft. The first draft is still expected near the end of this month, though I won't guarantee it. The first PDF draft will be incomplete, particularly in sections like the monster section.
•  Voter's Choice Round 3. Voter's Choice Round 3 was one last round to save 2 additional subclasses from the list posted in the last update (the runner ups in the polls so far), and those winners ended up being the Witch Doctor Occultist and the Dragon Warden. Despite being added to the poll somewhat late (due to an error on my part) Dragon Warden pulled 36.6% of the vote, barely edging out the Spellblade options, while Witch Doctor Occultist was the easy 1st place with 38.2% of the vote.
•  Warden Update. Warden fans can rejoice further as the patreon supporters have selected Bone Wardenover on their side. The next Warden update is aiming add the Astral Warden (Voter's Choice Round 1), Time Warden (Voter's Choice Round 2), Dragon Warden (Redemption Round), and Bone Warden (Patreon Poll) for a record 4 new subclasses. It's a mighty update, so will take a while to chew on, but I think it'll be available next week.
•  Spellblade 1.1. The new spellblade update brought all the new subclasses for the book, Flying Sword (Voter's Choice Round 1), Mage Hunter (Patreon Poll), Spellfist (Voter's Choice Round 2), and Iceblade (Bonus Content). As it held down places #3 and #4 on the Redemption Round, I'm confident we'll see more Spellblade content in the future, though now I have something for future patreon polls and books.
•  Battle System Alpha 2. Alpha 2 was recently shared on Discord. This isn't quite finished yet, but is a pretty big step forward from Alpha 1. This is the biggest piece of stretch goal content in terms of what I need to get done, and I think Alpha 2 is mostly there, but there's a lot of details to fill in. Alpha 2 is somewhat further along than it may sound as there's about 2-3 versions that didn't make it out of internal testing, but still may need some polish.
•  VTT Versions. The FoundryVTT alpha will be made available to backers roughly when the first PDF is. It already exists for testers and patrons, but isn't really polished up yet, particularly in regards to v11 yet. For Shard, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds, those versions will come later (as previously scheduled and estimated). Early versions may be available once their developers start work, but I'm not promising anything there, beyond that currently they all seem like they'll be on schedule if the PDF is. In the interest of transparency, the Roll20 developer I had previously had an arrangement with did have to drop out of the project, but I've gotten another one based on their recommendation (someone who has done several major projects like this before). For those that wonder why the FoundryVTT version is on a different schedule, it's simply that's what is used by the playtesters, so its the only version that has a pre-release alpha version.
•  Art updates. The schedule is still on track, but if I had to flag a concern is that I'm running behind with art assets - particularly for the monster section. To be clear, the bottleneck is still me here, I just need to get artists their work faster, and find more artists. Not a major concern, but there was a lot of new art needed from stuff in the stretch goals. Art can slot in later, so I'm not alarmed yet, but it's possible we'll see a delay here.
• Kickstarter Accounts with Apple IDs. I think many of you have already reached out to get it fixed, but there's a problem with Kickstarter accounts that use Apple IDs, since the Apple ID forwarding service doesn't forward Backerkit emails. If you used an Apple ID to create your KS account, please reach out and I can help you resolve it.

As some folks know, I've had some ongoing medical issues this year, and ended up with having surgery last week. Hopefully that's the last chapter of the issues, but that's meant a somewhat slow start to this month as I've been recovering from that. I think I'm more or less back at it now, so I would expect a health rate of new stuff on the Discord over the next few weeks, hopefully leading up the first compiled PDF draft this month, but I don't want to promise that too firmly yet.

As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. You can reach out to me here, or over on my Discord server, where I can usually be found.

All the best,

-Kibbles

Voter's Choice Round 3! + Updates & Art
over 1 year ago – Fri, May 05, 2023 at 01:02:25 PM

Polling Update

So to start with, Voter's Choice Round 2 is complete, and we are into Round 3.

Round 2 Winners:

• Warden: Time (42.2%)
• Warlord: Spellweaver (43.2%)
• Spellblade: Spellfist (33.9%)

Now we are on to the third and final round - the Redemption Round. This round will be a bit different in that all the runner ups of the round 1 and 2 will be competing for a final spot.

• Dragon Warden
• Bone Warden
• Undeath Warlord
• Witch Doctor Occultist
• Glyph Knight Spellblade
• Duskblade Spellblade
• Bandit Lord Warlord

Because we funded the redemption round++, the Wild Card poll will be not compete with the runner ups, but be its own standalone option based off ideas submitted. Some ideas from the poll were not included because they seem too challenge to make, while some are not included because they will already be included - an example being a Dancer subclass; I'll probably include the Dancer subclass for Warlord, so despite it appear on the suggestion form a bunch of times, I'm not adding it to the Wildcard poll, similarly, Bounty Hunter is there a few times, but Bounty Hunter Ranger is already slated to be included, etc.

Lastly, I've included the two runner up spell themes from poll 1 to vote in one more group of spells.

With that, Round 3 is OPEN FOR VOTING!

Kickstarter Progress Update

While it might seem like there's nothing but polling, plenty has gotten done. I think we might get the first draft of the PDF by the end of this month or next, but don't expect it to be complete yet (that comes in August!). So far I think we are mostly on track. The stretch goals and Battle System (which was also a stretch goal I suppose) are taking a little while to flesh out, but they are moving along.

The FoundryVTT module for KCLL is being tested out by playtesters and patrons in its beta form, and I'll probably roll that out when I roll out the PDF draft.

I haven't gotten too far into wholesale layout yet, but that's not usually the most time intensive part. If I had one concern to flag it might be the schedule art - the art is coming out fast, but there's a lot of it (a lot of the stretch goal content also needs new art). Even so, the bottle neck on that is still mostly me rather than the artists, so I just need to make sure I get folks coordinated and commissioned. I don't foresee it running over schedule, but I like to keep folks informed, and that the draft will probably be missing some of the final art.

There is plenty of new art to share though:

With that I will leave you to your Friday!

As always, I'm always open to any questions, comments, or feedback. I will be launching the Kibbles' Spring 2023 survey soon which isn't necessarily related to the Kickstarter, but does help guide what I make. I'll probably share that in an update later this month, so no need to keep an eye out.

I'm almost always available over on the Discord, and as a reminder that a lot of the content is available in its current testing format over on my site for those most eager. I just shared 3 new subclasses from the last patreon poll (Green Knight Fighter, Dream Domain Cleric, and The Ooze Warlock) which are all candidates for inclusion in the book (new work going forward outside of the Voter's Choice options will be candidates for the book rather than included automatically like my older stuff, since there's got to be a cut off eventually to actually make sure it gets published!)