August Update
over 2 years 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 2 years 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.
almost 3 years 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
almost 3 years 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!)

Voter's Choice Round 2!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 07, 2023 at 03:41:10 PM

Hey Folks-

Voter's Choice Round 2

Sorry this took a little longer than I expected, but we are now on Voter's Choice Round 2. Round 1 received over 3,000 votes, which is a very good turn out (and part of why validation took a little longer than expected!), and had some interesting results. The Round 1 Winners were...

• Warden: Astral (42.9%)
• Occultist: Voidwatcher(51.6% - the only thing to get over 50% of the votes!)
• Warlord: Dreadlord/Tyrant(47%)
• Spellblade: Flying Sword(39.7%)
• Spell Theme: Gravity Spells (46.3%)

Keep in mind that the runner ups will be included for potential redemption in Round 3 (if a runner up wins in Round 2, the 3rd place will be used as the runner up in Round 3 against the Round 2 Runner Up, etc).

The runners-up were Time Warden (40.4%), Witch Doctor (46.7%), Spellweaver Warlord (46%), and Glyph Knight (37.8%). After getting opinions on both sides of the fence, I'm not going to release the full voting totals to avoid biasing the results of Round 2, but I may release all the voting data at the end if folks are curious. I'm revealing the runner ups here just because they'll be included in Round 3... though winning Round 3 will be harder, so vote your favorite options in for Round 2!

I've also dropped the lowest rated option from each (Psion Warden (15.7%), Hierophant (23%), Divine Warlord (20.3%), Buff Blade Spellblade (15.9%).

All races were pretty close - particularly at the start. None of the ones that ended up winning were winning at the end of the first day besides Gravity Spells (which took the lead from the start and never lost it). It does seem there is a pretty large astral bias with Astral Warden, Voidwatcher Occultist, and Gravity Spells all taking home gold in the first round, so we'll see how things go with those out of the running.

To answer some questions that came up last time.

• Your email does not have to match your Google Account. The Google account is just to make it harder to vote multiple times, since validating the vote is a pain.
• You can vote for as many options as you want for each option. The top option will win. The second place will be included in Round 3.

I was fairly surprised by what ended up winning. I only predicted the winner of 2 categories correctly, though one more of my predictions was a Runner Up. Spellblade was the most surprising to me, as I didn't have either of those options in my top 3.

Patreon is currently voting on a Warden option as well, so if they end up picking the same option as the Voter's Choice here, it'll take second place from the Voter's Choice poll as its winner. As there's been some confusion on that, the Patreon polls aren't really tied to the KS, it's just part of the patreon that they get to vote on a player option choice every month or so.

Voting will be open for at least a week, and probably a little longer.

General Updates

The KCCC Digital Rewards have been distributed through Backerkit. This means KCCC PDF, VTT, Token, Art, etc rewards are available through Backerkit. KCCC is the last Kickstarter. KCLL (this Kickstarter) is expected to distribute the PDF in August, though I think we'll see an early version and incomplete version of the PDF next month. As always, if you are looking to stay as up to date as possible, there are already versions available on the website for many things, and I share new content in the Discord as I post it.

All the best,

-Kibbles