I wanted to take a moment and talk about our next big project The Painted Wastelands for 5e. This is something I've always talked about doing and feel now is the time for us to begin. The biggest motivator for me was my recent booth at Phoenix Fan Fusion and GenCon. I had multiple conversations with folks excited about The Painted Wastelands and it would usually go like this:
Me: Finishes excitedly talking about how you can play as a cat. Them: Is this for 5th Edition? Me: No actually, it's for Old School Essentials, which is an updated version of basic and expert D&D.
Then I just watch the light fade from their eyes. It happened a lot.
I get this sentiment. I've never really been a person who is hung up on rules and rulesets. I play Dungeon Crawl Classics, OSE, 5th Edition, Warhammer Horus Heresy (3rd Edition), Trench Crusade, Infinity, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40k (11th edition now!) and more. At the end of the day I've literally never said to myself "Wow those are the most amazing rules!" I usually just enjoy playing games with my friends.
For many players in our hobby, I think 5e is a gateway drug into better and more esoteric games. I don't know how many TTRPG players discover and run PirateBorg first and then go "Huh, what's this Dungeons and Dragons?" I think 5e serves an important role in this hobby. For some game groups it may be the only version they play. For others, it is an amuse-bouche before they enjoy a more complex meal of what this hobby has to offer. I want to be apart of that and help pull those players into a greater wider world.
At the end of the day, I'm not selling mechanics (this is why there is no bespoke Painted Wastelands Roleplaying Game rule system, and I have no intention of making one). I'm selling a world. 5e has a lot of interesting tools to get players more engaged and excited about the world. One of my core design realizations is players really care about their characters and their role in the world. Unless a player interacts with or touches something in the setting, it doesn't really matter to them. In the original OSE version, Merch as treasure is how I addressed getting players excited about the weird shows and bands Tim created. 5e has even more dials and options to play with using factions, backgrounds, and subclasses.
Does This Mean Agamemnon Press is Abandoning OSE?
Absolutely not. Writing for OSE is awesome and I love it. I am also in the middle of writing our 3rd Lower Ethereal Hierarchy book The Hundred Year Coast. We will bring that to backerkit as well once it's done. My current plan is to write for OSE first and then to go back and convert previous books to other rules like 5e. I'd love to see The Painted Wastelands full converted to DCC if there's an audience for it.
This project has a lot of cool stuff in it. Besides the two hardback books (Painted Wastelands Campaign Guide and Painted Wastelands Adventurer's Guide) We're also adding new add ons. We've designed a new shirt with the nightmare slayer from the Adventurer's Guide on it. I'm working with a really cool independent company called Ravenwood to make Painted Wastelands dice vaults. These are handmade items made by a small company and made in America and I am excited to show off our prototypes. I have high standards for add ons and I'm so happy I've gotten to link up with Jen and Rob.
If you're interested in our work, feel free to follow our project and get the instant preview. If you pre-register you'll get early access to our project and a 5e adventure + a set of dice. I converted a portion of Strange Tales of the Painted Wastelands to 5e.
Return Backer Reward- The Great Seal of the Bleeding Eye
There are people who have supported me from the beginning. I see their names show up again and again as I put packages together. You've been there for me when this was just a crazy dream. Now Agamemnon Press is growing and building partnerships with fulfillment companies like Gamer's Guild and distributors like Studio 2. We've won ENNIE Awards because of you. To show my gratitude I'm going to give out this item:
This 1.5" pin is something I've wanted to hand out for a while. When I go to conventions I'm always deeply humbled by the people and families who support my work or come back to my booth to see what new things we have. If you're a return backer and back the Painted Wastelands 5e you get one of these pins. They are not available for sale, they can only be earned through loyalty and service. If you see me at a convention and you've backed my stuff before, tell me so I can hand you one of these.
I'm here to give you an update on our book and how I expect our progress on HELLCRAWL.
First, the writing is done, major layout is finished, maps are done. Art is 95% done.
Tim has 5 illustrations left, 4 of which are either inked or sketched, only hasn't started yet. At the rate Tim completes artwork I expect these to be completed very soon. As for the Deck of the Damned there's 10 cards that need to be completed, but they are sketched out. The cards go pretty quickly.
So I feel safe to say that you will have a completed PDF by the end of September. We will also send this off to the printer by the end of September.
We will order everything from the printer at the same time (books, cards, devil dollars) because I know it can create big delays when they are ordered separately. It's simply better for them all to travel on the same boat. With Empire of Bones there was a delay in printing the Deck of Dead things, which lead to a month delay due to customs inspections of the ship they were on, which lead to a delay in delivering some orders. I appreciate how understanding our backers are and I will continue to be as transparent as possible with any delays and do everything in my power to prevent them.
Well well well! Look who found himself trapped in HELL! It's Tiger Wizard from Exalted Funeral! I got to meet Andrew at GenCon and had a marvelous time hanging out with him and the crew from Exalted Funeral. I've never met people so quick to treat me as an old friend. This is our chapter heading image for "Factions" and Tim was lost what to do. The image immediately jumped into my mind. We do a few of our demons from our factions arguing as they play D&D while the poor forever DM looks tormented. Tim's illustration turned out just as I thought in my mind with all sorts of fun details. I can't wait until it's colored in!
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW
Expect a big announcement tomorrow about our next project launching in October! Pre-Launch begins tomorrow. And one of the things I want to do is reward return backers. Something that gives me strength to go on is the knowledge that many of you have been with me since the start. Some of you have followed my work before I even started on The Painted Wastelands. You're heroes in my book. Because of that, I want to bestow upon you a great sign of our friendship. The Seal of the Bleeding Eye pin is an incentive available to return backers and return customers (if you bought through my site in the past instead of Kickstarter/BackerKit). This pin cannot be bought, it can only be earned through your continued support. It is a small token of my gratitude. Stay Tuned tomorrow for more!
I wanted to give you all a heads up that I will be locking the Pledge Manager and charging cards August 14. Tim has just a few illustrations to complete for HELLCRAWL and will be done soon. So make sure to make any changes you want to your pledge now.
Why, look what we have here! A little sketch of a certain TIGER WIZARD I know being tortured in HELL!
If you move between now and October just give me the heads up and I can update your address. Just as a reminder, the cost for shipping of European Union and Norwegian backers has gone down thanks to my new partnership with Mudknight Games.
Also, this past GenCon The Painted Wastelands Player's Guide won an ENNIE award for Best Supplement. I am grateful to everyone who voted for us and supported us. It really means the world to Tim and I that we continue to grow and share this strange world with you.
I just finished a very productive meeting with Mudknight Media and I have great news for our backers in the EU.
Mudknight Media is going to complete HELLCRAWL fulfillment. What this means for you right now is that you will notice that the cost of shipping has gone done to $14.90 USD. This means you will enjoy lower costs, no VAT, and faster delivery.
The cost of shipping to the EU from the US has weighed heavily on me for years. It's always bothered me. I am grateful for the support you have all given me over the years and I am really happy I can cut this expense for you.
Over the next few months Mudknight Media will also distribute The Painted Wastelands and other Agamemnon Press products to European game stores. So hopefully, you will get to see more of our products out there in the wild.
You Don't Need To Do Anything I haven't charged credit cards yet (expect this in September). The shipping fee is simply lower now. This will also be the case for future projects from Agamemnon Press. I will simply send some of the books from the printer to Mudknight Media and they'll handle the rest.
Big shout out to Plus One EXP and Tony Vasinda who I really owe this victory to. I had a meeting with a fulfillment company from Germany last week that completely imploded because they were annoyed that I was not selling more books. Tony put me in touch with Mudknight Media and for that I'm grateful.
The art on HELLCRAWL continues at a blinding pace and I'm about to head off to GenCon next week!
I have some interesting updates for you. For starters, The Painted Wastelands is participating in a special new campaign called The ENnies Emporium. This is a digital celebration of last years ENnies nominees. It was supposed to be just old stuff but I can't help myself and made some new stuff too. The design goal was to make some new items that I could ship in September. We designed a new Painted Wastelands shirt, new Ectos, and an enamel pin! These items are currently exclusive to the ENnies Emporium.
We will also be doing this next year since The Painted Wastelands Player's Guide was also nominated for an ENnie award for best supplement!
HELLCRAWL UPDATE
Tim's been hard at work on the artwork and our editor has been going through the book with a fine toothed comb. Editing should be done before the end of this month. I predict Art will be done by the end of September and HELLCRAWL will be off to the printer. Let's look at some new art!
Battlefield
Demons Eating at a Restaurant
The Streets of Ashrezar Inks (WIP)
I just wanted to take a moment to address a mistake I made when setting up the shipping rates. Due to the way Backer Kit is set up, the listed shipping rate to EU countries was $65 which was not what I intended. I was able to access the shipping set up page and reset it to $37.77. The good news is that your card was not charged and this should have no impact on our fulfillment. If your pledge still lists a higher shipping amount let me know via message or email (listed down below).
Shipping For HELLCRAWL As a reminder, we are working together with Studio 2 publishing, who are located in Kentucky. They have a warehouse and handle distribution for Agamemnon Press to game stores. They're a pretty large company and I trust their work, you can see their massive space at GenCon where they take up a whole alley to themselves! I decided to partner with them because we have over 900 backers, which is more than I could handle on my own, especially during the school year. We are on track to start fulfillment via Studio 2 publishing in Fall 2026.
No Import Fees Another benefit of working with Studio 2 is that they will cover import fees for international customers. Another attractive reason to work with them since this is something I've never been able to do in the past. Their message to me specifically was: "We cover VAT and Duties to consumers so the customer does not have fees on their end."
Faster Delivery Times Studio 2 uses FedEx International Connect Plus that typically delivers in 2-5 days. Meanwhile, when I do shipping myself I generally use ePost Global which is cheaper, but can take 13-20 days and has limited tracking. Because of this, the shipping fees are higher than my previous projects but I believe the end result is better. No import fees and faster delivery.
In the Future I understand this still may be a disappointment. I'm going to make sure to be more open about estimated shipping costs in the future. When I started the HELLCRAWL project, I wasn't sure if I would do it myself or use a third party for fulfillment. Now that I know, I will list specifics on our project pages.
If you wish to switch to a digital only pledge feel free to email me at [email protected] or contact me via my website AgamemnonPress.com. I can change your pledge manually. Thank you for your continued support.
I'm here to give you an update on our book and how I expect our progress on HELLCRAWL.
First, the writing is done, major layout is finished, maps are done. Art is 95% done.
Tim has 5 illustrations left, 4 of which are either inked or sketched, only hasn't started yet. At the rate Tim completes artwork I expect these to be completed very soon. As for the Deck of the Damned there's 10 cards that need to be completed, but they are sketched out. The cards go pretty quickly.
So I feel safe to say that you will have a completed PDF by the end of September. We will also send this off to the printer by the end of September.
We will order everything from the printer at the same time (books, cards, devil dollars) because I know it can create big delays when they are ordered separately. It's simply better for them all to travel on the same boat. With Empire of Bones there was a delay in printing the Deck of Dead things, which lead to a month delay due to customs inspections of the ship they were on, which lead to a delay in delivering some orders. I appreciate how understanding our backers are and I will continue to be as transparent as possible with any delays and do everything in my power to prevent them.
Well well well! Look who found himself trapped in HELL! It's Tiger Wizard from Exalted Funeral! I got to meet Andrew at GenCon and had a marvelous time hanging out with him and the crew from Exalted Funeral. I've never met people so quick to treat me as an old friend. This is our chapter heading image for "Factions" and Tim was lost what to do. The image immediately jumped into my mind. We do a few of our demons from our factions arguing as they play D&D while the poor forever DM looks tormented. Tim's illustration turned out just as I thought in my mind with all sorts of fun details. I can't wait until it's colored in!
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW
Expect a big announcement tomorrow about our next project launching in October! Pre-Launch begins tomorrow. And one of the things I want to do is reward return backers. Something that gives me strength to go on is the knowledge that many of you have been with me since the start. Some of you have followed my work before I even started on The Painted Wastelands. You're heroes in my book. Because of that, I want to bestow upon you a great sign of our friendship. The Seal of the Bleeding Eye pin is an incentive available to return backers and return customers (if you bought through my site in the past instead of Kickstarter/BackerKit). This pin cannot be bought, it can only be earned through your continued support. It is a small token of my gratitude. Stay Tuned tomorrow for more!
I wanted to take a moment and talk about our next big project The Painted Wastelands for 5e. This is something I've always talked about doing and feel now is the time for us to begin. The biggest motivator for me was my recent booth at Phoenix Fan Fusion and GenCon. I had multiple conversations with folks excited about The Painted Wastelands and it would usually go like this:
Me: Finishes excitedly talking about how you can play as a cat. Them: Is this for 5th Edition? Me: No actually, it's for Old School Essentials, which is an updated version of basic and expert D&D.
Then I just watch the light fade from their eyes. It happened a lot.
I get this sentiment. I've never really been a person who is hung up on rules and rulesets. I play Dungeon Crawl Classics, OSE, 5th Edition, Warhammer Horus Heresy (3rd Edition), Trench Crusade, Infinity, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40k (11th edition now!) and more. At the end of the day I've literally never said to myself "Wow those are the most amazing rules!" I usually just enjoy playing games with my friends.
For many players in our hobby, I think 5e is a gateway drug into better and more esoteric games. I don't know how many TTRPG players discover and run PirateBorg first and then go "Huh, what's this Dungeons and Dragons?" I think 5e serves an important role in this hobby. For some game groups it may be the only version they play. For others, it is an amuse-bouche before they enjoy a more complex meal of what this hobby has to offer. I want to be apart of that and help pull those players into a greater wider world.
At the end of the day, I'm not selling mechanics (this is why there is no bespoke Painted Wastelands Roleplaying Game rule system, and I have no intention of making one). I'm selling a world. 5e has a lot of interesting tools to get players more engaged and excited about the world. One of my core design realizations is players really care about their characters and their role in the world. Unless a player interacts with or touches something in the setting, it doesn't really matter to them. In the original OSE version, Merch as treasure is how I addressed getting players excited about the weird shows and bands Tim created. 5e has even more dials and options to play with using factions, backgrounds, and subclasses.
Does This Mean Agamemnon Press is Abandoning OSE?
Absolutely not. Writing for OSE is awesome and I love it. I am also in the middle of writing our 3rd Lower Ethereal Hierarchy book The Hundred Year Coast. We will bring that to backerkit as well once it's done. My current plan is to write for OSE first and then to go back and convert previous books to other rules like 5e. I'd love to see The Painted Wastelands full converted to DCC if there's an audience for it.
This project has a lot of cool stuff in it. Besides the two hardback books (Painted Wastelands Campaign Guide and Painted Wastelands Adventurer's Guide) We're also adding new add ons. We've designed a new shirt with the nightmare slayer from the Adventurer's Guide on it. I'm working with a really cool independent company called Ravenwood to make Painted Wastelands dice vaults. These are handmade items made by a small company and made in America and I am excited to show off our prototypes. I have high standards for add ons and I'm so happy I've gotten to link up with Jen and Rob.
If you're interested in our work, feel free to follow our project and get the instant preview. If you pre-register you'll get early access to our project and a 5e adventure + a set of dice. I converted a portion of Strange Tales of the Painted Wastelands to 5e.
Return Backer Reward- The Great Seal of the Bleeding Eye
There are people who have supported me from the beginning. I see their names show up again and again as I put packages together. You've been there for me when this was just a crazy dream. Now Agamemnon Press is growing and building partnerships with fulfillment companies like Gamer's Guild and distributors like Studio 2. We've won ENNIE Awards because of you. To show my gratitude I'm going to give out this item:
This 1.5" pin is something I've wanted to hand out for a while. When I go to conventions I'm always deeply humbled by the people and families who support my work or come back to my booth to see what new things we have. If you're a return backer and back the Painted Wastelands 5e you get one of these pins. They are not available for sale, they can only be earned through loyalty and service. If you see me at a convention and you've backed my stuff before, tell me so I can hand you one of these.
I wanted to give you all a heads up that I will be locking the Pledge Manager and charging cards August 14. Tim has just a few illustrations to complete for HELLCRAWL and will be done soon. So make sure to make any changes you want to your pledge now.
Why, look what we have here! A little sketch of a certain TIGER WIZARD I know being tortured in HELL!
If you move between now and October just give me the heads up and I can update your address. Just as a reminder, the cost for shipping of European Union and Norwegian backers has gone down thanks to my new partnership with Mudknight Games.
Also, this past GenCon The Painted Wastelands Player's Guide won an ENNIE award for Best Supplement. I am grateful to everyone who voted for us and supported us. It really means the world to Tim and I that we continue to grow and share this strange world with you.
I just finished a very productive meeting with Mudknight Media and I have great news for our backers in the EU.
Mudknight Media is going to complete HELLCRAWL fulfillment. What this means for you right now is that you will notice that the cost of shipping has gone done to $14.90 USD. This means you will enjoy lower costs, no VAT, and faster delivery.
The cost of shipping to the EU from the US has weighed heavily on me for years. It's always bothered me. I am grateful for the support you have all given me over the years and I am really happy I can cut this expense for you.
Over the next few months Mudknight Media will also distribute The Painted Wastelands and other Agamemnon Press products to European game stores. So hopefully, you will get to see more of our products out there in the wild.
You Don't Need To Do Anything I haven't charged credit cards yet (expect this in September). The shipping fee is simply lower now. This will also be the case for future projects from Agamemnon Press. I will simply send some of the books from the printer to Mudknight Media and they'll handle the rest.
Big shout out to Plus One EXP and Tony Vasinda who I really owe this victory to. I had a meeting with a fulfillment company from Germany last week that completely imploded because they were annoyed that I was not selling more books. Tony put me in touch with Mudknight Media and for that I'm grateful.
The art on HELLCRAWL continues at a blinding pace and I'm about to head off to GenCon next week!
I have some interesting updates for you. For starters, The Painted Wastelands is participating in a special new campaign called The ENnies Emporium. This is a digital celebration of last years ENnies nominees. It was supposed to be just old stuff but I can't help myself and made some new stuff too. The design goal was to make some new items that I could ship in September. We designed a new Painted Wastelands shirt, new Ectos, and an enamel pin! These items are currently exclusive to the ENnies Emporium.
We will also be doing this next year since The Painted Wastelands Player's Guide was also nominated for an ENnie award for best supplement!
HELLCRAWL UPDATE
Tim's been hard at work on the artwork and our editor has been going through the book with a fine toothed comb. Editing should be done before the end of this month. I predict Art will be done by the end of September and HELLCRAWL will be off to the printer. Let's look at some new art!
Battlefield
Demons Eating at a Restaurant
The Streets of Ashrezar Inks (WIP)
