Hello brave adventurers!

September brought us 62 more completed pages, pushing the project past 800 pages total! We’re still averaging about 2.6 pages per day since the BackerKit campaign ended (including weekends) which continues to be better than our original target of 2/day!

This month began with Druskara's (and Unnatural Selection's) Ancestries, Backgrounds, Titles, Languages, Names, Gear, and our own version of Renown, called Repute.

Because Druskara includes entire cities filled with danger, such as the Frost Giant civilization and Cape Black, we wanted characters with bad reputations to have a chance of being accepted there. Repute can therefore drop into negative territory, bringing disdain from lawful communities but possible acceptance in places where respectable adventurers are killed upon entry.

We also added rules for oversized weapons. During playtesting, we allowed characters with exceptionally high Strength scores of 21 or more to wield weapons dropped by giants and ogres. Players loved imagining their dwarves and halflings hauling around ridiculously massive weapons. And though they do lots of damage, they sure do consume a lot of gear slots!

We officially finished the largest city in Druskara: The Shining City! This marks the last large city in need of completion, so all that remains for Realms and Rivals are some notable villages, and some unique carousing and rumors tables. As of right now, that book alone sits at 453 pages! 

We also added a roving caravan of Azarim merchants, entertainers, and assassins who can appear nearly anywhere in Druskara. When they set up shop, they essentially become a mobile city. Anyone who has watched the Crystal Saga on the Dungeon Damsel YouTube channel may recognize Vizier Thani, the ringmaster of this dangerous little traveling society.

Over the month, six additional carousing tables were completed. We’re making every location’s carousing experience feel different, with new decisions, risks, and mechanics rather than simply swapping out the results. That has become one of our favorite parts of the book, and our hope is that players will be excited to travel to different locations JUST so they can experience the unique carousing opportunities! In particularly dangerous locations, it is actually possible to DIE during carousing. Only the bravest will risk carousing in Boarfrost or Cape Black!

We also completed Druskara’s fifth and final unique starting location: Shipwrecked on Gorgonstone Island! This gives you everything needed to begin with a 1st-level party stranded on an uninhabited island (or so you think) of EXTREME danger and extreme treasure. The place is littered with petrified victims, so sailors are understandably… eh… petrified to set foot on it.

Our page count and Druskara art deliveries slowed during the final two weeks as we shifted some of our attention toward preparing material for Gamehole Con in October, which we’ll be attending for the first time. Even so, those two weeks produced another 20 completed pages. Once the convention is over, our schedule is clear through the end of the year, and we’ll be back to cranking on Druskara full-time.

Art deliveries were stellar as always! The art team was mostly working on spot art for spells, so we were graced with Mark Riddick, Shannon Ritchie, Craig Brasco, Phil Stone, and newcomer Macabre Crow's amazing and unique pieces!

We are pleased with our progress and excited about how much personality these final additions are bringing to Realms and Rivals! Thank you, as always, for your support, feedback, playtesting, and enthusiasm. You’re making Druskara better. See you next month!

The Dungeon Damsel team