This was my first Backerkit project and it was a great ride. A special thank you goes to the supporters who came in during the crazy overtime period. Of course the main engine to this was MCG's Jewel in the Sky, but every bit helped!
Now that we have an art budget, I'm reaching out artists and writing briefs. I'll try to get the Pledge Manager up this weekend if possible for those who missed out. After that, Hobgoblin goes into the more writing and editing phase. After that, I plan to showcase new art next month!
Tonight, on April 30th, 9pm EST, the Cypher Unlimited crew will be interviewing me on Twitch! I will be talking about the Hobgoblin Market and other Cypher projects in the pipeline! Get the deets! https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedlive
If you are a Cypher fan and haven't joined the CU, you are missing out. There has been a long discussion about C2 (their nickname for Cypher second edition) and a channel to post typos and questions. Even better MCG designers have popped in and offered a deeper look into the game! https://discord.gg/cypherunlimited
Thanks to you, we have lined up Rick again to do more art! Check out the poll below and let us know who's next? Will it be the ghoul with secrets or the straight shooting orc sheriff?
In his most famous book series, The First Law, Joe Abercrombie does something genius. Even though his series is set in the same fantasy setting, not every novel in the same genre. His novel, Red Country, is a Western novel inside a fantasy world. There's cattle drives and boom towns. It is a fantasy story but also very much a Western tale. I highly recommend it!
It inspired me to bring a similar mashup to a fantasy ttrpg. I had developed a place with loud saloons and lonely desert boom towns but this was all for D&D. And over the years, I had seen other D&D "westerns" come and go as one-shot products, so I put it all away. As a side note, I love Deadlands, but that's whole different thing than what I was trying to pull off.
I even commissioned art a while back.
Blame it on the truffalo Monte Cook Games reached out to a lot of folks to see if we wanted to join Megadungeon month. I was flattered as I was also part of the group MCG called on for the Cypher OGL project that birthed Mystery Flesh Pit National Park ttrpg.
I was trying to find an inspiration for what to do as a dungeon when it hit me, I could do an underdark western boom town! You couldn’t get more fantasy western ttrpg than that! The same day, I came up with the truffalo and it all clicked. It cemented for me after I came up with some factions more appropriate to an underdark area as compared to a surface world setting.
Don't like westerns, don't worry I realize many fantasy GMs are buying things for the parts, not the whole. It something I do myself. So while this dungeon has weird west elements, it is also right what it says on the tin, a giant Hobgoblin Market fleshed out with random tables, NPCs and locations adventurers can visit to buy gear or find work. This way, GMs who aren't as attracted to the weird west parts can just ignore them and use what they want!
Pass on the word! Thank you again for all of you who have supported the backerkit so far! If you love what I'm doing, spread the word! Let make this PDF look sweet and inspiring!
I fixed the issue with the pledge and now it is open to everyone who wants to jump in!
Despite that snafu, we are already funded within a few hours! That blows my mind and flatters me greatly. Thank you guys! In gratitude, I'm showing you some of Rick's early sketches.
By the esteemed Rick Hershey
These were going to be in the original backerkit story (Rick gave permission) but when I saw the finals, I knew the illustrations would greatly inspire people to support the project. Guess I was right. Thanks to all of you, Rick is already paid in full.
As the funding grows, I'll reach out to Rick and other artists to get more original art for NPCs and evocative set pieces. Over the coming weeks, I'll drop some early drafts of the lore and locales.
Again, thanks so much for support -- and understanding!
