Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas for Histories and Pact Entities last week! While we technically have enough submissions that I could put together a vote, there's definitely room for more and I'd like to make sure everyone who wants to submit an idea gets a chance to do so.

I'm extending the deadline to May 10th, which gives you roughly 2 more weeks. Don't forget to get your ideas in before then! After that we'll need to put the selections to a vote for inclusion in the book to make sure we stay on track with writing, so this is your last chance to put forward an idea.

In case you need the link to the submission form again, you can find it here.

I've finished putting together surveys in the pledge manager, and will be sending out the smoke test shortly! The smoke test consists of surveys going out to 5% of backers at all pledge levels to make sure that no major issues arise in filling out their surveys.

Assuming that goes smoothly, surveys will go out to everyone else in a couple days! While you can always go back and edit your survey later, I highly encourage you to fill out your survey as soon as you can. The only reason any of my backers have ever not received their pledge items is due to them not completing their survey and making sure that any remaining payment (e.g. shipping and taxes) goes through.

Those of you who purchased Injuries and Vile Deeds during the campaign will have your copy of the PDF added as a download in the pledge manager. You might need to fill out your survey before you can access it, but I'll be distributing the download a little later this week and you should get an email from BackerKit notifying you of a new download when I do.

The first set of sketches for some of the master trainers are here!

The Sacred Hunter (tentatively named Lys Calwyn) is a ranger/cleric training that focuses on hunting down enemies of the church or beings that threaten "sanctity" - however that is defined for the individual.

Shadow-Thief is a monk/rogue training that's heavily inspired by the 3.5 Shadowdancer. A stealth-focused character capable of teleporting through shadow to create advantages in combat (or to simply get into a place unannounced).

I really like where Gibbs has taken the Wilderness Scout. As a ranger/rogue training, it's all about knowing the terrain better than anyone else and being able to use it to your advantage, and who would know better than a birdfolk that has seen the lay of the land from high above?

There are a number of other commissions also in the works already, and you can be sure I'll be sharing more work in future updates!

Thanks to the funding we raised, I've been able to bring on more than 15 other creators to help with writing and game design and that's allowing me to speed up the writing phase of the project. This is also allowing me to do some editing in advance, which should make the final edits easier.

Well, that update turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be when I started writing, but there's a lot to share today it seems! The next update should be in a couple weeks when voting on the backer submitted Histories and Pact Entities begins, but I might send out a quick notice when surveys go out more broadly later this week as well.

Thanks for your support, and I'll be eager to share more content previews in future updates!
- Josh

Quick update today to let you all know I've sent out the pledge manager surveys to all backers! As I said in the last update, please be sure to fill out your survey soon so you don't forget to do it later. Unanswered surveys are the only reason I've ever failed to get backers rewards in the past.

I'll also be beginning distribution of downloads for Injuries and Vile Deeds PDFs after I send this update so you can start using them in your game. These downloads will be available to you if you pledged for the PDF or hardcover + PDF of Injuries and Vile Deeds during the campaign (noted by the special item in your cart called "Injuries and Vile Deeds PDF Immediate Download"). If you're adding the book in pre-order, your download will be made available after I lock orders and charge cards. 

You'll get an email notification from BackerKit when your download is available.

It was brought to my attention that I should have done a better job supplying you with information about what you're submitting. It was a bit scattered through various updates and comments, so while I have some basic descriptions in the submission form it wasn't necessarily enough for you to start coming up with ideas. I've added more details below about each type of content, but keep in mind all I need from you is a name and brief description. I'll be fleshing out the final versions of whatever you end up selecting through the voting process myself.

Histories - These are going to be formatted a lot like what you're used to with backgrounds in 5e, except they're intended to be about the adventures you've already been going on. This could be something like "Firewalker" for someone who's traveled to the plane of fire or spent an adventure in an extremely hot desert or "Student of the Arcane" for someone who's spent time in hidden libraries or otherwise studying the secrets of magic. You can find examples of them in the book's sample PDF.

Pact Entities - These are a type of NPC we unlocked during the campaign! They will serve as beings that your party might enter into pacts with or receive boons, blessings, and charms from. Each character will be fleshed out with a description of their appearance, personality, and other key information including a few plot hooks to help you introduce them to your game.

Hope that helps!

I said it'd be a quick update, but I can't help adding some more WIP artwork!

We're just at the early stages of progress on artwork, and soon I suspect there will be far too many pieces to share them as they come in, but since I was already sending an update today I couldn't help it 😅

- Josh

Hey everyone!
The funding from BackerKit has arrived in my bank account, which means the remaining work on writing and illustration can get underway! As is typical for crowdfunding campaigns, a number of pledges were unable to be charged - if you're a backer who wasn't able to get your payment information updated in time for your pledge to count toward the campaign, you'll still get a survey in the pledge manager where you'll have another chance to update your information. You may also want to double check that the payment wasn't blocked by your bank, as that is not an uncommon reason for failed payments.

Speaking of the pledge manager, I'm still working on the surveys since I wanted to get all the administrative stuff for writing and illustration commissions out of the way to make room for work to begin, but as soon as I've got those completed I'll let you know!

I've put together a simple Google form for you to submit any ideas you have for Histories and/or Pact Entities that you'd like to see included in the book as part of the two backer count stretch goals we unlocked during the campaign.

You will have until April 26th (a week from today) to get your submissions in. After that, I'll go through the submissions and select the most popular themes and ideas that speak to me for you to vote on your top five in each category.

Looking forward to seeing what ideas you all submit!
- Josh

Hey everyone!
I wanted to get your thoughts on some options for the reference card box set packaging options. There are basically three options for me to consider right now with trade offs in terms of price, box shape, and potential ease of use, and I'll get to those right after I share this awesome new project from Tom Cartos!

Coming from friend of Lone Colossus and well-known cartographer Tom Cartos, Into the Wilds is a collection of 9 fully customizable biome- and region-themed physical battlemap books for your favorite TTRPGs. They are ideal for pre-set or random encounters, so you can be fully prepared no matter which direction your players choose to head in.

Volume 3 Introduces three new Urban themed books to the series, while the returning Volumes 1 & 2 include Overworld and Underworld themed books. The maps are all completely hand-drawn by Tom, and are customizable with included re-usable asset stickers, your own 3D terrain, or a dry erase marker.

Backing at any tier also includes the complete digital bundle for online play or at home printing.

Option 1: A longer box with a two-part top and bottom. The cards would be stored in one row/column, with dividers to help you jump to a specific card type. The box would be roughly card length and height for its smaller dimensions and the length of the stacked set of cards in the longer dimension. Similar to the dimensions of this box, if it was shaped for tarot cards (but obviously more finished, with harder cardboard, printed glossy outside, and separate lid pieces):

Option 2: A bigger box, closer to book size in length and width, that might look nicer on a shelf (same size as the Elements of Inspiration and other oracle decks from Nord Games, pictured below) using a plastic insert to divide the cards and fill space in the box.

Option 3: Same box shape as option 2, but using a cardboard insert and tuck boxes for each set of cards rather than a plastic insert. The tuck boxes could be taken out separately, though the remaining boxes would be less snugly stored while some are removed.

Let me know what your favorite would be in the poll I've attached to this update! My final decision will depend most on budget factors, but I wanted to get your input so I'd know where I should focus my efforts.

We made it a solid ~30 minutes into overtime, which is longer than I'd anticipated! While we didn't make it to our final stretch goal, we did make it a solid chunk of the way there. Once the funds clear in BackerKit and I know the final total budget for the project, I'll look into what a partial version of that goal might look like (possibly just visual themes but no written suggestions? We'll see).

That brings me to the next topic, which is: what should you expect in the coming weeks and months as work begins in earnest on the project?

Firstly: Any backers whose pledges didn't go through right away will have two weeks to correct their payment information or follow up with their banks to make sure that the payment goes through if it was flagged as unusual. Once these two weeks are over, BackerKit will release the funds collected to me (minus their 5% platform fee and the payment processing fees, which generally come out to about 10%).

Once that's done, I'll be able to start commissioning writers, game designers, editors, and illustrators to help me finish work on the book! I'll be working with my layout artist to try and get chapters available for preview as they finish up so that you all get as early a look as possible.

Injuries and Vile Deeds PDFs will also be sent out via BackerKit's pledge manager as downloads once the funding comes through. I'll also send out links so you can download it on DriveThroughRPG if that's your preference or if you'd like to help me out by giving it 5-star reviews once you've had a chance to use the book.

Surveys for the pledge manager will be sent out sometime after that, at which point you'll be able to upgrade your pledges or add more add-ons if you'd like. As the book nears completion, I'll lock orders so that the final production counts stop changing and then once physical production begins I'll charge cards for shipping, VAT, and any new add-ons so that shipping rates will get locked in as close to the shipping date as possible. As a reminder, shipping values you'll see in the pledge manager reflect an assumed price increase between now and next year when shipping is expected to happen. If prices don't increase (sometimes we get lucky), then I will be adjusting them down to whatever the actual current rates are before charging cards in the pledge manager.

I'll be sending out monthly updates (at a minimum) to share progress updates. If you need help with your pledge, first contact BackerKit support as they'll be able to help you faster. For questions, you can always contact me at [email protected] and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I'll also have some polls with questions for you to answer (like which illustration you want to see on the art print). Speaking of polls: don't forget to respond to the current poll asking what power level of pact patron you're most interested in submitting and voting on for the 1000 backer stretch goal!

Thanks again for your incredible support during this campaign! It's been truly incredible, and I look forward to sharing preview content as it becomes available over the next few months!

- Josh

Good morning, and a happy final 5 hours of the project to you!

We're closing in on $80k and 90% of the way to our final stretch goal. It also means we have now surpassed the total funding raised by my previous two campaigns combined.

BackerKit has introduced a fun little campaign-end mechanic called Overtime: as long as there's a backer train going, the campaign won't end. That means when we reach 0 time remaining the campaign isn't necessarily over! The campaign won't officially stop until there have been no pledges for at least 10 minutes - let's see how long we can make the train run!

Thank you all so much for the support you've shown so far, and I'm excited to see just how far we can go in the next few hours!

- Josh

We've got just over a day left on the campaign, and we've gotten a strong start to the week already thanks to your support!

As a reminder, BackerKit shares updates with you even if you're only a follower of the campaign, so if you're not sure if you've backed yet make sure to get your pledge in before time runs out!

We crossed the threshold of 1000 backers sometime last night, unlocking backer-voted Pact Entities! After the campaign ends, I'll be putting together a submission form for you all to submit ideas for NPCs that might grant boons, blessings, pacts, or charms. I'll go through all the submissions, pull out a mix of archetypes that were most commonly submitted, and the ones that inspire me the most (I'll be the one fleshing them out), and present them as a selection for you to vote on your favorites. For all backer-voted content I will be (optionally) collecting names to credit backers for their ideas when they're selected. Although I will be the one fleshing out the histories and NPCs, I'd love to be able to shout out backers whose ideas get selected.

Since powerful entities are usually the most fun to think of, and the intent with the Pact Entities stretch goal was to make an entity at each power level for each entity type, I'm thinking of having the submissions be focused on the most powerful categories. But I won't make that decision without your input, so please see the attached poll to let me know what you think!

We've got one final stretch goal to unlock during the campaign, and I believe we can do it with your help. Keep sharing the campaign with your friends and social circles - I'm excited to see how far this campaign goes! 

We're so close to unlocking our current stretch goal to upgrade all physical rewards with luxury extras - ribbon bookmarks for the books and gilded edges for the cards! I'll also be exploring some nicer card organization options and will put it to a vote as to what you prefer.

Since we're so close, I wanted to announce the next (and probably final) stretch goal of the campaign to show off what we'll be working toward in the last few days - and what you have to look forward to if we can get there!

If we reach $90k by the end of the campaign, I'll be commissioning a set of form-fillable pact templates for you to use as handouts in your games! This means visually themed templates for each entity type (aberrant, celestial, fey, primal, and unholy), plus different base text suggestions for varying power levels of each entity type.

Driving off the creatures is made much easier thanks to your whale-mounted cavalry. After a swift battle, the remaining creatures flee into the depths and will think twice about returning. You spend some time treating the elemental's wounds, and after a while it's clear that it will make a full recovery. Though the process exposes you to the intense heat of the magma elemental's body, you feel it protecting you throughout your work. As you finish, you feel empowered by it - as though you had been infused with the qualities of earth and fire that blend together in the elemental's essence (see backer-only content in browser for a new boon).