I've just sent out the final address update/lockdown email. If you've moved since last summer make sure you update your address! If you've moved countries, send me a message ([email protected]), I'll need to update that for you.
The last update I have from the manufacturer is that the books will be arriving at the various warehouses by the end of this month. Assuming that holds and there are no delays, fulfillment will begin in the next 3 weeks!
What I've been working on…
Since wrapping up the core books and sending the to the printer, I've been working hard on additional content: new classes (the Hexbinder, the Artificer, the Psion & more coming), new monster groups (orcs, troglodytes, death knights, constructs, traps & more), a new spell school (Terramancy!), and a bunch of new adventures, monsters, subclasses coming.
Much of it is available right now on the new Nimble Patreon with more coming every month (or on the webstore instead if you don't use Patreon).
Freebies!
I'm also continuing to produce free content, including a very spICY dragon, Iskaryth the Frostborne, the free Creator's Kit, and a Quickstart print & play basic ruleset to share with your friends (and get them into GMing)!
The Community
I've been hosting Design Jams with great prizes for the community to submit their own content and so far it's been a blast! Check out the News page on the Nimble website and on Discord for the latest announcements on future Design Jams.
I'd also love to highlight some of the wonderful tools and content the community has been putting together (in no particular order):
Nimbrew.net A handy website to create your own great looking Nimble homebrew content (monsters, NPCs, magic items, and more). Great work LewisH!
Tabletop Town app. A super cool app for building characters, encounters, monsters and more, quickly becoming a DNDbeyond for Nimble, big props to Mofi Rahman for creating it.
Lissom app. A fantastic website to create custom heroes and a VERY useful roll comparison tool with more coming. By Gary Verhaegen and Lyunee
Nim+ A free community magazine that releases every other month. So for 2 volumes have been released with a 3rd well underway. Submit your own creations from within the Homebrew channel on the Nimble Discord. Ran and edited by Santuric.
Nimble Actual Play. The very talented and effervescent Maia Wilson is doing a well-produced liveplay of Obojim using the Nimble ruleset, live Saturdays at 5:30pm EST, and the edited VODs are posted shortly therafter, more info here.
Foundry module softlaunch. The Foundry module has softlaunched and the community is working hard to work out bugs, add features, and supply the compendiums needed for easy and smooth play. It's available for free to anyone who already has Nimble. I don't know much about Foundry or how to get it, but check out the Foundry channel on the Nimble discord for more!
Finally, thank you.
Thank you all for trusting me and supporting this project, it's been a blast and it is so rewarding to see it finally come to completion. Much more is planned for the future, but for now the focus is going to be on fulfilling all of your orders as quickly as possible!
Evan here, I've been working away quite hard on the Creator's Kit, and I'm glad to say it's finished and ready to be downloaded right now for free! I've put far more time into it than I initially expected to, so if you're interested at all in RPG game design, home brewing, or making content to sell yourself check it out, I hope you find it to be a valuable resource (again, the best part is that it's free!).
We're in the "quiet period" of production. All of my work is largely complete, the files are in the hands of the printer and its a waiting game (expecting Q3 this year for final delivery, that could always change, but that's the current best estimate).
I'm working on logistics, figuring out which warehouse is getting which items and coming up with a plan for tariffs. The good news, you all shouldn't be effected at all by them (barring anything super catastrophic), I'm cautiously hopeful things will calm down by the summer when the finished products will arrive from the boat. Even if it doesn't, I do have a bit of padding in the funds from the crowd funder to cover any additional fees.
What's Next?
Since last update, the Patrons have seen a bunch of new monsters (a bunch of spicy Orcs and Troglodytes), the beta test for the new Witch Class, and a couple alpha drafts for the new Artificer (both of which are feeling 💪). If you want to stay on top of the latest content and updates feel free to check out the Nimble Patreon.
Coming soon are some REALLY cool elementals (they can combo with each other for instance Fire & Ice team up with devastating combos) Some new art too, for possibly my favorite new bad guy: The Envoy of Death.
Thanks all for the continued support, please do check out the Creator's Kit and let me know what you think!
🔥 Nimble Boxed Set Unboxing & Review, What's Next! 💪
Hey everyone!
I finally got the physical proofs in hand last week and was able to do an unboxing and detailed review of them. If you missed the live stream, you can catch up right here (it all looks so beautiful ❤️). I've sent in the final file updates to the printer today so that means FULL PRODUCTION IS FINALLY UNDERWAY!
It's looking like sometime in Q3 is the most likely time period for when you all will have the physical books in your hands. There's a chance some could receive it sooner, but we'll see. What you CAN get your hands on today are the updated final digital files!
Digital files have been updated
There were some typos fixed and other minor changes made, if you'd like to grab the latest digital files they have been uploaded to the backerkit download portal Version 2.0.2 Changelog:
Minor typos addressed
Necrotic spell Vampiric Greed fixed
Krogg statblock fixed
Bandit assassin statblock fixed
Adventure: The Hag's Legacy map fixed
Commander starting equipment fixed
Core Rules: Important note added to beginning of "How to Be a Good Player" section
Note added clarifying "Defend for free" spells
Other misc tiny tweaks
What's I'm Working On?
I've been busily working on the Witch class (now with a rad new name, btw), the Artificer class, as well as the Psion, Creator's Kit, Kid Nimble, and a lot more. If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest, join the beta tests, and vote on new for upcoming content check out the Nimble Patreon. It's pretty low stakes (just $3/month, and a free tier as well), but it's been fun posting regular content there. You can actually get the Witch Beta Test PDF on Patreon today if you like, just sayin'. 🔥
Over the next few months the printer will be producing and shipping the physical books so the updates here will be fewer, but please join us on discord and Patreon if you'd like to keep following the Nimble project.
Thanks for all the support and encouragement,
– Evan @ nimble co.
*If you backed Nimble and the Faerie project, you're still getting the Witch class for free when it's completed, no need to do anything extra. The Patreon is just for people who want to support future work and follow along with the development as it happens. 👍
🎉 Today is the Day! 💪 Final Digital Delivery & Coming Soon 👀
Hey everyone!
Evan here, been working HARD to get all these files finalized, and we finally did it! I've sent off the files to the printer and have prepped them for digital delivery as well. You should be getting an email shortly (if you haven't already) with the finalized digital books. Thank you all so much for your support, feedback, and encouragement.
What's next?
The printer will prep the files and create what are called "wet proofs" a test print of all the items to verify final quality and layout. Not sure the timing on that, but I should get those via airmail probably in a few weeks. I'll be sure to do a livestream unboxing on the Nimble youtube channel whenever the proofs arrive! (this also provides one final opportunity to make last second changes in case we missed anything) Once approved, the printer will be in full production, then shipping to the fulfillment centers (this will be the long wait part, nothing we can do about that, boats only go so fast). I'll keep providing updates as I receive them but the process is now out of my hands and I'll be waiting on pins and needles just like the rest of you 🙃.
I'll be working on overhauling the Nimble website to be more helpful (hosting links to the already VERY lively Nimble 3rd party and homebrew content scene), more resources, FAQ, wrapping up the Foundry module and other digital tools, talking with other VTTs, and producing more Nimble content too!
The Witch Class
The class is well into production, currently in pre-alpha but I'm really liking how fun and unique it feels and plays but I don't want to rush it. I'd rather have a great class that takes a bit longer than a rushed, mediocre one. The class needs more time to cook so I'm going to take the next couple months to keep working on it and playtesting.
So to give myself more time I've separated the printing of the Witch class to a US based company that can turn it around more quickly. If the timing lines up it'll be shipped with the rest of the printed goods, if not it'll ship whenever its ready.
For those who backed Faerie you'll still be getting it for free. For those who didn't, I'll be making it available on the nimbleRPG.com webstore later.
MORE Content Coming Soon?
For those who want to follow, vote on, and contribute to future content, I'm considering opening up a Patreon (or Substack, or other thing–let me know in the comments if you're interested in that and have a preference). But I'm already cooking on a few things...
Thanks again to all for your continued support, it means a lot to me 💪
🎉 Final* Digital Documents Are Ready! Locking Pledges Saturday.
Hey all!
Evan here, and wow, I've been burning the midnight oil. If you've been holding off looking at the beta games docs until they were completed, well now's your chance! I've just released v1.99 of all 3 books (click the backers only link at the very far bottom to access the latest files—or use the same link from before). These are 99% content complete, very playable (and based off playtesting feedback, an absolute home run in terms of fun!).
From here there will (likely) only be minor tweaks to get ready for print. I have a team of professional editors going through them checking for typos and making sure everything makes sense, so no need to report that. If you'd like even more details, check out the latest live stream (just the first few minutes is all you need to watch for the project updates).
Timeline I'm not going to attempt to guess the exact timeline since it it mostly out of my hands at this point with editors, printers, and shipping professionals. Rest assured things are moving forward as quickly as they can. But I can tell you what I know:
This past Monday I sent the deposit payment to the printer to get things moving with them and there are no delays.
The editors will take the next few weeks to comb through all the documents.
While they're doing that, I'll be finishing up the rest of the digital files (GM screen, cards, etc.) and prepping them for print and the final digital delivery.
The printer will produce and send me "wet proofs" a few copies of the printed boxed set to check for final production errors.
Once approved, we'll move into full print production & assembly.
Pallets of product will get placed in a shipping container on a boat and transported to a warehouse in the UK and here in the US for final fulfillment. (5-10 weeks)
Locking Pledges Pledges being locked Saturday the 4th. If you were looking to make any changes make sure you do that now.
Preordering If you haven't purchased yet, you can still preorder online. Or if you want to support a local shop, a number of retail shops in the US will be carrying Nimble (feel free to have your local shop reach out if you'd like them to carry it [email protected]) I'll try and have a list on the website eventually. If you live in the EU, Asmodee games has purchased a sizable number of units for purchase as well.
What's Next? Thanks to the wide open license, the Nimble homebrewing scene is already busily creating some really cool things. I'm going to be working on the website to feature 3rd party content, GMs who run Nimble and tools to help you make your own homebrew and even publish 3rd party content.
I'm going to take a brief break when all the above it finished. Afterward, I'm considering a patreon or something similar for people interested in additional content. Nothing concrete yet, but let me know if that'd be something you're interested in.
Thank You Thank you all for your continued support, patience, and trust in me. This has been quite the project, and it's grown much bigger and much better than I could have ever reasonably expected it to. I'm really excited for the future.
We're currently on track to lock all pledges next week, this is your last chance to update your pledge (you will still be able to update your address later in case you move in the next few months, no worries there).
If all goes according to plan and our final playtests and rounds of editing don't reveal anything new, the final digital files will be sent out before Christmas. If you have any final questions or feedback, please let it be known in the next few days! The best place is on our discord server, or via emailing me directly [email protected]
If you'd like to follow the final days of development more closely, I'm going to be streaming the final dev on youtube most days. Come hang out and ask your questions there as well.
I've just sent out the final address update/lockdown email. If you've moved since last summer make sure you update your address! If you've moved countries, send me a message ([email protected]), I'll need to update that for you.
The last update I have from the manufacturer is that the books will be arriving at the various warehouses by the end of this month. Assuming that holds and there are no delays, fulfillment will begin in the next 3 weeks!
What I've been working on…
Since wrapping up the core books and sending the to the printer, I've been working hard on additional content: new classes (the Hexbinder, the Artificer, the Psion & more coming), new monster groups (orcs, troglodytes, death knights, constructs, traps & more), a new spell school (Terramancy!), and a bunch of new adventures, monsters, subclasses coming.
Much of it is available right now on the new Nimble Patreon with more coming every month (or on the webstore instead if you don't use Patreon).
Freebies!
I'm also continuing to produce free content, including a very spICY dragon, Iskaryth the Frostborne, the free Creator's Kit, and a Quickstart print & play basic ruleset to share with your friends (and get them into GMing)!
The Community
I've been hosting Design Jams with great prizes for the community to submit their own content and so far it's been a blast! Check out the News page on the Nimble website and on Discord for the latest announcements on future Design Jams.
I'd also love to highlight some of the wonderful tools and content the community has been putting together (in no particular order):
Nimbrew.net A handy website to create your own great looking Nimble homebrew content (monsters, NPCs, magic items, and more). Great work LewisH!
Tabletop Town app. A super cool app for building characters, encounters, monsters and more, quickly becoming a DNDbeyond for Nimble, big props to Mofi Rahman for creating it.
Lissom app. A fantastic website to create custom heroes and a VERY useful roll comparison tool with more coming. By Gary Verhaegen and Lyunee
Nim+ A free community magazine that releases every other month. So for 2 volumes have been released with a 3rd well underway. Submit your own creations from within the Homebrew channel on the Nimble Discord. Ran and edited by Santuric.
Nimble Actual Play. The very talented and effervescent Maia Wilson is doing a well-produced liveplay of Obojim using the Nimble ruleset, live Saturdays at 5:30pm EST, and the edited VODs are posted shortly therafter, more info here.
Foundry module softlaunch. The Foundry module has softlaunched and the community is working hard to work out bugs, add features, and supply the compendiums needed for easy and smooth play. It's available for free to anyone who already has Nimble. I don't know much about Foundry or how to get it, but check out the Foundry channel on the Nimble discord for more!
Finally, thank you.
Thank you all for trusting me and supporting this project, it's been a blast and it is so rewarding to see it finally come to completion. Much more is planned for the future, but for now the focus is going to be on fulfilling all of your orders as quickly as possible!
Wow, we smashed through the 200k stretch goal, the book upgrades will be a bit more expensive to produce, but thanks to the increased scale – I can afford to do it now at no additional cost to you all.
Only 2 stretch goals left, I'm really excited about the possibility of a Beastmaster Hunter, we've got a decent chance at making it since pledges tend to pick up toward the end of a campaign, and I've got some COOL ideas but I have to temper my excitement just a bit in case we don't.
On that note, I wanted to add just one more little reward to the last stretch goal on the off chance we make it to 250. Something I really wanted to do but didn't think I'd be able to. A Mini Bestiary for the GM book. This is NOT a full bestiary (that'd be it's own full project), but a few pages of some cool level appropriate monster groups. Enough to run with as a GM to create cool impromptu encounters.
Let's see if we hit it!
EU/UK shipping
In case you missed it in the last update, I have committed to using a EU/UK based fulfillment partner to get the shipping prices down to much more reasonable levels.
Upcoming PDF release plans & feedback
I plan on releasing the beta PDFs for playtesting & feedback very soon after the campaign ends (within 24 hrs, and hopefully sooner than that). The feedback received on the free preview documents has already been fantastic and I've implements many of the suggestions already. If you'd like to join in on the feedback and playtesting to help make Nimble the best it can be, most of that discussion will be happening on the Nimble Discord server.
Note: I'm not currently looking for feedback on typos (I've got some very talented editors helping me with that already) that'll get sorted out before final print. The best kind of feedback is if something is unclear as written, if something is mechanically too complicated or underwhelming, or balance (something super broken or underpowered–a little broken is okay 💪).
Final Livestreams
The next livestream will be tomorrow, Tuesday at 1pm EDT - going over some more class previews (SONGWEAVER) and maybe another live design session for the Oathbreaker, Spellblade, or (if we hit the stretch goal by then, the BEASTMASTER). Here's the link: https://youtube.com/live/A2y11nmw_fA
I'm planning on doing a livestream during the last day of the campaign in the closing hours, Backerkit has an "overtime mode" for campaigns that extends the time by 10 minutes each time someone new pledges, so it might be fun to see how things shake out before its all said & done. I will be traveling and in a new place that day, but I'll have my computer and an internet connection so barring any unforeseen circumstances, we'll be live as the campaign ends, answering questions and doing a read through of the rules, maybe an adventure preview too.
The response has been absolutely amazing. Thanks to all of you, the project is off to a great start: we funded in just about 15 minutes yesterday and are currently over 1000% of our original funding goal. 🤯 I am so very thankful for you all, with your help I promise to make this the absolute best it can be!
Now onto the Mystery Subclass reveal! The OATHBREAKER! Man I'm so excited for this, I can't even tell you... Instead of being a regular subclass chosen at level 3, this is going to be a special Story Driven Subclass. A player will be able to choose this subclass at ANY point along the level curve, when the story demands it. I love the idea of someone playing an Oathsworn, and watching something terrible happen (losing a party member, BBEG tempting or backstabbing them) and the BREAKING THEIR OATH... wow, that just seems too cool.
STRETCH GOALS
I waited to announce any stretch goals since I wanted to hear what YOU all are most interested in. As much as I'd love to, I don't think I can do ALL of them, but I want to do as many as I can. Let me know which ones to prioritize.
Fancy Dice. We've all got plenty of dice, but do we have enough fAnCy dice? (Included for free in the Boxed Set) Cloth Map. Who doesn't love a cloth map? Art TBD, likely of the adventure area for the starting adventure. (Included for free in the Boxed Set) BIG Legendary Monster Cards. Full are on one side to show (and intimidate) your players. Easy to read statblock on the back for convenience. Tarot Sized. (Included for free in the Boxed Set) More Subclasses. Let me know what you're most excited about. Spellblade? (Included for free with all tiers). Metal Action Trackers. Honestly, you don't need these, you can use dice or just your memory, 3 isn't that hard to count to. But having a hefty metal physical thing to interact with... mmm something about that... (Included for free in the Boxed Set) Holofoil Cards. Shiny. Need I say any more? (Included for free in the Boxed Set) Bigger Adventure. Up to level 4? Level 5? A sandbox style choose your own adventure? (Included for free with all tiers).
If I'm inferring the details correctly, it seems like there might be a PDF full of extras, including some of the new class features, for previous backers so that we don't have to buy the books again.
If this is so, will it be possible have a printed booklet with the extras? I only ask because I prefer physical copies as it's harder to get distracted by tabs.
