Hmm. What am I going to call you? Usually for backer updates, there’s a snappy word for what player characters are in a game. But in DIE you’re both Personas (and that’s an odd thing to call you) and Paragons (which is a level too meta; I reckon I’m addressing the Personas more than the Paragons).
Let’s go with Metadungeoneers, for now. Suggestions for alternatives in the comments, please.
The first month after a crowdfunder is always a bit quiet. We all sit around, staring into space and mentally recovering from the massive adrenaline spike. Then we get contracts signed, refine some plans, and build out the pledge manager.
I’ve now done all of those things. The staring into space and trembling was particularly important.
Pledge Manager
I’ve built it, I’m currently testing it, and next week I’ll turn it over to my colleague Logistics Alex for a second review. It should open in early July, and you’ll receive your survey links at that time.
July is also when you’ll get your PDFs of all the existing DIE stuff - the core book, quickstart, and scenarios. I’ll distribute those through Backerkit, but there will be a step in your survey that lets you choose to also receive them through your Rowan, Rook & Decard webstore account. I do recommend this: it guarantees you the fastest updates if we amend those PDFs in future.
Bonus Megadungeon Month Content
If you backed more than one Megadungeon Month project, there’s a PDF of bonus material from all participants coming your way.
Grant is writing the DIE component, and at present - first draft's written, still time for an entirely different idea to take hold - it's an entire mini-RPG where you are the characters left behind in an unreal, but very much still existent, world after the players’ campaign fell apart.
This is also due to reach you in July, and since Grant and I are at Pyrkon, a truly brilliant convention in Poland, this week I’m going to ply him with bison grass vodka, large quantities of meat, and gentle encouragement to keep him on track. Kieron’s there too, actually, so I can work on both of them at the same time. No Gar, though. He’s not allowed to leave his writing cave until he’s done with my first draft.
The Future
There’s a timeline in May’s update, and since we’re very early in the process there’s not much to say: we have started, and that is good. I’ll keep you posted, but for now the key things to know are that writing’s underway (like all writing, it mostly looks like notes at this point, with some Post-Its that say “sexy death knight???”) and I’ll sling you some teasers as soon as there’s text to show.
It Is Over. There Are 10 Minutes Left. I Understand Eternity Now.
CONTENT WARNING: There is a bloody great spider picture at the bottom of this update. If you do not want to see it, stop scrolling when you get to the "Do You Like Spiders?" header. I repeat: it is a massive spider. I think it's quite cute, but that's because I like spiders.
So…
We’re still in overtime mode. Until we go a full ten minutes without anyone backing a Megadungeon Month project, overtime mode will continue. So this is a bit of a weird “end of campaign” update, in that it’s 66 hours (at time of writing) after the end time and we’re still going.
Things that have happened since Friday night:
Gar, Kieron, and I have celebrated. Quite a lot.
About 40 more people have pledged (hurrah!)
Kieron has had several ideas about incorporating the concept of time limits and 10 minute extensions into one of his dungeons (hey, crowdfunding’s been a huge thing in TTRPGs for a couple of decades now)
The F5 button has worn out on all our keyboards
But! It’s Monday now and we all deserve some closure, even while we keep refreshing that page. So…
Here’s What Happens Next
Soon? Backerkit will collect the funds for your pledges.
June: Pledge manager will go live, and you’ll be able to do your surveys. As always, we won’t charge for shipping until later.
June to December: Gareth, Kieron, and the rest of the team are writing. I’ll share monthly (ish) updates and - when there’s text worth showing - some previews.
January to June 2027: Art happens! I’ll keep up monthly previews (this remains true for the duration of the project), including sketches and work in progress if the artists are happy for me to share, which will vary by artist and piece of work.
April to May 2027: First edit round
June to July 2027: Any major rewrites
July to September 2027: Tentative plans for a playtest - this means you!
October to December 2027: Revisions based on playtest and final edits. Layout happens.
December 2027: PDF release.
January 2028: Backer feedback on the PDF. Based on other big projects we’ve done, this period is invaluable. DIE isn’t a particularly crunchy game, but we always find things we thought were clearly expressed that aren’t as good as they could be, and of course a selection of delicious typos.
February 2028: Revisions.
March to May 2028: Printing/mass production.
June to August 2028: Books are freighted to warehouses. Disgusting business.
September 2028: Orders shipped out to you.
You’ll notice one major change from the timeline on the crowdfunding page: since I wrote that page, I have decided Metadungeon would benefit from a playtest. And since it’s, uh, big, playtesting’s going to take some time. So it’s going to take longer than I said it would, but for what I hope is an enjoyable reason: I’d like you to play the game as early as possible and give us feedback.
You’ll also notice this is much longer than most crowdfunder fulfilment timelines, and that’s deliberate. We’ve left plenty of time in there for, broadly, good ideas to happen. For example, printing time is deliberately really long in case we discover a new material we really want to use, or determine that the paper we’ve chosen isn’t quite opaque enough - a genuine thing that happens when you’re as nerdy as we are.
If we finish any of these stages faster than anticipated, great, but I am leaving time both to do everything as well as we can, with no crunch, and also to enjoy it as much as possible, because that’s how we give you the best possible book.
Join Us in Discord
If you’ve got questions, or general DIE enthusiasm you’d like to share - you’re not alone.
Come and join us in the Rowan, Rook & Decard Discord server, or even the DIE specific server. The first one’s useful if you have questions like “where are my books?” or “Chant, how on earth did the timeline change before you even started work?” (I’m genuinely sorry, the playtest is one of those good ideas that I should have had earlier, and then announcing it got lost in the excitement of number go up). The second one has Kieron in it, as well as the most knowledgeable DIE fans (of the comic and the RPG) I know.
Oh, one last thing:
You Like Spiders?
Some of the RRD team really like spiders. In space. If you’re looking for a new crowdfunder to fill the void of anticipation now Metadungeon is “over”, you could do a lot worse than check out our upcoming Children of Time roleplaying game. Written by Minærva “Legacy: Life Among the Ruins” McJanda, with close consultation from Adrian “Children of Time” Tchaikovsky, it’s a space epic (based, hopefully obviously, on the Children of Time series of novels) where you play both the crew of a centuries old ark ship transporting humanity to the stars, and the accidentally uplifted sapient animal species on the planet the ship’s headed for. Crises abound.
Children of Time’s coming this summer and I am delighted to say it’s nothing to do with me: I will be making the Metadungeon (and Hollows!) while my colleague Elaine Lithgow pilots this immense and powerful spacecraft.
So, uh, we raised £25,000 in about three days and now Kieron is definitely writing two chapters. This is for the best because I'm not sure I could have stopped him if we hadn't hit this goal.
Look, we've got about 5 hours to go, and normally I'd stop here. But Megadungeon Month is weird: it's got a shared overtime mode. That means that, until we go 10 full minutes without someone backing any of the Megadungeon Month projects, the show ain't over.
So I'm going to announce one last stretch goal I would really, really like to hit.
£200,000: MORE MONEY FOR THE TEAM. At this point the Metadungeon is a major success, and I want our freelancers to share in that with more than just the satisfaction of knowing thousands of people are going to appreciate their work. If we (somehow) hit £200,000 I'll turn some of that money into a chunk of bonus pay for Gareth and our artists Rick, Sar, and Saga. Kieron and Stephanie get royalties, so I'm less worried about giving them a financial reward.
If you're reading this, you've done your part. All I need from you is to cross your fingers and hope this works out.
A couple of people asked what stretch goals were left, and this is the last one I thought we might get to. The absolutely final one would have been a DIE Actual Play, at £225,000. I think that's well and truly off the table now, but every time I've thought we were done, I've woken up to an extremely pleasant surprise.
So cross those claws, folks, and thanks for everything <3
Me yesterday: well, I think Lin's essay is probably the last stretch goal we'll hit, but you never know... Me this morning: Kieron, grab that pen, I think you're gonna need to get writing.
It's all coming together, folks. Here's hoping for a great final 36-ish hours.
Anyway, I've got one last Master to introduce you to.
The one you've been waiting for. The present. The future. A riddle wrapped in an enigma, because we're all - figuratively - playing at their table right now. The Frontier's fractal. Potential. Meta. One thing we do know about them is that they love an audience. Whatever and however they're playing, it deserves to be seen. It's not about the game, or not only the game; it's about the watchers. Is the audience a way to spread a message? Extend The Frontier's power? Do they even know themself?
We've cracked £150,000, which means Lin's essay is officially going in the book. This means I have now finished assembling my Marvel-style dream team of contributors. It's a pretty strong lineup, I hope you'll agree.
Next:
£175,000: MORE KIERON If you know Kieron at all, it will not shock you to learn he's got more than one idea for a Metadungeon chapter. He's keeping his cards close to his chest - it'll be something that's either extremely meta, even more than the rest of this dungeon, or something about the historical forerunners to roleplaying games as we know them. RPG prehistory, if you like. I'm not saying it'll be about Kriegsspiel, but I am saying you should go and read about Kriegsspiel just in case.
With 48 hours to go, I think this is our last stretch goal. It's an ambitious target but I think we might just make it, y'all.
Speaking of ambitious, let's meet our penultimate Master. The Master of Ceremonies is from the 2010s, and they represent the movement towards centring players in games: their actions, their decisions, their stories. This is the GM that sets up interesting situations and gives you room to make interesting choices. They're on your side. They're your biggest cheerleader. But you won't have room to play to your full potential if they don't make your characters' lives hard. What's that? The characters are you and if you die (or are traumatised) in the game, that's with you for the rest of your life? Oh. How sad.
Told you I was going to be annoying this week - don't worry, only another three days of me to go!
Anyway, I've got another Master for you. We're into the 2000s now and things are changing fast. The dungeons are different. The players are different. Even the very concept of what a roleplaying game can be is changing - and this Master, The Forge, is happy to take the credit for making that happen. Endlessly, continuously creative - unstoppably creative. As well as feverish, fractured, and fragmented...
I missed a lot of this era of TTRPGs. I was playing at the time, don't get me wrong, but I was mostly playing the same games I played in the '90s. It wasn't until much later I that I realised what had been happening just over there in the corner of my eye. I sort of wish I'd been there for the height of it, but on the other hand maybe it's nice to be able to look back on it and get the best bits. Who knows?
How about you? Were you there? What were your highlights?
OH, YEAH, GM DICE!
Eleven sets left, if you're counting. That's a good sign this'll be the last time we have them on sale. Just so you know.
Hmm. What am I going to call you? Usually for backer updates, there’s a snappy word for what player characters are in a game. But in DIE you’re both Personas (and that’s an odd thing to call you) and Paragons (which is a level too meta; I reckon I’m addressing the Personas more than the Paragons).
Let’s go with Metadungeoneers, for now. Suggestions for alternatives in the comments, please.
The first month after a crowdfunder is always a bit quiet. We all sit around, staring into space and mentally recovering from the massive adrenaline spike. Then we get contracts signed, refine some plans, and build out the pledge manager.
I’ve now done all of those things. The staring into space and trembling was particularly important.
Pledge Manager
I’ve built it, I’m currently testing it, and next week I’ll turn it over to my colleague Logistics Alex for a second review. It should open in early July, and you’ll receive your survey links at that time.
July is also when you’ll get your PDFs of all the existing DIE stuff - the core book, quickstart, and scenarios. I’ll distribute those through Backerkit, but there will be a step in your survey that lets you choose to also receive them through your Rowan, Rook & Decard webstore account. I do recommend this: it guarantees you the fastest updates if we amend those PDFs in future.
Bonus Megadungeon Month Content
If you backed more than one Megadungeon Month project, there’s a PDF of bonus material from all participants coming your way.
Grant is writing the DIE component, and at present - first draft's written, still time for an entirely different idea to take hold - it's an entire mini-RPG where you are the characters left behind in an unreal, but very much still existent, world after the players’ campaign fell apart.
This is also due to reach you in July, and since Grant and I are at Pyrkon, a truly brilliant convention in Poland, this week I’m going to ply him with bison grass vodka, large quantities of meat, and gentle encouragement to keep him on track. Kieron’s there too, actually, so I can work on both of them at the same time. No Gar, though. He’s not allowed to leave his writing cave until he’s done with my first draft.
The Future
There’s a timeline in May’s update, and since we’re very early in the process there’s not much to say: we have started, and that is good. I’ll keep you posted, but for now the key things to know are that writing’s underway (like all writing, it mostly looks like notes at this point, with some Post-Its that say “sexy death knight???”) and I’ll sling you some teasers as soon as there’s text to show.
CONTENT WARNING: There is a bloody great spider picture at the bottom of this update. If you do not want to see it, stop scrolling when you get to the "Do You Like Spiders?" header. I repeat: it is a massive spider. I think it's quite cute, but that's because I like spiders.
So…
We’re still in overtime mode. Until we go a full ten minutes without anyone backing a Megadungeon Month project, overtime mode will continue. So this is a bit of a weird “end of campaign” update, in that it’s 66 hours (at time of writing) after the end time and we’re still going.
Things that have happened since Friday night:
Gar, Kieron, and I have celebrated. Quite a lot.
About 40 more people have pledged (hurrah!)
Kieron has had several ideas about incorporating the concept of time limits and 10 minute extensions into one of his dungeons (hey, crowdfunding’s been a huge thing in TTRPGs for a couple of decades now)
The F5 button has worn out on all our keyboards
But! It’s Monday now and we all deserve some closure, even while we keep refreshing that page. So…
Here’s What Happens Next
Soon? Backerkit will collect the funds for your pledges.
June: Pledge manager will go live, and you’ll be able to do your surveys. As always, we won’t charge for shipping until later.
June to December: Gareth, Kieron, and the rest of the team are writing. I’ll share monthly (ish) updates and - when there’s text worth showing - some previews.
January to June 2027: Art happens! I’ll keep up monthly previews (this remains true for the duration of the project), including sketches and work in progress if the artists are happy for me to share, which will vary by artist and piece of work.
April to May 2027: First edit round
June to July 2027: Any major rewrites
July to September 2027: Tentative plans for a playtest - this means you!
October to December 2027: Revisions based on playtest and final edits. Layout happens.
December 2027: PDF release.
January 2028: Backer feedback on the PDF. Based on other big projects we’ve done, this period is invaluable. DIE isn’t a particularly crunchy game, but we always find things we thought were clearly expressed that aren’t as good as they could be, and of course a selection of delicious typos.
February 2028: Revisions.
March to May 2028: Printing/mass production.
June to August 2028: Books are freighted to warehouses. Disgusting business.
September 2028: Orders shipped out to you.
You’ll notice one major change from the timeline on the crowdfunding page: since I wrote that page, I have decided Metadungeon would benefit from a playtest. And since it’s, uh, big, playtesting’s going to take some time. So it’s going to take longer than I said it would, but for what I hope is an enjoyable reason: I’d like you to play the game as early as possible and give us feedback.
You’ll also notice this is much longer than most crowdfunder fulfilment timelines, and that’s deliberate. We’ve left plenty of time in there for, broadly, good ideas to happen. For example, printing time is deliberately really long in case we discover a new material we really want to use, or determine that the paper we’ve chosen isn’t quite opaque enough - a genuine thing that happens when you’re as nerdy as we are.
If we finish any of these stages faster than anticipated, great, but I am leaving time both to do everything as well as we can, with no crunch, and also to enjoy it as much as possible, because that’s how we give you the best possible book.
Join Us in Discord
If you’ve got questions, or general DIE enthusiasm you’d like to share - you’re not alone.
Come and join us in the Rowan, Rook & Decard Discord server, or even the DIE specific server. The first one’s useful if you have questions like “where are my books?” or “Chant, how on earth did the timeline change before you even started work?” (I’m genuinely sorry, the playtest is one of those good ideas that I should have had earlier, and then announcing it got lost in the excitement of number go up). The second one has Kieron in it, as well as the most knowledgeable DIE fans (of the comic and the RPG) I know.
Oh, one last thing:
You Like Spiders?
Some of the RRD team really like spiders. In space. If you’re looking for a new crowdfunder to fill the void of anticipation now Metadungeon is “over”, you could do a lot worse than check out our upcoming Children of Time roleplaying game. Written by Minærva “Legacy: Life Among the Ruins” McJanda, with close consultation from Adrian “Children of Time” Tchaikovsky, it’s a space epic (based, hopefully obviously, on the Children of Time series of novels) where you play both the crew of a centuries old ark ship transporting humanity to the stars, and the accidentally uplifted sapient animal species on the planet the ship’s headed for. Crises abound.
Children of Time’s coming this summer and I am delighted to say it’s nothing to do with me: I will be making the Metadungeon (and Hollows!) while my colleague Elaine Lithgow pilots this immense and powerful spacecraft.
So, uh, we raised £25,000 in about three days and now Kieron is definitely writing two chapters. This is for the best because I'm not sure I could have stopped him if we hadn't hit this goal.
Look, we've got about 5 hours to go, and normally I'd stop here. But Megadungeon Month is weird: it's got a shared overtime mode. That means that, until we go 10 full minutes without someone backing any of the Megadungeon Month projects, the show ain't over.
So I'm going to announce one last stretch goal I would really, really like to hit.
£200,000: MORE MONEY FOR THE TEAM. At this point the Metadungeon is a major success, and I want our freelancers to share in that with more than just the satisfaction of knowing thousands of people are going to appreciate their work. If we (somehow) hit £200,000 I'll turn some of that money into a chunk of bonus pay for Gareth and our artists Rick, Sar, and Saga. Kieron and Stephanie get royalties, so I'm less worried about giving them a financial reward.
If you're reading this, you've done your part. All I need from you is to cross your fingers and hope this works out.
A couple of people asked what stretch goals were left, and this is the last one I thought we might get to. The absolutely final one would have been a DIE Actual Play, at £225,000. I think that's well and truly off the table now, but every time I've thought we were done, I've woken up to an extremely pleasant surprise.
So cross those claws, folks, and thanks for everything <3
Me yesterday: well, I think Lin's essay is probably the last stretch goal we'll hit, but you never know... Me this morning: Kieron, grab that pen, I think you're gonna need to get writing.
It's all coming together, folks. Here's hoping for a great final 36-ish hours.
Anyway, I've got one last Master to introduce you to.
The one you've been waiting for. The present. The future. A riddle wrapped in an enigma, because we're all - figuratively - playing at their table right now. The Frontier's fractal. Potential. Meta. One thing we do know about them is that they love an audience. Whatever and however they're playing, it deserves to be seen. It's not about the game, or not only the game; it's about the watchers. Is the audience a way to spread a message? Extend The Frontier's power? Do they even know themself?
We've cracked £150,000, which means Lin's essay is officially going in the book. This means I have now finished assembling my Marvel-style dream team of contributors. It's a pretty strong lineup, I hope you'll agree.
Next:
£175,000: MORE KIERON If you know Kieron at all, it will not shock you to learn he's got more than one idea for a Metadungeon chapter. He's keeping his cards close to his chest - it'll be something that's either extremely meta, even more than the rest of this dungeon, or something about the historical forerunners to roleplaying games as we know them. RPG prehistory, if you like. I'm not saying it'll be about Kriegsspiel, but I am saying you should go and read about Kriegsspiel just in case.
With 48 hours to go, I think this is our last stretch goal. It's an ambitious target but I think we might just make it, y'all.
Speaking of ambitious, let's meet our penultimate Master. The Master of Ceremonies is from the 2010s, and they represent the movement towards centring players in games: their actions, their decisions, their stories. This is the GM that sets up interesting situations and gives you room to make interesting choices. They're on your side. They're your biggest cheerleader. But you won't have room to play to your full potential if they don't make your characters' lives hard. What's that? The characters are you and if you die (or are traumatised) in the game, that's with you for the rest of your life? Oh. How sad.
