Updates
Check out the latest news and keep up with progress
PROJECT UPDATE
Murkdice
CREATOR
16 days ago
Project Update: June Update
Hey there backers, today we’re delivering you our June update!
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content
PROJECT UPDATE
Murkdice
CREATOR
about 2 months ago
Project Update: May Update
As promised, we have a May backer update for you on Inkvein!
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content
PROJECT UPDATE
Murkdice
CREATOR
about 2 months ago
Project Update: Thank you!
The sigil of Gispyri (the Hourflame) seems fitting for this occasion. Inkvein's funding campaign has ended! And thanks to over 800 of you fine backers not only is the book coming to life but we're getting to add even more to it via the stretch goals. Your enthusiasm and support means the world to the whole team.
Now, about what happens next. There's still some stuff to do until Inkvein is ready to be sent as a beta pdf: we've got editing cycles to go through, Luke needs to write some of the remaining stretch goals, and he needs to finish up around 40 illustrations (he's already done 60 though!)
We expect to have a beta pdf of the core text available to backers towards the end of Q2 (late June). If things go well, we might manage earlier than that, but we'll see!
The GM handbook will be designed after we're happy with the core book to avoid having to rework it if there are any changes to the core text. We expect to be sending off for test copies of the main book, GM handbook, and bookmark character sheets in Q3.
For now, we'll update you on progress on the core text at the end of each month (you'll get an update at the end of April, May, and June) to keep you in the loop.
In the meantime, thank you again, and you'll hear from us soon!
PROJECT UPDATE
Murkdice
CREATOR
about 2 months ago
Project Update: 60 minutes left!
We've given a load of sneak previews of Inkvein over the past couple of days. For this last call to back it, just 1 hour from the campaign ending and so close to the Pentower Dungeon Expansion stretch goal, I’m going to share the draft foreword of the book.
I’ve talked a lot about what is in the book, but not why I wrote it.
When I was eleven, I went on a school trip. Part of it involved caving. Not casually walking around a few large chambers, but getting suited up, helmeted, and head-torched. I was a tall boy, nearly 6ft by that age, and my muscles still had a lot of catching up to do. I was still afraid of the dark; I remember staring at the yawning mouth of stone that held only dark within.
I had to crawl through letterboxes and try to heave myself over slippery ledges that I was too tall and weak for. My helmet kept catching the cave ceiling mere centimetres above my stooped head.
Towards the end, I had to squeeze through a tunnel filled with water up to my waist. One by one, my classmates dropped into it. When it was my turn, as I sank into the water, my light began to flicker and give out. The people before me were already far ahead, obscured by corners and twists, and I had to move forwards before anyone else could descend safely behind me.
With light fading and the darkness closing in, I waded and pawed my way through the tunnel, dragging my fingers along the walls and hunching to fit into the constricting tube. I still remember the feeling. The disorientation. The alien nature of the space around me. I learned a couple of lessons: our tools and senses can fail us, can abandon us, and that there are places that I do not belong, that I do not know, and perhaps never can know.
Earlier than this, at 9 years old, a wave caught me and tumbled me to shore in a grip that I had no power to resist until I washed into the shallows. I had felt a tiny portion of the ocean’s mass envelope my body, and it was suffocating.
I knew this feeling before these incidents. My earliest memory is of a jumper being pulled over my head and the head hole being misaligned. It took too long to be fixed. My sight was gone. My hearing muffled by thick twisting fabric. My arms were constrained, pinned to my body.
I hate being trapped. That is why this book exists.
If you think a caving megadungeon written by someone with claustrophobia might be interesting, now is the time to get it!
PROJECT UPDATE
Murkdice
CREATOR
about 2 months ago
Project Update: Sneak Peek Part 4: Layout design
6 HOURS LEFT! We are in the twilight of the Inkvein campaign: if you like the look of those stretch goals and haven’t backed it yet, now is the time! We're closing in on the print-at-home battlemaps!
To tempt you further, and give backers more previews, here’s a look at the ‘one-spread’ centric design of Inkvein’s layout.
The argument that information in a ttrpg book should not be split across multiple spreads is not new, but it’s something that we continue to see in the industry despite this popular rule.
Inkvein holds to this rule and then some. It is strict about space and layout. Make no mistake, detail isn’t sacrificed for this, but usability is more important than ever in a megadungeon. Let’s take a look.
Note: These samples are not fully edited.
It was important for me to get the contents on one spread. The pdf will be hyperlinked to the point of driving me up the wall, but for the physical copy, having a single spread that shows you where to find everything is essential in a book like this.
I took the same approach for the overview of the book. It’s easy for an adventure of this size to feel intimidating: our answer to this problem is a single spread overview that guides you through how to digest the book.
We use the same technique for the history of the dungeon…
And all the additional sub-systems in the book. Alchemy fits on one spread: procedures, reagents (ingredients), and recipes.
For locations, whether they are caverns, places in the city of Wel, or sub-dungeons, descriptions always fit within a spread. For the city of Wel, sub-locations fit on a spread or a page.
Locations within the cave network never run between pages, and a mini-map is included to minimise page switching.
For sub-dungeons, like the Pentower, each level is contained on 1 spread.
And for islands within the Sea of Words, each is contained on a single page which details their mini-pointcrawl.
I value detail in an adventure: I often find dungeons that summarise locations in brevity tough to run. But detail doesn’t mean usability needs to suffer. By segmenting information properly and setting spatial constraints, Inkvein is a joy to use at the table. It’s detailed but digestible: the best of both worlds.
We've got one more sneak preview before the campaign closes... something a bit special. See you soon!
Community Leaders
Become an active participant Learn more
