Role-Playing Games
Highlights
Project Update: Thank you! What's next.
Friends, thank you so much for your outpouring of support for this chill game of adventurers settling down to run a cozy tavern. We had an incredible stream of backers show up on the final day! Over 500 people kept the Backer Train running and we not only stayed open past the 6pm deadline but we tipped past the $200,000 mark which means all our authors and artists are getting an 80% pay bump!
The next couple weeks will largely be quiet in terms of updates. BackerKit needs to collect and distribute your funds to us, we are hard at work commissioning art and revising the layout, and then we'll fire off the order for the print books. We'll also be working with Campaign Coins and Wood Tactics to get the dice and coins produced.
We'll keep you apprised as we hit milestones, but for the near future we're going to keep our heads down to push this material into production.
Along those lines, note that the stretch goals you all unlocked will be created on a separate timeline. Most of them will not be part of the book itself and will be delivered when they are completed. (We don't make a habit of commissioning stretch goals until we know the goal has actually funded.)
On behalf of the whole team, once again: thank you again for being part of this project. You blew past our humble expectations and we're excited to bring Stewpot to market. It's going to be a bigger, prettier, and better game because of you.
Would it be possible to include another d% in the set? A major mechanic of Call of Cthulhu is rolling a d10 and 2d% for advantage or disadvantage, and it would be really cool to have a matching or contrasting die to use for those rolls.
Project Update: 25 - Delivery ETA Update & Terrain Engineering Overview
Delivery ETA
- Art
- Dieline complexity & feature creep
- Vertical element engineering
Art
Dieline complexity & feature creep
Some of that art is the miniature art mentioned above. But some is art and design elements we’re developing to improve quality-of-life and user experience for you, the backer. For example, colored and numbered tabs to make both initial setup and daily play quicker and easier. Some of these quality of life elements were discovered as we iterated on production and amounted to time-consuming feature creep. But we strongly believe that they’ll result in a more positive user experience.
Vertical element engineering
Terrain Engineering Overview
They’re too tippy, and the thickness of the bases would unpleasantly tilt any mini placed alongside a wall. We tried many different shapes and thicknesses for supporting walls from a flat base, and each had a flaw that negatively impacted setup and gameplay. So while small elements such as torches and treasure chests will be supported from the bottom, using the same base that the minis use, we had to come up with a different solution for larger elements like walls and big obstacles.
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We'll conclude this update with two short gifs from Marshall showing a turnaround of a complete Vault mini with front-and-back art, insertable terrain pog, and custom base.
Previously backed this creator's crowdfunding project
This user contributed to this community!
Project Update: May Update: Short and Sweet!
Summer is just around the corner, and do we have news for you. A few weeks ago, all files were sent to the printer! That's right, everything. This includes:
- Grimtooth's Old School Traps in 5E
- Grimtooth's Old School Traps in DCC
- Against the Thieves Guild in 5E
- Against the Thieves Guild in DCC
- Trials of the Trapmaster's Tomb (DCC funnel)
Plus, the next book in the Original Adventures Reincarnated line is coming to crowdfunding very soon. OAR #9 Caverns of Thracia! Check out the landing page here.
Is it possible to get an add-on for a PDF-only version of the 246 Corbitt Street add-on that was just created? I really don't want a physical copy but would love to have the PDF by itself.
Project Update: NEW STRETCH GOAL REACHED: PREMIUM NPC CARDS
CHEER UP THOSE FACES!
The NPC cards are becoming a great and helpful deck. Thank to your amazing support, now they will be even of greater quality, printed in PRO LINEN 320 g/m2 paper! Remember, only the Dark Goddess pledge level gets this physical hand out.
Help us reach more rewards. Pledge and share the campaign now!
Thanks,
Shadowlands games
Project Update: An Excerpt from The Wellspring—Plus a Production Update
Over the past few months, our efforts to summon the Black Cube have progressed nicely. It’s a ritual of momentous proportions, taking many months, but its triumphant conclusion is coming into view. We expect to have our first-off-the-line production copy of the Invisible Sun reprint in just a few weeks!
That’s not the only project in the works, of course. The Vislae Kit is on the same schedule, with long-lead components of Book M and The Nightside to follow a few weeks after.
In the meantime, Monte has been hard at work on The Wellspring and has a snippet from that title to share with you. (While the bulk of The Wellspring is written, it’s just now heading into the editing phase. The snippet we are sharing with you is unedited, pre-production text.)
Before we get to that, though, a reminder: If you backed for the supplements, and were part of the Phase 1 fulfillment, and you haven’t yet redeemed your rewards—they’re waiting for you! Just log into the MCG Shop, navigate to My Account, and click on the Coupons tab. From there you can add your coupons to your cart and check out, and we’ll ship your rewards to you!
Now back to Montes’ excerpt—a brief peek into what the Wellspring is in a physical (or metaphysical) sense, and how a vislae might navigate to its heart once they find it.
Understanding the Wellspring
Magic itself is very often described with words that suggest water or at least liquid. Currents. Ebbs and flows. Even sometimes tides. The Wellspring, then, is a different source of magic—a different flow—that in the past has bubbled forth mystic energies, and in the past it has also stopped. There are those that say that sometimes the Wellspring just runs dry. Others contend that something—or someone—caps the Wellspring and keeps it from flowing that energy into the Actuality. (Into the Actuality from where, you might ask, but again—there are many answers to questions like that.)
If one is comfortable with the water metaphor, then it isn’t hard to understand that at the point where the Wellspring flows—the source, if you will—the magic pools. In fact, it creates a sort of oasis around that pool, where the magical power gives existence to a shore around it and even “plants” that grow at the pool’s edge. The Oasis—and that’s what most historians and theorists call it, “the Oasis”—can’t be located on a map. It can’t be attributed to any one sun. It’s a location all its own, created and sustained by the mystical energies of the Wellspring.
The Oasis around the Wellspring, then, is a sort of (meta)physical place that one could travel to. Doing so would be the most direct way of drawing upon the power there, although only a vislae would do it.
The Oasis appears to be a pool about 800 feet across, with the “land” around it being another 200 feet extended beyond the pool’s edge in all directions. The “terrain” is barren but weirdly twisted into surreal and normally impossible shapes.
The first time the PCs travel to the Wellspring, the oasis seems frozen. One can see only a mass of cold, solidified magical energy—which looks like glistening ice—with a small, bubbling font in the middle of it. The “ice” has frozen in uneven waves, with peaks and valleys. This is because the members of the Third Hand, who discovered that the Wellspring is ripe for opening, haven’t yet performed the rituals needed to push it over the edge.
There’s still power there when it’s frozen, but it is sluggish and harder to access.
If they travel there again, however, the mystic ice has melted and the entire pool is a swirling vortex of liquid magic. The Wellspring is fully open.
Getting Across the Oasis
But the Oasis itself is a dangerous location and difficult to navigate, both when it is frozen over, and when it is not..
Frozen: The ice is supernaturally slick. Crossing it on foot is literally impossible. However, visitors can use the slippery surface to their advantage in conjunction with the uneven ice slopes, crests, and valleys. A good thrust carries a vislae along on their backside or their stomach, moving incredibly fast, moving toward the wellspring in a spiral motion, following the patterns in the ice. Navigating their toboggan-like ride safely requires three Movement-based actions with a challenge of 5. Any time the character fails one of these actions, they suffer one damage and the challenge of the next action in the series (if any are left) is 2 higher. Worse, a failure also means that the frozen magic has scraped away some of the vislae’s personal power, so that they lose 3 Sorcery.
Should a character fail all three actions, they not only suffer the effects described, but they careen across the ice entirely out of control. They end up out of the Oasis entirely, and lose their next action. If they want to get to the Wellspring, they will have to try all over again.
This activity is not overly dangerous on its own, but in some circumstances (see each individual story in this book) enemies may attack the PCs while all of this is going on.
Unfrozen: There’s no ice to slide upon, but this circumstance is perhaps even more difficult because the water in the Oasis churns around the Wellspring like a violent whirlpool. Swimming is impossible, but characters could attempt to use the churning motion to their advantage and ride the current (or even body surf) to the middle. Similar to dealing with the frozen Oasis, letting the whirlpool-like current carry a character requires three Movement-based actions with a challenge of 5. Any time the character fails one of these actions, they suffer 2 damage (from nearly drowning) and the challenge of the next action in the series (if any are left) is 2 higher.
Should a character fail all three actions, they not only suffer the effects described, but they begin to truly drown in the magic of the pool. They must attempt a Physicality-based action to keep from drowning, and the challenge is 3, with the challenge increasing each action by 1. The character must keep attempting these actions until a friend manages to help them out of the churning pool. A character alone in this situation is likely doomed.
At the Center of the Wellspring
Vislae standing at the center can also make minor alterations to the flow of the Wellspring’s power as it flows into the Actuality. This requires specific knowledge of where the magic is specifically going (through an established link—as detailed in the various stories in this book). Preventing or redirecting this specific flow requires a few minutes of time and a Sorcery-based action with a challenge of 8. Multiple vislae can work together on this action, each devoting points of Sorcery to add to the venture.
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And that’s what Monte has to share with us today. We’ll have another production update in about a month, as, if everything remains on plan, production comes to an end and the Black Cube begins its journey to our warehouses.
Thank you so much for your support!
—The Monte Cook Games team
Project Update: FUNDED!
We are happy to say that Scions of the Dark Goddess has been funded in less than 20 minutes!
Thanks to all your support Scions of the Dark Goddess will be in the hands of all backers. Your are great.
Let's keep pushing and unlock the next stretch goals to make even better.
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Shadowlands Games