Surveys sent, PDFs for released books sent, and Important Poll!
Hey everyone!
It's a long weekend for a lot of us in the US, so I'm taking some extra time to work on stat blocks. More on that with the poll at the bottom of the update!
Su...
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Lone Colossus Games
9 days ago
Smoke Test Sent, Initial Progress Update
Hi everyone,
I've just sent out the smoke test for surveys! This means about 5% of backers in each tier will get their survey to fill out today.
Assuming that goes smoo...
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Lone Colossus Games
29 days ago
And that's a wrap!
The campaign is over and it somehow feels like it only launched a couple weeks ago. We didn't make it to the final stretch goal, but as I mentioned in the last update anno...
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Lone Colossus Games
30 days ago
60k Stretch Goal Unlocked, Final Stretch Goal Added!
We did it! We unlocked the Ritual Enhancement System, allowing players to enhance their boons and charms with additional power in exchange for added costs during the ritual a...
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Lone Colossus Games
about 1 month ago
26 hours left, new mini unlocked, and closing in on 60k stretch goal!
Hey everyone,
As we close in on the final 24 hours of the campaign, we're also quickly closing in on the milestone of 60k and the next funding stretch goal unlock! As a remi...
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Lone Colossus Games
about 1 month ago
Play by Poll: Voidwyrm's Harvest
Hey everyone,
As we enter the last few days of the campaign, we're wrapping up the final play-by-poll with the results of your harvest. I also want to urge you to keep shari...
It's a long weekend for a lot of us in the US, so I'm taking some extra time to work on stat blocks. More on that with the poll at the bottom of the update!
Surveys Sent
The smoke test went pretty much without a hitch, so I sent out the rest of the surveys Friday morning. About 60% of you have responded already, which is great!
For anyone that missed the campaign, you can also place a late pledge via the pre-order store. Speaking of pre-orders, I mentioned during the campaign that I'd be continuing the stretch goal for environmental backgrounds for each monster illustration into pre-orders for a bit. We've currently reached around 66k total out of the 80k that we'd need to meet that stretch goal before layout begins.
Also, here's the finished "Inscrutible Sphinx" (working name), by Gibbs Santos
PDFs for Released Books
PDFs for Injuries and Vile Deeds and Tome of Intangible Treasures (Vol. 1) have been sent out via the pledge manger to all backers who pledged for a copy as an add-on during the campaign! If you're one of those backers, you should have gotten an email notifying you of your downloads. You may need to complete your survey first to be able to access the download.
Important Poll
With the release of SRD 5.2 for 5e 2024, I now officially have the option to natively support 2024 stat blocks in the book. The book will support both 5e 2014 and 5e 2024, but in order to best do that I need your feedback on which version you'd like to see actually present in the book!
Personally, I like the clarity of the new stat block formatting (the way abilities are written with targets and effects is often cleaner and more concise) but 2024 monsters also tend to be a bit stronger, with a "medium" difficulty encounter actually providing a moderate challenge to players rather than the cakewalk they tended to be in 2014, so there is a different balance to them. 2024 monsters often also have automatic on-hit effects rather than hit+save to avoid effects (when present).
Which 'edition' would you rather see the stat blocks balanced and formatted for? A section providing guidance on using 2014 stat blocks in 2024 or vice versa will be provided to support using stat blocks for the edition not chosen. My understanding from talking to people I know who've used stat blocks from one edition with the other is that it's not too hard to do, it just takes some minor adjustments with how you treat their CR (but definitely let me know if your experience is different!)
The poll will run for 2 weeks to make sure everyone gets a chance to vote, after which I'll use the results to make sure that all my stat block design effort is going toward the correct edition.
I've just sent out the smoke test for surveys! This means about 5% of backers in each tier will get their survey to fill out today.
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.
Injuries and Vile Deeds, Tome of Intangible Treasures (Vol. 1) PDFs
Those of you who purchased Injuries and Vile Deeds or Tome of Intangible Treasures (Vol. 1) during the campaign will have your copy of the PDF(s) added as a download in the pledge manager. You might need to fill out your survey before you can access them, but I'll be distributing the download this weekend after surveys are sent and you should get an email from BackerKit notifying you of a new download when I do.
Later, after the PDF from the new volume is available, I will also send these out via DriveThruRPG for those who like having copies there.
Initial Progress
The last two weeks have already been busy! I've assembled a team of freelance writers to help me flesh out lore and add monsters to the book, and work on new illustrations has begun (see below for some color sketches). I've also been writing up new stat blocks for some of these creatures and making plans for the higher/lower CR variants we unlocked during the campaign.
Color sketch of a fey fungus taking command of an insectoid soldier
Color sketch of a demonic gorilla
Color sketch of an aquatic aberration
Color sketch of a celestial sphinx
Miniature Selection
Once the monsters are more or less complete (probably sometime in July/August), I'll be posting a poll for you all to vote on which creatures you want to see included in the miniatures bundles.
The campaign is over and it somehow feels like it only launched a couple weeks ago. We didn't make it to the final stretch goal, but as I mentioned in the last update announcing it, if we get enough pre-orders and/or pledge upgrades during the next few months I'll commit to fulfilling that goal anyway! So if you know anyone who was on the fence during the campaign, or just waiting to see what happened with it, it's not too late for their support to influence what makes it into the book.
So What's Next?
Anyone who's backed my campaigns before (and in most cases any crowdfunding campaign) will be familiar with the rest of this update, but it bears repeating anyway.
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, editors, and illustrators to help me finish work on the book! If possible, chapter preview PDFs may be released ahead of the full release, but I think the nature of this book's organizational structure (chapters containing categories of monsters and their boons/charms) may make that unlikely. We'll see!
Injuries and Vile Deeds and Tome of Intangible Treasures (Vol. 1) PDFs will also be sent out via BackerKit's pledge manager as downloads for backers once the funding comes through. Later on, I'll also send out links so you can download it on DriveThruRPG if that's your preference or if you'd like to help me out by giving them 5-star reviews once you've had a chance to use the books.
Surveys for the pledge manager will be sent out sometime in the next few weeks, 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. For those living in countries with 0-rate or reduced-rate VAT on books, I'll either be updating tax rules later on to account for this (a tedious and manual process that I may not have time for in the near future) OR I will be simply crediting your account before charging cards so that you don't pay that balance.
Communication
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], or in my Discord server, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
An Awesome Campaign With More Hunts
A fellow game designer and friend of mine is running a fantastic Kickstarter campaign for a book I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of early previews for as they've been developing it these last several months. Exoecology for Monster Hunters brings heroic ecohorror to D&D 5E with epic bosses wielding world-altering regional effects, new character options, monster-themed items, and a level 2–8 campaign that pits your party against invasive species from other planes! I'm really excited to see it doing well, and I hope you'll check it out and show them some support!
Thanks again for your incredible support during this campaign! It's truly wonderful to be able to create another amazing book with your help, and I look forward to sharing some previews of new artwork and other content as they become available over the coming months!
We did it! We unlocked the Ritual Enhancement System, allowing players to enhance their boons and charms with additional power in exchange for added costs during the ritual and/or when the ability is used. I'm really excited to be able to get to work on this system, and I think it should add a nice amount of extra depth to boons and charms.
It was quite a pleasant surprise to check back in on the campaign after running my weekly session to find this goal already unlocked. As we keep the momentum going into the final hours tomorrow, I want to add another stretch goal:
Environmental Monster Backgrounds
There's not much time left in the campaign, so I'm making this stretch goal one that will extend out into the pre-order phase. If we reach 80k, including add-ons and pre-orders post-campaign made before July 2025, I will commit to adding environmental backgrounds for all 100 creatures in the book!
Normally, I keep creature backgrounds simple or absent, largely as a cost-saving measure since commissioning 100 creature illustrations is quite expensive already! If we hit this stretch goal, I'll be able to afford to add flavorful environmental backgrounds for every creature in the book - giving readers a taste of the locales and environs that the creatures might inhabit.
As a side note, we also only need 15 more backers to pledge for STL or Resin minis to unlock a 9th mini for each bundle!
Thank you all so much again for your incredible support, and I hope that we're able to unlock this final stretch goal - whether during the campaign or after!
