StoryGuider, a collection of choice driven coloring book adventures for kids is coming soon to print! This 36 story series features in-game activities, lively characters, intentional social-emotional skills practice, human made drawings, and more.
StoryGuider: choose your journey stories for little kids
Made just for kids, StoryGuider lets young players, ages 2-7, have a special story that twists and turns down the paths that they choose!
Tested over the past 4 years via both home games and classes, these all-ages stories are:
Easy tales to read and play for families
Solo-playable adventures for early readers
Perfect for group guided play in classes and camps
This series is designed to be an interactive read for families to enjoy aloud with young kids and let them have say in where the story goes or participate in the activities, giving them a strong connection to the material.
Interactive experience during read-aloud time
Kids are engaged with booksbefore learning to read
It's also designed to be a great first step into reading for children who are learning to read on their own, providing a fun adventure that gives them control in the story and with words that are appropriate for early reading levels.
StoryGuider was originally created to align with a pre-K social emotional learning curriculum and has been released in digital only format for a few years, providing us with feedback from the community and showing that it's worked in multiple environments.
Some of the many skills practiced throughout the stories include:
As you read through StoryGuider, you'll be presented with choices that let you decide what order to explore the story in, what items you'll collect, and how your character will face a variety of challenges.
Additional activities ranging from picture identification, remembering instructions, matching, and crafting are interspresed throughout the adventures along with wiggle breaks! Each story also includes optional extra ways to either expand on the story or incorporate other learning experiences into your journeys.
This series was designed during COVID shutdown to both help a pre-K teacher with their social-emotional learning curriculum and help me teach my own kid (who was then 2 years old) core social skills through play.
It's been out in digital format for a few years, being used by the community in both family and class environments.
Since that initial release, TTRPGkids has grown, investigating hundreds of other TTRPGs through features, reviews, and interviews, winning an ENnie for Best Online Content, and self-publishing dozens of other titles.
Collecting all that new XP in both game design and publishing, I'm happy to announce this update to the series, the addition of all new art, and it's launch into print!
We're excited to release this update, hopefully add quite a bit more to the series through stretch goals, and get this work into the hands of more families, friends, and facilitators. We look forward to sharing these adventures with you, and... happy reading!
Rewards include a PDF that you can use on the screen or as a print-and-play AND a set of at-cost print-on-demand (POD) key(s) for if you would like a physical copy of the book.
The price of each tier is the intended price for the post-campaign PDF only release, so the benefit of backing during the campaign is that you'll get the POD along with your PDF.
Using the POD key is optional, and you can find out more about this in the "What's the Deal with the POD Keys?" section.
NOTE: designs may change as art is fine-tuned
The Big Bundle
If you want to choose EVERYTHING, The Big Bundle is the way to go! This gets you all 36 adventures divided between the three "Big Book of..." collections. You'll have the full curriculum and all new adventures being added to the series along with any applicable stretch goals.
Choose a Big Book
This option gets you one themed collection of 12 adventures (4 trilogies). Stories are grouped by their characters and the world they're in with the Heroes book being more about humans doing cool things, the Friends book being about more magical characters, and the Dragons book focusing on Sandy the Dragon.
Options to pick from include: StoryGuider: The Big Book of Heroes StoryGuider: The Big Book of Friends StoryGuider: The Big Book of Dragons
Choose a Trilogy
If you want to just try out some of the adventures OR if you only want the smaller zine-sized format, you'll want to go with the Choose a Trilogy option. This gets you one trilogy, of your choice, from the options below. Each trilogy follows one character, and the stories are connected, progressing from one to the other.
Options to pick from include: Astronaut Adventure Chef Hero City Treasure Seeker Betti the Yeti Mediator Mouse Wizard in Training Tome Traveller Sandy the Dragon (core) Sandy the Dragon (seasons) Sandy the Dragon (holidays) Sandy the Dragon (new lands)
POD keys are print-on-demand keys, and the way they work for this project is as follows:
I am charging only the PDF cost for the game during this campaign. So, if you buy the PDF, I will also be sending you a POD key in case you want a physical copy as well. You don't have to use the POD key, but you will have it available.
The POD key will be a special link to the printer's website. This link will allow you to get the printed version of the book at printing cost.
If three single adventure books cost $3 each to print, you would then pay 3 * $3 to the printer and handle any shipping arrangements on the printer's website.
For this project, the estimated printing costs for the books are as follows:
Softcover (available at start of campaign): 5.5" x 8.5" single adventure - $3/ea 8.5" x 11" Big Book (12 adventures) - $12 - $20/ea
Hardcover (available if applicable stretch goals are unlocked): 5.5" x 8.5" single adventure - $8/ea 8.5" x 11" Big Book (12 adventures) - $18 - $25/ea
These are only estimated costs, which means that they can fluxuate for any number of reasons, from increases in paper costs to tarrifs impacting shipment to books outside the country. I will be working to keep this cost as low as possible without sacrificing the quality of the book. I have two printer options lined up, and I will go with the most reasonable option at the time of fulfillment.
For shipping, this will vary greatly by country and will fluxuate based on the latest international shipping requirements. Within the US, you can expect shipment via media mail, which will likely range between $4.50 - $10.
Why use this option?
Using the POD keys has A LOT of benefits to both backers and the project.
Benefits to backers:
You decide after seeing the PDF if you want to buy the physical book
You can hold onto the POD key to print whenever you want
You get to see the shipping cost before you buy
You don't need to fill out as much info on surveys
You get a lower price than the final released physical copy
Benefits to TTRPGkids:
We can fulfill, even with incomplete surveys, since everything is digital
We do not need to manage shipping
We can reduce the campaign goal since we don't need to factor in print cost + buffers
We do not need to limit international fulfillment since the printer can handle this
I'm hoping that this method gives a smoother experience during fulfillment and that it also gives you more freedom to choose what you want at the time of fulfillment.
Add-ons for this campaign include additional individual adventure and Big Book purchases AND the same PDF + POD key combination for other TTRPGkids titles!
I will also be continuing my library donation add-on from other campaigns. Contributing to this add-on increases the number of physical books that I donate yearly to ALA's Iternational Games Month event held every November.
The team for this project features the talents of several artists, including two very talented teen/YA artists who are starting their careers! I'm looking forward to hiring all these wonderful folks to add their flair to the art for each set of trilogies!
All art used in this project is being made by people; there will be NO AI generated images used in this project or in the creation process for the project's art.
Fulfillment for StoryGuider is planned as follows:
April 2026 Big Book of Heroes Big Book of Friends
June 2026 Big Book of Dragons Illustrated SRD (stretch goal)
December 2026 French translation (stretch goal)
I plan to keep you updated throughout the process and will pull ahead releases where possible. Since the stories are already written, the primary drivers for timing are:
🧭 Explore the 4 Printopia Groups — Every project belongs to one of four unique groups helping you discover stories you’ll love and creators to follow:
Dawnrise | Uplifting, imaginative tales for all ages.
Suncrest | Bold, hopeful adventures for middle grade readers.
Duskmelt| Emotionally rich stories for teens & adults.
Nightfall | Complex, mature narratives for older teens & adults.
⚔️ Introducing Crowd Quest — a backer-powered community game running during Printopia! Every project belongs to a group, and when you interact, you earn points that help unlock group-wide rewards. Learn more about it in our freebies section below!
🎁 Printopia Freebies Overview — Check out all the different ways you can get freebies in addition to your pledge rewards!
Cross-Collab Freebies — Back both projects in a Cross-Collab pair and get 1 freebie from each creator (see individual project pages for unlock requirements).
Crowd Quest Digital Zine Freebie — Help each of the 4 groups unlock their achievement to earn their digital zine freebie, filled with art, stories, and bonus content from that group’s participants. Collect up to 4 digital zines — one from each group.
Printopia Bookmark Freebie — Back 10+ projects across any group to get the Limited Edition Printopia 2025 bookmark (fulfilled by BackerKit).
*Only pledges to physical reward tiers or main digital offerings (if no physical items are offered) qualify towards earning the limited Printopia 2025 Bookmark. This will be fulfilled through BACKERKIT, not through TTRPGkids.
