Another big update, let's split it into five parts:
Where I've Been
Print-On-Demand Shipping Now
Mud, Blood, and Stone Complete
Cave of the Blue Behir - Monster Hunt 2 Released
Excess Copies
What's Next?
Where I've Been
I was working in the military on a mission that slowly ate up all my time until I hit 100+ hours a week and had no time for anything other than work. I got off mission at the end of May, with the expectation that I would get a running start back into everything Ward Against Evil. Instead, I slept for a week, then my wife convinced me to go on a vacation with her before getting back into work.
Now, I'm back, and was to close out the final parts of this Backerkit campaign with my wife.
Print-On-Demand Shipping Now
If you ordered any Print-On-Demand products, check your emails, you should have received one from me ([email protected]) with your purchase confirmation. I'll send tracking when I get it, right now they're out printers.
Why did the PODs take so long?
We needed Mud, Blood, and Stone to be completed so we can send the PODs out together and save on shipping.
Why did Mud, Blood, and Stone take so long?
To be honest, it was only a page or two away from completion for months, but because it was so close to completion it was easy to put off as work slowly ate up all my time. Now it is finally completed, reviewed by the editor, the final art pieces emplaced, and ready for sale.
Mud, Blood, and Stone Completed
Mud, Blood, and Stone is complete! If you ordered the PDF or Print Zine you should have received an email with an itch.io download code. Grab it to get it for free. If you didn't buy it during the campaign, here's the link for you:
Some of you received physical prints of this Crowns 2e Monster Hunt already with your initial book purchases. For those who didn't, you can now check out Cave of the Blue Behir on itch.io for free at the link below: https://ward-against-evil.itch.io/cave-of-the-blue-behir-mh2
For those of you unfamiliar with Crowns 2e Monster Hunts, these are one-page boss battles with a short quest to go along with them. They're free and I think there's going to be one more coming down the pipe before the series is over.
If inspiration strikes, I think it'd be fun to make like eight of these and combine them into a little zine people can buy, but that's for another day...
Excess Copies
I have more physical Title Cards, Crowns 2e books, and printed Monster Hunts than I have friends to hang them out to. This is on purpose, I like making extras in case people get messed up orders or I had forgotten to get a distant relative a copy.
The plan currently is to wait a month or two to see if anyone is still missing their orders. After that, I'll be reaching out to retailers in my area and/or from this audience and seeing if they'd like copies at a discounted rate to stock up their shelves.
I'd sell them myself, but honestly I have so little free time that it wouldn't be worth it to have a booth and a local convention to sell them by hand. Plus, it's always fun to get emails from people saying they found my book on store shelves.
That's the plan at the moment, things may change, but I don't imagine they will dramatically.
What's Next?
I have a multi-month training event starting later this year. I do not plan on any major productions before then because I've learned my lesson of trying to mix military-time and rpg-small-business-time the hard way with this last Backerkit.
Crowns 2e is still in the headlights for smaller content releases. The Lesser Key of Magic (a previously discussed spells expansion) and some short dungeons and monster hunts might be all we get for the foreseeable future. But who knows? Maybe I can get a firm foundation on Reign of Pigs (the next hex-flower adventure, Mud, Blood, and Stone sized), knock it out before training starts, and just focus on the POD version.
We'll see, until then thank you guys so much for backing! AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR ADVENTURES
Okay, so big update, let's split it into five parts:
Shipping
Print-on-Demand Copies
Deluxe Copies
Life Update
Future Releases
Shipping
The books came in earlier this month, followed by the cards, and now the final items are printed copies of the Crowns 2e dungeon The Abbey Lost to the Trees and the two monster hunts Cave of the Blue Behir and Fear the Land Shark (one on either side of the paper). These two pages of adventure add-ons will be added to every order of Seeker of Legend tier and above. I even rewrote a little bit of the dungeon after some playtesting, so it should be better than before (although I always thought it was fairly solid). I'll be updating the PDF version on itch.io very soon.
Here's a few images of all the boxes and books:
We're just waiting on those little adventure add-ons as the final delivery which should arrive tomorrow! So, we will start shipping as soon as they arrive and we have time, which I anticipate to be around April 1st.
Print-on-Demand Copies
I received some test copies from Lulu for the print-on-demand copies and I'd say they're really solid. They're much slimmer than the deluxe hardcovers due to the difference in paper weight, and there's a little page bleed, but it's really negligible, and for the price I'd say it's worth it. So much so that for a lot of my friends this is the version of the book they'll be receiving from me and I'm proud to hand it off to them. Solid book.
Here's some images:
The print-on-demand books are awaiting the final edit of the adventure Mud, Blood, and Stone to be completed so they can ship together. However, if you only ordered the print-on-demand book then it start shipping out to you around April 1st as well.
Deluxe Copies
The original test prints were expensive and not great, but I'm really glad I did them because they allowed me to make the changes I needed to for these deluxe prints to be stellar!
They came out great! Really solid books, much thicker than the print-on-demand and even test print versions. Solid binding, the bookmark ribbon is awesome!
(as you can see in the image, my test copy on the right has already seen a lot of love)
Here's some more images so you can see the quality of the deluxe copy print:
I was also able to take some military leave and head back to see them in person (thus why I'm at home in that picture instead of an undisclosed location). Which means I was able to sign the books as well! Everyone who wanted a signed copy should be getting one:
Life Updates
For those of you unfamiliar with the military it is a series of gut punches one after another. Constantly busy, constantly tired, constantly at fault. But, if you're like me at least, if anyone were to ask me if I'd do it again I'd say, "Yes, it was the best time of my life." Same feeling you get with having a kid. Constant stress, crying, etc. But, for some strange reason, you gotta recommend it to others because it's better than the sum of its parts.
So, in summary, I've been really frickin' busy. REALLY busy. I've actually had a sticky note on my desk telling me to write this or any update for months and I'd add more sticky notes every time a new major event happened:
POD copy: UPDATE
Books came in: WRITE UPDATE
Cards came in: WRITE UPDATE
Add-on things on way: UPDATE
What spurred me on were people commenting for updates. So if you ever back a future one of my projects and I'm silent for too long, that seems to be the way to get me to update ya'll. Every campaign I ran while unemployed was easy. It's being employed that's hard.
Thanks so much for sticking through though guys! We're almost at the end.
If you make an account and log in (all free) you can save your characters, add items to the inventory, and do all sorts of stuff. It's really fun to use and made by a real, paid human (not AI).
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The Forsaken Fortress dungeon is the next big Crowns 2e project, I'll be working with the previous winner of the Crowns 2e jam to turn their dungeon into a full one-page trifold dungeon just like The Abbey Lost to the Trees. Ya'll will love it, the guys really creative and it's going to come out great! https://acreece.itch.io/the-forsaken-fortress
I'd love to make it so that in April we start a year-long Crowns 2e jam, and throughout the year have little mini jams for specific themes. Everything with cash prizes, and we turn the winning products into legit dungeons and products for people to enjoy endorsed by Ward Against Evil. I think that'd be a fun way to stay engaged with the community.
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I've got one more Monster Hunt in me that I think can create a fun boss fight for now (which is really the goal of the monster hunts in the end). I think it's going to be a Manticore, but no promises...
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I'm seriously considering a magic book, working title is The Lesser Key to Magic, with 20 spells that are slightly different versions of each of the classic 20 spells and so have a 50/50 chance of being the reverse version of each. For example: Lightning Bolt and Grounded are always reverses of each other. What if there was a chance that this grimoire had Ball Lightning and Grounded, and this other one had Lightning Bolt and Stoneskin. It's adds more diversity to the world.
On top of that, the book would include an additional 20 spells and 20 more variants. But, still up in the air, because spells have always been the hardest thing for me to write no matter the system. I'm too much of a fighter-type guy.
More to come.
Thank you guys so much for backing! To be continued...
You can playtest the game on our Discord with me and our awesome community! We don't bite! Reese Surles, Ward Against Evil
Here's a summary of everything that's been happening and why things are dragging behind:
New military job, new part of the state, moving constantly between hotels
Haven't printed the books because I haven't had anywhere to send them that's stable
Few updates on smaller games that weren't in print to pass the time
The Lulu test copy ended up at my old hotel and I moved, I haven't seen it
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years
Here's a quick summary to answer your questions:
The books are being sent to print tonight, I'm just going to send everything to my parents house and have them help me mail everything out this means I cannot sign any of the books, but it does mean that you'll be getting them much faster than you otherwise would
Same goes with the cards
There will only be one bookmark ribbon, after some back and forth that's all the new printer can do, if I try to find another printer things will take even longer to print, so let's just push forward with what we got, and the book is still great quality
I'm going to order another Lulu test copy, I'm more stable for now and that's a smaller risk to take than hundreds of books potentially being sent to an unhelpful address
Mud, Blood, and Stone is complete, but I had to get a new artist because the original one had life get in the way (totally valid). Most of the art is done in the new style now thanks to SilverNightingale, there's just two pieces left, here's some pictures:
Expect shipping in Mid-Late February. If I can get it sooner than that, that'd be ideal, but that's my "everything keeps getting in the way" timeframe.
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Crowns Jam is Concluded
We've had three quality submissions to the Autumn Winds Jam and the judges and after some testing, the winner is clear:
The Forsaken Fortressby acreecehands down wins both categories that had submissions: "Best Adventure Site" and "Best One-Pager".
I'll be reaching out tonight to pay them their winnings and see if he wants to work together with me on a revised version with additional art and formatting. We'll see how it goes!
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The Final Update and 2025 in Review
Considering I'm sending it to print tonight, I thought it'd be best to do one more read through. The Final Update of the text is live, and you can download it at itch.io. The Title Cards were updated to match as well, download them here.
On top of that, I wrote a massive blog post about everything that happened last year, and talked about my itch.io numbers for the year. If that kind of thing interests you, you can check that out here.
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Q&A
If you have any other questions ask them in the comments below! I'm down to reply to anything, this entire post was spurred on by a comment on the last post and an email sent to me at [email protected] . I was originally going to wait until I had a completed Mud, Blood, and Stone to release, but the user brought up that it had been long enough. I agree. I hope this clarifies the situation for ya'll!
Thank you guys so much for backing! To be continued...
You can playtest the game on our Discord with me and our awesome community! We don't bite! Reese Surles, Ward Against Evil
Here are some images of the test print for the deluxe hardcover:
Here are the edits I put in for:
The words were too close to the spine-gutter, so I'm pushing all the text out a 1/4" inch
The spine was miscolored and not aligned perfectly
Otherwise, this book is AWESOME!!! It looks a million times better than I thought it was, and I'm excited to get them printed and out to you guys!
The next print order is the MASS PRINTING. I'm waiting a week to get a paycheck from my new job as extra cushion, but we should be good to go!
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Print-On-Demand Copies
I have a test-print from Lulu on the way to my new home right now. Once I can make sure it's high quality and doesn't need any edits, I'll make it public and start mailing everyone their copies.
If you purchased the "Mud, Blood, and Stone" (MB&S) POD option as well, there will be a slight delay as I proof MB&S as well so you (and I) can save on shipping. That will be before the end of November.
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Submissions for the Autumn Winds Jam, Voting Begins
We've had three quality submissions to the Autumn Winds Jam and the judges and I are excited to test them out in the coming month to give them proper reviews! As a reminder, here are the cash prizes:
Best Adventure Site ($200)
Best One-Pager ($50)
Best Non-Adventure Site ($50)
Whatever product wins each category will also be showcased on the main Crowns 2e itch page forever. Check out the awesome entries by clicking the image below:
Thank you guys so much for backing! To be continued...
You can playtest the game on our Discord with me and our awesome community! We don't bite! Reese Surles, Ward Against Evil
The printer I was working with was unable to complete the book order because they lacked stitching, which is something I thought I had determined before partnering with them but that was on me, so I'm moving to another printer
The Core Rulestest-prints are slotted to arrive at my place on 10/21/2025, expect a video around then of me dissecting them
Title Card Deck test-print is also underway, ETA not yet determined
Artist Chaoclypse, the artist behind the "Mud, Blood, and Stone" cover art, is going to be doing the rest of the book (originally it was going to be someone else, but I decided to bring him in to finish it out in his same style), that's the next step in the completion of "Mud, Blood, and Stone"
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Where was I?
I just moved from North Texas to the US-Mexico Border for work. It was very spontaneous but not entirely unexpected. The food down here is great, but then again in most places the food is great if you get the right type of food.
Ihave a series of mandatory trainings, a friend's wedding, and my wedding anniversary in the coming weeks, the next update may be in November. Just keeping it real with ya'll. Luckily, at this point, we're just waiting on printing mostly.
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The Autumn Wind Jam Continues!
If you're looking for an opprotunity to make content for Crowns 2e here it is! The Autumn Winds Jam is a free-to-enter adventure/content jam for Crowns 2e! You can submit anything you want (adventures, magic items, monsters, etc) as long as its Crowns 2e compatible.
There are cash prizes for the best in each of three categories:
Best Adventure Site ($200)
Best One-Pager ($50)
Best Non-Adventure Site ($50)
Whatever product wins each category will also be showcased on the main Crowns 2e itch page forever. So feel free to hop in and utilize all the goodies in the Creator Kit!
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"Specialist Handouts"
The idea I've been passing around for the past few updates about specialists having their own little supplements is coming to fruition. The goal is that they're going to be one-page handouts you can give the players when they arrive at a town. One is the generic handout that has all of the basic items, weapons, armor, how much does it cost to stay the night, etc. Other than that, every specialist type will have their own handout which explains what items/services they provide and gives additional items/services from the core book.
Think of them like little pop-up boxes in a video game. This will be a series of free supplements, I don't think they'll provide enough content to warrant charging for them.
More to come.
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"Seeker"
Solo Rules. Short and simple. My dream is for a one-pager on exploring dungeons and the wilderness alone, but it may have to be a series of one-pagers about exploring different types of wilderness and dungeons alone. That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
More to come.
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"The Remains of Elfkind"
This is a new adventure, similar to "Mud, Blood, and Stone". It will be in the Hex-Flower series (started by "Mud, Blood, and Stone") and will be for Veteran to Expert Seekers (mid-level). It takes place in a forest, and is essentially what happens if you stumbled upon Rivendell from LOTR but decided it was conquered by rivalling beast-kin factions battling over the ruins. All the elves have long since left or been slain (it's unclear which).
It's going to feature a lot of Beast-kin, and fantastical Animals. It think you guys will really like it. It won't be coming out for a while though.
More to come.
Thank you guys so much for backing! To be continued...
You can playtest the game on our Discord with me and our awesome community! We don't bite! Reese Surles, Ward Against Evil
