Ruby Dragon Sculpt
over 6 years ago – Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 12:54:03 AM

 Holy crap this is happening! We might even be able to get a physical prototype done before the KS ends!

I'm pretty happy with this. I'm sure folks who live and breathe minis will see problems, but we're working with a good manufacturer who will help make sure the thing can actually be molded. That might take some more work on our end, a repose, or breaking it up, but this is the general idea.

The book will have lots of lore about these beasties, and you can recruit them as allies! To give you and idea where my head's at as far as the nature and origin of the Gemstone Dragons, keep reading.

The Gemstone Dragons

Keepers of obscure or forbidden lore, the Jewel Dragons protect dangerous knowledge from the world. They resent humans, newcomers on the stage, who seek to know everything no matter how catastrophic knowing might be. They approve of Wizard Orders, organizations devoted to protecting people from the dangers of magic and arcanism, and ultimate knowledge.  

Orvosortiax, The Ruby Dragon

This is Orvosortiax the Ruby Dragon. She is the keeper of realitas the knowledge of why some things are real, and others are illusion. She alone understands the danger illusionists present to the mundane world because she alone knows what even their most powerful spellcasters do not. That illusion magic, properly applied…could replace this reality. Starve it until it withers, replaced by a phantasm. She is happy to sequester herself from the world, locking her knowledge away. But should a sufficiently powerful Illusionist catch a glimpse of the power contained within their spells, she will wake. And seek mortals help her prevent the end of the Real.

New FAQ Answers!
over 6 years ago – Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 12:44:32 AM

EU Friendly 

This means when you pledge, and it tells you how much shipping is, you're not getting hammered after that with Duty fees as VAT in your country. This was a concern with folks early on, and we wanted to make sure those costs were already covered, so that's one reason shipping is what it is. It covers those fees.  

As far as the cost, yeah it's a lot, but it's literally the cheapest we could find that we also believed would get everyone their books in a timely manner, while also handling the inevitable incidents where postal services screw up.  

We have ideas about how to reduce shipping for future products, but they're purely hypothetical.  

More Stretch Goals! More Add-ons!

I know folks want more stretch goals, that's part of the fun of a Kickstarter, but we really feel like between the book, the stream, and the minis (which were a stretch goal!) we've bitten off more than enough. If we can get all those things done in the time frame we've posted, we'll be heroes. :D  

And literally everyone I've talked to, including the folks at Monte Cook Games, Atlas Games, John Wick, told me "Under no circumstances add more stretch goals. Just don't. We all regret doing it. You will too." I'm sort of...when you ask someone for advice, it's pretty ridiculous to then ignore it. Otherwise why were you asking them for advice? :D  

So, let this sort of be the catch-all stretch goal answer from here on out; our goal right now is to deliver on the things we promised. A lot of people have backed this kickstarter already and I have no intention of letting them down, the odds of which go up dramatically as we add goals.  

Changing Your Address

"If I change my current address before the book is even packaged and sent, will I be able to change the delivery address for my copy of the book?"  

Yep! Via the pledge manager!  

Naval Combat Rules

"Will the Warfare rules include Naval Combat?"  

Not the basic rules included in this book. Unless there's a great hue and cry. That will be a subject for the next book! Kingdoms & Warfare.  

Weird Strongholds

"How weird a stronghold will the rules cover?"  

I think flying and teleporting strongholds are about as weird as it will get in the book, but it's my goal to explain my reasoning in the design at every stage so a DM will be able to roll their own. Folks have asked about some real trippy stuff that makes me wish I was playing in their game! But the flip side of that is realizing there's no real way to cover every single permutation in every DM's game in one book. If we do a good job, folks will be able to use the book in their own ideosyncratic games without feeling like they had to design it all from scratch.  

.STL Files

"Can we get the STL files for the minis?"  

In case you don't know what this means, folks are asking if they could get the computer files that would let them print the Gemstone Dragon minis on their own with their own 3D printer.  

We thought about this a lot. These dragons are kickstarter exclusive. And expensive! Folks backing at those levels are doing so becasue they feel like they're getting something special and unique, and a lot of them are doing to support the channel! I want to make sure they ARE getting something special and unique, so for now I think the .stl files remain in-house.  

Monstrous Followers

Brandon Bruton asks; "Will there be rules on recruiting monster factions?"  

Yeah there'll be rules for buying, or recruiting, Orc Warbands and Hobgoblin Mercenary companies. That stuff will be covered in an update in the next week or so.  

Playtest Access

I missed this in the video! "Will the playtesting discord access be available to purchase in the Pledge Manager?" 

Negative Ghost Rider. Honestly, we priced access to the playtest the way we did becaue we are a super tiny company and don't have the wherewithal to manage thousands of playtesters. So this was our way of trying to limit it artificially. Which I think worked? We'll see. 

More Gemstone Dragon Art?

"When will we see more art for the dragons?" Hey that's a good question! And it's my hope that the answer is...before the kickstarter is over! But honestly, and I know this makes me look stupid but it's the truth, it literally didn't occur to me to try and get roughs for all five dragons done first. I mean, for one thing, the point of the kickstarter was to pay for the art! So we felt like getting one of them to a final state would be enough to show people what we intended. 

Once he finished the first dragon, I just asked Anthony to start working on the next one. I figured showing the final art for the big dragon before the KS was over would be cool. But that's dumb, folks are pledging money for five dragons, let's show them what the dragons are going to look like! 

So we lost some time there, purely in terms of the kickstarter deadline, not in terms of actually getting all the art done, because I asked Anthony to switch horses in mid-race. 

Back when I thought we MIGHT get 3,000 backers and most of them fans of the YouTube Channel, I honestly thought "We're gonna make five dragons, here's one of them" was enough. No, that's dumb. We should have at least roughs for all of them. Happily Mr. Sixto's roughs look pretty good. As soon as I have his next roughs, you'll have them. 

Communication

Lastly, if you're on the Kickstarter page and you feel like we've been uncommunicative, that's because we have been! I apologize, we'll do better. But the KS page is just terrible for communication, I strongly encourage people to reach out to me on twitter (@mattcolville), or come by my subreddit (/r/mattcolville) because from my point of view I've been answering tons of questions! I was also on a couple of podcasts talking a LOT about the actual rules and how they will work so if you want the straight dope on that, check them out.  

http://www.starwalkerstudios.com/gamemastersjourney/209

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3c6ntvoLso

And you'll be getting more videos in the next 11 days covering how these rules actually work! 

Thanks for being patient everyone, and thanks for supporting the book and the stream!

Peace! Out! 

Using the Follower Chart
over 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 11:20:00 PM

Update #5: Pirate Ships and Barbarian Camps
over 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 12:27:03 AM

We're gonna get Pirate Ship strongholds! Mostly they're like a Barbarian Camp that can raid coastal towns and generate revenue!

Update 04, We Raised A Million Bucks!! Holy carp. Also, I had an idea
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 12:10:13 AM

Hey everybody, Matt Colville here!  

We hit a million dollars today which is…I’m beyond all capacity for rational thought at this point. The faith you folks have shown in me, the support of the channel and this product is LITERALLY unprecedented.  

And it frankly freaks me out a little, lotta pressure, but rather than worry I figured lets have some fun? Folks have been asking for Stretch Goals for a while, they want to see new cool stuff but thusfar no one has come up with a stretch goal or add on I actually think is a good idea and haven’t we already promised a lot?? Also, technically thusfar isn’t a word but it should be.  

I wondered…hey what ah…what is the record for most-funded Kickstarter in the Tabletop RPG category?? Something I hadn’t really considered before and it turns out its $1,316,813 dollery-doos.  

So I thought…if we raise $1,316,814 dollars I will add a new type of stronghold to the book! I figured why not have, just completely at random…a PIRATE SHIP!  

That’s the next and maybe last stretch goal folks! Raise $1,316,814 and I’ll write up some rules for a Pirate Ship Stronghold! Basically a kind of mobile keep with some elements of an Establishment!  

That number seems insane to me but ALL NUMBERS SEEM INSANE TO ME NOW. So what do I know?  

We’ll update the graphic soon folks! Stay tuned!  

TL;DR $1,316,814 = PIRATE SHIP STRONGHOLD!  

Avast!