Update 5: Progress Report
8 months ago
– Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 11:28:39 AM
Dungeoneers,
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! Mondays are always hit or miss - either you're hitting the ground running or missing the target altogether. This week, thankfully, I've managed to hold onto the former!
Many have asked for an update as to where we are with the books. I'm happy to report we're making excellent progress starting with...
Dungeoneering: Catalysts
Above is the interior title page and table of contents with the finalized content and page numbers.
Regarding each, here's where we're at (green full circles means complete, half-green circles mean it is halfway complete or more:
As you can see, writing is 95% complete - and really the only reason the tables aren't complete is because I'm doing voting for them on Table Tuesdays. Everything that is fully complete is with our editor, Stephanie, who's hard at work combing through the book for any error big or small. Meanwhile, DC continues to plug away at the character roles and key art found throughout the book. With that said, here's a little preview of our resident necromancer...
The Necromancer summons forth minions to help them and their allies in battle. Whether they be beast or human, the summoned dead can often bring powers from when they were alive into undeath for the necromancer's benefit. Here's a peek at the Necromancer's full spread in the book:
Completion date for everything is still estimated to be March 1, 2024 - meaning everyone should get their PDFs for Catalysts as soon as the campaign ends. Shortly after, it'll get one final pass and head out to the printer for its first few steps into physical fulfillment!
The Starlit Spire
The Starlit Spire's biggest holdup has been twofold: figuring out the final layout for the book and determining the general size of the location. In the case of the final layout, that is a conversation I'm working on wrapping up in the next week with map design happening towards the end of this week and into the weeks to come. I can give a small, very WIP look at the general flow of the map:
I mentioned in the campaign story that the adventure would have 50+ keyed areas. As you can see above, it's actually above 90 (if my counting isn't off). In addition, you may notice that each section has two digits and a letter - this is intended to function so that each number is the page number you can find it on, allowing you to easily compare the map to the keys further on in the book.
Since the map is, at least right now, intended to be the first two interior pages of the book, this sort of acts as its own table of contents as well.
Additionally, you may have looked at the progress report image and noticed a few things, namely Stone Memories and Corruptions. In the adventure, I intend to have stone memories act as clues, puzzles, and other interactive elements. Here's an example:
- Memory of a Flower. Desire-Cowardice-Fear. Beneath the hateful sun, a fountain hides a buried truth.
Corruptions, on the other hand, are wildly powerful sentient artifacts that have taken on aspects of the birthed star beneath the spire. These are often extremely peculiar, potently useful, and immensely dangerous, as seen here in these two examples:
- Blackweave. A cloak desiring oblivion, born from the black matter of the cosmos. Grants invisibility and incorporeality at will. Each rest risks permanent invisibility and incorporeality, with a 1-in-6 chance.
- Starflame Chalice. A goblet desiring consumption, born from the fire of a new star. Fully restore all HP and remove all conditions upon drinking. Each use has 1-in-6 risk of igniting the drinker's soul, consuming them in unquenchable flame that forever spreads from within.
Obviously the benefits of both of these are VERY good - but they come with significant drawbacks.
For both stone memories and corruptions, I intend to have d100 tables you can roll on for your adventuring. Individuals in the adventure may be interested in purchasing stone memories or corruptions from you, often for a significant sum. Others may simply try to kill you for them.
Wrapping Up
We've got roughly 2.5 weeks until the end of the campaign and we're just past the 150% funding mark. I can't tell you how awesome it is to know these are getting made. But, I think we can certainly push into the $4000+ range - if you can share this project with friends, coworkers, the randos at your friendly local game store, the more everyone unlocks! Below you'll be able to see our current progress towards our next stretch goal.
Have a great week, and I'll be back at it again tomorrow with Table Tuesday!
- Nate
Have a great week, and I'll be back at it again tomorrow with Table Tuesday!
- Nate
