Caliya’s Chronicle of Runes

April Update
over 1 year ago – Fri, May 02, 2025 at 02:15:43 PM

Hey folks! Checking in for another update here.

I'll start with a regular reminder of the latest playtest PDF, which was sent out a little over a week ago. That was Alpha Playtest v0.13, which is intended to be the last "Alpha." The pieces still remaining before the full "Beta" release are:

1. Rune Prices (also functions as a table organizing the 480 runes in the book by power/rarity)
2. ~15 monsters
3. Runemaster NPCs (lore/quest hooks are written up, just need stat blocks)
4. Index of Sidebars
5. Druidic, Necril, Thieves' Cant, and Wilderyn fonts

Those who have looked at the latest PDF may have noticed I deviated a bit from my original intentions for what I'd include in the v0.13 release. The "Runes as Data Chips" variant rule and "List of Monsters by Associated Language" appendix are in there. However, I had planned to have more monsters but prioritized a few new things instead:

1. 1) I've added a new section in the Appendices called "Content Associated with New Spells and Weapons" which cleanly displays what pieces of content throughout the book incorporate the weapons and spells.
2. 2) I spent some time reorganizing some content for layout purposes, particularly in the Runes and Races sections.
3. 3) Notably, I included the first of the Runemasters (an Abyssal cambion named "Mannoch") and 5 new spells (Defy Death, Ethereal Smite, Scourge, Weal, and Woe)! I also renamed 3 spells—Power Word Mute (now Power Word Silence), Power Word Slumber (now Power Word Sleep), and Witch Vial (now Spirit Vial)—and removed the Greater Identify spell.

Moving on from those latest updates, I know several folks have been wondering what the deal with the U.S. tariffs is and how they might affect this project (as they are with all current/ongoing projects). As I've said to others regarding their impact on this Kickstarter in particular: "Less than some projects, but more than if they'd never happened." It's certainly a concern I'm keeping tabs on, and it's not a great situation for pretty much any small business that imports products, but fortunately I already wasn't planning on printing in China, so we should at least avoid the worst of it. We'll see where things go after the 90-day pause on EU tariffs though, as the printer I'm working with is in Lithuania.

I think that's all I've got for now. Feel free to reach out to me with any feedback or if you have any questions, either here on Kickstarter, by email at [email protected], or over on the Discord server!

– Tony

March Progress Update
over 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 09:56:06 PM

Hiya folks, apologies for the delayed update this month!

I'll start here by laying out exactly what is left in terms of the book before it's "finished":

• 1) Variant Rule: Runes as Data Chips
• 2) Rune Prices (table of Runes by Rarity; based on the Heliana's Crafting System)
• 3) ~20 more monsters
• 4) Runemaster NPCs
• 5) List of Monsters by Associated Language
• 6) Index of Sidebars
• 7) Translating and Writing in Runic Languages: Druidic, Thieves' Cant, and Wilderyn
• 8) Final feedback and revisions

This month's playtest release (which I anticipate sending out within the next week) will include points 1, 3, and 5 above. Points 2, 4, 6, and 7 are in progress and should be in the next playtest release after this (which will be the "Beta"). And of course point 8 is everything that comes after the Beta release—all the finishing touches to make the book fully "print ready."

It's looking like Caliya's Chronicle of Runes will be in the ballpark of 360 pages. That's a bit more than I originally expected, but I'm really proud of how everything is shaping up!

On that note, I have to take a moment here to thank everyone for being so patient and supportive. I've truly been so thankful for the feedback (and criticism!) I've received thus far. I think we're all aware the project is taking longer than I would've wanted to come to fruition, and I know regular updates only go so far. I promise I'm pushing myself to get this all finished up and get the books in your hands as soon as possible. Being something of a "one-man show" is fulfilling but certainly presents its challenges!

If you didn't yet check out last month's playtest PDF (Alpha v0.12) with the first chunk of monsters, make sure to do so! Feedback is always welcome. :) And let me know if you're having trouble accessing any of your downloads!

As always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, either here on Kickstarter, by email at [email protected], or over on the Discord server.

Thanks, friends!

– Tony

February Update
over 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 06:53:01 PM

Hey folks! Quick update here.

Last night I sent out the Alpha v0.12 Playtest PDF, so go check that out if you haven't already!

This includes the first batch of monsters (roughly half of all the monsters that will be included). The update also includes a few small revisions to some of the languages (check out the "Translating & Writing in Runic Languages" section in the Appendix if you haven't yet!), as well as some other tweaks throughout.

Keep in mind that once all the content is in the book—which now just means the rest of the monsters and a couple optional rules—there will still be a period of time for "Beta Testing" (probably at least a month) of me thoroughly going through and making final revisions before sending it to print. That will be the final opportunity to share any feedback you have. Though I will also gladly accept feedback now if you come across anything!

To mark the release of the first monsters, I'm gonna share a stat block here just to get any immediate thoughts from you folks. (This is primarily focusing on the stat block format itself, rather than the specific statistics of this monster, but all feedback is welcome.) It's quite a challenge designing a custom layout for stat blocks! So if anything sticks out to you, good or bad, feel free to comment below!

That's all for now folks. Please reach out to me if you have any questions (either here on Kickstarter, by emailing [email protected], or over on the Discord server).

Thanks, friends!

– Tony

January Update
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 08:04:21 PM

Hi folks! Monthly update here for Caliya's.

Woo, it's been a month. In terms of content, the book is getting super close to complete. (And rightly so, as I know many of you are anxiously awaiting the final release!)

A couple weeks ago I sent out Alpha v0.11—the first playtest PDF to include the transcriptions (i.e. letter-by-letter breakdowns) for each of the runic languages, barring a couple that are still being finished up. So go check that out if you haven't already!

In addition to tidying up some bits related to that, this next playtest update will include a good portion of the last major section of the book that hadn't yet been included: the Bestiary. I'm very excited for this, as in my mind it's sort of the culmination of how to tangibly implement these languages in your game in a way that players can interact with—usable monsters and NPCs. Really makes the languages feel more "alive."

Once the Bestiary is complete (along with a couple other odds and ends), I'll officially mark the playtest as in "Beta" phase—meaning all content is present in the book, and it's time for any final feedback and revisions before sending it off to print!

Stay tuned for that announcement so we can get all feedback in to make the best version of the book possible!

As always, feel free to reach out to me here on Kickstarter if you have any questions, email me at [email protected], or just come chat over on the Discord server. Thanks, friends!

– Tony

December Progress Update!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Dec 26, 2024 at 08:17:44 PM

Greetings folks! Hope everyone's having a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! Apologies for sharing this update a few days later than my typical "monthly update on the 20th."

I sent out the latest PDF update (v0.10) a couple weeks ago (featuring the new, handy-dandy Table of Contents!), so if you haven't grabbed that yet, be sure to do so!

I also wanted to give a 'thank you' to everyone who has reached out to offer feedback, and a special shoutout to fellow backer Russell (aka Count Archos) for his extremely helpful review of the book's runes. Feedback like this—even for just one or two items—makes the book infinitely better for everyone, so it's always very exciting to see.

This next PDF update should be ready within a week or so, and we're really closing in on the final product, complete with the final set of runes: Serpentine! Importantly, this update will finally include the writing systems for (almost) all of the book's languages. I know lots of folks have been waiting on this for a long time, so that should be an exciting holiday treat!

These scripts are featured in an Appendix section at the end of the book and detail all of the letters, numbers, and punctuation for every language, as well as the special features unique to each language. This coming update will show how to read/write in the following languages:

• Abyssal
• Celestial
• Common
• Constellar
• Deep Speech
• Draconic
• Dwarvish
• Elvish
• Giant
• Gnomish
• Goblin
• Halfling
• Infernal
• Nodal
• Orcish
• Primordial
• Sahuagin
• Serpentine
• Sphinx
• Sylvan
• Undercommon

For those counting, that's 21 of the book's 25 languages. The ones yet to be added are Necril, Druidic, Thieves' Cant, and Wilderyn. The latter three are "logographic" languages, meaning they aren't written alphabetically, but rather where individual symbols represent entire words or phrases. These are notably more complex, so they'll take a bit more time to detail.

The only remaining section of the book that has yet to be included in some capacity is the monsters. Though most of the monsters are already created, it's been a challenge setting up a good format for the stat blocks in InDesign, so I'm currently having a layout specialist help me out in setting that up. Those should be included in the update after this one, later in January. That will likely be the start of "Beta" playtesting, which will sort of be a "last call" for feedback from folks before the book is finalized.

If you have any questions or notes for feedback, feel free to reach out to me here on Kickstarter, via email ([email protected]), or just send a message on the Discord server. Thanks, friends!

– Tony