March Update – New Content Incoming!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 09:51:20 PM

Hi folks! Nearly missed my monthly "update on the 20th." (or perhaps did just miss it, depending on your time zone!)

I'm continuing to make steady progress on the book: getting more content finished up and laid out, more art, more languages, etc. The past couple months have mostly been new lore and runes for you all, with a couple new races sprinkled in, so I wanted to try to include some other new kinds of content for this next Alpha release.

This month's PDF should be coming around the end of next week. In addition to new runes and lore for a few more languages as usual, this update will include the two Stretch Goal backgrounds (Polyglot and Rune Hunter), a few New Weapons for you to try out, and an Optional Rule for incorporating a new "runic" spell component. I really hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I'm also aiming to finish up the plethora of Tiefling subraces (there are 18 of them!). Speaking of which, check out this art for the Nalfeshnee Tiefling, turned out amazing:

As always, there will continue to be revisions based on feedback and playtesting (most notably this month, the Demisphinx and Nagaran races). So keep an eye out for that!

Kickstarter Spotlight

I haven't gotten to do one of these in a little while! A friend of mine, T.A. Gray, is currently running an absolutely stellar-looking project for 5e centered around the undead: Zander's Guide to Zombie Hunting. Here's some more from him about it:

Zander’s Guide to Zombie Hunting is a 5E tome focused on the shambling dead. Perfect for zombie apocalypse settings, the book comes with a wide range of thematic player options, including:

• 12+ new subclasses
• The transformative new Animist class
• 1 new lineage: The Bitten
• 20+ apocalyptic magical items
• 40 thematic spells
• All-new graft magic system
• Fully illustrated zombie bestiary
• Worldbuilding guidance for pre- and post-apocalyptic settings

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grizeldas-sw/zanders-guide-to-zombie-hunting?ref=daa4z3

Thanks, friends! Looking forward to hearing from you all about the new content. Feel free to reach out to me anytime via email ([email protected]) or the Discord server.

– Tony

February Status Update
about 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 05:36:19 PM

Hey folks,

Just a quick update for you here. I'm pretty proud of the progress that's been made on the book over the past few weeks. Lots of thorough revisions to runes and lore (and still more to come), as well as tweaks to some of the races and subclasses, that I think will really help make the book more cohesive overall.

I'll have another draft ready probably early next week. Lore and runes for 3 more languages (Druidic, Dwarvish, and Orcish), a new elemental "Mepharian" race option, and more. Plus some great new art in the works, like this one!

With all of that said, I think it's becoming clear that, between art, layout, and finishing up and revising the content, the book is taking longer than I'd hoped to this point. I'm trying to offload the pieces that I can to help me stay focused on what most needs my attention. But those who know me will attest that I never settle for less than my absolute best work, that I can take pride in the end result, and you all unquestionably deserve the highest-quality product. Unfortunately the flip side of that is that sometimes things take more time than I'd like.

Right now I'm anticipating a couple more months of drafts before the book is at that point we can all be proud of to send to print. Inevitably that means other pieces of the project too will take a bit longer to be ready to go, but I'm hoping that the monthly draft updates and fonts coming up can sustain folks in the meantime! It's important to me that you all can see the progress as we go and give feedback throughout the process. (I say this every update, but feel free to reach out anytime with thoughts or questions: [email protected] or the #kickstarter-general channel on the Discord server.)

Thanks, friends!

– Tony

January Update – Quick Update, New Draft Inbound
about 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 20, 2024 at 10:23:21 AM

Hiya, folks! Not a ton of exciting news to report. Just important to me to stick to the schedule of updates on the 20th each month, so you all can rely on that.

Through the holidays, my family had multiple illnesses tear through us, which really threw a wrench in progress these past few weeks (and made for a rather unfun holiday season). So that definitely set things back a bit. However I'm still moving along, continuing to get more of the runes, subclasses, spells, and races laid out and revised, and of course more art commissioned.

Alpha v0.3 this coming week!

I'll have the next draft ready for you all in just a couple days. The content that you've already seen is really getting nicely refined at this point, having gone through multiple rounds of revision and feedback. I'm quite happy with it!

That being said, please continue to feel free to reach out with any thoughts or questions you have, either directly to my email [email protected] or in the #kickstarter-general channel on the Spectre Creations Discord server.

I'm happy to hear from you regarding anything in Alpha v0.2, or after v0.3 releases this week, especially if you get a chance to live playtest something!

As a final note, I just wanted to say I really appreciate the excitement you all have shown following along as this project progresses. Doing my best to keep pushing through the inevitable hurdles and get the best content I can out to you all. Thanks, friends.

– Tony

December Update – Playtest Releases and Progress
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 01:24:46 PM

Greetings, folks! Monthly update here—as a reminder, you can expect these on the 20th of every month!

Check your BackerKit downloads for the latest Alpha!

If the PDF is part of your pledge, you should've received an email from BackerKit last weekend to download the Alpha Playtest v0.2 doc. (If you haven't received it, please feel free to reach out to me!) Took a bit longer than I wanted; I've been brainstorming/working on some new features, like how to format the alphabetical reference tables and how/where to include each of the rune names written out in their respective runic language. Here's an example of the current way that's being implemented:

Early feedback on this seems to be quite positive! The intent is for there to be at least 1 or 2 fully illustrated rune items for each language, such as the Infernal 'Acuity' and 'Fury' runes on a sword (see below). However, I want to make sure that every rune is depicted visually in some way near its respective item description to really help play into the fantasy of runes and fire up the imagination, so the above is my current solution for that.

My goal has been to continue sending out Alpha playtests, then ultimately Beta playtests, every month until the book is finished—collecting and implementing your feedback all the while. And I'm aiming to have v0.3 to you all within the next two weeks.

Feedback. If you look through the Alpha PDF—particularly if you get a chance to use any of the content in live play—I'd love to hear from you! Please direct feedback to [email protected] or the #kickstarter-general channel on the Spectre Creations Discord server.

Status Update

Content for the book is shaping up pretty well. By my count, we're about 90% through the nearly 500 runes that will be in the book. (The remaining ones are mostly from the Stretch Goal languages.) We're similarly through about 80-90% of the race options, with the subclasses probably being closer to around 75% done—mostly because those require a fair bit more time spent on balance and development.

For those keeping up with the playtests, you'll notice that not all of this has been included in the Alpha releases yet. This is primarily due to the time it takes to get everything laid out and through a first round of editing—since as you may have noticed, I almost never release something that I don't consider to be at an acceptably presentable level.

Speaking of which, I've enlisted the help of another talented creator (Ben) who is helping develop, edit, and generally refine the content in the book. He and Ryan have been extremely helpful throughout this process, and I know we'll all be grateful for the mark they leave on the project.

As I'd projected might be the case over the past few updates, the final PDF will indeed be coming along further into the Winter than the initial estimate. Importantly though, a substantial portion of the book is available for you to use now, with progressively more coming in each playtest, which have been very successful in gathering feedback. So thank you all for that!

As always, feel free to reach out here, by email, or on Discord if you have any questions! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

– Tony

November Update – Alpha v0.2 on the way + Progress
over 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 03:04:09 PM

Hi folks,

I've got another monthly update to share how things are progressing and what to expect next!

Alpha PDF v0.2 soon!

I've gotten lots of great critiques from folks on the first Alpha draft released a few weeks ago. (If you haven't gotten it yet and believe you should've, reach out to me and I'll get you sorted.) Feedback is continuously welcome, especially if you've had a chance to live playtest something—even if that feedback is just sharing a particular moment you had fun with a rune or feature or lore you've included in your games. I love to hear about it all!

The second Alpha doc will be sent out by the end of the month, so be on the lookout for that!

This draft will include:

• 5 more Runic Languages (Abyssal, Druidic, Gnomish, Sylvan, and Undercommon) plus their runes—for a total of 9 languages and about 175 runes.
• 7–8 more full race/subrace options—which will cover about 80% of the race options that will be in the book.
• 2–3 more subclasses—which will cover about two-thirds of the subclasses that will be in the book.
• Lots of revisions throughout to the runes, races, subclasses, and spells that were included in Alpha v0.1—thanks for your feedback!

"Where can I provide Feedback?" 

I figure it's good to reiterate: You can direct feedback to [email protected] or the #kickstarter-general channel on the Spectre Creations Discord server. If necessary, you can share feedback in the comments here on this Update, but Kickstarter comments really aren't a great format for doing so, so I'd much prefer feedback via email or Discord.

Updated Timeline

As noted on the project page, the original estimate for the final PDF to be sent out was the end of December. From processing feedback and revising current content, to finishing up the remaining pieces of content, to working with artists and designers for more art and languages, we're certainly making lots of great progress!

If I had to estimate right now, I'd say that the content of the book itself—as in, the stuff you can use in your games—should be completed pretty close to that, probably around mid-January. However, we'll also still need to finish up any final pieces of art that will be included as well as continue gathering feedback and refining everything to polish it up and make it perfect before sending to print, so I'm estimating the final PDF to be complete around mid-late February.

The good news is that, as I mentioned in the September update, even if the final release of the PDF is pushed along further into the Winter, there will already have been multiple, progressively larger Alpha playtests and likely a complete Beta draft of the book in your hands well before then.

Of course, the side effect of the final PDF being released later in the Winter is that the manufacturing and ultimately the shipment of physical products may also get pushed further along. The original goal for that was this coming June, and I'll continue working to make that happen, but that may also get pushed further into the Summer.

I will continue to update you all each month as things progress! Thanks for your continued excitement and sharing your thoughts on it all. Next Alpha release in a week or so. See you soon!

– Tony