A book of Classes, Crafting, Psionics, & More for DnD 5e! NOTE: Shipping of physical goods for backers and preorders is now in progress. Preorders for Physical goods will re-open with any remaining stock when shipping completes. Digital goods remain available.
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Hey Folks-
Just wanted to give an update. I decided to not do a 4th alpha survey, as there was a bit of a survey fatigue there - I think I went a little overboard with surveys every week there, and there was just less that needed feedback in remaining stuff. Each survey had about half the responders of the last one, which is perfectly fine, just a sign I was probably sending too many.
A lot of great feedback was collected from the alpha surveys, and it's being factored into the development. Things are going well, but I do think the book is going to run late against the original timelines. I had hoped to deliver the PDF in June, and I still intend to deliver a draft of it, but I do think art, editing, and some additional work is going to run long from there. This will also probably push back the physical book delivery a little.
Before we delve into the updated timeline estimates and a bit more thoughts, art! While art is one of the reasons things are running a little behind (more on that later) that's just because there's so much of it... more cool things are pouring in daily, and here's some of the new stuff since the last update!
Here's what I'll look to do:
I will lock and process the backerkit orders once the PDF is ready to go out (as once we get there, that's what will be used to distribute it, and it'll need the orders processed to have everyone). That way I include preorder folks in that last draft + the finalized version. I'll give at least a week notice for when that will occur. Even once orders are locked, things like shipping address can still be update. I currently anticipate that'll happen near the end of June.
Frankly speaking, a few steps just are taking a little longer than expected, for a few reasons:
Hopefully none of this comes off as excuses or the like; I just want to give a... mid-mortem (an ongoing post mortem? :D ) to explain where I'm at and be as transparent as possible with the delivery process.
What I am going to promise is that you folks have (and have had) my undivided attention until this book is done. If it takes longer, it's because more cool stuff is being stuffed into it :)
As always, I'm happy to discuss any questions. If you've shot me a question and its fallen through the cracks, don't hesitate to reach out again to give me a poke - I definitely don't mean to ignore anyone reaching out. A more reliable way to get ahold of me can be on the Discord, where I'm available pretty much every day for any questions, though I make an effort to reply everywhere, just feel free to ask again if you haven't heard back on any platform.
All the best, and thank you all so much! There is a ton of cool stuff coming. I'll share an update of where we are at with crafting on Friday as the first of the June beta versions... and maybe a sample of the book layout (though I shouldn't promise that yet!).
-Kibbles
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As you folks know, I always like to share other Kickstarters here. Word of mouth was what made mine a reality, so I enjoy doing what I can to be part of sharing other 5e Kickstarters.
This time it's Sandbox Adventures for 5e by Headless Hydra Press. They reached out to chat, and were backers of this very project, so I know there's at least some overlap in folks that'll be interest in their project :)
They are providing plug-and-play modules for 5e, including adventures, modules, monsters, and more. As always, this isn't a paid endorsement and I'm not associated with it, I just briefly chatting with the folks behind it and think the project looks worth taking a look at to see if it's something you want.
Hey Folks-
So we have the results of the Chosen Many! The subclasses scheduled for the book are:
This is going to be a hell of a list! 17 subclasses! And most of you aren't even here for those... those are just a perk! But hopefully something we can make a cool addition to many games out there. This is admittedly a little scope creep picking this many, but seeing how enthusiastic and close the voting was, I decided to try to fit in as many as I could.
If the one you wanted didn't make it, those aren't dead and gone, and I'm sure will pop up on my website or patreon eventually - cool ideas never die, they just occasionally go to the back burner for a bit :)
These subclasses are in playtesting right now; I have a bunch of folks chewing through them. This means some have gotten a lot of updates since the voting poll preview, some of gotten not many updates since the preview. But everything will get updated more. Here's your chance to be a part of that process though!
PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tz92s6FL7SKG4RpZ50Jt3q-i0C0FKRK-/view?usp=sharing
Survey: https://forms.gle/Doj6azvwkSKnPgJKA
I'm sure you folks are tired of seeing these in the rough hacky format of the alpha draft PDFs, but I think I'm getting pretty close to being able to show something in the book layout soon... things are coming together and I'm pretty excited.
As some folks have asked for a non Google Drive version, here's a non Google Drive PDF, but it is not as compressed.
This is not really related the Kickstarter Compendium, but I've found that while this Kickstarter has a lot of overlap with my usual audience, there's some folks that only know see these, so I figure I'll share it here too as it's a cool free thing that many folks will be interested in (and is free)
Over the last 6 months or so, I've been making a list of "generic" elemental spells, aiming to expand the list of damaging spells in D&D 5e beyond just fire spells. There's a reddit thread that has more detail, as well as links to a FoundryVTT and Fantasy Ground modules with the spells (simple things, utilitarian ways of adding the spells).
You've made it this far through Kibbles' rambling! Here's some cool art!
Thanks folks!
Here's some info what is coming:
I do think things are running slightly behind my original schedule. Tons of stuff is happening and things are moving forward well, but there's a lot of moving pieces. Here's what I'll offer though; you folks will be getting versions and updates every step of the way. I still expect you folks to have a pretty PDF next month, but it might get a few updates going forward (i.e. editing might not be finalized). I'll keep you guys posted; just want to make sure I'm giving you guys what amounts to my best guess at all times :)
As always, let me know if you have any questions. You can get the more daily updates over on Discord where I'm pretty much always on to answer any questions, and I try to give folks pretty frequent updates over in the drafting room and Kickstarter channels.
All the best,
-Kibbles
As promised, here's the Psion alpha and survey!
This survey is slightly longer as I separated the Disciplines and Subclasses into separate questions, but hopefully not too much longer.
There's a few big work in progress things with Psion, so I want to note those here:
For those familiar with Psion, Elemental Mind is the biggest difference from the public version, though there's other small changes we'll see in the next full update incorporated here.
So here's the next steps:
Overall feedback on Inventor was very positive; and that's great. I think there were some clear things to take away from it; some trends that were expected, some that point to some tweaks needed.
One thing I feel is that I should probably go more in depth in discussing how I balance and what the math behind things are. Balance is not purely math (these all played in my games and have been playtested quite a lot) but math can tell us a fair bit about balance; I think I'll write a longer comment on that sort of thing - while most people find it balanced, I noticed a fair number of people that wanted to know more about my process or had questions, and I think it would be an intesting and useful thing to talk about openly - that sort of thing I'm happy to share, and some folks may find it interesting (and useful for their own tinkering!) I'll probably do that in a reddit post or blog post or something, but will like it in an update.
Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nVtymLtbljSIiCvYDNdtUUJq_MgoUgEV/view?usp=sharing
Non-Google Drive:
https://www.gmbinder.com/pdf/-M_SKgih_yWuQOdzk2gs/psion---kickstarter-alpha-draft.pdf
Including a non-Google Drive version as some folks noted they cannot use Google Drive for various reasons; I'll note that version is less compressed, but shouldn't be massive (14 mb v 3 mb).
All questions are optional. Feel free to skip any you don't have an opinion on.
https://forms.gle/8DLtB1aWHJnnKZRU7
Really appreciate the feedback so far. I read everything folks submit, and will give everything submitted consideration... it takes quite a long time to go through the feedback, but I feel it's worth it. I really appreciate your input, and it gives helpful perspective.
Next week we'll have the subclass survey! Probably closer to the end of the week. I think along with that one I'll send along some updates on other content, but don't want to promise too many things yet.
It's late as I write this, so I'm not going to put together a new collage, but I wouldn't want to leave you empty handed for making it all the way though post. Here's the new art for Golemsmith that just came in recently! :)
Thank you! There's a ton of things happening and moving forward, and your feedback and thoughts are big help in getting another perspective and more eyes on things. I know that the documents are a little messy right now; I wish I'd been able to do that better with all of these alphas as presentation ease of use a major goal of the finished product, but with these drafts, I felt getting them out to you folks and getting your thoughts in while those have the biggest impact as designs finalize and balance tweaks are coming in was the most helpful way to do it.
All the best, and I hope you folks are getting to play awesome things in D&D games everywhere!
-Kibbles
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I have another Kickstarter to share with you, as is tradition! This one is the Big Pockets Kickstarter by AJ Pickett. I have no affiliation to it, I just want to share it. It's a bit different, being for a gaming mat for playing D&D rather than D&D content, but I think we many folks perhaps getting a chance to play in person again coming up, it's something that could be relevant to many folks. It got on my radar as I'm a fan of his YouTube Channel (going over D&D lore) but I'm sold on the idea :)
It's a high goal, but the nice part of Kickstarter is that if it doesn't reach the goal, it doesn't charge; he seems like a smart bloke so I'm sure he's done his math on this. Anyway, that's a longer pitch than usual, I just felt it being a little different than what I usually share it merited more justification.
So originally I had planned to do Psion and Inventor at the same time; after all, they have both been available online since before the start the Kickstarter, so their alpha versions are well into playtesting... many folks came to the Kickstarter in the first place because they are already playing those. But, as I started compiling that, I realized that was just an unmanageably large thing to flip through and answer a survey about, even one I've tried to keep a little brief.
So I'm going to stagger them a little.
This isn't too much different than the version that's been around since the start, but here's a brief summary of the changes:
Here's what's going to happen next:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13t2k7n4w99XRKdNPrdEJ5We5MK2GW6oe/view?usp=sharing
Like crafting, this is an alpha draft. Don't worry too much on things like formatting and editing. This is a few different playtest versions pulled together and combined into the latest draft because I want to give you folks a sense of where things are going and what's happening, but it does mean it's not the cleanest vertical slice (it's pretty similar the crafting alpha that way).
I know that navigating that PDF is sort of like dropping bricks on your toes; future versions (for this and the crafting) will have a major overhaul and emphasis on making this easier to deal with, but the way I'm making these is compiling a bunch of documents into one, and it's just not feasible to make a well produced vertical slice, so I apologize for that, I just want folks to know that I also find navigating this PDF a giant pain, and I use them more than anyone, so it's a problem I have a very vested interest in making sure is polished in the long run!
https://forms.gle/Bb8pBGUunBwzfWVk9
I've tried to keep the Survey pretty approachable, but feel free to write any more detailed thoughts in at the end - I'll go through and read them all. The feedback on crafting has been great - better than I could have hoped for. People love it, and have tons of useful thoughts and feedback.
I really want to stress that I appreciate the feedback (and simply kind comments) on the crafting survey. I'm really happy to see so many folks happy, and there's a ton of work, playtesting, and cools stuff being poured in - I cannot wait to get you guys future versions, as I think it really sounds like a lot of folks have some great things lined up for using this system :)
As you folks know, I like to share little samples of the cool art coming for the Compendium, and today will be no exception!
The keen eyed among you may notice DungeonStrugglers contributing some items. Both are items I commissioned from them for the book with more to come, but you'll also be able to find their items dotted across crafting to provide some awesome items and badass art with all new ways to craft them. Not going to make firm promises yet, but I'm thrilled to include some of their items here, and we will see a few items from various creators added to the roster to expand on the SRD items provided, and provide great jumping points into more stuff. I also think in the future I may be working with some item creators provide crafting rules for their extended lists as sort of an appendix to the system - I think it'd be a neat idea, but it's in early stages so not going to make any promises there (and I've already probably said too much!)
The Psion one will be less than week, probably next Tuesday. Don't want to bombard you folks, it's mostly ready to go, I just figured staggering them was going to get better results as I considered how long a survey folks were probably going to want to set through, and how much D&D stuff can be kept in mind while taking one :D
Anyway, it's already late here, so I'll cease the rambling!
As always, let me know your thoughts!
-Kibbles