Lost Artifacts of Greyghast Is Now Shipping Worldwide… Over 1k Copies!

Officially, The Project Is Over

We always broke down our first (of many, I promise) book as a play in Three Acts:

1. The Courtship – All the preparation in quiet like rewriting everything, playtesting everything, finding and optioning talent to help… flirting with the idea of “could we, can we?”
2. The Gamble – The Kickstarter itself with all its challenges, risks, communication, marketing, and the work done in parallel as a big ole gamble on its success.
3. That Heartwarming Part at the End That Usually Closes With a Song or the Like – Finally delivering the whole deal. Making that giant order. Praying we did everything right.

And I’m happy to say, we made it to the credits.  Everyone’s got all their fingers and toes. We started sending out all the confirmations today, all paid for. People will be able to double check their address and the like, but the book is just a click and some time away.  Voila.

What’s Next?

Well, we have about three major objectives in the coming month or two.

First, and obviously a big one for us, is to flip the switch on turning the product Retail and watch to see how the world likes it. The bigger the project, the more nerve-wracking that can be. We’ve had nothing but good things said, so far, but it’s the 21st century and the Internet… who knows?  Will people rate it well?  Will they hate us?  Will sales happen?

In the great big world of unknowns? There are a few waiting on us.

That being said, if you–yourself–are a reviewer… reach out to us at the contact form at the bottom of the page. We’d love to see what you think and maybe even explain some of the fun design choices we made.

Second, we’re working on a program to help get our products into places where people may not have the means to get them normally.  Schools, University Clubs, Libraries, etc. We’re not worried at all about making a profit off of that stuff, we just like sharing the hobby and we’ve had a great response from a number of people about that very thing. Someone looking to get one to their local Library because people play D&D there.  Someone else that’s a math teacher who runs the highschool’s “fantasy adventure” club. Etc. We want to make the program fair, transparent, and easy.

Third, we’ve decided to do TWO more books. Because–like the “serial killer” rule–you can’t really call yourself a publishing company with just one. Not with a straight face.  Well, at least WE can’t.  So, of our five or six options in our backer survey, we’ve settled on Book #2.

We’re going to take our Traps to Worry Your Players, use about half of those… then create some new ones… and build the definitely best Trap Compendium ever made for D&D. Period.  Not just “name… damage… save… description”.  We’re doing it OUR way.

• Excellent map examples to show you HOW to place these things and clearly WHEN and WHERE the triggers should go in your actual game. Guidance on not just “touching the door causes Save X”, but “when the first character is 30 ft. away from X spot, then do this and allow these checks” with depictions on the map example for how all of that should look and feel.
• Scaling up and down the lethality of the traps.  So, each trap is less a one-shot flat form and more of a theme of a variety of that type.  I mean, honestly, is an arrow shooting trap REALLY that different than a spear throwing trap?  No.  They’re not. Or is a trap that does Spell A from the book any different than a trap that does Spell B?  No.  We want a Trap type to be almost like a tiny chapter… here’s all the ways THIS kind of trap can be altered or scaled or changed into is sub-varieties, pending your game.
• Traps, but NOT as a resource drain!  I hate traps that are just penalties for dungeoneering.  Where’s the drama? The excitement?  Where’s the chance to notice being meaningful?  Not just not just “notice a trap”, but a trap having several components. Noticing the symbols on the far wall (Perception) still needs an Arcane check to know its a part of a trap–player collaboration, like a puzzle.  Traps that create their own ENCOUNTER.  That’s the goal.  Something that plays out over a few turns and allow characters to use abilities and take risks and make choices and win out over the thing.
• Tools!  Our favorite ideas for traps are one where “Thieves Tools” are perfect for a lot of common ones, but are sorta disadvantaged for truly weird ones.  But bringing kits and tools of other kinds to bear to “disable” or “solve” the trap?  Why wouldn’t an Alchemist Kit not be the perfect way to deal with the aftermath of a complex Cultist Warlocky Dark Alien Trap?  Why wouldn’t a Cartography Kit not be an awesome way to handle a trap that involves arcane symbols and circuitry?

Of course, this isn’t likely to be another nearly 500 page hulk of a book.  Probably more of a 200-300 page one.  But, by that token, it’s not likely to be another $75 Hardcover backer tier, either, but far FAR FAR less.

I’ve been rambling–I got passionate there for a bit.

Anyhow… thanks, everyone, all our backers and fans! We’ll be doing more stuff and soon!  We hope you like Lost Artifacts of Greyghast and spread the word in September about its release!