Hardcover Adventures! Gold Foiling!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 05, 2020 at 12:22:18 PM

Hey everyone,

As anticipated in the previous update, we smashed through the $200,000 stretch goal! In today's update, we'll talk a little bit about where we are now.

All Adventures in Hardcover!

We're primed to produce 4 brand new adventures for Old-School Essentials — all of which will now be produced as deluxe quality hardcovers!

•  FREE: The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman. All backers (except the Dungeon Dealer retailer pledge) will receive a free copy of this adventure! (Digital backers will receive PDFs, physical backers will receive hardcover + PDFs.)
•  ADD-ON: Holy Mountain Shaker, by Luka Rejec. All backers will be able to select this adventure as an add-on in the pledge manager at a special reduced backers' price of $10 (MSRP $15).
•  ADD-ON: Isle of the Plangent Mage, by Donn Stroud. All backers will be able to select this adventure as an add-on in the pledge manager at a special reduced backers' price of $10 (MSRP $15).
•  LOCKED: The Halls of the Blood King, by Diogo Nogueira. If we reach $250,000, all backers (except the Dungeon Dealer retailer pledge) will receive a free copy of this adventure! (Digital backers will receive PDFs, physical backers will receive hardcover + PDFs.)

Four adventures by four stellar authors to take your Old-School Essentials games in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions! We'll be posting some more information on the adventures soon, including revealing the artists that will be illustrating them.

The Next Stretch Goal: Gold Foiling!

At $225,000 we'll unlock another physical upgrade to the Player's and Referee's Tomes: the addition of luxurious gold foil to the covers! This will truly elevate the books to the upper echelons of RPG rule book society. Check out these renders...

There have been a few questions in the comments about this upgrade, so here's a mini FAQ about it:

•  Will this stretch goal also apply to the collector's edition tomes? Nope, the collector's edition tomes are unaffected. They remain black leatherette with silver foiling.
•  If the standard and collector's tomes both have foil, what's the difference now? The main big difference is that the collector's edition tomes are only available through this Kickstarter. The standard edition tomes will be massively available in retail.
•  Is the gold foil a Kickstarter exclusive? Nope, once we hit $225,000, the complete print run of standard edition tomes will be printed with the gold foil. This includes the (according to our wicked schemes) vast number of copies that will be available in retail.
•  What if I prefer the books without the gold foil? Honestly, we weren't anticipating that anyone would not want the gold foil upgrade, but some people commented that they'd prefer their tomes without. We'll be including this as an option in the pledge manager.

All For Now

With just over a week remaining (where did the time go???), we're in an excellent position to unlock more of the tasty extras that we have lined up. Over the final week of the campaign, please share the news around your RPG pals — every extra stretch goal we can unlock adds loads of extra value for everyone! (The magically inclined may wish to consider judicious applications of charm person to encourage fence-sitters to join us.)

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Two More Free Extras Unlocked!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 07:46:49 PM

Hey everyone,

Great news: since the last update we've unlocked two more stretch goals!

Everyone Will Now Be Getting 3 Free Books!

The count of free extras is now up to three books! Everyone (except retailers — the Dungeon Dealer pledge tier) will now be getting the Character Options booklet, the Reference booklet, and an adventure — The Incandescent Grottoes — absolutely free! Backers at the Digital pledge tiers will get the free books in PDF form, while others will get a print copy and a PDF.

The Character Options booklet was discussed in the previous update, so today I'll talk a bit about the two freshly unlocked extras.

What's in the Reference Booklet?

To refresh your memory, here's what the stretch goal says:

"We'll produce a zine-style booklet containing the most commonly used tables and rules for Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy games."

So this booklet will consist of oodles of charts and a smattering of rules summaries. For anyone who has any of the Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy books: the information in the Advanced Fantasy Reference booklet will be similar to the end papers of the books (just more extensive).

An Especially Cool Thing for Dungeon Mappers and Delvers

The Advanced Fantasy Player's and Referee's Tomes compile everything from the Classic Fantasy game (i.e. the Rules Tome / Black Box we published last year) with all of the new Advanced Fantasy material. The Classic and Advanced material is seamlessly integrated, so, for example, all the monsters are listed alphabetically in a single section (rather than the Classic and Advanced monsters being listed separately). As part of this seamless integration, I produced some combined tables. For example, the Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome contains extended encounter tables that include a mix of Classic and Advanced monsters. These tables do not appear in Advanced Fantasy: Monsters (the encounter tables in that book only refer to monsters that appear in the book), but will appear in the Advanced Fantasy Reference booklet! So all backers will get a copy of these combined tables, one way or another. (They'll also be published as a free PDF down the line.)

Here's an example of some of the combined encounter tables from the Referee's Tome: 

(In the Advanced Fantasy Reference booklet, I'll also indicate whether each monster is Classic or Advanced, for the benefit of those using the two separate books.)

The Free Adventure!

You've probably read the description of the free adventure in the stretch goals already, but here it is again as a reminder of what you'll be getting:

"The Incandescent Grottoes: A classic expedition into the Mythic Underworld: a bubbling stream cascades into a hole in the earth, leading to a series of pools, underground watercourses, and scintillating grottoes. Adventurers who delve within may discover a profusion of odd mosses and fungi, an ancient tomb complex, the lairs of weird, subterranean monsters, and the hide-out of an exiled illusionist. The Incandescent Grottoes is a companion adventure to Gavin's previous scenario, The Hole in the Oak. The two adventures can be played independently of each other or can be connected to form a larger dungeon."

Those of you who backed the original Old-School Essentials Kickstarter in 2019 already received a copy of The Hole in the Oak and will now be getting the companion adventure for free! (Those who don't already own The Hole in the Oak but would like a copy will be able to select it as an add-on in the pledge manager.)

Mage, Chaos Knight, Mongrelkin, and Bard (2e Take)

Now a little more info about upcoming stretch goals! The next two stretch goals ($180,000 and $190,000) will add more classes to the Character Options booklet. After some wild (and fun!) speculation in the comments thread, I can now reveal what those classes will be:

Mage ($180,000): Adventurers trained in a miscellany of arcane arts, making them powerful allies. The mage is a really interesting class — a wizard with arcane skills (which work mechanically like thief skills) instead of spells. It's my attempt at answering the perennial question "what would Gandalf look like in D&D?". (And yes: mages can use swords!)

Chaos knight ($180,000): Warriors who are bound (whether willingly or not) to the service of an infernal patron—a chaotic deity, demon, or devil. The chaos knight is the chaotic counterpart to the lawful paladin.

Mongrelkin ($190,000): Weird humanoid crossbreeds with mismatched body parts of many different creatures. Like the previously discussed changeling and mycelian classes, the mongrelkin class is based on a monster (of the same name — featured in Advanced Fantasy: Monsters and the Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome).

Bard (2e take) ($190,000): The bard character class presented in Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy is somewhat unusual. Like all of the Advanced classes in the game, it's inspired by the bard as presented in the 1st Edition Advanced rules. That is, a divine spell caster and beguiler allied with the druidic faith. In all later editions of the game (as far as I'm aware), the bard class has taken a rather different tack, becoming something of a jack of all trades and an arcane spell caster with no connection to druidry. The 8th class to be added to the Character Options booklet will be an alternate version of the bard, inspired by the class as presented in the 2nd Edition Advanced rules.

Races and Classes

A few people suggested also including Advanced-style race rules for the new race-classes in the Character Options booklet (the changeling, mongrelkin, and mycelian). I like this idea, so will be including these rules as well. (It must be said, though, that race-classes like these with a lot of fun and unique abilities definitely lose some of their unique flavour in the transition to races. Nonetheless, for those who prefer choosing race and class separately, the option will be there.)

All For Now

Let's unlock some more extra classes!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Add-Ons!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 07:46:10 PM

Hey everyone,

As many of you probably know, once this Kickstarter is finished, we'll be using a pledge manager to finalise everyone's rewards. The pledge manager has two main functions:

•  Shipping: In the pledge manager, you'll be asked for your shipping address and will be able to pay the requisite shipping fee.
•  Add-ons: In addition to the rewards included in the Kickstarter pledge tier you've selected, you'll be able to select and pay for extra items, including adventures, the Old-School Essentials referee's screen, extra copies of books, and some tasty Old-School Essentials merchandise!

What Add-Ons Will Be Available?

Quite a few people have been inquiring about what add-ons will be available in the pledge manager. We're delighted to now be able to reveal them! (Backers' discounts shown in pink.) Feast your eyes...

The Dungeon Deity Exclusive T-Shirt

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the T-shirt included in the Dungeon Deity pledge tier is not included in the list of add-ons. This is not a mistake. The basilisk T-shirt is only available to backers at the Dungeon Deity tier. We'll discuss the exclusive items in that pledge tier in another update.

Paying for Add-Ons

The extra payment for add-ons will be handled in the pledge manager. There's no need to modify your Kickstarter pledge amount to account for add-ons.

The total cost of shipping your rewards to you will also be calculated in the pledge manager, taking account of the total weight of your rewards (including any add-ons you selected) and your shipping destination.

All For Now

Let's see how quickly we can get to $200,000 and unlock that deluxe hardcover upgrade to the adventures, including The Incandescent Grottoes, which all backers will receive a copy of!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

More Stretch Goals!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 07:45:28 PM

Hey everyone,

Well, wow... we're on the cusp of reaching $200,000 and unlocking the last currently announced stretch goal! Once we get there (expected within the day!), we'll be upgrading all of the new adventures — including the free adventure, The Incandescent Grottoes! — to deluxe quality hardcovers.

So just a quick update right now to answer the question that's on everyone's lips: will there be more stretch goals beyond $200,000?

 Yes! We Now Have Stretch Goals up to $300,000!

$225,000: Tomes Upgrade: Foiling: We'll take the Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome and Referee's Tome into the upper echelons of RPG rule book society with the addition of gold foiling to the covers! All the graphical elements which are currently white (e.g. the book title, the Old-School Essentials logo, etc) will be transformed into gold foil.

$250,000: Second Free Adventure!: We have an extra guest author jumping on board to write a fourth brand new Old-School Essentials adventure. All non-retailer backers will receive a free copy of this adventure! We'll announce more information about the adventure itself soon, but can reveal that the author is Diogo Nogueira, renowned creator of the platinum selling old-school RPGs Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells and Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells (along with many, many other games!).

$300,000: Free Necrotic Gnome dice!: We'll produce d6 dice featuring the Necrotic Gnome logo. All non-retailer backers will receive 3d6 free of charge!

A couple of notes:

•  Gold foiling: Some of you are probably wondering why we don't also have a stretch goal to add the gold foiling to the modular supplements. The reason is that two of those four books — Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Druid and Illusionist Spells — were published last year. We want the new books to match those two to form a set.
•  Free dice: For backers outside of the US / UK / EU: you will be able to opt out of receiving the free dice, in case including dice in your rewards would incur additional customs charges for you.

All For Now

Let's see if we can reach these wondrous new heights!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

EU- and UK-Friendly Shipping!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 02:25:35 AM

Hey everyone,

Just a very quick update today with some great news for those of you in Europe...

We Now Have EU- and UK-Friendly Shipping!

• UK backers' rewards will be shipped from within the UK.
• EU backers' rewards will be shipped from within the EU (from Germany).
• (We're also including Norway and Switzerland in the EU fulfillment group.)

Shipping Rates

Here are the complete updated shipping rates tables, encompassing Europe and the whole world!

Estimated shipping rates: Shipping is not included in the pledge tiers. It will be charged in the pledge manager later on, and will be calculated depending on your location and pledge. See below for shipping cost estimates for each pledge level based on current shipping rates.

•  Group A: Austria, Belgium, Germany.
•  Group B: France, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands.
•  Group C: Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland.
•  Group D: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain.
•  Group E: Finland, Norway.
•  Group F: Greece, Lithuania.

Note that the rates in the European table are just a rough guideline. In reality, every country has its own unique table of shipping rates. For convenience, we've grouped together countries that have similar rates, but actual shipping fees may be somewhat lower or higher than what you see above.

All For Now

Spread the word among your European friends!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

p.s. We unlocked another stretch goal since the last update! I'll talk about that next time.