What's in the Tomes? European Shipping? New Pledge Levels!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 11:50:31 PM

Hey everyone,

First up: two more stretch goals unlocked! We'll now be producing a set of additional game aid PDFs for tracking memorized spells and dungeon time. Necrotic high five!

Aside from that, in today's update we've got some enlightening table of contents previews, a little discussion on shipping, and an announcement about pledge levels.

What's in the Tomes?

A lot of people have been asking exactly what's inside the Advanced Fantasy Player's and Referee's Tomes. Perhaps the easiest way to convey that information is to share the tables of contents of the two books:

A summary of the main points:

•  Complete game: The two tomes form a complete game. If you want to play Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy and have no previous Old-School Essentials books, picking up these two books will give you everything you need to play.
•  Compilation: The two tomes compile all of the base game plus the Advanced Fantasy supplements. If you already have the base game (i.e. the Classic Fantasy Rules Tome or the Black Box), the two tomes contain everything that you already have plus all of the Advanced Fantasy content. (If you just want the new content, without duplicating anything from the base game, we recommend you pick up the Advanced Fantasy supplements instead of the tomes.)
•  Classes: See that list of 22 classes? That's a lot of options!
•  Races: The game has optional rules for selecting character race and class separately, with 10 race options to choose from.
•  Spells: Over 70 pages of spells, split into four spell lists: cleric, druid, illusionist, and magic-user. These spell lists are also used by other spell casting classes in the game: bard, drow, elf, gnome, half-elf, paladin, ranger.
•  Core rules: The Player's Tome contains the complete rules of the game, including procedures for dungeon, wilderness, and waterborne adventuring, retainers and hirelings, combat, magic, and much more.
•  Referee guidelines: The Referee's Tome begins with a chapter of guidance for running adventures, including procedures for designing dungeons and wilderness regions.
•  Monsters: Over 100 pages of monsters containing more than 300 adversaries! The complete set of monsters from the base game plus 120 new Advanced monsters, all collated into a single, alphabetically ordered list.
•  Magic items: Over 80 pages of magic items containing more than 300 magic items! The complete set of magic items from the base game plus 150 new Advanced magic items, all collated into a single, alphabetically ordered list.

Hopefully that clears up some of the questions that have been coming up!

European Shipping?

As many of you have noted, this Kickstarter is US-based and all rewards will be shipped from the US. We're sorry that this is disappointing for those of you who were hoping for an EU-based Kickstarter or EU-based shipping. Our original intention was to also have a UK or EU-based shipping option, but the chaos that has struck the global postal system this year has made concrete logistical planning much more difficult than it would otherwise have been. Then there's Brexit on top of that, which means that the UK will no longer be a good fulfillment hub by the time we come to shipping out rewards.

Given these complexities, we didn't have anything firm resolved for European shipping in time for the Kickstarter launch and didn't want to give people false hope by promising something which then didn't work out in practice. That said, UK and/or EU fulfillment is a topic that we're still looking into, so something may be announced later on in a Kickstarter update.

(Also, needless to say, the books will be available in Europe in the future, even if an EU fulfillment option doesn't work out for the Kickstarter.)

New Pledge Levels!

As mentioned in the first update, we've been discussing adding more pledge levels, especially the very commonly requested "Player's Tome + Referee's Tome + Monsters + Treasures" combo. Following the explosive growth of the first couple of days, we've just taken a moment to regroup, consult the oracles, and come up with something.

We've just added two new pledge levels!

•  Dungeon Infiltrator ($100): This is for people who already have everything from the previous Kickstarter and want all of the new books — including new books which partly consist of content that you already have! It gets you the following: Advanced Fantasy: Player's Tome, Advanced Fantasy: Referee's Tome, Advanced Fantasy: Monsters, Advanced Fantasy: Treasures. Repeated note just to be sure: the two tomes contain all of the content from the base game (i.e. the Classic Fantasy Rules Tome or the Black Box) compiled with all of the Advanced Fantasy material.
•  Dungeon Sage ($150): This is the same as above, but includes the collector's editions of the tomes instead of the standard editions.

People who've requested something different: Please understand that it's not feasible to add pledge levels for every possible combination of the books on offer — there are just way too many combinations! (I'm not going to attempt to do the math, but with 8 different books on offer, that's a lot of possible combinations!)

All For Now

Let's go for those sweet generator upgrade stretch goals!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Character Options Booklet Unlocked!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 02:22:39 AM

Hey everyone,

Well, it didn't take long at all to unlock the first of the new stretch goals that we announced in the last update! I thought it'd be fun to talk a bit more about this mysterious "Character Options Booklet" that we've unlocked, especially as it's going to be expanded if we hit the $180,000 and $190,000 stretch goals. (Fingers crossed!)

Everyone Will Get a Copy!

The first great thing about this new booklet we're going to produce is that all backers (except retailers — the Dungeon Dealer pledge tier) will receive a free copy of it! Backers at the Digital pledge tiers will get the booklet in PDF form, while others will get a print copy and a PDF.

Kickstarter Exclusive!

The other really cool things about this booklet is that it's not going to be available elsewhere! Bits of the content featured in the booklet may also appear in future Old-School Essentials products, but the only way to get a copy of the booklet in this form is to back this Kickstarter.

What's Inside?

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

"We'll produce a Kickstarter exclusive zine-style booklet containing 4 brand new Old-School Essentials classes (the beast master, the changeling, the mycelian, and the warden) designed by Gavin Norman!"

The $180,000 and $190,000 stretch goals will then each add 2 additional classes to the booklet, bringing the total number of new classes up to 8. And you never know, if we unlock all currently announced stretch goals, we may just be able to add higher level stretch goals adding even more content to this booklet!

So, if we unlock all those stretch goals, this will end up being a really nice package of new content for your Old-School Essentials games. I'm certainly excited about producing the new material!

Beast Master, Changeling, Mycelian, Warden

I thought it'd be fun to talk a little bit about each of the new classes that'll be in the booklet at this stage:

Beast master: Adventurers who have a special connection with animals, having the ability to speak with them and (at higher levels) even see through their eyes. This class is (as is probably obvious from the name!) heavily inspired by the 1982 sword & sorcery film of the same name.

Changeling: Magical humanoids that possess powers of deception and shape-stealing. In essence, this class is a playable version of the doppelgänger monster.

Mycelian: Humanoid mushrooms that dwell in lightless caverns deep underground. Like the changeling, the mycelian class is also based on a monster (of the same name — featured in Advanced Fantasy: Monsters and the Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome). The mycelian is a great fit for campaigns set in the depths of the Underworld, perhaps adventuring alongside characters of the other Underworld races presented in the Advanced Fantasy game (drow, duergar, svirfneblin).

Warden: Members of a secret society which protects their native lands from invasion and the influence of Chaos. Wardens are skilled warriors who are adapted to life in the wilds. The warden is a simple class that fulfills a common need — a non-magical ranger. (The ranger class featured in Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and the Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome gains access to divine magic at higher levels.)

A Preview — The Mycelian Class

Here's a sneak preview of the mycelian class that will feature in the character options booklet! (Note that this is work in progress. The final class may differ from what you see here.)

As you can see, the new classes will be presented in the familiar Old-School Essentials format. The booklet will also feature tasty art from the Old-School Essentials art team. All in all, it'll make a really exciting addition to your Old-School Essentials games!

All For Now

Hopefully this post has whet your appetite for unlocking more stretch goals. Spread the word among your gaming circles and let's see how high we can go!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Funded in 14 Minutes!?
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 02:36:25 PM

Hey everyone,

Well, I can hardly believe I'm writing this, but: yes, we reached the initial funding goal in 14 minutes! The first Old-School Essentials Kickstarter last year funded in about 2 hours, which was pretty amazing, but this is just nuts!

As I write this, I see that the fourth stretch goal ($50,000 — the 2nd ribbon marker in the Player's and Referee's Tomes) has been unlocked and we're well on our way to unlocking the next stretch goal.

Anyway, this is just the initial "tearing my eyes away from the stats for a moment to say WOW!" update.

Thank You!

Thanks to all backers for your fantastic support and for making this Kickstarter so successful in just the first couple of hours!

Some Questions

In the initial rush there have been quite a few recurring questions. We've tried to answer many of them in the FAQ section, so have a look there, but I'll address a couple of the most common questions here.

Add-Ons

A lot of people are wondering whether they'll be able to add extras (either existing Necrotic Gnome products or books from this Kickstarter) onto their pledge. The answer is a big yes! Here's how this will work:

• Following the Kickstarter, everyone will get access to a pledge manager.
• In the pledge manager, all sorts of add-ons, extras, and goodies will be listed.
• You'll be able to select whatever add-ons you want. It's a store, basically.
• All existing Necrotic Gnome products which are in print will be available in the add-ons store. (Note that, unfortunately, the Black Box from the Kickstarter last year is virtually sold out now, so will not be available as an add-on.)
• All the new books from this Kickstarter will be in the add-ons store, with the exception of the collector's edition tomes. The collector's edition tomes are limited to one per backer and must thus be selected via one of the pledge levels.
• There will be extra goodies (e.g. T-shirts of various designs) in the add-ons store.
• We'll announce much more information about add-ons at a later date. (It's far too early in the day to get into real details about it yet ;)

Pledge Level for the Two Tomes + Monsters + Treasures

The other big question that's coming up a lot is along the lines of "I want all the new books. How can I get the two tomes plus the two new modular supplements?". As things are currently set up, you'll need to do the following:

• Select either the Dungeon Leader or Dungeon Champion pledge level (Champion if you want the collector's edition tomes).
• In the pledge manager later on, add on the Monsters and Treasures supplements.

As this is such a popular request, though, we're going to discuss adding a new pledge level for it. (Well, probably two new pledge levels — one with the standard tomes and one with the collector's editions.) If we decide to go this route, we'll post an update about this when the new pledge levels are added.

All For Now!

Let's unlock some adventures!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Stretch Goals!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 02:36:17 PM

Hey everyone,

Wow... continuing on from the last update, we not only reached our initial funding goal in 14 minutes, but also smashed through all the initially revealed stretch goals in a matter of hours! (I'm honestly somewhat dizzied by the rate at which things have progressed and can't even remember how many hours it took for all the stretch goals to be unlocked!)

As was hinted at in the Kickstarter description, we have another wave of stretch goals to announce, this time in the realm of digital aids to running your Old-School Essentials games.

The Next Wave

We've just added a wave of 6 more stretch goals, all enhancing the game with free digital content:

•  Spell tracker PDF: A PDF with four spell trackers — one for each type of spells (cleric, druid, illusionist, magic-user) — allowing players to easily keep track of the spells their character has memorized. The trackers will also serve as a quick reference for the range and duration of spells.
•  Time tracker PDF: A PDF with a dungeon time tracker as an aid for referees in keeping track of dungeon turns: light sources, wandering monsters, resting, and so on.
•  Generator enhancements: Enhancements to the stupendous Old-School Essentials generators website, adding support for randomly rolling Advanced Fantasy content, including random encounters, magic items, and NPCs.

Check out the main Kickstarter description for full info on these new stretch goals.

More?

And yes... the Kickstarter description once again hints at another wave of stretch goals! We don't want to say too much about what we have planned next as we're still finalising some financial calculations, but I can reveal that — if we reach sufficiently high levels of funding — the next stretch goals will unlock a set of Kickstarter exclusive physical items free of cost to all backers (except digital-only and retail pledges). More news on that once our accountant gnomes have signed off on it. (They really are sticklers.)

Just for Fun

Here's a little layout preview of the first two pages of the monsters section of the Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome.

All For Now

Thank you all so much for your massive support! More news coming soon.

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Stretch Goals: The Next Generation
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 02:35:31 PM

Hey everyone,

The campaign continues to go from strength to strength! Massive thanks to everyone for bringing this project into reality — and then some!

We have some exciting news on several fronts today.

Adventure Scenarios Pricing

Didn't the title of this update say it's about stretch goals? Well, yes, it did. Well spotted. But before we get into the stretch goals, we wanted to quickly announce the pricing for the adventure scenarios, as some people have asked about it. Here's how you'll be able to purchase the adventures and how much they'll cost:

• Following the Kickstarter, we'll be using a pledge manager where you'll be able to select add-ons.
• The three new adventures will be available in the add-ons store (in print + PDF or PDF only form).
• Backers can grab the adventures for $10 each (in print + PDF). That's a 33% backer's discount off the eventual retail price of $15! (Backers will be able to get the adventures in PDF for a discounted price of $5 each.)

We'll have more information coming soon about other products that will be available as add-ons.

All Stretch Goals up to $135,000 Unlocked!

Ok, now onto the stretch goals. Over the last few days, we've been scrabbling to finalise details on the next wave of stretch goals, as the second wave goals (from $110,000 to $135,000) were unlocked so quickly! Here's a quick summary of what we've unlocked so far:

• The Player's Tome, Referee's Tome, and all modular supplements have been upgraded to feature fancy printed end-papers, featuring the most commonly used tables.
• The Player's Tome and the Referee's Tome will each be enhanced with two ribbon markers.
•  We'll be producing three new adventure scenarios in softcover format — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman, Holy Mountain Shaker, by Luka Rejec, and Isle of the Plangent Mage, by Donn Stroud. Following the Kickstarter, backers will be able to select these adventures as add-ons in the pledge manager at a special reduced price of $10 each.
•  We'll be producing a pair of free PDFs: one for tracking a PC's spells and one for tracking time during dungeon exploration.
•  The Old-School Essentials generators website will be enhanced with the ability to roll encounters, treasure, spell books, and NPCs including the Advanced Fantasy material.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... even more stretch goals!

Stretch Goals up to $200,000 Added!

•  $150,000: Character Options Booklet: We'll produce a Kickstarter exclusive zine-style booklet containing 4 brand new Old-School Essentials classes (the beast master, the changeling, the mycelian, and the warden) designed by Gavin Norman! Further stretch goals will unlock additional content in the booklet. All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the booklet! (Digital backers will receive the booklet in PDF form.) (The content featured in the booklet may also appear in future Old-School Essentials products.)
•  $160,000: Reference Booklet: We'll produce a zine-style booklet containing the most commonly used tables and rules for Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy games. All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the booklet! (Digital backers will receive the booklet in PDF form.)
•  $170,000: Free Adventure!: All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the first of the three new adventures we'll be producing — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman. (Digital backers will receive the adventure in PDF form.)
•  $180,000: Character Options Booklet Expansion 1: We'll expand the character options booklet with two more brand new classes designed by Gavin Norman (classes to be announced later)!
•  $190,000: Character Options Booklet Expansion 1: We'll expand the character options booklet with two more brand new classes designed by Gavin Norman (classes to be announced later)!
•  $200,000: Adventures Hardcover Upgrade: The three new adventure scenarios (see above) will be printed in hardcover format at no extra cost! All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the first of the three new adventures we'll be producing — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman (see $170,000 stretch goal). Once the Kickstarter is over, backers will have the option of selecting the other adventures as add-ons in the pledge manager at a special, reduced price of $10 (MSRP $15).

Note: "non-retail backers" means all backers who are not at the retailer pledge level, Dungeon Dealer.

All For Now

I'll leave you with a layout preview from Advanced Fantasy: Treasures, featuring an absolutely classic magic item.

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome