Lots of announcements today!
We’re wrapping up the final hours of our Dungeonesque Red Box RPG Indiegogo campaign. Earlier today we announced our partnership with TableTopLibary who will be our distributor for box sets and other future products. Our Red Box RPG is now expanding to a third book as we introduce a new Quickstart Guide. We also give details on how current Indiegogo Backers will get credit towards the future box set products (so in addition to getting the products they’ve pledged towards, they’ll also get credits towards these future products if they have interest in them).
Keep reading to get details on the above, plus see some samples of upcoming art for different products!
Last Chance for Dungeonesque Red Box RPG Pledges!
Two days left in our Dungeonesque Red Box Indiegogo fundraiser! We shared some of our early layouts and art yesterday. Join our campaign today and you’ll be able to help shape the direction of these products! We’ll be setting up a private discussion group to allow our backers to give us feedback as we create our products.
Announcing TableTopLibary
First off, check out the press release about our partnership with the newly launched TableTopLibary.com. This new service will also allow us to sell products like box sets, large poster maps, dice bags, and other physical products that online RPG storefronts have traditionally not provided. We will share more details in the days ahead as we start to move all our PDF and print product distribution to this new, exciting storefront.
Print Proofs for Redmark Adventures Volume 1
Last week we ordered print proofs for our 5e adventure ‘Redmark Adventures Volume 1’. After we’ve happy with the print samples, we’ll be able to publish the print version and make it available to backers of our recent Kickstarter. Sometime after that, we’ll do a print run of the adventures and put them up for sale at tabletoplibrary.com.
Redmark Adventures Cover Art
Updates on Box Set Plans
Thank you for those who participated in our recent survey! Based on survey feedback, private comments we’re getting via email and social media, and the momentum we’re getting on our Indiegogo fundraiser, we’re strongly considering offering not one but TWO box set versions of the Dungeonesque RPG. Right now we’re getting prototypes in for the various box set components and getting pricing from vendors. Once we’re ready, we’ll announce more details. At a high level, here’s what we’re planning:
Phase 1: IndieoGoGo PDF+Booklets Products
We will deliver the Indiegogo products as originally planned, while adding a third book— a Quickstart Guide. See details below.
Phase 2: Box Set Kickstarters
In the months ahead we’ll move on to do box sets which will package the content a bit differently. Backers of our current IndieoGoGo fundraiser will get a credit towards getting these new products in case they want to ‘upgrade’.
Red Box RPG Expands to Third Book
Introducing the Quickstart Guide
I’ve been doing layout and playing with how the content will work. Right now our initial product plans are geared around using print-on-demand through OBS (drivethrustuff.com) for print fulfillment. OBS uses Lightningsource.com to do print fulfillment. We’ve got a hard cap of 44 pages if we are to keep the format in saddle-stitched booklet format (as opposed to perfect bound which is like a traditional paperback).
Given some of the content we want to add— most notably the Choose Your Own Adventure style solo adventure which will likely run around 8-10 pages—we have two options:
- We can trim some valuable content and go light on art but keep the format in the 44 page booklet format
- We can add a third book but keep all the content and art.
With this choice in mind, we plan to add a third book — a quickstart guide that will run 15-20 pages which you’ll be able to print yourself, or use the print-at-code codes I’ll give you to print a booklet from OBS (drivethrustuff.com).
Contents of the Three Booklets for the Indiegogo Products
To recap how the booklets will work for the Indiegogo products:
- Book ‘0’: Quickstart Guide. This will be a quickstart guide and overview to the game which will run about 20 pages. This is the booklet that the Choose Your Own Adventure style solo adventure will appear. It will also review the most important rules of the game, helping long-term players quickly identify what rules are most important to master.
- Book 1: Players Guide. First 22 pages will cover character creation (supporting characters up to level 15) and the rules of the game. Second 22 pages will be a list of all the spells that Wizards and Clerics can use.
- Book 2: GM’s Guide. First 22 pages will be the core GM tools to run the game. Second 22 pages will be a concise bestiary.
Future Packaging of the Booklets
After we deliver the above Indiegogo products, we’ll move on to Phase II, which is repackacking the content for physical box sets. We’ll use traditional printers and have a distributor to sell these products for us.
When we do the physical box set for Dungeonesque Red Box RPG (which is not part of this current Indiegogo fundraiser but will be a future project) we’re evaluating the option to combine both Book 0 and Book 1 into one larger booklet which will run around 60 pages and be printed using a traditional printer and offered for sale as part of the physical box set. Here’s how it would work for these 8.5×11″ booklets.
- Book 1: Players Guide. Quickstart Guide, Solo Adventure, Character Creation and Game Rules, 60 pages
- Book 2: GM’s Guide. GM’s Guide with GM Tools and Bestiary, 44 pages
We are also looking at packaging this content a bit differently in theDungeonesque White Box RPG (which will be the smaller 5.5×8.5″ booklet size). In that format, the content will be broken down into four booklets:
- Book 1: Characters & Combat. Character Creation and Game Rules, 44 pages
- Book 2: Eldritch Wizardry. Spells, 44 pages
- Book 3: Worlds & Adventure. GM’s Guide, 44 pages
- Book 4: Men & Monsters. NPCs and 100+ monsters, 44 pages
There will be no solo adventure in the White Box version due to space.
So, lots of consumer choices for the same product!
Future Credit for Current Indiegogo Backers
Since we’re planning on a Phase II and evolving into physical box sets, we want to reward our customers currently backing the Indiegogo fundraiser. We’ll deliver the Kickstarter Box Set PDFs before we deliver final Indiegogo PDFs, so Indiegogo patrons can choose to EITHER get and print the Book 0 set (1st edition) OR just get credit and upgrade to the KS version which repackages the content into two Red Box books. Indiegogo backers will get both final products in hand in digital form and can make a choice before they print things out.
Upcoming Art for Red Box RPG
James Shields is currently developing some new art for the Dungeonesque Red Box RPG. We’ll use this in two places: 1) as a black-and-white art for a custom cover for Red Box RPG booklets for those who want to print it themselves, and 2) as a full-color version for a not-yet-announced future Red Box RPG product. Stay tuned — we’ll have more news to announce in the weeks ahead!
Upcoming Dungeonesque Red Box RPG Art
