Mini Update - GM Screen & Dire Bunny
11 months ago – Wed, Nov 09, 2022 at 04:28:42 PM

Hey y'all,

Max here with a mini mid-month update. I wanted to show you the GM Screen and a sneak peak of the Dire Bunny familiar.

GM Screen

After hundreds of ideas from you all in the Discord, we've settled on a mix of core D&D rules (actions, conditions, concnetration, and cover), Heliana-specific content (VDC summary, Tracking, Harvesting, Manufacturing, Enchanting, and Cooking), and quick-reference content for NPC combat behaviour: how Int and Wis affects targeting, tactics, terrain use, and the willingness to flee.

This last one is a summary, and should be adapted to each creature. For example, a demon bent on destruction is unlikely to flee even if it has a high Wisdom; it knows it'll get resurrected! Check out the WIP. No fancy graphics on this one, just the core info and layout boxes.

Don't worry. Jess is making this look BADASS. And if you forgot, here's the back side (or front side... depending on your point of view):

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Remember: anything new needs to replace something existing, so asking for something to be included only works if you say something you would remove. We're not making the text any smaller or any of that jazz!

Dire Bunny

Ever wondered what would happen if you managed to harvest the blood of the Dire Bunny of Kaernaggob—the BONEMONGER— and gave it to Humperdink to craft a cute lil friend? Well... look no further.

Here's its statblock. These effects were drawn from the Bonemoner, the boss of the bonus adventure, who was inspired by the 'boss' from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

And like all of the crafted familiars in this book, they can be captured by the Tamer to become Bespoke Companions, which get their own tech tree of improvements. This chap is designed to gain advantage on its attack by using "Mi!" (Or "Ti!", or "Ni!") to frighten them, Grasping Bones to restrain them, or Bonetide to knock them prone, and then 'Go For the Throat' which is like  a Rogue's sneak attack. Those knights of the round table will never stand a chance.

Project We Love - Fifth Edition Gamemaster's Survival Guide 

Did you like the Int/Wis breakdown in the GM Screen? Do you want to take you tactics even further?!  DMDave's Gamemaster's Survival Guide gives you the tools to breakdown any statblock into one of ten key archetypes. Each archetype has a fighting style, advice on set up (where do they start the combat!?, basic tactics, their weaknesses (for characters that might use Insight or L'Arsène's Quadnoculars (check the end of Heliana's for those!)), and advice on monster pairings. 

Then, he lays out strategies you can employ for each of those archetypes with cheat sheets, playbook diagrams, and quick reference tactic cards.

They have hit SO MANY stretch goals! Like 50.  It's a lot of content, and I'm gonna steal it for Heliana 2. Thanks Dave. Also: There's less than 48 hours left! Don't Miss Out!

So if you’re ready to take your game to the next level, grab a copy now!

Okay,

That's all for now! Thanks for reading :)

Max (and Mo and Jess!)

PDF Version 1.00 is Live - Communication, Rewards, and Timelines
11 months ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 08:31:55 AM

Friends, harvesters, bar patrons,

This update talks about the PDF, communication, digital rewards,  and physical rewards, delving into timelines within each topic. First, a word from our very own Jess Jackdaw.

PDF

The PDF IS DONE. Hundreds of exports, thousands of hours work and, tens of thousands of comments (mostly for the typo "lis" instead of "list") - thank you. Does this mean we'll have caught every typo? Probably not. But don't tell me about it. Not yet 😂.

The PDF is being distributed via Backerkit as we speak. It should be done in 20 minutes.

Is This The Final PDF? Short answer: no. We're going to make you a better one. This PDF is the one we're sending for the final test print. But while that's happening, we (well, your favourite mod, Myria) is going to go through and hyperlink the sh*t out of everything. Every new spell? We're gonna hyperlink it. Monsters? They'll be hyperlinked. Magic items? Hyperlinked too. We want this to be easy for you to use.

We've already put a hyperlink back to the contents page to help you move around (just click any page number), but there's a little refining to do to get it perfect. That being said, we didn't want to make you wait any longer, so this content is ready for playing!

In addition, we'll be releasing high-resolution PDFs. These guys are at 300 DPI as opposed to the 150 DPI of the standard-resolution PDFs. Note, the Std-res PDFs clock in at 175 MB, and the Hi-res at 550 MB.

Any Big Changes I Should Know About? Here goes:

• Elementals have more harvestable (and edible) components.
• The crafting section has been reorganised to make it more usable (the tables for time, DC, and price are all together).
• There are about twenty times more metatags for the SRD magic items.
• Having a component with the right metatag now grants advantage on a Crafting check.
• The feats have been revamped.
• The Parasite Warlock's parasitic weapon is now a spell attack.
• Wording has been standardised across hunts, magic items, and spells.

Communication

We want you to feel good with how we're communicating, and we know some folks think we could do better. We're still learning about how often and on what platforms to go about it. I know that I (Max) can feel overwhelmed when a month goes by and I don't feel like I can say "hey I finished all these tasks, here's an update"; updates can feel daunting.

So here's what we're going to try and do: every two weeks, we'll give you an update. It'll include the progress on design (which is pretty much done), the digital rewards, and the physical rewards (see below for more on these last two). It'll help me to make it as objective as possible. It might not be pretty, but hopefully it'll be informative.

If you've suggestions on specific things you'd like to know, ask in the comments and we'll consider including them in those future updates.

Digital Rewards

Now the PDF is done, we're distributing all the assets to our digital gurus. They'll be converting the art into the best formats for the digital asset bundle (PNG/JPEG and WEBp) and converting the book to the various VTTs. These will be released as soon as they are ready.

We'll be packaging everything three packages:

• The standard-resolution PDFs (for download on mobile devices). These are available now (v1.00), and will be updated to a 'finessed' version (v1.00f) when the hyperlinking is done.
• A zip of ALL the files included at the PDF tier (PDFs, Tokens, Sounds, additional PDFs). This will be versioned making it easy to keep track of. You'll need an unzipper to see the contents. It will be updated whenever a new file is ready. The first zip will be available next week.
• A zip of the digital asset bundle for those that purchased it. This is expected to be available in two weeks.

VTTs. Converting the book is a large task. The folks in charge of conversions (all dab hands) expect these to be done by February 2023. We will be using redeemable codes on each website to access this content.

Physical Rewards

We're packaging up the final test print for all the paper products and packaging. We expect to receive these back from our manufacturers in November (we don't have a more specific time than that). Once we can give them the go-ahead, they will start mass production of the paper products and give us a time frame for completion. When the physical products are shipped, we will send the tracking details of those shipments to you all and provide status reports in the bi-monthly updates.

As explained in previous updates, the dice, pins, and wall-hangings are done.

Bonus Content

This is finished! We'll release it soon, but our priority is to get the paper products out for test print.

Project We Love - Riftborne 

A lot of you were excited about the Veiled Lady STL package, and we have some news to share. If Riftborne hits $200k (and they're really really close!) they'll design STLs of the Dreamholder and Magnetite Dragon. Every Heliana backer (PDF tier and above) will get the Dreamholder STL for free (when it's ready), and everyone who gets their PDF will get that AND the Magnetite Dragon. So what is Riftborne?

Riftborne brings cataclysm to your table. Portals to other planes have opened, bringing destruction like 3000-foot high waterfalls, gravity anomalies, and hostile monsters. By defeating champions from these other planes, you uncover the mystery of why the rifts are opening, and can eventually fight the Rift Dragon... which is also a HUGE mini! There's an arena mode for organised fights, which has mechanics for interacting with the crowd to gain boons (or earn their displeasure, if you roll poorly). Check it out, there's 1 day left!

Thanks for reading!

More in 2 weeks, 

Max (and Mo and Jess!)

Quick Update and Free New Hunt
12 months ago – Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 08:37:53 AM

Hey Friends! Mo Here 🙂

First, I would like to acknowledge and apologize for the lack of Kickstarter updates. We usually like to keep these KS updates for big announcements and communicate the day-to-day stuff on Discord. However, I realize that not everybody wants/has the time to use Discord and scroll through endless threads. Moving on, we plan on more regular updates to keep you all up to date with the project. In fact, we've been working on expanding the team, so that in the future, these kinds of delays won't happen.

That being said, I would like to ask you to be a bit more patient, a video update by our very own JessJackdaw is coming next week and along with it the V.1 PDF (finally! yaaaay).

We're still in the process of getting samples to fine-tune every aspect of the products, but let me share with you the cool metallic ink deluxe cover.

Mass production is finished for most products, and they are patiently waiting to be packaged with their late friends into boxed sets to be shipped all across the world.

While waiting for the factory samples, however, we haven’t been staying idle, we’ve been working on more Heliana content with even more badass creatures and cute familiars.

I would like to thank you all for your patience and support so far by sharing with you one such one-shot: The Flames of the Faithful

A maniacal wax elemental infused with divine power and misguided faith has absorbed a celebrated archbishop and is secretly burning members of its congregation alive.

Download here 

We are so excited to see the finish line on the horizon and we hope you are too! Stay tuned for next week's video update.

All the best

Mo

The PDF is Ready
about 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 24, 2022 at 05:13:39 AM

Hey friends!

In the past week I've had COVID, haven't seen my girlfriend, and showering has been optional. But this weekend I will venture into the light of day once more because THE PDF IS READY!

This is version 0.99. That's for a few reasons:

• We have a feedback form for typos that will be open for one week. Please help us find typing mistakes, missed formatting, or (hopefully no) pixelated images!
• Some of the external links (those leading to other PDFs) are not functional yet. We need to have them in the book now so that when those links become active, folks can follow the links to the extra content! The links to music, ambiences, and partners should be functional.

The text and internal cross-referencing should be correct. If it isn't, or you see 'page xx' anywhere, please let us know!

Where To Find It. As usual, it will be available on Backerkit (soon, it takes like an hour to release). If you need help finding it, check out this update or join the Discord server.

Thank you for being patient,

Love you all,

Max (and Mo and Jess)

P.s. If I've missed anyone in the credits - such as if you submitted playtest feedback on the google forms, please let me know in the Discord server. Make sure to double-check I haven't referred to you by your Discord handle first. Use the #heliana-typos channel and make sure your comment includes the phrase "missed credit" - I will not see the comment if you don't use that.

EDIT:

Project We Love - TOMB 

This is a tiny little Kickstarter that deserves some love. It's old school D&D dungeon crawling with a DOPE soundtrack and music score by my buddy Sean.  It's metal af. If nothing else, just check out the video:

<3

August Update - Penultimate Pre-PDF Update!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Aug 12, 2022 at 01:16:56 AM

Hey friends!

This update will cover the progress of design and manufacture, fan art, and a new tamer subclass. Before that - a word on updates!

Updates

Sorry we didn’t get an update out to you in July. We’re SO CLOSE to having the PDF done that I just wanted to push through and give it to you. Alas, with each chapter whose proofing notes we gothrough, we discover more inconsistencies in formatting, wording, and layout that we wanted to get right. That meant going back through every chapter that had been done,  and implementing an ever-growing list of find-and-replace terms.

This should be the last update before the PDF is released. Which I hope will be next week! We will, of course, post an update to let y’all know :)

Design Progress

The Book. Feedback has been implemented for everything. That includes playtest balance, technical edit, detailed feedback, and first round proof notes. Everything is through second (and final) round proofing, and we’re just going through those with a find-toothed comb. When we release the PDF next week, you will all have one week to submit any final typos to us before it goes to print.

GM Screen. We’ve collated everything submitted in the GM Screen Discord channel. If you’ve anything you really want to be included, go to that channel, check the pins, and if it’s not there. Leave a comment. We’ll be getting that finalised in the week’s downtime after the PDF is released.

Additional PDFs. As we discussed before, there’s more content than we can fit in the physical book (see Manufacture Progress, below for more on this). Hyperlinked within the book (and with custom QR codes and simplified URLs) are the following five documents:

•  Hare Raising (the bonus adventure in which you hunt a ‘Dire Rabbit’)
•  Weathertax’s Weird and Wonderful World (an additional 44 random encounters)
•  L’Arsène’s Crafting Catalogue (extracted harvesting and crafting rules for your players)
•  Humperdink’s Flock of Familiars (an additional 7 bespoke familiars)
•  The GM’s Crafting Workshop (a beta-test version of a how-to-design your own items)

These hyperlinks will not function by the time you receive the PDF. As these are digital products, we’ll be finishing those last so we can get all the physical stuff finalised first.

Animated Familiar Cards. Jess is wrapping these up, and they look EXCELLENT!

Manufacture Progress

We received the print test of the book in early July!

The colours were great. Pinks and purples can be particularly hard to make vibrant, but we’re happy with the quality.

A book this big needs some seriously strong binding, and this iteration just wasn’t up to scratch!

We immediately contacted our manufacturer and asked for some upgrades. Not only is the binding significantly stronger, but we’ve opted for a curved spine.

All told, this allows the book to open totally flat, even on only a few pages, a significant improvement on the first iteration (I had to hold the first print test open!).

We also caught a finish that we weren’t happy with (the cover being made of two printed pages, overlapping, instead of a single sheet). We’ve asked for this to be a single sheet and will update you on the next print test.

Box. The box designs have been finalised. You can see in the following graphics how the core box will be arranged. The book is on the bottom as it weighs 5.5lbs and would crush everything. We did promise a bludgeoning weapon…

Cards & Other Products. The item card print tests are in progress and we’ll share those as soon as we get them, hopefully with the GM screen and other paper products!

Fan Art

Recognise this guy!? It's the Opteran caterpillar, lovingly crocheted by the talented Jessica

Project We Love - Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt 

Do you like games like Dark Souls? Bloodborne? Are you a fan of Lovecraftian Horror? Then check out Steinhardt’s Guide. We helped our friend, the Monkey DM, get in touch with the right people to make this truly terrifying kickstarter. This thing is so edgy it should come with a sharp instrument warning. They’ve smashed it out of the park and might even beat Heliana’s!

Entrance your players as they unravel the mystery of the ravaged First Hunters and giggle maniacally as they descend into an otherworldly insanity. We're also collaborating to make this book fully compatible with our harvesting and crafting systems!

New Tamer Subclass: Eldermancer. We're working with the Monkey DM to write a new tamer subclass to inhabit the aberration filled dystopia of Luyarnha! The class will be available in Steinhardt's for sure, and potentially in a future Heliana publication.

We're still ideating how it's gonna look (and won't actually write it until Heliana's is done), but it will be a warlocky-subclass, where the tamer taps infuses the blood of aberrations with eldritch power of the old ones to enhance their companions. Maybe. This is all still in brainstorm form. Either way, we got Ognjen to make some killer art!

From the Discord:

Okay, that’s all for now. If you've any questions, you can respond here on Kickstarter (which we check weekly), or get a direct line on the Discord!

Thanks,

Max (and Mo and Jess!)