Post-Project Update #16 - Pledge Manager Smoke Test is LIVE!
9 months ago
– Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 03:13:23 PM
Hey everyone!
I have fantastic news to share with all of you! The Pledge Manager Smoke Test is now out so please check your e-mails!
The "Smoke Test" is basically a way for BackerKit to help creators check if everything was set up correctly with the Pledge Manager. It sends an invitation to only 5% of all the backers so that we can get some quick feedback and make any changes necessary before we invite all of the backers to buy add-ons, put in address information, and finalize their orders.
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Awesome Changes to 2 things!
Here are some more awesome news:
- We decided that we wanted to share the love and instead of having the x2 art prints be part of the early bird backers only, they will be part of every backer's pledge that contains at least the physical book!
- Every backer that is at the Starlight Pledge level (that has the custom tarot-style portrait commission) will also receive an original token-style artwork based on the portrait that will be made for them. This is courtesy of the awesome Dusky Cat!
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The delays are in the past!
We had a lot of hiccups while working with BackerKit's Pledge Manager interface but we thankfully had a lot of support from the BackerKit team who helped us navigate their still under-development platform. That along with some other things that we had to figure out together with our fulfillment partner caused a few delays that made us open the Pledge Manager two weeks later, but we are glad it took a bit longer just so that we can be sure that everything was done right.
All that being said, we are finally past all those things and I just wanted to say a huge thank you once again for your patience and your understanding. An even bigger thank you to the people over on the discord server who keep me sane and engage in various conversations with me about the troubles I am going through trying to figure out the mess that is Kickstarter projects.
You are all wonderful and irreplaceable, thank you.
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So with all that in mind, expect another update in a day or two when we fix whatever things are left to fix and then send out the Pledge Manager invitations to everyone!
Thank you as always and...
May Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #14 - Quick Update on Opening of PM
9 months ago
– Sun, Jul 23, 2023 at 07:06:25 AM
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to give you a super quick update on the opening of the pledge manager.
The last 2 weeks we spent a lot of time e-mailing back and forth and having meetings with our fulfillment and printing partners. We are in the most delightful position to say that everything has been finalized in terms of details and information needed on both sides and we are now waiting patiently for our fulfillment partner to send us the charts with all the shipping costs for each destination (based on the weight of each item).
So in other words; as soon as our fulfillment partner sends us the charts (which should be sometime this upcoming week) we will immediately have the Pledge Manager open the next day.
The next update will be all about the opening of the Pledge Manager and also about instructions on how to add things to your pledge and also finalize it.
Thank you for your patience and we are so looking forward to entering the final stages of the project!
Till next time, may Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #14 - Pledge Manager Time!
10 months ago
– Sun, Jul 09, 2023 at 06:14:02 AM
Hey star wanderers!
I have a plethora of news to share with you today!
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Testing Phase Done!
The testing phase went absolutely fantastic and some of the testers gave amazing feedback on the book. We are still implementing a few feedback points that were brought up but other than that, the only thing remaining now before we can finalize the PDF and send it to all the backers are basically a huge grammar and syntax pass of the entire book (will take at least a week for sure) and then some prettying up with various graphic design elements.
A huge thank you to everyone that tested Starlight Arcana and gave feedback so that we can improve it! You are the best and you are awesome.
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General Progress ~95%
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Starlight Arcana Book (90% done) (final touches)
Testing Completed 🠞 Final syntax and Grammar check 🠞 Graphic Design Touch-ups (dividers and other things to make it prettier) 🠞 Prep of Print-File
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Quickstart Booklet (90% done) (written and in final steps)
Currently in PDF Prep 🠞 Final syntax and Grammar check 🠞 Prep of Print-File
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Tarot Deck (95% done) (fonts are being put on cards)
Final font for card titles to be chosen 🠞 Prep of Print-File
Prep of Print-File
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SA-styled Character Sheet (99%)
Prep of Print-File
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Premade Character Sheets (99%) (finished)
Prep of Print-File
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Pledge Manager opening soon!
My number one priority starting tomorrow is to prep the pledge manager and have it ready to open by the end of the week.
There have been far too many delays with everything and most of them were not even things that we could have prepared any better for (and mind you, just as a reminder, this is our first KS project ever). We understand that those things are frustrating and trust me when I say that it is equally frustrating for us too.
My focus for the last few months has been to expedite the release of the final PDF because I really want it to be in the hands of backers before we even start advertising and promoting our next Kickstarter Project (Grand Tales - Soulfrost Reliquary). I would not feel comfortable launching a new project when the previous one is not fully on its way to being completed.
So the plan now is:
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17th of July - Open the Pledge Manager
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End of July - Send Final PDF to all backers
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20th of August - Close the Pledge Manager (lock orders)
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End of August - Send in all final printing files
- Wait however long is needed for printing to be done and then start fulfillment immediately (printer said it could take up to 2 months, so we have to be patient with that).
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More Starlight Chronicles? Some Clarifications.
A few weeks ago, we had someone ask a very good question on Discord and everyone said I should put it in a future KS update as well so that everyone has access to it.
"Is SA meant to be kind of the “intro” to Starlight Chronicles, or is there another previous publication/module that you’d recommend we read beforehand to get us introduced to the world and lore?
Here's the long answer to the above question!
Starlight Arcana is meant to be the starting point and the core of Starlight Chronicles. It serves as the point of reference for everything that came before it as well as everything that will come after it.
The main things that we wanted to build it with and would serve as the core of the setting were:
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The core lore of the deities of the world (the three Astral Siblings) and how the biggest and most important event in the setting (the Astral Conflict) changed the world.
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The void, what it can do and how it works.
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Certain subclasses such as the Fate Weaver and the Astromancer that explain a lot about the special kind of magic (Starlight magic) that exists in the setting.
- Various other worlds (other planets) that exist in the Sea of Stars (all released adventure content so far was on Latakar).
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How do we expand the Starlight Chronicles setting and the stories within it from here onwards?
- Through the Grand✦Tales that will focus on different places (could be a whole region, could be something smaller) in each one, with more expanded lore and information for it.
- Through the website Lorebook that will constantly be updated with new subclasses, ancestries, regional maps and detailed information on them, extra lore information, new stories, and so much more.
- Through individual one-shot adventures released through the Patreon.
- Through a surprise secret project that we have planned for next year (if all goes well).
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How do you recommend we get started with the Starlight Chronicles setting?
- Starlight Arcana is the best place to do that. It sets the tone for how the setting works and the dangers that exist within it.
- Continue with individual adventures or run smaller campaigns through the Grand✦Tales (remember they are going to each be at least 20-sessions worth).
- Expand even more with the Lorebook. If you really want to dig deeper into the setting, then the detailed maps and all the extra information found in the lorebook is something you want to have access to for sure.
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What is gated behind a paywall and why?
This is the easiest way to make a big 500 pages book available to everyone while still making sure we are actually making something out of it even after its KS campaign.
We really want to make it something special and although a lot of people will be annoyed for missing the campaign (because they were indecisive or because they saw it a bit too late for example), we will give everyone the chance to get the content they missed at a later Grand✦Tales campaign.
Patreon is how I started this whole thing and I find it extremely important to maintain this front as it is the best platform I have for direct communication with the people that really want to support me and/or love the content I create. I value my patrons a lot and I will continue to release content for them (be it big adventures or smaller things like side quests) for as long as I possibly can. The Lorebook is more like a love letter to everyone that has enjoyed the setting I have created. I basically wanted people to be able to explore it even more and get the most out of it in an easily accessible and interactive manner (through the website).
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That's all for today. I hope you are all having a fantastic summer and I hope you are just as thrilled as we are to finally get your hands on Starlight Arcana. Every little task we complete in order to get it all finished, printed, and sent to you is making us more and more excited!
Until next time, may Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Introducing... Grand✦Tales & Soulfrost Reliquary!
10 months ago
– Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 05:38:08 AM
I am super excited to finally reveal the Grand Tales and the first installment in the series; the Soulfrost Reliquary.
TL;DR information can also be found here.
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What are the Grand✦Tales?
One of the most important things a creative team has to do is find their voice and their signature. This was true when I was a professional musician and even more true now that I am designing TTRPG content together with other people in a team. The Kelfecil's Tales team has always put emphasis on the fact that we want to deliver memorable narratives and unforgettable TTRPG experiences. We want to create stories that last and tales that have meaning.
After lots of brainstorming and trying out different things, we decided that the Grand Tales is the best way for us to move forward with creating the content we want to create.
While we love many different TTRPG systems, we want to keep things simple and accessible and for that reason, we will continue publishing content using the currently most used system which is 5E.
- Long-form adventures that last over 20 sessions!
Each project will be big enough for you to run a short campaign for your players. Be it a huge dungeon crawl or a new region that your players can explore, each Grand Tales release will have tons of content for GMs to work with.
Each adventure is written by writers with tons of experience in and out of TTRPGs. We are not just "experienced GMs" or novelists but professionals with experience and education in narrative design for games. We value narrative storytelling and we make sure that every twist and turn in the adventure has meaning and keeps your players' interest peaked. If you would like to find out just how serious we are about this, then check out Starlight Arcana's narrative campaign.
- A unique setting environment, lore information, regional map, denizen and monster stat blocks and so much more!
Each project will come with its own materials for the GM to work with. We are making sure you have information on every little detail that could be important for you to run the adventure and to even take further than what is written.
- Kickstarter-exclusive projects, available only on Kickstarter!
Each project will be available only on Kickstarter. No pre-orders after the project ends, no individual sales afterward, or anything else like that. If you want to get your hands on the Grand Tales then you have to support the campaign.
Future Grand Tales Kickstarter projects will allow backers to buy previous installments in the series.
- Print-on-Demand and digital fulfillment only!
We are going with DriveThruRPG's Print-on-Demand services and will be giving a lot of digital rewards instead of physical ones so that we can make much more and have it reach you way faster than any other project would.
- Quick delivery, Backers get the Final PDF in no more than 3 months!
No more fancy stuff. As we explained in a previous Starlight Arcana update, we value the playable content more than the bling and for that reason, we want to make sure you have the content in your hands as soon as possible. We give promise that you will have the Final digital PDF in your inbox 3 months (at the latest) after the Kickstarter campaign ends.
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Our Focus
We are serious about delivering something that people are hyped for in as high quality and as fast as we can possibly make it. We really want to be able to make more awesome content instead of just waiting for a year before development, printing, and fulfillment are done.
Our experience with Starlight Arcana has greatly helped us understand these processes and see what we need to focus on. We do not wish to make extra money off selling overpriced dice sets or GM screens (which we are sure you have plenty of already for sure).
We want to make what we know how to make best; Grand Tales.
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Introducing the next project by the team that brought you Starlight Arcana...
A terrible secret lies buried in the resting place of a once powerful lich. Will you dare venture into the frigid reliquary that holds the Heart of Soulfrost?
Enter the Soulfrost Reliquary in the first installment of the Grand Tales adventure series and unlock a terrible secret that was lost for hundreds of years!
We worked with the amazing ALGOYO, a fantastic comic artist, to create the monsters of Soulfrost Reliquary and you can expect to see a lot more of his artwork in this and more upcoming Grand Tales!
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What is in the book?
- x1 huge dungeon crawl adventure for level 7-8 players
This grand dungeon crawl will feature a huge place for your players to explore, taking you through different sections that are all themed after the monsters that still lurk there. Each section will have tons of different rooms to explore, each with its own tricks, traps, puzzles, and stories to discover.
- x3 huge, beautifully illustrated maps of the Reliquary
Ori the Cartographer, our absolutely awesome and one-of-a-kind artist, will be illustrating all of the reliquary maps. Ori's fantastic work will allow you to show each room to your players with great detail thus helping with both combat and narrative narration.
- x35 brand new Soulfrost spells
The Soulfrost is a terrible kind of magic that combines frost magic and necromancy. The lich was obsessed with Soulfrost and made some terrible discoveries. There is a lot left behind for players to uncover and eventually even use to their own benefit. But what is the true secret of Soulfrost...?
The Reliquary would feel very empty without its own range of brand-new monsters to inhabit it. Ghastly foes, skeletal minions, and frozen experiments all await you in the lich's resting place.
We absolutely love big boss fights with awesome effects, puzzle-y mechanics, and cool baddie quotes. Four, entirely different from one another, boss fights await in the cold depths of the reliquary.
We care about the story more than anything else and there is no point in just hacking and slashing through hordes of monsters if there is no grander narrative to guide you. The story of this Grand Tale will have your players aching to know more and there are plenty of side quests in there to keep them busy learning more (and earning more loot too) for a very long time.
Each Grand Tale comes with tons of lore and information about the area where the adventure takes place. We have left extra information that will help GMs fully understand and make this adventure their own when they are running it.
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- Access the PREVIEW PDF once it's out!
- Get all of the free promotional goodies!
- Be notified when the Kickstarter launches!
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Does that delay Starlight Arcana?
No, it does not.
Progress on Starlight Arcana is not slowed down or delayed in any way whatsoever. We have finished most of the parts we could finish on our side for Starlight Arcana and the rest that is left to complete the project is more or less not in our hands anymore (printing and fulfillment). Finalizing Starlight Arcana and getting the physical book (along with everything else) in your hands is our number one priority.
Running another Kickstarter project while finalizing the previous one is a very common thing for companies that make big projects even though we would like to change that in the future (with the plan we have for the Grand Tales).
We will only launch Soulfrost Reliquary AFTER the final Starlight Arcana PDF has been delivered to all backers. For printing and fulfillment of physical goods, we will have to be patient and see how it goes.
We will of course keep you updated every step of the way.
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We seriously cannot wait to show you more of Soulfrost Reliquary and we have SO MANY plans for other Grand Tales projects as well. The first one is going to be a big deal for us because depending on how well the Kickstarter campaign for Soulfrost Reliquary goes we will know how much more we can push for including even more things in future Grand Tales projects.
Your support and also your patience for Starlight Arcana were really important to us and we cannot thank you enough for all of that since it allows us to keep creating and pushing forward with new designs and concepts.
Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you at our next Kickstarter campaign!
May starlight guide your way, my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #13 - Testing has begun!
10 months ago
– Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 03:20:56 AM
Hey star dwellers!
We have great news to share with you today; the PDF testing has begun!
We put everything together and handed it over to our testers so that they may begin digging through Starlight Arcana. The feedback so far has been fantastic and we are extremely excited to make all the necessary changes and then go to printing in a couple of months!
We are approaching the end of the road with Starlight Arcana and we are aching to tell you more about everything we have been working on. It is extremely important to us that we maintain the communication standard we have had so far and continue updating you on every step of the process.
With that in mind, I will "spam" you one more time with the "Join our Discord" image because that is the best place to get answers if:
- You have more questions about Starlight Arcana
- You want to be a tester for SA and/or future projects
- You just want to hang out and talk with other people that love TTRPGs, board games, video games, etc.
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TL;DR Progress
If you don't want to read all of the details below then you can read this and just get a quick idea of where we are at and what to expect:
Final PDF Delivery: Mid-July
Pledge Manager: July
Printing and Manufacturing: end of August
Fulfillment: October (the latest hopefully, depends on printing)
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Overall Project Progress
Today I wanted to share with you a more detailed view of where we are at with Starlight Arcana and everything around it (which means more than just the book). Everything after the first 🠞 is what still needs to be done.
- Starlight Arcana Book (80% done) (written and in testing)
Currently In Testing 🠞 Tester Feedback implementation 🠞 Final syntax and Grammar check
- Quickstart Booklet (90% done) (written and in final steps)
Currently in PDF Prep 🠞 Final syntax and Grammar check
- Tarot Deck (90% done) (all artwork done except for ones for back and box)
Currently in design (card back and tuckbox artworks being finalized) 🠞 Final font for card titles to be chosen
- GM Screen (50% done) (in design process)
Currently in design (organizing the important content on it) 🠞 Final check
- SA-styled Character Sheet (99%) (finished, just a few details left)
Currently in final design steps
- Premade Character Sheets (99%) (finished)
Currently in final design steps (putting the information on the sheets)
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And now for the big parts of the project:
We are getting all the final bits of information we need to open the pledge manager from Gamesquest these days and we hope to be able to open the Pledge Manager at the beginning of July.
This is something that we still cannot know for sure when it will begin since it is very much up to the printing service that will handle it. We are in talks with the printing company and as we have the final PDF, we will be able to give a more exact date. For now, just to be safe on naming a date, I would say printing would begin either end of August or end of September.
As soon as printing is done. We cannot know yet, but count at least a month after printing.
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Are we late? Well, yes. Unfortunately, we are...
We really hate to say this but the project got delayed for all sorts of reasons (most out of our control) and the dates we initially had in mind got pushed back quite a bit. As always though, we will be crystal clear with you about what is going on and with full honesty also say that the team does not mind this since we are constantly working on this with a focus on making it the best it can possibly be.
The testing phase has proved that we were right to take this long to bring even the TEST PDF out because the feedback so far has been fantastic. Mind you, the TEST PDF is all messy since we just rushed to get all the text in there so that we can share it with the testers. While we were afraid of sharing such an "ugly" version of SA with the testers, it was important to share it as soon as we possibly could so that we can start gathering feedback on it. The "prettying up the PDF" part is happening at the same time and is not really something that we had to rush anyway, so we are happy to finally be in the testing phase.
Regarding the pledge manager, I would like to share with you why it is so late.
Trust me when I say that I wish I could have opened the pledge manager sooner.
So basically, the reason why we have not charged shipping yet (which is why we would open the pledge manager) is that we did not want to do "just a rough estimate" of how much shipping would cost for each of you. In order to calculate shipping properly, we would have to know the total weight of each pledge tier (for example having the book plus the GM screen plus the quickstart box all in one shipping packet) so that we can charge the right amount for shipping.
Since the book is so big, we really needed to wait and see how it would turn out before we can start calculating shipping costs. Opening the pledge manager any earlier felt like it would have been a dishonest move since we did not fully know how heavy each shipping box would be.
Now that we are in the final stages of production, we can safely start calculating these shipping costs and thus prepare the pledge manager to open up for all of you to lock in your orders and addresses.
Printing will come right after the pledge manager closes since that is when we will know how many of each item we would need to print and manufacture.
Gamesquest has been absolutely fantastic with fulfilling Kickstarter projects in the past (and I say this as someone who had experience with them as a backer as well) so I am very certain that they will handle it as fast as they possibly can. Knowing we have a good and well-trusted fulfillment partner is awesome by the way because it takes so much stress off our shoulders.
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Thoughts on Project Fulfillment
I will emphasize once again that delivering a project to backers fast and at good quality is of paramount importance to us and we have been feeling extremely anxious because of how long this whole process has taken. We really do not like having people wait just because there are so many small moving parts here and there.
Adding lots of bits and shiny things to projects can be very profitable for big projects like ours but we found that it is not something we are big fans of. All these small moving parts are just not worth it when our main goal is to deliver something awesome without too much "fluff" around it.
The Kelfecil's Tales team wants to deliver memorable narratives and TTRPG content with substance. The pretty dice, the art prints, and all those other things, while they are indeed awesome, they are not the content we aim to create nor do they amplify it or make it better (or worse). They are pretty but they are just materials that just complement the project and help it make more money. There are plenty of other projects you can spend hundreds of dollars on to get shiny stuff that you might use once or twice and we never felt like adding to that pile. We want to stand out as the creative team that makes awesome content without all the extra fluff.
I love having pretty art prints and pretty dice, but there are more accessible, better, and cheaper (for you) ways to get all of that. We want your attention to be on the actual content and not on what the "ALL-IN" pledge tier has.
Remember how many times I emphasized that I wanted the project to have "playable content" and no extra fancy things? Well, we are getting even more serious about this now.
Our next project is going to be all about that and I will talk more about it in the next update which will be the big reveal!
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As always, thank you so much for being so absolutely awesome. Your support means the world to us and we are still completely baffled by how well Starlight Arcana did, especially considering how not-so-known our team was (and still is honestly).
Thank you, and may Starlight guide your way, my friends.
~Kelf
