Post-Project Update #8 - Aeriath's Lament
about 1 year ago
– Sun, Feb 19, 2023 at 05:30:39 AM
Hey tavern dwellers!
Yesterday's update brought a lot of extremely heartwarming feedback about the Bard Tales album I am preparing and I honestly couldn't go another hour without making more. I felt so inspired to craft something new and continue the story as you and your players will experience it through Starlight Arcana.
I bring to you today; Aeriath's Lament and with it, the grand story behind the Estalar and their dramatic downfall.
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THE SECTION BELOW HAS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STARLIGHT ARCANA.
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The Estalar and Aeriath
The Estalar are scattered and in hiding around the galaxy. They are hiding because they witnessed the hubris of Zas. After the Astral Conflict, they knew they would have to hide as they would be the last remaining non-divine element to help the world from collapsing should there ever be a universal crisis again.
The Estalar set up the beacons on various planets, long before the Astral Conflict. Some of the beacons (the nodes) were put on planets that did not even have life on them yet. They wanted to prepare for the worst as most of them had foreseen Zas losing his mind and trying to destroy everything.
It is not known to anyone other than the Estalar themselves that the Astral Conflict reached Latakar only after destroying Estalaria.
The Astral Conflict began on Estalaria because Zas had learned of what the Estalar were trying to do and feared that they were conspiring with his siblings, Ukko and Umi, to bring his downfall. He did not like the idea of non-divine beings being involved in matters of universal creation.
In his madness, he attacked Estalaria and shattered it into many pieces. Ukko and Umi noticed what he was doing and although they managed to pull him away from Estalaria and more towards Latakar so that they may fight him there, it was already too late and Estalaria was in pieces.
Umi went back to the shattered planet after the Astral Conflict and the banishment of her brother Zas. She tried to piece together Estalaria and bonded it with moonsteel, an extremely rare metal that is found only in the core of her star that, together with her brother's star, is in the middle of the known galaxy.
The planet was of course nothing more but a ghost of its past self and the few Estalar that survived the catastrophe were all too afraid to remain there. A lot of the Estalar resented the Astral Siblings after all of this because despite their warnings, Ukko and Umi were unprepared for what had happened and their disbelief is what allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place.
The Estalar scattered to various parts of the galaxy and disguised themselves so that they may not be recognized. Slowly but surely, their offspring, the Half-Estalar, started appearing around the galaxy and despite their efforts to hide, the Estalar were, and still are, unable to hide their sons and daughters too.
Most of the Estalar led peaceful lives in hiding while there are a few that continued the noble and holy work their ancestors once did, helping the Astral Siblings keep the galaxy safe.
One of those helpful Estalar is the one that the adventurers see in visions accessed through the nodes around the galaxy. She is the one trying to guide the players through the nodes and deliver the message of how they can cleanse the planets and fight back the void corruption.
There were other more resentful Estalar though, ones that were driven by madness after having suffered so much loss. Those Estalar turned hostile and some of them actually either disguised themselves and started causing chaos in the galaxy or tried to find ways to fight the Astral Siblings in more subtle ways.
One of those mad Estalar was Aeriath. Aeriath however, was touched by the Void, for he was so already determined to make the world feel the pain he once felt.
The Void saw all of this in Aeriath and because of all of that, it was easy to bring him to Zas's side without Aeriath himself even realizing it.
The Void empowered him and strengthened his will and determination.
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Aeriath's Lament
(Lyrics in the description of the song on Soundcloud)
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Narrative Design Notes
The story of Starlight Arcana is to end with Aeriath's fall, but not the cleansing of the Void. The main twist of the whole thing is that the players slowly realize how Aeriath is behind the corruption of the nodes (because he knew where they are)
But also slowly realizing that the void is more than just Aeriath himself. The final reveal would be after he is defeated, where the players would realize that the Void is not fully cleansed and that this is a fight that will last a lot longer than they thought it would.
Aeriath was or became a bard soon after the Astral Conflict (the fight between the Astral Siblings that led to Zas being defeated and then banished by his younger siblings). The Bard Tales album is actually various stories of Starlight Arcana told through the perspective of Aeriath himself and it is only apparent to players (if played to players) later on in the campaign as they understand more of the grand narrative behind everything that they are doing.
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I hope you enjoyed today's update and I cannot wait to bring you more again soon!
In the next few updates, we'll explore:
- Starlight Tarot designs
- More Monster artwork
- Some Starlight spell descriptions
- Some planet lore
- and more!
So stay tuned and prep your light globes as we take to the stars one update at a time!
Till next time... may Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #7 - Bard Update, New Website and more!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 01:15:28 PM
Hey voidwalkers!
I wanted to give you a quick update on what's going on, so here I am with some much-needed hype on a very cold February day (at least here it's super cold...).
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Book Progress
On schedule.
I am pretty sure we are going to have to push the printing date by one or two months just to make up for proper testing and feedback implementation as well as to give people a bit more time on the pledge manager, but even with that, we are very much on time when it comes to production.
I did say from the very beginning of the project that most of the work on the book was done and I want to talk about this one more time actually. The idea was always to bring something to the platform here on Kickstarter that would be already well on its way to being finalized and the backers would help us fund its production and also add a whole bunch of extra stuff.
The extra stuff is what is adding more time and I cannot even be mad about it honestly because although we did not expect it to do so well, we have been having an absolute blast with producing all of the extra material that is going into the book. Extra planets, extra spells, extra monsters, more adventures to go on and so much more.
So, yeah, what I am basically saying is that you lovely backers are to blame for us having to take a bit longer with the production but it's a VERY positive delay to have. Thank you so much for that!
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Bard Tales Album
Remember that last stretch goal? The one where I said I would create a whole album of songs with lyrics sung by a bard that tells the tales of Starlight Arcana's campaign?
Yeah, that one.
Well, I have been having an absolute blast writing some songs here and there while taking breaks from doing Starlight Arcana stuff and it is coming along real nice. I actually have a bit of work-in-progress to share with you today.
SPOILER WARNING: This song is sung by the big baddy of the campaign, so if you are a player and want to avoid some light spoilers, I would suggest trying not to focus on the lyrics (yeah, I know that is not easy as Telamont mentioned as well during our discord chat about it, but best you can do is try!)
(This is a very rough recording. The final will be edited much better as I brush up on my audio editing skills from ye olde professional musician days...)
SPOILER EXPLANATION: There are nodes all across the Sea of Stars, on most planets. Those nodes have allowed the Estalar to leave messages and more importantly also communicate with people that are very far away. Throughout the campaign, the players will have to cleanse those nodes of the corruption that has taken them and decrypt the message that an ancient Estalar has left for the mortals there.
One of those nodes will be a surprise... instead of the usual friendly face, the adventurers will hear Aeriath himself, the person who is instrumental in the evil that has befallen the galaxy.
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I have written 3 more songs and there are 5 more to come, for a total of 9 to 10 (depending on how many I will feel like making before we get to printing the book). Some can be used as part of the campaign itself while others are just tavern-style songs for you to play during your downtime.
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New Website!
I mentioned a new website a few times already and the first half of that is ready! The archives are out!
We have launched the Starlight Chronicles Archives in BETA and have started populating it with all of the Kelfecil's Tales releases and new monsters!
We really needed a new website so that both patrons and new visitors can easily filter through the content and find whatever they are looking for. The main functionality that the website is currently missing is a private view for Patrons only so that they can access stat block images directly on the website without having to download them every time in order to see them.
I have taken it upon myself to commission a lot of different artists for a lot of the fantastic creatures that will populate the Starlight Chronicles setting, each with their own unique artwork and stat blocks. I honestly cannot wait to show you all of the stuff we have waiting to be uploaded!
Next up, we are busy making the new interactive map for the setting that will allow Patrons to explore all of the different places of each planet (starting with Latakar), the cities, factions, and more lore-related stuff. An easy-to-use interface is the goal for this and we hope to make something as awesome as the archives in the next couple of months.
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That's all for today!
The weeks after the whole OGL fiasco have been difficult since I personally had to do a lot of reorganizing and making sure everything is back on track. We have so many things going on at the same time and it's important to make sure that everything is made properly and in the highest quality possible.
If you would like to hear my thoughts on the OGL and the aftermath of it all, you can either watch the VIDEO UPDATE I posted on Patreon or just read the text below it.
Be it it's prepping new adventures, working on the production of Starlight Arcana, making a new website, posting new content on marketplaces, commissioning new artists, signing contracts to make sure everyone is getting paid, starting a new AWESOME INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT WITH MONSTERS, or preparing for the next Kickstarter... I am always busy with something and it's always fun, but it is actually hard work (especially the creative stuff, since you cannot push that), so I try my best to take breaks and relax whenever I can.
I just want to say I am super stoked to still be working on Starlight Arcana and I honestly cannot wait to send you the PDF once it's ready so that you can start enjoying it as well!
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...wait what? New Kickstarter? Well... you'll have to wait a couple of months for the announcement on this one! ^^
The plan is to deliver the Starlight Arcana PDF before we even go into another Kickstarter project, be it big or small. Printing and fulfillment will be out of our hands, so as soon as we have at least sent out the PDF to all of you and sent it for printing as well, then we will have done our part and we can confidently launch another project.
Delivering things to people before promising more is extremely important in how we do things and we would not even dare promise more before we have delivered the previous things.
Till next time...
May Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #6 - Celebrating with a FREE Adventure!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 10:47:29 AM
Hey travelers of the vast Sea of Stars!
In case you didn't hear or read about it, the whole OGL situation has come to a very pleasant conclusion with Wizards of the Coast leaving the OGL v1.0a untouched!
We are, as you can imagine, extremely happy to hear that and that was our (somewhat feeble yet still existing) hope the whole time so that we can continue to do what we love to do without having to rely on other licenses, companies, creators, entities or anything else for that matter. We just want to tell our own stories and since we have been building them with the 5E system for 2 years now, it would require us to put in so much work in order to be able to continue in any other way.
So, with that behind us, I am here to let you know that you will be seeing a lot more Kickstarter updates as we move forward in 2023. But first, let's celebrate, WITH A FREE ADVENTURE!
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Celebrating OGL v1.0a staying in place with FREE content!
This is an adventure that I designed a couple of months ago and Arthur de Martino brought to life with his writing and we just wanted to put it out there for free as a thank you for all your heartwarming support over the last month. It was an extremely difficult time for creators to be seeing that they need to change how they do things entirely and it would have been impossible to hold on to our dear sanity if it wasn't for all of your amazing love and support!
LINK - KELFECIL'S TALES - CRAB BOOBY TRAP
Follow the link to get your free adventure!
A huge thank you to our collaborators for agreeing to put this out for free for the purpose of celebrating the outcome of the OGL situation!
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One of the first things I want to do this week is record all of my thoughts about last month and generally begin recording more episodes for YouTube as well as we move forward into all the awesome things that we are preparing for Kelfecil's Tales.
February 2023 is the month when we finally launch our website with all of the good stuff that we've been working on for almost half a year now!
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Starlight Arcana Progress Update
Writing progress - about 80%; there's still some things that we need to finalize before we can start sending copies in early March for testing.
PDF design progress - about done; the amazing Ori has put together some really good stuff and the PDF is slowly being made as the writing is finished, edited and sent over to be put into the final document.
Tarot design progress - about done; there are about 4 more major arcana cards to be designed before we move on to the minor arcana which will take much less time to make (since we are keeping it simple, as we explained in previous updates).
Artwork progress - 100%; all artwork for the book is done! I sort of cannot believe I am even saying this, but it certainly does feel good to be able to do so!
Special Commissions progress - 0%; commissions are bound to start as soon as Dusky is done designing all the Tarot cards so commission-tier backers that haven't sent their request details yet still have a bit of time. This is something that we will take slowly and complete one by one so that everyone receives something they will be happy with!
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The plan ahead
- Send PDF to testers in early March if possible.
- Open the Pledge Manager from March till May.
- Send the "final" PDF sometime in May.
- Send in final print files for everything to our printing partner start of June.
After that point things will be out of our hands and in the hands of our printing and fulfillment partners. We will be updating you as often as possible with everything new that comes up, but it's basically up to our partners to deliver the awesome chonky books to you!
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Thank you once again for all your messages and if you have any questions about the project, please do not hesitate to leave a comment or even message me directly via PMs.
Once again, we have a fantastic Discord community where we talk about ALL sorts of things so you are all welcome to join us there if you'd like to chat with us or just lurk and watch out for fun stuff.
See you in the next update and till then...
May Starlight guide your way my friends,
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #5 - It's final. The book is 5E.
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Jan 21, 2023 at 09:26:56 AM
Hey everyone,
I am sure that a lot of you have already read through the recently released new OGL draft by WotC and you saw for yourself that although it is better than the original extremely bad stuff that was leaked, the new OGL is still super bad, manipulative and borderline scammy.
However, on the bright side, there have been enough posts, comments, and statements by WotC that allow us to be confident enough to make Starlight Arcana using the original OGL v1.0a and not worry too much about what this greedy and totally all-over-the-place company will do next.
So with that being said, I am here to tell you that; we are making Starlight Arcana using the 5E system as was originally planned. This means that we will be using OGL v1.0a in order to make the book we wanted to originally make.
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Note on how we use the OGL:The way Starlight Arcana makes use of OGL v1.0a is by mostly making use of the system and the way monster stats are presented. We do not use more than one or two things from the SRD itself as most of the book is original content that was made from scratch for this project. We are still referencing the 5E system in order to explain skill checks, the difficulty for various quests and chapters in the story, monster stats, and combat in general.
This comment alone, in my eyes at least, shows that they are finally, even if slowly, starting to admit that they cannot pull back the OGL v1.0a. Even if it is in the document, all of their feedback on that new draft will literally say exactly that; that they CANNOT do that.
Nonetheless, Starlight Arcana is as good as published at this point and we have enough proof that shows it is a project that was published well before any of this new-OGL fiasco stuff came around.
It is very sad to see that people need to go to the lengths they have before a company like WotC even starts admitting things and changing things for the better. The worst part is that we are not even halfway there since the new OGL is still absolutely horrible.
I am personally starting to believe more and more every day that their revoking the first OGL v1.0a is basically something they simply cannot do and I remain hopeful that they will not completely ruin what the TTRPG industry had going for it while the OGL v1.0a was around.
WotC has lost all of our trust at this point and every new message just comes off as more manipulative than the last. They will have to go do amazing things in order to gain our trust again but for now, a good start would be completely shutting down the whole "new OGL" thing and just letting the other one exist as it is.
Will that happen? No, I do not believe so, but what matters to us is that we make Starlight Arcana and then move forward as we best can for future projects. With or without WotC's system.
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Last update and confusion
With the last update, we tried to provide some clarity and transparency on how Kelfecil's Tales and the Starlight Arcana team can deal with the upcoming changes to the OGL.
I would like to clarify that the last update was NOT a statement on how we will proceed but rather a post to inform you how we MIGHT proceed in the future. Considering the fact that, even now, we do not have a fully official new OGL or any 100% legally binding information on how the new OGL is going to work, we only wanted to tell you how we perceived what is happening and how we have already found ways to pivot away from this mess should it come to the point where we need to protect our work and our rights with them.
Starlight Arcana was MARKETED, LAUNCHED ON KS, AND FUNDED AS A 5E PROJECT. For that reason, it has always been our goal to try and make it exactly that. The last update was meant to detail how absolutely shitty certain new developments were and how they might end up pushing us to the point of having to do something that is not what we initially promised just so that we can protect our hard work.
We do NOT want to advertise a new system. We never even wanted to make a new system. We just want to tell our stories and create memorable experiences for you and your friends while playing TTRPGs. We are working with the 5E system because it was the most popular and easiest-to-work-with system when it comes to creating content for a large audience.
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Thank you for taking the time to read through these not-so-exciting updates and I promise you that there will be cool updates with more sneak peeks and more starlit things in the near future.
Thank you for your patience, your understanding and most of all your support as we try to navigate the waters of these unexpectedly difficult times. Your comments and messages have really touched our hearts and the overwhelming support we had from people telling us that they would support us even if we do not make SA as 5E was just stunning. Thank you so much for your kindness and we hope to be able to pay back that kindness by delivering to you a lot of awesome stories, memorable experiences, and lots of warm feelings with our projects.
May Starlight guide your way my friends,
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #4 - The OGL and the future of Starlight Arcana
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 11:31:34 AM
Hey everyone,
I know I haven't made an update since the beginning of the new year but as most of you may already have suspected, the main reason behind that delay was the whole situation with the OGL that is affecting pretty much the majority of TTRPG creators out there.
I am probably one of the smallest creators being affected by this and I am in many ways in a much safer spot than others. That, however, does not mean that I am not affected too and that comes with a lot of stress, new decisions to be made, and a lot of waiting.
If you had not heard about it before, then what I am referring to is the fact that Wizards of the Coast decided to update the Open Game License from v1.0a to v.1.1. If you would like to read more about it, then this would be a good starting point.
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How does the OGL affect Starlight Arcana?
There is no better way to talk about this other than getting RIGHT to the point. You are probably all concerned right now about how this whole OGL v1.1 is going to affect Starlight Arcana, the project you backed with your hard-earned money and are waiting to receive this year.
We have had a few talks with the rest of the team and we decided to be fully transparent about how we plan to approach this whole thing. Here are the most important things we have to say about it:
1) We want to say out loud that we fully acknowledge the fact that this project/book was marketed as 5th edition (under the OGL v1.0a) compatible content.
2) If the new OGL by WotC is as bad as it seemed to be in the leaked drafts, then we cannot, in good conscience and as professional creators, sign anything of the like. We will not allow anyone to take our original content, ideas, and hard work and do whatever they want with it. It is not about the money or the reporting involved in the new license, but rather about the fact that we will never give rights to our work this way to anyone, especially to a company like WotC.
3) We have been working really hard on making our own generic system that will allow you to play any of our content (including Starlight Arcana) in conjunction with any TTRPG system you may be using. This will require a bit of effort on the Game Master's part but it is meant to be easy to ingest and use in your games. We focus on the stories and experiences that our adventures provide first and on what system those are made with second. You can read more about this on the Patreon post I made about it last week here.
The Starlight 1.0 system is NOT a standalone system and relies on the Game Master introducing another system for combat and other things in order to run the game.
4) We completely understand that this is something that some of you may not like since you backed this project to receive something that was using the 5th edition system. For that reason, we are ready to provide alternatives for the backers that no longer wish to be involved in this project.
I am really sorry to say this but after all that has happened, even if OGL v1.1 comes out and it is looking somewhat decent, there is no way we can trust that company anymore to the point of putting in months of work and releasing stuff under their license. We do not know how they plan to change things up again and considering how small I am in comparison to a huge corporation like WotC, I would have no way to defend myself in any kind of legal situation that may arise if I were to try and protect my work.
The whole team has already said a lot of times when asked in comments, private messages, and on our discord server that we will try our best to make the content as easy as possible to adapt to your already running 5E games. Please be aware though that it will be as far from 5E as legally possible because we do not want to have any legal issues or anything of the like, now or in the future.
THERE IS A CHANCE that the OGL v1.1 will say something in the likes of "if a Kickstarter with a product using the OGL v1.0a was funded before January 2023, then it can still legally use that open license." If that is indeed the case (and this is just hoping honestly) then Starlight Arcana will be made in 5E since it is what was originally planned for it from the beginning.
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What's the future like for Kelfecil's Tales and other projects?
The change in the OGL does not make or break what we do at Kelfecil's Tales. We will continue to write stories as we have always loved to do so.
I personally spent a lot of time doing research on various matters around the OGL both from a creative and a legal perspective so that I can be sure that what I do next is a safer path than the one we were on before.
I have been informed that a lot of other creators are either making their own systems or following something else like Paizo's ORC, Kobold Press's Black Flag or even switching to Year Zero Engine stuff by Free League. Mind you, I am a huge fan of Free League's products, and one of the first things that I wanted to do when I started Kelfecil's Tales was to make some Tales from the Loop and Symbaroum adventures. Unfortunately, this can only be done via DriveThruRPG and the Year Zero Engine OGL was at a very basic level that did not really inspire a lot of confidence for creators wanting to use it. I messaged Free League a lot of times about my will to make more 3rd party content outside of DTRPG but I am far too small to make a bump, so I'm thankful to see Free League now updating their OGL due to the whole situation caused by WotC.
All that being said, I am far too tired and weary of having to follow someone else's license and if anything, this whole situation was a lesson that taught me to be more careful. I am trying to be pragmatic without looking at things in a very dramatic manner (like, "oh no, they are out to get me! Maybe if not now, then in a year they will change things for the worst like WotC!") but the final decision I took was basically making my own thing so that I can continue to do what I love the most: NARRATIVE DESIGN FOR TTRPGs.
I started Kelfecil's Tales in order to tell stories and create experiences that would make for memorable sessions with your friends at the table. This is what I will continue to do, be it I use a d20 or a d6 to roll for checks.
We have big plans over at Kelfecil's Tales and right now we are focusing on:
- Finishing the new website for accessing all of the SRD-type stuff that our system (Starlight 1.0) will come with. That means, spells, monsters (stat blocks and artwork), and also lore for the Starlight Chronicles setting.
- Reiterating and updating the Starlight 1.0 system so that we can reach a point where we are comfortable with the kind of generic system we have in our hands.
- Delivering content that we have promised to all the backers and patrons. Starlight Arcana development has not stopped.
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So where does this leave Starlight Arcana development at?
I am VERY happy to say that I was lucky enough to have organized the work for Starlight Arcana in a way that the OGL did not affect as much as it could have. A lot of the system-specific writing in the book was left to be reiterated and updated in the last parts of the development process. That means that we are finishing up lore and fluff-related content now and system-related stuff will come next.
With that in mind, it is very likely we will not have any delays and we will still be on track to deliver with the timeline we initially had in mind.
HOWEVER, I do want to stress the fact that Starlight 1.0 is still in development, and a few changes here and there might affect the writing in major ways that we cannot foresee right now. I am sincerely hoping that I will not have to make any updates saying that the development has been delayed, but please keep in mind that this is a big possibility, considering everything that is happening right now in the TTRPG field. Even if one of our collaborators is affected, that immediately affects us and pushes things back, so I will have to ask for your understanding and your patience as we all navigate through very difficult and murky waters.
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So... what now?
We wait.
We have to wait and see what the OGL v1.1 is going to look like. We will spend a full day (or two) reading it very carefully before making a decision. It is only after the OGL v1.1 has been published that we can safely resume our work on Starlight Arcana and start pumping out content on Patreon once again.
In the meantime, we are working hard on everything else that we can safely work on. Things such as Mini-Setting releases, monster artwork, setting lore, and website development are still ongoing. For example, Starlight Arcana's final lore is being written this month and after that, we only have system-related stuff to put in there before it's done.
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What can you do?
I am not one to be making "calls to action" such as boycotting or telling people ways they can affect a company in a negative manner. I do not have sympathy for WotC after what they did but I am not going to tell you to go out and do bad things.
What I will ask kindly is something that should not even have to be explained; please do not poke WotC employees. We do not know how people over at WotC are involved in this and there are many creatives working for that company that are affected by this in many different ways.
Other than that, the best you can do, that is a positive action, is to support 3rd Party TTRPG Creators as much as you can since everyone is having a hard time right now due to the OGL v1.1 situation.
Be it Dusky Cat, Ori the Cartographer, Natwuns, Kelfecil's Tales, or someone else out there.
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I apologize for the long delay in releasing an update once again, but now that you have read all of the above, I am sure you can understand why I did not, since I did not want to communicate one thing and then completely switch to another. It felt too weird to leave everyone hanging for that long though, so even though we do not have an official announcement on the v1.1 yet, I still wanted to inform everyone of what our decision is or could be once we have the OGL v1.1 in our hands.
I would like to ask for your understanding and your patience once again since this is something extremely difficult for the entire Starlight Arcana team and I hope we will deliver something that you will all absolutely be thrilled to have in your hands, be it that it's a 5th edition system book or not.
We are fully aware of the fact that we marketed a 5E project and it might end up not being so. We will, however, try our best to make it something that will be just as awesome and useful to use in your games, no matter what system those are in.
Thank you so much for your time and your support (we seriously have received some absolutely heart-melting messages during these difficult times) and we cannot wait to deliver this starlit book to you.
May starlight guide your way my friends,
~Kelf
