Introducing... Grand✦Tales & Soulfrost Reliquary!
over 3 years 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!
over 3 years 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
Bonus Backer Reward - The Astral Sibling Umi, The Moon
over 3 years ago
– Mon, May 29, 2023 at 04:44:04 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Post-Project Update #12 - Quick Update!
over 3 years ago
– Mon, May 29, 2023 at 03:45:10 AM
Hey everyone!
It's been a month since the last update and some of you are requesting a new update which is very fair!
I held off with making an update until we have the TEST PDF ready to go, but we are still working on it and will have it finished and ready to be given out sometime next week. So until that update post which will come in a couple of days, I figured I would tell you a few things about where we are at with everything.
The process is as hectic and time-consuming as we expected but we are still very much focused on making the PDF look the best possible. For the TEST PDF, we are of course cutting corners here and there in terms of visuals so that we can get it out to testers as fast as possible.
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Reminder for Testers
If you would you like to be a tester, please join our discord and post a message in the #starlight-arcana channel, stating that you are interested in being a tester.
Everyone interested in being a tester will be privately PMed so that we can verify that they are a backer of at least the PDF tier.
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The Time of the Pledge Manager is upon us!
It is about darn time!
As soon as the TEST PDF is finished, we will have a much better estimate for shipping quotes and will therefore be able to finalize all numbers needed for the pledge manager. We plan on the Pledge Manager opening it near the end of June. It will stay open for at least a month as we finalize everything with printing.
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Moved Timeline
As you may have easily deduced by now, the timeline we had for delivering the book has shifted a month or two already, despite our best efforts to be as fast as we possibly can with finalizing printing and fulfillment.
We are actually very ok with these delays since every step of the process so far has been very necessary if we are to make something that is high quality and something that we can be extremely proud of.
The biggest delay so far in the project timeline was the whole OGL shenanigans during winter which set us back a month or two. Apart from that, we have been non-stop preparing things for Starlight Arcana and we honestly cannot wait to deliver it to you so that you can see all the awesome things that we have added in there.
So with all that in mind, you can expect something like this:
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Late June - Pledge Manager opens
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Late July - Pledge Manager Closes - Printing Starts
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Early September - Fulfillment Starts
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Late October - Starlight Arcana is delivered to you
We left a lot of room in between printing and fulfillment but even with that extra time we simply cannot know how much longer it might take since all sorts of things can happen to delay the project delivery even further.
We just want you to know that we are non-stop working on the project and making sure we are working towards delivering it as fast as we possibly can!
(We want to be able to deliver things to our backers super fast and that is something we take very seriously. That way we can work on even more projects, just because we lovemakingawesomeTTRPGcontent. The huge gap between finishing a Kickstarter campaign and ACTUALLY delivering it to backers is something we will address with our next Kickstarter project, so stay tuned for more information on that!)
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More Content?
We actually felt a bit awkward when we had to announce that the tarot deck will not include the Minor Arcana but we were quickly reminded that we just cannot deliver all of the extra content that we initially thought we would be able to deliver.
On the other hand, we ended up adding so much more to the book that was not in the initial campaign and announcements that we are sure will keep everyone happy with the final delivery. If I were to add up all of the extra content we've included in the book in terms of extra side quests, monsters, and other things, it would be at least 10 or so extra stretch goals.
We really just went wild with creating this book and although we might not have fully followed our initial designs and plans, we are very proud of what we have put together. We now cannot wait to hear our testers' feedback on it so that we can improve on details.
As soon as the final PDF is up for all our backers, we would love to hear your opinions too, since your opinions will be the most important ones!
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New Project!?
In a couple of days, we will also announce our next Kickstarter project by sharing some teasers and some more information with you through an update here. We have shifted a few of our resources already so that we can work on that project as well (since Starlight Arcana is finally fully produced) and we plan on launching it sometime in September 2023.
We are extremely excited about this new venture and we hope you will get excited about it too once we show you what it is about!
We will have links for following a newsletter to get notified when it launches!
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That's it for today's update!
Please keep in mind that we read ALL of your comments and messages, even if we sometimes forget to answer one or two of them. We really appreciate all of you poking us to post more updates, be it here or on Discord, so please keep doing that!
See you again here in a couple of days when we have the announcement for the TEST PDF!
Until next time...
May Starlight guide your way my friends!
~Kelf
Post-Project Update #11 - Testing Phase + Pledge Manager coming soon!
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 08:22:48 AM
Hey astral explorers!
It's been a while and we have great news for you today!
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Development Status + Testing
We are very pleased to announce that development on Starlight Arcana is 99% done! That means that everything is written and is either being edited or alpha tested in order to make it ready for beta testing at the end of the month.
The plan is to have the first version of the PDF ready in the next week or so, so that we can give it to all of our testers for some final testing, so that we can make any final edits needed before we send the files out for printing.
These past few weeks, we have been working hard on finalizing the ancestry options, the classes, the spells, the destined artifacts (one for each subclass, hidden somewhere throughout the Starlight Arcana campaign), and last but not least, the quickstart box elements.
We ended up going a little bit beyond what we were planning to make for the quickstart box and introduced a lot more lore for the characters involved in the story found in the box. We are super excited to deliver this to you together with Starlight Arcana!
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"How do I get involved in testing Kelf?"
If you would like to be involved in the testing of Starlight Arcana, then you need to do the following:
- Join our Discord Channel.
- Post in the #starlight-arcana channel stating that you are interested in being a tester.
- Wait until you are given the "Starlight Council" role.
- Receive the latest test version of the PDF through the dedicated channel for the Starlight Council.
DISCLAIMER: This is a disclaimer and a reminder that the test version of the PDF will have a lot of empty space, missing artwork, and other things that have not yet been finalized. We are providing this document to the backers that wish to test various elements of the book as well as to gather feedback on all sorts of things such as balancing issues, typos we may have missed during editing, inconsistencies, and other things that might have been overlooked, etc.
The whole point of running this test is to gather feedback and deliver the book in the utmost best possible version it can be. We are sure there will be issues with balancing here and there and we are ready to address them as best as we can, but all of that will be explained in a future update as well. So far, we are very proud of what we have created and the feedback for the content has been fantastic, so we are very much looking forward to seeing what even more people will have to say about it.
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"Pledge Manager coming any time soon Kelf?"
Yes! As soon as the test-version PDF is out, we will know enough to be able to provide more specific information to our printing partner so that we can proceed with all the necessary actions from there onward. That means that we will be able to estimate shipping more precisely and will be able to open the Pledge Manager so that everyone can start locking their orders.
Shipping has, thankfully, not fluctuated much since the time we ran the project and if anything, the change of fulfillment partner has helped us maintain friendly shipping and also make shipping prices as best as they can be for a heavy book like what Starlight Arcana is. A huge thank you to GamesQuest for this who have offered a lot of help in every step of the process so far.
The Pledge Manager will remain open for no more than a month. You will be notified multiple times through both e-mail and Kickstarter updates.
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The Final PDF Delivery
Also very important to note that the FINAL PDF will be delivered soon after the Pledge Manager closes.
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Lore Dump? The SHAR!
We held a quick poll over on our discord server asking which ancestry option you would like to see revealed in the next Kickstarter update and the Shar received the most votes (and I am personally really happy about that because sharks are my absolute favorite).
THIS IS A DIRECT EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK.
THE SHAR
Springing from the seas of Nitania, the Shar build cities in the shallowest points in their ocean world, creating islands that congregate around the hunting of crabs and the community of their people. Of course, this was just the beginning. The hubs became bolder and bolder as the Shar explored the depths of Nitania in search of a variety of food. The different shallow cities created different cooking styles and it was through the trade of cuisine that the Shar people united under a single banner, in which each city was represented in a larger council spearheaded by a chief.
None among the Shar had connections with creation magic from before the Astral Conflict, but an ancient Kraken found in the depths of Nitania radiated with that force. The Cove Dwellers and the Shar share an ancient history, usually as allies and with a clear designation. The Shar live in the shallows, the Cove-Dwellers live deep under the sea. They trade and grow together in a happy symbiosis of two people. The Kraken is seen by the Shar as an ancient, natural being that is as mysterious as it is holy. However, they also see the Kraken as something ‘beyond’ the Shar, something that is not their business.
Contact with the Estalar clued in the citizens of Sharanar, the largest shallow city, about the Sea of Stars. There is only one Starport in Nitania and it is located in that city. The Shar rarely venture outside Nitania, but they have embraced travelers and even created manners for them to breathe underwater with their shell breathers. The Shar secured trade deals with Zitune and other planets like Cralast to provide food and ingredients from the cosmos, pushing the Shar cuisine even further.
Their way of life orbits about fine dining, experimenting with new plates, and hunting for the juiciest fish and other animals they can find. This pursuit of taste is one done in tune with nature. It is taboo to hunt a fish or animal in its mating season, so Shar society experiments with highs and lows as the tide flows in Nitania.
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This is just the lore bit about this new ancestry option. There is also more information written for the Heritage option, the special abilities, and bonuses, as well as options for what kind of Shar you can be (hammerhead style head, swordfish style head, etc.).
We won't be revealing everything, but you will of course learn more once we send out the final PDF to all backers!
Nitania is the codename "Sea World" planet that was one of the very first planets we designed for Starlight Arcana. There is a unique adventure to be had there as well as a lot of other things to do and situations to explore. Today we are revealing for the first time some of the concept art that we have prepared for the Shar!
Concept Artwork by Trovan
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The Future? Soon...
From the next update, we hope to have enough materials to start talking about our next project already, since it's a huge deal for us to continue making awesome things!
We will be adopting a new style of making projects in the future so that we can maintain the quality and awesomeness of our projects while at the same time being able to deliver them to backers x10 times faster. Who knows, maybe we are on to something and we'll end up revolutionizing the way 3rd party 5E content is made (not really, but we do have some awesome plans that will indeed make all of that happen and we're so excited about it! So stay tuned!)
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Do you like Comics? We do!
Our good friend and amazing in-house illustrator, ALGOYO, is about to launch his next comic book project:
Battle Code: Ragnarök - VOLUMES #1 and #2
If you like Space, Vikings, or Comics, then you should check it out.
If you like all of the above, then you should DEFINITELY take a closer look!
Adrian and Alan are planning on launching their project in the next month or so, so give their project a follow to be informed when they are up and running.
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That's all for today! As always, thank you for your support and your patience with Starlight Arcana. Our team has learned a lot from this project and I cannot wait to start telling you how we plan to run things x10 times more smoothly in the future so that you can all enjoy the content we are creating (and planning to create) much faster and with less costs involved for backers.
All future updates will of course continue to have information about the current status of Starlight Arcana as we still have to go through printing and fulfillment!
Till next time...
May Starlight guide your way!
~Kelf
