A Jane Austen-inspired Romance and Mystery Roleplaying Adventure for Fifth Edition (DnD/RPG)
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Meet Sirbastien D’arlington!
about 2 years ago
– Sat, Apr 02, 2022 at 12:22:32 AM
Hello friends and gracious wedding guests!
We’re in the second week of the campaign and it’s still bound for the sky! HUGE thanks for joining and helping the project pick up such tremendous speed! :D
*** Meet a new NPC ***
We would like to introduce a new NPC: Sirbastien D’arlington!
Sirbastien is Lord Maximillian D’arlington’s (the groom) younger brother, and often finds himself overshadowed by his older brother’s manners and personality. Sirbastien is kind and good-hearted, but despite his noble upbringing he is ill at ease among strangers or in larger gatherings.
Our artist Alaina Milare is illustrating all of the major NPCs for the adventure and we’re so happy that she’s working with us again. Her illustrations are amazing and they really bring the book – and NPCs – to life!
*** Interview ***
Last week, we celebrated the launch of the Kickstarter together with the lovely people at Band of Badgers on their Twitch stream! :) We had a terrific time chatting with them about Jane Austen, the project, other adventures by Midnight Tower, and many other things. The interview has now found its way to YouTube!
If you missed it, you can catch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDWS5PXUWTE
*** Backer’s choice ***
Just a quick mention again of the backer’s choice that we’ll run next week! We’re always interested in finding out what you’d like to see in the compendium, so keep your eyes peeled for the link. And if you have a suggestion, let us know in a comment – we’ve already received some great ideas that’ll be part of the upcoming poll! :)
That’s all for today! Hope you’re all having a terrific weekend and we’ll see you in the next update!
Cheers
Tove and Erik :)
*** Projects we love ***
This supplement is designed to bring the incorporeal undead to life. Whether you are running a spooky one-shot or want an entire campaign focused on ghost hunting, this book has you covered!
Included in this 100+ page hardcover tome is 12 new subclasses ideal for ghost hunting, player options like new spells, magical items, sidekicks, feats, tools for DMs to build ghostly encounters, mechanics for mediums, seances, and haunts, a bestiary with more than 20 new, fully illustrated monsters. In addition, backers can get VTT tokens, spooky battle maps, a softcover character journal, and VTT minis. Every backer gets a free Unchained mini regardless of their pledge level.
The campaign is fully funded and has 5 days to go!
Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/694857522/grizeldas-guide-to-ghost-hunting?ref=wu7paq
Romantic Trinkets!
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Apr 01, 2022 at 11:37:36 PM
Hello friends and gallant wedding-goers!
This morning we woke up to find that it was snowing here in Oxford. Is it Christmas already? To be fair, the crazy weather matches the campaign: It’s almost as astonishing as the mind-boggling support for the book! Right now, over a mind-boggling 2,700 people have joined in to back this project!
We’re incredibly happy for your amazing support and we’re having so much fun working on the book!
*** Romantic trinkets ***
Right now, we’re working on the compendium. We’ve travelled to village markets and antique shops around Eastern Farraway in search of romantic trinkets, and we’ve found a whole mound of curious and quirky items. These objects are perfect for adding a romantic flair to characters, NPCs, or campaigns. They’re so much fun to write, too! And some of them might ever prompt ideas for side quests – or whole character arcs!
Here above is an example of what the trinkets will look like in the book. Many of the trinkets are inspired by – you guessed it! – Jane Austen. Massive thanks to Emmanuel Greene and India Muffet Gale who posted suggestions earlier in the campaign!
A never-ending burning candle and a dance card can be found in the trinket lists, thanks to you. :)
*** Backer’s Choice ***
Next week we’ll run a poll for Backer’s Choice, and we’re looking forward to finding out what you want in the compendium!
We haven’t decided what to include in the poll yet, so if you have any suggestions or ideas that you want to include in the book, leave a comment below and we might add it to the poll! :)
*** Social media giveaway ***
A huge thank you to all who are taking part in the giveaway that we’re currently running on social media! We’re celebrating the successful Kickstarter by giving away D&D books. The giveaway ends on Sunday, so there’s still time to jump in if you aren’t already taking part!
That’s all we had for this time! See you in the next update!
Cheers
Tove and Erik
*** Projects we love ***
Spark Sun is a full 5E setting with an interesting theme and plenty of original ideas! The supplement comes with lots of new content (and brilliant art, too).
Adventure in a world where your creator wants to destroy you, and the line between technology and biology is blurred by the creation of something truly amazing!
Spark Sun is an exotic campaign setting for use in DND 5e. This book serves as an introduction to the Spark Sun universe and has everything Players and Games Masters need to launch epic adventures in the world. The campaign is fully funded and has 6 days to go!
Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/widerpathgames/spark-sun-dnd-5e-setting-and-supplement
Pictures from the Jane Austen House!
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 07:49:20 AM
Hello there gentle readers and fellow D&D enthusiasts!
*** Jane Austen’s House in Chawton ***
Here are a couple of photos from Jane Austen’s House in Chawton outside of Winchester that I (Tove) visited a couple of years ago with my best friend.
It’s an amazing house and it’s downright weird to walk around in Jane Austen’s footsteps. She wrote several of her books in this house, bent over a tiny-tiny three-legged desk.
If you happen to be able to visit Chawton, I ardently recommend it! Not only because you can take fancy pictures of yourself wearing a bonnet, but also because their current exhibition features Colin Firth’s shirt from the original BBC show.
*** It’s officially a record! ***
This campaign has broken all records and blown away all our previous campaigns, which is amazing – and also took us completely by surprise.
I had never dreamt that there would be so much support for this book, and to be honest I was super nervous about it before it launched. Maybe it would only be me and three other people who would want this book?
THANK YOU!!!
*** Giveaway ***
To celebrate all this, we’re running a glorious giveaway over at Twitter and Facebook!
The giveaway is for a set of 3 Dungeons & Dragons books chosen by one lucky person!
We’ll also give away a couple of books to two runner-ups!
That’s all we had for this time! Thank you so much for believing in this nerdy project!
<3
Tove and Erik
*** Projects we love ***
As you may have guessed, we love quirky and colourful NPCs, and we especially like to meet them repeatedly during a campaign! So this book looks interesting: it's a supplement for running flexible and dynamic NPCs who level up over time!
Folio of Familiar Faces is a DnD supplement to fill your games with returning NPCs that level up and change depending on how you interact with them. They have backstories, motivations and branching paths to develop through so they can be woven into absolutely any campaign! The campaign is fully funded and has 11 days to go! Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilpigeongames/folio-of-familiar-faces?ref=cr8in3
All Stretch Goals Are Unlocked!
about 2 years ago
– Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 11:49:09 PM
Hello friends and admirable wedding attendees!
We’re back with a new update about the Kickstarter for An Unexpected Wedding Invitation – and there’s a lot going on!
*** An amazing cover ***
Our amazing illustrator Alaina Milare’s work on the cover for this book is simply masterful – it sets the scene and captures the wedding couple and atmosphere perfectly, and it’s receiving praise from lots of backers! Here is how Alaina created the artwork, from the first pencil sketch to the finished magical image.
Like many times before, Alaina interpreted our typically whimsical and chaotic description perfectly and came up with a sketch that was spot on. :)
You can check out more of Alaina’s work at https://www.alainamilareart.com/
*** Unlocked stretch goals ***
Bring out the cake, set off the fireworks, and sound the fanfares!!!
Lots more people have joined in the project, and the final stretch goal has been unlocked! On Day 6 of the campaign!!! This project is crushing all of our goals and it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before – the level of support for this campaign is just astounding and has shot past all records from our earlier campaigns!
The most recent stretch goal was more fantasy art in the book! This means we can commission even more beautiful artwork from our excellent illustrators! It also means that your support for the adventure in turn supports other fantasy artists out there, which is awesome! :D
The stretch goals have been unlocked at such magical speed that we haven’t had time to cover them in the backer updates (which is truly amazing!). However, we’ll talk more about them in upcoming updates and share our plans and idea.
One of the unlocked goals is a Backer’s Choice, and we will run the poll next week so that as many as possible can take part! We often also receive lots of wonderful and creative ideas in comments and messages, and that’s terrific – keep them coming! :)
*** Social media giveaway ***
To celebrate the phenomenal support for the campaign so far, we’re going to run a giveaway on social media tomorrow! So this is a great time to follow Midnight Tower and join in!
More to come soon – keep an eye out for the link in an upcoming campaign update!
*** The status of the project ***
More than 2,300 people have joined the campaign and it has been running for less than a week. In addition – astonishingly!!! – allstretch goals have been unlocked! We still can’t quite believe how quickly we ran out of stretch goals. It’s simply belief-defying in a fantastic way! Endless thanks for the massive support and for making this campaign travel at lightspeed! <3
That’s all for today! See you soon again in the next update!
Cheers
Tove and Erik :)
*** Projects we love ***
Tempted to take to the seven seas and find fortune beyond their tremendous tempests? :) Nearby UK-based creators The Dragons Vault are running a campaign for Tempest: A Seafarer’s Sourcebook, and it looks packed with aquatic adventures! Check it out:
Tempest is a dark nautical setting and sourcebook for D&D 5e inspired by the myths and legends of the golden age of sail! Featuring a selection of seaworthy original races and subclasses for players to explore such as the Bilge Rat rogue and the College of Shanties bard. You’ll find a pirate’s bounty of spells and magic items in there too, not to mention enough gunpowder to choke a kraken! It even has a completely new system for ship combat and crew management that has all the flavour with none of the micromanagement! And did we mention the bestiary of leviathan sized baddies yet? The campaign is fully funded and has 24 days to go!
Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsvault/tempestbook?ref=brridy
More Fantastic Fantasy Art
about 2 years ago
– Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 05:42:30 AM
Hello friends and ardent adventurers!
We’re in week one of the campaign and Midnight Tower is filled with chocolate-and-coffee-fuelled creative frenzy! Sleep is for the weak!
*** More fantasy art ***
We’re delighted to share a new illustration by Janna Sophia. The illustration shows a letter that the innkeeper is handing over to one of the players at the start of the adventure. The elegant envelope contains a fancy wedding invitation from an old friend. However, at the corner of the invitation, someone has scribbled a hasty message:
I know we haven’t spoken in years, but please come tothis wedding.
I need your help!
/ Lÿs
And so the adventure begins!
*** Q&A on livestream ***
Last night, we joined the super nice people Dave and Steve at Band of Badgers’ Twitch channel to celebrate the launch of the Kickstarter campaign! We spent an hour answering questions and discussing An Unexpected Wedding Invitation as well as other adventures in Eastern Farraway.
We had a terrific time on their show (thanks for having us!!), and thank you so much to everyone who watched the live stream and sent in questions!
(If you missed it, don’t worry: We’ll share the YouTube link later on when it’s up at Band of Badgers.)
Erik is preparing for the stream in the Midnight Tower, also known as the loft in our house. Will he confuse all the cables again? Most likely! Will a cat topple something? Inevitably!
*** Estimated running time? ***
A few backers have contacted us and asked approximately how long the adventure will take to play.
The adventure is written to be playable as a one-shot with an estimated playing time of around 4 hours, give or take. However, for those groups who enjoy interacting with NPCs, the adventure can be spread out over several sessions, depending on how much the players’ characters interact with the other wedding guests and to what extent they will entangle in their various schemes and intrigues. :)
*** Trinkets ***
Right now we’re working on Jane Austen-inspired trinkets for the compendium, which is lots of fun as there’s room for so many ideas! If you have any ideas for a trinket that you think we should include in the book, please let us know in a comment! :D
*** The status of the project ***
We’ve 25 days to go and seven stretch goals have been unlocked. (We’re totally going to run out of stretch goals before the campaign is over.)
At the time of writing this, more than 1,700 people have joined in to support the project.
Which is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y extraordinary!!!
That’s all for this week! We hope you’re having a great weekend, and we’ll see you soon again! :)
Cheers
Tove and Erik
*** Projects we love ***
It will come as no surprise to those who’ve seen or played some of our other adventures that we’re avid admirers of all things Gothic! (Why, there was even a vampire interviewing Tove with us in a Kickstarter last year!). So this project naturally caught our darkvision-capable eyes, and the adventures definitely look set to offer quick and fun thrills (and chills!):
5 short adventures designed for parties of mid to low-level adventurers between 3rd and 13th level. Use the adventures to quickly add a unique vampire encounter. You can tie the adventures into your main story as well. Each module contains at least one unique monster with a vampiric theme.
The campaign is fully funded and has 33 days to go!
Join the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themadpoet/fanged-fables
