You've Got a NEW Update on Dalriada - Celtic D&D 5e
about 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 12, 2023 at 05:32:46 AM

Myth & Magic

We couldn't be more excited to let you in on what's brewing behind the scenes for Vagabond's Guide to Dalriada in recent weeks. This project is being woven together into something we're bursting with pride over, especially since so many members of our team hail from these parts. 

And I'll tell you this,  they've got magic in spades! From the writing to the art, there is nothing short of pots of gold to be found within the pages of this project.

First a general update on the content of the book. A large swathe of writing and game design have been completed. The art is relatively further ahead than usual mainly because of some changes to the writing team with one of the main writers moving on to focus on their studies. This has introduced a few delays, but we're in the process of back-filling gaps and will have more information on general progress Thursday 2nd of November. We'll also include information on Leprechaun's Gold in that update.

Now, what's an update without a few sneak peeks? 

I don't know about you, but I love behind the scene shots and seeing art work in progress. We hope to share more of that in future updates.

We've also got glimpses of some developed artwork (honestly too much to share in one update). We're all about crafting something truly authentic, and we've invested countless hours in making sure every detail is just right on this project. I'm not saying these pieces below are 100% finished, but they are heading the that direction. 

Here we have Balor and Morrigan in all their glory. Of course, these are just 2 of the deities that feature in the setting. In terms of layout, these are planned as full-page art pieces. This is subject to change, but we would love to see pieces like this introducing every deity. And there are WHOLE lot more! For anyone whole rolled 17 or higher on their Perception check, Balor will feature as the BBEG in Dalriada: Eye of Balor. A full campaign adventure to go right along side this book. Eye of Balor will launch later in 2024 (after we've caught up on other projects) and already has over 1,195 followers. It's set to be a Kickstarter campaign of epic proportions...Much like Balor and his Fomorian army :)

Follow that Kickstarter HERE.

And of course, some writing about the beast in question by game designer John Siebuhr:

Cu Sith

Also known as the Cu Sidhe, or the Hound of Rage, the Cu Sith is a massively shaggy dark-green hound, roughly the size of a horse, with a canine skull over its head and burning red eyes. Its rather fearsome appearance often belays the more gentle nature of the Cu Sith. Making their homes in high in rocky hills or in the clefts of rocks, or roaming the moors, the Cu Sith are constant hunters, always on the prowl for increasingly challenging prey. The Cu Sith especially enjoys hunting down undead or evil fey, finding such creatures an enjoyable challenge. The Cu Sith are often employed by benevolent covens to hunt dangerous fugitives or by the fey to track down those who have entered their territory unwelcomed or even caused some form of offense.

A Penny For Your Thoughts!

What do you think of the art? 

Please let us know in the comments. We love hearing your thoughts and want you to be involved in every step of the journey.

Since we're talking about a Celtic setting, and a very dark Celtic night is upon us!

Happy Halloween: We've Got a Treat for You!

A spooktacular treat to be exact.

And it's not just candy (although we hope you have plenty of that on hand too).

A Halloween One-Shot campaign to put the horror back into Halloween!

You can check out the campaign HERE.

We’re including material for up to 10 hours of adventure in Mote of Madness, making it a potential 2 shot! This means you get even MORE for just $1!

After the campaign, the Mote of Madness PDF will sell for $10.00.

Click Trick or Treat to get your copy!

Happy Halloween from Team Penny Dragon

☀️ August Update: Progress, Updates, & BoK
over 1 year ago – Fri, Aug 11, 2023 at 06:57:53 AM

Another Month Along 🍀

This month, our artists and writers are hard at work on their assignments. Naturally, there have been some minor delays, pushing back our intention of working solely on proofreading this month. To help with the work and mitigate any delays, we've hired four additional game designers to join us on this project!

We're still hoping to stay on schedule, but please know that if things take a little longer, it is only because our team is committed to the excellence of this project, and we're not taking any shortcuts.

Battle of Karigarth

After reviewing all the helpful feedback left by backers who opened the Battle of Karigarth, we plan to release an updated version at a later date to include an area map and other additional details after further playtesting.

Project Updates

When the writers are locked in their writing caves and the artists in their dens, it can be a little dangerous to bug them to stop and share all the details about their work and progress. We apologize for the lack of update last month, it was simply a matter of being so deep in the work as a team. 

We will share another project update when we have an important progress update (or Battle of Karigarth update) or in early September, whichever happens first. 

☀️ June Update: Surveys + BoK + Cover clarification...
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 02:38:10 PM

Check Your Inbox

Be sure to check your registered email inbox for your survey from Backerkit. Search with the title of the campaign, "Vagabond's Guide to Dalriada," or "Backerkit." That should help you track it down if it was accidentally sent to your promotions or spam folders. 

Progress

We hit our mark by sending out Backerkit surveys this month, and we're looking forward to staying on track wherever possible throughout this project. 

As mentioned in our last update, we’re currently on track to hit the milestones we've set and stay on time with delivery, but things have thrown us off course before, and they could again. Though we plan to get everything to you on time, unforeseen challenges and events can impact our schedule and create delays. If something puts us off schedule, we'll do everything possible to minimize those delays.

Battle of Karigarth

The Battle of Karigarth was already made available on Backerkit, but one of our backers made us aware of an unintentional duplication, so we've fixed it. The updated version is now available in Backerkit for download. ⚔️

Cover Clarification

In the first question of the survey you've received, you'll be asked which cover edition you would like to receive. Refer to the image below for clarification on the cover options.

Let us know if you have any other questions. 😊

🍀 May Update
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 30, 2023 at 01:36:48 PM

Dia dhuit, friends!

We wanted to share a quick update about our project. As noted in our campaign reward tiers, our expected delivery date for all rewards is November 2023. With that in mind, here is a quick update about how things are moving along behind the scenes.

The Road So Far

•  March – April: Live campaign, survey building, Backerkit setup, physical reward proofs, and so much more. We had a few delays in getting Bakerkit together but expect an email from them over the next few days. The Battle of Karigarth adventure will follow shortly thereafter. And then the Leprechaun’s Gold adventure about a week later.
•  May: Our writers and artists are hard at work. Despite the mountain of work required to bring this vision to life, they are just as excited as all of us about completing and delivering the Vagabond’s Guide to Dalriada and all the related campaign rewards to our backers.

As of the writing of this update, our artists and writers have already completed nearly 52% of their tasks, putting us slightly ahead of schedule. Although this is fantastic and exciting news, please remember that those pieces are not the full sum of the work required to be completed. Once all the pieces are finished, we’ll bring everything together to complete the guide and the related rewards, including undertaking proofreading and formatting, testing and proofs, and more.

What to Expect

Here is a rough outline of our predicted schedule:

•  June: Backerkit emails will go out in the first week. Artists and writers will continue to work on their assigned components. We have a new staff writer starting this month to help keep us on schedule.
•  July: Artists and writers will finish assigned components. We have a new staff artist starting this month to help us get this project over the line.
•  August: Proofreading; physical reward proofs (plushies, dice, etc.). We have another artist joining us as a full-time contractor. (They live abroad, otherwise we’d hire them as an employee.) Their focus will be completing the tarot deck, but they’ll also help with other assets.
•  September: Layout and formatting work will commence, and we'll begin uploading many of our digital rewards to Backerkit.
•  October: We expect to finish uploading all digital rewards to Backerkit and begin physical reward fulfillment.
•  November: Final reward fulfillment and delivery! 🥳

As mentioned, we’re currently on track to hit deadlines…but we must be forthright and share that things have thrown us off course before, and they could again. We want to be upfront so you know that though we plan to get everything to you on time, unforeseen challenges and events can impact our schedule and create delays. If something happens that puts us off schedule, we will do everything we can to keep those delays to a minimum.

To that point…a small note: we’ve added in just the right amount of margin because our tight-knit but growing team comprises real artists and writers with complex and unique lives.

In fact, we’re going to begin introducing them, starting with Kyle, whom you’ll often see answering our campaign questions in the comments section. 😊

Meet Kyle Gray, Lead Game Designer

1.  Where are you from? South Africa.
2.  Favorite thing you’ve ever worked on? Bergins Book of Beasts.
3.  Favorite thing about Vagabond’s Guide to Dalriada? The Morrigan, I have been obsessed with her ever since I first heard of her, and the lore for the book is just amazing.
4.  Favorite campaign or game? Icewind Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden
5.  Cosplay? Yes, just did Percy at the last con I went to.
6.  What is your go-to food while gaming and/or working? Anything with sugar, especially if it is sour
7.  What are you most excited for backers to see or receive from this campaign? A whole new world to explore and new monsters to fight.

•  Tell us a little about yourself: I grew up on every fantasy book I could get my hands on, loving Dragonlance especially, which led me to start playing Dungeons and Dragons. Now many years later, I still love the game, sitting behind the DM screen more often than not, and enjoy crafting stories for those around the table.

If you have any questions for Kyle or the team, take a moment to share them below. 

Talk again soon!

Special Thanks & Updates!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 12:10:32 PM

Special Thanks!

A huge thanks again to everyone who helped bring this project to life. We're extremely excited now that we're going full tilt.

We're also stoked to be bringing on a few new members of staff, including a writer and illustrator...which will truly get things rocking! (More details coming soon!)

VGtD Production Update

Mechanics are already 90% done. The bulk of outstanding work is lore, and that's well under way. Several of the deities are complete (and they are looking super delicious, I may add). The rest are in various stages of development. Another one of the biggest chunks of work in this book is the level 1 - 5 adventure. We've got a local writer managing that project and we're currently working on completing the outline before assigning the various parts.

Of course, there are so many art works in the pipeline, but that'll start trickling in in June/July. I'll share some of that new art on here when we get it.

Emerald Heist: Leprechaun's Gold & Battle of Karigarth

We're wrapping up final details on these short adventures. They'll be ready shortly after the pledge manager goes live. Speaking of the pledge manager, we're reviewing final details before that goes live, so keep an eye on your inbox for that.

We didn't get a chance to share details about the Emerald Heist adventure during the campaign (between Gary Con, E2C2, and other business travel, things got a little crazy). 

I won't give too much away, but this adventure has two parts. You can skip to the second part and run it as a one shot, giving players a brief summery of part one. Or you can run both parts over several sessions if you think it will take your players that long. Part one focusses on the PCs meeting and the "crew" gathering for the job. Part two focusses on the heist itself where the party must steal back a leprechaun's gold from a wizard's tower located on a noble's estate. Of course, there will be a few twists along the way. My favorite part, so far, is the optional assigned background mechanics. Essentially, each character is assigned a background related to the adventure, and said background has mechanical and plot implications which could be a lot of fun!

Penny Dragon Games Update

Though we continue to work on VGtD, we are also focussed on clearing a project backlog by September. Long story short, we have a few projects that were delayed by world events over the last few years. They're almost over the line and just need that final push. Then we can go full steam on getting VGtD to you before the deadline.

In other developments the PDG team will attend UK Games Expo in June, SDCC in July, GenCon in August, 20Books Vegas in November, and possibly PAX Unplugged (TBC).

Keep an eye our for us! We'll be sporting the PDG Part Member tee.

We have lots more happening over the coming year. Including content we're creating for Pathfinder and other games, card games, our own board game, and we're in negotiations with a developer to license one of our IPs for a video game (big news on that front in a few months).

So, please stay in touch and join the newsletter for updates if you haven't already done so.

Thank you again for your kind support.

Drop any questions you have below and I'll answer them as soon as I can!

Until the next update.

Cheers,

Paddy