The Delver's Guide to Beast World: a 5e Supplement & Setting
Created by Heartleaf Games
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Late-Night Thoughts
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 03:00:51 AM
Just about everyone close to me works with me. Our fears right now are shared. There's no one else to talk to about something so painful and intimate, so I'll talk to you.
It's 2:54 AM on Friday, April 11th. I'm sitting cross-legged in the hallway outside a hotel room in Dallas, Texas. Tomorrow is the first day of Texas Furry Fiesta, one of a dozen and a half conventions at which we'll be selling the Beast World this year. TFF is a big one for us, an important convention for making our rent. Four of us are stacked across two queen-size beds. We're used to this by now; I'd guess it's around the twenty-fourth convention we've done in two years.
It's been five days since I had a good night's sleep. I've been working all-nighters to finish editing an adventure module for another convention next month. I'm late, and we'll barely dive through the window for getting the work printed in time. I have Kickstarter consulting work with three different clients to catch up on. I have an campaign book to write, and miniature model revisions to review. That's late too, but you already know that. My personal D&D game was cancelled this week because of work, again. I haven't called my mom in a while.
The third printing of our work is on its way to arrive in time for the huge block of conventions in the next three months. It's likely going to cost a five-figure amount more than we expected. The amount seems to change every day, grow every day. I miss having only a hazy understanding of what a "tariff" is. Another reason I can't sleep.
I look at the piled-up work, the sleepless nights, and the looming bill from customs. Why are we doing this? How did I get here? I brought a bunch of people into this with me. In times like these, I try to think of them.
I think about Ixrin. Ixrin is our logistics coordinator. They make sure the little banner with our book's cover art fits in the beat-up suitcase with one shitty wheel that we pull through all those airports. And a hundred other important things. I met Ixrin at a convention right after we published, in some play at a grown-up job interview. Ixrin is like all of us in the office, free time spent hunched over a cheap laptop, clattering out back-and-forth rp stories a paragraph at a time. Like me, another ADHD-addled brain always fleeing some deadline, real or metaphysical. He's not as incapable as he thinks he is. But sometimes I think Ixrin catches moments of deeper purpose with us. I hope so.
I think about Selius. Selius is our operations director. He was the one of us who knew what an "HTS Import Code" was before last month. He catches the emails that fall out of my head and scurry across the floor. And a hundred other important things. I met Selius for the first time when he landed in our city a month after our first Kickstarter campaign wrapped. He was an online roleplaying friend of Lexi's. He'd found the hobby only a year before, while doing some office job that would hire a political science/philosophy BA. Like Ixrin, he was intrigued by what were doing, enough to drop everything and move in with a stranger hundreds of miles away. He is anxious and self-effacing. He thinks far too little of himself, and his voice often gets lost in a group conversation. But sometimes, I think I see pride in Selius when he talks to folks, when he hears that they enjoy our work. I hope so.
It's 3:47 AM. The front of my face is tight, and tears well up as I type this. I take a moment to rub my face with both hands. I am scared to lose this. This last week I've imagined the chores that would come out of Heartleaf's failure. Taking out the furniture in our office worth saving, hauling it to a cheap storage unit to be sold. How would they look at me, as we rode up the elevator for another trip? Would Selius move back to Nebraska, to find some new office job to disappear behind?
My nose drips on the keyboard. I think about stopping; the dealer's den opens at 8. I'm probably not going to sleep, and you're still here, waiting patiently for updates. I might as well keep going.
I think about Lexi. Lexi is our layout artist. She arranges the art and text and bits of game into modules and cards and books. She talks between our print manufacturer and our artists about the difference between "RGB" and "CMYK". And a hundred other important things. A part of the play-by-post D&D game that our Beast World sprang from, she convinced me to do all this. She lied about her experience with Adobe InDesign, so I helped her move her cats and her car and her furniture from Orange County to Buffalo. She sat me down in her living room and watched me write our Kickstarter preview so I wouldn't get distracted and forget about the whole project. She is a restless transgender woman who struggles with frustration and stress. She punishes herself for her feelings of anger and helplessness at a world that is threatening her right now. But sometimes, I think I see serenity when I look over at her sitting at the desk, arranging everything just-so. I hope so.
I think about myself. I often do, but right now I try to do so more fairly. I am Cullen. I am our writer, editor, and our creative lead. In truth, my main job is scrutiny--I inspect every little thing to focus for a moment and ask how it could be better. I ramble to my friends about philosophy and politics and games and art, then try to form those thoughts into a general experience for silly books about animal-people adventurers. I sit in hotel hallways, talking to you.
I am afraid of failing. Even now, with as far as I've come. Especially now, with as much as I have to lose. In many ways, I am afraid of you. I fear that someday soon, you'll get bored and the books will get too expensive and all of this will slip away into obscurity. My work, not even a footnote in a thinkpiece about tabletop's post-COVID moment of prominence.
The module I'm late to finish editing is called "Girl's Night Out." It's a compilation of three little one-to-twos in a single module. It's title comes from the fact that all of the writers and artists are transgender women. We don't often center our own queer identities at Heartleaf. We're generally determined to prove ourselves solely through the quality of our work. The title was my idea. Lexi is one of the writers, and she needed some convincing on the title. It feels like a good moment to center them.
It's 4:32 AM. I don't know what the future will hold for all this. What we do isn't necessary to anyone. Nobody's life is saved by yet another book of D&D subclasses and optional rules. We can all survive without reading about some scarecrow nobleman character, then rolling dice to describe the way our cool OC beats his teeth out of his face. It is all frivolous.
Sometimes though, when you send me emails about your campaigns, and tell me about your characters, and show me the art of your delver crews, I think I see what it means to you. I hope so.
Thank you all. Long live love. Cullen
The Beast World comes to Shard VTT—free for Kickstarter backers!
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 04:36:15 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
48 hours left to back A Summer in Dungeon Town, plus Upcoming Cons!
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 02:58:42 PM
Greetings, delvers!
Selius here, bringing you some big Beast World news.
Our second Kickstarter, A Summer in Dungeon Town, is nearing the finish line. If you haven’t yet backed, now’s your chance! We smashed our original funding goal, but there's still more time to go, and more to achieve. We’re extremely proud to bring you this sprawling Beast World adventure, and the Delver Wagon miniature is going to be excellent.
We have some add-on spotlights for the upcoming goods, and more on the way. Follow us over there to get the inside scoops. Deck of Delvers 3, more adventures to come in 2024, a campaign journal—we’ll tell you all about it!
We hope dearly that you’ve been enjoying The Delver’s Guide. Thank you all for making this possible. We’re eminently excited to bring the Beast World forward, far into the future.
Conventions
Heartleaf Games is traveling! We'll be wheelin' & dealin'—our current con schedule is as such:
Furpocalypse: Oct 26th in Stamford, CT
Biggest Little Fur Con: Oct 31st in Reno, NV
Midwest FurFest: Nov 30th in Chicago, IL
Further Confusion: Jan 11th (2024) in San Jose, CA
If you'll be around, please come say hi! We’ll be doing a ton more travel next year, too, in the US and perhaps beyond...
Truckin'
That’s all for now, delvers. Talk to you again soon, and long live love,
Selius & the Heartleaf crew
New Adventure & Accessories from the Beast World!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 01:25:47 PM
After funding in only 15minutes, we’ve pushed past the first of our stretch goals with weeks to go still!
If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, go, go! There's still time to join the adventure and pledge to the campaign. Your support means a lot to us (and it lets us eat food and pay our rent.)
A Summer in Dungeon Town is a 200 page campaign module in the Vinyotian settlement of Dungeon Town. Its evolving series of adventures take place over the course of the summer, with characters and locations changing as the overarching story progresses. We're also working on a modular magnetic wagon miniature. Y'all really did mean it when you said you'd stay for the wagons.
For those of you waiting on VTT support for The Delver’s Guide to Beast World, we are in the final polishing stages of our Foundry module. Much like development of the book, implementing the wagon rules has taken quite some time in Foundry, but we’re real proud of what’s coming on that front!
And speaking of wagons, well… have a look at the way our current prototype model is looking. Once the campaign has concluded, we will begin immediately speaking with our manufacturer and getting real, meatspace prototypes in our hands. Expect photos soon!
Shortly after the Kickstarter finishes on October 19th, we’re going to be attending some more conventions! You can come meet us at…
Furpocalypse, October 26-29
Lexi and Ixrin will be in Stamford, Connecticut! Come hang out with us in the Den and place batwolves in unexpected locations. Then, right after we hit the East Coast, the team gets on planes and will be at…
Biggest Little FurCon, October 30-November 2
Come meet the whole team in Reno, Nevada! We are super excited to be attending these Halloween cons and meeting y’all in person.
If you haven't received your Delver's Guide stuff yet,
Please send an email to [email protected]. It's likely that we don't have your shipping address or there was a hiccup with your postage payment. It's not too late, we're happy to help get you situated. For International backers, sometimes things simply get held up in customs, but we can track down a wayward package!
If you have damaged or missing goods from your package, also feel free to email our fulfillment partner at [email protected] to get things fixed up! To save time, send them a photo or two with what's wrong, and we'll get you fixed up ASAP.
Digital Art Book
You’ve been asking for it for a while now, and here it is! You can now get the high quality, digital version of Art of The Delver’s Guide to Beast World on Itch.io! 164 pages of detailed concept art and breakdowns of the process we went through with artists to arrive at finished pieces, representing around 40 artists around the furry community and all around the world.
Finally, if you haven’t yet, come hang out with us on Discord! We want to know what you've been up to with your book, and how you're liking it. It helps us decide what to do next! We've got a ton of stuff coming in 2024.
Thanks for reading, y'all, and we'll be in touch soon! Long live love!
- Heartleaf Games
Final Days of Fulfillment, Convention Schedule, and A Big Announcement About What's Next
almost 3 years ago
– Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 11:52:50 AM
Hey Delvers!
It's been a little while! Heartleaf has had their heads down working out international shipping logistics as well as some production hiccups, but now... We're closing in on the endoffulfillment for The Delver's Guide to Beast World! Fenris is sending out the last of the orders in the next week or so. We've worked out all our shipping issues, and they're telling us they're mailing out a hundred or more packages every day.
In this update:
Information about remaining fulfillment, some more photos of items we haven't shared yet, and post-delivery support
How we're organizing a local meet-and-greet!
The schedule of conventions we're attending (or plan to attend) for the remainder of 2023
The first look at ournextcampaign!
Information about how you can get into Deck of Delvers 3
🐀 Selius is first!
The Final Stretch of Fulfillment
Every Pathpost Dungeon Scout Kit and Recipes from the Homelands is in the fulfillment line now, which means all remaining packages should be in the mail by the end of next week at the latest. Remaining orders might already have a tracking number from Fenris Publishing in their inbox. Everything is being packed up and flown out to Flagstaff. It’s just a matter of boxing, labeling, and transporting thousands of pounds of books to the post office.
Wha Happun?
To put it bluntly, we underestimated the time and labor needed for assembling the final two pieces of the puzzle. Our early decision to put together each recipe kit by hand had some pretty major repercussions. We should have foreseen the challenges of scale… but we’re nothing if not confident. For those of you who’ve been waiting for the big bundles, I offer my sincerest apologies. We dug ourselves a spice hole, and there was only one way out from there.
Our office will never smell the same again. We were lucky to have some extra hands help across the finish line, too. So to Ixrin, Jesse, and Cobalamin, thank you. I hope the turmeric eventually washes from your clothes, and if not, please look forward to wearing yellow for the rest of your days.
Pathpost Dungeon Scout Kit
We've heard that many of you actually forgot that the Pathpost Kit exists, and we haven’t had much opportunity to show it off. For those who need a reminder, as part of the whole process we also wrote a 60-page collection of one-shot adventures, with physical letters and printed props! It’s in every Dungeoneer’s Box and Essential Delver’s Kit, and we’ll have it available in our online store in the next few days. I think it’ll be one of the pillars of the Delver’s Guide moving forward, and I can’t wait for y’all to get your hands on it.
All the envelopes have stickers that are actual wax seals. They are cool as hell.
Post-Delivery: Missing or Damaged Goods
If you need help or have questions about your package after it arrives, please contact Fenris Publishing. They’re holding the reins for this part of the process, so if you get a damaged item or think you might be missing something, reach out to them directly. You can use the email address below:
Our damage rate has been pretty low! However, some items may have been roughed up in transit. If you do receive any damaged goods, please include a few pictures and a brief description for Fenris, as well as your name and mailing address. You can also reach out to us, of course (by commenting here, emailing me at [email protected], or talking to me on Discord).
VAT on Pickup
To our EU friends and supporters, we learned something you’re probably already aware of: VAT is confusing, complicated, and difficult. It’s a common refrain, but I must say it again, we just didn’t know how difficult it would be. In this case, there are two different kinds of EU VAT licenses, and we could only obtain one. Some of you will receive VAT refunds from us, via Backerkit. This is money you’ll pay when receiving the package instead. We can’t be the ones to hand it over, because… actually, I don’t know why. But them’s the rules.
If you are set to receive one of these refunds, you’ll hear from us in a separate email. If you don’t hear from us, then you have nothing to worry about! This is for specific instances of an order value threshold hitting a certain point for individual items. It was a mess to untangle, but this was the easiest way to make sure it’s smooth and painless for you.
Local Pickup, Meet & Greet!
For all you folks who chose local pickup as your delivery option, we’ll have a follow up email for you in the near future! We’ll be ready and willing to have people come by our downtown Buffalo office to receive your goods. We’re also planning to throw a little event here in Buffalo. We don’t have an exact time and place set yet, but we’re leaning towards spending a nice day at Delaware Park.
I’ll get that set up soon and give everyone plenty of time to plan around it. If you want to attend, please hop onto the Discord server and look for the organizing thread. Let us know!
Lexi here! 🦊
I’m gonna be talking to you about our packed convention schedule this fall and winter. We are elated to be see folks receiving their boxes, so it’s time to talk about where you can come chat with us!
2023 Conventions
Our table at Anthrocon
We’re currently confirmed in the dealer halls of 8 conventions, and plan on showing up at several others!
I have wanted to attend BLFC for years, so I’m super pumped for this one.
There are also some more conventions for which we’re waiting on confirmation. We're looking to be at Furpocalypse in Stamford, Connecticut in October, Midwest FurFest in Rosemont, Illinois in December, and in January 2024, at Further Confusion in San Jose, California and Anthro New England in Boston, Massachusetts.
I hope that we can meet you at one of these conventions! We’ll be bringing not only The Delver’s Guide and almost everything from the Kickstarter, but lots of new little goodies too. Come chat with us about the games you’ve been running. You might also catch us in game rooms running sessions, and we might find time to squeeze in some panels as well.
Long live love, delvers. You’ve made me the luckiest fox on the planet, I love this job.
🐺 Hey delvers! Cullen reporting!
We're done with The Delver's Guide! I can't describe how excited I am to finally wrap things up and get the Essential Delver's Kits out to you. We've been every bit as stressed with the waiting as all of you, and the catharsis of completing it is... really something else. I sincerely hope you're all enjoying the book.
I hope you'll tell me about your games! I'm always on Discord and you can also email me at [email protected]. I plan to incorporate stories from session reports into the ongoing "canon" of the setting, so if you want to make your mark on the Beast World, that's the easiest way.
In our last update, we asked you for what you'd like to see next from us. We got a lot of awesome feedback, and it seems y'all want to see more adventure content, as well as more deep info about the cities of the Beast World. Now that the last of the boxes are headed out, I want to tell you all about what we're doing next... so here's a look at our upcoming project!
I'm thrilled to announce that Heartleaf Games' next book is an urban adventure for crews level 3 to 6:
A Summer in Dungeon Town
Cover is a work in progress... I can't wait.
A little more cover work...
In this 200-page adventure path, you'll explore the Vinyotian "Dungeon Town," a tangled cluster of ever-present dungeons that's a hotbed of delver activity. The adventure is a true sandbox, with adaptable delves that change depending on when you find them. Time passes for the whole town each session, and the overarching plot will develop around the players' actions. Our plan is to create a settlement that feels like a living place for both players and GMs.
To that end, Dungeon Town will have a complete map with every building outlined. One reward we're working on is a pack of maps showing player-facing information as well as plot elements for GMs. There will also be underground maps that correspond to the buildings above 1-to-1 (that is, when the Dungeon isn't futzing with the rules of space). And of course, there are a dozen dungeons to delve as well.
(Is this where I say, "But wait, there's more?") We're also working on a...
Customizable Delver Wagon Miniature
An initial sketch. I'm saving the gifs for the project page... oh MAN
Heartleaf is coordinating with 3D modelers, manufacturers, and testers to get a modular wagon mini in your hands. Every part will have magnets built-in for easy replacement, allowing you to swap out walls, roofs, and attachments. We have big plans for the miniature, but you'll have to wait for the campaign to see more.
We're working on the outline for the book right now, and our artists and modelers are hard at work on the cover, miniature, and Kickstarter previews. I'm submitting our campaign story for review this week, and we'll have a pre-launch page for you to follow as soon as it's approved!
Finally, I want to thank all of you for being so patient with us as we've worked out the kinks of fulfilling such a large project. Invisible roadblocks popped in front of us like we were in a PlayStation 2 game, but I'm grateful for all of them. Now that we've been through the process, all of us feel ready for just about anything.
We're incorporating what we've learned into our plans for the next campaign, and we're going to be just as up-front with the process as with this one. I'm also working out how I want to handle twice-monthly development blogs for the next campaign, to let those folks curious about their pledges and TRPG development generally to read about what we're up to.
Thank you, once again, for making all of this possible. I'm humbled by the response to the book so far, and I'm burning to get more of the Beast World to you. I hope you'll consider supporting us in the future.
Long live love, and see you in Dungeon Town.
Heartleaf Games
One Last Thing...
We're going to develop a third Deck of Delvers! Since the book is out now and we're hearing about campaigns in the setting, we're going to handle things a little differently. If you want us to consider including your character in the third deck, please fill out the entry form here;
