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The Delver's Guide to Beast World: a 5e Supplement & Setting

Created by Heartleaf Games

Pre-order store for The Delver's Guide to Beast World

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Final... (counts on fingers) 60 Hours! Shipping Estimates! Get your Character on a Delver Card! New Commission Tiers!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 01, 2021 at 04:59:28 PM

So, I got a lot to talk about.

First of all, I want to thank you all for being here with me on this humbling journey. We're coming into the last couple of days of the campaign. I hope you've told your friends and spread the word! Every little bit helps up get the wheels on this thing and forge on into the future. I want to get those weird penguins in the book... Just look at them. 

We've really worked our butts off to invite people into this thing, and we're going to keep doing so. More on that later. But for now, all I can say is that you all have my sincerest gratitude. I want to do something different with all this; I want to keep surprising you.


On the Topic of Shipping

I know y'all have been champing at the bit to get some shipping estimates. Thank you so much for being patient with us while we jabbered with a few different sources trying to find the most accurate information possible. We've had our noses buried in spreadsheets, and we've come to the following conclusion: it just costs too damn much to ship stuff. Prices are out of control right now, and there's not a good way to project what they're going to look like in a few months' time.

So, to remedy that, I am going to make you the following promise:

Not a single one of you will have to pay more than $29 for shipping.


We're hoping that prices will simmer down some in the next few months. However, if they don't, I want to get the book into as many of your hands as possible. It would break my heart if people weren't able to get it because of something silly like the cost to put it on a plane. Therefore, in any case where the price to ship is more than that cap, we'll just charge the cap. That way, everyone on the pale blue dot can know the absolute maximum they'll have to shell out.

However, most of you won't have to pay that much, of course. We've retrieved the following estimates, with the help of our pals at  Fenris Publishing and  Direct Link. Here they are:

We'll put this on the project page as well. For simplicity's sake, we've estimated the cost for the lightest physical thing and the heaviest. The other tiers will fall between these two figures.


On the topic of the Deck of Delvers

I've had a lot of people come to me asking if there's going to be any other way for them to get their character featured in the book. I want as many of you to be able to do so as possible! We're in this together. Therefore, tomorrow at 12 PM EDT, a new add-on will become available. This new add-on will let you create a Beast World character with me, and then get them featured on one of the Deck of Delver cards. I'm going to be taking 30 of these requests, and working with you to find their spot in the order. There will be a lot of flexibility, but the general idea is to break these up into three groups of 10:  magic users, sneaky and social types, and big-damage fightin' types. Never fear though! If all 30 of you are dead-set on playing the same paladin wielding a warhammer or some other specific archetype, I'll make it work. This add-on will be $150 USD, limited to one per pledge, and limited to those not already in a commission tier. Also, we're going to be using a large pool of artists for these, so we'll pick out who's best for your beast or brethren. Don't worry, we'll do them justice. <3


Commission Tiers

Another thing that many of you have been talking with me about is getting another shot at getting in a group shot. I have good news! In the last 48 hours of the campaign (starting tomorrow noon EDT), three new group commission pieces will become available! We've been rubbing elbows with some really cool artists this month. Here is some information about them.


Down Time, by FOXnROLL

FOXnROLL does work in an awesome retro style. Here's an example of some of their finished work:

This commission tier will be $800, and will include everything in the Essential Delver's Kit as well as a 24x36 poster of the finished work.



Cut Seven Ways, by Kittydee 

We've been huge fans of Dee's work for a long time. Here's some of her finished stuff.

This tier will also be $800, and will include everything in the Essential Delver's Kit, and a 24x36 poster of the finished work!


Finally, our character lead Stasya Danilova is going to get in on it as well.

The Louvain Library, by Cheeese Lord 

If you want to see her finished work, you can look pretty much anywhere on our Kickstarter page, website, or anywhere else. She is our #1. This piece will be two tiers: the spots labeled 1-4 will be $1000, and the spots labeled 5-8 will be $700. All of them include everything in the Essential Delver's Kit, and a giant poster of the finished work as well!


All of these tiers go up tomorrow at noon EDT. In these last couple of days, let's cheer on that total! If we get to $500,000... I've got something real special.


Long live love, friends.

Cullen

Art book UNLOCKED! A new stretch goal awaits!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 11:30:55 AM

You crushed our 300k goal with nearly two weeks remaining!

What a surreal number to see! Thank you so much, from my whole entire heart, for all of your support in this. You're making a dream come true for Heartleaf Games and making it possible for us to bring you content for a very long time to come.

An art book!

A problem we faced from the very beginning of this project was the fact that we've been amassing a small mountain of concept art, plus work that just doesn't fit anywhere in the final book. 

With this goal reached, we can now find a home for all of that stuff: in our (title not finalized) Art of the Beast World book. This will be an A5, softcover book made with the same high grade paper as The Delver's Guide itself. All of the art, concept art, and artists themselves that are showcased in this immense undertaking will have a place in it. 

Here's a look at just a tiny bit of that concept art!

The art book will be full of this stuff, plus all of the finished art from the guide, and even the WIPs leading up to those final pieces. We can't wait to show off how hard our amazing artists have been working.

The art book will automatically come with the Dungeoneer's Box tier and all tiers above it, and is now available in our add-on list to purchase separately as well!

So what's next? A stretch goal for everyone!

We mentioned in our last update that if we pushed past 300k, we'd need to get creative. After a secret meeting deep in a hidden mountain stronghold somewhere in Oria, we have emerged with the answer: exotic draught beasts.

If we hit 350k, then a brand new section will be conjured into the wagon customization chapter of the book, featuring a wide assortment of fantastical creatures to both pull your wagon and ride. Featuring special movement abilities and features of their own, they are designed to take your wagon to new heights and ever-stranger locations. Skip the ship ride when you hit the coast with aquatic creatures, crawl up walls with incredibly strong arachnids, smash into your enemies and knock down walls with animated boulders, and much more. We've got loads of ideas, but the development time - and art - is important, requiring the same careful playtesting as the rest of the book!

These aren't just a collection of extra stat blocks for the book, draught beasts have their very own slot on your wagon's character sheet and change the effective stats and features of the entire wagon.

Hang out and tell us what you think!

And finally, come hang out with us on Discord and tell us your thoughts, bombard us with your questions! We love to chat and the community is incredibly welcoming. Let us know what kinds of customizations you want to see for a wagon, or check out our previews!

https://discord.gg/5Z6dEx4pfC

We can't wait to meet you.


Long live love, Delvers.

Heartleaf Games Q&A, and One-Shot on Twitch!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 11:17:21 PM

Come hang out with us, and get your questions about The Delver's Guide answered.

We're going to be answering questions in our first formal Q&A, tomorrow! The stream will take place on our Discord server at 9:30 PM EST on Wednesday, September 15th. If you aren't already on our server, you can join here:

 The Beast World Discord Server 


We'll be answering questions from you! If you have a question you'd like us to address on stream, please submit it here!

Question Submission Form 


One more piece of news for today:

We're going to run a one-shot in the Beast World!

Heartleaf Games is partnering with our pals at Nerdsmith, who are graciously hosting us for a one-shot! I'm going to run a 3-4 hour session in the Beast World, so if you're curious to see how the book's setting looks at a live table, you should absolutely check it out!


The game is on September 16th, from 9:30 PM EST to 1:30 AM EST. Here's a link to Nerdsmith's Twitch channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/wearenerdsmith 


Looking forward to seeing y'all there!


Long Live Love,

Cullen


PS: More news about shipping, and our species preview later this week! Stay tuned!

Dragons Unchained, New Stretch Goals, Shipping Estimate News, and I Serve Pie
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 04:26:23 PM

This update is massive.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

To say that I am humbled is an understatement. My brain is having a hard time with the fact that more people want to read my book than I have ever met in my life. The most I can give you in return at this moment is this silly stream of consciousness.


With this update, I want to talk a little about what we're doing with the money that you're giving us. Get ready for some boring percentages and transparency! But first, something more fun:

250k means playable dragons are coming.

I'll be putting in some overtime hours to write and playtest Five New Species for The Delver's Guide! One of the driving goals is to make a playable character that feels a little bit... grander than our friends the Dragonborn. The dragon species will be head and shoulders above others, and will require some extra consideration to fit into a party of barky dogs and cloppy horses. After all, it's my opinion that a delving dragon shouldn't just be beast + breath weapon. I'll be talking a little bit about the nature of these new species in an update next week.


Our campaign met several other stretch goals on its way to $250,000! We'll also be providing other things as well:


200k means a new delve is added to the                 Pathpost Dungeon Scout Kit.

Every one of the envelopes in the Kit is its own delve waiting to be added to your game. With the campaign meeting its $200,000 goal, I'll be writing a seventh entrance to the Dungeon in an adventure titled Sunday Omelette Club: Pterodactyl. 

This lead points a crew to a secret circle of Beast World gourmands who meet once a year to see who can serve an omelette made from the eggs of the most exotic creature. The lead's source is looking to acquire the eggs of a flying lizard seen circling a river deep in the Arnerian rainforest. What might the crew find on their nest-raiding expedition? The Dungeon awaits.


150k means 15 new cards added to the Deck of Delvers.

The Deck grows, and so does Littfeld's population! Each of these cards has art of beasts and brethren living in the delving caravan. This brings the total number of these cards to 55. These will make great quick reference NPC stat blocks for GMs, reference art for player characters, or ideas for who one might run into while wandering the wagon line.

If the deck gets any bigger, we may need to split the darn thing in two...


100k means Virtual Tabletop support.

This is a work in progress, but we're proud to be able to bring you virtual tabletop content from The Delver's Guide to Beast World. We're investigating all the platforms we'll be able to support, but for now I can divulge this:

Everyone receiving a physical copy of the book will also receive its module for Shard Tabletop, free.

Huge thanks to Shard Tabletop for working with us on this! After the release, we'll be offering that module on their shop as well. We'll also be researching other providers to support as well.




Now the question is, where do we go from here? It just so happens that we had a few new stretch goals for just this occasion! And here is the first of them!

If we make $300,000 from the Kickstarter campaign, we will compile an art book containing concept art, unused sketches and commissions, and a tons of other content which helped to inform the visual language of The Delver's Guide. This book will be free inside the Dungeoneer's Box and Essential Delver's Kit, and available as an add-on to anyone else!


If we pass $300,000... we'll have to get creative.


A Note About Shipping Cost Estimates

To those who have been asking us about shipping costs, we hear you! We are still working out the final details of how we're going to be handling our overseas shipping. Our initial approach was simply going to be too expensive for y'all, so we've been working hard to figure out a more economical solution. We want the book to get into your hands without requiring a second mortgage! 

Please be patient with us for a few more days as we get this squared away. Expect an update sometime next week.


Where is the money going?

One of the the promises I made myself when I started this project was to be transparent about where your money was being spent. I want to do more than write a great tabletop book; I want to do it in a way that is as ethical and just as possible. I've shown off some of our ad budget and analytics dashboards on our Discord server in the past. If you'd like to see some cool data, please feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] and I'll chat with you about it!


With that said, here are some cost estimates. Many of these percentages are based on fixed costs. Most notably, the cost to produce the book is based on a static amount we spent on commissions and up-front salary. For that reason, the "Book Production" percentage will decrease as we raise more money.

This chart is the reason this update is so late.

Here are some hard figures to go with those pie slices. If we stopped raising at exactly $250,000, I estimate the following figures:

$64,000 would go to profit share (ie: everyone but Cullen). This number is split between 14 people based on contribution.

$47,500 would go to the founding of Heartleaf Games. Some part of this would go to Cullen as salary, but since the Book Production money he's already spent is coming back to him, likely <10%.


Here are some questions I anticipate from this data.

So wait, your funding goal wouldn't have allowed you to break even?

Nah. I would have produced the book at a loss. It's just money.

Would that have left your profit share workers in the lurch? Aren't they depending on that money?

Nah. All those people also received money up-front. All profit share is bonuses because I wanted people to be invested in their work. Everyone in profit share is paid for just about all of their work already. (I owe Shamerli and Travis for a couple of sketches done during the course of the campaign.)

Why tell us this?

I tell you for a couple of reasons! 

First of all, I want y'all to know that your money isn't going to waste. I am using it to pay really talented and awesome folks their dues. I want to pay them more!

Which brings me to the other reason I tell you all these numbers. I realize it looks pretty obnoxious to announce that we've made a quarter million dollars, then follow up with "please tell your friends so we can make more!" But as you can see, we're not quite at the point yet where we hammer stakes into the ground and set up shop. I want to get there, and I am doing everything in my power to make it happen.

But I need your help, dear backers. Over 70% of our pledge money comes from word-of-mouth. So, my request to you is this. If you've got someone in your social circle you think might dig our book, please share it with them.

Help us spread the word, so we can bring you more, on into the future.

I have so much more for you past this book. I am eager to share of myself, as much as you want to take. I'll have another update for you tomorrow, if you can believe it. Neat stuff in store.



Long live love,

Cullen McGuire




By the way, go look at Dungeon Scribe's 'Magical Oddities' campaign. It's really neat.

 You can find it here. Their magic item cards are rad as hell, and I can't wait to get mine. They have our back too, so support for them is support for us. Now I'm gonna go gripe at Lexi about the fact that our graphics don't animate and whoosh about at all.

Dungeon Scribe: Magical Oddities Decks are 4 Deck Volumes with 200 cards of fresh content for your 5th Edition Games. Discover unique fully illustrated oddities with quick reference icons all designed for multiple tiered expansive varieties of play. Grow your table's arsenal, dole out new items with ease, and empower both players and NPCs in bold new ways. 

What’s In Store:  

  • 4 Decks of Unique Items & Oddities. 
  • 200 Fully Illustrated Oddities in Total! 
  • Quick Reference Icons and Layouts. 
  • Designed for varied levels from Common Items to Artifacts, all for 5e.

Stretch Goal Crushed, and More News!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 11:55:01 PM

Good evening Delvers! Or morning, depending on where you are!

Today we shoulder-checked our way past 200k, congratulations! This unlocks a seventh dungeon lead in the Pathpost Dungeon Scout Kit, a set of prop envelopes containing dungeon leads. These are collections of handouts for your players that point them to one of the many entrances to the Dungeon. We'll be giving you all an update soon that really dives into detail about what's going to be in these leads.


On the ominously-approaching horizon is our next stretch goal: playable dragons. The mightiest beings of the Beast World come to your table, not as NPCs, but as members of your crew. 

We want to put this book in as many people's hands as possible, so if you know anyone that might be interested in this, tell your friends. More than 3/4ths of our pledges come from word of mouth, and it has been amazing to see the support from the community and to watch this spread.

If you haven't had a chance, go check out our free preview of the Beast World: Leaving Erin, a 3-session adventure in the world of the Beast World. 40 pages of illustrations and text!

The preview showcases four of our species: wolves, tradewind foxes, bears, and rabbits! You'll also get your first taste of our Homeland system with the Allemance features for each of the included species, and four new backgrounds (such as Correspondence Academic) for your game!

You can download it here!


There are still some pledge tier slots to join the enormous, awesome piece by Zeusdex!

For those who don't know him, Zeusdex is our brilliant cover artist, and we invite you to check out some of his work here!

Finally, we've had lots of backers asking about our shipping estimations. Getting accurate estimations to you is a huge priority for us, but using the numbers that have been fluctuating throughout the past year in the chaos of Covid would simply not be correct. We will have an update regarding this as soon as possible.


And finally finally, if you aren't already hanging out with us, come chill with us on our Discord!

https://discord.gg/VRh2nkSpQM


For now, that's all, but we are so eager to share more soon.

Thank you. So much.

Long Live Love, delvers.