Wicked Ones and Undead Awakening: High-Quality Print Run
Created by Bandit Camp
An offset print version of the tabletop RPG of dungeon building and adventurer slaying, plus its full-game expansion full of undead conquest.
We have made the decision to only print enough books to fulfill the Kickstarter. This will be the final printing of Wicked Ones/Undead Awakening - no retailer distribution or webstore is planned, so this is your only chance to get these books. In the future, only the PDF version and a softcover, standard color version via DTRPG print-on-demand will be available.
All shipping fees will be collected later, closer to the shipping date.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Guest Artist: Galen Pejeau's The Saltspires (Final) and Weave the Tale Actual Play this Monday!
about 2 years ago
– Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 02:14:14 AM
Hey everyone,
First off, we're heading into the final 72 hours of the campaign and it's been an absolutely amazing ride. We've gotten to do so much cool stuff because of all of you and I can't thank you enough!
The extra help getting it in front of more people goes a long way. Thanks! 🙏
Galen Pejeau's "The Saltspires"
I posted the inked version of this a while back, but here's the final and it's absolutely amazing. I'll let the work speak for itself. Make sure to go follow Galen on Twitter to keep up with his art and game design, grab a playtest version of Solarcrawl to get ready for its Kickstarter or go grab a copy of the FitD game Crash//Cart! Anyway, the map in all its glory:
The Kickstarter-compressed version is not gonna do this one justice at all - it's so packed full of cool details!
Weave the Tale plays Wicked Ones
Come check out the game in action as Weave the Tale runs a one-shot of Wicked Ones for the first time. It kicks off at 8 PM EDT on Monday, August 29th. I (Ben) won't be playing, but there's an interview with me during the stream and I'll be hanging out in chat to answer any questions people have. 😈
Final Pledge Adjustments
While there will be a pledge manager after the Kickstarter, it will be short - I strongly recommend adjusting them now before it all ends. Please reach out with a message if you have any questions and I can help get it sorted!
Another thing to remember is that the Awakening Dice, Cartography Kit, and WO: War for the Overworld campaign setting offset edition are almost definitely Kickstarter exclusives. We are unlikely to print more than we need of those. The Dark Omens dice and Toolkit Deck offset edition as well likely won't have a larger overprint. The only thing that'll be reliably available post-Kickstarter are the main WO and UA books. The Tome of Binding slipcase, as well, will be available but we likely won't reprint it once supplies of it run out.
See you Monday during the stream!
- Ben
Guest Artists: Wouter F. Goedkoop's "Velvet Drake Gulch" and Juan Ochoa's "Leviathan Plains"
about 2 years ago
– Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 04:21:06 AM
Got two more guest artist sandbox maps that just came in and wanted to post them up! Obviously, the final distributed/printed versions will be very high-res so you can really get into the details of each, but these give you a pretty good overview of what the maps are about!
Wouter's work caught my attention with his maps - I really wanted to bring in a few artists that specializd in cartography and his style seemed like it would lend itself well to the kind of exaggerated details needed to build factions off of.
I did, however, ask him to do something outside of the typical wheelhouse - we have enough fantasy maps to go around. So what does he do? He goes straight into this bizarre sci-fantasy blend world on some kind of asteroid or small planetoid. There's tons of details to dig into here and the colors are immediately evocative. This one seems like a tough fight for players, as there's danger and craziness just absolutely scattered across this map!
Of all the maps I've seen so far, this one seems to be the easiest to faction build off of - all of the areas just nail a different vibe that give instant mental hooks to hang some pretty cool fiction on. Space orc dungeon? Pffft... space kobold scavenger dungeon? Hell yeah!
Juan Ochoa has done work for Monster of the Week, Swords Without Master, Urban Shadows, and much more. You can take a look at his robust portfolio and styles on his website above!
LEVIATHAN PLAINS
This compressed-by-Kickstarter version hardly does it justice - it strikes an interesting balance between a feeling of barenness and focus on the enormous leviathan, but also the bursts of color in the smaller detailed settlements. Each of those settlements are rather fleshed out with tiny details that make for great hooks for players to build factions off of. Let's take a closer look at that.
I'm excited to see the weird places players take this map! I approached Juan when I noticed a small isometric dungeon map that he did - maps aren't really his main focus, but I liked the way the map looked and it drew me in. After checking out his website, I realized he had a pretty versatile skillset which I thought made for an interesting choice for a really open-ended brief. He really took that freedom and ran with it, creating this insanely psychedelic piece, mixed barren wasteland, enormous god-like stone leviathan, spotted with these tiny detailed settlements! What the hell is going on here? That's for you and your group to decide!
Wrap-up
There's still several maps being worked on, some nearing completion that I'll be sharing over the coming days! Each concept I've seen has been quite cool, so I'm excited to see the final results. As always, I invite you all to join our Discord where you can hang out and discuss these maps or start organizing groups to jump into games!
- Ben
Random goodness: EU-friendly shipping! Ribbon Bookmarks! Doomed Dunes Sandbox Map! A story about Pe Metawe, a great LFGS! A friend's project spotlight!
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Aug 24, 2022 at 10:22:57 PM
EU-Friendly Shipping
🔥Another stretch goal added! I am very happy to say that we hit a breaking point in our backer numbers that makes it possible to split our shipment and send a large portion to the EU. We will now be fulfilling out of Georgia, USA and Ireland. This means quite nice savings for all of those in the EU. We have access to zonal shipping throughout Europe and can charge accordingly and add in VAT to make things easier. Here's a quick before/after rough estimate on the shipping costs:
Wicked Ones Hardcover: $23.50 → $16.25
Tome of Binding Set: $26.63 → $17.47
Please do keep in mind that these are just estimates, definitely subject to change as shipping fluctuates quite a bit these days. It does show the basic concept of how much of a discount is provided, plus the added benefit of larger orders vs. smaller ones. This also opens the door to EU retailers to make larger orders - a fact I think many of them are likely to appreciate. For any of you EU backers that were undecided about going in on the physical rewards, I hope this makes it an easier choice.
Small Book Upgrade - Two Ribbon Bookmarks
🔥Another stretch goal added! Each book will now come with two ribbon bookmarks, in two different colors. We're still not 100% decided on them (likely red/black for WO, green/black or green/purple for UA). The now offset print War for the Overworld campaign setting will also come with ribbon bookmarks, too! As I mentioned before, we were basically already making the exact books we wanted to so there wasn't a whole lot to do to upgrade these books - but this is something that was requested and I'm happy to make it happen.
Guest Artist: Penflower Ink's Doomed Dunes
We have another one of our guest artist sandbox maps in. This one is by Penflower Ink, whose work I really adore! It's all so full of whimsy and great fantasy. At first glance, it might not even fit well with the darker tones of Wicked Ones - but they decided to take on a bit of a rougher theme and brought us a post apocalypse desert map! It's lightened up a bit in tone by their drawing style, but I think there are some dark stories to tell here for sure. Check it out !
Doomed Dunes: amid scorching sands and the ruins of civilisation past, survivors of the apocalypse cobble together settlements and fortresses using whatever salvaged junk they can find.
Just glancing through it, several factions come to mind. For me, I think this is more of a Wicked Ones map - or what about playing a bunch of post apoc mutants raiding survivors from your hideout dungeon? Awww yeah.
Pe Metawe and Wicked Ones' first retail sales
So I have a story I'd like to tell, so please indulge me. A big part of this Kickstarter is establishing our own longer term plans as a publisher. We now have a strong printing → fulfillment solution in place that will allow us to sell physical copies of our books on our own webstore as well as do wholesale distribution to retailers. It feels weird and cool, but we're building something bigger and I couldn't be more thankful to everyone for helping make that happen. We're in this for the long haul - we love making games, have a million cool ideas, and can't wait to keep them coming.
But this is a different story. When I first launched Wicked Ones, it was print-on-demand only. I was looking at only online sales as a way to mitigate risk and step lightly into the industry. It was definitely to my surprise that I got an e-mail from a retailer asking if I sold copies to gaming stores. That e-mail came from David Plamondon, who runs Pe Metawe in Edmonton, Canada. It's actually a bit more than just a FLGS, but I'll let him explain:
"Pe Metawe is Cree (our traditional language from where my family comes from) for Come and Play and we chose that name as an invitation for the community, which is what our store has always been about. We wanted to create a space that was welcoming, inviting and accepting for everyone who wanted to be in the hobby, and that extends to independent creators as well. There’s nothing more exciting for me as a player and proponent for the hobby than discovering a new board game, RPG or accessory and seeing how excited people are to leave their mark, big or small, in the world. Since we’ve opened Pe Metawe Games we’ve had the opportunity to support indie creators in our own local community, as well as creators from around the world. We’ve interviewed people on our Twitch stream, hosted some local launch parties, and introduce so many people to new and cool games they might not have found otherwise. We know we’re just a small part of the tableau that is the gaming community, but we couldn’t be more excited to continue to be a part of it."- David Plamondon
And he wasn't just saying that about supporting indie creators! I remember our first e-mail exchange. He was in the beginning stages of setting up his gaming store and I was also well-aware that ordering POD copies is incredibly low profit margin. I was just surprised and overjoyed that anyone would want to carry my books, so I offered him the 10 copies or so he wanted at cost - but he refused and made sure we split the (rather meager) bit of profit there was to be had. That started a nice conversation, and a nice friendly relationship that has continued on. Working in this industry is awesome - it's filled with really great people. Oh, and check this out! After the books arrived, he sent me the first pic of WO ever on a retail shelf:
How freaking cool is that?!
And it's weird - Pe Metawe pops up way more than you'd expect from a LFGS in Edmonton! A designer friend, Mikey Hamm who's making the super cool FitD game Slugblaster, is local to the area and knows David. I didn't even realize that until Mikey dropped me an e-mail about one of his friends wanting to make sure Pe Metawe got copies in of our next game in. Another person during this Kickstarter mentioned in conversation grabbing a copy of WO from there a while back as well and then literally earlier today, someone on Twitter mentioned seeing WO on a shelf - Pe Metawe again!
Anyway, if you're ever in the Edmonton area, please stop in and check out their shop. Great people with a great goal. Here's a few pics of their shop that I asked David to send over!
I'd also be very remiss to not mention one other FLGS that reached out in those earlier stages, Knight Arms Games Store in Stillwater, Oklahoma! Just another great connection made with a really nice guy, Paul. They wanted the books to fill out their FitD collection in the shop and thought it would look cool on the shelf. These two reaching out were HUGE confidence builders for me as a designer and I can't thank either of them enough. I know they're both reading this, too, as they're both pledged on that retailer tier in this campaign to carry our books again! :)
Go a local gaming store you want to carry Wicked Ones? Please point them towards this Kickstarter! The -60% MSPR are very favorable terms and I'd be very happy to have more copies of WO+UA on real shelves.
📢Devoid of Hope: Chapter One
So a bit back, I met up with Joshua Greer. I was really impressed with his previous project, Fearsome Foes - the art and design of it is awesome and the enemies and I always love reading through enemy lairs. That's great thought fodder for Wicked Ones creatures and dungeons. Joshua was also nice enough to put this project in front of that group of backers - obviously a group of GMs with dark minds that would take very well to the evildoings afoot in our games.
Now Joshua is expanding on that world with this 5e adventure path, a dungeon crawl through space and time. I've had my eye on some cosmic horror stuff lately, mostly prompted by Victor's nonstop pushing to do something in the genre (go look at the Anomaly Event map! It's very clear where his head's at), so this project was right up my all.
I feel bad sticking this all the way down here at the end of this way-too-long e-mail, but if you guys made it this far, you probably need something fresh to go check out! Here's another shot from the project:
The Final Week and the $1 Watcher Tier
So in case you all haven't noticed, we're in the final week. And unlike most projects, we seem to be picking up steam?? That's obviously exciting! Can't wait to see what this home stretch brings. So, two things:
There will be a pledge manager, but it will only be open for a very short time. I strongly recommend you get any add-ons and pledge tier changes done now as you might miss out later. Especially of note is that things like the Cartography Kit, Awakening Dice, and War for the Overworld offset print copy are very likely to be Kickstarter exclusives. We will probably only order just enough to fulfill this KSer.
If you haven't noticed, we added a $1 watcher tier - following along with the project gets you a copy of all 16 digital maps from the books and stretch goals. Go recommend it to a friend! The guest artist sandbox maps are unlikely to be featured anywhere else after this - the cartography kit probably won't have retailer distribution longterm and there's no plans to publish the maps. They're just something special we're doing here - so I'd much rather see them out there helping promote these artists' work! But most importantly, it's super easy to get someone to check something out with such great value for just $1! It's a crazy good value - they'd be crazy not to jump in and grab the maps! So please, get out there and recommend it to some people and let's see how far we can push this thing down the home stretch!
Next up, I think I'll be doing a bit post about the concept art for Wicked Ones - just a ton of old sketches and stuff that Victor worked on as we figured out the style we wanted for the book - a style that I think is working its way into becoming his signature style. There's some cool stuff in there, so I'm excited to share it and the process we approached the art side with.
- Ben
Guest Artist: Jose Calvo and The Point (Sandbox Map) - plus a spotlight on a few other great projects (one ending VERY SOON)!
about 2 years ago
– Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 10:36:23 PM
Hey everyone, just wanting to send another map update along. But first, I talk about a game down below called Rune - it's in its final 20 hours as I post this, so you might wanna skip down there and check it out to begin with!
So in a previous update, I mentioned that Jose Calvo was adding two maps to this project and I wanted to give a look at the second one here and a bit more info about Jose's work. Let's start here:
This second map he's adding is simply called The Point, a lighthouse built upon a precipice, surrounded by a fortress city. It is obviously a key center, likely overlooking a valuable straight and allowing the city itself to control trade in the region. For me, this map is quite a bit more interesting in regards to gameplay than the Prosperous Port map. While that one is just beautiful, this one is chock-full of cool stuff I can imagine setting up awesome scenes with in either a Wicked Ones or Undead Awakening.
A Wicked Ones campaign? Yeah, I'd lurk in those tunnels snaking their way through the cliffs there, raiding ships coming into port or riding those tiny elevators up and sneaking into the main temple to the sea, looting its relics. But a UA campaign? For sure, pushing from the edge of the city inwards towards that lighthouse slowly, street by street as the "unassailable" city slowly falls... that's just... *chef's kiss*
This game is ending today, it's touchstone is Dark Souls, focuses on tactical combat and exploration, and is made by a great designer. So instead of reading this, just go check out the page like right now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegilaboy/rune-2
Okay, if you're still here, let me tell you why you should back this - or ramble about other stuff I like of Spencer's first, then finally get around to talking about Rune. I've always admired Spencer Campbell's work - his Lumen framework has been used to make some pretty awesome games like Hedge by A Couple of Drakes happen. And Slayers is another awesome game that I look too a little too-often as inspiration (read: stealing ideas) for our asymmetrical designs in our in-dev game Relic. I love how he takes a specific concept or two and really hones in on the mechanics of it in each game, and also slathers a layer of pure style over the top while maintaining simplicity. As a designer, it makes me jealous as heck. But this isn't about those, this is about something else equally badass:
Rune is a solo TTRPG built to give the feel of Soulslike games - a wanderer in a shattered land, surrounded by powerful threats. It's exploration and focused tactical combat and both are done fantastically here. I think the rise in solo RPGs has been a really interesting chance for designers to better emulate the feel of some video games, which usually have mechanics that are difficult to properly translate into party-based play. There's less to worry about with balancing party mechanics when making a solo game and you can hone way, way more in on just capturing that specific aspect of play that will make it feel like your touchstone.
When reading over this project, I get pretty excited by exploration mechanics. New takes on how to make exploration interesting and work well are always great to get my mind thinking on my own designs, but obviously what really needs captured here is the main focus - telegraphing of moves and combat feeling tactical and puzzle-like. I'm just gonna copy that section of their Kickstarter:
As players find themselves facing off against the horrors that wander Obron, they enter Combat. Combat in RUNE is tactical, and takes place on a 4x4 grid. Enemies have movesets that are determined by dice rolls, telegraphing their intentions and giving you a moment to react. Players roll a Stamina pool and assign the dice to their weapons and other equipment, deciding the right reaction to the situation. Combat in RUNE is tense, dangerous, and a puzzle for the player to solve.
There is a really great video by Spencer just after that section that does a great job of explaining it and it's worth the watch. This telegraphing and reaction time in the TTRPG space is such a tough thing to pull off right... I can't wait to give this thing a play myself.
Here's another project that I think will appeal a lot to WO backers that really get into minion pack mechanics. I'll leave it to them to explain the project, then pop in my thoughts at the end:
If you've always wanted to befriend, train, battle, and evolve over 160 elemental monsters in your game of 5e or Pathfinder 2e or embody the elements as an elemental avatar...
If you've always wanted to play a demon, mimic, nymph, oni, doppelganger, gremlin, minotaur, slime, sidhe (faerie noble), stheno (medusa kin), intelligent weapon, or even a dungeon...
Or if you're in the mood for 150+ RPG Superstar winning monsters, imbued properties for using monster parts to craft items, and an aberrant soul archetype to slowly transform yourself into an aberration...
Then you should be sure to check it out! The Kickstarter includes Battlezoo Eldamon (monster training), Battlezoo Year of Monsters (monster ancestries / races), and Battlezoo Bestiary Strange and Unusual (monster stats and more). It ends next Friday, August 26th, at midnight Eastern time!
So the sheer scope of this Kickstarter is astounding - it's a lot to take in, with a million options. They even specifically have built in the option to play as a dungeon (and plenty of monsters) which is going to have some people into the idea of WO. Anyway, aside from the gameplay itself which is obviously gonna be great to scratch that "trainer" itch, there's a lot of inspiration here for stuff to fill your Wicked Ones dungeons with and also a ton of fun extras - minis, plushies, dice, etc. available with this project. Seems dangerous to get addicted to, so tread lightly. :)
Guest Artist: Galen Pejeau and The Saltspires (work-in-progress)
about 2 years ago
– Sun, Aug 21, 2022 at 10:21:41 PM
Hey everyone, I want to introduce you all to Galen Pejeau (@GPejeau), one of the awesome guest artists we've brought on to help pack the Cartography Kit with sandboxy map goodness. But before I tell you more about him, first I need to show you the work-in-progress sandbox map he sent me. He calls it Valdrada, The Saltspires - and this is the inked version, with coloring work still to be done over the next week.
The Saltpsires (work-in-progress)
Galen's write-up on it: "Out of all of the jeweled city states that shine on the shores of the Crown Sea, the metropolis of Valdrada is the most opulent. Rich in magic, draped in treasures looted from across the world, and policed by a ruthless corps of marines, it is a city that has literally built itself atop the bones of those it has defeated. Now though, something stirs deep in the charnel pits below all of that gold, and noble heads should sleep uneasy in their palaces..."
How fucking cool is that? We weren't joking when we said we were 1) gonna bring in some talented artists and 2) let them explore their own unique styles and concepts. Galen dropped this on me earlier today and it blew my mind. It's so very different than the approach we took with the sandbox maps in WO, but it sends my mind automatically racing about the awesome stories we could tell there - with zombie hordes or even a dungeon buried deep in the undercity. Kickstarter is gonna kill the quality of the image a bit as it compresses the file, but don't worry - this thing is detailed. I'm pumped to see the final!
So Who's Galen Pejeau?
A lot of you might already know him as he's a fairly active in FitD and designer circles and works as both a designer of his own games and as an illustrator. I first came across his work years ago when I found the (unfinished) FitD game, The Typhoon Atolls and really loved the flavor and design of it.
More recently, Galen has written CRASH//CART, a Forged in the Dark game of EMT's working the late shift in a cyberpunk future. If you haven't seen this game, the concept alone is fascinating, the gameplay changes to FitD are fun, but the character sheets are absolutely stunning!
Currently, he's developing something a little different - Solarcrawl, an OSR game of planetary exploration in a fantastic space age. I've been on the periphery on this one as someone who hasn't delved much into OSR, just watching the development via Twitter, but I'm especially intrigued by the exploration mechanics. It's crowdfunding sometime later this year, so keep an eye on it (or not, I'll be yelling about it when it happens anyway!). Until then, you can check out the progress here (image leads to Itch):
We ended up working together more through UA author Cass Rea, who had some closer shared circles with Galen (bit of talk about projects, plus both contributing in some form to Slugblaster by Mikey Hamm, another amazing FitD game you should all be checking out). I knew Crash//Cart and I knew Typhoon Atolls, and was watching Solarcrawl dev from a bit afar, but had no idea they were the same person until Cass made me aware of it. Glad that connection was made and Galen was cool enough to come aboard because it's been an absolute please working together so far, but also because that Metroidvania-inspired Saltspires map is straight 🔥.
Upcoming Artist Spotlights
So I want to get more of these up as projects, or at least share-able works in progress, roll in. It's my pleasure to introduce these artists to a wider audience, though I can't promise I'll get to everyone and might double up a couple into a single update to save you all the mailbox spam and myself the time - we're nearing the end here! But anyway, I've seen the works in progress and everyone is bringing something really cool and unique to this project. I hope you're all as excited as I am to see where they all end up.
