UPDATE #16: Nine Tombs Update and Slight Delay
over 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 19, 2022 at 03:28:08 PM

Hey all,

This is going to be a short update and I'll get directly to the meat of it: the Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar is going to be delayed to late December / early January. 

Part of this is on my end and the other is on the production side. Read below for more information

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Earlier this month, my grandfather passed away due to complications from prostate cancer. It was abrupt, the time between his diagnosis and passing being a little less than two weeks. To say it was a blow is an understatement. My grandfather and I spoke on the phone almost every week for the past two decades.

Edits to Nine Tombs took a hit when all this was happening. It was difficult to think about anything other than spending time with family and friends and supporting each other. It's getting better all the time and I've thankfully been able to get about half of the edits done. This obviously delays the date as to when the printer gets the files, which is the other issue ...

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The paper stock I wanted to use and approved of earlier this year went out of stock. It's currently estimated to arrive middle-to-late December. If all goes well, we'll print the books in December and I can get them shipped out late-December / early January. You'll be receiving the PDFs when I send the files to the printer, which I'm planning on being early-mid December. 

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So to reiterate:

• PDFs going out early-mid December to backers and printer
• Paper stock arriving mid-late December, books printed
• Nine Tombs physical copies send out late December / early January

It's frustrating, I know. I appreciate your patience as this gets worked out.

That all being said, the other books and goodies are done and have been done for months now. So I'm going to be sending everyone (including Collector's Version backers) their stuff now and separately send Nine Tombs when it's ready to go. That way you can at least have the majority of your contents in early December. Expect to see those in your mailboxes in the next few weeks.

Again, I thank you for your patience with all this and I'll be updating everyone when the PDFs are ready. Enjoy the holidays and stay warm!

- Nate

UPDATE #15: Nine Tombs Cover, Timeline Update, Tabletop Rocks, and a few other things
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 09:59:48 PM

Hey everyone!

Wanted to give everyone a quick update as to where we're at with everything regarding the project. 

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The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar Remastered

Things are looking pretty good - we should be hitting our deadlines as expected. I'm deep in the second round of edits for Nine Tombs, which I'm still aiming to have a PDF available for folks by end of November.

Regarding that, I have something very cool to share: the finished and finalized cover!

Quite a difference from last year, eh? I'm so, so happy with how it turned out. There's even a few easter eggs in the artwork to be discovered in the actual megadungeon itself.

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Complete? Megadungeon Setting??

You may notice two things about the text:

• The first is that the name for this book is now officially The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar Complete.
• The second is down near the bottom Megadungeon Setting.

Part of going back and looking at Nine Tombs was cleaning up the general text of the megadungeon, which proved to be... a little lackluster for me, personally. Looking at some of the other top-of-class megadungeons in the OSR space (Stonehell, Rappan Athak, Barrowmaze, etc), I was inspired to dig deeper and develop something much larger and more entwined than last year's version.

So now, the book encapsulates not just the megadungeon, affectionately referred to as the Underworld, but also the wild wasteland around the many entrances into it - called the Barren Lands.

Here's a very high level of what to expect:

• The Barren Lands, represented by a point-crawl map, is home to several factions and many different entrances into the various levels of the Underworld.
• The Underworld, represented both by a side view of connecting levels and by individual level maps, encapsulates around 30 discrete locations. 

Want a better idea of what you'll get? Here's a screengrab of the current TOC:

Fans of the original megadungeon will notice a few changes; some small, others quite large. With the renaming of this from "Remastered" to "Complete", I wanted to make sure the original megadungeon was still available to those who enjoyed it. 

Another way you can think of this is that it's going to serve as, more or less, a re-imagining of the megadungeon with all the lessons I've learned in the past year of dungeon design. The locations, encounters, monsters, and general narrative of the module is substantially changed from before - but fans will likely recognize a few returning elements.

As mentioned above, we're on track to have PDFs sent out by end of November and physical copies shipped in December. If anything happens along the way to disrupt that plan, I'll make sure to update everyone accordingly.

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Tabletop Rocks

For the past year or so, a few friends and I have been ideating on how to get more games on the calendar. We realized that, as parents and busy adults, we wouldn't actually make the time unless we made it a priority. So we threw together a social media plan, took a ton of photos of our collections, and made a plan to record an actual play to toss on YouTube.

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What is Tabletop Rocks?

Tabletop Rocks is a three-person operation where we'll post actual plays of indie RPGs, retrospectives on our favorite systems, tips and tricks on various mechanics in those systems, and other fun stuff like cocktail recipes and physical prop creation (all of our actual plays are in-person and fully-edited).

This past Saturday, we recorded our first actual play in the Mothership RPG system! We're planning on uploading the edited video this upcoming Saturday at 7:00 PM EST. If you'd like to subscribe to our YouTube, check us out at Tabletop Rocks (we've also got a TikTok and an Instagram if that's your bag)!

As it currently stands, we're going to do one actual play per month for the next six months, culminating next year with an official actual play of Dungeoneering, run by yours truly! I'm very excited to run this so that folks can get an idea of how it plays, what the general flow is, and how I sort of intended things to work. 

Subscribe to our YouTube and make sure to hit the little bell icon to get notified when we post (we promise not to spam you).

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A Few Other Things

A quick smattering of news regarding all the other Grinning Rat stuff:

•  The Patreon continues! There are four Dungeoneer's Packs on there now, each including a new dungeon, new monsters, new magic items, and more. By subscribing at the $5 Adventurer Tier, you get immediate access to all the packs along with access to all my WIP documents for the various projects I'm working on. Check it out here: Grinning Rat Patreon. 
• There's a number of tentative projects in the works for ZineQuest 5 in February 2023. Not much else to say on them at this stage, but I'll keep everyone updated when I have news to share.
• I'm in talks with a few developers on getting Dungeoneering over to VTTs! Right now the plan is for Roll20 and Foundry support. As I mentioned in a previous update, the idea is to launch this in November - but please note that this is a much lower priority than Nine Tombs and my other ongoing projects. As it stands, there's a 50/50 chance this gets pushed into 2023 just based on workload, but if there's time for it I'll update everyone accordingly.

That's it! I'll be doing another monthly update in November, hopefully followed shortly by BackerKit links to download the Nine Tombs PDF. 

Until then, go play some games!

- Nate W

UPDATE #14: Physical / Complete Versions Sent & Delivered, Nine Tombs Entering Editing Phase
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 03:30:00 AM

Hey everyone!

Apologies on the radio silence on my end - I've been busy making sure Nine Tombs work continues at a good pace alongside other projects that have filled up my workload.

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Physical / Complete Versions Delivered

You should have received your copies of the Physical or Complete Versions if you backed at that level (and DID NOT include Nine Tombs as an add-on - those will be shipped with the Collector's Versions this winter). 

If you have not received it, please follow this link and enter your information including your full name, username on Kickstarter, and email address.

Operation Resend: Wanderers Edition

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Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar

For those of you familiar with the Nine Tombs of yesteryear, you'll remember that most of the maps were simple black and white affairs with very little in the way of decoration or sense of scale. With the remaster, I've created fully illustrated maps that allow for a bit more exploration, excitement, and creativity when it comes to resolving the actions of your dungeoneers. 

I want these to be a surprise, but I figured I can show the very first map to you: The Approach.

The Approach is the very first "level" of the megadungeon, serving as the entrance proper to the eponymous Nine Tombs. Each map will include a small blurb that serves to explain the level; this is the one for the Approach:

A lone building sits squat against the jagged cliffs, shrouded by the tall black-barked trees that surround it. Abandoned for centuries, the outer visage has the appearance of a great skeletal carcass - window holes and timbers fallen and shattered, vines crisscrossing everywhere. Evidence of recent tenants include scorch marks, piles of refuse, and the unmistakable stench of goblins.

In October I'll be sharing the final cover for Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar, illustrated by the indomitable DC Stow as always. Then, in November, final PDFs will be sent to backers and the printer, with final deliveries being made in December.

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Grinning Rat Patreon

I'd like to graciously acknowledge my patrons. Your support has made creating content a true joy. Thank you! So far, for Questgivers (the $3 tier), there are two projects which I've shared working documents for: 

•  Ädamίr, the sword and sorcery fantasy roleplaying adventure game set within the backdrop of the late bronze-age.
•  STARFARING, a sci-fi hack of Dungeoneering,  where instead of dark dungeons you are investigating strange and alien  ruins. In these lost places lies great danger—and even greater reward.

For Adventurers (the $5 tier), there are three Dungeoneering Packs available to download - with a new one launching this Friday! Here they are with their covers all neat in a row:

Check out Grinning Rat on Patreon! And thanks again to my patrons for their support.

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That's about it for this update! I'll be sending a new update towards the middle of October, where I'll be sharing the cover of Nine Tombs and a progress update on its status.

- Nate

UPDATE #13: Physical / Complete Versions In Transit, Nine Tombs Design Continues
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 11:27:30 AM

Hey all!

Fairly short update this time around, just wanted to touch base on a few things:

Physical / Complete Shipping Update

Apologies for the lack of an update as of late, been hard at work with making sure all the Physical / Complete Versions were out the door and into mailboxes. We had a brief delay due to some incorrect shipping information (basically, wrong mail class which spit out wrong postage types), but that has since been rectified. Thankfully no issues on the level of what we saw last year with the original Dungeoneering. If you haven't received yours yet, you should be very soon! 

Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar Update

As for the Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar, I've been really making an effort into looking into some of the great megadungeon content that is out there to give a comparable experience. Barrowmaze, Stonehell, hell I've even started to look into Arden Vul (you did get in on that bundle, right?) - all in an effort to do two things: see what works and see what I think I can improve on. We're still on schedule to finalize within our proposed window of time (August-October, from Update #8), which of course slates us to have PDFs of the Nine Tombs available in November and physical editions in hands by December. Exciting stuff!

Grinning Rat Newsletter Update

Issue #2 of the Grinning Rat Newsletter is going out tonight at midnight! Well, technically 11:59:59 PM. In it are a bunch of other great Kickstarters to check out for ZineQuest4, as well as a ton of articles, videos, and other great content from around the community. Also included is an invitation to check out our Patreon! Link for that is here:

https://www.patreon.com/grinningratpub

As a brief reminder, by joining our Patreon you get access to a few cool things: 

• At our $3 tier, called Questgiver, you get access to beta documents for two upcoming Grinning Rat products: Ädamίr: Realm of the Thousand Spheres and a currently unnamed dark fantasy sourcebook.
• At our $5 tier, called Adventurer, you get the above AND a monthly content drop called the Dungoeneer's Pack. In the pack is a new dungeon, complete with new magic items, spells, prayers, and monsters. Our first official monthly pack, called "Webs of the Astral Spider" goes live on August 31.

Don't want to wait until the 31st? Whenever you become a patron, you'll get access to two bonus free packs: the Cult of the Red Wyrm (Available Now!) and Undermachinery of Bronze Town (Available 8/23!). 

That means, by the end of this month, you get three Dungeoneer's Packs for just $5. That's three dungeons with hand-drawn maps, fully laid-out, with new content and illustrations, for the price of a coffee. If you check us out over there, thanks! And if you decide to back, thanks again! None of this would be possible without your support.

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That's it for the update! Thanks for reading and I hope everyone stays safe, stays warm (or cool, depending on where you are), and gets some games in.

- Nate

BRIEF UPDATE: Due to some issues on the Grinning Rat website, the newsletter is going out tomorrow instead of tonight. Not too much of a delay, but I thank you for your patience regardless!

UPDATE #12: Physical / Complete Versions Shipping Next Week, Big Content Update for 2022 and Beyond
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 05:04:00 PM

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well and keeping busy as we move into the summer months. Does it feel to anyone else like there's too many games to play these days? I feel like I'm backing something new every other week!

This is a bit of a larger update as there's quite a few things I wanted to talk about, starting with...

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Physical / Complete Versions Shipping Next Week

For Dungeoneering, we're narrowing in on getting everything packed up for Physical and Complete Version backers and should be sending those out next week. Two quick reminders regarding that:

• If you backed at either of these tiers, but added The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar: Remastered to your order, your shipment will be sent later this year alongside the Collector's Version backers.
•  For Collector's Version backers, work has begun in earnest on the remaster Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar and I'll be sharing more details in the coming months as drafts get completed and the intrepid DC Stow fleshes out our new cover art! I've so far given the brief that it should be reminiscent of the old Seito-style posters (see here and here for examples). Should be awesome, as always!

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Grinning Rat Publications in 2022 and Beyond (Remastered)

This past year and a half have really opened my eyes to the possibility and excitement of writing and developing roleplaying games for a wider audience. I've GM'd and written small-scale stuff for my home games, but Dungeoneering was my first attempt at something for consumption by strangers. It's been a wonderful, wild ride and I am thankful for each and every one of you for helping support this journey!

It hasn't always been easy though. Writing Nine Tombs last year was a real bear to try and get it done in a reasonable time frame and was affected by delays. Fulfillment of the physical books was sort of a nightmare (that, thankfully, I've learned from since). Having a kiddo is one of the greatest gifts I've been given in my life, but it definitely isn't all sunshine and rainbows. And none of those are including the unfortunate reality: this isn't my salaried job. It's my hobby. The time I can dedicate to it always comes second... or third... or fourth...

So, with that being said, there's a few things I'll be taking off my plate until further notice:

•  "Critical Mass", the Mothership RPG module I was writing for ZineQuest 4, is being put on the shelf till some unknown time in the future. The idea is really cool and got a lot of support on the Mothership Discord, but writing for another system (one that I only have a few games worth of experience running) is, unsurprisingly, very difficult. This is a little embarrassing, as there is an ad for it at the very back of Wanderers. Evidently, my hubris will be immortalized in print.
•  "Shadows Over Westbridge", the D&D 5E starter adventure I was writing, is also being put on the shelf for the time being. 
•  The GR Newsletter will be resuming in August and likely either go to a bimonthly or quarterly schedule. There's a small possibility I can keep it on a monthly schedule, but I don't want to promise that and then end up not having enough time to really curate a useful piece of email communication.
•  The GR Blog will be shuttered for the foreseeable future. I've realized that if I'm writing, I either want it to be going towards a tangible "thing" or I want to get paid for it. The blog, unfortunately, does neither. Not to mention that, personally, having to compete against the multitudes of fantastic blogs out there really cripples my desire to write.

As Sean McCoy, creator of the Mothership RPG, mentions on his blog, "I try and do as much of everything myself as possible. I really enjoy all the different tasks that go into RPG publishing and I love to learn how it’s all done, so I’ve never seen the reason to give up control until now. I wouldn’t recommend this method."

So, in lieu of having someone else to take on some of these tasks, I'm making the decision of pulling some projects off of production. I think it's what's best.

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Dungeoneering Support in 2022 and Beyond

That being said...

Dungeoneering has been my pride and joy since I jotted down the first rambling thoughts in December 2020. Seeing all of you support it is such a treasure to me (one that I hoard like a monstrous wyrm).

One of the things I've learned in this hobby is that if you want your game to succeed, you should be regularly releasing content for it. Dungeoneering... hasn't exactly done that. We've got the core book and Wanderers, along with some character sheets and the original version of Nine Tombs, but that's about it.

I'd like to change that with the following:

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⤷ The Grinning Rat Patreon

• Launching in August 2022 
• Two Patron Tiers: Questgiver ($2) and Adventurer ($5) 
•  Questgivers will essentially be supporting the creation of content and will have early access to alpha and beta documents for future projects.

Two alpha documents will be released in August: Ädamίr, Realm of the Thousand Spheres (a late bronze age sword and sorcery game I've been working on for a few years now) and a currently unnamed fantasy setting book inspired by the stories of Appendix N, dark fantasy novels, and Elden Ring.

•  Adventurers get everything Questgivers get, as well as receiving a monthly Dungeoneer's Pack, which contains spells, prayers, magic items, monsters, and a dungeon - all of which are developed around a particular theme.

In addition to August's Dungeoneer's Pack, you will receive two additional packs upon becoming a patron at the Adventurer tier: Cult of the Red Wyrm and Undermachinery of Bronze Town. 

No matter when you subscribe at this level, you'll get access to all previous packs at no extra charge.

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⤷ Roll20 and Foundry VTT Support

• Launching on Kickstarter November 2022; Fulfilled Early 2023 (tentative) 
• Three Tiers: Roll20 ($10), Foundry ($10), and Both ($20)
• Backers will receive a code for the Dungeoneering Bundle, which includes core rules and Wanderers content on their platform of choice.

Why crowdfund? Because I honestly have no clue how many people are interested in this. I want to make sure the games are well supported and maintenance on their code is continued after completion. Additionally, I would love for the code to be accessible on a public repository so the more code-minded folks out there can make pull requests and bugfix if they're so inclined. 

All of that costs talent, money, and time. So I want to make sure it's something people want before I give the green light to the developers I've talked to.

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⤷ Expansions and Supplements

• Launching TBD 

Right now, there are two roles with Favor as their primary statistic (the Prophet and the Troubadour) and two roles with Agility (the Thief and the Scout) as their primary statistic. I'd like there to be two roles for both Might and Intellect as well.

What that looks like is to be determined, but I think having a book similar in size to Wanderers that has those two roles and some other GM content would be cool. That would feel a little more "content complete" to me. Maybe that's an idea for Zine Month next year.

I can definitely see a couple other supplements as well, such as a book of dungeons or a big book of content from all different writers or any other cool things you see from other games. The future on this is cloudy, but exciting.

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So that's what's going on and what's coming up! Lot of stuff getting backburnered, but also a lot of stuff coming forward. It's with your help that I've been able to recognize what matters to me, and what ultimately matters is supporting you with exciting new content.

I'll be posting here once things get a little more cemented, as well as sending emails when things are launched so you can be the first ones to know. Besides that, keep an eye on your mailbox - your copies of Dungeoneering are just around the corner!

- Nate W