Hyperlinked PDF Unlocked Through Social Achievements!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 09:45:31 AM

This is just a quick (but important) update to let you all know that we've hit our 5th Social Achievement at 1,500 backers!  That means that we've unlocked the first of what we hope will be many bonus perks.

We've already unlocked the Fully Indexed and Hyperlinked Digital Copy of Grio's Guide to the Wildlands!  The Table of Contents will have links to each chapter and each individual encounter.  There will also be meaningful links added within the chapters themselves to make navigation of the document quick and efficient.

For each of the next 3 Social Achievements, Next-Level Gaming will include one of the single-session adventures that we use during the playtesting process.  Each of these adventures is designed to run for 3 to 4 hours and will include opportunities to use the environmental encounters in Grio's Guide!  If you're looking for ready-made material to include in your campaign setting, these will be incredibly valuable.

The 3 One-Shot adventures will be distributed as stand-alone PDFs.

Here's a quick tally on some achievements that have very nearly been reached:

• We have 184 of the needed 200 Facebook Shares
• We have 173 of the needed 200 Retweets on Twitter
• We have 304 of the 500 Twitter Followers
• We have 283 of the 500 Email subscriptions

Help us share information about the campaign during this crucial last week in order to build as much momentum as possible going into the final days.  Check the story page for links, and thank you all for the continued support!

Magical Hazards and Gruesome Diseases! (and Another Project We Love)
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 09, 2021 at 09:50:10 AM

$60K Eclipsed and $90K is Very Much Within Reach.  

Our project trajectory has held very steady through what one might normally expect to be a lull in the middle of the campaign.  We're thrilled with the continued support!  We surpassed the $60,000 stretch goal on the 5th of June, and according to our calculations, this amazing community should be able to propel us beyond $90,000 by the time the campaign closes on the 15th of June.  Between now and then, let's discuss the amazing content that will be released when we surpass the next stretch goal at $75,000.

Magical Hazards

Not everything that adventurers may encounter in nature is natural - especially when traveling through the various planes of existence.  The sylvan environment of the Feywild brings with it new and unknown dangers that do not exist in the forests of the Material Plane.  A volcano on the Elemental Plane of Fire is infused with especially destructive elemental magic.  The rocky terrain of the Shadowfell hides much more sinister threats than the average mountains and foothills of the natural world.

The Dungeon Master's Guide mentions a number of magical hazards that exist throughout the Planes. Some come with mechanics, and others are simply alluded to and left to the DM's imagination.  With our Magical Hazards content, we plan to bring many of these fantastical effects to life, and we have a number of our own to add as well.  Here are just a few of the concepts that are slated for development:

• Elemental Gale
• Cinder Storm
• Ravenous Swamp
• Dread Tide
• Living Island
• Peak of Righteousness
• Drifting Earthberg
• Pyroclastic Storm
• Icy Inferno
• And many more!

Our goal in developing this part of Grio's Guide is to provide a DM with options that can be used both for extra-planar adventures and for unnatural occurrences on the Material Plane.  A campaign storyline can take an incredibly interesting turn when the players are faced with challenges of this magnitude, and these elements can become the lynchpins in a spectacular adventure!

All of our Magical Hazards will be included in special sections near the end of each chapter, and references to their potential use in extra-planar adventures will be provided as well.

Gruesome Diseases

The 5th Edition DMG only lists three sample diseases.  THREE!  There's so much room for our design team to run amok with this one!  Although there is some limited disease content from earlier editions of the game and scattered third-party sources here and there, we'll be looking to give diseases a major update.

Why are diseases a useful element in 5th Edition?  They're useful because they have the potential to create tension and narrative conflict for players.  As with all of the material that we're developing in Grio's Guide, the diseases that we include will be designed in such a way as to provide additional depth to the story that players are telling at the table.  These are not meant to kill players outright, nor are they intended to serve as negligible inconveniences.  They are meant to drive the narrative in a new and exciting direction.

When we unlock this goal at $75K, every natural environment will also include its own inherent disease risks.   Imagine the parasites that lurk in the blackwater swamps.  Think of the complications that may arise from contact with the flora and fauna of the deep jungle.  And don't even get us started on the unique and insidious biological threats of deep, dark, subterranean realms!  

In addition to unique and identifiable diseases that correspond with specific treatments in our Herbalism and Alchemy sections, we'll also flesh out some optional mechanics for real-world conditions like sunburn, heat exhaustion, frostbite, hypothermia, trench foot, snow blindness, and others that might not fit neatly under the basic Exhaustion Levels in 5E.  This is another way that we can provide Dungeon Masters with tools that contribute to a complex and believable world, and as always, we want to streamline the mechanics so that they are easy to access and implement.

Project We Love: Wanderer's Guide to Merchants & Magic

With our Crafting, Herbalism, and Alchemy tier unlocked, Grio's Guide is likely to bring up an age-old question for players: Can I craft magic items?  If the answer to that question is yes, then those same players will also want places to buy, sell, and trade these magic items.

Enter Wanderer's Guide to Merchants & Magic!

Eventyr Games is the type of developer that we really enjoy.  With thoughtful designs and a critical eye on existing rules, this publisher has become an Adamantine Best-Seller on the DM's Guild, and making 5th Edition D&D more exciting is their passion.  Their goal is similar to ours.  Just like wilderness encounters should never be boring for players or tedious for DMs,  Eventyr is working diligently to make magic item trade a more accessible mechanic at D&D tables around the world.

The project is underway with several stretch goals already unlocked.  Give them a look and see if this can be another way to take your sessions to the next level.

30% Reduction in Shipping Costs and Additional Details on Herbalism, Alchemy, and Crafting Stretch Goal!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 08, 2021 at 01:47:58 AM

The shipping rates are falling for all hardcopy backers!  

We've analyzed the shipping volumes with our fulfillment partners, and we're happy to announce that all rates are being reduced by at least 30%!

We hope that this will help for some of you who were concerned.  The adjusted estimates are as follows:

Herbalism, Alchemy, and Crafting Stretch Goal

We've had some requests for additional information about our stretch goals, so here's a little bit of the design philosophy on the content that unlocks at $60K.

Crafting

Crafting is something that has been approached in many different ways over the years.  The 5th Edition game has tool proficiencies and some basic crafting timelines, but the biggest thing that's missing is the actual requirements for harvesting crafting ingredients.  We will include harvest tables within each biome to address this gap.  Items may be harvested from creatures or the land itself, and each harvestable ingredient will have recipes connected to it.

Proficiencies with the Nature skill, the Survival skill, Carpenter's tools, Cobbler's tools, Glassblower's tools, Leatherworker's tools, Mason's tools, Potter's tools, Smith's tools, Weaver's tools, and Woodcarver's tools will all experience significant upgrades with our Crafting methodology.  In addition, two unique areas of crafting will receive some special TLC as well.

Herbalism

Herbalism and Alchemy are two VERY different things, and yet we've seen them  treated almost identically in a number of third-party supplements that have been published on the DM's Guild and elsewhere.  Once we hit the next funding tier (and we know that we will), we plan to give them each the detailed treatment that they deserve.

Most of our Herbalism-related content will involve the ability to harvest and combine plants and fungi for their medicinal or poisonous properties.  Proficiency with the Herbalism Kit, and a brand new Herbalist Background that we'll include in the early part of the book, will become invaluable characteristics for those who want to make the most of nature's bounty.

Alchemy

Unlike Herbalism, Alchemy is much more arcane in nature.  It involves specialized work with the metallic elements, and it even delves into knowledge of Transmutation and Elemental magic.

Although Alchemist's Supplies have been on the basic equipment list since the inception of 5th Edition, there has not been much support for their use.  We'll be changing that with an Alchemist Background and meaningful tables of ingredients and recipes for those who are intrigued by metallurgy, tinctures, and high-level potion craft.

Social Achievements Update

We've achieved 3 of the goals that were initially posted on Friday.  Several more are easily within reach if the community will band together to get them done.  We currently have:

• 26 of the necessary 200 Retweets
• 44 of the necessary 200 FB Shares
• 285 of the necessary 500 followers on Twitter

The Hyperlinked PDF is right in front of us, and we have other perks that we'd like to offer as well.

There are two weeks left in the campaign, and this is where the excitement really begins! Thanks to everyone who has been a positive part of our project's trajectory so far.

New Social Achievements!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 01, 2021 at 01:19:43 PM

We Want To Give You More!

We have a lot of strategies in place to keep building the momentum toward achieving our originally posted Stretch Goals.  One of our amazing DMs and designers, DM Sean, was on Nerdarchy Live today.  We also have a sponsored ad with AllThingsDnD running, and we want to hit social media with everything that we've got in the next 18 days as well.

Something New

On top of that, we want to announce our initiative to get this powerful community of backers working together to unlock some additional perks for Grio's Guide to the Wildlands!  Take a look at the following Social Achievements that have the potential to make this great project even better!

We're already on the verge of hitting three of these Achievements: 1000 Backers, 300% Funding, and 250 Email Subs.  For every 5 Achievements we attain as a community, Next-Level Gaming is prepared to add even more value to the Rewards for ALL backers!

What Are the Perks?

When we hit our 5th Achievement on this list, whatever it may be, our Digital Copy of Grio's Guide to the Wildlands will be Indexed and Hyperlinked for your convenience!  The Table of Contents will have links to each chapter and each individual encounter.  There will also be meaningful links added within the chapters themselves to make navigation of the document quick and efficient.

There are many other bonuses that we'd like to provide as a thank you to all of our wonderful supporters.  We just need a little bit of help.

Link Up and Share

All of the relevant links to our social media accounts are listed below.  We need you to:

• Like us on Facebook 
• Share the latest Grio posts 
• Follow us on Twitter 
• Retweet our Kickstarter Tweets 
• Subscribe to our email list 

As we tally more and more of your social actions, we all gain more from being a part of this winning team!

Tracking Our Mutual Success

We'll post this Achievement Tracker on the main Story page, and we'll update it every time we hit a new milestone. When we accumulate enough to earn the current perk, we'll announce what's next.  We've got a ton of amazing ideas in store!

Join in with us and help take this book to its ultimate potential!

Hardcover Dimensions, Shipping Cost Projections, Playtesting, and FAQs
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 27, 2021 at 01:09:40 PM

Thank you to all of the backers who have already made pledges.  We're moving along at a very steady rate, and we expect that this project will continue to unlock additional stretch goals each week for the next three weeks.

There is quite a bit of information in today's update, so please take the time to look over everything. Some of this will also be reposted in the Story and FAQs sections of the Kickstarter page for easy access.

Page Count and Dimensions

This is obviously a work in progress, but we want to update you with our expectations for the dimensions and total page count of Grio's Guide.

The hardcover books will be printed in much the same format as you might expect from any TTRPG sourcebook on the shelves of your Friendly Local Game Store.  

• Trim Size - U.S. Letter 8.5" x 11"
• Gloss Cover Finish
• Heavy-weight glossy stock
• Full color interior printing

Our current estimate for the 9 major biomes that will be covered once we surpass the $45K tier (a virtual certainty at this point) is approximately 140 pages. Each additional stretch goal that is achieved thereafter has the potential to add 20-30  pages of specialized content, placing the total page count right around 300 if we were to hit all stretch goals.  We are committed to keeping the book under 300 pages for ease of use and to keep shipping costs at reasonable levels.

Shipping Estimates

We have received a number of questions about shipping within the U.S. and to other countries around the world, and we want to address these questions in the most reliable way that we can.  We are still actively searching for better deals and potential methods to decrease the cost of getting the hardcover book out to all of you, but here are the current estimates:

Shipping charges will be collected as close as possible to the actual shipping date of the hardcover books.  Each backer will be contacted by email shortly after the funding window has closed to complete the pledge manager survey, but we plan to hold off on shipping charges until closer to the final fulfillment date.

Playtesting

Our backers who have pledged at tiers that include playtesting will be able to experience a 5th Edition wildlands adventure run by one of our professional DMs!  These sessions will be offered online through Virtual Tabletops like Roll20 and Foundry.  We will also utilize Shared Content through DnDBeyond in order to test some of the unique character options that will be a part of Grio's Guide.

Each playtesting session will be run as a self-contained adventure that is designed to last between 3 and 4 hours. Group sizes and character levels will be predetermined based on the material that needs to be tested, and each session will include a minimum of three environmental encounters from the book.

We'll be using the Next-Level Gaming Discord server to organize participation for our playtesting backers, and these sessions will begin in early July. Remember that the Playtesting backers will receive a special acknowledgement in the printed book as well.

Social Goals

A number of backers have expressed excitement about the possibility of building toward some of our higher stretch goals beyond the $100K level, and we want to do everything that we can to support that possibility.  In order to encourage the hundreds of existing project followers to move forward with pledging support, we will be posting some Social Stretch Goals as well.

As it stands right now, if only half of the current project followers were to pledge at average levels, we would immediately exceed the $75K stretch goal.  We want to incentivize that shift and get more commitments in order to make this book the best that it can be for all of you.

We also want to continue adding new followers and backers through as many social channels as we possibly can in order to prepare for that final surge in the last week of the campaign window.

With that in mind, our first social goal will be posted later this week when we have surpassed the $45K tier.  Stay tuned and prepare to help us broaden the reach!

Continue to Post Questions and Comments

We really appreciate the feedback that we've been receiving in the Comments section and on our Discord server.  Keep it coming!  This will help us to continue addressing the most important needs of our backers as we move forward.

Let's keep building this thing together!