Progress Breakdown
5 days ago – Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 06:44:07 PM

The book is broken into three parts, which you probably know. The first part is completely done – art, writing, layout, and editing. This was sent to you as a pdf. The second part is comprised of 14 chapters - 6 chapters are completely done – art, writing, layout, and editing. Two chapters are undergoing revisions. The other 6 chapters are being finished up to send to editing with the revised 2 chapters.

The wooden dice are completely done and with the primary manufacturer. The wooden dice are paid in full. The acrylic dice are done and should be sent to the primary manufacturer soon. We are waiting on the final invoice to pay the remaining balance.

The wooden boxes have been ordered. A down payment has been made on the boxes.

The book, character sheets, deluxe book, maps, cards, and animated spell cards will be produced along with the book at the primary manufacturer, Eastar. A down payment has been made on all these items.

An agreement has been finalized with my fulfillment company. Final shipping costs will be communicated to you when I have final weights.

Thank you for your continued patience, as we move into the final stages of the completion of this project. 

- Darryl T. Jones

PDF Alpha - part 1 coming
about 1 month ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 07:46:42 AM

Hello Adventurers,

Happy August! Progress continues every day! If your backer tier includes the PDF for Seeds of Decay (most do) you should expect the first part of the Alpha PDF from Backerkit in your inbox soon, if not already. 

The design is finished, but there continue to be elements to tweak and edit in the adventure and appendix. I'll be sending those to you shortly. I'm striving for it to be in August. Though I continue to be surprised by how long doing this right takes. And, I'm committed to doing this right. I want you to have the best product I can make.

In the mean time, please enjoy some more page samples: 

Find Errors? Report them to me!

For those of you who are interested, I've set up a simple form to report errors. If you're looking through pdf and find typos or other problem areas, please report them here: https://forms.gle/vWbc6RphtRsjnUak6

Thank you!

GenCon was Amazing!

I had a great time at GenCon this year, played some awesome sessions of Seeds of Decay, enjoy meeting some amazing gamers! Here are a few photos:

Project I love!

I met Luke at Garycon this year and I'm glad I did. He and his team are amazing. I was asked to help with the marketing and graphic design for their latest project, The Secret Art of Game Mastery. It's been a privilege.  

You're going to love these books, they really are a treasure trove of information. 

Get 250 pages of game master advice, knowledge, and wisdom to elevate your role-playing game! The Secret Art of Game Mastery has over 100 years of accumulated experience, distilled into an easy-to-use reference guide. You can get better at running any game, in any system, and any genre! Whether you're a NEW GAME MASTER or a VETERAN, the Secret Art of Game Mastery is for you.

Click here to Master Your Game!

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Thank you all!

- Darryl T. Jones (AKA Splattered Ink)

PDF Soon - Finalize Your Shipping Address
2 months ago – Tue, Jul 11, 2023 at 04:46:56 PM

Hello Heroes of the Alwaysgreen Forest!

I hope you're enjoying your summer. It's been a wild one, but mostly good. It's been full of challenges and I don't plan to bore you with those. I've seen some Kickstarter updates that include a laundry list of bad news. I don't intend to do that here. There have been challenges, but there have also been successes! 

Unfortunately, I missed getting the book PDF to you in June. I apologize for that. I'm pushing as hard as I can to get it done in the next few weeks. I'll share it with you when I can. 

But, most of the other products are nearly ready for manufacturing! Check out these amazing animated spell cards! 

Also, I hope you like the redesign of the card frame. I wanted something that had a little more detail, but still a hand-drawn feel. 

More Sample Pages:

 Because I love to show them off.

In the recent editing pass, I've decided to add a "Running This Chapter" section at the beginning. I found it helps put the GM in the right mindset, spelling out the main theme or actions that need to happen. I hope it helps by giving more clarity and ultimately more freedom to GMs.

GenCon

It's hard to believe that it is less than a month until GenCon. I'll be there running some games from Seeds of Decay. GenCon just approved 2 more of my games, so if you missed tickets from the first batch 12 more are coming. Make sure you follow my socials to hear as soon as those tickets become available. You can also keep your eyes on this page: https://www.gencon.com/event_finder?search=splattered+ink&c=indy2023 to see when they go live.

Double Check Your Shipping Addresses

As soon as the PDF is finished, there will be a few weeks for you all to find typoes, then corrections, manufacturing will begin, and then I can finalize weights for shipping. If you need to change your shipping address, log into Backerkit and do so as soon as possible. Use this link to find your survey if you don't have it handy!

There are still a few of you who haven't completed your survey, If you're not sure how to do it, review the guide posted in this update.

A Project I Love!

Hos, the Dungeon Scribe has become one of my favorite people in the TTRPG industry. I'm honored to call him a friend. Look for us to be collaborating more in the future, but until then, you have to check out his new project!

Unlock stories that will forge lasting moments with Dungeon Scribe’s - Tome of Magical Oddities, a 5e Supplement.

Dazzled your tables with over 500 uniquely illustrated magic items, directly tied to cards and handouts for ease of table play.

Enjoy massive cards crafted specifically for ease of reading and featuring quick reference icons.

Items should be Magical. Click here to get yours!

Have questions? Reach out!

Leave a comment, e-mail us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Sincerely, Darryl

April Update - Final Rounds of Play Testing - New Page Samples
5 months ago – Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 06:57:44 PM

Hello Adventurers of the Alwaysgreen Forest,

My excitement continues to mount as completion is in sight! I really am thrilled by how it is all coming together. Every day significant progress is being made. I'm still hoping for a PDF in June. Bear in mind, all my focus is on finishing this book and all its components. It's my number one priority; if I'm not as responsive to comments and the like, that is why.

Awesome Playtest Event

This weekend a convention that is local to me, Saluki Con held a play-test event Seeds of Decay. 48 players ran through The Tomb Keeper! This quest is the second-to-last in the adventure arc and contains some of the most climatic story reveals. 

I'm still going through surveys, but so far the player response is overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you Saluki Con for sharing Seeds of Decay with so many wonderful players!

Sample Pages

I know I'm biased, but this book is going to be beautiful!

Thank you all again for the amazing support! My first book is about to become a reality. I couldn't have done it without you.

Looking forward to June!

Darryl T. Jones (aka Splattered Ink)

January-February Update - My Experience with the OGL Crisis
8 months ago – Wed, Feb 01, 2023 at 11:49:45 AM

Hello Adventurers of the Alwaysgreen Forest,

It has been a heck of a year this month! I'm going to take a moment to share my perspective on OGL drama below, I'm sure you've heard about it. It's taken me some time to write and it's still a little raw. Its been extremely stressful. Also my recent Kickstart is launched on January 10th. It's doing fantastic. I couldn't be more pleased. Thank you for all the support.

The OGL Crisis

I first played D&D in '93 or '94, I don't honestly remember which. I had just started to get close with the kids that would be my best friends throughout my high school years. Somewhere between 4 and 8 of us would spend almost every night at one of our houses. One of the friends suggested we'd have a "lock-in" at his parents shop. They owned a little shop that sold knickknacks, tech, and games. It really had everything and no niche at all. They even had, get this,  laser disks! I digress. We stayed the night in a spare storage/break room with couches and such. We'd game and watch movies. It became an almost weekly tradition. 

It was in this back room that I first played D&D. It was AD&D. I remember one of my friends being adamant about the "A". Like I had any clue why it mattered. Years later, I see the significance, of course. 

We played constantly, not just weekends. We tried every RPG we could get our hands on, but it was D&D that we came back to.

Playing D&D was about being a hero. Also, we learned so much through it; teamwork, compassion, social skills, taking turns, math, problem solving, improved vocabulary, syntax, application, improvisation, drama, comedy, and most importantly what true friendship could be. We were playing heroes in our imagination, but we learned how to be heroes to each other in real life.

I went to college and still got to play, but soon it became less and less. Before I knew it, I graduated and was married. Years passed and fortunately new friends asked me to play 5e with them in 2014. I did, and the old joy and imagination instantly came back. I immediately started thinking about and creating a Dobbers campaign setting. 

I didn't know anything about the OGL or SRD at that time. I was creating something new. It was about people coming together to share stories and adventure, to face imagined dangers and save the day, to be heroes! WotC/Hasbro doesn't own that. They don't own being a hero!

Since then I've learned a ton about the OGL and SRD. I'm not going to rehash that here. There's tons of breakdowns on youtube and they do a better job of explaining it than I would.

It's been about a month since the news came out (though there were rumblings all the way back in December of 2021). I was knee deep in developing Seeds of Decay and I was pushing for the home stretch. In the back of my mind I had started to stress at the thought of needing to convert the book to OneD&D. Should I just leave it? Should I re-release it after fulfillment? Maybe I could produce some kind of conversion guide? These thoughts were enough of a distraction, but they didn't hold a candle to the mega-ton bomb that dropped when a new OGL leaked. WotC/Hasbro was going to release a new OGL and revoke the one I had been operating under. There was a lot of terrible terms proposed in this leaked OGL, but I'll only highlight one:

Wizards would have a "nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use that content for any purpose."

The Dobbers, in many ways, were inspired by my Grandpa who helped raise me. I self-published the Dobbers comic in 2001. The Dobbers are a part of who I am. There was no way I was going to sign that new OGL and sign away my rights to anything I create under it! The mantra for the Dobbers and Seeds of Decay has always been "The Forest Needs Heroes!" They don't own being a hero! 

Did they really think they could take that away from us? 

Was I going to have to rewrite Seeds of Decay in a completely different system now? I began to feel that I would have to. I know there's a lot of conflicting information out there about what was safe and what was not. I'm not going to debate that. I assure you, I wasn't sleeping because of the stress this was causing.

Seeds of Decay was effectively on hold and, because I'm running a business, I still had to somehow get my next product launched. I was a wreck, but I wasn't alone. Thousands of creators were in the same boat. Thousands of creators had their livelihoods in WotC/Hasbro's crosshairs. Then came the #OpenDnD movement.

Though my contribution was small, I was fortunate enough to have been in the war room for the #OpenDnD movement. It was unreal to see it unfold. It was amazing to see the passion of so many talented creators, with their backs against the wall, attacked, hurt and feeling violated. They rose up with strength and integrity. 

On January 27th, 2023, WotC/Hasbro capitulated. OGL 1.0a, the one I was operating under, would stay in place and the entire SRD 5.1, the one I reference, would move to Creative Commons.

I can't accurately put into words what this felt like. The entire community could breath again. Jobs and companies were saved. Plans and projects that had been scrapped were back on the schedule. Seeds of Decay can be finished and published as planned, just as you expected when you supported this Kickstarter! This experience is something I'll never forget. I'm eternally thankful for all the third-party publishers that banded together so save an industry and that they didn't give up. They are real heroes!

I'm beyond thankful for your continued support!

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Seeds of Decay - Do we really know the Rot Weaver?

So the work resumes at full speed. I'll be finishing any remaining writing this month, proofing, revisions and art next month. Hopefully you'll all have an alpha pdf to critique soon. 

Here's a few new illustrations.

And, for some more flavor, would you care to meet Othkara? Below is an excerpt about this very important NPC:

Othkara opened his eyes and instinctively pushed his long whiskers back, brushing them with his groundhog claws. It didn’t take long for his mind to focus. He hadn’t slept well, and who would with what they were facing. He blinked looking around the camp. There were only four of them. Four wizards against the Lightless. They didn’t stand a chance. Not really. Sure, the king sent them out with a lot fanfare and the promise of a kingdom restored. But no one really understood what it was they were up against. Rohr-tan, the Lightless. The inbetweener. The Rot Weaver.

Why do so many call him Rot Weaver? he wondered. Rot is the byproduct of his darkness. Somehow he accelerates the natural process of decay wherever his shadow casts. Rot grower might be more accurate, but I suppose that doesn’t have the same ring. His mind continued to wander as he rolled up his bedding. He’d only laid out a blanket of wool, not even dyed. He didn’t need much. His thick fur provided all the cushion he needed, though he didn’t want to lay directly on the dirt. He was civilized after all. And there were his things to think about. If dirt got into his potions, they’d be ruined. Yes, his bed was simple, but he was not. 

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One last thing, a Thank You for your Support!

Lastly, RPG Essentials is going amazingly. Just as you supported Seeds of Decay, many of you have supported RPG Essentials. As a special thank you, as a backer of Seeds of Decay, if you back RPG Essentials at any physical reward tier, you will receive a free set of Seeds of Decay Acrylic Tokens!

If you've already backed RPG Essentials, don't worry, this set will automatically be added to your rewards. If you've not yet, don't miss out. This set will only be free to you while the campaign is live.

Click here to learn more about RPG Essentials.

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Have questions? Reach out!

Leave a comment, e-mail us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Sincerely,

Darryl T. Jones (aka Splattered Ink)