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Tome of Intangible Treasures

Created by Lone Colossus Games

A 5e-compatible collection of intangible rewards for characters; including boons, pacts, titles, trainings, and more

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Locking Orders Soon + Cool Project!
3 days ago – Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 07:53:54 AM

Hey everyone!

I got a preview of the final PDF over the weekend, which means we're extremely close to the digital release of Tome of Intangible Treasures! There are a few minor details left to be ironed out, and then I'll be making the PDF available through your downloads on BackerKit. I will also send it out on DriveThruRPG in case you want a copy there, and so you can leave it a review when you've had a chance to enjoy it for a bit.

This means that I will be locking orders later this week to make sure things are ready for the PDF download distribution. If you have items you want to get added to your survey, now's the time to do it. It'll technically be possible to make changes to your items later, but it will be a lot less easy to do so. You'll get a notification from BackerKit 48 hours before orders lock.


Timeline for Charging Cards

Orders may be locking, but we've still got the manufacturing period left to go before shipping. I'll let you know when I have a more specific date for charging cards for shipping/late pledges/survey add-ons, but for now I would assume it will be either late December or early January.


A Cool Project

Kefa Studios has been a longtime supporter of Lone Colossus Games, and helped me out with getting eyes on my very first project. Their latest project, the Complete Guide to Jousting, is live now on Kickstarter and gives you everything you need to bring this exciting sport to your game, including mechanics for jousting (even on flying creatures!), using spells, new equipment for riders and their mounts, new mounts, and so much more.





If you're a fan of medieval festivals or real life ren faires, definitely go check it out! A jousting tournament is sure to be a place to earn a Title or two.

That's it for this update, and you can look forward to seeing the PDF of Tome of Intangible Treasures very soon!
- Josh

November Update
16 days ago – Tue, Nov 05, 2024 at 08:32:33 AM

Hey everyone,
It's been about a month since the last update, so although the PDF isn't quite done yet there's still plenty to share.

Writing Progress

I've been busy proofreading while waiting for final layout to finish up. Chapters 1-3 are complete with their final final text, and chapter 4 will be done soon as well. Not a lot to say here other than that!

Layout Progress

Layout is largely complete for the entire book, and space has been blocked out for all the artwork. I wanted to make sure that each NPC had their portrait next to their lore info, and that took a bit of work to figure out and make sure that it looks nice. Similarly, the pact entities in chapter 4 have taken a bit of work to keep the layout style for the lore and stat blocks consistent while also making room for their artwork as some stat blocks are much longer than others, but I think the final results will be worth the wait!

Here are some screenshots of spreads from chapter 2 to help tide you over while you wait for the full release.




 
And for those wondering about the final length, the book's page count looks to be coming out to around 200 pages.

Dice Progress

A couple months ago I mentioned that I was close to being able to share some pictures of dice - well, I finally have them! These are not the final samples, and the dice manufacturer is not completely set in stone yet, but I wanted to share pictures with you so you can see where they're going. It turns out getting dice to look like an artist's mockup is quite tricky, but I think we've captured the essence of the "Mysteries of Magic" name quite well with these.



Round-edged samples have a lower cost, so that's how these have been finished (the final dice will be sharp-edged). The first image however should give you a bit of an idea how these will look as sharp-edged dice as that's the way they come out of the molds.

The next sample will be trying out a translucent resin for the dark blue color, which should make the dice look just a little less like candy, and keep some of the gold interior coming through on the lowest face. Additionally, the symbol that replaces the 20 will be rotated 180 degrees so that it can be made a bit larger. These samples have been taking about a month to complete, so hopefully by this time next month I'll have some more pictures to share.

Dice Packaging
I've also been looking into packaging for these dice, as I don't think the plastic bag they use by default is going to work well. There are a couple of options depending on the manufacturer I go with, but either way the dice will come in a box with a foam insert to keep them (and their sharp edges) safe.

Timeline

While layout is taking a bit longer than I'd hoped, we're still way ahead of the originally planned schedule for digital release, and easily on track for the physical release. Completion of layout is almost entirely out of my hands, so once I've finished up my last task with proofreading chapter 4 and getting those edits into the text, it'll be on to making the Shard VTT version. Layout completion is necessary for the Roll20 conversion to begin, but the Foundry conversion should be able to start as soon as I've got the Shard version done.

I won't give any solid dates here for any of this as it's still up in the air a bit, but let's just say "pretty soon" for digital release, and that I expect printing to begin before the end of the year.

We're getting very close to digital release and the start of printing now, and I can't wait to get you the full PDF soon!
- Josh

October Update, What's Next?
about 2 months ago – Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 08:13:16 AM

Hey everyone!
I hope you've been enjoying the preview of Chapter 1! I've got another quick progress update for you, and a survey on what project you'd like to see me work on next.

Writing Progress

Last night I got word from my editor that she finished her pass on the remaining text I was waiting on, and I'll be working my way through that over the next few days to get it all ready for layout. I've also gotten through about half of Chapter 1 for proofreading, and found a few wording things I want to change just for consistency's sake but all pretty minor stuff. Keep an eye out for the rest of layout to be wrapping up in the next month or so!

What's Next?

With work on Tome of Intangible Treasures wrapping up, I'd love to get your input on what my next project should be! I've got quite a few ideas, so I've put together this Google Form survey for you to give your feedback in. There's a more detailed description of each project idea at the bottom of the form, but here's a brief summary (titles for all these projects are TBD/not final):

  • Dark Fantasy Monster Book. Pretty much what it says - a monster book (probably for 5e) with a lot of dark fantasy options. 
  • Book of Rituals/Tome of Intangible Treasures 2. A followup on Tome of Intangible Treasures with more boons/charms/pacts and a Heliana's Crafting compatible ritual system to enchant yourself  with these abilities using pieces of slain foes (including some new ones in the book). 
  • Book of Trainings/Tome of Intangible Treasures 2. A followup on Tome of Intangible Treasures focused on providing a lot more training options and training-related content.
  • Deck of Encounters. A Gloomhaven/Scythe Encounter Cards style, system-neutral (probably with a 5e guide) random encounters deck. 
  • Red Earth: A Tactical/Post-Apocalyptic/Science Fantasy/Mission-Oriented TTRPG. Mechanically inspired by games like XCOM, Edge of the Empire, Shadowrun, Blades in the Dark, and Draw Steel, and thematically inspired by the Broken Earth Trilogy, DOOM, Darksiders, and darksynth/horrorsynth music.
  • Golden Sun Inspired TTRPG. Pretty much what it says - a TTRPG/setting inspired by the setting of the Golden Sun franchise (might be powered by or compatible with Fabula Ultima or an entirely new system).

Gamehole Con

Also, I'll be a vendor at Gamehole Con in Madison this year! I don't have a booth number as I'm in the Demo Row, but stop by and say hi if you're there!

I'll see you in the next update, either with the next finished chapter or the completed PDF!
- Josh

Chapter 1 is Ready! Plus a brief timeline update
2 months ago – Thu, Sep 19, 2024 at 09:20:57 AM

Hey everyone!
The title says it all - chapter 1 of Tome of Intangible Treasures is (basically) complete, and I've shared it as a digital download for all backers. You should be be getting an email from BackerKit about it shortly. This version has been copy edited, but not proofread. This means that you might see some minor typos here and there (though hopefully even at this stage that will be rare). There might also be some incredibly minor layout tweaks happening between now and final release, but this is intended as the final layout and near-final text for this chapter. 

If you happen to catch typos or have any questions as you're reading, feel free to send me an email at [email protected] or hop in the Discord server and drop a message in the #TomeofIntangibleTreasures channel! There will be proofreading happening before the book is finalized, but I didn't want to make you wait any longer to have an early look at this chapter :)

Brief Timeline Update

With current editing timelines, I'm hopeful that the entire PDF should be done by the end of October - which means we're ahead of schedule on the digital side! However, this definitely depends on how long proofreading takes. Once it's done, I'll be locking orders so that I can start distributing it to backers and pre-order pledges (but I won't be charging cards for late add-ons and shipping just yet - that will come later when we're closer to shipping). I'll give everyone a couple of weeks with the book while we work on finalizing print files to make sure any obvious errors that somehow slip past the multiple rounds of editing can be fixed before we print, and then it'll be on to manufacturing!

Dice

As a side note: I've been working with a factory on dice design for a few months, so progress is happening on those as well, but I'm waiting to share any images of dice until I see a version I'm reasonably happy with. The samples take a while to make (and communication can be somewhat slow), so if there are delays that happen in fulfilling physical orders it's most likely to come from delays in getting the dice finalized. This is my first time making dice as part of a project, and I hadn't quite anticipated how long it would take to have samples made (it also turns out factories are very hesitant to make suggestions on how to turn mockups into reality, which definitely leads to some trial and error. Thankfully I have a dice maker friend who's helped me out with some consulting from time to time). If I do dice in the future I'll probably be working on samples before even launching the campaign just to make sure the dice aren't likely to be the last thing done.

Anyway, I'm happy with how this chapter turned out and I'm really excited to finally be able to share it with you!

Thanks as always for your support, and enjoy the early look at chapter 1!
- Josh

September Update
3 months ago – Tue, Sep 03, 2024 at 11:14:04 AM

Hey everyone!
Today's update is fairly short: I'm still waiting for that Chapter 1 PDF to share with you, but I'm told it should be ready within a week or so and you can be sure that as soon as I have it, you'll have it. 

The poll about poster images wrapped up a week or two ago as well, and it looks like the scene of the adventurer communing with a primal spirit won, so that is now the official image choice for the art print!

Writing Progress

Writing is 100% draft complete! I got the final balance edits this weekend, and am almost done finalizing that part. After that, chapters 3 and 4 need to go to copy editing, and then there'll be proofreading to do once that's all done.

Art Progress

Art is 100% complete as well. I got the last few pieces back in August, and that's that!

Reminder to Complete Surveys

Thanks to the 98% of you that have filled out your surveys! That is a really great percentage to see at this stage. If you are one of the (currently 28) people who have not filled out your survey, be sure to do so soon! The longer you wait the higher the likelihood that I can't fulfill your order. If you're not sure if you've filled out your survey, you can check (or request a new link) here: https://tome-of-intangible-treasures.backerkit.com/sign_in

As a reminder, if you use AppleID, that will typically block emails from BackerKit and prevent you from getting your survey, download, and shipping notification emails. Be sure not to use that as your email in BackerKit to avoid that issue.

What's Next?

Since this project's work is now mostly out of my hands, I'm starting to think about what the next project should be! Once I've gotten Chapter 1 out to you all, you can expect to see a poll asking what your favorite ideas are out of the several I've got in mind.

Injuries and Vile Deeds is on Roll20 (coming to Foundry)

In preparation for getting Tome of Intangible Treasures's VTT conversions done as quickly as possible once the book is ready, I've been working with others to get Injuries and Vile Deeds out on Roll20 and Foundry as a sort of practice run. The Roll20 version is already available, and you can grab that now on their marketplace if that's your preferred VTT. Work on the Foundry version is just starting, so I don't really have a timeline on that yet, but know that it's coming as well :)

Thanks as always for your support, and I can't wait to share Chapter 1 with you when it's done!
- Josh