Hey everyone!
It's been about a month since the last update, and with Gen Con taking up my time the rest of the week I wanted to get the next one out ahead of that (I'm not there as a vendor this year, but I will be playing a ton of RPGs and wandering around. I'll have a T-shirt with the Lone Colossus logo on it two of the days, so if you see me feel free to say hi). As with last month, things continue to proceed as planned and I haven't run into any notable delays yet.

If you're interested in having a say in which illustration from the book gets used to create the art print poster reward, be sure to check the bottom of this update for the poll for that! These art prints will be a limited run, with just a bit more than needed to fulfill backer orders, so be sure to add one to your survey if you want one!

Thanks to everyone who has already completed their pledge manager surveys! If you're part of the 3% of people who haven't, make sure to fill it out as soon as possible! The only times I've ever had backers not get their rewards it was due to them not filling out the survey. If you can't find your link in your email, you can go here to request a new one. If you use an Apple email or some other form of anonymized email, the emails from BackerKit are often blocked by the email provider/sent to spam. If you still aren't getting your link after requesting a new one, try using a different email address.

I have just a handful of trainers left to write, and then the draft of everything for the book will be complete! Chapter 1 (boons, charms, and pacts) has finished its balance edit and is now in copy editing. The remaining chapters are now in balance editing (the trainers themselves have no mechanics, so they aren't part of that edit).

Unless during layout we determine I should commission more artwork, we're down to just 10 pieces left to be completed, and at least half of those should be done in the next couple of weeks!

Work on layout continues, but we're not quite ready to share the first chapter just yet. Depending on when editing finishes up, you might get the chapter after final edits occur - just depends on how long it takes to finalize layout choices. In the meantime though, here's an unfinished example of what Jelke (the layout artist) has been working on for chapter title pages.



We're getting closer and closer to the release of the first chapter, and I can't wait to share it with you when it's ready! In the meantime, I'm starting to post artwork and teasers for the book on Pinterest (which also get shared in my Discord server as they're posted), currently at a rate of ~1/week, but probably more frequently after I find a bit more time in my schedule.

- Josh

Hey everyone,
Just a quick progress update for you this month! Things are proceeding as expected with no real delays to speak of so far.

Chapter 1 (Boons, Blessings, Charms, and Pacts), which last month was almost complete, has now been in balance editing/testing for a couple of weeks and is simultaneously starting layout so that when the final text is ready it can just be dropped in. Over the last month, I've also completed Chapter 2 (Histories and Titles) and all of the trainings for Chapter 3.



Chapter 4 now has all of the Pact Entities' lore text written, and my highest priority for completion is currently their stat blocks so that the mechanical content for the book is 100% complete and able to move on to balance editing/testing. Aside from that, all that remains is for me to finish writing the lore text for the master trainers.

Almost all of the planned pieces for the book have been commissioned or completed at this point, and it's seeming likely that all of the art will be done by the end of July unless we discover space for additional artwork during layout.

Overall, it's all coming together quite well and I'm looking forward to being able to start sharing completed chapters with you in the near future!

- Josh

Hey everyone,
I've been keeping you pretty informed during May with extra updates since we had a bunch of polls and related information that I wanted to keep you apprised of, but today I want to give you a sense of progress with some real numbers!

Between myself and the 20 freelancers I've been working with to flesh out the book, we're nearing 70% completion for all the writing in the book! This is primarily focused on the first chapter, which covers boons, blessings, charms, and pacts. Only about 3% of the content for that chapter hasn't been started, and the other 97% is mostly done. This should mean that you might be seeing that chapter in a couple of months - after it's gone through testing, final editing, and layout.



I've also made some solid progress on writing the backer-voted content, but I still need to make stat blocks for the pact patrons and there's some other writing to be done there as well.

About half of the artwork for the book is now either complete or commissioned. There's still a lot left to do, and there's no rushing good artwork, so I won't give a guess at this point as to when it'll be fully completed, but so far things are progressing easily within my anticipated timelines.

I also have some really excellent news for anyone living in the UK, EU, Australia, or New Zealand! I've managed to find a way to get books shipped from local hubs, which should reduce your shipping rates by a good amount (especially for those in AUS/NZ, where the cost is probably now less than 1/3rd of what it was before).

These rates are not yet reflected in the pledge manger. I'm still working out the proper way to update the shipping tables in the pledge manager, but I wanted to let you know that better rates are on their way in case you were debating adding the box set or whether you wanted to upgrade a digital only pledge to a physical one.

These rates are probably only available during the pre-order period. I'm not 100% certain yet, but it's likely that I won't be able to continue offering these rates after the pledge manager closes. If you live in one of those regions, now is probably the best time to get a physical order in since shipments after that will probably be limited to originating from the US.

And that's it for this update! I hope your June is an excellent one and not too hot just yet.
- Josh

Hi everyone!
Thanks to all of you who voted in all the many polls that have been run recently! Your feedback has been tremendously helpful in deciding the best course of action.

Since this update got quite long, there's a TL;DR at the bottom if you don't have time to read the whole thing :)

While 32% of those who voted in the original 4-choice poll opted for the 40 additional cards to contain the 40 Advanced Trainings that will be found in the book, another 68% voted for a mix of charms, pacts, and boons/blessings. In the binary poll that I created last week, I asked you to choose between either Advanced Trainings or a blend of charms, pacts, and boons/blessings and....there was still no overwhelming victor! In fact, the gap closed down to 44%/56% in favor of charms, pacts, boons, and blessings.

Since the vote was still so split, I reached out to my printer and got a quote for creating a whole new deck. My solution to the question of what to use the 40 extra cards in the box set for will be to add more charms, pacts, and boons/blessings since that will keep that product as a more cohesive box set.

However, I don't want to charge backers for another deck add-on just because the option they voted for is going to be created as its own product. Anyone who pledged for the Box Set of Intangible Treasures add-on during the campaign, or who adds it to their survey/pre-order will also get the deck of trainings for FREE. 

This new deck will be 60 cards, and will contain both the Advanced Trainings and the Epic Trainings found in the book. The Advanced Trainings will have their respective trainers' artwork gorgeously presented on the card back, and I'll figured out something else equally suitable for the Epic Trainings (for which there are no trainers as they are intended to be developed by the characters learning them). These cards most likely won't be gilded as that was going to more than quadruple their print cost (still looking into that though), but I think they'll be a fine addition to your collection nevertheless!

The new deck's eventual MSRP will be $20, so, combined with the eventual price increase post-release on the box set, pledges and pre-orders for the box set are essentially netting you a 37.5% discount on these cards.



If you've already submitted your survey but want to add the box set to get the free deck, you can still do that by going to your survey in the pledge manager and updating your add-ons.

With that exciting news out of the way...let's get into the other exciting poll results!

First up are the Histories. These were pretty split! The Tainted and Plaguewalker histories were definitely the most popular, with Dreamer, Betrayed, and Arcane Crafter coming in behind. Those five are the ones that will definitely be included in the book. However. If there's space to include the other 5, I probably will since a good chunk of those voting voted for them as well! If not, they'll be mentioned in an appendix as inspirational ideas for you to pull from.

The pact entities were a bit more clear, with Mother of Strays, Dimitriesse, Saint of Small Odds, Revelry, Goddess of Revenge, The Storyteller, and Tirevalisyanir, Archfey of Lost Secrets gaining the majority of the vote. As with any submitted histories that don't make it into the book, the remaining 5 will be included in an appendix with their currently written pitch for you to pull from as inspiration for additional entities your party might encounter in your game.



The Tainted history was submitted by Secretrider, the Plaguewalker by SweetLawOfGrace, the Dreamer by D. Vyin, the Betrayed by Rose "Gaming Mistress" Whitcomb, and the Arcane Crafter was adapted from submissions by Stormguard555 and Oliver Peltier. The Mother of Strays was submitted by Rowan Irelia, Dimitriesse by Colin "Tin Man" Kulsa, Revelry also by Rose "Gaming Mistress" Whitcomb, The Storyteller by Ethan, and Tirevalisyanir by Joanna Villafane.

Thanks to everyone for your submissions, and for voting! Backer-submitted content is one of my favorite things to include in my books when I can, despite the extra work it usually involves.

The vote on what to do with cards was even more split with the 2-choice poll, so I'm creating a separate deck with the advanced and epic trainings to give everyone what they want. This deck will be included for free with the box set for anyone who pledged for it or added it during their survey/pre-order, bringing the total MSRP discount of the box set add-on to 37.5% during pre-orders. You can still add the box set as an add-on in your survey if you haven't already - even if you've already submitted your survey.

We also selected 5 histories and 5 pact entities to include in the book, with the rest going into an appendix of inspiring content.

Thanks again for your support!
- Josh

Hey everyone!
Quick update to let you know I've shortened the duration on the previous 4-option poll (it'll end tomorrow) for what to do with cards and that I've created a new 2-option poll (attached to the bottom of this update, running through Sunday). The 4-option poll is much too evenly spread for me to make a final decision on that I'll feel confident in, so I'll use this binary option to get a better feel for what you all most want.

You can still vote on the original poll if you want to help push a specific option, but this new poll is what I'll be primarily relying on to make the decision.

Thanks!
- Josh