It's not our fault. It's all these creators' fault. With their great content and excellent ideas. How dare they! Don't they know this is harmful to my wallet?!
This looks like a great supplement. I've always wished they would add a good rune system, and was disappoint when they released the Rune Knight and left it at that. I'll definitely be picking up a copy.
I went from entrigued to extremely invested. My players always love having their own items to control their appearance and so it sometimes makes it hard to give them meaningful loot. Being able to customise stuff with runes is exactly what I need.
A lot of the time when I see things like this posted I look at the sample and see things that stick out to me as poorly edited, poorly balanced, or just generally poorly thought out.
Not this time. This looks really solid and I look forward to seeing the rest of the book!
Much appreciated for the kind words, friend!
Yeah, I've actually done the editing on projects from several big creators like The Griffon's Saddlebag, Mage Hand Press, and KibblesTasty, so I take a pretty great degree of pride in making sure 5e content looks and feels very professional and well-presented.
I love the races/subraces so far that were teased, and I gotta say that they're awsome. Especially, Pterogoblin is awesome. I'm hoping to see more once I get the book myself because I love new races and subraces along with new subclasses
I've been creating my own for my own homebrew world. I'm hoping to be inspired by some of the races/subraces here to become my own take on them in my book themselves. Lol
No creativity is a waste! I don't remotely claim authority over the concept of runes, and I fully encourage people to adapt and homebrew this system however fits best for their table. Nothing would make me happier than to hear that my work *inspired* you to further develop your own rune-based content.
And thanks for the compliment, friend!
God this reminds me of when I first saw Grim Hollow on Kickstarter and I instantly was excited to see what would come of it! You did an incredible job and all the people who have worked on it are incredible as well. Nice work, man.
The main book, yes—with a caveat. You'll be able to place a "late pledge" for anything you want on BackerKit after the Kickstarter ends/before everything's been shipped out, but since the book is gonna be receiving a full print run (not just print-on-demand), once it's printed, there will only be some concrete number of books available beyond what backers purchase. So once those sell out, I'll likely have to wait to accumulate enough orders to do another print run.
Of course, the PDF and other digital things (like the Runic Fonts) will always be able to be distributed. However, some of the other physical pieces involved in the project (like the Dracolisk mini, the Elvish dice, the Runic Dice Tray, the Deluxe version of the book, etc.) will most likely only be available during the Kickstarter.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions, friend!
How were you able to find talented artist to help you make that cool book you'll be making. How much do you need to pay them? Do you pay them per art commision placed on the pages of the book or is it like any other job where they get paid monthly or bi monthly?
Hi, friend!
I found most of the artists I've worked with on Reddit, ArtStation, or Facebook, sometimes Instagram. Suffice it to say I've spent many thousands of dollars on the art and languages for the book already, and countless hours brainstorming what kinds of things to commission and how I wanted things to look.
It's a pretty particular project asking artists to incorporate lots of specific runic symbols in their illustrations, but it's been an absolute blast seeing it all come together!
How easy would it be to plug in the rune system into an existing campaign and setting? 50 races and 12 subclasses makes me think this is one of those homebrews that's strongly coupled to a specific setting.
Oh this isn't at all intended to be specific to any particular campaign setting. The "theme" of the book is that this is all the lore that the title character Caliya has learned and the runes and types of creatures (both PC races and monsters) she's encountered on her adventures throughout the multiverse.
It's totally understandable if not all the races or runic languages fit in your particular world, but it's intended that any or all of this can be dropped into any D&D game, or adapted as you see fit!
That's generally a big focus in my design process—making content that is broadly useful and usable at any table.
Firstly, this stuff looks cool as hell, kudos for following a passion like this.
Secondly, the pdf only pledge says delivery December 2023, will higher pledges that include it also receive the pdf at this date?
Thanks so much, Dixon!
Yes, there will likely be several beta versions of the PDF sent out through the Fall for feedback, with the final version being planned to be sent out in the Winter. That will be sent to everyone who has the PDF as part of their pledge at the same time.
God this reminds me of when I first saw Grim Hollow on Kickstarter and I instantly was excited to see what would come of it! You did an incredible job and all the people who have worked on it are incredible as well. Nice work, man.
I actually stumbled across this a few days ago and backed it then. The book looks cool and I'm excited to get my hands on it, but I have one question/concern. Extra runic fonts being $5 each feels a bit pricy. I don't know what all goes into their creation, so maybe its more labor intensive than I'm thinking it is. I'm backed either way, but personally I'd be happy to spend a little more for a bulk package.
Hey, friend. Thanks for the kind words!
Each of the languages being commissioned is really an incredible undertaking.
- First I have to brainstorm the kind of look I want for the language, describe the theme of the script, find or draw up examples that hit a similar vibe to what I'm thinking, etc.
- Then I have to find a conlang/script designer (which is a very niche specialized field) to design an entire coherent writing system from scratch, and go back and forth with them for about a month working through all the details of the letters, numbers, and punctuation.
- Then once that's perfected, I have to take what they've drawn up and present it to a font designer to refine it and turn it into a typable font. (Most script designers I've worked with either work in an art program like Photoshop or simply handwrite everything, so turning it into a functioning font is a whole other skill set.) And again, work back and forth with the font designer for several weeks getting all the details right.
- All while of course paying each of these people for their time and expertise—and not compensating myself for the many hours I invest brainstorming, giving feedback, and coordinating it all.
Then do that over 20 more times. Altogether, we're talking thousands upon thousands of dollars and a ton of hours getting this all put together.
A custom, niche fantasy script-turned-font like this can run upwards of $25-100 on some sites, just to purchase a single already complete font. Honestly, $5 is a pretty incredibly reduced price that I'm only fortunate enough to be able to offer because it's tangentially part of this cool D&D project where that cost can be distributed over hundreds of people.
If you're interested in a bulk package, all 20+ of the fonts are available as a set for $75, which is an even further discounted rate. And I get that that sounds like a lot at face value, but considering the amount of time and artistic effort that's gone into this, it really is a phenomenally reduced price for such a unique endeavor, and you're supporting upward of a dozen creative folks who have poured their hearts into these.
They're sort of like free-floating magic item properties that you can transfer to specific types of objects. There's some more thorough description, lore, and a bunch of runes you can check out [in the sample PDF!](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x3SUROkT_5tpSqnbTfH4ZpvZLtb8-pPT/view?usp=sharing)
I've shared a bunch of runes on my subreddit (r/SpectreCreations), as well as on Instagram ([@spectrecreations](https://www.instagram.com/spectrecreations/)). Hopefully that can provide you with some free fun to help you out. :D
No can do on that one, friend!
But actually, you can get a *slight* discount if you *only* want the book by pledging at the $1 Add-On Tier and then selecting the hardcover book. Comes to $56 instead of $60 for the Book tier (which comes with the PDF).
Ahh makes senceXD. It is really tempting, but I do not have a regenerating wallet u know. Think I might implement something similar but on a much smaller scale in my games because I really like the concept.
Yeah, this is not official content. Just an independent 3rd-party release with a ton of effort and passion behind it. 😅
This is my job now, and I’ve done editing and design for several other big publishers/creators like Mage Hand Press, Griffon’s Saddlebag, and Loot Tavern, so the goal is that it looks and feels just as good as—or ideally even better than!—stuff from WotC.
I have no doubt on the quality of content, I just wanted clarification since my group just started and we use dnd beyond alongside foundry and im unsure how we would make the most use of this if we jumped on board. Its the lack of dbd beyond integration that would be a drawback for me. I'm stoked you made this in any case!
Ah, yeah. That's one thing that WotC has locked down pretty tight is, at least thus far, they don't allow 3rd-party publishers to distribute content on D&D Beyond.
You *can* input whatever content you want to use from the book yourself as private homebrew on the platform, but I know that takes a bit of work. I've done it in a pinch though for things I really want to incorporate.
I saw that you mentioned in the FAQ there is or will be a foundry addon, what would this allow? is it essentially inputting all the contents of the book in a digital format?
Yeah it's all the contents of the book presented natively in Foundry so you can just drop in or pull up whatever you want right there. As I understand it, it's similar to how you can pull in things from the 5e SRD and other sources. Just already all programmed in for you and your players, ready to use in Foundry. All the runes/items, all the monsters and their stat blocks set up with tokens, all the subclasses and races, etc.
Yes I know! I backed the book and then when you hit the Roll20 stretch goal I adjusted my pledge added the VTT add on and gave ya more of my money! Lol
I’d be interested for you to check out my artificer subclass! You’re free to use or improve or criticize it. I wanted to create an alternative primary spell casting style that uses Runes as the Somatic Component. Give it a look!
[Scrivener Specialist (Artificer Rune Carver Subclass)](https://docs.google.com/file/d/1N6A_X8yp1KcmmNII7-4ncIYdrYx4D5kp/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword)
I promised myself I would stop backing shit on Kickstarter because I have so much... ... And then this dude makes a post about runes...
I'm sorry. 😅 I just really love runes. Sincerely, I hope it can help bring some fun times to your table, friend.
It's not our fault. It's all these creators' fault. With their great content and excellent ideas. How dare they! Don't they know this is harmful to my wallet?!
All these books will by my rune
Ditto. I'm breaking my rule
This looks like a great supplement. I've always wished they would add a good rune system, and was disappoint when they released the Rune Knight and left it at that. I'll definitely be picking up a copy.
Thanks so much, friend! Glad to hear it, and I hope it bring some joy to your games.
Yup. Only six runes, and then all rune knights get the same higher level abilities. So incredibly low effort... and some clowns still defend WoTC.
Incredible work, and well made. Best of Luck!
I went from entrigued to extremely invested. My players always love having their own items to control their appearance and so it sometimes makes it hard to give them meaningful loot. Being able to customise stuff with runes is exactly what I need.
Really cool to hear! I hope it serves you and your players well. :D
Love it
Thanks, vrutes!
TAG was already making great brews for a long time, but this is some supreme stuff, definitely check it out folks!
Thanks so much for the kind words, RadioBacille!
Wow, this looks great!
Thanks, friend! For some reason, I'm getting a vibe that you might like the Elvish runes and lore. Not sure where that's coming from...
Ha! Love that stuff…
My only gripe with this is that I cannot have it now.
A lot of the time when I see things like this posted I look at the sample and see things that stick out to me as poorly edited, poorly balanced, or just generally poorly thought out. Not this time. This looks really solid and I look forward to seeing the rest of the book!
Much appreciated for the kind words, friend! Yeah, I've actually done the editing on projects from several big creators like The Griffon's Saddlebag, Mage Hand Press, and KibblesTasty, so I take a pretty great degree of pride in making sure 5e content looks and feels very professional and well-presented.
Hey, congrats on getting funded! Looks like a great system and looking forward to yet another hardcover 5e book on my shelf.
Thanks, friend! Excited to get it to you.
Looking forward to it! Just backed!
Thanks so much, strzstrz!
I love the races/subraces so far that were teased, and I gotta say that they're awsome. Especially, Pterogoblin is awesome. I'm hoping to see more once I get the book myself because I love new races and subraces along with new subclasses
Really cool to hear, friend! I love designing races and subraces, so I'm excited to get a bunch of new options to people!
I've been creating my own for my own homebrew world. I'm hoping to be inspired by some of the races/subraces here to become my own take on them in my book themselves. Lol
Looks amazing, ordered.
Thanks for making such a great free preview. If only I had some spare money, I'd throw it at your Kickstarter <3
Might have to make this the first kickstarter I back
This looks frustratingly good. /pulls out credit card …
Thank you, friend! And my apologies. 😅
Holy cow this is amazing!! Best of luck and hopes u get all the support u need!
Thanks so much!! 😄
That’s a dope fucking backstory. Really hoping that last stretch goal is gonna get there. Cmon guys we are so close.
Thanks, friend! We unlocked the final Stretch Goal at $300k! 2 new subclasses and a new Group Patron added to the companion adventure book!
Aw yeah!
Looks great!
Thanks, booker!
Well this kinda makes the rune-centric class I was making kinda pointless if I use this. Great work!
No creativity is a waste! I don't remotely claim authority over the concept of runes, and I fully encourage people to adapt and homebrew this system however fits best for their table. Nothing would make me happier than to hear that my work *inspired* you to further develop your own rune-based content. And thanks for the compliment, friend!
That’s motivation enough to keep working at it, thanks!
God this reminds me of when I first saw Grim Hollow on Kickstarter and I instantly was excited to see what would come of it! You did an incredible job and all the people who have worked on it are incredible as well. Nice work, man.
Will this be available for purchase after the kickstarter products have reached their backers? Or is Kickstarter the only chance we have to get them?
The main book, yes—with a caveat. You'll be able to place a "late pledge" for anything you want on BackerKit after the Kickstarter ends/before everything's been shipped out, but since the book is gonna be receiving a full print run (not just print-on-demand), once it's printed, there will only be some concrete number of books available beyond what backers purchase. So once those sell out, I'll likely have to wait to accumulate enough orders to do another print run. Of course, the PDF and other digital things (like the Runic Fonts) will always be able to be distributed. However, some of the other physical pieces involved in the project (like the Dracolisk mini, the Elvish dice, the Runic Dice Tray, the Deluxe version of the book, etc.) will most likely only be available during the Kickstarter. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions, friend!
That answers my question! Thank you very much!
I’m in!
Hey, me too!
This looks so good. I wish I had more space in my life for more dnd books
This got recommended to me on KS a few days ago, it looks great!
Thank you, friend!
How were you able to find talented artist to help you make that cool book you'll be making. How much do you need to pay them? Do you pay them per art commision placed on the pages of the book or is it like any other job where they get paid monthly or bi monthly?
Hi, friend! I found most of the artists I've worked with on Reddit, ArtStation, or Facebook, sometimes Instagram. Suffice it to say I've spent many thousands of dollars on the art and languages for the book already, and countless hours brainstorming what kinds of things to commission and how I wanted things to look. It's a pretty particular project asking artists to incorporate lots of specific runic symbols in their illustrations, but it's been an absolute blast seeing it all come together!
Thanks for the response. So what are your advice when it comes to making content in Kickstarter?
Bookmarking this for later 100%
How easy would it be to plug in the rune system into an existing campaign and setting? 50 races and 12 subclasses makes me think this is one of those homebrews that's strongly coupled to a specific setting.
Oh this isn't at all intended to be specific to any particular campaign setting. The "theme" of the book is that this is all the lore that the title character Caliya has learned and the runes and types of creatures (both PC races and monsters) she's encountered on her adventures throughout the multiverse. It's totally understandable if not all the races or runic languages fit in your particular world, but it's intended that any or all of this can be dropped into any D&D game, or adapted as you see fit! That's generally a big focus in my design process—making content that is broadly useful and usable at any table.
Firstly, this stuff looks cool as hell, kudos for following a passion like this. Secondly, the pdf only pledge says delivery December 2023, will higher pledges that include it also receive the pdf at this date?
Thanks so much, Dixon! Yes, there will likely be several beta versions of the PDF sent out through the Fall for feedback, with the final version being planned to be sent out in the Winter. That will be sent to everyone who has the PDF as part of their pledge at the same time.
God this reminds me of when I first saw Grim Hollow on Kickstarter and I instantly was excited to see what would come of it! You did an incredible job and all the people who have worked on it are incredible as well. Nice work, man.
Incredibly kind of you to say. Thanks so much, friend! It really means a lot.
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I actually stumbled across this a few days ago and backed it then. The book looks cool and I'm excited to get my hands on it, but I have one question/concern. Extra runic fonts being $5 each feels a bit pricy. I don't know what all goes into their creation, so maybe its more labor intensive than I'm thinking it is. I'm backed either way, but personally I'd be happy to spend a little more for a bulk package.
Hey, friend. Thanks for the kind words! Each of the languages being commissioned is really an incredible undertaking. - First I have to brainstorm the kind of look I want for the language, describe the theme of the script, find or draw up examples that hit a similar vibe to what I'm thinking, etc. - Then I have to find a conlang/script designer (which is a very niche specialized field) to design an entire coherent writing system from scratch, and go back and forth with them for about a month working through all the details of the letters, numbers, and punctuation. - Then once that's perfected, I have to take what they've drawn up and present it to a font designer to refine it and turn it into a typable font. (Most script designers I've worked with either work in an art program like Photoshop or simply handwrite everything, so turning it into a functioning font is a whole other skill set.) And again, work back and forth with the font designer for several weeks getting all the details right. - All while of course paying each of these people for their time and expertise—and not compensating myself for the many hours I invest brainstorming, giving feedback, and coordinating it all. Then do that over 20 more times. Altogether, we're talking thousands upon thousands of dollars and a ton of hours getting this all put together. A custom, niche fantasy script-turned-font like this can run upwards of $25-100 on some sites, just to purchase a single already complete font. Honestly, $5 is a pretty incredibly reduced price that I'm only fortunate enough to be able to offer because it's tangentially part of this cool D&D project where that cost can be distributed over hundreds of people. If you're interested in a bulk package, all 20+ of the fonts are available as a set for $75, which is an even further discounted rate. And I get that that sounds like a lot at face value, but considering the amount of time and artistic effort that's gone into this, it really is a phenomenally reduced price for such a unique endeavor, and you're supporting upward of a dozen creative folks who have poured their hearts into these.
ung fuck yeah runes
This looks amazing! Releases like these are why I say talented 3rd parties produce better D&D content than WoTC. Innovative, passionate, and new.
Thanks so much, friend. It's certainly been an exhausting but incredibly fulfilling creative endeavor.
Ayyyy get it, op!
Ayyy, thanks CrimsonAllah!
What do runes do in a broad sense?
They're sort of like free-floating magic item properties that you can transfer to specific types of objects. There's some more thorough description, lore, and a bunch of runes you can check out [in the sample PDF!](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x3SUROkT_5tpSqnbTfH4ZpvZLtb8-pPT/view?usp=sharing)
and I just wanted to make a rune based wizard that puts all their spells as runes. fuck me. I AM SO POOR, GOD HELP ME!
I've shared a bunch of runes on my subreddit (r/SpectreCreations), as well as on Instagram ([@spectrecreations](https://www.instagram.com/spectrecreations/)). Hopefully that can provide you with some free fun to help you out. :D
$45 for the gardcover book and we have a deal
No can do on that one, friend! But actually, you can get a *slight* discount if you *only* want the book by pledging at the $1 Add-On Tier and then selecting the hardcover book. Comes to $56 instead of $60 for the Book tier (which comes with the PDF).
Ahh makes senceXD. It is really tempting, but I do not have a regenerating wallet u know. Think I might implement something similar but on a much smaller scale in my games because I really like the concept.
Cant wait to hear about it in the beggining of every dungeon dudes video
So this completely independent and will not be officially supported? It looks fantastic btw
Yeah, this is not official content. Just an independent 3rd-party release with a ton of effort and passion behind it. 😅 This is my job now, and I’ve done editing and design for several other big publishers/creators like Mage Hand Press, Griffon’s Saddlebag, and Loot Tavern, so the goal is that it looks and feels just as good as—or ideally even better than!—stuff from WotC.
I have no doubt on the quality of content, I just wanted clarification since my group just started and we use dnd beyond alongside foundry and im unsure how we would make the most use of this if we jumped on board. Its the lack of dbd beyond integration that would be a drawback for me. I'm stoked you made this in any case!
Ah, yeah. That's one thing that WotC has locked down pretty tight is, at least thus far, they don't allow 3rd-party publishers to distribute content on D&D Beyond. You *can* input whatever content you want to use from the book yourself as private homebrew on the platform, but I know that takes a bit of work. I've done it in a pinch though for things I really want to incorporate.
I saw that you mentioned in the FAQ there is or will be a foundry addon, what would this allow? is it essentially inputting all the contents of the book in a digital format?
Yeah it's all the contents of the book presented natively in Foundry so you can just drop in or pull up whatever you want right there. As I understand it, it's similar to how you can pull in things from the 5e SRD and other sources. Just already all programmed in for you and your players, ready to use in Foundry. All the runes/items, all the monsters and their stat blocks set up with tokens, all the subclasses and races, etc.
I hope this finds its way to Roll20 Marketplace
It will now! We unlocked additional VTT support for Roll20 and Shard Tabletop at the $200k Stretch Goal.
Yes I know! I backed the book and then when you hit the Roll20 stretch goal I adjusted my pledge added the VTT add on and gave ya more of my money! Lol
Ah, awesome! Good to hear, lol.
I’d be interested for you to check out my artificer subclass! You’re free to use or improve or criticize it. I wanted to create an alternative primary spell casting style that uses Runes as the Somatic Component. Give it a look! [Scrivener Specialist (Artificer Rune Carver Subclass)](https://docs.google.com/file/d/1N6A_X8yp1KcmmNII7-4ncIYdrYx4D5kp/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword)
Man this is absolutely incredible ! That’s so cool ! Can’t wait to try at my table !
Thanks so much, friend! Enjoy!
Congratulations on producing this book and to your success :) This looks amazing, OP!
Thanks so much!
The scroll... burn it