Silk Road Guide to Seafaring

Week 2: 1,300% Funded
5 months ago – Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 12:34:35 PM

Welcome to week 2! As we begin our second week of this campaign, we have reached 1,300% of our funding goal, thanks to you! The pledges have slowed down this week (typical around week 2 of a Kickstarter), but we've already far exceeded our preliminary goals for this smaller, simpler project. Now all that remains is to see how many of our Stretch Goals we can unlock! 
Speaking of which:

Our fourth Stretch Goal was unlocked this week, unleashing an expanded selection of monsters to populate this nautical setting. In particular, there are some interesting silk road legends from China, India, and Scandinavia that we would like to see included in our bestiary. While these monsters may not be as powerful as the "Titans of the Deep" we discussed last week, they nonetheless provide new and interesting twists and challenges for our player characters as they explore the uncharted waters of the first century.

Art Showcase: Titans of the Deep
5 months ago – Tue, Jul 09, 2024 at 06:19:05 PM

This Friday, we will be hosting an art showcase in our Discord server. This art showcase is a chance to get a preview of some of the art from Silk Road Guide to Seafaring and even chat live with some of the artists behind the module. Specifically, this showcase will feature art from three of the four "Titans of the Deep" from the adventure. These extremely powerful monsters each occupy a different quadrant of the world map, and help cultivate the ever-present feeling of dread that was all too familiar to Silk Road sailors.

Joining us for the art showcase are the artists behind these monsters, who will share their sketches and concept designs (as well as the final pieces). The art showcase will happen on our #art-showcase channel on Discord, and will be LIVE at 9:00 am EST (6:00 am PST). Anyone who is able to join for the live presentation can feel free to ask questions and chat with presenters during that time. For those of you who can't make it; don't worry! The entire chat, including all sketches and artwork, will be archived in that channel, for you to scroll through whenever you have free time.

Hope to see you there!

Not bad for a first day!
5 months ago – Mon, Jul 08, 2024 at 06:49:16 PM

A huge thank you to our awesome community for fully funding another project! Books like these get to showcase some really awesome artists and ideas; and without a community of backers who believe in us, things like this just couldn't exist.

We've hit our funding goal; Silk Road Guide to Seafaring is going to exist! Now the only question that remains is how many add-ons and expanded content we can unlock in the next 27 days! Speaking of which...

Our first stretch goal was unlocked within the first 45 minutes of the campaign, and is the first of 3 "Art Upgrades." Thanks to the success of our previous projects, we've been able to fund most of the art for this book in advance, which is really going to accelerate fulfillment. However, there is still some art on our "wish list" that would really help flesh this book out to meet the same beauty standards as our other content.

With so much open ocean, the Random Encounter table is a really crucial part of this campaign setting. These random encounters aren't just for when the GM doesn't know what to do next (although they're helpful for that too); they are filled with clues, plot hooks, and interesting NPCs that continue to entice the party toward adventure. We had a basic outline for the random encounters we wanted to include, but this stretch goal will double its size and really help turn the encounter table into an interactive, living document that will evolve along with the story the players are telling. 

Day 1: Summary

We are fully funded and have unlocked two (soon to be three) of our stretch goals. That's not bad for a first day! Thank you all so much for your trust and support; let's see what we can accomplish on day 2!