What a start to the year!
This week has once more been quite the ride, with many
new announcements and developments concerning the future of the OGL. On our
end, we have been mulling the situation over and making plans, and we can
now tell you about our projects' next steps! This is a historic moment for role-playing, and a very important one for our studio. Things are moving fast and we already see many opportunities emerging. The creation of the
RPG ESU, the European RPG Studios Union or the
OpenDnD movement are undoubtedly a good illustrations of this.
Though the future of Fateforge and Draconis is still
dependent on what the new OGL will be like (since both series are 5E-powered),
its owner WotC has once again reminded that "again, any content you have already published under OGL 1.0a will still always be licensed under OGL 1.0a."
We have thus decided to release everything we've been
preparing for Fateforge and Draconis as soon as possible. Several books are
ready. We intended to give them more time and release them through 2023 and
2024, but our plan is now to give you as many of them as possible by the
upcoming summer.
Below, you will find more details about Fateforge and
Draconis, as well as about Esteren, our other projects, and the Patreon we plan
to launch in the near future!
Feel free to join us on Monday 30th 6:00 PM to talk about
it all via a live chat on our Discord server.
But for now, here we go with a review of our projects!
FATEFORGE
The second Encyclopedia volume is almost finished. The
writing is complete and illustrations are in progress. It will be our next
crowdfunded book, with the crowdfunding campaign starting on Monday 6 February!
▶ The English version will be available on Kickstarter and
will likewise feature early bird perks. You can register 👉
here to be informed of
the launch.
We initially planned to launch this project later in the
year, when the PDF would be fully complete. At present, though all texts are in
their final version, certain illustrations are still in progress. At the end of
the campaign, backers will get a beta PDF version of the book with all the
Encyclopedia texts, with updated versions of the file being released as more
illustrations are completed.
Several other books are works in progress. Some are at a
very advanced stage, while others are still in their infancy.
Though the future of the OGL remains up in the air, the
campaign will feature two more releases, first in PDF, and later hopefully as
printed books: the second volume of Grimoire, and Moons of Eana.
The Second FATEFORGE Tetralogy
Along with the second volumes of Creatures and Encyclopedia,
the two aforementioned books will form the second Fateforge Tetralogy. We hope
that it will have as bright a future as its forebear, which was graced by an
ENNIE Award in the Best Writing category at last year's Gen Con, making for
quite the capstone for an incredible adventure that started in 2016.
As for the future of Fateforge beyond this second
Tetralogy, more long-term developments will depend on how the OGL shapes up. We
like the 5th Edition and we would have liked to continue experiencing it with
you, in this augmented version we have been working on for nearly eight years
now. We have been considering carrying on with Fateforge, but powered by a
different system. Beyond the engine the game runs on, sharing more of the Eana
setting is what we really want.
At the time we are writing this, the team is working on
several books beyond the second Tetralogy. Texts have been written and
illustrations drawn, but these WIPs aren't as advanced. Should the prospect of
a new game engine come to pass, we will discuss it with you. From the very
start of this adventure, we have been building this series alongside you, and
we will keep doing so.
DRACONIS
This is our new series, made in partnership with the
greatly talented artist Chane. Some of you already got to read or see excerpts
of the eponymous artbook, based on which we have come up with a 5E-powered
feel-good TRPG.
▶ The English version will be released alongside the French
one. You will soon be able to pre-register on a Kickstarter page.
The Draconis series will feature three books:
◾Call of Adventure, a novice-friendly core book containing
everything needed to get started with TRPGs;
◾ Heritage, which presents the game's setting and rules
suited to this pacifistic feel-good TRPG;
◾ Codex Anima, which catalogs many of the wondrous
creatures of Draconis's setting.
We would like to launch this series in spring, as we
initially planned. We are currently entering the final steps of the development
of this project that we started several years ago now. We look forward to
sharing all of this with you!
SHADOWS OF ESTEREN
Initially, we intended to crowdfund the second volume of
Dearg in January, but due to the ongoing OGL events, we had no choice but to
postpone this campaign and move forward with Fateforge content instead.
Until we can settle on a new date for the crowdfunding of
Dearg 2, we will keep fleshing out and putting the final touches on this opus
and all the transmedia creations related to it. We will endeavor to share as
much of these developments as we can with you.
▶ The English version will be available on Kickstarter. You
can register on this 👉
page now to be informed of the launch.
Dearg 2 will be the second season of the eponymous
campaign, and will also mark the end of a cycle for Shadows of Esteren, which
got many releases last year: the Melwan side book, the Yldiane comic, the Adeliane
album which received an ENNIE Award last summer, etc. The next cycle will be
focused on the highly anticipated Secrets. Work on this front is ever-ongoing
behind the scenes, and many projects are taking shape. We can't wait to tell
you about it all!
Work on this new cycle will proceed alongside the
development of a generic version of the Shadows of Esteren system (SAN), which
we will tell you more about very soon.
A PATREON FOR THE STUDIO
Our Studio gathers more than fifteen people; creators
from all walks of life who also handle all the publisher part of our work,
ensuring that we can remain free and independent. As you have seen through this
article, we are working on many projects simultaneously, and wish to give our
community more openings to interact with us and support us directly while
having access to as much of our content as possible. We have been considering
it for a while, and in the present circumstances, launching a Patreon of our
own seems judicious.
The idea is pretty simple: giving you a steady influx of
previews and game material in a continuous manner rather than you having to
wait for a subscription campaign once every year (if not once every two or
three years, depending on the series) to get new content all at once. We are
also considering the idea of giving patrons full access to our PDF catalog and
available digital content. By being a patron, you can also be part of the
future of our projects via polls.
For you, this will be a way to support us directly,
expressing your conviction that an independent studio like us should exist. This support will allow us to further our commitment to open up access to role-playing games
by making our PDF catalogue Pay What You Want for everyone.
Of course, you are under absolutely no obligation to
subscribe to this Patreon. Whoever would rather support us in other ways can
still obtain our creations through our subscription campaigns, the temporary
online shops that we occasionally set up, and the network of game stores that
sell our releases.
We look forward to showing you this Patreon page, and
hope that you will like it and find it worth supporting!
SEE YOU LIVE ON MONDAY 30TH 6:00 PM
We invite you to a live chat on our
Discord server on
January 30th, 6:00 PM. We can answer your questions and discuss the next steps of this great adventure!
We end this message by wishing you an excellent New Year 2023...!
Thank you for everything,
Nel & the Studio's whole team
