A modular adventure game in the tradition of the beloved 1980s role-playing rules. 100% old-school rules, 100% modern design.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Special edition Rules Tome! v1.0 PDFs coming soon!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 03:15:58 AM
Hey everyone,
Wednesday is upon us and it's time for your weekly update from Old-School Essentials land!
Special Edition Rules Tome
Many of you have backed at a pledge level where you'll be receiving a special edition of the Rules Tome. This is a strictly limited edition that is only available to Kickstarter backers and will feature a black leatherette cover and silver foil stamping.
I've spoken a little about the foil-stamped cover before, but what the design will actually look like hasn't been clear. I apologise for the lack of clarity with this! It's the one really major thing that I'll certainly do differently in future Kickstarters — make sure the book covers are designed well in advance of launching the campaign, so that backers can see what they're going to receive! People who backed at a level where you'll receive the special edition Rules Tome: thank you for your patience with this uncertainty!
Today — at long last! — I'm delighted to be able to reveal what the special edition Rules Tome will look like! Get a load of this...
This image probably comes as a (hopefully pleasant) surprise! When I'd spoken about the foil stamp design in the past, I'd mentioned that it would be based on the cover of the Core Rules book — the idol face by Peter Mullen. Upon seriously starting to look into creating the image for the foil stamp, though, I realised that it'd be really tricky to get a nice looking end result by converting from a full-colour painting to a one-colour image (required for the foil-stamping procedure). So tricky that I quickly abandoned the idea.
As luck would have it, the wonderful James Shields was able to jump onto a new art commission at very short notice and produced the (almost finished) design that you see above!
We wanted to go for an image that screams "Classic Fantasy!" — a dungeon and a dragon-like monster — while portraying something a little different from the norm. (I can't personally recall having seen a basilisk petrifying an adventurer on the cover of a book before!)
Endpaper PDFs to Download
In the last update, I discussed the work on the endpapers for the books. These are now finished. All of the PDF editions have been updated with an extra file containing the endpapers that will appear in the printed edition (you should be able to download them from your DriveThruRPG library). I wasn't originally planning to include these in the PDF editions, but they seemed like they'd potentially be really useful as quick reference sheets, so I decided to add them. Hopefully they prove useful for anyone who wants to print them out for use in their games.
Proofreading: If anyone has a chance to look over the endpapers and check for mistakes, that would be marvellous! (They're expected to be correct, of course, but you never know what little errors might have crept in...) If anyone finds any errors on the endpapers, please let me know as soon as possible.
Preparing for v1.0 PDF Releases
The other big news is that we're now hurtling towards the v1.0 releases of the books. These will be the versions that will be sent off to the printer in a couple of weeks. Here's what's happening:
Art: I'm waiting for the last few pieces of art to come in — a mere 6 pieces of art now! We're really down to the final push here.
Final read-through: In addition to the reams of proofreading feedback that's come in from everyone, I'm also doing a personal final read-through of the books and am making some last edits.
v1.0 PDFs: As soon as the v1.0 PDF of each book exists, I'll update the files at DriveThruRPG.
PDFs on general sale!: Once I've released v1.0 of all of the books, I'll make them available for general sale. This will be the official launch of Old-School Essentials into the public sphere! Tell your friends who missed out on the Kickstarter that the official PDF release is coming soon! (The physical books and boxed sets will be on general sale in the autumn, once manufacturing is complete.)
Time frame: Barring any unforeseen delays, all of this will happen within the next 6-8 days.
All in all, this is an extremely exciting time!
Digital and Print-on-Demand Rewards
A few people have asked recently about progress with some of the extras that were unlocked (for example, the referee screen and the pre-gen characters), so I thought I'd give a quick update here. The current status of these extras is "on hold". The reason for this is that the print production schedule doesn't depend on these extras being ready. I'm currently focusing purely on getting everything ready in good time to start print production of the books and the boxed set on schedule. Everything else can wait until after printing has commenced. So the lack of progress on these extra rewards is nothing to be concerned about. It was planned this way.
All for Now!
Until next time...
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
The final stretch!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Aug 07, 2019 at 03:06:16 AM
Hey everyone,
It's Wednesday and time for your weekly Old-School Essentials update!
A lot has been going on here at the Necrotic Gnome tavern, and I'm happy (and proud!) to say that everything is nicely on schedule. This has been a very complex project — with the simultaneous production of 9 books (with a total page count of 736 pages!), commissioning almost 200 pieces of art, and managing many vigorous rounds of proofreading — but we're reaching the final stages now. I go into more details about the schedule and the next steps later in this update.
But first up, some updates on what's been happening this last week.
The Hole in the Oak Pre-Release PDFs Sent Out!
As you have probably noticed, the almost finished PDF of The Hole in the Oak has been sent out. This is the 32 page, 60 area dungeon that was unlocked as one of the stretch goals and is free in PDF to everyone who backed at the €10 pledge level or above. (And those of you who backed at the Fighter level or above will get a print copy of the adventure.)
I hope you're all enjoying the adventure!
As with all the other pre-release PDFs, if you spot any typos or oddities, please let me know! The PDF will be updated with final art as it comes in from James West's crazy wizard studio.
Historical Artefacts
As I probably mentioned before, The Hole in the Oak is a revamped and expanded version of the first dungeon that I ran on my return to old-school gaming in 2011. I recently happened to come across some posts on my old blog discussing the adventure and the campaign world it was set in, which I thought would be fun to share, for anyone who's interested in more details around the adventure:
(Dolmenwood fans may spot lots of little details which went on to become elements of Dolmenwood, years later.)
Endpapers Being Laid Out
One of the final jobs on my to-do list for the books is the layout of the endpapers (which were unlocked in another stretch goal). "What are endpapers?" you may ask. They're the page that is glued on the inside of the book's cover (in hardcover binding). Many books fill these extra pages with artwork or fancy patterns. Not so Old-School Essentials — I'll be filling them with handy reference info!
Here are a few examples of what I've been working on for these:
Core Rules front endpaper
Cleric and Magic-User Spells rear endpaper
Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules front endpaper
What's Next?
With the writing and layout of The Hole in the Oak complete, all books that we're going to be printing are now in the final stages of production! All that remains is for the final pieces of art to come in, which should happen over the next week. We're reaching the super exciting final stages of the project now!
Here's what will happen next:
As soon as all the artwork is in: I'll send out final pre-release versions of all the PDFs. These will be prototypes for what will be sent off to the manufacturer. This will be the last chance for any last little typos or errors to be caught before printing.
August 26th: I'll submit the print files to the manufacturer for proofing. At this stage, there will likely be a bit of back and forth getting all sorts of technical aspects of the print files nailed. The manufacturer recommended leaving 1-2 weeks for this process, so I'm scheduling 2 weeks for it.
September 1st: I'll charge everyone's BackerKit credit card payments. I'll send out a reminder closer to the time so that everyone who made BackerKit payments by credit card can make sure their cards are ready for the payment. The reason for not having charged cards already is to allow people a longer time to make sure their shipping addresses — and hence their shipping costs — are all straight. (Note that it will still be possible to update your address in BackerKit right up until shipping begins.)
September 9th: Manufacturing begins! 28,000 books (I know!!) will start rolling off the production lines! Manufacturing is scheduled to take 6 weeks, including production of the boxes, collecting the books into the boxed sets, and packing everything up ready for shipping to the fulfillment company.
October 21st (approximately): 6 weeks from September 9th brings us to October 21st. This is the estimated date when everything should be shipped to the fulfillment company. As soon as it arrives with them, I'll give them the master list of what needs to be shipped to whom and fulfillment will begin!
All for Now
I'll get back to finishing off these endpapers...
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
All PDFs sent out!
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Aug 01, 2019 at 03:12:36 AM
Hey everyone,
A brief Wednesday update this week as it's getting late here in Berlin and the mental energies are ebbing low...
Pre-Release PDFs Sent to All Backers
As you have doubtless noticed, I sent out a barrage of PDF download codes over the weekend. Here's what was sent out:
The Rules Tome v0.7
The Black Box books (various version numbers)
Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules v0.3
Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells v0.3
Winter's Daughter (old-school and 5e versions)
So everyone who backed, added-on, or pre-ordered one of those products should have received a download code for it.
What if You Got Duplicate Codes?
If you were one of the backers who was included in the earlier batch of pre-release PDFs, you will have received new download codes this weekend for the books that you'd already received. You can just ignore them. The existing products in your library at DriveThruRPG have been updated.
(Apologies if the duplicate codes caused any confusion! In retrospect, the way I handled sending out the pre-release PDFs was unusual and created a horribly exaggerated workload for myself. A lesson learned there!)
What if You Didn't Receive the Codes?
Here's what to do:
Make sure you're looking in the right email address. Check your Kickstarter email address and your DriveThruRPG email address. (For some people these are not the same.)
Check in your spam folders and such like. (Gmail users: have a look in your Updates and Promotions folders too.)
If you still can't find the download codes, get in touch. (Reply to this update or send a private message on Kickstarter.)
Please Keep Sending Feedback!
As always, if you spot anything weird in any of the PDFs, let me know. (There's contact info on the first page of the PDFs.)
Thanks to everyone who's been sending in feedback! Your aid is invaluable in polishing that last layer of polish before the books get sent to the printer.
Shiny Colour Arts
And now a few quick images for you. These have all come in over the last couple of days, since I made the last update to the PDFs.
The map for The Hole in the Oak, now all jazzed up with numbers and labels and what-not. James (V West) and I are about 2/3 of the way through the illustration and layout of the adventure now. It's really coming together nicely! (PDFs will be going out as soon as it's ready.)
All for Now!
Be seeing you...
Gavin / Moosmeister bei Necrotic Gnome
All orders will be locked in 12 hours!
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 02:08:36 AM
Hey everyone,
Just a very quick update this morning to reiterate a few points.
BackerKit Lockdown at 20:00 CET Today!
At 20:00 (8PM) this evening (Central European Time), I'll be locking all orders in BackerKit. What does this mean?
It will no longer be possible for backers to change their pledge level.
It will no longer be possible for backers to select add-ons.
The pre-order store will be closed.
So if you want to do any of those things, you have 12 hours left!
For those in other time zones, here are a few handy conversions of when the lockdown will happen in your local time:
UK: 19:00 (7PM).
US Eastern Time: 15:00 (3PM).
US Pacific Time: 12:00 (12PM).
Books Which Are Not Included in Any Pledge Levels!
If you want any of the following books, you must select them as add-ons (you have 12 hours to do so). No pledge levels include any of these books!
Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules
Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells
Winter's Daughter
Winter's Daughter 5e Version
A couple of people have asked about including the 5e version of Winter's Daughter along with their order. For anyone who wants to pick this up, I've just added it as an option in BackerKit and the pre-order store. It's a really excellent conversion of the adventure to the more complex 5e rules!
Pre-Release PDFs
Once BackerKit has been locked down, I'll have a finalised list of who's ordered what. This means that I'll be able to start sending out PDFs to everyone!
99% finished pre-release PDFs of the Black Box books and the Rules Tome will be going out. (Most backers already have these.)
99% finished pre-release PDFs of the Advanced Fantasy books will be going out to those who have ordered them.
PDFs of Winter's Daughter will be going out to those who have ordered it.
The time-frame for these PDFs going out is: soon™. (I probably won't send all of them out immediately after the BackerKit lockdown, but will certainly do so by the end of the month.)
By the way, editing and layout of The Hole in the Oak are not finished yet, so PDFs of the adventure will be going out a bit later.
All for Now!
That's it! Thank you all once again for the amazing support you've given this campaign, including the fantastic levels of support for the Advanced Fantasy add-ons!
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
Vagabond character sheet, more art, third party license
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 01:22:11 AM
Hey everyone!
It's been a busy week in Old-School Essentials land! Here's the latest word on the street.
The Vagabond Character Sheet
The third and final unlocked character sheet — this time by Frank Reding of Mottokrosh Machinations — is out! (It was actually published a couple of weeks back, but I forgot to mention it in an update.)
This character sheet exists in four different versions!
A two-sided portrait A5 (Digest sized) sheet with Descending AC.
Ditto with Ascending AC.
A one-sided landscape A4 sheet with Descending AC.
Ditto with Ascending AC.
Vagabond Character Sheet — landscape A4 AAC version
Art continues to stream in! Here are some rough numbers of where we stand, overall:
Pieces in progress which I've not received sketches for: 30
Pieces in progress which I've received sketches for: 36
Finished pieces: 100
So you can see that we're approaching the two-thirds mark in the illustration schedule. The plan is to push that to 100% over the next two weeks, so you'll be seeing the PDFs in their fully illustrated glory very soon!
Here are a few new pieces to whet your appetites...
Floating wizard art plate by Rachel Quinlan
Jungle bridge illustration by Kyle Latino
Illusionist illustration by Johannes Stahl
(That last pieces is the first of the Immortal-level backer portrait pieces, by the way! Hopefully the person featured in the illustration will get a nice surprise seeing himself here in this update!)
Old-School Essentials Third Party License
And now for something completely different... News on how others (yes! that means you!) can publish materials for Old-School Essentials!
I've just finalised a license agreement that allows third parties (i.e. publishers other than Necrotic Gnome) to publish supplements for Old-School Essentials.
What Does the License Involve?
Here are the basics:
The license is free of charge and royalty free. (All you have to do is send me a copy of the finished thing.)
The license allows third parties to use the "Designed for use with Old-School Essentials" logo shown above.
The license can be used for both commercial and non-commercial products.
Third party products aren't allowed to mimic the Old-School Essentials trade dress or imply that they're official Old-School Essentials products.
As mentioned in previous updates and comments, there are lots of plans for further official rules modules to expand the Old-School Essentials product line. However, the powers of the Necrotic Gnome are not boundless (alas!) and we have limited resources. The rate at which I come up with ideas for new rules modules will be significantly faster than the rate at which they'll be published.
The third party license will allow other publishers to add their own ideas into the Old-School Essentials ecosystem. I'm very excited to see what people will come out with!
Any More Guidelines?
Yes! There's an Old-School Essentials Style Guide here. Products released under the third party license are expected to make an effort to follow the style guidelines and (obviously) to be compatible with the Old-School Essentials rules.
If you're planning to publish something using this license, please feel welcome to drop by one of the Necrotic Gnome communities (e.g. MeWe, Discord) and chat about your ideas! Also feel welcome to contact me directly if you have questions about the license.
