Dark Forest: Redwall Meets 1E in a Shadowdark World

Samples approved, print production has begun!
4 days ago – Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 09:30:26 AM

Well met Dark Foresters!

It is time for our June update, and this time I made a little video. But to summarize, the title says it all; the physical samples arrived from our printer, and other than a few tweaks to how the GM screen was glued, we approved them all and have started full print production!

That means we're only about 40 days away from print completion when we can begin the freight shipping process, where all the product is put on pallets, then on ships to take it all to our two fulfillment companies. 

Below is a link to the video if you want to see all the goodies. We were so excited when it arrived and so relieved and grateful to see how amazing it all turned out. Click the Youtube link to check it out.

In other news for US backers, we're getting warnings from our shipping company that US customs is causing big delays on shipments, even after the cargo has landed. Inspections are running super long, up to two extra weeks before they will release shipments for pickup. If that happens to us, we'll let you know, but we're hoping things clear up before our shipment arrives at Longbeach.

Thank you all for your support and patience! We can't wait to get these books into your paws!

Cheers!

John & Nicole

Dark Forest, May Update!
25 days ago – Wed, May 20, 2026 at 12:46:41 PM

Greetings abbeydwellers!

It's time for a May update. We hope to find you with flowers blooming and spring in full flourish. 

Dark Forest is moving ahead splendidly. Our production samples should be arriving Friday from the printer, so we're getting super excited. It will be the first time holding the semi-finished book in our hands, as well as all the other books and items. With the samples approved, we'll begin the print run, which will take about 6 weeks. Then all that's left is freight shipping to our fulfillment centers; then they ship to you. Here's a sneak peak that the printer just sent to me today.

Speaking of freight (and not-so-great news), our printer has informed us that sea freight shipping times have jumped to two months on average with all the international turmoil. What this means is that we're looking at September before the books reach your doors. 

This delay is just jaw-dropping, and we can't apologize enough. I know some folks were really hoping to get them before the end of summer. 

There is another option if you really need a physical book and cannot wait, and that is a print-on-demand copy from DriveThruRPG. I have setup print-on-demand versions of the 3 main books: the Dark Forest campaign setting, the Fallen Tower of Drakuur adventure, and the Founders Digest Vol. 1. 

I set these up because we're going to be at Dice Tower East in July with a booth and need to have some samples to demo with. DriveThruRPG print quality is good; I have lots of printed books from them. But the final books from the real printer will be MUCH nicer (especially the campaign setting book, with the faux-leather, silver ink, lay-flat biding, book ribbon and printed end pages). 

If you're interested in a PoD copy DM me, and I'll have them send you a code to order. Then you will only pay the cost of printing (the same as I would pay as the publisher) and shipping. If you're not interested in that idea, that's fine; your books are still coming! Just delayed. 

Thank you, everyone, for all your patience. I know it's a long wait, but it will be worth it! And thank you to folks who have been telling me about your new Dark Forest campaigns using the PDFs! It's incredibly fun to have a peek into your awesome games. And if you want to listen in on a GREAT session, here's Always Split the Party with session zero of the Fallen Tower of Drakuur campaign! So well done!! 

Thank you again, wonderful backers!

John & Nicole

Another PDF update!
about 2 months ago – Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 04:31:30 PM

Greetings, folk of the forest!

Great news! Our digital proofs are approved, and we're waiting on samples from our printer. The books are as near perfect as we can get them, and we're so ready to get the real things in our hands!

In the meantime, you'll be getting emails from BackerKit to download v02 of the Campaign Setting, Founders Digest, and Adventure books. They are zip files like before, with the same contents but with version 02 of the books. 

Additionally, I've added a "player's map" to the Adventure zip file. It's the main map for the hex crawl, but without the locations, so your players will have an easier time choosing their paths during Part 3 - The Long Crawl. Way more fun that way.

Also, for those of you who prefer DriveThruRPG for your PDFs, you will soon be seeing emails from DriveThruRPG with your discount link to add the PDFs to your library and download. There will be separate emails for the Campaign Setting, Founders Digest and Adventure. So look out for that!

And here's a DriveThruRPG tip, even if you miss the email you will see a notification when you go to your account page on their website. In your DriveThru inbox you'll have a copy of the code to use.

That's the news for now. I'm heading back to Greenheath Grove for a nap! Cheers!

John

Adventure Journals on DriveThruRPG and Book v02 coming
about 2 months ago – Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 11:28:57 AM

Greetings Abbeyfolk!

This is a quick update to let you know that if the Adventure Journal was part of your pledge, you will have just received an email link from DriveThruRPG that will allow you to place your order. We used the email you provided on your BackerKit survey, where we asked for your DriveThruRPG account email. 

DriveThruRPG, please read:

To be super-duper clear on how the process works (I get questions on every project). 
Your Kickstarter pledge for the Adventure Journal on Kickstarter is the only $ that we receive for creating the journal. On DriveThruRPG, you will also be paying for the printing of each journal you order, in addition to shipping. We receive $0 from that transaction. Nothing. Nada. You are paying them for printing, at cost, with no markup. And you can print as many as you like with the one link. In fact, you save a lot on shipping when you print multiple things together. I know that can be confusing, so hopefully this helps.

Dark Forest v02 coming:

Some keen-eyed backers have been super kind about spotting a handful of typos, like missing periods and bolded HPs, inconsistencies, a missing art credit, and even some confusing wording that we missed (thank you, Scott Vondrasek!!). The biggest update is nerfing the Hare's Quick Command ability (which I'm playtesting right now). The new (nerfed) ability reads as follows:

  Quick Command: Once per turn
  if your movement brings you
  within close distance (5 ft) of
  one ally, you may give that ally
  advantage on their next attack,
  ability check or spellcasting
  check. If you also attack or cast a
  spell in the same turn, you do so
  with disadvantage.

It was pointed out that the previous version was too powerful and could be abused by min-max players.

The V02 of the Campaign Setting PDF will be a new download on BackerKit, so you will see a new email when that happens.

What's Next?

We are still going back-and-forth with the printer on our proofs, but we expect to have it all fully approved by next week. That means we go to print!! Eulaliaaa!!!! Redwalll!!!!! 
Yes, we're excited and can't wait to get the physical proofs in our hands. 

Art Prints: Finally, for those who ordered the canvas or archival paper art prints, we'll be putting the orders for those in very soon. So you'll have them by mid-April (estimated). 

Thank you, everyone, for being such wonderful backers. We are truly blessed and can't wait to hear about your adventures through the Dark Forest!

Cheers!

John & Nicole

Today is the Day!!
2 months ago – Fri, Apr 10, 2026 at 07:36:21 PM

Greetings, wonderous backers!

The long journey is nearing the end, and the first phase of fulfillment is starting!
All digital PDFs for every product are ready, and you will soon be receiving a download email from BackerKit with links to your stuff! Here is what we have ready:

• The Campaign Setting Book
• The Adventure: The Fallen Tower of Drakuur (It went from 60 pages to 144!)
• The Founders Digest (Includes Redwall-style recipes)
• The Mini-Dungeons - Starter Pack
• The Mini-Dungeons - Early Backer Pack
• Pre-made Character Cards (plus a bonus form-fillable PDF character sheet!)
• The World Map
• STL Characters
• STL Luck and Torch Tokens
• VTT Tokens for animal ancestries and any monsters that were illustrated are also included.
• Maps for the adventure, Founders Digest, and campaign book are included with their associated items.

For those who wish to receive their PDFs via DriveThru RPG, that will be coming in the following weeks. In the meantime, you have them as a direct download. 
The Adventure Journals will be part of that round, as they are print-on-demand through DriveThruRPG only.

Art Prints: For those who pledged for art prints, we'll be ordering those next week.

What's next?

All print products are in the hands of the printer. We have already received our first round of digital proofs, made corrections, and uploaded the new files. We're shooting for full digital approval early next week. The printer will then send us physical proofs via air freight, and with those approved, the full print run can begin. In the meantime, we're doing things like getting all of our EU GSPR compliance in place. Working with our EU representative to submit mountains of paperwork, plus getting all our required safety testing done. Yes, even books go through safety testing, and if you ever want your products on Amazon, you have to follow some strict, confusing guidelines. But we're on top of all that, and our fulfillment partners are working with us to be sure our freight shipments all go smoothly to their warehouses when the time comes.

Timelines

Always a big question. But things are still looking promising for late 2nd quarter fulfillment of physical print products. We're meeting our deadlines, and everything is turning out great. So we're just keeping our luck tokens handy and hoping for the best.

Time to Play!

It's been years in the making, and I'm incredibly thankful for all of you for breathing life into the Dark Forest world. I hope you'll have as much fun adventuring in Antallia surrounded by animal folk as we are. Many thanks to you all! We can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Cheers!

John & Nicole