We're ready to lock orders!
2 months ago
– Fri, Apr 03, 2026 at 08:34:41 PM
Hello, amazing abbeydwellers!
We're delighted to announce that editing on the campaign book is complete! The book and all products are with the printer in their final state. That means we can lock orders in BackerKit and start fulfilling all the PDFs! Huzzah!
When we lock orders, you will be notified by BackerKit and have 48 hours to adjust your order. This includes a last chance to add any add-ons. After 48 hours, all orders will automatically be locked, and cards charged.
PDF download links will come shortly after that, also from BackerKit.
That's all the news from Castle Clark! We just wanted to drop this quick update. Look for your lock order notifications soon!
Cheers!
John & Nicole
Pledge manager closing soon. PDFs are prepped and 99% ready to go!
3 months ago
– Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 06:24:46 PM
Greetings, Dark Foresters!
Great news, we are 99% complete on all PDF versions of the products, with only the final editing pass remaining on the main 304 page book. Our editor has about 2-weeks to go on it, then I integrate all his notes in InDesign, and it... is... done.
So, what that means is that we're going to close the pledge manager. And what that means is that you will no longer be able to change your pledge, and your credit cards will finally be charged to BackerKit. You'll still be able to change your address up until we ship the physical products, so don't worry about that, and the pre-order store will remain open up until that time as well.
Please be sure that your DriveThruRPG email is either the same as your Kickstarter email or that you gave us the correct one when you answered that question in the survey.
On the print side of things. ALL print products are in the hands of the printer (concurrent with final editing), and I'm already approving digital proofs! Physical proofs will be forthcoming, and that means we're right on track with our 2nd quarter shipping goal!
We can't wait to get the PDFs and physical books to you fine abbey-dwellers!
Here's the final piece of art for the entire project! By Andrew Beckwith. This is for the adventure, the Fallen Tower of Drakuur. It's spectacular!! As is Andrew himself. 
May the blessings of the forest be on you all!
John
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a couple of projects we're backing for you guys to check out!
Druskara
Druskara is a brutal sandbox campaign setting for Shadowdark, built around rival factions, forbidden magic, and a world that keeps unraveling with or without the heroes.
This is by Dungeon Damsel Publishing and is jammed FULL of wild and monstrous art and uses the Shadowdark RPG system, which we love. And judging by the descriptions, there is plenty of evil to fight and conquer in this world.
----------------------------------------------------------
Righteous Vow Volume 4
Righteous Vow Volume 4: Black Masts & Magic is a full hexcrawl campaign filled with new content compatible with Shadowdark RPG, it features:
-
Hardcover and Softcover editions with bundles available.
- Approx. 160-pages, A NEW 5 Adventure Storyline
- A new setting on the Primal Islands, with hand drawn maps of each island.
-
New rules for ships, crew abilities, new classes, new spells, new dungeon crawls, new ship crawls, new magic items, and a whole slew of new monsters! Everything you need to play a pirate adventure with the Shadowdark RPG!
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Art of Clyde Caldwell Legacy Anthology
A hardback career retrospective of the artwork of painter Clyde Caldwell curated by the artist himself.
As an old-school D&D player who started way back in 1979, when I first saw paintings by Caldwell in Dragon magazine, I was utterly transported and transfixed. His art (and Elmore's) had a huge impact on my young life and career and helped keep me stay stoked about D&D as an adult. And now we get the anthology!! Not to be missed.
Dark Forest - Marching Right Along!
3 months ago
– Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 09:49:43 AM
Greetings, folk of the Forest!
We're happy to let you know that we've been working super hard and have made great progress with our project!
- All the writing for the main book is finally complete!
- The Founders Digest Vol. #1 is complete!
- The adventure, The Fallen Tower of Drakuur, is complete!
- All the art (save for three pieces in the Adventure) is complete!
- All the maps are complete!
- All STL minis are complete!
- The folding map is complete!
- The Mini-adventures are complete!
- The Premade Characters are complete!
- The GM screen is complete!
- And the Fumble Deck is complete!
All that is left is a full editing pass on the Adventure and the main Dark Forest book. Once the editing is complete, the printer will have everything in their hands, and I'll prep the files for PDF delivery.
We're really close!!
Keep in mind that the printing and shipping process can take a while, so we're still looking at the end of the second quarter for delivery if everything goes smoothly.
BackerKit Surveys
As for PDFs, we can't actually send those links until we "Lock Orders" in Backerkit. So that means... if you haven't yet completed your survey, NOW is the time to do it. We're at 93%, so there are still a whole bunch of folks who have yet to do the survey.
If you don't complete the survey before we lock, it may mean shipping delays, and you also won't be able to adjust your pledge in the pledge manager (the only thing you can change is your shipping address).
Only by completing your survey will you receive rewards.
We'll send out a final notice before we lock the surveys, but we're looking at about 3 weeks from now, and then we can begin fulfilling digital rewards. Our armadillo warrior friend (an extra ancestry from the Founders Digest) will not be happy if you fail!
Thank you, everyone, for your continued patience and support! We're so excited about how everything is turning out and can't wait to get it in your hands... and then... we'll grab a mug of autumn ale, kick back by the fire, and take a little rest! 
Cheers!
John
Dark Forest - February Update
4 months ago
– Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 08:23:27 AM
Hello Abbeydwellers!
Dark Forest is moving quickly, with huge progress on all the adventure material. The starter adventure, The Fallen Tower of Drakuur, has greatly expanded from its original plan of being a 60-page intro to the world and is now almost 130 pages of adventure. There is a core story you can run, plus a large hex map to just explore the core region of Errador. The second draft is complete and will soon be sent to our editor for polishing. I'll be working on maps and finding places for illustrations (there will be fewer than originally planned because the adventure has grown so large, but I'll be working on important ones over the next 30 days).
Our goal with the adventure and all the materials is to have PDF versions ready for the end of March. We are on track! And it's very exciting.
Once we start getting the PDFs in your hands next month, we'll then be sending the final versions to our printer. Even more exciting!
Meanwhile, over on Backerkit we're 92% complete with our backer surveys, so if you haven't yet filled out your survey, please take a minute to find your link and fill it out. If you can't find your link email, please let us know and we'll help out.
Thank you everyone for your infinite patience as we get Dark Forest completed! It's coming along great, and we can't wait until we have all the PDFs ready.
Huzzah!
John
Happy New Year folk of the Forest!
5 months ago
– Fri, Jan 09, 2026 at 09:12:24 PM
Greetings Abbeydwellers! We hope you're having a great start to 2026!
We've been busy here at Castle Clark, getting the Dark Forest books and add-ons completed. We're in excellent shape and on schedule with all the products.
-
Dark Forest book. The final art for the main book has just been added (by Cameron Mass), and now we're down to doing a few regional maps and the book is complete and ready to final edit.
-
The Founders Digest, Vol. 1 is fully written and laid-out in InDesign with art and maps, and has gone to our editor for the 1st pass.
-
The GM Screen is complete and has been sent to the printers.
-
The Mini Dungeons are complete, edited, playtested, and currently with the printers.
-
The Fumble Deck is done, edited, playtested (my brother-in-law rolled 18 natural 1s in one 4-hour session last week!! No joke, every other attack was a nat 1!! lol. It was really spooky.), and at the printers.
-
The Premade Characters Cards are done, playtested and survived their first dungeon and currently with the printers.
-
The Adventure Journal is done and ready for print-on-demand orders.
-
The STL minis and extras are all complete and test printed (and used in combat!) except for the squirrel sage, who is still IP.
-
The 12" x 12" Art Prints are ready to be ordered.
As of now, the last big things to tackle are... the starting adventure, which has been written as a 1st draft—and I'm now starting to edit and restructure for layout in InDesign—and the upgraded world map artwork. Then editing, proofing, and eliminating my seemingly endless supply of typos!
Here's a new piece from Ava-Marie Gomez for a Tier 5 spell called "Restore the Land." It's marvelous and has an old-world quality that I love.
And another piece from Andrew Beckwith. Breggin Hillspringer, one of the iconic characters in the Bestiary. 
Finally, for those who chose the pay-over-time options on Kickstarter, this is new for me, but it's my understanding that your surveys will go out after Kickstarter processes and releases the funds. That could take up to two weeks. But not to worry! There's plenty of time to get your surveys in. We have good estimates on quantities we need to order from the printers, and we're working with them already to get all the art and designs in their hands.
I can't wait until you get a chance to play Shadowdark with Dark Forest, it's incredibly fun to run as a GM. We've also put the Brewmaster through rigorous playtesting and have done a lot of balancing and changes to the rules for Concoctions. It's a super fun class, a bit of a jack of all trades, and scales well to higher levels with other classes, and it's a thematic fit in a Redwallish world (strawberry fizz anyone?).
Finally, I don't think I've done it enough; I want to thank Kelsey Dionne for Shadowdark. The more I play, the more I sincerely appreciate what she's created. This is the kind of D&D I remember as a kid in the 80's, where your imagination is turned on, and the world drops away, and we all enter a story together as it unfolds in unexplainable ways. But in a way, it's better. It's just the right amount of rules, and anything that's missing you can answer with a bit of common sense and knowledge. So instead of constantly thinking about rules and the future, players are here and now, present and fully participating. It's magic. So between now and when Dark Forest comes to your doorstep, go and play some Shadowdark!
Cheers for now! The abbey bells are tolling bedtime!
John & Nicole
