Adventure Journals on DriveThruRPG and Book v02 coming
4 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!!
4 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
We're ready to lock orders!
4 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!
5 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!
5 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
