End of January / February Update - Sands of Doom
10 months ago – Fri, Mar 08, 2024 at 11:51:42 AM

Hello everyone! Its finally time for another update for Sands of Doom. I apologize for being about a week late on this one. Don't really have any excuse or anything, i just got caught up in all the work :(

Let's get started!

Sands of Doom Framework

I received some comments on the last update regarding people wanting to know the general structure of the campaign, so I figured I would invest a portion of this update breaking down how the adventure is formatted. The campaign is broken down into four parts, or arcs if you will. They are as follows:

First Arc

The characters start their adventure in the frontier outpost of Kunaten Keep, a fortified settlement placed more than 100 miles deep into the Great Wasteland. The wasteland is an expanse of cursed dunes fraught with danger, bandits, and the sunken ruins of an ancient and powerful civilization. 

The characters are here are participate in a grand expedition. An unbelievably large pyramid has been discovered, and if any previous Anubian ruins are anything to go by, this one is bound to be filled with riches, magics, and powerful knowledge. The structure was so large in fact that the once-closed land of Kirat, a land governed by tieflings, opened their gates to mercenaries and scholars of all realms to help delve into this structure. 

In this arc, the characters travel to the pyramid and enter it as part of the expedition.  Things unravel as the thousands of entombed gnolls, citizens of the old Anubian empire, begin awakening - Half Undead / Half Alive. The gnolls systematically slaughter the mercenaries, adventurers, and Kirati within the pyramid; before they are able to follow the survivors back to Kunaten Keep. The keep is assaulted and shortly falls. Those not killed in the attack are crucified and left for dead in the scorching dunes. 

Player characters can either successfully escape the events at the pyramid, or fall and become captured - only to be taken back to the keep after it falls and become crucified along with the rest. How the events play out at this moment signifies who becomes the players 'Fated Ally'. There are three powerful NPCs that the players can travel with throughout the campaign, each with their own quests and motivations. Becoming crucified leads to one, where as escaping and surviving leads to two different outcomes depending on the player's choices - each which leads to a different NPC. 

The arc is structured into 3 main segments. A 'prologue' of sorts where the characters chill in Kunaten Keep before the campaign. This serves as a location to gain exposition about the world and have the characters meet. Then the pyramid which is a proper dungeon. And then the last section involves the characters traveling from the outskirts of the pyramid back towards civilization / a safe haven, where they must survive with no supplies against the natural dangers of the dunes. 

This arc begins at level 1 and the characters will be level 3 by the end. The arc ends when the characters arrive in the city of Al'Kirat. 

Second Arc

The second arc is set exclusively in the city of Al'Kirat and its immediate environs. Al'Kirat is a city founded by and populated almost exclusively by tieflings. The original Kirati saw themselves always as outsiders in the lands they came from, hated for the blood of devils that ran through their veins, vilified and ostracized since the moment they were born. A great migration was born where a large flotilla of these tieflings was created in order to search for a land that would belong to them, where they could settle and flourish. In the harsh and unforgiving deserts of Kirat is where they found their new home, too hot and dangerous to be desired by other species. The city grew in power and prosperity as the ruins of ancient Anubia began being uncovered, which were loaded with magical trinkets and treasure, transforming the struggling settlement into the powerful city it is today. 

The players get to explore the city in this arc, while learning of the main plot of Sands of Doom. In the campaign, war is issued upon Al'Kirat as an army of ancient Anubians (half-undead gnolls) begin to march across the desert towards the city. This is discovered throughout the arc while the characters deal with a bit of political intrigue and investigations into mysterious murders happening throughout the city. 

By the end of the arc, the players discover the power of the Divine Relics - a collection of artifacts wielded by the High Priests of the Anubian Empire of old. With the guidance of the player's fated ally, as well as the prophecies of a sphinx, and of course contextual information within the story, the party learns that collecting these relics - thereby also depriving the enemy of them - is the key to defeat the incoming marching Anubian army. 

There is a fair amount of roleplay opportunities and freedom in this arc, to compensate for the relatively linear and danger-filled nature of the first arc. 

Third Arc

This is the 'open world' portion of Sands of Doom. In here, the players will have the freedom to explore the land in search for the Divine Relics, any other source of comparable power, or allies to help them against the Anubian invasion. 

There are 6 main locations that the characters can explore. Three of those are balanced for levels 5-6 while the other three for levels 7-8. Only two locations can be completed for each level range. The locations not completed will create consequences or changes that will affect the characters in the fourth arc, usually because the villains succeeded in their objectives on those locations. 

In order to travel to most of these places, the characters will have to traverse the Great Wasteland, the large set of dunes on the map of Kirat. Care must be made by the players as they prepare for the journey, using the knowledge they obtained from their journey through it on the first arc. In there they can find settlements, encounters, and several secrets that can aid them in their journey. 

Survival. Players do have to worry about food and water, but not by micromanaging pounds of food or gallons of water. Players purchase enough supplies in a settlement to last them 'X' number of days, and until those days run out then players know that they are okay. The survival element is more focused on making sure that nothing happens to those supplies as they travel, to resupply when they have the ability to do so in outposts, and to protect their method of transportation. Most supplies will usually be carried via camels, with other ways obtained depending on player choice. Camels have to be protected and taken care of, because without them the characters have no way to truly carry the amount of water they need to drink for any form of long voyage through the desert. Bandits will seek to steal the character's supplies, wild animals might look to hunt the character's camels, and players will have to spend a fair amount of money to stay fully supplied all throughout their journey. 

Locations. There are many places that the characters can explore and discover throughout the land. Here are a few examples of some of the bigger locations found across the wasteland:

-Sunken City of Anan'Thul. A clan consisting of a few hundred gnolls are excavating the ruins of an ancient Anubian city. Characters must let them excavate just enough to reveal the Divine Relic, before they can steal it right from under their snouts. Then they must escape the city before succumbing to their wrath. 
-The Four Imprisoned Genies. There are four genies scattered about the map, each imprisoned in their own unique way. Characters can learn of their locations by following clues, speaking with NPCs throughout the map, or simply exploring the world. By freeing them, they can each provide a wish - however each genie has its own personality and their own way of interpreting wishes. 
-Plains of Molten Sand. A land filled with perpetual storms rests above underground rivers of magma that feed a powerful volcano nearby. The magma underground sometimes meet large aquifers of water, which result in geysers of scalding steam that erupt from the floor. Further, the storms produce endless thunderstrikes that burn and melt the sand of the region, turning it into glass. Characters have to travel through this hellish land while avoiding lightning storms, stepping over a sharp land of glass, and avoid these deadly geysers, all as they travel in an overwhelming caldera of heat in order to find a hidden keep. Oh, did I mention that when geysers explode, they send shards of glass flying to the air that then fall down in a rain of cutting death?
-Kunaten Keep. The keep was taken by the Anubian armies in the first arc. Characters can wait until the Anubian army begins marching towards Al'Kirat, before they can try to retake the keep. By assaulting Kunaten, the characters can meet old faces they might recognize and bring peace to many of the dead that now roam its halls. 
-Roaming Treasury of Sekhmet. Many desert travelers speak of an endless sandstorm that circles the dunes. All who enter it are lost forever. Rumors abound that something miraculous rests in the eye of the storm. Inspired by the fabled Cave of Wonders, the characters can follow these rumors in order to find the storm is actually the remains of an old goddess, within her which lies an endless treasury. The characters will have to fight against bandits and avoid the perils of the treasury if they wish to claim its prize. 
-Hidden Grove of Ashae. The Great Wasteland is cursed and many have attempted to find a way to restore the land to its previous green blush. A child dryad has discovered that the curse seeks blood, and by offering it such, plants can once again grow in the desert. Allying herself with perytons who can physically snatch the hearts of those they peck, the dryad has been creating a beautiful green grove amidst the waste, fertilized by buried beating hearts. 
 

Fourth Arc

This is the last arc of the adventure, as well as the main highlight of Sands of Doom. Lord Ammu's army has arrived at the gates of Al'Kirat. The characters have a few days to explore the city and make any final preparations before the siege commences. Once it does, they will have to protect the battlements, fight across the very streets of the city, and make heroic stands against waves of enemy forces as they seek to wreak havoc upon Al'Kirat. 

The siege itself lasts for three days. The first day is hectic and filled with battle, as the armies clash in brutal warfare using everything they got. By the second day, now that the Anubians have claimed a few districts of the city, both forces entrench and replan their strategy. Then by the third day, a last deadly push is made where the characters will have the chance to challenge Lord Ammu one final time and claim victory. 

During this arc, the characters will get to experience the fruit of their labors. Not just by exercising the great power they have accumulated by collecting several of the Divine Relics, but by seeing all of the allies they have amassed help them during the encounters. I have created a special balancing system within this arc that allows DMs to add helpful NPCs to the encounters, and tables detailing all of the special allies that the characters could have gotten throughout Sands of Doom, and how to properly add them to the encounters. Then at the very end, the final battle is also influenced by who the player's fated ally is (and whether they are still alive or not). My goal is to make this arc as malleable as possible, and to adapt as many of the player's decisions throughout the adventure as possible.

This arc begins when the Anubian army finally reaches Al'Kirat and runs from level 9 to level 12 (Previously 11 - I decided it made sense to give this arc an extra level up).

State of the Kickstarter

 Okay! Let's talk now about how the book is doing. 

Addons

Now that Monster Classes 5 (known as Sands of Doom Monster Classes for the Kickstarter) and the adventure soundtrack is completed, there are only three addons left to finalize. 

-I have to make final decisions as to what will be placed on the DM screen.

-I have to get some of the extra subclasses for my original Monster Classes proofread before i can send them to my editor. Then I can put together the 'Extra Monster Classes' addon. 

-I have to get several lines of the book recorded for our 'Professional Voice Acting' addon. Much like with the DM screen, I am waiting until the book is done so that I can make the best decision as to what to choose for these addons. 

Sands of Doom Campaign

The writing is still going strong as I continue to devote myself full time to the book. Let me break down where we are by levels, to show how much we have done and what we have left. Do note however that sections of many of the chapters are left purposefully unfinished until the end, because there are many sections that interact with other sections of the campaign - such as decisions that can be made that influence other chapters. To minimize rewriting, it is important to leave some sections for the time I know I have all the information finalized to do one single write up of it. 

I want to also point out the difference between 'written' and 'designed'. The book is and has been fully designed for a long time, meaning that i know what happens at every stage of the adventure. I know the layout of the dungeons, what is in every room, and how the story progresses. The actual 'writing' process however involves laying it out in the comfortable 'dnd-like' format that you are accustomed to. It is about presenting the information properly, placing it under the correct headers, doing the final balancing for difficulty and treasure, coming up with unique and flavorful names, fixing errors that come up in play test, writing out the 'read out loud' boxes, and overall just going from 'detailed notes' to 'finalized product'. 

Level 1. This section is fully written, with the exception of the small prologue since I am still deciding how long to make it. Because it was the first thing I wrote, I do want to go back and give it a good pass-through of this chapter, since I have noticed my writing style has changed over the course of writing the book. It shouldn't take too long though to match it.  Otherwise though the entire thing is done. 

Level 2. Some rewrites affected me here, so I would say we are about 50 to 60% done here. I am just stuck deciding how deep to make this chapter since the characters can make 1 of 3 different decisions, and I am debating how much content to make for each of the routes. We could be from 50% to 90% completed, depending on whether we decide to make more content. 

Level 3. This portion is about 90% or so written. Its basically done. I just have the portions of it that connect to level 4 unfinished for now. 

Level 4. I have to rewrite this section. Previously, level 3 and level 4 were their own individual adventures, but I decided it was far better to have a single - but longer adventure that took over the entire city arc. Currently we are at 30% on this one, but I managed to move the content that was previously here to the 'open world' portion of the adventure later on. So not too much work was wasted. 

Levels 5-8. As you can imagine, this is by far the biggest section of the book. We are very close to being done here. Its hard to tell exactly how fully completed we are, since additions and cuts are made all the time in this section. Most of the locations are basically 70 to 80% done however, with a few being fully written. 

Level 9. This is the first day of the siege.The first day is about 75% written. I just have to finish up all the events that transpire prior to the siege actually starting, including an important council meeting, and other types of preparations. 

Level 10 - 11. This section is fully designed but 0% written. So much of this section revolves around what happens within the rest of the book that it was just better to leave it for last. 

In addition we have the following chapters of the book:

Introduction. This is where a lot of the lore exposition is found, as well as the 'How to run this book' information is placed. All the lore is fully written, but the other portions are about halfway done since I am waiting for the rest of the book to be done. 

Exploring the Wasteland. This portion is fully written. Some segments do experience ocassional rewrites as I perfect it thanks to the playtests. This is where you can find information relating to how to survive in the desert, rules for extreme heat and dehydration, random encounters, that sort of thing. I do have some more work left on the random encounters bit but this section is basically done. 

The War. This is a special chapter in the book that basically details what Lord Ammu and his army are doing throughout the events of Sands of Doom. It tells the DM how Lord Ammu behaves, how he changes his strategy as the game goes on, it talks about how the army is managed, and how the Anubians fight the Kirati throughout the land before the siege. This section is only about 10% written. 

Appendixes. All of the stat sheets are done, including the monsters and bosses of the book. The new spells players can get access to are completed as well. I still need to finalize the effects of each of the Divine Relics, each of which is an 'artifact' rarity magical item with a lot of abilities. The playtests influence a lot what i put in those effects. I also need to write the lore and description that accompanies the stat sheets for the monsters.
 

Due Date

So as you guys have noticed, we have gone past the 'February Estimated Delivery'. 

I mentioned this before, but the biggest reason for this really does come down to me wanting to be the sole writer for this project. Many of the 5e books you are probably used to seeing here on Kickstarter are usually done by a team of writers, even if they are as small as two people. Sands of Doom is and has always been a passion project for me, not one made for money or to churn it quickly without love and care. The reality is that it takes a long time for a single writer to...well...write the whole thing. This is not to say that there haven't been mistakes made along the way. 

The book is bigger than I initially accounted for. I wouldn't be surprised if instead of the expected 250 pages, we end up with 300+ instead. To be quite frank, there is A LOT of content on the book and I am loathe to cut many of it since I feel so much of it is has its part to play in the adventure. We will have to see what I can do to lower the page count by the end, but overall, I am trying to focus on quality and content first, even if it makes the process take longer. 

I have also been forced to do a couple of rewrites, a result of play tests showing me correctable mistakes and re-organization of how the story aught to be presented. 

Overall though, I am truly seeking to give you the best book that I can make for you guys, and honest to god I am going as fast as it is humanly possible. My lovely fiance forces me to take one of the weekend days off, but other than that it is basically just book-related stuff from morning till night. If there was a gun to my head and I was forced to give you a time when I think the book will be fully written, I would say in 4 months. That is the best guess that I can currently give you. 

I will continue to put in my all on this book for the next couple of months. Thank you so much for your patience. I will make you all proud. 

Questions

I realize that I have not been particularly good at responding to questions to these updates, and I plan on fixing that. I will take some time throughout today and the next couple of days to answer as many questions as I can. So please if you want to know anything about the adventure or the process, leave me a question and I will help out. 
 

Art Gallery

Now let's go through some of the new art we got these past months!

Kim

Here's more character art!
 

Elena

Elena has given us a few more bits of location and concept art!

Dominika

We have two more hand-drawn maps to share!

Elrose

Elrose is hard at work perfecting the map for the city of Al'Kirat. Certainly one of the hardest jobs. See how far she has come!

David

After helping me with the art for Monster Classes 5, I wanted to get David in on Sands of Doom as well to help us out here. I am certain you will see a lot more from him in the near future!

Travis

The official soundtrack for Sands of Doom is finally complete. There are 18 tracks included with a little bit of everything to properly set the mood for the adventure. We got theme songs for some of the most important characters, battle music for different locations, suspenseful tracks for key moments, and much more. We are even planning on having variations for some of the tracks to have special sound effects, such as hyena cackles, for encounters featuring gnolls. 

I highly recommend checking out Travis Savoie. His music has been absolutely on point for the adventure and his library of DND related tracks are always a must-use in my adventures. 

His Youtube channel: 

And here is his Patron! Support him if you like this music:

https://www.patreon.com/RPGMusicMaker

Now here below is a small sample of the music he made for us for the Sands of Doom soundtrack. Enjoy!

Thank you!

That's gonna be it for this update. Thank you all so much for all the support and for staying excited for the adventure. I know it has been quite long but we are just a few months away from completion. 

Feel free to leave me some questions! I will do my best to answer them all throughout the next couple of days. 



 

End of November / December Update - Sands of Doom
12 months ago – Tue, Jan 02, 2024 at 01:07:15 PM

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great xmas, holidays, and new years! It is time for a Sands of Doom update - though this update will be a tad short. 

Writing

Unfortunately I do not have much to update you guys on as far as the writing goes this time around. I was hoping to achieve more these two months than I ended up actually doing, but the adderall shortage hit me super hard at the end of November and then the holidays stole the second half of December from me. All in all, I feel like I absolutely lost all of December which is sad cause I was keeping great pace throughout November. 

However to catch you guys up on where I am at the moment, I am now in the process of doing the final draft for all the chapters of the book. This is the draft that will be sent over to the editors for proofreading, before you guys will get to see it and play-test it. I am about halfway done I wager, but still a bit too early to give you guys a real ETA just yet. There's a lot that changes throughout the internal playtesting process so its difficult to say for certain, and I have already done a fair amount of changes which of course slow things down a bit. 

This book is my baby so I am giving it as much time as possible for it to really shine. I really appreciate you guys being as supportive as you have, and willing to wait for the product to be fully complete. My Youtube channel has tanked horribly since I started full-time writing on the book (cause I am terrible at multi-tasking) but if anything, that just shows how much time I am really devoting to Sands of Doom o.O . 

Map of Kirat

As you guys know, finishing the map for Sands of Doom was one of my biggest stresses. For an adventure, but particularly one that deals a fair bit with traveling, having a good map is extremely important. I can easily envision DMs wanting to print out a large version of the campaign's map in order to track the player's position, or setting the map as the main picture for lobby of the VTT's version of the game so everyone can see where everything is all the time; and as such it was crucial that we invested greatly in making the map the best that it could be. 

Elrose took on the job phenomenally and worked hard for over 2 months to bring you guys the current draft of Kirat. In addition to the basic form of the map, Elrose is also working on drafting digital tokens that DMs can drag and drop onto the map for things such as oasis, settlements, and more. We took a lot of inspiration from Elden Ring's map and by a lot of Mike Schley's work. 

Elrose will begin work on the map for the great city of Al'Kirat once the final draft of the region map is approved. 

You can find Elrose's instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/the_d12rose

We will be working on the map a bit more to add a few things here and there before the final draft of the book is done but for now this is Kirat! 

Art Gallery

The art is coming along very nicely, all thanks to the extremely talented artists I managed to snag for the project :D We are coming in very close to finishing all the art as well. I think in about 3 more months we should have all the main art done for the book, with any remaining art likely to be commissioned after we begin doing the layout of the book - in a 'we need to fill out this spot here' basis. 

I said it before but I will say it again, the benefit of having been delayed on the writing is that it gives me more time to commission more and better art. Art that takes a long time to make.  

Elena. Unfortunately Elena was very busy with personal work during most of November and will likely be similarly busy during many parts of January and February, so we will likely only get one or two pieces from her a month. She is currently working on setting a good style for the Tieflings of Kirat and for the architecture of the city. Hopefully we can have more pictures of the city during the next update!

Kim Van Deun. Kim is hard at work making all the characters / NPCs of the adventure, and doing a fantastic job at maintaining a solid dark feel for them too! We have been adding a bit more background to the pieces and even making some of them a bit grander in scope. This makes the characters take a lot more time to make but we think it is worth it!

Dominika. We have two more hand drawn maps! 

The worm caves is a bit of a special case. The players fall onto the caves, before they begin filling up with sand. As such, players are supposed to travel through them and escape before they become entombed. The map has 10 different variations, with each of them representing the different stages of the sand filling the caves up. I really like the concept but I am planning on adding a bit more to the map as it feels a bit too basic for me. I think a few more obstacles and some more detail. 

Tyndall Doodle. Zachary has been doing a really sick job at the largest dungeon of the campaign, Castle Tenebrous /Castle Obsidian, with his professional shadow work. The dungeon has more than 100 rooms (a bit bigger than Castle Ravenloft) so it takes a long time to make, and so far Zachary has only done the shadow work for the first floor. The 2nd and 3rd floor, ceiling, and basement, are still in draft form as we perfect what is meant to be in each of the rooms; and as such are still a work in progress. 

You can find Zachary's patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/TDMaps. 

Conclusion

A fairly thin update here for these last two months, but even if there wasn't much to talk about I still think giving you all a little something is worth it. Even if its just a look at the beautiful art we have going. I am hoping to have a lot to talk about the writing next time around. 

Hope you all had a fun holiday and see you all soon!

End of September / October Update - Sands of Doom
about 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 01, 2023 at 04:59:22 PM

Hey guys! It's time for another update for Sands of Doom. 

If you can believe it, I ended up spending over 7 hours writing this whole thing...while gathering all of the samples and pictures that I know you guys like to see. But I know you guys appreciate the updates! So that's a sacrifice I am more than happy to make for you all :D It's been a very busy last 2 months so let's get right into it.

The Book's Writing

I have good news and bad news. The final writing of the book is taking longer than I originally anticipated, which is the bad news. But the good news is that it helps the artists have a bit more time to flesh out all the concepts, and create more art for the book. The way its looking now, the art should be getting completed at about the same time that the writing on the book is fully finalized. The other good news is that being a bit delayed helps me pivot WAY harder if needed depending on how all the playtesting goes. Already found myself adding a ton of new content based on what I see player's interest gravitating towards, or against. 

Now, I have been basically full-timing the writing of the book for the past couple of months, and I have noticed that I like re-visiting a lot of sections and improving them, over and over again. This is definitely slowing down the whole process but the quality I am seeing in each iteration feels extremely worth it. It is also becoming increasingly clear to me that I may have added too much content...hah.. and we might end up with a 300 page book in our hands. Its not ideal since it increases printing costs for me, and shipping costs for you; but ultimately I am siding with the philosophy that content is always king. Basically, I am making this the best that it can be - while limiting myself the least amount possible. 

My current projections tell me that I should be fully done with the writing by the end of January, but as always, it can be quite difficult to tell. Its very interesting how long it takes to transcribe the 'design' of a place, say a room in a dungeon, or the personality traits of an NPC; and turn that into "official-dnd-looking-language". Transcribing the terminologies and style to have it feel like a 5th edition product is definitely time consuming, but very rewarding. 

Overall though the playtesting has been extremely positive on the story, themes, and overall atmosphere; and the setting itself (characters, locations, culture, background history, etc.) is getting really good feedback. In the second chapter, which players play through as level 2 characters, characters must go through a difficult survival challenge in the dunes of the region. This second chapter got some mixed feelings, so I will have to play around with how difficult the chapter is. It will be tricky to balance out the grittiness of survival with what can easily become tedious, too difficult/deadly, or maybe even too anxiety-inducing. To keep it short, you basically have to manage limited food/water, only sacrifice what you must sacrifice at night to feed the camp fire (nights are very cold in this desert), while trying to hunt / survive since you can't long rest for a considerable amount of time. It is going to be tricky to see in which direction to balance it, to either make it very gritty and harsh but with plenty of tools that the DM can use to ease it if necessary; or ease up on the throttle but then add tools that the DM can use to ramp up the intensity. The harsh rules for the dunes of the setting work perfectly for traveling through them at the mid levels, which is when you will be doing most of your dune-exploration; but I need to find a good balance for this one early survival arc. 

Supplements 

I have finished doing all of the re-writes and rebalancing of Monster Classes 5 (ie. Sands of Doom Monster Classes - Troll/Earth Elemental/Gnoll) and it is currently in the layout process, as it is being put together with all the art and everything. It should be done in a few weeks, after which it will receive another pass for any errors/typos/etc, and it will be then sent to all of you in PDF form. If you guys find any errors, between now and final printing (which will happen a few months later), then those errors will be fixed for the printed version - and likely you will be send another PDF with the errors corrected then as well. This is going to be our M.O. for most products. 

I have also completed all of the extra subclasses I promised for the book compendium of Monster Classes 1, 2, and 3 (named Extra Monster Classes in the supplements). We ended up with an alternate Ogre called the Ogre Magi, the Fang Dragon for the Dragon, the Imp as a subclass to the Familiar, the Werespider for the Lycanthrope, and the Fungal Treant as an alternate form of the Treant. I will also spend some time and go through all of these monster classes and do one last set of rebalances based on feedback and playtest - hopefully I can spend some time in a few weeks to do that. I ended up liking the Imp so much that I am actually considering putting it on the Sands of Doom book, but it depends on how we do on the number of pages. 

We are close to being done with all of the arts for the Magic Item Deck, so soon I will start ordering some printed samples for the cards, and hopefully we don't need too many iterations before we are ready to do the big printing of them. All of the mechanics for the magic items are completed, though they are currently undergoing proofreading for any errors / mechanical issues. Many of these were really cool desert-based magic items from previous editions that I thought would do incredibly great in Sands of Doom. So I deconstructed them and redesigned them, some for the adventure itself and others exclusively for the deck of cards. Others were must-haves for me, like a custom-made flying carpet, a magic lamp, and others that I really wanted to personally create. And then of course, some are magic items from the adventure itself. 

The OST for Sands of Doom is coming along really well. Travis Savoie from RPGMusicMaker and I have been working together to come up with a really thematic set of tunes that encapsulate the feeling of the campaign. We are doing 16 background pieces, about 1 minute and 30 seconds long with a good looping rythm, that are meant to play in an non-intrusive way in the background during your session. This includes multiple songs for combat, boss music, a good vibe for desert traveling, tunes themed to most of the regions, etc. Then we have 2 full themes, which are about 3 minutes and a half long, that are meant to be more set-piece songs. One of them is the official theme of Sands of Doom while the other is the theme of Lord Ammu, our main villain. Now, I am very well aware - being a DM myself - that 99% of you are more than happy using a lot of the epic music that you can find on Youtube. I mean there is no way we can compete with a lot of what's out there, whether we are talking about some of the excellent World of Warcraft background atmospheric tunes, dark souls boss music, or classic dnd soundtracks such as the OST of Pillars of Eternity. This is why I specifically wanted to do something a bit special with the Sands of Doom OST, and will be customizing a lot of the music with sound effects specifically pertinent to the topic that the track is meant to represent. For example, a lot of the combat music which is specifically designed to be used during encounters with gnolls, will have atmospheric hyena-sounding effects - of course used in aesthetically pleasing ways in a professional style so as to not drown out the music. You will also of course be getting a version of the tracks without these effects, versions that Travis will also be uploading to his patreon supporters - but I am working with the mindset that if you purchased Sands of Doom music, you likely want something very very custom-made and specific; something that will make your Sands of Doom experience better. Please feel free to check out Travis' spectacular dnd music over at https://www.youtube.com/@RPGMusicMaker/featured

I am leaving the voice acting supplement until much later, because it is very quickly to record and produce, and to allow for me to be completely certain that the script is final. See, in Sands of Doom, characters are introduced to a Sphinx that can see the future and wishes to help the characters, but suffers from a particularly interesting condition that prevents her from speaking plainly. To keep it short, the Sphinx helps the characters by giving them riddles which the characters can solve to figure out where to go next and what to avoid. Since the riddles are static, meaning they will always be the same and shouldn't normally change, I can hire a cool voice actress to narrate them, and then add any necessary effect or tune to go along with it. Now, there are a lot of riddles for a lot of different things since the Sphinx can answer almost any question given to her - but in riddle form. So i can't possibly cover every single answer she can give, but I can get some awesome voice work for all the major ones. Anyways, I am still play testing the riddles to see whether they feel right, whether they give the answers too easily or whether they are too difficult, etc. I also find myself constantly changing the flavors of how the riddles are presented to try and find a perfect theme or style to them. So basically, it is best for me to leave this until after the book is fully complete and I know 100% that the riddles are what they are. 

For the Tactical Map Pack, there's not much that I can do right now as I have to wait for the art of the maps to be completed of course. However, I can tell you that based on how all the designs look like, and the fact that I can only fit so many maps onto the pack; that it was important that I themed out the right set of maps onto the pack. What I ended up deciding on, was to make the pack hold all of the important maps for the siege of Al'Kirat. It was a hard decision because there are soo many wonderful maps that I think would look fantastic in poster form, but ultimately I think that there is just far too much value in having a complete 'siege' pack that has every map you need to run the climactic end of the campaign. Now you can have all of the final and most important encounters in Sands of Doom as big set piece fights, as they deserve to be!

The only supplement that I am struggling to complete is the DM Screen, specifically because it is just too difficult to figure what to leave out and how 'specific' to be with the content. As a forever DM, I have a lot of incredibly valuable stuff that I think would benefit all DMs to have...and I really want you to have that content. But most of it is not Sands of Doom specific, its just stuff that is awesome to have in any adventure. Normally I would follow my instinct on this, which is to put this useful information, but I did open up a poll about this to let you all vote on what you wanted; and you voted that you wanted the DM Screen to have information specific to Sands of Doom. It also makes sense to make it very campaign specific, because you guys all probably have your own screens and don't need another 'general use' screen. So yeah, I have to think further on this and see what good middle-ground I can find. 

Stretch Goals

I am been extremely happy with how successfully I have been able to integrate the Stretch Goals seamlessly into the story. 

Kunaten Keep which originally had a much smaller role in the adventure, was transformed into an important part of the story. A sizable prologue was added where characters can explore the settlement and get to know the community, with a lot of fun interactions. Its destruction has been rewritten in such a way that allows the players to experience it in an indirect way, making its destruction feel way more personal to the players. It is also much more tied up with the initial events that trigger the main conflict of the story. And lastly, the actual promise of the stretch goal itself, characters can return much later in the story to the now ruined settlement. We have two full maps of the location, and it is designed to be filled with references to the things that the characters do during the prologue. The people they help and some decisions that they make will have an impact when they return much later on. 

The Red Sphinx has been included as a completely optional side venture that the characters can do, but I am really happy with its addition because it has allowed me to explore a very different part of the story that didn't fully fit with the "main quest" so to speak. It also allowed me to have a lot more "traditional" riddles in the game, since the main Sphinx of Sands of Doom functions less like riddles with defined answers and more like clues with a lot of metaphorical language that is hard to decode. But yeah, not much to say here otherwise. 

The Anubian Tiara stretch goal ended up being far more transformative than I originally thought. There was always the intention that many of the things you did throughout the adventure, had some form of effect or change in the last chapter. But generally the ending was about the same: you defeat the gnolls and save the day. Regardless of how you accomplished it, the crux of the ending would be roughly the same. The introduction of Killoh' as a potential 'replacement' for Lord Ammu as a new Pharaoh, inspired me to dig deeper into the story and rework some elements so that I could have three fully unique endings. These endings are indirectly tied to three very important NPCs which you can meet throughout the game. Basically, Sands of Doom is fairly open in how you progress through it. Between level 1 and level 4, the story is a bit more linear but you can make a lot of decisions along the way that changes important things here and there. Then between level 5 and level 8, the game is very open with which specific content you want to do and how you approach the story. There are three important characters in the story that thematically push you in three different directions, and help you complete different objectives in different locations. You eventually meet all of them, but one of them is considered your 'Fated Ally', which is dependent on what exactly you do in Chapter 2. This fated ally is met much earlier than the rest and will be automatically predisposed to help you, where as the others might need some convincing. DMs can also choose to pick one of them, if they feel like their story / route will be the most fun for their table. 

Here's a small primer on each of them and what they bring to the table:

---------------------------

Brigga

Characters who survive the dangers of the pyramid and seek refuge at the nearest oasis encounter Brugi, a banished storm giant who befriends and protects them.

Quests. Allying with Brigga guides the players towards the gnoll subplot of the adventure. In this questline, the characters unravel the truth behind the Anubian kingdom’s downfall and confront the true enemy that lies dormant deep underground.

Flavor. A campaign with Brigga as a primary ally is hopeful and wholesome. Players will travel atop a giant’s shoulder, solve riddles, combat vast swarms of insects, and rally allies to protect and save Kirat.

Ending. Fulfilling Brigga’s questline guides players towards the Peace Ending of Sands of Doom. In this conclusion, a vanquished Ammu is dethroned, and a new Pharaoh is consecrated. This Pharaoh leads the gnolls on a pilgrimage back to their sacred land, where they can rebuild their civilization in peace.

-----

Malicia

Characters who are captured, crucified, and left for dead at the beginning of Chapter 2 will eventually encounter Malicia, an undead black dragon who saves their lives.

Quests. Allying with Malicia guides players towards the genie subplot of the adventure. In this questline, the characters will locate the four imprisoned genies in Kirat and liberate them to harness their powerful magic.

Flavor. A campaign with Malicia as a primary ally is fantastical and chaotic. Players will soar across the dunes atop an undead dragon, reshape the landscape with awe-inspiring wishes, and research the corruption of the land by performing experiments.

Ending. Fulfilling Malicia’s questline guides players towards the Genie Ending of Sands of Doom. This conclusion transforms Kirat into a fertile green oasis where the tieflings can thrive in their paradise. However, this comes at the price of exterminating all gnolls, peaceful or otherwise, and wiping their ruins and riches from the land forever.

-----

Souk

Characters who stray from the two primary paths in Chapter 2, find themselves engulfed by the sandstorm of an ancient demigoddess. They are then rescued from eternal imprisonment by Souk, a heroic werecrocodile.

Quests. Allying with Souk guides the players towards the divine subplot of the adventure. In this questline, characters engage with the ancient Anubian gods, systematically slaying them while confronting Ammu head-on.

Flavor. A campaign with Souk as a primary ally is dark, fast-paced, and aggressive. Players will travel deep into enemy territory, combat the gnolls on their home ground, and unravel ancient mysteries by engaging with tainted deities.

Ending. Fulfilling Souk’s questline guides players towards the Deicide Ending. In this conclusion, the Aru are slain and forever banished, the Ankh of Life is destroyed, and Ammu is destroyed, granting Al’Kirat a resounding victory in the war.

-------------------------------

Killoh' forms part of Briggas route, which allows characters to have an ending where instead of fully destroying each other, the tieflings and the gnolls find a way to live in peace. So yeah as you can see, the addition of Killoh' into the story prompted me to expand the possibilities for how DMs and players can approach the story of Sands of Doom. 

Caught By The Horde, which is meant as a section of the book that adds content for what happens if the characters are caught by the gnolls, is currently in stand-by. This is actually one of the few sections of the book that still needs to be designed, as I have been focusing on other aspects of the book first. Not much to report on this yet. 

Much like with Killoh', The Armored Serpent was a great inspiration for a lot of the final plot of the story and some of the routes/endings of the book. In particular, the Armored Serpent became one of the main targets of Souk's route - which if you follow, you can find a way to fully slay and claim the great power hidden within it. If you don't, well...then you better hope to stay as far away from it as possible. 

Our penultimate Stretch Goal was for me to add a section specifically dedicated for Desert Magic! I am supposed to craft 20 new spells, but I have fully completed 18 of them. Here are a few samples that you can see:

And the last Stretch Goal (which you guys completely demolished by the way...I should have definitely added more stretch goals) was for me to create the possibility for an evil ending. Specifically for you guys to be able to join Lord Ammu in his attack against Al'Kirat. Based on the nature of how Sands of Doom is structured, you could have always been 'evil' without disrupting the flow of the plot - other than simply refusing to fight in the war all-together which does disrupt the last chapter since...well the last chapter is about the siege. But being scrupulous, murder-hobo, insane?; none of these things necessarily stop you from progressing through the adventure. However, having a dedicated set of instructions, custom-made encounters, and overall - content - for joining the villain was something that I was extremely interested in trying out; especially in a campaign like Sands of Doom. To make this happen, I have been careful in designing many sections of the adventure to allow for the players to have Lord Ammu's best interest in mind when completing them. 

In Sands of Doom, Lord Ammu will interact a lot with the player characters as they make their journey through the adventure. The interactions are designed to be mostly confrontational, as the players and the Mummy Lord will have opposing goals, but these interactions are not always fights. There will be official "ambassadorial" meetings, messengers, projections, person to person conversations, full on fights, or even moments where the characters are captured and forced to submit themselves to his judgement. If for one reason or another, the interests of the two align, the players will now be able to work with Ammu - all the way to the end. 

The content that you will experience following Lord Ammu will not be as 'unique' as any of the three possible Fated Allies, as each of them have full blown dungeons dedicated to their route - and it would be too much for me to make a full dedicated dungeon with new NPCs + Art for the evil path. However, there will be a specific route that he will offer, guiding the characters to specific set of locations within the adventure for his own nefarious reasons - empowering the characters and turning them into great leaders of his army. Much of the content presented in this section will be focused on having directions,  a proper narrative, and specific rewards that Lord Ammu would grant to those that serve him. But where the bulk of the design work will go to, will be to on the instructions needed to run the siege of Al'Kirat from the side of the villains, including the re-balancing of the encounters. Do note however that the amount of design work it would take to fully reverse the entirety of the last chapter, and the amount of pages it would take to write such a thing, prevents me from committing to the same level of detail and quality that you get by going through the siege in the normal way. I will endeavor to be thorough in my instructions and guidance, but ultimately the most complete and satisfying way to play Sands of Doom will always be to fight Lord Ammu rather than to ally with him. 

Art Gallery 

The art is coming along phenomenally! However, I have struggled a bit with finding what is the perfect balance in terms of how many artists to hire for the project. On the one hand, I can hire a lot of artists to work on the project in order to finish the art much faster. But on the other hand, having fewer artists allows for the art style to be more consistent throughout the book. What ultimately swayed me to stay with fewer artists, was that it meant that I could hire them full time - even after Sands of Doom is completed. Basically, I could offer security and consistency to my main three (and a potential fourth!) artists so they know they have work throughout the year, and beyond. If I hired more, I would have less consistent work for my core group of artists, and some of them would have to freelance on the side to be able to make end's meet. 

That being said, I have still hired many artists throughout the year to do one-offs here and there for things that I knew would not be done on time otherwise. This has been particularly important for the battle maps and dungeons, as those take a very long time to make when hand drawn - which is what Dominika, my main dungeon artist, is doing. 

Kim. As our main character-artist, Kim just has the perfect vibe with their art that encapsulates Sands of Doom just right. The grittiness is exactly what I wanted from the get go. The project simply would not had been the same without them. Here are some examples of some of the characters that were completed during the last two months. 

Elena. As always, Elena just does a little bit of everything - and its always amazing. She completed the last remaining Anubian Relics for us, for a total of 13. She's also doing the big half-page arts that will be spread out all across the book, AND she's also helping us with the book's dressing. She will be designing everything from the art that goes around the page numbers, to the tables that will be found all throughout the book, to even the page color! Here are a few examples of the work she did for us since the last update. 

Dominika. Our resident hand-drawn map maker! If it wasn't impossible for Dominika to do every single map on the book, I would have her do them all in a heart-beat. There's just so much personality and care given to every room and every object which you can only get by hand drawing the map, but even more so than that, I can tell her *exactly* how I want each individual object to look like. Here are a few of the maps she made for us since the last update. 

Rose. She hasn't worked for us full time throughout the project, but every single time I have a big project that the team can't handle - Rose is the first person I think of to make it happen. She has been quietly working in the background with us making a lot of the normal magic items for either the campaign or the supplements, churning out amazing work. 

If you guys remember, I was struggling last update to figure out who would be the right fit to make the large map of Sands of Doom - well, I decided it was better to go big or go home. As you know, Rose made the incredible Sands of Doom DM Screen art which is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have seen, and having that level of detail and dedication to the map of the adventure would be a dream come true. So I was incredibly delighted when Rose accepted the challenge! We are still in the early stages, but I still wanted to update you on it since it is such an important aspect of the book - one of the most important art pieces we will make in the whole project. The full map is scheduled to be done by the end of December, and after that, Rose has also agreed to work on the map for the main city of the adventure - Al'Kirat - which would then be scheduled to be completed end of February. 

Anyhow, here are some examples of the work she did for us recently. 

HeroicMaps. Joe and Sarah over at HeroicMaps have been helping us with many of the maps that Dominika wouldn't had been able to do. In particular, they are working on many of the higher-leveled sections which take on a grittier feel as the war looms and unfolds. Here you can see some of what they have done to help us out. 

Tyndall Doodle. I was honored that Zachary from Tyndal Doodle was able to set aside a huge chunk of his schedule to help us realize the biggest dungeon in Sands of Doom. Taking a lot of inspiration from Castle Ravenloft, I wanted to build a large complex that didn't have a specific "final" room, but rather, was a living-breathing ecosystem that one could explore, with different goals spread around the place.  In the end, the grand fortification (dubbed Castle Tenebrous) ended up being over 100 rooms big. Frankly, I went way too ham on the dungeon and I am genuinely scared this might raise the page count of the book too much, but that's a problem for future me. Here below is a sample of one of the locations. Most of it is still incomplete, and most places don't have lighting yet, but the overall vibe will be close to what you see on the main entrance and the hallways & rooms that you see on the bottom side. Tyler has already spent months on the project, and both of us are going to be making sure that every room is perfect. I am so incredibly fond of this dungeon and I want it to be exactly right. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's about it for this update! I hope you are as excited as I am :D 

Thank you all for your endless support and I can't wait for you all to enjoy this book. If I could DM it for every single one of you, I would. Thank you for being awesome. 

-Fermin Caballero (MrRhexx)

END OF JULY/AUGUST UPDATE - HUGE UPDATE!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 11:55:21 AM

Hello fellas! Apologize for the lack of an update last month as I didn't have much to talk about, but we got some juicy things this time around.

Writing. The writing has been going really fast, which is excellent news. I feel inspired, on fire, and most importantly; I am having so much fun with the book which I think is going to show in the end in the quality of the design. Outside of some bosses which still need some design work, I have finished writing every single monster stat block on the book. As I mentioned before, I am taking quite a bit of inspiration from Matthew Colville's new monster book in creating monsters that feel exciting to play and have more strategy to them. Here's a small preview to some of the Gnolls that I have created:

On our last update, I opened up a poll so that you guys could vote on a myriad of things, including how I should balance Wishes in Sands of Doom. As you all know, or as you should had guessed :D, there will be genies which may or may not grant to the players the ability to craft a wish for them to cast in their stead. You guys voted that there should be some solid restrictions to prevent the game breaking, but otherwise the wishes should be able to grant anything the players desire. I want you to behold THE UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF WISHES. 

In addition to the UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF WISHES *cough* sorry, there are also a small list of "you probably shouldn't do this" that some genies might warn mortals about (if they like them). Such things include adding conditional clauses to your wishes, which usually tend to go awry. Adding conjunctions to a wish is generally a bad idea - these are words like: "then", "and", "or", "if", etc. I will make sure that your job as a DM is the easiest that it can be when dealing with the wishes - though at the end of the day...they are wishes after all so chaos will definitely ensue! There is also a secret UNBREAKABLE LAW that a wish can only directly affect no more than a specific number of mortals, but that may or may not make its debut - depending on how chaotic we want these wishes to be ;)

Lastly, I do want to show you an exerpt that relates to the tieflings of Sands of Doom. It has been a very interesting challenge to write a society whose members carry fiendish blood - and with it the draw of evil - but are also half human which grants desires for freedom, fulfillment, happiness, empathy, other positive qualities (and negatives too). They revere Asmodeus, but a version of Asmodeus that makes sense to them; a version that is compatible with both the real lord of hell and the tieflings themselves. Asmodeus himself, of course, more than happy to play along - provided they follow his tenets. 

I am very interested to hear your opinions on the matter *muhaha*. Leave it to Asmodeus to come up with a creed that exemplifies his aspects, while also figuring out clever ways to rationalize a focus away from "goodness" or "evilness" in his philosophical framework. I am really happy with it. 

There is a lot more work to be done however. Just yesterday I was finishing up all the rules for desert travel, and all of the different natural and magical obstacles that players may encounter: such as mirages, sand spirits, blowouts, sandstorms, quicksand, etc. In particular, I finalized the rules alterations for those who travel the dunes of Kirat. 

Random Encounters, events, traps, and overall shenanigans while on the dunes are intense without being able to Long Rest out there. You have to either make it to an Oasis, or leave the dunes, if you wish to replendish your strength. 

But that's about it! There's a lot more that I have been working on but I don't want stay here forever :D Let's talk about other topics. 

Schedule. Our current deadline for me to finish all the writing, and for all the artists/musicians to finish their pieces, is end of year 31st of December. Since the goal is to have the chapters of the book be proofread/edited, and maybe even sorted on InDesign, as I finish them; I am expecting for fully playable drafts with art included to be coming out by February. In other words, as the current schedule stands, everything ought to be finished by February - which means that I should be able to send you guys everything that is digital by February. For the printed version of the books, it would be wise to give it one or two months for people to look through the digital book, play through parts of it, and give feedback; before we do the printing. It would mean of course that we would be 2 months late at the earliest from our initial delivery estimate, without taking into account the time it would take for the printing and delivery of course. But it would also allow for me to fix potential typos, errors, or improve any particular issue that people might be having. Perhaps there might be a way for me to send the book drafts earlier, if we sent them with less art, to maximize the time we have. I would love to hear your feedback on this, on a potential 1 or 2 month delay for PDF feedback before comitting to printing. I know many of you have been burnt by kickstarters who are late, or never deliver; so I have been very concious about making sure that we stay on schedule as much as possible and to update you as much as I can. 

Art. The art for Sands of Doom is coming along exceedingly well, and we are still on point to get all the art done by the end of the year. I was a bit hesitant before and I used to say a lot that the biggest concern for me was whether we would be able to finish all the art in time, but the closer we get to the goal the calmer I get about it. This was especially rough because I am a one-man team who is personally directing every single artist, while doing all the writing for the book, and also doing the Youtube channel; so it was hard for me to be proactive in analyzing time-frames and keeping a good schedule for everyone. But it seems that things are working out really well on this front. 

There were however some sacrifices that I did have to make. As much as I originally dreamed of every map being hand-drawn, it became clear that I was just not going to be able to make that happen. I had some great talent on board to make it happen, but I needed them on other parts of the book that I could not do without. The fortunate thing of course is that they are absolutely killing it on the art they are making, so it is very hard to complain. I have brought on board some really talented map makers but I don't have anything to show you yet, so I will introduce them to you all once I have a sample for you to see. 

Concerns. My main concern at the moment does have to do with art, but it is specifically on the world map / city map front. I haven't quite found someone to help me illustrate the maps in a way I like them, and all of the cartography-centric artists that I have approached have all been booked - seemingly years in advance o.O . We do have some incredibly talent on board, many of which could illustrate them to absolute perfection, but I was hoping to get someone new so that I wouldn't have to pull my artists from their tasks. If I can't get someone within the next two months, then I might have to see if I can persuade Elena (sorry elena :D) to do it for us cause I know she would blow it out of the water. David Yáñez might be up for it too honestly, his art is more cartoony than what we have on the book but that might look great on a map. 

HERE IS THE ART GALLERY OF WHAT WE CRAFTED SINCE OUR LAST UPDATE!

David Yáñez has been killing it with his Monster Classes renditions and he is almost done with all of the main pieces for the book. All we need is the Witchkeeper and all of the smaller decorative pieces that will go all around the pages. Here are some samples:

Elena Nozdrina is about 3 days away from finishing the art for the remainder of the Anubian Relics, the main artifacts that players will be gathering throughout their time in Sands of Doom. After that, she will be delighting us with more half-page art for the book. Oh and she also finished up the main art for Castle Obsidian! And its a banger. 

Kim Van Deun who is bringing to life all of the character for Sands of Doom has been integral in consistently raising the bar everytime with the quality of their work, and also to help maintain a grittier feel for our adventure! We got many more characters finished and will have many more characters to come. Here are a few:

David Chen as come back to work with us to help us with some half-page pieces that Elena wouldn't have had time to fit on her schedule. This ended up working out really well as it removes some stress from Elena's shoulders and we get to enjoy some more of David Chen's work! He brought to life a "somewhat secret" hidden Anubian city for all of us to enjoy. 

Dominika Denes has been hard at work producing beautifully hand-drawn maps for us! I feel bad because she has to deal with my terribly drawn sketches for how the maps are meant to look like, but somehow she always finds a way to save them :D As always - not all of these are final versions as we are leaving some things for the end (in case i need to change something on the map), and we have to do some color changes and additions. But anyhow, here's the latest batch:

And then lastly, but certainly not least, Rose has been producing nonstop winners for our Deck of Magic Items. I am so happy that she was available to do all the magic items, since we needed to do so many and having them all share an art style was super important. Her art style is so unique and vibrant and I am happy to show you more of what she was made for us!

Conclusion. And that's it! That's what I have for you for this update. We do have a bunch of music designed for the book, but I will wait until next update to show you guys. This whole update took me about 4 hours to create and I have to get back to book writing! I actually really like the two month update schedule a lot more than on a per month basis, I feel like I can update you about more stuff. So expect the next update to be early November. And do please give me feedback on anything you saw today, it is all incredibly useful! Thank you so much for all the support. 

-Fermin Caballero (MrRhexx)

Quick Sands of Doom Polls
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 10:39:51 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.