Update #11: Let's see those races!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 31, 2019 at 12:06:14 AM

Races: from concept to life!

Hello all <check notes> 4,100 of you? That's a... number. That's definitely a number.

We've been thinking it's high time we start showing (off?) some of our various races, and not just concept art, but the 3D models themselves. Now, some of them are still very much so a work in progress (Vantar, for instance), and we've only really finished the ladies' side of things for Somon and Aeth.

You'll notice that the proportions for each race are not human-like. The Aeth are longer limbed and limber, the Deoth stocky, Vantar just... rocky behemoths. Homon are chubby little bastards. They all look a bit weird since hair, beards, tattoos and such are the next phase in their design stage.

We'll probably be tweaking them until the heat death of the universe, but at some point we'll have to say "this is as good as we can make it without being terrible, terrible nitpickers". The Somon male and female, and the Deoth male are very close to that.

So, without further ado, behold, our stuff!

In other news...

We're heading into our last week! With on final appearance on Critical Role later tonight (hey critters!). So this is pretty much the last chance for people to jump on board before we close down until post Gen Con. 

We're even doing a few give-aways on our social media channels (Facebook and Twitter), so if you want an Eldritch Foundry Alveus Malcanter, this is your best chance. His clothes and items will be in-system, but Mark Meer's face... not so much.

So, share, like, tweet, and make sure your friends and family know! We want to make that campaign setting PDF so bad, and we want the bits box even more!

Go forth, and make us proud!

Love,

The Eldritch Foundry team

PS- Other cool projects you might like!

We've been following this crazy awesome campaign on Kickstarter, and well, maybe you'll like it as much as we do. 

LIMBO | The Magical Top That Spins For Hours!

LIMBO is a smart, self balancing electric gyro, disguised as a beautiful CNC machined spinning top that spins for hours. 

On June 19th, LIMBO broke the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for ”longest-running mechanical spinning top”, all details are in LIMBO’s campaign. 

 LIMBO was designed to amaze anyone that interacts with it, and can even spin on a tomato (watch the “Will it Spin” video on LIMBO’s campaign HERE)!

The Eldritch Founder and his Seraphormer (aka, the Character Creator)
almost 5 years ago – Thu, May 23, 2019 at 11:26:57 PM

The Engine of Souls, the Seraphormer

The heart and soul of the Eldritch Foundry is our character creator. We've worked hard to make it look, and feel, fun. We want people to enjoy not only the end- but the journey as well. Our Lore Master, Patrick Stuart, has given the character creator a name: Seraphormer, the Engine of Souls. And the very first person(?) you meet before it- the Eldritch Founder.

Our line of thinking is this: when you create your custom mini, you have a pretty solid concept already of what you want. So the Eldritch Founder will help you start off with a character that's more than just a nude random human. He'll help you set off as an Aeth Cleric, wielding Sword and Shield! Or perhaps, a Nathling Monk, with simple robes and empty handed.

From there, you can fine tune ("not that sword!", "ugh, that hair!", "what Deoth woman goes without a fine beard?!") until you hit exactly what you want.

Astute observers would also have noticed that we've incorporated Patrick's writing into each choice. Our world, Uud, is a living, breathing, campaign setting, with over 100 pages written thus far. We're using World Anvil to curate Uud, all the various races and places. It's pretty massive, and all of it cool (I particularly enjoyed Patrick's depiction of Morningspain. Just wait and see). If we hit the 400,000$ stretch goal, we'll even release the whole thing in a cool book!

More updates- Mounts, extra minis and the BackerKit

So we've gotten quite a bit of questions regarding mounts, how much they cost, how do you add them on, and which mounts will we get?

Let's start with the easy stuff first. Our post Kickstarter surveys will be via BackerKit, so that allows us quite a bit of leeway letting you guys better manage your pledge. We're still learning the system, but we plan for you to be able to shift things around (don't want that special base, but do want a mount?). We're also planning a few things that we felt did not quite fit in the baseline Kickstarter campaign (shirts, stickers, our logo, Skwish, in all his miniature glory).

The mounts themselves we are pricing at 30$ extra at this point- they are effectively a second mini for us to print. We do want for the ability to sell just the mount- and that falls under what we call the "bits box" stretch goal. We'll get there, I trust you :)

And finally, the mounts! We haven't finalized which mounts will be ready when, but these are the mounts we plan on having:

Horse (/unicorn/pegasus), Wolf, Bear, Drake, Lion, Bike (chopper/Kawasaki Ninja), at least one dino (probably a raptor), Spider and Flying Carpet. We've got more sketched down, but let's chew through that list first.

Onward and upward!

We're just about this close to the animal-kin goal, and I'm guessing we'll hit that by tomorrow <knock on wood>, but our next goals are pretty darn awesome as well. So please- share with your friends, loop them in, harangue any writers or bloggers you might know. Let's get the word out. Feel free to tag or @ Kickstarter while you're at it, make them feel our love.

-Mat

And one last thing

I've come across these guys at GAMA in Reno, and their solution for modular terrain is pretty neat. I've already pledged to them for our ongoing campaign. Check them out- they're awesome people!

Stretch goal #6 unlocked: *clunk clunk hiss* Steampunk is here!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 17, 2019 at 07:35:21 PM

Steampunk has arrived!

You guys rock!

We can now start working on our Steampunk item sets and the Worgast race (a.k.a. Warforged).

And now we're officially working our way towards the next stretch goal- the Animal-Kin.

Since quite a few of you have been asking, here's the breakdown of how we'll be doing these changelings, fey, monstrous, wonderful beast-men. There are quite a few animal/Somon hybrids in Uud (not to mention the D&D worlds in general!). We're concerned that if we try and tackle all of them at once, we will either bring a sub-par execution (not acceptable) or fail reaching any normal deadline.

So we're breaking them up into three distinct waves.

The first wave, which we are trying to get to launch, are the races that we have gotten the most responses for: Cat folk, Bird folk (both the Raven and Eagle sybtypes), and the Turtle-people. (Names pending, Patrick is doing his utmost best to keep up with the pace here, but he's just human. We think.)

The second wave, which we hope will be shortly post launch are: Werewolves, Elephant-folk, Hippo people (Yasaf loves his Giffs and he refused to budge on these), Rhinos and the always lovable Minotaurs.

The third wave, which we will slot into our regular, post-insanity, schedule are the Bugbears, Centaurs and <checks notes> frog people. 

Mounts

We've been hard at work designing our mounts- and while we don't quite yet have a full list of the mounts we want, here's the first rough sketch Ilya has made for them:

Next update will include an in depth look at our Eldritch Founder and his Engine of Souls- the Seraphormer (i.e. the character creator).

Let's go punch the sky!

-Mat

PS

Our Facebook and Twitter accounts are running a give-away for a Dark Temple tier, go check them out!

200,000$ and the Stretch Goal #6: Tiny Races Cometh! Also Firbolgs?
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 17, 2019 at 12:34:25 AM

Amazing! We crushed another goal! Now we can start working on our tiny races.

So- this means we've unlocked thus far:

Unlocked! (new additions in bold)

Races

• Somon (Humans)
• Aeth and Half-Aeth (Elves and half-elves)
• Deoth (Dwarves)
• Nathlings (AKA Tieflings)
• Gnomes
• Halflings
• Avatars (AKA Dragonborn)
• Half-Orcs
• Pixies
• Imps
• Goblins
• Kobolds
• Firbolgs (<check notes> huh, we did put these here. OK, Firbolgs it is!)

Genres available

• Fantasy
• Cyberpunk

So that's what we have thus far. Now it's time to share with some of how things look. We always start with concept art, to guide our 3d modelers' hands and keep a strong thematic feel throughout. Most races come with a strong theme (more on that in future updates), which guides additional weapons and items (Cavern dwelling Deoths enjoy their monolithic blocky edifices. Gentle Aeth prefer more flowing, elegant designs. Somon are utilitarian and effective, etc.)

We've also gotten quite a few messages about the flip-side to the demon- and devil-tainted Nathlings, the angel-born (AKA Aasimar). The thing about these folks is that it's kind of hard to manufacture an "unearthly glow" and "golden eyes" and whatnot. But we will have wings a-plenty, as well as other accouterments for such lofty people. Here are some options which we're working on. The Avatar's draconic wings fit quite well on fallen angel-born, for instance.

Next up: Steampunk!

We haven't quite discussed what a whole new genre means, in terms of items and other goodies offered, so I'll give you a general rundown: we're building each new genre to be completely compatible with all races and other options (so, say, you want your Deoth decker to wield an Aeth staff he found... somewhere? We'll make that happen). So this means that each armor set (helmet, chest, bracers, gloves, pants, pauldrons) needs to be backwards compatible, and it means that each new race will also have to be able to wear all armor sets (Pixie Artificers!). 

So this means that we're setting our targets realistically: each genre will have about 3-4 armor sets, about 10 new weapons, and about 10-20 items to go around. It's a tall order, but doable.

Also, our Steampunk stretch goal is more than just armor sets. It also includes one new race. The menacing, lumbering, graceful, amazing, Warforged! My favorite race by a long mile, and the race that brought me kicking and screaming back to D&D. (Turing, you beautiful bastard, you will be missed.)

Here's how you can help us reach this goal

• Follow and retweet our stuff! The more you get the #dnd and #kickstarter sphere notice us- the better!
• Tell a friend, an acquaintance, that dude near the water fountain who really wants to explain how bad GoT has gotten this season...
• Reddit, Facebook, Discord- help them witness us!

And one other thing...

With the voice of none other than the amazing, talented, Mass-Effective, Mark Meer! 

(you really want to click that link ;) .)

LET'S MANIFEST WORLDS TOGETHER! 

Thank you.

Mat & Yasaf and the Eldritch Foundry team

P.S.

I've come across this awesome game on Kickstarter right now. Can't pass up an opportunity to promote a good Eldritch Horror when I see one. Highly recommended- I bought one for the office minions!

Thank you!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 17, 2019 at 12:00:41 AM

You are amazing.

Thank you.

We’re fully funded in 3 hours, and we’re now well on our way to start getting those stretch goals!

We'll keep you posted once we manage to breathe!

Thank you.

Matan, Yasaf and everybody at the Eldritch Foundry