Dancer

ANOTHER NEW BASE CLASS

Yes, another new base class! The development of the Vagabond class opened some interesting design doors to us, specifically with regard to “stances” from old 3.5 classes like the Warblade and Swordsage. Those classes used a system of passive battle stances to complement their suites of maneuvers. Though maneuvers have survived in the Battle Master and in our Vagabond, stances have been more complicated to implement (though we once tried with the Channeler).

When planning out how the vagabond might conceptualize its stances and maneuvers, dances and dance moves were one of our strongest ideas. And though we removed stances from the Vagabond altogether, the idea to build a class around passive dances, light weapons, and a Dex/Cha combination remained.

So we're excited to present the dancer! It's a class about movement, elegance, and deadly light weapons. It's evocative, and easy to pick up and play (maybe the easiest we've ever written!) And it continues our recent trend of selectable 1st-level features that give you tons of roleplay potential.

Projects Going Forward

Now that the Book of Extinction Kickstarter is behind us, it’s time to reevaluate the schedule going forward into 2024 and beyond! In a reversal of the last few years of overbooked schedules, we’ve got surprisingly little locked in stone.

Cakewalk

I’m disappointed to announce that Cakewalk will no longer be releasing on Patreon or otherwise (though we might do one PDF to compile everything we have together in one place). Our partner on this project, Loot Tavern, felt that the schedule and profit margins didn’t make sense in the medium and long terms compared to other potential projects. Though I think the project could have had a bright future, I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. Much of our audience is more interested in furthering our existing IP, such as Dark Matter and Valda’s. Furthermore, replacing the art assets provided by Loot Tavern with pieces by our own art team would be entirely too costly for a minimal gain.

There’s a silver lining here: with the main Cakewalk project off our production queue, we can pivot to bigger and better avenues!

Insomnia

With the remaining work for Book of Extinction bearing down on us, I thought it was important to streamline our content output for a little while. Keeping up with the blog schedule and Patreon releases leaves very little time for Kickstarter work, even when Lucas doesn’t need to split his attention between different avenues. Therefore, after discussing some possible projects with Discord folks, I decided to revitalize an old horror D&D project called Insomnia, bringing little bits to the blog and big chunks to the Patreon. I don’t want to proclaim that this is our Next Big Thing and destined to become a colossal Kickstarter, but I do think it’s going to be rad, and that you’ll love what we’re cooking.

If you’re interested, you can start reading what we’re up to on the blog, or stay tuned here for a big post next month.

New Edition Blues

Lastly, I wanted to voice some thoughts on the next edition and where we intend to be for the near future.

As more components of Wizards of the Coast’s plans for Dungeons and Dragons trickle down the pipe, including their Unearthed Arcanas, it has become clear that their changes are deeply misguided. Currently, WotC is adamant that they’re calling One D&D simply “5th edition” in a bid to confuse as many customers as possible.

But whatever they call it, their new system is a step in the wrong direction in every way that matters. Their changes are finicky and hostile to new players; they’re dizzyingly complex in places and yet inane in others; they’re changing massive sections of the game, but nothing that could streamline it as they did in editions past. Furthermore, it’s not clear if they intend to give 3rd party designers like us a way to write for the game. If the OGL crisis was anything to go by, I expect not.

However, that doesn’t mean they can’t right the ship and fix the system or that they can’t have success despite an objectively worse system. After all, the crowd seems hungry for a new system.

Regardless of what happens, I intend to continue making content for whatever game system you like the most. That might mean we’re writing 5e for a number of years to come. It might mean we’re updating Valda’s and Dark Matter to WotC’s new system in around a year’s time. Right now, the future is a deeply fuzzy thing, and our project schedule reflects that.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this. Are you excited for OneD&D and its changes? Are you hopeful to switch over to the new edition? Or are you planning to stick around in 5e, or even jump ship to a different system altogether?