Glumdark

Free Thank You Book Upgrades!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Feb 06, 2025 at 11:08:53 AM

Now that we're over 2,000 backers, we talked a lot internally about adding some additional stretch goals. Ultimately, the things for which we'd have to raise more money would also have delayed the project. Adding more content to the book means more writing, editing, design and illustration time. And we'd prefer to deliver this thing on time--or earlier.

Ultimately, we decided to just go ahead and toss in the stretch goals that didn't require any extra time--for free! This is our way of saying thank you for all the support you've given us.

The book will now have graphic endpapers instead of solid red pages. And we will increase the number to three bookmark ribbons (black, red, and white). After all, this is a resource that we imagine keeping with you at the gaming table and using for multiple things per session.

The Standard Edition book will have red endpapers with black printing and the Limited Edition book will have gold metallic endpapers with black printing. 

We are exploring possibly having one of the ribbons be gold in the Limited Edition since we want to make sure there's a satisfying color match between the gold on the cover and the endpapers and ribbon. We are awaiting confirmation from the printer that this will not affect the price too much and will let you all know when we hear back! If we can pull it off, we think it's really going to pop.

We'll have more progress updates soon!

Cheers,
CTRO + Exalted Funeral

💀 Chapter Art Production Update! 💀
over 1 year ago – Sat, Feb 01, 2025 at 03:40:44 PM

One of our first Stretch Goals, way back at $50k, was to unlock customized chapter images. Which is something that's a little tough to explain with words and way easier to see with your eyeballs. So get out your eyeballs and let's take a look.

Here's an example of a spread before we added customized chapter images:

And here's what they look like after:

As you can see, what we're going for is a bit like buying a painting at a thrift store and drawing a dinosaur in the background. Except instead of a cute dinosaur it's a flaming mithral sword and a decapitated spider head.

I'm even more excited about the next one:

☝️ This becomes this 👇

I had originally expected much of the art in the Glumdark book to be sourced from public domain images. There's so much amazing artwork out there from the woodcut era, and it's really common to see it repurposed in design work in books and zines produced for the world of grimdark TTRPGs. 

I'm very grateful that we get to do this in a way that feels fresh to me and which leverages Vil's talents. And that's all possible because of the backers of this campaign. So, honestly, thanks.

Folks have been asking about the potential for additional stretch goals, as something both exciting and a little frightening. We've been discussing the pros and cons internally and will have a cool update about it early next week.

Until then, cheers!
CTRO + Exalted Funeral

💀 FINAL stretch goal unlocked! The bestiary will live! 💀
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 28, 2025 at 10:26:36 AM

A dream come true! We have reached the final stretch goal. Glumdark will have every bell and whistle and every page of expanded content we had hoped to cram in. I can't thank this community enough for their support and positivity. Now it's on us to deliver the absolute coolest book that we can.

I'm going to follow up in a day or two with some more information about the chapter header art. I want to give a more concrete idea of what exactly this will look like. But for now, I just want to say thanks.

Thank you again, a million times. 

Cheers,
CTRO + Exalted Funeral

The Bestiary Will Live
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 11:12:57 AM

We've done it! Now that we're past $95,000 (!!!), we're going to be able to add the bestiary to Glumdark. This is something that I've been tinkering on for the past few weeks and I'm unreasonably excited that we're going to be able to produce it.

This section of the book will contain full page descriptions of 10 different creatures or characters. Each one will come with a background, hints for what they might be like to tackle in combat, as well as a brief account of a first person encounter. In typical Glumdark fashion, the encounter-er is probably gonna die in the process.

Two of these creatures that I'm particularly excited to add to the book are the Dicky Docky Boku Lacha and the Horseless Headman. The first of which is a creature whose backstory is intertwined with their presence on the Glumdark soundtrack--a tie-in which I can't wait for everyone to experience. And the latter of which is just so dumb that I couldn't help but laugh as we talked through his backstory and appearance.

We're getting close to hitting six figures, and we might even get there today. Which is mind boggling. The only further stretch goal is to get these 10 creatures illustrated. This would really be the icing on the cake, as each creature would get a full page A5 illustration by Vil. I really do want this more than anything. I love browsing illustrations in fantasy books for inspiration for characters and combatants in the campaigns I run and I really want to be able to provide that experience to readers of Glumdark.

V gratefully,
CTRO + Exalted Funeral

Free Signed Bookplate ENDS TONIGHT!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 12:38:12 PM

Just a quick reminder that the Free bookplate early backer reward ends at 11:59 pm EST TONIGHT, Friday January 24th!

-Exalted Funeral Crew