Project Updates for Righteous Vow 3: A RPG Zine for Old School Gaming on BackerKit Page 4

It's the final 48 hours of the Kickstarter! Time to celebrate!
8 months ago – Tue, Aug 05, 2025 at 01:26:52 PM

It's official. We're going to Print some Books!

We have quotes ready to begin printing softcovers and hardcovers once the final drafts are ready. We're going back and doing some quality of life improvements to the first two books as well. We will be fixing a few minor grammar issues, and a few minor changes/clarifications to make the offset print versions of the books the best they can possibly be. As for RV3, here's the latest:

The new book is in the second revision and the next pass of edits will begin this weekend after the new revision is finished.

99% of the artwork and layout is done on the book. It's still on schedule for a September PDF digital release and printing starts shortly after.

The Nazulgrath adventure is written. I'm working on maps/art/layout to get this ready for editing. It will clock in at 22 pages. Short on pages but BIG on content! (The art alone is looking very great!)

If we get to 30K by the end of the campaign we will make the new adventure "Nazulgrath: The Depths of the Mountain" available in print as an add-on! I'd love to see this happen. So please share this Kickstarter with your friends as we close in on the last 48 hours.

I had an excellent time with Tabletop Bob, Stefano, Kyle, CJ, and Nate as we explored a new adventure from Righteous Vow! The Scorched Tower is an early part of Righteous Vow Volume 3 and we playtested some of the new areas being presented in RV3 as a one shot. This is one of the possible explorable maps inside of Righteous Vow Volume 3. Don't watch this if you don't want to see spoilers. DO watch it if you'd like to see a sneak peek of some of the new artwork, monsters, a new map, and some of the backstory within the two kingdoms.

The game was really fun and the whole Tabletop Bob crew were all incredibly fun to play with. Thank you to Bob and the guys!

Now for a few shout outs to other Kickstarter Creators we love!

Our friends over at Menagerie Press are at the end of their Kickstarter campaign as well. We love Will and the team at MP and want to always support their creativity. Can't wait to get my copy of this awesome book! Get yours here!

Sapphire Seas for Shadowdark RPG: Level 1-10 Adventure

Explore Phoenician-inspired isles, recover long-lost treasure, fight mythic battles, and sail the seas in this level 1-10 campaign.

What is Inside?

The first complete level 1-10 adventure for Shadowdark
350+ pages, A5 (digest) softcover format
14 islands with detailed hex maps of each island
20+ unique dungeons
100+ encounter sites
10+ full-page interior art pieces
25+ new magic items
25+ new creatures
Ships, sailing, crew, and travel rules
Overland/sea-based hex map of the entire Sapphire Seas region
Rules for crocodilians, beast-people, and other ancestries of the Sapphire Seas

Accidental Heroes Kickstarter Coming Soon

Accidental Heroes is a tragicomic setting for Dragonbane, which will be released on Kickstarter on September 2.

In the land of Icuci, the heroes have disappeared. Quests remain unanswered, prophecies stand without champions, and the only ones willing to stand up are the Accidental Heroes: failures, misfits and nobodies who somehow refuse to give up.

The basic book contains a complete adventure: Welcome, Fools!

A sentient, foul-mouthed dungeon that hates adventurers and makes it very clear. Expect illogical traps, rooms that contradict each other, and monsters that have no idea why they're there in the first place.

An experience for those who love chaos, dark comedy and the thrill of turning a disaster into a legend.

Get Ready for Druskara: A Twisted Fantasy World Setting for use with Shadowdark RPG

Our friends Bunni and Xane are working on their next book/setting called Druskara! We couldn't be more excited to share this project compatible with Shadowdark RPG. Check it out here.

The Dungeon Damsel duo returns, their dark imaginings more potent than ever. After the resounding success of Unnatural Selection, they unveil their next creation: Druskara. This is no ordinary campaign setting—it is a massive detailed sandbox! A living, breathing world with kings, emperors and factions with their own goals and ambitions, where their world-altering choices are powered by dynamic random tables, ensuring the campaign is never predictable.

Thank you so much for your continued support of our project. We are thankful to be a part of this amazing Shadowdark RPG community. You guys and gals rock! -Bill

A Quick Update Addendum
8 months ago – Fri, Aug 01, 2025 at 05:44:04 AM

Making a Quick Change

I received some incorrect information on a quote yesterday for costs that would be associated with adding smyth sewn binding to the softcovers. Being that we didn't hit this stretch goal yet, and it wasn't something that was promised for any backers. I went ahead and removed the stretch goal for two reasons. First, being that the misquote I received would put the budget for the softcovers over what would be comfortable for us, and secondly that I didn't receive much excitement. Only questions about "how would this work?" and "I haven't really seen a smyth sewn softcover before." This being said. I'm perfectly happy going with our perfect-bound softcovers and leaving those alone. They're an excellent option that is cost effective for everyone. And they will be an amazing addition to our libraries as is.

We already have a ton of great stretch goals, and right now I feel like with a single final 30K stretch goal we're sitting in a great place. I'm going to get back to revisions now. We have a lot of work to do, and quite a few of you to deliver for. Have an amazing weekend! Expect an update toward the final day or two of the campaign. Until then, thank you and be well! -Bill

25K and Climbing! New Interview! New RV Preview/Playthrough! Revisions and More!
8 months ago – Thu, Jul 31, 2025 at 02:37:18 PM

We're on to Revision 2 and on Target for PDF release in September!

Our excellent editors Wayne and Laurie from Big Ink Writing Services have been editing away during the Kickstarter, making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. We have an excellent team of content collaborators as well who sift through the magic items, monsters, adventures, and encounter tables to give the best possible experience to players who play their games in the world of Righteous Vow. Jon, Steve and Shawn have been a great part of the playtest and collaboration team, putting in the effort to make sure every encounter isn't a TPK! (Yeah sometimes I get a little heavy handed with the monsters.)

The good news is we're onto revision two this week and by August we will be on to revision 3 and hopefully a final fourth revision by the end of the month. The target goal is to have the PDFs out there for everyone to enjoy by mid-September and once you all get to give it a once over (just in case we need to make any final changes, hopefully no typos, but just in case!) we will begin printing!

Thank you all for continuing with us on this quest. It has truly been amazing seeing the support and positivity behind the Shadowdark RPG community that Kelsey created. You have shown why it is so great to create for this game, and it means a lot that you trust us with your hard earned dollars to make something worthy of your gaming table. You're the BEST!

$5,000.00 ✅ | Added Adventure (The Nord Ruins, Increases to 160+ Pages!)
$6,000.00 ✅ | Interview Video with Dungeons & Dyslexia
$7,000.00 ✅ | A5 Cover Art Print (By Andrew Beckwith)
$8,000.00 ✅ | A5 Battle of Tuin Art Print (By Matt Morrow)
$9,000.00 ✅ | A5 Gausst the Dragon Art Print (By Andrew Beckwith)
$10,000.00 ✅ | Add-On: Player Handout Pack (Printed on Cardstock Paper)
$12,000.00 ✅ | Exclusive Righteous Vow 3 Chrome Gloss Sticker
$15,000.00 ✅ | A5 Hex Player Map Handout (Printed on Cardstock Paper)
$17,000.00 ✅ | A5 Dwarf Guards Art Print (By Andrew Beckwith)
$20,000.00 ✅ | A5 Gausst's Lair Art Print (By Uriah Groves)
$23,000.00 ✅ | Smyth Sewn Binding Upgrade for all Hardcovers
$25,000.00 ✅ | Ribbon Bookmark Upgrade for all Hardcovers
and VTT Token Packfor all backers!
$30,000.00 | Printed Version of Nazulgrath available as an add-on.

We have added one more "pie in the sky" stretch goal for the project that will be doable if we can hit the final goal of the campaign. The Nazulgrath adventure is in progress and nearly finished. It is filled with tons of great artwork and new monsters to do battle with. The problem is, we don't have plans yet to make a physical version. The budget we have for the rest of the books isn't there to include a printed version of Nazulgrath in the stretch goals themselves. But if everyone wants this to be a reality we can do a print run of these books and make them available as a physical version which can be purchased as an add-on. We're going to need to make it to 30K to unlock those however. So we will see if it happens. Seems possible. But now is the time to share the Kickstarter with your friends, post about it on social media, and get all of your fellow gamers notified so we can make this a reality! Thanks again for your massive support. We are already beyond excited about how this has gone. So whatever happens at this point, we're thankful.

New Video Interview!

I was able to sit down last week with Nathan Featherstone from the CrazyHermitDM YouTube channel to talk about Righteous Vow last week. We talked about the OSR, Shadowdark RPG, and all about the new Kickstarter. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Nathan and I hope to chat with him again soon!

Tabletop Bob Almost-Live Play!

Tonight I'm DMing an adventure from Righteous Vow 3 on Tabletop Bob's YouTube channel. We're not doing everything live because I like to DM using Foundry. And Tabletop Bob is a big fan of Roll20 so he usually DMs on there. I am looking forward to featuring the excellent Shadowdark RPG mods created for use with Foundry and showing off how easy it can be to use Foundry for your VTT needs playing Shadowdark RPG! As soon as the recording is ready and Bob shares it with me I'll share the one shot in a future update for all to view. But in the meantime go check out his YouTube Channel because he has some really great content on there. Including some other Shadowdark live plays!

ShadowCity Kickstarter from Chubby Funster!

Greg Christopher AKA Chubby Funster is a friend of Crawl Club who wrote a really killer Vampire themed OSR book called ShadowCity! You can check out the new Kickstarter here. I backed this right away. Excited to play some non-sparkling Vampires! (Or sparkling if you want to. But I heard they get -2AC for walking around with what is basically permanent faerie fire sparkles that give away their position.)

New Darkspace RPG Ships Supplement!

Than and our friends at Darkspace RPG have a new ship supplement that came out for their Sci-Fi hack of Shadowdark RPG. I absolutely love Darkspace RPG and got to play with Than at Gary Con this last year. Go get this very cool new supplement here! If you like spaceships, aliens, "force" powers (they call it the triad, which is really cool) and adventuring in a rules light system for sci-fi RPGs, this is the game system for you!

Whew! That was a lot of content for this update. Thanks again for your support. It means the world. Back to work! I have a lot to get done and deadlines to keep for all of you! -Bill

The Hardcovers just received a major upgrade!
8 months ago – Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 09:11:55 PM

Just checking in with a quick update on the Righteous Vow Volume 3 Kickstarter.

All three of the new hardcovers being printed for this Kickstarter campaign will now have smyth sewn binding. This upgrade will mean more durable books with a better "lay flat" design. We're getting closer to getting the ribbon bookmark upgrade too at 25K. Hopefully in the next few days we will be celebrating that addition as well. If you were on the fence about getting the hardcovers. This upgrade brings the value way up! We are working hard to deliver on content, value, and quality with this campaign.

Along with the physical upgrades to the Kickstarter we are listening to feedback from our digital backers. A special set of VTT monster, NPC, and player tokens will be coming at 25K too. The designs are in progress, but will give you the opportunity to use them online with your favorite VTT (like Foundry or Roll20) and you can always print them out from home to use in physical games as well.

Another quick note. All of the physical upgrades like the player handouts and art prints will be made available digitally as well. So you can print out your own artwork from home and slap it on your gamer cave wall. Or just enjoy sending cool artwork to your players in your VTT to help immerse them in the world of Righteous Vow!

The Guardian of Doxam by Andrew Beckwith

More artwork being added and Editing Revision 2!

The content is coming along. We don't want to give too many spoilers. But let's just say this adventure will be FILLED with paladins, dark paladins, cultists, dwarves, duergar, orcs, undead, trolls, and more! Get ready to adventure in the two kingdoms. We're still on target to get the PDFs out within a month of the Kickstarter end date. With printing beginning soon after. So get excited. This project is full steam ahead!

More shout outs!

If you haven't noticed already. We're huge fans of promoting our friends who also make excellent stuff for Shadowdark and other OSR games. So here's some more previews of upcoming and active Kickstarter content you're going to want to get your hands on.