Stories need villains. Tyrants & Hellions delivers. Make your game an experience your friends will never forget.
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First, thank you to everyone who reached out in response to the last update to offer support and encouragement. Your kind words are very much appreciated.
Second, let's talk villains!
Ambrose has been working hard to make awesome, colored versions of some of the artwork you've seen, and I want to lead with that. Along the way, I'll talk a bit about my design philosophy for each villain! The details I mention might change between now and publication, so consider them work in progress previews.
Purgos is a lich with style. Most members of the undead abandon decorum and rattle about in ragged, ancient clothes. Purgos has a personal tailor. She also has an etiquette coach. Her relentless spying on the party means that when roleplaying as her, you're encouraged to use their inside jokes and slang. Purgos likes to understand her enemies on a personal level.
Every one of these evil-doers breaks the rules of the game in some way, and Purgos, being a lich, breaks the rules of magic. She is a master ritualist, allowing her to cast any spell she knows (which, at this point, is most of them) as a ritual, which means it doesn't consume a spell slot. This isn't useful in a fight, but it allows her unrivaled utility as she can use spells like Scrying, Fabricate, Mind Blank, and even Foresight as often as she likes. Abjuration Wizards will do very well against Purgos, and casting Dispel Magic as a 9th level spell might not be a bad idea.
The Silver Knight is almost exactly the opposite of Purgos. No magic. No fancy tricks. Just raw power. Designing Hellions is always a lot of fun because it requires finding clever ways to let a single monster go head to head against a party of adventurers. There are a number of standard tricks for this: legendary actions, multiple turns every round, or multiple actions every turn, and they all have pros and cons.
The Silver Knight has a little of all three. On his turn, the Silver Knight can use his axe to create massive shockwaves, cleaving through objects and heroes with ease and creating obstacles the players must work around. Then, between turns, he charges across the battlefield with legendary actions, crashing into heroes and lashing out with his axe as he leaps over the obstacles he just created. Once reduced below half his maximum hit points, he enters a battle rage, giving him a second turn in combat at his current initiative value +10. I love villains that get more dangerous the longer the fight goes on. And of course, his nastiest trick is that when he dies, all his equipment turns to ash and reforms elsewhere, to be found by another worthy orc. Breaking the lineage of the Silver Knight won't be easy, but it's the only way to stop this villain permanently.
I haven't started writing Whim yet, but I have many ideas. Whim has the potential to be run as a villain, like the others in this book, but also as a third party to an existing conflict. You can introduce it to a published adventure module, or use Whim along with another villain from Tyrants & Hellions. Its goals are not always at odds with what the players want, and it is reasonably trustworthy. But shapeshifters like to play with those poor unfortunates who are confined to a single form, and Whim loves being unpredictable. An alliance could end in anything from a practical joke to a deadly betrayal.
Thank you to everyone who submitted to the Rogue's Gallery! I'll be setting that up for voting over the next few days, and you can expect a mini-update around July 5th when that goes live. Voting will be open until July 31st, so take your time and read through them all! We'll be running the voting through a subreddit created just for this project, and each villain will be a unique post on the subreddit. You'll be able to vote for as many villains as you want (including your own!), but only once per villain. Reddit has pretty good protections against vote spamming, so it's an easy choice for us to use!
The Written Reference surveys are (mostly) locked down! If you submit your character before July 31st I'll work them in, but any submissions after that I can't guarantee they'll make it into the book. I want to plan the references in advance so I can make sure they're worked into the story from the ground up, not shoehorned in at the last minute.
That's it for our monthly check-in, the project is going ahead and I'm having a blast working on it! Thank you for supporting it and making this whole thing possible. Aside from the mini-update in a few days, you'll hear from us in early August with a spotlight on the Villainous Archetypes for player characters, and our backer-submitted villains. Two of these are well fleshed out, and the third one is in progress!
Steven Gordon, 2CGaming Team
Hello! First, thanks for your patience with communication. A family emergency has come so I've been traveling a lot. I have my trusty laptop with me to keep working on the book, but I haven't been as active in responding to comments and messages and while I'll do my best to get to everyone in a timely manner, it will take longer than usual. I promise I'm reading every comment and message! The 2CGaming Team is pitching in to help out while my schedule has gotten busier, so I'm not expecting any delays on the book itself, but I'll keep you updated.
We've gotten a few questions and I want to keep you all updated on the Rogue's Gallery, calls with the backers, and the general status of the project.
The Rogue's Gallery has received 18 submissions so far, and they all look very cool. I'm going to extend the submission period until June 30th to give me more time to setup the voting system, so get those villains in while you can! Voting will start on July 1st and run until July 15th. We'll be picking one villain from the top three for inclusion in Tyrants & Hellions, and if we love more than one of them, we might take more! Of course, if we pick your villain we'll credit you in the finished book so you can open it up and point to your name to impress your friends.
I'll cover the voting system in full detail in our July 1st update.
I'm also extending the Written Reference submission period to June 30th, so if you haven't filled that out, check your Kickstarter messages for a link and please get that information submitted! If you aren't sure if I have your info, send a message and I'll check. Also, if you think you should have gotten a message about a Written Reference or the Rogue's Gallery but haven't yet, please let us know!
I've met up with several backers so far, both at the Lord of Villains and Mastermind tier, and I'm very happy with the work we've done. I think you'll all enjoy the villains the Masterminds are contributing to the book, and you'll see the work of the Lord of Villains backers in the Rogue's Gallery, so they might make it into Tyrants & Hellions too! There are two more backers I have to meet with and that should be done by July 1st, so we can formally announce the Mastermind Backer's villains then!
You can expect a proper update on the book on July 1st, with lots of gorgeous artwork and some writing samples, but the quick overview is: I'm working diligently on Purgos and The Silver Knight, as well as fleshing out Backer-submitted villains. Ambrose has finished colored versions of several of the villains, and Damon is working on an awesome 2-page spread that we're adding to one of the Mastermind backer villains thanks to some extra funding they chipped in personally. That piece is going to be fantastic, but I'm not sure if it'll be ready to preview by July 1st. There's a lot going on!
Thank you again for your patience. I'm looking forward to sharing the July 1st update and opening the Rogue's Gallery so you can see all the awesome villains submitted. It's going to be hard to pick!
Steven Gordon - 2CGaming Team
What a month May was! We launched BackerKit, attended two conventions, and started work on Tyrants & Hellions! Here's what's in store for June:
Today, June 1st, I'll be contacting Backers about Written References for their characters and submissions for the Rogue's Gallery. We need all Written References to be submitted by June 15th, so you have two weeks to write about your character!
The Rogue's Gallery submissions must also be in by June 15th, and then we'll be opening them up for voting! All backers can vote, but only backers at the Storyteller tier or above can submit their ideas for villains. We'll pick villains from the Top 3 you choose for inclusion in the book. We'll definitely be taking one, but we might take all three if we like them all!
That said, if your submission is copyright infringing or wildly inappropriate, it won't be considered. We'll contact you to request changes if any lines are crossed, and feel free to message us here on Kickstarter if you're wondering if your idea is okay!
Also today, June 1st, I'll contact Lord of Villains and Mastermind backers to schedule Skype calls! We're hoping to have these all finished by June 30th, so the sooner you respond the sooner we'll make it happen!
An essential component of creating a book, let's talk writing! I'll be diving in to work on The Silver Knight and Purgos this month, aiming to have both finished by the end of June. Then, hopefully we'll have our Mastermind backers' villains all figured out, and I'll start work on those as soon as possible! It's very fun to watch your creation come to life, so expect frequent updates while we're working on those villains.
Thanks to your generous support in BackerKit, we've hit our final stretch goal! The finished book will feature 15 Villains! I can't properly express how much this means to me, this is going to be the biggest book I've written yet and I can't wait to get it finished and in your hands.
The add-ons that you picked up to contribute to the stretch goals will be shipped Monday, June 5th. I'll be spending the weekend packing everything up, then it will be on its way to you! The one exception is the three orders that include physical copies of City of Sands, which is expected to be printed in early July. We'll ship those orders as soon as we have City of Sands ready to go, and keep you posted with updates on our progress.
You can download your digital versions of all add-on items (except City of Sands) through Backerkit Now.
Phew, what an update! There was a lot to discuss, but we made it! I'm so, so excited to create Tyrants & Hellions, and I'm looking forward to sharing the journey with you. Our next scheduled update will be July 1st, but we'll likely have one or two between then and now to discuss things like the Rogue's Gallery.
Let your players enjoy their victories while they can, the villains are on their way.
Steven Gordon - 2CGaming Team
Alright, we are ready to get the next step here rolling: Backerkit.
Thanks for the patience thus far.
For those of your who haven't used Backerkit, it's a pledge manager tool that helps us coordinate shipping, additional orders, helpdesk activities, and more. As of this update, you should have received emails from Backerkit to your email address associated with your Kickstarter account inviting you to the survey.
PLEASE NOTE: Backerkit will show $20 shipping *until* you enter your location, at which point it should adjust to the correct amount. Contact us with any issues.
Based on your pledge reward tier, you'll have options to pick from regarding Tyrants & Hellions. If you don't see the options you think you should, something has gone wrong! Let us know and we'll sort it out.
Pledge Adjustment
If you want to pick up the Deluxe version of Tyrants & Hellions (heavier, photo-gloss interior paper, gloss cover and alternate cover art option), you can upgrade your pledge through Backerkit to the "Last Minute Deluxe" tier). Check out the (in-progress) version of the Alternate cover below!
Shipping Add-Ons
We've already talked a bit about shipping for Tyrants & Hellions, but we wanted to reiterate a few items about Add-Ons (other 2CGaming products we're offering at discounted rates).
These items have their own distinct shipping cost that will add to the check-out amount. We will be shipping Backerkit items in June (likely towards the end). These items are already printed, and stored in the US. Therefore, their cost shipping internationally is going to be notably higher than Tyrants & Hellions.
For the last several Kickstarters we've run, we've elected to put all additional funds raised through Backerkit (and other pre-sales) into hitting stretch goals associated with the Kickstarter!
We are doing the same thing for Tyrants & Hellions, with a slight adjustment to properly compensate the project managers that put in a lot of time behind the scenes organizing the projects. While most additional orders through Backerkit will contribute directly to the Kickstarter's stretch goals, some of them will split their contribution between the project they are associated with and the Tyrants & Hellions Kickstarter. If you have any questions on this, please reach out via PM. If we get a lot of interest in our process, we'll post an FAQ on it.
We need to raise $2,000 USD through Backerkit to fund the creation of the 15th villain for Tyrants & Hellions.
We're gearing up for Gamex, 2017 in Los Angeles so there will be a little bit of radio silence between now and then. Expect a detailed schedule for the month of June in our scheduled June 1st update. For now, though, we're planning to get through the Rogue's Gallery, Lord of Villains, and Mastermind calls in June.
All the best,
Jon Kelly - The 2CGaming Team