Age of Antiquity: An Ancient World Setting for 5E.

Update - Address changes, Maps and Gods!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 11:51:04 AM

Hello everyone!

Hope you're all doing well and that you enjoyed the preview PDF 2 from last months update. We really appreciate the feedback we have received. 

First, to those of you who have messaged us or commented about address changes: we have received your messages and have updated you to the new addresses you've provided. Anyone else who needs to make a change before shipping please just message us through here and we'll get it taken care of on our end.

Second, we've had a few people asking why the book has not arrived yet and wanted to restate that the book's original ETA of April was delayed back in March, we are still on track to get the PDF out in September and the Hardcovers to you as soon as they arrive from the printer after that. We will keep you posted with ETAs once the printers have started.

Third, we have maps to share! 

First up is a work in progress of our custom city map, Telesinia! Alyssa has been hard at work on this and the map is coming along beautifully. She'll be starting the color process shortly. This is the largest city map she's ever done, Marcus and I are both very happy with the size and detailing and we hope you will be as well!

Second is a preview of a regional map by Artemis Cartography. Originally we'd only discussed city and world maps, but we decided to have a regional map done for each of the eight major cultures covered in the book. Below is the Greek States map showing Macedonia, Athens and Sparta, The Greek States. It also gives you a glimpse into the territory of their neighbors. Artemis has been doing an amazing job on these and we're excited to have detailed regional maps for each of the eight cultures. 

Finally, we want to share another beautiful piece done by Kate, the goddess Hera!

As always, thank you all for the support and patience!

- Steve

Preview PDF #2 + Art!
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 09, 2021 at 12:25:52 AM

Hello everyone, 

Hope you've all been well! Sorry it's been a bit since the last update. 

As many of you may have noticed, Preview PDF #2 went out last weekend! This contains a preview of the Parthian Culture section and the Celtic Pantheon section.  I see a couple comments saying they did not receive the PDF, if anyone is currently unable to download either PDF from Backerkit please message us through here and we will get them manually sent to you.

We've had a small change up in our Cartography, Alyssa Faden is still creating the city map (which she livestreams often if you'd like a sneak peak) while Artemis De Laere is creating the world map and regional maps for all eight of the main cultures. The world map is expected to be done in the next couple of weeks, so you'll get a preview soon!

On the timeline, despite the hectic last few weeks that kept me from posting, things are still going on track. All artists and cartographers are still on schedule to have their work completed by early August (this includes the remaining Pontif backer images, if you haven't seen yours you soon will), the same time we expect the editing to be done. This means the final PDF should be in your (virtual) hands by September, with the physical books to follow as the printer gets them to us. 

Isabelle Fischer, who's doing the art for the vast majority of items in the game, has also been hard at work on creature design. This time we'd like to share her take on a couple of Greek Classics, the Dryad and Satyr. 

Finally, many have been asking about changing their address and yes, you still can! You should be able to go to Backerkit, where the shipping surveys were conducted, and change it there. If you have any trouble with this please message us through Kickstarter with your updated address. We will manually update it for you in our system. 

Thanks everyone!

- Steve

Art and Creatures!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 01:21:24 AM

Hello everyone!

Hope you've all had a fantastic month! I'm back today with a smaller update than last time. 

ART!

We have received a lot of new art since the last update. The Chinese Deities are now fully complete and Ren Tu is now working on finishing the Egyptian Pantheon. The Celtic Pantheon has a single piece left that should be finished in the next week. In addition Cahn has completed all the background character art. Kate and Daniel are still hard at work getting the Sumerian and Greco-Roman Pantheons finished!

I also want to share a pair of creatures that will appear in the setting, aside from the Gorgon on the initial Kickstarter we hadn't given you a preview of the monsters that will be encountered. So allow me to introduce the Qilin and the Shahamaran!

In other good news Alyssa Faden, master cartographer, has let me know the first city sketches will be coming in within the next few weeks and I will share those will all of you during the next update. In addition, George Mason (The Reclusive Cartographer) is going to be joining the team creating a few smaller town maps for the book. 

Next month we will have another PDF preview for all you, this time featuring the Parthian Empire!

As always, thank you so much for your support!

- Steve

32 Page Preview PDF Released! + Timeline and Pontif Backer News.
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 10:59:13 AM

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well and that 2021 has gotten off to a great start for all of you. I have several announcements today.

First the good news, the preview PDF has been posted! This preview shows off parts of our Chinese and Egyptian culture sections, multiple backgrounds, magic items, gods, and of course beautiful art! Originally we had only intended to release a 16-page PDF this week, but we couldn’t decide what to parse down so we doubled it. 

You should have all received an email from Backerkit with a link to the download a few minutes ago. (If you didn’t, I’m about to feel quite the fool.)

We’re going to continuing bringing you previews until the final product is released later this year and have two more preview PDFs planned for release.

But that brings us to the less good news, the final book will not be ready by the original April estimate. While the manuscript is nearly complete the artwork is not. As we are sure you’ve noticed we have been announcing new artists even in our most recent updates. This is our first project and we underestimated the time great artwork and cartography would take, especially in light of Covid-19 disrupting the personal lives of several of our long-term artists. 

Our updated target for the finished PDF is Q3 of this year with the hardcopies following as soon as production is complete.

We also originally planned to launch the PDF to backers once the physical hardcopies were in hand and being shipped, we now intend to release the PDF as soon as it is complete so that you may begin using it while the books are still in production/shipping.

We apologies for this disappointing news. 

This does bring a sliver of good news for a few of our Pontif Maximus backers however as we have only received character ideas from 9/20 of you! For the remaining 11, we have messaged you all individually and will do so again. If you see this please get your information to us as soon as possible. The forms to fill out were emailed.

If we do not receive your character concept by March 31st we will not be able to guarantee your characters artwork being completed in time for printing.

Finally, we’ve had a number of backers message us about including fantasy races in the setting. As it stands the world is human only, at least in regards to the standard 5E races, but we know many of you and your players may eventually want to include more than that. As such we have decided to create a small PDF that details how we best believe that standard fantasy races such as dwarves, elves and orcs may be included in the world. This will be released for free to all backers when the final product launches later this year.

We apologies again for the delay and thank you all for your support and patience, the team is excited and determined to deliver a great product!

- Steve

New Year, New Artists!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 08:35:24 PM

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Years under the circumstances.

I'm happy to announce we have another new artist joining the team, Canh Nguyen. Canh is doing the artwork for all of the character background options in the book!

The first week of February I will have a larger update for all of you that will include a preview PDF for you all to download that gives more backgrounds, items, and details on both Egypt and China! 

As always, thanks for your support! 

- Steve