The Devoured Labyrinth | for the Shadowdark RPG

Final 48 Hours: Campaign Summary
9 months ago – Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 06:45:23 AM

Hello there! Zac here. 

We're at the 48-hour mark, so here's a quick rundown for all of you who might be popping back in to see what's all happened. I'll break down what's changed from both Stretch Goals and continuing production for all products. 

Devoured Labyrinth Book

Right now, we're sitting at 112 pages. Since the Kickstarter began, we've wrapped editing, completed several more art pieces, completed the Stretch Goal text, and are in the last 20% of layout.

• UNLOCKED: KS Exclusive A3 Hex Map + Cut-Out Hex Tiles (free w/ hardcover purchase).
• UNLOCKED: Extra Art Piece (back cover). We took a backer poll, and "Drow summoning a marilith demon in a temple" was the winning description. Added to PDF/softcover/hardcover. 
• UNLOCKED: The Volitant Skull (4-6 page expansion). Added to PDF/softcover/hardcover.
• UNLOCKED: Spot Gloss on cover. This actually might turn into silver foil, depending on the manufacturer's recommendations. Added to hardcover. 

Deck of Crawlers

This is now 48 tarot-sized cards, a 50-page pad of tear-away gear sheets, and a rigid case. Since the Kickstarter began, Brian has completed about a 1/4+ of the artwork. The layout template is complete.

• CHANGE: Due to a misunderstanding and also miscommunication, we are pivoting from the Druid class to the Paladin class for that section of our level-1 pregens. 
• UNLOCKED: 4 Extra Commoner Cards (Scrawnies). These are level-0, DEX-focused characters that have a rules reference guide for the game on the back. 
• UNLOCKED: Extra Tear-Away Sheets. This brought us up from 40 to 50 sheets per pad. 
• UNLOCKED: 4 Extra Commoner Cards (Oafs). These are level-0, STR-focused characters that have a rules reference guide for the game on the back. This brought us up to 48 cards.

Other Items

• NEW ADD-ON: $12 | Devoured Labyrinth VTT: Goblin Bundle. Get the first 9 dungeons in the game for a steal! Unlocked through stretch goals, this add-on contains all the dungeons from the Goblin Hideyhole region fully built out in Roll20 VTT. This will be a substantial discount from MSRP!
• FIXED ADD-ONS: At the start of the campaign, the Roll20 versions of the Dark Visions and Tower of Six products were not showing for everyone. This has been fixed. They will also be available in the Pledge Manager. 
• 💥COMING SOON💥 ADD-ON: $15 | Devoured Labyrinth VTT: Jungle Bundle! This one is even bigger than the last and unlocks at $50k. 11 Modules with a likely MSRP of double this cost. I bet we unlock it today...but if not, it will 100% unlock by the Pledge Manager. 

New & Upcoming Kickstarters

Another one of our dungeon designers, authors, and the co-creator of the Deck of Crawlers, is Brian Colin of Creature Curation. He's one of the original duo of designers on Vast Grimm and has a new project that's LIVE that, among other things, offers rules for solo play!

Vast Grimm is essentially the sci-fi version of Mork Borg, and we adore both it and its creators. 

It's already reached its goal, so you should definitely go check it out!

Finally, this is just your friendly reminder that our own Borg-compatible project is on the horizon with Raptor Ruckus! You can follow it here. 

TTFN, 

Zac G.

FINAL WEEK! Another Stretch Goal Down!
10 months ago – Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 05:43:50 AM

Ahoy! Origins is wrapped and was an absolute blast. It was very cool to see Shadowdark and Darkspace books on the show floor and all sorts of Shadowdark games being ran in the hall. 

This weekend, we also got the last bits of text back from the editor, so we're on the home stretch for the book!

Stretch Goal Unlocked

$42,000 saw the spot gloss feature unlocked for the cover (basically just making it fancy). We might end up actually going with a silver foil, depending on how the back cover art turns out and what the manufacturer suggests, but either way it's going to look SICK!

Next up is another VTT Add-On unlock for the Central Jungle pack at $50,000. 

TTFN,

Zac G.

Stretch Goal Unlocked & Revealed!
10 months ago – Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 04:51:01 AM

Hello Backers, 

Zac here, coming to you from Origins Game Fair! It'll be a quick update by necessity.

One week left to go!

Stretch Goal Unlocked & Revealed

At $37,000, we unlocked another stretch goal and are adding 4 Extra Commoner Cards (Oafs) to the Deck of Crawlers! These will be Level-0 pregens with a rules reference on the backs. 

Since you've knocked out all the goals we had revealed, we've added two more to the pile:

• $42,000.00 | Spot Gloss Cover
• $50,000.00 | Add-On: Roll20 Jungle Bundle

With any luck, we can roll through these before the end as well! 

Erudite DM Chat

I sat down with Mike over on the Erudite DM for a quick chat about Devoured, as well as my previous Shadowdark releases and really just a chat about the game in general. You can watch the whole thing here:

Book Progress

At this point, we've got the last of the text in to the editor! It's just a few thousand words, so we expect that to be on to layout within a few days. It looks like we're shaping up to have the everything laid out in June; after that, we'll be reviewing the layout, making any final adjustments, and then preparing for digital delivery. 

As a reminder, our layout artist, David Barrentine, has his own big project launching soon, and you should definitely check it out. 

TTFN, 

Zac G.

Winning Art Cover & Writer Chats!
10 months ago – Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 05:33:55 AM

Heyo! Zac here again. A chunk of the crew is headed out for Origins Game Fair, but before we do, there are a couple of things worthy of your attention:

1. Art Vote Results

We've tallied up everything, and we ended up with a tie between Option 1 & 2! To break the tie, we pitched the two options to a chunk of our designers, and by 1 vote Option 1 is the winner!  

Winner: Drow summoning a marilith demon in a temple.

We'll go ahead and commission the art from Yuri, so with any luck it won't slow production down. 

2. New Writer Videos

Over the past few days, Will Tramp (This Effin' GM) put out his own video chatting about this project (and a couple others he's been working on. He put together two of our main dungeons, plus the series of six shrines that serve as a section of mini-dungeons -- if your party scours all six, they'll uncover six relic segments that just might come in handy during the endgame!

I also sat down on Jeff Jones' podcast for a chat with him, Danny Grimes, and Gregory Harris, who all wrote for this project and one of Jeff's. This was a great, rambling chat where I got to hear about their writing process, which is always fun. 

Finally, I also did a quick chat with Dan over at GMShoe. You can read the interview here. 

Other than that, I think the only other things worth noting are:

• We are very close to hitting our next stretch goal!
• Dungeon-designer Jeff Steven's just launched his own Shadowdark project.
• Dungeon-designer Bill Harvat's Righteous Vow Shadowdark Kickstarter is launching soon. 

TTFN,

Zac G.

Kickstarter Exclusive Announced! Bonus for All Hardcovers!
10 months ago – Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 06:04:17 AM

Zac here again. This might be the biggest update of the campaign. We'll see...

[FREE] Kickstarter Exclusive

Andrew and I were feeling that something was missing. After sitting down and putting our heads together for a bit, we realized we should have followed Tolkien's advice and "wisely started with a map." 

Well, better late than never!

As a celebration for hitting 400+ books sold and 500% funding, we're going to print and pack an A3 (11.69" x 16.54") map FREE with every hardcover purchase. If you've already purchased a hardcover, you don't need to do anything; your map will be automatically added to your order in the Pledge Manager. 

This will be double-sided (one side bare and one side detailed), and it will also come with an A5 sheet of 40 cut-out hex tokens for you to place as locations are revealed. 

By "Kickstarter Exclusive", we mean we're going to do a single print run for what's needed to fulfill, plus a few extra just in case. 

PDF and Softcover Backers: Will receive hi-res files, so they can print this off themselves, if they so desire. We're also looking into the feasibility of a super-cheap shipping option for international softcover folks who still want to snag the maps. 

New Add-On Unlocked!

But wait! We also unlocked the Add-On: Roll20 Goblin Bundle. This does not come with any of the Reward Tiers, but it is offered at a large discount for the campaign! It contains the 9 dungeons featured in the Goblin Hideyhole section of the book. 

Back Cover Art Tally

Tomorrow (Tuesday the 17th) is the last day to get your vote in, and right now Option #1 has surged into the lead! Option #2 and #4 are still on the table though.

How to Vote: Post in the main COMMENT SECTION of the campaign. Use the format: "Option #x".

• Option 1. Drow summoning a marilith demon in a temple.
• Option 2. Balor demon standing victorious as a defeated drow mage falls down a chasm.
• Option 3. Drow in a summoning circle, with dretches or imps ready to do their bidding.
• Option 4. Drow summoner with a glabrezu demon coming through a portal.
• Option 5. Drow commanding a menacing vrock demon to attack.

Righteous Vow Vol. 3

Bill Harvat was kind enough to write two of our dungeons, but his true calling is with the insanely slick Righteous Vow series (also for Shadowdark). It's been over on Backerkit for the first two issues, but he's made his way to Kickstarter for this one! 

Vol. 3: The Mountain Dragon's Brood is over 140 pages, filled with new adventure, all original artwork in the old-school style we all love, new monsters, new items, weapons, NPCs, mercenaries for hire, and a hex map of the two kingdoms! 

Follow it here. 

TTFN,

Zac G.