A role playing game book and sequel to the successful Battle for Oz RPG.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
GM's Handbook- Project Update
about 2 years ago
– Tue, May 03, 2022 at 02:59:24 PM
Hey Gang! So both books are designed and in final editing and art design. The new book, the Creature Catalog, has evolved a bit. We ran into some issues when laying that book out in Adobe In Design and the easy fix was to REMOVE the ENCOUNTERS chapter and the PLOT POINT chapter from the Pirates core book and move it into the new book. This move has turned what once was a simple stand alone bestiary into a Game Master's handbook! This shift has had some other awesome side effects; the core book, Battle for Oz: Pirates is now looking like it will be a very reasonable 200 page book and 'player read thru friendly' meaning that a player can read it without risk of reading Game Master only material AND the new Game Master Handbook (formally the Creature Catalog) will have ALL of the needed material for a GM to run an Oz game in one simple source.
The Battle for Oz: Pirates core book will include all of the player knowledge background on Oz, history of Oz, and the new Oz Sea as well as all of the information needed to build an Oz character. It will also contain an abbreviated Oz Bestiary. The book will be 8 chapters long (9 chapters counting the intro) to include; Introduction chapter, Ch1- Getting Started (character creation), Ch2- Setting Rules, Ch3- Oz Gear, Ch4- Oz Ships and Living Ships, Ch5- Magic in Oz, Ch6- Sea Travel and Ship Combat, Ch7- Oz Land and Sea (gazetteer), Ch8- Bestiary.
The new Oz Game Master's Handbook will only be three chapters long to include; Ch1- Oz Land and Sea Encounter Tables, Ch2- Oz GM info and Plot Point campaign, Ch3- Full Oz Bestiary.
I am very excited about this new separation of information. My only regret is that I didn't build the Kickstarter around the two book system to begin with but I'm rolling with it! Those of you that added the Creature Catalog to your Backerkit order- worry not- I changed the name of that product to the Game Master's Handbook for skew purposes only- your order is preserved and you do not need to take an additional action.
I will send out another update as soon as the final round of edits is complete and the layout is complete with all the new produced ART. I am waiting until those PDF's go out to charge Backerkit since my next job will be stretch goal fulfillment and add on fulfillment.
Talk to ya soon, Dan
working cover for the new Game Master's Handbook
UPDATE AND ADD ON CHANGE
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 12:20:23 PM
OK, so the book is 99% complete on the design/layout, including the Bestiary, I am just finishing the art. As I predicted, if I include the full Bestiary, the book will be well over 330-350 pages long. That's not gonna work, so this is what I have decided to do.
I will be including a small Bestiary in the finished book. It will consist of some essential (to the pirates setting) baddies as well as any creature or NPC's created by this Kickstarter from the Contributor Backer's. With that minimal Bestiary, the book is predicted to be about 240-260 pages long. That is still thicker than I was shooting for but manageable. Even though its not in print yet, the new Savage Pathfinder core book is going to be about that page count so I know it is reasonable.
The full Bestiary will be a separate book I have decided to name the Oz Creature Catalog. The Creature Catalog is the name I originally reserved for the book that was going to just be art of every creature in the setting (no stats). That book was available as an add on and was preordered by many. That book is still going to be produced but under the changed name, the Battle for Oz Sketchbook. So anyone that pre-ordered that book doesn't have to do a thing, the name of the book has changed but their preorder has not- I just changed the name and the sku name in Backerkit to match and the preorders are preserved.
The new book, the Oz Creature Catalog, will include EVERY creature, villain, and ally with stats for both the original 2014 setting book for Savage Worlds Deluxe (updated for SWADE), as well as the new converted Pirates setting book for SWADE. It should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-120 pages but that's a guess because the layout for that book has just begun. My goal is to release both, the Battle for Oz: Pirates setting book and the Oz Creature Catalog in pdf at the same time because after all, A GM is going to need the FULL Bestiary to run a proper Oz game.
Now I obviously did not originally intend to create two books for the Battle for Oz: Pirates setting, nor did I budget to do so when setting up the Kickstarter, but here we are none the less. I am going to have to absorb the extra costs associated with producing a separate book for the full bestiary (in layout and design costs) but I am doing so because I think it is the best thing for the setting. As such, I feel obligated to my backers to make the Oz Creature Catalog available to EVERY backer that pledged at the print level or higher for the setting book at no additional cost. Of coarse every backer will get the Oz Creature Catalog as a pdf at no additional cost. I am just going to have to absorb the cost of printing and shipping the book to my print backers as well. That being said, I understand that not every print backer will necessarily want or need the Oz Creature Catalog in physical print form. As a GM, I myself have evolved into a pdf gamer and run all my games using my iPad and PC. All of my current Savage Worlds core books and setting books are decoration for my book shelf. Its just a reality that books change and evolve, some even after going to print. That combined with the convenience of having over 50 awesome Savage Worlds book on my iPad that I ALWAYS have at my side, has convinced me to leave my print books to collect dust.
SO, I have done some work in Backerkit. I created 2 new products and assigned sku's to them. They are;
the Oz Creature Catalog (pdf) - found in the PDF category, and the Oz Creature Catalog - found in the Physical add-on category
It would be helpful if EVERY backer added the Oz Creature Catalog (pdf) to their order so I have a count, but regardless, every backer that gets a pdf of the setting book will automatically get the pdf of the Oz Creature Catalog.
So....EVERY BACKER THAT PLEDGED AT THE PRINT LEVEL- If you want a physical printed copy of the Oz Creature Catalog, you need to add it to your order, it is set to $0.00 in Backerkit and called, Oz Creature Catalog (in the physical add-on category). I have also created a selectable add-on called Oz Creature Catalog shipping charge, set to $5.00. This is just an optional add-on for those that want to help me offset some of the costs I am absorbing to produce, print, and ship the second book. It is by no means mandatory for the order but anyone that selects that add-on, thank you. Selecting the print option however, is required if you want the physical book. I will assume that those print backers that DO NOT select the Oz Creature Catalog and add it to their order are only interested in the pdf copy.
While you are altering your Backerkit order, either to add the pdf or the print version of the Oz Creature Catalog to your order- PLEASE ENSURE THAT BOTH YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION AND SHIPPING INFORMATION IS ACCURATE AND CURRENT. As soon as my designer delivers a shippable pdf to me, I will be charging the Backerkit orders and even with this new book to layout, I am hoping that will be this month.
This is a lot of information to absorb so as always, if you have any questions or concerns, you can post them here or email me at [email protected], thank you my friends- Dan
Battle for Oz Sketchbook
Battle for Oz Creature Catalog (placeholder cover art)
Below is the link for the Backerkit preorder website, though I believe backers can login to Backerkit and alter their Battle for Oz survey and pledge add-ons from there.
