April Update: New Art, Stories and Maps
about 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 09:59:07 AM

Hi all,

Welcome back to our regular update! Creative progress on One-Show Wonders is continuing in a good rhythm, with lots of session plans, illustrations and maps in development. To give you a taste of what we've been up to, here are a few highlights from recent weeks:

Reviewing playtesting feedback 

Thank you to everyone who has given their feedback on the Wave 1 and Wave 2 sample adventures. We're getting some great insights into the sessions you've played, which will help us as we continue developing the one-shots in the book. There's still time to feedback on the existing samples, and keep an eye out for more playtesting waves in future updates.

Art in progress

Our illustrator Christina Hassan continues to astound us with her gorgeous art. Check out this piece from a one-shot that follows the party as they protect a conservationist, and some saber-tooth tiger cubs, from poachers.

Adorable, right? Although, as discussed on our Discord channel, make sure you're ready for the inevitable player requests to adopt a cub!

More maps

Following the completion of the Terrain Maps, many of our Key Location maps are now either signed off or in the final stages of development. Take a look at this snippet of our awesome, underground forge. 

Work has also started on the World Map, which was our final stretch goal and one of our most popular campaign add-ons. We're so excited to bring the world of One-Shot Wonders together this way. We're working once again with the fantastic cartographer Venatus Maps, who is helping us craft a world that will help you seamlessly tie together your One-Shot Wonders stories.

The World Map covers a region with arctic areas in the north, plains and forests in the central area, and desert dunes towards the south. Each environment will house its own unique settlements, where you can base your One-Shot Wonders adventures, as well as landmarks like mountains, lighthouses and temples that are ripe for exploration.

We are so excited to hear how this world grows with your adventures, and what your party discover over that next hill. Stay tuned for some sneaky peeks of the World Map in the future, as it develops!

New project launch

Last, but certainly not least, we've launched a new Kickstarter campaign this month. If you haven't already, check out Quest Journals for Game Masters and Players. 

We were fully funded in just 14 minutes and have already unlocked multiple stretch goals. In addition to system-neutral GM resources, and options for 5E and Pathfinder 2E players, we are currently running a poll to see which RPG systems we should expand into next. There's still time to back the project and nominate your preferred system!

Phew, that's a lot of highlights, so I'll wrap it up for now. See you next time!

All the best,

Beth

// Follow the development of the project on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Discord // Sign up to the Roll & Play Press newsletter to receive a free random table every month //

Playtesting Survey: Wave 2
about 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 05, 2023 at 09:14:44 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Playtesting Release: Wave 1 & 2
about 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 12:26:32 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

February Update: Locking Orders (and other news!)
about 1 year ago – Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 03:26:05 AM

Hi everyone,

We are having TONS of fun putting this book together. We are at a point in the creative process where new stories, artwork and layouts are emerging all the time – it's so exciting! Read on to hear more about what we've been up to this month and learn about how you'll be able to give feedback on some of the One-Shot Wonders sessions in development. There's also an important update on charging cards.

Locking Orders

We will be locking orders for this project on Friday 3rd March. After this point, you won't be able to make any changes to your pledge rewards. If you can’t access your survey, or have misplaced the original pledge management email, you can generate a new pledge manager here.

Charging Cards

Cards will be charged shortly after orders are locked on Friday 3rd March. You will be charged for any items you added in the pledge manager, as well as the price of shipping your pledge.

Please make sure that the cards you have saved on your pledge manager have not expired and have the amounts needed on them before this date, so there aren't any issues. If there are problems with taking payment, you will be alerted by BackerKit, and they will try again a couple of days afterwards.

(NOTE: If you chose the PayPal payment method in your pledge manager, payment was taken immediately after you completed your pledge manager, and you will not be charged on Friday.)

Locking Addresses

You won't be able to change your pledge rewards after 3rd March, but you will be able to change your address for a little while longer. So, if you're moving house soon, don't worry!

We'll post another update with a warning before we lock addresses (approx. August 2023), so you can make sure your address is correct for shipping. Alternatively, if you aren't sure of your future address, we would recommend updating your pledge manager to a friend or family member's address so that your package isn't lost.

If you have any questions, email us using [email protected], and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Creative highlights

Admin over - here's a taste of what we've been up to this month!

• Finalising lots of illustrations and briefing even more. Watching these develop from concept to final render never gets old.
• Approving a number of Key Location maps and developing the final few.  This is such a fun, collaborative process, and we're so pleased with what Venatus Maps has created for this title.
• Brainstorming and crafting dozens of stories for you to bring to life at your tabletop. This month, the stories we've been working on include scrolls, satyrs, scientists and more...
•  Testing the one-shot plans by playing them ourselves! In our latest team D&D session, Beth took over the GM's seat and Sam got a chance to test out one of our own pre-generated character booklets. 

Playtesting & Discord

Want to get involved in the playtesting process for One-Shot Wonders? Over the next few months, we'll share a selection of the session plans from the book and ask for your feedback on them. This will help us develop and improve all the ideas in the book. We'll share a short form to help record your feedback, but will also provide space to chat about the adventures on a new Roll & Play Press Discord server – launching soon!

In the meantime, we're encouraging everyone to download and playtest the three one-shots we have shared so far:

•  Making a Scene - A beginner-friendly session, testing a variety of player skills (Levels 1-2)
•  Fishy Business -  An intriguing investigation in a coastal village (Levels 3-4)
•  A Rude Awakening - An exhilarating mission to destroy the beast lurking in a dangerous mine (Levels 7-8)

Each session has been designed with the stated party level in mind, but also features suggestions to adjust the difficulty level. We'd love to hear from you if you adapt the session in this way!

We'll share more information on the playtest process in a separate update very soon. We'll also share a link to our new community space as soon it launches.

Thanks for reading this update, and stay tuned for even more news coming soon!

Have a great week,

Beth

// Follow the development of the project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter // Sign up to the Roll & Play Press newsletter to receive a free random table every month //

January Update: OGL News & Character Sneak Peek
about 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 09:16:01 AM

Hi everyone,

Welcome to our first monthly update of 2023! I hope you are all well. 

We'll start by addressing the latest developments regarding the Open Gaming License, then get into our regular creative update.

Latest OGL developments

Since our last update, Wizards of the Coast have released a new statement regarding OGL 1.0a and a Creative Commons License, published here. 

We are still considering exactly how we will proceed based on the options available to us.  However, we are glad that it appears One-Shot Wonders is again able to move forward without some of the constraints and challenges we had anticipated. Plus, some of our favourite 5e monsters could now make a special appearance in the book! It's been a turbulent and disruptive time for many creators in the TTRPG community, including us. We've hugely appreciated the support of our backers over the past few weeks.

Creative update

We have been busy briefing illustrations for our pre-generated characters, interior artwork and location maps; everything we have received so far from our illustrators looks incredible. Here are some highlights:

More maps than ever!

While planning out the synopsis, we decided to increase the number of key location maps included in the book from 7 to 10! Here's a sneak peek at one key location map currently in development:

As well as appearing in the book, all 10 key location maps will also be included in the digital and physical map bundles. So, if your pledge already includes these add-ons, you'll automatically receive the new maps at no extra cost! 

Pre-generated characters

All 16 of our pre-generated character booklets now have artwork! May we introduce you to your plucky Level 3 party? From left to right, we have a Druid, Rogue, Barbarian and Warlock. We're looking forward to filling out the stats for each character and testing them out on the tabletop soon.

A new batch of session plans (and their illustrations) are also in progress. No spoilers this time, but prepare for plenty of magic, mystery and monsters. Over the coming weeks and months, we'll be writing, testing and refining even more one-shot session ideas – so stay tuned!

Look out for our next update, where we'll share more news and let you know about upcoming playtest opportunities.

All the best,

Beth