The Redsky 5e Conversion Book is Ending Soon on Kickstarter!
Check out what's included here, or watch our brand new launch trailer!
Well This Looks Promising
Hi everyone! Tyler here. Exhausted lead writer. We are by no means taking anything for granted, folks. But there's been a noticeable increase in hope within the team about our chances of the fundraiser being successful when it starts May 18th.
The outpouring of support we first noticed several months ago has only grown. And the art! Expectations exceeded. The artists are some of the most skilled working talents today. It is a privilege to see their minds at work with the prompts we provide. They've done work on other franchises you may know and love, though the NDAs would blindside us if we talked about which specific ones. Well, if we raise enough funding to develop the assets we need, expect the 5e conversion book to be just the first Redsky experience of many more to come.
Feel free to reach out to any member of the team with your questions about Redsky's game mechanics or art development. The other four are always happy to talk shop and give their perspectives. I've been asked to fill this space instead with why I have a fair bit of hype for the future. This absolutely all hinges on us pulling off funding, but hey, dream big, right?
The Storytelling Potential of Dema is Infinite
What a wild, wonderful ride creating this world has been. When the team set out to make a new universe that could deliver just as much joy and potential as our favorite lore canons, we couldn't truly have comprehended just how intensive that process would be.
Ken, Alex, Matt, Brandon, and I must have thousands of hours of world-building logged between the five of us. That's still a far cry from the entire departments AAA Studios have on retainer to build the biggest spaces we all love. We started this journey as a random group of friends with a vague idea of cool things we liked. How have we gotten our lore up to par with some much bigger franchises? Well, an idea like Dema doesn't sleep, so neither did we.
We're proud of the depth you can see in the lore spotlights and short fiction on our blog. That's just a taste of all the lore that will be in the codex portion of the conversion book.
The amount of story content included will be enough that the conversion book doubles as the definitive world-building guide for all Redsky multimedia still ahead. Even if backers have no experience with DnD or tabletop gaming, there's a whole book's worth of flavor here for anyone to enjoy -- to capture that feeling of exploring the kind of worlds fans of sci-fi and fantasy like us grew up loving. That's not to mention the early-access to the first Redsky novel provided for free to all backers of a successful campaign. I've been marathoning revisions to make it the best entry point for newcomers looking for fiction.
Still, while the foundation we've built is strong, the ways outside input could help this world come to life are where I feel a different kind of excitement.
Now that we’ve announced the official launch date for the Kickstarter fundraiser, this seems like as good a time as any to give context to our long-term hopes.
See, we know that the one major thing still missing from the potential of Redsky is you.
Democratizing Creativity
One of the goals of Redsky has always been to "democratize creativity". The more we can empower storytellers and creatives like you who take an interest in our world, the more value and meaning we feel is added to the fate of the setting.
With so much content out there today, it's hard for smaller hobbyists or makers to get noticed. We're hoping Redsky can act as a sort of group vehicle to get great talent on the world's radar together. This project started as a group effort, and we live for the day that group can fill an auditorium. Team shirts! Woo!
On a tabletop gaming level, we are already floored by the ideas the growing community has messaged us with for their own planned Redsky homebrews. Keep it coming!
Who are the characters you envision living in places as bustling as Mundi, or as dangerous as The Midnight Isles? What adventures do they go on? Can you craft an environment of your own in one of the unmarked spots of the world map? What types of Eldertech will your heroes uncover, or have political dynasties feud over? More monsters? Definitely more monsters. There's a whole universe with four epic Eras of history to play with.
We added all of the battles and intrigue on Dema's timeline as we could. We want to see yours. If you can make a faction, character, or even new species fit within Elemental Dualism, it's fair game. There's even an in-universe (hint hint, Overseer) justified way to have alternate timelines play out called The Simulacrum, with your favorite canon characters or moments changing to fit whatever events you'd like to see. That's not even counting what the worldship cycles after (or before) Dema may hold in store one day.
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While every voice is welcomed, getting new creative perspectives for Dema from people and cultures not normally represented in traditional Western fantasy is a priority for the team. Me being an ethnic Korean has let me sneak in fun easter eggs, for instance. Keep an eye out for the female Nightrider character model. She's holding a Gakgung, the traditional bow of Korea, or, the traditional bow of the Cairnkeepers in-universe.
Sci-fi and fantasy are better with inclusive input from all backgrounds, beliefs, and orientations. We would love to build a platform that can help grow a more diverse future in the wider world of storytelling.
Granted, we obviously can't add the firsthand perspectives of many voices in this first iteration of Dema, being a tiny indie team of three white guys, a Hispanic American, and an adopted Asian American and all. Nevertheless, we hope we're leaving the door as wide open as we can for every potential fan like you who wants to mold the narratives to come, wherever or whoever you may be or identify with.
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(Side note: Here's a mystery. The others are away from their keyboards, so I'm breaking the flow of the post to address it. We've logged thousands and thousands of people from all over Earth visiting our site. Dozens of countries. While we'd love input from every corner of the globe, who are you guys down in Australia? Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne! The traffic from whoever is showing us to your friends in Melbourne alone rivals all the visitors from Matt's friends and family in Texas. It's more than comes from New York City. You rock! Send us your best ideas for creatures. We've heard you have some experience with deadly fauna on your lovely continent.)
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
The goal, ideally, is to have your creations shared on our social media so the whole community can enjoy. We'd have regular features of the best stuff. At some point each year, we'd have a contest with community polls alongside the panelists to pick winners.
The best of the best would be canonized into Dema! Your effort would join ours, and the team would take it as far as we could. I'm the last person to be able to talk about financial compensation at the moment, BUT, speaking as the deciding vote on lore, if we knocked the fundraising out of the park with some ridiculous number, rewarding prize money and/or donations on your behalf to charities like Child's Play, Extra Life, or Game For the Cause would be a dream come true for me.
Calling All Makers
Are you a writer? Let's take your short fiction or world-building ideas to the moon (or Norway) on the worldship!
Are you a visual artist? What kind of sketches or paintings pair well with, say, the creature features? The environments? We've done great imagining fun creations, but there's an even greater chance one of you out there could do better.
Are you musically inclined? There's more than 20 cultures in Dema. What music brings the parts of the world you like to glorious auditory reality?
Are you a video animator? Oh man, ever want to make The Wild Hunt if we can one day make it worth your while?
Want to meet up with a brand new community and organize your own campaigns at events in your hometown? To the extent we can figure out how to support you if we are funded enough, we will!
Is game development your thing? Let's talk licensing and collaboration like it's the bit from Spaceballs. "Redsky the roguelike! Redsky the MMO! Redsky the breakfast cereal!"
Do you do cosplay, home crafts, or other physical toys and items? Let your imagination run wild with a world's worth of diversity.
And if there are big fishes in the entertainment world swimming near Solar Studios one day, we would humbly point out that ideas with less merit have been given millions of dollars of funding and failed where your vision will succeed.
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Again, these are big ambitions. The Archivists would caution that 'The Million Step Path' takes one step at a time. We just want to see this idea go as far as it can, and share it with cool folks of all ages who can help. The first milestone for the health of this universe's future is getting fully funded on the Kickstarter, so follow its pre-launch page if you haven't already.
Reach out on our social media if this post has given you any other ideas I'm missing here.
Let's all look back on these words years from now as a hint of what was to come.
But seriously, Redsky the breakfast cereal.
- Tyler
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