The Redsky 5e Conversion Book is launching on Kickstarter May 18th!
Check out what's included in the book here!
We couldn't have asked for a better reception to our universe. The team wanted to say a few words of thanks, and keep everyone in the loop on how our work is going.
Matt
Hey everyone! It’s been great seeing the excitement for Redsky at this stage. I honestly didn’t expect our community to be as large as it is so soon, it’s a warm and fuzzy feeling. As a full time freelance illustrator, my time to paint stuff for Redsky has been limited, but I’m kickin’ into high gear for this year.
We reached out and hired a few, very, very talented landscape artists who are helping me bring Dema to life - soon we will reveal The Moon Realms, The Red Desert, The Sunbleak Wastes, The Midnight Isles and The Light Plains in all their glory.
I’ll be knocking out the last two species illustrations and showing off the finished ones here as the weeks roll on. I’ll be putting the final shine on the final symbols for the Elements and I just finished up the official world map of Dema. I couldn’t be happier with its final form. It’s been a labor of love, and I’m (almost) sad to see it done. I can’t wait to show ‘er off.
Then I’ll be full steam ahead working on making the Kickstarter page pretty, and polishing up the assets for it and various odds and ends!
Thanks for checking us out, and thanks for joining us in this wild world we have brought to life! If you are interested in any of the revealed species so far, and desire to know more then, uh, ask Tyler, I’m just here cause I draw good(-ish) and I was told there would be a pizza party.
Tyler
Hi everyone. Thanks for the amazing feedback and enthusiasm on the lore spotlights and fiction excerpts. We’re trying to keep you up to date with a post every week to week-and-a-half leading up to Kickstarter time.
I’m also hammering away at the lore text for the conversion book. Think of the spotlights as a sneak preview of the tens of thousands of words breaking down all the cultures and cool stuff in Dema that you’ll receive if you back a copy. Right now, I’m working on the jungles of Panacea with Ken, the dark caverns of the Hive Halls, and the different breeds of mounts for Nightriders with Matt’s fiance and awesome horse guru Ashton.
Things are in motion on the novel publishing front. If there’s big news for Jayne's adventure, you’ll be in the loop. There’s also a few short stories on standby to go on the blog. I’m excited.
In February, as fancy pants content manager, I plan on upping the marketing across the web. But if you’re reading this, you are one of the original fans. It’s so cool to see our little Facebook community at 350+ people and counting.
It’s a privilege to have this group to work with through these interesting times. If you want to take your mind off politics or Covid, come spend a little while in Dema. Curious about the world? Just reach out on my Instagram and I’ll be happy to talk lore.
Ken
Hey! The amount of attention we’ve gotten so far has been amazing. Much better than me info dumping this world to my friends and family when they give me the moment to speak. I can’t wait to see you all as excited by this world as I am!
I’ve been working with Tyler to compile the lore for all the spotlight articles we’ve posted and many we’re preparing for you. This work doubles for the full entries you’ll get to see in the conversion book. Sifting through all of our old documents might sound cumbersome, but it has been rather nostalgic for me. Being reminded of how far we’ve come while working has been heart warming in these cold winter months. It’s also gotten my creative juices going into overdrive and I’ve been slipping in new ideas here in there (*cough cough* more monsters).
There's a few other ideas that have been brewing in the back of my mind to help expand the lore of Dema and to give you all more ways to experience the world we’ve all been working on for the past few years. Exploring these ideas while also staying on track with the conversion book might be tricky, but I think it will be well worth it. Hopefully we can have at least one of them ready in time for the Kickstarter’s release!
To not be mysterious for a moment, most of my work is supporting the rest of the team - helping Tyler with the lore posts, helping Matt get everything he needs to send to artists, going over mechanics with Brandon, and adjusting existing lore to better fit Alex’s vision for the Elements. Without them, I’d have nothing to do beyond help myself. It’s been such a great journey working with them so far. However, there is still plenty to do. As long as they have something left doing, I’ve got someone I still need to help.
Thank you for your interest so far! If there is more you want to know that isn’t covered by a post, feel free to message me or Tyler. You can find me at my Twitter and I’ll be glad to talk your ear off about Dema.
Alex
Greetings, travelers! If you’re reading this, then I want to thank you for following along with us as we bring the world of Redsky to life. Speaking personally, it’s been exhilarating to see something that’s been bouncing around in our heads for a couple years finally begin to be realized.
As the creative director for Redsky, my long-term job has been to make sure that everything we design (e.g. game mechanics, lore, visual art, etc.) contributes to a unified aesthetic vision: Elemental Dualism. Elemental Dualism is a system for analyzing themes and personalities using 6 distinct philosophical elements, especially for gameplay purposes. Just about everything in Redsky has been designed to fit one of these 6 elements.
For instance, when Tyler, Ken, and I came up with the beliefs and philosophies of the Archivists, we designed them around the element Water. When Brandon and Ken designed the Archivists’ species traits for our 5e conversion, their attributes and abilities were designed with Water in mind. Likewise, when Matt came up with the visual design for the Archivists, they were designed to look and feel like Water. For more about Elemental Dualism and how it works, you can check out Tyler’s concise overview, or take a deeper dive here.
More recently, I have been working closely with Tyler and Ken as a lead editor for our 5e conversion book. In practice, this means compiling huge quantities of established Redsky lore, organizing how that information is presented in the book’s chapter layout, and assisting with the long process of editing the final copy text.
We can’t wait to show you more of the world we’ve created, and hope that you will continue to support us on this journey. Have any questions for us about Redsky, our 5e conversion, or even Elemental Dualism? We’re positively giddy to answer any questions you might have. Drop us a comment on Facebook or Twitter, and we’ll gladly drop some lore bombs. (Warning: we wordy whelps willfully write with alliteration.)
Brandon
Hello, all! Getting a startup company on its feet - even a small one like Solar Studios - is no easy task. Much of my job here is more boring than the creative work my cofounders engage in. Anything involving computers or legal work is my territory.
However, the others don’t get to have ALL the fun. I’ve been a huge fan of tabletop role-playing games for years, and being a co-designer on the Redsky RPG has been thrilling. Lately we’ve been playtesting and fleshing out some of the class designs, and Ken and I have been busy with refining our material.
There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes logistics and preparation that must be done to ship a product like this, and I’m compiling a lot of research. We want to make sure that our book is high quality in both content and construction, and ships to all of our backers safely. I know that when I’m playing a game, my tools are very important to me: my dice, a rolling surface, pencil and paper, and finally, my books. I can’t wait to slide the Redsky RPG onto my shelf next to the rest of my collection.
Honestly, the support and attention this project has received has been both gratifying and overwhelming. I work hard to give my friends here at Solar Studios the support they need to create, and what they have achieved so far is nothing short of stunning.
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