The Dark Carnival Pre-Order Store

*Slides into frame just before the deadline. The writers hair is all frazzled, the wild racoon eyes betray the coffee intake level, but there is still a mad grin as he holds up a shiny treasure.*

It's officially update time! The kind of update time where we are going to ask you to check your email: find your spam folder / promotion folder and look for something called "The Dark Carnival Early Release".

If you are a Backer who has filled out your pledge survey: you should have an email. If you have NOT filled out your pledge survey over the past few months...you will not have an email. Ergo...check your emails (particularly spam and promotions tabs).

However! Walla! The Dark Carnival PDF - Early Draft. (If you wanna see it, you can still Pre-Order the Dark Carnival for a tiny bit longer!)

What the heck is Early Draft?

Okay...so...this update comes with good news and bad news. Good News! le Shiny! Oooooh....Aaaaaah..!! Seriously, the PDF is 95% complete and it's at this point we release this for one final check from the backers who wanna dive into the content, check for those rogue typos, or layout errors that are glaring.

You'll notice a few "Art Coming Soon" Boxes, and that's where we get into the bad news:

Physical Print is going to be delayed. :(

But for Good Reasons! In layout, we added over 10,000 words of content and more artwork to help round out a few pointy sections. We are still waiting for some of that art to return, and while we wait for that: we run into Chinese New Year where everything shuts down for a month. Which (if you ever calculate logistics, means a 2 month delay) in physical print...well, we had to have at least one update with a delay...right? It was bound to happen sooner or later.

At least all of you will get to see how awesome this project has turned out NOW, offer any final feedback, and then we will be entering production.

Early Draft PDF Enjoyment:

-Please check the QR Codes for the soundtrack! Make sure they work. (Page 6 on the PDF). The full album is behind there!
-Check for any typos or layout graphical errors. Email any findings to [email protected] or just ping us on Discord.
-Head Pats? We accept head pats.

Black Ballad: Second Chances: Official Announcement.

We are gearing up with our next project while the Dark Carnival finishes. This is a WHOLE DIFFERENT BOOK, designed entirely for Shadowdark & The Black Ballad.

You can sign up to follow for along on that project by clicking HERE or the image below.

*Slides in*

*Taps Microphone.*

SOON YOU SHALL ALL BE ALLOWED TO BE EVIL!!

But magnificent!

Layout of the Dark Carnival is smack dab in the middle by our trusted layout artists Christian and Niki. If I shared any images atm of the interior though, it...would look like an arcane grimoire being assembled by wizards.

HOWEVER! As soon as it's done: All Backers will get an EARLY (Repeat! EARLY!!) Aka: not final draft PDF to see if you guys catch anything as we polish up the final details. (It's a healthy thing to do before we polish off digital assets and then start print-production).

We are aiming to release that in December. Soo...the hype is real.

BUT! That means you need to fill out your pledge survey and finish any add-ons or final payments. We can't ship books if we don't know where to send them too, and there are over 150 of you that haven't filled out your surveys yet.

That is a LOT of you. If you use google, check your "Promotions" tab or your "Spam" folder for a reminder email from Backerkit.

But...let's show off some wanted posters!

I'm going to turn these into free digital downloads on our website after the PDF is finalized, so these GLORIOUSLY EVIL super-backers can be bounties and wanted posters in your TTRPG campaigns.

The artwork for these was done by James Mosingo, and each of the posters is a story now immortalized in the Dark Carnival book.

I'm only going to post the first two posters in the general update, and the remainder in the "Backer's Only" section of this post.

If you are curious and still not one of the backers: Preorders are still open but closing REAL soon! <-Click that text to go to the preorder page.

Without further ado! A special thanks to all our super backers and Darklings! May they forever haunt your chronicles!

Backers get to see the rest of them early after the jump!

(Oh! Side note. I totally released my third novel today: The Seventh Age: Decay. I've got one batch of 100 books that I'm specially signing and releasing. If urban fantasy is your jam and you want some sarcastic fiction:

Click Here!)

-Rick Out!

OKAY! Everything is falling into place!

It's time for us to finally start locking in our quantities. I'll leave the Pre Order store open for anyone who gets this email that never backed for a bit longer, but everyone else should be getting their surveys in the next few days. 

Our timeline is to have an EARLY RELEASE PDF for everyone in December, and it will be the last chance to catch anything before we go to print. 

Then there will be a period of time where everyone (including us) sort of sits on our hands until everything is made and shipped over. So expect that "manufacturing period" to be a little quiet for updates during the long, cold, dark of winter. 

It won't be long though until everyone has content that allows them to play evil or outcast...but magnificent characters!

Remember to read your survey! Things like shipping updates and address changes can be done through [email protected], but they are easy to change. 

Same with payment information! If you need help, reach out there first!

Otherwise...the flood gates have been opened for the pledge managers! (We will showcase the Wanted Posters in a future update or video real when we have all of them compiled to put together a nice slide show for ALL our special villains!)

-Rick and the STF Team!

Hey everyone! Mid September update!

Pre-Order Store is Closing October 1st!

This is the FINAL two weeks before we close the preorder store. It's your last chance to grab a special edition of the Dark Carnival at a discounted price.

We've got all our production quotes in, and we are going to print this book with ribbons, purple edges, and make it all fancy. Once we enter retail, the cost will bump up slightly on the MSRP, but for all our backers, they keep the original. Remember, this book comes with a FULL Soundtrack (All finished!), the PDF, AND the hardcover book for $80.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY THE PDF SEPERATE!!!

If you haven't grabbed one yet. You can do so right here! https://festival-of-the-forgotten.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Pledge Surveys are coming Early October!

On your pledge survey, you'll be able to answer a few questions, order any add-ons, and settle up any shipping, handling and taxes.

It takes about 2-3 months to really sort through and shake out all the backers so we can get final production quantities for manufacturing. We run it here rather than later, so that in December when we release the PROTO PDF to backers, it's one last chance to catch any snafu's and make sure everything is working like it should.

Then we sit on our hands and wait for printing and manufacturing!

That's all we have for this update! Short and sweet! So, with that said, here's a Thespian Jack artwork by M.E. Morgan! This book is going to look so damn pretty!!!

*FLAILS!*

*Slides in with coffee*

*taps Mic.*

GAH! How the hell is it September already?! Like...summer? Time....is a soup?

Luckily, we've kept the ball rolling behind the scenes. I know this is seriously the most boring part of a crowdfunding campaign because it's like: "Yup, they are stillll cooking". Here is what we've got however!

It's after layout that things get interesting and more fun for all of you, because then we will drop the early release pdf to backers, and run the pledge manager to start locking in orders as we begin manufacturing.

Behind the scenes at the studio: STF is making a lot of good internal changes. We are spending a lot of the fall overhauling some of the back end systems for publishing, getting audio books and recordings started, and leveling up our project flow.

(If you haven't seen the updates to our website, go poke around! https://www.storytellersforge.com/)

Our next project: Black Ballad: Second Chances (A journey to Shadowdark) will be coming out next March though instead of October of this year. All those internal overhauls with ISBN's, listing books, and website redo's are the focus while Dark Carnival Cooks.

The cool thing is: When we do go live with Second Chances, that project will be completed. (This is a HUGE milestone btw).

OH! I forgot!

Last time an art piece was shared with the game guess the class?

It's Oath of the Mageguard: Paladin from the Dark Carnival! That's the answer!

For this update, I'm going to share a personal favorite of mine! What legally distinct name are we chucking for this subclass below? (Also Art absolutely crushed this art. This class, is one I am totally playing when given the chance)