Thanks for a Great Campaign!
7 months ago
– Thu, Feb 08, 2024 at 07:32:54 PM
Hello Backers,
The Kickstarter campaign for 20 Talking Treasures is complete, and it’s been a great run. We reached reached over six times our original goal, and earned three stretch goals, including funding a second book: 20 Vibrant Vestments!
What’s Next?
The text for 20 Talking Treasures is currently in edits, and interior art is being worked on. Assuming nothing goes wrong with either of those, I think that 20 Talking Treasures should be out to backers by the end of the month.
Meanwhile in a couple of weeks, I’ll send out surveys via Backer Kit to collect info like rules systems, add-ons, and backer credits.
The timeline for 20 Vibrant Vestments is a bit looser, as work for that hasn’t really started yet. I don’t have a solid ETA, but I’m guessing it will be out some time around May or April.
I’ll keep you all posted as things develop.
Thank you for the great campaign!
-Matthew
Tuesday Preview: Ring of Charity
7 months ago
– Tue, Feb 06, 2024 at 12:56:36 PM
Hello 20 Treasures Backers,
We’ve entered the home stretch. As I write we have about 54 hours left in the campaign. We’re already starting to see the end of campaign surge, and I think it’s only a matter of time before we reach the stretch goal for 20 Vibrant Vestments.
Ring of Charity Preview
The One Ring from Hobbit and Lord of the Rings has to be one of the best-known magic items with a will of its own. While developing 20 Talking Treasures I thought about doing an off-brand version of the One Ring, but instead decided to just the opposite. Instead of a ring that bends you towards evil, what about a ring that forces you to be good? Thus the ring of charity was born.
Ring of Charity
Those villagers are desperate for food. You can’t turn your back on them.
Ring, rare (requires attunement)
It is said that this golden ring was created by gnomish Saint Alandras, patron or healers, while she was still mortal. She left for her followers before she ascended.
The ring has 7 charges. You may use it to cast the following spells: cure wounds (1 charge), lesser restoration (2 chargers), revivify (3 charges no components required), warding bond (2 charges). For cure wounds, you use the ring's Wisdom modifier (+5) as the spellcasting ability modifier, and you may increase the spell slot of the spell by spending one additional charge per spell level.
Sentience. The ring of charity is neutral good and has an intelligence of 13, a Wisdom of 20, and a Charisma of 17. It can speak, read, and understand Common, Celestial, and Gnomish, as well as communicate with the wearer telepathically. It can see with darkvision and hear to a range of 60 feet. The ring has a +4 bonus to Intelligence (Religion) checks and +8 bonus to Wisdom (Medecine) checks, though it can only use the latter to make diagnosis and similar other uses that don’t require a physical body.
Personality. The ring is compassionate and outgoing. It considers the feelings of others, but it is also not afraid to speak its mind, especially when its wearer behaves selfishly.
Purpose. The ring of charity’s purpose is to help those in need, whether it be healing the sick, donating to the poor, or liberating those under tyrannical rule. The ring is more aggressive about influencing its wearer than many magic items, and has no qualms about taking control to donate large sums of the wearer’s money to what it sees as a worthy cause.
Have You Considered an Add-On?
Did you know that many of the rewards from popular previous crowdfunding campaigns are available as add-ons?
You can learn everything didn’t know you wanted to know about rope, cyphers, wagons, and more with the This and That Collection.
Or explore the corpses of dead gods with Graveyard of the Gods.
Add-ons also count towards our stretch goals, and will help us fund 20 Vibrant Vestments even sooner!
You Might Also Like
I get a lot of requests to cross promote projects on Kickstarter, but I like to limit these to one that I find personally appealing. I don’t have any special inside knowledge on these, I just pick ones because I think they look fun.
I’m always interested in seeing more high-level content for 5e, and Battle for the Realm is a trio of adventures for high-level characters.
From the Kickstarter Page:
The destruction of the powerful orbstones has had unforeseen consequences.
A tremendous magical surge awakened ancient stone portals in Eastern Farraway.
The realm is now on the brink of war.
You must travel to other planes and find the orbstones’ twins to seal the ancient portals and restore balance.
But journeys to the Plane of Shadow and the Feyworld are unsafe at best. And lurking in the Abyss is an old nemesis who craves revenge.
The time has come when heroes are forged into legends.
Tuesday Preview: Raska’s Portrait
8 months ago
– Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 12:02:12 PM
Hello Backers,
Welcome to another Tuesday preview. We’re now over halfway through with the campaign, and will have one more item preview before it ends. If there’s an item you are especially curious about, let me know in the comments below.
Raska’s Portrait Preview
Two of my goals with 20 Talking Treasures is to include something for every class and to include a wide range of power levels. Unlike the previous two, which were warrior focused, this one is for wizards. Raska’s portrait also won’t see much use in battles, but instead characters might consult it between battles to identify a magical effect.
Raska’s Portrait
To understand the principles of transmogrification, first imagine an egg. Picture it in your mind. Now, the egg is actually a cow.
As she felt her life draw to a close, the Archmage Raska sought to leave something of herself behind to help guide the mages of the future. Thus, she mastered the art of painting (as one does) and crafted a magical self portrait that depicts Raska in her library. As she finished weaving magic into the portrait, the depiction of Raska in it animated and gained the ability to freely move around the painting.
The portrait functions much like a simulacrum, in that it contains all the knowledge Raska possessed at the time she painted the portrait. In addition to being able to answer many questions about magic and history, any wizard who studies with the portrait during their downtime can add one additional spell to their spellbook for free when they gain a level.
Sentience. Raska’s portrait has an Intelligence of 20, a Wisdom of 14, and Charisma of 12. She can speak, read, and understand common, elven, dwarven, and draconic. She can see and hear as though the portrait frame were a window in her library. Raska’s portrait has a +11 bonus to Intelligence (Arcana) and Intelligence (History) checks.
Personality. Raska’s portrait is patient, proper, and well educated. She loves to talk to fellow intellectuals or answer questions for the curious. She has no time for scoundrels and abhors rude language.
Purpose. Raska’s portrait was created to pass on knowledge to young wizards. While she’d love to be placed at wizard academy or arcane library, she is content as long as there is a wizard in the party that she can educate. If not, she encourages the heroes to bring her to a more fitting location.
Tuesday Preview: Veleket’s Blade
8 months ago
– Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:26:52 AM
Hello Talking Treasure’s Backers,
Since our last update, we’ve reached our second stretch goal to fund a backer-exclusive micro book with four more intelligent items taken from our previous books.
I’m still confident we’ll hit our next stretch goal for another full book, 20 Vibrant Vestments, though it may not be until the final funding surge.
Velket’s Blade Preview
While most of the items in 20 Talking Treasures are good or neutral aligned, there are a few that exist to create moral conflict and tempt heroes with evil. Velket’s Blade is one of those.
Velket’s Blade
Clan Dorenzo understands only strength. If you want your people to be safe, you must make an example of these fools.
Weapon (greatsword) legendary (requires attunement)
Fifty years ago the human warlord Velket rose from obscurity to become first captain of the royal guard, and then regent when the queen of Breylor died mysteriously with no heir. He used his new power to conquer several neighboring kingdoms, plundering their riches to dote lavishly on his home kingdom. Many think that he owes at least some of his success to his magical sword, a two handed sword of polished steel that glows green in the darkness.
You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with Velket’s Blade. It sheds bright light in a 20 foot radius, and dim light for an additional 20 feet.
Warlord’s Strike. When you damage a creature with the sword, all attacks from creatures other than you against it have advantage and it has disadvantage on saving throws from creatures other than you until the start of your next turn.
Item Set. You can attune both Velket’s blade and Velket’s cape with a single attunement slot. When both items are attuned, the blade’s bonus to attack and damage rolls increases to +3.
Sentience. Velket’s Blade is Lawful Evil. It has an intelligence of 13, and Wisdom of 17, and a charisma of 19. It can read, speak, and understand Common. It can also communicate telepathically with the wielder, which it prefers over speaking aloud. The sword can see with normal vision and hear up to 60 feet. The blade has a +9 bonus to Intimidate checks.
Personality. On the surface, Velket’s blade is polite and thoughtful, but underneath it is arrogant and power hungry. It believes in rewarding those who help it and its master and crushing those who get in their way.
Purpose. The purpose of Velket’s blade is to seek power at any cost. It looks for a wielder with similar ambition and stokes their desires for power over others: to be general, queen, or guild head. If possessed by a humble wielder with no desire to lead, it quickly tries to compel them to pass it off to a more worthy owner.
Lionheart Preview and Stretch Goals Unlocked!
8 months ago
– Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 09:43:20 AM
Hello Talking Treasures Backers,
We are now one week into our Kickstarter campaign and going strong! We’ve reached the our first stretch goal for extra art in 20 Talking Treasures. I’m going to send out that art order soon so it hopefully won’t delay our release.
Speaking of stretch goals, at the time I write this, we’re less than $100 from reaching our next stretch goal to release a Kickstarter exclusive bonus PDF collecting four more magic items taken from our previous releases. Based on where we are and how things are going I think its very likely that we’ll hit the next goal after that, for the 20 Vibrant Vestments before the campaign ends.
Lionheart Preview
Thanks to those who voted in our poll on Mastadon and helped select which item we should preview. We have a second poll running now, this time featuring some the evil items. You can vote now and while you’re there give us a follow.
Lionheart has a special place in my heart, as I first created it for my home game and our fighter/warlock has used it well over a year. By no coincidence, it's also the item featured in our Kickstarter image. Without further ado, here’s Lionheart.
Lionheart
A dragon? Huzzah! The bards will sing songs of this glorious battle for ages!
Armor (shield), very rare (requires attunement)
Crafted centuries ago at the height of the Eshary Empire, Lionheart served several generations of elven heroes before his last wielder fell during the Dragon Wars and he wound up in a dragon’s hoard.
This round steel shield bears an embossed lion face that animates as Lionheart speaks, fights, or otherwise moves.
Lionheart grants a +1 bonus to armor class.
Bite. As a bonus action, you can make Lionheart attack an enemy within 5 feet or you. This uses your melee attack bonus and deals piercing damage equal to 1d6 plus your Strength modifier.
Roar. As an action, you can command Lionheart to roar. This produces a 30 foot cone. Any creature within the cone must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. Those who fail take 21 (6d6) thunder damage and are pushed 15 feet away from Lionheart. Those who succeed take half damage and are not pushed. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until the next dawn.
Sentience. Lionheart is Neutral Good. He has an Intelligence of 11, a Wisdom of 14, and Charisma of 17. He can speak, read, and understand Common and Elven. He can see and hear as a creature could using the eye and ears engraved on the front of the shield. He has a +6 bonus to Charisma (Intimidate) checks or can grant you advantage to such checks.
Personality. Lionheart has a bombastic but jovial personality. In battle, he shouts battle cries and commends you and your allies when you land a good hit. When at camp or a tavern, he recalls stories of his past wielders and their heroic deeds.
Special Purpose. Lionheart’s special purpose is to bring glory and renown to himself and his wielder. He encourages you to accept dangerous quests and challenge infamous monsters. He has difficulty knowing when he’s in over his head and dislikes it when you flee or back down.
Thanks all,
Matthew
