Immortals Handbook: Gods & Monsters 5E Early Preview (Feedback encouraged)

[Upper_Krust]

Hello again LunarSquid amigo!

Thank you!

I wish I was as courageous as you buddy.

Thank you so much! I would greatly appreciate that.

The least I can do my friend.

I do not know yet where I will be sent, so I don't know if I could or not.

Wherever it is, enjoy the experience and stay safe.

I just want to thank you again for your time in making this for all of us gamers who would benefit from it.

Lets hold off on thanking me for anything until I get this darn thing finished!

 

[LunarSquid]

Hey UK! Got my call a few months ago, looks like I'm going to Romania! I start July 24th, so I was wondering if you may have the advertising Kickstarter available by then?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey UK!

Hey there Lunar Squid buddy!

Got my call a few months ago, looks like I'm going to Romania!

I hear its a beautiful country so it sounds like you lucked in amigo. Congrats.

I start July 24th, so I was wondering if you may have the advertising Kickstarter available by then?

No chance by that date.

Last week I got my final leaving date for work (redundancy) and that will be the end of August. Once that happens I predict making rapid progress, but it will still take the best part of this year before I am ready.

I am trying to get a few chapters of book 1 (the Player's Guide) fully completed within a month so that I can have an early preview copy printed out (at Mixam) just to see if it looks as good on paper.

Planning some playtest stuff for a few people here but that might not happen until August-September.

So progressing very slowly (while I am still working) but everything is looking great, I did add a few new monsters - wasn't happy with the Abominations section or the Dragon section, so I beefed those up a notch, with a new artist (from Brazil) helping out, everything on the right track.

It will be worth the wait - promise.

 

[ART!]

View attachment 266105

Excuse me if I'm being dense, but what system is this for? It looks very 5E-ish, and reminds me of Tale of the Valiant in particular.

Regardless, I like what you're doing here! I dislike the basic-ness of 5E statblocks, so I love that you have lore stuff, tactics, and a lot of options for actions - all on one page!

I'm also big into deities and the like in fantasy games, so when this product is available I'll be very interested!

 

[Obly99]

Excuse me if I'm being dense, but what system is this for? It looks very 5E-ish, and reminds me of Tale of the Valiant in particular.

Regardless, I like what you're doing here! I dislike the basic-ness of 5E statblocks, so I love that you have lore stuff, tactics, and a lot of options for actions - all on one page!

I'm also big into deities and the like in fantasy games, so when this product is available I'll be very interested!

It's 5E.

 

[ART!]

It's 5E.

In that case, I especially like it!

 

[dave2008]

Excuse me if I'm being dense, but what system is this for? It looks very 5E-ish, and reminds me of Tale of the Valiant in particular.

Regardless, I like what you're doing here! I dislike the basic-ness of 5E statblocks, so I love that you have lore stuff, tactics, and a lot of options for actions - all on one page!

I'm also big into deities and the like in fantasy games, so when this product is available I'll be very interested!

It is 5e, but definitely not like Tales of the Valiant! It is really a 5e translation/update/improvement to his 3e Immortals Handbook.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey there ART!

Excuse me if I'm being dense, but what system is this for? It looks very 5E-ish, and reminds me of Tale of the Valiant in particular.

Regardless, I like what you're doing here! I dislike the basic-ness of 5E statblocks, so I love that you have lore stuff, tactics, and a lot of options for actions - all on one page!

I'm also big into deities and the like in fantasy games, so when this product is available I'll be very interested!

Thanks very much for the interest and support.

This is 'for' 5E but just to be clear this system ADDS on top of the 20 levels of D&D. So it will work with ANY version/variant of 5E; Tales of the Valiant, etc.

While I did show a few early pages last year - none of that is representative of the current version, the current layout and the current standard of art is WAY above what I have shown previously. Even previous black and white art is ALL being professionally coloured (because I'm too crazy to stick to an art budget).

As regards 5E stat-blocks I really don't like the format at all. They are far too wasteful of space, they regurgitate the same text lines over and over, such as the 'necessity' to explain how Legendary Actions work each time. I think we have to credit the DM with a degree of awareness about the game.

My goal is to get every stat-block into one column. Its not always possible, but if I can achieve that 95+% of the time I'll be happy even if I have to cut a few corners to do so...and usually when a stat-block is more than one column its some insane boss fight where you can fly inside it, battle parasites within, attack various internal organs and 'switch off' its outer defenses. Or some multi-phase mythic form madness. But still too early to go into details.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey dave2008 amigo!

It is 5e, but definitely not like Tales of the Valiant! It is really a 5e translation/update/improvement to his 3e Immortals Handbook.

Hypothetically this system should work with anything even loosely based on 5E.

I'm not sure if 'right out of the box' it would necessarily mesh with Pathfinder mechanically. But my guess is it wouldn't take much effort to convert it over.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Just a small note on the layout I did a complete revamp (at the start of the year), on top of which I switched to a two column layout as there was no way to get a stat-block working in a 3-column format and keep it on one column - there simply isn't enough space for the average god entry.

Inspired by the Ascension 2023 art I have tried my hand at a 'few' supplementary pieces for the book and I think it looks good enough to not look out of place against the professional artists. I'm also licensing the best fantasy art online (from adobe, shutterstock) for a small percent of the art in both books - just to beef up a few key areas.

For those who have Ascension 2023, imagine that quality, but better AND in full colour, plus I have several professional artists doing crazy commission pieces plus other 'known' names I have licensed pieces from.

So (fingers crossed) this isn't going to be lacking in the art or design department compared to other books on the market - and I'll try not to bankrupt myself in the process.