June development update

With my mystical senses I can hear the clatter of many keyboards as our freelancers busy themselves with writing and drawing great stuff! There’s too much going on for me to pick just one thing to post about, so here is a brain dump instead:

We’re about as busy as the people in this drawing: tending the crop and getting ready to bring in a fall harvest.

• A Bestiary of Enchanted England is still coming along steadily. Writing is nearly done and editing has started. This is on track for a Kickstarter this fall.

• Two new Magonomia adventures are in playtesting. You can sign up on our playtest calendar.

• Five more Magonomia adventures are in the development pipeline.

• Core Rules version 1.2 (updated Map of Enchanted England) is in quality testing and expected to be available by end of June.

Progress on Map Revisions for Magonomia Core Rules

As we posted at the end of February, the Enchanted England map in Magonomia Core Rules has some errors and we’re working on corrections. There’s some progress on that effort: this weekend the cartographer handed over the updated map for final polishing — getting those pesky towns settled into their proper places, and double-checking that notable locations mentioned in the book are also mentioned on the map.

When this is done, we’ll update both the consumer PDF and the digital master for print-on-demand, and order a new set of proofs. The updated map should be in the book before Gen Con.

The updated map will be available as a free download on the Shewstone website. We can’t afford to send out replacement copies to the customers who bought the version with the erroneous map, but we’ll give everyone who’s already bought the print edition (including crowdfunding backers) a coupon to order an updated copy for the cost of printing (plus taxes, shipping, etc.)

Bestiary Crowdfunding Delayed till Fall 2022

We’re hard at work on our first full-length Magonomia® supplement, A Bestiary of Enchanted England. Writing and illustration is going well; in fact, a few of the authors and illustrations have completed all their assignments. You can see our progress in our last few months’ blog posts about product development. This is shaping up to be a truly unique bestiary, firmly grounded in sixteenth-century lore and enriched with role-playing advice and plot hooks for each creature.

We’ve decided to delay the crowdfunding launch of this project until Fall 2022. We want to get at least some playtesting done before we launch, and we didn’t account for that up front.

The overall production and release schedule isn’t affected much. We’ve just decided to get the product further along in development before the crowdfunding launch.

The silver lining is that there will be some playtesting events and you can sign up to be invited to participate.

Bestiary preview: the Malkin, Bipedal Cats

“Puss in Boots” is an Italian fairy tale first published in the mid-sixteenth century in Italy, according to Wikipedia. Magonomia® co-author and folklore expert Timothy Ferguson found comparable legends from England. We give you the latest preview from our upcoming A Bestiary of Enchanted England: the Malkin, English cats who walk upright when you’re not looking!

In-process illustration of Malkins, by Teresa Guido

The malkins appear to be cats, but have the ability to stand upright and use tools. During the day they are, apparently, house pets, but once their owners are asleep they gather. Their society is complex: they have a king and religious rituals like weddings and burials. Their king, Tim Toldrum, lives in Lancashire, but various outcasts and fortune hunters of their kind have drifted to the larger cities. The king’s claim to control them is about as solid as Elizabeth’s claim to the Crown of France.

A Bestiary of Enchanted England: Coming to Kickststarter, May 2022

Text by Timothy Ferguson. Unfinished illustration by Teresa Guido. ©2022 Shewstone Publishing LLC.

Bestiary preview - The Laidly Toad Queen

A Bestiary of Enchanted England is not your typical RPG bestiary. It’s based on authentic folk tales and Renaissance writings, filled with lore and plot hooks. Coming to Kickstarter in May 2022.

Centuries ago, the wicked queen Anura fell prey to her own curse, and became a huge, immortal toad. By the Reign she has grown to the size of a horse. Local folklore tells maidens to avoid her seashore, as she spits poison at them, in envy of their beauty. What it carefully does not say is that the network of the queen's servants has also persevered. She commands many of the local criminals, and her lieutenants are witches that she has trained.

Anura's history is well known in Bamburgh and its surrounds. It is repeated in local lore as the ballad of The laidly worm of Spindleston Heugh. "Laidly" is a dialect word meaning "loathsome." Before it was bought into Northumberland, Bamburgh was a small kingdom on the Scottish border. The king was widowed and remarried. On returning home with a new wife, the king introduced his daughter Isobel as "the finest of women" which made her new stepmother so envious she turned Isobel into a dragon. When Isobel's brother, Wynd, returned from the Crusades he turned the spell back upon Anura, cursing her to be a toad until the end of the world.

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Text by Timothy Ferguson. Illustration by Angela Taylor. A Bestiary of Enchanted England coming to Kickstarter in May 2022.