Hello everyone! Today we present a design diary by Bob Brinkman that discusses how Caverns of Thracia tells a story with its dungeon design. But first, a couple other short updates...

DCC Day is Saturday July 20! DCC fans, visit your local participating store to get your freebies and exclusives!

The DCC community is always creating something fun. If you're a fan of Weird Frontiers and other weird west settings, check out "Massacre Grounds," which is the first Kickstarter by Cranky Clydesdale Publishing. This DCC-compatible 0-level funnel sends the characters to Fort Righteous and the desert frontier...with many interesting personalities on the way. Learn more on Kickstarter!

Aaron Kreader did an amazing job illustrating all the stretch goals (which you can find under the Achievements tab)...then illustrating more of them once you cleared the first batch! Those illustrations tell a story. He's put together the GIF below that scrolls through all the stretch goal illustrations. Give it a sec to load then check it out...

And now let's hear some thoughts from Bob Brinkman, who led the DCC conversion of Caverns of Thracia, on how Caverns of Thracia tells a story with its dungeon design...

By Bob Brinkman

I’ve always been a firm believer that exploring a dungeon can be just as fun as fighting through the creatures that inhabit it. There is an element of storytelling that goes into the creation of an adventure, and Caverns of Thracia is a master class in design. An adventure this large, with so much history crafted into it, could easily become overwhelmed with exposition for the judge. Indeed, often in similar adventures there are pages upon pages of background text to be read prior to their being run.

 

Not so with Caverns of Thracia. Admittedly, there are introductory notes that give the judge a basic understanding of the world that the PCs are about to enter, but the majority of that history unfolds during play, allowing the judge an opportunity for discovery alongside their players. This isn’t merely a case of a multi-level dungeon, but one with multi-layered history ripe for investigation and discovery. Several times bits of history would dawn on me at the same time as my playtesters and we shared those singular experiences of discovery, like no other adventure I’ve run in 40+ years.

 

Of course, there is more to Caverns of Thracia than its storied lore. The encounters run the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime, from humorous, to abjectly terrifying. One moment, the party is locked in a life and death struggle with a long-imprisoned priest of a dark god; the next session, they are bartering with a gigantic gnome in order to be granted passage across his bridge. Flesh-eating lizardmen and matronly minotaur cows inhabit the caverns in a fashion that not only makes sense, but follows a logical progression versus the “funhouse” nature of many older adventures.

 

As a judge, never knowing what the next session would bring was an absolute delight. There are so many places for a party to investigate, so many paths to follow, that each session brought something new and different… and the seemingly endless options kept the players guessing the entire time. The twists and turns of the cavern’s passages evoke a true sense of dread in the players, with there being little hint as to what might be around the next corner. 

 

When death struck the party, and it most certainly did, such moments carried an unusual level of gravitas. It often wasn’t merely a case of a single character falling in battle, but a character’s death coupled with a full-on rout due to being unprepared for what lay ahead.

 

Caverns of Thracia is more than “an old school dungeon.” It harkens back to a time where playing through an adventure was just that: an adventure for both the character and their player. It is not enough to rely on your dice, here the creativity and quick wits of the players are put to the test alongside their paper & pencil surrogates. This an adventure to be experienced, not merely diced through.

Lots of news today: new add-ons, new poll, slipcase art sketch, new video. Let's start with the main takeaway:
 

Backers have been so enthusiastic about having a 5E version of Beneath the Isle of the Serpents, and a DCC version of Sacrificial Pyre of Thracia, that we have added these options as add-ons. Scott and Bob are hard at work on the conversions already. (Write faster, dammit!)

Now every rules set has every adventure option!

If you'd like to add them on, here are the links:

What about the $600k stretch goals? The $600k stretch goal was the conversion of these adventures with a free PDF for all backers. That stays the same - every backer still gets the free PDF at $600k. We're just offering the print add-on option earlier.

Team 5E remains slightly ahead in the rankings! We just posted a new trivia question about gladiators...you can vote below. Remember, the winning team wins something special at the end of the project. Take your educated guess now!

As you know, we recently unlocked the slipcase as a $15 add-on. It will feature new art by Doug Kovacs! Doug just sent in the rough sketch and it looks awesome.

Here's a preview. Please note: this is the rough black-and-white sketch of what will be a color painting. Obviously it's early in the process. If you're not familiar with the commercial art approval process, be aware that this sketch shows only "placement of elements" - the final version will be rendered in full color and will have a more "painterly feel."

We're quite happy with the placement of elements shown here and look forward to Doug's final color version!

In case you missed it - here is a recent YouTube video of Bob discussing Caverns of Thracia!

There's always an exciting DCC Kickstarter running. (And sometimes two...or three!) Canthon Games is publishing a DCC adventure inspired by real-life events: the emergence of trillions of cicadas coming this summer! "The Cursed Valley of Brennen-Keen" is a 0-level funnel from the infested mind of the Bug Professor. You can learn more here!

Now let's get to the latest trivia question. In keeping with the Grecian theme of Caverns of Thracia, try your hands at this trivia...

P.S. Anyone else see the new trailer for Gladiator II?

Hello Caverns of Thracia backers!

Good morning! I'm writing this under a clear blue sky on what looks like it's going to be a really nice Sunday. I hope your day is also off to a good start.

Next trivia question. We've posted the next trivia question, which appears at the bottom of this post. As a reminder, you chose Team 5E or Team DCC when you pledged. At the end of this campaign, the team with the highest score will get...something special! As I type this, Team DCC is barely in the lead. Each question has the potential to move the needle! (Click "Trivia Challenge" along the top menu to see current results.)

And the favorite monster is... Lizardfolk! They were the clear winner in our poll about favorite monsters. I suppose with a lizard Lich in the adventure, it was to be expected, eh?

Stretch goal art. Aaron Kreader has been cranking on the stretch goal art! Check out the Achievements section (under Community) to see his illustrations for all the stretch goals. Look closely...they tell a story, and if we close out enough stretch goals you might get this story in adventure form!

Slipcase cleared and almost to GM Screen! We're closing in on the $450k mark, which is a Thracia GM screen. Please add a slipcase to your pledge for $15, if you haven't already! Doug Kovacs is currently working on the slipcase painting.

For the DCC Thief Player Characters. There are always several DCC-related crowdfunding campaigns being run by our creative third party publishers. Right now you have a week left to support "It's a Thieves' Life," a DCC-compatible source book all about thieves for both judges and players. It's 60+ pages of thief-related content to spice up your campaign. You can learn more here!

And that's all the latest news in Caverns of Thracia! Unless I forgot something, which has been known to happen. Thanks for the support everyone!

You asked...and you delivered! After Caverns of Thracia smashed through all the original stretch goals, we added new stretch goals based on backer request. Now the $420k stretch goal is cleared - and the slipcase is now available!

You can add a slipcase to your pledge right now by clicking this link!

The even better news: Doug Kovacs has agreed to do the art! He's started work on a painting to grace the slipcase. This will be an entirely new Caverns of Thracia inspired image. We've seen a rough sketch so far and it's looking good. The Caverns of Thracia core hardcover now has various cover options by Sanjulian, Jennell Jaquays and Doug Kovacs - quite the lineup if you ask me. 

Next up in the stretch goals is a GM screen at $450k. Do us a favor and add on some slipcases to see if we can close out $450k fast!

And for all the Americans in the audience - Happy Independence Day!

Whew. It's been a busy couple days. I was telling someone "I can't believe it's only been 4 days since this campaign started"...then I realized it had actually been only 3 days at that point! Thank you backers for helping us accomplish so much so quickly!

This update is a round-up of several topics, some of which you may have seen already in comments or livestreams. If you're eagerly awaiting the new stretch goals, scroll right to the bottom! If you have the patience to learn a lot more, read your way down there!

We just closed out the last of the original stretch goals. Wow. The new dungeon mini-level is yours! Full details on new stretch goals are below!

First I want to give a shoutout to another fun DCC adventure crowdfunding now, "Pirates of the Goblin River." Creator Matt Funk has really embraced the DCC community and this next adventure from him features awesome Stefan Poag cover art. Check it out!

There's a new poll added below this update - themed around the critters in Caverns of Thracia. We'll be back with more team trivia after that!

Our first trivia question was, "Beneath the ruins of Thracia is the minotaur king. In Greek mythology, the hero Theseus ventured into the labyrinth of the minotaur. What color was the thread he used to retrace his path?"

The answer we identified as correct is: red.

However... while we can cite our sources for that, after several backer suggestions, we realize there are some credible sources that cite other colors. And none of us was here to witness Theseus! Since Team 5E and Team DCC are within 1% of each other right now (see results here), we're going to call the difference "statistically irrelevant" and get an even more conclusive topic for our second trivia question! Coming soon...

Just in case you missed it, we've posted PDF previews of the first dungeon level for each rules system. You can see them below!

Joseph, Mike and Chris discussed the existing stretch goals and the new ones on Twitch yesterday. If you missed the broadcast, here's a recording. Listen to this if you want more context and details around what we're planning - and if you've ever wondered what an "Archie-pelican" is...

We just added even more stretch goals, including several that fulfill multiple backer requests: a new Thracia funnel, DCC conversion of "Sacrificial Pyre of Thracia" and 5E conversion of "Beneath the Isle of Serpents," a slipcase add-on, and many more. Here they are!

Thank you backers - you crushed the stretch goals! We thought 13 stretch goals was enough but clearly they were not!

We see your 13...and raise you 8! Watch live on Friday at 9am Pacific / Noon Eastern on our Twitch channel to see the reveal of 8 new stretch goals. The gauntlet is thrown down: backers, can you crush these 8 stretch goals like you crushed the first round?

We've been listening to backer feedback about what you want - and brainstorming a bit on our own. Join the livestream to hear the full list!

P.S. The art is finished for the most recent round of stretch goal graphics. (Thanks Aaron!) Check them out!

WOW. What an amazing start! Caverns of Thracia is about to clear $300k and has closed out nearly every stretch goal we published. We owe you Founding Backers more than 2,300 "thanks" for putting Caverns of Thracia in the company it deserves: among the most celebrated D&D adventures of all time.

As one reviewer put it, Caverns of Thracia "exists in stratospheric heights that are approachable by few and matched only by Gygax in his prime. Worth playing and replaying, and can be picked over endlessly without ever fully being known." I think the project's success reflects that appraisal.

We've paid close attention to backer feedback during our livestreams and in the comments since then. In this update we will centralize a few pieces of info. Our topics today are:

New Pledge Levels

Our two most popular pledge levels are the ones that were requested by backers during our launch livestream - "just the books" for 5E and DCC. Later (due to popular demand!) we also added "just the books, 5E+DCC." For those not already aware, these pledge levels now exist!

As most of you noticed, when you pledge you can select "Team 5E" or "Team DCC." Then you get a trivia question! This is our way of having some fun with gaming trivia over the course of the campaign. You can click "Trivia Challenge" in the top menu to see the current status.

Right now Team 5E is slightly ahead with the most correct answers. Over the course of our campaign the trivia questions will change. And maybe, just maybe, the winning team will get some sort of benefit in the end!

Answer the trivia question if you haven't already, and pay close attention as the campaign goes on!

Stretch Goals

Wow...we have closed out almost every stretch goal. In fact, we're $24 away from the next stretch goal as I type this. We have a few more up our sleeve, but it's clear we will need to add some new ones by the time our monthlong campaign is up. Backers, we'd like to hear from you! Are there any specific aspects of Caverns of Thracia that you'd like to see reflected in the new stretch goals we consider adding? As always there will be cost considerations, but if we can make it happen we will try!

Just for kicks...here are all the stretch goals we've closed out so far. Amazing!

Insider tip: artist Aaron Kreader did an excellent job of illustrating these stretch goals. Follow the art...it tells a story and hints at what you'll see in the content!

And we're inches away from opening up the Ruins of Thracia poster map!

Did we miss anything?

There is a very active community forming, and a lot of comments have been posted! We've tried to answer them all, but if we've missed any important questions, pose them here and we'll try to get to them!