20+ Pages of New Content!

Hello, Fellow Skeletons! 

Remember that long list of Funding Goals from 6 weeks ago? Well, today we're proud to announce that ALL of those goals are either added to the book or in progress. Let's go through them one by one.

TL;DR We cut a dozen pages of content and added about 20 pages of NEW content. And we're not done yet!

$200 - Character Sheets

If you haven't bought the game you can grab them at Technical Grimoire. We'll still be making minor tweaks and updates in response to playtesting.

$400 - Crab Outpost, Merchants, and Trade

Covered here. We tied in all the other Funding Goals with the Crab Cabal, so they'll still be a central place to bargain and beg.

$600 - Kelp Forest / Mermaid Faction

Surely you've heard of the mermaids wandering the Kelp Forests? Or maybe rumors of a witch coven?

Good news! They're one and the same. Three witches live among the Kelp Forest floor, having modified themselves to appear fishier.

“Wizard” and “Witch” are not gender declarations, but rather a description of the kinds of magic someone practices.

• iilumen, the oldest, seeks to rid herself of all magic. She just needs a good cause to spend the last of her considerable power.
• Mildred, the Ottermother, collects creatures of all kinds.
• Vivian, the youngest, fell in love with a Skeleton and seeks to win his heart...difficult for obvious reasons.

Two new locations accompany these witches, each with dozens of encounters, creatures, and prizes:

• Kelp Forest: split into two parts: the canopy and the forest floor. Watch your pockets! The otters love shiny things.
• Hidden Cradle: A safe refuge where witches play, rest, play, study, and play. Tons of games to test your skill!

$800 - Vivian’s Lament Quest

Although all of the events and locations in Bones Deep have connective tissue, there weren't any clearly defined adventure threads...until now! We outlined several stories that any enterprising GM can turn into a campaign:

• Vivian's Lament: Craft a magical heart for a skeleton and help them return Vivian's affections.
• Cephalopod Invasion: a 9-stage plan to invade the drylands. Can you stop them in time?
• Cure the Wizards: All four Wizards in Bones Deep are cursed, can you get them to work together long enough to save them?
• Join the Skeleton Space War: There are a surprising number of ways to get to space from the ocean floor. 
• Repair the Sunken Barge: This quest will send you to a bunch of other locations in search for assistance and supplies.

$1000 - Sunken Barge Dungeon

Written in collaboration with Scott Stolarski, this 13 room dungeon details a complex spaceship that crashed long ago. Explore the wreck, confront a necromancer and his creations, free the skeleton crew, repair the ship, and use your shiny new mobile base to explore the galaxy.

Oh, and there's a Shark Hydra with 6 different kinds of heads. Avoid if possible.

The Sunken Barge is fully integrated with the rest of the setting, and repairing all of its parts will send players all over the sea bottom. Even to the Void...

$1200 - Void Bottom / Skeleton Lore

A lot of the content for this stretch goal was worked into the Skeleton Space War story and the Sunken Barge Dungeon. But you still can enjoy a new location:

• The Recruiter: Skeletons are valuable soldiers in the Space War. They are hardy, do not require suits, and can channel magic. The Recruiter can supply you with a ship, training, and purpose.

$1400 - We Hire an Editor & Cut Some Pages

We've already started working with Jared Sinclair on the editing of Bones Deep. You may notice a few pages missing from the book. To keep this book from ballooning too large we needed to make some room.

Content cut from the book:

• Standalone Troika Rules. While I like to market a book as "everything you need to play" the reality is that including the summarized Troika rules was a poor way to teach them and a waste of space. It's better to learn the rules from the corebook anyway!
• Skeleton Generator from TheLawfulNeutral. This will be added as an online resource rather than taking up valuable page space.
• Skeleton Senses. As much as we loved this idea, playtesting revealed that players didn't really use it as we had hoped. So now Skeletons have all the same senses (and limitations) as a regular human.
• 5-6 other pages of miscellany. Small places here and there we could tighten up our book.

The result is that the page count didn't change much; we're still sitting around 100 pages. But over 20 of those pages are filled with NEW content. The editing process will continue through December.

$1600 - Maps from Lucas Rolim

The Sunken Barge will receive beautifully illustrated maps to reflect its complexity and mystery. Lucas and I are already going back and forth with some design ideas. I'll reveal more soon!

$2000 - Online Tools

The Bones Deep Skeleton backgrounds have been added to my Troika Generator tool. I have plans for adding a few more online features, but the book itself takes priority. A few ideas:

• Skeleton Generator by TheLawfulNeutral as mentioned above.
• Interactive Map
• Quest Generator (who wants what, etc)
• Treasure tables
• More? Leave your requests/ideas in the comments!

$3000 - Hardcover Print Run

This goal has not yet been met. We're 2/3 of the way there. Help us reach this goal by spreading the word and sharing Bones Deep with anyone who might enjoy underwater skeletons.

Updated Timeline

A lot of the Funding Goals above were met WAY ahead of schedule. That leaves us with a little breathing room. December will likely be pretty quiet, mostly editing, maybe some minor updates or bits of content added, etc. Here's the new timeline:

End of December: Editing complete, all other Funding Goals finished and added

Mid-January: online tools, playtesting, minor updates/tweaks, price increase to $15.

You read that right, once all the Funding Goals are added to the book, the minimum price for the PDF will be $15 (the $10 tier will be removed). This price increase won't affect current customers at all; if you bought the book it's yours forever. We will be removing Google Doc access though (once it's done there's no need for Gdoc stuff). We'll also release the PDF on other storefronts as well (DTRPG, etc) to generate sales.

Future: Print run?? If we haven't funded via Itch by this point, we may consider doing a limited Kickstarter campaign or seeking alternate avenues.

Thanks for supporting us!

It means the world (and its depths) to us. Thanks to your support of this weird little project it's grown considerably, far larger than we hoped it would be. I hope we can fund a glorious print run soon! Spread the word and help us recruit more skeletons for the Space War!

 - David & Lauren