October Update | Big Bad Con, Progress Report
about 1 year ago – Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 11:49:26 AM

The eclipsing hound of the Emperor of Darkness; as he coveted the light of the heavens, he sent his Bul-gae to seize the sun and the moon, which proved too big a task for its jaws. These shadow creatures can assume aspects of both radiant and necrotic energies.

Hello, folks, happy Tuesday!

So far, we're making good strides with the book. Illustrations are finished which gives us time to get to commissions for both the Daewang and Mountain God Tiers. So far, half of those commissions are either in progress or have been sent out to their recipients.

As for the book itself, our very detail-oriented English to Korean translator Dan is giving it one last look so that we can say with total confidence everything is as it should be. In sum, we will be able to finish formatting the book by the end of the year as promised a while ago. Meanwhile, I've completed converting the 5e rule set to Pathfinder 2e. It's being reviewed by a handful of playtesters to make sure that balancing-wise, nothing is amiss. Following that, I can fully dive into our one-shots and then Cloudbreaker Alliance.

Big Bad Con

Announcing it here, but I will be at Big Bad Con! If anyone wants to meet me or say hello, definitely hit me up and I'd be happy to stop by. I will also be a panelist for the Appropriation or Appreciation? panel on September 30th at 9AM (Cypress Room C (113)) alongside some amazing fellow creators. 

In general, we'll be speaking on what it means to appreciate and share the cultures we've lived appropriately in the TTRPG sphere vs. minimizing or removing context from others' cultures. It's definitely something I've had to put a lot of thought into while working on Undying Corruption! Especially as I learned more about and did my best to respect my own country's folklore and indigenous faith.

If you have any questions or concerns for me, please feel free to comment here or contact me at [email protected]. Otherwise, you can always find us in our Discord server!

As a semi-regular exercise, I've started converting 3.5e/PF2e monsters to 5e, and I'd love your thoughts on those.

September Update: Cloudbreaker Alliance collaboration!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 08:07:40 AM

Good morning! Slightly early update this month. We're pleased to announce our collaboration with CJ Leung on producing a conversion of Undying Corruption to Cloudbreaker Alliance! 

Their Kickstarter is still running and on their way to clearing more stretch goals! Cloudbreaker Alliance is a counter-apocalyptic fantasy tabletop game that draws inspiration from Eastern and Western sources. The setting features a world that was once enshrouded 2000 years ago by impenetrable clouds. Four regions have since advanced isolated from one another, but the clouds are beginning to break apart with the Cloudbreaker Alliance spearheading a new age of exploration and diplomacy.

All you need to play Cloudbreaker Alliance are 2d6's with an animated tutorial to help you get started. Please help them clear their stretch goals! I see that the next stretch goals waiting to be unlocked are for new art and playable content like the Korpocle lifeform, new vehicles, and items.

If you back Cloudbreaker Alliance, you'll be eligible for a 10% discount code for the digital download of our converted module.

Check out their Kickstarter page here!

Progress Update

Progress continues apace. We're in the final stretches of map work, which will clear the deck for us to devote our attention fully into preparing the book's final layout. I'm almost finished with converting the book into Pathfinder 2e meanwhile and all monster stat blocks have been converted into Korean. Groundwork for future updates past the initial book launch is well underway.

In the meantime, here's a preview of some item art we've got:

The Dragon King Angler is one of many original magic items that you can find in the Undying Corruption adventure. Not only can you use it as a fishing tackle, but it'll serve you well in battle as a whip that'll help you snag your more slippery foes. Please look forward to more details!

If you have any questions or comments, you can reach us at [email protected], find Nine Heavens Press on Twitter, or join our Discord server!

August Update | Progress Report and Previews
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 12:00:14 PM

Hello, all! Hope you're all doing well despite the summer heat.

We've got a couple things to share, but before then, just wanted to let you all know that we're almost finished with all art assets for the book. Layout will commence in earnest and we're on schedule to put the PDF out later in the year. Everything's going very well and once the PDF is out, we can keep our ears peeled for reviews and any possible need for errata.

Previews

In addition to working on the book, the Nine Heavens Press team started planting the seeds for smaller projects we're in process of launching in the future. Towards that end, we've teamed up with CeeHaz to create new character and creature designs that you can use in your games. Here's one such preview of what we've got in store for you.

If all goes well, we're going to continue expanding the world of Danguk even beyond this book and also work on homebrewing additional stat blocks, art assets, lore, the works for GM and player use!

We've also been hard at work with translating the book into Korean! This will take some time of course, but we're almost complete translating stat blocks, subclasses, and mechanics. Afterward, we're going to press onward with the main body of the book. We expect much of this work to press forward into next year, so we thank you for your patience up till now. Just wanted to let you know that we are doing our best on all sides!

Playtest Update

We've gotten additional comments from playtesting higher tier chapters on how to improve some of our subclasses. Way of the Dosa Monk in particular has been tweaked in light of newly established lore in Pathfinder 2e's recently published book, Rage of Elements. It's not a tremendous deal, but due to our conversions, we want to keep consistent with their lore concerning the five phases. For example, we conflated Wood and Air together for Undying Corruption, but Air is considered a separate sixth element that all other elements feed and transform into when they take immaterial form.

I thought this was cool and this helped provide the seeds necessary for me to balance (strengthen) the Dosa monk a little. To add more versatility to gameplay relating to the Dosa's ability to shift between cycles per turn, we added the Air element as a phase that Dosas can choose to shift into. It's a small change, but I think the subclass has been made a lot tighter for it, not to mention some additional fun mechanics we've invented in the process.

The Art of the Monster Slayer Tactician also got an overhaul in the past month. We thought at first there was a lot going for it, but its jack of all trades nature doesn't leave much room for it to master in any particular field. We chose to shelve the concept in favor of something new that fits into our inspiration from the tiger hunters of Korea, the sancheok.

We've come up instead with the Way of the Sancheok subclass! Your sympathy with monsters and research into the occult lets you simulate a false reincarnation within your trusted mount, allowing you to bestow on them actions and traits of creatures that you've encountered over your adventure. You carry a bestiary that serves as kind of a spellbook for these traits and actions, recording your observations and analysis of these creatures. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I've found a good way to balance this feature in such a way it doesn't break the game terribly WHILE letting you use, say, a dragon's breath weapon or a certain aberrant orb's eye beams! All in all, the Shapechange spell served as a good ceiling for what would be the strongest expression of this power.

Anyway, everything's going well and so far, I'm heartened to hear that reviews for the game and the one-shot have been positive. It's our first work after all and we're very keen on improving from our experiences here and presenting the strongest work we possibly can to readers and gamers.

Thanks so much and I hope to hear from you guys if you have any questions or comments! If so, you can reach us at [email protected], comment under this post, or join our Discord server here:

July update! Setting and progress report
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 10:06:37 AM

July Update

Hey everyone, we've got a monthly progress report for you! 

First, please enjoy this final draft of our setting map: 

As the adventure takes you from one province to another in Danguk, we thought a handy map would be useful to keep track of where you are relative to them. We've designed it in the style of the inkbrush-drawn maps of Joseon. 

Progress Report

Work is solidly in progress with two chapter illustrations and three dungeon maps remaining on the art side, not counting the ones that are already WIP. I'm taking the opportunity to go back and do further proofreading to head off any potential need for fixes in the errata stage. 5e playtests are reaching their final phases with the adventure looking solid, holding up in high level plays. We are going to want to fix up the Monster Slayer subclass for Tactician since we've noted some issues common for a potential "jack of all trades, master of none" build (a bit like Ranger 1.0). Our changes, we hope, will bring it more toward its historical inspiration of tiger hunters hired by the Joseon government and military.

Conversions from 5e to Pathfinder 2e are going well too. I've done my best to convert a chapter a day and that will mark my first pass. After, I'm going to go back and give it a closer examination, then have some extra eyes look at it while we begin playtesting for the encounters.

Korean translation is also going very well. All monster stat blocks are being converted after which, we'll begin work on the story. Rest assured, we're using this time to bring this book to its maximum potential, so once again, we appreciate your patience!

AnimeExpo Artist Alley

Oh yes! And if you're going to be at AnimeExpo, please, please visit some of our artists' booths!

Alex Ahad will be at L3!

dune5and will be at i33!

Jenny Park will be at C21!

Judge will be at A8!

That's that for July, we'll have more news on how we're doing and where we're at coming up next month! If you have any comments or questions, you can drop a message here on Kickstarter or send us an email at [email protected]. Otherwise, you can join our Discord server!

June update! Progress report, Treasures of Daehan Minguk, Goblets and Gays episode
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 02:33:09 PM

Hello all and happy summer! We hope you've all been doing well.

So quick update: Pathfinder 2e conversion has started in earnest and we're 98% finished translating all monsters into Korean. All that leaves is the main bulk of the adventure. Again, we're primarily waiting on art, but I predict we will need a little more time than estimated. I think I mentioned this already in the last update, but we'll do our best to shoot for the end of the year. On that note, we would like to introduce a new addition to our team! 

New Team Member

Please welcome Refrynn or weirdundead who has graciously offered her assistance with helping us finish up the last of our chapter illustrations. She has previously worked for other teams such as Ghostfire Gaming! Please check out her work!

We're on our way to finishing our maps, and then we'll do our best to wrap up layout. 

We'll try our best to have the PDFs out within the year, but I can assure you that we're doing our best with life and such as they are. We've also playtested up to Arc 4 out of 6. As predicted, the numbers are trickier during earlier levels since PCs are more, ah, fragile then. We feel like Arcs 3-6, levels 11-20, will largely be... well, not a breeze lol, but of sufficient challenge.

Speaking of, we have some monsters we've designed that we'd like to showcase!

Monster Previews

First is the Guchinyuh (거치녀), Demon of Bloodlust (designed by MLarty). The Guchinyuh appears as an emaciated woman in battlefields when war breaks out. The heat from her fiery claws drives soldiers into a mad frenzy, no longer able to distinguish friend from foe. She embodies the concept of violence perpetuating violence and exists to stoke the flames of war so that mortals will never escape from its vicious cycle. Ironically, she herself was created from the souls of traumatized victims that war creates.

Next is the Juksekilgeh (적색일괴), the Galaxy Dragon (also designed by MLarty). The Juksekilgeh's egg is incubated in space by the thoughts of intelligent life across the galaxy. It developed powerful psionic abilities that they use to warp people's minds. They feed off of thoughts and vibes and being natural empaths, the emotions of people around them can radically alter their disposition. Juksekilgeh are nomadic beings and travel great distances inside of their umbrella-shaped shell which stargazers mistaken for flying saucers or the like. 

Like most dragons, Juksekilgeh are drawn to treasure, yes, but anything with sentimental value. For treasure hunters, their hoard can sometimes be hit or miss as they'd collect items like wooden lockets or charms for the psychic energies imbued into them emotionally. Still, they're often believed to be responsible for kidnappings as well of people whose mental frequencies they're drawn to. Though not aggressive innately, they release toxins that make intelligent creatures more susceptible to enchantments and mental influence. 

These creatures were voted on to be previewed by our friends at The Mithral Canvas in celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

As promised in our last update, we've distributed the homebrew items from Mithral Canvas's Treasures of Daehan Minguk set to everyone's email through BackerKit! We also threw in the statblocks for the Juksekilgeh and Guchinyuh. Please check them out and let us know what you think! 

My personal favorite is their Striped Guardian armor: 

Clad in fur and iron, let the power of the tiger course through you and unleash terror on your foes! Fantastic stuff.

The two part episode series of our one-shot, Dirge for My Bygone Days, is out by the Goblets and Gays podcast! They play the Pathfinder 2e version and if I can toot my own horn, this was a bit of a playtest by fire situation. The adventure was a delight and my GM brain is shaking its fist a little with how ever so slightly they broke through the scenario a little haha! Still, it's a blast, please check it out by clicking on the preview pic.

That's it for this month! We have more being prepared to come down the pipeline. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about the game, you're free to reach us at [email protected] or hit us up on our Discord page!