Kickstarter FAQ Update 

Matt, you're posting this at 2 in the morning. I love your passion but take care of yourself. Don't stress about this too much

Adding a tavern to your stronghold is obviously the best way to attract adventurers. Really excited about this. It was always one of my favorite parts of D&D.

I think the part on flying strongholds would be super useful, purely because two WotC modules have obtainable flying cloud giant strongholds in them that the modules explicitly state "Your players can take this over and fly it round the country if they clear it out!"

I really like these videos about the kickstarter and what I'm going to be getting. Please keep making them if you can, I don't mind trading running the game for these :)

Hey Matt. I just ran my first game of D&D in 15 years earlier today and it went incredibly well. I owe it a lot to you, from how I described the main city’s inhabitants, and took a sandbox approach instead of railroad that led into an impromptu skill challenge to find the secret entrance to a long lost tomb. I even began it with When last we left our heroes. Your back log of videos has been so helpful I’m giving me the tools to run the game. I couldn’t be more grateful. So of course, I had to back your project! And I can’t wait to see it in its fully glory later this year. Sincerely, thank you so much!

Thank you for how you are explaining everything. I hope people look at you for an example for how things should be done if they start a kickstarter. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see the final work.

You’re doing great! I’m just excited about the book, and I think the goals you set are awesome. Just get done what was planned, and PLEASE don’t burn out :)

You are a legend, Matt. This project is absolutely fantastic (ha) and I'm so excited to watch it blossom!

Matthew, I love the way you handle all of this! Normally I'm a silent watcher, but this time I felt this needed to be said. Love your content!

I just finished reading Priest and it was one of the best books I`ve ever read! Thanks to you I`ll begin my first DnD campaign this weekend. I thank you so much for making such awesome content. You are really a river to your people :)

So looking forward to this book. And so happy to give something back for all the great vids.

Super excited about your product! It is great that you keep it real! Good luck, man!

Thank you so much for what you are doing. I have pledged for a hard cover and can't wait to get it. you have reignited my desire to play D&D. Keep doing what you are doing and i'll keep watching.

Done Job Matt - I wants me that swanky book! Well done, dude - I bet you're happy as anything that this has taken off. Glad to be a teeny, tiny, insy-winsy part of it. I love your channel, so backing the kickstarter was a no-brainer (just needed to wait for payday!)

MORE updates! MOREEEE! I have to applaud you for keeping the scope of this project realistic. I see a lot of kickstarters (or would be kickstarted companies) fail because they didn't have enough research, experience and knowledge to tell them when to stop. I remember backing a card game called Story Wars that got funded, and eventually the company that was born out of the kickstarter went under badly and into serious debt because they vastly outstripped their capabilities. Like, I get they got excited at the idea of an animation and a mobile app version of their game but it ended up sinking them. Seriously anticipating the stronghold rules. I would love to incorporate them into one of my games once they get to higher tiers of play.

Thank you for running a reasonable and responsible kickstarter. It gave me the confidence to back it at a higher level. I've seen too many burn out with crazy stretch goals after they blew up.

Great Job Matt and cheers to you and all your hard work and minions !

Don’t worry I just love seeing your face and hearing your voice it makes me smile and brightens my day every time😄

I got the Everything package, because everything in this sounds amazing! Looking forward to seeing the roughs of all the gemstone dragons! I keep hearing about people asking if there will be rules for such-and-such type of stronghold, but aren't the physical forms these structures take really just flavor, for the most part? I can't imagine it would be hard to adapt the rules of one of the core strongholds if you wanted to set up in a cave or underwater or something instead. It seems like people are a little afraid of homebrew, but that's kindof what this is anyway, if you think about it. So I'm totally going to homebrew the crap out of S&F because that's how progress is made: Standing on the shoulders of giants.

Upgraded my pledge level from the PDF to the Book after watching the last book. This sounds awesome. I started playing 1st Ed in college (in the mid-1990's -- it was old by then, but the guys I played with didn't like 2nd Ed), and I always loved the "extra stuff" about attracting followers and building kingdoms. It's definitely something we always did.

This is definitely one of those "less is more" things, Matthew! Plenty of us are overjoyed at what you're offering without additional stretch goals. I'd rather get The Definitive Book on strongholds than have its quality and scope whittled down because you have to devote extra time to some additional goal that wasn't part of the original idea.

So, today it really happend. I backed the kickstarter. I paid money for a supplement for a game I dont even play. And I did it because I like your work, I would love to watch a good quality stream of yours (or the VOD of it due to different time zones) and because I hope to be inspired by both of it! I´m kinda sad that I just backed for the PDF, but shipping to and taxes for Germany would nearly double the price of the book and as I mentioned, I dont even play Dungeons & Dragons, so I fear I´m out on a physical copy. Looking forward to having a look in the book, keep up the good work Matt (and team!)! Love ya!

+1 for Krull reference, and is was awesome to interview Matt, and great he linked it here

Alright, in your bid to be honest and forthright about your product you have fully convinced me. I'm in. All of your running the game videos are inciteful and answer questions I didn't even know to ask. So, while initially I was sceptical about my personal need for a book about strongholds, your earnest transparency has won my interest and backing. I'm certain it will be excellent.

Woo! Fat Sam's Grand Slam! "Anybody who is anybody will soon walk through that door..."

You really seem to be handeling this overflow of success well. Stick to your guns and best of luck Matt. I'm looking forward to your book.

I just learned that there's a local company producing synths here in the 'Burgh because of your laptop stickers. :) Also, thank you for focusing on just getting the book out. As much fun as it would be to see oodles of more stretch goals, I'm more interested in just getting what I've already been promised. I have faith in your ability to get this project done. Just hurry so I can use it in my campaign.

Love the Bugsy Malone shirt Matt! I starred in a high school production as Dandy Dan's driver/bodyguard years ago!

I like the idea of an example stronghold in the book being the "Fortress of Good King Omund" equipped with his dragon phalanx.

Good luck with everything Matt!

tbh, our DM is excited about your book as well, he'll be able to read my kickstarter copy :P I'm especially interested in the pirate ship stronghold rules and I think that those probably can be adapted to airships (which we were thinking about maybe getting somewhere in our campaign). I'm excited for the book, one of the best, if not THE best, birthday present I ever wished for :D

Krull reference...I love it! That movie was one of my first forays into the fantasy genre.

Hey Matt. CRAZY idea for one more stretch goal that would specifically relate to the upcoming stream, and wouldn't take a lot of work or expense from you, AND would let you show off your prodigious writing chops: what about a short story about Good King Omund's Fall, written as a fable or perhaps from his perspective? He seems incredibly critical to the state of your world, and I find him to be a very interesting character, even if I've only heard about him from days past. You don't even have to call it a stretch goal or anything, it'd just be a really interesting way to seed some narrative hype for the stream.

Super stoked for the book!

Exactly. REACH THE ORIGINAL GOAL within the timeframe that will keep the backers pleased AND DO NOT stretch yourself too thin. Do a separate kickstarter for the Pirate stuff.

Well, I've finally decided to back. The pirate ship rules and how involved you are really sold it for me.

Spelljammer - Dr. Who campaign... yep that sounds awesome as hell.

Thanks for the Krull reference. Always appreciate obscure 80s fantasy.

Thanks for the update. save those add-ons to turn into the next Kick-starter :)

Love you Matt

I love the four elements in the background, I bet Matthew is the fifth.

Krull Reference! You are great and this is helpful.

Hey Matt, have you ever created a homebrewed list of artifacts / magical items? I love the spice you give to the effects of magic items or extra abilities for monsters.

He is a river to his people

Keep up all the good work!

Im backer 20494. SO HAPPY :D!!! Its my first D&D purchase beside dice. Went ahead and pledged at a higher level since its was cheaper that I thought since the dollar - euro conversion. YEY!

Agreed! Stop where you are. 👍 You've already promised folks an immense amount of value for their money. Deliver on that, and you're golden. 😇 Continue adding stretch goals, and folks may like it now, but down the road when the the deliverable date keeps getting pushed out to accommodate them, those same folks probably won't be so happy.

Matt, you've got me to start DnD again, the theme is empire and your book will be front and centre as soon as I get my hands on it

It's kinda crazy how the Villan of my campaign has a magical teleporting black tower that takes about 24 hours to get going per warp and I didn't know about this video until now.

Love the Krull dark chateaux reference.

Hi Matt, perhaps there could be a catch all chapter which covered your thought process on how to design your own stronghold for those with the craziest of ideas.

Going to drop this hueing and crying early, I'd love for naval battles to be included in the war book. Not only because it would be a huge boon to get both (all three in a way since I imagine sky-navies to work similar to water ones), but but because in a coastline type setting, the navy can be a bigger part of the war than the ground troops (hard to siege a city with a working port and control of the harbor) so it even plays into "completeness" But seriously, I just really want them.

Hey Matt, haven't seen anyone else pointing this out: You should look into either the white balance of your camera, or the light sources in your "studio". You're getting some very strange yellow patches on your skin/in the hairline. In the older videos (3m old?) this is barely noticeable on the sides of your face, but in the more recent ones it's all over. Either that, or you're developing jaundice and should go see a physician (but I really don't think it's jaundice) :P

Good work on resisting calls for more stretch goals. I don't really get what's going through other peoples' heads when they ask for more, when most people won't be increasing their pledge for whatever extra they want added on. Sure there's scaling in the amount of money you're going to take home from the kickstarter, but there's also scaling in the amount that's going to go towards order fulfillment, and the amount of work therein. I've seen people request things that really could be homebrewed by their DMs to their unique situations using your mechanics as the framework, or things which - I agree - honestly belong in subsequent publications. So if anything, any stretch goal now should be the promise that, granted this kickstarter campaign goes smoothly, you'll open another kickstarter sometime down the road to fund additional books/figures. At least that way, you can keep the work broken in chunks and get people to pay their dues with additional pledges.

I'd love the stickers as iron on patches

WOOT!

I definitely get the reasoning with stretch goals. "Oh you only needed X amount and you have so much more! Surely you can add more content so even more people support your project right?!" As if most of the money isn't already going into paying for the stuff that was ordered. With the starting goal being the minimum to be able to make a production order in the first place. I mean, I'd love to see more content - but there's a lot already there. And if this goes off well there's always room for more in the future. So definitely just focus on what is there and don't be tempted by the masses who aren't necessarily informed about the logistical underbelly!

This sounds awesome

Hey Matthew, So pleased to see the kickstarter go to a huge success. I'm really only in it for the book personally, but glad to see the streaming looks solidly funded now. Also it's gratifying to hear your thoughts on extra stretch goals, or more accurately lack there of. My first thoughts when you were initially talking about doing minis as part of the KS, was being very concerned about the creep in the kickstarter's scope… mostly for the reasons you mention. More than a few “very successful” projects going belly up due to over promising. So that's reassuring to hear. I totally understand that every possibility is impossible to cover re: stronghold types, but I'm curious as to how a “collective” stronghold could be modelled using this book. I grew up on 1st ed D&D and a hearkening back to some of those concepts is obviously a draw to this project. Currently however I'm running a 5th ed game for some folks who aren't quite as grey bearded as myself, and trying to embrace the Forgotten Realms in concepts and tropes that are, at least to my mind, a little different than the Greyhawk of my youth. On thing my group has got into is the concept of Adventuring Companies, which seem a deal in the FR. So I'm planning on using your book to flesh a collective stronghold for their adventuring company. A sort of “superhero team base” seen through a D&D fantasy lens perhaps. So I'd be very keen to at least see a few paragraph's on adapting concepts in Strongholds & Followers to a “Company Stronghold” with various members being able to add to a greater base. The hints at certain bases being an amalgamation of types leads me to think that it shouldn't be too hard to go at from the book anyway, but I thought I'd throw my request into the ring anyway. Hail to the King !

Also the twinkle in his eye after he made that Krull reference ooooeeee

I need my stickers and shirts! Look great!

Krull reference! Love that movie!

If you want monsters, I vote for the Strangler from Dwarf Fortress. It's basically the mythical australian "drop bear", but with four arms and grappling perks, hailing from evil-aligned tropical jungles.

Now i need to up my pledge for the mini lol.

I think the rules for bespoke strongholds is going to be really important.

Ok, more updates, alright, i'm back in! Can you record yourself reading the Strongholds book on youtube? I would sit and listen to it at 2x speed!

Excellent Bugsy Malone t-shirt Mr Colville👍🏽

It's Matt's, Grand Slam, speeeeeeak eeeeasy

This is probably going to make me look stupid,But i have to know If i don't follow the kickstarter Where would i get the book?

What a lovely thumbnail!

I watched KRULL, Dune and started reading the Black Company the other week, so a lot more of Matt's references are obvious!

Waking up to a 360p Colville video, great start.

There is a really good naval warfare PDF out there for d&d. It is called Nautical Adventures. I have used it with minor mods and it works well.

Thanks for the update. I am a backer who is happy with what you are offering. Please take the advice of not going ham on what you are offering. You don't need to add anything else crazy, people obviously want what you are already offering.

Hey, Matt! I guess the Kickstarter's pretty nearly finished, but I just thought, maybe you should make a playlist with these update videos. That way, someone just coming into the Kickstarter will be able to catch up on it more easily.

On the topic of custimization, have you thought of doing a video a little later on maybe when you have the physical book on this topic? Maybe run us through creating our own variant stronghold with you maybe on stream? It might seem a little overwhelming for some so that might be a good way to encourage others to take make their own based on yours.

In nations like Norway, you pay no customs for importing books. So there's that at least.

Teleporting evil wizard's tower? Hey, who told all these people about the adventure I never even ran or told anyone about?

Hah. Nice Black Fortress reference from Krull. ;)

Im not sure how much longer its going on, but you could add "strechgoals" of beta pdfs to the backers or releasing bits and pieces as you go, or video reviews of the content starting after it finalizes, in reverse order, so that the videos you dont reach are realeased last

Ok, so is MCDM an abbreviation for: Matt Colville, Dungeon Master? I missed when this was made, and havent seen any references to it. If it's not, it should be. Side note: Just upped my support to include the T Shirt. Originally was just excited for the stream, then the followup videos got me excited for the Book, and now the logo has grown on me too and I like all the extra videos youve been puttting up. SHIRT QUALITY: To avoid cracking of the T shirt design, I would suggest a partial water based discharge base and high quality inks/shirt [american apparel (great quality), or Canvas (good quality, cheaper blanks)]. As someone who has put out merch, I can tell you a skilled screen printer should be able to give you all the info on this stuff though, just ask!

I refuse to buy unless you create rules for every permutation of stronghold that could possibly exist! Just kiddin', I backed you the other day. Super excited. And I dont even run D&D, I have Pathfinder, lol.

All sounds very fair.

Matt, please keep the stickers back of the laptop size. That's exactly what I was planning to do with them!

First Kickstarter I'm backing in ages after a huge letdown with Project Phoenix (those people "ran with our money"). It looks awesome, Matt! My players are extremely excited about this! We're going to stream the campaign (in Spanish, though!) and for the time they'll get their own keep, this will be out (hopefully!). Is it fine if we use it for our stream giving you the proper credtis?? Thanks for all!

I feel so sad i didn't get to help on the kickstarter because i got to know your channel on the day it ended...

Can we get really small stickers as well? Like in the 1 inch range? I'm slowly decking out my headset :3

Oh man, you finally sold me on it. *click* backed now :-)

Gee, thanks Matt, now I have to watch Krull again. heh.

I thought that the minis where kickstarter exclusive for now until they start to produce them more. Was I wrong?

I was super worried the max level one would run out before I could do it but luckily I was victorious. Also don't feel bad Matt, the 80 is right side up if you have laptop closed and facing you.

for the pirate ship strong hold will there be specific races to be recruited? ex merfolk sirens etc

I posted this to Twitter but I wanted to add it here too it seems that the biggest problem is people not being able to get Minis, what do you think about The Simple Solution of creating monster tokens for all the monsters in the stronghold book that people who buy the book can receive so it would just be a flat 2D image that you could print or input into a virtual game on roll20 or fantasy grounds. This way all people have something but those who pledged the big numbers still have something that only they have. It's a win-win

Import charges are a pain in the ass. Got hit with a $30 fee buying from reaper minis after paying enough for "free" international shipping

Hey, that's a krull stronghold!

What if you added a section that gave the gms out there a template for creating a type of strongholds along with common pitfalls to avoid during the creation process to balance them at a similar point to the ones you'll publish in the book?

YOUR TSHIRT!!!!!

I feel you on the kickstarter exclusivity. I really get it. But at the moment I'm broke and don't want to miss out on dope minis because I'm in a temporary hole. Just my 2 cents

Go Matt!

You da best!