It’s quite the day. It’s a day where I transform from game designer and developer to hawker of wares. I’ve unleashed the Delve RPG Store.

Sure, I’ve hawked the wares at this convention or that, but I’m never comfortable with it. I’m much more comfortable telling elf stories, wrangling the most from a mechanic, or putting foul beasts in fouler pits and making players run the gauntlet.

The products featured in the store have been created in the last couple of years. Most were used and given out at the various demos I ran at conventions over the past year and change. What’s in the store is what’s left; when they are gone, they are gone, at least in this form.

They are available for as long as supplies last. I’ll mail out orders at least once a week, more than that if there’s high traffic. I’m fulfilling them myself, so expect an odd note or a stupid sketch in your package, purely for my own entertainment.

I’ll move to my new desert outpost in a few months. There may be some slowdown there, but I’ll warn you here if so.

But this is just the start. I’ve revved up the machine, and there’s more to come.

What’s Next?

The next product to be added to the website will be digital: the Delve RPG Quickstart Pack. This PDF contains a version of the first chapter of the Delve RPG Proto offerings (Start), the quickplay adventure in the Delve RPG Proto Complete (Goblins Stomp), and the player packs for four Delve RPG Iconic characters (Brumtha the Warrior, Doma the Priest, Ez the Rogue, and Geldon the Wizard). This will give you the basics to learn and play Delve RPG.

If you’re a member of the Delve RPG Patreon, you’ve already received a first look at this, as I posted the current draft of Chapter 1 from the Proto Complete and the Proto Rogue earlier this week. When I finish assembling the Delve RPG Quickstart Pack, it will be first uploaded to the Delve RPG Patreon and made available to all Delver and higher patrons for free and a discounted price for Lurkers.

And Delvers and above will gain access to two other Delve RPG Iconics not within that pack: Craw Sharpeyes, the human warrior, and Tillion Whiteraven, the elf priest.

But that’s just the start, here and on Patreon, as the Proto product releases ramp up. Monster Mondays have returned, this time with a twist. Each week, it’ll feature an entry appearing in the Proto Complete Chapter 9: Bestiary. Some of these are new, but others are ones I’ve shared before, with commentary on the changes that were made during development.

Delver patrons and higher will see the drafts first as chapters are finalized. Later this week, I’m also adding a tier called Hero. Those members will get a first look at the steps beyond the first round of Proto offerings and gain access to the special monthly Zoom video chats I’ll host, where we can chat about this game and other games, we’re passionate about. If you’ve ever dreamed of yelling at me or bending my ear in a virtual person, here’s your opportunity. And they will not be recorded, and I will be as candid, so feel free to ask me anything about games, industry, or my random opinion on all sorts of matters.

What are the unique post-Proto offerings? Well, we will start with a fun one. If you played in any of the last year’s playtests, you know I introduced a new Iconic to the mix: Giraunt the wyrdwood troubadour. Heroes gain access to the design and development of this take on the bard that focuses on musical arcane power sans spellcasting. All its magic comes with the power of song.

Of course, that’s where it starts. You’ll also get previews of gnomes, jinnborn, orc, and wyrdwood ancestries, as well as the hunter, paladin, and witch classes.

As for this site, you’ll see several design updates, sometimes more like design journals. These will appear in the first form in the Patreon first, but just text and occasionally a note that says something like, [[Dig deeper into this mechanic]] or [[Weed out the cruft in this explanation]] scatter throughout it.

Here is the final form with illustrations to illuminate or entertain.

The next design blog delves into how mechanics and narration mix in Delve RPG. It’ll explore intelligence and how the game deals with it both mechanically and as an aid for Delve Masters to portray creatures of various Knowledge scores and their intellectual elements in the game. The Animate Monster Monday Patreon offers a small preview along those lines.

That’s it for now, Kids. Game well, live better, love is stronger than hate, and fight the power.