D&D enhanced: A 350+ page tome of kaiju battles, crafting mechanics, and player options inspired by ancient folklore and yokai legend. Published by Loot Tavern.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
(Whoops, pressed Publish too Early!) Wrath of the Kaiju Is Here!! Plus Tokens, Music, Bombuku's Notebook, and More!
21 days ago
– Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 01:33:01 PM
MFW there's new stuff to download!! 🥳🥳
Happy Halloween Everyone!
Spooky season is upon us, and is there anything more spooky than PROOF-READING A 300+ PAGE ADVENTURE BOOK?! I don't think so, and if anyone has any doubts they'll soon be assuaged because...
Wrath of the Kaiju Is Here!!
You can now download the latest PDF version of Wrath of the Kaiju from BackerKit. As with Ryoko's Guide, this isn't technically the final version, but in terms of balance and content, everything is there! Some very small things (like page reference numbers, the index, etc.) are unfinalised, but we'll be adding those in shortly. By releasing it now, any final things you spot, like spelling errors, we can still act on before going to final printing!
ARE YOU READY TO RUUMMBLEEEEE?!! Wrath of the Kaiju rampages into action!
As always, letting us know any errors you spot on the Loot Tavern discord is really appreciated! And now that Wrath of the Kaiju is out and ready to rumble, you should probably also grab the...
Top Down Tokens!
The top-down tokens from Ryoko's Guide and Wrath of the Kaiju are up on BackerKit. In fact, the eagle eyed among you have already spotted them (we dropped them silently last week).
Gotta Catch 'Em All! We're rocking tokens for every creature and kaiju in the game!
These are the tokens for use in VTTs, and the physical ones will be printed on punch-out boards for use on tabletop. For those of you wondering, there's multiple copies of all the tokens that are needed in multiples for the adventures in the physical boards, so it's everything you'll ever need.
Bombuku's Notebook Is Also Here
Bombuku's Notebook of Knowhow is the player-facing supplement to Ryoko's Guide, containing all the core mechanics on fighting kaiju, improved extra attack, weapon masteries, combo attacks, equipment and prostheses, and a hyperlink to the crafting mechanics.
He's just a humble genius crafting weapons of mass destruction for the good of everyone
Basically, it's everything a player might need to know and reference in game, without any of the spoilers for the adventures or kaiju battles themselves, and without the need to flip through the EXTRA-THICC beast that is the Ryoko's Guide hardcover itself.
Other Stuff!
At these final stages in development, lots of things move at the same time. Dice have entered mass production, the music tracks are being finalised (and they sound BEAUTIFUL), and we're finalising the text for the art book tomorrow. That's probably the thing we're most excited to show y'all; there's so much gorgeous art that you've still to see! We'll drop an update when that final PDF is ready for download too, of course, and also when we get the print tests back with everything.
Here's some of the earliest concept sketches showing how Nomi took shape. We tested more bipedal and elegant forms, but ultimately settled on GIGA THICC! I hope you agree we made the correct choice, though I still love draft 1 here!
If you've got any questions, head on over to the #ryokos-guide channels of the Loot Tavern Discord Server. Smaller, regular updates are given there more often too!
You can also reach us on the discord if you need any support, want to contact the team or upgrade your pledge. You are awesome, thanks for being so awesome - it's awesome how awesome you are.
Grab some beautiful hard enamel class pins to reward your players for (finally) not being murder hobos, or as a gift for your favourite GM! There’s one for each core class and the GM, as well as the Bender and the Tamer from Ryoko’s and Heliana’s Guides. See them all here!
This QUICKSTARTER by Loot Tavern (Co-creators and publishers of Ryoko's Guide) aims to fulfill before Christmas making this the perfect gift! All design and test prints are done, the manufacturers are ready, and they just need to be told how many to make. It launches next Tuesday 5th November and each backer who abcks within the first 48 hours gets a FREE MYSTERY DICE SET!
That's all for now!
- Will and the Team
Pressed Update too early - see newer update
21 days ago
– Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 01:08:37 PM
Ryoko's Guide Is FINISHED! Printing, VTTs, and More!!
about 2 months ago
– Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 12:15:44 PM
We did it baby! Ryoko's Guide is out now!!
Yes, We're Still Alive!
Hey everyone! We wanted to avoid spamming you with updates as we closed up the final leg of our dusty trail to finishing Ryoko's, so we saved all the big news for today: Ryoko's Guide is finished!!
It's all here! The final digital file is now up on Backerkit to download and use
That means you can download the (effectively) final version of the Ryoko's Guide PDF from Backerkit today. Wrath of the Kaiju will be uploaded late next month as well (we're finalising the layout around the changed bits of text and additional pages). These are the versions of the books with all your incredible feedback implemented. And speaking of feedback...
Feedback, Changelogs, and Extra Material
Thank you so much to everyone who gave feedback. Across a playtesting group of over 10,000 people, we've managed to improve pretty much every element of Ryoko's. From balance tweaks, to grammar errors, to hidden memes, to adding an entire additional segment (because OF COURSE you should have the tools to build your own kaiju), your help has let us take both Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms and Wrath of the Kaiju to the next level.
"I've heard of an Epic Feat in D&D, but this is ridiculous..."
If you're interested in seeing what's been updated, you can see all the changes in this handy changelog. Praise be to Mel, for putting this document together (I am assured cataloguing grammatical changes across two 300+ page books taxes the very fabric of one's soul).
Upon receiving your feedback, we took it upon ourselves to add a bunch of new material to the book. Not only the additional Build-A-Kaiju rules, but new spells, magic items, spell lists, subclass features, tables, and stat blocks needed to be created and implemented. This also meant getting new art commissioned too.
Circle of the Yokai Druids can now turn into Construct yokai, like the Hone Karakasa!
The feedback period is now closed. Mechanics-wise, we're locked in. However, there is still time to correct typos and grammar, or improve the wording and formatting of abilities for clarity before the final print run. That is why this version is called Ryoko's v0.9. If you spot any missing commas or feel something could be made clearer in the text, let us know on discord!
Implementing all the feedback and creating new material for the books took time, but don't worry! In the background, we've been preparing all the other stuff needed for printing the physical books, dice, cards, tokens, and other materials!
A couple of tokens! We can't share them all here, but they're coming both physically and digitally!
The Print Test
This past Sunday we sent off for the final Print Test for Ryoko's Guide. That means everything is getting printed and sent back to us in its final packaging. It's essentially the first "official copies" of everything, now that Ryoko's is fully completed. This step is necessary for us to assure the quality of all the packaging and printing is up to scratch. We've already done white sample tests (where everything is printed, but with blank pages), so this step really is the final round to make sure everything is as it should be!
With a book this beautiful, we're making sure that the print is 100% perfect before going into full production!
As soon as we can confirm that all the cards, books, dice, etc. are as they should be, that's when we go to batch production and shipping. In other words... We're pretty much right on schedule, baby! We'll make sure to update you when the final print tests arrive. If there's anything that needs changing, we'll let you know, but (touch wood) this should be the final step before we start sending you physical things.
VTTs + Other Things
Now that Ryoko's is finished, we can deliver it to the Virtual Tabletops it's getting published on. Implementing Ryoko's on those platforms is something the VTTs do themselves, it's not something we can do personally, but we'll let you know when it's up! Everyone who backed at a tier that includes VTT integration will be able to access it on their VTT of choice freely once it's out.
We can also now move on to collating the information for all the tokens, rules, music, maps, mini STLS, handouts, etc. for both the physical and digital versions of those products! We'll let you know when those are available for downloa in future updatesd, and they'll be included in your Ryoko's package when it ships if you picked them up as an add-on, or you grabbed a tier that includes them.
As part of that, we also made four additional NPC stat blocks for you to use! You can download those to use in your games, with original art, here.
Rob Hartley's fusionist element bender from the liveplay. His name is Nendo!
Projects We Love
If you're hungry for more subclasses, species, magic items, rules expansions, and more awesome stuff for D&D, here's a free magazine from the DnD Shorts Patreon! I publish monthly magazines there stuffed full of 5th edition goodness, enjoy the free magazine and if you're interested in more, consider subscribing on Patreon to get the last 3 months worth of content immediately for free, or grab individual issues here!
We're closing in on the final chapter of the Ryoko's journey now, and we could never have made it here without you. Beyond your incredible financial support of the project, your kindness, thoughtfulness, and good humour spread throughout the feedback and in the discord has been an endless source of energy and motivation for all the team.
Projects like Ryoko's Guide could never happen without community support, not only directly, but in how the entire community stood together to protect the rights of independant publishers in January 2023 over the OGL crisis. It's among the greatest honours of our lives to be a small part of your games, in thanks for everything you've done for us.
Remember to download the final version of Ryoko's Guide on backerkit, and pick up the final version of Wrath of the Kaiju if you're in the Game Ready tier or above when it drops next month. We'll keep you updated when more materials drop, and when the print tests are finished and your orders get sent out!
If you've got any questions head on over to the #ryokos-guide channels of the Loot Tavern Discord Server. Smaller, regular updates are given there more often too!
You can also reach us on the discord if you need any support, want to contact the team or upgrade your pledge. You are awesome, thanks for being so awesome - it's awesome how awesome you are.
- Will and the Team
Ryoko's Updates, Changes to D&D, and More!
4 months ago
– Wed, Jul 10, 2024 at 11:53:28 AM
Thumbs up from a surfing kaiju? Just another day in the life of an adventurer in the Yokai Realms
Howdy Everyone!
Since we last spoke, there's been two big updates to the Ryoko's BETA! The first one updates the Kaiju chapters (introducing the Build-A-Kaiju section), Equipment, and Weapon Masteries. The second update dropped a couple of days ago, and updates Harvesting and Crafting and Creature's of the Yokai Realms.
Among other changes, some yokai have had their Type updated, for example, the tsukumogami are now Constructs, rather than Fey!The Yokai Druid has also had an update to match, letting you change into Yokai Constructs too!.You ever want to turn into a dragon umbrella? Of course you have.
At the core of our philopsophy as we finalise the book is ensuring everything is as easy and fun to navigate and explore as possible. There's a brand new, masive Crafting Reciple list with EVERY RECIPIE in Ryoko's and Wrath of the Kaiju now, so it's easier than ever to know exactly what you can craft and how you can craft it. We've also added some beautiful Creature Reference tables so you can effortlessly find creature's statistics, CR, Allignment, Type, and page number. All of this is hyperlinked so you can quickly jump to the stat block you're looking for using the PDF.
When they told me we had a "Yokai table", I thought I'd be meeting a sentient dinner table. But this is cool too, I guess.
This will make life easier for GMs looking for creatures to build encounters with, and for playing looking to find options as a Yokai Druid or a Tamer. You can grab these updated PDFs on Backerkit if you want to dive in right now with the most recent material: Log in to Backerkit, then go to: My Projects > Active Projects > Ryoko's Guide > My Digital Downloads.
Production and Packaging Is Going Great
Ryoko's physical production is is coming along great and on schedule. At the moment, we're finalising the layout of the core and deluxe boxes, preparing for the white sample prototypes. This is more complex than it looks, but we've managed sort out packing everything safely, without any wasted space, excess weight, or unnecessary packagaing materials!
Here's the manufacturing guide for the Ryoko's Deluxe Box! This is almost the final version, we're just hoping to link the cardboard inserts to minimize packaging and then it's ready!
Changes to Dungeons & Dragons
You may have heard that Wizards of the Coast are publishing an update to the core Dungeons & Dragons system this year. We've had the opportunity to explore the new rules and PHB in full, and can confidently confirm that all 5e content from any publisher is fully compatible! With that in mind, we're interested to know what your thoughts are for the games you play at your table. Do you intend to make use of the 2024 updates to the core classes? Tell us what your thoughts are in this poll!
He's not snarling, he's SNEEZING!
Projects We Love
Our great friends at Arcane Minis just had a spectacular launch to a new, full world system for 5e: Moonsoon! Moonsoon is the first publication (aside from Ryoko's) to make use of both Heliana's-compatible magic items and the Ryoko's Kaiju Battle System!
Monsoon is a new 5th edition campaign setting centred around the power of 12 celestial moons; explore the new Moon Deck Mechanics to influence and transform your journey in incredible ways. It has over 600 pages of beautiful worldbuilding, 11 Playable Races, 13 Subclasses, and tons of new spells, creatures and monsters, epic avatar battles, and craftable items & oddities. Check them out here!
If you've got any questions, or want to grab regular Ryoko's updates the moment they drop to backerkit (including the Changelog's of everything that is updated between new editions of the BETA), head on over to the #ryokos-guide channels of the Loot Tavern Discord Server.
You can also reach us on the discord if you need any support, want to contact the team or upgrade your pledge. We're close to the finish line now, folks!!🥳🥳
- Will and the Team
May Update - Updated Races & Classes (And a Kaiju Sized Gift!)
6 months ago
– Wed, May 22, 2024 at 02:45:16 PM
'Sup y'all!
We've almost finished arranging the final version of Ryoko's Guide and Wrath of the Kaiju based on your incredible feedback (we'll have the full PDF to you within the next few weeks), but we wanted to pop in early to drop some parts of it first!
The Updated Races & Classes Are Out (beta v3, doc v0.15)
We had over 2000 pieces of feedback for these two chapters alone! As such, we're getting it to you early to explore. The biggest class changes were to the Skeletal Blade, Tamaya Rogue, and Shinobi Wizard, although almost every race and class has had some improvement based on your playtesting.
The Tamaya Rogue have had the gold requirement for spellbombs removed, and had a few extra bombs added, all of which was great feedback! Now you can explode people for FREE!
We have a changelog Google Document you can check out if you want to see all the things that have been improved. You can download this update using the same old link on Backerkit. There are 2 PDFs available, the old v2 Beta and the new v3 of just races and classes. If you already downloaded v0.14 of the file (uploaded yesterday), a new version (v0.15) has just dropped.
There is still time to give feedback on the races and subclasses! You can use the original feedback form; we focused on these two chapters first to give you that extra time to review and leave any final suggestions or playtesting experience.
Monks now get proficiency with new weapons, including the chakram, sai, and shuriken, in addition to a reworked Gate of Air and Gate of Earth letting them act as impressive tanks!
More Kaiju Business
The anticipated kaiju-conversion expansion that walks through changing a normal stat block into a kaiju stat block will be out in the final version of Ryoko's Guide. We're also adding schematic pages to WotK (also included in the cheat sheets for anyone who grabbed those!) with the kaiju's sizes. The kaiju tokens are coming along swimmingly, and they're... well, take a look...
Not to scale, but here's all the kaiju tokens in black and white made small so you can see them all in one image! These aren't finalised and are subject to change!
But wait, there's more, we've got a new kaiju mini STL for Raiko, the Infinite Tempest, for everyone who backed the Kickstarter or on Backerkit and has the Wrath of the Kaiju book. HE'S SO CUTE!!
Created by Archvillain Games, here's Raiko! FREE for everyone with the Wrath of the Kaiju book where his adventure appears!
Shout out to Archvillain Games for making this miniature for the project, and speaking of Archvillain Games...
Our amazing friends at Archvillain Games, the creators of the stunning Kabuto and Raiko kaiju miniatures, have just launched an electrifying new Kickstarter today: Erevan's Guide to Death and Beyond!
Rise Again: Begin your journey after a total party kill (TPK) and resurrect your characters as formidable undead races.
Power Through Defeat: Graft the limbs of your vanquished foes to boost your strength and abilities.
Magnificent Minis: Collect more incredible miniatures to enhance your gameplay experience. Introducing Erevan’s Guide to Death and Beyond, an epic companion book for D&D 5E that takes over when your party meets its end!
Venture into the treacherous Death Valley, battle fearsome unholy beasts, face off against monstrous megabosses, and explore all-new Profane Lairs. Forge alliances with otherworldly familiars and navigate the perilous underworld. Plus, discover and craft powerful magic items and spells crucial for surviving in the realm of the dead!
Excitingly, their crafting systems and familiars are fully compatible with Heliana's Guide and Ryoko's Guide, ensuring seamless integration and endless fun! Don't miss out on this thrilling adventure. Support the Kickstarter and bring your campaign back to life in the most extraordinary way possible!
That's all for the moment! The next update will be the final PDF of the core and adventure books!
If you've got any questions, or want to join the party and discuss Ryoko's with others, head on over to the #ryokos-guide channels of the Loot Tavern Discord Server.
