Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms

Ryoko's Arrival Dates & A VERY Special Message!
5 months ago – Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 10:02:34 AM

Happy New Year Everyone! 

For those that celebrate this time of year, I wish you a wonderful holiday season, and I hope the new year is a great one! I wanted to drop in to provide anticipated updates on Ryoko's shipping between now and the new year so y'all have the most up to date timelines. What to expect and look out for when receiving your delivery, and a very special announcement down below too!

Canada Received Ryoko's!

If you're in Canada, you will already have Ryoko's Guide! It's been unbelievably exciting (and slightly infuriating!!) to see you unboxing and sharing Ryoko's on the Loot Tavern discord, as someone in the UK still waiting on delivery here. That also means, if you're in Canada and you haven't yet received Ryoko's, you need to get in touch! See the Need Assistance section below if you need any help with fulfillment issues!

Timelines!

Canada were able to deliver so quickly on account of only having 1,400 orders to sort through and ship, and the shipment arrived to Canada earlier than the ships arrived to the EU and UK. America, meanwhile, has over 16,000 orders to sort, I understand the worries people are having but fear not things are going as planned and we will tell you when reach out about your orders. The Australian distributors received their shipment of Ryoko's on literally Christmas Day. All boats have now arrived; Ryoko's is only land travel away from anyone!

On account of much of the world being on holiday between Christmas and New Year, I expect most deliveries will be happening in late January-February. It's the sorting of packages and delivery them straight to your door that is the only thing left.

• American deliveries are being handled by Whalebacker which will be sending out the deliveries in waves due to the sheer volume of your support. 
• UK/EU are being handled by GamesQuest.
• Australia are being handled by Let's Play Games. 
• Last but not least is Asia and the rest of the world which will be handled by VFI. A note that VFI will not be doing confirmation emails.

The next step on our journey will be getting a confirmation email from one of the companies listed above to the email address you used when backing Ryoko's Guide. Special note that for the USA, those emails will come out in waves as they get ready to send out your packages. Don't panic if you see other USA backers receive their emails before you - that just means that you're in the another "wave". After that keep an eye open for a delivery tracking number, sent to the same email address, which you'll receive when they finish processing your order!

With the disruption to global trade this year I'm incredibly thankful we dodged any tariff increases; our priority was to move the heavens and earth to never, ever push extra charges onto you, and I'm overflowing with gratitude that we managed to do that. 

That was thanks to a herculean effort from the admin side of the project; Mo, Chef, Max, the folks at Longpack... basically the geniuses that took upon themselves to handle the least exciting part of making a project actually become real - they're the heroes to celebrate on this one. (Especially Chef)

But Did You Forget???

There's still one thing we've yet to deliver, and that's our stretch goal for $3,000,000 raised. It's been over a year, but I feel it's time, with Ryoko's arriving over the next month, to announce it...

We're coming back. And we're not alone!

Our $3,000,000 stretch goal was a commitment to another book, and this time, we're coming back with friends. I'm delighted to announce Ryoko's & Heliana's Guide to Mythozoology, our next Kickstarter that brings together the two greatest D&D expansions of all time for an all new epic supplement! 

What's more, YOU get free stuff! Every backer who supported Ryoko's or Heliana's and goes on to support this project gets the Onimushi familiar mini STL, and the Onimushi d20 + d6 dice! So beautiful, so fierce, so cool!!

Plus, you can opt-in here to receive free, early access, playtest materials to help us shape the next project! 

Need Assistance?

As always, we're only a message away on the Loot Tavern discord if you need any help or support at all! As you all begin receiving your packages and need support with damages or errors in fulfillment please reach out to [email protected] with pictures of the damage if there was any, your Ryoko's Guide backerkit email address and what region you are in! We will be happy to help you get your treasures and trinkets to your door in tip top condition!

I'll post an update unboxing Ryoko's Guide soon (I'm getting a copy air shipped to save a week or two) so you can see what you're getting soon. To those of you who already have Ryoko's, please don't stop sending in your character builds, fan art, or just pictures of your unboxings - it brings us all so much joy to see you enjoying it! 

Happy New Year!

Will and the Team

Ryoko's is on its way! Update on shipping and FINAL CHANCE TO UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS!
7 months ago – Fri, Nov 14, 2025 at 12:33:46 PM

Hey everybody! Just a friendly, gentle, calm reminder that...

This Is Your Last Chance to Update Your Shipping Address!!!!!

With Ryoko's on its way, this is the final chance to ensure your shipping address is correct! We're hitting up a Teleportation Circle right to your door with the stuff, so we gotta make sure it's the right place. The deadline for changes is November 17th, as we need to lock addresses 3 weeks before ships arrive at port.

If any complications arise due to your delivery address not being up to date, you may be asked to pay additional fees to reroute it, so please take the time to update if you've moved at all since backing the campaign. Don't panic! Here's a very simple and quick guide on how to check and update your address in 2 minutes if necessary:

How to update your shipping address

Should you need to check or change your address:

If you've changed countries or states, you'll need our help to update your address. We're also here to help anyone, generally! If you do need help, contact us in the Loot Tavern Discord server.

Late Address Changes

If you're going to be moving address between December and February, we'll do our best to communicate this change to the fulfilment company. Please tell us as soon as possible by email [email protected] or, FOR THE QUICKEST RESPONSE, contact ChefTinyT on our Discord server. We will do our best to pass on the information and avoid any rerouting fees.

Following the Dragons on the Sea!

Ryoko's is on its way, everything is on schedule as per last update; here's a wonderfully unsexy picture of stuff all boxed up in one shipping container that's floating its way to you!

Shipping Vessels

If you'd like to check in on the boats making their way to you, the EU, UK, and Africa shipments are on the EVER AEON, travelling together but being dropped off seperately at Rotterdam and Felixstowe. You can track this ship across the ocean here!

Similarly, here's the listing for the other ships and where they're headed so you can stalk them across the seas! 

United States 1 (CMA CGM SWORDFISH)
United States 2 (BUDAPEST EXPRESS)
United States 3 (HMM DIAMOND)
Canada (YM ORCHID)

Asian territories and are sent directly from China, so no large scale freight there, and AUS / NZ stuff are being picked up directly by our AUS fulfillment center. 

If you want to double check the anticipated time Ryoko's will reach you, we have prospective timelines for various regions in our previous update! As always, you can reach out to the crew with any questions over on the Loot Tavern Discord server!

Take care, y'all, we can't wait for you to get playing with the books irl! We're also cooking on some super secret, extremely cool stuff on our end in the meantime, we haven't forgotten about our stretch goal for $3,000,000 - I hope you haven't either! 👀

Will and the Team

Ryoko's Guide Is Shipping! We're Locked In 🥳🥳
8 months ago – Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 08:54:04 AM

Hey y'all, just following up on the last update; we finally have our lanes cleared and a concrete freight shipping date - October 25th is when Ryoko's goes on the water and makes its way to you!

We're shipping worldwide all at once, so timelines vary slightly depending on where you; EU, Australia, NZ, Asia, and UK have an ETA at port of early December, with the USA, Canada, and South America an ETA at port of late December. From there, it gets unloaded, delivered to the warehouse, sorted, and then a domestic delivery to your home. Thanks again for your patience and understanding as we had to navigate the distruption to shipping lanes and production on account of the global tariff situation! We're so hyped to be able to get Ryoko's to you this year despite the global upheavals to trade that we've seen.

Friendly Reminder On The Tariffs

As mentioned in our last update, we are covering ALL of the current USA tariffs rather than passing any cost along to backers in North America. But please remember that, as we said at the time, in the unlikely event tariffs rise again, any cost over that current threshold will be added to the shipping costs for backers in the USA. There will be no impact on deliveries/cost to the rest of the world regardless of what happens.

You can check out our last update for more information on the tariffs and what steps we took to cover the increase in costs ourselves rather than pass them along. We can't wait for you all to have the books, dice, and minis in your hands! Roll up those character sheets, the kaiju are coming across the sea! 

In Case You Missed It...

There are still amazing digital offers on Backerkit in the form of couppons! These are digital discount codes that can be used on any digital products on the Loot Tavern Website and dndshorts.com! 

A $20 coupon gets you $40 off digital products across our digital platforms ($20 off at dndshorts.com and $20 off at loottavern.com). This is a way to grab massive savings, while also supporting us in covering the tariff costs, for a limited time only!

Updating your mailing address (if you have moved)

This is your last change to update your address before we begin shipping and locking down addresses. If you have moved to a new home in the same state/country you can easily change your address yourself by following these instructions here. 

If you have moved states or countries you will need our help to change your address! You can reach out to use by emailing us at [email protected] OR the best way to reach us is to join the Loot Tavern discord and submit a Support Request letting us know the email you used in backerkit for Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms and the new address you would like us to change for you.

Or, if you've just 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!

Projects We Love!

Did I hear “MORE KAIJU!?”

The $3,000,000 tier promised successor to Ryoko’s is in the works but, until then, maybe these four oceanic behemoths could satiate your need for supergargantuan colossi! There’s Abyssodon, Behemoth of Bloodlust; Bloomtide, Shepherd of the Coral Hive; Ashwake, the Pyreforged Juggernaut; and C’thugon, He Who Devours.

Not only are these kaiju fully compatible with Ryoko’s rules, but there’s a hoard of miniatures on offer (including an 18-INCH MIMIC SHIP!!!), a mutation system, and totally reinvented Naval Combat mechanics! There are offerings in this campaign for Theatre of Mind tables, Virtual Tabletops, and war gamers who love miniatures.Check out their video!

Even better, because Loot Tavern is involved in this project, backers of the Ryoko’s campaign get a FREE LOYALTY REWARD just for backing VoidSea. Back before the end of the campaign with the same account you used for Ryoko’s and the liquid-core, sharp-edged D20 will be added to your pledge manager for free!

There will probably be one/two more updates until everything is all closed out. I'll let you all know when Ryoko's is out on Alchemy VTT (it's in the QA stage, so it won't be long at all) and I'll do an unboxing of everything in Ryoko's when it arrives which will be really fun to share!

Thanks for all your support folks! Ryoko's is on the way now, we're coming to the end of the journey. Take care of yourself, and see you soon!

• Will and the Team

HUGE Ryoko's Update!! 🥳🥳
10 months ago – Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 11:58:10 AM

Massive Update Incoming 🥳🥳

No Tariff Fees for Backers!! 

We're covering 100% of the tariff fees, even at the higher rate of 30%, with no cost passed onto backers in the US  - we are NOT holding stock until tariffs come down; we are NOT passing taxes onto you, we are getting everything to everybody, everywhere as soon as possible! We held out on confirming this for as long as possible to assess the situation, but the US and China recently announced a 3 month continuation of the current 30% tariff rate.

Obviously, this represents an enormous inflation of our costs, we 100% understand why other projects and kickstarters are waiting. Believe me, we have absolute sympathy for other projects and their choice to wait - no two Kickstarters are the same, so please don't take this as a guarantee other projects in the space will be able to tank the costs of the tariffs. 

We are only able to do this thanks to you. All your belief and support for this project created a situation where we have just enough to cover these taxes without passing them onto the Ryoko's MSRP or adding to shipping costs. Thank you so much for your support.

However, please understand that this is subject to the tariffs not being changed. The US government have said the current level will hold for now, but we also can't be sure they won't change their minds. We're effectively running Ryoko's at net $0 to make this happen. That means if tariffs rise, we won't be able to pay them; we'll be forced to delay. If the content arrives to a US port and we can't pay the tariffs, everything will be destroyed. We're trusting that the US government will keep their promised position on tariffs in order to get everything to you at no additional cost. If situations do change, we will need to reevaluate.

That said, we are doing something special...👀

Huge Discount Codes!!

Digital content is not tariffed, so if you are interested in picking up some bonus digital content, we're launching a special run of discount coupons on Backerkit. These are digital discount codes that can be used on any digital products on the Loot Tavern Website and dndshorts.com. Ever wanted a PDF copy of Heliana's Guide? Or maybe to grab one of the dozens of D&D expansions created by me (Lead Mechanical Designer for Ryoko's Guide)? You can now do so at a massive discount; perfect for a Christmas gift for your DM or players, or to stack ontop of upcoming Black Friday discounts!!

A $20 coupon gets you $40 off digital products across our digital platforms ($20 off at dndshorts.com and $20 off at loottavern.com). This is a way to grab massive savings, while also supporting us in covering the tariff costs. This is the absolute best chance to grab any digital products that we make, exclusive to Ryoko's backers. Grab your discount codes on Backerkit!

Ryoko's is on Roll20!

Those of you who've been keeping an eye on discord have seen us hinting at this, but Ryoko's Guide and Wrath of the Kaiju are primed and ready on Roll20! We've been waiting for them to send out the keys for you to be able to activate them, we have 2500 keys so far, with more coming soon. Hop on and grab yours today if you backed the VTT tier for Roll20. If there's no key available when you try to grab yours because they've all gone, don't panic and check back in a few days - we're badgering Roll20 constantly for more activation keys and they'll be passing them through as soon as they can.

Ryoko's on Alchemy coming very soon!

Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms already integrated on Alchemy, and they're in the process of integrating Wrath of the Kaiju. We don't handle the integration ourselves, Alchemy's team put up all the content, and they're doing Wrath as we send this. As soon as it's done, they'll send out the keys for everything and we'll pass them along to you!

The Other Side of Tariffs

Although most of the talk on tariffs has (understandably) been focused on money, there is another, very significant element we need to discuss; the US tariffs have caused enormous disruption to shipping, with huge companies delaying products and clogging shipping lanes.

Were it not for the tariffs, we'd be on the water to you guys already. Unfortunately, we now have an issue of queued shipping lanes and speed. Billions of products have delayed shipment across the entire world as companies waited for financial security in shipping and releasing their products. There's also been a disruption of communications, just a lot of uncertainty has resulted in it taking longer than usual for fulfilment partners to respond to even very simple requests and give us concrete dates to pass onto you. This isn't unique to us, it's across the board. That also means disruption to supply chains in the manufacturing processes too - raw materials getting to factories, all such things cause compounding delays which slowed production across all industries, and although we're luckily mostly reliant on ink and paper, we're weren't completely immune.

All of this means is that means there's a "queue" for shipping now which we absolutely cannot jump. Air freight is impossible at our scale. Despite these queues, we were hoping to have stuff on the water in September, but it no longer looks feasible. This is a literal case of just having to wait our turn. We'll keep you updated, but we don't anticipate a long wait in terms of shipping delays. 

Distributors and freight companies are doing everything they can to expedite the process now the channels are opening up again. We cannot wait to get the stuff out on the boat so it's heading towards our fulfillment centers to be with you. 

Updating your mailing address (if you have moved)

You can update your information yourself on backerkit! If you've changed country/state, you can reach out to us directly on the Loot Tavern discord server. We're always happy to help! You can also reach out to us via the support email [email protected]

Or, if you've just 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!

Ryoko's is LIVE on Foundry VTT; Shipping & Roll20 Updates!
11 months ago – Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 07:38:23 AM

Ryoko's Guide is now LIVE on Foundry VTT! 🥳🥳

That's right, we're live on FoundryVTT! Both Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms and Wrath of the Kaiju are up in full for playing on Foundry. We shadow-dropped it yesterday after the Foundry devs gave us the all clear, so the keys are available right now on backerkit for anyone who picked up the Foundry VTT integration as part of their pledge.

Roll20 and Alchemy VTT integration is coming soon! One of our Roll20 integration team had to go on emergency berevement leave, which naturally delayed the process. We're incredibly grateful for your understanding and patience, and the current estimate is for both Roll20 and Alchemy to be ready to play in full by early next month.

Mass Production & Shipping Update

Mass production continues to go great! In fact, we're drawing towards the end of the cycle now, which means we're taking a moment to ask everyone who has moved residence since backing Ryoko's to please check your shipping details on Backerkit! 

We'd hate for you not to recieve your package due to an address change, so if you have moved or changed your mind on where you'd like any physical goods to be sent, please update your information. If you need any help with that, our team is happy to support; just reach out over on the Loot Tavern discord!

Updates on Tariffs?

Due to the volitility of the tariff situation in the USA, we're still waiting on making the final update regarding tariffs until we ship things to the USA. Rather than say one thing and then change due to fluctuations in policy, we'd much rather be absolutely sure what the situation is before finalising everything. 

That said, assuming everything stays roughly as it appears to have landed, we're pushing on full steam ahead! A dedicated tariff update will come out when mass production officially wraps and we ship everything to you.

As always, 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!

Keep on trucking everyone, we're closing in on the finish line!

Will and the LT Team