Kibbles' Compendium of Airships and Artifacts for D&D 5e

100k! Modular Crafting Demo! + Reloading the Stretch Goals!
5 months ago – Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 01:39:29 PM

Hey Folks-

We've hit 100k, and I have a lot of things to share with you! First up, is the Modular Crafting Demo (or Draft, if you prefer). I've talked about Modular Crafting a lot, but here is a hands on look at it:

Modular Crafting Demo

This is obviously still unedited, a wee bit messy, and is just a slice of the final system. The final version will obviously be more fleshed out (both in terms of general polish and number of modifiers) but this should give folks an idea of what the system is about if my previous descriptions hadn't.

Next up I will try to get the Airship Combat Demo ready to share with ya'll but that'll take a bit.

Now onto the Stretch Goals. We hit 100k, so it's time to populate the rest of the list, this time up to 150k:

We've had 232 submitted subclass ideas so far, I felt adding another poll there was merited (...if we end up going higher, I may add even more). As for the others, a Spell Theme can be something like 'Blood Magic' or 'Gravity' or 'Necrotic' or 'Lightning'; I did a few of these with the last book, and people enjoyed them. I'll open a form of ideas there as well if we get there.

Mystic Path Feats are what I call the supernatural version of Active Martial Feats—for a theme there it would be similar to spells. They can involve transformation feats, or just supernatural powers.

Chronoshifted Airship threats would bring back some of the enemies from KCCC and KCLL as special airship enemies with suspiciously advanced weapons... and perhaps some bits and bobs you could nick from them for your own airship as upgrades.

And, of course, Modular Alchemy. Alchemy isn't included in the base Modular Crafting since it would need more or less entirely unique modifiers. If we reach this goal, I'll make brand new tables for Alchemy that will let folks stack effects to make potions.

Thank you for all the support so far!

As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions, either here, or over on the Discord. As I know someone will ask, probably don't worry about errors you find in modular crafting—everything we see here will go through 2-3 layers of editing before the book. That's part of what these Kickstarters pay for!

I don't have a KS to spotlight at the end of this one (the timing didn't quite work out, I have a few lined up!), so I'll spotlight some random stuff instead:

• I did an interview with a channel called Roll for Law, talking about the book, the path to publishing, licensing for D&D content, and more. It's an hour and half long, so there is plenty there.
• The next patreon poll launches probably tomorrow or later today, this time voting on core subclasses for core classes again. The discount for the patreon ('KCAA_Kickstarter') is still active for folks that want in on it.
• Last but not least...

That's all I got for you folks! See you in the next update... maybe fairly soon at the rate things are going!

All the best,

-Kibbles

Third Stretch Goal! First bonus subclass secured (guess it's 31+ now?), keep the suggestions coming!
5 months ago – Sun, Mar 08, 2026 at 02:25:43 PM

Hey Folks!

We've hit 85k!

The first Kickstarter subclass bonus subclass has been unlocked—that's subclasses you will vote on, based on ideas you folks are submitting. There have been a whopping 180 ideas submitted so far (though that includes duplicates!), so it seems like we are going to need to hit a few more of those stretch goals to get to them all........

Think 180 ideas so far are rookie numbers? Feel free to head over to the form and submit yet more suggestions!

As far as the Sticker Showdown... here's the current count!

Now... onward to 100k?

Sounds like I'll need to start brushing up ideas for what stretch goals come next...

As for this update's spotlight!

The Captives of Dolagan

This time we have another smaller Kickstarter, this time a quick adventure for low level groups, built to be easy and engage to run! Here's a quick summary by the good folks at Dice Legenz:

The Captives of Dolagan is a 45 page book containing 14 beautiful maps, including 2 mini dungeons, new monsters no one at your table will have encountered before, a new, easy to use Time Tracker system to amplify the tension of the story, and 6 optimized pre-made characters. There is no AI content in the book.

...and it's all for a very reasonable price (just $8 for the PDF!). Give the campaign a quick look!

Wrap Up

Thank you all for your support so far! I think we have a good shot at hitting 100k and beyond, so hopefully I'll be back here in not-to-long with another stretch goal in hand for you!

I think given how many suggestions we've gotten, a few more bonus subclasses wouldn't go amiss... but perhaps we'll mix it up a bit first.

All the best,

-Kibbles

Second Stretch Goal! Have subclass suggestions for the Subclass Polls? Now you can submit them!
6 months ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2026 at 10:52:01 AM

Hey folks!

We are on day 3 things are going strong! Thank you for your continued support. The next two Stretch Goals are about Kickstarter Subclass Voting Polls. Those are polls where the Kickstarter Backers get to vote on a new subclass to add to the book—and some of those ideas being voted will come from you!

You can use this form here to submit your ideas.

I'll combine those ideas with the existing master list I use for patreon polls (which you can also vote in if you're the sort that wants to double dip; there's a 30% off promotion on the patreon for people that want to go vote over there, using code KCAA_Kickstarter; the current poll is for the next Paragon subclass!); and then we'll have all the backers cast their votes.

You can submit as many ideas through the form as you want. I cannot guarantee all ideas will make it to the poll. They will be filtered for things I've already made, that can be combined, or that I don't think I could make work. But I try to keep it fairly open.

For a truly vital part of the update...

As for the spotlight for this update...

Ariadne's Book of Legends - D&D beyond 20th level!

Ariadne's Codex of Strings has a really cool project here that brings 5e (2014 and 2024...which is freshly officially dubbed 5.5 so I guess I'll have to start updating to that) to new heights in a different way—leveling beyond 20, into some truly mythical territory.

They've got legendary foes over CR 30, 10th level spells, mythical martial techniques, and 5 new levels for each legendary class, plus tweaks to make high level D&D the best it can be.

Their campaign has been super successful and is fully funded, they have free previews for DM Options and for Play Options (which shows off some of those mythic martial techniques and 10th level spells). Some really cool stuff and great art.

So go check it out!

Thank you all for your support (and reading the update to the end, you're the real champion!), and hopefully I'll be back with another update when we can clear that distance toward the 85k mark to turn some of those subclass suggestions into a reality!

Don't forget to submit your subclass ideas.

-Kibbles

First Stretch Goal Down! Setting up the Stretch Goals before you nab 'em all!
6 months ago – Wed, Mar 04, 2026 at 08:32:54 AM

Hey Folks-

Stretch Goals

All in all it was an excellent first day. Thank you for your support, and from here on out its just about making it the best book it can be. We've hit the first stretch goal and I've (finally) made a Stretch Goal graphic:

This should tide us over for quite awhile!

I talked about the Aerial Bestiary and what it was a stretch goal last time, but let's talk about More Battle Maps and what that really means. It means a few things!

For encounter maps, this will (I think) usually mean that they'll have a second level. The first level will usually be the deck, the second level will be the ship interior. My plan (we'll see if this pans out) is so that maps are double sided, you can flip them over for the interior view map once your encounter progresses to that point (obviously this only applies to the physical maps).

For player maps, this means more variations, more templates, more assets. To delve into what that means, I'll have to talk about how the player ship maps work a bit. Those are designed (on the art side) as modular maps where we can do different asset arrangements. The artist has sent along some examples here:

So to explain a bit more, player ships will have templates (currently planned at 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large, going up to 2 small, 2 medium, 1 large if the stretch goal is reached, and a bunch of assets. For the printed maps, each size will have two configurations pre selected, for the digital version, you'll get the same ones, as well as the asset pack to configure your own ships. The asset pack will be much larger. 

I cannot promise anything too fancy yet—I'm still hammering out the details here. Perhaps something like DungeonDraft integration or VTT integration of the assets themselves is possible, but I'm not going to promise that yet! The asset pack was originally just for us to create cool airships, but I thought it might be cool to surface to backers and let their creativity flow (...and probably make flying abominations of chaotic parts).

Plus, of course, the backdrops are also modular. Renflowergrapx does some excellent work with those backdrops! This idea of battlemaps was a later addition to the plan, so we are still fleshing out all the details, but they are really cool so far, and I've loved Ren's ideas and graphics.

Now to spotlight another Kickstarter...

Game Master Tools: Creating Villains & Lairs

This one is by Jeff C. Stevens; Jeff C. Stevens has been around a long time and made a bunch of cool stuff—he made a ton of stuff on the DMsGuild back in the day, and is one of those iconic DMsGuild authors. 

With this project he's sharing some of his wisdom, and collecting even more of it from, all tied around some cool dungeon master focused content.

Game Master Tools – Creating Villains & Lairs includes tools and tips, tables and tricks to help Game Masters design devious villains and dangerous lairs. Also included are essays by experienced game masters and game designers. 

Essay contributors include Alex Kammer, Anne Gregersen, Dale Critchley, Ed Greenwood, Greg Marks, Jeff C. Stevens, Jon Hook, Saga Mackenzie, Shanna Germain, and Teos Abadia.

Go check it out! It's a smaller scale project with a very reasonable price point ($4 for the PDF!) for folks that want to expand their horizons. Like with the other things I've recommended, I'm a backer!

Thanks for the support so far, and I'll see you in the next update... as to how fast I need to start writing that, that'll depend on ya'll I guess!

-Kibbles