Books Three And Four Launched in PDF
8 months ago
– Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 09:19:26 AM
Dear Backers,
At last books three and four are complete and checked and everything is now with the printers. We are happy to announce that the PDFs are uploading to your Backerkit accounts as I write this.
Everything is included with one exception- we are not sure why, but for some reason the digital VTT maps for book four are not uploading. We haven't given up but after three days of trying we have decided to release what we do have, rather than hold the project up any longer. We will get technical assistance on this as soon as we can- personally I blame Oliver for doing far too many maps and battles in book four ! Be warned- it's quite dangerous!
Physical Copies of everything: For those of you keenly awaiting your full set of gorgeous books , maps and character cards , I do have some dates for you - though these are always subject to change:
Everything is with the printers now and the original dates for delivery are 12th December in the UK and 9th-13th Feb in the US (It's a long way in a boat from Lithuania). Once they arrive we will start booking in delivery dates with our warehouses. It this changes at any time we will be back in touch to let you know.
We are playing it at home with friends ourselves and having a blast. We hope you do too.
Happy and fruitful adventuring
Mel
Update for Books 3 and 4
9 months ago
– Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 10:34:20 AM
Hi all,
Just a quick update to let you know that all maps and artwork are now complete and everything is with our designer putting it all together. Above you can see my three legged cat, named Grumpuss, helping our artist , Archie Crisp, sketch out the beautiful Nastilean vista in Book 3.
Thank you for your patience with the extra copies of books 1 and 2 in the downloads. We don't seem to be able to get Kickstarter to delete these without spending hours/days doing it myself. Do get in touch via Backerkit if you are in a pickle.
For your information- the official correct copies are bolded but the others are simply repeats.
DMR - Book 1 - The Pilgrims Road
DMR - Book 1 - The Halls of the Underking
DMR Book 2 - Halls of the Underking
DMR - Book 2 - The Halls of the Underking
VTT copies of the maps for books 1 and 2 are now available in your download
Hope to be reporting the release of the next PDFs really soon.
Best wishes Mel
PDFs for Books 1 and 2 Released
9 months ago
– Tue, Sep 02, 2025 at 01:56:04 PM
Hi everyone. We have been waiting on our designer to gets the layout of Book 2 sorted and he is now finished and Oliver has made all the bookmarking to allow you to jump to new references by clicking on them.
IMPORTANT for those who have already started The Dark Moon Rises: If you are carrying on the same party from either the Sample Version of Book 1, or from the Fort Holdfast VIP game, the reference you need to turn to has changed.
For various space and design reasons, we’ve had to change the starting reference to 22. So, if you are carrying on your adventure having completed either of the starter products, turn to 22 in order to continue your adventures.
If you are planning on starting again, and have the Fort Holdfast VIP adventure, you can now use this when you reach reference 128 in Book 1.
When the last PDFs are finished, we’ll go back and change the instructions for our Sample Version and Fort Holdfast retrospectively.
Corrections: Please get in touch if you notice any errors and we can update all PDFs and make the printing run even more accurate. We do check everything carefully but the occasional mistake does slip through sometimes and we would love to put things right.
Book 3 and 4 are nearly there too, we are still working on the art for book 3, and book 4 still has some maps to go: poor Jose tore a ligament in his leg and couldn't sit at his computer for some time but is a very fast worker so everything should come together soon.
HOW DO I DOWNLOAD MY PDFs?
Go to your Backerkit page and click on downloads . If you have any problems please contact [email protected] or contact me via Kickstarter private message.
The test playing has been fantastic, with really exciting and tense battles. It may well be even better that the Domain of the Deathless King- we'd love to hear what you think.
Thanks
Mel
PDF's Coming Soon
10 months ago
– Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 11:37:53 AM
Greetings from a rather hot UK at the moment.
We are sad to tell you all that due to personal difficulties and the loss of a close friend, our lovely artist Wills Shorten has regretfully had to pull out of completing the illustrations for the books. We will miss the incredible detail and care that Wills' art shows and his gloriously quirky style. All his pictures are crafted from pen and pencil with no AI or computer graphic support at all.
We are pleased to tell you that Gwyneth Thomas has taken on the artwork for Book 4 and this should be complete very soon. We also have another artist working on completing Book 3 , who is working as close to Wills' style as he can.
We will be locking all accounts in about a week as we will be releasing the PDF's for Book 1 and 2 as soon as possible; once they have done the final back and forth between designer Bruce Kennedy and Oliver Hulme, who ensures all the bookmarking is completed. (Bookmarking allows the user to click on the number in a PDF and it takes you to the correct reference automatically) Then as soon as we have artwork completed for three and four those PDFs will be released to you too. Anybody who has included Domain of the Deathless King in their pledge will also receive all the PDF's for that.
Current situation
Book 1 is 100% ready
Book 2 is complete and currently in design- it just needs to be returned to Oliver for all the bookmarking to be done and then turned into the final PDF then books 1 and 2 will be released- probably early next week.
Book 3 and 4 are complete except for the last artwork pieces and the to and froing that happens in design.
We hope to have 3 and 4 complete by early September .
Anybody spotting errors in the PDF's (we have tried hard not to make any ) is welcome to contact me via [email protected] and we can make any corrections before we go to print. Also you can contact me for any address changes if you miss updating them yourself on Backerkit.
We apologise for being slightly later to release the PDFs than we hoped, but sadly this was not something that we had expected. We will do our best to get through to print as quickly as we can.
We look forward to you continuing your pilgrimage. Beware the Stranger and threats closer to home...
Very best wishes
Mel
Progressing Towards Moon Rise
11 months ago
– Tue, Jul 08, 2025 at 02:30:53 AM
Hi Everybody, just a quick update to let you know the progress on The Dark Moon Rises.
Oliver has completed the writing of all the books and has been planning and balancing all the major battles and getting Jose busy on designing the battle maps.
All 4 books: written
Books 1 and 2 :Edited
Book 1: Currently in design
Book 2: About to go into design
Battle Maps: Map sets 1-3 complete. Working on book 4
Books 3 and 4 about to be edited.
Art work complete for books 1 and 2. Books 3 and 4 being worked on now.
Realistically we hope to release the PDF's in August and printing will follow hot on their heels.
Also for all solo role players out there our friend Martin Nouch is currently running a kick starter for his series of books The Steam Highwayman. He describes it as an 'Open-world adventuring and solo-roleplay in a steampunk land that never was.'
Do take a look as there is a free download available:
In Princes of the West, the fourth book in the open-world gamebook series, you will explore Devon and Cornwall. Rob the rich and defy the Guilds, but with new and dangerous challenges. Drawn into a power-play between the factions of Free Cornwall and a Constabulary spymaster, the Steam Highwayman’s choices are more important than ever… Smuggle brandy on the coast! Explore the wilds of Dartmoor! Venture underground into mines and caverns! Take to the skies aboard an airship! Rob the rich, give to the poor and steam off into the night!
- Extended quests with wide-ranging consequences
- Enjoy the life of a roadside brigand or a chivalrous hero
- ~300 pages; 1800+ passages
- Rewards include all four volumes of Steam Highwayman, large colour maps and extras
- Free sample available immediately
- Kickstarter runs 1-30 July 2025
Our writer Oliver is a big fan of these books and has them all on his bookshelf. He would thoroughly recommend them .
