Episode 2026.25 Published on 5 September 2026

News: Crows Crowdfunder Success, Dice Crowdfunder, Jams of the Timescape 3 | August Roundup

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Intro

Crows has a successful crowdfunder, I try to crowdfund power roll dice, Jams of the Timescape Volume 3 has a winner, the Codex can import encounters from Stawl, the Kiln was released and Riam's Tears dropped.

I'm Jon de Nor and this is Goblin Points.

Lunar Umbra

Gotta start right off the bat with my power roll dice crowdfunder: Lunar Umbra! We're currently about half way, with a little over two weeks left.

If you want some proper Djordice to play Draw Steel, Night Shift: Devil Division or Crows with, these are the dice for you! 20-sided d10s numbered 1–10 twice, and combined d3 and d6s number 1–6 with markings for d3 results.

The dice are manufactured by Q Workshop in Poland. They've been making dice for a couple of decades, and I've been very happy with dice they've made before.

You can grab a set of dice for €19, that is two Djordice, two d3/6s and a dice bag to keep them in. If you're paying patron of mine, and you've signed up for BackerKit and Patreon with the same email address, you can get one set for €16, as a thank you. And if you're a real dice goblin, you can pick up five sets with a €10 discount.

You can find the link to the BackerKit in the episode description, or just go to JonDeNor.com/lunar-umbra.

Jams of the Timescape

The Dice Society and I just finished up the third Jams of the Timescape game jam for Draw Steel. The theme was a bit more open-ended this time around: One Year of Draw Steel, in honor of Draw Steel's one year anniversary. Entrants in the jam were free to make any kind of supplement that referenced the theme in some way.

Now that the jam is over, I want to congratulate the winner Archifex. They submitted One Year Later - Long-term Timeskip Rules for Draw Steel. The supplement introduces a way to do a time skip with mechanical benefits. Each player select something akin to a downtime project, but where progress is measured in seasons. These can be anything from building strongholds, working on actual downtime projects, improve your abilities, or any of the other 8 activities.

The runner-ups was last jam's winner, Dima Serbin, with Bake or Break - A Cooking Encounter; and the Eon Dragon by Font of Victories.

This will not be the last Jams of the Timescape, so if you want to try your hand at creating something for Draw Steel, I highly encourage you to join next time. During the submission period, an active community springs up in our Discord server, where everyone wants everyone else to succeed.

Crows Crowdfunder

And speaking of succeeding. The Crows crowdfunder is going really well. It funded in less than two days and is well on it's way to reach it's only stretch goal: The Crowdex.

The funding goal for the Crows crowdfunder was $650k, a high ask, but a realistic one. That makes the game a certainty. Next up is the stretch goal: a Codex implementation of Crows.

There is already a "community system" for Crows in the Codex, something slapped together by a couple of the Codex developers in their spare time. But by reaching the stretch goal, MCDM will sink actual developer resources into supporting Crows in the Codex.

You can get the digital starter adventure for $10, while a full digital version is $40. If you're a paying member of MCDM Patreon, you can swing by their Patreon and get a link to a special offer where you get the digital starter set for $1.

Crack the Sun Act 3 Playtest

According to Paul Hughes, the man in charge of Draw Steel at MCDM, when I interviewed him, Crack the Sun is still on schedule. He did also say that was the case at the time of recording, and that it could change as soon as we hung up.

Something that speaks in his favor though is MCDM dropping the playtest for the third act of Crack the Sun to paying patrons this month. Last we heard, act three is not supposed to release until March next year, so the fact that it's in playtesting now seems like a good sign.

And just as a quick update; the current schedule for the release of Crack the Sun is

  • November: Crack the Sun Act 1 (Black Friday)
  • Jan 2027: Crack the Sun Act 2
  • March 2027: Crack the Sun Act 3
  • May 2027: Crack the Sun Act 4
  • July 2027: Crack the Sun Act 5 ...with the hardcovers and box sets and everything releasing in the latter half of next year.

MCDM Support Forum

MCDM has also been soft launching a new support forum. A forum of the classic web. It's not supposed to be a place for the community to hang out, but a way for players to ask questions about MCDM's products.

Having a place online where you can get solid answers about the games and their lore is nice, especially considering these answers will be searchable. A lot of the information that's currently known is held hostage behind Discords walls. Having this information in a more accessible place is nice.

You can find the forum at forums.mcdmproductions.com.

Stawl Import in the Codex

This is big news for me. In a recent update to the Codex, they've added support to import combat encounters from Stawl, directly into the Codex!

If you build an encounter in Stawl, you can export it as a data file. Then you create a combat encounter in Codex and import that data file. Codex does not use the monster detail from the encounter, only the monster names, initiative groups, etc, and not the details of the monsters. So if you're using custom monsters, they won't work unless you've also added them to the Codex.

Big thanks to Haezan, one of the contract developers on the Codex, for implementing this.

Surge Announcement

And speaking of the Codex. Triglav Games announced that they're launching a new endeavour called Surge. Every month, starting in September, they aim to bring two pages of laid-out, playtested and arted Draw Steel design to paying members of their patreon.

Not only that, but what they design will also be implemented in the Codex at launch. You only need to connect your Patreon account to the Codex, and the extra material will become available as a module immediately.

The first edition of Surge will feature the tempest dragon, which seems to channel electric powers. You can join Triglav Games' Patreon starting at $5.

They also released the alassa ancestry, an ancestry of eel folk. This is to be the last release of it's kind for Patreon supporters, with it being replaced by Surge.

The Kiln

Look Out Behind You Studios has released the kiln, a shaman-like martial warrior who burns wooden talismans to empower themself. Different types of wood give you different powers, all granted by the undermind.

In addition to ten levels and three subclasses, you get four kits, ten perks, seven treasures, a rival, and two retainers.

You can pick up the kiln from Triglav Games' web shop for €18.

Seeking the Secret Flame

Look Out Behind You Studios also released a small adventure called Seeking the Secret Flame. It's designed for two to seven first or second level heroes, with specific notes on how to tune it for first level heroes.

The people of the town Alden are coming on dire times. Most of the harvest has been ruined and the local church is being attacked by aggressive roots. The heroes must find the sources of these evil doings.

You can pick up Seeking the Secret Flame for €6 on Triglav Games' web shop.

Kronoborus

Shadowhand Gaming has released Kronoborus, the second monster booklet in their series of monthly booklets. The Kronoborus are a psionic serpentfolk. They serve their god, Kronopresh the devourer, and seek to destroy any who stand in the way of Kronopresh' wishes.

The booklet contains 23 monster statblocks across the regular serpentfolk and their psionic counterparts. It also includes an encounter with a map where the heroes come up against an acolyte for Kronopresh.

You can pick up the Kronoborus booklet as a member of Shadowhand Gaming's Patreon. Membership costs $5 a month.

Timescape Tracts

Hypnos has released the first issue of Timescape Tracts. The zine is themed as the chronicle of a Black Company inspired band called The Host.

This first issue includes two complications, three kits (each with an iconic character), two first echelon treasures and a giant hunched toad ancestry called bufopods.

Hypnos are also looking for contributors for future issues of the zine.

You can pick up Timescape Tracts issue 1 for $2 on itch.

Riam's Tears

Sam McGurran, Subharup Roy, Dojikaan, and Inge released Riam's Tears. This will hopefully be the first of a series of gazetteers for Nomas.

You might remember Nomas from the crowdfunder last year. While that sadly didn't fund, the people behind the crowdfunder didn't give up on their project. Now they're back with only a part of the city of Nomas, the district of Riam's Tears.

In it's 31 pages, Riam's Tears introduces you to the factions and locations in the district, and with a map over the district showing the important locations. There's also new monsters related to the district, and a new ancestry native to it.

Alongside the gazetteer, you also receive a director's guide to the city of Nomas. This has some more details on the city-wide politics and how the city functions.

You can pick up Riam's Tears for $16 on Tabletop Nonsenseverse's web shop.

Rockgawp

Brandon Crilly has released an ancestry called Rockgawp. They come from goblins who travelled to the stars long ago, and settled on ore rich asteroids floating in the timescape. They've build vast tunnel networks inside their asteroids, and honed their skills as mechanical tinkerers, inventors and machinists.

You can pick up the Rockgawp ancestry for pay-what-you-want on Itch.io.

Community Highlights

And now some rapid fire updates from the community:

  • Aah! Books has announced the crowdfunder for their magus class.
  • Dima Serbin released Hugran's March, a starting area for any fantasy campaign.
  • DMHub has announced a bunch of stuff in August:
    • Max Hamm's tokens are available to use directly in the Codex
    • The new dynamic terrain features for lava, foilage and more
    • The new user interface
    • Better support for retainers
    • Shadow elves being available to test
    • Improved respite controls
  • Elephant Machine has posted three articles on designing dungeons and enemies for Crows.
  • Frederica Teather published a video on the things you can't learn by watching others play
  • Paul Ligorski launched their crowdfunder for The Court of Dawn and Flame, a fey plane supplement
  • Jeff Steven’s Games has announced a crowdfunder for their upcoming timescape supplement Threats of the Timescape
  • Jenny [REDACTED] released videos on how to quickly prep maps, encounters and tokens in the codex
  • Jonas Tintenseher launched a crowdfunder for their lithomantic fury subclass, the Earthwarden
  • Minhajul Hoq released a 10 minute video showing off progress on their Draw Steel video game
  • Rise Heroes Rise! has started live streaming their games, sometimes I'm also on there
  • sciguymjm has put up a web page for their Draw Steel game Ironwrought
  • Slightly Reckless Games has opened for pre-orders for Night Shift: Devil Division
  • thousand_embers (Joshua A. Brooks) successfully funded their Bravo class
  • And lastly, Zee Bashew published an Animated Spellbook video recounting a funny encounter he had while playing Crows.

Blast From the Past

And now, a blast from the past as I dive back into old notes and scripts to see what was covered on Goblin Points in years past.

Back in August of 2024, backers of the MCDM RPG got the first playtest packet with a game that resembles the final version. It was also the first thing to be published under the Creator License. Matt had been talking about the kind of license they wanted for months, and we finally got to see how open the game would be.

August was also the month of the first published adventure for Draw Steel. WitnessTTRPG published Wrath of the Iresouls, a year before the game was ready. I know they updated that adventure later to align with the updated rules. And I had WitnessTTRPG on Goblin Points talking about the adventure.

And lastly, August was also the month the final roster of classes was nailed down. There had been some discussions of whether the summoner should be in the core rules, but they decided on the talent instead. The summoner would use the minion rules, and they weren't done yet. The summoner design would be too delayed by that to be done in time.

Outro

I'm super happy to see the Crows crowdfunder going well. It's not going to reach Draw Steel levels of success, but I think it's having a solid success of it's own. And I also encourage you to check out the Kiln. The art and layout of that PDF is fantastic.

If you want to be featured on Goblin Points, or know of someone else who should be, leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or send me an e-mail on tips@goblinpoints.com.

Links to everything, including this script can be found in the show notes, and on goblinpoints.com.

You can support my work by becoming a Patreon member. Paying members get to submit questions to my upcoming guests here on Goblin Points. You also get access to premium features on Stawl. Stawl is a digital toolset for playing and running Draw Steel: digital hero sheets, encounter builder, monster look up, the complete rules text, and more. Such as the Stawl Supplement Index, a comprehensive list of supplements being published for Draw Steel, in one convenient place! Visit Stawl.app. S-T-A-W-L-dot-app.

Don't forget to get your power roll dice in my crowdfunder. Visit jondenor.com to get to the campaign.

Next episode is on the 15th. That's going to be a chat with YourGMJay, whom you might know from his YouTube videos. The next Goblin Panel is on the 8th, tune in for discussions and comentary.

See you next time. Snakkes.

Links

Lunar Umbra

Jams of the Timescape: Volume 3

From MCDM

Stawl Import in the Codex

Surge Announcement

The Kiln

Seeking the Secret Flame

Kronoborus

Timescape Tracts

Riam's Tears

Rockgawp

Community Highlights

Draw Steel Media

Draw Steel Tools