Hello everyone,

Wanted to let you know we are continuing to make good progress on the book.  We will hold our monthly update at the end of the month to let you know our progress.  However, some urgent issues have recently arisen, and I wanted to let you know what we're doing about it. In addition, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.  Bottom line: None of these issues shouldn't slow down our book's development, but I wanted to let you know what we've been dealing with, in case it comes up in the future.

Yesterday, core members of our incredible art team spotted some discrepancies with an outside artist we had recently brought to Io Publishing to help with spot illustrations. As we were developing some prop pieces, our art team grew suspicious that this artist may have been using AI Generation as part of their process, and then painted over the result. While the artist claims AI Generation was not used, they did mention their process involved painting over already pre-rendered images they had a license to. Essentially, the artist was combining a bunch of assets and then painting over them, and when we looked closely, we discovered discrepancies that may have suggested AI usage. Because there were art pieces that were put into question with evidence suggesting these pieces were not credible, we ultimately decided to strip all the art this artist made from the book and start from scratch.  Fortunately, it doesn't set us too far back (our art progress after this is now at 59% as of today, down from 61% from our previous update) - it's still a setback.

Fortunately, this artist has not had their work published in an Io Publishing product.

How was this allowed to happen?
At Io Publishing, we thoroughly vet our artists when bringing them in. We ensure they have an established portfolio and some online presence that can be verified, and we have our artists sign a contract explicitly stating that the work they make is of their creation, with No AI-generated art allowed in any way - and that all work is original. The artist in question was a well-established traditional artist with a following, which we verified. The art given initially for the first couple of pieces didn't raise any red flags, but as development continued, their art style changed. Unfortunately, because trust had already been established, we were not on high alert to verify the integrity of their project. Our core art team, who had more of a trained eye, noticed the discrepancies and then began going through all their work to outline where the deceptions were being taken. Personally, my belief that AI is a detriment to the survival of artists led me to believe that a traditional artist would not use AI or any deceptive practice to ensure their credibility. I was incorrect. Sadly, some traditional artists have started to embrace AI Generation as a time saver because their knowledge of the craft allows them to paint over AI discrepancies easily. Fortunately, there are still artists who can see when these methods are being deployed. We've entered a new age of technology, with AI getting better all the time - making it hard to be vigilant when creating a product created by human artists, not AI generation.

What are you doing to prevent this from happening again?
We're putting more checks into place and placing our new artists on a probation period to allow us to inspect any pieces created thoroughly. Our core art team will also keep an eye on new pieces as they are developed, allowing us to become familiar with the artist's style and inquire further when styles have suddenly changed. This will always be a work in progress, but we will stand by our commitment to not allow AI-generated work in our products.

As the world embraces AI, our goal will always be celebrating human achievement, and we want to work with people who believe in that. AI will always take away from human creativity, and we will not knowingly work with artists who have embraced deceptive tactics that take away from that.

First, I want to express my gratitude to our wholesale dice partner, Fanroll, for all that they have done for us with WSD: Fishing and the designs for Fiendish Forge. This is not meant to be a sleight of hand toward them but to inform you about what is happening and why we're redesigning our dice set.

As mentioned, Fiendish Forge is working alongside Fanroll to provide incredible dice sets for you all, since I know Dice Sets are a pretty important part of the TTRPG Culture and to you, the audience.

As you can see below, we were delighted with their design for the Wyvern Blood Liquid Core.

However, in February 2025, I learned that Fanroll had recently gotten a partnership with Wizards of the Coast to make a Dungeons and Dragons Liquid Core Dice set to celebrate D&D 2024's release. When I noticed the dice set they had released, I was very alarmed that the set they are now selling was the same style as the Wyvern Blood Dice Set we advertised for our campaign.  The only exception is that the max dice logo has been replaced with the D&D Ampersand.

Needless to say, I was incredibly distraught discovering this while we were still developing for Fiendish Forge. I contacted Fanroll to inquire further, and they informed me that it was a coincidence and that they were only using D&D's brand colors. They apologized for not catching it on their end.

Because of this, I have asked Fanroll to provide a new design for our Wyvern Blood Dice.  I want our dice sets to reward a unique so that you feel like you're getting something new - and not anywhere else. Finding our dice set was now being sold as something different by another company (the behemoth of all TTRPG companies), but it was not something I wanted our customers to experience.  So, with that, I'd like to introduce our new Wyvern Blood Dice Set!

We are still making some adjustments. I like this style more, including getting the color right on the dice font.  The dice itself has more of a red tint, which I was initially going for to give it a "blood" feel.

I would love to get your thoughts, especially if you are back to set our dice!  Would you want us to stay with what we originally designed, even though another company is now branding it as their own dice set, or do you like the new direction and look we are going for with the Wyvern Blood Dice Set? Does it matter either way to you?  Please be sure to comment below!

Emergency updates in crowdfunding typically spell uncertainty in a project but rest assured; we are still making terrific progress. As we've always stated - the book is done when it's done, and we do not promise release dates or windows if we encounter some bumps. I also believe that we haven't hit any delays.  We were almost wrapped up with our spot arts for quests, but now we have to go back and redo some. Fortunately, the artists developing this were not involved with our prop art development - which was our current focus. We were hoping to move one of our core artists to props, but now they have to work on an additional core illustration for a monster, which will probably take another month - before we move them to props. Ultimately, we're still making significant progress, and I believe we're developing our book after than most crowdfunded books.

At the end of the day, we're still on track to making a fantastic book about Boss Battles, Gathering Materials, and Crafting Monstrous Items for your 5e games (whether you play 2014 or 2024).

It's very easy to be an open book when you're proud of what you're accomplishing. If you have any questions, statements, or concerns, please post them below, and I will answer when able!

Thank you again for your support.

Brett