Hey everyone,
It's been about a month since the last update, so although the PDF isn't quite done yet there's still plenty to share.

I've been busy proofreading while waiting for final layout to finish up. Chapters 1-3 are complete with their final final text, and chapter 4 will be done soon as well. Not a lot to say here other than that!

Layout is largely complete for the entire book, and space has been blocked out for all the artwork. I wanted to make sure that each NPC had their portrait next to their lore info, and that took a bit of work to figure out and make sure that it looks nice. Similarly, the pact entities in chapter 4 have taken a bit of work to keep the layout style for the lore and stat blocks consistent while also making room for their artwork as some stat blocks are much longer than others, but I think the final results will be worth the wait!

Here are some screenshots of spreads from chapter 2 to help tide you over while you wait for the full release.

 
And for those wondering about the final length, the book's page count looks to be coming out to around 200 pages.

A couple months ago I mentioned that I was close to being able to share some pictures of dice - well, I finally have them! These are not the final samples, and the dice manufacturer is not completely set in stone yet, but I wanted to share pictures with you so you can see where they're going. It turns out getting dice to look like an artist's mockup is quite tricky, but I think we've captured the essence of the "Mysteries of Magic" name quite well with these.

Round-edged samples have a lower cost, so that's how these have been finished (the final dice will be sharp-edged). The first image however should give you a bit of an idea how these will look as sharp-edged dice as that's the way they come out of the molds.

The next sample will be trying out a translucent resin for the dark blue color, which should make the dice look just a little less like candy, and keep some of the gold interior coming through on the lowest face. Additionally, the symbol that replaces the 20 will be rotated 180 degrees so that it can be made a bit larger. These samples have been taking about a month to complete, so hopefully by this time next month I'll have some more pictures to share.

Dice Packaging
I've also been looking into packaging for these dice, as I don't think the plastic bag they use by default is going to work well. There are a couple of options depending on the manufacturer I go with, but either way the dice will come in a box with a foam insert to keep them (and their sharp edges) safe.

While layout is taking a bit longer than I'd hoped, we're still way ahead of the originally planned schedule for digital release, and easily on track for the physical release. Completion of layout is almost entirely out of my hands, so once I've finished up my last task with proofreading chapter 4 and getting those edits into the text, it'll be on to making the Shard VTT version. Layout completion is necessary for the Roll20 conversion to begin, but the Foundry conversion should be able to start as soon as I've got the Shard version done.

I won't give any solid dates here for any of this as it's still up in the air a bit, but let's just say "pretty soon" for digital release, and that I expect printing to begin before the end of the year.

We're getting very close to digital release and the start of printing now, and I can't wait to get you the full PDF soon!
- Josh