A tabletop fantasy adventure RPG centered on a village community.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Status Report
about 1 month ago
– Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 11:20:35 AM
Hi everyone,
Here's where we're at:
I've received the printer's proofs for the books and slipcase. I'm currently reviewing them and will be sending my notes back to the printer by Friday. Almost everything looks great—the print quality is fantastic, and it's super exciting to see everything laid out in close-to-final form! (Note: The prototype slipcase in this image is blank, but the final will feature a printed pattern.)
I say almost everything because there are a few file corrections I need to make, but most importantly, the paper I chose is too thin. You can see in the image below that there's a fair amount of "show-through," where printing on one side of a page is visible on the reverse. A little show-through is to be expected in a 600-page book (because the paper needs to be fairly thin), but at this level it's pretty distracting. So I will be asking for thicker paper. This will in turn impact the overall thickness of the books and require the slipcase to be revised, but that shouldn't impact our schedule and WILL NOT change shipping costs.
(Sharp-eyed viewers may notice that the pages in this image are not supposed to face each other, but that's just because the pages in the dummy books are filler. The dummies are for evaluating the size, feel, and overall quality, not for checking page order.)
Estimated production schedule: Once these changes are requested and approved—which should happen within the next week—we are looking at 4 weeks for production (10K sets of books, finished and packed by hand), 1 week to receive and approve sample copies, then another ~6 weeks for our 20+ tons (!) of books to reach North America and the UK/EU. So the first week of May would be the absolute earliest that our partners at Plus One will be able to start shipping them out to backers and customers.
I am currently finalizing the release PDFs, which will be distributed to everyone at the end of this week. At the same time, I will be removing the pre-release files that have been available to backers on Dropbox.
Pre-orders will be reopened on Friday, February 20th, marking our move to Plus One's platform for public sales of the game. The book set will be priced at $100 and the PDF-only version will be priced at $40. We'll be be sharing the fresh pre-order link far and wide when the time comes.
I'll post another update in a few days, once the final release PDFs have been distributed to backers.
Best wishes from the snowy woods of of Vermont, Jason
Important Fulfillment Updates & Last Call for Changes
about 2 months ago
– Sat, Feb 07, 2026 at 06:31:14 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Important Update
about 2 months ago
– Sun, Feb 01, 2026 at 06:29:30 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Last Chance for Stonetop Pre-Orders: Jan 9th
3 months ago
– Tue, Jan 06, 2026 at 08:22:36 AM
[This is a public update. Apologies to backers for any redundant info!]
The final chapters of Stonetop are complete and laid out. Jason and I are in the final flurry of editing, indexing, and proofreading. Lucie is working on the last few pieces of art. The plan is to send files to the printer in mid-January, in order to have books ready to ship by late February.
To that end, the last day to pre-order Stonetop is January 9th (23:59 US Eastern Standard Time). After that, the PDFs and books will be available for purchase as soon as they arrive at our distributor's warehouse, but at a higher price.
Please note that shipping costs will be higher (see below) than those currently quoted on the Backerkit page.
THE FINAL PRODUCT The original plan for Stonetop was for two books, each around 300 pages. We’ve ended up with two books that are each around 600 pages, fully illustrated by Lucie Arnoux.
Book I: Stonetop includes the rules of the game, of course. But it also includes tons (tons!) of actionable guidance on how to run the game, how to create content for it, how to work with your players to make your game the best experience possible. My intent and hope is that it serves as a resource that GMs can come back to again and again, and keep finding value in it.
Book II: The Wider World and Other Wonders is the setting guide. It’s not meant to be a setting bible, but rather a resource that you can exploit and pick from, with plenty of intentional blanks and tools to help you fill them and to make each group’s version of Stonetop unique.
You can find some reviews of the game here:
“I have a lot to say about Stonetop but the tl;dr for those with short attention spans is: This is a hecking great game. It could be your forever game.”
“Strandberg's writing for Stonetop is elegant & evocative. The game follows the principle of 'anticanon' — it exists in a specific fictional world, but canonical details are often left up to each group.”
SHIPPING Because the books are about twice the size we originally estimated and 4+ years have passed, shipping costs will be higher than what is currently being shown on Backerkit. Those shipping costs were set shortly after the Kickstarter completed. Final shipping costs will be communicated via Backerkit once they are finalized.
Can I still buy the game after January 9th? Yes! PDFs and hardcopies will be available via our distributor, hopefully starting in mid to late February. Prices will be higher, however (ballpark estimates: $30-40 for the PDFs, at least $100 plus shipping for physical; final numbers to be determined).
We had previously planned to print only enough copies to cover the pre-orders, but we are now planning to do a larger run in order to support ongoing sales.
I backed/pre-ordered at the digital/PDF level, how do I upgrade to the physical books? If you backed the Kickstarter, you should be able to access and manage your pledge via Backerkit. If you can’t find your Stonetop pledge on Backerkit, click this link and follow the instructions. Once you’re at the “Almost done! Confirm your information” page, scroll down to "Add-on Items" box and click "Edit Add-ons." You can add the physical books to your order there.
For folks who pre-ordered directly from Backerkit, log into your Backerkit account. From there, you should have an option to edit your order to include the physical books.
Remember, add-ons and pre-orders will be locked at midnight on January 9th!
How do I change my shipping address and/or payment method on Backerkit? Same as above: click this link, follow the instructions, and when you get to the “Almost done! Confirm your information” page, scroll down to find the areas where you can edit your info.
Will there be a print-on-demand option? As of right now, there are no plans to offer a PoD version of the game. We’re not ruling it out entirely, but it’s low in the Lampblack & Brimstone “to do” list.
Why did this take so long? I, Jeremy, drastically underestimated the amount of work required to finish the game as I envisioned it. At the same time, I drastically overestimated my ability to crank out said work while also holding down a demanding full-time job.
Honestly: I don’t know what I was thinking when we set our original plans and dates.
Why not reduce scope? Ultimately, it boils down to “I didn’t want to.” We had set a high bar with the materials already in place when we went to Kickstarter. Reducing scope would have required both paring back some of the content we’d already finished, or cutting content that I felt would leave the game feeling incomplete.
We’re extremely proud of the final product. Hopefully, you’ll agree it was worth the wait.
— Jeremy
Good News for the New Year
3 months ago
– Thu, Jan 01, 2026 at 01:06:29 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
