The Game Master's Deck of Boons and Banes

tl;dr version

I worked with Media Lab Books to write this 5e supplement! It comes out Oct. 1, but you can pre-order it here.

long version

The Game Master’s Deck of Boons and Banes brings the thrill of epic adventures and dire consequences to your tabletop games with 40 stunningly illustrated cards!

Boons bestow powerful abilities, like navigating planes with ease or controlling magical darkness, while banes impose challenges, such as being harried by mischievous imps or attacked by your own treacherous shadow.

Each card includes effects, quest hooks, and scaling guidance, offering endless dynamic gameplay possibilities.

SO.... I've been working on this since last September 😳

I can't tell you how much work and love and thought has gone into each and every card. First it was just me banging my head against the empty page for a few months (with Josh on standby to give his thoughts!) and then a few more months of going back and forth with my editor, Jeff Ashworth, who was absolutely indispensable and really helped transform my mainly ~vibes-based~ ideas into practical gameplay elements. The easiest part of this whole process was working with the artist, Tim Foley, who basically ONLY delivered excellence.

This deck is joining a line-up of incredible 5e titles from Media Lab Books. This has been my first time working with a traditional publisher, and it's been a huge learning experience! The latest thing I've learned is that pre-orders are hugely impactful to the success of a product like this.

This product will be stocked in stores like Barnes & Noble and Target, and those big name, brick-and-mortar stores use pre-order numbers as a guide for placement and promotion. So if I can drive a lot of pre-orders, the deck will get better placement in stores, which will in turn lead to better sales. But if I can't, it may end up in some dark corner where people only find it if they're actively seeking it out. This will absolutely make the difference in whether or not I make back my advance and start actually earning royalties from deck sales.

This is... terrifying, since I'm competing with actual, big-deal writers and publishers, who have much bigger budgets and broader reach than me! So if you want to support my first foray into traditional publishing, please considering pre-ordering the deck from your preferred seller.

The top three will likely have the biggest impact on promotion (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target), but I also highly recommend Bookshop.org, which supports independent booksellers, and also has the pre-order listed for a slight discount right now.

Whether you pre-order the deck or not, I just want to thank you all for your patience and your support while I work on projects like this, which often slow down my more public work and leave me looking very quiet even while I'm sweating behind the scenes! This is not the only major writing project I have coming out over the next few months and I cannot WAIT to finally have them all out in the world!