A fantasy adventure about food, community, and spaghetti wizards for 5th edition.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Backer OCs Reveal
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Jun 06, 2022 at 06:33:24 PM
Hey folks,
The update goblins are hauling something special in their sack this month.
Since our last tear-stained love letter/update email, we’ve gotten back the first round of player OCs, lovingly illustrated by Carlos Sánchez Polo (@CSPstuff).
Carlos took backers' descriptions and references and illustrated them with the care and detail they apply to all their work. One of my favorite additions is the hops detailing they added to the Fermented Grain Monk’s outfit.
Grape (Nathaniel H), Tipsy (Isabella B) Unnamed Character (Chris C)
Franklin Scoops Sherbert (Jordan R), Danny Corgaryen (Vance B)
If you missed out on the Kickstarter OC reward but would like Carlos to draw your Fat Magic character, they currently have commissions open (@CSPstuff).
Coming Soon
We will be releasing a bunch of free stretch goal content as part of next month’s Fat Magic update.
First up is the chill downtime one-shot Get Jjigae With It, written by Fat Magic veteran Lex Kim Bobrow (@titanomachyRPG). There’s no mystery to solve or villain to beat down, just a nice time to have at a magical festival… and maybe some romance.
At the crest of the new year, when hope is as fresh and shocking as a bite of raw ginger, a carnival of spicy delights spills out over the mile-long canyon known as The Gorge. Legend has it that the first stew elemental slipped through the planar membrane at this very spot, searing The Gorge into the landscape with the essence of pure spice. The Great Jjigae Festival springs up in a similar manner every year, as the local stew elementals conjure up a mile of food stalls, games, and magical delights seemingly overnight.
Next up is the long-awaited ranger subclass, the Truffle Hunter, with mechanics also by Lex! This patient forager comes with its own unique class spell, an ability that lets them automatically crit once per rest, and a little pig friend.
Also in the hopper is never seen art for some backer rewards and a couple of bonus freebies but I don’t want to jinx THE PROCESS, so I’m keeping it to myself for now.
Backer OCs and Tasty Lore
over 2 years ago
– Mon, May 09, 2022 at 06:35:02 PM
Hey ho,
Our update payload feels a little light this month, since we spent most of our time and resources finalizing Act II. But don’t worry your pretty little goblin heads none. I’ve got plenty of art and lore in the update cannon and there’ll be a tidy chunk of free content in next month’s update!
OC Art
We’ve officially started the process of shooting your OCs with lightning and bringing them to life. All of the Eat-Like-A-King backer OCs will appear in the book in groups of five, as part of adventuring parties made up of your weird and wonderful player characters.
It’s been wild and emotional watching folks make their Fat Magic characters and envision themselves playing in the world that we’ve been building for two years. And because TTRPG players are the passionate, ultra creative people that they are, you absolutely know we’ve received fully realized art of those characters.
These were too good not to show off, so I got permission from some of our backers to feature them here.
(Note: All of this art was provided by backers and as reference for their character OCs and will not feature in the final book.)
Franklin W. Scoops-Sherbert, gnome artificer. Backer & artist: Jordan, insta @somedudedoesstuff
Gritgotz, goblin druid and creepy animal enjoyer. Backer: Dave C
Uisce, good boy. Backer: Uisce
Tipsy, Way of the Fermented Grain Monk. Backer & artist: I. Jo
Entropian fey kin. Backer: Chris, Artist: insta @alyssar_art & Chris
The Pembroke Chef, Danny Corgaryen. Backer: Vance
The Piemaker and Her Wife
“This Pie for a Pie bakery is embedded directly into the high dirt wall that raises the Jam above the Sponge. The weather-worn facade is in need of a fresh coat of paint or two but the glass window case, full of crusty loaves of bread and golden brown pies, radiates warmth and comfort. A hand-painted sign above the door displays the words “Pie for a Pie” above a fat slice of cherry pie dripping with deep red filling.”
At long last, we have the final art for fan favorite NPCs, The Piemaker Bev Galette, and her wife, Mace Honeycrisp. Bev and Mace are a loving couple and the driving force behind Caketown’s anti-vampire resistance.
These illustrations by Carlos Sánchez Polo (@cspstuff) are based on original designs by Dar (@shutka_l). Due to other obligations, Dar was unable to complete work on these designs but I highly recommend you check out their twitter. It’s full of joyful, queer Star Wars and Disco Elysium art.
Bev Galette and Mace Honeycrisp
Lore Exhibition: The Franchise
To tide you over until next month, here’s a big tasty hunk of lore from the adventure. The following passage is about The Franchise, the mysterious organization that threatens to completely consume the heroes’ entire reality.
SPOILER ALERT: If you plan to play Fat Magic as a player first, it’s recommended that you avoid reading this excerpt as it contains some spoilers for the game's central mystery.
A successful business is one part discipline, one part persistence, and thirteen million parts the other businesses you consume along the way. So goes the motto of The Franchise, the intergalactic conglomerate of realities formed by the all-powerful being known as The Founder.
The Founder started out life, millions of years ago, as a reality much like any other reality. The first merger was an accident, spurred by a growing sense of loneliness and aimless curiosity. There was no way to know what would happen when he crossed into another dimension, but to go on not knowing was to live in torment.
For a brief moment, two realities occupied the same space and functioned as one. Galaxies waltzed and black holes embraced, as divergent principles of magic and science sparred invisibly. And then they started to shred each other from the inside out. Realizing that both realities were about to be destroyed, The Founder tore into the unsuspecting dimension and devoured it with a relish that surprised him.
His first meal was a classic fantasy dimension, complete with waifish elves in silver towers and centuries of dark lords dark lording it up. It was his first taste of magic and it was good.
The Founder, a mundane reality with basic scientific principles keeping its stars afloat, chased the flavor of magic with a catastrophic zeal. He dedicated his existence to invading and merging with magic-infused realities, growing in size with every unsuspecting dimension he consumed.
The change was subtle at first, but The Founder soon found that the larger he became, the more resources he required to sustain his reality-eating operation. He had trapped himself in a never-ending cycle of growth and destruction and, after millennia of growth for growth’s sake, he became too large to pass through the multidimensional threshold to enter new realities.
It dawned on him that if he persisted as a lone operator, he would starve. And so he rebranded as an intergalactic conglomerate of realities called The Franchise and had some kids.
Taking the light of conquered realities, he compressed all their life and stars and magic into the reality diamonds. Ruth was the first reality diamond, a fire-soaked dimension compressed into a flirtatious and chaotic being of raw charm. A thousand years later came the voiceless Alistair, an eldritch domain filled with unspeakable horrors. Gork was a reality without sentient life, a wild untamed expanse of beasts and monsters. Jodie and Duncan were twin realities waging a terrible endless war on one another. Lev was said to be an abstract universe formed entirely of aesthetics and vibes. And Cal… Cal was The Founder's favorite.
Cal and Ruth
And that’s going to do it for this month folks. We’ve got some fresh content in the oven for next month’s update with live releases on our twitter account throughout the month (@FatMagicRpg).
Cheers,
SC
For Whom The Bean Tolls
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 06, 2022 at 02:59:51 PM
Hey folks,
I’ve got a bunch of steaming hot updates for you today, so let’s dig right in!
Update Schedule Update
End of an Era
Production
PEAT
DM Screen Art Finalized
For Whom the Bean Tolls Oneshot
Update Schedule Update
First of all, you can expect an update on the first weekend of every month from now on.
With the Kickstarter behind us and the production process established, the majority of updates will be fresh content and regular routine assurances that we haven’t fled the country with a sack of money.
End of an Era
In personal news, my partner and I moved home and left behind the basement apartment where Fat Magic came to life.
I got the idea for Fat Magic in that basement. It’s where the first version of the game was written. It was the beating heart of the Kickstarter.
But more than anything, it’s where a group of close friends came together and played Fat Magic like their lives depended on it.
It's a little bittersweet to say goodbye to the old dungeon. But our new place has more space to store stacks of Fat Magic and actual windows so Ponyo the dog/potato can sleep in sunbeams and watch birds.
Production
I finished writing Act II of Fat Magic this morning. Now begins the process of picking through it, rewriting anything that sounds stiff or unnatural, and fine-tuning the terrible jokes so that they are just the right amount of terrible.
After this brief adjustment period, the Act will be handed off to the editor Hannah and she will work her magic on it while I start Act III with the playtesters. Act III is a short, high-octane vacation in the desert, with magic food trucks, bandits, and colossal culinary constructs.
Playtest groups 2 and 3 have been invaluable to the process. Each of the three groups approaches problem-solving in wildly different ways, resulting in a ton of extra content being added to the game.
PEAT
After careful consideration, Peat the Potato, who appears throughout Fat Magic’s artwork, has been added to the final game.
Peat started life as Onion the Root Druid’s familiar and became… so much more.
In the release version of Fat Magic, he will be a companion NPC who can join the party at the end of ACT II and inject a little chaos into the group dynamic.
DM Screen Art Finalized
The art for the DM Screen, drawn by the incredible Kinley Raftery (@Kinley_R_Art),
has been finalized. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally complete and it’s breathtaking.
Before I show you the final product, here’s a reminder of the concept art used in the Kickstarter.
And here’s the final result:
Worth the wait, huh?
It’s so bananas to me that in another reality, we might not have found Kinley for Fat Magic. She has become such a defining part of the project, she understands the tone and vibe perfectly, and I never would have met her if I hadn’t been looking to commission a picture of my friends as cute frogs for Christmas.
Find yourself cast in the role of a dark roast detective scrambling to solve a murder at the Annual Coffee Competition before the evidence is washed away like sugar on a coffee spoon. Will you solve the mystery before the end of the competition? Or will you and your party’s lives end by the killer’s hand?
Find out in For Whom the Bean Tolls, an all-new Fat Magic mystery written by Unseelie Aurora (@unseelieaurora).
FAT MAGIC MEGA UPDATE
almost 3 years ago
– Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 10:35:10 PM
Hey folks,
Another year has passed, and the giant hot dog serpent that encircles the world keeps on turning. We’re officially in the year of Fat Magic’s release, provided the global shipping industry doesn’t get sucked into a new black hole.
It may seem like it’s been a little quiet on our end, but the past couple of months have been anything but. I’m extremely excited to share all of our progress with you fine folks.
But before I do, I have a huge announcement from a member of the Fat Magic family. Amber Seger, layout and graphic designer for Fat Magic, has illustrated a new roleplaying game that’s available to purchase right now!
Adorablins is a super cute and easy-to-learn storytelling game. You play as dimension-hopping Goblins going on wild adventures and causing adorable mayhem in fantastical locations like the Fairy Forest, Mushroom Mountain, and a Shopping Mall.
The game is inspired by the Powered by the Apocalypse system used by tabletop RPGs like Apocalypse World, Monster Hearts, and Avatar Legends. It plays like a conversation where everyone at the table works together to tell a story. Everything you need to play is in a portable mint tin box that fits right in your pocket.
Adorablins is coming off the back of a super successful Kickstarter, but don’t worry if you missed it. The game is already available to buy through regular, non-Kickstarty means.
Like the divine union between PB and J, we’ve struck a harmony between writing and playtesting, and made some big improvements to the book in the process!
ACT II has expanded to include new NPCs, magic items, a cooking challenge, and a full dungeon crawl. It’s about twice the size of the original Caketown from playtest one and it’s really come into its own in playtests two & three.
All of this is in service of making ACT II a linchpin moment in the Fat Magic story to draw your players into the central mystery and give them the time and incentive to become invested in the plight of the people of Caketown.
Hollandaise, Deep-Fried Cockatrice, and Pavlov Volauvent by Carlos Sánchez Polo (@CSPstuff).
Both active playtests are now coming to the end of their time in Caketown. They’ve rebelled against vampire overlords, encountered horror-themed food monsters, fell in love, got wrapped up in an interdimensional conspiracy, and made a bunch of weird friends.
Soon, our adventurers will strike out towards Leftonburner through the treacherous Sopressata Desert.
“You Gave the Barbarian Caffeine!?”
Introducing our latest custom subclass, the Path of the Cold Brute Barbarian: an anxious brawler with an arsenal of caffeinated weaponry.
The Cold Brute doesn’t sleep, uses dexterity for attacks when raging, and can slow the battlefield around them by channeling frozen cold brew through their veins. And they’ll make you mean cup of coffee if you tip well!
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how this excellent pun would translate into a subclass, but it came together beautifully in the design stage. As always, the mechanics were formulated by Fat Magic subclass designer Lex Kim Bobrow (@titanomachyRPG). And the class includes some stunning, anime edgelord-inspired art by Fat Magic artist Carlos Sánchez Polo (@CSPstuff).
Fat Magic superstar artist Kinley Raftery (@Kinley_R_Art) has been hard at work creating four beautiful pieces of art for our epic DM screen that follows the journey of an embattled Fat Magic party going on the adventure of their lives.
There’s still work to be done on panels 2 & 3, but you can really see how this baby is coming together. After a brief sojourn in the sun, Kinley is going right back into the art mines to finish it up.
Coming Soon
That’s it for today, but we’ve got a bunch of free content scheduled to drop soon! The Toastmaster Bard is going through some final edits and then heading straight to design. We have a one-shot written by Unseelie Aurora (@unseelieaurora) almost ready for release. And, as a special surprise, we are working on a subclass crossover event with a New York Times bestseller comic book series.
All Released Content to Date
about 3 years ago
– Sat, Dec 04, 2021 at 01:18:12 AM
Hey folks!
This is just a quick update to remind you to fill in your surveys and make sure you have access to all the released Fat Magic content.
84% of backers have filled out their surveys, so far. That’s great! But we want to get that number as close to 100% as possible so everyone gets their books.
Don’t forget! Those of you near Baltimore can save on shipping by selecting “local pickup” and picking up your loot in person.
With that out of the way, here’s every cool thing we’ve released so far, including the all-new Habgoblin Player Ancestry designed in collaboration with @PFizzlebang.
