AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN

What a Campaign!
7 months ago – Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 08:08:27 AM

Thanks to you, AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN lives. 

Words cannot express how psyched I am to have been a part of this. This was my first crowdfunding campaign, and no amount of research, preparation, or liquid courage can fully eliminate the panic I felt when I hit that "go live" button back on February 5th. But your support allowed us to fund way beyond my expectations, and has brought AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN, kicking and screaming, to bloody life. 

I took the weekend off to celebrate, but Monday morning has found me back at my desk, working furiously to get this book into your TPK-loving hands as soon as possible. Right now, the book is done with layout, and is in its second editing (proofreading) pass. There's two pieces of art that need to be slotted in, but the art is complete and we're looking to head to the printers by the end of the month. 

Right now, we're just waiting on Kickstarter funds to be charged and delivered. You've probably already gotten the alert that your payment method has been charged, but check to make sure there's no issues so you don't accidentally lose out on your pledge! As mentioned before, we will be using Backerkit pledge manager for fulfillment and reward surveys, but we can only send those out to people who have successfully pledged here on Kickstarter. 

Speaking of, we will be offering options to enhance your pledge and purchase add-ons through the Backerkit pledge manager, including some very limited chances to snag a few extra Cave Paper- or Vellum-bound copies of the book. These are a Kickstarter-exclusive and will not be reprinted or sold on our webstore, so this is truly your last chance!

But for now, just sit tight and let us work our (dark) magic here at D&C. We'll be in touch soon with PDFs, reward surveys, and shipping news.  May your dice roll crits and your players weep. BRING ON THE BLOODBATH!

-Dale L. Houston, Duck and Crow Press

72 Hours Remaining!
7 months ago – Tue, Mar 03, 2026 at 04:20:39 AM

With just over 4 days to go, we've hit $6,500 and another stretch goal!

And this one is really cool: every backer is going to get a unique postcard, with art from the book on the front and useful gaming information on the back. This will be printed on high-quality, sturdy paper like our other physical handouts -- suitable for framing or mailing! (Digital backers will get a PDF version of the postcard, of course.)

We're just about four days away from the end of the campaign, and with two more stretch goals to go we really want to rev up the hype machine and finish strong. 

Being a publisher means I always look forward to mail day, but the arrival of this shiny (and hefty!) foil-stamp die just about made me squeel with glee. This is going to be pressed right into the fancy cave paper cover of our limited-edition version of AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN, providing a wonderful tactile reminder of just how much passion and craft we're putting into this.

I was also able to run some Bloodbath Dungeons at CincyCon over the weekend, adding a few more names to the ever-growing Blood Donor list. The "Queen City Quarrelers" fought valiantly, bickered in a way befitting their name, and died with honor. Which just leaves the question... 

Who's Next???
-Dale L. Houston, Duck and Crow Press

Book Proofs, Deer Vellum, and an Actual Play!
7 months ago – Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 06:55:08 AM

We've got a really cool update for y'all today.

With just ten days to go, the team here at Duck and Crow are already working hard to make AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN the best book we can possibly produce. Your patronage has brought us this far, so I wanted to take a moment to show y'all where your money is going. 

Physical Proofs!

I just received the physical print proofs from The Warlock, and they are every bit as awesome as I hoped. This is a really high-quality product, and there's no doubt in my mind that you folk are going to love it just as much as I do. If you want to see me do a full flip-through, check it out here on Bluesky or Instagram!

Actual Play!

One of my favorite local game stores, Mox Archives and Games, was eager to test their luck against the Bloodbath Dungeon, and I was more than happy to provide. If you missed their twitch.tv livestream, you can still catch all the action on Youtube here:

Deer Hide Vellum!

This is the big one. From the moment I first conceived of AND HE SHALL EAT THE SUN, I knew I wanted to do an actual, historical vellum binding. The problem is, vellum  is hard to come by, and the ones that still do charge appropriately for their work. 

Thanks to the success of the project, I knew we were going to be able to do real vellum. But just this week I was able to secure a provider of ethically-sourced deer hide vellum that is absolutely perfect to grace the cover of Veldtjarn's living labyrinth. If there's another TTRPG wrapped in actual deer, I don't know it!

 

Other Cool Projects!

Some TTRPG creators get so caught up in creating stuff that they forget to play it. Not me, though. I'm always checking out what's new and interesting in the scene, and after meeting the creator of Druskara: A Brutal Fantasy World Setting for Shadowdark at PAGE last week I was blown away by what she showed me. If you're into old-school, high-consequence, dark-fantasy roleplaying (and you better be, or you're on the wrong page!) you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not following this project. 

Already funded, but DAMN I love the idea of this game! It looks cool, I backed it, and it is about fighting things worth fighting against. Why would you not support this release from Bright Bard Games?  Check out Axolotl With A Gun 2nd Edition. 1 Day remains! Pew pew!

U are goblins in an army of goblins. U ride into battle on your greatest weapon... WAR PIGS. WAR PIGS is a chaotic, two-stat GMless TTRPG about goblins navigating through elvish enemy lines to get back to their own army base. THIS IS MY KIND OF CHAOS! On top of it all, Side Quest Books and Games is an awesome FLGS that is into indie creators and supporting !

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Remember, there's still 10 days left in the campaign and plenty of stretch goals to unlock, and they only get gnarlier from here. So keep sharing the project with your friends and fans on social media, because every bit helps! 

-Dale L. Houston, Duck and Crow Press

3 Stretch Goals Defeated!
8 months ago – Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 08:40:40 AM

A huge Thank You to all the backers and supporters so far!

As of this writing we are at 100 Backers, approaching Stretch Goal #4, and have just a little more than 2 weeks to go! You're helping this project succeed beyond my wildest expectations, so I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it before jumping into the news.

Paper Upgrades!

I owe you an update on the paper upgrades; sorry for the delay! The Warlock has returned from his well-earned vacation (and boy howdy, did that man get a tan). He was clearly swamped catching up with work when I stopped by, but because he is awesome he made time for me and I managed to get a short interview. Check it out here to see a master of his craft talk shop: https://www.instagram.com/p/DU27onCD_Py/

After catching up, we reviewed our paper choices and decided that for the main book we'll be going with a nice, tactile 70lb stock for the interior pages, and a ridiculously cool 100lb linen-finish paper for the cover. And we figured since we are going nuts with the cover, we might as well upgrade the BLOOD DONOR list to the same 100lb linen as well. 

Suffice it to say, these are going to look and feel SICK!

Profit Sharing!

I'm pleased as punch to be able to have this goal achieved.

... that didn't sound very punk. Let me try again.

FUCK YEA! Every artists I work with gives their all to bring their strange interpretations of my twisted visions to life. Being able to offer them a cut of any profits after everything is said and done not only feels good, it is the right thing to do. Yes, this is what I'm doing for a living, but it isn't happening in a vaccuum -- community is real, and sharing success is only going to help everyone in the long run.

Post Cards (Next Stretch Goal)!

The final design hasn't been decided, but we've been making prototype post cards. As you can see from this pile of potentials, we aren't taking this "End of the World" thing too seriously. Lighten up and loot some treasure, ya mooks! We'll probably keep the final design a surprise.

Organic Cartography!

Old School Jelly has just finished all 4 levels of the grisly maps for our Savior and Living Dungeon Veldtjarn. Here is a peek at Level 1 laid out in the 17" x 22" format (which is 2 Stretch Goals away, but I'm the kind of guy who gets his hopes up as general practice).

Overall Progress

The art is nearly complete (4 pieces left to go and they are all in progress), the writing is done, and we'll do one last editing review once full layout is complete. When the Kickstarter closes, it should just be a matter of printing and shipping!

Note on the Fancy Bindings: Just to set expectations, these are going to take longer that the other books! Hand-producing 20 books doesn't happen overnight, but don't worry -- we'll keep you updated on the progress.

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That's all for today. There's still 18 days left in the campaign and plenty of stretch goals to unlock, and they only get gnarlier from here. So keep sharing the project with your friends and fans on social media, because every bit helps!

-Dale L. Houston, Duck and Crow Press

Second Stretch Goal Achieved!
8 months ago – Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 10:08:07 AM

Thanks to all you awesome nerds, we've smashed the first two stretch goals in just five days!

I really like to give out the details of the upgraded Blood Donor list and book paper, but here's the deal: my printer is on vacation, and he deserves it. Daily Printing serves the North Shore area tirelessly, which includes pulling my bacon out of the fire when I needed some reprints on short notice. 

It pays to be flexible when working with small local businesses, so as soon as he is back from his expedition, we'll get you specs on the upgrades and (hopefully!) some proofs. I'm also going to try and get him to do a short video interview... I'm not 100% certain he knows I call him "The Warlock," but we'll find out!

In the meantime, our next stretch goal is one I'd really love to hit soon: Profit Sharing! If we do, it'll allow me to pay out a bonus to the artists and illustrators who helped bring this project to life, and after everything is printed and shipped out to you fine backers a portion of the remaining funds will go towards creating contracts that give royalties to artist on future projects. I want Duck and Crow Press to be known for more than just absolutely kick-ass products; I want it to become a leader in equity among the Indie Press scene too. It might be a lofty goal, but if we don't try to get there, we never will.

That's all for today's transmission, but there's still 25 days left in the campaign and plenty of stretch goals to unlock, and they only get cooler from here. So keep sharing the project with your friends and fans on social media, because every bit helps!

-Dale L. Houston, Duck and Crow Press