Hagglethorn Hollow

We are Shipping*
over 3 years ago – Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 11:38:38 AM

We are so happy to say that all our product has now left China and on the way to fulfillment centers for backers in the USA, Canada, UK, EU, Asia, and New Zealand. *The only remaining region that is yet to leave China is our Australia shipment and which we should have a date for very soon. The Australian shipping route is the shortest of all of them but has been problematic to secure a space.

Some of these shipments did leave China almost two weeks ago but we held off making the news public until we had more info on Australia but have decided to go ahead with the current info. We were apprehensive about announcing anything too early due to situations changing on us in the past.

When shipments do arrive in each country, there will be a certain amount of time for customs and clearances to occur and that is very hard to estimate at this time, however, the estimated arrival dates for the shipments arriving in each region are as follows. Please know that this is just an estimate and the shipping industry is still in quite a state of flux. 

USA/Canada - 11th and 20th Jan, UK - 12th Jan, EU - 24th Jan, NZ - 16th Jan, AUS - TBC

Here a quick video from Johnny and Ike with some more info and a current state of play for everything. We do tend to ramble on at times, and some of our avid followers may find us repeating information that we have already released as well.

Johnny has also completed the character portraits for the winners of the last competition as well and is very excited to reveal them to everyone now.

A note from Johnny -  I had as much fun creating these as I did reading everyone’s character descriptions. It’s so overwhelmingly cool and inspiring to know that backers are going to be populating Hagglethorn Hollows with such creativity. As a conceptual designer for films, the first pass on a director’s brief is always the richest outpouring of creativity for me as an artist. I love getting those first formed images out of my mind and into reality. It was just as rewarding for me to provide this for a few of our backers as another expression of thanks for your ongoing support and patience.

First up is Minotaur, and more precisely, the Barbarian Minotaur Bounty Hunter hailing from the deciduous plane of Varguul. The idea of an already imposing Minotaur wearing the hide of a slain Wyvern was too cool to pass up, and I tackled this character first for our winner -  Joseph Dodge from Michigan, USA. The white fur instead of the customary brown was an additional spark of originality, which helped pop this guy as a real stand out for me.

I have always loved Dwarves, especially burly ginger ones like “Orsik Battlehammer” who came from the mind of Paul Franklin from SA, Australia. In the words of Paul, he is “an armor-plated life Cleric whose goal in life is to keep everyone alive for the adventure!”. This guy came with some really distinct costuming notes like the anvil motive beard adorning's and a long ‘pointing pipe’, which helped bring him to life in my mind too.

Lastly were the Tabaxi kitten folk from described by two young sisters River and Indigo from Reading, England who play a campaign with their dad. I’ll be honest, ‘cute’ characters are not really my forte but I just thought it was really cool that two sisters were going to play D&D in the streets of Hagglethorn Hollow and so, I really could not pass up the challenge of this one. Also, I'm a huge fan of pets and familiars in both D&D and character design, so the idea of cats with pets was too good to turn down.

We thank everyone again for all your patience and understanding over this very challenging production. We know that some backers are wanting us to release more updates more often, but we just didn’t want to be continually repeating information if there was no new information to announce that was beneficial to know. Even worse, we never want to speculate on any situation when we don’t have all the relevant information and especially in areas where we are not qualified to comment. We have done this in the past and while we believed we had all the info, we should have exercised far more caution as it was soon shown our info was incorrect.

Again, these are times of continuous flux across so many industries and facing challenges that have never had to be considered. We are far from being alone facing these issues and feel for the companies out there who have not been as fortunate as us to weather this storm. We wish them all the best and hope they make it through too.

Please feel free to continue to DM us through our Kickstarter page. This has been the best platform for us to track things as we have all your info there on hand. Also, feel free to ask JK any general questions via the comment board too, and if he is unsure about a query, he will engage with us to make sure the information he presents is accurate.

Again, we thank you all for our outgoing support and passion for this project. We hope everyone is doing well out there and are staying safe. Have a fantastic Xmas and New Year. 

The TTG Team 

RPG Characters Portrait Winners
over 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 07, 2020 at 03:15:39 AM

As a conceptual artist for Weta Workshop, bringing a character to life to help realize the vision of the director has always been an incredibly exciting part of the creative process of filmmaking. Now I’m so excited to do the same thing for a few of our incredible backers.

Again, thank you to everyone who entered or commented on entries, the quality of character descriptions made the competition very tight. I was so impressed with the entries, and after quite a bit of deliberation, I’ve managed to narrow it down to these winners.

THE BARBARIAN

My first selection was Joseph Dodge from Michigan, USA, with his character“Gor’, the Barbarian Minotaur Bounty Hunter hailing from the deciduous plane of Varguul.

By Joseph - "A bounty hunter by trade, this hulking barbarian wields a great sword made from the blackened steel of a broken siege engine. With a heavy pauldron made from the same material, he completes his contracts concealed under a cloak made of the hide of a wyvern. From under the olive green hood, two horns curl upwards from his scarred face. His massive stature and imposing accent are well known on his plane. His alabaster skin and deep reddish-brown hair are infamous to many. Often seen in the extraplanar bar The Tavern of Wayward Souls, he is in constant search for bounties on any available plane as he seeks to earn a fortune for himself and his guild.”

What can I say, I love creature features, I love Bounty Hunters, and Barbarians are just so fun to illustrate. This character came with some very clear equipment descriptions which captured my passion for the whimsical, I don’t want to just paint this guy up; I want to go on a quest with him!

THE DWARF

My second choice was Paul Franklin from SA, Australia, with his red-haired Dwarf “Orsik Battlehammer.” An armor-plated life Cleric whose goal in life is to keep everyone alive for the adventure!

By Paul - "This ginger-haired dwarf always carries a Gandalf size pipe, jokingly called a pipe of pointing with +1 to pointing, and a pipe replica is often used at the table for fun. Orsik’ss relics (anvil and a boot) are braided into his heavily braided beard. His hammer and shield are always close by, with his shield depicting the healer's symbol on its face. His armor is a well-worn plate due to his willingness to take a hit to keep his party safe.”

I was so impressed by Paul's efforts to craft practical tabletop experiences for his party, and dwarven mines have to be one of my favorite fantasy settings. I don’t think I’ve designed a dwarven character since designing Dori and Bombur for Peter Jacksons Hobbit Trilogy, so I am really looking forward to tackling this guy.

ROGUE & DRUID

And my last choice was from Martial Cijs of Reading, England, who submitted the character descriptions from his 2 daughters River and Indigo, for their characters. Nine-year-old River’s Tabaxi Rogue named “Salt in the Sea” and her six-year-old sister Indigo’s Tabaxi Druid named “Leaves in Trees” will be getting painted up. I couldn’t decide between them, so I decided to do sketches of them both! I love the imagination that kids bring to their characters. The thought that families will be playing D&D together in Hagglethorn Hollow is so rewarding and exciting for me.

By River - "A little Tabaxi Rogue, called “Salt in the Sea,” padding in the snow. She is black with white paws and has two different colored eyes, one yellow one blue. She is wearing a brown adventurers hat and blue leather fingerless gloves. The 10-year-old Salt gently puts her paw into a trader’s pocket and pulls out a sparkling, gold coin. She became a rogue because she was abandoned on the street and had to steal food.

She is walking up a cliff when she hears a whipping noise, and she gets down on all fours and sprints as fast as she can towards it. She is amazed to see a cart being pulled by a dozen little snow dragons the size of small monkeys that are constantly being whipped by two men. “STOP,” she screeched in alarm and anger. Suddenly, all the ropes keeping the dragons onto the cart snapped! Salt felt out of breath and dizzy. One little dragon scurried out of the group running towards the big forest to hide behind Salts legs. The drivers of the cart dashed off after the escaping dragons shouting over their shoulders. Salt cautiously stepped onto the cart whilst saying "I will call you Frost, “ and the snow dragon followed. Frost gently positioned herself on Salts’ shoulder. They sped down the cliff leaving the top of the cliff quiet.

By Indigo - "A medium-sized tabaxi druid called “Leaves in Trees.” Leaves was a black cat with white paws. Leaves was splashing her paw at the waves, hoping to catch a fish. It was wearing a mini pink t-shirt and waterproof gloves. Just then, she saw something in the corner of her eye… …it was a flying cat! Through astonished eyes, she saw it leap into the air and spread its marvelous wings and circle around Leaves’ head! It looked like a normal tortoise-shell cat, but with wings.'What shall I name it?' she thought. Just then, she had a brilliant idea!’I know!’Cried leaves.' Fluffy!’ Fluffy nodded happily."

And those are our winners!  Whilst I didn't plan to select a character from each class, in the above, we may well have our first fellowship of adventurers for Hagglethorn Hollow. 

Thanks again everyone for entering. I can’t wait to start and am looking forward to spending time illustrating these colorful characters over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for the reveals, and as always, thanks for your support!

Johnny.

Shipping News and a New Competition
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 03:45:05 PM

We are very aware that shipping updates and delivery times are of the most interest to our backers right now and it is our aim to keep everyone updated with new developments. For those who already are aware, shipments were scheduled to leave last week. However, like many other businesses under the present conditions, we are still experiencing delays with shipping our products out of China.

We will inform everyone as soon as they ship and do our best to streamline as many of the shipping processes for each delivery region once the products arrive in each area. We will still also inform all customers before products ship from fulfillment centers so that any address changes/updates can be made.

We are still watching for further developments and additional information about Brexit and the changes coming into effect next year. For those concerned, the information from our fulfillment/shipping partners - Quartermaster Logistics, has not changed, and are still confident we will have no issues with fulfillment.

New Competition - RPG Characters Portraits by Johnny Fraser-Allen

As we spoke about in one of our recent updates, we are running another competition to further show our continued appreciation for everyone's patience and support.

It's no secret that Hagglethorn Hollow was born out of our creative director, Johnny’s love of Tabletop Role-Playing. In addition to creating a township in three dimensions to play in, he also can't help himself but illustrate his party members as well. Here are some examples from a recent D&D campaign including Johnny’s very own character Soddington Ottersluice. (last image)

Introducing Soddington Ottersluice, High Wizard of the Wandering Woods. He wears the traditional garments of his tribe made up of woven natural woodland fibers in forest hues with a cape of ivy leaves. His flax woven packs are filled with the slugs and herbs he uses for spells and potions. He wears a hat that is a cognoscente mushroom creature, while he is mute, he very much understands himself to be the hero and the stump below him to be no more than his mount. Soddington wields a staff that holds stone tablets between an abacus he uses to more accurately calculate his spells. Though short in stature, he stands at eye level to a standard human on account of his wandering stump mount, Stumpunctious Knott. Also mute, this stump carries out the functions of mobility and emulates the gestures of his Gnomish rider. Stumpunctious is bound to Soddington through ancient magic and they more or less exist as one single entity.

What you can win!

We are offering exclusively to our backers, including late pledge backers, the chance to win 1 of 3 personalized character portraits created in a similar fashion. Each piece of art will be personally created by Johnny and be based on your description of your character. It could be a character that you have played with over many campaigns or a new character, who may very well start their journey in Hagglethorn Hollow.

The winners will be sent both digital and signed physical copies of their completed portraits.

How to Enter 

Simply reply in the comments to this update with your character’s name, class, and a brief description. Backers are also allowed to enter multiple times. For Hagglethorn Hollow late pledge backers who are not able to comment on this update, you can enter by sending us a DM via our Facebook page with your entry. Link here - TTG Facebook Page

Entries are open from now until Sun 29th Nov, 11 pm EST.  Johnny will then select 3 winners on the 1st Dec. Link to Terms and Conditions

Again, as we have expressed many times, we are so thankful for everyone hanging in there with us. We are very grateful for our Hagglethorn community and will keep everyone updated as new information is presented to us.

Thanks again, stay safe, and best of luck in winning your own personalised character portrait!

The TTG Team

Shipping Update - Shortest Update ever!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 11:08:43 AM

Welcome to the shortest update from us to date, yet probably the most exciting update ever from TTG! 

Hagglethorn Hollow is shipping out of China next week! Yes, after all these delays and a shipping queue that seemed to never end, we have had confirmation that the shipment will be on the water and finally leaving the shores of China. About a week after transit begins, we should be able to give estimates on delivery times for each specific region.

Again, if you have had a change of address, please send a message to TTG via Kickstarter. These are still possible. 

Thanks again for all your patience and understanding. Addtionaly, once the New Zealand shipment arrives we will then be able to complete the Making of Hagglethorn Hollow Book with its final content and then print and send the book separately soon after.

Thanks again from the TTG team

General Updates, Dungeon Floor Plans and the Light at the end of the Tunnel.
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 08:10:22 PM

Hello everyone, 

We planned to have an update out last week but held off as we have been hoping to provide some more definitive dates for shipping. We don't have any real exciting news for this update, and while production is complete, we are now just waiting in the shipping queue I’m afraid. Hopefully, we get some news soon on a leaving date and the moment we do, we will be announcing it across all our platforms, shouting it with an unparalleled sense of relief and joy! However, there are a few quick things we can address in this update.

More Floor Plans - The Dungeons!

We are pleased to release the next set of Hagglethorn Hollow floor plans. Like with Series 1, these are also free to our community to download for personal non-commercial use only. Series 1 is still available as well and can be found using the link below. The Dungeons have also been added to that link. 

Hagglethorn Hollow Floor Plans - https://tinyurl.com/y3hplzsw

The plans released today in series 2 include:

• Medium Dungeon (DGM) - This works with the Medium Ground Floor (GFM), the Storehouse Ground Floor, and the Stronghold Ruins.
• Large Dungeon (DGL) - This works with the Large Ground Floor (GFM) and the Palace Ruins.

As with the first series, these maps have been designed to be printed at A3. As printing software and printers are varied, you may need to tweak some scaling settings on your setup for improved accuracy. To increase accuracy, adjust your settings so that the grid is at 1" spacing. Most printers will be fairly accurate but for those of you wanting even more accuracy, you will have that guide to aid you.

Address changes

Address changes are still possible and we will keep the option to update addresses available for as long as possible.  To update your address, just DM us on Kickstarter and we will make the change for you and confirm the change as well.

Additionally, when orders are sent to any of our backers in the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, you will also be sent an email from the fulfillment company prior to delivery that will give you an additional opportunity to change your address if required.

Order Adjustments

While we would love to be able to keep offering our loyal customers the ability to keep adding to orders, we have had to halt all additional requests. If you have made a request that we haven't resolved yet, we will still complete those for you.

More Comps!

The reaction we have had from the previous comps has been very positive, but we acknowledge that some backers have felt we use them as a diversion. We had always planned to run a couple of competitions but wanted to increase these as a positive form of engagement during the delay. We want to show both our continued appreciation for our backers as well as give some positive things to focus on while we wait. 

After talking to some of our backers recently about this, we feel we are going to run some more. We really are overwhelmed with gratitude for the ongoing support and trust you have in us, and we believe this is a great way to show it. New comps will be announced soon.

Thanks again everyone. We are so close and we can't wait to let you all know that 1000's of items are on their way to you all. Boxes upon boxes with 1000's of Hagglethorn Hollow pieces are waiting to ship out! There are some port constraints that are out of our control but expect shipping to commence anytime from here forward - as we said above, we will shout it from the rooftops when this happens.

Thanks again for all your support, 

The TTG team