Legend in the Mist RPG

Refining The Recipe + Q&A session + 5e Crossover Tool + Acorn Dice!
9 months ago – Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 09:06:47 AM

Hi there companions,

Still Working On Hearts Of Ravendale Drop

First thing's first - we will not be dropping Chapter 1 of Hearts of Ravensdale today as planned. Although we've been working on it diligently, it's just not ready yet at the level of quality we want it to be.

The causes for the delays are a cross between:

• A massive workload around the digital release of Legend In The Mist. It was good to get LitM on the map and grow our community significantly (more players, more Cauldron content, etc.) but it also put a strain on our team that continued into the first half of September.
• Our high standards with content creation. The process of refining the content we have simply needs more time. Read more about the creative refining process below. ⬇️

Ultimately, this delay is about balancing getting the word out there about the game while still making a quality game, at the same level of the Core Book. In the long run, I think backers will enjoy both having a bigger community -and- a better book, but the cost for this is a longer time between drops.

How will this affect the delivery timeline?

At this point, I don't expect a great impact on the estimated timeline because most of the material is already written. However, this is ultimately a creative process and I'll know for certain only further in. An October or November delivery still seems feasible, and we already have begun printing prep for the Core Book, Action Grimoire, and some accessories (including dice) to prevent any further delays on the printing front.

See some new acorn dice shots at the bottom! ⬇️

The 5e Crossover Tool is coming out today!

A significant part of the delay was caused by myself becoming a bottleneck, acting as both CEO for Son of Oak Game Studio and the Creative Director for the book. This has caused some of our team to get benched for a while as they wait for me to review and give feedback on the book.

In the meantime, they worked on a new free tool that will be sent to all of you today via DriveThruRPG -- the Legend-In-The-Mist 5e Crossover Tool, a set of theme kits and guides that allow you and your friends to bring your DnD characters into LitM, whether for a solo side story or for players who are versed in DnD and would like to start with something familiar.

Join Amit On Discord, This Friday 4pm ET

To share more details about the refining process, what's in the book, what's in the campaign, and what we're working on, I'll be hosting a Q&A session this Friday, September 19th, at 4pm ET (1pm PT / 10pm CET) on the Discord #ask-the-devs channel (for questions and answers) and on #legend-in-the-mist-general (for general chat).

If you can't make it but you'd like a question answered, feel free to post it ahead of time or send it to [email protected] .

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That's the all for today, you'll find additional thoughts and images below. Our next update will be sent on October 1st and we do hope to share something concrete with you then.

Thank you for your continued patience! We think you'll love what's coming.

- Amit and the Son of Oak team

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What Does "Creative Refining" Entail?

The Origins And Promise of the Hearts of Ravensdale Settings

I originally created the "Ravensdale" setting for children, although it was nevertheless a very serious setting. At the time, I was making a living by hosting roleplaying after-school activities at my home, and I needed a fantasy setting that was both wholesome and yet a little scary and dangerous to captivate my young players.

I wanted these kids (who are now in their twenties) to have the experience of a legend: that despite facing dark moments, they'd be left with a deep sense of "destiny" or "hope", a feeling there's some (nonjudgmental) guiding force that sets things right, and that by following that ever-elusive yet familiar whisper in their hearts they may somehow help things for the better. At the center of the campaign there was some great drama (no spoilers!) which they did bring to a satisfying resolution over the course of a year. 

Refining the recipe

At the moment, I'm looking for the right pitch, the right vibration or flavor, with which to convey that feeling -- and much more -- to you all. As promised during this Kickstarter campaign, it's a mixture of nostalgia and darkness, wonder and terror, rustic vibes with a mysterious and magical realm.

This refinement is done by editing texts over and over again, focusing the art direction, and finding the right layout to bring it all together. Looking at the Core Book, you can imagine that it was not written in one go, and in fact, the community (that's you!) helped us immensely in this process.

We also want to put the right tools in your hands, because this is about your game in the world of Hearts of Ravensdale. Itamar has been working on some wonderfully rustic Ways of Magic; Kend'or is pulling together some delightful recipes; Kelly has curated the Tropes and Challenges; Brandon and the adventure writers have put together the campaign framework; Alejandra and Eran are working on the opening comics; and Manuel is honing the layout further and further.

We'll soon be ready to share some of this magic, but we don't want you to taste it before it's sufficiently stewed.

Acorn Dice and Satchel - New Images!

These photos were taken by Edward, our incredible Ops Manager who is also a talented photographer. If you didn't grab these during the Kickstarter but you'd like them, you can reach out to [email protected] .

Legend In The Mist is a smash hit!
10 months ago – Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 02:25:16 PM

Hello there companions,

We're here with another update on Legend In The Mist and an especially happy one! We have a lot of great announcements to make, let's get into it.

Legend In The Mist is a smash hit!

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Last week we launched the Legend In The Mist core book digitally into the world, and the world really loved it! 

Looking at the January 2026 print delivery date, we realized that the hour was ripe for showing the world the game we made - with your help! - and getting as many players on board as we could. As the game voted most anticipated of 2025, we didn't want it to first come to light next year.

And indeed, the reaction was astounding!

• More than 10,000 downloads of the free comic book tutorial in one week!
• LitM quickly became #2 best seller on DriveThruRPG!
• It received praise from the press such as PC Gamer, Wargamer, Gaming Trend, and Bell Of Lost Souls
• We had lots of YouTube creators create content covering the game! If you've missed it, you should really check out Ginny Di's and Bob World Builder's videos.

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Help us fan the flames of hype!

Please share this link for downloading the free comic book tutorial with your friends and social groups and anywhere in social media: https://sonofoak.com/pages/legend-in-the-mist-free-comic-book-adventure 

The video contest is still ongoing until Aug 31st!

Upload a video about Legend In The Mist with the hashtag #FindTheRimeThistle for a chance to win a Collector Bundle (as seen on our website). Find all details here: https://forms.gle/xHb9ZBxUJNKL8REX6 

Kevin Has Launched His How-To-Play Video Series

The $600K stretch goal in this campaign was MC Kevin's Video Guides and first three episodes have already dropped! We're hoping to finish releasing all episodes by the end of the month or shortly after, so you can share them with players when getting ready to start a LitM game.

Between the free comic book tutorial and these videos, new players can now dive into the game in no time!

Here is the first video, you can get the rest on our YouTube channel:

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Create and Sell Your Own Legend In The Mist Content!

We're excited to announce that we are renaming the City of Mist Garage into The Cauldron of Mist, a community content program that will support all Son of Oak games, including Legend In The Mist!

We've just published a template pack and art pack for Legend In The Mist, so you can go ahead and start creating, publishing, and selling your own Legend In The Mist content, and now - it will also look like a LitM product!

• Legend In The Mist - template pack and style guide
• Legend In The Mist - art pack

(Please note: these templates are for use exclusively on the Cauldron; no other use is permitted.)

Will you create new adventures? New monsters or other Challenges? New Ways of Magic or Tropes? The sky is the limit! Remember to share your creations on the dedicated Discord channel so that people can find them there!

Progress With Hearts of Ravensdale Setting Book

Whelp, this month didn't go exactly as we planned - it went way better! The digital launch was well timed, evidently, but it did take my (Amit's) full attention for a while. In addition, the team is feeling the burnout after the core book, so some of us have taken and will be taking some time off this month to enjoy what's left of the summer. 

As a result, we are not yet ready to roll out any additional PDFs or a preview of the Hearts of Ravensdale book -- but that doesn't mean work has not been ongoing. A lot of the book is already written, and we're now looking at ways to refine the presentation, ushering you into the magical world of the Dales:

*** Work In Progress - Design Concepts, Not Final  *** 

What's Next?

We're going to go into our cave for a bit and craft this pretty, bewitched opal until it's ready to show. 

Chapter 1 of Hearts of Ravensdale will be released on September 17th, with the goal of a full book release by the end of October 2025, as per the latest estimate (still on track).

It's a bit of a long time without an update, but know that we are diligently working on the next enchanting installment of this project.

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Stay tuned, as more updates are to come. 

Until then, good luck on your Journeys!

- Amit and the Son of Oak team

Call For Videos + Previews Into The Setting Book
10 months ago – Wed, Aug 06, 2025 at 10:01:04 AM

Hello companions, 

We have some updates!

Corebook and Action Grimoire updates

We are sending today via DriveThruRPG to all backers:

• The corrected v1.01 of the core book, which also includes an improved introduction (with a special section for those coming from other RPGs), art for the Ways of Magic, and a Challenge By Rating index.
• The complete Action Grimoire (v.1.01).

If you have any issues with receiving or downloading the files, please reach out to [email protected] as always.

New Covers!

We adapted the original covers to a format that (1) relates better to the style of the book interior, and (2) has more room for the logo and the name of the book -- we will need this as we release more LitM books in the future!

Alejandra Pinal created the art and a beautiful illuminated-manuscript-style frame and Manuel Serra Saez put it all together masterfully as always. We're so excited to share this with you!

The Hearts of Ravensdale cover is still tentative as we may have more art to use there by the time development is finished (see below).

Excited about LitM? Show it! - Calling for Community Videos

Legend In The Mist digital launch party event! 🪻

Starting on Wednesday, August 13th, we will be spreading the word about the digital release of the Legend In The Mist core book and the free learn-to-play comic book adventure (tutorial). We're calling this #FindTheRimeThistle, after the goal of the comic book tutorial.

A slew of creators and journalists will be covering this momentous occasion, but as always we begin first and foremost with our incredible community!

Here is how you can help - make a video!

We are calling all community creators -- professional or casual -- to record a short video about Legend In The Mist -- a review, playthrough, cosplay, sketch, or just your thoughts -- and post it on social media on Aug 13th or later, with the hashtags #LitM, #LegendInTheMist and #FindTheRimeThistle .

Sign up here to let us know what you'll be sharing and get all the details: https://forms.gle/rbaPxmcgHaKwzC67A 

Prizes: Win A Collector's Bundle
The creator of one favorite community video picked by Son of Oak -and- the creator of the community video with the most likes (aggregated across platforms) will each win a Collector's Bundle (as seen on the website) with free shipping (if you're a backer, your can have your pledge refunded, at your option).

Example Video: Amit Makes a Rando Character
Here's an example video to get you in the spirit of video making. You don't have to make it as involved as this video - you can upload something as simple as a selfie video!

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Hearts of Ravensdale Development Update

Our expanded team has been hammering out the three chapters of the Hearts of Ravensdale setting book - The Dales (Player), Beyond The Dales (Narrator), and Wake Of The Oldways (WOTOW) campaign. In terms of progress, we are on track for release in October as estimated.

We are not yet ready to send out complete chapter sections (most of the graphic design energy recently has been directed at preparing the core book for print and the digital launch - as seen above). However, here are some teasers of what you can expect:

Ways of Magic

Game designer Itamar Karbian has been working on these Dalish Origin-level Oldways magic systems and how they all tie together behind the veil (something for players to discover...) :

• Charm and Crafting Magic, for imbuing objects with protective or cursed qualities
• Hearth Magic, centered around the home, garden, or workshop
• Cooking Magic and Herbalism (Dales edition), with tons of ingredients, recipes, and their effects
• Shrine Magic, for creating shrines that gather spiritual power and discharge it when a condition is fulfilled
• Hedge Magic, traditional witchcraft based on spoken spells and words of power
• Cunning Craft, the ken of "spirits", how to see them, and how to sway them to do your wish

Some generalist theme kits will allow you to create an Oldways practitioner that combines multiple Oldways traditions, but of course specialists will do better at their chosen craft.

The Narrator chapter will also include the Craggen Highlands version of Origin magic, Thaumaturgy as a discoverable Adventure-level Way of Magic, as well as some darker, hidden magic...

Wake Of The Oldways (WOTOW) Campaign

Developer Brandon Perdue has been leading the team in working on the built-in campaign. The campaign will include the expanded demo game adventure + six more adventures. You will be able to run it as a cozy, lowkey campaign or one-shots ("Our Own Little Corner Of The World" frame of play) or as the first Act in an epic journey ("Epic Journey" frame of play), with subsequent Acts published in upcoming books (and a possible ending if you don't want the other Acts).

Some adventure teasers (work in progress):

• “A Shadow in the Barley” (expanded from Demo Game): An unshriven sentry of olden times encroaches on Ravenhome, leading the Fellowship to an outpost of the Old Kingdom, where they uncover a creeping threat to the Dales.
• "A Letter In The Clouds": The Fellowship is taked with delivering a letter to a pilgrim of the Oldways, tracking him over the high roads and through the deep quarries, from shrine to hidden shrine, with many adventures to be had.
• “The Fox of Soddenmore”: A series of peculiar thefts sets the Fellowship on an investigation, revealing the tragic past that connects the crimes.
• “The Green Maiden”: Misfortune befalls the village of Woodend, and the Fellowship journeys into the strange Aldenwood to find and beseech the village’s capricious benefactor, the Green Maiden.
• “The Axe and the Bell,” The Fellowship bears a fallen friend home through the treacherous wilderness of the Craggen Highlands, searching for the haven of her people, who task them with a challenge to honor her memory.
• “The Barleytown Fair”: At the Barleytown Fair, the biggest annual harvest festival in the Dales, the Fellowship discovers a plot to cheat in the competition for Fair Monarch, a showcase of the best craftspeople, fighters, and storytellers in all the Dales.
• “Hope for the Dales”: The conclusion, to be revealed...

Through out these adventures the Heroes discover many Revelations (see core book) that connect together to uncover the true state of affairs outside of the Dales, and the growing threats that may soon rattle the peaceful Dalish way of life...

Character Pack Pregens

User Anthony, who has been such a champ on our Discord server, has requested some details on the premade characters in the Character Pack. Here are a few planned, in order of Might:

• Gorna and Truffles, of course, the heroes of the Kickstarter - a young cook and his boar companion
• Jane, an aspiring young Dalish sellsword who forged her own gear from scrap metal 
• Rags, a traveling puppeteerwhose performances are strangely prophetic.
• Siondelle the Cairnmaker, a priestess who builds and prays at shrines and beseeches natural forces to aid villagers with their problems
• Old Man Carlo, an old cobbler who travels the Dales, making shoes for those in need, assisted in his work by a pixie companion
• Gaelle, a Highlander monster hunter pursuing Creatures of Twilight as part of an unsavory pact
• Daunt of House Mattina, a guard of an Old Kingdom House who has appeared in the Dales, hunting any trace of corruption
• GlintFallow, a spriggan driven from their ruin and treasure cache by graverobbers, now seeking a new treasure and a new ruin to live in
• Lyndel Meyer, veteran court sabotuer, scholar, and investigator from Stormhelm
• Gullencry, a dragon curious about the lives of mortals

Next Update

That's it for now. Our next update will be on August 19th, where we hope to share at least some initial parts of the Hearts of Ravensdale book.

Once again - if you're excited about this as we are - please join us in sharing your thoughts with a tagged video on social media on August 13th! https://forms.gle/rbaPxmcgHaKwzC67A 

Looking forward you seeing what you come up with!

-Amit and the Son of Oak team

The Corebook Is Here! + New Delivery Timeline And Updates
12 months ago – Tue, Jul 01, 2025 at 01:09:50 PM

Hello there companions,

We have A LOT to share with you today, let's get to it!

The Legend In The Mist Corebook is here!

All of us at Son of Oak could not be more excited to share with you the complete Legend In The Mist game!

We are sending v1.0 out right now to all backers via DriveThruRPG, and will be sending it within the week to pre-orderers (who will get an email to let you know you can download it from sonofoak.com ).

In this version, you will find:

• An improved solo and co-op section concentrated at the end of the book for ease of use
• A restructured Ways of Magic section, with a few more magical theme kits
• A lot of new art and visual improvements
• Revised mechanics for some Special Improvements and Quintessences

There are still a few errata and a couple of decorations pending which will be added in v1.1 .

This is the final version of the game - you can now use these rules as canon. No further changes are expected.

Oh, and there is one more noticeable layout change...

Splitting The Corebook Into Two Volumes

We've deliberated a lot about whether to reduce the amount of content in the corebook, which now includes a complete player's guide, magic systems, a Narrator's guide, a formidable menagerie of Challenges and Journeys, a starter adventure, solo & co-op rules, AND a 50-page comic book tutorial.

Ultimately, after considering carving out each of these elements into separate books, we decided that they are all together required to make Legend In The Mist a complete game. However, instead of publishing it as a wrist-breaking +480-page book (been there, done that), we decided to split the book into two ~240-page volumes for ease of use, and for making them less daunting and more enjoyable.

The two volumes -- Vol I. The HeroandVol. II The Narrator -- will be printed, packed, and sold together as a single book (for the same price of the corebook). Anyone who ordered the standard Legend In The Mist corebook in print, will get them together. The Collector version of the corebook will remain as a single large volume.

This adjustment is essential to make the book handy at the table and the game welcoming to new players. Imagine yourself using it the table: you could hand the Hero volume to a new player to play through the tutorial or create a character, while the Narrator browses the Challenges chapter or the adventure.

We realize this is a bit of a change from the original idea, but we're confident that the vast majority of backers will really enjoy this split. We also are keeping in mind what the game needs in order to grow its player base, which in turn will allow backers more players to play with.

New Print Timeline: January 2026

Looking at how long it took to craft the corebook at the level of quality we envisioned for this project, we anticipate the remaining work on the second book, Hearts of Ravensdale, and the remaining items, will take another 3 months, followed by 3-4 months of print and shipping, which will put full digital delivery in October 2025 and physical delivery in January 2026.

We are doing whatever we can to minimize delays, including recruiting more front-line writers and game designers (as per the last update) and layering our print operations so that some items are printed in advance of others. However, we put the quality of the materials we publish at the top of our priorities, and achieving that quality does take a lot of time.

This will put the project at a total of 7 months delay (delivering in Jan 2026 instead of Jun 2025), but experience tells us that backers eventually appreciate the thought that had gone into making a great game more than they mind the delay, such as in the case of Nights of Payne Town, which became many City of Mist players favorite campaign.

What's Cooking In Hearts of Ravensdale?

While you wait for the next drop, there's no harm in taking a peek into the cooking pot:

• As we've mentioned before, the first chapter of HoR, which involves the player-visible side of the Dales, is written and will be receiving now a brush of game design with Tropes, theme kits, item lists, and recipes.
• We are writing several unique Ways of Magic for Oldways hedge magic prevalent in the Dales, from shrine-worshiping through charm-making to hearth magic. You'll be able to start the game as an Oldways practitioner, or even as a person who has magical potential but knows not why or how to use it...
• We've begun our deep dive into Thaumaturgy and it's set to be an exciting cultivation-based magic system! Becoming a Thaumaturge will be quite a feat (perhaps involving Moments of Fulfillment?), but once your awareness has awakened, you'll be able not only to do remarkable things but also to know the hidden truths of the setting, peer beyond the veil as it were. We want players who play "wizards" in this setting to really feel like they have deeper insight into the universe, and the journey to becoming one to be arduous and meaningful. We are currently contemplating a series of optional ability trees as arts that Thaumaturges can develop through their cultivation. More on that soon!
• A first outline of the Wake Of The Old Ways campaign is forming -- and it's delectable. As it stands now, you will be able to play it as a cozy campaign, as a quest for uncovering the secrets of the Oldways, or as a truly epic saga with guest appearances by the forces that are invading the Dales: Stormhelm, the Aldenwood and Witchwood, the Craggen Highlanders, and the nameless white darkness festering in the swamps. Solo/Co-Op support will be built in.

In short, we can't wait to share more with you! Stay tuned...

New Acorn Dice Design!

A picture here is worth a thousand words 😍

What's Next?

In the coming few weeks, we intend to introduce a new free resource that you can share with friends -- a free download of the comic book tutorial! We'll send out an update when that's ready, and we hope you'll help us get the word out there and share it everywhere you can.

Other than that, our next update will be on August 5th, giving our team a bit of a breather from the tight release deadlines to enjoy the summer and recoup our creative juices, while some of us continue to press on behind the scenes on Hearts of Ravensdale and the remaining items.

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There's a lot here to digest and discuss -- comment below or join us on Discord to share your thoughts!

Until next time, beware the Creatures of Twilight...

-Amit and the Son of Oak team

Free RPG Day is coming - and the Core Book is just about done!
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 11, 2025 at 05:23:58 PM

Hello there companions!

Play LitM on Free RPG Day!

We've printed and sent the Legend In The Mist demo game to thousands of Friendly Local Game Stores participating in Free RPG Day, next Saturday, June 21st!

If you haven't played the game yet, this is your chance. Ask your local game store if they are participating and bring your friends out to play the game! Each free game pack includes the three pregen characters, a sheet of tracking cards, and the basic rules + adventure booklet.

Are you ready to once again uncover the gruesome mystery that besets Ravenhome?

The Last Playtesting File For The Core Book Is Here!

Today we present (and send) to you version 0.9 of the Legend In The Mist Core Book, the last playtesting version before we release the complete core book with version 1.0.

What's Inside?

Version 0.9 is about a lot of tiny improvements intended at really polishing off the book and preparing it for print. The biggest content highlights of this version are:

• The new Hero and Narrator summary pages, which improve upon past versions. Print them out as handouts at your game table for players that need a little reminder!
• Glossary and Example of Play
• Mountain and Crossroads example diagrams for series planning
• Undertaking Journeys - Crafting, Provisioning, and Ritual
• Challenge Add-Ons, abilities you can attach to any Challenge

Other than that, we did a literal ton of layout improvements, added many small clarifications, and plugged in more gorgeous art. We are also concentrating the Solo/Co-Op rules at the end of the book so they are easy to access, but we are not done with them yet.

What still remains to do?

• Some art
• Reworking the Solo/Co-Op appendix for better usability
• Applying some rules corrections to Special Improvements and Quintessences 

What's Next?

• We will be wrapping up the Core Book completely by July 1st, which will be the time of our next update. Also at that time, we will share an updated roadmap for the completion of the project and all its components. 
• Meanwhile, we're working on the Setting Book. To complete it in a shorter period of time, our team is joined by Jason Fryer of KULT fame and Brandon Perdue of Fantasy Flight Games glory (both also with many other games under their belt). The first draft of chapter 1 is ready, the Wake Of The Oldways campaign design is in progress, and we'll be diving into the book's many theme kits, Tropes, Challenges, Journeys, and Ways of Magic starting next week.

Currently, the project is 3 months delayed compared to its estimated digital delivery time of March 2025, but we do hope you see the value in the work we've done on the Core Book. Our intention is to create a truly special game that will give you and your game groups many years of enjoyment (like City of Mist has and continues to do for many fans). We also want to stave off burnout and keep our team healthy, while moving along at a good pace. So far, so good, so thank you for your patience, backers!

Until next update, follow the path and stay tuned for more!

-Amit and the Son of Oak team