ST Forge returns to Kickstarter with: Black Ballad: Second Chances! Now Live!
10 days ago
– Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 08:22:03 AM
Tarot Deck Backers! We need your help!
Storytellers Forge (us!) which helped get this project rolling is paving the way on our very first Kickstarter! Black Ballad: Second Chances.
Black Ballad: Second Chances is our Shadowdark rules set along with a reusable one-shot adventure designed for sandbox play that gets triggered EVERYTIME someone dies (and that's really epic to use in the middle of a hella strong boss fight).
You can check out the full trailer right on the Kickstarter page, and we are getting closer and closer to hitting our funding goal.
This project is EXTREMELY important to us, because it finally allows us to establish a Kickstarter presence so we can launch Red Opera: Reforged now that we have the rights back to our warlock children.
So please, if you supported us and rooted for us helping settle the Tarot decks, now is the time we'd ask you to check out the page and consider supporting one that we are running ourselves!
Plus, this project is already done and will deliver VERY fast. We are crowdfunding the print and manufacturing run!
Pledge your support by clicking here!
Thank you so much,
Rick Heinz - ST Forge
Red Opera: Reforged and Black Ballad: Shadowdark!
about 1 month ago
– Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 10:56:50 AM
Hey everyone! This update is going out to the Red Opera Folks from them Old' days before Storytellers Forge came into existence!
We've got a few announcements coming down the pipeline on projects ever since all the rights were reverted to us, and they absolutely impact the fans of the Red Opera (and the supporters who followed our entire journey thus far).
After the Black Ballad and Dark Carnival, we have turned our focus to restoring The Red Opera into our new standards for epic campaigns and reforging the book from the ground up.
As part of this, in preparation for an October crowdfunding, we are crowdfunding Black Ballad: Second Chances right here on Kickstarter. It's a completely finished book and designed for Shadowdark and OSR play. This allows us to establish a Kickstarter presence and fulfill a project before we go BIG for Red Opera: Reforged later this year.
Since we got everyone their tarot deck, we could really use your support on March 17th to help get us over the initial threshold (and you get a badass book that won't take ages to ship) as well!
You can click the image below OR just this link right here to follow along:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stforge/the-black-ballad-for-shadowdark-rpg?ref=8d4mgv
BUT THAT IS NOT ALL!
Do you want to PLAY The Red Opera: Reforged in a castle? Ran by me? That WON'T Break the bank?
https://www.tabletoprpginacastle.com/
RPG In a Castle (Not D&D in A Castle) has partnered with ST Forge to have our campaigns run by the writers, authors, or designers. I will be running the first version of the New Red Opera: Reforged this June 19th-21st! They have payment plans an everything, but it's a hell of a vacation. (Even cheaper if you live on the east coast near the place ;; ).
Take a look!
That's it for this update guys. Thank you so much for your support in helping us get our first book brought back to life.
Final Update! (Refer Back to this post for any future questions!)
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 09:54:46 AM
Hey everyone! Rick here!
This will be our final update on this kickstarter page. For all future updates and correspondence relating to the Tarot Deck, please join our discord server for Storytellers Forge:
https://discord.gg/7f7R5jNXkf
Here is what we've got cooking:
- Tarot Deck Boxes and Cards are being ordered. It will probably take 4-5 months for the process to make it all the way to my garage, but the print files have been turned over! Once we have the decks, anyone who has filled out the google form below will get one.
- Donations are totally welcome by the way to cover shipping costs ;; ping us on Discord if you wanna help out!
- We've updated some of the lore and story in the book to tie the Tarot Deck and artwork into the Black Ballad universe as well.
- Anyone who ordered a Red Opera physical book and dice set has had their orders shipped over the past month from the warehouse. This officially means there are no more original Red Opera books left in existence! The print run has been cleaned out!
- Forsaken Pacts writing and layout is beginning! We are excited to polish off the adventure and use it to springboard the Red Opera.
- We are still working at getting a revised version of Foundry VTT, but if you ping us on discord we can get you VTT files.
If you do not fill out the google form: There will be no rewards.
https://forms.gle/kkkQ15m8g2MCJRSKA
(Please make sure to not use google auto-fill as it tends to leave incomplete addresses').
The google form is our only way to know where people are at and what was ordered. Just to remind everyone: Any Apotheosis, Sirens, Mini's, Dice Towers, Dice Sets, and now: Red Opera physical books are all gone from those who filled out the form or were never in our capability to fulfill. I know that isn't the smoothest answer, but that's all the materials that were left.
Luckily! The Tarot Decks and Forsaken Pacts are officially in the pipeline and we did want to get accessories that we could fill out the door to everyone.
Thank you everyone for supporting the Red Opera and reaching out to us! You guys have been friggin' awesome! I'm sure you can all understand that it makes 10x more sense to reforge the Red Opera from the ground up for a future project and actually have a Storytellers Forge campaign, but that's next year stuff because we have new projects coming out soon.
Like what? The Black Ballad: Chronicles of the Crossing. Coming in October! Click the image to learn more!
I'd like to thank everyone.
Seriously, thank you for your patience and understanding. It's been a long road for everyone here, and The Red Opera is super close to my heart (I have a tattoo from it!). We can't wait to dive back in and expand upon the universe. Please make sure you join our discord and hop into the discussions for troubleshooting on any remaining elements that we can help with. I Storytellers Forge didn't have to step in and fill this crowdfunding campaign, but I think doing so clears the air and puts some goodwill out into the world.
Signing off,
-Rick Heinz. Storytellers Forge. :)
(Go enjoy some coffee or tea everyone! We are diving back into writing like fiends!)
The dust settles and we have info! - Form Filled Survey included.
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, May 30, 2024 at 11:30:47 AM
Hey everyone, Rick here!
We've been gearing things up behind the scenes and have some updates. Important ones first:
FILL THIS FORM OUT! This will allow us to get all the data we need in one spot for all backers who are interested or have rewards.
https://forms.gle/kkkQ15m8g2MCJRSKA
Join On Discord This Sunday for a Q&A: June 2nd at 7PM Central on our Storytellers Forge Event Stage.
https://discord.gg/7f7R5jNXkf
Okay, those two important things done, here's the longer update below:
Inventory: We have finally worked it out with Flying Cloud who did a full inventory audit on what items we actually have access to. It's a bit of good news and bad news: There are no dice towers or mini-sets available. There is also very few Red Opera Standard Editions. There are however, a few boxes of The Red Opera Special Editions. So for backers who reach out and fill out the form, as soon as our store is configured on the Flying Cloud platform -- I'll pay for shipping and get the right people a physical Red Opera book.
Red Opera Forsaken Pacts: It will take Pat and I some time to do a few rewrites, but we've got the Black Ballad layout artist already started on doing new layout designs for the Red Opera and she's already begun. Pat and I will probably have the bandwidth to finish up the text this June and give the Eldritch Editor enough time for editing and then off to Niki. In theory, we are aiming for august.
Red Opera Tarot Deck: David Granjo wants to polish up some of the artwork and Diana Sousa (the mastermind behind the Tarot Deck) has to make a few tweaks. They also are under some other deadlines and won't start until mid-June, but once they are done we will put up a Print on Demand version of the Tarot deck, and for Backers who have their form filled out - I'll order those and get them sent over.
No other items will make the cut. Our efforts will be focused on rebuilding and reforging the Red Opera from the ground up and adding expansion content to it. If anyone needs digital content for VTT's, I'm happy to send over some raw files. The only VTT platform that has The Red Opera is Foundry and I still need to sort that out over there.
I know this isn't a complete and total win, but it DOES get anyone who fills out the form the primary goals of the crowdfunding campaign here and hopefully, gets those of you who haven't heard of us interested in what we've been up to!
Why a google form? Having you opt in is the easiest means for us to track what we need to work with. Plus, we want to migrate everything over to the Storytellers Forge side. So after the Q&A and print on demand decks are finished, we'll make a final update here and then go back to building wicked campaigns and expanding the universe with new projects.
Hopefully I see many of you this weekend at the Q&A!
-Rick
Q&A Date Update: Now June 2nd (and not on a holiday weekend).
almost 2 years ago
– Mon, May 20, 2024 at 06:01:17 PM
Quick update!
Thank you for the emails and messages we got. We are still diving into what we've got and getting things lined up to enter the summer work que.
BUT! When I picked May 26th, I didn't catch what Monday was. So, scooting it:
June 2nd, 7 PM Central.
Right on the Storytellers Forge Discord: https://discord.gg/7f7R5jNXkf
If you join, toggle the role "Red Opera Interest" and there is a dedicated channel for the Tarot Deck where we will be doing live updates as we work on Forsaken Pacts.
So, jot the date in your calendar and join if you want a chance to ask questions or help brainstorm some ideas!
-Rick
