DOOMSPIRAL

£50k Stretch Goal Achieved!
6 months ago – Wed, Oct 15, 2025 at 03:55:13 AM

As we approach the final day, we’ve hit our £50k stretch goal! 

So all creatives involved in this project are going to receive a payrise to match the success of the campaign. At SoulMuppet we are committed to always paying above industry standard but stretch goals like this allow us to support our creatives as the campaign continues to grow. 

Doomspiral couldn’t exist in the way it does without our amazing team and we want to take this moment to celebrate them. 

Dwyn has brought the dread, wonder and loss of Doomspiral to life with their illustrations. Dwyn has been an absolute delight to work with throughout the project, always excited for the next art pitch and always completely blowing us away with each piece. Cody has done so much to make our quickstart the best it can be, with some incredible edits that have really tightened up the manuscript. Our layout artist Eryk truly understood the assignment of this project, coining the phrase “a24 brutalism” and perfectly balancing our desire for aesthetics and usability. Myles, head dicemaker at RuneFable, brought new techniques to the table that we would have never thought of. Thoughtfully listening to our ideas and returning with something that went above and beyond. Fernando, Doomspiral’s cartographer, took Nick’s art pitch doc and, with insane skill that we may never understand, turned it into an stunning map that not only serves as a useful worldmap but also as an art piece that we’re proud to hang on our walls.

As we spoke about in yesterday’s update, we’ve added a couple of bonus stretch goals that we’d love to achieve in the final phase of this campaign. 

First up is Curse-Rotten Corvast, a bonus adventure from Zach, which focuses on Corvast Castle, an ancient cursed castle transported inside Weftenhaal’s borders by a mix of spite and sorcery. After that, we’re aiming to commission a digital character keeper to accompany Doomspiral's more traditional character sheet. To help us achieve these goals, please continue sharing this project with your friends or on social media - people like to hear recommendations from their friends rather than from the folks making the game! Also make sure you’ve adjusted your pledge to include any add-ons you want. While these will of course be available to grab in the pledge manager stage, getting them now helps push our goal forwards.

Finally, we want to say a massive thank you to all of you. It’s your support that allows us to continue making projects like this and to continue doing what we love. 

~ Mol, Zach and the rest of the Doomspiral Team.

Curse-Rotten Corvast Sneak Peek
6 months ago – Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 06:54:48 AM

Come closer Forsaken, let us whisper of distant lands and ancient curses.

Wow it’s me, Zach, the JellyMuppet. I’m here to tell you all about Curse Rotten Corvast, ahead of the final 72 hours of the Doomspiral project. We’re nearly at £50k, staring down our fantastic payrise stretch goal, but the one I’m really excited about is our £60k goal, Curse Rotten Corvast. In my excitement, I’ve already begun writing this adventure, and if we hit this lofty goal we’ll be commissioning art, editing and layout to bring this zine to a reality. As a reminder, you’ll get a free PDF of it and the opportunity to add a physical on during the pledge manager. 

So what is Curse-Rotten Corvast?

The main Doomspiral campaign is set in Weftenthaal, the lofty land of the long-faded Gods. It has a similar structure to Elden Ring’s open world: sweeping and vast overworld regions and individual complex legacy dungeons, all woven together into a labyrinthine campaign that can be explored in almost any order.

Curse-Rotten Corvast is a much shorter adventure, centering around a single multi-layered dungeon called Corvast Castle, transported inside Weftenhaal’s borders by a mix of spite and sorcery. 

Where Weftenthaal feels like the sprawling lands found in Elden Ring, Corvast is going to feel much more like the traditional design of a Dark Souls game: a claustrophobic and broody fortress filled with all manner of treasure and foes. That isn’t to say it's linear! There are a multitude of different sub-levels and surroundings that can be explored in a bristling variety of orders: the encircling wall around the Living Woods, the awful acid-pocked mountains of the Cloud-Scorched Heights, the fortified palace of Slatespire Peak, the fetid dungeons of Longrot Goal, and finally the mysterious Cursewright’s Towers, where one might discern the origin of curses and the witch that created them.

Curses?!

What is a curse, you might ask? Our good friend Whalebill Stackrass has some words to say about that: 

This odd fellow promises to take you to Corvast, if you climb inside his beak. A talking bird is odd though. In Doomspiral, birds are typically the servants of Gentle Ahm, the god of death. Ahm dwells at the bottom of the Necropolis, and his avian servants carry the bones of the dead to the underground city where Ahm can protect them. It seems the people of Corvast has some other burial practices, and if he isn’t lying (and when has a Soulslike NPC ever lied?) then perhaps some way of avoiding death altogether. A pair of the Character Backgrounds from the main game actually loop back to Corvast: the Wretched Curse-Host and the Seneschal of Corvast. 

Along your way, you might also meet the cannibal Haggard Pyte, the amnesiac Starving Maggot, or the questing Brave Jotentia, all of whom have their own quests! There’s also a feast’s worth of bosses: the Knight Passard and his cursed Hound, the vicious and bloated Rot Warden, the Three Lords of Corvast who rule the palace, the invading Lakeshine Knight, and finally Cursewright Iabel, architect of Corvast’s ruin. I may be biased, but these are some of my favourite creatures from Doomspiral overall, and I hope in playing through this adventure you’ll be able to see my references on my sleeve, and perhaps hazard a guess that I was playing a lot of Bloodborne while writing this campaign.

That’s all from us today! Please continue your amazing support of Doomspiral, and give us a share on social media so we might crest this final stretch goal and bring the acid-pocked, smelly towers of Corvast Castle to dreadful unlife. 

Thanks, 

Zach, Mol and the rest of the SoulMuppet Team

New Stretch Goals and Map Sneak Peeks
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 07:34:59 AM

Oh Forsaken, the Loom of Fate foretells the approaching end.

Time really flies and we’re now into the last week of this crowdfunding campaign! 
This update contains sneak peeks into the gorgeous map by Fernando Salvaterra and some exciting new stretch goals.

New Stretch Goals

We’re half way to our next stretch goal, a payrise for everyone involved in the project! So we also want to announce some goals that we can aim to reach in the last week. 

£60k - Curse-Rotten Corvast

At £60k Zach will pen Curse-Rotten Corvast, an additional adventure zine that can either weave into Weftenhaal or act as a shorter, standalone adventure (at a slightly higher level). This grimy dungeoncrawl is set in a mountaintop Corvast Castle, ruled by the feared Curselords and filled with all manner of despicable characters and monsters, and is written by SoulMuppet’s own Zachary Cox (Inevitable, Orbital Blues, Paint The Town Red). 
Corvast explores the origin of the curses which threaten Weftenthaal, and specifically plague the Twin Gods of Desire and Obsession, Carwyn and Ceridwen. We were originally going to do Corvast as part of the project, but as Weftenthaal bloomed into the beast it is today, we decided to focus on the core experience. 

We’re excited to add Curse-Rotten Corvast back into the project. Corvast will be a free PDF to all backers at any pledge level, and we’ll be doing physical add-ons on Backerkit. 

£70k - Character Keeper

Doomspiral is a complicated game with tons to keep track of. Alongside the character sheets and beautifully edited rulebook, we’ll also be commissioning a Google Sheets Character Keeper to help you play the game online, and even act as a referencing tool for characters and monsters in play. 

If we hit this goal, we’ll make the character keeper free for everyone. As an example of a previous SoulMuppet character keeper, check out this one for Inevitable. 

The Map of Weftenhaal

For Doomspiral’s map we’ve been working with the fantastic Fernando Salvaterra, an icon in the TTRPG map making community, to create a detailed world map of Weftenhaal. It’s been honestly incredible to watch this map come to life from sketch, to line art, to fully colourised final form. The map is available as either an add-on to your pledge or included in the Hopeful Wanderer and above pledge tiers. It'll also be featured inside the Core Book and we'll use snapshots of it at the start of each area section.

So how did Fernando take a document full of notes and turn it into both a usable map of the world and a beautiful art piece?

First, Nick wrote up a (frankly huge) map briefing doc with details and information on the various areas and even sketched a little plan of where the areas should go. 

Fernando returned with a pencil sketch of the map. Sketching the main features and locations, making sure that each area was in the correct space and to Nick’s vision. He also began designing a custom border, compass and banner for the map. 

Once the sketch had been finalised, Fernando began working on the line art. Cleaning up the pencil sketch and focusing on the various locations, regions and geography. Including a LOT of mountains! 

Each section of the map is lovingly illustrated with little details and secrets to find. We could spend all day pouring over each section. 

Fernando returned with the fully inked map and had begun working on finalising the border, compass rose and title banner. The title banner is a team favourite. 

Then came the process of adding colour to the map, Fernando worked through a few colour choices with us until we found one that balanced the vibe of each region while maintaining colour during printing.

Finally, Fernando labelled the whole map. From subregion titles to the various points of interest to be found across the lands of Weftenhaal. With a world so full of places and things to find, we’re so proud of how he managed to balance usability, readability and visuals. 

It’s honestly been an absolute pleasure to work with Fernando, we’ve been big fans for a while and it’s wonderful to work with him on such a project. He has truly brought this world to life! If you’re not already a fan, be sure to follow him on social media and support him on Patreon. 

Also, don't forget to grab the map as an add-on to your pledge or by upgrading to Hopeless Wanderer tier or above

Good luck out there oh Forsaken, time grows thin and the bones of this campaign begin to crumble... 

(Share with your friends, tell them there is only a week left and you want to see Dwyn draw more horrible monsters for Curse-Rotten Corvast)
 

GM Screen Add-on, Updated Quickstart, Articles & Interviews
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 03, 2025 at 06:17:54 AM

Harken my words oh Forsaken!

As we approach our next stretch goal, we’ve got a couple of new exciting updates for ya’ll. We’ve made a new add-on (not a stretch goal, we’re just doing it), updated our quickstart because all you sickos were calling us casuals for making it “too easy”, and have been featured on a staggering array of interviews, articles and Actual Plays. 

GM Screen Add-On

It took us a very clever comment on a facebook ad for us to realise this, but we may have completely missed a trick not using Dwyn's beautiful triptych image as a GM screen. With a couple of adjustments and extra golden swirls, Dwyn has helped build a gorgeous illustrated GM screen that you can grab now as an add-on to your pledge.

The GM Screen will contain quick reference information on dice mechanics, status effects and guidance for smooth running combat, allowing you to focus on the game at play without flipping through appendices. It also lets you hide maps, notes and enemy move dice/tables, should you wish to conceal this info from your players. Plus it's pretty. 

Updated Quickstart

A couple of us let you know that you thought the quickstart was a touch too easy. 

You wanted a challenge? We listened. 

We’ve updated the Doomspiral Quickstart with harder monsters, giving each enemy a new trick up its sleeve. The Wretches attack if not outnumbered, the Slimes do extra damage to Stuck targets, and Jailers have some beefy new attacks. The Pharos Warden and Salt Beast have also had a major glowup, with a shockingly aggressive new moveset based around countering repositions and looping Dodges into attacks.

We’ve also hit a few of the best performing abilities to give the foes the opportunity to better strut their stuff. The Scholar was able to do massive damage from spells while effortlessly defending from their Polygonal Shield, none of which really require any serious investment in Stamina. We’ve toned down these abilities, and also hit abilities which remove Move Dice across the Starting Backgrounds, such as Sudden Stillness, Barreling Charge and Voice of God, Call out to Me.

We’ve also clarified some monster moves which reference attack weight. While it technically did something in the way it can interact with certain types of player armour, we’ve just removed it to clean up monster fight.

Alongside the map changes and the new NPC encounter, Vycrum the Nomad, this should make the quickstart much more satisfying for veteran Souls players and TTRPG enjoyers. If you grabbed it from the SoulMuppet website, the hyperlink we emailed you should be updated with a new file, and if you go anywhere else (Itch/DriveThru) the files have been updated too.  

Articles, Actual Play and Interviews OH MY!

When last we spoke, EUphoria were prepping to stream the first Actual Play of Doomspiral on their Twitch channel. Watch the full adventure over on the EUphoria YouTube channel, complete with throwing stones and running away, hidden traps and suspicious characters. 

Hungry for more Doomspiral Actual Play? Join the cast of RuinousPaths as they venture into the lands of Wheftenhaal and attempt to escape the depths of Saltcrag. Streaming live tonight (3rd October at 3pm est / 8pm bst) on Twitch

Late last week Zach and Nick sat down with Ryan from Weekly Scroll to chat about Doomspiral, covering the process of developing the game, offering some insight into how it plays and dropping some careful, juicy lore-tea that normally you’d have to sit through a whole hour long YouTube video to get the lowdown of. You can listen to the interview on your favourite podcast medium, or grab it on Youtube.  

Finally, Nick and Zach did an interview with Tim Linwood where at The Wargamer, where they stay professional with only slightly-veiled smack-talk about other video game TTRPG adaptions. To find out more about Covenants, Stamina Dice, Zach’s flailing attempts to convincing Nick to add multiplayer and our desire to recreate Patches, give it a read! 

That’s it from us! What a hell of a few days. Check out the articles, let us know if the new quickstart made you “git gud” and add the fancy pants GM screen to your pledge! Share, support, enjoy. 

If you backed the project, please display your support on social media by posting this image expressing your dedication to Doomspiral. 

Speak soon, 

Zach, Mol and the rest the SoulMuppet Team 

Dice Showcase, Region Preview and Actual Play
6 months ago – Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 07:20:40 AM

After another weekend we’re almost half way to the "How to write a Doomspiral Campaign" stretch goal! Thank you all so so much for your continued support, shares and kind words. 

This update contains behind the scenes insights on design and craftsmanship process of our custom Doomspiral dice from RuneFable, a Region preview of the Halfgrave Forest from Zach and, a sneak peek into the first Doomspiral Actual Play streaming TONIGHT (29th Sept) on Twitch. 

The Dice of Doomspiral

We asked Myles, RuneFables dicecrafter, about the inspiration and creation of the beautiful custom Doomspiral dice he'll be crafting and here is what he said... 

Myles: When SoulMuppet asked me to come back and work on some dice for Doomspiral I knew I had to get involved. After working on the dice for Paint the Town Red, I knew SoulMuppet would give me a lot of creative freedom and sure enough they asked me to ‘see what new techniques I can come up with’. 

We wanted to base the dice on the tether that is integral to the player characters journey, and I’d wanted to work on my 3D modelling skills for a while now, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I proposed a bunch of designs, and we settled on one inspired by the ‘Tether’ art piece, with a 3D tether inside the dice and the threads of fate flowing around it.

Myles: I set about designing the tether in blender, focusing on the gnarled telegraph pole style of it, adding in plenty of crooked angles to give it some depth. To get this to sit correctly in the dice I placed the tether upon a cut-off blank that would fit snugly inside one end of my Shard D6 and tweaked the sizing of the tether to remain inside the bounds of the dice mould. These were then 3D-printed in resin and the supports removed before painting up in gold and a charcoal grey base. I then tied some shimmery gold sewing thread around the arms of the tether and carefully wove it into a shape that was reminiscent of the threads being drawn around it. This painted insert was popped into my shard D6 mould and carefully poured a black to teal/green translucent resin gradient (with some subtle gold shimmer of course) to enhance the Dark Souls inspired vibe. Finally, I sanded and polished the dice and inked the numbers in an old brass colour.

Myles: For the photography SoulMuppet asked for something mysterious feeling and I had a mini smoke machine on order, so we had to play around with that. I set the dice up in a rocky landscape to give that bleak and barren feeling and took literally hundreds of photos with me blowing smoke around the place to try and capture those elusive billows and wisps! 

Myles: I’m super proud of these dice and think they capture Doomspiral’s vibes perfectly. I think they might be some of my best work yet, especially in terms of the technical side of things! 

Zach: If you like the dice and want to get enough Thread for a full level, you can either switch to the Tether Keeper pledge or grab them as an add-on. Check out the other add-ons too! 

Region Preview: Halfgrave

“Most believe it is the sun’s shattering that keeps the warmth of summer from us.
Hmmmph.
If only it were. Summer belongs to Linnea,
And if her forest is called Halfgrave?
It will not be only winter bringing a chill to my heart.”

Veteran Mikol

Every region or dungeon in Doomspiral begins with an atmospheric quote from an NPC, and this one is from Veteran Mikol, a shopkeep and weapons trainer found in Halfway House (who has a mysterious quest all of his own). 

Mikol gives you the lowdown: what we now know as Halfgrave was once spoken of in legend as Woods-of-All-Seasons, but no-one in Weftenthaal calls it that - the speculation about the reason for its new name is dreadful and doom-laden.

Summer is gone, and the forest and its mountainsides are gripped in perpetual winter, a low frost and chill in the air at its lower reaches, but thick blankets of snow and icicle-laden branches higher up. The area is filled with the Cultivators, moss-laden creatures who work tirelessly to keep the forest alive amidst endless winter. The only point of light and warmth is a glistening, beautiful tree a hundred feet tall, its leaves are the flame-gold of the evening. 

Like all the Regions in Doomspiral, Halfgrave Forest is split into a number of Sub-Regions and 12-ish locations. These might be simple encounters, like the Starvling Wolves nestled in the snow, or full mini-dungeons such as the Cultivator Heartflesh, a 6 room location with puzzles, traps and powerful enemies.

Halfgrave is a late-game area, filled with the climatic events of quests. At the Vine-Eaten Chapel you might find a duel between the rivals Vyrcrum and Serrima, or you might aid Aegnmere in the Primordial Garden on his quest to find out what happened to summer, so he might return to a melted Basseyngad. 

The most dangerous thing in the Halfgrave is Linnea herself. She’s not in some central location at the heart of the woods, she instead roams the forest, hoarfrost at her feet, stalking the Forsaken and constantly threatening to emerge from ambush. This first phase could happen at any time, leaving the Forsaken on an eternal edge as they explore, whereas the second phase will take them deeper into the woods and ready for whatever perils can be found amongst Summer’s Bones…

Actual Play

Mol: Want to see how Doomspiral could play at your table? EUphoriaAP are running a Doomspiral Actual Play tonight over on Twitch! Zach takes a wonderful talented cast of Forsaken through the Doomspiral quickstart dungeon of Saltcrag. 

This will be going live on https://www.twitch.tv/euphoriaap at 7pm BST or 8pm CEST. That’s like (counts on fingers) 2 o’clock east coast time. Or… just use this link to time zone converter.

Please like, subscribe and share! Press the bell to be notified when a new… 
Wait. No. Well, do some of those things at least.

Until next time Forsaken, 

Zach, Mol and the rest of the Doomspiral Team