A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting

Pledge Manager Closing + Finalize Your Address By November
about 1 month ago – Sat, Oct 10, 2026 at 09:29:11 AM

Hail Time Travelers!

Thank you for your patience as we work to bring you the most comprehensive and accurate guide to dinosaurs and the Confluence in any 'verse. 

We're focused on final layout and edits and making steady progress. A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting PDFs are coming soon, most likely somewhere in the next month or two. To all of you who've taken a moment to look over our alpha adventures and preview versions of the Player's Guide and leave feedback—thank you so much! 

Now that we're approaching completed PDFs, we have a couple of announcements regarding getting your pledge in order before we send the books off to manufacturing.

Pre-Manufacturing Checklist

The Time Is Now: The Pledge Manager Is Closing

We're hitting the point where we need to finalize our numbers for manufacturing, so we'll be closing the pledge manager in a week, on Friday October 16. If there's anything you've been planning to add to your order, this week is your last chance. Please get those changes in before then.

At This Temporal Juncture, Input Your Current Spatial Location

Drawing closer to manufacturing and shipping means that now is also the time to check and update your addresses. For some of you, it's been awhile since you entered your shipping address.  If there have been any changes, you need to get those address updates in soon. 

(For those of you who have had extensive exposure to shard crystals, your address may no longer be what you thought it was. In that case, or simply as a precaution, please take a moment to verify your address entry is correct. 'Verses bleeding into each other can cause reality to shift a bit.)

Address changes will be possible past the close of the pledge manager, but we expect that addresses will lock somewhere in November. 

A Dinosaur Hunting Bestiary v0.7a 

That's right, check your BackerKit downloads. The first 290 pages of the Bestiary is out. Don't worry about the preternatural section; it's coming as soon as possible. This draft so far, is solid, but there are a few pieces of art that are yet incomplte. No alarms there. Similarly, the table of contents is close but not final. Page numbers will be added and the final list of creatures is very close, but might shift by a few. Use the feedback link if you find any errors. Chat with us in Discord if you have questions. Enjoy!

End Notes

This has been quite a journey, and somewhat longer than expected, and we're so grateful you've all come this far with us. We're approaching our last milestones, and we'll keep our focus steady until we get your dinosaurs out to you.

If you want to drop by and say hello, ask a question, or hang out with some other people who also love dinosaurs, feel free to drop by our Discord community. We love to see everyone, and we do share new dinosaur art and chat about what we're working on from time to time.

If you'd rather reach out directly to just us, the best way is to send Altair an email at [email protected]. 

Talk soon,

Darryl & Altair

Dinosaur Sneak Peek + More!!!
about 1 month ago – Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 06:10:22 PM

Hail Time Travelers,

Wow, there are so many things coming together. And there's more coming all pretty rapid fire over the next weeks and months. You recently got in your email from Backerkit:

• The latest player's guide
• Chapter 2: The Overlook
• Chapter 8: Roman Raptor Race
• The full Soundtrack
• 3-month access to Opus

A PDF from the Bestiary will be sent very soon. 

Thrill Your Players With the Original Soundtrack and Immersive Soundscapes

The Soundtrack

The complete Dinosaur Hunting soundtrack is yours, free. Composed by Filip Melvan with Splattered Ink, it has one theme for each of the book's genre-hopping adventures, from survival horror to weird western, cyberpunk intrigue to eldritch nightmare. You'll get the Foundry version too.

Your coupon code came in the BackerKit email. Grab the soundtrack here and enter the code at checkout:
https://michaelghelfistudios.com/product/a-time-travelers-guide-to-dinosaur-hunting-original-soundtrack-albumfoundry/

Opus from dScryb

During the Kickstarter, you unlocked 3 months of Opus from dScryb. Now it's time to play with it. Your code is also in the BackerKit email. Use it when you create your account at https://dscryb.com/ to get three months free.

Opus is the easiest way to add sound, music, and ambiance to your tabletop games. One click takes your players to a new time and place with film-quality audio built for prep and play. It has over 4,500 ambiances, sound effects, and music tracks by Michael Ghelfi Studios.

Sample Sounds from Opus: 

• Roaring Dinosaur
• Camp with Growling Dinosaur Nearby

What's in a Name? Naming and Classification in the Bestiary

A bestiary of 300 creatures has posed a lot of interesting challenges, and I've loved tackling them. One I didn't expect was "beast." 5e calls almost every natural animal a beast, so nearly everything in the natural section of the bestiary would be one too. I built a supplemental naming system to fix that. It's nothing revolutionary, but it had to be standardized so it works across the whole book.

This is a book of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. Some are based on the factual paleontological science, as best we can interpret it. Some are fully invented, and many, are somewhere in between. Standard Fifth Edition syntax would name almost every creature here as a single type: beast. A housecat, a Spinosaurus, and a twelve-ton Argentinosaurus are all designated as such in 5e. In an ordinary monster manual that is fine, because "beast" sits alongside devils, oozes, dragons, and the rest. Here, where nearly every entry is a living creature of that type, that one word would repeat for hundreds of pages would tell you very little about what makes any of them special.

In this bestiary, each creature will carry four designations: size, type, kind, and lineage.
Size and type follow the standard conventions established by 5e. The type, such as beast, monstrosity, undead, construct, and so on, remains important because some spells and abilities check for it. Animal friendship works on a beast and not on a monstrosity, so you need to know which one is in front of you.

Kind is what kind of beast the creature actually is: Dinosaur, Pterosaur, Marine Reptile, Mammal, Synapsid. Establishing the kind is the first step in separating all the various creatures this book holds, since type cannot tell a pterosaur from a mammoth from a mosasaur. 
Lineage, in parentheses, is the family the creature belongs to: Carnosauria, Sauropoda, Ankylosauria. It groups relatives together and informs how the bestiary is organized. It tells you what other creatures carry similar characteristics and where to find them.

A note on pronunciation 

These creatures include a phonetic spelling, with the stressed syllable in capitals: Euoplocephalus reads yoo-OP-loh-SEF-ah-lus. It is there to guide and inform, not a decree. Say it however you like at your table. 

Progress Continues!

We've been working steadily, and now that our Rend World Kickstarter is complete, we can shift our primary focus back to getting your dinosaurs, prehistoric critters, and assorted eldritch horrors into your hands. Expect to see a few more previews over the next month or two, and then the final PDFs of your books.

We're busily finishing all the maps for all the adventures. Here are some previews:

Questions? Discord or email

If you want to see more from us between updates here, particularly on our progress with the books, we often share art and other notes about progress in our Discord community. We'll also be releasing more preview content through Backerkit, so keep an eye out for those notifications as well.

We are hard at work on bringing you dinosaurs, but we always love to hear from you. If you want to reach out to us, you can do that in the Discord, in the comments section here, or by emailing Altair at [email protected].

A Word on Timing

This project has a lot of moving parts, and I've been working on all of them at once. Everything has been moving forward, but that meant a longer gap between releases than I wanted. I'm sorry about that.

The pieces depend on each other, so I couldn't finish one and ship it on its own. That's still true. I'll keep releasing things as they're ready, and we'll keep answering your messages.

I also said I'd have final shipping prices last month. I don't have them yet. I'm not going to give you a new date until I'm sure I can keep it.

As soon as we have more details on final PDFs, shipping charges, and delivery dates, we'll be updating you. 

Keep on Roaring!
Darryl T Jones
with Altair

Monsters of Rend World Is Live!!!
3 months ago – Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 08:43:53 PM

Hail, Dinosaur Hunters!

We know you've got plans for some dimension-hopping, time-traveling dinosaur shenanigans at your tables. A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting runs a campaign set across 'verses and timelines, but that adventure concludes at level 15. 

If you're looking for some epic-level encounters, check out Monsters of Rend World, where you'll find six CR 30+ titans. 

Monsters of Rend World features:

• 300+ Pages of creatures, lore, player options, & more to take your campaign from mundane to metal
• Six biomes with unique landscapes (+ more to unlock!)
• 150+ Deadly monsters for adventurers of any level - from tiny insects that will burrow into your bones to massive elemental dragons
• Harvesting and crafting compatible with Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting
• Lairs with tactical battlemaps for low prep (but unforgettable) combat encounters
• Creature-inspired player options: classes, subclasses, spells, and gear
• & even more (click to find out)

Find out more, reserve your copy, and (for the next two days) get an Embroidered Rend World Dice Pouch FREE with any physical reward tier HERE.

Stretch goals are falling and the next is just around the corner: a new biome!

The Twisted Forest comes with 20+ more monsters, its own ecology and ecosystem!

If you haven't checked it out already, we'd really appreciate it if you took a look.

Thank you so much for your support,

Darryl & Altair

July Update from GenCon
3 months ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 07:21:15 AM

Hail Adventurers!

The days here are starting to get shorter and we're beginning to approach fall. We wanted to put your rewards in your hands somewhere in fall, and we've been hard at work behind the scenes in layout and logistics, but unfortunately it looks like you should expect your physical rewards to reach you closer to the first snow than before the leaves change.

We'll be sharing more details soon, but what you should know is this:

We believe you deserve the best possible version of your rewards — you've been with us practically since the idea for this time-traveling dinosaur project hatched, and we won't settle for anything less than the best execution we can deliver.

We are dedicated to getting your rewards to you, and progress is being made — Darryl has been (and continues to be) working with our manufacturer to make sure we get everything right. That's eaten into the time he's had to finalize the layout for the PDFs, which are coming along but not quite ready yet.

We know that you expected to see your rewards sometime this fall. We expected that too. We're sorry that you'll be waiting longer than you expected. We believe that once you have the books in your hands, you'll see that the extra time and care were well worth it.

Finishing A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting Remains A Priority

You are, of course, wondering what this means as far as when to expect your rewards. Unfortunately, we don't have a new date just yet, and this is a busy season for us — not just with dinosaurs (which remain at the top of our priority list), but with taking the chance to connect with as many of you in person as we can at Gen Con, and with the launch of Rend World (which we'd planned to launch after A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting was set for manufacturing).

A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting is seeing steady progress. The adventures are written and the dinosaurs for the bestiary are ready — we're doing the last bit of refining and polishing, but the great majority of this work is complete.

We know that the launch of the Rend World Kickstarter campaign before your rewards have entered manufacturing might make some of you a little nervous. Rest assured, we're not pressing pause on getting your dinosaurs out to you.

You'll Continue To See Updates From Us

We'll be keeping you updated as everything unfolds. As it stands right now, before we can get you more information about when to expect your rewards and what shipping charges will be, we need to solidify everything as far as manufacturing. When we know more about that, you will too.

If you want to see more from us between updates here, particularly on our progress with the books, we often share art and other notes about progress in our Discord community. We'll also be releasing more preview content through Backerkit, so keep an eye out for those notifications as well.

We are hard at work on bringing you dinosaurs, but we always love to hear from you. If you want to reach out to us, you can do that in the Discord, in the comments section here, or by emailing Altair at [email protected].

Dinosaurs Spotted On The Horizon
4 months ago – Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 08:15:07 PM

Hail, Adventurers!

It's almost time for rewards to embark on a journey to you - we're wrapping up the last details, dotting 'i's and crossing 't's, and making sure that each dinosaur is ready to go. We'll let you know a little more about shipping charges, but first:

Head Count: 302 Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Critters

Want to know what's coming? We snapped a few quick pictures of the table of contents for the bestiary.

Preparations For Fulfillment

As we prepare to get all of your books and other treasures out to you, we're coming up on the time to charge for shipping. 

Fulfillment - a big improvement. We met with our fulfillment partner, and there is a new option for how fulfillment is handled: manufacturing prepack. That means each pledge will be packed per backer before everything goes onto cargo boats. The result is faster fulfillment and far fewer mistakes. Everything you pledged for will be boxed specifically for you, right from the start.

We're still nailing down the exact figures, but you should expect to see shipping charges in BackerKit soon. As soon as we have an exact number and a date, we'll get that information out to you.

Where Things Stand

We're honored to be building something this ambitious alongside you, and we're rowing hard for the shore. It still catches me off guard how massive this project is. 800 pages, 302 creatures, two books. Tokens, cards, STLs. You all know. You unlocked all those beautiful stretch goals. 

Our manufacturer is ready and waiting to begin as soon as files are finalized and proofed. They know we're in a hurry. But we won't cut corners to speed up production. This project deserves every effort required to ensure it is the best RPG product it can be.

While you wait, if you haven't already checked them out, we recently made two new alpha adventures available on BackerKit. We hope you enjoy them. If you have a chance to try them out, please let us know what you think.

Layout & Final Art. This is the last major task on the book itself. Eight hundred pages is no small beast to wrangle, but it's coming together page by page.

Digital Rewards

Miniatures & Digital Tools. The final list of models is locked and in the hands of our 3D sculptor. The final creature list has gone out to our token artists, and we've kicked off the review process with VTT developers to get these creatures onto your virtual tabletops.

Travel To Another 'Verse With Rend World

One 'verse could never be enough.

Take your campaigns from mundane to metal in Rend World! 

Need a place for your 'verse-hopping party of time travelers to crash land for an impromptu one-shot? Choose one of Rend World's biomes and a handful of monsters for quick game prep.

Designing an epic campaign of your own? We've got you there too. Whether your table spends levels one through twenty in an epic campaign immersed in Rend World lore or you sprinkle its monsters through your story, you'll find resources to amaze and surprise your players. Speaking of resources, Rend World will be compatible with the crafting and harvesting system found in Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting.

We’re crafting a bestiary of interconnected monsters with living, deadly, biomes that are perfect to drop into ANY campaign! 

Each biome is designed from the ground up, so from underground lairs to skyfaring dragons, each of Rend World’s unique creatures is designed as part of a richly detailed and interconnected environment.

You can find out more on our launch announcement page. >CLICK HERE< Drop by and check it out! Sign up for FREE to instantly unlock creature stat block downloads (the slimigator will warm your heart) and become a VIP before the campaign begins to unlock a VIP ONLY digital adventure, Lullaby of the Cave Nurse,bonus stat block downloads,and more!

NEW VIP REWARD!!! - Cracked Nebula Dice

A Few Last Words

Your enthusiasm for our time travel dinosaur adventure has been a source of joy and inspiration for us as we've worked on this project. Many of you have already signed up for VIP status, shared Rend World with your friends, and come to chat with us about it. We're beyond thrilled (and grateful). We couldn't ask for a better community.

Want to chat with us (and some other people who love dinosaurs and other cool stuff)? Join us on Discord, the ancestral home of Splattered Ink's internet cryptid!

You can also reach Altair by email at [email protected] with questions, comments, or cute pictures of cats. 

Safe journeys friends!

Darryl & Altair