The Amethyst Dragon is creating a book.

It has begun.

I'm writing a book. Yes, an actual, physical (and probably digital) book that will be filled with all sorts of content for players and DMs.

I purchased desktop publishing software, which has brought back memories of working on the yearbook back in high school.

I've been testing different fonts, colors, and more as I teach myself how to use the software. I'll be changing things a bit so that legally it doesn't look exactly like the official D&D books, but will still be similar enough to make people comfortable reading and using it.

I've also been working on higher res page backgrounds and other bits for the layouts.

So far I've pulled in a portion of the content I've written over the last 5 years (yeah, I was late getting into 5e because I was running a 3e Neverwinter Nights game server). So far, I've got the races and subraces done, backgrounds are in, and I've got subclasses for artificers, barbarians, bards, and clerics added. The artificer ones will get removed if WotC doesn't add them to the SRD, but they're ready to go just in case. I also added a nonmagical equipment section. Oh, and today I worked out how to make standardized monster stat blocks using the publishing software.

My plan is to do layout for the entire book, get my content into it (while continuing to make multiple homebrews each week), and finally kickstart and publish in 2024...right after WotC publishes the new/updated edition of D&D. I will be updating everything I put in the book for that newest version of D&D. :)

There's currently about 60 pages of content I've already added to the book, and I've not finished the subclasses, nor done any spells, magic items, or monsters/NPCs. Haven't added any artwork yet, either (I plan to do a lot of the illustrations myself, and then, depending on how well the kickstarter goes, hopefully commission some artists for additional illustrations).

I'll be posting occasional work in progress thoughts and screenshots (like the one above) on my Discord server, so feel free to wander over there and converse about what you might be looking forward in this book.

I have been making content for D&D for three decades and sharing a lot of it online. This is the first time my (D&D) work will be in an actual book.

I'm enjoying this challenge.

- Nathan (The Amethyst Dragon)