A new week’s marching through the door in our BOOM! Direct Reserve campaign on BackerKit, and we have an exciting one planned for the over 5,425 fans who have joined us in this campaign.
Beginning with a short video of Claudio Sanchez sharing what fans can expect in the THE AMORY WARS: GOOD APOLLO, I’M BURNING STAR IV, VOL. II: NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW comic book series:
Are you as excited as we are to read what Claudio and Chondra have planned? Let us know if in the comments below!
Before we go, we’ve noticed feedback from the community regarding the possibility of additional campaign levels and alternative add-ons. We want to get a better sense of what the larger community thinks about potential additional tiers.
We have a 25 character limit for the option text in the actual poll, so we’ve provided additional details below:
The addition of an unsigned slipcased hardcover set and 12-issue variant cover set bundle as a new campaign level
The addition of a signed slipcased hardcover set and 12-issue variant cover set as a new campaign level
Unlocking Stretch Goal items like the enamel pin set as Add-On Items
All of the above!
None of the above!
Two out of the three (let us know which two in the comments section of the poll)
We would appreciate your participation in this poll!
If you have any questions or need assistance with reserving your order, drop us a line at [email protected] for the fastest response.
Adam here. I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, tucked into a new-to-me Columbian coffee shop. I'm in Chicago for a few days to hang out and work with Sprite in person, and to see one of my favorite singers, Dessa.
I saw Dessa on Thursday in Minneapolis, collapsed with sore throat and feet after the show, woke up early on Friday morning and dashed to catch the Amtrak to Chicago. I worked all day on the train, rolled into Sprite's place around seven, caught up a little bit and did some more work. Nine PM I poured some vodka into a Red Bull, chugged it down, and promptly fell asleep. An almost perfect day, except I didn't get chance to play Baldur's Gate 3. Saturday I spent working until it was time to head across town to see Dessa again.
One of her songs, I Already Like You has a lyric that has always caught my ear:
"Fucked up the trust fall / Caught a concussion"
Running any kind of business, any kind of venture is a series of trust falls. The ongoing collaboration that you know as Posthuman Studios has been pushing forward long enough that it could legally drink. Along the way, we've taken a bunch of trust falls and tried to be holding hands underneath others doing the same. Of course there have been concussions.
If I work backwards, itemizing and categorizing those trust falls — caught or concussed — there's one commonality to them: our fans always catch us. You support our Creative Commons releases. You back our crowdfunding campaigns. You sell out our games at Gen Con and then come to the booth to tell us how much fun you had. You share your stories, not just about your games but also how they have impacted your life, your friendships, your feelings about life, love, community, acceptance. And capitalism. Lots of feelings about capitalism.
So with that, we're letting everyone backing this campaign download the digital version of Eclipse Phase Character Options today — the link comes after this backer-only jump-cut:
Hello, everyone! As the days cool and we coast into a nice relaxing Thanksgiving week, it seems like a good time to discuss...stabbing adventurers in the eyeballs. Because that's what Thanksgiving is all about, at least when it comes to Grimtooth. So here is designer Marzio Muscedere with a few thoughts on his work statting up Grimtooth's Old-School Traps...
Grimtooth, We Salute You!
by Marzio Muscedere
Ahh, the good ol’ trap. A tried-and-true staple of all fantasy RPGs that brings a smile to every gamemaster’s face, and the eventual roar of shock and surprise from the players at the table once sprung.
Nothing warms the cold, black heart of any good judge more than a perfectly laid trap. And why shouldn’t it? When used properly, a well thought out trap can be just as engaging as any NPC interaction or combat situation. Smart trap designs allow players to come up with different ways to approach and handle each trap encounter, resulting in some wildly ingenious solutions, or if things go wrong, some extremely hellacious outcomes.
But not all traps are created equal my friends, let me tell you. Having worked on over 50 traps for this project, I can definitely say that Grimtooth is one dastardly and nefarious genius. Within Grimtooth’s Old School Traps one can find all manner of traps that range from simple devices to complex mechanical marvels. There are traps that range in deadliness, from those that serve to wound nothing but a character’s pride, all the way to those that deliver instant and excruciating death. There are traps for different locations, be it room traps, door traps and even trapped items, giving the judge flexibility and options when outfitting their deadly dungeon designs. But what I love most about Grimtooth’s traps is that many of them have more than a single effect, resulting in a chain reaction of nasty things that can happen to the PCs depending upon their very own actions and reactions. This can include anything from additional traps being sprung based upon the PCs location, to traps being planted on their person that are triggered at a later time, to the releasing of a kraken…yes, I said it, a KRAKEN!
Yet, despite the myriad versions of traps provided, what they all have in common, aside from being memorable, is that they serve to challenge both the players and their characters alike. Each trap within Grimtooth’s was written to allow for different methods of detection and deactivation that are sure to keep intrepid gamers thinking and on their toes.
So, what are some of my favorite traps? I personally enjoy traps that the PCs can’t help but spring upon themselves. To quote the indelible Gary Gygax - "The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, he presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own." And that is what good traps do; they lure the PCs by preying upon their greed, curiosity, or stubbornness. Case in point, the simple but effective Eye-Catching Trap, whereby overly curious PCs find out the hard way that it is not polite to stare, especially when wickedly barbed spikes drive into their eyes tearing their eyeballs straight out of their sockets as they pull away. Clever, effective, and absolutely brutal - and for that Grimtooth, we salute you!
We have an incredibly exciting update to share with all of you as the second week of our THE AMORY WARS Returns With NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW campaign draws to a close! We’ve passed $760,000 in reserved orders thanks to the combined passion of nearly 5,200 Children of the Fence and moved to the 6th most successful campaign on BackerKit of all time!
Today, we’re thrilled to unveil the black and white line art for Riccardo Latina’s first BOOM! Direct Reserve cover for THE AMORY WARS: GOOD APOLLO, I’M BURNING STAR IV, VOL. II: NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW available through this campaign. Riccardo chose to spotlight Claudio and Chase along with the iconic dragonfly in this first cover image and we think it turned out beautifully!
As a reminder, this cover image will be part of a larger 12-part composition across the 12-issue series, and the composited image will be featured on our 20th Anniversary print. What do you think of the piece? Let us know in the comments!
Additionally, based on feedback from the fans participating in this campaign, we’ve adjusted our next Supreme Stretch Goal so that everyone with a physical reserved order of $75 or more (as opposed to $85 or more), will receive a 10-card set of THE AMORY WARS trading cards for free. How quickly can we reach the height of $875,000?
In the meantime, keep participating in our polls, engaging in discussions with your fellow Children of the Fence on the community page, and sharing this LINK to THE AMORY WARS Returns With NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW campaign with other fans on social media.
If you have any questions or need assistance with reserving your order, drop us a line at [email protected] for the fastest response. As a reminder, our customer service team will be offline over the weekend, but we’ll be back on Monday morning to answer any questions you may have.
Hey! We'll be streaming LIVE tomorrow, November 20th at 2PM CT, here and on our Twitch channel!
We're anticipating a lot of sea-faring shenanigans, as the stream will feature expansion designer: Nick! As well as studio staff members Anne, Ted, and Clay. Come and see the new factions in action!
Jay here! We're halfway there through this crowdfunding project and I wanted to reach out to show off some new art for Grand Guignol and Harvest. Right now everything's just sketches, but the level of detail being applied to these setting elements do an amazing job of building out the historical world of 18th/19th century England and the strange magic present there.
These depict The Blood That Flows and The Embrace of Night, two setting elements from Grand Guignol, with art by Rowan MacColl.
These depict the Empire, the University, the Holy Church, and the Deathless Wyrm, four of the powerful masters of Harvest, with art by Sarcoma.
We have just 11 days to support Grand Guignol and Harvest, so be sure to tell your friends. Don't forget that last update we released the manuscript of Grand Guignol to all backers, so if that's something that interests you, be sure to go check it out!
You might know that Love Letters comes with a brand new way to play Star Crossed online.
You probably know that I Have the High Ground is Jess Levine's heart-pounding two-player game of loaded banter and posturing before a climactic duel.
And so you must think: those two games would go together really well, right?
Well, Jess and I did play the two games on the Party of Onepodcast, mashed up as one continuous story about alien diplomats who ended up in a chili cook-off for planet Earth...
Click to listen to our high-stakes sci-fi romance at the county fair!
If you've backed Love Letters, you can add the PDF and/or printed zine to your order...
Jess and I used the PDF to play online together!
OR... you can get the limited edition premium version that includes dice, tokens, and everything else you need to play:
Thanks so much to Jess Levine for suggesting this mashup, and to Jeff Stormer for letting us take over his podcast for a week. We had SO much fun playing these games together, and it's pretty clear that Jess and I share a lot of values when it comes to designing games - player collaboration, tension, emotions first, mechanics that draw from life (in her case, from real-life fencing!) and you know... being hot.
Hello, trap-bait! I mean, faithful backers! Thanks for the continued support. Greetings to all the new backers over the last couple days. Grimtooth has a couple updates for you today.
Trap D is pulling ahead in our latest poll! The trap shown below is in the lead, but you have plenty of time to vote for this one or the others! (And check this update to see bigger versions of the trap graphics.)
"Against the Thieves Guild" live play tonight!Twenty Sides to Every Story will be playing the traps-based add-on adventure live on their channel, tonight at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. Watch the show and find out exactly how challenging it can be to raid the Guild's traps-filled base!
Keep Sharing on Facebook! Please use the achievement option at bottom of this update to share this project on Facebook.
And finally, let's hear some thoughts from the lead editor on our 5E edition of Grimtooth's Old-School Traps, about just how deadly these traps can be...
Just How Deadly Are These Traps in 5E?
By Benn Ward
Grimtooth’s collection is infamous for meat-grinder traps that can make fresh hamburger out of unwary delvers. The old troll describes traps that crush delvers under 4,620,000 pounds of gold, weapons that snap with enough force to cause “the very real danger of a broken back,” and even a smashing-floor trap that leaves victims flat enough to fit into a single envelope. Most of the traps are surely lethal to your average spelunker, but Fifth Edition heroes are seldom average. So, just how dangerous are these traps?
Alongside Chris Doyle, I was on the 5E design team in charge of balancing the trap conversions. We knew we wanted to keep the old-school style of Grimtooth’s traps while still applying some of the design wisdom that has accumulated in the four decades since those first trap-filled manuals. Designing how the traps would spring on Fifth Edition victims meant deciding such things as if a trap would roll initiative, whether a trap allowed a saving throw for delvers who were too close, and when to include new rules for injuries brought on by traps that targeted a delver’s feet, hands, or even eyes. In making these decisions, we had to pay our respects to the era of evil trapsmiths who delighted in maiming delvers, but we also had to show respect to the players by giving them a fighting chance to avoid such things as a sudden decapitation. Fair is fair.
To start with, not all of Grimtooth’s traps are so deadly. Using his five-skull rating as a guideline, we divided the traps up into three threat categories that help Game Masters choose the right trap. The smallest category of traps are only a Moderate threat. These traps ridicule the delvers, ring dinner bells for the other dungeon denizens, or generally challenge the characters without causing (much) pain. Half of the remaining traps have a Dangerous threat. Dangerous traps inflict suffering in a thousand different ways, but, generally, they only kill characters who are already worn down from the dungeon gauntlet. That is for the better: players are less likely to blame the Game Master for their character’s death when it is due to their own decision to press on through injuries.
Traps with a Deadly threat, Grimtooth’s specialty, make up the other near half of the collection. Deadly traps may isolate victims beyond the help of allies, capture entire parties in a countdown to destruction, or trigger a sudden fatality for those who ignore warnings. Often the more obvious a trap is, the more deadly it is—making a character’s demise very much their own fault. However, Grimtooth’s deadliest traps are seldom instant; they tend to give victims a chance to realize their mistake, or at least contemplate their mortality, before the final blow. This allowed us to really spike the lethality for some of the traps. For example, the “Beware of Low Ceiling” trap has a spinning fan that deals 1d100 slashing damage per round.
Despite the risks, most of these 5E conversions allow a saving throw so that foolhardy characters have a chance of escaping danger at the last second. They also usually, but not always, target hit points so that unconscious victims may still be rescued by their allies—if any survive. Exceptions exist among the deadliest traps, of course, which are much less forgiving to delvers who take no precautions. This design choice may seem too forgiving at times, but not all old-school traps need to be an insta-death. In fact, the more likely that cautious delvers are to survive, the more traps you can spring on them...
As we wind up this week, glad to say that the Morph Recognition Deck Upgrade has been unlocked — at the same price as the original deck. If you'd been waiting to select it as an add-on, now is the time!
A few answers to FAQs that have come up on the way:
Yes, Character Options is Creative Commons-licensed!
The Character Options PDF will be released on November 20th or 21st.
We will add some more merchandise to the project later in the campaign as well!
Eclipse Phase Second Edition Reprint — Price Lock
We are incredibly close to needing to reprint Eclipse Phase Second Edition. It is possible that the cover price will have to be raised for the second printing. If you are getting EP2 via this campaign — by pledge level or add-on — you will lock in your copies at the current price.
Not Stretch Goals
We want to elevate the following information: if you back this campaign for $100 or more (not counting shipping) you will also get free digital copies of NPC File 2 and Your Whispering Muse when they are released! These titles are stretch goals from the Eclipse Phase Second Edition Kickstarter campaign, and they're both in writing/development now.
NPC File 2
If you're a Patreon subscriber, you'll have seen some NPC File 2 excerpts recently, but if you haven't we have some news about that book!
The original NPC File book included 33 NPCs and 9 variants, all packed into only 15 pages. Our initial plans for NPC File 2 were a little expanded, probably around 24 pages and 40 NPCs. As we outlined the book, ideas flowed and we ended up expanding the NPC list to 46 archetypes — and also 46 named NPCs for each archetype. We expected that we'd do a half page for each NPC, ending up with a book about 48 pages. Here's the complete list of NPC archetypes — those in green are written and laid-out (including their named compatriots, who I've redacted for now!).
NPC Archetype List — Green are written/laid out!
As we got into writing and initial graphic design it became obvious that plan wasn't feasible — we were simply trying to jam too much onto each page. So NPC File 2 will now be a ~96-page book, and we've shared some pages on our Patreon to certain backer levels. Here's a couple of those pages for you:
Artifex archetype and specific NPC Remy Manfletti
Once we've finished writing and layout we'll be commissioning art, and then the digital book will be available for supporting backers, and shortly after that available to the public!
Support
Thank you for your support of the Character Options campaign, and stay tuned for the PDF coming nearly next week!
Hey everyone! Wow! What a great day! I really appreciate you all coming along with us!
I do not write a ton of updates anymore, but Brooke extended the opportunity for me to write about the Ahoy project. Here are some of my thoughts.
Nick is the lead designer of the expansion. He started noodling on some ideas for alternate factions and it came together surprisingly quickly for him. He brought to us the pitch for doing an Ahoy expansion and we started to look into the project’s feasibility.
I met Nick around January of 2018. He was interviewing to be a Graphic Designer. I am not a huge fan of skill tests on interviews, but we offered to compensate the final few candidates for an hour of their time to design a card for the then new Vast: The Mysterious Manor. He also by coincidence submitted a card about an Island Revolt. Was it fate that brought us together?
He started in February that year and quickly started applying himself to graphic design. Nick was our seventh employee. He made the move into development, showing an appetite for the subject as well as a firm understanding of design from years of playing CCGs.
Nick has been designing for us for a few years now. He helped out a great deal with Oath and Arcs card design. In Root he got many of the pieces I struggled with to work, as well as designing the Landmarks. He is now a Senior Developer! Congratulations, Nick!
I would also like to thank our Marketing Coordinator, Brooke, who is super awesome, for pulling all of this project together.
Ahoy was presented to me at PAX Unplugged by Greg Loring-Albright a few years ago. I was interested due to the asymmetry but as usual, was skeptical. We were pretty busy with our projects and we already had Root covering a game about asymmetric warfare. I gave it a chance though. I asked Cole and Nick to look at Ahoy. They tried it out and brought it back to me recommending that we should publish. At the time, we were experimenting with direct to retail releases. We went that route for this new title and put Nick in charge of the project. It turned out pretty well but without the magical push of crowdfunding we found we would run into people at conventions that were surprised by Ahoy’s existence.
This expansion gave us an opportunity to bring Ahoy to a broader audience and I am delighted by the response. Our studio operates on a more creative-focused studio model. We create projects in house and bring them to the market internally, as opposed to signing games from freelance designers. I believe neither approach is superior, I just know what works for us. These rare moments of direct funding allow us the most freedom possible to continue working in this model.
One of the dangers of the model though is that it has been a challenge to scale, that we could only bring a project out every 15 months or so. Cole, Nick, and I all have things we want to work on and this project is one of our first tests to see if we can make the model work. It has been interesting and we will continue to track our progress as we grow.
That growth would not be possible without your help and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Coming up tomorrow, Kyle will be hosting a stream to do some art for Ahoy. I will also be on the stream fielding questions and rambling on about whatever I feel like. Find those details below!
Thank you for reading this for a bit. I will see you all at the finish line!
Patrick Leder
Leder Games
Celebratory Shark Cake!!!
Art Stream with Kyle Ferrin!
It's a bit of a Leder crowdfunding tradition to have a live stream with Kyle, doing what he does so well! Kyle will be joined by Patrick Leder, so bring your questions and watch some of Kyle's creative process.
