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!
Good day! I hope you are doing well this week. As promised last time, I wanted to get into an update today that gave you a better idea of where we are with all projects. The first thing I want to share is a graphic we've whipped up that will be included in each update:
This gives you a simple view of what stage of production we are in for each project so that you can have a better idea, at a glance, of where your stuff is. Checks are for what is already finished and stars are what we are currently working on. As we make progress, we'll update the chart. But for this update, let's go into more detail on each of these items!
Buttons & Bugs
We are in production on Buttons & Bugs! This process began early last week, and so now we wait for the games to come out on the other side. This means we'll be able to begin freight shipping next month and fulfillment will ideally be happening early next year, depending on the availability of our fulfillment partners. As with all of the timelines I'll be sharing with you, everything is of course just an estimate, as there is always a chance of unforeseen delays.
Forgotten Circles
Forgotten Circles has actually already finished production, but because we will be shipping it in wave 1 along with Frosthaven, it is waiting for Frosthaven to be finished before both are shipped out together.
Frosthaven Second Print
Here again we are in production, with a very similar timeline to Buttons & Bugs above. We just got word that the games will be ship ready in two weeks, so we will be able to start freight shipping next month, with, again, fulfillment ideally happening early next year, depending on the availability of our fulfillment partners.
Frosthaven Play Surface Books
Same story here. The last piece of this was designing a box to put all the books in, because the books were too big to package any other way. So that is finished, and the play surface books are now in production and will be shipped alongside Frosthaven and Forgotten Circles. These will likely be the last piece to make it out of production, but Chris and Price are working on our shipping plan next week and will be eliminating as much unnecessary waiting and downtime as possible.
Gloomhaven Second Edition
Admittedly, this is where we are most behind. Design and development are done, but there is still a lot of outstanding art and graphic design. And while we will be doing some layout and editing this month and next on the project, the rest of the year will be mostly dedicated to finishing putting the systems and infrastructure in place to fulfill all art and design needs we are going to need on both this project and the RPG in the coming year.
To provide a very rough timeline, our goal is to finish all art and design by the end of March next year, then spend April proofing, May-June in production, and June-July in freight shipping. This puts our fulfillment sometime around July or August. Again, I just want to emphasize that these are rough estimates. We're confident that we can meet these goals, but complications can always arise.
Gloomhaven Role Playing Game
I know we haven't communicated much on the timeline of the RPG since the campaign. We wanted to give Danielle a chance to get settled and get everything into place. But with the design done and writing assignments for all the lore deployed, we are finally ready to start talking about this more.
First drafts for all the writing assignments are due in January, and in the meantime, we'll be doing further play testing and development on the rules. Once the drafts come in, we'll also start ramping up artwork for the book.
We will be getting in final drafts of the lore writing in February, by which point we'll also be finishing up any modifications to the rules sections of the book. It will then go into editing in March and layout in April, meaning we should be able to get final files sent off to the printer in June. From there, we can expect ocean freight two months after that in August and fulfillment starting in September.
I just want to stress again that this is an optimistic estimate that assumes everything comes together without delays, which hardly ever happens. But we'll do our best to stick to that schedule, and we'll let you know if anything changes.
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
With the miniatures, we aren't quite ready to give a more concrete timeline. Progress is certainly being made here as we finish up the sculpting, but there are so many variables with the factory revisions and mold-making process. Plus the production time can be variable, depending on what our final order quantities end up being. We will have more info on this later!
Other exciting things
Our friends at Glass Cannon will be streaming a play through of the RPG tonight! Back at Gen Con, they recorded a podcast where the team went through character creation, which you can find here.
But you don't need to have watched that to enjoy them playing the game tonight at 8pm ET on Twitch! Joe O'Brien is Gloom Mastering for Sydney Amanuel, Paula Deming, Skid Maher, and Josephine McAdam, and we are all very excited to check it out!
And if you want more RPG live plays, we will also be doing one at PAXU. This will be on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 11am ET and will be streamed through Penny Arcade's channels. We'll be getting the PA crew that you saw during the campaign back together for another wild mission that will most assuredly involve Winkies. Alexander Theoharis will be Gloom Mastering for myself, Jasmine Bhullar, Jerry Holkins, and Laura Stringer.
You can also come hang out at our booth at PAXU (#2936), where we will be running demos of the RPG, Frosthaven, Gloomhaven Second Edition, and Buttons & Bugs with production samples fresh from the factory. It's gonna be a great time!
Next update will likely be a smaller one, as we'll all be at PAXU, but you can expect another designer diary from Danielle about the RPG, so look forward to that, and I'll catch you then!
Thanks to you, we’ve hit the milestone of more than 2,177 vislae supporting this campaign. We’ve exceeded the number of backers of the original campaign by a wide margin, and this reprint will be much bigger than the first reprint—huzzah! And it is all thanks to you, vislae, for your support and sharing the news of this campaign with your friends.
We’re excited to make The Wellspring live up to our most expansive vision for it—it’s going to be a supplement equivalent to Book M, The Nightside, and Enchiridion of the Path in terms of its production splendor.
The Wellspring, props and handouts, sticker sheet, and other components will now be delivered to you in an elegant box that will be an asset to your Invisible Sun collection all on its own. It may provide a handy place to organize all of your props—the additional ones you unlocked for this product, the props that come in the Black Cube, plus those of the Prop Set 2 (if it's one of your add-ons). Perhaps it will be perfect for storing your copy of The Guiding Hand and other gaming essentials, so that you are always prepared to journey into the Actuality. We're still working out the final form, but regardless, it will be as beautiful as it is useful.
At this point, there’s nothing else we can promise with confidence that we’ll be able to deliver to you in a reasonable timeframe. We’re working on so many cool things, for all of our game lines, that our schedule is absolutely packed, and we don’t want to compromise any of them to squeeze in another title. This means no more stretch goals for this campaign. You absolutely exceeded our loftiest expectations, and we're astonished, pleased, and grateful that you unlocked so many great stretch goals!
And, wow, have we learned something about the demand for Invisible Sun! It's as though we ourselves have stepped out of Shadow and into the Actuality, and been amazed at what we discovered. This new understanding will definitely influence our vision for future products. We couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come!
Thank you so much for your support! —The Monte Cook Games team
When we set out to summon the Black Cube for a third time, we assumed there were many of you out there, trapped in Shadow, just waiting to be called back into the Actuality. What we didn’t predict is how many of you were out there.
This ritual has drawn the participation of more vislae—by a wide margin—than the original Invisible Sun campaign. And nearly double that of the first reprint campaign. In addition to the Black Cube, your collective support has summoned a fabulous art book—The Darkest Art—and an amazingly envisioned version of The Wellspring. We are humbled and appreciative of your support for this unique game.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ the next couple of sections. We have some other info to share after that, but what follows here is critical.
The Immediate Future
Running a big crowdfunding campaign is hard work, and we have a holiday week coming up. We’re going to take a little time off. You may not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. Our printers already have the files to the Black Cube and supplements to be reprinted and are waiting on final numbers so they can get started. We’ll post updates when we have something exciting to share.
We’ve delivered on over two dozen large crowdfunding campaigns over the past 10+ years, and we’ll be working diligently on your rewards in the weeks and months to come.
The Next Few Weeks
BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.
In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in two or three weeks.
HERE’S SOME SUPER IMPORTANT STUFF:
The pledge manager is vital to getting your rewards. We CANNOT FULFILL your rewards if you don’t respond to the pledge manager!
In the pledge manager, we’re going to ask for your email address. YOU MUST provide an address you can use later at the MCG Shop. DO NOT use an email proxy (like Apple Hide My Email), or an address you won’t have access to (like a school-issued address)—or you won’t be able to claim your rewards!
Later, when your rewards are available, we’ll give you instructions on how to claim them. This process ensures, among other benefits, that we collect your accurate shipping address at the time of fulfillment. DON’T IGNORE OUR COMMUNICATIONS, or you won’t get your rewards!
The Next Few Months
Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy crafting your products and rewards in the months to come. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.
At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.
When Your Rewards Ship
Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.
This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.
Make sure to pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.
OK, Enough Business—Now Some Fun Stuff
First, some thanks:
While this campaign was underway, Monte and the design team (Sean, Bruce, Shanna, and Dominique) have been working on our current projects, including the It’s Only Magic, Cypher System Starter Set and The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game. And Monte’s started initial work on The Wellspring.
Bear, supported by Javier (and the many great illustrators they work with), coordinated the artwork and handled the graphic design of this campaign, while they were also busy getting titles like Rust and Redemption off to press.
Teri and Tammie wrangled words and logistics of this campaign, and Jen, Olivia, and Kate provided answers and support to you, our wonderful community, here and everywhere gamers congregate online. The man behind the curtain of this campaign is Charles, who has planned and run this campaign.
All of us at MCG want to express our thanks to the many wise vislae—you—who blew us away with this campaign. Your support will introduce thousands of gamers to the Actuality!
Overheard in a recent MCG playtest: "Well, that's something you don't see a Texas longhorn do very often."
We're getting reports that 10-20% of backers are having issues with the game boxes breaking and stickers opening/tearing. As you can probably guess, the issue stems from not using plastic coating/reinforced tape on a box containing such a heavy game. We're so sorry—we know it's such a bummer to get a messed up box. We had done a LOT of successful testing prior to shipping, but the failure rate is clearly unacceptable.
Here's our solution: if you receive a damaged box, don't worry for now, just play as normal. Once we've figured out the best way to reprint and repackage the boxes, we'll send out a survey where you can either:
Get a new box, or
Get a partial refund, or
Register that your box had issues, but are OK just taping it up
International backers, we're working on a way to pack yours to make sure these issues don't happen! But if they do, it'll be the same deal, where you can request a new box or partial refund if you like.
OK, bummer news over. And other than this box thing, copies of Daybreak seem to be arriving and getting played! Let us know if you've had a chance to play yet!
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!
Cast your vote in the poll below for your 2nd crew mate!
Just to provide some clarification, the Moonrollers crew mates will not have the same ability as they do in Moonrakers, though the new one may be inspired by the original one. The crew mates will be rewired to have abilities more suited to help you survive the Moonrollers missions! They're risky individuals but the payoff is so worth it 😉
Stay tuned for more Moonrollers content in the coming days!
Congratulations, Competitor [795] you have successfully completed the Crowdfunding Phase of Deathmatch Island. In the next several weeks you will receive a small, vacusealed packet containing a personal recording device, a two-way shortwave radio transponder, and an electric airsoft gun armed with non-lethal neurotranquilizing rounds. Your transponder will begin to beep when another Competitor is within a 3km (1.86 mile) radius. Eliminate that Competitor in order to advance to the next round. -Excerpt from a rejected Production draft of this Campaign Update. The intern responsible has subsequently been reassigned.
Hey friends, thank you so much for backing Deathmatch Island. Tim has worked tirelessly to make this game striking, subversive, and fun. We're grateful to see his hard work recognized by your outpouring of support and we know you're going to have a great time playing.
What Happens Next
Most of the next steps happen behind the scenes. Over the next week or two, BackerKit will process pledges and transfer the initial funds to us. (If you missed out on an add-on or want to upgrade your pledge, don't worry - that will be possible when we shift into Pledge Manager mode.)
On our side, the book is text complete and Tim has put together the final art. So while there's still a bit of work to be done, in very short order we'll be gearing up to start the back-and-forth process of submitting print files, reviewing galleys, etc.
If you've never backed an Evil Hat crowdfunding campaign, we do our best to deliver on time or ahead of time.
Our most recent crowdfunding effort, Girl By Moonlight funded in June of 2023, was scheduled for delivery in January of 2024, and actually completed fulfillment at the end of October 2023. (In fact, it's in stores now.)
So while delivery of Deathmatch Island is set for June of 2024, we're hopeful that - barring supply chain disruptions, printer meltdowns, or [REDACTED] - we will get your books and other rewards out before then.
We'll keep you updated here along the way. In the meantime, you still have the text-complete rules PDF and access to the Roll20 Quickstart (and Roll20 character sheets). You're ready to begin exploring Deathmatch Island right now.
(And don't forget the Deathmatch Island-themed Zoom backgrounds and digital wallpapers we unlocked as part of the Instant Reward at the $150k mark. Those are ready to go and available for download today.)
In terms of the stretch goals, the work on those is just beginning. Shortly we'll be sending out final contracts to get creation of those rewards underway.
A quick reminder: the stretch goals will be delivered separately from the physical book. We don't have definitive dates for the new Islands or the Official Soundtrack, but we'll likely release them in batches as they are complete. They will be electronic rewards only and we'll automatically add them to your BackerKit Digital Download page as they become available.
Thank You
We count on the enthusiasm and trust of fans like you to help shepherd new games into our portfolio and get them out into the public. We thought Deathmatch Island was a fascinating, contemporary spin on the AGON ruleset and we were awestruck by Tim's incredible design. You clearly agreed and now Deathmatch Island is going to be a reality.
We're grateful for your help in making that happen. Winners Play to Win. Thank you for not Breaking the Game.
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.
