Updates on Layout, New Previews, Surveys, and More!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Aug 24, 2022 at 11:46:24 PM
You came again to the Great Mountain and called out for my wisdom, and lo, I come forth at last with good news! The laborious grind of progress has been a taxing one, but it has yielded great bounty. A score of carnivorous apes have toiled at the wheel of pain for many moons to power the very computer on which I type, so savor these words! Much blood was spilt in their rendering.
Layout & Previews
In short, things are proceeding brilliantly. Layout is still plodding along as well as can be expected. On that front I currently have nothing to show, although I am being told by my design team that an updated version of the player's section and some heretofore unseen content will be available to backers as a sneak peek before the end of the week. When that media is available to me, I will be sure to post it here!
BackerKit Surveys & Add-Ons
I am currently awaiting the final spreadsheet from our fulfilment team to populate BackerKit surveys. Once I get numbers from them (which are supposed to arrive within the next 48 hours), I can complete the last step in the BackerKit process. From there I can release the surveys when it is deemed most appropriate. Surveys will be released in two phases. The first, called a 'smoke test' will release to a small, randomly selected portion of backers. This is simply designed to determine that everything was done correctly and that the relevant information is processed properly. Once the first phase is complete, the remainder of surveys will go out en masse. With these surveys, you will have the opportunity to add additional copies of Swords & Chaos to your order if you wish to do so. As I have stated previously, it's a difficult balancing act, these surveys. You want to wait to release them as long as possible so that shipping costs are as accurate as possible, but you want them out early enough that everyone gets a chance to fill them out. Before I declare a firm date for survey release, I will need to arrange a meeting with the printers and my production team to determine when they expect the print run to reach an end. When there's fresh news on that front, I'll let you all know.
Getting S&C if you missed the Kickstarter
If you missed out on our Kickstarter but still wish to acquire a copy of Swords & Chaos, fret not! I am working closely with one of the most powerful sorcerers in the art of web design that I know, and we are forging a brilliant new website where physical copies of Swords & Chaos can be preordered! The website is nearing finalization, and once complete will allow you to order physical copies of our products to be shipped to whatever address you wish. We are partnered with a Consolidator and Third Party Logistics company, with whom I signed with this week, who will make the process streamlined and incredibly easy for us here at BSF and, most importantly, you. Fulfilment on these later orders will likely be completed in tandem with Kickstarter fulfilment, as the two are being handled by two separate companies with their own pallets of books we've sent them in advance.
The website will serve as the long-term home for Blackspire Fantasy products, and will serve as a one-stop shop for physical and digital* goods. As we release further game material, they will become available on our website.
*new and existing products will still be available for order through DriveThruRPG, as would be expected.
What I've Been Doing In the Meantime
It's no secret that publishing is often a game of "hurry up and wait," and there's plenty of downtime where you're waiting on another part of the process to be completed, for someone to reply to an email, or any other number of things. I find myself in that situation often as of late. To make up for this, I've been occupying my time with some pretty exciting side-projects that have started to bear fruit. The first of these is a proper GM Screen for use with Swords & Chaos! I've developed a prototype screen that I'm using in my own games, and I'm very happy with the results. It's a four-panel screen, with each screen measuring 8.5 inches wide by 11 inches tall. The interior features quick reference rules for:
- Things you can do on your turn
- Combat maneuvers
- The benefits of an eight hour rest using the three different 'modes' of healing in Swords & Chaos
- Unarmed combat and wrestling
- Situational combat modifiers
- A table of what would be considered Mild, Dangerous, and Lethal damage based on level
- The Roll the Body check
- Time tracking in rounds, minutes, cycles, and hours
- Light sources and their effective ranges
- A list of useful substances
- A list of dangerous substances
- Carousing
- Breaking through surfaces
- Corruption
- Saving Throws
- Movement and how it is affected by movement pace and terrain
- Vehicle speeds
- Swimming, drowning, and suffocation
- Common expenses
- Common purchases
- Containers and their capacities
- Adventuring gear
- NPC services and costs for henchmen and hirelings
I'm planning on producing a run of screens printed on cardstock with brilliant oil paintings featured prominently on the outward facing side by the incomparable Brian LeBlanc, with whom I have already spoken extensively on the matter.
I've also been working on a starter adventure tentatively called The Tower of Yagar-Thun, based on playtest material that was played at both my home game and several tables at GaryCon 2022. This adventure dramatically expands upon the material featured in the original playtest, and is heavily inspired by Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, and Robert E. Howard's The Tower of the Elephant, among others.
Lastly, I've been doing a bit of work for the guys over at Troll Lord Games. I can't exactly say what they've got me doing, but it's wicked cool stuff, and I never would have imagined I'd be involved with such a project.
Rest assured, however, that these other projects are secondary and tertiary to Swords & Chaos. We're getting very close to physical production now. I can feel it.
-J
