July Update
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 06:21:19 AM

Hey!

It's time for another monthly update!

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who reached out on Discord or through Kickstarter and gave their feedback on the playtest rules I shared last month. It is much appreciated and helps me ton while refine the zine!

Adventures

The adventures are coming along nicely. The first adventure, titled "The Grafter's Tomb", has been play tested with three different groups and is rapidly approaching a state I'm happy with. The other two adventures have been mapped out, but still need some more work before they are ready.

While working on these adventures, it became clear that the 68 pages stated on the Kickstarter page would not be enough to contain them if I were to work them out to the standard I hold myself to. What I imagined being two small dungeons of 2-4 pages quickly turned into two meaty adventures of more than double that page count. So this has become a bit of a problem. I already stretched the page count limit for a staple-bound zine with the 72-page first issue, so just adding more pages isn't really an option, and cutting content from the adventures to save space would make them not as good as they can be. After having talked this through with Ava and other designer friends, here is the solution I'm going with:

Issue 02's page count will go up to 72 pages. In addition to this, the third adventure will not be part of this second issue, but and will be made available to you as a digital PDF some time after Issue 02 has been delivered. This will give the other two adventures some room to breathe, and will allow me to make them two really great adventures without compromising that for the sake of print space. This will also allow me to go all out with the third adventure and make it the big dungeon-crawl through a monster-infested derelict spaceship that The Electrum Archive deserves!

So even though part of it will not appear in the printed zine, this change will essentially get you a lot more quality content than originally planned!

Art

I have started to commission illustrations for The Grafter's Tomb! Here is a sneak peek at an illustration of the water spirit guarding the tomb:

Timeline

Since we're about halfway through the project's proposed timeline, it is a good moment to see if the project is still on track. 

As of right now, we're still good for an early December delivery, with orders in BackerKit being locked near the end of October. If there are unexpected delays during printing, I might hold off on sending out the physical rewards until January to reduce the chance of them getting lost in the Christmas mail madness. I'll make sure to keep you all updated if anything changes!

Again, thank you so much for your support and helping me create this game!

Stay safe and talk soon!

- Emiel

CRIT Award nomination
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 03:04:16 AM

I have exciting news! The Electrum Archive has been nominated for a CRIT Award for "Best Multiplayer TTRPG of the year"! 

If you like the game and would like to see it win this award, you can vote for it here: https://critawards.mystrikingly.com/#vote

June Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 06:28:32 AM

Hey!

With most of you having filled out the BackerKit survey and the beta rules PDF completed, I've just send out a download link to all backers who pledged for a tier that includes the second issue. I'm incredibly excited for you to get your hands on this, and to hear about it if you use these new rules and procedures in your game!

June itself was mostly spent setting up the Backerkit and finishing the beta rules (and updating the TEA#01 PDF) in time to send them to you. So let's take a quick look at some highlights of the beta rules :)

First up, downtime actions! Each Interlude, players can take downtime actions working on personal projects, preparing for the next expedition, or just blowing their ink on drugs and parties! 

One thing I did not have enough room for in issue 01 was hirelings players could employ, so that was something I wanted to remedy in Issue 02.

Another thing I did not have room to cover in more depth in the first issue was warpgas, a mutagenic vapor which is created when ink is heated to extreme temperatures. The beta rules include rules for how to handle exposure to warpgas and a table of warpgas mutations!

And finally a little treat I kept secret until now: even though we did not hit the stretch goal which would unlock it, I could not resist adding in a spread about various Ornish drugs to indulge in :) 

There are a bunch more things hidden inside the beta rules PDF, but I'll leave that to you to discover! Have fun! If you have any feedback you'd like to share, feel free to send me a message, or join the Discord to share it in the #feedback channel :)

Again, thank you for making this happen, and enjoy the beta rules!

Talk soon!

- Emiel

BackerKit Survey and late pledge option
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 03:48:15 AM

Hey!

After a successful smoke test, I've just hit "send" on the remaining BackerKit surveys, so go check your inbox to get access to the BackerKit! 

The BackerKit is how I'll be distributing the beta PDF at the end of this month, so if you haven't received a survey invitation or run into any trouble, please let me know! (Note for Merchant pledge backers: you will not get an invitation to the BackerKit, I'll send you a personal message once the zine is done.

Pre-Order Store

For those who missed the Kickstarter and would like to late pledge, the pre-order store is now live as well!

I'll talk to you again at the end of this month when the beta PDF is ready :)

Thanks again for your support and stay safe!

Cheers,

- Emiel

BackerKit Smoke Test
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 01:05:02 AM

Hey!

As promised in the last update, I've just sent out the smoke test for the BackerKit. This means that 5% of you will have an invitation to the BackerKit Survey in your mailbox! This small test will give me a chance to troubleshoot things that might come up before sending out the survey to all backers later this week.

Some more info about the BackerKit process:

In BackerKit you will be able to upgrade your pledge through add-ons. If you backed at a Physical reward  level (or backed at a Digital Only pledge level and now add physical copies as an add-on) you will be asked to fill in your delivery details and will be charged for shipping later this year once fulfillment begins.

Regarding shipping costs: I'll have a better idea how much shipping will cost once the project is close to being shipped out. At that time, I will update you about the final shipping costs and you will have a chance to alter your BackerKit details accordingly before your order becomes locked for shipping. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

That's all for now. If all goes well with this smoke test, I'll be sending out the rest of the surveys next week.

Talk soon!

- Emiel