Hey guys, we funded! Thanks so much for your awesome support. You went well above and beyond what Alan and I had hoped for. We'll keep you all in the loop as we work through the book content, and can't wait to show you the finished project next year. Thanks again!
Brian
Hey everyone, Brian here. Sorry for the lack of updates from me, but I’ve had some health issues the last few weeks and am finally on the upswing. In addition to working on the second book of the next Powder Mage series, I’ve been playing with voices and worldbuilding for the RPG. Here's a rough draft of the introduction to the Nine Nations (subject to editing or re-writing before the final book, of course).
In addition, I have a bit more character art from Piotr to show you guys. He's currently working on a Deliv grenadier and a Kez dragoon to add to the mix.
Alan here!
I'm going to be getting on Roll20 next week and running at least 1 session of Powder Mage for any interested backers!
If you're interested, email me at [email protected] and put the subject line as "Powder Mage RPG Roll20" and we'll get cracking. I'm hoping to do one game on a week night next week, and one more on the weekend if need be!
There will be 5 slots per game! Thanks!
Hi everyone! We're still going strong, and we want to thank you for the support! We wanted to give you a preview of what the cardbacks for the Action deck will look like!
These were designed by the very talented Robert Denton!
Alan here again! I've got a fast part of the update, and a giant wall of text part of the update.
First, have a look at our character sheet for Powder Mage!
Second (and this will likely be a wall of text), I wanted to talk about stretch goals.
There’s been a few questions and concerns I wanted to take the time to address.
So, let’s go with the first bullet point.
At its core, Kickstarter is a place for creators to come offer a product that they can’t afford to make on their own. That’s what this project is. Without this Kickstarter and the $20,000 funding, this game simply wouldn’t be made. There’s not a “we’d release it anyways someday, just with less art, and less production value.” Without this funding, we’d simply have to walk away. Luckily, you awesome backers made it so we don’t have to! Which is great, and we’re really excited to put this in your hands.
Our goal in coming to Kickstarter was not to fund a line of books, series of miniatures, or anything else. It was to fund this single book and the accessories we’d determined were important to provide (dice, cards, poker chips).
Stretch goals are a great tool for constantly incentivizing your backer base. They add extra value, important community momentum, and serve a great cause.
But stretch goals are also a great way for a smaller publisher to crash and burn. It’s important to know your limits, and we are well aware that if we try too much, too quickly, we risk the quality of this project, and we made the call and decision that we didn’t feel risking our core product was an acceptable risk.
Now, the easy rebuttal is “if you knew what you were doing, you’d not be risking it.” That’s fair. It’s a valid argument. However, plenty of industry veterans, established companies, and others have been brought low by stretch goals. We determined that we didn’t want that to be us.
So, how will we capture people and keep them viewing the Kickstarter?
Short answer: If you wanna check out and not come back til after funding and the BackerKit is live, that’s totally a call you can make. More power to you! I’ve done that myself on projects. We’re not asking for your undivided attention for 30ish days (we’re spending enough time starting at this page and refreshing it and talking about the Kickstarter for all of us here)!
We will be previewing things like cards and poker chips, and page templates throughout the Kickstarter (like we did above). We want you to be excited and share the project, and we hope to accomplish that by showing you awesome images of what you're getting.
Where will the extra money be spent?
Ah. This question. Someone asked me if we were just planning to pay ourselves more with the overfunding.
No. We’re not gonna just take the excess and line our pockets. We’re going to get more art. We’re already readjusting our art budget. We’re already planning new pieces. We’re going to explore different avenues of expanding the game. We’re talking with a printer about GM screens and our somewhat unique specifications we have in mind. We’re testing and prototyping additional card backs, trying to see if expanding those is a good idea.
When we finish this project, and we look at the budget, if there’s still more, there is every chance we’ll invest it in expansion books, expanding this RPG into other corners of Brian’s world. If we can do it without Kickstarter, we will. But we need to make this game right here first.
I hope that answers questions and puts some concerns to rest?
As always if you have more concerns, you can reach out to Alan or Brian (through the message function, their twitters, emails, and more).