The Big Box of Dungeon Doors is getting closer!!

These awesome standees, all 40 of them, are getting even closer!

So not long to wait now!

Hello! The campaign is cruising along, with close to 2700 backers and $180K in support, which we are very pleased with - a sincere Thank You to everyone who has chosen to back this project. With so many folks interested, we're going to be able to do some Cool Things.

First up, we've enabled our Retailer Pledge option, for 12 games, at $540.  We're thrilled if any stores want to be part of the campaign, but we also understand that it might be easier for you to use your normal distribution/wholesale channels. We do plan to have Innovation: Ultimate in stores through normal distribution, although we will be shipping to all our backers first.  Shipping for the retail level is free in the US, and $40 internationally. If you're a retailer and you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email to stores (at) asmadigames (dot) com.

Gen Con was super fun! We had a demo table rotating between Innovation: Ultimate, Aegean Sea, and some Good Puppers here and there. One thing that surprised me a bit was the number of folks who came by and had never heard of Innovation. It was great to show some new folks the game. Innovation's one of my favorite games to demo because the rules aren't too tough, and the journey of discovery they go through in their first game is really enjoyable to watch.  To anyone who backed from seeing us at the show, welcome aboard! And to everyone else we got to chat with, it was great to see you.  We did get to play some games with The Unseen, and some exciting hijinks ensued with the Slot Machine.

Licensing: Many folks have expressed interest in whether the game will be available in other languages. We have a number of discussions going on right now with partners across Europe and Asia, and we're hoping to have confirmed announcements on many of those starting next week. Those versions won't be part of this campaign - but I don't mind at all if you'd prefer to wait for your preferred language version of the game. There's a lot of text here, after all :)  I do apologize for being coy about which languages are in progress - but we prefer not to announce anything until a contract is signed.

Art and Design Updates: Innovation Ultimate represents an evolution of the card design from 3rd Edition, and some of that's already been shown on the campaign page and elsewhere. Given the level of support for the campaign so far, we're able to invest in more updates. We're still in the early stages of work on this, but we'll have more to show soon (and during the campaign). The focus will still be on clear, clean presentation and ease of use, but we think you'll all enjoy what we're working on. In particular, we're looking to enhance the appearance of the backs of the cards. 

Hello Backers,

Here is a quick shipping update: All games have left the factory and are
on their way to the various distribution centers.

This table shows the latest estimated arrival times we've received from
our manufacturer:

Destination     Way          ETA
-----------------------------------
Germany         By Train     30-Aug
The UK          By Sea       13-Sep
AUS             By Sea       7-Sep
The USA         By Sea       11-Sep
China/RoW       Truck        13-Aug

Please note that even if all goes well with the transport, the games
still have to go through customs and be forwarded to the distribution
centers, which can take up to 2 weeks. From there they will be shipped
to you, which can take up to another 2 weeks (more for RoW). So right
now we're still hoping for a September/October delivery.


Address changes

If you need to update your address, you can do so by Sept 1 from within
your backerkit account. If you experience any problems, please contact
Tim directly at [email protected].


Visit us at SPIEL in Essen

We will be at SPIEL in Essen (booth 3-C123), so please come by and say
hello. We wanted to make sure that most of you backers get your copies
before or at least around the date of the show, so we were very hesitant
to announce RUN for SPIEL. We'll be demoing the game, and we'll have a
few copies for sale, but unfortunately (for logistical reasons) we can't
offer you the option to pick up your copy there. However, we're pretty
confident that your games will arrive at the same time, and this will
save you the hassle of carrying them home.


That's it for now - we'll get back to you as soon as we have more news
about shipping.

Thank you very much!
Moritz and Tim

Exciting News!

We've worked out a solution to the issues involved with shipping to Germany, and we can now successfully send print books to that country! The downside is that international shipping to the EU is still pretty high, and we're unable to cover the VAT fees associated with your order, but we can at last remove this limitation on German backers.

If you are one of our backers currently residing in Germany, and would like to modify your order to include any physical books or add-ons, you can request a new link to survey details using the address below.

https://the-fifth-season-roleplaying-game.backerkit.com/

If you run into any issues with making changes to your pledge in Backerkit, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

Okay! A few days early with this update since I know we are putting updates out once every two weeks but there is news!

It's good news and bad news rolled up into one spicy sammich called manufacturing.

In the last update, I mentioned everything was still on track! Copy edits are happening, art is being finalized, and in a few weeks we start layout!

This is still the case! However... Rick was ambushed by the publishing experts...namely Val at 4 Horsemen. Because there is a few steps of the physical manufacturing process and printing that her, some other studios, and even our Art Director James want to drill down on.

Quality Control.

Here's the history. Most projects I've been on finish the PDF and get it laid out for printer and place the huge print run right out of the gate. There's always a pressure to deliver a project and start shipping right away. I had planned for some wiggle room on this, but 4HP has been dealing with printers much longer than I have...and they have better publishing ideas. So I'm taking their advice! Here's what is happening:

Copy Editing: 4-6 weeks. (Currently in process)
Then we go to typeset and layout: This creates the digital assets and pdfs, but 4HP is also making an E-book variant that is a trimmed down version of the Black Ballad handy for mobile use, ipads, and book readers that actually... has some serious storyteller functionality behind it. We will release the pdf right on track of December / Jan for backers and it will be the full book. BUT! 4HP has some serious pdf /e-variant talent and all of the Alt-Text, Meta-data, audio integration, and even secret easter eggs kinda get poured in right around the same time and everything gets ready for print in several formants: e-book, limited edition (you guys), standard edition (mass market), digital package pdf.

^ this stuff is the cool kinda things we were already planning and that was baked in.

Now here's where things get interesting. The quality control process involves getting a small size sample print run made and shipped to me, 4hp, the art director, and a few other folks. That takes some time and we have to do a physical review of the first round and make any changes. Then it's advised we do it again. For all printed products. GM Screens, Poker Decks, Novels, Standard Edition, Limited Edition etc etc.

Because print run at a chonky kaiju price point for special edition books should be made with unmost confidence. The back-and-forth of this process I totally didn't plan for, and so rather than having physical books in your hands in January of 2024. It's going to be a few months after and safely around May 15th. Whiiiichhh... ultimately is a year to fully make a book and go through the entire production process. Honestly, I'm not too upset about that. I'd RATHER do quality control.

Don't get me wrong, everyone will still be able to play the Black Ballad much sooner than that. The book will be available in other formats and you'll have some novels and digital assets right on track. But I am going to take the advice of those around me who are the experts and scoot the manufacturing process with more wiggle room for the QA/QC and review windows.

That said, here's how the rest of the physical assets are looking:

Add on: 2C Epic Gaming Bundle: Backers who ordered this (unless you are international) should have started getting them in the mail! We just went ahead and released these.
Add on: Seventh Age Dawn and Space Tripping Novels. Pat and I have both gotten the books and this week I'm going to sign mine and just ship them out to everyone! Pat's will follow!

-The Black Ballad DiAmorte Soundtrack CD's are ordered and being made right now!
-The Adventure Journal is fully turned in and being assembled and then we can start doing print proofs on that in a few weeks!
-The Coins have been received for the loot boxes! (Honestly, I thought the coins were going to be the hardest one).
-The Dice have been received for the loot boxes!
-September will see the GM Screen, printed maps, and Purgatory Poker deck manufacturing begin.
-Around December/Jan the USB media kits will be made (need the final digital Black Ballad first).

Ultimately, while pushing shipping back a few months is bad news, I'm at least glad it's for quality control reasons. I think we've all had game books received where the bindings didn't hold or there were washed color pages. A little of this extra time is also to add some minor padding in case something goes wrong.

But what this does mean for you guys immediately? I won't be locking shipping address' and shipping costs until later and as soon as we have the pdfs assembled later this year - the early versions will be available so you can all start letting your characters die.

Now for something cool!

We've been running The Black Ballad for a bit at events now (like RPG in a Castle, Anime Magic, and Playtest). Over this time there is something that we've been finding a lot of people are enjoying: An alternative to death saving throws.

In our chapter for Death Among the Dead, Ray Jenkins came up with an idea that when you die in the Sunless Crossing - you don't typically roll 3 death saving throws when you hit zero. You just simply die... and unravel. The next day you normally reform, albeit at a cost and a gain. You'll earn some powers that make you closer to a proper ghost and undead, but you'll also risk losing a cherished memory. With enough deaths you'll eventually fade into a fully chaotic evil spectre or shadow-like monster.

The more we've played this game, the more fun everyone has been having with this idea. Losing memories or walking a fine-line between gaining some power and losing your very essence everyone has had a blast with. This has become even cooler with the Soul Stitched species we have, who are stuck on a limited very short life span unless they stitch the souls of other to them to extend their lifespan... but gain the memories (for better or worse) of their prey.

Speaking of that... here's an art drop from Gareth Kenaan that we got in TODAY about the Soul Stitched!

If anyone has any questions or other game makers want to know more about the manufacturing process! Leave a comment and let us know! I actually LIKE talking about the side of the industry that you don't hear much about. I can totally get into WAY more details!

Thank you everyone for your patience and we will keep the updates coming!

-Rick