January Production Update - new release, new art, and more!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 31, 2020 at 07:03:32 PM

Hey folks,

Welcome to 2020! Here's what's in store:

• General production update.
• New art!
• New release.

Production Update

It's been a while since I last posted here, apologies for that. The end of the year and the holiday season hit us all pretty hard, but thankfully in that time period our playtest groups have been hard at work. We've logged dozens of sessions since the last release, and Douglas has been hard at work revising the book's rules to suit their feedback. Basic moves have been adjusted and tweaked, playbooks have had their core moves switched around, and we're excited for you to get to grips with the Quests mechanic.

In this time we've also hit a bit of a snag with our artists - Eren Arik unfortunately had to drop out thanks to health concerns, but there was an upside. Sufficient time had passed that Travis Anderson - the original artist of Mysthea - was done with his other projects set in the Mysthea universe, and he was ready to work with us again. He's now hard at work on our remaining pieces, and I've loved what I've seen so far.

As for the book's production schedule? We're almost done with the core text. All that's left is to add a few more Quests to Chapter 9, and finish Chapter 10 - a bestiary of Mysthea's strange and wonderful inhabitants, co-written by one of the original creators of the Mysthea universe. We're expecting to have text complete by the start of March, at which point it'll be sent to our editor and then to book production. 

This means we're having to revise the release timetable by a few months - here's my new estimate.

• Text goes to the editor in March.
• Final PDF sent to backers in May.
• Backerkit charged in May.
• Reward distribution begins in June and finished in July.

I'll keep you notified if this changed.

Finally, the new version of the game is now available for you to download on itch.io at https://ufo-jay.itch.io/mysthea-legends-from-the-borderlands. Remember, your can find your access code in the download section of your Backerkit account. Message me if you're not able to find it there!

Hope 2020 is treating you well! 

Best wishes,

Jay

Dice, map, and a new House playbook!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 01:39:52 AM

Hey folks,

A few little updates for you today. First up, today I received delivery of the custom dice from Chessex Dice! Here's some pictures:

They're great dice to roll and easy to read! As you can see there's enough for 5 players to have two each, and pass them to each other when they Support other's Houses or Aid their Heroes. Now to bag up 200 10-dice sets...

Secondly, we've received a draft version of the map that'll be on the board and serve as the book's endpapers. Here it is:

I really enjoy the look of it - how it has a bit of a mesoamerican vibe to it, and how it strikes a nice balance between interesting detail and open areas for play groups to fill in. Let me know what you think in the comments - and if you want to add the map board or the dice set to your order, you have until the 1st of December to finalise your BackerKit basket before I lock orders down!

Finally, Voidheart Symphony is in its final day on kickstarter! If you haven't given it a look yet, check it out - we've unlocked a range of cities to set your game in, a new playbook, great art for the book, and we're about to boost the quality of the covenant card decks. Also - I released a Quickstart Adventure, letting you play through a simple adventure with zero prep and five pre-gen characters. The kickstarter ends at 6PM GMT on Friday - check it out before then if you're interest.

October Update - many many playbooks!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 06:29:51 PM

Hey folks,

It's been a while, huh? We're still on target for our schedule, but it's been long enough that I wanted to post an update before the month was over. Especially as we have a new release ready for you to read! 

Douglas has been hard at work playtesting the game and writing new updates. Check out the itch page (password available on your backerkit account) to download version 0.3 of Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands, including:

•  Three new Houses: The Architect's Alliance tend to the living city of Montara, acting as its acolytes and gardeners. The Tower of Villos smuggle Qoam shards infused with dreams and nightmares, drawing others into their web. And The Rebel Underground work to undermine the current rulers of the city, perpetually building their revolution.
•  Six new Heroes: the Chimera is a freed war machine, reckoning with their Qoam-twisted flesh. The Outcast has found a new family out there in the wasteland, and now combines their strengths and those of their House. The Singer wields magic through music, emboldening the hearts of their audience and luring in alien Others. The Toiler knows the value of hard work, and is extremely good at managing work crews. The Vagabond is a mysterious drifter, gaining more power the more their identity is kept shrouded. And the Warlock seeks out the places in this world where magic has gone awry, and where titans make their homes - all the better to channel their power for their own ends.
•  Codas and Champions. When you've marked four roles on your Hero, you now have a choice: retire them and bring about a Coda fitting their final role, or become an independent Champion able to take action on the scale of Houses.
• Tweaked rules. There's been many changes across the book, mainly clarifying wording and improving the flow of the game.
•  Guidance for the GM. A new chapter of the book filled with suggestions for how to run the game.

Please give it a read and let us know what you think! I'm still formatting the new playbooks, but they should be live on the Mysthea Itch.io page soon.

This also includes new art! Though a lot of the playbooks in the doc are using reused placeholder art, Eren Arik has been rapidly turning out beautiful new pieces to replace them. By the end, each one of the non-Ilvashan Houses and each Hero playbook will have its own piece by him. Check out these beauties:

Also on Kickstarter now...

Finally, I'd be lax in my duties if I didn't mention we have another RPG currently on kickstarter! Voidheart Symphony is a game of mundane heroes in a modern city facing down the supernatural evil empowering and encouraging their city's worst tyrants, bullies and abusers. It combines the castle-crawling and action-packed fights of our Rhapsody of Blood with a tense mundane world investigation system - and a version of Covenants from Mysthea deeply tied into character advancement! If that sounds interesting, you can download the current draft 100% free at itch.io or check out the kickstarter here.

August Production Update (ish)
over 4 years ago – Sun, Sep 01, 2019 at 11:28:05 PM

It's still August somewhere, right?

We've been very busy since our last update! Some things are coming along really well, but there's been some setbacks in other areas. The good news is that we're still on target for our production schedule, and have every expectation of getting you your books by the ETA. And if you're already playing the game, please let us know how it's going so we can make this book the best it can be!

Here's some more details:

Art

Eren Arik has been a champion pushing out our Hero and House key art! Though we were sad to have to go with an artist other than Travis for the extra art the book required, I think you'll agree Eren has been a great replacement. On the other fronts, Ryan Hennesy is hard at work on the map of the city and its outlying regions. Sad news from Cecil Howe, however, who has had to drop out of making the landmark icons we were going to use on the reusable sticker set. Based on our available budget considerations, we have decided to not go ahead with production of this stretch goal.

Writing

Douglas remains hard at work! Our current priority is completion of the backer content - the custom Heroes, Houses and Monsters. Once those are done, we'll be finishing off our rules around long-term campaigns, and the solo play module. If you'd like a look at (and comment on!) some of our work-in-progress content, check out the hard-working Toiler or the Circle of Villos - an emotion-smuggling criminal underworld!

As for our other writers, Helen Gould has turned in some excellent writing on the city's revolutionary movements, and we're expecting Kira Magrann and Thea Don-Siemon's writing in very soon! Sadly Sawyer Rankin and Erika Shepherd have had to drop out, but the good news is that Leonardo Bertinelli - one of the original creators of the Mysthea universe - has offered to write for us. He'll be picking up the topic of the nonhuman residents of Mysthea - the 'monsters' that live on the fringes of the cities, sometimes finding new kinship among humans and other times driven to berserk fury by the ravages of Qoam.

Production

If you've been paying attention to the saga of UK politics you'll know it's been a... challenging few months. To Brexit-proof this campaign, we've decided to move as much of our production within the UK as possible. Sadly this has raised costs somewhat, meaning that we've had to roll back another stretch goal - the thick cardstock player mats are just not cost-efficient this way, so we're moving back to standard card (a similar width and finish to playing cards). On the other hand, all dice have been produced by Chessex and are on their way across the Atlantic to us now.

Also, there's shipping. Honestly, I'm torn here. If I wait to charge cards on the Backerkit until November, we'll have a better idea of what the shipping costs will be, but we may have difficulties with production without the money pledged there. But also I don't want to charge you multiple times if it turns out that shipping isn't workable at the current prices. Please give your opinion in the comments!

What happens now?

• We'll continue working on the book.
• We'll update the details of addons on BackerKit.
• At the end of September, we'll lock Backerkit. Past this point you'll need to contact us to change your basket.
• At that point, we will also announce our decision about when we are going to charge Backerkit customers for shipping and addons.

Thanks for reading, and please do let us know in the comments here, on social media, or on our Discord server if you have any questions!

Version 0.2 of Mysthea now out!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 08:10:11 PM

Hey folks,

It's been a few months since we posted any updates for this, so we thank you for your patience. Hopefully this is a big enough update to explain the time gap! 

Head to the itch.io page (using the password from your BackerKit downloads page if you haven't got access already) to get the new files - including the 134-page current working version of the core book!

Included in this version, you'll find:

• Rewritten and rebalanced moves, with guidance notes.
• A new game setup procedure.
• Lots of details on the setting of Mysthea, and the magic of Qoam.
• Rewritten Houses and Heroes.
• Wonders to build in grand projects that'll change the face of the borderlands.
• Lots of new art from Eren Arik!

Please do download the book, let us know what you think, maybe even start playing! Up next we'll be working on:

• Quests for Heroes to embark on, and details on their ascension to become Champions.
• Tips for the GM as they run the game, and antagonists and monsters for them to use.
• Essays on life in the borderlands and its surroundings.
• Many more Heroes and Houses for you to play with.

Thanks again,

Jay