Backerkit is live!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 30, 2022 at 12:07:25 AM

BACKERKIT LIVE

We've just now sent out invites to the Backerkit pledge manager to all backers. You should receive one soon - if you haven't, check your spam filter, or go to the DIE RPG Backerkit page directly and log in to complete your pledge. And if THAT doesn't work, send an email to [email protected] and we'll do what we can to help you out.

In the pledge manager, you'll be able to add items to your pledge, and we have a fine array of things for you to add: dice, GM screens, fair gold coins, art prints, and a selection of our best RRD books such as critically-acclaimed Spire: the City Must Fall or the seven-time ENnie award winning Heart: the City Beneath. Feel free to share the link to the pre-order store with your wealthiest and most generous friends. 

YEE HAW PARDNER, WE'RE OFF TO THE U S OF A

In other news, Rowan Rook and Decard are going to Gen Con in Indiana, which means that we'll all be out of the office to a greater or lesser extent for the next two weeks. So: please be patient while we try to conquer the Americas. We'll do our best to help you out when we can. 

And come say hello if you're around! We're on stall 2755 in Hall G, nestled on the south-west edge of Entrepreneur's Avenue. I'll sign stuff. I'll sign stuff I haven't even written. I ain't picky.

- Grant (and everyone else at RRD)

Dice! Cards! An almost-ready pledge manager!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 05:46:14 PM

Hello all,

Some brief news for you:

- We've had a lot of back and forth and a lot of fiddly details to sort out, but we're happy to announce that the Backerkit is nearly ready to go. So nearly ready to go, in fact, that several of you will be receiving test emails soon so we can make sure that the whole thing works without falling over. Once that's sorted and we can confirm that the site is usable (and we didn't accidentally put the wrong shipping values in) then we'll open it up to all of you - should be on Friday 29th, if everything goes to plan.

- Dice! Dice are here! Look at these beauties:

- Art cards, too! We went back and forth on which style to go for, but in the end we went for rainbow foil to better match the dice.  For some reason Zach decided to record this video whilst Chris and I were playing live through their speakers, so please do your best to ignore or enjoy us doing games design live on camera:

Right, that's everything. More soon.

- Grant (and everyone else at RRD)

July Update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jul 06, 2022 at 06:26:09 AM

Hello!

Right, let's get down to it. It's been a few weeks since the KS ended and we have some news for you in regards to the project's development.

MANUSCRIPT COMPLETE

We've received, and edited, all of the the stretch goal writers' Bestiary entries. (They're great!) We've also finished off all the extra fiddly bits that belong in the appendices and integrated Kienna and Lauren's safety guidelines into the book.  Grant's scenario is complete, too - it's called VIDEO NASTY and it deals with the fallout of an independent horror movie gone wrong. (And then gone really wrong, in that the players get trapped in it.

ART IS NEARLY DONE

Stephanie has been polishing off the reams of art she's doing for the book, and has nearly got everything up to print standard - please enjoy these work-in-progress previews:

She's just now starting to sketch out the comic book after Kieron sent over the script earlier this week; it details the start of the game that traps all our iconic Paragons in DIE. All very exciting.

LAYOUT PROGRESSES

Lone is hard at work on the layout of the book itself, and receiving some expert instruction from Rian Hughes. We're doing everything we can to strike a balance between the crisp, minimalist design of the comic and the more information-heavy demands put upon us thanks to the medium of roleplaying games, with a lot of back-and-forth and oversight. Which means...

IT'S GOING TO BE SLIGHTLY LATE

About four to six weeks late. Which is a shame! But: we want to make sure that it's incredible. We want all the words to be in the right order and to be all spelled correctly. We want the layout to look beautiful, we want the art to be top-notch, and we want the rules to be smooth as silk.

In short: this really matters to us. This is the biggest thing we've ever been a part of and we want to treat it with due respect. Because of that, we're not going to rush it. Unfortunately, that means that we've had to commit additional time to getting it right, which is going to slow the process down. 

At present, we're not going to get the PDF ready by the end of the month and have it in a state that we're happy with; we've allocated an additional four to six weeks to give Lone time to get everything right and us time to properly access and sign off on the work. Hopefully this delay won't impact our printing schedule and we'll be able to hit our original deadline with regards to physical copies, or at least something close to it. 

One of our core principles at Rowan, Rook and Decard is clear and timely communication with backers and customers, and we strive to be as honest and transparent as possible with you. We'll let you know more info as and when we have it, and provide an updated estimate of timelines when we have better data to work with.  

Yours,

- Grant (and everyone at RRD)

Finished!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 11:19:40 PM

Thank you, everyone! That's a frankly ridiculous amount of support.

We've cleared all our stretch goals and, behind the scenes, we've been getting the first layout of the book handled. It's been an exciting few days. 

In two weeks or so, we'll receive the funds from Kickstarter, which means we can open the Backerkit and get our pre-order store set up. From there, you'll be able to add postage to your pledge, and take a look at our wide and delicious variety of add-ons.

We'll be in touch with more info as and when we know it. Until then, I think I'm going to drink a beer in the garden.

Yours,

- Grant (and Kieron, and Stephanie, and all of us at RRD)

Final stretch!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 08, 2022 at 10:48:10 PM

RIGHT OKAY

we've got two (2) stretch goals left as we rocket headlong into the last stage of this frankly unbelievable campaign. Here we go:

450k - SIX! PAGE! INTRO! COMIC! Written by Kieron, illustrated by Stephanie, acting as a big drumroll right at the start of the book to get everyone up to speed with what DIE is and who our new Paragons are.

500k - Everyone gets more money! We'll do another pay rise for all the contractors on this project.

501k+ - That's it! No more stretch goals. Instead we'll invest the money back into the long-term management of the project and get ourselves set up for more DIE books in the future.

We might do some extra stuff but we're not promising anything past what we've already done. (Like: VTT integration! That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Hopefully we can work something out.)

Thank you, all, for your support and enthusiasm though this. DIE RPG is going to be beautiful and brilliant and it's thanks in part to you.

- Grant (and everyone else)