hey, we've run out of stretch goals again
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 07, 2022 at 04:32:31 AM

Jings, but you lot really like this stuff, huh?

Thank you ALL for your overwhelming support. 

Our primary goal now is to get this book a) beautiful and b) finished and c) out of the door, which means that adding in further stretch goals at this late date is a little fraught. We really don't want to add anything in that could disrupt the production schedule if it went awry, and instead would rather invest the money into the long-term success of DIE and put the machinations in place to bring you more material in years to come.

THAT SAID.

Stretch goals are cool, aren't they?

So we're talking over some stuff, and seeing if we can work it out, and if we can we'll let you know as soon as possible. At this point it isn't really an issue of money but an issue of time, and unless you're Justin Timberlake from that strange late noughties sci-fi film where they all had implanted clocks, time isn't literally money.

Four days left and we've outstripped our every estimation. Let's see what the final stretch brings.

- Grant

Actual Play with Kieron and Grant
over 2 years ago – Mon, May 30, 2022 at 07:56:30 PM

DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'D BREAK SOMEONE'S DICE, SEEMS RUDE TO ME

Dicebreaker were kind enough to invite Kieron and I down to sunny old Brighton to take part in an Actual Play video of DIE RPG. If you'd like to watch us come to terms with our deadbeat dads, our failed careers, our regrets about having children and the crushing realities of adulthood through the medium of OVERBLOWN FANTASY WIZARD VIOLENCE then you can check it out here. (Or below! You can embed videos in these things, you know. What a time to be alive.)

STRETCH GOALS

Jess Nevins, nerd researcher extraordinaire,  is on board to write another section of the bestiary, and we're tantalisingly close to getting Tini Howard in to write some goth monsters for us as well. Things have obviously slowed down a little (as they always do in the middle period of a Kickstarter) but should we break the 400k mark in the final days we'll, uh, we'll have a think about it.

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That's all for now.

- Grant

believe it or not, here are some more stretch goals
over 2 years ago – Sat, May 21, 2022 at 11:25:45 PM

STRETCH GOALS STRETCH GOALS ROLY-POLY STRETCH GOALS

Okay so: we've worked out our next round of stretch goals, and quite honestly, we don't have a great deal more left in us! This project has already outperformed our expectations (as you may have guessed by the way that we've run out of stretch goals twice) and we're wary of over-extending ourselves to the point where we struggle to deliver on time or on budget.

That said: absolutely do not stop giving us money. Can't stress that enough. The book was brilliant to start with and it's even better now we've jammed all these extra bits in it.

Over the last few days we've unlocked Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan's bestiary entries, Rian Hughes' endpapers, Abz Harding's baroque phantasmagoria, and a pay rise for all creatives contracted on the the project. 

Coming up next, we have:

300k Uber-researcher Jess Nevins (Encyclopaedia of Golden Age Superheroes, Encyclopaedia of Pulp Heroes, Companion Guides to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) writes up five of the most classic monsters we can dredge up from the collective subconscious for our bestiary.

325k - Tini Howard (X-Men, Rick and Morty, Catwoman, Magdalena: Seventh Sacrament) sets her gothic sights on five moody beasts for the Bestiary.

350k - Elsa Charretier (Starfire, Harley Quinn, Star Wars,  The Unstoppable Wasp) draws us something gorgeous for inclusion in the book. 

375k - Gene Ha (Top Ten, America's Best Comics, Batman: Fortunate Son, Global Frequency) will illustrate something interesting and we'll print it right there in DIE for everyone to see.

400k - Sasha Sienna (Odd Jobs, Zero Void, Pitcrawlers) adds five more monsters to the bestiary.

Past 400K? We don't know.  This is probably the last round of stretch goals that will add anything to the book itself, so enjoy them while they last, you jackals.

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That's all for now. Thanks for all your support!

- Grant (and all of us at RRD)

The Grandmaster pledge gets... grander
over 2 years ago – Wed, May 18, 2022 at 10:16:07 PM

STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED!

We've hit a few more stretch goals! Marguerite Sauvage is doing some art, Emmy Allen is writing up some horrible monsters, and Rian Hughes is crafting some beautiful endpapers for the books. Which is nice! We've allocated the monsters for the bestiary section and we'll get the writers started on it today. (We're also very close to the 250k mark, which unlocks some really interesting stuff, like giving all our contractors raises. Frustratingly close, for the purposes of writing this update! Anyway.)

DICEBREAKER AP THIS WEEKEND

Kieron and Grant (that's me, who's writing this update, referring to myself in the third person) went down to Brighton on Monday and recorded an Actual Play session of DIE with the good folks at Dicebreaker. It was nice!  (We ate pies. I had steak and kidney and Kieron had beef and stilton.) You can look forward to watching us make a gang of maladjusted weirdos then pitch them into THE SHADOWLANDS, a world of airships, copyright-infringing Hellraiser dragons, emotional confrontations and hungry rat-swarm-gods.

i09 INTERVIEW

We asked for one thing - ONE THING - in our i09 interview with Linda Codega, and she betrayed us. Now the whole internet knows that Kieron Gillen doesn't think pizza is anything to write home about; the interview really just spiraled out from there. You can read more of our insights in this (brilliant) piece. 

MORE GRANDMASTER PLEDGES, ALSO THEY'RE BETTER NOW CAUSE THERE'S GOLD COINS IN THEM

We've secured the requisite obsidian - hell of a phrase, that - to make another 200 sets of Grandmaster dice, and therefore open up another 200 Grandmaster pledge levels. These are first-come-first-served and we don't plan on making any more so if you want one, get involved sooner rather than later!

And! We've been in talks with Level Up Dice and Campaign Coins to make - see if you can guess - Fair Gold tokens, which represent the otherworldly currency used to power the Neo's cybernetic futurewizardry. We're still in the process of creating mockups and prototypes but here's Stephanie's preliminary art:

And here's the sort of thing that Campaign Coins' make for a living:

So you can get the rough idea of what it'll all look like. We're adding 5 Fair Gold in a neat bag to each Grandmaster Pledge (at no extra cost) AND we'll be making similar packs of Fair Gold available through our Backerkit store one the campaign is over.

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That's all for now! Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and support. We're not yet a week into the campaign and it's already outperformed our expectations.

- Grant (and all of us at RRD)

Day One update, and new stretch goals
over 2 years ago – Sun, May 15, 2022 at 09:08:00 PM

That was a hell of a day one, folks. Thank you for all your support!

STRETCH GOALS, NEW AND OLD

We've smashed through all of our announced stretch goals, and we're ready to announce some more. We also smashed through some unannounced stretch goals, so poor timing on our part really, but there's lots to look forward to. Below is a list of all the funded and the new goals for you to look forward to:

[FUNDED] £50,000 - More art from Stephanie Hans.

[FUNDED] £60,000 - Adrian Tchaikovsky (Dogs of War, Elder Gods, Shards of Earth, Doors of Eden) lends his talents to the Bestiary section, detailing five classic monsters and providing inventive twists.

[FUNDED] £75,000 - Grant Howitt (Spire, Heart, Honey Heist) collaborates with Kieron Gillen to write a new set-up scenario based around a terrible high-school GM.

[FUNDED] £90,000 - Tula Lotay (Supreme: Blue Rose, The Wicked+The Divine, Red Sonja) provides an illustration.

[FUNDED] 100k: YET MORE Art from Stephanie. She's going to need a new tablet once this is all done.[FUNDED] 150k: Becky Annison  (Bite Marks, Lovecraftesque, Lexinomicon) writes up five iconic monsters for the Bestiary section, and at least one of them should be the Werewolf.

[FUNDED] 175k: Cat Evans(Cubicle 7, Chronicles of Darkness) dives deep into five must-have monsters for the Bestiary.

200k: Marguerite Sauvage (Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Ubisoft) provides an illustration.

200k: Rian Hughes designs themed endpapers which will be included in both physical versions of the DIE RPG.

225k: Emily Allen(Gardens of Ynn, The Stygian Library, Deep Morphean Transmissions) will see how weird she can make five classic monsters in the Bestiary.

250k: Gareth Rider-Hanrahan (Eyes of the Stone Thief, The Dracula Dossier, Fear Itself, The Gutter Prayer, Cthulhu City) writes up five more monsters, rounding out the bestiary to 30 briefings on the most important beasts in the genre.

250k: All creatives on the team get a pay rise. Anyone's who's contracting on this book (so everyone aside from Kieron, Stephanie and RRD) will get a bonus.

275k Abz Harding (Imagine FX, 3Dtotal Publishing, Printed In Blood, Image, IDW, TITAN) draws something simultaneously horrible and beautiful, and we'll print it in the book.

300k+ We'll, uh, we'll see! We have a handful of things that we can stretch to, but we'll update this list if and when we fill it out.

Phew!

LIMITED EDITION - TOO LIMITED?

We were honestly surprised to see all 200 sets of the Grandmaster Pledge level sell out on day one. We're looking into securing some more materials to open up some more pledges - and we're taking a look at what else we can add in to the pledge, too, to make it even better (at no extra cost to you). We'll have details on whether or not we can add in some more sets, and what other beautiful things we can put in there, next week. (We have to make some calls.)

RULES?

We've received some feedback that we don't go into detail on how the game actually works, which is entirely fair, and that was an oversight on our part. We've put in a few paragraphs detailing the absolute basics, and if you'd like to learn more, you can download the rough-and-ready beta version from the official DIE website.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend, and thanks again!

- Grant (and all of us at RRD)