Project Update #19-A Daughter of the American Revolution Arrives
12 months ago – Thu, Dec 07, 2023 at 10:01:01 AM

Ahoy, fellow history-buffs!

As you know, the American Revolution was born out of unexpected twists and turns and it seems life imitates art, as we have encountered its own surprising turn of fate. Last month, our team welcomed a new member – a beautiful baby girl! While this unexpected arrival has filled our hearts with joy, it has also complicated our development process. 

We understand that delays are never ideal, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. However, we want to assure you that this isn't just a pause; it's an opportunity to ensure The American Crisis is as polished and revolutionary as it deserves to be.

Before I get into the project updates for The American Crisis and new opportunities, I also want to share a spooktacular first look at our Print & Play stretch goal adventure! The original intent was to clean up this draft a bit and send it out around Halloween, but Baby Malka had other plans. This first draft PDF is a glimpse into the chilling world of Benjamin Franklin, Banshee Slayer(follow link to download). It's a chance to experience the story firsthand and provide feedback that will help shape the final product.

 New Opportunities 

Flagbearer Games has a new opportunity for an academic advisor to help expand our educational programming! We are looking to connect with Education PhDs and PhD candidates for game-based learning projects. Both promotional giveaways and paid opportunities are available. If you or someone in your professional network is interested, email [email protected].

 What's Next

First, the good news: 

• We are still on track to deliver PDF rewards in April, as promised. 
• The last of our Early Continental US shipping should be sent out this or next week.
• Fyre & Ashe is crushing it and has already sent out all of the custom dice towers that were ordered

That said, we’ve been running into some slowdowns on the physical books. Summer is looking likelier than April to have those in your hands.

There’s no single cause for this delay. There are a lot of little things that have piled on (two births, bouts of the plague, jetlag from cons, etc.). The NPC chapter took two weeks longer to finalize than expected. One of our writers had a family emergency. An art request with a museum hit a snag. Each individual delay is no big deal, but our initial timetable anticipated fewer of them.

Work is continuing on all parts of the project. Our researchers are submitting material on subjects from landmarks in New York to maroon communities in the Great Dismal Swamp. Our content and continuity editor has started refining the adventures. We’re gearing up to send our first material to our copy editor. And we’ve acquired dozens of new works of art from major museums with which to illustrate the book.

We have no indications this is going to turn into a Kickstarter horror story. We’re looking at the possibility of doing a print run in the United States, which can shave as much as four months off production. Printing domestically is more expensive, but we currently have room in the budget to take the hit.

Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 🎆

Thank you for your patience!

Project Update #18 - Work Continues
about 1 year ago – Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 08:22:48 PM

Felicitations, rabble-rousers!

With convention season behind us, it’s time for an (overdue!) update on this campaign. The Flagbearer Games crew has had a busy summer, attending GenCon, NOVA Open, Games for Change, and the Ed Games Expo—and team lead Pat Mooney got to visit several historic sites in Ireland, including the 1798 Rebellion Centre, to scout for future project opportunities. We’ve had a great time meeting supporters and educators, chatting with you about your favorite historical tidbits, and scribbling down a few really clever suggestions for mechanics.

The manuscripts for The American Crisis and Poor Richard’s Almanac are making steady progress. In no particular order, we have completed the majority of NPC biographies, moved 5/7 adventure modules to final draft stage, are actively playtesting a “legs of a journey” travel system, and have two major new features (detailed below) that we’re really excited to unveil.

Building historical adventures has always been a little tricky, balancing accuracy and verisimilitude with the gameplay concerns and “finding the fun.” We hope to have early access of a few modules out sometime in October. We’re also working with suppliers to get production logistics ironed out, and hope to have a semi-finalized timetable locked down sometime in the next few months.

The Idea Factory

I want to quickly highlight two unique mechanics that we have in the works, drawn from our research into the colonial world. First up: getting stuck in the mud! It’s difficult to overstate just how important terrain conditions, and especially mud, was to battlefield maneuvers in the 18th century and beyond. For Poor Richard’s Almanac, we’re compiling a list of existing and new cover and difficult terrain variations like ice, snow, mud, sunken roads, and brambles (for a rustle in the hedgerow). In addition to new mechanics and easy-to-reference tables, we’re creating new rules for how inclement weather can affect the buildup of difficult terrain over time.

For the adventure campaign of The American Crisis, more than half of the chapters feature the party going behind enemy lines on intelligence and espionage operations during the Revolution’s most pivotal moments. Throughout playtesting, we’ve repeatedly asked ourselves: how can the Gamemaster portray the sleeping giant of the British Army during infiltration missions? The answer is a hornet’s nest feature. Just like the wanted level in a videogame like Red Dead Redemption, this mechanic introduces new consequences (in and out of combat) the moment that players “go loud,” representing the increased threat level as the alarm is raised and hundreds of redcoats take up arms all around you. This system will be integrated directly into each adventure chapter.

Feedback & Opportunities

As we’re packaging our adventure chapters for The American Crisis, we want to gather some audience feedback on formatting and module design to make the most usable layout we can. We’ll be posting a series of polls on our social feeds where we can take the temperature of the community on a few editorial decisions.

In addition, Flagbearer Games is still hiring a cultural consultant to bring a Haudenosaunee perspective to the chapter covering the Mohawk River Valley and the Oneida village of Oriska in August, 1777 (full link to the job posting).

Lastly, if you are a K12 educator, we are actively recruiting for a pilot program to test the efficacy of Nations & Cannons as a teaching tool in schools! We hope to gather data to help us apply for grant opportunities for additional history topics in the future. Please contact us via the form on our website if you are interested. As a reminder, Flagbearer Games will send a FREE copy of the Core Rules paperback to any teacher that requests one as part of our Educational Outreach Program.

In Closing

We’ve gotten a few questions recently about PDF distribution, and wanted to clarify a few things. The Core Rules, Flintlocks & Fulminates, and Misfire Deck PDFs should have already gone out via DriveThruRPG (if you have not yet received a copy of these publications, please contact us via email or Kickstarter message and we will issue your copies immediately).

The PDFs of The American Crisis and Poor Richard’s Almanac are still in development and will not be distributed until the print-ready versions are complete in late spring of next year. Other Kickstarter digital materials, such as the Nations & Cannons character sheet, VTT tokens, and other materials will be posted as they are completed.

Lastly, we’ll begin sending out advance shipping copies of the existing Core Rules book (for those of you who opted to do so in your survey) early next week. FYI, advance shipping will cause your order to lock in the BackerKit system, so be prepared to make any last alterations if need be in the next few days!

Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 🎆

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!

Project Update #17 Backer Survey Are Out!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 04:38:22 PM

Greetings Friends! 

We sent out surveys to all Kickstarter Backers earlier today! You should have received an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.

BackerKit Surveys 101

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://nations-and-cannons.backerkit.com.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://nations-and-cannons.backerkit.com/faq#shipping-updates.

Come See us in Person at Gen Con Indy in 36 days!

We just got back from Too Many Games outside of Philadelphia and are getting ready for Gen Con in just over a month! If you'll be at Gen Con (August 3-6) come stop by out booth (#1650) and say hi :D We'll also be running games throughout the show though there are only a few spots remaining, speaking of . . .

Looking for GMs!

We're always looking for folks to run games at conventions either online or in-person. Games are usually  4 hours total, with 15 min of pre-game prep and 15 min of breakdown (a 4.5 hour commitment for GMs For anyone who can run at least four games, we'll provide a lunch stipend plus free 4 day GM badge (or badge reimbursement for a 4 day Attendee badge). Books, miniatures, maps, and character sheets needed to run the games are provided. If you are interested in learning more email us at [email protected]

As Always, If you have any questions, feel free to let us know in the comments here, on the main page, or on our Discord.

Project Update #16 Backer Survey Smoke Test
over 1 year ago – Sun, Jun 18, 2023 at 11:02:15 PM

Greetings Revolutionaries! 

Apologizes on the delay with the surveys. To give y'all full transparency, this is our first Kickstarter and we've been learning on the go about all of the different pledge manager options. We originally setup in a different pledge manager before realizing BackerKit was a better solution and that really messed with our original estimate. But we have great news! We're all set up in Backer Kit now and will be sending out the first round of surveys via a smoke test. 

Smoke Test

A few of you may start seeing emails in the next week or two, this is called a Smoke Test. It's a lot like a Beta test, where we take a small sample from every pledge level to fill out the Pledge Manager. That way we can test a few of you and fix any problems before we let everyone into the system.

Preorders

As soon as our Kickstarter wrapped, we quickly added all of the new products to our shop on our main site. Now that our BakerKit is all set up we also have a fancy new preorder store that is live now! Whether they come from our site or Backerkit, all preorders will be treated the same and when all of the products are finished and printed, preorders will be shipped right after Kickstarter fulfillment is complete.  

Progress Updates

While we've been putting together our internal logistics, we've also been making progress on the new American Crisis: War in the North and Poor Richard's Almanac books and updating our other products for a new print run. 

The Black Powder Blunders Misfire Deck has just gone through a comprehensive balance and refinement pass, and we'll be sharing a further update on our GM screen in the following weeks.

This second printing of the Misfire Deck includes refinements throughout, and will be the definitive edition of the product. If you pledged for the Misfire Deck on Kickstarter, you will be able to see the updated PDF in your DriveThruRPG library on 6/19. This version includes:

• A balance and consistency pass on all game logic
• Numerous small typos, errors, and visual glitches cleaned up
• Revised layout of many cards for clarity and ease of play
• Five new historical quotes, from William Shakespeare to Annie Oakley

Though the first printing of the Misfire Deck will remain fully compatible with Nations & Cannons, all Kickstarter backers and current pre-orders will automatically receive the new printing during fulfillment.

If you previously purchased one of the original Misfire Decks and wish to upgrade to the new version, contact us directly and we'll give you a 50% discount! 

Future Updates

We will try to be better abut more regular updates as we go through this process. If you have any questions, feel free to let us know in the comments here, on the main page, or on our Discord.

Project Update #15 Backer Survey Coming Soon
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 23, 2023 at 04:54:07 AM

Hi Everyone!

We our working with our Pledge Manager to get the surveys done and they should be getting out to y'all in the next week or so. In the meantime, if your pledge contains any of the following PDFs  and  still haven't received a message from Drivethru about how to download it please message us on Discord so we can make sure it gets out to you.

PDFs available now:

• PDF of Nations & Cannons Core Rulebook 
• PDF of Flintlocks & Fulminates
• Misfire Deck

Please note those three PDFs are the only ones being sent out right now. The PDF of the new book will be sent out to coincide with it's print release next spring.

Don't Miss Out On New Projects

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Do you have some questions? A couple of suggestions? Reach us by DM or Discord 🧭

We hope this update gets you as excited as we are!