BackerKit Launches Today: What You Need To Do & Know
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 01:01:49 AM

It's BackerKit launch day for Fate of Cthulhu!

To the folks who've used BackerKit with other campaigns before: the BackerKit will launch later today, starting with a smoke test (5% of backers get invites to help kick the tires) and followed later in the day by full rollout.

To everyone else: The rest of this post is here to help you. Lots of words, yes, but I'm trying to head off questions at the pass here, so make sure to read all of them! I'll try to keep each part as brief as possible.

To both groups: We are still a number of months away from having the art in, having the final PDF ready, and getting the book off to the printer, let alone shipping it out. But, we wanted to launch the BackerKit as early as possible so we could use it to distribute the digital files for folks who got in on the Digital Apocalypse Package as soon as possible — some of the files are already ready, others will come along later. You'll need to fill in your backerkit info before you can get those downloadables, so, here we are.

What is BackerKit? Do I need to use it? 

BackerKit is a pledge manager. It's a separate website that you'll use to fill out survey questions, provide address data for shipment, and receive the digital awards for this campaign.

As such, even if you're not getting a physical shipment, it's still important you connect to BackerKit (if you're on a qualifying tier) so you can get the final PDF of Fate of Cthulhu as well as, the other digital rewards we currently have in development and the ones we already have ready for you (wallpaper, Fate Space Toolkit, Fate Adversary Toolkit, and shortly the Fate Accessibility Toolkit excerpt).

BackerKit will also give folks below the $20 tier a chance to upgrade to it (to receive all other digital rewards for the campaign, available to backers at $20 & up, as stated elsewhere on this project), as well as the ability to upgrade to a shipping tier if you have decided you want the book shipped to a USA-based address.

Right now we haven't added other books into the BackerKit as add-ons, but if there's something you want and don't mind waiting a bunch of months for (and which we have confidence will still be in stock by the time we ship), let us know here in the comments and we'll let you know if it's better to order it separately or if we can add it to the 'kit.

How do I get access to BackerKit? 

You'll be getting an invite email at the email address you use on your Kickstarter account. (If that's not your primary email address/inbox, make sure to take the time to check.)

If that invite email doesn't show up for whatever reason (some email services can be a little too aggressive with their "spam" catching), you should be able to get another email attempt sent in at https://fate-of-cthulhu.backerkit.com/ once we've gone live.

How do I upgrade my reward tier? 

On the very first page you get to after connecting through your invite, there will be a teensy tiny text link that you can click on to upgrade to other tiers, reading something like "or switch your pledge level" right underneath the mammoth "Get Started!" button.

I missed the campaign, can I still preorder the book? 

Yes, just go here: https://fate-of-cthulhu.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

A preorder does include the text-complete preview PDF available right away (assuming I configured it correctly!), and will include the final PDF once we've got it done.  

Preorders do not include the Digital Apocalypse Package extras from the campaign. Getting those for free was an exclusive to Kickstarter backers. They will be available for-pay, once they're complete, on our site and DriveThruRPG.

How do I add on other items, additional copies of the book, etc? 

After you log in to BackerKit, you'll be asked a few questions (the survey part). Once you've gotten past that part, you'll be presented with something that looks like a store. You can add stuff that's not already included in your reward tier to your cart and pay for it at that point.

How do I provide my shipping information? 

Once you click past the add-ons section, you'll be presented with an opportunity to enter your shipping information (if your reward tier needs shipping information). Make sure to click all the way through and confirm the results.

If you haven't clicked a button that reads Place My Order then the process is not done and you won't be recorded as a completed response. Only completed responses will get their shipments. So make sure to follow the process through to its confirmed conclusion!

I'm going to move before you ship... 

We'll be giving folks a 48 hour notice to confirm that their shipping address information is still correct once we have a firm date for when we're shipping. You'll have a chance to change your address at any time between now and when the addresses lock down immediately prior to shipment. Just return to the backerkit and update your info.

When does my card get charged? 

If you're a Kickstarter backer, your card already was. That said, if you add on items (requiring additional payment) or if you preorder the book, your card won't be charged until we're close to the shipping date. If a charge fails, don't worry, because BackerKit will give you a chance to update your card info so we can try charging it again.

My kickstarter pledge failed, can I correct it using BackerKit? 

You should be able to — but if Kickstarter removed you in a way that BackerKit wasn't able to spot, we'll need to manually add you back into the backer list. Contact us at [email protected] and we'll work with you to get it sorted out.

I have another question not covered here! 

We have failed! Oh noes! But you should tell us. We like answering questions. [email protected] is the way to go, tho you can also contact us via direct message here on the Kickstarter website.

You can ask your question here in the comments, too, tho if it is your-order-specific, comments aren't the best venue for something that might require us to do a lot of back and forth, ask for private details like your shipping address, etc. Hence the recommendation to use direct message or email!

That's it for now — thanks as always for your support, and keep an eye on your kickstarter email address's inbox for those invites.

In Which We Predict The Future (You Did It!)
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 08:13:41 AM

2,623 backers.

$93,894 raised.

10 stretch goals reached.

7 additional darkest timelines funded.

Have you all noticed that you're amazing? The numbers don't lie. Except when you're not looking at them. Then the whispering begins.

Thank you, as always, for your incredible support. It means the (end of the) world to us at Evil Hat.

We set out to make a mythos-inspired game that didn't simply redo all of the excellent work other RPGs in the field already had. We easily could have gone that way, and made a very good but very typical game powered by Fate. Instead, we decided to take a risk and do something radically different from what came before, blending in another source of inspiration from outside the mythos, and rest on the hope that people would be excited enough about the idea to give it a chance and lend their support to make it all happen. 

And so, hope won. Because of you. Thank you for joining our fight for the future!

But, speaking of the future, we suspect you might have a few questions. So let's get to answering them. We've gazed into the abyss to unlock these secrets. The price was dire, oh yes, and we are now so hollow inside. Just as you all will be...

The Next Few Weeks

Over the next couple weeks, Kickstarter is going to charge you for your pledges, now that the campaign is concluded. Some folks' cards will error out — always a risk, and perfectly normal in bulk-card-processing scenarios. If it happens to you, Kickstarter will email you and let you know about the problem and give you a chance to fix it. Make sure that whatever email address you have on your Kickstarter account is one you're actually checking, so you don't miss such communications! (That email address will also be how BackerKit reaches out to you—but more on that below. Far below, where the shadow-things dwell.)

Once this couple-weeks window closes, Kickstarter will transfer the funds to us. At that point we'll have what we need to move things forward!

The Next Few Months

Once the funds are in after those two weeks, several things will happen (if we don't get them started sooner).

One, we'll finish up the art-spec for the core book and get the work parceled out to the artists on the book. This is the main time-hurdle remaining prior to manufacture; art takes time, and we needed the funding to pay for what's left. 

Two, we'll get the text off to a professional indexer. (A quality index is a big asset for a book; thanks for making this possible.)

Three, we'll start work on stripping out the open-licensable parts of the game to produce that "Condensed Core" SRD (and probably a separate document that gets into a few custom bits like corruption and time travel system bits). We don't have an ETA on this, but we are seriously excited to make it happen.

Four, we'll get the BackerKit spun up somewhere in this span. We normally hold off until we're considerably closer to the shipping-date, but in this case it will likely make sense to spin it up sooner and use it as our primary platform for delivering you your digital rewards (like the Fate Accessibility Toolkit, the Fate Horror Toolkit, the Fate Accessibility Toolkit preview, digital wallpaper, etc for the folks at $20 and up). We'll post an update once we have it set up so you will know to check your Kickstarter-email address for the invite.

Five, we'll issue contracts and kick off the writing of the funded darkest timelines. 

The Rest Of The Year

Following the first few months, once the art and index are in, those will be taken into final layout, producing the final form of the book. 

At that point the PDF will be released to backers at $20 and up via the BackerKit. 

This will be when we can begin the work to get ePub and Kindle versions of the book made, which will follow once ready.

We'll also begin the roughly-three-month manufacturing period for the physical book.

When the books are ready, we'll notify everyone on BackerKit to double-check that their shipping address remains accurate, and after about 48 hours from that point we'll extract the shipping info from there and get the shipping orders over to the warehouse folks at Alliance, our current fulfillment partner. Just-books shipments will go via USPS media mail; books-and-dice are likely priority mail, but could be UPS depending on the sort of price-quote Alliance gets at the time. 

If you ordered a physical book, you'll have it in hand before the end of the year. And so, the infiltration will be complete.

Beyond This Year (2020?! Is that even a real year?!)

We expect the stretch timelines to take a while to develop, so we expect we'll release them sometime next year. We're starting from the blank page on all of them, and each will involve:

• Outlining
• Drafting
• Editing
• System development
• Sensitivity reading
• Revision
• Layout
• Proofreading
• Art direction
• Art acquisition
• Final assembly

(Possibly more — this list is off the top of my head. We removed the top in order to get better access to it.)

As you might imagine, each of those bullets represents a non-zero amount of time and effort, for each timeline. We'll keep you apprised of progress as best we can.

Once the additional timelines are done, we'll release them to you via BackerKit (probably piecemeal as each one becomes available; plan subject to change). And for folks who missed out on getting them, we'll put them up for sale in the usual places. As a part of that once all the timelines are done, we'll investigate scenarios for producing a compilation book, possibly/probably print-on-demand, but we need to actually have the timelines in hand before that's really germane.

From Now Until Forever

And then of course, there's the game itself! We hope you'll make use of your early access to the fully playable text to kick off a campaign and, better yet, tell us all about it, that we might improve our plans for incursion, conquest, and total devastation.

We're always open to getting questions! Drop us a line at [email protected] if the content of your question involves private details (like your address, etc), or hit us up in the comments here if it's okay for public eyes. 

We look forward to hearing from you. We've crafted a special little storing-place for all of you, our faithful, so you might watch the end of days from a... proper vantage point.

And so, again, thank you for all your support. We wouldn't be on the cusp of reducing the world to a quivering cinder without your help. This has been a hell of a ride already, and it's only just starting.

We'll see you when you emerge from Yog-Sothoth's gullet!

ePub and Kindle Formats Unlocked! Less than $5000 remains to the Double Darkest Timelines Stretch!
almost 5 years ago – Tue, May 21, 2019 at 10:21:35 PM

[OH LOOK! It's an opportunity to see what happens to the updates when Fred is GMing while a stretch goal gets cleared, and doesn't realize Tom has already taken care of the update. Sorry about the double-up!]

BAM! Another stretch goal cleared.

Y'all have been making great strides through our stretches. We're rounding the final bend now towards our last three.

At $90,000 we'll be unlocking two timelines, as we've said: The Necronomicon digitized and full of doomsdays, and a 12-Monkeys-style Global Pandemic apocalypse as a bonus. Given how much ground you've covered in the past 24 hours, this should be eminently within reach before the campaign ends tomorrow at 3:30pm eastern. Keep up the pace, and keep encouraging your fellow gamer-folk to pledge, and we'll be able to bring these two apocalypses to bear upon an unsuspecting populace.

At $100,000 is our final stretch, a fresh and original take on a zombie apocalypse. And, yeah, at our current pace it's going to be difficult to get there. Much will depend on how many folks reminderized about the final 48 hours of the campaign decide to get in there with whatever they can manage to afford and boost us as far towards this goal as we can get. We remain optimistic! And heck, if we don't manage to reach all the way to $100k, we can at least look at how far we did get and at least put some thought into whether we could release this separately, for sale, at a later date, if there's some surplus funds left over from the campaign. Mendez's ideas and perspective on the world are wonderful; we'd love the chance to make this happen, with your help.

Just 17 hours of campaign-time are left! It's do or die time. Or do and die time, if you'd prefer. 

We're thrilled to see how much we're already going to get to expand the Fate of Cthulhu setting beyond the core book, and that's all thanks to you. So thank you, again, and always, for your support. You've been a lively and engaged bunch of backers, which is really all we could ever ask for. Fans are awesome. 

Onward, to the final day, the final hour! We'll see you here again when the skies open and the terrible, pulsing light pours down upon you, like blood from a fresh arterial wound. The celebration will be something you'll remember for the rest of your days. Every last one of them.

Fetch the Unholy Tablets!
almost 5 years ago – Tue, May 21, 2019 at 12:59:13 PM

ePub & Kindle formats unlocked!

With the campaign rolling into its final hours, we've cracked the $85k "mini-stretch" that enables us to offer Fate of Cthulhu in tablet-friendly ePub and Kindle formats to everyone backing at $20 and up. Thank you for spreading the word!

$90k: Double Timeline Trouble

We're about 125 physical backers away from reaching our special $90k stretch goal: TWO additional timelines. Ash McAllan will open the scaly covers of the Necronomicon and John Rogers will pen our first non-Mythos apocalypse, a 12 Monkeys-style global pandemic! With 18 hours left to go, this goal is very attainable but we can't get there without bringing new people on board so if you'd like to see us hit these stretches please share the game on social media.

Bullet Points for the Apocalypse

To that end, note that earlier today we put together a Twitter thread of ~10 tweets that neatly encapsulate the major highlights of what (we think) makes Fate of Cthulhu compelling and special. You can read that thread starting here. 

The short version?

The Mythos-meets-Terminator premise is a unique take on the genre. Time travel is fun! The corruption mechanic means characters have a heroic story arc instead of a hopeless spiral into decay. We don't force anyone to roleplay a mental illness and give guidance on how to do it with respect and sensitivity if they choose to do so. We tackle HPL's fraught legacy head-on. And with all the diverse, talented writers we have on board with our stretches, this KS has become and incredible value that you can start playing the day you back.

But you know that. You're smart, you're a backer! Tell your friends who might not be as well-informed or discerning in their gaming tastes. ;-)

Thank you for your support. We have 18 hours left. The campaign ends at 3:30pm EST tomorrow. With your help, we can reach our $90k goal and even get to the prize we have waiting for you at $100k: James Mendez Hodes tackles a zombie apocalypse unlike any other. Here's the pitch:

In an alternate timeline, cultural appropriation of Afro-Atlantic religious traditions causes a zombie apocalypse. A Haiti-based international crew of necromancers must undo this grave misdeed.

The Clock Is Ticking

The time is now to nudge your friends or update your pledge (If your group is sold, that Equipment Cache is a sweeet deal). We're truly grateful for the tremendous response this campaign has been getting.

Thank you for being a part of it.

Yog-Sothoth Unlocked!
almost 5 years ago – Tue, May 21, 2019 at 09:53:53 AM

Great work! 

You got us over the $80k hump before the weekend concludes. Yog-Sothoth's shattered apocalypse will now join our lineup of darkest timelines. Just as the recursive prophecy foretold.

Reminder! The road ahead is especially exciting: 

At $85k we'll be able to provide Kindle and EPUB formats for backers at $20 and up in addition to PDF, which is a great improvement for the accessibility of the game. 

And just past that at $90k we'll unlock two of the Darkest Timelines, with Ash McAllan's Necronomicon and Leverage/Librarians/Kingkiller Chronicles showrunner John Rogers' Gloobal Pandemic apocalypses.

And then at $100k we'll get James Mendez Hodes' cultural (re)appropriation themed Zombies timeline.

We've crossed a big distance in just the past few hours. If we can keep up the pace, these remaining stretch goals are in your grasp. Close the world in your grip. Yesssss. Our grip.

Thank you again, as always, for your support! I'll talk to you again when you fine people knock another goal down.