The Book Is Almost A Book
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 02, 2021 at 02:09:40 PM

Hello everyone! February is almost complete and so is a LOT of the work on the book. Here's a quick overview of the progress we've made and some of the upcoming plans:

• 35 of 36 cards needed for backgrounds have been complete! That last one is because I rearranged things a bit with the artists and needed to allow more time for it to be completed. It should be coming in next week!
• 34 of the 36 backgrounds are completely written, including intro text, items, skills, and abilities. 
• 3 pages of new skills and abilities have been included. I know Troika is set up to literally just write a skill and be done with it, but I like a little extra guidance myself. 
• 8 of the 22 campaign prompts are complete, and another 4 are outlined. This is the bulk of the writing work I have left to do, and also where we still need some sport art pieces from our interior artists.
• Next week Jon and I will begin editing the book cover-to-cover to make sure everything is spot on. We'll also be doing final checks with the artists that their cards look good. 

Backer Surveys

The last major piece of the puzzle is getting BackerKit stood up so everyone can finalize their shipping on physical rewards. We'll have some extra prints available if you want to add them on, but physical decks will be available separately via DriveThruCards and possibly The Game Crafter—still looking into that. 

So, that's where we're all at right now. I'll leave you with an art tease of four new cards that all represent a background in the book. Leave a comment below with your guess as to which cards these are. If all 4 get guessed correctly, I'll do a follow-up post next week with the full card art and maybe some sneak peeks of the backgrounds that accompany them. Thank you! 

Just Keep Writing, Just Keep Drawing
over 3 years ago – Sun, Jan 31, 2021 at 06:14:23 AM

Hello backers! This update is a quick check-in to share what we have all been working on since you last heard from us. Now that the hustle and bustle of the Kickstarter is over, it's time to buckle down and focus on producing the content. For me, that means a lot of time spent staring at pages of words, which isn't the most visually appealing for a Kickstarter update (but that doesn't stop me from trying below), so I wanted to start with some new tarot art that has come across my virtual desk.

These first two images are basically final art for the Star and the Sun, both done by the amazingly talented Alex Perkins. You can also see a little bit of how the clean, modern design will play into the cards. No, your eyes do not deceive you, the art goes ALL the way to the edge of these cards. We think this simple white border maintains the overall look and feel of Articles while also giving full allowance to the art on each and every card. 

We have even more art in the concept stage. Below is the line art for the Knight of Wands by Matthew Cartwright and an early sketch of the Empress by Bri de Danann. I am constantly being wowed by these amazing artists and they are constantly rewarding me with new imagery to include in the game. What's that floating below the Knight there? All I will say for now is that it was a wonderful surprise from Matthew C. and I will be looking for an opportunity to include it in the book somewhere. 

While the artists continue to distract and impress me with their amazing art, I have been working on finishing the book. I'm inspired to work on creating or updating backgrounds as new art comes out. For example, the Knight of Wands shown above has a distinctly different look to him than than the traditional Rider-Waite image, so I will make sure that is reflected in the background text. The bulk of the writing, however, is going into the campaign prompts section. Below is a preview of The Empress prompt, a sort of downtime and recovery session that I think a lot of games overlook. Not only do the characters deserve time to develop as people, periods of relative safety and rest help punctuate and underscore the tension of the rest of the game. 

We hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek at the work going into Articles of the Arcana. We're all looking forward to bringing all this content together soon and getting books out to everyone as soon as possible. Thanks for checking in! 

Funded!!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 12:07:44 AM

THANK YOU!

We have officially hit our funding goal and I can't tell you how relieved and excited and grateful I feel right now. We actually hit the goal right at the end of the Friends Who Roll Dice stream last night that myself, Bri, and Jon were in. It was an absolutely amazing way to end a game full of chaos, heart, and space squids. Yep, you read that correctly. If you missed it, head over to the Friends Who Roll Dice Twitch channel and check it out. 

We also have a couple more opportunities for you to hear about Articles of the Arcana. Today, Thursday the 5th, a new long-form campaign is starting up based on Articles. You can check that out at twitch.tv/ted_pk. I will also be appearing on Rule of Lore's Ramblemancy talk show on Friday the 6th to chat about Articles, game design, and indie TTRPGs.

What's Next?

Right now we're making a book and a companion deck of cards for the 36 Backgrounds included. This is an amazing accessory to make your game more tactile and random, and includes the entire Major Arcana, for your divination needs. This is very cool, but we want more. If we can get to the $6,000 stretch goal, we will be able to create a full 72-card tarot deck. These extra funds are going directly into the pockets of the artists responsible for creating the cards and will allow them to create TWICE as much art. This full deck is an upgrade of the current pledge and will be available to all backers. 

How You Can Help

If you're reading this you're likely already a backer, so thank you for that! What can you do to help us reach this stretch goal? First, if you have the extra funds, you can add on tarot decks or art prints to your pledge. Second, you can help spread the word. No matter what your follower count is you have the ability to tell folks about this cool project. Even a single extra backer is hugely important right now, so please consider sharing the project on social media and with your friend groups. 

"What if... he big?"

I want to leave you with something beautiful and amazing, so here is a card that we debuted last night on stream. This is the Page of Cups, otherwise known as Fish in a Cup, illustrated by Matthew Cartwright. I knew this card was going to be good when Matthew messaged me and asked "What if... he big?". Plus the shell pipe and all the amazing details, this card is my favorite so far. What is your favorite card we've shared so far? 

Surveys for Troika PDF
over 3 years ago – Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 10:29:57 PM

Hello all! A backer reached out to me to ask if I would be sending out the Troika rewards ahead of the book and, well, yeah. Why not?! I've sent a KS survey to those reward tiers who are getting a copy of Troika to ask for an email address to send the redemption link to. It will be fulfilled on Itch.io but does not require an Itch account. If you do have an Itch account, you will be able to claim the game, giving you access to any future updates to the game book. 

Hopefully we can get all these surveys back soon; once we have them all I can send them off to Melsonian Arts Council and they will begin sending out redemption links. Don't delay!

Thank you all again! 

Post Project Update #1: Funds & Art Direction
over 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 11:50:09 AM

Hey everyone! I only have a couple of minor updates here, but the overview is that we have received the funds from Kickstarter, artists are being paid, and work is beginning on the rather ambitious pile of content we all have to create. Spirits are extremely high though, and we're SUPER excited to get cranking on that full tarot deck you all helped us fund. I am over the moon about it!

As a reminder, there won't be any surveys coming to you from Kickstarter. When we are closer to fulfilling the project next spring, I will be sending out links to Backerkit via email. There you will be able to check you current rewards and pledge, add on any items you missed during the project, and finalize your shipping. 

The plan for the next couple months is for us to keep our heads down and create, me with my words and the artists with their digital brushes and paints (or something, I'm not an artist). As more art starts coming in, we will be teasing out some of it, but some of the pieces will be kept a surprise for when you get your books and decks. 

In the meantime, if you have any questions at all about the project, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can comment on the project or the latest update, send me a Kickstarter message, @ or DM me on Twitter (@mrmatthew), or send me an email (matthew at gravelyn dot com). 

Thanks all!!