Backerkit surveys in the next 24hours
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 11:56:52 PM

Hello Minerva Agents,

Great news! Set up is complete and you will get your surveys within the next 24 hours. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email from Backerkit / Draco Studios. The email contains a unique link to your personal survey and looks something like this:

If you do not get an email in the next 24 hours, check your spam folder or go to https://eldritchcenturycorebook.backerkit.com/ to get a new email invitation.

Please answer as soon as possible so we can estimate the proper amount of items to produce, send your digital rewards and mail your physical rewards to your address. You will still be able to change your mailing address until November.

Here's what the timeline looks like:

• After Charging Cards, we will send STL files for 3D printing (late April).
• PDF fulfillment will start around August before printing the book.

In your survey, you need to complete some steps, don't worry, Backerkit will guide you very smoothly. 

1. Confirm or change your reward tier and country. 

• If you wish to change your pledge level, you can do so here – below the green "Get Started!" button, select on "switch your pledge level". 
• Local Pickup: if you are in Mexico City or Guadalajara, you can save shipping and select "Local pickup" instead of choosing your country.

2. Answer some basic questions (Varies depending according to your pledge level)

• Let us know how you want your name to appear in the Acknowledgment pages of the Core Rulebook (choose "N/A" if you prefer not to be mentioned).
• Since we offer loyalty rewards for returning backers, you may want to subscribe to our mailing list. (Let us know if we can send you emails or not). Side note: Backers with loyalty rewards for pledging into this campaign will already see those in the sidebar of the Add-on section.
• Backers in the "Miasma Maker" tier need to choose which bundle we should send you as part of your rewards.

3. Include add-ons (optional buys) 

• Allocating extra funds pledged during the campaign (if any).
• Choose any optional buys (add-ons) you want to include to your pledge. 
• Backerkit shows you items included in your pledge, additional optional buys in your cart, total shipping fee for your region based on item-count and the balance due already considering the funds you pledged on Kickstarter.

4. Let us know your mailing address 

• This screen is available only if you are expecting physical rewards. This is very important because it is the only way for us to know where to send your rewards once manufacture is complete. 
• You will be able to update your shipping address anytime until 1 month before we start fulfillment (mid November).

5. Submit your payment details to pay any balance due (for shipping or extra add-ons).

• You will not be charged after completing the survey (unless paid with PayPal); your card will be charged in April 15th. 
• Backerkit encrypts your payment info in a secure way which is not visible by us, them or anyone.
• You can also scroll down to review and confirm information.

6. Place your order

• If you miss to place your order, the system will not mark your survey as completed. 
• Your progress will be saved and you may return to complete or modify it later but the sooner you complete your survey, the better.
• After completing your survey you can tweet or post about it. (PSST! Notice there will be a hidden preview)

 And that's it! If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or using Backerkit support service.

About the add-ons

Here's an overview of all the items you will see in the Add-ons section. Some of them are items available in the campaign and you can get extra copies for you or a friend. Other items are from alternate projects of Draco Studios that may be appealing for you according to your interests. Notice some of them are limited.

On your survey, you can click on each item to see more pictures and a detailed description we prepared for your convenience.

Important: Review on the side bar which items are already included in your pledge. You may already have digital items included and because of that, those digital items may not be visible as add-ons in order to avoid visual traffic for you.

• In the featured section we have the core rewards which are the physical Hardcover book for the RPG Core Rulebook and the Softcover book for the RPG Starter. You can add extra copies of them.
• In addition, you can get a full-polyhedral dice-set with the unique style of our Dragons of the Red Moon campaign. Dice-collectors: these dice are not available on retail and we have limited copies in existence.

• Scrolling down, you will be able to find the PDF version for the RPG Core Rulebook, RPG Starter Set. This are included in almost all reward tiers except the lowest ones.
• The Minerva Adventure, which was free for all backers in the $40 tier and above (as an unlocked digital stretch goal) is available for backers in the $20 tier and below at a discounted price than the intended online price.

Scroll down to see the resin-cast miniatures! 

• We are offering the last copies from the first print run we made of Eldritch Century resin miniatures. These are bundled per monster type (1 large and 3 medium with different poses) or by faction (4 medium characters for the Atlantean Alliance or Sino-Siberian Mandate).
• These miniatures are available in extremely limited quantities so if you take too long to answer your survey, they might no longer be visible. 

Finally, if you are into 3D printing you will see some of the bundles we have released:

• First, we have the Eldritch Century new characters (different from the Resin miniatures above) and the monsters (same as the resin miniatures above). 
• We are also offering the same bundles we released for Dragons of the Red Moon. Those include some of the most amazing dragons in tabletop (not only our words, but reviews at DriveThruRPG and other sites say so). We are offering a discounted price in comparison to DriveThruRPG firstly because it is a direct transaction with us, the creators, and secondly because you will receive them in late April. (Go to DriveThruRPG if you want to download them instantly).
• Finally, we have some funny Eldritch Chickens which were suggestions from our backers of War for Chicken Island. They are something unique: Cluckthulhu and Yolk-Sothoth.

Local pickup

At this point we can only confirm about having local pickup for Mexico city and Guadalajara. Choose "LOCAL PICKUP" at the very first screen of your survey instead of choosing a country. Your survey will mark 0 on the shipping cost. We will contact you when your rewards are available for local-pickup.

Having local pickup at international conventions *might* be possible but we will cover that in a case by case basis when the time comes. If this is possible, we will refund the proper shipping costs on site.

STL Fulfillment

We are expecting to send the STL files in late April. For this, we require backers to fill their surveys as soon as possible.

Join us in Discord!

At Draco Studios we always look for ways to be in touch with our community, you are the most important part of all our projects. We want to inform you of the progress of our products and at the same time, we want to read your comments; to achieve this, nothing better than Discord.

In our Discord server you will find a channel for our different projects, and a large family of enthusiastic players who, like you, are eager to share their adventures and stories while playing board games or collecting miniatures.

The most important thing for us is our community, that is why we have thought of this space as a meeting point between friends where you will always be heard. You are the main protagonist of this new space, you will shape it and show the way for this great community!

Join the talk! 

Oceanic Community concept art + End of February Status
about 4 years ago – Mon, Mar 02, 2020 at 02:41:08 AM

Hello Minerva Agents!

We would like to apologize for the time between the last update and this one. We have had some internal changes in our writing and game design team which is great because now we have more eyes and playtesting.

Core Rulebook Status

Progress has been steady. 

• The writing team has been finishing chapters for the lore. Still working with our guest writers on the final details for the Atlantean Alliance and Renascent Hegemony. 
• We have been working on writing a lot of art briefs. The art is crucial to provide the general atmosphere and sensation of the Wounded Earth.
• We are days away from starting the editing process for the first full draft.
• Once we have edited text and more art, we will start editorial design (spread layout). 
• Game design: 5e adaptation is still in progress. Draco System is almost done. It's important to note that we shook the character creation process a bit. The process is still a fully narrative experience tailored not for power, but for story and uniqueness. We simply decided to discard the phrase we presented in the Kickstarter campaign description because we faced a few logical blockades when testing. Moving forward we'll start testing the entire system not only among ourselves but with others, seeking to adjust mathematics. 

Oceanic Community Concept Art

The Oceanic Community is a collection of mammoth ships the size of small cities which patrol the waves and are tied to one another through the rule of a General Assembly advised by various ships Captains. Motherships are at the heart of Oceanic Community life. The three most important of these mammoth structures were built for the Second Expedition to survive the ravages of the Miasma—the Garden, the Home, and the Lost. Built upon the Indian Ocean under protection of the Axumite Empire, the three Motherships are the pinnacle of Oceanic enginuity. They are a refugee’s first experience with the Community, a flotilla of salvation used to feed, heal, and restore weary wanderers before they’re given a permanent home within the Oceanic Community itself.

Here's the concept art that will go into full render character exploration afterwards: 

The majority of the Oceanic Community’s population inhabits other Motherships and islands, which comprise the majority of the Oceanic Retinue, along with the various ships and boats which follow after them. Each Mothership and accompanying boats is a citystate unto itself housing thousands owing allegiance to the Community as a whole, but with its own laws and customs. Also, each is culturally unique homing refugees from countries destroyed by various wars who meld their unique cultures with that of the Community to produce something novel and infitting with the mismatched perfect imperfection the Community embraces. 

As usual, before creating hyper-realistic full render version of our characters, we work on solid color concept art. So far it has worked amazingly well for the other factions, we are sure the units from the Oceanic Community will be amazing as well. What do you think so far? Which one of the above seems interesting for you as playable character?

Pledge Manager small reminder

Pledge manager has not gone live yet, however, the progress for the project is ongoing. As we mentioned before, we have a small surprise prepared for you: we are including some limited resin miniatures from our first Kickstarter project. These miniatures will be limited once the pledge manager goes live so we are waiting for the final count in the warehouse and our resin manufacture workshop. Also, you will be able to add our Dice Set from Dragonbondas another optional purchase. 

 Before all surveys arrive a smoke test will be sent to a random 5% of backers from each reward tier. This functionality from Backerkit allows creators to review if everything is working properly or make any changes before sending the other 95% of the surveys. 

More info about how to answer your survey in the next update.

End of 2019 word count status
over 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 12:50:14 AM

Hello there, Minerva Agents!

This is not a simulation, this is a real and uncovered message we need to send before our mission is compromised. 

We want to thank you for all your patience during these last weeks. Even though we have not had a lot of updates, the project has been progressing nicely and today we want to share an overall status from within the Miasma. 

Backerkit Status

First of all, it is important to mention that even though pledge manager has not gone live yet, the progress for the project has not stopped. We have a small surprise prepared for you: we are including some limited resin miniatures from our first Kickstarter project. These copies are very limited so we are waiting for the final count in the warehouse to make sure we offer the amount of miniatures we have for each model. You will be able to add any of these to your pledge. 

Because of the season, we believe it is best to release the pledge manager after the Holidays have finished.

Core Rule Book progress  

We are very pleased to announce that our amazing chosen writers have been delivering their progress for their assigned faction lore. We will be sharing some snippets of these upcoming updates. We have also made progress for the chapters written in-house. Here's a detailed report from our Lore Master Bernardo, overall we have currently 104,027 words.

These are first drafts which allow us to keep building on them; we expect to have second drafts on January to begin with editing. 

•  Intro 

Word count: 5,975 of ~10,000 

• Character creation

Pending. We require all factions' lore to begin the official writing of this chapter (we currently have tons of notes and info which will require revision prior to start).

• Equipment

Word count: 2928 of ~3,000.

Even though we are almost reaching the expected words, we must complete some sections that require information about the factions written by our guest writers. Specifically: Technology in 1984 and  Faction items.

• System

Word count: 13,674 of ~12,500.

• Eldritch Powers

Word count: 2,407 of ~8,000.

• A Brief History of the Wounded Earth

Word count: 4,779 of ~4,000.

• Miasma

Word count: 5,045 of ~5,000.

• Factions

Sino-Siberia Word count: 18,709 of ~18,000

Axumite Federation Word count: 18,475 of ~18,000

Oceanic Community Word count: 17,659 of ~18,000

Atlantean Alliance (waiting for final draft in the upcoming weeks)

Nation of the Eclipse (waiting for first draft on January 2nd)

Renascent Hegemony (waiting for first draft by the end of January)

• Bestiary

Word count: 4,171 of ~7,000

We currently have 21 Monsters. 

• Game Mastering

Word count: 8,607 of ~8,000

STL Fulfillment

Fortunately, all STL packs have been uploaded and we are ready to distribute them as soon as we confirm all info in the pledge manager. You can expect that to happen on January at last. 

In short:

•  Pledge manager: We have finished setting up the pledge manager and surveys will be sent soon. We will post a detailed update to explain how Backerkit works and what you should expect from it.
•  Cultural Consulting: As we have mentioned before, we want to celebrate all of the cultures which provided inspiration to the factions, because of that, we have been under cultural consulting and the content in the final product will be slightly different than the info depicted in the campaign.
•  Writing: We are also very pleased to announce that our amazing chosen writers have been delivering their work for their assigned faction lore. We will be sharing some snippets of these upcoming updates. We have also made progress for the chapters written in-house.
•  Art: During these past weeks we have been working on the briefs for the new art. We expect these pieces to start soon and of course, any progress will be shared. 
• 3D Models: They are ready for fulfillment on January as soon as we begin confirming your surveys on the pledge manager.

The next updates will bring more details about how to answer your Backerkit survey, which will be sent soon!

Happy holidays! We are very thankful for all your support this year on this project and any other previous projects you joined. Next year will be an amazing year full of creepy and amazing art, immersive paragraphs, painted miniatures, Miasma mysteries and histories from your RPG gaming table. We look forward to share all of this with you on 2020. We hope you have a great time with your families and friends. 

Cultural Consulting complete
over 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 02:14:47 AM

Hello Minerva agents!

Today we are very glad to provide an update about the status and progress of this project. This will be a short and precise update but after this one, we have prepared some updates with additional lore of what our amazing writers have delivered.

•  Pledge manager: We have finished setting up the pledge manager and surveys will be sent within the next week. We will post a detailed update to explain how Backerkit works and what you should expect from it.
•  Cultural Consulting: As we have mentioned before, we want to celebrate all of the cultures which provided inspiration to the factions, because of that, we have been under cultural consulting and the 2nd round of changes has been finished! (The first round was taken shortly after we reached the funding goal).
•  Writing: We are also very pleased to announced that our amazing chosen writers have been delivering their progress (2nd draft) for their assigned faction lore. We will be sharing some snippets of these in coming updates. We have also made progress for the chapters written in-house.
•  Art: During these past weeks we have been working on the briefs for the new art. We expect this pieces to start soon and of course, any progress will be shared.
• 3D Models: Next week we will prepare these files 3D printing. (Similar to a prepress stage). These will be distributed on December once we get the answered surveys.

The next update will explain in detail how to answer your Backerkit survey, which will be sent next week!

Payment errors - last day to fix
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 08:21:11 PM

Hello, Minerva Agents!

One week ago, thanks to you, we funded a successful campaign. Today we share some pictures and other news. All future project updates are meant to keep you informed about the progress we do. In this update you will find:

• Payment Errors - Last Day
• Setting corrections
• Pledge Manager set up
• Reminders
   

Kickstarter Payment Error 

For backers who still have any payment issue: today Kickstarter will retrythecharge to your credit card one last time. 

If the charge is not successful, your pledge will be marked as 'dropped'; however, you will still get your Backerkit survey and have the chance to fix your payment through Backerkit or PayPal there and keep your Rewards; note that if you fall into this segment, you might not get the next few project updates until Backerkit surveys are sent next month.

Setting corrections

We thank you for all your support and helping us make this setting better. Thanks to all our backers who had reached us to share small details to improve or clarify better. As we have said in the past, before launching this campaign we begun with cultural consulting to display the factions in a proper and inclusive way. We will share all the changes to the setting in a future update. This means that we will update the World Primer with those changes and send you a revised version when it is ready.

Oceanic Community 

Last week, we received from Elizabeth Chaipraditkul the first draft for the Oceanic Community which we already reviewed and had a blast reading it. We will share some fragments in a future update.

We also received the Minerva Agents outfit concept art which is needed for the Corebook, Comic and the adventure unlocked with the stretch goal. 

And here's a final illustration by Mara Art that we are sure you all will absolutely love. This is Teru Neigusse, a Seraphim from the Axumite Empire.

Also, the inking for the last pages we showed in the previous update:

Pledge manager

This week we are setting up Backerkit. We aim to launch it in 2 weeks, we are just preparing the survey so you will be able to get your Add-ons or upgrade your pledge level.

We always share a dedicated update with the information for answering your survey via Backerkit so expect that soon.

Reminders

If you know someone interested in this project who was not able to back, they can join in pre-orders on Backerkit when we launch it. By subscribing on Draco Studios Mailist they can get notified.

 Until next time!