Transmission Thursday: Heads of the Mandate
about 4 years ago – Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 10:31:04 AM

Welcome back, agents

Today’s Transmission Thursday will speak of the often confusing, but certainly functional double head of the Sino-Siberian Mandate. We’d like to appreciate everyone who has talked to us through our Discord regarding the PDF preview we sent some weeks ago. This game is for you and it only makes sense that you have some say in what you want.

The Sino-Siberian Mandate

The lead of the Mandate is divided between two powerhouses. The Communist Party of China and Siberia is led by the larger-than-life persona who is Secretary General Yermak. Contrastingly, the Council of Commissars is led by the strange, often confusing shape of Chairman Zhu Zhao Huang, who is credited with finding the Monad in the Western ridges of the Himalayas.

The following is a couple of excerpts from Agent Turner.

Yermak’s public persona is carefully crafted: the stories that are told about his life and accomplishments have loose bearing with reality, but are exaggerated to emphasize his abilities. But the stories aren’t entirely false; Yermak is a powerful man, and even if he had the backing of Teslatronic Gestalt armor, his fight to reclaim the fallen USSR came from his physical strength, imposing character, and boundless confidence. With his easy charm and abilities as a storyteller, he commands attention at speeches and rallies, and has become the face of the Sino-Siberian Mandate.

As a leader, Yermak is direct—he isn’t stupid— and it is not wise to underestimate him, but he is unfailingly transparent in his dealings. If he wants something, he sends soldiers to get it and if he’s mad at a political opponent, he’ll insult them publicly. As happy as he is to exaggerate the truth, he does not care for outright spycraft and subterfuge. His impatience and unwillingness to compromise have also caused tension within the Mandate; the bureaucracy of running a country is tedious, so he will often make bold public pronouncements without running them past the Central Committee or the Council of Commissars, who then must either hold to those pronouncements or challenge the authority of their leader.

Chairman Zhu is not the face of the Mandate. Some of the reasons are obvious: where Yermak is charismatic and conventionally handsome, Zhu is neither. His face and arms are covered in livid scars, and he constantly wears dark sunglasses to hide his eyes. When he speaks, it is quiet and rapid. Most who meet him find him polite but intense.

More pointedly, Zhu doesn’t want to be the face of the Sino-Siberian Mandate. He doesn’t want the Mandate to have a face at all: Zhu hates the “strong leader” cult of personality which caused so much chaos after the deaths of Trotsky and Mao. Zhu’s goal is to distribute power widely, so that any individual can be swiftly replaced to keep the government as a whole ticking like clockwork. Even more important to Zhu is making sure the common people of the Mandate feel that their voices are heard and that the government reflects their will.

Here's a new landscape piece still a work in progress; just missing some final touches and color change for the lightning.

Books progress

We have been receiving the last pieces of art for the books and working on the transitions for the images. We are getting closer to enter into manufacture in mid October. And we will let you know about the new add-ons by then. Stay tuned.

Thanks again for all your support and for sharing the enthusiasm for Eldritch Century. We will be back next Thursday with more art to share!

Transmission Thursday. The Davinci Academy
about 4 years ago – Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 03:24:25 AM

Welcome back, Agents

Today’s Transmission Thursday is quite the quick one, simply to remind you that our Discord server is still open to your feedback regarding the beta PDF reward we sent out a few weeks ago. We’ll take the opportunity to take a look at the crown jewel of the Renascent Hegemony, the Davinci Academy.

The Davinci Academy

The Academy comprises biofactories, research labs, simulated ecologies and living facilities designed to transform incidental biology into purposeful biotechnology. Its consortium of artists and scientists dedicates itself to developing the intellectual prowess of the Hegemony. Its facilities spread across the Andes and house students and adepts at various levels of psionic training, who have graduated from Renascent and Non-Renascent Schools. To maintain the integrity of the Hegemony’s Honors system, special staff administer a rigorous battery of psionic tests to verify the authenticity of citizens claiming to be Renascent.

Progress on the books

We’ve been taking big steps compiling even more fascinating artwork from some great artists out there. We plan to finish art commissions on September 30th and have one additional week to place the new art, prepare the files for prepress and begin manufacture afterwards! Your feedback has been wonderful in fixing a few spots that needed reconfiguring and we look forward to hearing more from you!

Remember, you can join our Discord server for quicker, more personal communication with us.

We will share a new piece of art during the next Transmission Thursday!

Transmission Thursday: Keeper of the Depths
about 4 years ago – Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 01:30:39 PM

Greetings, Agents

Welcome back to another Transmission Thursday. We hope everyone is keeping safe as the COVID situation evolves or devolves in your location. 

By now, we expected to have everything set up for the extra goodies you could get in Backerkit and help us with the extra costs of having 2 books instead of 1 but we are still expecting some final numbers and graphics... We didn't want to miss another Transmission Thursday though. 

Today we’ll talk about one of the rarest creatures of the fog: the Keeper of the Depths

Keeper of the Depths

This sea serpent has shattered the nerves of many Oceanic Community captains, particularly those of Maori ascendance, for they had heard stories of the protective monster Taniwha, but were terribly shortchanged. This is one of the few sea creatures known to have been affected by the Miasma, and there are no more than ten reported individuals in the known seas.

The keeper never shows itself to ships that enter the Miasma. It is theorized, instead, that it simply watches them, collecting sensory data on the new ship. It leaves the new vessels in peace, allowing them passage. It’s the return which terrifies sailors, for that’s when the creature attacks - to prevent ships from leaving the mist. Since so few keepers of the depths exist in the Wounded Earth, and their approach is always a surprise, the keeper has earned a special place in the nightmares of seafarers.

The keeper uses mixed tactics, seeking first to mislead ships, drawing them away from the edge of the fog. It can imitate voices and completely confuse the magnetic center of all compasses. If this fails (which is rare), the serpent shoots up from the sea and attempts to coil itself around the ship. A crew can defeat the creature if they’re fast enough, but even the most effective defense can render a ship horribly maimed and in dire need of repairs.

One of the things we enjoy the most is developing the projects we love along with our backers, many of you have contributed in different ways to make this universe richer and better, with direct feedback, ideas, insights... THANK YOU! We can't wait for you to have the books in your hands! Without any doubt, this product is as much yours as it is ours.

We’d really like to thank everyone who has been hitting us up with feedback for the beta version of the book. A special shout out to WanderingMystic and Vailen on Discord who have pointed out some great notes. We assure you that, while not everything may be reflected on the final product, everything is being discussed among the team.

We will be back in the next Transmission Thursday!

Transimission Thursday: Incoming rewards.
about 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 12:27:33 AM

Welcome back, agents

Time waits for no one, and we are no exception. We’re back with a new Transmission Thursday. This time, we’ll talk about our report on the Wounded Earth as a whole.

Core Rulebook PDF Beta preview

Once again, we want to thank you all for your support! We have placed all our heart in this project since the beginning but having 812 amazing Kickstarter backers who are passionate about seeing this project come to life, makes us very grateful and work harder (150%) to deliver you a fantastic experience.

As mentioned before, we ended up with almost 600 pages of content. We have decided to create 2 books (Rules & Lore) with around 300 pages each. Backers who pledged for the PDF or hardcover rule book will get 150% more than expected!

Development costs (writing, editing, art, graphic layout and project management) as well as manufacture and shipping costs increased for this project; of course, we are very aware this was our decision so it will not represent any setbacks in regards of backers' pledge and funds. This will only impact fulfillment timeline with delivery date being pushed back a couple of months (most of you let us know that you don't mind waiting a bit more for a better product!).

If you wish to help the project finances with a voluntary donation to compensate extra expenses, you will get more than our endless gratitude; we are preparing a couple of extra rewards in the pledge manager that you will be able to get as optional buys while helping us with the extra expenses. Some of them include more STL packs with characters from the other 3 factions and new monsters, another digital adventure, a GM screen, and slip case to hold all rewards from this Kickstarters (Both core books, starter, and GM screen). All of this will be ready during the next Transmission Thursday and we will provide the proper instructions within the next update, and again, this is completely voluntary, not obligatory.

But August is here and by now if we were only to fulfill 400 pages, digital fulfillment would have started, so we have decided to share a preview of the Core Rulebook! Backers in the $20 reward tier and higher of Eldritch Century: Chronicles of the Wounded Earth will be receiving a link to access the beta PDF shortly. This document showcases not only the world we’ve developed for you, but also an update on the layout progress.  

Bear in mind those blue empty spots with weird Spanish notes are for incoming artwork to make your experience of the Wounded Earth far richer. We are also working on the proper integration of images with the book so they don't feel too square.

This is also a great opportunity for everyone to help us proofreading or adding comments and notes. We would like to invite you to join to our Discord server to share screenshots, ask us any questions or just join the discussion! We encourage you to use it and let us know any issues and typos you may stumble upon while checking out the document. Feel free to use our discord to share your fan art, pictures, thoughts on the world and how escalators as a concept may be a conspiracy to your heart’s content.

Keep an eye open for a direct message that will be sent here on Kickstarter with the preview link! 

In the meantime, enjoy some of the latest artwork to fly into our inbox this week.

Transmission Thursday: The documentation workflow
over 4 years ago – Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 03:22:18 PM

Welcome back, agents

We hope things in your outposts are going well.

For today’s Transmission Thursday we’d like to give you a brief look at the image collection process expected from your adventures in the fog.

Behind the gates

The process begins when one of our current agents returns from the fog with new findings. We usually ask for a detailed description of whatever they found along with a sketch for a rough idea. The Owls look through the document and, together, they decide whether further investigation must be done.

Afterwards, the Agents return to the same location, or area if we’re talking monsters, and get a more detailed view of the creature. Once home, the scientists of Minerva take a look for discrepancies with the original description or may ask for more accuracy in certain spots of the document.

By the end, we have something like this.

The book

No news is good news in this situation. Our lore and layout teams have been working non-stop to get where we want to go. We’ve changed the way we’ll present lore chapters in the second book, which will make the experience more exhilarating.

 We are working on the last landscape arts for opening chapters in that size proportion.

Dragonbond: Battles of Valerna final hour

As you know, our other major universe is currently seeking funding for a first beta release on 3D printable files and mass playtesting prior to manufacturing. It has been an exciting ride and we are sure our team from LAIR (subsidiary company of Draco Studios) will handle fulfillment in a prompt way. 

5e Statblocks for the units of this project have been unlocked in case you are interested to incorporate them to your RPG campaigns. You can join here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lair3d/dragonbond-bov3d-wave1

In addition, if you are into 3D printing, the $45 reward tier will get you over 100 files to 3D print at home!

We hope to see you there!

We will be back next Thursday for a new Transmission!