Two New Cards Unlocked and Gary Con!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 05, 2019 at 06:40:26 PM

You guys are crushing the stretch goals! With a combination of new backers and people updating their pledges for the new Commoners deck, we have added two new cards to that deck and will unlock the third one soon.

Following that, we have a couple more stretch goals.

When the $20k goal is reached, we will create a PDF containing blank Dossier Deck style note cards that you can print, cut, and tuck into your 9-pocket card sheets alongside your cards. These will come in a variety of designs and be great for keeping track of additional information that my be needed as an NPC becomes part of your game. This level will also unlock a pay bump for our writing team (currently the singular Lars White with some assistance from SKG's own Ed Bourelle) and help to reward the hard work and success of this campaign.

Starting at $22k we will be able to begin contracting more art instead of relying on our library of licensed artwork and Ed's illustrations to get it all done. This will help expedite the Dossier Decks across the finish line and be used to add diversity in the sets. We are talking to a few artists right now and will keep everyone posted in future updates (probably after the campaign wraps up).

SkeletonKey Games at GaryCon 2020

We are excited to announce that we will be exhibiting at GaryCon 2020 alongside many other great game companies and a who's-who of RPG industry professionals. If you're in the area, come by and see us. We hope to have Dossier Decks by then (Backers first though!) and will have our full Arcane Scrollworks line along with some new goodies.

It is exciting times!

Thanks for the amazing support and don't forget to upgrade your pledge if you want the Commoners deck.

Cheers - Ed

Dossier Deck: Commoners added to the campaign!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 04, 2019 at 09:51:14 PM

Thank you backers! Your support has made this campaign successful enough that we can create a fourth deck. And thanks to your feedback, that deck will be Commoners.

This deck is now available as one of your selections in the pledge manager and we have created a new pledge level - Dossier Deck Quartet - that you can upgrade to if you want all four decks.

Want more than four decks? If you want additional copies of decks, you can increase your pledge by $14 per deck and select them in the pledge manager after the campaign. Later tonight or early tomorrow I will update he main page with all this information.

Next Stretch Goals -

The next stretch goals will add additional cards to the Commoners deck and should be pretty easy to achieve over the next couple days, especially if everyone is adding the new deck to their pledges.

I'm thrilled with the success of this campaign so far and already working hard on the completion of the decks. I'll be polishing up the main campaign page later tonight and early tomorrow with all the new info and imagery as we push into the final week. We have a ton of people following this campaign and I'm quite excited to see how it all turns out.

I'm off for my weekly miniatures game night. This week is some Age of Sigmar and Rangers of Shadowdeep. Wish me luck.

Cheers - Ed Bourelle

Cardstock Upgrade Unlocked!
over 4 years ago – Sun, Sep 01, 2019 at 09:16:04 PM

Congratulations all! 

Thanks to your support we have just unlocked a paper upgrade to all decks (including the Commoners add-on deck we will assuredly be unlocking next). Each deck will be printed on 300gsm blue core playing card stock (or black core depending on final printer selection). And moving forward with this product line we will match whatever stock we use on this run so you can shuffle all your decks together to make some truly diverse NPCs.

As I type this we are about $1,500 away from unlocking the Commoners add-on deck which we will then be trying to upgrade from 48 cards to 51 with the next three goals.

I hope to be back in the next few days with the news that we have unlocked the Commoners deck. I'm sure it won't take too long!

Before I go, I have a question for you -

Do you like Potions?

Because if you do, I have some friends running Kickstarters now that you might want to take a look at.

The first is from my good friend Philip Reed who is a longtime friend and creative collaborator. This time around he is creating The Book of Unusual Potions. There are even some hardcovers left if you act now.

And if you need an exciting and functional potion prop for your game, you can't go wrong with The Magical Draught of Happenstance from Noble Dwarf Printing. Think Magic 8-Ball in a potion bottle.

Thank you again (continuously and forever) for all the support!

Back soon!

- Ed Bourelle

Orcs & Goblins, New Stretch Goals, and More.
over 4 years ago – Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 03:05:40 PM

Hello everyone and thanks for your patience on this update. It's been one of those slow start morning.

I've collected a lot of feedback from you over the past few days and this update is about where we have landed based on that feedback.

The Goblins Deck is Now The Orcs & Goblins Deck

The feedback was almost entirely in favor of changing the content of this deck slightly. Off hand I would say the Appearance Card split will look something like 5 orcs, 2 half-orcs, 6 goblins, 2 hobgoblins,and 2 bugbears. This will give the deck a lot more utility and I'm excited to make the adjustments.

Stretch Goal Unlocked and New Goal Added

We have unlocked an additional Story Hook card for the Orcs & Goblins deck, bringing all three current decks up to 51 cards of NPC building goodness. That's more than 22,000 new combinations added to the previous three-deck-total of 110,592.

And we are less than $4,000 from unlocking the backer infulenced Dossier Deck: Commoners add-on.

When I asked what our next deck should be we got a ton of input. Most people wanted townsfolk, tavern patrons, or peasants of some sort and Dossier Deck: Commoners will cover all of that! Once this goal unlocks, backers will be able to add this deck to their pledge for an additional cost. 

Thank you all for the input, it is invaluable.

Cheers and see you soon - Ed

Let's talk Goblins.
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 09:49:35 PM

Hello everyone,

Things are chugging along, but before I get to stretch goals and such let's talk about the Goblin deck.

But I Don't Need Many Goblins

I've gotten a few messages and comments about the usefulness of the Goblins deck, being that they aren't as common as other types of NPCs. And that's a fair point. If you look at the breakdown of the deck itself, with stretch goals, we will have 17 each of Appearance, Traits, and Story Hook cards. Even if you don't use the Goblin Appearance cards, the Traits and Story Hook cards are still compatible with the Merchants and Mages decks and will make for some very interesting NPCs.

However, we also understand that this still means there is about one third of the deck that you might not get much mileage out of and we have a possible solution -

What if we switch the Goblins deck to Orcs & Goblins? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

We are at a very safe point in the process to make this change, as we have not procured all the art or writing for the deck. 72% of our current backers have pledged for all three decks and even if you are satisfied with just Goblins, we want to know if Orcs & Goblins is something you are more interested in. The primary change would be an approximate 50/50 split in the Appearance cards between Orcs (including a couple of Half-Orcs) and Goblinoids.

Finally, let's take a look at stretch goals. We are about to unlock the final additional card, a Story Hook card, for the Goblins deck. Once we have the decks expanded out to 51 cards each we will be upgrading the paper stock. We have a number of quotes in from our printers and reaching $14,000 will allow us to guarantee 300gsm blue core cardstock for these decks (slightly heavier than what we currently have quoted at 270gsm). This will give the cards a truly high-end feel.

Thanks for the amazing support and we will be back soon!

Cheers - Ed Bourelle