Ahoy, all!

I hope that your holidays treated you well and that 2017 is off to a great start!

While we’ve had a few hiccups that have interrupted production–some torn chest cartilage, the untimely death of one of our cats, a busted dishwasher, and a bout with norovirus–we’re still chugging away to ensure that CSW: Rogues Gallery will be the phenomenal book that you deserve.

First off, the best news:  text editing is done.  Christine, Jeff, and Lauren did a phenomenal job on the text, and it’s leaps and bounds better.  Secondly, we have about 80% of the art in.  I’m still waiting on a series of pieces, but I have no doubts that these will be arriving soon.

My original hope was to have all of these items in hand by the end of December; obviously, this puts us slightly behind that original target date.  Interpret that how you will; it’s still my intent to have pdf copies out this summer, with hard copies to follow.  I heartily apologize if that leads to an actual delay, but I want to ensure that I’m proud of the book that arrives in your hands.  Your patience is surely appreciated!

Conventions and Upcoming Appearances:

With the spring approaching, that means conventions!  Andy’s busy assembling his spring and summer convention schedule, which will include the following:

• Saturday, February 10: DayCon Game Day (Fairborn, OH)
• Tuesday, February 28: RPG Demo Night at The Rook OTR (Cincinnati, OH)
• Friday, March 3-Sunday, March 5: CincyCon (Hamilton, OH) (Only Saturday, March 4)
• Saturday, March 11: UDCon (University of Dayton, Dayton, OH)
  • Andy will be the keynote speaker at the convention, in addition to running games!
• Saturday, March 25: WittCon XIV (Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH)
• Friday, April 28: GeekFest at the Boonshoft (Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, Dayton, OH)
• Tuesday, June 13 – Sunday, June 19: Origins Game Fair (Columbus, OH)
• Friday, October 8 – Sunday, October 10: CinCityCon (Cincinnati, OH)
• Friday, November 10th – Sunday, November 12: AcadeCon (Dayton Convention Center, Dayton, OH)
  • Dates for AcadeCon are subject to change.

 

Note that, unfortunately, we will not be attending GenCon this year.  The reasons for this are twofold:  GenCon is becoming increasingly prohibitively expensive, especially for a small design company.  While we have endeavored to cut down costs–we’ve always stayed outside of downtown Indianapolis to reduce hotel costs–the expenditure for GenCon is always the highest of our convention season.  

Further, a dear friend of ours is getting married in late August.  Her wedding is in Minneapolis, so we’re taking the road trip up to see her off into married life.  Because of the time-proximity to GenCon, we elected to go to the wedding rather than the convention.  Ideally, we will return to GenCon in years to come.

But how about those convention scenarios?  What will we be playing this year?  Take a look!

CSW:  Darkness on the Edge of Town (4 hour investigation)

— “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.  But maybe everything that dies someday comes back…”

CSW:  Bad Trip (2 hour demo)

— Overdose deaths among New Corinth’s homeless lead to a harrowing realization.

De Civitates Dei:  Ghosts of Ma’ara (4 hour alpha playtest)

— Wrest an ancient relic from the clutches of an evil lurking within a ruined Crusader fortress.

In addition, at WittCon and several other events, Andy will be showing off board game prototypes of Dwarven Defenders, Steel Drivin’ Man, and a few other designs that he’s been kicking about!

Art Previews:

Lastly, let’s take a look at some of that gorgeous art filtering in from our artists!