The Thousand Arrows BackerKit preorder is now closed. You can still pre-order books via the GalileoGames.com website, or PDFs via DriveThruRPG.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Happy New Year friends!
It's been a busy holiday season, that we're emerging from and we’ve got a bunch of new cool stuff to share, including art previews, and the finished/downloadable Wind Chapter (limited time! link deactivates 1/17).
On to the content:
We’ve got spot art from Jabari Weathers:
Chapter art from Kurt Komoda:
We've also discovered a book of designs that is in the public domain, and originally produced in 1903 by artist Mori Yuzan, entitled "Hamonshu: A Japanese Book of Wave and Ripple Designs." The link appears to be down for some reason, but Archive.org has a recent snapshot. We think it's fitting that we try and use some of this beautiful decorative art in the book.
As a follow up to November’s update, Mendez has written some 1500 new words revising factions and allegiances and how they work at the table. I’ve had a chance to go through them, and make some quick edits and comments and I have to tell you — for me, this is one of the most exciting changes that is really a new feature of this game.
Factions are an optional subsystem for powerful forces that exist within your game world. Their allegiance sheets are now full-table-facing. This means that it’s not just something you pick at character creation, it’s more of an on-going influence in the game from both a player and GM perspective. You as Big Names have the ability to influence, enhance, and get assistance and moves from these factions. As long as you swear fealty...
These updates have been integrated into the Wind (game mastering) chapter, which is now available as a complete chapter preview here, accessible until 1/17. It’s not laid out into book form yet, so don't be surprised at the general formatting.
https://www.dropbox.com/transfer/AAAAAKJT7FdHzdr-ZBys673911BQ8YqaSBjT1aZNS29ew_OnCpHjdXU
If you'd like to share any feedback on the document, please do so via this form: https://forms.gle/qA21zF1fLxruxmye6
We've got another sprint into February plotted right now, and we're aiming to show off the Earth (Setting chapter by the end of February along with the incredible map of Japan that we've commissioned for this.
Talk to you then!
-Tim
Lots of stuff happening over the last month and a half since we last posted...
The biggest thing in the world of Kickstarter, is that the employees have asked to be voluntarily recognized as a union; that's went through some delays and now they're asking for an agreement of mutual neutrality in the lead-up to a vote. We're with the employees in this, and as consistent Kickstarter creators and backers, we want to see everyone involved get treated as fairly as possible. The place to look for the most current information is @ksr_united on twitter.
I’m dissatisfied with the way opposing forces work and I’d like to rework them. In most games Powered by the Apocalypse, the story and the player focus on one character and perhaps a team or base they head up, like Apocalypse World’s Chopper or Hardholder. But many Thousand Arrows characters hail from factions much bigger than them. A player draws on their faction for resources and backup, but may also clash with them.
Accordingly, I want the new allegiance sheets to face both player and GM. They’ll list each allegiance’s character, goals, bases, and personnel, but they’ll also advance and accumulate power and resources in the form of moves on which both players and GMs may draw. If you’ve played a game Forged in the Dark, they’ll remind you of crew or ship sheets. Allegiances gain experience like main characters, based on end-of-session questions about the allegiance’s progress toward its goals. That experience unlocks special moves which benefit both PCs and NPCs. PCs may access those moves by spending an advance on swearing fealty to an allegiance and writing in an attachment to them. You also don’t have to swear fealty to the allegiance with which you created your character! It wouldn’t be much of a samurai drama without sudden swings of alliance.
I mentioned back in Update #21 that we've run into sufficient planning hiccups that we are not comfortable with publishing schedule > delay > schedule > delay and would prefer to update you on a more milestone kind of basis.
Mendez' comments about the updates to the fronts (part of the Wind chapter) is reflective of why we've shifted towards that preference. This, I think, is especially a truism with PbtA games, because of the way the rules/moves/mechanics very intentionally fold the story back in on itself, rather than standalone rules that have you compare a number to a chart to determine success/failure. The latter are much more straightforward to test and math out. Each little piece interacts with so many other pieces that it's tough to plan the timing of building them out. The city-guide piece I wrote for Magpie's Dark Streets took months to write/edit/revise and it was only some 2500 words. But I think it came out great in the end.
As you've seen in the last update, we've got most of the art in and the last pieces are in revisions right now. I've been working on graphic design for the book and doing some test layouts to get the typography and styles ready so that as the words and art pieces get finished, they can be dropped into place immediately so that they're ready for production. And then there's editing. That's admittedly been a little bit of a bottleneck for us lately, but it hasn't created any stoppages, rather its slowing down the most showcase-able progress.
Has anyone run or played the adventure "Variations on the Death of Kukami Yoshitaka" from the Update #22? We're going to include that in the book as we think it’d be convenient if you were running it as a starter one-shot to be able to flip to the back and run something out of the book.
If you missed them, here are the links again to the adventure and the quickstart docs.
Thanks for tuning in, friends! We'll also be at Metatopia and PAX Unplugged in the next little while. Say Hi if you see us!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hello again friends!
Mendez, Brennan and I are on the long road out towards Indy, and ready to run a dozen games of Thousand Arrows. Thanks to Gen Con’s special advertising of indie games to check out, all of the sessions have completely sold out!
We’ll be based out of the IGDN booth #135, and the IGDN game room ICC 125 and 126. Plus, Mendez will be a part of the “Designing Asian Settings and Themes in Analog Games” panel, Friday 2pm-3:30pm in ICC 111/112.
Come visit, say hi, and pick up a Thousand Arrows bookmark!
Meanwhile, writing continues and we’re planning to have a finished Wind chapter to you at the end of August! We’re not announcing any other confirmed adjustments to the schedule right now, but rest assured we are continuing to move forward and we’ll be keeping you up to date on major milestones as we go.
Next steps: we’ve almost finished up the BackerKit page and are hoping to launch that mid-month. We’ll also be making the map available for pre-orders, in case you missed out on the Big Name level during the campaign. This is also when we’re going to collect shipping fees — as you might expect, we’re seeing some sticker-shock level prices, and are fishing around for better fulfillment deals.
Until next time, and maybe we’ll see you in Indy!
-Tim