Skybourne Races
almost 11 years ago – Tue, Apr 07, 2015 at 12:07:43 AM

Some of you have asked to see a picture of the most recent delay. I present him below, so that you may know who is responsible for these events.

 Luckily, he's a little over a month old now, and things are starting to settle down. We're working out a schedule, and life and Skybourne are up and running again.

Skybourne Races

After looking at the comments on the previous update and the number of people who asked for a flying race, I've realize that there are some things about races that I don't think we went over in enough detail that could possibly change the way people vote.

In classic Pathfinder, all race come with only land speeds, which makes sense as most adventures either take place on the land or under it in caves and dungeons. You don't even find a swim speed until you've reached a handful of the uncommon/expanded races, and the closest thing there is to a racial fly speed is a two-feat racial feat tree for the sylphs. As a design move, it makes sense; if the PCs can fly right from 1st level, it can cause all sorts of balance issues with early challenges like wolves and bears that have no means of attacking a flying PC.

In Skybourne, however, with airships and dragon-riders around every corner, a lot of those assumptions change. The PCs could (but not necessarily always will) be flying about from the get-go, and flying races become much less of a game-changer. That being said, Skybourne is not 'just' airships, and a GM starting his people off before they've earned their first ship could still find herself straining to handle a PC that never has to get within a hundred feet of his opponent.

What we planned to do when we were first outlining Ships of Skybourne was to include two flying beast races in that book; that way people could bring in flying races if they wanted to without a GM getting rules lawyer-ed into requiring them because they're 'in the Player's Guide'.

However, since this is something that affects your books, we thought we'd ask you about it. Do you want flying races in 'Ships of Skybourne' as opposed to the Player's Guide? Do you want us to keep races out of that book and save the page-space for more ship options? Do you just love races and want us to put flying races everywhere?

Follow this link and let us know what you think.

Thanks,
Adam

Backerkit Closing, Race Survey 2.0!
about 11 years ago – Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 12:14:02 PM

The baby's born, life is settling, and work is resuming. As we get back on track to bring you Skybourne, there's a few pieces of information that we wanted to pass along to you, as both require action on your part.

Backer Kit

While most of you have locked in your information with Backerkit, there are still 69 backers who have yet to fill out their information. Remember, while you can always update your information later on, we do need to know those final numbers before we can begin fulfillment (especially with things like the Spheres of Power PDF which are available now), so the sooner everyone fills out their information, the sooner we can start getting things to you.

The Second Race Survey

Back during the kickstarter campaign when we hit our first stretch goal for new races, we held a survey to see which races people wanted to see. While some of those races chosen have already moved into development, the number of backers more than doubled since we did that survey, meaning the majority of you didn't get to make your voices heard on that subject. With another race stretch goal having been reached, it's time we did that survey again. If there's an idea for a new races that you've always wanted to see, or something that Skybourne has given birth to in your mind, post it in the comments and it might end up on the survey!

Worthy Kickstarters

Graham Ward is a friend of mine, a great GM, and he's just launched a kickstarter for his own campaign setting. If weird horror is your thing, you want more support for 5th edition, or you just want to see some cool stuff, come give Darkplane a look.

Backerkit Live
about 11 years ago – Thu, Mar 05, 2015 at 04:32:04 PM

If everything has gone right on our end, you should have gotten your backerkit invite a few moments ago.

With backerkit, you can determine your add-ons, upgrade your pledge, and get us all of the relevant information you need so we can start getting your rewards to you.

Lock-in Date

We have set the lock-in date as March 31st, which means that you will need to input your information by that time. 

While books will not begin shipping at that time, it will allow us to begin sending add-ons (such as Spheres of Power PDFs, etc.) out to people immediately, and we can then send out other rewards (such as the Skybourne books) as they become available, without worrying about fluctuating numbers.

Thank you everyone, we can't wait to get this project rolling!

Adam

Baby Drama
about 11 years ago – Wed, Mar 04, 2015 at 07:01:56 PM

I was hoping to have backerkit set up by now, but my wife went into labor over a week ago, and the baby wasn't born until today (Gabriel John, 11 lbs. 9.1 oz. if you wanted to know! :D ) Backerkit should be set up by the end of the week, I apologize for the delay.

$37,259!
about 11 years ago – Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 12:20:19 AM

And with that, the Skybourne kickstarter has come to a close, coming in at a whopping $37,259 and 555 backers!

Thank you all so much! It's because of you, our backers, that Skybourne has grown to become what it is, and we can't thank you enough for that!

Moving Forward

Now that the campaign is over, it's time for us to move on to the next phase. Here's a small break down of what to expect from us next:

1. Finalization

Kickstarter has recently moved to a new collection service, and I don't really know how that will affect the collection of pledges. In the old days it could take up to two weeks for all payments to be finalized, and I'm expecting it to still take that long for everything to get sorted. Even if it doesn't, my wife is expecting to go into labor any day now (which isn't related to the campaign, but it certainly affects me) so expect a bit of radio silence from us as the logistics get sorted.

2. Backerkit

Once things have settled themselves, we'll be sending out invitations through backerkit, where you can finalize your reward levels, make alterations if desired, set add-ons, and determine your shipping address. Backerkit is a good service used by many kickstarter campaigns, and allows you to update your information in real-time in case anyone moves or otherwise needs to make alterations.

3. Updates

In previous campaigns we've used a backer's website to allow kickstarter supporters access to mechanics as they've been developed. While we won't be using a private site for this campaign, we will be using the forum at www.dropdeadstudios.com to host discussions about the books, using backerkit to send out surveys, and posting updates here to send out playtesting information and generally show you what we've been up to. There are a lot of things about the books that we want to hear your opinion on, and we'll be using those surveys and forum discussions to keep us informed on what you want to see from our books. This will be especially true of those backers at the Adventurer level and above, who we'll be regularly contacting to gather opinions, hear pitches, and work together with to shape both these four books and our further development in the Skybourne line.

Thank You!

I know I say it a lot, but I need to say it one more time; thank you so much for helping us make this a reality. You've given us your trust, and now it's our turn to give you a product we can be proud of.

Thank you all,

Adam