Spring Break! Woo! and other news
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 01:01:21 AM

Dear Backers, 

Thank you all for being so patient with us as we finish this book.  We've had some serious delays, but I think we're getting back on track.  We just got a packet of terrific art (thanks, Reed!), and chapters are once again moving through the layout process (thanks, Jason!).  

The silver lining is that these delays have given us more time for editing (thanks, Greg Israel!), design, and playtesting, resulting in major improvements to some key game mechanics that I think you all will really enjoy.

Unfortunately, school and daycare have shut down for quarantine (thanks, COVID-19!).  Much as I appreciate an extra-long spring break, as a stay-at-home-dad with four small children, this puts some serious strain on my work time.  (For example, I started writing this update more than a week ago.)  But I'm working on ways to work around these limitations, including recruiting other people to help out wherever possible.  

Long story short, we are still trying our hardest to get this book wrapped up and in your hands (at least in PDF form) in April, which was the estimate in our last update.  But it may be later.   I'm very sorry that this is taking so long.  Please know that I am doing everything I can.  

One last bit of good news I want to leave you with. The delays of recent months have given me time to write some microfictions that will be included in the book.  Each of the Trait chapters now starts with a one-page story that goes with the Iconic Mage illustration.  Here is one example...

ALCHEMIST

Sealight Waterfall peered into the flask, holding herself as still as a rooted oak so as not to disturb the Potion of Presence. There was an image in the smoky liquid– tall marble pillars, flickering flames, a bear in a top hat– and as long as the potion remained settled, the image was clear. 

“Steady, Lady. Steady,” Sealight murmured. Meat folk were always so impetuous. 

A hundred yards away, her Lady, the Baroness Miyuki was standing in the room with the pillars, in a clandestine meeting with two of the most dangerous mages in the city. Maybe on the whole island.  Alone.

Naturally, the Baroness wanted backup, which was why Sealight was waiting discreetly in a nearby garden. Having dipped her Lady’s silver wuxing pendant in the Potion of Presence, she could see, hear, and even smell everything happening at the meeting as if she were actually hanging from her Lady’s neck. 

An impossibility, of course, since Sealight’s arms were longer than the Lady was tall.  Although, she had heard tell of a shrinking Elixir, which– She set the distracting thought aside. The Lady needed her full attention right now.  

In the flask, the bear in the top hat lifted a paw in warning.  “Do not fail,” he said. Then the image swirled and fouled as a bold green kitsutsuki landed on Sealight’s hand and pecked at her bark, disturbing the potion. 

“Shoo.”  She pointed at the juniper in the opposite corner of the garden. “Go peck on him. He’s got ants.  He’d love it.”  

The little bird flew off, and the liquid in the potion slowly began to calm. Unfortunately, the bear had gone, and the conversation appeared to be over.  All Sealight could see were marble pillars, rushing past in parallel lines on either side.  

The Baroness must be running, she thought.  And even though she hadn’t heard any order to come, Sealight decided that if her Lady was running, she had better run and join her.  

Putting a stopper in the flask, she turned to leave the garden, only to see four kitsune, swords drawn and bushy orange tails swishing behind them. From their armor and livery, they were Dōshin, the Emperor’s police. Sealight felt her sap run cold. More bad luck.

“Alchemy,” said one, his muzzle opening in a foxy grin.  “Black magic. Forbidden. I hate to think what this could mean for you– and your house, of course. But maybe if you were to make a donation to the Dōshin widows and orphans fund, that bottle of yours would turn out to be nothing but ordinary water.” 

This set the lot of them off into yips of ugly laughter.   

“But it is ordinary water.  See?”  Sealight tossed it to them.  And in the moment that all eyes were drawn to the flask flying through the air, she pulled out three more flasks. And threw them, too.  

“These, on the other hand.”  She laughed.  “These are alchemical flame bombs.”  

A lot of people thought that Treefolk had an irrational aversion to fire.  Because they burn.  But as she stepped over the smoking bodies of the four Dōshin on her way out the garden, Sealight mused that meat folk burn, too, when things get hot enough. Which they did, sometimes.

Especially when people got between her and her Lady.

Year-end update
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jan 01, 2020 at 02:12:58 AM

Happy New Year, everybody!

Our original goal for the Micronomicon was to ship in December, and unfortunately we are not going to make it, for which I apologize.  Although this delay is partly for reasons out of our control (still waiting on some art, etc.), mostly it's been me.  In hindsight, my timeline was too aggressive and didn't have enough slack built in.  And then life happened, as it does.  (Literally.  We had a baby three weeks ago.) 

The good thing is that the book is coming together nicely.  It's going to be beautiful.  All of Nic's art is getting upgraded from Black & White to Grayscale, and the chapters that have come through layout look very slick and professional. It's also going to be big. Right now we're estimating 70-75,000 words, which means something like 250-300 pages, including 21 new and unique microsettings.  

In fact, in the last few weeks, we've added one more: The Land of Broken Roads, by Ryan English.  

Rocks fall, everyone dies? Don't rip up those character sheets just yet! Instead, let them be reborn in a new world, one that needs their advanced talents. The age of Mankind is nearly at an end. Only the greatest heroes can save humanity from extinction, and the gods are willing to give you one more chance. Come, live again, and fight anew!

To help us get all this awesomeness wrapped up and delivered to you as soon as possible, I have hired Greg Israel of Blue Oxrat Games to help edit the book. He's already working on edits, getting text finalized and chapters pushed through the pipeline.  Thanks, Greg!

Now the question I expect you all to have at this point is when exactly you will have this amazing book in your hot little hands.  Having blown one deadline already, I am hesitant to be as optimistic as I feel.  So I am just going to be conservative and say April.  

Again, I'm sorry that this project is moving so slowly, and I appreciate your continued patience, as well as all the supportive emails and comments (here and elsewhere).  You people are amazing.  Thank you all for partnering with me to bring this work to life.

Poll results + Tiny D6 MEGA-BUNDLE
over 4 years ago – Thu, Dec 05, 2019 at 03:33:03 PM

Greetings, all!  The book continues to progress, and I will have a full update in the next week or so with more detail.  But for now there are just two quick things I want to mention.

First, I forgot to tell you all how our last Backers' Choice poll came out.  The winner, with 43% of the vote, was the country-fried fantasy THE CROSSROADS.

When the moon is new, head out to the Crossroads. Stop by the smokehouse, have some ribs, and put a few quarters into the old jukebox. But be gone before The Crows ride in. Rough bunch of gals. Church'll be closed, but you might could catch Pastor Lucky there-- or he might catch you.  Take a stroll down by Sender Creek and you’ll find Miss Judy selling wondrous restoratives and cure-alls. Whatever you need, she has it. For a  price, of course. Nice place, the Crossroads. Good honest folk. Stay a while, won't you?

Thank you all for participating in the poll, and for making this one our last backers' choice.  I love all three of the settings that were in that poll, but this one was a special favorite of mine, something I've been working on for almost two years. I've already written it up, had it reviewed by beta readers, and put it in to layout.  It was just a blast to write, and I hope you all have fun playing it.

Now, moving on to the second thing I wanted to talk to you all about.  Right now you can pick up a mega-bundle with PDFs for every single Tiny D6 product on the market, at a holiday discount of almost 90% off!  

Plus, the best part is that DriveThruRPG automatically drops the price for each thing you already own.  For me, the bundle cost less than $10, since I already have almost all of these books.

So, if you've been wanting to round out your collection, I don't think you will ever get a better chance, or see a better price.  This deal is a limited time only, so don't sleep on it.

--JDP

(Full disclosure: Because my very own Deep Dive adventure is included in this thing, I do get a little royalty for every bundle sold.  Which means I have about 22 cents worth of bias.  Just want to play it straight with you all.)

Giving thanks
over 4 years ago – Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 08:50:55 PM

Greetings, all!  My warmest Thanksgiving wishes to those of you in the US.  (And everybody else, I hope you will have a super awesome Thursday tomorrow.) In this season, I like to think about how hashtag-blessed I am and to try to live with a little more gratitude.  So let me start by saying how thankful I am for all you, for your support for this project and also for your patience.

On that note, here's a quick update on how we're doing.  On the art front, we have almost all our big pieces done, with just a few still outstanding.  As a matter of fact, I just got four more finished Iconic Mage illustrations in from Nic and they are gorgeous.  

I really love these, especially the Spell-Touched Gaucho with his bolas of fire.  And that foxy Fey Shaman.  And the friendly neighborhood Lizardfolk Spell Reader.  And that badass Psionic Panda.  Man, I love them all. 

Dang.  This book is going to be so beautiful.  

Quick plug, by the way.  If you want to own one of these, as in hang the one and only signed original on your wall, two of these four (both Karhu) are still available (along with about a half-dozen others).  To make one of these your own, go to the add-on page on BackerKit and select Signed Original Artworks.  Then email or message me to tell me which one you want, and whether you want it in black & white or full color.  It's first come, first served, so jump in and snag your favorite before it's too late.  

Speaking of limited time offers, this Saturday (11/30) is the last day for three of our add-ons: Your Face in the Book, Your Character in the Book, and Fund a New Microsetting.  We're getting into layout now (more on this in a minute) and need to lock down both text and illustrations.  In fact, I probably should have closed these down already, but I didn't want to do so without letting you all know that the blinking red LED timer is counting down to zero.  So if you want to slide something in at the last second, this is your chance.  

So, as I mentioned, we are going into layout.  Actually, we've gone into layout-- we're doing it on a rolling basis as chapters come out of edits.  And there are a lot of chapters.  The Micronomicon will have at least twelve chapters on magical Traits, and at least twenty magical microsettings. Hard to say for sure before layout is done, but my best guess at this point is that the book will be 250-300 pages.  (Just think how big it would be if this wasn't for a minimalist game!)  

The bad news in all of this is that we're almost to December and we're still not done with layout, which means it's unlikely you'll have a book in your hands in time for Christmas. But everyone on the team is working as fast as they can, and I will do everything I can to get the Micronomicon to you as fast as is humanly possible.  

My apologies to you for the delays, which are largely my fault.  This is my first Kickstarter, so it's been a real learning experience, and one of the things I have learned is to build a lot more cushion into my calendar.  (To those of you who told me so-- you were right!)

Again, my deepest thanks to all of you for your support and your patience.  Working on this project has been just an amazing experience for me, and I love how it's coming together.  It's going to be an incredible book, and I can't wait to be able to share it with you. 

--JDP

______________________

Micronomicon Production Report

Writing

• Foreword: Complete.
• Rules: 80-90% done. (Might add another chapter.)
• Stretch Goal Writing: In progress.  19/20  initial drafts complete.
• Indices: Waiting on text.

Art Team

• Iconic Mages: 9 complete, 4 more in progress.
• Setting Illustrations: 19 complete, 1 more in progress.
• Custom Setting Illustrations: 3 complete, 1 more in progress.
• Spot art: Acquired, mostly sorted out.

BackerKit

• Pre-Order Store: Live and taking preorders.
• Backer Surveys: 96% complete.

MicronomiCards

•  Game Design: 7 new card games in design and testing.
•  Text for Cards: Initial spell selection in process.
•  Art and Layout: Initial templates complete.  Initial layout complete for card backs and 5/55 card fronts.

Publishing

•  Editing: Editing mostly complete for Part I.  Editing in process for Part II.
•  Layout: In process.
•  Review: Waiting for editing and layout.
•  File conversion: Waiting for review.
•  Proofing: Waiting for proofs.

Backers Choice IV poll!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 07:53:35 PM

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