I thought I would bring everyone up to date on where we are with fulfillment of Numenera Kickstarter rewards. It’s been a lot of work, but things are looking really quite good and I’m proud of the whole Monte Cook Games team for getting all this stuff delivered.
Products
It, of course, all started with the short story, The Amber Monolith, which was delivered before the Kickstarter even ended. Then there were the wallpapers created by artist Kieran Yanner, delivered almost a year ago now.
We then moved on to deliver with Tales From the Ninth World, a short fiction anthology that was promised as part of a stretch goal. Then came the free character sheets available on numenera.com.
One might say we moved into high gear with the delivery of the corebook and Player’s Guide pdfs at the beginning of August, as well as the screens, the XP and cypher decks, and the Nightmare Switch. Next came the physical rewards, which included all the print version of all the aforementioned PDF stuff plus dice and t-shirts. We had some trials and tribulations with these and many didn’t get shipped until almost three weeks after I had hoped they would, but even wonderfully faraway places like New Zealand and Italy backers are reporting finally getting their packages. Thank you for your patience.
We are excited that some of the shipping snafus have been cleared up and are happy to test them out with the next product going out to backers. This, of course, is the Devil’s Spine adventure. If you ordered any of the adventures via the Kickstarter, you will get a copy of the Devil’s Spine (which is a combined version of all three adventures mentioned in the Kickstarter campaign). And I’m happy to say that the vast majority of backers who are getting it–even international backers–should get both the ebook and print versions by October 16. It goes on sale in both formats generally on October 23.
Lastly, there’s all the licensed stuff. The app has been delivered in iOS and Android versions from 3 lb Games. Numenera Thunderstone from AEG is soon on its way. The vinyl screens from Hammerdog Games have been shipped, and the pdfs of the Fat Dragon terrain are all delivered.
Other Rewards
We can’t forget all the more ephemeral stuff that we offered as backer rewards. As I write this, I am on my way to the last of the three ULTIMATE RETAILER backers for their store visit. We are in the process of scheduling the online games for backers who got that reward. I met with the BUDDING GAME DESIGNER backer at GenCon–a super great guy with an interesting game idea–and had a good meeting.
I’m currently planning the various characters for backers who backed at the UNIQUE CHARACTER level. We recently sent out a questionnaire to those involved to get some feedback on what kind of character they want. My goal is to deliver those before the end of October, and hopefully well before that.
Backer contributed characters and creatures are all taken care of and appear in the corebook, or in the upcoming Devil’s Spine adventure or the Ninth World Bestiary.The game design seminars, and the behind-the-scenes peeks of course happened months ago.
Books for Educators and the Military
I’m happy to announce that on this coming Friday, we will be shipping 200 Numenera corebooks to Operation Gratitude, a service that puts goods and donations in the hands of servicemen and women who need or want it via care packages.
Also, to help us get all this done, we’ve hired a new part time assistant, Stacey. One of the first things we’re having Stacey do is go through all the requests from educators and librarians. She’s sifting through these and verifying them. When she’s done, we’ll be sending out 300 corebooks to these amazing folks as well to use Numenera in schools or make it available in libraries.
What’s Left
That basically leaves us with just the aforementioned Devil’s Spine adventure (going to backers in just the next couple weeks), the Ninth World Bestiary, and the Creature Deck ( both planned to ship to backers in January), Sir Arthour’s Compendium (which backers can expect in May), and lastly the Ninth World Guidebook (which backers should look for in August).
But wait, wasn’t there supposed to be a piece of music and a movie to go with Numenera? Yes. And I haven’t forgotten either one. But I haven’t really focused on either, because making a great game was my first priority. I’m happy to say that I’m talking to a composer for the musical theme right now, and there have been some initial talks about a short film with some folks. I am still entertaining proposals from interested parties regarding the film, however–just putting that out there if you might be such a person (or might know such a person).
So Is that It?
That might be the end of the Numenera Kickstarter, but it’s in no way the end of Numenera. First of all, there are the Glimmers, ebook-only releases that will continue to expand and support the game. The first of these, Vortex, is already available, and the next will be out later this month–and very appropriate for the season!
There’s also going to be a Torment Sourcebook describing and detailing the locations, creatures, and characters created specifically for Torment: Tides of Numenera that will come out concurrent with the computer game. Even before that, next year, there will very likely be at least two additional Numenera print products that we’ll release to support the game and the Ninth World setting.
Plus, there’s Reaper minis that will be available from their website soon, dice from Q-Workshop, and more cool surprises.
The Kickstarter was only the beginning, but it set everything in motion. We couldn’t have done it without the support of all our backers. I’m extremely pleased that we can reward your faith in us with all this cool stuff.
