Coyote & Crow Games
CREATOR
12 months ago
Project Update: Stories of the Free Lands Has Been Delivered!
The day has finally arrived. You should all be receiving an email notice soon that Stories of the Free Lands Volumes 1 and 2 have been delivered.
In each of the two zipped folders I just sent out links to, you'll find five playable PDF Stories, along with the bonus cover art, the art from our fan art contest, and a bonus motion graphic from artists Seth Rutledge.
I owe some thanks. Obviously to all of the writers and artists who contributed to Stories of the Free Lands. But also a big thank you to Rachel Savicki and Francita Soto. Francita did the layouts and she was so gracious about taking direction over a period of time that was so far out from our original estimates. And Rachel was originally hired to just be a copy editor. But when we had to change up our original project lead, she stepped in and developed the HECK out of these Stories.
For everyone involved, this was supposed to be a small scale, yet unusual challenge. After all, most artists were only contributing one stories worth of pieces, each writer only had to put together around 5000 words each. When I set this project in motion, we were originally planning on these releasing at the same time as the Coyote & Crow RPG was supposed to be hitting retail shelves.
But writing for even an RPG with an established history can be a challenge and the uncomfortable truth was that none of us, even me, had extensive experience writing or playing Coyote & Crow. We were all green when it came to the nuances of what makes a good playable Story in Coyote & Crow.
And now, here we are. Volume 1 & 2 are done. Let me be a little open with you here. This project nearly broke me, nearly broke my spirit. The damage that that our previous project lead and our event coordinator caused wasn't just financial, or just time. It was an emotional whiplash that really sapped me for quite a long time. The delays in putting this project together were just an endless string of paper cuts between my fingers. No one thing that would have stopped me, but in total, there were so many that I almost couldn't continue.
Yet, there were some things that helped me keep moving forward and I want to mention them here.
In each of the two zipped folders I just sent out links to, you'll find five playable PDF Stories, along with the bonus cover art, the art from our fan art contest, and a bonus motion graphic from artists Seth Rutledge.
I owe some thanks. Obviously to all of the writers and artists who contributed to Stories of the Free Lands. But also a big thank you to Rachel Savicki and Francita Soto. Francita did the layouts and she was so gracious about taking direction over a period of time that was so far out from our original estimates. And Rachel was originally hired to just be a copy editor. But when we had to change up our original project lead, she stepped in and developed the HECK out of these Stories.
For everyone involved, this was supposed to be a small scale, yet unusual challenge. After all, most artists were only contributing one stories worth of pieces, each writer only had to put together around 5000 words each. When I set this project in motion, we were originally planning on these releasing at the same time as the Coyote & Crow RPG was supposed to be hitting retail shelves.
But writing for even an RPG with an established history can be a challenge and the uncomfortable truth was that none of us, even me, had extensive experience writing or playing Coyote & Crow. We were all green when it came to the nuances of what makes a good playable Story in Coyote & Crow.
And now, here we are. Volume 1 & 2 are done. Let me be a little open with you here. This project nearly broke me, nearly broke my spirit. The damage that that our previous project lead and our event coordinator caused wasn't just financial, or just time. It was an emotional whiplash that really sapped me for quite a long time. The delays in putting this project together were just an endless string of paper cuts between my fingers. No one thing that would have stopped me, but in total, there were so many that I almost couldn't continue.
Yet, there were some things that helped me keep moving forward and I want to mention them here.
- The amazing fans on our Discord
- The progress we've made with our new tabletop game, Wolves
- The tireless work from Francita and Rachel
- The incredible time I had at Indigipop X and getting to be around so many funny, kind, creative Natives
- Getting nominated for a Nebula Award and winning TWO Tabletop Awards
- Starting work on the next Coyote & Crow book
Along with a slew of slowly evolving positive things in my personal life.
So yeah, we made it! And now that you have them, I'm so excited for you all to start playing them. For all of the writers and artists of these stories to get the accolades they deserve. I hope you like them. They're funny, and scary, and exciting, and intriguing, and sweet. There's a wealth of Indigenous knowledge in these stories - often hidden between the lines. I hope you absorb it, without even knowing you have. I hope these Stories launch or grow your Coyote & Crow Sagas and that they help you start writing your own Stories.
So yeah, we made it! And now that you have them, I'm so excited for you all to start playing them. For all of the writers and artists of these stories to get the accolades they deserve. I hope you like them. They're funny, and scary, and exciting, and intriguing, and sweet. There's a wealth of Indigenous knowledge in these stories - often hidden between the lines. I hope you absorb it, without even knowing you have. I hope these Stories launch or grow your Coyote & Crow Sagas and that they help you start writing your own Stories.
But we're not done!
Coming soon, we'll have another Story for you from Allen Turner featuring art from Tate Allen. That should be arriving in your in boxes in just a few weeks.
And Wolves, our new board game, is going to be coming to Kickstarter in just a couple of months! I'm really proud of this game and what we're bringing to tabletop.
There's more as well. Partnerships we'll be announcing in the coming weeks and months, new merch, another game, organized play - so much! The takeaway is that the future is looking bright for Coyote & Crow. Your support of Stories of the Free Lands helped make that possible.
Wado/Thank you
Connor Alexander
And Wolves, our new board game, is going to be coming to Kickstarter in just a couple of months! I'm really proud of this game and what we're bringing to tabletop.
There's more as well. Partnerships we'll be announcing in the coming weeks and months, new merch, another game, organized play - so much! The takeaway is that the future is looking bright for Coyote & Crow. Your support of Stories of the Free Lands helped make that possible.
Wado/Thank you
Connor Alexander
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