Hello backers!
We're excited to announce that the pledge manager smoke test went live today!
The smoke test a trial period where we send reward surveys to roughly 5% of backer...
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Peter Chiykowski
about 1 month ago
What's next? Pledge manager and more livestreams!
Hello backers!
We're checking in to outline the next steps for the campaign, and to say thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit us at Gen Con last weekend!
We got the ch...
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The Story Engine
2 months ago
Thank you!
A huge thank you to all 3741 of the writers, artists, storytellers, and creatives that backed our campaign! We funded at 675% of our initial goal with a total of $506,282 and un...
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The Story Engine
2 months ago
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ⚔️ Draw swords at 9pm ET for our Wrap Party Livestream!
Today is the last day of the Lore Master’s Deck campaign!
Here are the headlines!
• Join us for tonight's wrap party livestream at 9pm ET featuring Deck of Worlds giveaway, liv...
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Miroki
2 months ago
The choo-choo is back!
🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃
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Peter Chiykowski
2 months ago
30 HOURS LEFT! New stretch goal + FINAL livestream + pledge level checklist + updated shipping table
Hi backers!
30 HOURS REMAIN for the Lore Master's Deck on BackerKit and we are excited to see so much progress in the final hours! Here are the latest headlines!
• New bonus st...
I'm excited to celebrate a phenomenal day 2 of the campaign with you! Here's what we cover in today's update:
Stretch goal progress
Expanded FAQ
Updated expansion sneak peek
Storage update
Meet the guest writers from our next stretch goal!
Let's get into it!
Stretch Goal Progress
We've just smashed through the $200,000 stretch goal, adding 16 cards to Lore Master's Deck for a total of 284 cards.
Next up: we're full steam ahead toward adding 3 guest writers to the project to bring a wider range of interesting, evocative, imaginative cues to the deck! You can learn more about their work at the end of this update!
We're also thrilled to share that the pledge reached a campaign high of 1200 last night, and as promised, we hosted a livestream demo-ing the deck with a twist: wine pairings! The Story Engine's CEO Miroki Tong is a wine expert who runs an Instagram account called @9ouncesplease.
We created a faction, a pair of edible creatures, and a vineyard location, and Miroki paired wines for each of them. We talked about how food and drink are essential components of lore and culture, with threads to climate, industry, lifestyle, and more.
Want to know what kind of wine to pair with an iridescent-scaled crocodile garnished with a rare flaming-hot seaweed that grows every 100 years and seeds itself through salt crystals? You can catch the livestream recording.
We've been expanding our FAQ as your questions roll in! For now, you can learn more about storage, delivery timelines, and our decision to make a digital version of the early bird promo pack cards available as a PDF. If you have any questions you'd like us to add, let us know in the comments!
Updated expansion sneak peek
I've added a little more material about the expansions to the campaign page! Check out the Expansions section of our campaign page to take a look! For now, here's a look at a sample drawing using the Master of Names: Namesakes Expansion.
These card types operate in the same way Wildcards from the main Lore Master's Deck do, but instead are paired with the primary cue to create a unique nickname.
Example: The Faction on the left is named the Chantry of the Sheathed Blade. Perhaps they are pacifists or mages who only resort to steel as a last resort? The creature on the right is named the Frost Raptor. Perhaps it is an arctic hawk or a dinosaur capable of surviving cold climates or ice ages.
Storage update
We've received a lot of helpful feedback about storage solutions, especially from our fans who own the complete Story Engine and Deck of Worlds deck systems and adding the new Lore Master's Deck cards to their collection.
We are currently preparing designs for a new stretch goal featuring a new storage box design intended for larger collections. It likely won't be a one-box-to-hold-them-all design, because we wouldn't want to render it obsolete as we continue to release decks, but it will be much better suited to holding large collections (including sleeved cards). We'll release those details as we confirm them.
We've updated our add-ons to indicate how many cards each box holds.
We've renamed our "Collector's Storage Box" so it's now called the "Tray Storage Box." We acknowledge the original name was confusing for folks who thought it could hold the whole collection.
We've added our basic Folding Storage Boxes to the pledge manager, and also updated the capacity estimate to 540 cards as this is a more comfortable fit when you account for the included card dividers and saving wiggle room for easily getting cards in and out.
If you're new to the card system and you're just picking up the Lore Master's Deck and/or The Story Engine/Deck of Worlds main decks, don't worry—you don't need any storage boxes. The main deck boxes each have some extra room. Even enough to fit sleeved cards.
If you're also picking up the Lore Mastery expansions, you can keep the extra cards in their tuck boxes or get the optional Lore Mastery Expansion Collector's Box. If you're also getting the Bridge Expansions, keep in mind those expansions only feature cards of existing card types, so they can easily be stored in with those matching card types.
Meet the 3 guest writers from our next stretch goal
We're thrilled to be approaching our first contributors' stretch goal: bringing in 3 writers to punch up the deck with a range of additional imaginative and creative prompts. We worked with many of these writers on Deck of Worlds and their contributions were phenomenal!
We're excited to announce that the pledge manager smoke test went live today!
The smoke test a trial period where we send reward surveys to roughly 5% of backers to make sure our configurations are all correct. This lets us triple-check for errors, inconsistencies, issues, and points of confusion in the survey before sending out mass invitations.
Assuming the test goes well, we will follow up by sending all reward surveys within 48 hours. Until then, you can check your email to confirm if you're one of the lucky 5%!
After the pledge surveys are out and everything looks like it's running smoothly, we'll work on delivering PDFs for our pre-existing products (The Story Engine Deck, Deck of Worlds, and their expansions and boosters).
Here are some common questions we get during the pledge manager release.
When will my early bird bonus/returning backer incentive show up in my rewards?
Allocating the early bird bonus (the Promo card Pack) and returning backer bonus (Story Engine Mini-Pin) to each backer's profile is a manual process we will complete after surveys are locked in 2024. They currently will not show up in your rewards.
When will you charge my credit card for any balance owing?
We plan to charge credit cards in BackerKit for any add-ons in early 2024 when final PDFs are delivered. We will post an update before we do so you can double-check any charges.
Are shipping/tax charges final?
We refined shipping estimates further and the shipping costs provided in the pledge manager are now close to final. If any regional shipping costs go significantly down in the coming months, we will decrease charges accordingly, but otherwise, assume the figures in BackerKit are final.
Can I update my reward survey after I complete it?
Yes! We will not be locking surveys until we deliver PDFs in early 2024. Until then, you can always edit and update your reward survey via the survey link you were original sent.
Does X pledge level or add-on include Y reward? Are PDFs included?
If you have any questions about your reward survey, check out the BackerKit FAQ and the project FAQ. On the right side of the project FAQ you can also find links to contact BackerKit (if you need support with the platform) or The Story Engine team (if you have questions about the project). Both teams are here to support you and answer questions throughout the survey process and beyond!
Thanks so much, and as always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have!
We're checking in to outline the next steps for the campaign, and to say thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit us at Gen Con last weekend!
We got the chance to meet some of you in person, and the pleasure was all ours! Your enthusiasm lets us know we're doing something right. We're grateful to have the support of such an amazing and creative community!
In the meantime, BackerKit has finished charging cards and we're planning out the reward surveys and pledge manager, which we're expecting to release in September. If there was an issue with your payment, you will have a chance to update your payment info while filling out your reward survey in the pledge manager, so you don’t need to worry about losing your pledge tier or the rewards that go with it. During the pledge manager/reward survey, you'll also be able to add items to your pledge and see the expected shipping charges and taxes for your region (if any). If you missed the campaign, we'll also be opening a preorder page around the same time.
We've also been talking about beginning weekly livestreams in the fall. We had a blast livestreaming during the campaign, and it's something we'd like to keep doing in the future. We just want to make sure we're giving you something you'd tune in to watch. Do you want to hang out with us and create more prompts with our various decks? Or would you rather see us play more D&D one-shots (with settings created with our various decks)?
We could also do deep dives with our expansions, talk about writing craft and process, or pursue some other option that we haven't even thought of. You can leave us a comment, tag us on social media, or respond to our BackerKit poll know what you want to see. We'll collect the feedback to make sure we bring you something awesome when we get back on the air!
As always, thanks so much for your support, and let us know if you have any questions about the process going forward!
A huge thank you to all 3741 of the writers, artists, storytellers, and creatives that backed our campaign! We funded at 675% of our initial goal with a total of $506,282 and unlocked a slew of amazing stretch goals along the way! The finished Lore Master’s Deck will have 300 cards, a set of Link Tokens, and is being released alongside 3 Lore Mastery Expansions, 3 Bridge Expansions, and a Lore Master’s Journal. We’ll also be planting 3,000 trees, giving away 30 decks to educators, and bringing on 6 guest writers to polish up our lore prompts before we send them to you!
Each and every one of you helped make that happen, and so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
So what’s next?
Whatever payment method you submitted will be charged today (and may have already been charged in some cases). Once it’s processed, you’ll receive a confirmation email that lets you know your pledge has gone through. You'll have a chance to update payment info if there are any issues, so you don’t need to worry about losing your pledge tier and the rewards that go with it. We’ll spend the next two weeks making sure everyone gets squared away.
Once we’re done with that, sometime within the next 8 weeks we’ll send out a backer reward survey that you’ll need to fill out to select the exact options that you want, and to tell us where we should send your rewards during fulfillment. You can also add items to your pledge and pay for shipping (and applicable taxes in your region, if any) at that time. We’ll announce that survey on our social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) so you can keep an eye out for it in your inbox. You will be able to request another survey through our BackerKit project page if you lose your survey link, and you'll be able to continue to add-on items or update shipping info until we deliver pledges. Our current schedule is to deliver digital rewards by March, and physical reward in October-December 2024.
For now, however, we’re going to raise a toast take a much-needed long rest. Then we’re going to get back to work. This campaign has been a whirlwind, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve created together!
If enough people request it, I was told the Outtakes & Oddities Expansion pdf from the Deck of Worlds would be added to the pledge manager.
So like this post and/or comment to show them this is something we'd like the option for please!
Link tokens unlocked for every copy of the main deck
Next 3 stretch goals with our $500,000 double-feature + bonus sharing stretch goal
Pledge tier consolidation
Livestream wrap party tonight at 9pm ET
At midnight, we draw blades! ⚔️
It may be the end – but we have no intention of going quietly! We’ll be counting down to midnight right here with one final livestream/wrap party that kicks off at 9pm ET.
We’ve lined up an entire evening of party games and party tricks, including card magic from Peter (you can try this at home) and a sparkling wine sabring demonstration from Miroki. (Please don’t try this at home. You’re welcome to open your own bottle of bubbly, but leave the swords to the professionals.)
Along the way, we’ll run a giveaway (details on the livestream), and host a pun contest, where you’ll have the opportunity to bombard us with your worst (best) puns based on lore we create together! We’ll be going right up until midnight (and beyond), so drop in at any point this evening!
Link Tokens Unlocked!
We blew past $450,000 overnight – and supercharged Lore Master’s Deck along the way! As a "token" of our appreciation, every copy of the main deck includes a set of link token, in addition to 300 cards, allowing you to start tracking connections as your world and lore come together!
Next 3 Stretch Goals
On the highway to half a million, we’re less than $11,000 away from our double stretch goal at $500,000. That includes the free PDF deck of Quickstart Prompts that you can use right out of the box (no assembly required), and another 10 educator decks to bring our total to 30.
The sample prompts are great when you just want to do a quick writing exercise, or if you need some last-minute inspiration for your next RPG session!
Also, for those backers who haven't yet, if you open our "500 backers share" Community Achievement page and click the button to share the campaign, you can help us unlock a free bonus PDF Outtakes Expansion!
Pledge tier consolidation
When we launched this project, many of our add-ons and pledge tiers were stretch goals that hadn't been made available yet. We released the add-ons first, and later the bundle pledge levels. During our opening livestream, we mentioned that before the campaign ends, the BackerKit dev team would be able to identify backers who had individually added-on items that would later be featured together in a bundle pledge level. Today, the BackerKit team is taking those qualifying early backers and consolidating their pledge+add-ons so they have the best pledge level bundle pricing available for their add-ons. You may see our funding level dip slightly at some point today when these changes are processed.
If you have any questions about your pledge or add-ons, don't hesitate to reach out!
See you tonight!
We're so excited to celebrate the final hours with you all!
