Good day! We've got your regular shipping updates, as well as other important info this week, but first off, I just want to take a minute to apologize to you all. I know there h...
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Cephalofair Games
21 days ago
Fulfillment and miniature sculpts
Good day! We're all staying busy over here at Cephalofair Games to keep all the projects from the Grand Festival moving forward. I've got shipping updates and other cool stuff f...
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49
Cephalofair Games
about 1 month ago
Sculpting stream and RPG designer diary
Good day! I hope everyone is doing well this fine Friday! We're going to have a more standard update for you this week with your regularly scheduled shipping updates for waves 1...
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Cephalofair Games
about 2 months ago
March Miniatures
Good day! I am very excited today to bring you an update on miniatures! It has been a while since we had any new info on that front, and while the delivery date is still a ways ...
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Cephalofair Games
2 months ago
Buttons & Bugs digital tutorial and designer diary
Good day! I am home sick, and much of the team is out at the GAMA trade show, but all of us are still working away to get all these fabulous Gloomhaven games to you!
Wave 1 an...
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Cephalofair Games
3 months ago
Frosthaven land freight begins
Good day! Apologizes for the delay and not getting this update out on Friday.
We'll start right off with the most pressing info about shipments for waves 1 and 2.
US Wave 1: ...
Good day! We've got your regular shipping updates, as well as other important info this week, but first off, I just want to take a minute to apologize to you all. I know there has been some frustration with how little we interact with the community here on Backerkit. I thought we were doing good with the updates every other week, making sure people are informed of the goings-on, but if that is the only communication you get, that still is a little lacking, and I am sorry. Both I (Isaac) and the support staff should be more present in the comments, and so we're going to do better about that.
In discussing it with the team, we've decided one of the blockers for us is that updates are posted on Fridays. We move right into the weekend, where you're not going to see as much activity from us. So we've decided to switch up the update schedule and start posting our updates every other Tuesday. So this will be our last Friday update, and the next update will be posted Tuesday, May 21. This should give us time during the week to look at and respond to your questions in the comments in a more timely fashion.
And since we are talking about schedules, we have an official close off date for wave 3 of the pledge manager: Friday, May 24. Wave 3 consists of the new edition of Gloomhaven and all related products. Once we close off the pledge manager, we will open it a short time later for waves 4 and 5, and we will also open up pre-orders for Gloomhaven at full MSRP on our webstore. So you will get one more warning with the next update, and then we'll be charging cards.
And now, on to the shipping updates!
Shipping updates
US Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
Canada Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
Asia: Shipments to regional hubs should be arriving soon. We've asked for a timeline update by region and should have a detailed breakdown next update.
AU/NZ Wave 1 & 2: COMPLETE!
EU/Rest of World: In Progress! Shipping continues, and we’re expecting a couple more weeks to finish the rest of the pending orders.
UK: In progress! Shipping started last week and we’re seeing copies of B&B in the wild. We expect fulfillment to continue for a couple more weeks.
If you are in a region that has been marked complete but have not yet received your wave 1 or 2 items please contact [email protected] so we can check on the status of your order. If you’re in a region that’s still fulfilling, please stay tuned. Your order is coming soon!
Other updates
First let's talk about the new edition of Gloomhaven! We got quite a reaction to the vermling art last time, and I just wanted to emphasize one more time that it was work-in-progress. And while we do appreciate all the feedback on it, which has helped improve further iterations of that piece, I think from now one we'll do our best to only share final art, as that seems to be what is largely expected. We continue to make big strides here in getting the rest of the art together and all the cards laid out.
Big strides also continue to be made with the RPG. Our goal is to start handing the chapters off for editing early next week. This will be a piecemeal process as we finalize different sections of the book, sending them into editing one at a time. We've also started to get beautiful map work in from Francesca showing larger portions of the world. Still work-in-progress, so I won't show them yet, but hopefully we can share them soon!
So that's all the news we have this week. Just another reminder that the next update will go out Tuesday, May 21, and will be followed by the wave 3 pledge manager closing on the 24th. Have a good weekend, and I'll catch you then!
Good day! We're all staying busy over here at Cephalofair Games to keep all the projects from the Grand Festival moving forward. I've got shipping updates and other cool stuff for you, so let's get to it!
Waves 1 and 2 shipping update
First off, a couple reminders from last time. The Buttons & Bugs replacement form is now live, so if you've had any issues with damaged or lost components from Buttons & Bugs, please use the form instead of emailing support, which should expedite the process. And also just another reminder that if you've contacted support about an issue, please be patient and don't email us repeatedly about the same issue. Doing so just slows the whole process down as this bumps your ticket back in the queue.
US: Wave 1 (Frosthaven) is complete! At this time, all packages have left Ware2Go and should be enroute to you. This includes the orders that were stuck in "label created" status. If you haven't received a tracking number yet for your Wave 1 items and you're in the US or MX, please contact [email protected]. Meanwhile, wave 2 (Buttons & Bugs) is 99% complete! All orders have been shipped with one exception: We received an update from UPS that the ~100 B&B packages shipped through Santa Rosa were all damaged at their hub, so we are reshipping these orders now, and you should receive a new email with tracking by early next week.
Canada: Fulfillment in process! We're at about 50% of orders shipped so far, with hundreds of orders going out each day. We're hoping to have all orders shipped out by our next update in two weeks.
AU/NZ: Fulfillment is nearing completion! Most, if not all, orders have shipped, but we're just waiting on a final update from the fulfillment center signaling that everything has gone out.
Asia: Hub shipments inbound! The regional shipments should be arriving to their respective hubs over the next couple weeks. Once they've arrived and have been processed for shipping orders, the orders should start going out. We've been told this should start in early May.
UK: The container has landed! The product arrived as scheduled and is enroute to Spiral Galaxy. They're expecting to have it arrive at the warehouse this coming Tuesday. Once they get everything unloaded, they'll be able to start fulfillment, so we might see orders shipping out by the end of next week!
EU/RoW: The Buttons & Bugs container has arrived! Fulfillment Europe has received the container of Buttons & Bugs, Forgotten Circles, play surface books and more. Now that this has arrived, we should start seeing lots more orders going out. We still expect this process to take several weeks, but we should have a lot more progress to report in the next update.
Miniatures
Chris Lewis and Sarah Dahlinger have been working hard to get us closer to 100% sculpted. Here are a few samples of summons from Gloomhaven and Frosthaven that Sarah has completed, including the Kivak, which she sculpted live a month back. I mean, look at that guy.
Various summons
The live-sculpted Kivak!
Here's where we're at with the miniatures. It's a long project, but it's coming along.
Gloomhaven new edition
Arch has been dedicating all his time to getting the rest of the art and graphic design needed for the new edition of Gloomhaven up and running. We continue to bring new artists into the world of Gloomhaven to offer new perspectives on the rich and unique lives led by its people. This work-in-progress sketch by Laura Galli literally sheds some new light on vermling society and religion. We hope that this overall effort will help make our fantasy world feel more layered, lived-in, and real to those visiting it through Gloomhaven or the upcoming RPG!
Work-in-progress Vermling Priest art
RPG
The writing for the core book is all starting to come together as we finish drafts on all the rules and lore sections. Once that's done, we'll begin the editing process while we continue to run play tests looking for any other minor rules or ability tweaks we need to make. A lot of very creative people have put a lot of work into all this writing, and I think you'll be very pleased by all the cool bits of new lore you'll discover by reading the book!
And that's all I've got to report this week. Once we've gotten a little further down field with art and graphic design on Gloomhaven, we should be able to update you on its full timeline, which should also inform when the next wave of the pledge manager is closing. So stay tuned for that, and I'll catch you next time!
Good day! I hope everyone is doing well this fine Friday! We're going to have a more standard update for you this week with your regularly scheduled shipping updates for waves 1 and 2, plus an RPG designer diary from Danielle!
A few things to note before we get into the specific updates:
If you are in the US, waves 1 (Frosthaven and related materials) and 2 (Buttons & Bugs) are shipping from separate locations, so if you get one but not the other, don't panic. It is still on its way. In all other regions, both waves will be shipping together out of one location to expedite orders.
Please do not contact support asking where your product is until we have reported that your region has been fully delivered for the wave that you are concerned about. Fulfilling a region can take a while, so if your friend has gotten their game and you haven't, don't panic.
If you've contacted support about an issue, please be patient and don't email us repeatedly about the same issue. Doing so just slows the whole process down, including for yourself.
We will have Buttons & Bugs added to our replacement request form early next week, if you haven’t already emailed support, please wait and fill out the form when it’s available. This will both alleviate our support team inbox to assist with shipping issues and will also get your replacement to you faster.
Given all of the above, if you do need to contact support, you can do so by emailing [email protected].
Hey everyone! Chris here with another wave 1 and 2 fulfillment update.
US Wave 1 and 2: We’re at about 90% fulfillment in the US, both on Wave 1 out of KY and Wave 2 out of TN. However, we have discovered that there are two issues that our fulfillment partner is working to resolve now.
Wave 1 (Frosthaven): During the fulfillment upload process, a small amount of orders had labels created and tracking was sent to backers, but due to an error in their system, these orders were not filled. W2G has already fixed this issue, and most of these orders have already shipped. They expect the rest to ship out today and tomorrow. If you have a tracking number that still only shows a status of "label created" when you look it up, please watch for a new email with a different tracking number.
Wave 2 (Buttons & Bugs): We’ve been notified of an issue where a batch of about 100 orders shipping to the West Coast are currently being held up in a San Pablo UPS facility. We are working with our fulfillment partner and UPS to see what the delay is to either get these packages located and moving or send out replacements if these orders can’t be located. If this is the case, you’ll receive an email with a new tracking number.
Canada: Fulfillment has begun! Orders started shipping out Wednesday via Canpar and backers will receive emails with tracking as packages go out. Fulfillment expects roughly two weeks to fill all orders.
AU/NZ: Fulfillment is in process! We’ve already seen some people receiving their Frosthaven and B&B copies, with more to come as Aetherworks continues to send orders out. We expect to have most, if not all, orders filled by the next update.
Asia: Freight orders are shipping out this week from VFI to regional hubs! These shipments take several weeks, once shipments arrive they’ll be received in and processed for individual shipments to backers.
UK: The shipment from China still looks on track to arrive at port as scheduled on Apr 15th, from there it’ll make the trip over to Spiral Galaxy for fulfillment!
EU/RoW: Fulfillment has begun! Frosthaven has begun to ship out to backers now. The shipping container with Buttons & Bugs and some add-ons was delayed at port but is on land and en route, scheduled to arrive to Fulfillment Europe early next week. Once this arrives and is unloaded, they’ll be able to start shipping a bunch more orders!
Another sculpting stream!
I know it isn't March anymore, but we've got one more sculpting stream for you! Chris Lewis, one of the main sculptors on this miniature project as well as Frosthaven, will be live sculpting one of the Gloomhaven bosses today from 2-4pm CST. Which starts right now! You can watch him do his thing at Twitch.tv/Cephalofair.
RPG designer diary
Greetings Mercenaries!
I have such updates to share with you. Last month we shared a design diary from the illustrious Nikki Valens, who gave some insight into their design process for Buttons & Bugs. I hope all of you who have it appreciate how difficult it is to miniaturize Gloomhaven, both in rules and in size.
But this month, we’re back to talking about the Gloomhaven RPG. A lot has happened since I last shared an update, so I’ll try to cover it all as well as share some design insights. I shared that I had first drafts in my hands in January, and over February and March, I looked them over and gave comments back to authors, who made edits and returned them. The setting material is probably at about 80% done at this point. Not because it isn’t all written, but because now I have to go through it all, put it into the correct chapter formats, and massage passages to all look like one cohesive whole. This is a part of the process that takes time, but is the make or break of a great game. I could hire all the best, most skilled authors in the world who could turn in shining prose and perfect sections, but without a development pass to make their individual parts feel like a cohesive whole, the game would fall short of good.
I had the privilege of going to the Cephalofair design retreat (Gloomcabin, if you will) in March. The point of this retreat is to put a finishing polish on the current Cephalofair WIPs, and the RPG got the spot of honor this year. I was blown away by the creative energy at the retreat, and the number of Gloomhaven scholars in the room was a little intimidating. Nevertheless, as we poked at it, we came to some solid conclusions on where we want the RPG to go, what experience we want players to have, and how to definitively make it stand on its own, separate but equal to the board game. These conclusions led to late nights in what we dubbed “the lab” as a small group of designers took class and ancestry cards and rewrote, tweaked, and overhauled them.
If you just had a visceral reaction to the words “rewrote” and “overhauled”, never fear. The way you play the game didn’t actually change all that much. We just realized that the choices people were making didn’t feel as meaningful or as tactical as they do in the board game, and everyone really appreciates that experience. So we came up with a way for the RPG to not just mirror the board game’s class cards, but to iterate on them in a way that makes sense for an RPG without losing the elements we love. The biggest change here is that in an RPG, narrative supersedes minutia. What I mean by that is we want people telling compelling stories about their mercenaries fighting enemies, not just taking a turn doing the most tactically advantageous action. We want people to envision the cool fiery blast their spellweaver just lobbed at a skeleton, and how that means now both the skeleton, and the floor around it are covered in flames. It’s all there, but we wanted to ensure that the mechanics weren’t just supporting important decision points, but also creating a narrative around those decision points that is exciting and makes you feel like you’re living in the world of Gloomhaven. What does this mean for the process? Well, we spent some long evenings chatting about how to condense 30 cards into 18. Which is actually easier than it sounds, because we absolutely did it for all the classes that folks were playing that weekend in a single evening so that we could playtest the updates. The system is the same “pick a top and bottom action, go on your initiative, do all the things” but the choices are now a little different and narrower, and have a narrative to them that they’ve never had before. The book’s development is still moving at a good pace. I have already updated the rules chapter to reflect our changes, and we’re working on updating all the class and ancestry cards. The setting material is in good shape, and in the next month it should all come together and make its way to editing.
While this does push my original projected publish date back, it only does so by a couple of months. We’re still on track to get files finished before the end of the year. I have no control over how long printing and shipping takes, but if I were the wishing type, I would wish for a Christmas miracle.
I know this month’s diary is more of “how the sausage is made” and less of the “what the sausage tastes like”, but I personally feel like this is an important part of the design process that few people talk about. I’ve been making games for enough time now to know that literally no book goes from first to final unchanged every step of the way. I’ve had to rewrite entire chapters at the approval stage, rework swaths of text at the layout phase, and even once had to beg a printer to wait a day or two for me to resend a print file with an important paragraph added. That might sound messy and scary, and sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s just business as usual.
And that’s all I have for you this month. Until next time!
Other updates
Previously, we said that the pledge manager for wave 3 will be open at least through March, which has now come and passed, so we should probably update you again on that! We still haven’t fully nailed down a timeline, so I wanted to let you know that the pledge manager will remain open through April, and we’ll update you again once we have a solid date in place. If you'd like your pledge to be processed now instead of waiting for it to close we can help with that, just let us know at [email protected].
Art and graphic design for the new edition of Gloomhaven continue to move along. We’ve been working hard to bring you an updated visual experience along with the revised game system. Here’s a sneak peek at one of the many new pieces of artwork you’ll discover in this new edition: an Inox Guard by Nicolas Jamme.
Inox Guard
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that some backers have experienced card warping in their copies of Buttons & Bugs, which is an unfortunate development we didn't see at any point in our proofing process, but would like to apologize for. We will be working with our manufacturer to address card warping, health dial colors, and a handful of other quality-of-life adjustments for the second printing, which will be sold in retail at a higher price than what was offered during the Backerkit campaign.
And I think that just about covers everything. Remember to check out Chris's stream if you're interested in the sculpting process. I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll catch you next time!
Good day! I am very excited today to bring you an update on miniatures! It has been a while since we had any new info on that front, and while the delivery date is still a ways off, we wanted to let you know that we've been constantly working away on it in the background.
First, however, let's get to an all-important update on where fulfillment is for waves 1 and 2:
Fulfillment News
US: Fulfillment in progress! About 60% of Wave 1 has shipped out, and we expect the remaining orders to ship out next week. Similarly, Wave 2 is about 50% shipped, and we expect to have this finished by the end of next week.
CA: Product has been received in port and is on the rail to fulfillment, scheduled to arrive on March 28! The fulfillment center is planning to start shipping April 1, and they expect it to be a quick process to get everything shipped.
AU/NZ: It look slightly longer than expected for product to arrive, but we've been told fulfillment is beginning today! Most orders are expected to be ship within the next couple weeks.
Asia: As noted last update, orders will be shipping to regional fulfillment hubs from VFI at the beginning of April. Once they arrive and are processed at the local hub, they will be shipped to backers.
UK: While prepping the extra shipment from the US, we received good news! The original shipment from China is scheduled to arrive April 15, which is earlier than expected and about the same time we had planned for the US replacement shipment to arrive. Once it gets to port, it will be moved to Spiral Galaxy, and shipping will commence.
EU/RoW: The add-on container is looking to arrive on Monday. It will take a few days to get unloaded and delivered to Fulfillment Europe. Once that happens fulfillment can begin.
Miniatures!
First off, I need to tell you that Sarah Dahlinger, one of the sculptors on this project, just finished a live stream where they sculpting a Kivak (a large rocky-skinned beast of burden used by the Savvas) for us! This will be a bonus minature included in every full miniature pledge, and you can watch it be made here in this video.
Look at this little guy so far!
In addition, Jamie Daggers will be doing a 2-part live stream on painting our Buttons & Bugs micro minis, March 27 and 28, 1-4pm Eastern, so check that out as well.
Okay, on to the miniatures:
Hello Mercenaries, Price here to give an update on the Miniatures portion of this project! With the majority of Frosthaven and Buttons & Bugs obligations behind us, and Gloomhaven (2E) making great strides towards its final production - we figured it’d be helpful to start providing updates on the MANY products wrapped under the “Miniatures” banner - and that starts today!
Below is a new Cephalofair "Miniatures of Gloomhaven" Tracker that represents where each miniature project stands. Since Miniatures of Gloomhaven represents its own fulfillment wave, this will also track their progress through mass production, freight, and finally fulfillment to you! Generally, we’re at a good place with this project and excited to now have even more bandwidth to engage and push sculptures through production.
Note: The % listed under each icon in this graphic signals how many models have been APPROVED/COMPLETED at that applicable stage, not how many are currently IN that stage, which is more than listed. So expect much movement over the coming months as we finalize more revisions with our factory.
We’ve got many new models wrapping up this month, and with multiple April contracts, we’re looking to wrap up the majority of the outstanding work that needs to be done (most tied directly to new Gloomhaven artwork assignments needed for reference by our 3D artists.
So let’s talk about what each step in this workflow means to help give better idea of what our team is doing at each step:
1 - Sculpting
This is the first and most exciting step of each miniatures - working with our talented sculptors to create a first, and most ideal, draft of how we want each character to look, providing 2D game artwork, writing direction, and other artistic references. This typically involves approvals on a 1) first draft rough 2) posing draft 3) final detail draft. Once fully approved, the sculpt is handed off to our manufacturing for their digital review.
2 - Digital Revisions
In this step, our manufacturing team reviews each miniature file (.STL) we’ve submitted and validates it’s physical ability to be professionally molded for mass production. This includes refinding hard edges or angles that will make mold release impossible or difficult, enhancing detail that may be too thin/small/flimsy, and advising us on other compromises that may need to be taking with the sculpt such as posture, posing, and further detail work. Our team receives comparisons of the originally submitted model, next to new revisions done by the factory’s internal artists.
3 - Sample Approvals
During this step, the factory hand-produces polyurethane (PU) samples of each miniature to physically sample for us what the miniature will look like in physical manifestation. We receive photos, videos, and physical shipments of these hand-cast samples which are brittle and still absolutely work-in-progress. Any revisions we need to make at this stage can still be made digitally before we head into our next stage.
4 - Mold Making
Once physical PU samples are approved, and all samples are approved for their given SKU, that SKU officially heads into mold making! This is perhaps one of the longest stages of the process. Here our factory casts and engraves large aluminum molds for mass production. These plastic injection molds divide each sculpt into two “halves” that hot molten plastic is injected in between before opening and releasing the final product. Your average, more basic model will ideally be cast in a single piece that requires very little if any further handlings. More complex models (Mercenaries, Lurkers, Demons, etc) often need to be cast as several individual parts that are then later manually glued together on the assembly line. This allows us to achieve more complex designs that aren’t possible to sculpt in a single piece, but also increases production time and cost - so this needs to be explored on a sculpt by sculpt basis. Any further mold changes that need to be made upon review of pre-production casts can be made directly to the aluminum molds, but in a limited fashion as metal can only be removed, no longer ADDED, to the mold, obviously.
5 - Mass Production
Finally, mass production begins and our shiny new aluminum molds and hot molten PVC plastics! SKU by SKU miniatures will be cast in bulk, manually finished where needed, checked for quality, sorted, and assembled into their final vac trays for each product before being loaded onto pallets and left to await pickup by our ocean freight partners! Excitement is palpable at this stage as we eagerly await to see the first completed units off the line and give them a full top-down inspection before giving the final GREEN LIGHT for mass production to begin in full.
So that’s what to expect as we start sharing more progress updates and photos over the rest of the year. We’re really excited to see these big boxes of monsters, bosses, allies, and Mercenaries coming together and know they are going to be a fantastic upgrade for many Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, and Gloomhaven RPG campaigns for years to come! Stay tuned for more!
RPG
Cephalofair Games just concluded a company retreat where we play tested the RPG adventure included in the core rulebook (and worked on future projects). Everyone left really happy with were the RPG is at, and are very excited to finish up this project and get it out to you. I am really proud of all the work Danielle and everyone else has put into it, and you can hear more about some of the tweaks we made to the system in Danielle's designer diary next update!
Buttons & Bugs
Buttons & Bugs is here, and we have been so pleased with the reception! Check out this thoughtful review from the Cardboard Herald:
Other News
We are currently at PAX East! (Well, I am not, but some brave souls went directly from the company retreat to Boston to bring you demos of Buttons & Bugs, the RPG, and all that good stuff.) If you are at the show, come by booth 12115 to say hi!
And that's it! I hope you all are enjoying Buttons & Bugs, or if it hasn't arrived, I hope you enjoy it when it arrives soon! Catch you next time!
Good day! I am home sick, and much of the team is out at the GAMA trade show, but all of us are still working away to get all these fabulous Gloomhaven games to you!
Some of the team out at the GAMA Trade Show. They were showing off Buttons & Bugs and the Frosthaven Play Surface Books to retailers.
Wave 1 and 2 fulfillment progress
One quick update about the second printing of Frosthaven before I jump into fulfillment progress. We discovered that the outer game box didn't get updated to say "Second Printing" by the barcode on the bottom. We just want to assure you that you are receiving the second printing, with all the inner components updated correctly, so this won't affect gameplay in any way. You can also confirm your second printing by the outer carton, where it will list # of 10,000.
US - Fulfillment begins! The second printing of Frosthaven and multiple add-ons started shipping this week. Forgotten Circles, Frosthaven Play Surface Books, and Buttons & Bugs are scheduled to arrive at the fulfillment center today and should start shipping out early next week. The entire fulfillment process will take a couple weeks, so don't fret if you don't get a notification immediately.
CA - Product has arrived! Our CA fulfillment partner has received the container of all wave 1 and 2 products and fulfillment should start next week once everything has been unloaded and sorted.
Asia - All product has arrived at VFI for fulfillment and been added to the queue. They expect to start shipping these orders to their regional fulfillment hubs late this month into early next month, from there it will take a few weeks to arrive. Once it arrives at the local hub they will contact backers with shipping information.
AU/NZ - Product has arrived! Similar to CA, once everything has been unloaded fulfillment can begin. We expect these orders to start shipping within the next week.
EU/RoW - Frosthaven second printing has arrived! Frosthaven Play Surface Books, Forgotten Circles and Buttons & Bugs still look to be arriving on time to the port in about 2 weeks.
UK - As we mentioned last time, our freight shipment to the UK got delayed, and we've been working with our partners in the US to figure out an alternative solution instead of delaying UK fulfillment into mid-late May. To that end, we've scheduled a freight order from the US to the UK of Frosthaven, Frosthaven Play Surface Books, Forgotten Circles, Buttons & Bugs and other wave 1 add-ons. This shipment should arrive in the UK in 4-5 weeks, allowing us to fulfill to backers about a month earlier in mid-late April. This is later than the original expected fulfillment at the end of March, but it should still be quite a bit faster than waiting for the shipment from China. More updates to come as we receive them.
Buttons & Bugs
Our main focus for today's update is Buttons & Bugs, as we have a couple exciting things for you. First of all, the digital tutorial we have been working with Dized on is now live, and you can check it out here. We're very proud of all the work that was put into this, and we hope that you find it useful for learning the game.
In addition, you should start seeing reviews and other content for Buttons & Bugs starting to drop next week ahead of or alongside shipping of copies to all the backers.
And finally, we have another designer diary, but this one is from Nikki Valens talking about what they have learned while co-designing Buttons & Bugs, why listening to players is crucial for creating great games, and how much they enjoy the process of taking games apart and rebuilding them:
Nikki Valens designer diary
People often ask me what kinds of games I like to play, and that makes sense. It's a common question in our industry. We make and play games nearly everyday, and a lot of designer got into this line of work because of their love of games. But it's always been a tough one for me to answer despite the fact that I've been making games for over 20 years.
And that's just it: I've been making games.
Games are an amazing medium for conveying story and experiences, for making players think and feel, and those things stick with you. They become a part of your identity. People like playing games. So it makes sense that they also want to hear about what games others like to play.
But I like making games. I like telling stories. I like building systems and mechanics. I like analyzing games. I like pushing them to their limits, taking them apart and seeing what makes them tick, pressing the wrong buttons intentionally to find out what happens.
I like a game that gives me something to tinker with. I don't mean a dexterity game with physical pieces nor an engine building game with lots of interlocking mechanics. I'm talking about removing myself from the game itself, opening up the shell, and watching the moving pieces inside. I like games that give my designer brain something to chew on.
Which is why I was really delighted by a fan-made Gloomhaven game called Gloomholdin' designed by Joe Klipfel. It was introduced to me as Gloomhaven you can hold in your hand, and at first it just seemed like a cute gimmick. But as I analyzed it, developed it, played it, I started to see something more. The pieces were so tightly packed, but the cogs turned all the same. It was a wristwatch to Gloomhaven's grandfather clock. The engineering and craftsmanship to make it function was very similar. But to take all that and shrink it down to fit in the palm of your hand? That's something special.
So I poked and prodded and analyzed. I developed, I tinkered, I played. Not just a game, but played the way that I play. And honestly, it's the most fun I've had designing or developing a game in a long while. It was a brilliant challenge working out the bugs and rearranging its pieces to be a refined tiny cogwork system where no space is wasted. And I'm quite proud of what Joe and I were able to create. It packed a lot of very elegant design techniques into such a small package.
The thing is: That game we made isn't Buttons & Bugs. While I was playing my way and enjoying the heck out of it, our playtesters... well, they weren't. In fact, we only had a small handful of my most dedicated longtime playtesters who even played more than a single scenario. It didn't seem like anyone actually enjoyed playing it. And anytime we introduced someone new, it was clear that they were expecting "Gloomhaven but smaller."
That's a big difference between playing games and making games. While I'm designing, it's easy for me to forget that I play games very differently than most of you. I'm not so much playing a game as I am inspecting a game design. And that comes through in my work sometimes. I make something that's fun to analyze, fun to take apart and tinker with, fun to marvel at, but not fun to -play-.
What we had created was less a game, and more a model. Like building up a LEGO set not to play with it but to put it on display in the background of your video call.
I'm still very proud of what we created, of course. I still have that version of the game, and I think it would be really neat to finish it up and publish it. But as a designer, I knew that I had to do right by the players. We would need to pivot to meet not only expectations, but to create something people would enjoy playing as much as I enjoyed making it. And we pivoted hard.
We restarted design nearly from scratch. We started with the concept of miniaturized Gloomhaven, and we salvaged what pieces we could from our little wristwatch. Some of the most innovative pieces we got to keep: the double-sided ability cards and elements being available as long as they're visible. Other pieces needed to be reshaped to fit their new shell. Gone were the micro tactical puzzles that paid homage to a tactical giant, replaced with miniaturized movement grids and simplified monster and attack modifier mechanics.
After all was said and done, we had a slightly larger package than the one we started with. More of a pocket watch than a wristwatch, but still impressive considering we had created a functional copy of a grandfather clock that could still fit in the palm of your hand. But most importantly, would it be enjoyable to play?
Yeah! It was a complete turnaround in playtester engagement and enjoyment. Some of our testers started second and third runs through the campaign. One started playing with their two children and the kids loved it! As a designer, you can't ask for much more than that. I might personally enjoy the process of taking things apart and rebuilding them, but there's a different kind of joy and fondness I have for a game when I see others truly enjoying playing it.
What kinds of games do I like? I like a game that makes me want to take it apart and see how it works. I like a game that is designed just how I expected, and I like games that are designed in ways I'd never thought of. I like a game that makes my friends and all of you smile and want to play again. I love game design.
So next time you see me at a con or interview me for a podcast, instead of asking me "What kinds of games do you like playing?" ask me "Take apart any interesting games lately?" If you do, you might get a glimpse into the inner workings of my mind and what makes me tick.
On the events side, today is International Womens Day! We are so grateful to all the women who have been a part of our success here at Cephalofair Games, both past and present employees, contractors, and collaborators. We thank you for your talents and contribution!
But this month we're also celebrating all things "Mini", where we will be featuring a big miniatures update next time and also sponsoring some live sculpting and painting streams that take our Gloomhaven minis to the next level. You can join Sarah Dahlinger on Twitch, March 22, 1-4pm Eastern, as they do creature sculpting to bring some of our Gloomhaven monsters to life. And Jamie Daggers will be doing a 2-part live stream on painting our Buttons & Bugs micro minis, March 27 and 28, 1-4pm Eastern. Chris Lewis, another major contributor to the miniatures project, with also be running a live sculpting session, and we'll have more info on when that is next time.
In other news, development continues to go well on the RPG. We're starting to get finals in from the writers, and we'll be heavily play testing the included adventure next week. We're on track to move into the editing phase by the end of the month, which puts us slightly behind from what was communicated last time, but still making great progress.
Art and graphic design continues on the new edition of Gloomhaven, though I don't have anything new to share with you there.
And that's it! I'll catch you next time with the big miniatures update!
Good day! Apologizes for the delay and not getting this update out on Friday.
We'll start right off with the most pressing info about shipments for waves 1 and 2.
USWave 1: Shipping is starting today! We don't have the Frosthaven Play Surface Books and Forgotten Circles in the warehouse yet, so we'll be starting with orders that do not contain those. The container carrying those items did arrive in port last Friday and is currently waiting to be unloaded. We anticipate the container will arrive at the fulfillment center in the next 7-10 days, and as soon as it arrives, the rest of the orders will be shipping as well.
US Wave 2:Buttons & Bugs is on the same container waiting at the port. These will be shipped from another location, and we expect them to start going out within the next two weeks.
EU/RoW waves 1 & 2: Ocean freight is still on track. Wave 1/2 products are scheduled to arrive in port next week, followed by the container of add-ons two weeks later.
CA waves 1 & 2: Also on track. The container of wave 1/2 products is expected to arrive in the Vancouver port in about two weeks.
UK waves 1 & 2: Due to shipping slowdowns resulting from the Suez canal rerouting, our shipment bound for the UK regrettably did not make it out of China before the Lunar New Year. It is on its way now, but because of this, we are looking at another 1-2 month delay in the delivery timeline. I am unhappy about this, and we are looking into some potential solutions to ship extra product from other regions to get there sooner. We'll have more information in the next update.
Asia waves 1 & 2: Now that the Lunar New Year celebration is over, VFI is arranging pickup and will be sending product out to local hubs for fulfillment.
AU/NZ waves 1 & 2: Ocean freight of all wave 1/2 products are scheduled to arrive in port by the end of the week! From there it will take a week on average to be unloaded and delivered to Aetherworks, and then fulfillment can be scheduled. Not long now!
In addition, here are some updates on the other projects.
Gloomhaven new edition: Art and graphic design continues to come in on this project. Here's a little peek at some new map tile art from David Demaret:
We've also received the first pages back on the scenario and section books, which are laid out similarly to Frosthaven, which requires a lot of work. Everything is looking good there, though, so we'll be continuing to move forward.
RPG: First drafts on all the writing has been redlined by Danielle, and now writers are working on their second drafts. Everything is coming along well here!
Miniatures: I know we haven't discussed the miniatures project for a long time, but our plan is to have a big update focused on miniatures next month, so stay tuned for that!
Also, we will be out at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend (booth 11119), so come out, say hello, and check out Buttons & Bugs if you are in the Seattle area.
I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I am sorry once again for the delay in getting the update out. Enjoy your week, and I'll catch you next time!
Chris here stepping for Isaac to provide this week’s update. We’ve got a quick fulfillment update, some images of the Frosthaven Play Surface Books as well as a designer diary from Danielle, so let's get to it!
Wave 1 and 2 fulfillment: The first containers of Frosthaven are scheduled to arrive in the US next week, with the EU containers following close behind - arriving to port two weeks later. The remaining containers of Frosthaven, Buttons & Bugs, and other wave 1 add-ons are still inbound (see the last update for more info).
We’ll be sending out address verification emails to backers today. If you’ve recently moved or need to update your address for any reason, please either follow the link in the Backerkit email or contact [email protected] with your new address, so we can make sure your order gets to you!
Please note that Cephalofair will not be responsible for any packages that are lost or returned due to an address error. Please make sure your address is correct so we can get your order to you!
Wave 3: We discussed this last time, but just a reminder, with the production delay, we have decided to leave the wave 3 pledge manager open until at least the end of March to give backers more time to complete their pledge. We'll keep you updated on this as we get closer to March to give an exact date. We'll also be sending a final warning email from Backerkit directly before the wave 3 pledge manager closes to make sure it isn't a surprise.
Gloomhaven Second Edition: Art and graphic design continue to move along. The puzzle book has now been put together, with completed artwork and design layout. Our fabulous team of game designers and play testers are currently putting it through its paces. Graphic design is underway for several of the game's other components, and we're commissioning some new art pieces to further elevate it.
Here is the finalized version of the beautiful world map from cartographer Francesca Baerald:
Frosthaven Play Surface Books: We didn’t quite get the final proof in time to display at Megacon, but we've now received the finalized playbooks. They’re looking pretty sharp and make setup quick and easy. We can’t wait to start getting them shipping out to everyone!
Megacon: Speaking of Megacon, we attended for the first time and had a great time meeting players, demoing Buttons & Bugs, and introducing lots of new people to the world of Gloomhaven! We even encountered a wild Deathwalker (Amanda Byars @byarsfam)!
That’s all I have this week, so now I’ll turn it over to Danielle to finish the update off with another RPG designer diary. Also, just a quick reminder that you can find more RPG designer diaries, character class spotlights, and more on our blog here!
Designer Diary
Greetings Mercenaries!
It’s been a whole heck of a year, hasn’t it. What? It’s only the end of January? I’ve got 11 more months of 2024 to go? Someone please explain to me how this could happen.
Okay, silliness aside. It’s honestly been a great start to our year. I’ve gotten the first drafts of setting material for the RPG and it is looking great. I’m getting excited to start sharing that information with y’all as soon as I can. Until then, I’ll share a few more mechanical bits that I think will help with the context of the game.
Today I’m going to talk about Skills and Ability Cards. In the Gloomhaven Board Game, the classes and their abilities are iconic for hitting the right balance between each character fulfilling a different role, and everyone being distinct. No two damage classes are the same, and no two healer classes are the same. We wanted to preserve that iconic variation within the RPG, and the best way to do that is to use similar Ability Cards for each Class. In an RPG though, your character isn’t just its combat abilities. They also have social, investigative, knowledge based, and even crafting abilities. Also, in the board game, every cragheart is a savvas, and every spellweaver is an orchid. But in the RPG, a savvas could be a bruiser and an orchid could be a tinkerer. You get to mix and match ancestry to class, meaning we needed to separate abilities that came from being an ancestry from their individual classes and rethink what benefits being a specific ancestry gave you.
The way we did this was to give both ancestries and classes a combination of Skills and Ability Cards. Let’s talk first about Ability Cards, as those you’re more familiar with. Now instead of just having a class based set of Ability Cards, you also have a few ancestry specific Ability Cards that you can choose from to create your Stamina Deck. This makes choosing cards a little more meaningful, as you have more options, and you can create different combinations, allowing multiple characters of the same class to feel different in play.
We had to adjust Ability Cards to remove some of the actions that just don’t show up in an RPG (like the Loot function) and adjust a few things for the more narrative aspect of the game. The biggest change you’ll see is the base movement value on the bottom of a card is now 4 instead of 2. This is to account for the fact that in the RPG we have more terrain features you can interact with (climbing on top of obstacles, going up or down sheer or steep inclines, etc). These take up more than one movement point, so we’ve increased the movement value to compensate. There’s also a little less need for the really tight movement you see in the board game, since combat action and non-combat action may flow and interweave between one another in a single mission.
Here’s a Level 1 spellweaver card, just to show you what they might look like (Note: the Ability Cards aren’t completely final, and may change due to playtesting):
Now, let’s talk about Skills. Skills are very similar to Ability Cards in that they allow the character to take a unique action that requires you to expend a card (Discarded or Lost). There’s a few key differences. A Skill is not on a card, it’s on your character sheet. Because of this a Skill is neither a top nor a bottom action, which means you can use your Skill as either your top or your bottom action in combat. Because you aren’t discarding the Skill after you use it, you can use your Skill multiple times in a row before any kind of card refresh (*unless otherwise stated). A Skill can be used in or out of combat. Skills are just a special action you can do, so you can do it whenever you like.
Class Skills are abilities that really define a class that we felt would be best expressed as an action that a character can take at any time. These are some of the most iconic class abilities that really show what a class is about. In the same vein, ancestry Skills are abilities that show what an ancestry is, what they care about, and how their history defines them. Even though Skills can be used in combat, they are designed to be generally useful at any time. Some are socially focused, while others are focused on manipulating elements or using magic.
For an example Skill, here’s one from the spellweaver class.
Reviving Ether: [Lost] Recover all [Lost] and [Discarded] cards from your ability deck and shuffle them (not counting the card lost by this skill). You cannot use this Skill again until you take a Full Rest.
You’ll notice that this breaks what I said a little bit. That’s what the * was about. This Skill can only be used once per Full Rest, rather than over and over again (rest assured, the spellweaver does have Skill options they can use multiple times). But, this ability is so iconic to the spellweaver, that we’ve made it a Skill. (It’s also still an Ability Card.) This means that a spellweaver can refresh their Lost and Discarded cards outside of combat, making them particularly good at taking risky actions that require losing cards, but also gives them a second refresh within combat situations. Use it wisely.
You will start your character with a few Skills, and be able to gain new Skills as they level up. We’re still working out if those Skills will add to your available pool of Skills, or if they’ll be Skill replacements the way Ability Card progression works. So you’ll have to wait until later to find out the answer to that particular question.
This was a big one today, so I hope you enjoyed this information! I have just a couple more mechanical specific widgets to show you, and then we’ll be sharing some more setting information. So stay tuned!
Good day! I am happy to report that things are continuing to move along as anticipated from the last update. All of waves 1 and 2 (Buttons & Bugs, Frosthaven, Frosthaven Play Surface Books, and Forgotten Circles) are finished with production and are either on the water or will be very shortly.
Here are rough timelines for freight shipping in all the regions. Asia: The one exception here is our Asia fulfillment. While all other shipments will not be affected by the Lunar New Year, VFI won't be able to properly stage their fulfillment until after that is over, so they'll be picking up and beginning fulfillment at the end of February. AU/NZ: All product is scheduled to arrive in Sydney by the end of February. Canada: All product is scheduled to arrive at Vancouver in early-mid March. UK/EU/ROW: All product is scheduled to arrive before the end of March (we are experiencing some delays here due to freight rerouting away from the Suez Canal). US: Scheduled to arrive at Long Beach port in early-mid March.
So now let's talk about some other important scheduling. Originally, we had planned to close the wave 3 pledge manager in January 2024. However, with the production delay we have decided to leave the wave 3 pledge manager open until at least the end of March to give backers more time to complete their pledge. We'll keep you updated on this as we get closer to March to give an exact date.
We'll also be sending a final warning email from Backerkit directly before the wave 3 pledge manager closes to make sure it isn't a surprise. We have also had some requests for payment to be processed before wave 3 closes, which is totally doable. If you'd like to have your order processed early, please contact [email protected], and we can assist you.
And the last bit of pressing news is that we had multiple requests for the Forteller Frosthaven narration to be sent out ahead of the rest of fulfillment, so that is what we're doing. The codes are going out now! You may already have received yours, but they are sending them in batches, so it may take a day for yours to arrive. If you don't get your code by the end of the week, please let our team know at [email protected]. If you do receive your code, but are having issues activating it on Forteller's site or app please contact them at [email protected].
Development and art direction of the other projects - the new edition of Gloomhaven, the RPG, and the miniatures - continues to move along at a good pace, but there's not really anything new to share on those fronts.
That's all the project news I have for this week, but I also wanted to let you know some of the team will be out at Megacon in Orlando next week, February 1-4, Booth 601. If you're attending, please stop by! We'll have Buttons & Bugs demos and may have a finalized copy of the Frosthaven Play Surface Books on display as well!
Good day! I hope you are having a great 2024 so far! Everything is continuing to move forward over here, even if there aren't any big updates or changes from the previous update.
Freight shipping is still in progress on Frosthaven. Everything is in the water or waiting on the Play Surface Books, as discussed in the previous update. We currently have 5 containers US bound of Frosthaven and Forgotten Circles and 2 to the EU. Canada, UK and Australia should have their containers shipping within the next week or so, and VFI Asia should be picking everything up from the manufacturer that same week for their shipments.
Furthermore, Buttons & Bugs and the Frosthaven Play Surface Books are still in production. Buttons & Bugs should be ready to start freight shipping on Monday, with the Play Surface Books following a little later in the month. Basically, the goal is that by the next update in two weeks, we can say "everything is in the water".
Here are some images of the Play Surface Books proofs!
We are ramping up the art and graphic design on the new edition of Gloomhaven. Mercenary artwork is almost finished, and work has begun on the rulebook, map tile art, and many other aspects of the game. In addition, we've finished the editing process on all the narrative text in the game, so layout on the scenario and section books can begin.
On the RPG front, first drafts on all the writing are in, and Danielle is reviewing them all. Everything is progressing along as expected. And speaking of the RPG, I also have another of Danielle's designer diaries to share:
Happy New Year Mercenaries!
It’s time to set aside the past year and look forward to the future. I know that for me, setting aside 2023 is going to be pretty easy. A lot happened over the course of the year, and not all of it was great, but some of it was stellar. But 2024 is looking to be so amazing, I can’t wait for it to be here. I know I promised to talk this month about Attributes and checks, and I’m definitely going to do that. First, I’m going to spend a short paragraph to wrap up 2023 in style.
I joined the Cephalofair team in September, and in that time I’ve gotten a crash course in the already in progress design for the Gloomhaven RPG, playtested the RPG several times with several different people, had a chance to run a session of it at PAX Unplugged, and gotten all our setting authors lined up and writing the setting. The past three months have been super busy, but it’s going to pay off in the new year, when I can start sharing excerpts from the game.
But, now on to Attributes! Last month I previewed the current Attributes (note, we may add one more in the future, but if we do, I’ll explain a bit about why at the time). For a refresher, they are: Athletics, Finesse, Focus, Influence, and Knowledge.
Athletics is for feats of physical might or stamina.
Finesse is for feats of physical dexterity, grace, and hand-eye coordination.
Focus is for concentration and attention.
Influence is for dealing with other people, such as persuading or intimidating them.
Knowledge is for memorization, recall, and logical deduction.
Whenever you attempt to take an action that has an interesting fail state (such as: jumping over a large crevice could result in damage if you fail, or remembering the right pass-phrase could get you attacked if you fail) you make an Attribute check against a difficulty. That difficulty is often set by the GM, but could range from 3 at easy to 12 or even higher at very difficult. If two people are acting against one another, such as when someone is trying to intimidate someone else, they both make a check and the highest result wins.
Your Attributes have ratings on your character sheet and at creation they can range from 0 to 3. The modifier deck has Attribute check numbers on them that range from 1 to 6. You’ll notice that 3+6 isn’t enough to hit that highest difficulty of 12+. So how do you do that?
There’s a couple of ways. The first is that your friends can assist you with any check you might take. To do that, they flip over a Background card and say how they use their character’s background in this situation to help. All Backgrounds have some utility in a variety of situations, and they state how much bonus they add to a check. Multiple friends can assist you, which can give you a lot of bonuses towards a check. The second way is that you can have advantage and disadvantage on checks depending on the situation, or if an ability grants it. The last way is that the x2 modifier card is an automatic success, no matter what the difficulty is.
Okay, so say you draw a +6 card on a +3 Attribute and your friends gave you a +5 bonus and now suddenly you have a 14 result. Say that was on a difficulty 7 action. Holy crap, that’s double what you needed. Does all that extra result go to waste? No! We have levels of success, from a critical failure (you pulled that null card everyone despises) to a critical success (woo-hoo x2). For everything in between, failure and success, we have some varying levels of success. Failure doesn’t always mean you just didn’t get what you wanted. Sometimes it means you did the thing, but had to suffer some kind of consequence for doing it. Often this translates into discarding a Stamina Card, but it could sometimes come with a Condition, damage, or gaining disadvantage on your next action. Success isn’t always just success either. If you succeed far better than expected, your GM will give you a better result. This could be purely narrative, such as more information or a deeper emotional connection, or it could be a positive Condition, infusing an Element, or some other small mechanical benefit. Of course, a critical success gives you the best result, maybe giving you a Bless, Advantage on your next action, a Condition, or some other big benefit.
To finish up, I’ll leave you with some example actions and their difficulties.
Climb a stone wall: DN 5
Jump across a deep chasm: DN 7
Dodge a collapsing ceiling: DN 9
Pick a mundane lock: DN 5
Disable a complex mechanical device: DN 9
Perform first aid: DN 5
Notice a hidden loose floorboard in an inn: DN 9
Barter with a Shopkeeper: DN 5
Convince an enemy to become your ally: DN 9
Recognize someone in disguise: DN 7
Decrypt the magical runes sealing in an ancient evil: DN 9
I hope everyone is as excited to see what we have in store for 2024 as I am!
That's all we've got this week! As stated above, our goal is to have freight shipping underway for all of waves 1 and 2 by next update, so I'll catch you then!
Good day! First of all, I want to apologize for missing the update two weeks ago. There really is no excuse, so I'll just say that it won't happen again!
Happy holidays to everyone! As the end of the year quickly approaches, things are moving right along as anticipated. For a more thorough look at where we are with all projects, you can take a look at this previous update. None of the timelines outlined there have changed.
Frosthaven production is now finished and has started freight shipment. Two containers have shipped out heading for the US, two more for EU/Rest of the World are scheduled to depart this week, and we have also arranged local factory pickup for our fulfillment partner in China. For the UK and Australia, the product is ready to ship, but is less than a full container, so waiting on the play surface books to finish printing.
Another important factor for ocean freight at this time is that our freight partners are rerouting all ships that were headed through the Suez Canal to go around southern Africa to avoid Houthi violence. This will add 3-4 weeks to delivery. Currently this is only affecting our shipments to EU/Rest of the World, but this sort of thing does have the possibility of slowing things down worldwide if it persists.
We are still in production on Buttons & Bugs and the Frosthaven Play Surface Books. We estimate both of these will be finished in production around the middle of next month. We had a slight issue with the sizing of the box for the books, where the final proofing copy didn't exactly match the width of the Frosthaven box itself, but we've adjusted the files, and the factory is now chugging away.
We're also still hard at work bringing things together for all the art and graphic design we need for the new edition of Gloomhaven. Dat has been making a lot of phenomenal new character art, which I'll just have to leave for you to discover in the game, because spoilers. All the narrative text in the game, roughly 125,000 words (the vast majority of which is new writing) has been organized and is in the middle of editing. Like with any big box 'Haven game, there are a lot of moving parts, but pushing this forward to completion is going to be our main focus over the next few months.
Well, some of our main focus. Danielle's focus will of course be to continue progress on the RPG. She has reviewed the outlines submitted by all the narrative writers and sent them off to work on their first drafts. I'm very excited to see what they come back with next month!
Note to retailers: The retailer pledge manager for waves 1 and 2 will be closing and charging payments on Jan. 5th. If you haven't yet received access to the pledge manager for whatever reason, please contact [email protected] ASAP so we can get you access.
One final note: If you ordered a Laserox wooden insert for Frosthaven, that started shipping directly out of Hungary last week, and so you should be receiving a shipping notification if you haven't already. This is a separate shipment from other Frosthaven items and was factored into the shipping cost.
Oh, and if it's of interest, I wrote up a little recap of our time at PAXU on the Cephalofair website. Also enjoy this great video from Above Board about Frosthaven!
I wish you a happy New Year fully of Buttons & Bugs, Gloomhaven, and the RPG. I'll catch you back here in two weeks!
Good day! We've got a short update today, as we're all out at PAXU, and there's not a whole lot of news.
The main headline is that we got a few pre-production copies of Buttons & Bugs in hand last week, which is pretty exciting. This is important because it's a final chance to review everything and catch any last production errors. There are a few things to correct with the factory, for instance, it printed darker than we'd like, and the friction on the dials is a little low, so we're working with the factory to solve those. Otherwise, it is looking very slick, and if you want to take a look at it yourself, we'll have the copies at our PAXU booth (#2936) to demo!
And it fits on an airplane tray!
Also, if you are going to be out at PAXU, please come join us in the TTRPG Live Play Theatre (room 114), Saturday at 11am ET for a live play of the Gloomhaven RPG with myself, Jasmine Bhullar, Jerry Holkins, and Laura Stringer, plus Gloom Master Alexander Theoharis. And if you aren't at PAXU, you can still watch it on twitch.tv/PAX3 at the same time (or after, of course). I assure you, it will be magical!
Did I say a short update? Because we also have Danielle's next designer diary entry to share with you:
Hello again Mercenaries!
It’s that time of the month when I talk about the behind the scenes aspects of the Gloomhaven RPG. Today I’m going to talk a bit about the core of the game rules, the modifier deck, and answer some questions while I’m at it.
I have seen a couple of questions about the physical components of the game and how that impacts the gameplay and design. The Gloomhaven RPG will be using several card decks for play. The first and foremost deck is the Ability Cards which act as both your character’s stamina and a bulk of the actions they can take during combat. The second most important deck is the modifier deck. Both these decks are unique to Gloomhaven and honestly, I think they are so well-designed that we have no need to figure out a way to do away with them. So how do we handle folks who can’t afford to get these physical components on top of the core rulebook?
The first answer is that we’ll be making PDFs of the cards available for people to download. These will be printer friendly, and folks can cut them out, or just use Ability cards on a sheet and pencil in when they are discarded, lost, or active. Folks can easily print the modifier deck, cut the cards out, and paste them onto index cards, playing cards, or even just use the pieces of paper. Or they could make their own modifier deck with cardstock and markers, we’re cool no matter how you do it
Some of you might think that this is a step we could bypass by figuring out a way to not use the modifier deck at all. I did consider dice, and came up with a workable system using Fudge dice (the d6s used by FATE systems). This was fine until a character got a perk that would change out a card in their modifier deck. I could have come up with a way to change up how we did that kind of advancement. Maybe with special abilities that let you roll the dice again to add to the first result to mimic the rolling function and a reusable ability to add an element or condition to an action. But overall, that would be a lot of work to modify a system that, in my humble opinion, already works rather nicely. So we decided to keep the elegant card system and ensure that they will be easily accessible to players who can’t afford to buy the physical products. Of course, we’ll still have some beautifully printed card packs that come bundled with the core rulebook or to purchase separately if you like having the glitzy version.
There were some other questions about what system we’re using for the non-combat section of the game. We opted for a system that uses the same modifier deck for a reason. We want all the rules about how you take actions in the game to be the same across all areas of play. You say what you’re going to do, you flip a card to add its number to your base. That’s the most basic part of the system and we want to preserve that mechanic across all parts of play. If we tried for a different system for combat and non-combat, we would run into all sorts of issues with confusion and limited actions during combat. Right now, with using the same basic system for all aspects of the game, we can have non-combat style actions in the middle of combat and have them flow seamlessly. For example, in the middle of combat, I could try to intimidate the cultists who sprang a trap on my mercenary group. While my Spellweaver doesn’t have an intimidation Ability Card, I can still choose to take that action, flip a modifier card to add to my character’s Influence Attribute score and compare it to the enemies’s influence check. If successful, I might get Advantage over them, or if I beat them by enough, they may just stand down. It would be hard to get that kind of smooth action if we used two different systems.
I’ve given you a tiny sneak peek into our Attributes, so I’ll go ahead and give you all of them so you can mull over what kinds of actions you’d take using each: Athletics, Finesse, Focus, Influence, and Knowledge.
Next month, I’ll cover the Attributes in more detail, along with the way you make checks, how you may get modifiers to those checks, and some standard difficulties.
And that's it from us. As is now customary, I'll end with the progress graphic for our projects, though there are no updates from last time. I'll catch you in two weeks for more Gloomhaven Grand Festival news!
Good day! I hope you are doing well this week. As promised last time, I wanted to get into an update today that gave you a better idea of where we are with all projects. The first thing I want to share is a graphic we've whipped up that will be included in each update:
This gives you a simple view of what stage of production we are in for each project so that you can have a better idea, at a glance, of where your stuff is. Checks are for what is already finished and stars are what we are currently working on. As we make progress, we'll update the chart. But for this update, let's go into more detail on each of these items!
Buttons & Bugs
We are in production on Buttons & Bugs! This process began early last week, and so now we wait for the games to come out on the other side. This means we'll be able to begin freight shipping next month and fulfillment will ideally be happening early next year, depending on the availability of our fulfillment partners. As with all of the timelines I'll be sharing with you, everything is of course just an estimate, as there is always a chance of unforeseen delays.
Forgotten Circles
Forgotten Circles has actually already finished production, but because we will be shipping it in wave 1 along with Frosthaven, it is waiting for Frosthaven to be finished before both are shipped out together.
Frosthaven Second Print
Here again we are in production, with a very similar timeline to Buttons & Bugs above. We just got word that the games will be ship ready in two weeks, so we will be able to start freight shipping next month, with, again, fulfillment ideally happening early next year, depending on the availability of our fulfillment partners.
Frosthaven Play Surface Books
Same story here. The last piece of this was designing a box to put all the books in, because the books were too big to package any other way. So that is finished, and the play surface books are now in production and will be shipped alongside Frosthaven and Forgotten Circles. These will likely be the last piece to make it out of production, but Chris and Price are working on our shipping plan next week and will be eliminating as much unnecessary waiting and downtime as possible.
Gloomhaven Second Edition
Admittedly, this is where we are most behind. Design and development are done, but there is still a lot of outstanding art and graphic design. And while we will be doing some layout and editing this month and next on the project, the rest of the year will be mostly dedicated to finishing putting the systems and infrastructure in place to fulfill all art and design needs we are going to need on both this project and the RPG in the coming year.
To provide a very rough timeline, our goal is to finish all art and design by the end of March next year, then spend April proofing, May-June in production, and June-July in freight shipping. This puts our fulfillment sometime around July or August. Again, I just want to emphasize that these are rough estimates. We're confident that we can meet these goals, but complications can always arise.
Gloomhaven Role Playing Game
I know we haven't communicated much on the timeline of the RPG since the campaign. We wanted to give Danielle a chance to get settled and get everything into place. But with the design done and writing assignments for all the lore deployed, we are finally ready to start talking about this more.
First drafts for all the writing assignments are due in January, and in the meantime, we'll be doing further play testing and development on the rules. Once the drafts come in, we'll also start ramping up artwork for the book.
We will be getting in final drafts of the lore writing in February, by which point we'll also be finishing up any modifications to the rules sections of the book. It will then go into editing in March and layout in April, meaning we should be able to get final files sent off to the printer in June. From there, we can expect ocean freight two months after that in August and fulfillment starting in September.
I just want to stress again that this is an optimistic estimate that assumes everything comes together without delays, which hardly ever happens. But we'll do our best to stick to that schedule, and we'll let you know if anything changes.
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
With the miniatures, we aren't quite ready to give a more concrete timeline. Progress is certainly being made here as we finish up the sculpting, but there are so many variables with the factory revisions and mold-making process. Plus the production time can be variable, depending on what our final order quantities end up being. We will have more info on this later!
Other exciting things
Our friends at Glass Cannon will be streaming a play through of the RPG tonight! Back at Gen Con, they recorded a podcast where the team went through character creation, which you can find here.
But you don't need to have watched that to enjoy them playing the game tonight at 8pm ET on Twitch! Joe O'Brien is Gloom Mastering for Sydney Amanuel, Paula Deming, Skid Maher, and Josephine McAdam, and we are all very excited to check it out!
And if you want more RPG live plays, we will also be doing one at PAXU. This will be on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 11am ET and will be streamed through Penny Arcade's channels. We'll be getting the PA crew that you saw during the campaign back together for another wild mission that will most assuredly involve Winkies. Alexander Theoharis will be Gloom Mastering for myself, Jasmine Bhullar, Jerry Holkins, and Laura Stringer.
You can also come hang out at our booth at PAXU (#2936), where we will be running demos of the RPG, Frosthaven, Gloomhaven Second Edition, and Buttons & Bugs with production samples fresh from the factory. It's gonna be a great time!
Next update will likely be a smaller one, as we'll all be at PAXU, but you can expect another designer diary from Danielle about the RPG, so look forward to that, and I'll catch you then!
Good day! Progress on all projects continues to move along as communicated in previous updates, but today I wanted to focus specifically on Buttons & Bugs and the RPG to talk about some major strides we've taken in both.
Before we get to that, though, I want to let everyone know that waves 1 and 2 are now closed in the pledge manager and all charges have been processed. Anyone who is still having issues with their order should contact [email protected] to get it resolved. Wave 3 will be opening on Monday 11/6 and will remain open into January of next year (possibly later depending on when GH 2.0 starts printing). Any backers who had wave 1 or 2 items in their cart that didn't complete their pledge had those items removed and converted to store credit where applicable.
Buttons & Bugs
First off, all of the files are done! Most have already made it to the factory and back to us in the form of digital proofs, and the team has been pouring over those to ensure everything looks right. This means we can press print very soon.
We know there were a handful of questions surrounding the final rules—and what exactly comes inside the box—so we wanted to share the completed Learn to Play guide with you to give you a better idea of exactly what that entails. You can take a look at it here!
Learn to Play rules
We hope that this rules document can better set expectations about what the game is going to be (though there were manyplaythroughvideos we made during the campaign as well). While the game is simpler and easier to set up and play than Gloomhaven, many of the rules are the same, so for those not familiar with Gloomhaven, teaching the rules can be a bit complex.
The team, most notably Nikki the designer/developer, Jason the layout artist, Arch the art director, and Jaym the editor, have put a tremendous amount of work into crafting this learn to play guide that distills all of those Gloomhaven rules nuances into an easily digestible document. It doesn't cover everything, but it will get you through the first scenario with a good understanding of the game. And from there, if you have any questions, you can reference the full rules document available on our website.
This is a plain text document that is intended to be easily searchable with lots of hyperlinks for all cross-references. You will also be able to easily print it out if you want a physical version. And if the length of this document is intimidating, just remember that it is meant to be fully comprehensive and exhaustive. And it is also a living document that can be changed and added to if we discover additional clarifications are needed about anything.
Some other caveats for the document:
It is obviously not finished, we just wanted to have a solid draft of something to show you.
We haven't done a comprehensive editing pass. If you see typos, don't worry, we'll fix them.
Many of the component visuals are missing or aren't final. Don't worry about that either.
The document is also missing an index, but we'll get that taken care of too.
Hopefully these two documents give you a better idea of the rules and how we'll be communicating them to you!
Gloomhaven Role Playing Game
We've been letting the RPG stew for a while, but now that we are confident in where the game design is at this point, I think it is finally time to start talking about it more. And the first step in doing that is introducing you to the RPG project manager, Danielle Lauzon!
Danielle Lauzon is a freelance game designer, writer, developer, and gamer living in Austin, TX with her husband, two dogs, and three cats. When she isn't writing, developing, designing, or otherwise occupied in getting games organized, she is playing games instead. She has been working in the TTRPG industry for over a decade and has over 50 credits to her name from companies such as Onyx Path Publishing, Magpie Games, and Green Ronin.
Danielle joined the team about two months ago because we needed an RPG industry professional to come in and make sure everything was getting done in a timely manner. At this point, she has fully taken over the project and is currently contracting out lore writing to all our awesome authors. And one of the other things Danielle will be tackling is writing monthly blog entries on our website about the whole process. So every other update or so, Danielle will fill you in on her work. Here is the first entry:
Hello Mercenaries!
I’m Danielle Lauzon, the new project manager for the Gloomhaven RPG, and this is the start of a new series I’m going to do monthly in which I unpack some of the design decisions behind the RPG. Each month I’ll pick a topic about the design to discuss. The purpose of this design diary is to give you a little sneak peak at what’s coming from the RPG, and also give insight as to why things will look the way they do.
This month, I’m going to cover the very basic concept of turning a board game into an RPG. In a lot of ways, a board game is already pretty similar to an RPG. That’s especially true for Gloomhaven, where you pick a mercenary, go out on missions, earn rewards, level up, and learn a whole story about the town of Gloomhaven. Honestly, it’s the most RPG-like board game I’ve ever played. So how do we ensure that we preserve the great elements Gloomhaven already brings while making it more like an RPG with open narratives, more player agency, and connective tissue between combat?
The great thing about Gloomhaven is that it already has a pretty robust tactical combat system in the form of ability cards. The modifier deck similarly already provides an excellent randomizer system. So the goal is to keep these two elements and make them work both in and out of combat. The modifier cards are the easiest. Every time you take an action in which the outcome is uncertain, you flip a modifier card and add its value to a score. In the board game, this is always attack values, and it makes sense for negative numbers to bring your attack value to 0 or less. It makes less sense for that to happen on a check to pick a lock or calm down an outraged Vermling. We solved this problem by slightly tweaking the modifier deck to have two numbers present. One number is the familiar -2 to +2 from the board game, and the other number ranges from 1 to 6. This isn’t a perfect fix, but it allows the same cards to handle both attacks and other types of checks at the same time without needing two decks or to over inflate stat numbers.
Speaking of stat numbers, the other thing we needed to do was to ensure that there was some way to stack that card flip in your favor. Just like in combat when you want to do a big attack vs a small attack, your attack value will be different, we realized that we needed the character to have another set of non-combat stats to handle other types of encounters. So, characters have a set of Attribute scores, rated 0-3. When you flip a modifier card, you add the value to the appropriate Attribute score and compare it to a difficulty. Our Gloom Master (GM) sets the difficulty level, anywhere from 3 on up depending on how difficult it is to accomplish, and you see how well you did compared. There’s more ways to get bonuses to your checks, but we’ll cover that in another design diary.
Now we come to the role of Ability Cards. In the board game, Ability cards are both how you take actions and a measure of your character’s stamina. If you run out, you are out for the count. In an RPG, it sucks to run out of resources and suddenly be completely out of the action. While Ability cards are still an expendable resource, if you run out, you can still take actions, just at a small penalty. Ability cards are still how you take most actions, although only big or stressful actions will require a card expenditure (discard or loss) outside of combat. So while sweet talking a guard might not require a discard, calming that Vermling probably will.
A lot of the Ability Cards will look familiar to those who have played the board game, but there will be a few changes that I’ll chat about later in future design diaries.
Phew! I know it has taken some time, but I am really excited about the direction Cephalofair is headed with all these projects, and the momentum we've now built up. Expect more good things, and I'll see you next time where we plan to have some updated official timelines for everything for you!
Good day! Happy update Friday, and I hope everyone is doing well. Essen Spiel ended up being a great success for the team, while we also continued to plug away on all the projects back home. Before I get into updating you on that progress, though, I'd like to announce the addition of two new staff members here at Cephalofair Games!
Monica Paprocki and Aaron Hoyt
I am happy to inform you that Monica Paprocki has joined us as the new marketing manager, while Aaron Hoyt is coming on as the new community support specialist. They are both very intelligent and capable people who have already helped us out tremendously at conventions and elsewhere, so I am super-excited to have them officially join the team!
An introduction from Monica: You’ve seen me as the Banner Spear, or the Geminate, or the Deathwalker. Now see me in my new form - Cephalofair Games new Marketing Manager. Working for Cephalofair as a cosplayer since 2019 has me dreaming of working for the company full-time. And I am so happy and excited that they have given me this opportunity. I have gotten to know the folks at Cephalofair over the years and our team has a lot of hard working employees that I have enjoyed being around with at conventions. Not only am I bringing my creativity to my position, but also more than 10 years of experience being an accountant and business experience for running my own company.
And an introduction for Aaron: Aaron has been a long time Cephalofair event staffer, regularly acting as sales and event lead at numerous conventions each year with our team, just recently backing up Chris Kessler on support tickets over the last couple months, and countless other "gopher/go-for" jobs over the years. It certainly didn't hurt he wraps a mean convention pallet either! Chances are if you've seen us at a show in the last 4 years, you've seen Aaron too! With over 20 years of customer service experience and a passion for each and every fellow gamer in our community, he'll be a great addition to our team!
As marketing manager, Monica will be helping to craft updates and make sure you are informed about everything that is going on over here. And Aaron will be on the front lines as the community support specialist, answering requests sent to [email protected], but also being more present on this page to make sure your questions are answered here as well. We're hoping that as we move forward, both of them should help improve communication with all of you.
And that's not even all the staffing we've been doing over here. Next update, we will finally have some more concrete information on the RPG and some other announcements pertaining to that.
To be completely transparent, we have hit some additional delays here. Some of the graphic design work we were expecting to be finished by now required some additional revisions, and then will need to go through an additional editing pass. In addition, the learn-to-play guide that we are including in the box turned out to be a little trickier to put together than we anticipated, given the small size and how much information we wanted to include. It is being finished up for an editing pass as well, but is a bit behind. Our current plan is to get the files to the printer by the end of the month.
With that said, I did want to talk a little more about what to expect when learning to play Buttons & Bugs. Included in the box will be a learn-to-play guide that should jump-start you into the first scenario of the game, so you can get started as quickly as possible and learn as you go. This won't be the complete set of rules, as there are a lot of them and it's a small box. Instead, we intend to have a much more comprehensive rules document online that is easily searchable and referenceable as you play if you have any questions.
In addition, we are also working closely with Dized to also create an interactive learning tool for the game. We should have more information about what that entails later when that work gets closer to completion, but we really wanted to provide learning tools for you that cover multiple different learning styles to further reduce the barrier to entry.
Once again, I'd like to welcome Monica and Aaron to the team, and I will catch you next time with more news from the project!
This week our team is split in two completing objectives of multiple sizes:
…exhibiting at SPIEL, in Essen Germany - the world's BIGGEST annual tabletop event…
...and wrapping up the FINAL bits and bobs on GLOOMHAVEN: BUTTONS & BUGS - the world’s SMALLEST Gloomhaven game!
Let’s talk about what’s going on:
-BUTTONS & BUGS-
I want to give a HUGE thank you Nikki Valens, Arch Anderson, Jason Kingsley, & Jaym Gates who have been working together super diligently rounding the final corners on Buttons & Bugs! Things are coming together quickly and we’re still on target for our self-imposed deadline of October 15th to have full production files turned in and the proofing process started.
MOST EXCITEDLY, today we have some MICRO MERCENARIES to show off in their final glory! I’m SO pleased with how these have come out, and Arch did a great job working with our incumbent sculptor Chris Lewis, shrinking, but retaining, each class's core aesthetics. Doing 10mm miniatures was a first for all of us - but we’re incredibly pleased with how much detail and character we were still able to capture in these little buggers - and we hope you are too!
With Miniature proofs approved, those are now heading into production ahead of all the papery bits.
Gloomhaven Micro Mercenaries take on....the Mushroom Kingdom?
-ESSEN SPIEL-
It’s that time of year again when Cephalofair makes our way to the quaint little town of Essen, Germany where the world’s largest board gaming convention is taking place - Essen Spiel!
Chris flew our on Monday of this week to get things setup with our returning and ever ready Essen Booth Crew, who did a great job getting things setup in time for the first day of the show on Thursday.
This is a first year for me, personally, not attending Essen. Which is weird. But what felt weirder was trying to justify going when we are honestly the busiest we’ve ever been “back in the office” and with some family priorities at home. It’s one of many little unforeseen “growing
ESSEN SPIEL - BOOTH #3Q110
Demos in full swing!
Oh, Julian!
-FROSTHAVEN-
Frosthaven Playsurface
Files have been fully submitted, and we are currently on our second round of proofing - which means we should be green-lighting production sometime in the coming days (weekend pending)!
Frosthaven (2nd Printing)
Proofing is almost complete, with SOME parts already in, and other heading, into production. With a game as big as Frosthaven, certain components are assembled directly “in house” while others (like miniatures) are often made in a separate district or area and brought in for assembly. Unlike the new “little sibling” it is expecting later his year with Buttons & Bugs, which really requires us to have 100% of everything approved before we can safely get started running the machines .
Forgotten Circles (3rd Printing)
Not much to say here other than the print run proofs were all approved and the game is in production for shipment alongside Frosthaven (2nd Printing) once it is ready to set sail.
-GLOOMHAVEN-
2nd Printing / RPG/ Miniatures
No updates on these projects today as the first two waves of production have had our primary focus, but our staff is diligently moving things along in parallel with those things above being sent to print. We’ll hopefully have some more exciting updates for you in the near future!
-CUSTOMER SERVICE-
We thank everyone for your continue patience as we navigate post-campaign & pledge manager support. As we’ve been hinting we’ve been scaling up our customer service resources and are excited to share that we'll have a new crew member joining our team in the coming week - along with a couple other new Cephalofair team members we’re excited to introduce to you as well. Exciting things are afoot at Cephalofair - thanks for hanging in there for us!
-RETAILER PLEDGE MANAGER-
Retailers! We are continuing to hear from those of you who are submitting your retailer verification forms and documents, thank you! We appreciate your patience as we onboard so many first time partners, and assure you we will be allowing ample time for order completion. Please email us at [email protected] if you still haven’t received your verification form or Backerkit survey and we’ll be happy to help upon our return from Essen!
THAT'S IT....FOR NOW!
That’s it for this week - we’ll catch you in another 2 weeks once everyone is properly back from Essen and back behind their respective wheels.
