Good day! It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and I am excited to bring you our progress on the miniature and RPG waves. It has been a flurry of activity with lots of communication back and forth with the factories on both fronts, as we work out pre-production issues and finalize the sculpts. Below, you’ll find the usual updates on both projects.

Hey Backers, Price here with this month’s Miniatures of Gloomhaven update!

Thank you all for your patience last month as our production team was in Kentucky meeting with our manufacturing partners, aligning in-person over this year’s projects, and making sure no production stones were left unturned. Being a fully remote company, it is really important to occasionally work face-to-face and power through outstanding creative direction.

On the miniatures side, I’m excited to share that meaningful progress has and is currently underway across ALL miniature sets.

ALL MODELS ARE MODIFIED & APPROVED FOR PRODUCTION!

We completed our final round of approvals for digital modification, which means Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Summons, Frosthaven, & Frosthaven: Summons are all officially entering steel mold production. 

JAWS OF THE LION & FORGOTTEN CIRCLES MOLDS ARE COMPLETE!
I’ve excitedly gotten confirmation that steel molds are complete for both of these upgrade sets and mold-testing copies will be sent to us next week along with “white-box” samples (packaging and tray samples without artwork).

BOXES & BASE RINGS
With these production samples underway, we are now confidently starting on final packaging direction, copy writing, and tray map reference sheets. It’s a fun endeavor that makes us feel a little bit like chocolatiers figuring out which delicious morsels go next to which and how you identify them. Equally important, that you know where they fit back into their packaging when you’re done!

With final modified files on all models, we’re re-exporting 3D renders of each for production-accurate representations on the packaging and reference map sheets. 

Each miniature will have a reference number under them that indicates which Miniature Upgrade Set they belong to (see image below). These will be cross referenced inside each set with a visual reference map (like the sheet that tells you which chocolate is which inside a box of chocolate) to make setup and teardown easier for players. 

We’ve also confirmed final base ring counts you’ll get with each product, based on campaign-specific scenario requirements, monster group quantities, etc. 

With each campaign upgrade set, will include the optimal number of numbered base ring (#1-6, #1-10) in the appropriate colors (white = basic; yellow = elite) to accurately track miniatures to their respective monster stat cards and HP trackers. 

They are as follows for those interested:

Gloomhaven Miniatures

White: 4 sets of #1-6; 2 sets of #1-10

Yellow: 4 sets of #1-6; 2 sets of #1-10

Red: 1 set of #1-2

Blue: 4 sets of #1-2, 1 set of #1-3, 5 unnumbered

White: 2 Sets of #1-6; Yellow: 2 Sets of #1-6

Red: 2 unnumbered

Blue: 1 set of #1-2, 2 unnumbered

White: 1 set of #1-6; 3 sets #1-10

Yellow: 1 set of #1-6; 3 sets #1-10

Red: 2 unnumbered

White: 4 Sets of #1-6; 2 Sets pf #1-10

Yellow: 4 Sets of #1-6; 2 Sets of #1-10

Red: 1 set of #1-2

Blue: 1 set of #1-2, 1 set of #1-6, 8 unnumbered

We anticipate a lot of continued progress this month and look forward to sharing next steps with you in the month ahead!

Moving on to RPG efforts, we are working out some production elements of the deluxe box with the factory and organizing everything to begin sending over our files for all the various elements of the project. The main thing we wanted to share with you this month, though, was our final cover art for the book, illustrated by Phan Tuấn Đạt and designed by Arch Anderson, using filagree designed by Francesca Baerald.

Our original vision for the core rulebook called for a standard-issue full-color cover and an upgraded deluxe version with premium detail treatments. After some discussion with our manufacturing partners, we are pleased to share that the deluxe cover will be sent out to all backers who ordered a physical book at any tier.

As we take our final steps toward sending the book to print, we wanted to share some more spreads featuring the full art treatment. Our graphic design and art teams have been working hard to make sure that this book is visually stunning.

An extra-wide illustration by Kendal Gates welcomes readers into a fracas in the streets—but for these mercs, it was Tuesday.

Throughout the production of our games, we have gathered a whole lot of amazing illustrations of cool items you may encounter on your adventures. This book has given that artwork a chance to escape the confines of their mini euro cards. Classic artwork by Alexandr Elichev, Mates Laurentiu, and Yanis Cardin are worked in throughout the book, showing greater detail than their previous published appearances.

One of the things we’re most excited about with this system is the ability to mix and match ancestries and classes for a more customized mercenary. The first pages for each class and ancestry have been given special attention by our design team to encompass all the basics on one spread. Like many of the book’s key art illustrations, Jocelyn Sarvida’s valrath silent knife illustration gives us a glimpse of an individual from the world of Gloomhaven we’ve not seen before. 

We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting shipping timelines and the re-opening of our pledge manager. We remain committed to providing that information as soon as we are able. 

We’re excited to be moving forward with our next step toward full-scale production. The prepress process is underway. This means we’re starting to share production files with our manufacturing partners for final review and collaboration on any adjustments necessary to ensure high-quality production. This is the first of many waves of file submission, review, and revision, and represents our moving into another key phase of the process.

Alright, I’ve got a bit of a weird one for you this month. We at Cephalofair Games aren’t huge fans of April Fools’. In fact, I almost went through the entirety of last Wednesday not realizing it was happening, which is really an ideal situation for me. But then I ran across this April Fools’ post that made me appreciate what the day could be: an opportunity to create high-effort nonsense.

This comes from Redditor IAmPolarExpress, who decided to post an ASMR video of two Gloomhaven mercenaries becoming more than friends. It may not be for everybody, but I appreciated it. The content is all SFW, but it does feature heavy use of the words “dumb” and “idiot,” which may offend some. Looking forward to the next one where your vermling boyfriend brings home a gift for your anniversary!

And that will do it for this month. Have a great rest of the month, and we’ll catch you next time with even more progress on getting these two projects across the finish line!