Thank you for a fantastic first week of Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game! We’re already hard at work behind the scenes on developing the Meridian into an RPG, full of dangerous quests, perilous prophecies, and unforgettable characters, stories, and games. 

 

We're incredibly proud of all the art you've seen for this campaign so far—taking inspiration from real, historical fashion, artifacts, equipment, and blending it with motifs with the magical world of the Meridian has been a challenge, but an incredibly rewarding one. While working on building this campaign and game, all of team MCG has been voraciously reading (or rereading) the Between Earth & Sky trilogy; not only to get a good handle on what we're making, but to make sure we're well-versed in all the intricacies of the world we're representing.

 

Whether you’ve been following us from our sign-up incentives, or have just joined us recently, you’ve probably seen this stunning piece:

 

 

Swords seem like a gimme for any fantasy setting—but the Meridian isn't just any fantasy setting. It's a world inspired by heritages and customs that make it something truly unique. 

 

Charles, the man behind the curtain for our crowdfunding campaigns, was the first to spot the potential hiccup. His exact words were:

 

"Love [the piece]. Only question: is the sword correct? I haven’t come across any characters with a sword in what I’ve read so far. In fact, I’ll go further: There are suggestions of metal on the figure’s belt and arms, but I get the impression that outside of hammered gold and silver, there’s very little metal use in this setting?"

 

And he was right! Metal is not a widely used resource in the world of Between Earth & Sky. Bear, our Art Director, went back to the phenomenal artist of this piece, Macli, and asked about the inspiration behind the weapon. 

 

“My idea was the typical Mayan sword with obsidian teeth, but inside a leather sheath […] I can understand that [in the sheath] it looks like a regular sword.”

 

While we really loved the idea of including obsidian teeth, we ultimately felt like another direction would work better for the scene and for the clarity of the setting. Bear went back to the artist and explained that we'd like to change the sword to an axe. Axes, made from a combination of wood, antler, bone, and/or stone (and sometimes copper), were commonly used tools in the pre-Columbian Americas, and so too in the Meridian. That's how we ended up with the final piece!

 

We hope you've enjoyed peeking behind the curtain a bit into the Art Direction process for Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game. It's not something we've commonly shared with previous campaigns, but we thought you might like to learn more about our creative pursuits and processes we undertake when creating the game.

 

Stay tuned for more updates talking about the process of taking the concept of an RPG to a full realized crowdfunding campaign, then game! And in case you missed it, you can read about how this game came to be in our first behind-the-scenes update from Shanna Germain. 

Welcome! Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game is funded and are well on our way to our second stretch goal! So far, backers have unlocked a Deluxe Story Counter and voted on their first (of many) free stickers.

Now, we're working towards unlocking a beautiful, comprehensive poster map of the Meridian—and we're already halfway there! Help us reach this goal by supporting the campaign or sharing the word about Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game.

It’s not enough for us to just “get the word out” about BE&S. We need to advocate for it, and particularly to show fantasy gamers of all stripes how much they’ll love this game—once they get past their expectations of what fantasy has to be.

Please help spread the word. And please help news about Between Earth & Sky reach audiences that might not otherwise hear about it!

 

—Team MCG