Greetings, explorers!

 

The post-campaign lull has allowed everyone to take a bit of time in the tavern or holodeck, depending on your preference! Behind the scenes (or deeper in the dungeon), a great deal is happening. Monte was able to surface from the Jewel long enough to tease this report: 

 

– Monte Cook, May 2026

 

As one of the players in Monte’s Jewel in the Sky fantasy campaign, and having experienced these weird mirror rooms, I too would LOVE to know more. If only to prevent…well, ok, yes, that’s probably a spoiler too! 

 

Keep exploring, and watch out for mirrors…

 

 

Thanks for your support!
 —Team MCG

Hello, backers, and thank you so much for a great campaign!

After more than three days, Overtime Mode has come to an end, and with that the Jewel in the Sky crowdfunding campaign has concluded. All of us here at MCG are so happy that you’ve helped us craft a very cool book into an amazing boxed set and adventuring experience. Thank you!

During Overtime Mode you unlocked not only the expansion to the Creatures of Vocurro bestiary (which we'd almost hit at the scheduled end time), but went on to unlock two more goals, upgrading to the Twin Clocks Timer and adding foil stamping to your XP card collection. Nearly 250 new backers pledged to the campaign while we were in Overtime Mode—what an amazing result!

We want to tell you a bit about where things go from here, but first let’s give out a little credit to the small team here at MCG that works so hard to bring you our games—and this crowdfunding campaign.

Monte has been working on Jewel in the Sky for some time—well before this campaign launched and all through it. Other members of our design team—Sean, Bruce, and Shanna—have been working on other upcoming products, including The Electric Sun (for Invisible Sun), Face Your Fears and Do Not Open (for The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game), and the Predation setting for Cypher. They’ve also overseen tweaks to the new Cypher corebooks as those titles have moved through layout and proofing.

Bear and Javier wrangled art, imaged new products, and designed XP cards for this campaign, while working on layout for the Cyper corebooks and other projects. With Teri and Dominique, they’ve also moved titles like Face Your Fears and Come Hell or High Water through production.

Jen, Olivia, and Kate have answered your questions (and are always available to provide support to you, our wonderful community). Tammie has been steering the ship and keeping the logistics moving through the many challenges of our era. Daniel has been supervising our warehouse, working hard to fulfill rewards and orders. And Charles planned and ran this campaign (and is writing this update).

We are a small team, and we keep a lot of plates spinning at any given time!

Now, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here. Please give it a read!

Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work (and Mega Dungeon Month was close on the heels of our last campaign). So we’re looking forward to getting a bit of rest. You might not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. Monte’s been working on Jewel, while Bear has been wrangling art and maps, for some time—and they’re keeping at it! We’ll post updates any time there’s news share. 

BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.

In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us the information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in about three weeks. You MUST look out for, and respond to, that notification!

Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy making Jewel in the Sky for many months. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.

At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.

Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.

This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.

Please pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

If you’ve a longtime backer of MCG’s crowdfunding campaigns, you know we often tease the next big thing right here in this space. For the next few months, we’re going to be focused on the launch of Cypher—one of the biggest and most important new product launches in MCG’s fourteen years. Follow us on social media, join the Cypher Unlimited Discord, and check the MCG website in the months to come for loads of cool info as we approach the release of the Cypher corebooks.

We do have something very exciting lined up for later this year, and we can’t wait to tell you about it. But for now, Cypher deserves all of our attention!

Hello, backers—

Believe it or not, you’ve unlocked ANOTHER stretch goal! That’s two goals in Overtime Mode!

And the campaign continues to chug along. Over 130 new backers have discovered this campaign since the we went into Overtime Mode–that’s amazing, and it’s still going!

The upgrade to the Twin Clocks Timer is now unlocked. We’ll give this centerpiece component of the boxed set a premium treatment and increase its utility as part of that.

You also added this card to your collection of exclusive Jewel in the Sky XP cards:

Remember, this is a free bonus reward for every backer, no matter your pledge level!

We’d like to offer a special thank-you for all the work you’ve done to help new backers discover Jewel in the Sky. So for our next goal, we want to upgrade the collection of XP cards you've accumulated by unlocking stretch goals throughout this campaign. A few years back we made a similar exclusive XP Deck, which included foil stamping on the cards. They’re spectacular! Here are some photos (not mockups) of those cards:

Let’s give your cards a foil treatment, too! If we can reach 2625 backers before Overtime Mode comes to an end, we’ll foil-stamp the cards in the exclusive XP Deck we’re making for every backer.

We’re already nearly a third of the way toward hitting this goal. If you keep spreading the word, there’s every chance we can make it. One thing that words is mentioning this campaign in places where gamers talk about RPGs—this thread on EN World, and this post on reddit, have been especially fruitful. Join the conversation there, and thousands of additional backers will learn about this campaign!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

We’re in Overtime Mode, but the campaign is still on fire. You’ve unlocked the big expansion to the Creatures of Vocurro bestiary!

This book is getting a lot meatier, with a bunch of additional creatures being given the expanded treatment that includes options, alternate versions, lots of lore and supporting information, and more. This approach really helps you breathe life into your Jewel encounters, and makes it easy to use these creatures in other adventures.

This expands Creatures of Vocurro—whether you get it as a component of the boxed set or as an add-on.

In addition, we’re adding another card to your XP card collection—it’s a free bonus reward we give every backer, no matter their pledge level, as a thank-you for helping to unlock the goal.

Here’s the card you chose:

We’re in Overtime Mode, so as long as pledges keep coming in, the campaign stays open. All Mega Dungeon Month campaigns will stay live until all of them simultaneously go 10 minutes without a new pledge.

How long will that be? For our past campaigns, that’s been anywhere from a few hours to almost two whole days. Our last campaign drew nearly 150 backers in Overtime Mode!

So as long as the campaign keeps rolling, why not keep the stretch goals going?

Here’s a really unique aspect to the Jewel in the Sky adventure—the influence of two powerful and enigmatic entities: Dalyn, the Optimist, and Korana, the Pessimist. Some on Vocurro worship them as gods, but perhaps their true nature hasn’t been fully revealed.

Dalyn and Korana are subtle but active participants in your exploration of Vocurro, influencing the adventure through events triggered by the patterns of your players’ die rolls. You don’t need anything special to track this process, but we’re including the Twin Clocks Timer in the boxed set to make it a bit easier and to amplify the tension this can add to the game.

The Twin Clocks Timer, as we’re currently planning it, is pretty cool—but we think it could be even cooler. Take a look at this:

We’d like to give it a base that angles it away from the players’ prying eyes—or that can be used to hide it like a mini GM screen. We’ll also add deluxe features such as spot varnish or foil stamping, and a cool custom die-cut design, to give the Twin Clocks Timer the premium feel it deserves.

Backers are coming in very quickly at this point. This goal is a stretch, but based on our long experience with crowdfunding, we think it’s totally doable—if you keep spreading the word!

Why not have another quick poll? These are two cards that didn’t win their votes—but were still pretty popular. Let’s give them a second chance. Which should we include as a free bonus reward if you unlock the Twin Clocks Timer upgrade?

In case you missed it: we dropped a bunch of new art in an earlier update today. Check it out! And please keep spreading the word. There are thousands of gamers out there who haven’t even heard about this campaign—and will be sad to learn they missed it. You can help them find it before it’s too late!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

Mega Dungeon Month has reached its scheduled closing time—but Jewel in the Sky still going!

We’re in what’s called Overtime Mode: as long as new pledges keep coming in—for any Mega Dungeon Month campaign—Jewel in the Sky remains open. It ends when only when Mega Dungeon Month hits a 10-minute stretch with no new pledges to any campaign.

Nobody knows!

Could be just an hour or two. Could be much longer. In our last campaign, we had nearly 150 pledges in Overtime Mode!

That’s not a rounding error—it’s a big deal. And it means we can still unlock stretch goals—in fact, you've aaaalmost unlocked the Creatures of Vocurro bestiary upgrade, and if that happens soon maybe we can even go for another one!

So please go out there, share this campaign, and help spread the word!

Tell people in these threads that Overtime Mode is rolling RIGHT NOW.

You can also find loads of sharable posts and images on MCG’s social media accounts:

Spread the word, and let’s hit more stretch goals!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG