Hi, all! Just wanted to let you know that we've been working hard on the pledge manager setup. It will open early next week. BackerKit starts with a "smoke test," wherein they invite a limited number of backers in first, just to make sure everything's working as intended. Then...
8
0
0
Charles Ryan
26 days ago
Thank you so much, everyone!
What a great end to this campaign! Thanks, all!
15
0
4
Charles Ryan
26 days ago
What a Great End to this Awesome Campaign! INCLUDES IMPORTANT INFO
Hello, backers—
We have some VERY IMPORTANT info for you below. But first:
What a fast-paced last day we’ve had! It came down to the wire, but we made it: we unlocked our fina...
16
0
8
Kate Evans
26 days ago
WE MADE IT!!
Great job foks! :D
2400 Backers!!
14
0
4
Charles Ryan
26 days ago
What a nail-biter!
We're less than two hours from the campaign coming to a close--and at our current rate, we'll prooooobbbbably make it. Probably?
Let's all give it one more big push, and make sure we hit this stretch goal before the clock runs out!
15
0
12
Charles Ryan
27 days ago
Gunslinger Knights Upgraded—and Another Big Announcement!
Hello, backers—
Once again you have blown us away, and knocked out another stretch goal. The upgrade to Gunslinger Knights is now unlocked, so the book is getting bigger and th...
Hi, all! Just wanted to let you know that we've been working hard on the pledge manager setup. It will open early next week. BackerKit starts with a "smoke test," wherein they invite a limited number of backers in first, just to make sure everything's working as intended. Then they send the invites to the rest of the backers a day or two later. Either way, look for that email next week!
We have some VERY IMPORTANT info for you below. But first:
What a fast-paced last day we’ve had! It came down to the wire, but we made it: we unlocked our final stretch goal, upgrading just about everything this campaign is funding. We:
Increased the page count of Neon Rain
And for High Noon at Midnight
Made the poster map in Gunslinger Knights double-sided
Added a couple more maps to the handful already in the Hacker’s Matrix
Added more images to the Otherworldly Sites Pack.
Upgraded the Midnight Deck
Improved the already-upgraded GM Campaign Journal
It’s been an exciting few weeks for the Cypher System and for us, what with the launch of the Character Creator, the announcement of Old Gods of Appalachia: Deeper Still and CypherCon 1.0, and the release of new products and pending release of the excellent Cypher System Bestiary. And this fantastic campaign is the icing on the cake! We welcome the many new Cypher System gamers who have joined us through this campaign, and extend our thanks to you and to the thousands of existing fans who helped make Neon Rain, Gunslinger Knights, and High Noon at Midnight a reality—and to build them out to our ambitious vision for the gaming experiences these titles will bring to your game table.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ the next couple of sections. We have some other info to share after that, but what follows here is critical.
What's Next? The Important Stuff
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be getting the pledge manager fully set up.
The pledge manager is vital to getting your rewards. We CANNOT FULFILL your rewards if you don’t respond to the pledge manager!
In the pledge manager, we’re going to ask for your email address. YOU MUST provide an address you can use later at the MCG Shop. DO NOT use an email proxy (like Apple Hide My Email), or an address you won’t have access to (like a school-issued address)—or you won’t be able to claim your rewards!
Be sure to add [email protected] to your email safe list, so you get our communications. Responding to these emails is vital for you to claim your rewards.
Here’s what else happens going forward:
The Immediate Future
Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work. We’re looking forward to the weekend, and next week when we’re all getting together for our company summit! You may not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. The design team is already at work on these titles. We’ll post updates when we have something exciting to share.
We’ve delivered on over two dozen large crowdfunding campaigns over the past 10+ years, and we’ll be working diligently on your rewards in the weeks and months to come.
The Next Few Weeks
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 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.
The Next Few Months
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 crafting your products and rewards in the months to come. 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.
When Your Rewards Ship
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.
Make sure to 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.
OK, Enough Business—Now Some Fun Stuff
First, some thanks:
While this campaign was underway, Monte and the design team (Sean, Bruce, Shanna, and Dominique) have been working on our current projects, such as The Wellspring (for Invisible Sun), as well as Neon Rain, High Noon at Midnight, and Gunslinger Knights.
Bear, supported by Javier (and the many great illustrators they work with), coordinated the artwork and handled the graphic design of this campaign, while they were also busy getting titles like It’s Only Magic off to press.
Teri and Tammie wrangled words and logistics of this campaign, and Jen, Olivia, and Kate provided answers and support to you, our wonderful community, here and everywhere gamers congregate online. The man behind the curtain of this campaign is Charles, who has planned and run this campaign.
All of us at MCG want to express our thanks to you, our backers. We really appreciate your support for the Cypher System and Monte Cook Games. That support continues to grow our amazing community!
And In Case You Missed It
Join us for our next campaign, delving deeper into the alternate Appalachia of the Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game. Sign up to be notified when the campaign launches this summer!
Thanks again for your support! —The Monte Cook Games team
Once again you have blown us away, and knocked out another stretch goal. The upgrade to Gunslinger Knights is now unlocked, so the book is getting bigger and the setting even richer—plus we’re adding a poster map!
We unlocked that goal in just over a day, so as we head into the fast-paced final day, there’s definitely time for at least one more. We think you’ll really like the next one. But first we have another announcement.
We’re really excited to announce, in conjunction with our good friends at Cypher Unlimited, CypherCon 1.0: Into the Cypherverse!
This online gaming convention will run Friday, September 6th through Sunday, September 8th, and feature dozens and dozens of games. (It will also kick off with a special AMA with the MCG team on Thursday, September 5th.) It will be run through the Cypher Unlimited Discord—a vibrant and welcoming community of Cypher System fans.
This is a great chance to play in games run by some of the best Cypher System GMs in the world, and to sample the enormous breadth of the Cypher System. Look for a roster of diverse and imaginative games to be posted in the next couple of months. (If you’re a GM and want to take part, inquire on the CU Discord.)
If you’re not a member already (and every Cypher System player should be!), join the Cypher Unlimited Discord to keep up with CypherCon news.
Now: Let’s Upgrade EVERYTHING!
We’ve unlocked some really great stretch goals throughout this campaign, allowing us to expand and grow the three central books to create the rich, immersive experience we want them to bring to your game table. But as we close in on the final day, we want to go out with a bang. Let’s do it all!
Our next stretch goal will upgrade just about everything. Yes, everything! We’d like to:
Increase the page count of Neon Rain
Do the same for High Noon at Midnight
Make the poster map in Gunslinger Knights double-sided
Add a couple more maps to the handful already in the Hacker’s Matrix
Add more images to the Otherworldly Sites Pack
Give the Midnight Deck a slightly more premium feel, with foil stamping for the box
Improve the already-upgraded GM Campaign Journal, with more more genre labels, so it’s a great fit for virtually any game you run
Wow, that’s a lot. But you’ve blown us away with this campaign, and we really want to take this chance to make the most of these products.
We’ll unlock this goal at 2,400 backers. Can we do it? It took a little over 24 hours to add the last 200 backers, so it’s definitely within reach. But remember:
IT’LL TAKE YOUR HELP. Even with all our best efforts, MCG can't reach the tens of thousands of gamers out there who might be interested in Knights of Dust and Neon. When you, the backers, mobilize, your combined reach dwarfs ours. Share this campaign, and help those gamers find it. (There are some tips and images you can use in the last update.) Let’s unlock these upgrades!
While we were playing Delta Green tonight I had the iPad next to me and was watching the backer numbers ticking over during the five hours of game time. Just settled in with a coffee and let some other neo-cyberpunk aficionados know about the project. Hopefully will see a few other game creators having a bit of a look and hopefully consider backing too. Getting closer.
I am sorry, I can't seem to find any info but I am wondering about the timeline.
Now that the project is funded, are expected dates for PDFs the same as delivery for physical copies?
Or are the Spring/Summer timelines for PDFs and then the production and shipping starts?
Thank you!
You’ve done it: with your help, the Hacker’s Matrix is unlocked! It’s going to be a very cool addition to your Neon Rain experience—really putting a cyberpunk feel in your cyberpunk games. We’re super excited to be making this unique game aid!
(Missed the details on what the Hacker’s Matrix is all about? It’s really cool—check out the last update.)
We’d like to return to Gunslinger Knights for our next stretch goal. But before we get to that…
You can build, store, advance, maintain, edit, and even share Cypher System characters online with this free resource. There are multiple modes for creating characters—the Guided mode, in particular, is super fast and easy. It takes you through the process step-by-step. You can build a character in literally three or four minutes. (It’s pretty self-explanatory, but you can learn more about how it works with this article.)
You can make as many characters as you like. When you’re ready to play, generate a form-fillable PDF character sheet, export your character to a VTT, or simply play right from the Character Builder.
The Character Builder includes all the character options from the Cypher System Rulebook plus all of our existing genre books—The Stars Are Fire, Godforsaken, We Are All Mad Here, Stay Alive!, Claim the Sky, and even Rust and Redemption (which was recently released!). So you have thousands of character options from a huge range of genres. Build virtually any character you can imagine!
We’ve added some exciting stuff to the books this campaign funds—the Midnight Deck, the Otherworldly Sites Pack, and now the Hacker’s Matrix, not to mention the zines. We’re really pleased to be able to turn these titles into such expanded and immersive experiences.
But let’s not forget the books themselves!
We’d like to return our attention to Gunslinger Knights—this is turning out to be such a unique and cool campaign setting. Let’s make it bigger! For our next goal we’ll upsize the book with approximately 32 pages of additional content. Plus we’ll add a poster map.
We’ll unlock this goal at 2,200 backers. Things move quickly in the final week, so with your help we can unlock this goal quickly and move on to even more!
Which brings us to this reminder: All of our stretch goals are based on the number of backers. We’re going all-out to reach the thousands and thousands of gamers out there who don’t know about this campaign—or perhaps don’t even know about the Cypher System. But we can’t reach them on our own—we need your help. Spread the word, and let’s have a gangbusters final week!
Thanks so much for your support! —Team MCG
Oh, One More Thing…
We have a small announcement to make about our next crowdfunding campaign, coming this summer. It relates to a standalone Cypher System RPG we recently published.
Have you felt them, that great shuddering of restless Things coming awake? Calling your name in the darkness? Will you follow them down and serve their masters? No? What if it’s the only way to protect the ones you love? What then? What will you sacrifice in the name of love and family?
Only you can answer that.
But first, you must go down deep. Deeper. Deeper still.
There. Now we will see what are you truly made of.
The Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game is an eldritch horror game set in an alternate Appalachia. Based on the popular podcast of the same name, the game takes players deep into the hills and hollers and down into the mountains where ancient beings of immeasurable darkness and unknowable purpose have begun to stir. Old Gods of Appalachia: Deeper Still, coming this summer, brings new adventures, character options, and other content to the hit tabletop roleplaying game.
One of the truisms of running a crowdfunding campaign is that the stretch goals often hit at inconvenient times. When you’re about to go into a meeting, or that day you’re out of the office—or you close in on one just as you’re ready to go to bed, so you wait, and then it takes a bit longer, and . . .
That’s the direction we’re heading toward tonight: we’re gonna hit our latest goal, but probably not until midnight or so. And I’ve got a big day ahead of me, with all the work of bringing the campaign to a close.
So I have a deal for you: if you can get us to, say, 2,180 backers by 10:00 PM CDT (that’s 11 on the east coast, and 8 on the west), we’ll release the next stretch goal early—right then. It’s a win-win-win: you get an early goal, we announce the next one (it’s a biggie—plus we have another major announcement to go with it), and I get to go to bed on time!
We only need about 20 backers to make this happen. If you can take a minute to jump into social media and give the campaign a few shout-outs, we can easily do it.
Here are some tips to make it easy. Feel free to share anything we've put up on Facebook, Instagram, or Bluesky. Or share one of the images here—along with a link to the campaign (use mymcg.info/kodan-sosh) and maybe a sentence about why you like the Cypher System.
20 or so new backers will do it—thanks for helping out!
HAS THERE EVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BE A CYPHER SYSTEM FAN? We think not! But if anything the future is even more exciting!
We have another announcement coming. (The Character Builder Monday, OGoA yesterday, the Hacker's Matrix unlocked and Cypher System Bestiary about to come out--it's been a heck of a week for Cypher System news!) We'll share this new announcement in the next update, when we unlock the current stretch goal.
Speaking of which, we're already over 2/3 of the way there. We could hit it this afternoon. IF YOU HELP.
Remember that despite our best efforts, MCG can't reach all of the tens of thousands of gamers out there who might be interested in Knights of Dust and Neon. When you, the backers, mobilize, your combined reach dwarfs ours. Share this campaign, and help those gamers find it. We're only about 75 backers (as of this writing) from unlocking the Gunslinger Knights upgrade--and we're excited about what's next!
