those of you in the United States can rejoice: the pallet has arrived to its destination! It took a couple more days than expected (who knew there were forms to certify that marker ink is not a dangerous chemicals?), but we're done!
Your games, your pins, your markers and everything else are now in the capable hands of Indie Press Revolution. They also have a packing list with all your addresses ready, and will begin fulfillment as soon as possible.
We thank you once again from the bottom of our heart for the support and patience you've shown this project. We could not have asked for better and we hope the results are up to your expectations.
For those who'd like to follow us in a new journey, back from the lands of Halloway and on to our native Italian countryside, we're happy to show you another preview of our next project, Barbabianca. You've travelled with a mighty Queen. Now are you ready to meet the village fool?
Inspired by Richard Lacey's Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne and taking a cue from the box-set format of Our Queen Crumbles, Barbabianca is a roleplaying game that requires no preparation. Its mechanics are bespoke and self-contained, weaving map-making, storytelling and roleplay into a harrowing tale about community and shame.
The game begins by choosing Roles from a selection of notable villagers such as the mayor,innkeeper or local brigand. As you build your characters, you also construct the village around them by drawing out key buildings onto a laminated map, answering questions about the general feelings of the villagefolk, and tracing an intricate web of relationships.
After this, you follow the Story act by act, taking turns to read out one of the Events that will shake the village to its bones. Every Event changes the very mechanics of the game, allowing players to mix up the narration with Tales of village life, Memories of old Barbabianca, Rumours that will be shared or twisted by the community, and shameful Secrets threatening to upset the characters' life.
You can follow Barbabianca at this link. The campaign goes live on Feb 2, as part of Zinetopia 2026.
Forgive our silence in December, but we wanted to come back with concrete news for US Backers. The pallet with your copies was shipped on Jan 16 and is currently somewhere in the Netherlands, preparing to cross the Atlantic en route to Indie Press Revolution!
According to the tracking it will be delivered this week, but our experience tells us there may be some extra customs formalities involved. Our best estimate is that it will get to IPR next week, at which point US distribution will begin. We hope you'll all get your copies by the end of the month, or in early February at the latest. Expect a quick update from us soon to confirm the new edition of Our Queen Crumbles has set foot on American soil.
Everyone else should receive their book by the end of January, as well. We shipped everything off in early December, but the post can get unpredictable around the holidays, so if you are not in the US and do not receive the book by next month shoot us a message and we'll see what we can do.
Finally, the digital version of Our Queen Crumbles is up for sale on itch.io, while the physical edition is available on our website at NessunDove. It will soon be in IPR's store as well. If you were waiting to purchase the game after the campaign, now is your chance!
A new journey: Barbabianca and Zinetopia
Now that our part is done, we feel ready to announce our new project for the upcoming Zinetopia.
Barbabianca is a zero-prep role-playing game of rumour and silence in a town that is no more. Players take the role of villagers living in a quiet town in the Italian countryside, somewhere at the turn of the last century. Over the years, this town has hoarded, hidden, and held onto a bounty of secrets and suspicions, many of which revolve around Barbabianca: an elderly mute with a heavy white beard, who drifts through and around the town like a ghost. Though Barbabianca is dead now, the rumours and stories that clung to him still haunt the town, as a time of reckoning threatens to unearth the harsh secrets buried beneath.
Barbabianca will come in the same laminated sheet format as Our Queen Crumbles, with a completely different, bespoke GMless system designed to weave a web of memories, gossip and scandal. It's the debut of Italian game designer Cristian Sisto, with striking art by Cecilia Ferri (The Gauntlet, Brindlewood Bay) and our lovely Maria Guarneri (Crescendo Giocoso, Glitch).
Expect an email with more details soon, but if you're already curious you can take a peek at the teaser page by clicking here.
Italian backers are now holding their copies of the Hallowed Editions of Our Queen Crumbles. Last week we shipped off all packages addressed to the European Union, and this morning we took care of all remaining shipments to the rest of the world, at least the ones we handle directly. This means everyone except the USA. The postal service estimates a delivery time of up to 8 business days to Europe, 16 business days to Canada, and 22 business days to the rest of the world-- this means copies will hopefully get to you right in time to be put under the tree.
Orders from our star-spangled backers are the most numerous, and all copies need to be ready before we can ship them to our partners at Indie Press Revolution for fulfillment. They will travel in great company with the copies destined for distribution in the US, so we're all working hard to assemble a few hundred boxes by hand, as you can see below.
Dragonmeet UK
For backers based in the United Kingdom, as you wait for your copy to arrive, come say hi to our translator Chiara at Dragonmeet this Saturday! She'll be selling games at booth 1B with other great indie creators: the Rolistes, Fanterland, and Slowquest, and demoing Our Queen Crumbles in the Games on Demand area.
the end is fast approaching. Our Queen Crumbles will be yours soon.
We have received the physical copies of the Italian edition, as well as the pins and markers for the Gilded Vessel tier. You can see one in action in the video above, and take a peek at the new layout to boot!
English copies are currently being printed, as we prepare to head off to Lucca Comics & Games next week. All according to schedule. When they get here, we'll begin the process of fulfillment, which entails assembling your copies by hand and getting a pallet ready for our US partner, Indie Press Revolution.
Digital fulfillment will happen at the start of November, as soon as we're back from Lucca.
Hand delivery at Lucca and Dragonmeet UK
For those that want to come say hi or are too eager to wait for shipping times, why not come say hi and pick up your copy in person? Just email us to let us know you'll be there and we'll set your order aside for you.
Italian copies will be available for backers at Lucca Comics & Games 2025 from Wednesday, Oct 29 to Sunday, Nov 2. You can come find us at booth CAR121 and take the chance to register for a demo game, if you'd like.
English copies will be available for backers at Dragonmeet UK, on Saturday, Nov 29. You'll find us as guests at the Rolistes Podcast booth, J15.
here we are again. Thank you for giving us your shipping data-- we have more than 90% of your backer surveys, so be sure to complete yours as soon as possible if you haven't done so already. But more importantly, we're happy to update you in detail about the state of the project.
- Starting with the easy stuff, the markers and enamel pins are in production in Italy and the US respectively, from the producers that most convinced us in terms of quality. Here's the final mockup we greenlit for the pin!
But more importantly, good news about production. The Italian edition of Our Queen Crumbles is currently being printed! As originally planned, we will launch it at Lucca Comics & Games, the Italian festival taking place in the last week of October. Take a sneak peek at the new and improved layout:
The English edition has been ordered from the printer, but getting everything prepared for production at the same time would have pushed us too close to the festival to reliably receive the copies. So the Italian will function as our test run, and we'll print the English after receiving the Italian copies. This way, we'll be able to make sure everything looks as good as possible before producing most copies.
This means we'll take care of digital fulfillment a bit early, during the month of October, while physical fulfillment will start according to schedule in the month of November. If a friend wants to get in on the fun, preorders are still open on BackerKit and will be fulfilled at the same time as pledges.
In the meantime, we are going to assess the best possible solution to get your copies to the United States, whether it means shipping your orders directly or sending a pallet to our US partner (Indie Press Revolution) and have them handle fulfillment. We have already experimented with both solutions in the past, but keeping up with the current international landscape has become complicated.
Thank you once again for your support and patience. We're very happy with this new edition, and the next update (which will announce the digital release) will also have a summary of all the great little improvements we've been working on.
