Hey Supers! Zarek here with another update on our progress.
Further Delays on Manuscript and Layout
We have just passed the date of June 1st for delivering the Manuscript PDF of the SIC. I personally take responsibility for this as I have not done a good job of planning around possible life interruptions for the team. My entire family and I got sick, and one of the team lost a family member.
I am sorry, but we need to delay the release of the Manuscript and the beginning of the layout work further. This time though, I think its best for us to just give a ballpark of being done within the next week or two. Our Editor just has the Tier 6-10 Talents to review, as well as the Lore Appendices. Then I have to finish my review and approval of that content, which I am not too far behind the Editor on. This means we are soclose to being ready to share the SIC manuscript and start layout!
Our layout artist has been working on the template pages (these are not final just yet, so some things may change), so that once she has the manuscript she can jump right into working on the layout! Here are some of the samples (we are still working towards finalizing some of the designs and styles).
Locking Orders
A part of the process that has also been delayed along with the PDF is the final steps in getting ready for fulfillment! We will be initiating the process to lock all orders this Friday, June 5th 2026. The final lock will happen early next week, and we will then charge cards.
Be sure to finalize your order, add-ons, and delivery address for everything!
That is everything for this update, and we will let you know when we send out the manuscript as soon as we are ready to send it out!
Hello everyone, it’s officially been 1 year since our campaign ended and the Indominant Superhero RPG: Super’s Information Codex was successfully funded!
With such a big milestone we figured it would be nice to take a look at where we are at, how we held up to our plans, and what we learned from everything so that we can improve on the next crowdfunding campaign (more details on that campaign at the end!).
Super’s Information Codex Progress
We are currently working through finishing the Editing of Powers and Talents! After that, we just have the lore sections and other appendices to finish, which won’t take long! All of the art for the SIC is also complete, and ready to go for the layout!
This does mean that, as you may have guessed, that we are having another delay past May 4th for the Layout work to begin, and for the final PDFs to be delivered. We are very sorry for having a few delays on this project! Even though it is our first project, we really wanted to prove that we are a professional team and provide an excellent experience for out customers.
In order to still provide our Backers with something, we have decided that we will provide the Manuscript for the SIC to all Backers that got access to the PDF or Physical copy! This will mean everyone will get to see the final content of the book, and give us additional time to catch potential mistakes or errors before going to print. It also means we may be able to hold our date for going to print in early to mid July.
So now, let’s take a look at our roadmap and where our failings were, so we can see what we learned, and how we plan to mitigate delays on the fulfillment of our next crowdfunding campaign!
How Did We Hold Up To Our Roadmap?
So, we want to take a look at our development roadmap, see what dates we didn’t meet, and what we learned to prevent that issue in the future!
June 2nd, 2025: Playtest Packet #1 Release – Playtest Packet #1 was sent out on June 4th, 2 days late.
September 2nd, 2025: Playtest Packet #2 Release – Playtest Packet #2 was sent out on September 9th, 1 week late.
January 2nd, 2026: Playtest Packet #3 Release – We did meet the updated date! (Original date was December 2nd, 2025)
March 2nd, 2026: Manuscript Editing Begins – We discussed with our layout artist and realized that the Editing pass needed to come before Layout, so we decided to start Editing a month ahead of Layout.
April 6th, 2026: Book Layout Begins – Date not met. Editing was taking much longer than we first anticipated, so we shared a one month delay. All following milestones were not met due to this. As stated above, this has been delayed further, and we are now planning for Editing to be complete by June 1st.
May 4th, 2026: Draft PDF Delivery – Date not met. Now planned for July 1st, 2026.
June 4th, 2026: Final Digital Rewards Delivery – Date not met. Now planned for July 14th, 2026.
July, 2026: Physical Reward Fulfillment – Date not met. Now expected to begin in August-September, 2026.
Lessons Learned
We learned that we need to play it more safely with our scheduled plans. Our main lessons are:
Due to our team being part-time working for Odin’s Key Gaming, Ltd. we need to plan some “float” in our schedule to plan ahead for possible disruptions to our workflow caused by our personal lives.
Editing is a difficult, and time consuming task when it is done properly. Our Editor has been kind enough to track their time working on our project, so we can much more accurately project the time needed to complete the Editing process in the future. In addition, we will include some float in our schedule, again to account for personal lives disrupting the process and discussions we have with our Editor.
Other than that, so far we do not have any other mistakes we made in the planning process for the schedule of designing and developing a book. We now have the experience to give our Backers (you!) much more solid expectations and experiences.
We can’t wait to get the SIC PDF and book in your hands, and we thank you all for your support and patience during this process!
The Next Indominant Book!
So, this may be what you have all been waiting for (except the first Indominant RPG book of course)! Those of you that had seen and heard out plans about the next campaign including 2 additional books, to complete the full 3 book set of Core Rulebooks for Indominant, will be excited to hear that we have changed our plans for what the set of Core Rulebooks will be. Instead of having 3 Core Rulebooks, we have changed our plans to have only 2 Rulebooks be required to get started playing the game! The full set of Core Rulebooks will be the Super’s Information Codex, and the Comic Editor’s Compendium.
This means that the Comic Editor’s Compendium will include a list of around 100 Threats for your Supers to face AND it will have the rules and guidelines for you to create your own Threats! In addition, the Threat Index will now become a true supplement to the game, instead of feeling like it is required for our beloved Comic Editors to easily run the game. We still plan to produce a Threat Index, with a larger list of 300+ additional Threats, but it just won't be something you need to get started running the game, and reduces the barrier to entry for Indominant.
When will this campaign launch?
We plan to launch the campaign for the Indominant Superhero RPG: Core Set in late September, or sometime October after all of the Backers have received their physical copies of the SIC. The Core Set will include reward tiers for either the Super’s Information Codex or the Comic Editor’s Compendium, or both together! There will also be many other add-ons for you to expand your Indominant collection of products, merchandise, and materials!
We believe that we need to earn your trust that we will fulfill our crowdfunding campaigns before we launch another. So until we prove that we have the track record of doing so, we will not launch any crowdfunding campaigns until our previous campaign has been fulfilled! We will let you all know once we feel confident that we have earned the trust to do so!
Thank you again for your support, and for sticking with us on this amazing journey! Until next time,
Hello everyone, I know we just sent an update about two weeks ago, but we just wanted to give you a quick update about a change, and ask for your feedback on something we are working on with our editor!
We really wanted to avoid any delays, but unfortunately with this being our first project we are still learning how long some processes take. With the last two weeks of working with our editor on the bulk of the book’s content we came to the decision that we need another month of time to work on the Editing phase. We want to ensure that we give you the best quality product we can make, without rushing things and leaving mistakes in the book. This will push the PDF completion to July 1st, 2026.
Now on future projects we will make sure we have enough time allotted in our schedule for editing, without having any delays to the initial timeline.
Power Presentation Style
One of the things we are working on is determining the best style for how we present Powers in the SIC, and all other content moving forward.
Natural Language Style
So far what we have used in the Primer and Playtest Packets is what we call a “natural language” style for presenting Powers. This style is where the Power name, action type, and Power Tags were presented first, followed by the flavor and mechanics all presented in a single paragraph. Here are some examples of what this looks like for reference:
Juice Up–Minor Action– Ranged, Targeted, Buff, Offense
Send an empowering jolt of electricity through yourself or an Ally in Range causing their next Attack, to deal 1d4 + [½ Damage Modifier] bonus Damage. If the Attack misses the effect is lost. Lasts 1 Turn.
Hammer Fist–Main Action– Melee, Targeted, Offense, Control
Make a Melee Attack, covering your fist in stone to bring it down on an Enemy’s head dealing 2d4 + [Damage Modifier] Damage. The Target must also make a Durability Check with a Difficulty of 9 + [Control Modifier] or be Stunned for 1 turn.
Fire Breath– Main Action–Ranged, Cone, Offense
Breathe fire like a dragon in a Cone. Targets in the Cone must make a Durability Check with a Difficulty of 13 + Control Modifier, taking 2d8 + [Damage Modifier] Damage if they Fail, or on a Success they take half damage and are not affected by your Burning Flames Inherent Effect.
Nova– Main Action – Self, Area, Offense, Support
Blast light energy out of your body dealing damage to Enemies and healing Allies for 1d6 + the number of targets affected. Area of 5x5 Units centered on you.
Formulaic Style
We have been mulling over an alternative that makes quick assessment of Powers’ mechanics and effects easier, but does make them read less naturally. We are calling this a “formulaic” style. With this style we no longer need Power Tags, since this style makes finding what a Power does much easier. Here are the examples from above after being converted what this stylet would look like as a comparison to the natural language style (keep in mind this text is not final):
JUICE UP – Minor Action
Targeting: Self or Ally in Range
Resolution: Automatic effects
Effects: Buff adding 1d4 + [½ Damage Modifier] Damage to next Attack within 1 Turn. Buff removed if the Attack Misses.
HAMMER FIST – Main Action
Targeting: Enemy in Melee Range
Resolution: Melee Attack; On Hit, Durability Check vs 9 + [Control Modifier]
Resolution: Durability Check vs 13 + [Control Modifier]
Effects: On Failed Check, deals 2d8 + [Damage Modifier] Damage; on Successful Check, deals half Damage.
NOVA – Main Action
Targeting: All Targets in 5x5 Area centered on Self
Resolution: Automatic effects
Effects: Allies gain 1d6 + [number of Targets affected] Healing, Enemies take 1d6 + [number of Targets affected] Damage.
We have attached a Poll below to this update where we would love to hear your feedback! Please feel free to comment and discuss as well as vote on which style you prefer.
Hello everyone, this is a very exciting update as we close in on finalizing the SIC and getting ready to go to production!
Before we get into the details, we just wanted to let you know that we operate with transparency with our audience as one of our most important qualities. We do this so that you know where things are at and when you can expect your rewards for backing our campaign, or for those of you that didn’t back us, so you know when the books will be available for purchase.
SIC Final Steps
Today marks the end of our Playtesting phases! That means we are beginning the editing process for most of the content. We’ve actually already gotten started with editing on Issue #1 with our Editor, and it has already been completed. Issue #1 contains the introductory chapters that overview how to play the game, as well as the core rules and combat rules.
We are very happy with the improvements to clarity that our editor brought to the game rules. We think it really elevates the game to meet the professional quality we want to have for our players and community!
As we mentioned in our previous update just a week and a half ago, the editing process is scheduled to complete at the end of the month. Following this the layout will begin at the start of April. Then two weeks before we have a final draft of the PDF complete, on May 18th we will lock all orders, and charge cards the following week on May 25th. Lastly on June 1st we will send a draft of the PDF to all backers as we prepare to place the physical copy orders. We plan to give ourselves one month for backers to provide feedback on any possible errors in the draft PDF and get them updated before sending out the final PDFs (including to those of you that pre-ordered on our website!) and placing the order for physical copies.
More Art Teasers
As with before, we love to share the pencils stage of this art, so you can be excited to see the final colors in the SIC book!
First we have EVO, a Super who tinkers and creates items using his excellent crafting abilities.
Next, we have some example Genniki civilians.
Lastly we have Milton's rendition of Indominus in a solo piece!
We know it’s short notice, but Q&A #7 is scheduled for tonight at 5:00 PM Pacific Time! We’ve decided that we are going to have at least one Q&A stream each month, and we will have these on the first Monday of each month moving forward!
We also may do some additional streams for fun in between!
Character Concept Challenge Winner - Old Man Entropy
Milton has completed the art for the Character Concept Challenge winner, Old Man Entropy made by Donnelly Homily! This one is probably one of the most unique and special characters we have art for! Thank you to everyone who voted!
The Next Community Event! Player Versus Player?!
Yes, you read that right! We are starting to plan the next Indominant Community Event! We don’t have a schedule yet for when it will take place, but we are beginning to plan the Player Versus Player Tournament! We will share the details once we lock those in!
One Shots with Devs Update
Ricky and I (Zarek) are scheduling out our times for the Dev One Shots that Backers got as part of their Pledge Level, or chose as Add-Ons! We are taking this time to also create a system on the Odin's Key Gaming Website for folks to purchase One Shots through there! All of the Backers that got this reward will be given a coupon code to select a One Shot event for free!
