Hello Jumping Accursed,

We're at the halfway point of this two-week campaign; we've zoomed through our first week and I expect this final week to go by just as quickly, so I wanted to get an update out to everyone with a few things to go over before we get to the finish line.

These are just little double-check bits to make sure that I've mentioned all of the things I'm supposed to and that we're all on the same page before any pledges are processed and we're locked in for the next phase of the project.

It's only been a week, but we're already almost done. That's the curse of this campaign - you can't fight the finish even when you're trying to create a starting point for your game. But even as we get closer to our destination, we see that there's still room to travel a bit beyond... In this case, that's called "OVERTIME MODE" and it allows us to keep the campaign rolling as long as backers are pledging.

Overtime Mode

Overtime Mode extends the campaign past its original end time to give backers a final chance to make their pledge and adds an interesting twist to the end of the campaign. How long will it extend? That’s entirely up to backers: The campaign will keep going for an additional 10 minutes as long as pledges keep coming in – a chain of back-to-back pledges is called the Backer Train. The campaign will end only when the Backer Train stops after a period of 10 minutes passing without any pledges.

You’ll know we’re in Overtime Mode when the campaign’s Backer Train counter displays a bright rainbow border and a new countdown that resets to 10 minutes after each new backer joins that final Backer Train ride.

So, we've scheduled the campaign to conclude on May 5th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, but it'll be extended in 10 minute chunks as long as backers keep pledging. Will we add an extra 10 minutes? An extra 20? Or will it all finish up as planned? Who knows, but we'll find out together! Even as we finish, there's a whole new start!

This book will be a little lighter than many of the big deluxe books that Onyx Path has been shipping recently, but shipping is still expensive, especially going out around the world from Onyx Path's home base in the USA. We've recently partnered with GMS Hobby Game Logistics out of the UK to handle fulfillment to UK and EU backers, and that will help with the costs and speed getting to backers.

The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front with our best shipping cost estimates (see our projections on the main page - I've already factored in the EU's upcoming low value parcel charge) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you aren't sure you want one of the softcover editions, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.

Matthew Dawkins talks about this crowdfunding campaign in the first minutes of a the Onyx Path News on Youtube. Check it out <here>.

Beyond hearing it in the dulcet tones of the Gentleman Gamer, you can actually read the entire book before the campaign ends - before any pledges are processed or payments collected.

So far, we've releasd the first section, which contains all of the rules needed to play Curseborne, along with 4 of the 5 Ready-Made Characters that players can use to jump right into the action.

Download the Draft Manuscript at the bottom of this Update! Available to backers only!

We've got two more manuscript previews coming. Tomorrow we'll see our final character for the game, and next Monday we'll get the Wolf You Feed introductory scenario.

As noted, with these draft versions, you're able to share feedback directly with the Curseborne Crew as they walk the project through the final stages of development and production. There may be a few weird formatting things - this "draft manuscript" is actually the text pulled out of the layout in progress, so we may get a few repititions and weird artifacts. And any errata you submit may not show up corrected until after the first-round backer PDF goes out, but it's all being compiled, so your keen eyes are appreciated. Here's the Feedback Form for you to submit your errata:  https://forms.gle/24ghLqRxkxtoCJpP9

This is a small and quick campaign, and we feel we've set realistic goals. That said, if we increase the overall funding and support for the project, we’re able to add additional resources to the project, expand the rewards listed, and add in new offers and opportunities. Each Stretch Goal will have a target that, once reached, will add a project to the reward list for backers of the relevant Stretch Goal path. Whenever we achieve a stretch goal, the image will be updated to reflect the achievement.

We came up with these three Stretch Goals to get us through this two-week campaign. We honestly didn't expect to have that third one so close to being unlocked halfway through our time together. So... do we celebrate having three fun milestone markers and see where we get to? Do we try and figure out maybe one more goal to throw at the wall and see what happens?

Again, this isn't a big campaign, so we're not looking at huge dollars, but If any of you have ideas for additional Stretch Goals for this Curseborne Jumpstart campaign, please feel free to let us know! Here, in the comments section, or over Rich's Monday Meeting Notes blog – either will work to let us know if there’s something we can do for you specifically!

Alright, one final week to go! Let's keep racing towards the finish line, and check in tomorrow to see the final RMC - Kai Watanabe! 

On Friday before we hit our final days, I'll do a review of the different Pledge Tiers and Add Ons offered in this campaign, and I'll have one more big Checklist of Final Steps before we finish up in a week.

Plus The Wolf You Feed scenario coming next Monday!

Keep it up, Accursed!