🌳 Let's Write Dystopias Rather Than Make Dystopias + ⚙️ Progress Update (Who doesn't like colour swatches?)
Happy Earth Day Backers!
Most of us are no strangers to fiction that speaks of a planet run dry, drained by the avarice of its inhabitants. The story either follows the survivo...
5
0
0
Miroki
19 days ago
Let us feature your work on World Book Day!
World Book Day is on April 23, and we're looking for books written by Story Engine users. If you used one of our decks at any point in the writing process, let us know by replying here so we can share it on April 23! Send us a link where people can find your project and don't ...
0
0
0
The Story Engine
about 1 month ago
Outtakes expansion released + tell us about your book + final week of Pintopia
Hello backers!
Here's a quick summary of what we cover in this update, with a fuller breakdown below.
• The PDF of Master of Lost Lore: Outtakes Expansion has been released, an...
8
0
12
The Story Engine
about 1 month ago
The Big Pintopia Mega-Post
Hello! This is Eric, the community manager for The Story Engine, here with another update!
Up first: we're moving full steam ahead with Lore Master's Deck production!
• The dig...
7
0
4
Peter Chiykowski
about 2 months ago
IMPORTANT: Locking pledges now + charging cards in 48 hours + grand finale livestream!
Hi backers!
We've got a few exciting updates to share this week! Here's what we'll cover in this update:
• Locking pledges now + charging cards in 48 hours (a little later than...
9
0
8
Peter Chiykowski
2 months ago
The gods are coming... + early bird preorder pricing ends TODAY
Hello backers,
Thanks everyone who came out to join us for the Bridge Expansion livestream! It was so much fun to bring all 3 of our deck systems into play and build some inspi...
Most of us are no strangers to fiction that speaks of a planet run dry, drained by the avarice of its inhabitants. The story either follows the survivors learning to respect and rehabilitate the land, or a journey to find a new home with the lesson to not repeat their mistakes.
I often think about these stories, and how they apply more than ever to our own world. But more than me being a self professed tree-hugger, reducing our environmental footprint is also a core value at The Story Engine. This is why as part of our campaign stretch goals, we vowed to plant 3,000 trees!
Planting the next 1,000 trees
Thanks to you, today we plant another 1,000 trees with Eden Reforestation as part of our stretch goals, bringing our total to 2,000 🌳 of the 3,000 we've committed to planting!
Eden Reforestation is our charity of choice because of the specificity of their work, clear and transparent objectives, dedication to damage prevention, scientific research and commitment to community.
Read more about why we picked Eden Reforestation here.
Of course, we all can also do our part to reduce our footprint. For one, I keep all my scrap paper (like when I print my eco-friendly PDF decks incorrectly 😝) and use them for doodling notes and ideating.
Have cool ways of being more sustainable at your writing desk or tabletop gaming session? Drop them in the comments!
The perfect shade of purple
I am infamously known for being the kind of visual designer that will change a graphic by a micron of a shade, and screech "IT'S SO DIFFERENT" when asking for opinions.
Thankfully, our project manager on the production side shares the same eagle eyes to detail, helping us pick a higher quality, richer royal purple vegan leather for the Lore Master's Journal after creating the first hard sample.
First copy of Lore Master's Journal (left) | New leather swatch (right)
We also discovered that the magnet tab overlapped with the logo. Our PM came up with a solution by switching our closure to a snap, which does not require as much coverage while still keeping your pages nice and secure.
We're thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to holding the first samples in our hands! Once we have them, we will thoroughly review, send back notes, implement last changes and then it's off to the races!
As always, if there is something you'd like to us to cover in our updates, if you have a question, or if you just want to share your creations, you can leave a comment on our posts or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We always look forward to hearing from you!
World Book Day is on April 23, and we're looking for books written by Story Engine users. If you used one of our decks at any point in the writing process, let us know by replying here so we can share it on April 23! Send us a link where people can find your project and don't forget to tell us how you used The Story Engine or Deck of Worlds!
Your book could be a novel or an RPG setting. It could be self-published, soon-to-be published, or a work in progress. We're not strict about what counts as a book. We just want to see your creativity at work.
Here's a quick summary of what we cover in this update, with a fuller breakdown below.
The PDF of Master of Lost Lore: Outtakes Expansion has been released, and our Community Manager Eric walks you through the development process.
Production update: more photos of production samples!
We want to hear about your book! Tell us about a book you've written with one of our decks and we'd love to share it in our list of books on World Book Day.
Eric, our Community Manager, took point on editing the Master of Lost Lore: Outtakes Expansion. It's his birthday today, and in the hobbit tradition of birthdays, he decided to give everyone else a gift: the print-and-play PDF! You can access them via your Digital Downloads page.
Eric also wrote a development blog sharing the process!
I thought I’d take some time to explain the thought process and the design philosophy that I used to put this deck together!
Our first outtakes deck was released following the release of Deck of Worlds, and was known as the Oddballs & Outtakes expansion. We adapted the concept to suit Lore Master's Deck, but I still wanted the outtakes expansion to be a little, well, odd. Most of the material in it was written for Lore Master’s Deck or one of its expansions, and it didn’t get left out because it was bad. (If anything, these are some of our favorite prompts.) It got left out because it didn’t serve the design of the deck as a whole.
As Peter explained in previous updates, balance was paramount in the core deck. Every card has at least two link cues because we wanted to make sure people would have options when choosing the path to their next cluster. There needed to be a certain volume of Event cards that could lead to Creatures (and vice versa), and we had to make sure users would find enough Materials while exploring new Locations.
We relaxed those rules for the outtakes expansion. We still followed some self-imposed guidelines – for instance, cards have the same breakdown of Agendas, Backgrounds, Traits, etc. – but we weren’t as meticulous about the direction of the connections, and we prioritized impact over utility when selecting the cues themselves. We wanted cues that made us react. If a card only ends up with a single link cue (or if there are more cues leading to Figures than Events), then so be it. It’s worth it to have “be the very best” as a Figure’s Agenda or “the floor is literally or metaphorically lava” as a Trait for a Location.
Of course, we wanted evocative cards in the core deck, too. The problem is that the thing that makes a cue memorable is often the same thing that prevents us from including it. An Agenda like “collects teeth, skin, or hair” stands out because it describes something very specific. However, Lore Master’s Deck is supposed to encourage your creativity, and a cue with too much detail is more likely to limit your options. Cues that can be interpreted in more than one way usually get priority because they allow for different perspectives to come to the fore.
The outtakes expansion gives us more room for cues that are just for us. That makes it one of the most fun decks to work on, since we can do things we want to do instead of things we have to do. This deck has Deities because our writers gave us so much good material and it would have been a shame to leave it out. We cut down on the number of Modifiers because the Deities were more fun, and we hope that philosophy resonates throughout the deck!
We hope the Master of Lost Lore: Outtakes Expansion puts a smile on your face. This is the blooper reel at the end of our movie – takes that weren’t quite polished enough for the final cut that still have something compelling in them (or undeniable entertainment value). We had a blast putting Lore Master’s Deck together, and we’re excited to share some of our creative process with this last expansion!
The expansion PDF is free for every backer who pledged during the campaign – it’s our way of saying thanks for the support.
Production update
Our manufacturer has been sending us photos of the production samples as they are finished. We'll be receiving a shipment of physical samples to pore over, but for now, we thought we'd share a first look at some of the components and accessories.
Final sizing and colors for the link tokens that come with every physical copy of Lore Master's Deck.
Digital print sample of the Weave Your Lore playmat add-on with goldenrod edge stitching.
We'll continue to share production updates as they happen!
We want to hear about your book!
This year's World Book Day happens on April 23. To celebrate, we're putting together a list of books that were written with one of our decks!
Did The Story Engine help you unlock a key side-character? Did you use Deck of Worlds to set the backdrop for an important scene? Have you created anything with the early PDFs of Lore Master's Deck?
We'd love to hear about it! Let us know in the comments or reach out via the contact form!
To celebrate, we've dropped the price of our collector enamel pins to their original campaign pricing.
Until April 18, you can get all of our pins for the same price that you could during our original campaign. Our Tell Your Story, Build Your World, and Weave Your Lore pins are back to $12 each (or $32 for the set), while The Story Engine Mini Logo Pin is back down to $8.
Get in touch with us through the contact form if you would like help adding a pin to your pledge as pledges are now locked. You can also preorder pins through the preorder store at any time.
There's a special freebie mimic pin that all returning backers receive for free, including all backers from this campaign! You can see some of his designs below.
That's all for now!
As always, let us know if you have any questions in the comments!
Sign at Table Mountain National Park:
Warning
Please look under
your vehicles
for penguins
(Sponsored by
Boulders
Beach
Lodge)
Yes, this is a real sign!
Hello! This is Eric, the community manager for The Story Engine, here with another update!
Up first: we're moving full steam ahead with Lore Master's Deck production!
The digital proofs of the cards, boxes, and accessories are done and approved.
All deck and expansion PDFs have been released.
The next step is reviewing physical proofs from our manufacturer—we'll share that when it arrives!
We're still on pace to deliver physical decks on schedule!
Since everything is going so well, we hope you'll indulge us if we put a pin in it for just a moment - or several pins, in this particular case.
25 Pins for 25 Years of D&D
When he's not leading development for The Story Engine, our founder Peter Chiykowski still moonlights as his superhero alter ego Rock, Paper, Cynic - a creator of nerdy webcomics and hilarious tabletop RPG-themed apparel. He's also participating in Pintopia 2, a neat BackerKit pin project that features enamel pins from more than 125 BackerKit creators! Peter has put together a collection of 25 original pins to celebrate his 25th Anniversary of playing D&D (yes, he did the math), all of which are now available for pre-order because, oh yeah... Pintopia starts TODAY!
Head on over to rockpapercynic.com/pins to peruse the collection and pick up your favorite pins. The pins are based on the many half-baked plans, unlikely dice rolls, and ridiculous situations that happened around the gaming table - including those that improbably went well and those that ended in disaster.
The full lineup features more than a dozen original designs from Peter, as well as some returning favorites and guest designs from a slew of awesome artists, including:
There's something for every member of the party, whether you're rolling a Bard, a Cleric, or a Wizard - but especially if you're a Necromancer. (Note from Eric: It's hard to go wrong with R2D20. Also, I am definitely not a Mimic.)
Pintopia 2 runs from March 28-April 18. You can also get up to 5 FREE BONUS PINS depending on how you pledge. All returning backers from Lore Master's Deck, Deck of Worlds, or Story Engine Deck get a free bonus pin, as do all early bird backers who pledge in the first 48 hours. There's also a pin for pledging $75 or more, and another two pins for anyone who backs the Pintopia campaign of David "Wondermark" Malki, Peter's collaboration partner for the event.
Pledge today to lock in your freebies and set yourself up for more freebies on future campaigns, and join Peter as he livestreams the launch from 12:45pm ET onward!
Legacy Pricing for Story Engine Pins
Of course, we can't let Peter have all the fun. That's why we're bringing back legacy pricing for our pins to celebrate Pintopia.
Until April 18, you can get all of our pins for the same price that you could during our original campaign. Our Tell Your Story, Build Your World, and Weave Your Lore pins are back to $12 each (or $32 for the set), while The Story Engine Mini Logo Pin is back down to $8.
Get in touch with us though the contact form if you would like help adding a pin to your pledge as pledges are now locked. You can also preorder pins through the preorder store at any time.
Did we mention the pins are finished?
Because they are!
These collector's pins were developed exclusively for the BackerKit campaign, and we couldn't be happier with the way they've turned out!
Our manufacturer just sent us a first look at the sample pins, and we think they look absolutely incredible (we love the way the gold catches the light in this video). We're ready to put these pins into production - but we're only doing a limited run and the pins won't be coming back once supply runs out.
Order yours before April 18 to get yours at the best price - and to make sure you get them before they disappear forever!
We've got a few exciting updates to share this week! Here's what we'll cover in this update:
Locking pledges now + charging cards in 48 hours (a little later than announced) + answering your questions about preorder early bird pricing
Launching the complete Lore Master's Deck PDFs during the grand finale stream this Thursday
Recap of Deities livestream
Quick poll on pin designs for an independent BackerKit project!
Let's get into it!
Locking pledges and charging cards
Originally we'd planned to lock pledges over the weekend and charge credit cards for any outstanding balances today. We realized that locking pledges over the weekend might be tricky, both with backers missing their chance to update their pledge and with support teams being less available should any issues arise.
Instead, we've initiated locking pledges today. This means you have 48 hours to make any changes to your pledge via your reward survey. On Wednesday, we'll process card payments for any outstanding charges (such as shipping, taxes, post-campaign add-ons, and pledge upgrades).
I also wanted to clarify how our early bird pricing works after getting some questions on our previous update. The early bird pricing being discussed was primarily for preorders through our BackerKit preorder store (sometimes called "late pledges"). We ended up extending early bird pricing for preorders by a week to March 15. Sorry for not making that clearer!
Lastly, please note that we've temporarily removed the print and play PDFs from the Digital Downloads on BackerKit as we prepare to launch the final PDFs during Thursday's livestream.
Grand Finale Livestream
This Thursday we'll be hosting our FINAL LIVESTREAM in the open beta series! Lore Master's Deck has achieved its final form, and we're ready to put the entire final PDF set in your hands (minus stretch goal PDFs)!
We'll be recapping the progression of our deck systems through the years and then cracking open all of our expansions at the same time to weave some lore, with votes and interpretations steered by the chat!
If you have any questions you'd like answered about Lore Master's Deck, The Story Engine Deck, Deck of Worlds, or their expansions, please let us know!
And please click "Notify Me" on the livestream page to make sure you get a notification when we go live.
In case you missed the Deities livestream
Thanks to everyone who tuned into the Deities Expansion launch livestream last week! We had an absolute blast creating what turned out to be a twisted love triangle pantheon of avian deities:
the reclusive Heron, god of stories, words, and history
the one-eyed Eagle, god of blood and might
the corvid Trickster, the god who has been pulling strings behind the scenes
Miroki also debuted her new opera metal single "Until The Last Planet Dies," which is out now across music platforms! Here's how you can find the Spotify version! You can catch the replay of the stream here!
Quick poll on pin designs for a personal BackerKit project
Outside of my work on The Story Engine, I'm the cartoonist behind the webcomic Rock Paper Cynic and a designer of nerdy tabletop RPG apparel! On March 28, I'm launching a non-Story Engine pin project!
If you're a TTRPG player, I'd love for you to vote on this poll to help me figure out which pin designs to prioritize. For larger images or to vote for "Another option," please see the launch page. Also, I'll be doing a returning backer bonus and an early bird bonus, so follow the page to make sure you get the notification!
Thanks so much, and don't hesitate to follow up in the comments with any questions you have!
Just printed the Lore Master’s Guidebook from the new PDF version. This is only minor issue, but the background graphic and title text didn’t print. Probably just a PDF printing issue. The screen view is fully rendered. Got pictures if you’re interested.
Hey all, just wanted to hear if anyone else has had issues going to their Digital Rewards page today? The link for it on my survey page is gone, and if I go there from the e-mail link it's just a blank space.
Thanks everyone who came out to join us for the Bridge Expansion livestream! It was so much fun to bring all 3 of our deck systems into play and build some inspired stories, worlds, and lore! You can catch the replay here.
I'm looking forward to another livestream with you this week to launch the open beta of what is definitely the fan-favourite expansion of this deck: the Master of Gods: Deities Expansion!
Join us 3pm ET on Thursday as we live-release the PDFs on our most-anticipated expansion and walk you through the creative direction behind it—and how we solved the biggest design challenge that the expansion presented! And of course, we'll be building a lore web full of deities and demigods with the chat voting on every cue and sharing their interpretations.
You can RSVP by clicking "Notify Me" in the link.
These livestreams have been so much fun, and they've actually helped us pass 100,000 views on YouTube last week! Subscribe for more demo videos and deck tips coming later this year!
Remember that you can still add-on or preorder the Deities Expansion PDF and get full access to the open beta. You can also upgrade your pledge or preorder one of the Lore Master's Deck bundles, all of which come with open beta PDF and final PDF access to complement all the physical decks in the bundle.
And you might want to do that today!
We'll be ending early bird preorder pricing TONIGHT (March 4), locking pledges on March 9, and charging chards on March 11.
Our multi-talented CEO Miroki Tong just released her first opera metal single! Until the Last Planet Dies by Mahjong Witch is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, or wherever else you get your music. Go ahead and give it a listen!
I’ve used my pdf decks off and on over the past few years, but found it hard to really continue building and would loose track and/or interest quickly (as happens often with my ADHD brain)
However, as soon as I saw the focus sleeves you introduced in this deck’s campaign I made a few myself for my printed pdf decks and suddenly I COULD really get into a continuous world building flow. Ever since a I’ve picked up my printed decks more and more and finally bit the bullet and invested in the real decks in all their beautiful, colorful glory :) I think those focus sleeves deserve more love and more screen time during a live stream so maybe a few others can make the same discovery for themselves :) so excited for this deck!
I'm getting excited for our triple-feature Bridge Expansion launch livestream this Thursday! Here's the YouTube livestream link to RSVP (click "Notify Me"). This is going to be our biggest stream to date, and I'll get into the details further down in the update.
First I wanted to walk you through some important project milestones coming up!
Ending Early Bird Pricing + Locking Pledges + Charging Cards
🚨🚨 March 4 we will be ending early bird pricing for late pledges. 🚨🚨 If you haven't already added on items to your pledge, now is a good time to do so as this is your last chance to access the current pricing tier. You can still adjust your pledge or add-on items via your original survey link, or place new pledges via the preorder store.
March 9 we will begin locking pledges. When we initiate the locking process, BackerKit will send you a notification and you will have 48 hours to make any final changes to your pledge and add-ons. This is a good deadline for completing your reward survey. It is still possible to update your survey/pledge after this date, but you may have to contact us through customer service to do so.
Note that we will NOT be locking your address yet.
March 11 we will be charging cards for any outstanding balances on pledges. Please read this section carefully.
So far, we have only collected payment for the original base pledge and add-ons you committed to during the crowdfunding campaign in June-July last year.
This payment did not include:
shipping charges
taxes (where applicable)
post-campaign add-ons
post-campaign pledge upgrades
Last year, most of you completed your reward survey, which would have showed you the additional charges to expect and taken your credit card information. We did not actually charge cards at that point in time, except on request.
On March 11, we will be charging cards for all completed surveys for the amount you were shown when you completed that survey. If you did not complete your survey, you will not be charged.
If your payment fails, BackerKit will automatically notify you by email and provide instructions for updating your payment information. BackerKit will also periodically re-attempt to charge the provided card that failed.
If you run into any issues with payment, reach out via our contact form and please provide your BackerKit name and email so we can identify you in the system and work on solutions with you.
Please let us know in the comments if you have any questions about these next steps.
The Bridges: Our Biggest Expansion Release!
So far we've been releasing one expansion (60 cards) at a time.
This Thursday we're distributing all 3 Bridge Expansions live on air, explaining the updates we made between the alpha and beta copies, and then doing a live triple-demo as we combine cards from all 3 of our deck systems to create new kinds of prompts that would otherwise be impossible.
I'll also revealing the one "joke" card I snuck into Lore Master's Deck. When I'm editing new decks and expansions, I include some cards that are funny, as long as they also provide utility or inspiration to other deck users.
But there's one cue on one card in one of the Bridge Expansions that amused me so much I kept it in, even though I wasn't sure anyone else would "get" it. We'll find out what the reaction is during the livestream!
Also, in case you missed the live launch of the Emblems Expansion, I wanted to do a quick recap. More than any other expansion, I think this demo helped deck users discover how much utility, depth, and inspiration the Emblems Expansion has that isn't obvious on first glance. Not every lore-weaver or worldbuilder thinks about the symbols in their world, but the way different groups compete to shape or control the meaning of symbols can be rich ground to grow compelling stories.
We'll be talking about the development process and reviewing design updates from the alpha, distributing PDFs live on YouTube, and then creating prompts in collaboration with the chat.
Me sharing my biggest regret from Deck of Worlds (hint: I still get emails about it).
A behind-the-scenes look at the challenges and opportunities of adapting Namesakes from Deck of Worlds.
A walkthrough of the changes to the deck since the alpha demo during the BackerKit campaign.
A live prompting session where the chat helped us create the reckoning raven, also known as the woolly raven, a bird that grows thick plumage in response to sudden environmental changes.
You can watch the replay below!
How the Emblems Expansion changed during development
The Emblems Expansion began as an experiment for us, and grew into one of my favorite lore-weaving tools.
Our original plan was to release 60 Emblem cards that could be shuffled in with Modifiers. As with the Namesake cards, we realized that would flood the Modifiers draw pile with too many expansion cards. We also had a similar challenge to the one we faced with the Namesakes Expansion, where some cues worked well for particular card types, but not for others.
There was also the added challenge of showing new users the different ways they can use and interpret the emblems and icons we'd curated for the deck. Purely visual cues are new tools for us, and for many worldbuilders, and we wanted to balance:
giving people guidance about how to think divergently about symbols and images in their worlds.
giving people the freedom to interpret those symbols in a manner of their choosing.
Our solution involved a few changes:
We cut down from 60 to 32 Emblem cards, and we made them their own dedicated card type so we could be deliberate about how and when to use them.
We added 28 special variant lore cards of the 7 primary card types.
We used symbols in place of text cues on the the primary side of the expansion's lore cards.
To the secondary side of the lore cards, we added short cues that require players to draw Emblem cards to complete them. These offer a variety of ways to think about how symbols can connect to different elements of lore.
Here are a couple of examples!
You can also draw an Emblem instead of a Modifier card any time you expand a lore cluster.
The mistake we ALMOST made with the Emblems Expansion
I've talked before about why I think sensitivity readers are a crucial part of the development process. We worked with three sensitivity reviewers and an educational reviewer on this project, all of whom offered a bounty of insight and editorial recommendations on the main deck and expansions. Their notes and perspective helped flag potentially sensitive material and provided guidance about how writers and worldbuilders can approach that material in thoughtful and respectful ways.
The review of the Emblems Expansion was particularly revealing. We sourced a wide variety of icons, symbols, glyphs, and images for this expansion, and were careful about our selection. This included a small number of runes, including some dwarven-style runes based on Elder Futhark.
It turns out that specific Elder Futhark runes have been co-opted by white nationalist groups as either coded or overt hate iconography. While these runes are authentic pieces of culture predating these groups by thousands of years, some are currently being weaponized by white supremacists to further a deeply damaging cause.
On the advice of one of our sensitivity reviewers who flagged the algiz rune during their review (along with a couple of other symbols), we did a careful cross-examination of our symbols with the Anti-Defamation League's database of hate symbols.
Philosophically, this process raised some interesting questions: who decides what a symbol means? What happens when the meaning of a symbol changes over time? These are the questions that made the Emblems Expansion so fascinating to work on in the first place.
Practically, we knew that philosophy takes a back seat to making sure people from targeted communities feel safe and ensuring we don't inadvertently empower hate groups by deploying symbols they also use.
We cut the small number of symbols that resembled anything in the ADL's database and overall reduced the number of Elder Futhark-inspired runes, introducing instead a wider variety of runic styles. This ended up bringing more variety to the deck and improved it as a resource!
Symbols are powerful. For good and for ill, they evoke an immediate response and become containers for so many different kinds of meaning. I'm grateful we had such diligent sensitivity reviewers to help us shape the final lineup of symbols and think about how to provide guidance on using symbols in lore-weaving.
I'm excited for you all to dig into the Emblems Expansion with us today, and I hope you'll join us for the livestream!
