Hi all!

The introductory adventure, Pablo's General Store, and the third pamphlet Murder Birds are in progress! I've done a review of the rules as written and I added a few ideas that came to mind when rereading that I think makes for better narrative character development, but it is largely done and just needs some refining.

Unfortunately, I'm not full time back to Blackthorn yet. I am still tidying up a few things on previous projects, but I plan on sending the core book and the first two pamphlets into editing within the next three weeks. Father Fly and the one pagers should be about a week or two behind that for editing. 

There is a small chance that I need another personal delay. The cause for this one is shortly after Christmas my father-in-law was given a serious diagnosis. Luckily, my wife was able to spend substantial time with him in Omaha before his initial surgery, and additional time after he suffered a serious complication during recovery. We were finally able to bring our kids up to see him last weekend which we're very grateful for. Unfortunately it will be a worsening and ongoing health issue, but we are optimistic that at least my wife can visit about once a month so we can be as present as possible.

That said, I lost several weeks to navigating this and prioritizing time with my wife and children. I acknowledge another delay is not great news, but I hope the new progression is welcome news alongside it.

Thank you for your patience on the update. I'm really happy to be back on this game and I can't wait to get it to you all soon.

-Marco

Hey all!

I apologize for missing the November update. The last couple of months have been busy for our family.

That said, I'm excited to relay that we are past our biggest hurdle! The Hands That Feed is designed and going through the printing process now. I've jumped into Cryo Drakus and everything is sailing compared to working on the giant hardcover. Which means even though THTF continued to take longer than expected I'm feeling great about timeline and getting to get back to Blackthorn by the end of the year. I'm stoked to be designing these games again!

Thank you again for the support!
Until next time!

Marco

Hey all!

I apologize for the delay in the update. The lead up and time spent at Gamehole Con proved to take me away from sending one until now.

Along with Gamehole Con taking more time away from me as a first time vendor than I expected, the Hands That Feed continued to take more time as well. I'm resetting a new date for delivery that I feel is conservative enough for me not to miss at all. Something that is achievable based on where I'm at with projects now.

New delivery date is Feb. 2026.

What that looks like on my end is really diving deep into Blackthorn in the second half of November. I have the playtested ruleset that has been going really well (it's near complete, but missing some sections and others needing finishing touches) and my main focus will be on adventures.

Send me a message here or send me a dm on Bluesky if you are interested in playtesting Blackthorn! I'll be printing a couple of exclusive bookmarks for anyone willing to playtest and provide feedback on it! I'll have a playtest version ready by end of November for this and the bookmarks will be added to your order automatically.

Addressing our current campaign
As many of you may know we launched a campaign with Mothership Month 2025. I want to ensure everyone here that my time dedication remains on current projects.

I was lucky enough to work with D G Chapman on our Mothership Month project after he wrote Carved Like a Covenant so I could finish The Hands That Feed campaign more quickly. Reusing Backerkit assets to set up the page and making the few illustrations for the project have only taken me a few days to complete. 

I have a lot of mixed emotions about launching this project. I acknowledge that, especially for Blackthorn backers, it's awful to see. But these style of community launches bring me so much energy, and the Mothership publishing community specifically is where I've received and given the most mentorship and knowledge-share over the past few years. It was too good of a thing to pass up when it only comes around once a year. I knew working with a writer and the extended timeline to get the physical books to TKG for fulfillment meant I didn't need to sacrifice more than a couple of days from current projects so I put my hat in the ring.

I wanted to make sure to address it here and am happy to remain transparent with any concerns or questions here. Let me know if you have any!

Last note. Gamehole Con was fantastic and invigorating. It really amplified my excitement to get back to the games I'm making and I really can't wait to play more Blackthorn as I tidy up the adventures and system. Thank you again for bringing this to life with me.

Till next time,

Marco

Hey all!

Quick September update to let you know I'm still here and working through the projects I owe out before Blackthorn. I'm on track right now to finishing Blackthorn in mid-late October which means a November delivery most likely. I'm sorry to have missed Halloween. I will try to get PDFs out by then, but am uncertain because we're boothing at Gamehole Con in Madison in October and I won't be able to work on the games...minus hopefully some playtesting!

Thank you again for backing! I'm excited to make good on this and to be closer than I was last month. 

Godspeed!!

Marco

Hi all!

I want to apologize for the awful start to communication on this project. I intend to do much better with it going forward, but I know how much of a sour taste it can leave and how much worry it can cause.

I also want to start by saying the project is unfortunately delayed despite being extremely close to the finish line. The rules are all but set in stone, including character creation. Some tightening of the guidance for the narrative tools is the most needed part, but the ideas are formed and present. Aside from the ruleset I need to finish my adventures.

I'm extremely happy with the game so far. Joshua Justice even ran the first playtest in order to playtest the Vampire Massacre adventure! It went extremely well and the group had a blast with the adventure and mechanics. I'm excited to get more playtests in soon!

But, on to the delay. I'm expecting a few months delay on this project. It might be optimistic to expect the package by Halloween, but I will keep you updated if it's looking like November. If I'm being honest, the major mistake I made was following through with launching this project during Pocketopia (which I committed to at the end of 2024, and had an awesome collab partner for early 2025). I was too optimistic about the other project(s) I had ahead of Blackthorn, mainly The Hands That Feed which has turned into a 176-page hardcover. A lesson I should have really learned before, giant projects take a lot longer for me to mold and finalize. I love making them but struggle with momentum and overwhelm, and the result of that is that I'm still finishing that project (which was funded in October 2024 and also delayed). I also stupidly ran another campaign for Cryo Drakus for Zine Month out of both excitement and because that project progressed extremely fast and is also nearly done. I doubt I have more than a few weeks to finish it including final playtesting. I just wanted to get it out and done with and was in an extreme need of a healthy break from THTF. The delay is 100% on my decisions, it's kind of crazy in retrospect, but I should have been able to knock out this hardcover by now. I am close though! Real close! I think I have a few weeks of my work left before final editing and layout adjustments and printing. As said above, Cryo Drakus is also extremely close to being done and should be a few weeks before being sent to editing after the THTF is. Blackthorn is also real damn close to being finished and I imagine I mostly have playtesting and adventure writing to finish it up before sending to editing and sending to print. The layout template is also ready to rock and roll so everything is lined up for me to focus on making the best Blackthorn I can.

Again, I'm sorry for the lack of communication before and for the mess that caused the delay. I should have shared this earlier in the summer. I will be updating the project more regularly even if it's more of an update on getting closer to jumping back in.

Thank you so much for the support here! I can't wait to get back into this game, get playtesting going, and get it delivered. I love what it's become so much I have a long list of future releases planned next year and beyond. I'm stoked that you all will be the first to receive it!

Till next time, 

Marco