Final Stretch Goals!
over 8 years ago – Wed, Jun 01, 2016 at 11:24:10 PM

We are less than 36 hours from the end of the campaign, and our last push is already going amazingly well! We have some very special final stretch goals, and we wanted to announce them in an update so that we can talk about them in more detail.

Aventuria Card Game Promos

Our next three stretch goals are for promo cards for the upcoming Aventuria Card Game. As of this writing, we've already unlocked the first and are on the way to unlocking the second:

• $120,000 Aventuria Adventure Card Game promotional card #1, Alluring Bait, PHYSICAL
• $130,000 Aventuria Adventure Card Game promotional card #2, The Orc Family, PHYSICAL
• $140,000 Aventuria Adventure Card Game promotional card #3, The Dark Eye, PHYSICAL

These are all the English versions of the cards. If you were at Gen Con 2015, you may have seen Alluring Bait and The Dark Eye printed on paper. However, these will be the final ready-to-play card-stock versions of the promos.

Please note that all of these are physical rewards only.

Justice and Noble Valor

Ulisses Spiele representatives have been using an adventure called Justice and Noble Valor as their convention demo for some time now. They have begun developing it for print release, and we are excited to announce that, if we reach this stretch goal, Kickstarter backers will get it FIRST!

That also means that this will be the first adventure for The Dark Eye that is released first in English! German fans will still get it later, but the English version will be provided to backers several months before it becomes available in German (or indeed available in English to the general public). So here is our very last stretch goal:

• $150,000 Justice and Noble Valor adventure, exclusive English-language publication, PDF

This stretch goal unlocks at $150,000, and we absolutely believe that we can do that. Tell your friends! Tell your local game stores! Tell them all about the amazing rewards everyone is getting with this Kickstarter!

Thank you all so much for getting us here, and keep watching for the big celebration tomorrow!

Looking at the Finish Line
over 8 years ago – Tue, May 31, 2016 at 12:25:23 AM

We are just three days out from the end of this Kickstarter, and everyone on the team has been so thrilled and exciting about how it has run so far. As the campaign wraps up, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes details that we are working out, and there are some things you need to know as backers as well.

Rewards and Add-ons

One of the most important things for you to do as a backer in the last few days is to make sure that you are satisfied with your pledge level and add-on choices. We just wanted to mention a couple of things that have come up:

• "All the PDFs" means exactly that. If we release it in PDF (in English) between now and the end of 2017, you will get it. Every book, story, or accessory.
• There are just a few leatherbound editions left! If you are still deciding, you may not want to wait at the last minute, because we're almost to the 48-hour reminder mark.

If you haven't experienced a Kickstarter before, the last 48 hours get kind of wild. At exactly the 48-hour mark, anyone who has clicked the "Remind Me" button on a project receives an email reminding them that the campaign is closing soon. And many other folks also wait until the last minute to decide whether they are backing and by how much.

This means that anything limited (like the leatherbound editions) may go away very quickly. It also means that you might want to ask any unusual questions you might have before tomorrow, because things are going to get very busy.

After the Bell

Many of you have been wondering what happens once the campaign closes. Aside from celebrating the wonderful support we've received from the fans, we immediately go into fulfillment mode. That doesn't mean you'll have rewards one second after the end, but the process starts right away.

The first thing that happens is Kickstarter starts processing all the credit card information. Please make sure your payment information is up to date. The more backers there are, the longer this takes. For our number of backers, probably a couple hours. Kickstarter then sends us a report of any problems so that we can try to work that out with the individual backers.

Second, we send out a survey to all backers asking for some initial information. This may include an email address connected to your DriveThruRPG account. If you have an RPGNow or RapideJDR account, it is the same. Please make sure you have a DriveThruRPG account ready to go.

Once we have enough of those accounts, we can start sending out download links for the Core Rules PDF and whatever others we have ready to go. Please note that we may not send you your link immediately after you complete the survey. Sending copies through DriveThruRPG is not automatic, so it is much better to do them in batches.

BackerKit

As all of this is happening, we will also be setting up a BackerKit link and survey to finalize all the orders. BackerKit allows you to add items and funds after the campaign is complete, so if you make a mistake in your add-on or shipping calculations, don't worry! You'll still be able to adjust it after the fact.

BackerKit also enables people who missed the campaign to get in on all our great rewards! If you are unable to use Kickstarter because you do not have a credit card, make sure you keep an eye out for that link! We'll post it in numerous places, so you shouldn't miss it.

As you can see, a lot of work goes into fulfilling a Kickstarter, and there's even more happening that you don't see. It's not as simple as clicking a button and suddenly the backers have their rewards. So please be patient. We promise we will work to make all of these things happen as quickly as they can.

And once again, thank you so much to all of you for this wonderfully successful campaign! The Dark Eye will be here soon!

Rules Preview - Profession Packages
over 8 years ago – Sun, May 29, 2016 at 05:07:46 PM

Character creation in The Dark Eye involves selection from an amazing array of options, which is one of the reasons the Core Rules book is over 400 pages long. That kind of detail can be intimidating to new players, which is why we include many sample characters that are ready to grab and play.

When you're ready to customize a little bit more but don't necessarily want to build completely from scratch, the Professions are there to help guide you. These are packages of advantages, disadvantages, skills, and so on that are designed to work together to create a particular flavor of character. Here's the Spy as an example:

Note that even the Assassin variant only costs 302 AP out of the ordinary starting amount of 1000 AP. Many Profession packages are much cheaper than that, so all of them allow you plenty of room for making your character unique. And of course, all of them are guidelines. There's even a blank page at the end of the Profession section that specifically encourages you to design your own packages!

Stretch Goals and Leatherbound Editions

We are happy to say that we are rapidly approaching the last of our planned stretch goals! As of this update, we are very close to 98k and the Nameless One die, the very last goal from our original list. We're so excited to be reaching this point with 5 days left to go!

But don't worry! We've been working behind the scenes to create enough new goals to get us through to the end of the campaign. We'll get those up as soon as we can (hopefully before we unlock them).

Also, there are still some Leatherbound Editions left! We knew from the interest fans had expressed that at least some of them would go quickly, and they did. But you still have a few more chances to upgrade to the Leatherbound Gamer Package. Don't wait too long, because we have no idea how long they'll last!

More Questions?

Just today, Eevie Demirtel and Markus Plötz held a Q&A on the Ulisses Spiele Twitch channel, where they talked about many of the recent questions that backers have had. Be sure to check out the archive here:

https://www.twitch.tv/ulissesspiele/v/69181370

And if you still have more questions, or if you just want to chat about The Dark Eye with other fans, please join us on the new English-language forums at http://www.ulisses-us.com/forum/ 

Thank you all so much! Just a few more days to go, and we're all very excited to see where we end up!

Interviews and Live Q&A
over 8 years ago – Sun, May 29, 2016 at 04:47:17 AM

The Dark Eye is showing up in the media a bit more this week, so we thought it would be a good idea to do a quick summary so that you can make sure to catch them all. Also, read below for an important Kickstarter announcement!

Bernhard Hennen

We posted this interview with fantasy novelist Bernhard Hennen on our blog yesterday. Hennen has become a prominent name in German fantasy, but he still remembers his roots as a writer for Das Schwarze Auge. He has some great comments about fantasy, art, and the current direction of The Dark Eye.

Also, if you haven't been following our blog, be sure to look back through all the reflection articles written by various designers of The Dark Eye.

Timothy Brown

Tim is in charge of Ulisses North America, and he's also a very experienced designer in his own right. This week he talked to Chris Sniezak of the Misdirected Mark Podcast on their interview show, The Lounge. This is a great interview for getting to know Tim!

And if that isn't enough, Tim also just recorded an episode of Modifier with Meghan Dornbrock. They talked about process and challenges related to translating RPGs. That show is released every other Thursday, which means that it will drop next week on the last day of the Kickstarter. We just wanted to let you know it was coming so you could look out for it!

Markus Plötz and Eevie Demirtel

This Saturday, May 28th, there will be a live streamed Q&A on the Ulisses Spiele Twitch channel. Markus Plötz and Eevie Demirtel are attending RPC in Cologne this weekend, and they have graciously offered to answer some questions in the evening.

The schedule has been set for 2230 Germany time (4:30pm Eastern, 1:30pm Pacific), but if you're there a little early, you can just chat with other fans. Make sure you have a Twitch login so you can ask questions!

More Leatherbound Editions!

We have discussed this with our printer, and we are happy to announce that we are making 50 more leatherbound editions available! This means that the number of limited edition Leatherbound Gamer Packages will go up from 100 to 150! 

We're not sure how fast these will go, so we want to make sure everyone who is interested can have a fair chance at picking one up. For this reason, we are going to designate a specific time when the additional pledge slots will appear. That time will be tomorrow (Friday, May 27th) at 12:00 noon Eastern (1800 Germany, 10am Pacific).

This is absolutely the most we can do. There will be no more after this, so watch the Kickstarter during that time, and grab one while you can!

Locations - The Middenrealm and Neighbors
over 8 years ago – Wed, May 25, 2016 at 06:42:31 PM

The largest empire of Aventuria is the Middenrealm. In this preview, we look at its location and also mention a few of its notable neighbors. This time around, we are including the numbers that are part of the world description text in the introduction, because we are also sharing the map as it appears on page 8 in that chapter. Note the clearly outlined and numbered nations and territories.

The Middenrealm and Selected Neighbors

The Middenrealm (1) stretches through the heart of Aventuria. It is an empire nominally ruled by the young Empress Rohaja, but is in reality controlled by powerful regional lords and ladies. The land is home to chivalrous knights as well as grim dwarves that live in huge underground cities. The capital of the realm is Gareth, by far the largest city in all of Aventuria. Gareth alone is so huge and diverse that the city can spawn hundreds of interesting, dangerous, and entertaining adventures. 

In the plains along the northwestern border of the Middenrealm lie the Orclands (2), where the orcs of Aventuria make their home. Called “coal pelts” by many humans due to their heavy black fur, orcs are always at war with the neighboring empire, and are usually thought to be barbaric, cruel, brutal, and willing to test their strength against anyone stupid enough to challenge them.

South of Thorwal are the two small kingdoms of Nostria (4) and Andergast (5). Most people believe those realms to be somewhat antiquated and underdeveloped. They have a long and very tangled history of border disputes and wars, as they consider themselves “dearest enemies.”

South of the Middenrealm, the progressive Horasian Empire (6) is home to artists and poets. The cities of this fertile land are ruled by patricians, nobles, and councilors who strive constantly to outdo their rivals or weaken them via intrigue. The ruler of the realm is called the Horas, a man who, as the son of a dragon, governs with uncanny foresight.

Just off the Horasian coast lies the archipelago of the Cyclops Islands (7), wooded home of cyclopes, minotaurs, and fairies. Politically, the islands belong to the Horasian Empire, but their human population has a unique culture of their own, very different from their cousins on the mainland.

Campaign Updates

The campaign seems to be picking up speed, which means your sharing is really paying off! We have unlocked several more stretch goals, and we're even starting to think about what other bonuses we can offer once we finish our planned list. (Probably the happiest challenge a Kickstarter campaign can face with 9 days left to go.)

We have more interviews planned in the near future, so keep an eye out on social media for information about those. If you're free this Saturday, you'll especially want to plan on attending the live Q&A with Markus Plötz and Eevie Demirtel! That will stream at 2200 their time (UTC +2), which will be 4pm Eastern and 1pm Pacific. We'll post more details as we get closer.

Thank you so much for everything you are doing to spread the word! There are about 900 backers so far, and we appreciate every one of you!