Pledge Manager Launch, Languages and More!
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 02:55:25 AM
Hello, folks!
I hope you are ready for a massive update, because we have all sorts of things to talk about, including the Pledge Manager, all four language partners, character art galore and an inside look at the nuts and bolts of character creation for Stormsunder. Let’s do it!
Pledge Manager Launching Soon
The Stormsunder pledge manager will be launching “soon.” I can’t guarantee you’ll get your email today (and if you’re overseas, you might already be in bed), but soon! We’ve got two issues outstanding that I’m trying to sort out with BackerKit: shipping costs for Kickstarter backers (which BackerKit should be doing an upload for in the next few hours) and confirmation that the language options for pledges are set up correctly. Once that is sorted out, we’ll be doing a stress test to a small number of backers, so don’t worry if some folks get their emails and you haven’t received yours yet (BackerKit sends out 5%, makes sure we didn’t blow anything up, then sends the rest).
When you do get your email, just a helpful tip if you want to upgrade your pledge as it’s easy to miss: Click the link below the giant green button when you start as seen below.
Stuff Old & New
So, what’s available during the pledge manager? Everything you could get during the campaign, as well as the three mini boss boxes we talked about last update (now called Villains & Civilians I, II & III), additional dice, bunches of lots of sleeves and a two-tone painting option we are calling “Stormbrush”
Stormbrush
We’re offering Wave 1 ($129) & Wave 2 ($149) Stormbrush, which covers all the minis we’re currently offering in those waves. We tried to keep this as simple as possible, so if you don’t have all the minis for a particular wave (say, you don’t get The Faceless expansion in Wave 2), you are paying for paint that won’t be used. Here are the first samples our manufacturer has given us:
Villains & Civilians I
Mini bosses and collateral damage from Heirs of Ruin, the box costs $49 and includes 26 miniatures across 18 sculpts. We have all the renders now; you can see them at the bottom of this update.
Villains & Civilians II
Mini bosses and unintended victims from Bones of the Conquered, the box costs $49 and includes 26 miniatures across 15 sculpts. We have all the renders now; you can see them at the bottom of this update.
Villains & Civilians III
Mini bosses and Aleksandra playthings from A Pharaoh’s Wrath, the box costs $49 and includes 26 miniatures across 15 sculpts. We have all the renders now; you can see them at the bottom of this update.
Sleeves
Like Stormbrush, we have two sleeve packs: Wave 1 ($59) and Wave 2 ($109). We increased the total number of cards (since we never really talked about how many cards Stretch Goal heroes, etc were adding), so Wave 1 will have 1881 sleeves and Wave 2 will have 2803. The sleeves are 100 micron, for folks who know what that means.
Additional Dice
For $15 you can get 20 more dice (six of each of the three attack dice and two more fate dice).
Boxes!
Here are all the boxes for the things we had during the campaign, but didn’t have boxes for:
The Nyere Pledge
We’ve added a new pledge level. I won’t call it an all-in because its missing a couple of things (which I will explain), but it does include a nice discount and lets people skip what we assume some won’t want. For $623, you get these items:
- Stormsunder: Heirs of Ruin (Wave 1)
- Heirs of Ruin 3D Terrain Pack (Wave 1)
- Stormsunder: Bones of the Conquered (Wave 2)
- Stormsunder: A Pharaoh's Wrath (Wave 2)
- Stretch Goal Box (Wave 1)
- Wayward Squire Expansion (Wave 2)
- The Faceless Expansion (Wave 2)
- Villains and Civilians I (Wave 1)
- Villains and Civilians II (Wave 2)
- Villains and Civilians III (Wave 2)
- Stormsunder Artbook (Wave 2)
- Additional Dice Set (Wave 1)
The same items will cost you $684 if you add them separately. Here’s what’s not in the pledge:
- Elise, the Lost Princess (Wave 1)
- Faeyra, the Last Titan (Wave 1)
- Stormsunder Graphic Novel (Wave 2)
- Wave 1 Stormbrush (Wave 1)
- Wave 2 Stormbrush (Wave 2)
- Wave 1 Sleeves (Wave 1)
- Wave 2 Sleeves (Wave 2)
The first three are because they were available during the Kickstarter campaign at some point for free, and we’re looking to not step on any toes. We also didn’t offer the Stormbrush or Sleeves in the pledge as some will want one or both of those or none at all.
Shipping Cost and Wave Changes
Now that we have a manufacturer (and said manufacturer has given us box dimensions and weight estimates), we can talk about accurate shipping prices. First things first, however, we’re going to change how Stormsunder will be fulfilled. During the campaign we said folks could choose to split their pledge (if applicable) into one or two waves, with the idea being that folks could save on shipping. Well, it turns out there isn’t a discount at all (our boxes are too big for that), and logistically its going to be a nightmare to hang on to folks’ Wave 1 stuff for a year while we work on Wave 2. Boxes could get damaged or misplaced and it just seems altogether like a bad idea in retrospective. We polled the Discord and no one seemed interested in 1-wave shipping anyway, so I think we’re safe in making this decision, but I apologize if anyone was set on waiting.
Anyway, here are the shipping costs for Wave 1, in all their glory. We won’t be charging shipping for Wave 2 until we re-open the pledge manager in 2021 (after Wave 1 ships) as we don’t want to hang on to (or be taxed on) money we can’t spend. The safest hands are your own, after all. Please note that these shipping costs are for Heirs of Ruin; any add-ons will increase the cost (Faeyra and Elise are free, however, regardless of whether you paid for them or not):
- USA / EU / UK / Australia / New Zealand / China / Hong Kong - $49
- Canada – $57
- Norway / Switzerland - $77
- Rest of Asia (Japan / South Korea / Malaysia / Philippines / Singapore / Taiwan / Thailand / Vietnam) - $83
- Everywhere Else – $149
Languages
We are happy to announce the translators for all four languages. We’ll let them introduce themselves in their own words:
- French - Funforge
Funforge is a well-known international publisher, producing high-quality games since 2008. We have published dozens of games worldwide, and our titles have received many awards. We are working with numerous suppliers and partners in the USA, in Europe, and in Asia for many years, and the quality of our games is internationally recognized. Also, after 5 successfully fulfilled Kickstarter campaigns from which we learned a lot, and hundreds of thousands of games delivered to distributors and retailers, manufacturing and shipping are a well-known story for us.
- German – TL Games
We are passionate boardgamers and support foreign publishers in bringing their games to the table and to the player in German-speaking countries. In doing so, we attach great importance to our partners growing together with us and working together in a sustainable manner.
We are a small family business, supported by dear friends to realize our ideas and visions. The focus lies on the players and the games themselves.
- Italian – Raven Distribution
Active in Italy for more than 10 years, Raven Distribution has managed to create an editorial and distribution reality never equaled by any other company in the sector.
Born from the desire to work well, spread the game and expand the playful landscape, it is still at the top of the sales charts with successes of the caliber of Munchkin, C'Era Una Volta, Zombi !!!, Dead of Winter, Mice and Mystics, Kult, Vampires La Masquerade, Werewolves the Apocalypse and Call of Cthulhu .
Always specialized in the professional and effective localization of card, table and role-playing games, Raven Distribution is, at the present time, the only one in Italy to operate with all large and small companies in the sector, allowing retailers and end users to satisfy any of their wishes with a simple "click".
- Spanish – Last Level Games
Last Level Games is a Spanish publisher from Sevilla. With 10 years of experience in the distribution of Games and Merchandising, Last Level jumped into the publishing of games under its label in 2016.
With the intention of creating a varied catalog for all players, Last Level Games has collaborated with major publishers to bring cutting-edge games such as Chronicles of Crime, Outlive, Vikings Gone Wild, Cthulhu Wars, Gugong, Hostage Negotiator, Black Rose Wars, Village Attacks and many more.
In addition, Last Level Games is committed to games created in Spain, featuring titles with great public acceptance such as Boom Party, Sencha, Kai-Zen or the most recent Trick or Boo.
Stormsunder Preview (including in-hand plastic minis)
We sent Crabbok the plastic Lady Renata and Capac we've shown and he made a preview video out of it. He also shows off the fancy cards we put in the box, which have a bit of story on them. Check it out:
Hero and Adversary Art
Our artist has been hard at work fleshing out all the colorful characters in the world of Stormsunder. If you watched some of the gameplay videos we did during the campaign, you’ll certainly recognize some of these, but there are ones I hadn’t even seen, so I’m sure they will be new to you.
Anatomy of a Hero
We thought we’d pull the curtain back a bit and talk about how we design the heroes for Stormsunder. Keep in mind that we’re going to be dissecting numbers that may change by the time the game is produced, but at least you can see where we started (and no doubt spot some influence). For this feature, we’re going to take a look at Vanessa, a Human Survivalist.
- Statistics
Each hero has six statistics: Strength, Perception, Agility, Spirit, Vitality and Charisma. We won’t go much into them right now (most folks are likely pretty familiar with what they represent anyway). The important thing to note is that a hero without shape or form has 3 for each of these statistics, as well 10 points to assign as they wish. Statistic increases cost 1 point until 10, which costs 2 points, and then 3 points starting with 15. Fledgling heroes also have 5 Hit Points and 2 Speed.
All heroes also have 7 Standard ability cards to form the basis for their ability deck: Punch, First Aid, Teamwork, Take a Breather, Throw Rock, Self-Preservation, and Dash.
- Race
Vanessa is Human, or at least human enough. This grants her +5 Hit Points and +1 Speed, as well as +1 for each statistic. Humans also get to choose from one of three Human race cards: Sympathetic, Determined or Resolute (Vanessa is Determined).
- Faction
Vanessa is one of the last surviving members of the Nyere, an ancient guild of men and women gifted with an unerring sense of direction. The Nyere are explorers, adventurers and heroes, using their power to map uncharted realms and to find relics thought to be lost forever. From a gameplay perspective, Nyere is Vanessa’s faction, which grants her +2 Perception at level 1 as well as granting her access to the Luck of the Nyere ability card.
- Class
Vanessa a is Survivalist, a class focusing on ranged damage. Each class has statistic requirements; a Survivalist must have 5 Strength, 7 Perception, 7 Agility and 6 Vitality. Choosing this class grants heroes +6 Hit Points and +2 Speed. Survivalists start the game with five class ability cards: Explosive Shot, Heavy Shot, Volley, Support Fire and Premeditation.
Survivalists also get the Marked for Death default Skill:
- Math
We’ve shown all the pieces to create a character, so let’s see how we get to Vanessa at level 1:
Pretty easy, huh? Leveling a hero adds more stat points, new and upgraded abilities as well as some other stuff we didn’t cover here (like Signature Skills, Equipment Slots, etc). We do all of this behind the scenes for you (leveling Vanessa to level 2 is as easy as flipping over her card and grabbing her new Ability cards), but because the system is there… We can look at expanding its scope and maybe even offering character creation and/or customization for folks in the future.
That’s it for now. Below are all the Villain & Civilian sculpts, if you are interested. Until next time, we’ll see you in the Storm (it’s in the campaign book; I checked).
Villains & Civilians I
Villains & Civilians II
Villains & Civilians III
