We’re entering a really exciting phase of Toon Morgue, the book is being more actively designed.
Full Page Design Underway
I’m now fully working on the book’s page design, laying everything out section by section: text, tables, illustrations, and layout finally merging into something tangible.
There are only a few illustrations left to be completed, and once those are in, we’ll be very close to locking in the full visual identity of the book.
At the same time, a dedicated designer is actively working on the one-shot adventure included in the book, ensuring it has its own strong layout and readability while still fitting seamlessly into the overall style.
Mr. Droolinger’s Office:
We now have a finished illustration of Mr. Droolinger’s office, featured in the one-shot.
Weapons Overview Illustration
We’ve also completed a new overview illustration featuring 9 of the weapons that will appear in the book. On one side, the most rudimentary ones and on the other... well where things start getting proper bloodied and silly.
Huge thanks to JCaluger for the incredible work so far, these pieces are bringing Toon Morgue to life in exactly the way I imagined.
TL;DR: The Tower has toppled, over to you. Details below for how to contact RRD, join the community or follow up on post-campaign pledges/issues.
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Our work here is done
That’s it. The project portion of this is all done, the game is out in the world and we’re very happy to see people playing it. It’s in your hands now: Voidheart Symphony is yours to do with as you will. Obviously we hope that means playing it, telling people about it, and then maybe playing it more, with even more people, but even if it just sits on your shelves, we’re happy if you’re happy. And we hope it makes you and your gaming groups very happy - and we’d love to hear about your experiences.
Everyone here in the RRD swamp is pleased. And relieved. And a bit tired. We’re going to bask in the glow of the holographic foil logo for a bit and admire our handiwork. Well, most of us - Customer Service Jim and Logistics Alex remain on call to deal with any issues, and Mina’s already moved on to writing a whole new game. Speaking of which, if you haven’t seen our Children of Time announcement, have a peek.
Main fulfilment finished
All Backers who have filled in their surveys and paid for their shipping should have their packages already. If you haven’t received your delivery please contact us and we can work out what has occurred ([email protected]).
Feedback & Community
If you’ve already had a chance to check out your delivery (perhaps even read through and share with your tables) why not head over to our website pre-orders page and leave a product review that might encourage more people to try the game? Or join our Discord server and chat to other backers about it?
If you social your media, you can always tag us on Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook to let us know what you’re doing with your games, we’re @rowanrookanddecard most places. Or you can still comment here on the project - we always monitor our old projects.
Consolidating Digital Files
We’ve also made all the previously shared digital rewards from the campaign available on our website, as well as in your BackerKit. If you want to add these resources to your RRD webstore downloads you can send your Backer ID number and your RRD webstore account email to Jim in the Customer Service mines ([email protected]) and he’ll sort out linking those across for you.
Stragglers sift
Our fulfilment project has now ended. In a few days we will go through and collect any Backers who have finalised their surveys, have orders and addresses locked or had Card payments declined since we processed our main fulfilment in each region. We call this our stragglers sift, and it’s our opportunity to pick up any things that may have slipped through the cracks, as well as giving the small number of backers that we haven’t heard from since the campaign ended one last gentle poke [*poke*] Anyone picked up in this process will be fulfilled before the 3rd April 2026.
Closing the Campaign
From 3rd April 2026, the BackerKit project will be closed. This means that you are no longer able to fill out surveys or amend orders without contacting RRD directly.
If you find yourself in this situation please email us ([email protected]) and let us know your Backer email or number.
Once the campaign has closed we cannot guarantee the availability of all the items that may have been attached to your original Pledge. Some items are made uniquely for the crowdfunder, and are often in limited supply to begin with. Post-campaign stocks are time-limited and we’re unable to hold stores of items ‘just in case’; from a core book to a unique pin, it will go out of stock in time. We will always try to fulfil as much of your original pledge as possible.
The Mystery Snacks campaign ended about a month ago, and since then, I've kicked off guest writers and set up the pre-order store!
Also, What if World podcast did do an episode featuring one of the original Mystery Snacks adventures! Check it out for a sneak peek at how one of these mysteries might play, and I highly recommend exploring the other What if World episodes for any kids who enjoy storytelling and games. Check out the post + episode here!
This update has some details on layout, and art, and other such topics. But more importantly, some dude named Ethan came in outta nowhere and wiped my high score off Bride of Pinbot! Grrr. We'll deal with that at the end. For now, here's the real substance of this update...
Layout For Old-School Adventures #1
OSA #1 is through first-pass layout. We're currently proofreading, fixing text/image overlaps, and so on. Here are a few previews of select page spreads...
Interior Art for Pinball Crawl Classics
The PCC adventures are written and edited. Now they are all in various stages of art commission. In previous updates / livestreams we showed you a number of images and maps from Gorgar. Here are a few images that just came in for Swords of Fury...
...and here are a few recent additions to Cosmic Gunfight...
Dude Named Ethan is Good at Pinball
Now, on to the important part. Joe Goodman here. I hit a couple local pinball places with some frequency. Research, you know. All a tax writeoff, of course, at least as long as this project is current.
Anyway, I had the high score on Bride of Pinbot at one machine for quite some time. Just under 13 million. Of course, if you know the machine, I never made the Billionaire's Club (haven't gotten that shot) but 13 million ain't too shabby. Photograph evidence below... and yes, JEG is me...
So the other day I walk in, and some guy is playing the machine and he's absolutely killing it. After watching him for a while, I realize he's good. REALLY good.
We get talking. Turns out he used to manage the location, and he's good at virtually every machine there. He teaches me a specific move on Bride of Pinbot: backhand flip off the left flipper gets it up the left ramp almost every time, and even catches it easy on a miss. Amazing move.
My game immediately improves... but it doesn't matter. Cuz dude's name is Ethan and he literally wiped my #1 score off the top 10, and proceeded to fill the ranks with his own name.
A day or two later I got 10 million and didn't even make the top 10.
I think I met a real-life Pinball Wizard. Now the challenge is on to get my name back on the top 10! Practice, practice, practice!
Here is your latest update. Three main topics for everyone today:
UK/EU and AUS fulfillment updates
Updated PDF with map fix
Backstage look at fulfillment
As mentioned previously, US+CAN wave 1 fulfillment is virtually complete, so the focus of this update is international backers.
UK/EU Fulfillment Has Begun!
Our local partner tells us they've made great progress on shipping, and we've seen a lot of comments from backers across Europe indicating their parcels have arrived. Which is great news!
We'll post tracking numbers and provide a shipping summary once we receive the final confirmation from our local market partner. From what we have seen so far, though, they appear to be roughly 90%+ complete on shipping.
AUS Fulfillment Update
The freight is still on track to arrive in late March. Customs clearance and local transportation are always a variable but we are optimistic that fulfillment will begin by early to mid April.
Updated PDF
We've fixed a map issue in one of the PDFs. All backers should see a new file in the pledge manager called "TFTU CS Book 2 Attack on Giants Part 1 (Updated)." On page 108, the map is now corrected.
A Backstage Look at Fulfillment
While our US warehouse was fulfilling Terror from the UnderDeep, we recorded a few moments so we could show backers what fulfillment really looks like. Check out the video below to see crowdfunding fulfillment in action! You might even see the moment that your order was packed!!
Here's the latest update as we progress through the final part of the proofing process. In previous updates we showed you a wide variety of printer proofs. This update has the latest batch received since... well, since whenever we posted the last batch!
Most of these proofs are related to the DCC core rulebook and its iterations. The MCC rulebook is one of the last proofing items we are awaiting. More on that below.
This is the cover art to the DCC RPG core rulebook, William McAusland cover edition. Wow, it turned out great! Will even hand-painted the logo that you see here.
This is the custom-fitted slipcase, front side.
Same slipcase, back side.
This is the printed corrugated carton that the leatherbound edition will ship in.
The stickers that will be applied to the leatherbound edition.
Leatherbound foil + deboss, file of 1 of 3. This series of images shows alignment of deboss and foil on the leatherbound cover. This is where the foil will be printed....
Leatherbound foil + deboss, file of 2 of 3. ...and this is where the deboss will be applied....
Leatherbound foil + deboss, file of 3 of 3. ...yielding this final image showing how the deboss and foil will appear atop each other. If you're not used to looking at printer proofs this might not make any sense, but trust me, it's a good thing... this shows that the leather cover foil + deboss will come out correctly.
I think we mentioned that the leatherbound edition has an extra 16 page signature sewn in at the end. This is the start of that section.
Random page from that bonus gallery. Does anyone recognize these spine designs? Some of them date wayyyy back to 2012-2013 printings of the core book, and haven't been seen since.
As we are reprinting the core book, we are also adding another print run of the "regular blue edition." In almost all respects this is like prior printings, save one fun change. Note the 25th anniversary logo in silver, which will be applied on the 14th printing of the core rulebook "blue cover" edition!
So that's the latest round of proofs, everyone. Off the top of my head, we are currently awaiting only one significant remaining item, which is the fluorescent neon edition of the MCC RPG core rulebook. The printer sent a photo of their first proof run, but it wasn't bright enough. They're re-applying the neon ink for another proof sample soon. Once we have that approved, I believe it will be all proofs approved. We'll keep providing updates as we progress!
Good news everyone (especially international backers):
This crowdfunding campaign has hit End of Life (EOL)!
All international physical pledges have been placed in the mail! If you have any problems with your country's customs agency please let us know here: [email protected].
Big thanks to Ratti Incantati for handling the international fulfillment! If you are in Canada and have not bought the physical products, they are selling Netcrawl in their online store and at Breakout Con this weekend!
Patreon
Happy Birthday, Netcrawl Patreon!
This month marks the 4th year of the Patreon. Since it's humble beginnings, we've grown a lot! There are ~30 supporting members and 150 free members. There are almost as many Netcrawl posts as there are members (173)! Most of the time Update Patch posts get around 300 views. Paid posts around 30-100 views. Quips really out perform everything else and get 2K+ views. Why am I telling you this? No idea.
What's next as we plod towards 5 years? Maybe there should be a lot more quips? It seems like I absolutely need to start doing more video content. Especially to highlight the game and give people that quick and easy video format. Maybe I'll get comfortable doing it if I just do more. Maybe I'll continue to rue the day I ever pressed record on my video phone.
After the production and fulfillment of Netcrawl, I've slowed down a bit creatively. It does take a lot out of a person doing all the things. But I see new ideas on the horizon and the Patreon will continue to be the place you'll see stuff from me first. To that point, next month is a change from program result table conversions and something new. You only have to wait a few more days to see it.
Media
Check out my appearance on the Analytic Dice Studio podcast. I was put to the nine questions by Kevin Borrup and it was hard to go back in time and remember my gaming as a middle schooler.
Events
It has been a very busy month for me and Horse Shark Games. I made two trips to the east coast visiting Boston and New York City/Long Island.
The end of the NYC trip was spent in Brooklyn and visiting Twenty Sided Store in the Williamsburg neighborhood (two metro stops or so from Manhattan). The proprietor, Lauren Bilanko, has a very nice FLGS with lots of OSR books, card game tables on the 1st floor, and a workshop/TTRPG tables in the basement. She is writing her own sci-fantasy setting and game system named Mystic Aether and does a ton of creative stuff. She and I did a workshop on adventure writing using the Sys Raid hexcrawl/pointcrawl adventure generator in Netcrawl:Arcologies. All the participants walked away with the bones of an adventure, which means I have something new to work on for the next few months!
Calendar
On the horizon is Dungeon Con 2! Come visit Ft. Wayne, IN May 1-3. Check out Goodman Games warehouse sale and play with tons of Goodman Games authors and 3rd party DCC RPG publishers. There is a convention hall this time around and I will have a vendor table at the event. Come visit Horse Shark Games!
Netcrawl Nights
Also coming soon is Netcrawl Nights, a live demo game of Netcrawl that will take place on various discord servers. Stay tuned on the Netcrawl Discord as I roll this out. I can reasonably announce that there will be one in May in the Twenty Sided Store discord.
