Hello everyone,

Welcome to the, somewhat belated, May update. This month’s big news: The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365 is complete—and it’s almost ready for distribution!

Dai submitted the final draft this past Friday, and we had hoped to get it into your hands before the end of May. But after a thorough review, I caught some typos and layout tweaks that still need to be fixed. Nothing major—it should take about a day to address. So, expect your download link to arrive via BackerKit early this Week - likely Tuesday. I can’t wait for you all to see it.

We took this thing way beyond the original scope. I’ve talked about that before—but now that it’s done, I can tell you: it clocks in at 48 pages, cover to cover. That’s just 4 pages shy of Mothership first party legend: A Pound of Flesh.

Here’s what’s packed inside:

Dai drew heavy inspiration from early BBS websites, 1980s hacker zines, and a warm, gritty cassette-future aesthetic that in my opinion pairs perfectly with Mothership. Bold warm oranges and yellows slashed against stark black-and-white layouts—usable, high-impact, and dripping with retro-futurist style.

All the art inside is Dai’s handiwork—a signature collage style built from deep dives into public domain sci-fi archives, mashed together in Photoshop and filtered into beautifully grimy, nostalgic spreads. It’s evocative, it's gameable, and I love it. I hope you do too.

Beyond the Smuggler’s Guide, Dai is still hard at work on the rest of the box set materials. Progress slowed a bit this month after a serious fever hit his household, but the good news is he’s on his feet and back at it.

We’re aiming to share previews of box set contents and an update on the production timeline in the regularly scheduled June update.

Once you get the Smuggler’s Guide in hand, I hope you tear it apart (in the best way possible)—dig into the generators, mine the Bazaar for story seeds, and start spinning up your next gritty campaign. Since this PDF is still technically a pre-production version, feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you notice any typos or layout issues. We’ll zap 'em before the print files go to press.

Thanks again for backing, reading, and playing and talk soon,

Hello, Backers!

Apologies again for the delay in updates. In case you missed it, I've been dealing with some family emergencies that have required me to travel. As a result, work on PK49 is slightly delayed.

I'd estimate that this as put me about a month behind in work on the project (delaying layout specifically). So we're still within our windows as announced in the campaign, just slightly behind on updates and showing the work in progress. Here's that graphic again as a reminder.

Also, just wanted to remind anyone who had a question on the Physical+ Tier.

I saw some questions in the comments about what comes with the Physical+ Tier. This was originally supposed to be a tier that came with a bunch of the stretch goals so I'm going to honor that! The Physical+ Tier will come with a bonus sticker pack that will contain module-related, in-universe stickers. Things that the PC's would see as they navigate the tower.

This is in addition to the bonuses that were already unlocked throughout the campaign, namely the patches for the First 48 Hour backers as well as the All Mothership Month Campaigns Funded patch.

That's it for this update. Thank you for your understanding in advance as I take care of some personal matters and I apologize for needing to delay updates and show WIP as a result.

Thanks as always for your support!

– Lone Archivist 

Apologies, another late update this month! May flew by. I continue to make good progress and the floor maps are now all pretty much done!

From the beginning I wanted the maps to have a blueprint-like style to them, so I've been trying to balance that abstract look vs. what items are literally present. I didn't want to clutter rooms with objects, having them be more representative than literal while still conveying useful information about what is in the room. I'm pretty happy with how they came out!

In other news, the tower network map and corresponding poster are nearly done as well. The manuscript is still undergoing editing.

All in all looking at our timeline, we are a little behind schedule, but I would say not too much.  Everything is really starting to come together and I'm excited to move into the printing stage and getting everything out to backers soon!

Hello crew, I'm long overdue to send out another production update on Knowledge Asymmetry. If you've backed other Mothership Month projects you've probably seen other folks grappling with production delays. I've fallen behind schedule as well, and I'm looking at fulfilling in Q3 rather than June. Jettila Lewis continues to work on art for the module between her other commissions and I'm still plugging away at layout. Page layout is satisfying work and involves moving the final text from my google doc into Affinity Publisher 2 alongside illustrations, logos, and the foundations of the page- headers, footers, page numbers.

Although Knowledge Asymmetry is in it's "Final" writing stage seeing how text changes visually from a text editor to columns, insets, and illustrations in layout has a way of making it even clearer what needs to be added and taken away. Text doesn't fit neatly onto this spread: what can be cut to save wardens from unnecessary page turns? Extra space on the page: do I commission or design additional illustrations or do I add more helpful level or faction description? In some ways layout is like a final FINAL editing pass on a module.

In the screen capture above you can see large red blocks on some pages. These are placeholders for art in-progress. The blocks give Jettila Lewis the exact dimensions of the available page space for illustration. For the character art which  goes here she has free reign to use part or all of this space as she draws. Alternatively, on the page above the text has been formatted to to fit around the pre-existing art, with minor edits to keep figures from being placed on the "spine" of the booklet, obscuring the art.

I'll send another update as we get closer to completing layout and move to the initial test prints. We can't wait to hold this in our hands:-)

Howdy backers,

Just want you to know things are still trucking along with Interloper!  As the scope of the module and sandbox increased, region locations on Interloper that seemed wrapped needed to be changed and expanded upon with more detail and NPC's relationships need to be reflowed for a better investigation playground. This scope creep means more work and more time, but will lead to a better and more complete book at the end of everything.  I'm expecting to go to print by end of September.

Layout, and comprehensive editing will kick off as soon as the manuscript is feature complete and so far the tariff chaos seems to have not caused crazy price hikes in printing costs or holdups with my US based printer but I'm keeping an eye on their production pipeline and building in time to accomodate any delays.

In the meantime I wanted to share the completed PDF version of the add-on module 'Til Death Do Us Part- a space gothic horror mansion module by Josh Domanski (writer of The Bloom and The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow). It's sweet.

 

Dive into Enoch’s Landing, a once shining symbol of progress now fallen into decay. Within, your crew will be entangled in the desperate plans of the station’s last matriarch. Will they bring forth the salvation she craves or fall victim to the perils within? If anyone wants the physical copy you can still include it as an add-on via the Pledge Manager.

See ya soon,
Joel

Hey folks,

Glad to say we're finally in print and that our merch has arrived! 

They merch is looking really great in person. Once we have the first book finished and weighed, I'll pop the weights into Backerkit and start charging for shipping. As a reminder: we'll be shipping from the UK. For EU folks, this means we'll pre-pay duties and VAT so you can get your books without any surprise fees. Similarly, printing in Europe means we're avoiding recent US tariffs and our packages will pass de minimis thresholds so you shouldn't be charged any tariffs at the border.

I've also just uploaded the final files to Backerkit and you should already have received a download link to yours! 

Finally, if you'll be at UK Games Expo later this month, do pop by the Peregrine Coast Press stand and say hi. 

Thanks for your patience folks :) We're really excited to get these into your hands.

Hello all and welcome to the May update for Devil’s Due: act of god edition. Yes, you read that right; we’ve had a heck of a storm season roll through parts of the United States. First, I want to let you know that everybody here is unhurt, but this certainly impacts the schedule.

Jordan Boschman, our lead editor, had a pretty bad tornado wreak havoc in his neighborhood, and was without power for about a week. He’s still out of internet and car, staying in touch via friends’ and libraries’ wifi. The damage is yet to be fully cleaned up, so it’s not 100% clear when all services will be restored. Once he’s fully up and running again, we’ll evaluate the impact to our timetable and keep you all updated.

As you saw in our last update, Jordan had progressed through the majority of the book’s content on the last editing pass. He’s continuing at the only pace possible with a life impact this big. We’re all just glad he wasn’t hurt; he told us the north side of the city has been hit much worse.

He shared some photos of the damage in his most recent update, posted below. Once the dangling trees are handled, new internet lines are hopefully not too far behind.

In positive news, art continues to progress at a fantastic pace. I wanted to focus on one of the many ships and stations 3D modelled by Sam Wildman aka HailSanta. The image below is an early render of the space station in Chris Airiau’s Iron Hearth Harvest. You can see the reactor wheel, long spindle, and the manufacturing plant on the other end. Back during the campaign, Chris ran a one-short livestream of Iron Hearth Harvest you can watch on YouTube.

There are a lot of moving parts to this book; we really appreciate your patience as it comes together. Like I said earlier in this update, we’ll be back in our next monthly update with news on any schedule changes, but as it stands we continue to work through what’s left to bring you this big hardcover book about space pirates. Needless to say, our hope of beginning layout in May has been dashed; we will re-evaluate once our schedules are predictable again. Thanks for believing in this project!

In other news, our project-mate Joshua Justice just released Hecate Cassette Archive! This 48-page setting and adventure zine for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is playable as a heist adventure or as a location to drop into your campaign. The module is designed to be ready-to-play with minimal prep required. Infiltrate the Archive in multiple ways with an immersive worldbuilding approach to game design. Crews will need to combine social, technical, and violent solutions to achieve their objectives, and survive. You can pick it up digitally on Itch and DriveThruRPG. To celebrate, Joshua also has other Hekate releases—including the prequel module, Radio Free Hekate—on sale for 50% off through the weekend!

Hello Scoundrels!

I've got a pre-print PDF for you! Check the link in the Backer Exclusive Content at the end of the Update, :)

Marx delivered the edited manuscript on April 25th (the Friday after the last Update), and I generally finished the zine layout by May 6th. Less than an hour ago, Tim sent the final ship art!

What's nice too is that proofreading is finished! The Does Makes the Poison author Andrew C. Mason hopped on to proofread, and as a work trade, I'll soon be proofreading his zine, as well.

Another placeholder is the Juicy Family Co-op logo (pg. 5), a collaboration with SpicyTuna RPG's The Hands That Feed. Marco Serrano's working on that one!

For the moment, I've popped in three new Scoundrels, one of which is 100% a placeholder while that Immortalizer and I work out a good time for our meeting (I'm still waiting to hear back from them. Tt's not easy, this timezone difference, lessons learned!). 

I've also finished the postcards, as well as digital & printable assets for Not Enough Scoundrels. The tokens look pretty good, I think, and I'm happy to get more out of Lur Noise's incredible art.

The maps have three digital versions. The "maximum" player info version, with numerated layout, the layout-only version, and hull only. The printable PDFs are one 24pg packet of map variations, and set for US Letter page size (despite my A4/A5 heart, haha). The MAX version is what player crewmembers ought to be able to figure out with a scan of the ship, and is the version that appears on the postcards. There's a lil procedure in one portion of the Void Events that asks Wardens to use these maps.

With Tim's final art in hand, I will order the test print (right after my . Unfortunately, this is a sloooooooooow process (US Printing + shipping to France) at an estimated 3 weeks. Once I have it in hand, I need to check for any necessary changes before pressing the big scary PRINT button for over 1000 zines.

Meanwhile, if you noticed a typo or error that passed us by, please use this Google Forms survey to report any mistakes you may cross: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBlmiCdgGASqPR_d89VWOBjFKSCkmimhld9e9E51G7brwhzg/viewform

When I hit the print button (maybe late June?), Violet from RV Games will open up the backer surveys. I'll provide more detail before the surveys go out, but our goal is to collect for shipping during this initial survey. In addition, you'll be able to upgrade your pledge and slap on more add-ons from the 5MW Press and RV Games catalogues.

Blocking out the layout prior to editing really helped move this project ahead. I actually managed to gain some time on this, so we didn't fall behind at all.

As usual, here’s your monthly update to the Project Timeline:

If we're lucky with the prints, we may even be able to start surveys early and begin fulfillment in July. In any case, we're definitely in the good window to stay on schedule for August fulfillment—barring catastrophe (which who knows, with this continued tariff BS).

Expect the next update, at the latest, Monday, June 23rd.

Howdy Friends, Cameron here.

First off, thanks so much for your patience. March and April were marked with some unexpected family medical emergencies that required my immediate and entire attention. The good news: things are on the up-and-up, and The Panic Table and DNGN Club are back in the Dog House.

... Which is a good thing, in this instance.

Jokes aside, consider me re-committed to regular updates.

Don't worry, we brought treats- please enjoy this complimentary 7-page, utterly delightful Dog Eat Dog train heist Misadventure for Mothership RPG lovingly designed by Jack Panic himself:
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DOG

Wanna see it in action? Check out the Actual Play One-Shot featuring special guest player (and beloved pal), Alan Gerding of Tuesday Knight Games.

Chasing our tails

Work on D.E.D. has been slow but steady; I'm pleased with the state of the manuscript, and excited to observe some play tests of the main campaign.

One of the most unique facets of creating the book has been expounding on the lessons we learned from filming the special mini-season. I went into creating the season of the show with the lore fully sketched out but the book yet unwritten; it was exciting to establish a new locale in our Unaccompanied Miners universe on home turf-- the ruins of Earth. Since then, the core NPCs remain familiar, but the setting has begun to take on a life of its own.

It's been exciting to watch the book to develop new flavors, adventure possibilities, and monstrosities.  Next month we'll go into greater depth on cool stuff like the layout of RED FERN KENNEL CLUB and the deeply clever SIT, STAY, PLAY DEAD optional exploration mechanics we're developing.

For those of you offering kind words of support, thank you, it's been greatly appreciated.

Yours Truly,
Cameron (and Jack)

PS: FUN FACT: Going to GenCon? Consider picking up some tickets to see The Panic Table in action in our LIVE Actual Play PARTY CRASHERS