Hey gang,

Sorry for the delay in the updates! We've made a ton of progress on the book and things are looking beautiful, so I thought now would be a good time for a progress report.

Right now, Adam is working on finishing up the layout. Adam just started with us late last year as our Creative Director and he is doing just a phenomenal job on Wages. This book is massive. It's clocking in at just over 300 pages right now. And he's made it so easy to navigate, and so fun to read. Aside from just how much content there is, I feel like this book really will stay right next to the Warden's Operations Manual in most Warden's games. There really is just so much content there.

We've got d100 bounties as you all know. But we've broken them down into locations. A lot of areas have more than one bounty in them, which makes them perfect for a campaign setting. Here on the Bounties index, we've got them organized by location, average bounty level, and then we'll have a 2-3 word summary of each bounty as well so that you can quickly find something you're looking for on game night.

The meat of the book is the bounties themselves. Each one is a complete mission with everything you need to run them. Several are 2 pages, and a few are 4-8. They've got maps, tips, stat-lines, and at least one has one of the brand new ships we unlocked (a pirate ship!).

What's cool though is that every location is now getting a summary page. So you're not only getting 100 unique bounties, you're also getting almost fifty fleshed out locations to run your games from. Right now Luke is writing up all this new location data to fill these pages with useful info on the all the locales and factions and relevant NPCs you might find alongside the bounties.

This addition was a late in the game one that popped up during layout and we're so glad we've made it work. It really turns this book into something really special where you can build a campaign from just a handful of small bounties. I'm really excited about it.

After that we've also got 10 bounty hunters to hunt your players down (or be hired???). We've done these up like expanded Unconfirmed Contact Reports entries and we've really focused on using them as horrors rather than just run of the mill contractors. It's a bad time when they show up. Your players will be afraid of them.

The ODC prison complex is a sixty (60!!) page prison adventure at the back of Wages. We go for a different layout style here and it's turning out just beautiful. What's cool about this adventure is that it's sort of like a sandbox location. You've got the daily routines of the prisoners, what the work and living conditions are like, we give you a new weekly turn procedure, and then set your players loose.

There's new items and equipment from the prison's internal economy. There's 100 prisoners that each have access to different rumors the players can use to try and escape. There's four prison factions and 100 staff as well.

Outside of the prisoner is a dangerous world as well with alien animals and terrors ready to maim the players should the escape from the prison. The whole thing is just so much fun and it's the perfect thing to throw at your players after they've been stealing and wrecking Company property for a few sessions.

So the book now has over 300 NPCs, 40 new locations, 10 new aliens, 3 new ships, a prison complex, and tons of procedures for running crime and punishment on the rim.

Right now we still look like we're on track for Q2 but we'll let you know if anything changes when we get closer to printing.

Oh! We've also done a new round of edits on the supply pod cards and they're looking great as well. These cards contain all the info you need to run these NPCs with a full piece of art on the front and all the stats on the back. We've formatted the stats in two ways in case you want to run them as PCs, which means players can just draw a card from the deck and start running them. Also, we've added an Input Code for the Mothership Companion App, so if your players want they can import the character directly into their app and start using them in the Companion's VTT or just keep the character with them wherever they go. We're super happy with these and we think we're going to keep doing them every year.

That's all for now! We're finishing up layout and then we'll be sending the draft to all of you so we can get your final feedback before our proofreaders dig in. If you run into any issues please give Tyler a shout at [email protected]

Thank you!!

Well hello there, Burt Backerkit! What the world needs now is another update on The Dose Makes The Poison!

Sorry you had to go through those opening sentences, I will try and do better in the future.

But aaaaanyway - I figured since the February update landed in March, you good folks are still due a legit update for this month, so here we go.

Zine

We're knee deep in layout and additional illustrations now. We're sitting at a confirmed 24 page zine now, which is cool. The first half of zine is The Dose Makes The Poison module, and 2nd half features a bunch of lore and plot threads about Hope's Pharma, including a cross section of the corporation head office, The Home of Industry. This is where head honcho, Aneurin Hope, resides along with his ever enthusiastic 𝚌̶𝚞̶𝚕̶𝚝̶ workforce, The New Industrial Union, so hopefully there's plenty more retro weirdness here for you to develop into your games once the initial module is completed. 

Additional print bits
We've also got a draft of the A4 poster on the go (included in the Lethal Dose pledge tier or as an add on) as seen above. This takes Inspo from those early 20th century ads that had doctors telling you smoking was good for you and the like, that you would see when sitting in your GP's waiting room.

The bookmark for all physical backers (as a reward for all MM project funding) is also in development, the back of which can be seen above (I love the ratio of 1/3rd instructions for use 2/3rds disclaimer text that Norg create for this, his copy is hilarious too). This leaves the sticker and the additional pamphlet as the two outstanding items to be worked on in April.

Audio & Video Files
I've had a good run at some of the accompanying audio bits over the past month. By way of an example here's a short snippet of a speech from Aneurin Hope, the founder of Hope's Pharma that you should be able to download off my Google Drive. A big thank you to @Squinch from the Mothership Discord for the voice acting work on this - thank you!

The animator is also putting the finishing touches to the Hope's Serum video ad as we speak, it's looking great as you can see from the couple of gifs in this update. Next for that is updating the audio and adding in some sfx.

These audio and video files will be available to all tiers with digital stretch goals and above.

Incomplete Surveys 
There's still 3% (30) of you that have yet to submit your survey. I'll be locking addresses around mid April time and charging cards for shipping around the start of May, so get your survey updated before then. All seems on track to ship in May as planned, although it might be towards the end of May rather than the start.

That's it from me, for now.

Cheers,
Andrew

I missed the March update (my bad!), but this isn’t an April Fools' joke - just a shorter update before a proper one in a week or two.

🏴‍☠️ Krakenhund's Chaos Month

Sorry for the delay, but March was a hell of a ride...Not to bore you with the details, but here’s the highlight reel:

We came from this to his in a week:

✍️ Editing? DONE! Layout? Almost!

Finaly my computer is set up and Main module layout is being finalized and will be sent in follow up update in PDF form. After that, I just need to finish two pamphlets and the vehicle stretch goal, then… PRINTING!

📖 IT’S HAPPENING!

Seeing this thing come together feels unreal. I even printed a rough version of the main module to check hot it looks printed and if its readable, and I love it - hope you will too! 😍 Video is attached.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16o04jNerb4n0GUgJsa0fpFApnJrcgojX/view?usp=sharing

Cheers,
 Krakenhund

And now Im going to clean latriness for my late update...

Hello, Backers!

Apologies for the delay in updates. I let the short month get away from me last month but wanted to be sure to get in an update this month.

So far we are on track! Playtesting has gone well and helped to clean up some of the mechanics and rules behind the psychokinetic (or psionic) powers that are featured in this adventure as well as to sure up some of the rooms and encounters found throughout the tower crawl.

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! Expect some more details with regards to playtesting, moving into graphic design and layout and some more sneak peaks in the next one.

Thanks as always for your support!

– Lone Archivist

This month I have been making quite a bit of progress on Thicker Than Blood, the vinyl adventure. I have a solid draft of the system and a prototype map, and most exciting is that all of the vinyl cover art has been finalized by Zach Hazard. I've put together two mockups that are a more complete representation of the final project. The splatter and color on the vinyl aren't exactly correct, the vinyl will be see-through hospital green with the red splatter, but these two mockups show much more of how the work is shaping up.

Until next month,

Violet❤️

Hey folks,

Some awesome news. The new books have arrived, they look smashing (no scuffs), and I've begun shipping out the first batch of goodies! Specifically, those to my fellow Aussies.

Over the next week or so I'll be sending out batches of 20-30 (a day-ish), with the hope that all are in the post within the next two weeks.

Addresses have been locked, so if something changes on your end before you get the goods, message me as quickly as possible in the hopes that we can fix it.

The new books stacked on my spare bed

The first test shipment all packed

That's it for now. I'll shoot out a final update or two once shipping is complete.
Cheers,
- Dan.

Hi everybody, and welcome to the end of March! Things on the Devil’s Due project have been chugging along, here’s a short breakdown by task.

Our editors have all turned in first passes, and the second, slower and more involved pass is underway now. I’m pretty impressed with how smooth this went, and I think the size and dedication of our team is why. Once the editors established a style guide, they were able to divide the writing pieces and work on them simultaneously. Our writers also reviewed their pieces as the editing pass finished. 

Our art team is also on schedule. Nearly two thirds of all illustrations have been turned in, and the rest are in different stages of progress, aiming to wrap up over the next handful of weeks. The rest of March and April will be a busy time of art review! 

Layout is soon to be the major focus. We really want to make sure the writing is locked in before this begins in earnest. It prevents re-work and will be a smoother process for Eric/Spider00x.

We’ll be back soon with our next monthly update!

It’s been a slow month for Not Enough Scoundrels, so this is a quick update, folks. 

I got the Josh’s final notes back late last week. Most were small adjustments here and there, and the one big piece to look at boosting is the Reputation system.

Initially, the Reputation Score was a one-dimensional range, similar to how reputation works in Hull Breach, Vol. 1. Josh pointed out a simple multitrack system for Reputation that I’m going to have a go at porting into Not Enough Scoundrels. What excites me about multitrack Reputation is that this creates more dynamic stakes, and the repercussions could be utilized as tools by the players.

I’m confident I’ll have this new lil revamped section finished by the end of the week, and pass the manuscript to Marx Shepherd by March 31st at the latest! Then, it’s layout time.

Including Wages of Sin‘s Bounty Levels (BL) and courtroom charges, I’ve managed to collaborate with creators from every Mothership Month project. I’m excited that Not Enough Scoundrels includes NPCs, items, factions, and other Easter Egg references to these projects. Other than fun copyediting formatting (read: not fun), checking the manuscript for all 20 references (actually fun) is one of the last steps for the manuscript before copyediting!

Speaking of last steps…

After my early March call out to our ten top level backers. I heard back from three people, and was able to meet with two to create Scoundrels for the 1d100 Scoundrels table. Meet Void Atlas and Thunder:

Me being on Paris time—a six hour difference from EST, and nine hours from the west coast—does not make my calendar very appealing to most folk, hah, so I think I’ll likely have to wake up in the middle of the night to work out these other Scoundrels.

Immortalizers, keep an eye on your email and let’s get this manuscript to Marx, :)

Copyediting is next up, then it’s the fun task of throwing the text into layout. Layout comes with its own rounds of edits, too. There’s always a sentence too long here, or a dangling word that needs to be pulled up. Like I’ve mentioned before, I have a character limit for each table entry I need to stick to. It’s a laborious process, but pretty fun and very satisfying.

Again, here’s an update to the Project Timeline:

The next update for Not Enough Scoundrels is coming your way on April 21st. I’m looking forward to sharing pre-proofread example spreads next month! Images make the updates a bit more exciting, eh?

Chris Airiau