Welcome to Zine Month! A place where indie TTRPG artists and creators can crowdfund their Zines from February 1st - February 28th.
Come celebrate the creativity and collaboration from a diverse group of creators running projects centered on TTRPG adjacent content, from dice to trackers, from journals to maps, and monsters to heroes, and all the in-betweens.
Want to be part of Zine Month?
Collaborate with fellow creators and join the fun!
The money from the crowdfunding campaign has arrived, so it's time for another update with everything you need to know about getting your zines and PDFs!
🐱 Status of the game
In the past two weeks, the translation of Catcrawl was with Marx Shepherd, our proofreader. I've also set up the PDF with screenreader tags, image descriptions, clickable links, and internal references so it's comfortable to use for as many people as possible. After getting the file back from Marx, I've made all necessary corrections and finalized everything. In other words: Catcrawl in English is ready to print!
The German version with the print error (see previous update) is currently being reprinted and should arrive here within the next week or so.
🐾 Backerkit pledge manager is open!
Now it's your turn! I've set up the pledge manager on Backerkit so you can choose additional add-ons (if you like), pay your shipping fees, and give me your shipping address!
I've just sent out the Backerkit survey to a small portion of backers to make sure everything works as intended. The rest of you should get your survey link within the next 24 hours.
The pledge manager will only stay open until Monday, March 17th, so please make sure to fill in your survey as soon as possible so you can get your zines and PDFs. You won't be able to add any other items to your order after that date, but you'll still be able to change your shipping address until I actually start the shipping process in April (you'll get another update from me then).
I'll charge your credit cards (for shipping costs and newly-booked add-ons) through Backerkit right after locking your orders.
🐈 Pre-order store is also open - for one week only!
I've also set up a pre-order store for everyone who has missed the crowdfunding campaign and still wants to get their hands on a printed copy of Catcrawl. Please share the link around!
The pre-order store will only remain open until I lock the orders for the crowdfunding backers - that is, about a week from now.
🐱 Digital fulfillment through Itch.io
Once orders are locked, you'll receive your Itch.io download keys for your digital files shortly afterwards. They will be sent to you through Backerkit. You will need an Itch.io account to claim your PDF copy.
At the same time, the community copies that were donated by all of you will go up on Itch when the game becomes available for everyone.
🐾 Printing and shipping physical zines
I will send the Catcrawl files off to the printer's next week, right after I lock orders. I expect to receive the printed zines 2-3 weeks later. I will then pack and ship everything myself, since that gets all of you the best deal in terms of both time and money.
I expect to have everything shipped out by mid-to-late April. I will send another update then.
What about tariffs for shipments to the U.S.? You may have heard that Trump has threatened to also hit Europe with a bunch of tariffs for imports into the U.S. soon. Right now, no one knows if these tariffs are coming, and if so, when or how high they will be. Based on the available information, here's what I currently know: Packages with relatively low monetary value (like the ones from this campaign) will most likely NOT be affected by any tariffs Trump may introduce for imports of EU-made products. Yay! But I'm a very cautious cat in matters like these, so I still recommend that U.S. backers brace themselves for additional fees upon arrival of your zines, just in case.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me any time!
This will be short and sweet. We've had a death in our family that's taken us a little out of the loop, so I'm extending the time to return surveys since I'm not in a position to ship at the moment. The book is ready, so we'll be locking orders, charging cards, and shipping out shortly, but I need a little time with my partner to process things before I can take that on.
PDF only backers: you should have received download links a while ago. If you didn't, please reach out.
Shipped zine backers: your zines have been shipped, and you should have received an email with a tracking number.
Local pickup backers: your zines are ready! I am putting pickup instructions in the "backer only content" section of this update. Please reach out at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Some quick updates: - Editing is nearly complete on the zine. As soon as editing is finished, a final quick pass-through will begin, and after that, PRINTING AND RELEASE! - Violet is collecting all the little bits for the Deluxe Edition soon, so we are on track for getting this out veeeerry soon. I don't want to make any promises, but I am hoping/aiming for physical fulfilment Q4 at the latest.
Things have been pretty great with this campaign, and we could not have done it without you. We are very excited to get this out to you all, and your patience is valued!
In the meantime, as we wrap up progress on this project and ensure its polished to our standards, we have two announcements for more Hammer City Games products coming up:
1. Graveyard of the Gods - UNEARTHED: An ultimate edition of the supplement, thicker, meaner, with more rules, more fleshed out systems, and more fun to be had. Follow it here!
2. Young Gods: a standalone TTRPG about urban fantasy and deities fighting to reclaim their power, inspired by the TV show Supernatural! Get the pre-release here, and follow the BackerKit as we prepare for a crowdfunding campaign for it!
Hello everyone! We have been hard at work. We've hit a lot of milestones and have some updates since the last update:
Manuscript has been finalized for layout after revisions identified during our editorial meeting.
Amanda has completed her full spread artwork and is working on our spot art for layout.
Curious Friend will now be completing the layout for A Secret Chord. D.N. Wilkie will continue to be involved in an advisory capacity on the editorial team.
Bride of STAR Station is complete! It will be available for free on Itch.io for month since we have submitted it to the Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2025. Please download the module and give us some love in the comments for the game jam! Curious Friend's art and layout made this goofy, horny module pop! We consider modules like this in the same way that movies used to start with a cartoon.
Here is some of the fabulous art that Amanda has completed so far! We've worked with her with black and white line art in the past, and we are just blown away by these color illustrations!
David's Harp
Chapel of St. Tropos
Layout for the main book is going to start in earnest later this month once we receive spot art from Amanda. We're on track and excited for the continued development of the book as we enter into layout.
We're currently sitting at 88% of surveys returned, so this is mostly a post to remind the final 12% of you lovely hunters to return those.
We will be locking orders and charging cards on 7/19, so if you haven't gotten those surveys in, or if you want to make changes to your current order, make sure you tackle it by then.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Thanks again for all of your support, and good hunting, Woodsmen.
I received 2 samples of different stages and confirmed everything with some small changes. The clothing fits amazing, I asked factory to add one more velcro to her second top, so it can be put on easier.
I also decided to have her strands from previous version as they are longer and look more like jinx
The shoes were made with wrong colour, you can see the right on the shoe-sample beneath (photo 2)
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the shark hoodie in the package, so no photos :( But I shared some photos of it previously, it looks great!
The main issue I faced was her hair. There is just too much :D I struggled to style it as it was massive.. So I decided to shorten it and readjust positioning of some strands. There will still be extremely long, no worries! I will let you know the updates on jinx shipping estimates
🚚Shipping updates
I've been packing and shipping Zines and plushies (Jayce and Viktor) these weeks, it took me quite a long time, because I signed and draw something in almost every book. There are still a small amount of unfulfilled orders and I will ship them this week.
Unfortunately, while figuring out the fulfillment system of Bakerkit (it's a bit complicated..) I made a mistake and all orders were marked as shipped in one day :(
To check the real status of your order
go to your order page and check 'special note' I put there. If it says 'shipped' and contains tracking, you can track it. If it just says 'shipped' - it was shipped without tracking (I will explain why this is) If there is no special note - I haven't shipped your order yet
😔Unpleasant news
Since 1st of July the german post changed shipping policies. The shipping prices for outside of eu parcels hae terribly skyrocketed.. And they also removed tracking option from small parcels :( Now if I want to ship parcel with tracking to the US or Canada, I have to pay 10 euros extra. It is very disappointing and also my fault for now following the news beforehand.
What I decided to do here.
Some of the small parcels that don't include any plushies I shipped without tracking number. I hope they will reach you regardless. If you haven't received anything in a month - please contact me ([email protected])
Orders that include Jinx plushie - I initially planned to ship jinx separately because she will take time to be produced. Now Im kindly asking you to allow me to ship Jinx and Zine together but later, so at least I will not pay twice for shipping that went really expensive now.. I will ship these type of parcels with a tracking of course. You will not have to pay any extra. In case you really desperately want your order now - please contact me directly ([email protected])
Some of you guys already received your Zines as I saw on instagram (thank you for tagging me!!^_^) and if you'd like, you could share your thoughts and feedback in the community page~ I will be happy to hear it
With Devil's Due off to the layout artist, I've been able to dig back into my own layout work and art for Fear of a Daily Planet.
Since most spreads are styled as several layers of paper, I'm finding that only having black and white to work with while trying to both vary the paper backgrounds and keep the text easily legible is certainly a challenge. I also have the privilege of seeing the work in progress of the Straight Arrows module, by Ryan at RAC Computing, which deploys a similar material-driven, layered collage approach with, honestly, a lot more finesse and control. It's a bit intimidating! But Ryan is using actual collages he makes himself and then photographs to become the page backgrounds, whereas my setup requires me to work solely digitally with licensable and public domain files.
But I'll manage! I've been able to finish all of the art, which feels like a big milestone, although there are a couple pieces I might redo to see if I can improve on them.
Around 70% of the spreads have their layouts finished, and when it's done, I'll have to review the print proofs very closely to judge the readability of each section and make adjustments. Making the hyperlinks for the digital PDF will also take some time.
But here are a few samples to hold you over: art of a Ward cultist, a redacted version of the d100 I Read the Print spread, and slightly updated cover art.
Depiction of a Ward cultist. Their filler text and the parallel and perpendicular nature of their ritualistic glyphs are believed to protect them from Dolorem Ipsum.
This roll table is a mix of mission hooks, useful items, worldbuilding, thematic nods, and awful puns, and it will obviously be uncensored in the actual book.
Updated cover, with a cut-out, printed planet.
I appreciate the support my backers and others in the community showed with my weather-related setback. Hoping there won't be any more bumps like that lying in wait for this project, but given the general state of things right now, I can only look so far ahead.
Please let me some time to fulfil all the orders. I am drawing something in almost each Zine and for some orders I also had to order bigger boxes. You will receive a notification and a tracking number when your order has been shipped
Thank you so much for your patience!❤️😚
💣Jinx plushie update
The bangs have been fixed and I think they are standing pretty nicely now. We fixed her mouth, eyebrows colour and colour of hair under threads. Right now we've decided to finish the second outfit and company will send me 2 samples by next Wednesday (2nd of July). I will then review them, see how the hair is looking and we'll be moving to the mass production stage finally ^^
