Happy Equinox Scoundrels,
It’s been a slow month for Not Enough Scoundrels, so this is a quick update, folks.
Development notes from Josh
I got the Josh’s final notes back...
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Chris Airiau (5MW Press)
about 1 month ago
Not Enough Scoundrels - February 2025 Update
Glad tidings Scoundrels,
I've got a pretty big update for you this month, split between art and game design! Let's dig in!
Art
First up, both Carly A-F and Lur Noise have t...
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Chris Airiau (5MW Press)
2 months ago
Not Enough Scoundrels - January 2025 Update
Heya Scoundrels!
Happy New Year! January has been busy busy busy. All the artists received their art briefs for the week following the New Year, and I've already got some ...
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Chris Airiau (5MW Press)
4 months ago
The dust has settled: Next Steps for Not Enough Scoundrels
Hello folks,
To all 1,266 of you, thanks a million! Literally! Mothership Month as a whole made 1mcr, it's incredible!
I am very thrilled that so many folk made such a sh...
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Chris Airiau (5MW Press)
4 months ago
24hrs left, Final Stretch Goal Hit! + MoSh Madness GRAND FINAL
Hey you buncha lovable scoundrels!
Thank you all SO MUCH for making this modest Mothership supplement such a success! I am beyond thrilled that, having been Warden to...
Heya folks,
Mothership Month is entering its final 48 hours! After that, the Backer Train comes into effect!
As long as one person backs one of the 21 Mothersh...
It’s been a slow month for Not Enough Scoundrels, so this is a quick update, folks.
Development notes from Josh
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.
Crossover Frenzy
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…
Immortalized Scoundrels
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:
Void Atlas. He/they. Brick house. All black wool turtleneck, pilled and worn, puffs his black beard over pinchable cheeks and missing earlobe. “I got the latest Outer Rimming boxes in. Slip ’em ’tween the Super Neutron comix.” Winks.
Thunder. He/they. Brows furrow under strong widow’s peak. Straight black hair like silk drapes falls over this large lad’s shoulders. “Triple pay, no bullshit. But ONLY if you bring me a cryopod. With a tasty treat inside.” Licks teeth.
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, :)
Timeline
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:
April 2025: Copyediting & Layout
May 2025: Layout & Digital Assets
June 2025: Proofreading
July 2025: Print tests
August 2025: Fulfillment Begins
Next Update
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?
I've got a pretty big update for you this month, split between art and game design! Let's dig in!
Art
First up, both Carly A-F and Lur Noise have turned in their art finals for the zine! Tim is making progress too, and I do have some more sketches to share. Note that the layout is a Work In Progress!
Carly A-F. Art Final. Layout WIP.
Tim Zygor. Art WIP. Layout WIP.
As I shared last month, Lur Noise blew the art brief outta the park. In addition to the NPC profiles, I also commissioned two other pieces. The first is a sort of chapter header at the split where the zine becomes tables tables tables.
All of these NPCs (except the Narrator) are in the 1d100 Scoundrels table!
The second piece is for the new cover, which I chose to change for two reasons: (1) I made the original cover when I wasn’t even confident this project hit its second stretch goal, and (2) working with Lur Noise has been amazing. I feel her art shows the zine’s heart, not to mention bringing a more unified art direction to tie the work together.
Not Enough Scoundrels was a much more modest project before launch, and the campaign success has given me the possibility to develop the zine for more longevity for which, again, I heartily thank you all, :)
Design Updates, Campaign Framework
As I mentioned last month, Josh Domanski gave the most crucial feedback on the Campaign Framework and Spacecrawl. Cracking the issues he raised has been a lot more work than I expected, a process which took a ton of binned writing to finally figure out.
First, the Spacecrawl now has a new step: The Job Turn. As Josh rightly pointed out, the most crucial part of tramp freight work is finding the cargo, not drifting on the long road. The Job Turn provides guidance for Wardens on how to build out NPC-PC relations, how that works with the Faction dynamics, and getting those freight contracts. No one’s gonna give a bunch of nobodies their precious cargo, gotta do some Favors or maybe a little Job, yeah?
All of that keys into the new campaign framework. I binned the original framework centered around the Megafreighter, and now instead, invite your ship crew to the Sandcastle Sector:
Sandcastle Sector is a WIP. Subject to change.
The Sandcastle Sector is a sandbox of star systems, Ports and hyperlanes. This sandbox provides a Port’s Faction dynamics, hyperlane connections, and freight specialties to give your campaign the footing you need for all your space trucking and underhanded dealings.
The Ports on the Sandcastle Sector map are specifically only Trade Ports. There are other Ports within and hyperlanes out of the Sandcastle Sector. The campaign framework provides a dynamic gap to plug in other Mothership modules while being full enough of Scoundrels, Contraband, and Faction interplay to keep players engaged with the local social problems.
I’m very confident that this addition has made the zine a much better tool for space trucker and smuggling games, and most importantly, more immediately playable.
Timeline
Last time I said I'd have the manuscript to Josh by the end of the week. That was before the Sandcastle Sector existed. It took a lot longer to figure out than I'd anticipated (while also, life was happening, hah). This time, I've already turned in the manuscript over to Josh for that second round of development. With the bulk of the changes made, I think the future revisions ought to be much smoother and quicker.
To improve workflow on the digital assets, here's an update to the Project Timeline from the campaign page:
March 2025: Editing
April 2025: Layout
May2025: Digital Assets
June 2025: Proofreading
July 2025: Print tests
August 2025: Fulfillment Begins
Next Update
The next update for Not Enough Scoundrels is coming your way on March 24th. By then, I'm hoping that I’ll be working through copyediting. With most of the art complete, the visual updates will be focused on layout progress and digital asset development. See ya after the equinox!
Happy New Year! January has been busy busy busy. All the artists received their art briefs for the week following the New Year, and I've already got some great initial sketches to share with y'all, check it out:
Lur Noise - Scoundrel NPCs
Tim Zygor - Freight Carriage sketch
Carly A-F - Patrol Roundabout sketch (with my crappy version on the side, haha)
Not Enough Scoundrels project progress
It's not only the artists who've been at it! Josh Domanski had extremely helpful notes for the Factions, Spacecrawl Procedures, and ending 1d100 tables (and other pertinent stuff too, but those were the big ones). Throughout the rounds of feedback, they may have convinced me to pump four more pages into this zine.
I'm finishing up revisions this week (between Johnson Squared dev editing!), and then I'll pass the manuscript back to Josh by Friday to receive their feedback on the refined Spacecrawl Procedures. After I implement whatever notes they may have for me there, gdoc goes to Marx Shepherd for copyediting!
Once I have sent this out to Josh, I will then send emails to the ten folk who backed at the Immortalize an NPC Scoundrel level (which honestly, I did NOT expect to sell out), so we can start working on those NPCs for inclusion in the zine! The good news there is that with the slight changes to the page count, we're going to have some more space for those Scoundrel deets, 😁
Layout Examples
Since this is such a cram-packed zine, it's been vital to swap between layout and gdocs, testing out sizing with the ship sketches, and all that. This is all stillvery much a WIP. Most of the actual manuscript lives in a Google Doc right now, which is still undergoing revisions, but this templating has really helped to shape the form of the prose that's being written. In these screenshots, you can see the gutters and spacing I'm using to build the zine for y'all:
WIP opening spread template
Carly A-F's Ship sketch to help plan final art revisions (see: Ship Stats still not updated)
Tables are the biggest PITA to convert from gdocs, haha, so they usually come last in layout.
I hate to be too hopeful and have it bite me in the behind, but this is feeling like it'll be able to go to print much sooner than the initial estimate of July. I won't say anything officially, because as conventional business wisdom goes, it's the last 10% that takes 90% of the time!
Zine Month Upcoming!
For folks who are new to the indie ttrpg scene, there's a yearly explosion of TTRPG Zines called Zine Month. ZiMo is a fantastic time to seek out game designers you might not know of, making small games and zine adventures This year, there is one that has really caught my eye called Universe at Your Door - The Traveller.
By Lola Johnson
It's a Solo and GMless ttrpg by Lola Johnson, using dice and a deck of cards to send your crew careening through space in search of a New Earth. Obviously because it's sci-fi, it's got me curious. And it's got a Community Stretch Goal featuring our very own Carly A-F! Click here to follow Lola's launch of Universe at Your Door!
Next Update
The next update for Not Enough Scoundrels is coming your way on February 24th. We'll see where we stand in a month's time! I'm going to try to stick to roughly a monthly update schedule, and aim for Mondays as a rule. See ya then!
To all 1,266 of you, thanks a million! Literally! Mothership Month as a whole made 1mcr, it's incredible!
I am very thrilled that so many folk made such a show out for my humble 32 page zine! Like I said before, it's very invigorating to see my creative efforts hit the right vein for folks into Mothership RPG. So again, thank you all!
Visiting new worlds every month.
If you'd like to keep up to date on other projects I'm working on, I run a monthly newsletter called 5 Million Worlds: Rokaner Reports. I chat game design, interview other creators, and release small games/supplements in support of my upcoming space adventure game, 5 Million Worlds RPG (hence 5MW Press, hah). In 2025, the newsletter schedule is bumping up by one day to release on the 28th of every month.
BackerKit State of Affairs
A whopping 97% of pledges went through just fine. BUT if you are one of those 46 people whose payment transaction failed (like mine did for two projects; my bank did NOT like all those transactions coming at once, haha), you have until December 26th, 10 AM PST to correct your credit card information. Perhaps you may have to communicate with your bank to explain what BackerKit is, like I had to, and ask them not to block transactions.
Backerkit will attempt the transaction again on December 19th and December 26th. If you miss this window, you won't lose your place, but you will have to wait until the Pledge Manager is set up to correct the information and make your pledge payments.
The Pledge Manager will only open shortly before shipping and fulfillment is ready to go. At that point, you'll be able to adjust your pledges and shop through the add-ons from the RV Games catalogue.
Not Enough Scoundrels project progress
I have not been idle this month! Today, I'm turning the latest revision of the manuscript over to Josh Domanski of Liminal Horror RPG fame. Josh was part of a writer's workshop Christian Sorrell ran in early 2024. He was an early feedback reader of Twisting Unseen (forthcoming) and When in Rome, the latter he also served on as proofreader. Josh has a precise critical eye and a great skill of giving actionable feedback, so I am eager to read his thoughts on the spacecrawl, new ship types, and receive punch-up notes for the many tables.
During the holidays, I'll be finalizing the art briefs to hand over to Carly A-F and Lur Noise to kick off the New Year. I've already turned in art briefs to Tim Zygor, and I should be able to share some of those ship sketches in January, if not samples from all three artists!
Plan on hearing from me once a month. I want to keep these updates regular without spamming y'all. When the project starts hitting fulfillment, though, you'll hear from me a bit more often to communicate pledge manager set-up, shipping information, payment and shipping dates, all that.
That's all for now. Take care folks, and happy holidays.
