Good day! I hope you’ve had a good month, because we’ve been hard at work moving this project closer to completion! We don’t have any big updates or reveals for you this time around, but are happy to share our usual progress reports on where things are.

Let’s get to it!

On the miniatures front, we saw completion of Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Summons pre-production steps, pushing those SKUs into mold ready status! Only a few models remain on the Frosthaven & Frosthaven: Summons front, but the required revisions are known and in progress with our factory so we anticipate completion there any day now.

As our factory heads into their Lunar New Year break, we have been taking parallel steps with them to make sure we're set up for success to officially begin/continue molding across all SKUs on their return.

One of these necessary steps was the production of white wax samples of every miniature in their full quantities (I.e. groups of x4, x6, x10, etc) for the physical layout configuration of the vac trays in which these models will be packaged.

Another step has been auditing our final production quantities, product dimensions, and mold counts to validate our final production costs on the complete project. While we worked closely with our factory to price these products back at their inception, several variables are dependent on us reaching this final phase were we know the final parts-per-model, molds per projects, packaging dimensions, tray+lid quantities, etc. (This doesn't impact the price tag applied to this project, but has impacts on final retail and distribution pricing.)

We recognize this project has taken significantly more time than intended and estimated, and that a timeline for delivery is something we owe our backers, and we intend to shore up our final production timelines upon their return from their Lunar New Year break. There have been multiple surprises and lessons learned along the way, and challenges working with a new-to-us manufacturer and their workflow requirements, and for all the above we take full ownership.

Given the scale of this project, and the number of multi-piece models that will require sub-assembly, there are still a few too many variables in front of us to calculate our tentative fulfillment window, but we feel confident we're close to doing that with our factory partner and are putting pressure on them to help us make those commitments.

Things continue to move along at a good pace on the RPG. At this point, we are out of the trenches on page-to-page tinkering on the book. We’ve implemented all changes from the latest editing pass and are finishing up the final art integration, which was a gigantic lift from Arch. By the end of the week we will begin finalizing all page referencing efforts, which includes the table of contents and index.

We have also been finishing up graphic design on all other outstanding components of the deluxe box, such as the box itself, character sheets, and modifier cards.

All in all, if everything goes well getting the final quote from the manufacturer, we are still on track to start proofing and production on the other side of the Lunar New Year, which is very exciting. Once we can get into that, we can start getting you more concrete timeline information on the pledge manager opening and fulfillment windows.

This month I wanted to give a shout-out to Reddit user mremm3000 for their truly amazing MagHex scenario builds. I can’t imagine the work that goes into printing, painting, and assembling all of these layouts, but as they say in their post, the hobby “easily becomes a never-ending story.” I wish them all the good will in their continued endeavors, and know that we are all very impressed!

And that’s what we have for February. Have a great month, and we’ll catch you again in March!

Good day! And a happy new year! It is a new year, and we are very much looking forward to concluding all outstanding elements of this project—the RPG and the miniatures—in 2026. We don't have specific timelines yet, as previously discussed, but as production gets closer, we will keep you updated on what we can confidently report.

One question that has been popping up more in the comments is when we will be reopening the pledge manager? We’ve still got some behind-the-scenes work to do before that is ready, but our intent there is to not reopen the pledge manager until the next wave is actually in production, so you’ll hear more news on that as we get closer to actual production on the RPG. Now let's get on to the updates!

We made a good amount of progress leading into the holidays and are proud to say the Gloomhaven core box has completed 100% of it's digital modification approvals, and we expect red wax sample to wrap up this month there as well.

Our full attention is on the remaining models across summons (Gloomhaven & Frosthaven) and the Frosthaven core box. For these few remaining models, our work is really done and fully submitted, we're just waiting on those models to be completed in their next steps at the factory side.

We're also now able to start engaging the factory on larger mass production steps such as molding timelines and production proofing ahead of mass production. January is an important month to give our factory our attention, ahead of Lunar New Year, so that's our plan and course of action internally here at Cephalofair.

Thanks to everyone who took a look at the full text preview PDF and provided feedback. It was greatly appreciated! We'll be using all of that feedback, along with our own internal editing review to make final changes to the RPG text. Once that is done, we'll implement the table of contents, index, and fix all page references. Meanwhile, we'll be finishing up art integration in the book as well as graphic design of all additional elements, like the cards and packaging.

One of the big elements we've been working on with the packaging is the deluxe edition box. We showed you an early mock-up of the box during crowdfunding, but now that card counts and page numbers have been finalized, we're getting down to the exact dimensions on how it will all fit together.

The current RPG deluxe box render (above) is our latest rendering of the intended production based on final component counts and assembly instructions. Most notable from previous renders is the addition of a second folding wall/lid to the front side of the box. The side wall (front) will fold up and connect magnetically to the side wall of the “cigar box” storage space at the top of the box. The top lid/latch will then fold down and similarly attach to the closed side wall, also magnetically. This is something we determined will give greater structural integrity and prevent components from sliding and forcing open the folding lid if it simply came up and over.

The “cigar box” top is something we intend to be a usable storage space for players (gloom masters especially) who would like a special place to keep other game components (board game map tiles, miniatures, standees, tokens, etc) handy for their current/next RPG sessions.

Beneath the “cigar box,” we have a shelf for the Mercenary Company pad, the Character Sheet pad, and the GM screen.

Beneath this will be a shelf for the full Rulebook.

And finally, two shelves for card tomes, which contain all of RPG system cards, which you can see below:

These two tomes contain four trays of RPG components, including:

IMPORTANT “WORK IN PROGRESS” PRODUCTION NOTES:

Class ability decks: To pre-emptively answer your question, yes, these are designed to fit sleeved cards. Our intent for these Class Ability tuckboxes is that they will be large enough to hold your sleeved class and ancestry cards required to play your character, providing you with a storage compartment for your character during an ongoing campaign.

Class modifier decks: As an intended bonus for backers, there will be two additional general player modifier decks than we originally communicated, meaning the deluxe edition can now accommodate up to six players in addition to the gloom master. These general decks (standard 20 card array) will also come in tuckboxes and enough room for both sleeves and advanced modifier cards as your character levels up and unlocks more cards via perks and temporary effects.

Elemental bookmarks: We are exploring with our factory having dedicated wells for the elemental bookmarks, and there appears to be enough room within the card tomes/trays to do so. We’re also taking careful consideration here to track needed changes to the bookmark size/length to ensure they won’t cover important gloom master facing information/charts/tables on the inside of the GM Screen.

Card tomes: The “card tomes” as originally conceived and depicted here, are essentially just that: two giant closing books of cards in card wells. The goal here is an internal vacuum formed plastic card trays with sturdy gameboard/cardboard exterior covers. 

The class advanced modifier decks nest in card wells below their respective class ability deck tuckboxes, with the ability tuckboxes firmly clicking into place above them to act as a lid. The two sides of the tome would then clamshell together snuggly.

We still need to vet with the factory whether this approach will work well with the ability tuckboxes staying in place and in good condition above their modifier deck counterparts. If not, we may explore additional lids to cover the card tome contents or pivot to four individual trays rather than two clamshell books.

Regardless, we and our factory feel confident in our ability to test and execute on whichever method ends up providing the best player usability and recognize this is our biggest area of uncertainty in production as we move forward with pre-press sampling. 

This week we are providing our updated production specifications, as well as these 3D renders with accurate dimensions, to our factory and allow them the necessary time to review and make the needed determinations on their part. This will occur concurrently with all our other efforts outlined above.

Our shout-out for the community spotlight this month is Boardiacs, who has a great series of Youtube videos on painting Gloomhaven/Frosthaven miniatures. Particularly impressive to me are Andreea's paints of all six Buttons & Bugs miniatures, which are, as I'm sure you are aware, very tiny. But the level of detail is remarkable, and you can watch even watch the videos at extra high speed as shorts.

That's going to do it for this month. Expect more fervent, continued progress on both projects in our update next month. Catch you then!