We hope that 2026 has gotten off to a good start for you.
Better at least than it did for poor old Dan. Have you got your violin out? We hope so, because this is a tale of woe. 10 minutes before the spirits of '25 where ushered out, Dan, in his joyful revelry, managed to slip and fall down the garden stairs and broke a couple of ribs. This injury was swiftly followed by a bout of the flu and then a chest infection. January was not a happy month in the Dan household. Because of these mishaps our drawing gnome has only now found his way back to his drawing board, his happy place.
Perhaps it was a product of his fever, or the inevitable lunacy that's long been expected for him, or the fact that he spent much of the festive period drooling over the painted pages of Akira, but Dan has decided to paint the double-page spreads in this new book. As a result, see here the development, from sketch to pencils, to the application of the first colour washes, for the first double-page spread of Islands of Weirdhope!
The original pencil sketch
Here is the original pencil sketch. This drawing was made during the campaign, in Dan's A4 sketchbook.
The finished pencils
Dan developed the original sketch into this pencil drawing. Dan uses a mix of blue and graphite pencil, it's a strange way to work and definitely not the most efficient, but the habit is set in and it's how he unknots mistakes or coaxes the lines into order.
The finished pencils with the first colour washes applied.
And here is the start of the application of the colour. Dan's working with spirit pens, watercolour and inks. There still a long way to go before this image is finished but we'll be sure to share more progress and behind the scenes as we go.
Along with Dan's feverish drawing, the writing has continued apace, and we're hoping to get a new updated pdf to you all within the next few weeks. Talking of writing, David's blog, where he talks about his game and setting ideas, has been nominated for a Bloggie! This is high praise indeed, and if you'd like to vote for it please do, by following this link, being sure to select "Don't Write Lore, Write Tables" if you're feeling kind.
Thank you so much for embarking on this journey with us, we're so excited to get the final books in your hands.
It's been a crazy final few days, as we set off to Dragonmeet in London, met so many amazing people, and Zedeck wrote a beautiful blog about the development of his adventure.
So, just to recap, the project finished in the early ours of our morning yesterday, and a last surge took us roaring past a couple of stretch goals.So, earlier in the campaign, we confirmed that Ennie award winning Will Purves (Dodocahedron Games) is adding an adventure to Four Fathoms Deep: Quick Winds & A Quiet Palette Rival artists race island to island, risking dangerous crossings to create visionary works in the wilds of the Weirdhope Sea.
I'll also be adding a starter adventure island to Islands of Weirdhope: Bluestone Isle, where weird things are happening in a quarry near a sleepy village. This is already accessible (in its "in-progress form) in the latest Quickstart (feel free to download this from the Backerkit page to start playing).
The extra elements that have been unlocked by the campaign are another adventure island for the Islands of Weirdhope book:Dino Island, pirates have taken over an old Jurassic- themed adventure park. ALSO the awesome Amanda Lee Franck will write Sand Trap - a rickety mobile resource extraction plant has inadvertently gathered a collection of people, animals, and junk in its interior.
All 12 Monsters (Kaiju) and Mecha will now be illustrated in full colour in the Islands of Weirdhope book, and now a Solo Play Card will be added to all copies of Islands of Weirdhope and PDFs, an A5 gloss card packed with diagrams, procedures, tables and rules for your solo play to complement the solo rules in the book.
Hopefully all of that makes you as happy as it does us. We've got the support now to make all these things happen, so for that we're very grateful. But first we need a bit of a lie down.
We'll be keeping you up to date with monthly progress, plus I'll be writing in my blog and we're constantly hanging out in our Discord if you want to say hello.
But first we wanted to let you know about a great campaign that's just finishing now. They helped us out during the campaign, so we thought we'd repay the favour.
Flights of Fancy is a new Mausritter campaign, set in the forest of Feathertail Falls. A strange mix of tangleweed and pocket lint has covered the forest floor, and the mouse settlements are in dire need of adventurers brave enough to soar from tree to tree to aid their fellow mice.
You get 5 adventures complete with item cards, an updated setting booklet for the Feathertail Forest, plus weird & wonderful means of flight for your mouse to use.
There's only a day or so left before the crowdfunder ends.
Well, it's been a fine weekend, augmented by reaching our next stretch goal - We have now added a new starter adventure island, added to the Islands of Weirdhope book: Bluestone Isle, where weird things are happening in a quarry near a sleepy village. I've updated the Quickstart, so you can read it by redownloading from the here.
The next goal is to add a second adventure island for Islands of Weirdhope:Dino Island, where pirates have taken over an old Jurassic- themed adventure park. Hopefully we can get there soon, with your continued help. If you love the project, do let your friends know, it makes all the difference.
In the meantime, here's what Dan's been working on today- a sketch of two Titans, a Mecha and a Monster, watched by a couple of wary punks.
The poll about the poster came back with some definitive results- the Dolphin image (So long and thanks for all the fish) and Arrival were clear winners so they will occupy the two sides of the poster. Great stuff.
Our big thing this week is taking our stuff to Dragonmeet- we had a great time last year, meeting so many other makers and players, and really can't wait for Saturday. In case you're able to make it, here's a map of where we'll be (M15, next to Soul Muppet, Peregrine Coast Press and Forbidden Psalm). Come say hello, we might even have an early version of the finished book to look at... Jog Brogzin made this fantastic map- can you spot our stand with the flowerpot on top?
ELSEWHERE: Now we have a couple of great projects by our friends that we wanted to tell you about.
First up is Run from the Dark, By Will RD (maker of Forbidden Psalm, who we'll be tabling next to at Dragonmeet!). The campaign ends very soon, so check it out:
Run from the Dark is a roleplay game about folk horror, the things that go bump in the Dark and existential dread. In Run from the Dark, the Dark literally kills you. It is a malevolent force that consumes and takes all who are lost in it. In Run from the Dark you play as the Walkers who go out into the Dark, with lights of various kinds, forging your way through the bleak world, connecting towns and facing the horrors that call the Dark home.
Run From the Dark uses an the easy to learn custom roleplay system, that is narrative focused and designed to create interesting and unique characters. Or if you want you can use Run from the Dark as a horror setting for your favourite roleplay game.
The other project is The International Player's Review Annual, a magazine for gamesmasters, players, and anyone who spends more time drawing dungeons than doing homework. The Annual is a collection of the first four issues in print for the very first time. Totalling over 100 pages across four issues, every spread is a portal to a lost world of retro gaming. This collection of the first year of The International Player's Review includes tons of rad content, including:
Unruly tables and chaotic generators for old school and modern games.
Interviews with creators who've shaped our hobby both then and now.
A slew of adventures, lite on word count, big on action.
Complete TTRPG rule sets. Including the heist caper RPG, Easy Money, and the wildly historically inaccurate caveman simulator, Year One Hundred Million BC.
The debut of the sci-fi issue, only available during this campaign.
Plus hand drawn comics, pure pulp stories, and so much more!
Thanks for reading and the support, we really appreciate it,
First of all, thank you so much, we've already hit a stretch goal! Ennie award winning Will Purves (Dodocahedron Games) will add an adventure to Four Fathoms Deep: Quick Winds & A Quiet Palette. In this adventure, rival artists race island to island, risking dangerous crossings to create visionary works in the wilds of the Weirdhope Sea. It's going to be awesome. Will is such a thoughtful designer and a constantly lovely presence on our Discord.
So we're managed to light up the first Island! We're now not too far off lighting the second, which would be very cool indeed. It's a starter adventure island, to be added to Islands of Weirdhope book: Bluestone Isle, where weird things are happening in a quarry near a sleepy village. It's based on an adventure that I'm quite proud of but have never published physically, Tears from Stone. It needs some rewriting to turn it into an island adventure, but it's a perfect hub village, with lots of little problems like a broken wind turbine and shattered grindstone in the mill, that takes a creepy and melancholic turn once you investigate the quarry. Hopefully we'll get to unlock that soon, and I can add it into the quickstart.
And Dan's been drawing away, as ever, and made this (magic) image of dolphins and a punk frolicking in the ocean. So we decided to set up a poll to ask you which images should go on the Islands of Weirdhope poster - we're making the poster double-sided so the top two will go through.
Oh, and I almost forgot! The last poll, for the images for the ECO MOFOS!! poster ended up with two clear winners- the White Tower landscape image (which I love) and the Weirdhope Punk. So that's what will be on that double-sided poster. Exciting. People have been asking us for posters for ages, I don't know why we've never done them before haha.
Also, our good friend Alfred Valley has his own crowdfunder on right now for a super-cool looking solo card game, Brute Fort. Alfred's solo rules from Thousand Empty Light are the basis for the solo rules that we use for the ECO MOFOS games, so we're big fans of his work.
As Alfred says: "In this game, your courageous (or foolish) heroes venture into the shadowy recesses of the 𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙. Inside they'll discover a jumble of fearsome foes and alluring loot. Over the course of play you'll place cards from your hand to build up the explored rooms of the cursed building.
This is a micro game with a macro history. A first started working on Brute Fort two years ago. In its first iterations it was a sprawling collectible card game with a focus on deck-building.
Over that period I've hewed it into a tightly sprung puzzle. 18 cards is enough. This is a game of push and pull, light enough to be played casually, deep enough to engage the problem-solving part of your brain, addictive enough to have you play games back to back."
We're looking forward to seeing Alfred and everyone else at Dragonmeet2025 at ExCel, London on Saturday 29 November! If you’re around the evening before, Friday 28 November, Dan will be atMuppetmeet, where he'll be speaking on a panel about socially conscious games.
David and I are blown away by the level of support you've all offered us, thank you so much. And as we head into that mid-campaign phase, we thought it was really important to stop for a moment and have a stretch. Apparently it's good for circulation and inspiration. With that in mind, here are the stretch goals we've put together for you.
Look at all these lovely stretch goals...
£16500
Ennie award winning Will Purves (Dodocahedron Games) will add an adventure to Four Fathoms Deep: Quick Winds & A Quiet Palette Rival artists race island to island, risking dangerous crossings to create visionary works in the wilds of the Weirdhope Sea.
£18000
A starter adventure island, added to Islands of Weirdhope: Bluestone Isle, where weird things are happening in a quarry near a sleepy village.
£20000
Extra adventure island for Islands of Weirdhope: Dino Island, pirates have taken over an old Jurassic- themed adventure park.
£21000
All 12 Monsters (Kaiju) and Mecha will be illustrated in full colour in Islands of Weirdhope.
£22500
Solo Play Card added to all copies of Islands of Weirdhope and PDFs, an A5 gloss card packed with diagrams, procedures, tables and rules for your solo play to complement the solo rules in the book.
£25000
Extra adventure island for Islands of Weirdhope: Black Rock An imprisoned Monster Kaiju is infecting the sea with their sadness. Enter into its body to release its bonds.
£27500
A Ribbon will be added to the specs for the hardback of Islands of Weirdhope.
£30000
The bestiary (36 entries) will now be fully illustrated by Daniel Locke in the Islands of Weirdhope hardback and pdf.
NEW DRAWING David and I are continuing to refine the books themselves. It's been really fun leaning into the art of this project. So far in this campaign we've not shared too much of the Mecha and Monster art, so today I wanted to show you a sketch for one of the main spreads from the section of the book that will showcase the Mecha you'll encounter in this game.
The final double-page spread will be redrawn from this compositional sketch, but much bigger, so the finished image will be full of cool details and lots of colour.
Listen now to David Blandy, Daniel Locke, and Chris Airiau review Thousand Empty Light by Alfred Valley on Ansible Uplink podcast, where we discuss the design and implications of solo play.
And finally, even more exciting news! Copy Paste Co-op will be at Dragonmeet, 2025 at ExCel, London on Saturday 29 November! If you’re around the evening before, Friday 28 November, I'll be atMuppetmeet, where I'll be speaking on a panel about socially conscious games.
Check out the details in our news page for how to buy tickets, what we’ll be bringing to our table, a free gift for the first 100 to make a purchase, and more… we can’t wait to meet you in person!
