Hey there pilots, Ian AND Nick here! We’re tag-teaming our monthly update/newsletter because we have way too much to share this month. But first things first, let’s tackle the elephant in the room.
Tariffs & Production Timelines
To get the hard discussions out of the way, the tariffs are raging through the TTRPG industry, jacking up prices, and hitting major printers out of China with unpredictable tariff expenses. Right now, much of the industry is in a weird holding pattern. You may have heard that some TTRPG products are exempt from the tariff and additional taxation, and the only answer we can provide is maybe, but not really. While books were said to be exempt, TTRPGs are technically classified as games, which aren’t. And that’s a slippery slope. Plus, with no firm percentage, we can’t lock down a solid quote for printing, because no one knows what the actual cost will be once it gets ready to ship, and we might end up with another 50% to pay once it hits ports before we can collect our product.
Okay, but what are WE doing to address it? Right now, we’re checking out several US-based printers and getting quotes to see how they compare to our original. Printing the Quicklaunches through these US-based printers will give us a good litmus test and understanding of what to expect from the future. In order to make sure we don’t get screwed by these shifting costs and uncertainties, we have removed the option to pre-order Eldritch Automata from Backerkit. We simply don’t know how much book printing is going to cost us right now, and because of that, we may have to adjust the retail price of our core rulebook and other offerings to cover it. For anyone who has pledged, pre-ordered, and paid, this Does Not affect you. This will only affect new orders going forward.
So we thank you for being patient with us as we navigate this industry shake-up; we’re not the only ones going through it, and we’re all sticking together to weather the storm.
Second, and equally important, however, is that this has delayed our timeline. Right now, we are unsure when the book will go to print, nor are we sure when we’ll be able to move forward with dice manufacturing, as there are no large-scale dice manufacturers in the United States. We are still on track to finish the book and will do a full digital release when it is ready, but we have to delay printing, and we cannot give a firm timeline on that at this time.
The Manuscript
Okay, on to good news, and I’ll keep it short and sweet. All our crowdfunding stretch goals that were intended for the core rulebook – the three additional location modules, the Eldritch Arms, the Eldritch & the Forgotten archetypes, as well as the two guest operations – are now completely done and added to the manuscript. We are JUST ABOUT at 99% done, waiting for three short sections to be submitted from writers. And once those final submissions are in we’ll send the rest of the manuscript to editing and get it ready to share with you all. But looking over the game, it’s in a great state to play, and with you all eating up the player section, we are excited to show you what comes next with the GM and setting sections of the core rulebook. With my (Nick) writing assignments complete, I get to move on to do some fun stuff for the gameline while we wait for art and layout to finish up. Speaking of…
Art
Art continues to be our biggest focus. We have multiple Pilot Archetypes pieces completed, with the art for the special backers who wanted to immortalize their characters in our book as Automata pilots coming in the next few weeks. Getting the art done has been a challenge for us, but we are blown away every day with the art we’re receiving from some very talented artists. Currently trying to wrap up the Pilot Archetype chapter art, which, alongside the Automata Archetypes, has the most art out of any chapter before rapidly getting the rest of the player section of the core rulebook complete.
And here’s the full preview of that gorgeous Strainer art in the banner up above!
The Strainer Archetype, Artist: Gio
Playtesting & Events
Of course, the book isn’t the only thing we’re working on. We have a massive convention lineup this year, starting THIS WEEKEND with PAX East in Boston. Check out the lineup and everything we have going on below…
We’re running a ton of sessions of Eldritch Automata, as well as one-shots of Liminal Horror, Call to Power, Horror D&D adventures, Our Brilliant Ruin, and a handful of World of Darkness sessions.
We’re running a handful of sessions of E//A, plus supporting our friends at Storytellers Forge to run Horror D&D adventures, and support their presence at the show.
Ian will be a guest at MomoCon, speaking on several panels and running a special one-shot of Eldritch Automata to showcase some content we’re planning for the first supplement, Homefront.
We also have GMs there running E//A, Our Brilliant Ruin, Horror D&D, Call to Power, Vampire: The Masquerade, Brindlewood Bay, Call of Cthulhu, and FIST!
Come meet E//A writer and the developer of our skirmish game, Edge of the Apocalypse, Chris Handley! Chris will also be running demos of Trashumanism, our upcoming bio-punk TTRPG that he’s leading development on.
We’re going to be working with our friends at Hedron to bring a unique experience to Origins Game Fair this year! Swing by the booth to play a demo of Eldritch Automata, Trashumanism, or Call to Power, try out the Hedron VTT, and explore character creation for these and other games using Hedron!
GenCon - July 31 - Aug 3
Booth #3054 (Entrepreneurs Avenue)
Finally, bringing us to August (before we take a pause to prep for Fall events) we have GenCon. Hold onto your butts, because we have a lot.
We’re working with City of Glass Games and Blank Bodies to sponsor a pre-show event – Power Word Resist – a charity variety show benefiting RAINN and GenderNexus at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, just two blocks away from the convention center, on July 30. Come see some great bands play, a drag show starring Juicy Garland, and a comedy set from Ify Nwadiwe. Tickets on sale soon. There will also be a Silent Charity Auction that we are adding more to each day in partnership with many popular TTRPG companies, titles, and independent creators.
Once the con gets started, we’re bringing you a Live Show of Eldritch Automata. Helmed by Nick, he’ll be joined by comedian Ify Nwadiwe, voice actor Jacob Burgess, producer and TTRPG performer Michelle Nguyen Bradley, and sex educator and disability advocate Cate Osborn for E//A: The Annihilating Angel. When a group of pilots responds to a distress call to rescue the nearby religious settlement of Arcadia and its neighbors, something immediately seems amiss. Arcadia is strange and under the holy protection of their leader, known simply as ‘Herald.’ Herald seems to exhume some miracle power akin to that of legendary messianic figures… but the source of their power is anything but holy.
We’re also hosting a handful of panels and workshops, including:
And a workshop on Marketing in the tabletop industry (day & time TBD)
Plus, games. So many games. We’ve submitted over 150 game sessions for E//A, Call to Power, Horror D&D, Trashumanism, as well as new games like Paragons from Broken Door Entertainment and Sunset. Including an exclusive one-shot of E//A run by Nick! Just search the GenCon events schedule for “Gehenna Gaming” for the full list and don’t miss the registration window!
What’s Next
That’s a lot, trust us, we know, and we’re excited to be bringing E//A out to all these shows this year. Plus, we have PAX West, DragonCon, NYCC, QuestCon Orlando, Gamehole, LUG Con, and PAX Unplugged later in the year…
But for now, we’re working on getting the last pieces together for these shows, finalizing that manuscript, and getting a new print run on the Quicklaunch sorted. We’ll touch base in June with a new lore drop, updates on the timeline, and more.
