And now the news you’ve been waiting for: N.K. Jemisin has given us final approval for the game! This is a major milestone, and we are delighted we can move on to next steps. The approval included the Game Moderator’s Kit, so you’ll be getting a PDF of that this week. You will get an email with a link that will let you download the GM’s Kit from BackerKit. This PDF is for backers only, so please do not share it with others. If you spot any typos or other problems, send them in an email to [email protected].
Our next step is to review your comments on the core rulebook itself, and implement any fixes required. We will follow this same process with the GM’s Kit. Once the files are finalized, we send everything to the printer.
This should be a simple matter, but in 2025 nothing is easy. This administration’s trade war with other countries is creating economic chaos in a way we haven’t had to deal with before. The truth of the tariff situation is that American businesses pay the tariffs, not other countries. If we get hit with a tariff when our books come into port, all that does is increase our costs. We do print some of our books domestically, but that’s generally limited to softbacks. Printing hardbacks is much more expensive in America, which is why companies started printing overseas in the first place. Our GM kits in particular cannot be done domestically at a good price because we hardback the screens, so they are nice and sturdy. Some companies are simply increasing the price of their products to account for the tariffs, but of course in this situation that is not possible because you have already paid for the game. We are certainly not going to ask you to pay extra for something you’ve already bought. That means tariffs come right out of our profit margin.
The other factor here is instability. It generally takes 3-4 months to print something overseas. To plan for tariffs, they need to remain the same for that entire period. If we send something to print when the tariff is 10% but it jumps up to 30% before the job ships, that’s a huge problem for us. In the past six months, the tariffs have fluctuated wildly from week to week. It’s difficult to plan when the situation is so chaotic.
Now we have not been idle here. We’ve been tracking the tariffs and seeing which printers make the most sense. The current threat for July is a potential 50% tariff on the EU as a whole. One of our regular printers is in Lithuania, and at current rates they’d be a reasonable choice. Not if the tariff jumps up to 50% though.
I’m laying all this out now to provide transparency on what we are facing. Do not fear though. We are going to get this job done and you will get your books and screens. We’re just trying to time it right, so we lose as little money as possible to tariffs.
Great news, we’ve gotten permission from N.K. Jemisin to release a preview PDF to you. There are a couple of things that still need sorting, and we need to add the index, but this is the game and you could start playing it tomorrow. A few notes:
You will get an email with a link that will let you download the game from BackerKit.
This PDF is for backers only. Please do not share it with others.
There is a light watermark that says Preview Edition. Obviously, that will not appear in the final PDF.
If you spot any typos or other problems, send them in an email to [email protected].
We are still in the approvals process for the Fifth Season RPG, so there is not a whole lot to report on right now. Next week we should be sending the book plates to print. We will send those directly to N.K. Jemisin for signature. Once we have a print date for the game, we will put in our order for the dice. We are timing production so everything arrives in the warehouse at roughly the same time. Then it’s picking, packing, and shipping.
I’ve got a short update this month but it’s a good one. I have submitted PDFs of the Fifth Season RPG core rulebook and GM’s Kit booklet to N. K. Jemisin for final approval! While she is looking them over, we are doing another round of proofing.
As I’ve mentioned before, N. K. is a busy woman so we are unsure how long this approvals phase will take. She has the right, of course, to ask for changes to the text and art to ensure that we get everything right. Naturally, we want that too, and we are ready to address any changes that need to happen.
The next step is a beta PDF to you. At that point, you can see and play the game. I say beta because inevitably getting a game in front of many sets of eyes will turn up things we’ll want to fix before it goes off to print.
That’s the news I have to share this month. I can see the finish line from here!
This is lead developer Hiromi again. Chris and the rest of the Green Ronin folks are off working the GAMA trade show right now, so I’m filling in to talk about the project.
But, before I get started on that, I wanted to say that Green Ronin needs GMs for Gen Con 2025. GMs who run enough games get a free GM badge for the con, which is a pretty good deal! So, if you’re a GM and want to have fun running games at Gen Con, check out this page for more information, and drop Jonesy a line at [email protected]or hit us up over on the Atomic Think Tank!
In terms of the project’s progress this past month, Hal’s been hard at work laying out the text of the orogeny update that we showed off last month. Additionally, Hal and I have been working with artists to get some amazing illustrations done for the book. I could be wrong, but I don’t think there are many more pieces of art that we’re waiting on, which brings us closer to getting you the wonderful book you’ve been patiently waiting for.
All right, now for the previews! This time, I’m talking about a few of the deadly creatures of the Stillness that your characters might run into, especially during a Season. I’ll also provide some in-game details to whet your appetites for the full game.
First up, we have Season-changed kirkhusas, depicted in this exciting piece by Claudio Pozas. Normally, kirkhusas are cute, playful, otter-like creatures that midlatters with food surpluses take in as pets. But, all things change during a Season, and those who invite kirkhusas into their homes will have to be quick to turn to violence if they want to stay alive.
A few things to note about these cute, but deadly critters:
Their Speed is 16 on land and in water, meaning that you’re not going to be able to get away from them by swimming. Climbing could help, but don’t count on it.
Like the otters they resemble, they’re social creatures. So, when they can, they hunt in packs. And they have Stunts that support that (Double Team & Knock Prone). Don’t get surrounded.
Our version of the kirkhusa is visually based on the Brazilian ariranha (giant otter; Pteronura brasiliensis), thanks to the artist Claudio Pozas’ brilliant idea.
Surprisingly, kirkhusas are even bigger than giant otters! According to the novels, Season-changed kirkhusas can be around 100 pounds.
In this gorgeous, yet horrifying illustration by Cristián Huerta, we see an unfortunate bull under attack by the violent boilbugs. As their name suggests, they’re bugs that boil water inside their bodies, causing severe burns on anything they land on. In large swarms, they’re a terrifying force of nature, capable of wiping out entire comms.
Boilbugs technically have a docile, non-aggressive form most of the time, but they also live in hives. So, with the exception of a few biomests (biologists in the Stillness), no one has ever seen a non-Season-changed boilbug. Of course, given how terrifying boilbugs are, no one wants to see a boilbug of any type!
Some design tidbits here:
Boilbugs are swarm creatures, meaning that they obey swarm rules; you can’t hurt them by swinging a glassknife at them. Only an attack that does damage to an area does full damage. That’s great news for orogenes and bad news for everyone else, which is how fights with boilbugs go in the novels.
If you manage to do enough damage to a swarm through area attacks, they become vulnerable to the Knock Out Stunt. Not very vulnerable, mind you; successfully landing the Stunt will only deal 1 point of damage. Still, it’s better than nothing.
Lastly, we have this vicious attack by a stone eater, depicted by Julie Sakai. Very few characters truly know anything about stone eaters, as the creatures are secretive and not usually social among humans. But, they are intelligent and very, very deadly when they want to be.
The good news is that if you see a stone eater (and know that you’re looking at a stone eater and not just a statue), they probably want you to see them and aren’t aggressive … yet.
Some design notes:
Like in the novels, they can pass through earth and rock at will and can do so with terrifying speed. In game, this is represented by an ability called In A Blink, which allows them to reposition themselves (and anyone unfortunate enough to be dragged by them) anywhere in an action encounter. The only thing keeping this from effectively being a teleport is that there has to be contiguous solid earth or stone between the two points.
Also like in the novels, their ability to grab someone and hold onto them is terrifying; they use their incredibly high Constitution (8!) to maintain grabs instead of their lower Accuracy.
They also have potent natural armor that makes it very unlikely for an attack to actually do damage.
On top of all that, GMs can choose to make them even more dangerous with the optional Adversary Improvement rules, which bumps their stats up.
In short, they are statted out to be terrifying, because that’s how they’re presented in the novels. That said, they’re not indestructible. It is possible to injure or even defeat one. It’s incredibly unlikely, and I would not recommend picking that fight, but the option is available to you.
That’s it for now, but, like I said, we’re closing in on the final production days for this book. We should have some really good news for you soon.
