Hello hello hello,

Hope everybody has had a good beginning to 2026! Things have been pretty calm over here now, though some family illnesses and daycare closures have thrown a wrench over the course of January. Here's hoping February is a bit less chaotic!

Not a ton to update everyone on this time - work continues on Certain Fathoms and its accessories. As we mentioned at the end of December, all of these are going to be delivered via the mega-pledge manager coming Soon™️from Tuesday Knight Games. Once that's available, you should be able to download what's been completed so far.

As a reminder:

Well... yes.

But it's for a good reason. Let me explain.

First, Employee of the Month is an expansion that allows for running Certain Fathoms solo (or as a Warden with one player). I have a rough draft of these rules, but there are some folks in the solo-roleplaying space who I would like to show it for potential edits.

The last thing I want to do is make some solo rules that amount to a worse version of what you can get in a generalist book, like Mythic GME or something.

Second, Secret Levels is a collaborative effort between myself, Watt, Snow, Alfred Valley, and Sam Sorensen. If you hadn't noticed, all of those people are either currently running a crowdfunding campaign or are in some phase of fulfilling a crowdfunding campaign.

Not to mention all the personal things on my end that required my attention, we put a little life pause on this while everybody (mostly me) could get their bearings.

That said, things are moving!

Watt has finished their lovely floor, "The Operation", featuring a group of women stuck in an experiment that nobody bothered to tell them was shuttered. And I've gotten confirmation from everyone else that their floors are underway as well.

That said, I'd like to take a moment to shine a spotlight on them because they're so cool and nice and they deserve support:

Sam Sorensen is providing work on the very cool looking A FAMILIAR TOWER, an escape room / puzzle dungeon adventure for Old-School Essentials.

Snow is (and has been) working on... well, I'll just let her describe it:

Anybody that knows me knows this is right up my alley. Might even get to play it with some folks soon!

Alfred ran a campaign for BRUTE FORT late last year that's still accepting late pledges last I checked! 

Exactly what you'd expect from the Valley of Alfred: stylish, clean, deadly simple to pick up and play. Plus you know I can't help myself when I see a soundtrack...

On March 3rd, Watt's launching the crowdfunding campaign for Rust Wings, a ghibli-inspired adventure ttrpg where you play as misfit teens who build and pilot their own planes from the scrap around them. Abandoned cities, sky pirates, and more await!

The inspirations (Castle in the Sky, Arcane, and Mega-Man) got me curious but the fact that it's an adaptation of the Mausritter rules has my attention. Very excited to see this!

Also, just have to shout out Watt for fulfilling all the Cloud Empress stuff - two campaigns! We always have to give creators a hand when they deliver on what was promised. Also the books are gorgeous and dripping with flavor and inspiration.

Obviously we live in a world of things costing an exorbitant amount - and increasing all the time. But when we have the opportunity to support indie creators, especially ones associated with the work we do, it's on us to show support in any way we can.

If you have the discretionary funds, please consider backing one (or all) of these projects! 

If money's tight, there's other support you can give! Just sharing the projects around, getting the word out, and even reaching out to ask how you can help may make a big difference.

Anyway, that's about it for the update this month: continuing to work on Certain Fathoms, getting things ready for the mega-pledge manager, and trying to stay warm & healthy.

Oh, and finally getting around to trying Expedition 33 - what a game!

- Nate

Wake up, crew! New update on the loose!

It's the very last day of the very last month of the year and I've got an update that has 75% great news and 25% middling news.

Let's start with the good stuff.

The digital files, according to our Revised Timeline, are good to go! That means:

Will be available to backers! ...

(here's the middling news)

So, you may have read in other places how Mothership Month projects are handling the pledge manager - the place where you can include add-ons to your order, catch items you may have missed during the campaign, etc.

In Mothership Month, we're doing a mega-pledge manager.

Which will allow you to do everything I listed above but for all your Mothership Month projects.

As far as we're aware, the mega-pledge manager is being built out specifically for Mothership Month (much like 2024's MoshMo was the first collaborative campaign on the platform). That means we're not just the first ones to use the mega-pledge manager - it's literally being built for us on the BackerKit backend.

(This is why you weren't given an email about surveys or filling out shipping information yet, in case you were curious.)

But! The wait is almost over. My understanding is that the mega-pledge manager is finished - it's just a matter of TKG putting in everyone's SKUs so that people have the right items attributed to them. I don't want to assume how long that will take, but my guess is that it will be Soon™.

All that said, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer for the files. As much as I would like to share the files some other way, I think best practice is to just wait until the manager is available and we can distribute files in an official capacity.

What I can do is give you a little peek at the files that are available so you can get an idea of what's coming to you shortly. That will be below, reserved exclusively for backers.

I hope you've all had wonderful holidays or, at the very least, some ample time off to play some games and spend time with loved ones. Maybe getting some Mothership in, hm?

In terms of scheduling updates, from here on out I think it makes sense to move to a once-a-month update. No doubt we're all getting enough emails as it is and frankly you don't need me telling you every week "Yep, still working on stuff!".

So, with that said, the next update will be at the tail-end of January in the new year. After that will be another one in February, then March, and so on. And then, before you know it, you'll be getting a very big, very magenta box on your doorstep, full to the brim with awesome stuff to run one hell of a Pound of Flesh campaign.

Until then,
- Nate