Thank you all for your incredible support and generosity in backing this project to bring Wayward Letters to life.

It has been an incredible campaign. I really appreciate that this is something a bit different and I am trying something new here with these letters.

As I have said before, it is all of you coming together and supporting ideas that make them happen. Thank you.

I will send out a survey that will request the address details for where you want your letters to go to.

If you are from outside the UK, you will have a small postage fee to cover for your letters. I will work out how that will get paid in the next day or two. Don't worry about rushing with this, your letter will be made up and ready for when postage clears.

The letters are planned to go out on the 5th of June from here in Scotland.

I will keep you all updated when they are off to the post office, but if you want to follow along a bit more closely you can follow my Instagram, where I will be posting images and reels of the production process over the next few days.

Over the next few days I will be planning the next Wayward project and going live fairly quickly. I don't want this to be jarring for followers/backers here, its just that I have full control over production and postage here, so I can move a bit quicker and have everything fulfilled fairly quickly.

I don't know how fast this side of planning will move. I will see how printing goes tomorrow.

Wayward Letters is seen as a month to month creation. Each month is a whole new production from envelope to adventure, so any opportunity to get more support is what I have to do, to keep it growing.

For those who pre-purchased 3 letters (June, July August) or 6 letters (June, July, August, September, October, November) in this campaign, you will recieve the next projects letter in July, so you wont need to back the next one...unless you are buying for a friend :)

If you want to get in touch you can reach me by emailing here or direct message me on my Instagram

Have a great week,
Jason

Hey all!

I love bringing these projects together and today is another one of those days, where I can now showcase what is coming from Wayward Letters. The following is Junes letter and I have taken every opportunity to avoid spoilers of the letter and adventure info, but if you don't want anything spoiled, then you may want to stop now.

When I started this project I knew I wanted the envelope to make a excellent first impression and I for this first month I have settled on a thick, 'pine green' color. You can also see the sheet the envelope is sitting in that will act as a cover for the letters content when inside the letter. This should make it feel a bit more like a present to you when you get to open it.

Inside has seen an additional piece of art added onto card that will now be included in Junes letter. You will also receive 2 maps in this months letter, instead of one. You can also see a bigger image of this one on the main story of the project.

Have a great weekend !

Jason

I hope you had a lovely weekend and welcome to all the new backers since the last update!

I'm here to update that some of the materials for this project have arrived!

For the June Wayward Letter there will be a few different types of paper involved for the different parts of the package.

The letter

The letter portion of this package will be printed on a parchment type paper that is designed to look and feel like parchment paper. It has a nice look and feel to it, where when held it could easily be seen as 'in universe' for the fantasy world the letter portion is coming from. I think it has a nice aesthetic and will look really nice when printed on with the letter and placed against the nice new green envelopes we have.

I mentioned in an earlier update this months theme is 'Nature' and this paper type makes sense coming from the in universe character who has written it and for what purpose. This is something I want to explore later with different letters as each will have different themes, coming from different origins. It will make sense to try out different paper types and play around with the format.

The Adventure & Map

The adventure and map will be printed on the glossy photo paper. This paper is a touch heavier than normal paper and with the glossy finish it should look like the pages from an official TTRPG book or magazine. It will stand up better for the maps being used at the table and it feels a higher quality. 

I didn't feel printing this part on the parchment paper was right as it will likely be the more 'designed' part of the package. What I mean is the adventures page and maps will be more colourful, so I wanted it to be printed on white paper that I still have colour control over, but not feel lacking in quality. 

The envelopes are a really nice quality. They feel and look great. I wanted to keep with the nature colour scheme and spent a fair bit of time sourcing the right colour and quality so that they make the right first impression.

New Printer

I went with the Epson EcoTank 2860 for this first batch to see how I get on. I have spent a fair amount of time researching and for what I am looking to do this should do the trick. This was what was within the budget and if I were to get everything printed and delivered by a service it was already beginning to get around the same price. So I made the call to go with this printer, I'll do the work and in the long run it will hopefully be cost friendly.

I will be testing it out this week, so fingers crossed it works!

Other Parts

The letter will have other little bits like the lore piece and I am planning to make a seal that will hold it all together. I am also looking at different types of wax for the seal.

All in all, we are ahead of schedule and I am super confident we will have the June letters heading out as soon as the project completes this funding run!

Later this week

This week I am running practice prints with different fonts and colours to see how everything looks. I will be back with an update and will likely make updates to the project images with what Junes letter will look like (I will avoid spoilers).

I have the stickers for June but don't want to show them as they are spoilers for the letters subject. They look brilliant!

Have a great week and I will be back soon!

Jason

We are a week into the funding and off to a great start at nearly 200% funding.

Thank you all so much for jumping in and giving the project the initial boost it needed to get off the ground. 30 Letters going out June is amazing. If we continue to grow I will be utterly stunned.

Fingers crossed we continue to get backers and can get more artwork commissioned for the future letters.

This week I've completed the first letter! I will go into the influences of the first story and the process of writing in a later update, but it's done and I'm happy with it.

I have also been researching paper types and printers. With how well this first funding round is going, I think I will purchase a printer that will give me control over things like the paper type, sizing, and map colours. I will also need a guillotine...

If anyone has any advice on printers please let me know!!

For the week ahead I will be focusing on writing the adventure to go with the letter and editing up the images for the stickers. Plenty to be getting on with. 

If anyone wants to go over anything: Just send me a DM.

Thank you all once again for making this dream a reality!

Have a great weekend!

Jason

Hello and welcome to Wayward Letters!

Thank you to everyone who jumped in at this early stage of the campaign to to help get us funded. I have said it before and I will say it again: You make dreams happen!

We still have a fairly long way to go in the funding stage and as we gain more funding, the ideas for what this project can become will flourish.

One particular part I am keen to include is a monthly piece of art from @closeenoughnate and I think I could include it on a blank postcard included in the letter.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments! - Is there anything you think we could include in a A5 size envelope, that isn't too heavy or bulky?

The examples of how the project can look on the BackerKit and the marketing, are examples to give an idea of the concept.

The first letters theme and ideas will focus on nature and rebirth. This will mean the letter will have that theme throughout from the colour of the envelope, to the adventure included and the characters and concepts in the fantasy letter and the lore. I will go into this a bit more in another update and cover why I am landing on these themes as a first letter later.

Thank you to everyone who has shared your feedback! It has all been supper constructive and it is incredible the positivity being shared by everyone.

It is hard to get people to believe in something new, so if you want to help the project gain more backers and get more funds together to increase the scope of what we can do here, please share the BackerKit with your friends and on your social media!

The share link is in the top right of the BackerKit page HERE

If you give Wayward Letters posts on Instagram a share, we can pick up new backers there! - This post is doing really well if you can Like, Share, or Repost!

Thank you once again for your incredible support and I will be back soon with more updates!

Jason