I'm sitting here in the heat of summer dreaming of cooler days, so I'll keep this short and sweet. Paramour progresses! A few notable items:
We've hit some personal road bumps, creating some issues issues that needed to be reworked in the manuscript. This has delayed having a completed text by a little bit, but we intentionally baked in some padding so this currently doesn't look like it'll impact the overall timeline.
Final playtesting will commence in a few weeks to ensure there's nothing unanticipated that comes up during play that needs to be addressed.
Lur is currently working on the remaining illustrations.
The outline to Ragtime Repo is done and formal drafting will begin in the near future.
We are working with the team behind F-Infinity to ensure our mechanics for car chases are in-line with what they're doing for racing, so that it shouldn't be too jarring to hop from one to the other if you're stringing together the adventures.
Initial layout templates are done. While some massaging is expected, layout should go fairly quickly once the manuscript is ready.
Coming Soon
I'm working on getting the Pledge Manager setup, which should hopefully be ready to go by the time of the next scheduled update. I'll also provide a download link to backers for the current digital version of Starfall. That's already in a ready-to-play format, but keep in mind that this will be the original version and plans are in place for a clean up pass and small expansion before it gets sent off to print, so there will be some changes before the final copy is sent out.
That's all for now! I'll be back in a few weeks with more updates!
As we are quickly approaching the final week of Orbital Blues Month, we have surpassed our second and third stretch goals for Paramour. That means we'll be adding in supplemental mechanics for car chases and getting more art from Lur Noise.
Car Chases
Most of the action of Paramour takes place in the streets of Slushtown. While Orbital Blues has a great set of advice and mechanics for space combat, it doesn't quite cover the street level. For this bonus appendix, we're going to include additional advice on how to manage chase scenes and car combat. We're currently toying with some new "push your luck" mechanics to test and see if there's anything worth including on that end.
You'll have a chance to put these mechanics to the test in Ragtime Repo, which is part of the Corpo Gatecrasher Bundle, :)
The Next Stretch Goal
For our next revealed stretch goal, if we make it up to $7,250 we'll get some stickers printed for inclusion with the physical orders so that you can stick Cassandra Cross's charming visage on to your surface of choice.
A New Review
To continue to celebrate OBM, I jumped on Chris's podcast Ansible Uplink for a review of two scenarios from Rogue Anthems, the collection of Orbital Blues pamphlets contained within a VHS box that was released as part of the Afterburn crowdfunding.
As part of their own OBM celebrations, fellow contributor Tony from PlusOneExp invited me on to an episode of Now You've Zine It, the show where two tabletop creators read the other's work and then interview each other about it. I was joined by Elliot Davis for a deep dive into Paramour and The Wanderer, Elliot's zine for solo play for OB. This was a really great time and there are plenty of juicy details on Paramour that we discussed if you're curious as to what will lie within the pages of the zine.
Don't forget to check out the other projects for Orbital Blues Month if you haven't already! With all projects funded, we're deep into stretch goal territory. Here's a look at what's in store:
Outlaws & Corporations: Just a few thousand away from unlocking a new foldout map detailing an in-universe map for Orbital Blues.
F-Infinity: The threshold for a new planet to race your ships has just been crossed with more to be revealed.
Just a heads up, after we launched the campaign the support inbox was flooded with spam messages. If you had a legitimate question or request for clarification during this time, there's a good chance I missed it as a result. If you still have topics you'd like to discuss, feel free to create a community post or shoot in another support email now that the spam has calmed down. Your patience is appreciated!
Paramour is trucking along, passing our first stretch goal with the second in our sights. This first goal is pretty self explanatory. With the additional funds in hand, we will be splurging a bit to get a higher quality print for the zine. The next two are about expanding what's inside, so please keep sharing so that we can keep giving you more.
Interview
For those who want to learn more of the intended experience of Paramour and a general idea as to how these types of projects come together, I recently sat down with the folks at Why We Roll for a chat. You can check out the VOD from our conversion at the link below. I'd also recommend sticking around the channel and checking out some of the other interviews with Zach, Adam, and Wes to get a deeper dive into the other Orbital Blues Month projects!
In celebration of Orbital Blues Month, our own Chris Airiau has kicked off a series of related reviews on the Ansible Uplink podcast. The first is available to listen now, covering The Man We Knew by Kayla Dice, joined by Paramour's editor Samantha Leigh. Follow along for more to come!
After just about 6 hours, Paramour has met its funding goal. A heartfelt thank you to everyone that has supported us so far! Please continue to spread the word and check out the rest of Orbital Blues Month so we can ensure all of the projects reach their goal as well.
The focus from here is making Paramour the best that it can be. Our first stretch goal is improving the print quality of the zine, then we'll be bolstering it's content with some additional writing and a few additional art pieces from Lur Noise.
Tales From Across the Galaxy
As this update is sent out, Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition for the Mothership RPG will be in its final hours of funding over on Kickstarter. For the uninformed, both Chris and I were given the opportunity to write scenarios for the Adventure Collection. For those contemplating sneaking in a pledge at the last minute, backers should receive an early PDF with all ten adventures shortly after the campaign closes and the pledge manager opens up. Check out the clips below for a sneak peek at what's in store over there.
