Hey everyone,

I want to give you a real update on where things stand with Folklore Americana.

We’re behind. More than I wanted, more than I planned. I’m not going to dress that up.

A big part of this came from decisions we made during development that I still stand by. I expanded a bunch of content. We recently overhauled how the system handles stress and panic, which was a pretty fundamental change. It needed to be right, and the earlier version just wasn’t holding up the way it should at the table. On top of that, expanding the corebook to include magic and creatures added more weight than originally scoped, and that rippled into editing time in a real way. Then there’s just real life on top of it all.

The good news is we’re at the end of that stretch. The corebook should be out of editing and turned over to me for layout by this weekend. Once it’s in my hands, things shift into a phase I control directly, which means I can start moving faster and showing you actual pages, layout samples, and the book taking shape.

I know delays are frustrating. I feel that stress too. But the version of the book coming out of this is stronger, more cohesive, and actually supports the kind of play this game is built for. It’s not just “more stuff,” it’s better structure.

Quick note on portraits: if you had a character portrait in the corebook, some of you already received them, some of you didn’t. I’m redoing all of them this weekend. I wasn’t happy with how they turned out, and now that I have a clearer sense of the book as a whole, I know exactly how they should look and where they fit.

Looking ahead, once the corebook is in layout, the next regional book will move into editing. The goal there is to get those releasing on a 1–2 month cadence. In between, I’ll be pushing out additional content that doesn’t require heavy editorial overhead so things keep moving and you’re not just waiting on the big pieces.

At the end of the day, this is still just three of us building this thing. When something expands, everything expands. But it’s moving, it’s the priority, and we’re close to turning a corner where you’ll start seeing real progress instead of just hearing about it.

I appreciate the patience. I don’t take it lightly. And sorry for the lack of updates, I just really wanted to know where we stood with progress before making more posts. 

— Rick