Hello, backers—

Once again you’ve amazed us with your dedication and alacrity! In less than 48 hours you’ve unlocked yet another stretch goal—the Jewel in the Sky boxed set is now getting a second poster map, this one showing Vocurro from a sci-fi angle!

You also amazed us with your voting for the free bonus XP card—it was literally a tie. That makes it “dealer’s choice,” and I (Charles) am choosing the naganit. We’ve faced these in our internal playtest, and I can tell you they’re a hard fight. Watch out for the scorpion-like tail. And with those human hands, they can open doors—so they can be a challenge to escape from!

Every backer gets this collection of XP cards as a free bonus reward, and we add a card with every stretch goal we unlock! Speaking of cards and stretch goals…

Back in the first week of the campaign, you unlocked a stretch goal to increase the number of creature and cypher cards in the Jewel in the Sky box. (See update 5 for details.) These useful cards speed and ease gameplay while providing inspiration and immersion.

How about more? The vision for Jewel has continued to expand throughout this campaign, and Monte thinks Vocurro’s unique cyphers and creatures could easily benefit from well over 100 cards—double what we originally had in mind, and maybe a lot more! (Numbers like these are always approximate; we like to design to the needs of the product, not an arbitrary number we came up with during the crowdfunding campaign.)

All of these cards will be fully compatible with the general-purpose Cypher Creature Deck and Manifest Cypher Deck. So if you have those, you can mix and match cards as best serves your game.

These cards will also be featured in the Datasphere Deck Tool, making them just as handy and easy to use in the digital realm as they are at your physical game table, whether you’re using a VTT or playing over Discord or Zoom. (You can learn more about the Datasphere Deck Tool here.)

Which card should we add as our next free bonus to your rewards?

Vote now!

We’re hitting these goals so fast because our backers—you!—are doing such a great job spreading the word. Please keep it up! You can find posts to share on our social media accounts [[link]], or click through below for a treasure trove of images you can use!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

Another stretch goal under our belt: we’re now adding the GM notebook to the boxed set! You are really turning the Jewel boxed set into the amazing experience we’d like it to be—a campaign that will be a true joy to run and a legendary experience in your gaming group. 

And that’s not all. As always, we’re adding a little bonus reward for every backer, and our way of saying thank you for making this happen. You voted for this XP card:

The maps in Jewel in the Sky are effortlessly usable and visually striking. We’re putting a bunch of them into the box as separate components for your convenience at the table and, as appropriate, for showing the players. (You’ve expanded both the quantity and size of these loose-leaf maps through earlier stretch goals.) We’re also including a big poster-sized map to really show off the entirety of Vocurru. It’ll have a hand-drawn look, with annotations by in-world explorers. Imagine the look of amazement in your players’ eyes as they take in the detailed, atmospheric scene laid out before them.

What’s better than a poster map? How about two of them?

A second poster map will also feature Vocurro—but it’ll be designed for your science fiction excursion to the strange floating island. It’ll display a high-tech scan of the location, with scan result annotations.

Get us to 1550 backers and we’ll add this second beautiful, detailed poster map to the Jewel in the Sky boxed set. With your help, we’ll keep building a boxed set that will be as legendary as your adventures in Vocurro!

Let’s keep building that mini XP Deck. As long as you keep unlocking stretch goals, we’ll keep adding to the deck. Which card should we add next?

Vote in the current poll and let us know!

You’ve done a great job spreading the word. Please keep it up! Visit MCG’s social media accounts to find sharable posts, artwork, and inspiration for your own messages. YOU are making this campaign soar. Only you can keep this pace going!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

We have an important upgrade for you. It’s not a stretch goal—it’s just something we’re doing as a result of requests and feedback we’ve received from you, our backers.

We’re going to replace the three softcover books in the boxed set with the Jewel in the Sky hardcover. The boxed set will now include the standard hardcover, instead of breaking up the book’s content into three softcover books.

Monte originally specced the boxed set’s version of the book as three softcovers to make it even more usable at the game table. We still believe there’s merit in that approach, but your feedback convinced us that the more deluxe feel of a hardcover outweighs the relatively minor benefits of smaller softcover books. So we’re making that change!

Again, this upgrade isn’t a stretch goal—we’re just doing it!

We’re very excited for Jewel in the Sky, and all the ways you’ve helped us expand and upgrade it. We really want to make the boxed set an amazing experience from the moment you open the box—and to make it a true jewel on your game shelf. This is one more step in that direction!

Thanks for your support!
 —Team MCG

Hello, backers—

The opening week of this campaign has been a rousing success—you’ve really gotten Jewel in the Sky off to an amazing start!

You’ve unlocked yet another stretch goal, and we’ll be making the loose-leaf maps included in the backer-exclusive boxed set twice as big—tabloid sized (roughly A3) instead of letter sized (roughly A4).

And hitting that goal, of course, also means another free bonus reward for every backer. You voted to add this XP card to your collection:

Your Jewel in the Sky adventures will be the stuff of legends. (Monte’s been running a playtest for a couple of months now, and we’ve been having an epic time!) Straight out of the box (or the book), you’ll have a everything you need for an awesome fantasy or sci-fi experience, loaded with immersive detail and atmosphere. But your campaign will really shine when you make it your own—customizing NPCs and encounters to your players’ strengths and interests, tracking subplots and character arcs, and so on. We want that part of your experience to come as easily and naturally as the storylines and encounters you find in Jewel in the Sky.

So we’d like to include a custom GM’s notebook. Record character information, plan upcoming sessions, take notes, record prompts, and track events in this digest-sized journal. It’s an entire new item in the Jewel in the Sky boxed set—another component that helps you build a truly great dungeon experience for you and your players.

As always, when we unlock this goal we’ll add a free bonus reward for every backer. You’ve been voting for your favorite XP cards throughout this campaign. Often the votes have been close, but so far nearly all of the winners have been fantasy characters.

That’s fine, but we want to solidly represent the sci-fi side of Jewel in the Sky, too. So this time we’re going to do something a little different—instead of choosing from two new designs, we’d like you to pick one of the sci-fi characters that barely missed winning in past polls. Which is your favorite?

Vote now, and we’ll add the winner to everyone’s rewards when we unlock the GM’s Notebook!

Remember, you, the backers, have made this campaign soar—and only you can keep up this great pace! Share the campaign.

Here are links to our social media accounts, where you can find loads of sharable posts along with inspiration for your own thoughts.

You can also find loads of beautiful graphics here:

Thanks for your support!

—Team MCG 

Hello, backers—

What an exciting week this has been! You’ve blasted through yet another stretch goal with head-spinning speed. The exclusive, backers-ony version of Jewel in the Sky will now come in a deluxe, magnetic-closure box that will make it just as cool and enticing on the outside as it is on the inside. Look at how you've expanded and upgraded this boxed set just in the first few days of this campaign!

And, as always, there’s a bonus reward for every backer: another exclusive XP card to add to your collection. We asked you to vote for your favorite, and this is the design you chose:

We’re having a live conversation with the fan community tonight on the Cypher Unlimited Discord, to answer questions about Jewel in the Sky and discuss the campaign—and perhaps to unveil a little treat for CU members!

Cypher Unlimited is a friendly and welcoming hub for Cypher players to find groups to join, share advice and experiences, or just chat and hang out—if you’re not a member, you should be! You can join through the link above.

The boxed set of Jewel in the Sky contains a bunch maps duplicated from the book in loose-leaf format, for extra-convenient use at the table. You’ve already increased the number of these loose maps through an earlier stretch goal. Now let’s make them even better!

The maps are currently letter sized (that’s roughly A4, for non-Americans). We’d like to make them bigger, taking them to tabloid size (roughly A3). This will let the details shine, and (for those maps that are player-facing) make them easier to view around the table.

As always, we design to the best needs of the product. Some of the maps might work better at the smaller size—and, if so, that’s the size they’ll be. But we anticipate that most will benefit from the increase in size you’ll unlock through this stretch goal.

When we unlock this goal, we’ll also give every backer another XP card as a free bonus reward! Which design should we add to the collection next?

Vote now!

If you like the imagery you’ve seen for Jewel in the Sky, good news: we’ve created a folder filled with images you can download and share.

This campaign has really been moving this week. It will only keep up the momentum if backers keep the buzz alive. Crowdfunding campaigns live and die by the enthusiasm of their backers. We love what you’ve done so far—keep it up!

Thanks for your support!

—Team MCG