The Darkest Woods is through editing and is being laid out as we speak! We’ll have some spreads from the book for you to look in our next update. The Darkest Woods app is also being built with a few usability improvements over The Darkest House app, and we’ll be able to talk about that more in the future.
In the interim, we’d love to share some of the new artwork from The Darkest Woods with you.
A house tangled up in a tree in a snow covered forest
Multi colored stepping stones in a glade
Ritual on a dais, bathed in red light
Watchtower overlooking a break in the woods
A locked chest lies under branches in a burning woodland
Creatures made of branches spawn from an angry looking tree
Last Few Hours to Escape Shadow and Enter the Real World
While you’re waiting for The Darkest Woods to let us in, there’s less than a day left to pledge for Invisible Sun Indigo and Electric. Discover magic that’s truly magical and experience the rich and surreal world of Invisible Sun. Enter the Actuality here.
The woods are darker still in winter, and Monte has been delving in deep to bring this creative and innovative work to you. Check out his Substack article, ‘The Tipping Point’, for details and insight into his creative process The Darkest Woods.
While Monte is writing away in the woods, have a look at some of the spectacular and sinister artwork that our artists have been developing for this project:
Snowy owls, stark against the dark of tree trunks, crowd around an ice crowned women dressed all in white
Surreal fingers reach up like tree trunks to a crescent moon, as the two bone white hands form a skull
If you’re a fan of the weird and scary, then you need to check out The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game.
Caption reads Make Your Statement
The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game makes the most of the Cypher System’s flexibility and narrative, character-driven focus—but with fresh new mechanics and approaches that bring a gritty horror feel to your game table. It’s loaded with elements you can use for any horror or modern Cypher System campaign, too. And since the complete corebook is included with every pledge level, Tangled in the Web is a perfect jumping-on point for exploring The Magnus Archives at your game table or looting the game and its supplements for any Cypher System game!
The Darkest Woods is in overtime mode—so long as backers keep pledging, the campaign will remain open! (This is a relatively new feature on BackerKit, and it’s turned out to be a great way to reach gamers who learn about the campaign—or decide to pledge—at the very last minute.)
We unlocked the bookmarks upgrade just before the campaign’s scheduled closing. Normally that would be it, but. . .
What if there was another stretch goal?
We have loads more ideas for The Darkest Woods, but one in particular that would make a great final upgrade. If overtime mode keeps going, we’ll announce this goal and keep pushing toward it!
Please help give the campaign one more push—and stay tuned. If this momentum keeps up, we’ll announce another stretch goal shortly!
In the meantime, we invite you to join the Cypher Unlimited Discord, where MCG fans are talking about The Darkest Woods and this campaign right now. You can also check out our social media profiles for posts you can share tonight to help spread the word and keep overtime mode going!
Thank you, backers! What a campaign that was. We’re very excited to bring The Darkest Woods into existence, and super happy to have unlocked so many stretch goals to make it even bigger and better. The campaign was scheduled to close yesterday evening, but remained active in "overtime mode" into the night.
We want to tell you a bit about the next steps—and we have some interesting news—but first let’s give credit where credit is due:
While this campaign has been running Monte has been working on The Darkest Woods, while also leading our design team—Bruce, Sean, Dominique, and Shanna—as they move titles like Gunslinger Knights (for the Cypher System) and Dig Your Own Grave (for the Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game) toward completion. Bear and Javier handled the graphic design of this campaign and will be making The Darkest Woods as striking as you expect. Jen, Olivia, and Kate have provided answers and are always available to provide support to you, our wonderful community. Teri, Dominique, and Tammie have corralled the words and tamed the logistics. The man behind the curtain was Charles, who planned and ran this campaign.
We all appreciate your support. We love making (and playing!) imaginative, beautiful, and easy-to-use RPGs, and it’s your backing that makes that possible.
Now, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here.
The Immediate Future
Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work. We’re looking forward to getting a bit of rest, and the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is right around the corner. You may not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. As we’ve said, Monte is already at work on these titles. We’ll post updates any time there’s news share.
The Next Few Weeks
BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.
In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in about three weeks.
The Next Few Months
Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy crafting The Darkest Woods in the months to come. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.
At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.
When Your Rewards Ship
Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.
This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.
Make sure to pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.
Thanks for your support! —Team MCG
So What's Next from MCG?
New statements. New horrors. New lore. New resources for the GM. New options for the players. New adventures by The Magnus Archives creator Jonathan Sims.
The Web weaves. Will you find yourself within its tangles?
Thank you, backers, for so quickly unlocking additional audio assets for The Darkest Woods. Monte has big plans for making sound an even more important and immersive aspect of your players’ experiences in the Woods!
As PCs lost in the Woods’ depths are often heard to say: where do we go from here?
The Darkest Woods app is highly optimized for gaming online. (And the book, while built for the physical environment, is also well-suited for online games.) So let’s make those games even more immersive!
At $250,000 we’ll unlock a suite of items to dress up your online game. Things like a set of video backgrounds for games played on Zoom or similar platforms, frames and templates for streamed games, wallpapers, and so on. These aren’t part of gameplay per se, but like the décor in your in-person game space, they’ll make your game just a bit more immersive, atmospheric, and fun.
This is a crowdfunding exclusive. It won’t be part of the product itself; we’ll deliver it separately, just for you, backers of this campaign. This reward will go to backers at all pledge levels.
As usually happens, the pace of this campaign is picking up in its final week. We unlocked the last stretch goal in less than two days, and we probably unlock this one even faster—and have time for more!
But only if you help! We've all seen or supported campaigns that really soared to exciting heights, hitting loads of goals. This only happens because their backers help spread the word. Please take a moment and share these social media posts—or share your own thoughts on why you’re excited about The Darkest Woods!
