We're hard at working writing and laying out the ION Heart Core book, which we will include an update for below. However, we thought we'd fill you in on the current slate of Parable Games projects first so you have an idea of what we're working on.
After an amazing 2024, the start of this year has carried on at a pace. We’ve released our first Starter Sets for Shiver, made several hundred unique items for Don’t Play This Game at a company retreat, and done a crowdfunding campaign for the badass nuns-with-guns TTRPG Sisterhood.
And in the background, we are working to get your games to you from our outstanding crowdfunding campaigns. Don’t Play This Game is currently being fulfilled - admittedly, this is running a few months behind schedule. Delivering late is never our aim, Don’t Play was an ambitious project for us with some unexpected issues but we hope the wait is worth it!
We heard the feedback that our communication needed some work, we are now doing monthly (at the minimum!) updates on all projects, and we are always active on our Discord (which you should all come and join!). As part of this, we want to give you an update on all our projects, as we are shifting some announced projects back, and we are anticipating a minor delay on one project.
We are pushing the estimated delivery for this project back to Q4. Some workflow overlaps combined with wanting to give the game some extra polish before printing means we are moving the estimated delivery back to Q4. Whilst we are nearly there with the game (with some items already in manufacture), we anticipate missing the delivery by a few weeks. Alongside this, the digital files delivery we are now estimating for Q3 - we can’t wait for you to get playing, so we will be releasing this as soon as we are able.
We are ahead of schedule! We are aiming to have this to all our backers in Q3, ahead of the Q4 aim. We were aiming to deliver Classified before the Corporate campaign, but will miss this by a few weeks. We will be delivering the digital versions before this, however!
What if the worst job you've ever had was autopsying aliens, babysitting monsters, and constant death in an endless cycle of imperfect cloning? And at the end of the day they didn't even pay you? A darkly comic expansion for the award winning SHIVER RPG.
A new Shiver setting bringing all the comic Horror of the Workplace into your TTRPG.
Shiver: Corporate launches in July as planned, and if you follow now you can get a free quickstart guide (including a playable adventure!) for you to test the game out straight away.
Explore the galaxy in your mech with your friends in ION Heart Multiplayer. After the rave reception that ION Heart received we wanted to let people explore the Astral Union with all their buddies. Assemble your companions and take your mech friends into the stars!
We are pushing back to Q1 2026. With so many projects on we have some more development work on this before we launch the project. We are hoping to start the dev diary over summer to keep you up to date with our progress!
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You might have noticed a secret title squeezed onto that tracker in between Shiver: Corporate and Ion Heart: Multiplayer. You do have sharp eyes! The necessity of moving Ion Heart: Multiplayer back has allowed us the opportunity to release a new title (or is that titles?) that we have been really excited about for a while. Look out for an announcement very soon!
Tariffs
The situation sucks. We have friends who have lost employment already due to the ongoing tariffs, and are seeing widespread trouble throughout the tabletop industry, which is only going to get worse the longer this continues.
With the majority of our products being produced in Europe as a business we are quite well insulated from the Tariff issues on the majority of our lines. However we are not entirely protected from this huge industry disruption. Our dice, screens, and box sets are all produced in China. Specifically we have the full run of Ion Heart Dice and Mech’s Toolkits currently in production in China, estimated to be completed in the coming weeks. The tariffs on these items alone are substantial, and as a small company make a real dent into our ability to operate.
With the additional delay in delivery for Ion Heart we’ll be taking the time to review all our options and hoping that the situation is resolved by the time at which we need to make a final decision over the coming weeks. Once we have a clearer picture we will do an update specifically on this project.
Sisterhood is in a similar position, but further down the road.
In addition to this, we are now out-of-stock of some items in the USA and will not be able to resupply them until this.
As a business it is clear we stand firmly against the tariff situation, and support the actions of companies such as Stonemeier Games in trying to support the industry in these tough times. As a small company we are feeling, and will continue to feel the pain from this situation, and we can only hope for a swift resolution. We encourage all of our customers to reach out to the representatives, but we also empathise with the real-life effects that you are feeling from this situation not only in regards to games. We hope it will get better, for everyone.
On A Nicer Note!
I don’t want to leave this update on such a negative point, so let’s look at some of the other fun going on in and around Parable Games at the moment!
We currently have a Don’t Play This Game play-along on our Discord Server! Get a weekly prompt and join #TeamParable as we discover what the entity has in store for us all…
Next Month sees us attending TWO incredible conventions (UK only SORRY!)
Matt, Barney & Adam will be at MCM Comicon London on 23rd - 25th May
The WHOLE Parable team will be at the UK Games Expo where we are also hosting our FIRST EVER EPIC. Come and experience Shiver: Corporate early with 50+ other players in one mega game.
Our Patreon continues to release awesome monthly content - both for Shiver and new systems. With a FREE tier you can keep up to date with all the fun goings on.
We recently launched the Shiver: Director’s Club, offering FREE GM resources and rewards for players who want to run Shiver at their local store or convention. We’ve already been blown away by the response, but there’s always room for more Director’s here!
As promised here is another peak inside the ION Heart Core Book, with another look at the expanded lore section. If you're anything like us you're a big fan of in-world timelines, which we are including in the book!
Let us know any other questions in the comments below or join our Discord Server. We’ve got a busy few months ahead, but it’s a really, REALLY, exciting time!
