In which the Entity that is Hollows mutates a little further, but we corral it and herd it towards its ultimate fate: the printer.
MANUSCRIPT
Firstly: I promised you a manuscript preview in mid-August. Several astute backers have observed that it’s nearly the end of August and there has been no preview. Allow me to explain.
We laid out the book. The book was too large, by about 10%. In reviewing it, with an eye to cutting some material and reflowing some pages to use space more efficiently, we have proposed a number of additional changes. (“I have now finished writing Hollows for the tenth time.” - Grant Howitt, August 2025)
I still thought we might get the preview out this week, thereby allowing me to at least do so while it was still August.
Then people got ill. Probably not because of Hollows, more likely from a convention. And, while we are passionate about our work, we also firmly believe that sick leave is sick leave, and have politely insisted that those affected take time off to recover.
Anyway, long story short, the preview will now arrive at the end of next week. I know this is disappointing, and I know you’ve waited (remarkably patiently) for a really long time. I can only apologise and ask you to be patient for just a little while longer.
COMPONENT KIT
Still no changes! But remember I said we’d updated some components after seeing the samples? Well, we got new samples, and they’re gorgeous.
The Entity token (Mr. Bitey to his friends. It's me, I'm his friends.) is an old prototype, but the right size.
We have:
Enlarged the design on the tactical grid so the Entity token fits perfectly, instead of merely pretty well
Changed the Empty design for the Shotgun token to be closer to the other Broken/Empty/etc. designs
Changed the colours of the Capacity holder and tokens so they’re a little darker and grimier. We thought this would be a really fussy, minor change, but it actually makes a huge impact (we think)
Most visibly, we have replaced the dice. They were basic and plastic and we didn’t like them. They’re still plastic, but they’re now this rather nice carved bone effect
(Oh, and one of the numbers was mirrored on the Curse dice, which is a weird thing to happen, but that’s fixed now, too)
WRETCHED DOMAINS
Maz is now editing these (and, as I type this, they are waiting on me to review a set of edits so they can continue working, so I shall wrap this up swiftly). There’s little else to say here - these are proceeding according to plan.
I can, however, show you this charming art for Jinn Hermiston's Hollow. Jinn is the writer we brought in to replace a Wretched Domains author who unfortunately had to withdraw. The Hollow they created is a rotten, verdant place of vengeful forests and uncanny game birds. The illustrations here are the map of the Hollow in its entirety and two of the Entities: The Gamekeeper (shotgun in hand) and The Royal Fern (also pictured: one of its luckless victims). The borders you can see are by Arborwin McJanda, and are a crucial piece of this Hollow's graphic design.
IN CONCLUSION
May the Old Gods become aware of my existence if I’m wrong, but it looks like we’ll send everything to print in October. I continue to be uncomfortable with providing hard deadlines for things like locking orders and sending out books, because this is a big and complicated fulfilment situation and, as you’ve already seen, Hollows has a way of expanding through time and space.
As a parting gift, please enjoy these nasty little symbols our graphic designer, Mina, made for the Malignancies. Pleasingly unpleasant.
