Just a quick update today to remind folk that we will be locking orders this Thursday 26th! So make sure you're happy with your pledge levels and add-ons before the big button is pushed. You should receive a notification from Backerkit on Tuesday when we set orders to lock, so you can make any final changes to your pledge. Once orders are locked and your cards are charged, you’ll get access to all the PDFs in your pledge.
Addresses will not be locking down until April 28th, on our current timeline, but we’ve been working on shipping costs and you should now be able to see those in your pledges. The following noteworthy changes have occurred since our estimates last year.
Australia: Shipping should be slightly cheaper than we estimated, thanks to our distribution partner’s support.
EU: We have joined up with a new EU dedicated distribution partner. As a result, some upfront shipping costs may appear slightly higher than we estimated last year. Importantly, because this partner is sending the books from inside the EU, we're confident that you won't have to pay any surprise import duties. It should be cheaper for most EU backers in practice.
USA: Shipping within the USA is currently more expensive than we expected; this is partly due to the increasing costs of moving freight across the US border as well as within the US to get it to its final destination. In practice this translates into a sub-$5 increase for most US backers; we’re still working to see if we can get this down any further.
All these shipping costs have been updated and reflected in the pledge manager, so you can check what your particular shipping costs are going to look like. So check them out and make sure you're not going to get any nasty surprises. We’ll be back in touch once we are ready to lock down your addresses and start shipping!
We’re back! It’s a new year and I’ve got a bucket load of exciting updates for all you sickos waiting to get your hands on Ways and Means. Let’s dive right in!
Orders Lock on February 26th!
With the great time of shipping approaching, we will be locking orders and charging cards on February 26th (that’s just two short weeks from now).
That means you’re running out of time to make any last minute changes to your orders in your pledge manager. Don’t sleep on it!
Once the orders are locked, you’ll gain access to all the delicious PDFs you’ve been waiting for, including the updated Ways and Means. Exciting times!
Ways and Means Preview PDFs Updated
After an intense period of community feedback, internal mechanical tweaks, and layout changes, we’ve finally completed the polish stage on Ways and Means and we’re now proud to call the book finished (play the fanfare). I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who submitted errata to the feedback form. You helped us make this the best version of Ways and Means.
You’ll all be able to get your hands on the updated PDFs in a couple of weeks when we lock orders (26th of Feb) so you can see for yourself just how much that additional polish period has really taken the book to new heights.
For the detail-oriented sickos, here’s a changelog covering the most impactful changes between the preview PDF and the final version of the book:
Added missing domains, skills, and protections to the Crawler's minor abilities.
Updated the Snail Pilgrim's Remove Shell core ability so you don't break time if you sacrifice a D12 resource.
Updated the Zeniths for the Snail Pilgrim to make them more impactful.
Adjusted some entries throughout the equipment section so they closer match their illustrations.
Added missing domains and tags to various resources.
Renowned Armaments have been replaced with a new suite of Legendary Weapons.
Clarified how Hirelings and Animals make rolls and suffer stress.
Added clarification for Bounties which use Delve rules to represent extended challenges instead of a journey.
Added tweaks to various bounty board entries and delves, including a full rework of The Pigs Have Unionised.
The "Idol Reflections" bounty has been replaced with an alternative bounty "Neither Blood Nor Teeth Nor Gloom of Pit".
Updated several Delve Events.
75+ additional minor mechanical tweaks and clarifications throughout.
Extensive spelling and grammar fixes throughout.
Various layout changes throughout, including refined boxouts.
The Printers are Printing
As I type, our printing partner is churning out books at an alarming rate. Pay close attention, and you might just catch the whiff of ink permeating the air. It’s taken us a little bit longer to warm up the printers than anticipated, but now they’re going, there’s no stopping them.
Currently we’re aiming to have books in everyone’s hands by June, which is a few weeks late from our initial timeline, but we feel the extra polish time taken was worth the wait.
You’ll hear more detail from Alex (our shipping and logistics magician) in our next update, where he will break down the shipping and delivery plan for you all in detail. Until then, know the books are inching closer to your waiting arms.
7,500 Bookmarks Packed
I swore I wouldn’t do it again after the Dagger in the Heart campaign, but apparently you lot take great joy from my suffering. The task of packing 7,500 reference bookmarks into 2,500 envelopes took place over a grueling two day sprint, as glimpsed in a wonderful montage.
I wish I packed as fast as I do in the video. But hey, at least I got to catch up on some Dimension 20.
As a reminder, these bookmarks were a stretch goal, so everyone who purchased a physical copy of Ways and Means during the crowdfunding period will get their very own set. (I swear I’m never doing this again, for real this time. You better enjoy these or my ghost will haunt you.)
Delve Decks Complete
The Delve Deck printing has actually completed slightly ahead of schedule, which means we can show it off with some fancy pictures courtesy of Maz. I can confirm that they are lush. They shuffle great, the linen coating is divine, and they might just become my new obsession – just picture me in meetings quietly shuffling the Delve Deck in a corner like a portentous tarot reader.
Phew, that was a lot! Time for me to sign off and rest my weary digits. We’ll be in touch soon once we have more details to share about shipping and fulfillment.
Do you hear that? The jingling bells and cavorting laughter? That’s a portentous omen! The holiday herald is fast approaching! We better be quick and squeeze out one last project update, before the Gleeman comes to spirit us away, to long nights of grin-splitting merriment and coma-inducing feasts.
Ways and Means Preview PDF Available Now!
The team have worked like absolute monsters the last few months with one goal in mind: get a preview PDF of Ways and Means sent out to backers before the holiday break. We weren’t quite sure if we could manage it, but I’m glad to announce that we did!
Everyone who has a physical or pdf copy of Ways and Means in their pledge should now (or shortly after this goes live) be able to download an advanced preview copy of the book.
How To Get Your Preview PDF
By the time you read this, you may have an email from Backerkit containing direct links to the final downloads. If you haven’t seen one by tomorrow:
Go to backerkit.com
Click your profile icon in the top right corner of the homepage
Go to Your Pledges and Surveys
Find Ways and Means and click on it
Then go to View Order, under Surveys on the right hand side of the page
Click on Get Your Digital Downloads, near the top of the order page
Download your files
Please keep the following in mind when reading the preview pdf!
It’s still a work in progress: We have several rounds of polish to complete in terms of layout, grammar, and minor content tweaks.
You can help: If you spot anything that seems wrong, especially in terms of grammar and content (statblocks or mechanics that don’t make sense) you can help us make sure the book is as solid as possible by submitting them to our public errata form here: https://forms.gle/1YXb9h62m3egLgBbA
We’re on holiday: Shortly after posting this, the RRD team are taking a well deserved rest for the festive season. That means we might not be able to answer questions or resolve issues as fast as we normally would. Normal customer service will resume from January 5th.
With that in mind, enjoy!
Two Different Fancy Editions
If you voted last time in our poll for which Very Fancy version of Heart you’d like - thank you! Roughly speaking, half of you were into the blue-and-red Echo edition, while the other half were excited about the new yellow-and-black Hive edition. We’ve got some great news: you’re going to be able to choose. We will have a limited number of the Echo edition available alongside the new Hive edition, and if you choose a pledge that includes a special edition, you’ll be given the option to pick your favourite in the new year. That will mean, in early January, your surveys will be reset so you can pick, and we’ll email you individually to make sure we’ve got your choice correct and all the details we need. We’ll also be making the Hive edition available for folks who might be tempted by the new design - that’ll be in our next update.
The Gleeman Cometh
Oh no, our time is up! The Gleeman is here! Time for us to rest and prepare for the new year.
From everyone at RRD, we hope you have a lovely holiday.
Oh how time flies. As the winter months creep across the land and the sunlight outside our windows is replaced by perpetual gloom, work continues apace on Ways and Means and I'm here once more to give you a rundown on what's new.
Vote Now for New Special Edition Covers!
More people than we were expecting have requested a special edition of the Heart: The City Beneath core book - which means that we have an opportunity to create a new colourway to join the original Red Wet Edition and the more recent Echo Edition. If you’ve already said you want a special edition, you will soon have a separate email in your inbox asking for your opinion on what you’d prefer. We have three options: create some more Echo editions, or ask our bindery to create the Hive or the Grey Edition.
We’ll update you once our materials are finalised, and we’ll also make sure everyone who’s ordered a special edition has the option to change your pledge if you don’t like the eventual outcome.
The Snail Pilgrim Arrives!
We know you've been waiting patiently to see the final illustration for the stretch goal class added to Ways and Means, but honestly you can't rush a Snail Pilgrim.
Felix has once more done an amazing job at depicting a truly bizarre class. In this case, a devout wanderer who literally carries a Haven on their back deep into the heart (albeit rendered down into a protean goo and poured into their sacred shell to be decanted at a later date).
Timeline Updates!
We've been pushing hard on development and I can now happily confirm that all the text for Ways and Means is currently with our editors and Sar is working on the final batch of illustrations as I type. All this means we're preparing to be fired like a wild shotgun into layout over the coming month.
We set ourselves a big milestone of getting preview PDFs out to backers some time in mid December. While we're still looking pretty good for that milestone, there have been some delays around polishing certain parts of the book, which means it's looking TIGHT.
We're talking a matter of days between getting the PDFs sent out before the RRD team take their well deserved Christmas break. So there's a non-zero chance that backer PDFs will land in January after the holidays instead. Rest assured, we'll keep you posted either way!
That’s all for now folks, you’ll hear from us again in a few weeks!
We dragged Elaine kicking and screaming out of the viscera filled pit of Ways and Means development to talk about how things are going with the project. Contained within are her most coherent blood-flecked ramblings.
Greetings Delvers! It's been a hot second since the campaign ended and I’ve been COMMANDED AT GUNPOINT to give a quick roundup the past few weeks development. So strap in for a quick fire round of COOL SHIT that’s going into this wonderful book.
Art, Art, Art!
Sar's been working away like an absolute monster this whole time to make Ways and Means the most art dense and gorgeous Heart book to date. There’s a gargantuan mountain of illustrations to squeeze between the covers, and we did unlock stretch goals to include even MORE! So there's no shortage of pretty pictures to ogle at.
Below is just one of SEVEN spot pages Sar's made for the equipment chapter, which is frankly nuts if you ask me. As of writing, there’s light at the end of the parasitic train tunnel, with just a handful of larger pieces left to make and then we'll be done!
Words, words, words!
Not to be outdone by all the pretty pictures, we're been writing some JUICY WORDS to hurl at the page too. A lot of words, actually! The first draft of the book is due to go off to editing this week which is a huge milestone and a perfect moment to thank all our freelancers once more for all their hard work. They're all invoicing for their contributions, and thanks to YOU my dear delvers, they're all getting a SWEET SWEET bonus too.
As a treat, here's an excerpt from one of the new animal companions you can take with you on your delves, penned by Thomas Manuel:
Heartsblood Horse
People have a long history with horses. It goes so far back that there’s a kind of mental kinship that forms that won’t be denied. Some people will go a long way to pretend they have a horse. They'll ignore the fact that it has six legs or three eyes or a second head at the back. If they can ride it, they will and they'll vehemently deny that it's only a wretched imitation of that noble equine beast they yearn for.
But it’s not just people who have romantic notions about horses. These twisted creatures share the same delusion. Deep down, they all dream of being a noble steed — the romance of it has filtered down into their very blood via the Heart. In their minds, they’re all stallions, champions of war, unsung heroes. They want nothing more than to carry their dying owner on their back for hundreds of leagues across enemy territory to safety. On one hand, this is deeply touching. On the other hand, it’s bizarre, verging on the self-destructive — which isn’t a quality you typically want in a horse.
Apart from making sure that it knows how to synchronise all its limbs, the trick to buying a heartsblood horse is making sure to do a thorough inventory of its organs beforehand. Buyers who don't take the right precautions might find out in the worst way possible that their steed has a second kidney where their liver should be or vice versa. Every heartsblood horse is a medical miracle on the verge of not being one anymore. While there's no way to eliminate the risk of sudden and total bodily collapse, ensuring that the horse has at least one of every essential organ goes a long way in ensuring it doesn’t die in the middle of a leap across a canyon.
Horrors, Horrors, Horrors!
We've been in cahoots with all of our Make Something Horrible pledge tier backers, and I'm happy to say that everyone has come up with some TRULY HORRID arcane artefacts to add to the book. We've got powdered death you can snort for fun and profit, an unsettling ragdoll cursed with a gestalt hive consciousness you can cram your feeble mind into, and a box full of spiders that string up a lyre so you can literally play with fate!
We've ten in total going into the book, and each one is in the process of fine tuning and illustrating. So you can expect to see more from them soon!
Pledge, Pledge, Pledge!
We're putting the finishing touches on our pledge manager and I'm happy to announce that it should be live before the end of the week. We've put a great deal of time into it both due to the complexity and number of items you can pick up, but also because for the first time ever, we're adding community content to our offerings!
Community, Community, Community!
That's right, for the first time you'll be able to grab some of our favourite community expansions for Heart right from the bleeding edge of the Ways and Means pledge manager. Namely we're adding two top tier fan supplements to the offering:
Heartsong: a fanzine filled with articles covering new landscapes, heavenly delves, renowned weapons, legendary adversaries, and an entire new class - the demon-tainted Xanthous Zealots.
Ichor Drowned: a massive fan supplement featuring an alternative take on the Heart that’s flooded and bursting with new classes, landmarks, adversaries, and even vehicle rules!
There really are some amazing designers in the Heart fan community, so this is our way of shining a spotlight on their work and hopefully landing them a sweet payday too. This is a bit of an experiment for us, but we'd love to do more like this to promote community creators of Heart content in the future. So if that's something you want to see, make sure to show them your support when the pledge manager goes live!
That's all for now folks. You'll hear from us again once the pledge manager is live. If you can't contain your excitement and need people to gush with, why not pop your head in our Discord and meet some fellow delvers. I might even see you there!
C-can I go back to the pit now? I HAVE TERRIBLE THINGS TO WRITE!
