Hope y'all had a lovely Valentine's weekend, <3
It's Chris Airiau, back again for your monthly update on Flatline progress. And it's a sexy update with layout spreads to share, check it out:

Jet McFin and Jordan Boschman have finished their round of copyediting, and now we've moved on to the layout-fit copyedits. As you can see, these spreads aren't entirely finished. The boxes are spots for Scragend to fill with artwork, and there are numerous "pg. xx" references throughout, which will be of course be fully clickable in the final draft (alongside a plaintext PDF version).

Our goal is to get you a pre-proof PDF in next month's update. It will be like these spreads above, without all the finished art, and come alongside a google form to report typos we've missed.

We cannot overstate how thrilled and amazed all of us are to have Ripley Matthews work on these maps. She is doing an AMAZING job. We have an eclectic mix of Blocks, which feeds into the cartography necessitating a flowing, by the Block stylization. I tried to pick spreads that evoke the different kinds of maps and illustrations that Ripley has been working on, and here's another four to show how those differences matter.

The top row employs, as Ripley herself said it, a "90s Lucasarts point and click 'fuck perspective' sort of thing" for Blocks that emphasize mood and abstract space rather than Blocks that require a more classic (though still abstracted) top-down dungeon style for play, as we see on the bottom row. We even have weirder, more illustrative Blocks, like the Anthill which functions with a procedure based on the Flux Space procedure.

Zine Month is still on! Check out these three Mothership RPG projects by members of the Spinal Crux Warriors:

The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on. 

The pre-order store may be opening soon. We've done our bit for Tuesday Knight Games in order for them to get our Flatline wares onto the BackerKit pre-order store; the required materials were due at the end of January. If the pre-order store goes live far from 23 March, we'll send out an update ahead of schedule to let you know.

Thanks for tuning in, and see ya soon.

Chris Airiau & the Spinal Crux Warriors

Chris Airiau here! Late November and this pre-holiday season has been a busy time of finalizing primary revisions, the 2nd round of development, and starting on the pre-copyedit revisions.

The work of finding ways to stitch together the Blocks was a lot of fun, re-reading all 21 Blocks and connecting the themes, Factions, NPCs, and Jobs all across the Spinal Crux District. 

Several folk wanted to use extra free time during the holidays to finalize their writing, which turned out better for copyeditors Jordan and Jet's schedules, too. We're still on track to hit the January copyedit deadline, so no worries there. 

And part of the next writing deadline is also having art briefs ready for Ripley Matthews, so next month, we also hope to share some of the new Block maps with y'all, too. Otherwise not much else to report other than work continues apace, :)

We are committed to sending an update on this project's progress every month. You can expect to receive an update on the second-to-last Monday of each month, during which we may also share some other projects the Warriors are working on. 

Have a lovely holiday season folks.

Chris Airiau

Last week, Flatline on the Blocks funded for over 36kcr! Thank you all immensely for your support of this big collaborative project! This kind of work would be impossible to pull off without your help, <3

Collaborative projects are true labors of love for the ttrpg hobby, and at this amount, we can not only deliver on all the great Prospero's Dream game materials, but all the contributors can also get justly reimbursed for our work on Flatline, close to the indie standard rates. We're all just a bunch of weirdos who love sci-fi and gaming, so this support really does mean the world (and stars!) to us.

This week begins the holistic development pass. We've already been through one round of revisions to punch up fun ideas and playability. My big dev pass is to help interlink these Blocks even more, and further zero in on the themes and problems of the Spinal Crux. 

The goal is to get these folks back their manuscripts around Thanksgiving or so, and wrap the revisions before the Holiday Season. Then in January, it's off to our copyeditors, Jet McFin & Jordan Boschman. 

For any folks who might be in London for Dragonmeet on November 29th, Chris Airiau will be slinging zines with Eryk Sawicki at the Peregrine Coast Press Booth L15-16! Drop by and say hi!

As with Devil's Due, we are committed to sending y'all an update on this project's progress every month. You can expect to receive an update on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Granted, sometimes these updates won't be so sexy---it's hard to make google docs editing look interesting, hahah, but we'll still regularly let y'all know what we've been up to and where the project stands.

See ya in December!

The Spinal Crux Warriors

Howdy Dreamers,

Thank you all for such an amazing show of support this month! We're halfway to our next Stretch Goal, and for those who are on fence between the zine level and bundle, here's a reminder of how much the bundle has improved since launch:

You all added 12 more pages to the two zines, matte lamination for both, a backer-exclusive sticker sheet, and a digital freebie pamphlet from Scragend that adds more OcuSec tech to the Spinal Crux.

This is a $55+ Retail value, and you have only 18 hours left to upgrade at this lower price, and help us hit our next Stretch Goal to boost up Organ Failure with more Spinal Crux action!

Thanks again for all your support! 

All best,
Chris Airiau