Chris Airiau, here! I am very proud to announce that Flatline on the Blocks, Organ Failure, Min's Unending Bowl Menu, and Rival Racers: MAGENTA EDITION are all on their way to print, and the PDFs into your hands via MM25 Digital Distribution soon!
All Flatline on the Blocks zine backers will be happy to know they'll also be getting the two pamphlets in their digital forms: Min's Unending Bowl Menu in its Clean/Dirty/Printer-friendly versions and Rival Racers: MAGENTA EDITION, alongside the digital-only The Mote Keeper in a future update via gdrive link.
This Flatline package we've put together for you is the best work I've ever had the luck to dedicate myself to. During this last crunch, I'd especially like to give special thanks to Scragend for being an absolute boss delivering a huge amount of illustrations, Carson Brown for all the thorough and valuable color proofing and proofreading, and Reece Carter for support and advice during revisions for Organ Failure.
Organ Failure
Organ Failure is the adventure supplement to Flatline on the Blocks, containing five adventures to run in the Spinal Crux. This zine expanded from its initial 12 pages to 20 pages. Three adventures are four pages long, now: Health is Wealth (formerly titled MindOrb Heist), Prime Pursuit (formerly Phagocytosis), and Error: Reboot (formerly Escape the Maze).
As an additional bonus, Ripley Matthews came to the rescue to illustrate maps for three of the site-based adventures: Health is Wealth, Error: Reboot, and A Slug Problem.
And for folks who didn't get a chance to snag the Spinal Crux Bundle, an adaptation of the monobike racing rules from Repo Rumble are making an appearance in Rival Racers: MAGENTA EDITION.
Spinal Crux Warriors projects
Kyle Tam has two games out this June:
First there's MORIAH, winner Indie Groundbreaker Honorable Mention in 2023, which is now crowdfunding for its first physical release with a gorgeous hardback printing. Check out the BackerKit!
Amanda P. has built out The Eternal Empress, their Appendix N. Jam submission, into an 8pg zine release. Grab it from Cairn Press!
Future Updates
We're fast approaching the end of the regular update cycle. Once the zines go to Tuesday Knight Games' warehouses in August, the ball will be in their court.
However, the Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. What's left on our end is to complete the plaintext documents, and deliver The Mote Keeper to y'all. Other than that, it'll be a quick sign-of-life updates pointing folks towards Tuesday Knight Games' updates. And like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
Just wanted to send a quick update sharing more of scragend's illustrations. I put together these quick collages and thought y'all would appreciate seeing them first:
Chris Airiau here, back for your monthly Flatline on the Blocks update.
I'm so deep in layout editing for finalizing the zines and pamphlets before our big fat HIT PRINT date for June 1st that I nearly forgot to send this update today!
Scragend has been on a spree finishing the characters, scene illustrations and spot art for Flatline:
The Organ Failure team has been working with me on finalizing the drafts for those single spread adventures:
Dev on this one took a lot of MotoGP research, haha
Phagocytosis turned out to be a two-spread adventure. That big box is gonna be a Laux News feature, a fun nod to OVER/UNDER courtesy of Just Kaylee, :)
Just a little drug den dungeon
And for our cross-collab with Breathe Easy, I met with Marco Serrano to hammer out the racing procedures for the Rival Racers: Magenta & Turquoise Editions. He whipped up these maps for those mini-game adventures:
Spinal Crux Warriors projects
Kyle Tam'sMORIAH is seeing a print run for the first time! Her game won an Indie Groundbreaker Honorable Mention in 2023, and the book is crowdfunding for a hardback tome in June. Follow the BackerKit launch!
Amanda P.'s Orestruck was recently featured on the popular OSR Actual Play show, 3D6 Down the Line. Check out the first episode here!
We're fast approaching the end of the regular update cycle. Once the zines go to Tuesday Knight Games' warehouses in July, the ball will be in their court.
However, 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.
Tuesday Knight Games sent out the megapledge manager about three weeks ago to all Mothership Month 2025 backers. All backers must complete this pledge manager in order to receive their rewards, even PDF backers! If you cannot find your megapledge survey, use the link below to have BackerKit send you a new one.
If you need any support contact Tuesday Knight Games and BackerKit. Due to the immense complexity of the megabundle manager, only the TKG and BK teams have access to the pledge manager information and management. This includes upgrading pledges.
For support, add both addresses to the same email. Be sure to add relevant screenshots, when necessary:
support <at> tuesdayknightgame <dot> com
support <at> backerkit <dot> com
Production & Art update
We've ordered the sticker sheets for the Spinal Crux bundles, and we've entered the the process for getting the the early bird Spinal Crux and NERC patches. The Organ Failure team is working hard on refining those five Spinal Crux adventures for layout, too. But what's most fun to show off is the art, right?
Check out these pencils scragend has been working on:
Spinal Crux Warriors projects
Our creative team has been busy these last few months! Check out what they've got going on this April:
S. Murphy released a new Mothership adventure, Outpost 33, set on an iceball planet (I hear they're all the rage these days). Check it out on itch!
The snow is poison. There is something under the ice.
Finally, if you're interested in listening to a sci-fi ttrpg module review podcast, I release new episodes of Ansible Uplink every other Wednesday. I invite game designers on the show with me, like Spinal Crux Warriors Reece Carter, Christian Sorrell, and Waco Matrixo.
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.
I can't seem to kick my CHC cowboy roots. Oh well.
So yeah, Chris Airiau reporting in! Big big update this month for our backers, as we have a gameable pre-proof, pre-art PDF for all backers at the bottom of this update!
27 spreads and two cover pages
This is not the final PDF!
Pre-proof means pre-proofreading, and pre-art means the Scragend art that goes in all those empty boxes throughout the zine. Notably, this is going to be the factions, character portraits and spot art throughout, and the back cover.
The zine also has some little weird leftover layout bits that I still need to go in and fix, and the team is currently helping me compile a fix list to help out with these:
The list goes on...
The complete block map art by Ripley Matthews is included in the zine. Again, this is potentially pending small tweaks.
Other than the proofing and layout fixes, Scragend is digging into the art for Flatline on the Blocks and Organ Failure. Expect loads of character portraits and spot art in the April update!
We're now getting geared up to set up all the bits and bobs for production, as well: the pamphlets, the stickers, the patches. Getting those into production alongside the zines for delivery to ShipBob by May is our main goal.
Tuesday Knight Games and BackerKit should be getting the megapledge manager up soon. Quite a massive (and mad) logistics ordeal for them, from what we've been able to gather on our end. No one's ever done this before, so give it up for those teams too, yeah?
Longing for a lil melancholy?
Josh Domanski, of the Liminal Horror team invited me (Chris Airiau) on to co-write an Orbital Blues zine with him. With art by Lur Noise and editing from Samantha Leigh, Paramour is set on an iceball planet, in a city you used to love, where an old flame is in trouble (again). The zine sticks its Outlaws in a tough spot of seeking a bounty, or helping her with one last job.
Follow Paramour on BackerKit!
I wrote the adventure sites and six city districts (yeah, I'm deep in that city space fiction right now), and it's been a fun change of pace from horror to heartbreak & nostalgia. The BackerKit launches next month, check it out!
Future Updates
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.
