Hey solarpunkers! It's October and we're back with a small update on our progress over the last month, along with some clarity on shipping costs and the timeframe to be expected.
Warning! We are locking orders on November 1st! Pledge adjustments must be made before then!

Rob has been working his butt off this past month drawing, colouring and rendering the final art pieces necessary for the book, while coordinating with the printers to ensure our work aligns with their specifications, and the colours will print correctly. You can check out the full, updated core book by downloading the new file version, which also contains the other changes made (which I talk about below).
 

Fun fact: The perfect angel of a chihuahua-sized assistant in this image is Rob's dog, Betty! She is sadly not with us anymore, so we're glad to have such a wonderful tribute to her in the book.

Rhi and I have meanwhile been talking endlessly with various stages of shipping and fulfilment, which seems to be changing by the day at this point. We've also been running play tests both on and offline to try to find those last parts that people might trip over, especially in the Core Book. That's the great thing about a game with huge amounts of potential content, there's huge amounts of ways it can be interpreted!
 
Riding on the success of our 'Quick to make yet high impact' Bastion system tests, requests came quickly for rules around making your Community Alliance Hub, and ways it might be useful to draw upon that pre-established community. This, along with some streamlined wording of various mechanics to eliminate remaining uncertainties, has added a pretty robust form of long-term play that allows you to explore and build upon the world without it needing to be a full-blown campaign. It's been fun to see it play out!

Meanwhile, we're about ready to lock orders, since we've got final word on our fulfilment options and choices and no costs will be changing from here, so this is your final call if you want to purchase any add-ons or change your pledge in any way! We will be locking orders on November 1st. For those few who have yet to complete their surveys, please try to get them done by then, or else you may end up with delays or even extra costs if it takes too long.  

UK & EU backers: There will be no changes to your expected shipping costs, we hope to have your packages arrive either very late November or very early December.

US, Canada, Mexico & South American backers: You're all getting your stuff sent to you via our US fulfilment centre, but this means you're sadly victim to the US tariffs. Since the percentages on China have just been upped to ridiculous levels, we've decided the best option all round is to remove the only Chinese manufactured item: the dice. This means we can avoid charging anybody any extra for the shipping, and keep expected costs as they are. We are unable to adjust the pricing down, mainly because we're subsidising the increased cost as it is, but if you really really want those dice then please reach out and we can have your order sent to you from the UK and invoice you the difference.
Honestly though, with everything going on, this would be a great time to go to your local brick and mortar game store and buy some dice from them. Times are hard, support your local community!

Everyone else: Most 'rest of the world' packages will be unchanged in their costs and will be sent from the UK. Unlike the other areas, it's really difficult to say about the time it'll take for your packages to get to you, but you can expect it to take between 1 to 2 weeks extra time.

All of this is completely dependent on nothing going wrong with printing, shipping, UK or US customs, or anything else. The expected times are precisely that, but don't worry, we'll keep you all updated as we go. 

You'd think this would be easy mode, right? So it'd basically be done once the content is in? Naaah, don't be silly. We are of course going the extra mile and including a fully screen reader functional version for accessibility thanks to the excellent services of Chris Hopper. This will be alongside multiple versions (spread & single page) of the standard PDFs, and will all be available via itch, dtrpg and direct download via Backerkit. Creating these will take a bit of time, so honestly, you can expect these to become available around the same time that packages will begin turning up. We'll do our best to get them to you earlier, though!

Okay that's everything for the time being. If anyone has an uncle in shipping or something just... I don't know, tell them not to break anything until January, okay? Smooth sailing through the Suez and all that. For me? Thanks.

Catch you all in November friends!
~Laurie, and also Rhi & Rob