Hi everybody, 

This month is a fairly heads-down update. With a book this big, layout will take some time. Spider00x is putting the building blocks together as we go, so there are reusable approaches as we get further through the book. We’re all anticipating this process to get faster the further through the book he gets; we’ll have more to say over each monthly update. Spider00x is creating a great vibe for each chapter, here’s a little sneak peek at the first spread of the chapter about the city on Devil’s Due, Azimuth:

I want to call attention to a few usability features Spider00x is adding into the book that help flipping between sections. The chapters get a nice callout on the outside edges of every page, so flipping to a mission that’s referenced from the current spot is easier. There’s also a unifying colour scheme for each chapter; you’ll know when you’re in a new section when the theme shifts. I think these really help the reader when moving around in the physical book and keep it visually interesting as you make your way through.

Over on the achievement/stretch goal side, Joshua Justice has finished creating all the mission-specific audio logs! This brings the total number of Devil’s Due audio broadcasts to eighteen! There are recordings for each of the 10 pirate crews, 7 missions, and a bonus one about the mysterious broadcaster herself. This is a really fun stretch goal to have in a project like this. You’ll be able to use ’em as interstitials in the music when the player crew enter a bar, have them get picked up by comm radios, or just overhead from a speaker while walking the streets of Azimuth.

Artwork continues, July saw new pieces from Ben King and Birdnest. We’ve got a number of pieces still outstanding, but each is on track.

Last, if you’re headed to Gen Con, you might be able to find some RV Games (and other) Mothership modules at Indie Press Revolution - Booth 449. I’ll be there as an attendee, too!

Hi all, I’m back with power and internet to bring you the good news: Editing is done! We handed the finished manuscript to Spider00x, our layout artist, just over a week ago, and it’s a beast.

At about 82,000 words (240 Google docs pages), I’m guessing Devil’s Due will probably end up at around 120–128 A4-sized pages. Unless I’m missing some other big releases (let me know if I am), I think that might place it as the third-largest Mothership product working its way toward release so far, behind Wages of Sin and, presumably, the totality of Outer Rim Uprising. Based on word count, Devil’s Due is a little bigger than Hull Breach Vol. 1, and it will likely be larger than the upcoming Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: NS-1365 Anthology Edition!

As the layout work is underway, we’re still busy pulling in the last art pieces from our contributors and doing what we can to plug any minor art gaps or oversights that made themselves known during editing. Then, after all that, will come the digital proofs and proofreading, including a lot of cross-references to properly verify. As a teaser of what will be included, here are some lists pulled from three of our indexes (Roll Tables, Vehicles, and Organizations). Did I mention the book has five indexes??

I appreciate the support during what I’ll call my weather-related setback, and we’re happy to keep this production train chugging along. We’re not certain how long the layout process will take, as we’ll be reviewing sample spreads, giving feedback, and signing off on design choices throughout, but we’ll be sure to keep you all updated as we go!

Hello all and welcome to the May update for Devil’s Due: act of god edition. Yes, you read that right; we’ve had a heck of a storm season roll through parts of the United States. First, I want to let you know that everybody here is unhurt, but this certainly impacts the schedule.

Jordan Boschman, our lead editor, had a pretty bad tornado wreak havoc in his neighborhood, and was without power for about a week. He’s still out of internet and car, staying in touch via friends’ and libraries’ wifi. The damage is yet to be fully cleaned up, so it’s not 100% clear when all services will be restored. Once he’s fully up and running again, we’ll evaluate the impact to our timetable and keep you all updated.

As you saw in our last update, Jordan had progressed through the majority of the book’s content on the last editing pass. He’s continuing at the only pace possible with a life impact this big. We’re all just glad he wasn’t hurt; he told us the north side of the city has been hit much worse.

He shared some photos of the damage in his most recent update, posted below. Once the dangling trees are handled, new internet lines are hopefully not too far behind.

In positive news, art continues to progress at a fantastic pace. I wanted to focus on one of the many ships and stations 3D modelled by Sam Wildman aka HailSanta. The image below is an early render of the space station in Chris Airiau’s Iron Hearth Harvest. You can see the reactor wheel, long spindle, and the manufacturing plant on the other end. Back during the campaign, Chris ran a one-short livestream of Iron Hearth Harvest you can watch on YouTube.

There are a lot of moving parts to this book; we really appreciate your patience as it comes together. Like I said earlier in this update, we’ll be back in our next monthly update with news on any schedule changes, but as it stands we continue to work through what’s left to bring you this big hardcover book about space pirates. Needless to say, our hope of beginning layout in May has been dashed; we will re-evaluate once our schedules are predictable again. Thanks for believing in this project!

In other news, our project-mate Joshua Justice just released Hecate Cassette Archive! This 48-page setting and adventure zine for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is playable as a heist adventure or as a location to drop into your campaign. The module is designed to be ready-to-play with minimal prep required. Infiltrate the Archive in multiple ways with an immersive worldbuilding approach to game design. Crews will need to combine social, technical, and violent solutions to achieve their objectives, and survive. You can pick it up digitally on Itch and DriveThruRPG. To celebrate, Joshua also has other Hekate releases—including the prequel module, Radio Free Hekate—on sale for 50% off through the weekend!

Hello again, everyone!

Editing work continues on Devil's Due. While things have been a bit slower than we were expecting due to, well, the general state of everything, I'm happy to say that the in-depth editing is over two-thirds done, and more art continues to trickle in, including a great piece by our cover artist Lur Noise for the mission Scavenged Scavengers. 

Here's Lur’s awesome WIP line art, but the finished color version that you'll see in the book is even better:

As things come together, it’s growing increasingly clear that this book is gonna have a lot of content! So I’ve also been pulling together info for an index. I’m currently planning on including a section each for Equipment, Random Tables, NPCs and Creatures, Vehicles, and Companies and Organizations. It's quite a long list so far. As a bit of a teaser, here’s the beginning of the NPCs and Creatures section of the WIP index.

We’re looking forward to wrapping up the editing and getting this beast into layout, so hopefully that will be underway at the time of our update next month!

Hi everybody, and welcome to the end of March! Things on the Devil’s Due project have been chugging along, here’s a short breakdown by task.

Our editors have all turned in first passes, and the second, slower and more involved pass is underway now. I’m pretty impressed with how smooth this went, and I think the size and dedication of our team is why. Once the editors established a style guide, they were able to divide the writing pieces and work on them simultaneously. Our writers also reviewed their pieces as the editing pass finished. 

Our art team is also on schedule. Nearly two thirds of all illustrations have been turned in, and the rest are in different stages of progress, aiming to wrap up over the next handful of weeks. The rest of March and April will be a busy time of art review! 

Layout is soon to be the major focus. We really want to make sure the writing is locked in before this begins in earnest. It prevents re-work and will be a smoother process for Eric/Spider00x.

We’ll be back soon with our next monthly update!