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.
Clockwise from top left: Jordan’s parking lot has a few landscaping changes, beyond the trees there’s also a utility pole, power transformer, and downed lines; his car is not only blocked in there but lost a fight with a tree trunk; a tree next door has split, and is balanced by a neighbor’s roof and what remains of the tree; Jordan’s driveway is also blocked between the buildings.
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.
An early render of the eponymous Iron Hearth, of Iron Hearth Harvest, one of seven adventures in Devil’s Due. This design is subject to change, and doesn’t include the planned details that will be in the final version of this space station.
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!
