Hello Mercenaries, 

TL;DR: I have a small ashcan preview to show. Work is proceeding as planned. We’ve printed a couple of Add-Ons and we have the picture.

Work is going more or less according to plan. The team had summer vacations with different schedules, but with the 1st of September everyone is back on the normal schedule. 

Alberto has been implementing all the fixes and suggestions we have collected over the years, which will result in less ambiguous texts for some Gifts and some additional clarifications. We also decided to add a brand new section that delves into massive battles, with clear examples of how to handle the situation while still keeping your players at the center of the game. 

The next part is the most daunting and has to do with a reorganization of the Core Book flow, which we know is a bit scattered in the original Italian version of the game. Basically, we're trying to avoid introducing a concept that hasn't already been explained when discussing another mechanic. There were good reasons for structuring the book this way (mostly: TTRPG books are also reference books, and linear reading is not necessarily a priority), but since we figured out how to do it with the following games, Broken Tales and Dead Air: Seasons, we think it would be beneficial to use that approach here as well. This means a lot of cutting and pasting, working on the outline, and some rewriting. 

Meanwhile, I've started my translation work on the parts of the game that won't be affected by this reorganization. More on that below. 

I'm also in talks to get some outside help on layout, which would be very welcome and would free me from a massive amount of work in early 2025 (we're looking at 600+ pages when including everything). Nothing is set in stone yet, but things are happening.

Look, I have to be honest here: the most efficient way to deliver the game in the least amount of time is to give you zero previews, especially when it comes to layout. Previews are a distraction and tend to slow down everything else. Still, I think you deserve to see a little more of the juicy stuff, so I came up with this compromise: I can share ashcan (text only) versions of some files much earlier than I could if I had to wait for layout. 

The first one I want to send out is Sancta Sanctorum, a one-shot Scenario written by our friend Claudio Serena of Fumble GdR (you may know Not the End, which had SIX nominations at this year's ENNIEs). 

I love this Scenario because it perfectly captures the mood of Inquisition/Mozgus-era Berserk, it's quick to play but lends itself to a lot of cool scenes, and it can be played with the characters and rules you'll find in the Valraven's Quickstart. 

If you like the ashcan approach to getting your hands on some early previews, please let me know in the comments and we may do it again in the coming months. 

Sancta Sanctorum is a Scenario included in the Book of Eclipse - you will receive an email from Backerkit with a download link to the ashcan version if:

I know that some of you did not include the Book of Eclipse in your pledge, and the Pledge Manager is now closed: if you want to remedy this, contact me at [email protected] and I'll be able to help.

We recently received the printed copies for the English edition of the Monad Echo SRD and its hack to play in the vein of Darkest Dungeon, Ruin. These are some of our most popular free downloads, they are meant to give you an idea of what the system of Valraven can do, and now you can see them in all their physical glory. 

If you didn't add them to your order as Add-Ons and now want them, contact me at [email protected]  and I'll be able to reopen your order. 

Cheers!