Boxes are here and heading your way! / Shipping charges
7 days ago
– Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 09:47:55 AM
Shipping timeline
Dear backers—all of the books arrived safely at our distributor’s warehouse! We are finally about to start physical fulfillment.
Given the holiday rush, our distributor estimates that everything will ship the last week of December or the week after. For domestic backers, you should get physical rewards by the second week of January. International backers may have to wait slightly longer, but hopefully not much.
Note, this means we are going to charge for shipping this week. The good news is, we are working with Studio 2 Publishing to get the best commercial shipping rates possible. For domestic backers, that comes out to about $15 for a Blister Critters Boxed Set + add-ons. (Books alone ship media rate, but boxes with other components do not.)
Preview of what you're getting
In the meantime, we took a small selection of books to PAX Unplugged 2024 in Philly to show the convention-going public our newest game—especially while Tony was hanging with us for a few days in the flesh!
A wild Tony Grasso appeared!
We are extremely happy with the quality of the box, books, cards, screens, and various smaller elements. Everything came out perfectly. The colors are rich; the Blister Critters Rulebook is easy to reference; and the Book of Ad-Libs is a spot-on facsimile of the fill-in-the-blank party games of our youths. We immediately put the Producer Screen to use, running games all weekend. And who doesn't love stickers, dice, and posters!? (Nobody doesn't—that's who.)
The Boxed Set, unboxed!
~Product shot~
Ready for our close-up—
We look forward to hearing what everyone thinks as soon as you get your physical rewards. Thanks for your patience. The end is near!
Shipping update / Itch keys
29 days ago
– Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 06:31:52 PM
Shipping update
Dear Critter friends, we have some good news: the boxed sets, books, cards, dice, and so forth have arrived in the United States and are on their way to our distributor in Kentucky.
We do not know exactly when they will arrive at the warehouse, however, and with the Thanksgiving holiday and PAX Unplugged coming up, we don't know when shipping to you will begin.
That said, we will have more details very soon, and shipping will happen this year. It's just a matter of weeks, not months. We are confident our distributor, Studio 2, will get you your books as soon as they possible can and at a reasonable price.
To that end, we've locked down addresses. Please DM me if you are moving in the next couple of weeks.
We'll also have to finally charge for shipping. We've been working with the distributor to get you the lowest possible rates, but prices are generally a little higher around the holidays. More news on this once the distributor has the shipment.
Itch keys
We've also generated download keys on Itch.io for the Blister Critters Rulebook. Here is the link:
FYI, Tony and the Stillfleet Studio will be at PAX Unplugged, December 6–9. If you're planning on coming out, let us know! We'll have a table with our new distributor, Studio 2, and we're running games every day. Details = here.
Production is done / Moving into fulfillment mode
2 months ago
– Wed, Oct 16, 2024 at 05:24:03 AM
Hello, Blister friends! We have a few important updates today. TL;DR: we're getting ready to ship books in late November, so we need to close down the BackerKit store, charge any outstanding cards, and ask for your mailing addresses.
Everything has been printed!
The books have been printed and are leaving China soon, to arrive at our distributor's warehouse before December, just in time for PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia.
(Aside: Tony and I will both be at PAXU, running Blister Critters and other Grit System games through Games on Demand! We'd love to meet any backers who are coming to the convention.)
The date we were given for our shipment to arrive at our distributor's warehouse is November 25. But the printer can't guarantee how long shipping, customs, and trucking will take, and the distributor will then need time to send you your stuff.
Regardless of the exact date, fulfillment should start later in the fall. Please cross your fingers/paws that the books, boxes, and assorted other items arrive on time and in good shape. More updates on fulfillment when we have them.
Blister Cards PDF
A few folks asked about a PDF version of the lovely Blister Cards that come in the Boxed Set. We weren't initially going to share one, since they were meant to be purely physical objects. BUT we realized that many play groups—including some of our own—only meet virtually, and we want to empower them to enjoy Tony's art.
Thus, we have added a PDF version of the Blister Cards to BackerKit and sent those to all backers who bought the Boxed Set and/or the standalone cards. Enjoy!
The Blister Critters Rulebook—now on Itch and DTRPG
We have published the Blister Critters Rulebook at its retail price, for non-backers, and this means two things:
We'll be sending download keys so you can add the book to your libraries on those sites.
We'll also be closing up the BackerKit store. In the near future, we'll have a full e-commerce situation set up, but for now, we're hitting pause on new orders of physical Blister Critters books, from roughly this Friday until PAXU. So this is your last chance to order any physical Blister books, game aids, or merch at their Kickstarter prices!
If you've enjoyed Blister Critters, please consider hopping onto Itch.io or DTRPG and leaving a positive review. It can be short! This could help other people find the game.
Locking in addresses
As we move from production into fulfillment mode, we need to collect mailing addresses. If you're moving around the end of November/beginning of December, that's fine! Just email [email protected]. More specifics on shipping as we have that from our distributor.
Next on the list, after the above
Creating and sending out a PDF of the winning entries from the Critter City Crawl Jam. Sorry for the delay! We've just been focused on making sure the Blister Critters Boxed Set and everything in it is as excellent as it can be when it ships to you.
Relaunching our Patreon. This fall, we're going to start publishing new rules, Critters, Beasts, locations, episode ideas, and of course art by Tony! It's a great way to share draft material with playtesters.
We've reorganized our Discord server, and we're going to try to run regular community games.
Okay, that's it for now. More news about shipping and codes soon. Thank you for backing Blister Critters! We're extremely proud of the game, and we hope you all get the chance to play it soon if you haven't.
Quick note: charging cards for BackerKit orders > sending more PDFs!
5 months ago
– Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 06:17:34 AM
Dear backers, sorry if you have not received your PDF of the Blister Critters Rulebook. I apparently had not clicked the button to actually charge cards for orders placed on BackerKit, which has help up that distribution.
I am clicking the button now, so you should a) notice a charge for anything you added on BK and b) receive an email with a link to the PDF of the Rulebook soon.
Thank you for your patience, and sorry to have missed a step (despite having done this a couple of times).
Next up, Itch and DTRPG codes. (At the same time—I'm writing out an eldritch mall-crawl for Gen Con…)
PDFs are coming!
5 months ago
– Wed, Jul 24, 2024 at 07:27:34 AM
The Blister Critters Rulebook…
…is done!
Dear backers: we are locking down orders on BackerKit so that we can send you PDFs. In the coming couple of days, you should receive an email from BackerKit soon about the lock-down, followed by an email to download the PDF.
In addition, we’ve created a resources page for useful game aids such as fillable PDF versions of the character sheet (color and black-and-white), as well as a print-friendly Blister Tree. Major thanks to Aaron H. for getting this page live.
How cool is this book?
We are tremendously proud of it. Tony has put in a ton of time to perfect the book—working in all of your Producer-tier ideas, expanding on his initial thoughts about the game's cartoon-inspired playstyle, adding and refining rules, filling up a whole chapter worth of Stuff (all with mechanics!), and of course bringing to life page after page with glorious, boldly colored art.
The result is an approachable, all-in-one handbook, just shy of a hundred pages. Its visual and textual design is balanced on a knife’s edge between the innovative but legible mainstream of the OSR/NSR and the super-maximalist, hyper-eclectic, “punk”/metal vibes of the Borg books. We think it rocks, and we hope you will, too.
In terms of proofing, Jedd Cole, Tony, and I have gone over every page many times. That said, if you see a typo, please let us know on Discord!
Just one glorious page from the Rulebook.
Itch and DTRPG codes
We’re still getting the game up on Itch and DTRPG, but these codes will follow. Thank you for your patience.
Files are heading off to print!
We have sent all files related to the Blister Critters Boxed Set off to our printer for production review and, soon, physical proofing. We are still confirming a couple of small details, but production is moving ahead.
This week, Tony is working on the Producer Screen and the once-super secret Squirrel Queen Zine for early backers. The zine is almost done (all but one last proof); the resplendent oversize art for the screen is done (it's absolutely striking); and we’ve selected sections of rules for the back. Tony is just finalizing the layout of the back, and we’ll hand off final versions of these files to the printer soon.
Seriously, tattoo-worthy art—in this case, the cover the Boxed Set.
Other news
Shouting out a new Grit System game
In the background, we’ve been working with artist and writer Christopher Pickett on a new Grit System game, Danse Macabre. This is a deeply historical, OSR-adjacent medieval horror game that’s simpler in some ways than Stillfleet or Blister Critters, using 4 scores instead of 5. I’m mentioning it in part because Danse Macabre is also a game about acquiring mutations—although in a much more dark style, more inspired by anime and manga than by Saturday morning cartoons.
If you’re interested, you can pick up the pay-what-you-want early access edition, Danse Macabre: Prima Mors, on Itch or DTRPG.
Gen Con
Finally, we are headed to Gen Con soon! We’re running two official games, including an introduction to Blister Critters on Sunday. (I’m GMing that one: it’s set at a tattoo shop just behind the greatest temple of Stuff known to your Burrow—the mall…)
