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Blister Critters

Created by Wythe Marschall

A mutant cartoon animal TTRPG

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Shipping is done! / Various next steps
26 days ago – Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 11:54:02 AM

Shipping

TL;DR: we’re done!

You should have your Blister shipments or a tracking number alerting you to their imminent arrival. Just look at these gorgeous cardboard babies!

First, many thanks to you backers for allowing us to create this game. Second, thanks to our partnering vendors: we’ve been blown away by the print quality they achieved at Boda Games, as well as by the professional packaging treatment that each shipment received at Studio 2.

Details

Studio 2 has sent out packages, with tracking numbers. Note, emails re tracking were sent to your BackerKit emails. I know a few folks use different emails for Kickstarter and BackerKit, and of course any logistical email can end up in spam. So please check your BackerKit email inbox and spam folder first if you haven’t received your rewards. 

If you check all relevant electronic mailboxes and still have questions, please email me at co [at] stillfleet [dot] com. This is the fastest way to help me get answers for you, working with Studio 2. Please email rather than DM me on Kickstarter.

Critter City Crawling

But hey—surely you are wondering—what about the free PDF of community-jammed Blister Critters locations with episode hooks? Well, we’re on it! Tony has already created a characteristically beautiful cover:

I will put together a PDF of our top picks and distribute it via BackerKit and Itch.

What’s next?

We’re always brewing up new games and extensions of our belovèd existing ones. Here is a sampler of some upcoming projects on which Tony and I are working:

  • Enter the Nostalgitron and other new Stillfleet books – Our next project, developed last year, launches this March on BackerKit: with artist Michael Cohen, we're releasing a new comic-book-sized Stillfleet quickstart + full venture: Enter the Nostalgitron. It's going to be a fun project that will hopefully help bring in new players. If you like the idea of exploring a Snakeman hulk programmed into a floating techno-dungeon based on retro cartoons, follow the campaign!
  • Yoink Boink – This summer, we’re hoping to release Tony’s next project—a unique fast-play card game set in a cartoon-adjacent, radical/slapstick hell! It’s fun (we’ve been playtesting it) and a great follow-up to Aaron H.’s Robot Hospital, our first card game. If you’re interested in future projects, sign up for our mailing list >
  • More Blister Critters (of course!) – Over on Patreon, every month, Tony is publishing new rules, Critters, Beasts, settings, episode ideas, and even meta perspectives on what The Network™️ wants outta their hit show… These posts are building into a big second Blister book, probably for 2026. We’d love to hear what you want to see from the game in the future. Plus, we always publish some free content along with the patron-only full chapters, and of course Tony illustrates it all in classic Blister style. If you’re interested, head to Patreon.com/Stillfleet.

Upcoming events: PAGE and GAGG

If you want to play with us IRL, some of the team will be running free intro sessions of our games at two upcoming regional conventions:

  • PAGE – This weekend (January 17–19), we'll be at the second annual Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo. We’re running games, so come out if you’re into the con experience! We have some open slots!
  • Running GAGG – February 7–9, we'll be at SUNY Geneseo for Running GAGG. We’re new to GAGG, but it’s apparently a long-running event. We’re running yet more free events for this one, including game-design workshops.

And of course, if you can’t make it to Philly or Geneseo, we’re available via Discord >

Happy gaming!

Enjoy your boxes, books, cards, stickers, dice, posters, and zines! Please share pictures, stories of your sessions, ideas for the future, and other feedback. Thank you so much for trying out the game!

Boxes are here and heading your way! / Shipping charges
about 2 months 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
3 months 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:

https://stillfleet.itch.io/blister-critters-rulebook/backer-access

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
4 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!
6 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…)