BackerKit is up: reserve your Producer screens! / Shipping estimates
9 months ago
– Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 09:16:32 PM
BackerKit
We’ve set up the BackerKit Store, so you can now reserve Producer screens + character sheet pads! It was possible to combine these products and keep the cost low enough that we can offer both for $15, only on BackerKit. We think these game aids will be useful as you and your friends dive into the wide weird world of Blister Critters!
Note, we're also offering the official dice set and 48-card booster pack full of Beasts, Bliffs, and Critters.
In other good news, we’ve now set up our Kickstarter pledge surveys and requested a review from BackerKit. We’ll start the first round of surveys (the “smoke test”) soon, followed as soon as possible by the rest.
Producer-tier responses: new canonical Stuff and art!
Dear Producer-tier backers, please fill out your surveys before April 15! We need your ideas for new, unique, canonical odd products and animal illustrations in order to finish the book. We will try our best to work with whatever you give us—and we know it’s a tight timeline—but we cannot guarantee that we’ll be able to accommodate ideas that roll in after our own deadline to the printer.
If you have any questions that you can’t fit into the survey, DM me or email co [at] stillfleet [dot] com. That said, the survey answer is freeform, so you should be able to tell us everything there.
Shipping estimates
Finally, we confirmed with our BackerKit: shipping will be charged later (when we ship), based on the total weight of the orders. These are our current estimates based on global shipping prices:
USA, 0–2 pounds: $12
EU, 0–2 pounds: $18
Rest-of-the-world, 0–2 pounds: $20
Note, the boxed set is only estimated to weigh 1.5 pounds (and the book alone is only a few ounces), so most orders will fall into this category. We will have to develop estimates for larger weight categories, however, just in case. (If you’re a retailer and want to order lots of boxes or books, please reach out directly!)
Further reminder, you’ll only be charged for shipping later, after the printer ships the books and other game products to our distributor. More info when we have it.
Stay tuned!
We have more news coming, but that’s it for now. Tony is working on a massive art list. Jedd is almost done with the book edit, and Tony and I are responding to suggestions and requests for clarification.
And of course Tony and I are carefully reading through the Critter City Crawl game jam submissions. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted an entry: we’ve been overwhelmed by the range of fun ideas, mechanics, and illustrations!
More updates—and more art and free content—soon!
We did it, y'all!
10 months ago
– Thu, Mar 07, 2024 at 10:58:36 AM
Thank you!
This is a quick update to express our gratitude to everyone who backed Blister Critters. Your money, project-scrolling time, and game-playing energy are all precious resources. We appreciate you donating any amount of them to supporting Tony's vision for a world where any RPG player can quickly whip up a fun mutant character such as a philosophical cockroach thief, a bad-ass armadillo boss, an inexplicably quick box turtle, or a vibes-mesmerizing echidna (e.g.).
Look out for updates soon regarding BackerKit, where you'll be able to pick up the Producer screen as an add-on.
Once BackerKit is up, we'll finalize the survey, which will include questions regarding Producer-tier content.
In the meantime, we're still plugging away at bringing the game to life. We'll share more art and specific milestone-updates as we have them.
Until then, thank you! You rock. This game could not rock without you.
Quick reminder
The Critter City Crawl game jam closes in 4 days! This is your last chance to enter a Blister Critters location/episode hook (1 page or longer) and possibly win a free boxed set! We'll give away our favorite locations bundled as free PDF after. Can't want to dig into these locations!
Final days / Dino shout-outs
10 months ago
– Mon, Mar 04, 2024 at 10:15:51 PM
Final two days!
We're excited to enter the final days of the campaign and inexorably move from a focus on marketing to production. It's been an intense but rewarding journey. We've been lucky to reach a lot of players, GMs, and press so far, and we hope this is just the beginning. Thank you! (Shout out to Pint of Cthulhu for having us on twice—actual play coming soon!)
By the way, thanks to everyone who tuned into the double-header telethon on Sunday with Jenn De La Vega and a slew of special guests! Watch out for more updates and examples of actual play in the very near future. (I'd hoped to have uploaded the VODs from Sunday by now, but the files are massive.)
Seriously, thanks to everyone who checked out *six hours* of Blisterful mayhem!
Right now, Tony is finishing the cards. Our editor is reading the book closely. And I'm focused on editing video and setting up BackerKit… and of course diving into cool games by other writers.
Two more projects to shout out
One: there's another animal-themed post-apocalyptic campaign winding up right now. Children Of UMA: Death By Dino!—the latest addition to 3, 2, 1… Action!RPG—pits player characters on cars and monster trucks versus bad dudes riding dinosaurs. I really enjoyed the 3, 2, 1… Action!RPG zine about teenage punks fighting cops (and the Jersey Devil!), and Death By Dino has a similar punk vibe with the zaniness punched up to 11. Here's the official teaser text:
Drivers start your engines and ride it like you stole it in the ultimate vehicle battle RPG Children Of UMA: Death By Dino! Set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas where the primal force of dinosaurs meets the fury of machines, can you stop the mad scientist Exus Grievves from bringing the wasteland to its knees? Or will this be the start of a new paleolithic era? It’s up to you and the rest of the Hellsings to stop him.
Two: there's a vividly illustrated, kid-friendly story + game resource in the early stages of marketing that caught my eye. Big Empty Blue is a pair of graphic novels that include resources for DnD 5E. While I'm very much a writer first, working on Blister Critters has definitely made me appreciate the process of illustration-driven TTRPG design. Big Empty Blue seems to start with a graphic story and then build game tools around it. I'm curious to read the results. Official text:
Two graphic novels, 15+ resources for DnD 5E, a massive new world inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Legend of Zelda. Are you ready to dive into the Big Blue? Subscribe to their prelaunch page and get a FREE welcome bundle with creatures, magic items, maps, and a one-shot adventure at launch!
And if we make it to 20K, we're unlocking the Producer screen, which will be available as an add-on in BackerKit and come with a pad of character sheets.
We're so close! With any luck, we'll bring the screen to life. (If not, maybe we can create a print-at-home version? The art is so cool. That bird has a knife.)
Twitch mini-marathon with special guests
10 months ago
– Sun, Mar 03, 2024 at 08:51:28 AM
Tune in at today at noon and 3 PM Eastern for two special games!
As we head into the final stretch of the campaign—and Tony continues to illustrate dozens of mutant cartoon animals with characteristic creative fervor—we’re excited to host two back-to-back live-streamed games.
Game one, Produced (GMed) by special guest Jenn De La Vega (Fun City Ventures, Replay), will feature live illustration by Tony! Meet the players:
Chris Pickett (they/them, timespace.place) is a TTRPG writer, illustrator, and tattoo artist whose work blends historical and weird fantasy, horror, and attempts at eco-marxism.
Leonardo Andrade (leoandradewriter.com) is a writer and narrative designer based in Curitiba, Brazil. Leo has written interactive fiction, lore bibles, RPG adventures, NPC packs, and original tabletop games, and has translated game content such as the Stillfleet Quickstart to Brazilian Portuguese.
Logan Dean (logandean.games) is an award-nominated creator working primarily in the tabletop games industry. Logan makes The Company TTRPG, among other fun TTRPGs, board games, and card games.
GM: Jenn de la Vega (instagram.com/randwiches) is a Brooklyn-based chef and the voice of Vivian Lakewood on the Shadowrun podcast Fun City and Merkis Imeldar on the Stillfleet podcast Float City.
About the episode: The wind whips by at 65 miles per hour in the Mojave Desert, sand smacking you in the face as you peer outside. Your pack has 3 months to stock your burrow for the winter. Life's hard in the outer-burrows, but you know you can score big if you can convince the inner-burrow critters to share their bounty. Beware of the Dead Preds, a mysterious consortium who are pretttttty territorial about their pantry.
Game two, Produced (GMed) by yours truly (@Stillfleet), is a special collaboration with Twice Rolled Tales, a new TTRPG actual play series and module provider featuring genre-bending, short-form campaigns. Meet the players:
Emily Tworek (twicerolledtales.com/emily) is the Managing Producer of Twice Rolled Tales, a lifelong writer, and a storyteller turned business aficionado with a background in fiction, theater direction and design, translation, and project management.
Linnie Schell (instagram.com/LinnieSchell) is a NYC-based GM and Game Designer, and the Creative Producer of TTRPG Studio Twice Rolled Tales.
Our own Tony Grasso (oddgobgames.itch.io), the creator of Blister Critters, is a professional illustrator and game designer.
About the episode: Tune in to find out!
Each game should include roughly two hours of gameplay, with plenty of room for banter, chats about the game’s rules, and Q&A with the audience.
We’re grateful for all the support for and interest in the game, and we can’t wait to play it with more people.
Clarification regarding the Producer screen
10 months ago
– Thu, Feb 29, 2024 at 12:31:17 PM
Add-on, not addition to the box
We’ve had a couple of good questions about the Producer screen—ya know, the stretch goal we’re now excitedly unlocking at 20K instead of 30K!?
To clarify, this additional large/fancy printed game tool is sufficiently costly to produce that it is not going directly into every box. If you want one, you’ll need to purchase a copy as an add-on for a reasonable Kickstarter/BackerKit price (TBD). My apologies for any confusion about this!
That all said, the screen will make a handsome addition to the game, contributing to its mutant-1990s design-vibe. We’ll be very psyched to unlock it! Fingers and paws crossed…
Again, we emphasize, the Producer screen will be rad.
Final hours for Tabletop Gone Mad
FYI, there are only 2 hours left to check out our friends' ad-lib-inspired, fill-in-the-blank TTRPG, Tabletop Gone Mad! The design is fantastic.
Here is a nice one-minute summary of the studio, Twice Rolled Tales, and their new game:
See you all on Twitch this Sunday at noon for our marathon actual play of Blister Critters featuring Jenn De La Vega!
