Core Rulebook Release!
over 9 years ago – Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 12:14:45 AM

The time has come. After nearly a month of proofing, revisions and changes, we’ve finalized the Core Rulebook for print and digital delivery. Just today, Mark approved the last few pages of the proof, and we’ve told the printers to start printing! Woot!

7th Sea on DTRPG 

Over the next 12 hours (or so), we’re going to be delivering a DTRPG code via Backerkit to all backers who are receiving the 7th Sea Core Rulebook. The link we’re sending will automatically add the product to your cart for $0.00; just check out… and you’re done.

If you don’t get an email, don’t fret. The code should be available to you on your digital downloads page at this link by tomorrow at the latest:

https://7th-sea-second-edition.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards

The new PDF has all sorts of corrections and changes from the previous versions, including new information about Villains, a ton of Ussuran and Sarmatian edits, and a full character sheet for the game. We’ll be making additional materials available this month (like maps), so we’ll update the file along with posting new materials on our website.

The PDF will go up for sale next week, but for now… the game is just for backers. We can’t wait to see what you all do with it. 

7th Sea: Voyage of Fortune’s Star 

Today isn’t just a huge day because we’re releasing the 7th Sea Core Rulebook... it’s also a huge day because we are embarking on an entirely different kind of journey.

In association with Fuel.Tech and Nocturnal Media, we're pleased to announce 7th Sea: Voyage of Fortune’s Star, the first 7th Sea video game. Fuel.Tech and Nocturnal Media will jointly produce the game, which will be a story-driven, single-player cRPG in the vein of Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Yup, you read that right: a single-player 7th Sea RPG.

Nocturnal Media is well know to tabletop gamers as the new home of Stewart Wieck, founder of White Wolf and co-creator of several World of Darkness games. Stewart is also a project creator on Kickstarter, including Hellywood (currently live!), so he knows what’s required to run a project that keeps backers engaged and informed. Fuel.Tech has worked with clients that include the world’s largest energy and technology corporations and now they bring their expertise to bear on their passion: games. We’re so excited to see them bring Théah to life.

We’ll keep you updated as they launch later this year, but we encourage you to sign up for their email list to hear more about this awesome new 7th Sea experience. 

Thank you! 

I know I say it often, but… thank you. Yesterday, I told Mark, “I have five meetings about 7th Sea stuff today. I feel like I’m playing hooky from my real job.” I still can’t believe this is what I get to wake up and do every day. Every. Day.

Thank you for making it possible. And thank you for believing in this game. I never lost faith that Théah was something special. Thank you all for making it as amazing as I knew it could be!

Core Rulebook Preview...Round 2!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 03, 2016 at 12:44:21 AM

Hey everyone!

Thank you for your comments, questions and proofing notes on the first preview we released last week. We knew you all would catch a few mistakes, but you all put in over 700 notes for us to process. A few of them were doubles—we quickly learned there was an error in the ToC—but so many were original notes about how we could make the book better. THANK YOU!

In fact...you gave us such great feedback, we decided to delay printing the book by a week. We talked with our printer on Monday and they were fine with us delivering the book next week, giving us time to address the notes you gave us. Again, thank you! 

Preview #2 

Now that we’ve made all those changes, we’d like to give you one more chance to look for errors, typos, and problems in the text. We’ve been working on this book for more than ten months (long before the Kickstarter started), and we’re so proud of how everything came together. But we know that one more pass from you all can make it even stronger.

In a few minutes, you’ll get an email from Backerkit with a link to download the 7th Sea Core Rulebook Preview v2. The file has 304 pages of awesome, including the new “in-character” map we’re including in Chapter 2 and a preview of the map that’s going to go on the endpaper in the front of the book. I can't wait to see what you all think of it.

If you don’t get an email, don’t fret. We’ve already uploaded the file to Backerkit and it should be available to you on your Backerkit digital downloads page at this link:

https://7th-sea-second-edition.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards

Feedback on Preview #2 

We’re excited to get backer feedback on this new preview. As before… please don’t email or post in the comments with your feedback. With over 11,000 backers, that would overwhelm our ability to deal with emails and comments. Instead give us feedback via this link by June 5th at 12:00pm Eastern:

http://goo.gl/forms/3xy7sja4C2FRnmP43

Here are a few known errors that you don’t need to report (because we already know about them):

• Page XX references haven’t been updated 
• The map on page 21 is not final (corrections and sizing needed) 
• The PDF Table of Contents has not been finalized

We did, however, add an index to this draft, along with the missing art from the short story and a huge update to the language sections (especially in Eisen and Montaigne). We’ve also adjusted the Action Sequence Example to correct an error and spotlight the mechanics for guns a bit more. 

Oh, and about a thousand other changes. Those too. :)

Enjoy!

Core Rulebook Preview
almost 10 years ago – Fri, May 27, 2016 at 11:51:21 PM

Hey everyone!

When we first started planning the 7th Sea: Second Edition Kickstarter, I told Mark that I wanted to have the book ready for Gen Con 2016. Since we didn’t finish negotiating the purchase of the IP until late in 2015, Mark said, “I don’t know. I don’t think we can do it.”

We knew that there were a lot of obstacles to getting the book ready in time for Gen Con. We needed to finish playtesting the system, write the book, commission art, edit all the writing, get the book laid out… and so much more. So we said we’d have the Core Rulebook ready in October because we knew that we could make that deadline.

Then you all raised $1.3+ Million. And you changed everything.

I said: “We can do it. We can make Gen Con.”

Mark said: “Okay. Let’s do it. It’s crazy, but let’s do it.”

And now it’s done.

Core Rulebook Preview 

In just a few minutes, you’re going to get an email from Backerkit with instructions for downloading a preview of the 7th Sea: Second Edition Core Rulebook. The preview contains a nearly finished PDF, complete with the finished mechanics, 100 pages of Théan setting, beautiful art and so much more. We’re incredibly proud of it.

We’re not going through DTRPG for this preview. You’ll be able to download the file directly from Backerkit. If you have problems, please contact us through the Kickstarter messaging system or reach out to Backerkit directly. When we finalize the PDF, we'll release it through DTRPG, but today is all about getting the PDF into your hands as quickly as possible.

When you download the preview PDF, please don’t share it with anyone. We’re close to releasing the full PDF, but there are going to be important changes as we get feedback in from the backers. (We’re also going to add an Appendix with extra maps, a character sheet, and an index.)

Backer Feedback 

The truth is… we’re not quite ready to make our printer's Gen Con deadline (May 31st). We’ve finished the book and proofed the hell out of it, but we need your help. We need you to look for typos, errors and other problems before we send it to the printer and tell them to print up 20,000 copies of the book!

But… please don’t email or post in the comments with your feedback. With over 11,000 backers, you all would quickly overwhelm our ability to deal with emails, messages and comments. Let's try to keep those channels of communication open for folks who have problems and other questions.

Instead, give us feedback via this link by May 29th at 11:59pm Eastern:

http://goo.gl/forms/By44Dv5rdxFwrA093

We have a few known issues that you don't need to submit feedback on:

• The short story (p4) is missing some art. 
• The map is not the final version (p21). 
• The text is too close to the image on page 182
• We have not yet filled in the "page XX" references

We will have all these problems (and others you spot!) fixed when Thomas runs through the PDF next week to make final changes. Huge thanks to our proofers who have already done a full pass on the book and caught many, many problems: Shelley Harlan, J. Derrick Kapchinsky, Carrie Ulrich and Amanda Valentine. Thank you!

And now... I can’t wait to hear what you all think of the book. It’s the 7th Sea I’ve always wanted to make, packed from cover to cover with the best version of Théah that’s ever seen print. Thank you so much for helping me to make this a reality!

Backerkit Housekeeping 

In addition to releasing the Core Rulebook preview, we also released the Swashbuckling Adventures corebook and locked down Backerkit this past month. If you’ve got any problems with getting your Swashbuckling Adventures corebook (or any of your PDFs) or your Backerkit account, please contact us via Kickstarter message.

We’ll be charging folks on June 1st, 2016 via Backerkit. I know we slipped a bit on the lockdown deadline, but we won’t miss this one. After all, the book will already be at the printer. :)

Writing Submissions 

Finally, a quick note on writing submissions. We got… a ton of awesome applications. We expected a few good writers, but there were over 400 great applications. Amazing.

Unfortunately, we don’t have time to reply to all the folks who applied. In general, if we haven’t contacted you yet, your application didn’t get selected yet. But we’re also going to keep going back to that pool to look for more writers as the line develops, so don’t give up hope yet!

Next Steps 

We’ll have more info on Monday about finalizing the PDF, but our next steps are pretty simple: 

• get the book to the printer next week
• get the books from the printer in July
• ship the books to all of you before Gen Con

We'll have more to say about how all that shipping is going down (and an update on the other parts of the project, like Pirate's Booty and Pirate Nations, in early June). For now... enjoy the book! 

Swashbuckling Adventures PDF Release
almost 10 years ago – Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 11:19:05 PM

 Hey everyone!

We've worked with DTRPG and Backerkit to get all the Swashbuckling Adventures PDFs out today. Here's how it works:

1) Sometime today, you'll get an email from Backerkit with a coupon code for the Swashbuckling Adventures Bundle at DTRPG. If you don't get the email by tonight, log in to your Backerkit and the code will be there.

2) Go to DTRPG and find this bundle:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181187/7th-Sea-Swashbuckling-Adventures-BUNDLE

Add the bundle to your cart and enter the coupon code. When you check out the cost of the bundle will be reduced to $0.00. 

3) Once you've checked out, you can download the files at any time. DTRPG will keep them in your library!

Thanks for everyone's patience with this! We're excited to get these PDFs out to you!

More PDFs, Explorer’s Society, and Final Call for Writers/Artists!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 11:53:23 PM

Hey everyone!

First, thank you all for your patience as we resolved the first round of 7th Sea: 1st Edition PDFs. Sending out 10,000+ PDFs was an exciting adventure, and we’re trying to perfect the system before we do it another dozen times in the next year. :D

On that note… 

Swashbuckling Adventure PDF Delivery 

As many of you noted, we still owe you the additional Swashbuckling Adventure PDFs that we promised you during the campaign. We’ve got those PDFs attached to our DTRPG account now, so we’re almost ready to send them out!

But we’re trying to find ways to send out PDFs that are a little easier on DTRPG’s servers. In addition, a number of backers never got the auto-generated email that DTRPG sent out, which has required us to respond to a lot of individual Kickstarter messages. We’re hoping we can find a better way.

Here’s the plan:

1) We're going to get a roster of coupon codes from DTRPG for Swashbuckling Adventures. Yay!

2) We'll add those coupon codes to your orders in Backerkit. When you log on to Backerkit, your unique coupon code will be attached to your account.

3) You can got to DTRPG, put the PDFs in your card, and the coupon code will make them free to purchase!

So… make sure you’ve filed out your Backerkit survey! You’re not going to get a coupon code if you haven’t filled out your Backerkit. Click here to recover your account if you didn’t get a survey email from Backerkit:

https://7th-sea-second-edition.backerkit.com/

And don’t forget to let people know that they can still pre-order 7th Sea: Second Edition book through Backerkit as well:

https://7th-sea-second-edition.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Stretch Goal Unlocked ($1.35M): Explorer’s Society 

Since we came so close to unlocking our final stretch goal for the campaign, we extended the funding window through the Backerkit period. Let’s see how that turned out…

So… you all smashed it out of the park! We needed a bit more than $30,000 to clear our final goal, and we’ve raised over $100k. Wow.

Stay tuned for more information about the Explorer’s Society; we’re focused on the Core Rulebook for now, but we expect to launch the Explorer’s Society on DTRPG before the end of the year!

Last Call for Writers and Artists 

7th Sea: Call for Writers - Want to write for 7th Sea? Now’s your chance! (http://goo.gl/forms/tTxUJFVz2k)

7th Sea: Call for Artists - Want to contribute art to 7th Sea? We’d love to talk to you! (http://goo.gl/forms/eJdUaCgawh)

Thanks! Have a great weekend everyone!