Outsiders over, Revolt! release
April '24
Hey everyone and welcome to all the new subscribers!
Just a quick reminder that I send out these newsletters once or twice a year. We all get too many emails so I’ll do my best to keep them brief and interesting.
Revolt!
In my last newsletter I gave you a sneak peek of my next project and, after a lot of hard work, I’m excited to share some big news.
Revolt! is coming to Kickstarter on May 29th 2024, and you can sign up here to be notified at launch.
I have a lot to say about Revolt! as I’ve been working on it for a long time (relative to my other games)—but here’s some of the key features:
simple rules that encourage storytelling and shared world-building, using a pre-drawn realm map and a deck of cards to play through four stages of a revolt
a GM-less system inspired by my favourite map and/or card-based story games: Beak, Feather and Bone, The Quiet Year, The Slow Knife and Fall of Magic
a cast of eight pre-made characters and factions, each with their own creeds and decrees to inspire your table or ease in reluctant roleplayers
three ways to play—Standard Mode for setup and one-shot play, Legacy Mode to create a unique, linked, multi-session story, or Solo Mode for journalling fans
easy to play in-person or online, with access to a free custom Miro board, printer-friendly files and rules for playing with a standard deck included in the book
a deluxe boxed edition, with everything you need to bring the game to the table, including a cloth realm map, 5 meeples and a custom deck of 78 tarot-sized cards
All of the flavour text on the cards is also written in rhyming prose, to try and give the game a poetic, fairytale feel that suits the medieval, low-fantasy theme. This is probably why it was hard work to write. 😅
In playtesting we regularly finished a standard game of Revolt! in a single evening, which I consider an absolute win for my particular group of time-pushed friends.
All my games will be available as discounted digital addons, plus a new perfect-bound reprinting of A Complicated Profession will be available as a physical addon.
Here’s the link again if you’d like to sign up to be notified at launch.
Outsiders shipping completed
The Outsiders campaign was a big one for me and shipping everything out really took up a lot of my spare time. Especially those pesky Deluxe boxes that I can’t resist, with postcards and fiddly tissue paper wrapping. I think it paid off though.
I’m so grateful for the support that Notorious receives and it seems to find a new audience every few months thanks to YouTube reviews and other coverage.
All the remaining physical copies of Notorious and Outsiders have now moved to my own store—alwayscheckers.com. There’s also a bunch of retailers in the UK and US who snagged some copies and should have some stock left.
Millennium Games over in Rochester, NY, kindly sent me this photo of their new releases setup, which is super cool. Also learned that there’s a Twilight Imperium RPG!
The rest of 2024
Once the Revolt! campaign finishes (if it’s successful—trust me, every crowdfunding campaign induces a whole world of anxiety for every creator), I’ll be focusing on shipping that out as soon as possible throughout July and August.
The game itself is complete, but there’s quite a lot of components to order and assemble for the boxed versions so I’m allowing myself plenty of time.
As far as games after that, well I have a ton of ideas floating around but nothing concrete. It’s really tempting to revisit Notorious, but with a different theme.
I’ve toyed with the idea of emailing a few companies to ask about some smaller licenced IPs that I think would be perfect—shoot your shot etc.—but that seems unrealistic for now. Either way, it’s likely to be a solo RPG.
I really want to make it to a couple of expos this year. My current plan is to share a stall at Dragonmeet in November, and hopefully just attend one or two others. Maybe I’ll meet some of you there—look for the guy with all the Notorious books 😁.
I’ve been going to a few Warhammer tournaments recently (The Old World has really pulled me back in while I’m yet to play a game of 10th Edition 40k) and damn, they are addictive, so I’m trying not to book up all of my precious spare time with big events.
That’s everything I’ve got! If you’re interested in following me on any social media platforms, just head over to alwayscheckers.com for all the deets.
-Jason