TLDR: Fill out your Backer Survey when you get it in the next couple days!

Hi Downcrawl backers,

It's almost survey time! In the next day or two, you should be receiving an email from BackerKit inviting you to fill out your backer survey. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT as it's how you A) tell me your shipping address, and B) get set up to pay for shipping. I've got all the shipping details set up on the back end now, so you'll be able to see the final price for shipping before you finalize your order on the survey page.

The survey's also your last chance if you want to do any upgrading of your pledge or grab additional add-ons. In particular, a reminder that the following physical items will not be available after the campaign closes, so get them now if you want them in print! (And a reminder that Late Pledges are still open: if you're seeing this and haven't backed yet, now's your moment.)

For the last few weeks I have been busy as a blind titanic mole rat that gathers worshippers to its godburrow with ceaseless, maddening, ear-piercing squeals.

The biggest achievement has been getting all the art into the book and doing the final layout, as well as a thousand and one tasks from indexing to spellchecking to tweaking the border styles of individual table cells to make sure the damn thing looks as good as possible. I think it's starting to look pretty great!

I've also made a few rules tweaks based on feedback from playtesters (thanks again!) ironing out a few rough patches. Some especially noteworthy changes (mostly of interest to those who checked out an earlier draft of the rules):

All fairly minor and wonky changes, but I'm really pleased to get these last tweaks in place, and see all the parts of the rules really singing in harmony together.

Other progress: The Adventure Zine (entitled The Hypogean Solution) has been written, gone through layout, and even playtested. I'm super excited at how this turned out. It's a really fun way to add a bit of pre-planned plot to an otherwise spontaneous campaign, emerging at whatever pace the players choose to pursue it. It works both in Guided play (with a gamemaster) as well as Impromptu or Solo, and it's really cool to see an adventure module work even with no one having read it or prepped to run it in advance! 

Speaking of cover art, cover art for everything else has been finalized: the two variants of the book, the Adventure Zine, the Delver's Guide, as well as title cards and instruction cards for all three card decks. In particular the two variant options for those getting a hardcover are finalized (and you'll get to choose this in your backer survey): these ended up looking extremely close to the mock-ups I produced for the campaign, thankfully. The softcover will featured the Blue Variant design.
 

Finally, I'm working with a coin maker on getting the hefty Tack coins created and produced. Here's a sneak peek at the current design! The concept is cave passages that connect along the sides of the coin, so if you push them together on the table in any configuration, the passageways appear to line up. The below is not necessarily the final design, but we're honing in on it! There's no scale here but the coins will be noticeably larger than a US quarter, about 1.75" along a side, and should feel extremely satisfying to clunk down and slide around the table as you gain and lose your ability to navigate the mazeways of the Deep, Deep Down.

I'm still on track for the schedule laid out in the previous update, which calls for orders to be locked in January, cards charged in February, and items delivered in March. I'll keep folks apprised if anything changes.

In the meantime, watch out for that BackerKit survey link and fill out your survey once it arrives. I hope your 2024 wraps up successfully, and talk to you again in 2025!

--Aaron