Hello Mercenaries,
Just a quick update to let you know that all PDF copies of non-Valraven rewards (ie: other games) have been sent out via Backerkit. If you added Broken Tale...
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The World Anvil Publishing
about 1 month ago
#18 - October Update
Hello Mercenaries,
TL;DR: Work is progressing as expected, translation is running in parallel and will be accelerated starting this month, we're testing a new collaborator f...
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The World Anvil Publishing
2 months ago
#17 - Sancta Sanctorum Ashcan Preview
Hello Mercenaries,
TL;DR: I have a small ashcan preview to show. Work is proceeding as planned. We’ve printed a couple of Add-Ons and we have the picture.
Status update
Wo...
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The World Anvil Publishing
3 months ago
#16 - Locking orders
Hello Mercenaries,
This is just a quick reminder that we're starting the process of locking orders for the Valraven campaign. You will receive a notification and still have 48...
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The World Anvil Publishing
4 months ago
#15 - July Update
Hello Mercenaries,
It's still early days in the production of Valraven: The Chronicles of Blood and Iron, but things are well underway. Read on!
TL;DR: 86% of the surveys h...
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The World Anvil Publishing
5 months ago
IMPORTANT - The Pledge Manager and the Late Pledge are OPEN
Hello Mercenaries,
We've finished the Smoke Test, and I just wanted to let you know that due to a system glitch, the first 6 or 7 people who completed it were not charged for...
Just a quick update to let you know that all PDF copies of non-Valraven rewards (ie: other games) have been sent out via Backerkit. If you added Broken Tales, Dead Air: Seasons or anything else to your order, you can now download the PDF. Some of them have been available for weeks, but ahem, I forgot to hit the notification button. However, I've just added all the Lost Stories PDFs, so there's that.
If you haven't received a download that you think you should have, please get in touch, but check your spam folder first, or I'll spend the next week on customer support, probably just telling you to check your spam folder.
TL;DR: Work is progressing as expected, translation is running in parallel and will be accelerated starting this month, we're testing a new collaborator for layout, and I'm planning to host a Play by Discord game of Valraven, read below for more info!
Status update
Time flies when you're having fun, and we're already in October, so it's time for another update. Alberto is finishing up the restructuring of the Core Book, which is more extensive than originally planned, making this pretty much a new edition of the game rather than a simple translation. He should be done next week, and will then move on to finishing the Tarot deck. I've continued translating the Scenarios: we have one new one finished and one in progress.
As we send our previous crowdfunding project, Broken Tales: Lost Stories, to the printer in the next ten days or so, I fully plan on accelerating my translation work once the files have left my hard drive and all we can do is wait for the books to be printed. If you added Lost Stories as an add-on to this campaign, you'll also receive the final digital files before the end of the month. If you missed that completely, you can still access the Late Pledge, but be fast! It closes on October 6th.
I've been talking to a new potential collaborator about helping with the layout: he's now got the files to try things out, and I'll hopefully get the first tests in the next few days. If all goes well, I expect this will speed up the workflow and allow me to delegate some of the work, as the current amount is enough for 2-3 people.
I want to play a game
(Imagine this in the Saw puppet voice)
We have had some success with Play by Discord games on our server, with both Broken Tales and Dead Air: Seasons, and I'm itching for a Valraven game as well.
Play by Discord works a bit like the old Play by Forum games: I write a move, players respond in the next day or so, and the game continues. The game system lends itself well to this, this style of play can ignore time zone differences, and it's also easy for others to follow along if they wish.
I'm now calling for up to four players, with priority given to those who haven't played with me before. If you are interested in trying Valraven out and want to know how this works in detail, join the #game-sessions-eng channel on our server, look for this specific announcement, and let me know.
Reminders
You can always access your Pledge Manager survey from HERE.
TL;DR: I have a small ashcan preview to show. Work is proceeding as planned. We’ve printed a couple of Add-Ons and we have the picture.
Status update
Work is going more or less according to plan. The team had summer vacations with different schedules, but with the 1st of September everyone is back on the normal schedule.
Alberto has been implementing all the fixes and suggestions we have collected over the years, which will result in less ambiguous texts for some Gifts and some additional clarifications. We also decided to add a brand new section that delves into massive battles, with clear examples of how to handle the situation while still keeping your players at the center of the game.
The next part is the most daunting and has to do with a reorganization of the Core Book flow, which we know is a bit scattered in the original Italian version of the game. Basically, we're trying to avoid introducing a concept that hasn't already been explained when discussing another mechanic. There were good reasons for structuring the book this way (mostly: TTRPG books are also reference books, and linear reading is not necessarily a priority), but since we figured out how to do it with the following games, Broken Tales and Dead Air: Seasons, we think it would be beneficial to use that approach here as well. This means a lot of cutting and pasting, working on the outline, and some rewriting.
Meanwhile, I've started my translation work on the parts of the game that won't be affected by this reorganization. More on that below.
I'm also in talks to get some outside help on layout, which would be very welcome and would free me from a massive amount of work in early 2025 (we're looking at 600+ pages when including everything). Nothing is set in stone yet, but things are happening.
Sancta Sanctorum, the ashcan preview
Look, I have to be honest here: the most efficient way to deliver the game in the least amount of time is to give you zero previews, especially when it comes to layout. Previews are a distraction and tend to slow down everything else. Still, I think you deserve to see a little more of the juicy stuff, so I came up with this compromise: I can share ashcan (text only) versionsof some files much earlier than I could if I had to wait for layout.
The first one I want to send out is Sancta Sanctorum, a one-shot Scenario written by our friend Claudio Serena of Fumble GdR (you may know Not the End, which had SIX nominations at this year's ENNIEs).
I love this Scenario because it perfectly captures the mood of Inquisition/Mozgus-era Berserk, it's quick to play but lends itself to a lot of cool scenes, and it can be played with the characters and rules you'll find in the Valraven's Quickstart.
If you like the ashcan approach to getting your hands on some early previews, please let me know in the comments and we may do it again in the coming months.
Sancta Sanctorum is a Scenario included in the Book of Eclipse - you will receive an email from Backerkit with a download link to the ashcan version if:
You have backed at a level that includes the Book of Eclipse
I know that some of you did not include the Book of Eclipse in your pledge, and the Pledge Manager is now closed: if you want to remedy this, contact me at [email protected] and I'll be able to help.
Monad Echo SRD and Ruin, now printed!
We recently received the printed copies for the English edition of the Monad Echo SRD and its hack to play in the vein of Darkest Dungeon, Ruin. These are some of our most popular free downloads, they are meant to give you an idea of what the system of Valraven can do, and now you can see them in all their physical glory.
If you didn't add them to your order as Add-Ons and now want them, contact me at [email protected] and I'll be able to reopen your order.
Cheers!
Reminders
You can always access the Pledge Manager from HERE.
This is just a quick reminder that we're starting the process of locking orders for the Valraven campaign. You will receive a notification and still have 48 hours to make any changes to your order (e.g. add an add-on). After that, you will have to contact [email protected] to make any changes.
Shipping addresses will NOT be locked now, but probably early next year.
If you added your credit card at the end of the survey, you will be charged after the next 48 hours. The charge should appear on your statement with the prefix THEWORLDANVIL, but take this with a grain of salt because I'm not 100% sure. You know, banks.
If you paid with PayPal, you're good to go.
As mentioned in the previous update, we've begun the process of reorganizing the existing material to include all the improvements we can over the Italian edition of the game, which was released in 2021. Alberto has been working on this for a while now, but a complete, thoughtful reorganization of all the information takes time (we're talking about about 450 pages of material).
It's still a bit early for the exciting stuff, but I'll try to include something more juicy in the following updates.
It's still early days in the production of Valraven: The Chronicles of Blood and Iron, but things are well underway. Read on!
TL;DR: 86% of the surveys have been filled, we have started to review the existing material for Valraven, our other game Dead Air: Seasons is nominated for Best Setting at the ENNIEs and you can vote for it HERE.
Survey Completion
86% of backers have now completed the Pledge Manager survey. If you haven't, or if you're not sure, please check now. This is a friendly reminder that we cannot send you your rewards if the survey is not completed.
Completed surveys will be locked down on July 31st.
If you paid any outstanding fees with PayPal, you're good to go.
If you added your credit card information there instead, we'll be charging cards a couple of days into August (you'll get a warning from Backerkit before this happens).
You can still add add-ons to your pledge from HERE. And don't worry if you move in the next few months, we'll keep addresses editable until much later.
A few days ago we met for our annual meeting and I agreed with the game's author, Alberto Tronchi, on the work to be done. We set up the files of all the existing Valraven material, stretch goals, etc., and we agreed on the first steps to take, namely:
Implement some clarifications and suggestions that have come up over the years since the release of the Italian edition of the game in 2021.
Figure out which sections we want to completely replace with updated text.
Re-evaluate the structure of the book in light of the improvements we made to the games we published after the first edition of the game.
This is pretty tedious work, but it needs to be done before we start translations or move on to writing the brand-new material.
Once this is done over the summer, I'll be able to create a detailed tracker of everything that needs to be translated and start that process as Alberto focuses on the new stuff.
It might take a while for you to see some excerpt, but trust me, you want us to do the boring work too.
Here's the team (not everyone could make it this time, as we're working from all over)
Dead Air: Seasons in an ENNIEs nominee!
Our other game, Dead Air: Seasons, which some of you may have added as an add-on to this campaign, has been nominated for Best Setting at the ENNIEs Tabletop RPG Awards 2024. This is our third nomination out of two games we translated, so I guess we're doing something right. Voting is now open – if you know nothing about the game you can still add it to your pledge or get it from HERE.
We're a small company, and this second phase of the voting is entirely up to the public - we have a shot at winning only with your help.
