Welcome to the June production update! There’s not much exciting to report, which is a good thing; as many of you likely know, Kickstarters having “excitement” after they’ve wrapped is rarely a good thing.

As for us? Playtesting is closing down, the Kickstarter is (obviously) done, so now we’re settling into long days doing final edits and throwing the book into inDesign. The most exciting thing we’ve got going for us right now is the great work that our artists are still sending us, and that’s why you’re here, right? Right. Let’s show it off!

Featured Artist: Robson Michel

This is really exciting. We’ve got a ton of great artists on our team, and this month we’re showcasing Robson Michel, who’s done art for many other games, up to and including work for Bethesda with an Elder Scrolls expansion. He first got sent our way when one of our friends found his painting of Thor battling Jormungandr at Ragnarok and it blew us away (Google it, it rules). Thanks to your generous contributions to our Kickstarter, we were able to commission him for an original piece for Sagas of Midgard that we’re happy to share with you today. Behold, “Ragnarok”!:

"Ragnarok". Robson Michel, Digital
“Ragnarok”. Robson Michel, Digital

The Gang, truly, is all here; Surt, Fenrir, Jormungandr, as well as all the Gods from whom your Heroes will draw their powers in Sagas of Midgard. This is a complex piece, and I’m proud to say we’ll be featuring it prominently in the book. Thanks to Robson for making it, and be sure to check out his other stuff on his ArtStation!

Dog Days of Summer

As for the game itself? As we mentioned above, it’s cranking along. Some notable highlights:
  • The Ragnarok stretch goal is done and playtested. Said one of our playtesters (who’s played in games of mine for years): “This is the best module you’ve ever written”. Look for some writing samples to hit in coming months but, if I can toot my own horn a bit, I’m very proud of how it came out. It’s epic and crazy and at times remarkably unfair; just like Ragnarok.
  • The Five Kingdoms Stretch Goal is at about 95%: we need to finish up some minor details of the outlying Kingdoms and ensure the bonus monsters we made are balanced but otherwise it’s done as well.
  • The Illuminated Character Sheet is in progress: The Character Sheet itself is back from our graphic designer (and looks great), and so Leah is doing what Leah does best: drawing stuff all over it. Look forward to seeing that in the next month or two!
  • Six of our fourteen chapters have finished final edits and can begin their journey into a PDF; the other eight chapters will finish final edits in the next two weeks.
So, like we said, not a lot of excitement to report, which is good for a first-time Kickstarter Creator. The thing is cranking along at an even pace to ship on (or before!) the deadline we promised.

How About That Community?

In an effort to do some good for the community with these Updates, I want to mention a group that does great work in our hometown of Atlanta: The Atlanta Gamer’s Guild. They organize a monthly RPG meetup in Atlanta to help promote making TTRPGs accessible to everyone, and are all around stand-up folks. We ran Sagas at one of them after the Kickstarter launched and we were really pleased by how great everyone was and how well organized the event was put together. We intend to run Sagas there again once we have the book finished, but if for no other reason than to assuage my guilt that we haven’t been back yet, if you’re in the Atlanta area and want to game with a lot of great folks, check them out!

Dog Days of Summer

As always, we are thankful to our backers and the wonderful community. Even without a lot to report, we’re going to continue the monthly updates and show you some of the art that’s been coming in, as well as to demonstrate that we’re still hard at work on the game. Trust is important for Kickstarter campaigns, and we’re not about to let you down.
As always, please let us know any questions, comments, feedback, etc; we’re always happy to hear from you!
-Nick