October update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 08:07:14 AM

Hello everyone,

It's been a whole month since the last update, already! By now, you should all be able to download the new version of the screen-friendly Defiant PDF from DriveThruRPG. As promised, the rulebook has been expanded with a brand new chapter on Flairs and Achievements - two new game mechanics, to further customize your Characters and make the game even more exciting!

We are now focusing mainly on the layout of the print version of the rulebook. I hope we'll be able to send the electronic version of the layout to you by the end of the month, but it may be ready a bit later.  We were supposed to move to a new flat in November, but it turned out, we were able to do this one month sooner and are now in the middle of the process. This doesn't change the date of the project's completion, as we did take the whole "moving into a new flat" into account when calculating the dates - it simply means, we have a bit less time this month but will have more time in November.

Having said that, we're still trying to get the layout done by the end of the month - we just really want to have it ready! :-) We're also working on the final few personalized illustrations and finishing the Defiant Birthright supplement, which you should all get somewhere in November. 

Meanwhile, the good people from Pattern Recognition Studios came to us with a proposition of creating a French edition of the game. We agreed and their Kickstarter is now live.  If you have French-speaking friends, who'd like to play Defiant, share this link with them :-) 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patternrecog/defiant-le-jeu-de-role

TTRPG Spotlight

This month, I'd like to focus on Polish TTRPG designers, who managed to publish their work in English. Perhaps you'll find a new interesting game this way.  :-)

Just a quick side note - I have not contacted the creators about this, and these are my personal opinions on their games, they might see their creation differently, but I wanted to share my thoughts.

Wights

by Łukasz Kołodziej

Feeling nostalgic for all the 90's uncompromising, over-the-top edginess? Here's your chance to play that old gothic CD that's been lying around for ages, rewatch the Crow and then sit down to play as a Wight - a being brought back to life to have their vengeance. 

It's "The Ladykillers RPG"  meets "Hell 4 Leather", but using a modified version of the "Lasers & Feelings" ruleset.  And it's completely free! The game has a ton of supplements in Polish, but I'm sure that if people became more interested in the English rulebook, the supplements would follow.  It's a rather quick read so give it a go!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/368117/Wights

Outstanding Heroes and Extraordinary Threats

by Michał Dzidt

If you want to play a classic fantasy game, but want something rule-light, you should check out the OHET (Outstanding Heroes and Extraordinary Threats) - a lightweight generic fantasy system, running on Freeform Universal engine. It implements quite a few interesting ideas mechanics-wise, like the slowly expanding character concept being their main stat. With experience, the character can include new words into the concept, making them more powerful.

For me personally, this is the game that has replaced TSOY as my go-to "we need a quick way to start a fantasy mini-campaign" game.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/222686/Outstanding-Heroes-and-Extraordinary-Threats

The Beast

by Aleksandra Sontowska & Kamil Węgrzynowicz

How about an erotic single-player game? The Beast was actually nominated for Diana Jones Award a few years back, and that should be enough praise.  Get ready to try something new, something different, and something... quite unsettling.

"The Beast" is basically a card story game, where the player writes their personal diary, focusing on their relationship with the Beast - a being that came into their life and probably changed it forever. Each day you draw a card and write down an answer to a new question about your life with the Beast. And most questions won't be that easy to answer.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/169890/The-Beast

Defiant September update
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 10:02:31 PM

Hi,

It's time to update you on how the project is doing. At first, I felt bad about how little I have to tell you, but then I realized - it's actually a good thing. Everything is going pretty much according to plan (set in the roadmap in Update #17).  :-)

The only thing that took a bit longer than we expected was getting all the custom art material from the Backers. While about half of the additional art is now ready, I believe we have managed to get all (or nearly all) the information we need to finish the rest of the custom illustrations. This has pushed back the work on custom NPCs, but does not pose a threat to our deadlines. 

Since we had less work with the art, we could focus on things that we were supposed to create later in the project. Perks and Achievements (the additional chapter of the rulebook) were renamed to Boons and Achievements and should be ready for the last week of September. 

We got to work on Defiant Birthright, had time to start creating the new layout for the printed edition, and test out some of the ideas from House Kamael and Van Heim Tower supplements.  

The Discord server is up and running, and if you haven't already - come, join the community :-)

https://discord.gg/tMQ3Kfgp

What to expect now?

September: Before the end of the month we will upload an updated version of the screen-friendly rulebook, adding the "Boons & Achievements" chapter.

October: By the end of the month, we will update the files on DriveThruRPG, adding another version of the rulebook - the print layout.

November: We will send you the shipping surveys, and you will receive the Defiant Birthright supplement.

TTRPG Spotlight

We wanted to start something new and asked people around the ttrpg community to show us their work, so we can share their projects with you. We want to spotlight one or two games each month, to show you some potentially interesting projects and give them a bit of exposure.  I will try to be very clear about why we're spotlighting each of the projects in this section.

To start things off, this is our September spotlight:

After Kate asked people on Twitter to hit us up with their games they'd like us to spotlight, we got contacted by the team behind Rupture RPG.  We haven't played the game, but it does feel like a perfect candidate for the first spotlight. A fantasy game, that aims to be accessible and inclusive, and is all about joining together and setting our differences aside - sounds great!

When I started reading about the game, I became cautious because of how the creators talk about using role-playing in a therapeutic way, playing the game to "heal wounds from emotional trauma". I'm deeply opposed to non-professionals using RPGs as a therapeutic tool. But after reading further, I believe that the only thing the creators had in mind is "healing" by having a pleasurable, inclusive gaming experience, - and that's fine by me. :-)

Check it out at: https://www.rupturerpg.com/

And that's about it - check out their webpage, see the game for yourselves, and if it looks cool, subscribe for their mailing list, which will really help them, once they get to Kickstarter!

I'm not sure if this is how the creators envisioned our support, but this is the way I want to do this - sharing my thoughts rather than the game's official line. Hope it's ok with you! :-)

PDF copies and Discord Server
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 06, 2021 at 06:51:03 PM

Hello everyone! 

We've got three important topics for today. I promise to reduce the frequency of the updates in the future. All not-that-important stuff will now go on our Discord Server (more on that below). You'll still get the summary here each month, so there's no need to join the server if you're not interested.

Screen-friendly PDFs

All the Backers from Courtier level up should have received emails with links to their free copies of the PDF, screen-friendly rulebooks. We sent them on Tuesday. If you haven't received an email from DriveThruRPG, send us a message via Kickstarter and we'll sort this out. Before you do, check your spam folders - maybe the email went there.

Defiant Discord Server

The Discord Server is now live! We tested it earlier today with a small group of people and everything seems to be working fine. Click on the invitation link below to access the server. Once you're there, you'll have to read and acknowledge the rules of conduct. Once you do, all of the channels will become available to you. :-)

Invitation link: https://discord.gg/KRbgDRbC2D

Upgrading pledges

If you wish to upgrade your pledge, it appears we'll have to do this manually. Contact us via Kickstarter and we'll get you upgraded to the Pledge level you're interested in. At this point, we can upgrade all the way to the Archon level. Upgrading will be possible till the end of August.

And that's it for now. Hope you got your copies of the rulebook and started reading!

Defiant RPG Roadmap
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 06:33:30 PM

Hi everyone!

We’re back from the short holidays, and it’s time to get back to work! We had some time to create a roadmap for the project. Here’s a rough sketch of all the things heading your way in the months to come. As with every project, we may hit a few bumps along the way, but we will do our best to stick to the plan.

This will be quite a long update, but I wanted to walk you through the whole roadmap so that everyone knows what to expect.

Very soon

We’re still waiting for Kickstarter to confirm all the payments from the backers. Once this is done (probably before the end of this week), we will send all backers from the Courtier level up, their links to the screen-friendly edition of the rulebook. We will also set up the Discord after the weekend (we’ll have a separate update on the topic, once the server is ready).

If you've run into problems such as a declined credit card, but still wish to back the project, send us a message via Kickstarter – we’ll try to sort this out.

August

Once everyone has received their screen-friendly rulebook PDF, we’ll set up a pre-order shop through Backerkit for all those, who missed the opportunity to back Defiant during the campaign. While all the unlocked stretch goals will be available for free only to the original Backers, this will be a chance to get the Defiant Birthright supplement for free with the rulebook.

August will also be the time to upgrade your pledges, should you wish to. It seems we will have to do this manually, so if anyone wishes to go from Courtier to Royal, from Royal to Princeps, or from Princeps to Archon, send us a message via Kickstarter and we’ll see what we can do. Once August ends, we cannot guarantee we can help you with upgrading the pledges.

Finally, next month we will contact all of the Backers who chose the personalized artwork or NPC addons. We want to start working with you on the content as soon as possible.

September

The screen-friendly PDF rulebook will be upgraded with the Perks and Achievements chapter, so you can start using the new additional rules as quickly as possible.

October

If everything goes well, in October we’ll send you links to a beta version of the final layout of the rulebook (i.e. the one that’s going to be printed). We will wait one month before sending it to the print house, to make sure we can find and correct all the minor errors in the beta.

November

While we will be focusing on working with the print house during this month, working out all the quirks and whatnots, we will send you a shipping survey. You’ll be able to give us your addresses and pay the shipping fees. This will all be done through Backerkit, so you can count on their experience with such matters.

Additionally, in November we want to send you the Defiant Birthright supplement. All the Backers from Courtier level up will get the PDF for free along with an option to get the printed copy as a “Print on Demand” service, paying only the printing house fee. The supplement will also become available for people not backing the project, but they will have to pay for the PDF and the full price of the POD version.

December

By December we want to make the defiant online tools available for backers, in the beta version. This will be the basic version of the service, allowing for making notes, creating Player Characters, and making NPCs.

Before the end of the year, we will also release the Defiant House Kamael supplement. Same as Defiant Birthright, you will receive the PDF for free, with the option to buy the physical copy at print cost.

January

Once the books are printed, we’ll start shipping them to you! The company taking care of your individual copy will vary depending on where you live. All the shipping to the US is carried out by Nord Games – a company that helped deliver many Kickstarter projects.

In January, we also want to give you the new advanced Discord Bot and the Defiant Subject supplement. It will be made available to you on the same terms as Defiant Birthright (free PDF, and an option to buy a copy at print cost).

February

During this month, we will release Defiant Van Heim Tower, and add more features to the Defiant Online service.  February is also the month when we want to be sure everyone got their printed copy of the Defiant rulebook.

March

It’s time for Defiant Bridgewood Guide to be released.

April

Last but not least, we will release Defiant Royals: Couples – the final supplement you’ve unlocked during the campaign.

And that’s about it. We want to fulfill all of our Kickstarter promised by the end of April, leaving you with the main rulebook, a number of supplements, and a set of online tools.

Future Kickstarter updates

We do not want to flood you with endless updates, so here’s how we’re planning to communicate our progress from now on. Once the Discord server is up and running, we want to use it as the main channel of communication. This will be the best place to find the latest news and updates. We will still post updates on Kickstarter, but we’ll try to do so not more than once a month - unless something really important comes up.

Of course, we will post an update here, once the Discord server is ready.

Time to wrap things up
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 05:34:31 AM

Sorry to keep you waiting, but we wanted to include all the important information in one update, rather than spamming you every couple of hours.

It’s been almost twelve hours since the campaign ended, and I’m still struggling to believe it’s all for real. Thanks to your support, we are now able to create the printed version of Defiant RPG and start a whole publishing line! We’re here to stay!

I believe that the most important takeaway right now is that a the moment, no action is required on your part. Should there be any problems with payment, etc., the KS crew will contact you with the details. For now, all we ask of you is a bit of patience.

The core campaign might have ended, but the project is far from over. We will now commit our time and resources to bring you the rulebook, as well as all the unlocked stretch goals. I believe we managed to stay cool-headed and only promised you stuff we knew we could deliver. It will take some time, of course, but we’ve already started working on the additional supplements.

For the next few days, we’ll be replying to all your messages and trying to sort out any potential problems. On Monday, we’re planning to take a week-long vacation, to get some much-needed rest. I do apologize in advance if it will be hard to reach us during this time.

We’ll be back from Tuesday, July 27 – hopefully by that time Kickstarter will manage to process all your payments. When they do, we can start sending you the screen-friendly PDF version of the rulebook (to all Backers starting from the Courtier tier).

You will receive an email from DriveThruRPG with a unique link to your free copy. If you do not have a DriveThruRPG account, you’ll be able to create one. It’s free and takes less than a minute to set up. By the end of the month, we’ll set up a preorder site, via Backerkit. If you’re one of those who missed the campaign, this will be your chance to order a printed copy of Defiant RPG so you can get it as fast as the Kickstarter Backers.

Around the same time, we will be launching our Discord server. If you’re interested in talking about Defiant, getting additional news and information, this will be the place to be. This is also where we’ll launch a separate channel for our esteemed Archons.

We will wait with Backer surveys for now. We want to send them closer to the delivery date, so your addresses will be up-to-date. I will update you on this, as well as on the topic of pledge management, and the custom art and NPCs addons in about two weeks.

It’s 2 AM now in Poland. I have read through the update draft, but to be honest, at this point I’m not fully capable of comprehending my own text – I hope it makes sense. The past 30 days have been an amazing albeit exhausting time. I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for pledging and becoming a part of this project. Knowing that we’ll be able to print out the rulebooks is awesome but it honestly pales in comparison with the realization that somewhere out there, all around the world, there are people who are interested in our game. Who want to play Defiant. You are the ones who made all of this possible, and we will do everything in our power to bring you all you were hoping for when you were making the pledge.

THANK YOU!