Shipping begins!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 02:00:26 AM

BOOKS ARE HAPPENING

All the books are now printed! The corebooks and maps are with the distributors in Nottingham, and the supplements should be with them by Thursday. They've already begun packing up orders that don't include the supplements. 

Any prints that you've ordered are being shipped separately from your books (because they're different shapes) so don't worry if you receive one but not the other; they're both on their way.

From there, they'll send them out via the post (except if you live in the US or Canada). Due to the pandemic and everything, they're operating on a skeleton staff, but we've got a great working relationship with them and trust them to see us (and you) right.

For those of you in the US and Canada, we've made the decision to send over all the books via sea freight after they've been put into addressed packages. From there, they'll pass through US customs in bulk and onto a second distribution centre where they'll be sent using standard US mail.

The journey takes about 10 days port-to-port, and we'll have a few days either side of that where we get stuff onto the ship and then through US customs. Once we know they've cleared customs, we'll post an update to let you know that you should be receiving them within a week or so.

We've weighed up the different options available to us and sending the books by sea freight is the safest, fastest and most cost-effective to get all your books across the Atlantic - especially with the lack of passenger flights to ferry mail to the US and the increased surcharges on post that came into effect earlier this month. This way, the whole lot will clear customs in one go, we won't have any issues with delays to airborne parcels, and our US distributors at Studio 2 Publishing are prepped to send your parcels on to you as soon as they arrive.

RETAIL BACKERS

If you backed at a retailer level, we'll be in touch soon with an order form so you can tell us how many of what you'd like.

That's all for now!

- Grant, Chris and Mary

Burned and/or Broken
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jul 07, 2020 at 11:53:14 PM

 Burned and Broken, the final stretch goal sourcebook for Heart, is out now! Within you'll find rules and guidance for transferring characters from Spire to Heart as the Ministry disowns them and chases them into the depths of the City Beneath. If that's not your style, we've also included a new Calling - a variant of the Forced Calling entitled Minister - that lets you search for metaphysical shards of a forbidden goddess in an attempt to overthrow the cruel aelfir government of Spire.

Backers should have an email from Backerkit alerting them to the new download - for everyone else, you can pick up a copy of the PDF from our store here.

ADDRESSES LOCKED

We've done it! We've finally done it. You can now no longer change your addresses in Backerkit. If you put in the wrong address, it's too late - we will take your books and throw them overarm into a lake to teach you a lesson. (Not really. Send us an email - [email protected] - and we'll do what we can.)

ENNIES NOMINATIONS

Not strictly Heart-related, but - Grant's games Royal Blood and Sexy Battle Wizards (and Adrian Stone's illustrations in Strata) have been nominated in this year's Ennie awards, which is nice. You can vote for them (or, really, any other games you've enjoyed) here.

ACTUAL PLAY VIDEOS

Adventures in Lollygagging have reached episode 8 of their Heart campaign, so if you're interested in seeing how Heart is played rather than just reading about it in the book, check it out!

Right, that's enough for now. Be good to one another.

- Grant, Chris and Mary

Doors to Elsewhere
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 03:36:44 PM

DOORS TO ELSEWHERE

It's out now! You can download it from Backerkit. If you didn't back this campaign but want to leap headlong into the City Elsewhere, you can pick it up from our site here.

ADDRESS LOCKDOWN

All the files for all the books are with the printers, and we're still lined up to get our time booked on the printing press - so everything's getting really close! We're going to lock down addresses in Backerkit TOMORROW so if you need to change it, do it now! If you can't change your address for any reason, drop us an email ([email protected]) and we'll help you out.

BURNED AND BROKEN

Also excited to announce that Burned and Broken - the Spire/Heart crossover sourcebook - is due for release next Monday. Here's a preview:

That's all for now! 

- Chris, Grant and Mary

June update
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 10:10:13 PM

Hello! Here's the news:

SANCTUM RELEASED

All of you should have an email with a download link for Sanctum - the latest stretch goal sourcebook for Heart. Please do take a look! It's got more in-character writing in it than any other Heart product we've released so far, in that it has some in-character writing in it. Also it has rules for a dog that thinks it's a crow.

If you're into it, here's a page where other people could buy it that you can tell them about.

ADDRESS LOCKDOWN

We're going to lock down the addresses for shipping in about two weeks, so please make sure you've got the correct one in Backerkit. If you have issues changing it, drop us a message and we'll sort it out.

BOOKS

The books are here! And by "the books" we mean the core and special editions of Heart, and by "here" we mean Nottingham. We're waiting on the maps and other books to be printed before we send everything out, otherwise it'd end up costing a fortune.

WYVERN IS UP AND RUNNING

The company in charge of binding the Heartsblood editions is, you'll be pleased to hear, reopening. We'll be on track to wrap paper in skin, just as planned!

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Given the global protests against police brutality and systemic racism, it's become sensible to make our stance clear on the matter: we are in support of those protesting against police brutality and systemic racism. (Please refer to our earlier work, Spire, for more information.) 

We are going to donate 50% of the profits from our new Spire sourcebook Shadow Operations to Black Lives Matter UK - backdated to when it went on sale, and continuing in perpetuity. 

We are committed to working with POC creators to bring a breadth of voices and perspectives into our community. 

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That's all for now. More news when we have it.

- Grant, Chris and Mary

VERMISSIAN BLACK OPS
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 22, 2020 at 10:47:45 PM

Vermissian Black Ops is out now!

Check your email - you should have received an email alerting you to the fact that your Backerkit profile has been updated with a new download. The download in question is Vermissian Black Ops, the first sourcebook for Heart. Inside, you'll find variant rules for sending squads of up-gunned delvers through the cursed mass transit network and out into the City Above, where they'll blow stuff up and assassinate people on behalf of the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress - the mysterious paramilitary cult at the centre of the Spire RPG.

If you'd like to enthuse publicly about Vermissian Black Ops (or V-Blops, as we've been calling it around the office) then you should share the store link too because you're nice like that.

Off to print

We've received the innards of a copy of Heart and it looks gorgeous - we went for a UV printing treatment and the colours look fantastic. (You can't really tell because, you know, this is a picture. But take it from us.) We've given our printer the go-ahead and they're firing up the presses to do us several thousand, then we'll receive delivery of them next month.

GenCon Cancelled

Due to the damned global pox, there's no GenCon this year, so there also won't be any us at GenCon this year. Rest assured however that we're all geared up to go to GenCon 2021, and we'll still have the stall and our broad array of events and shenanigans planned. It's just going to happen exactly one calendar year later. We're really sad to not be able to come. (This also means that we're not going to be able to hand over your packages at GenCon, too.)

That's all for now. Sanctum should be our next release, coming up in early June. Keep your eyes peeled!

- Grant, Chris and Mary