The Lesser Key of the Sandestin - A ZineQuest Double Feature

Where There's Smoke...There Are Surveys!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 06:33:51 PM

Hello everyone! 

Kickstarter's payout having been initiated, we can move onto the next step – sending out surveys! These surveys are important because they allow you to finalize your shipping information for us and pay the shipping costs.

When Are Surveys Coming?

Soon! But, before the full blast of surveys, there will be a smoke test, whereby Backerkit will only send a small percentage of the surveys out to make sure there aren't any problems or issues. Assuming the smoke test goes ok, the remaining surveys will roll out after that in batches until all are in the wild!

Where Is The Survey Coming From?

Our backend fulfillment partner is Backerkit, so your survey email will come from them, not from Kickstarter.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://lesser-key-sandestin.backerkit.com/faq.

How Do You Complete the Survey?

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like.

How Long Do You Have to Complete the Survey?

Surveys will be live until Monday, April 1, 2024, after which we will close surveys to begin ramping up to fulfillment, so you shouldn't delay. This will be a tight turnaround. Also, after you respond to your survey initially, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys.

When Will Your Credit Card Be Charged?

Surveys that require payment of shipping fees or add-ons will be charged on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 after surveys are closed. This will not happen simultaneously; there will be a built-in delay to catch any last minute issues with surveys closing. Any digital rewards will become available then as well.

How Do You Access Your Survey After Completion?

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://lesser-key-sandestin.backerkit.com.

How Will International Shipping Work?

As we mentioned before, we are using Pirate Ship's Simple Export Rate to fulfill international shipping. This involves shipping to a Pirate Ship clearing house in the United States where the package is relabeled and then exported to the relevant country before being handed off to the domestic postal service for delivery. While cheaper than base USPS international rates right now, Simple Export Rate does not include any local customs or VAT charges in the shipping rates quoted in Backerkit. Backers will be responsible, as normal, for those duties upon delivery.

Also, unless we have royally messed something up, there should be no VAT charges collected in Backerkit when you complete you survey and check out.

Anything Else You Want To Pimp?

Why yes! The other day on Itch.io, we dropped the next beta version of a non-Rainy City RPG we've been plugging away at for three years now (and is one of reasons why we had a Rainy City hiatus in 2023). It's called ALTERIS: THE VEILED CITY.

Here's a short description: 

"ALTERIS: THE VEILED CITY is a Forged in the Dark game about the delvers of an Aetheric Order, a radical guild or cell whose members scour glooms across the ruins of Alteris in search of the multiversal aether they need to fuel their power, prestige, and protection.

There are dangerous delves into glooms; battles against gloomspawn and rival orders; gloom hunts and ruin rangings; secret conspiracies and hidden ceremonies; archaeological digs and searches for ancient technological artifacts, and aether-fueled multiversal shifts to prior historical epochs.

We play to find out if the order can thrive in a ruined city beset by hardscrabble living, scheming factions, the threat of further multiversal collapse, the horrors of gloomfall, the overwhelming thirst for wealth and renown, and the inexorable degradation of cosmic paradox and quantum decay."

The beta is free (well, Pay What You Want, but really, just download it for free), and we'd love to get some more dedicated playtesting on ALTERIS. If this sounds like your bag or is something you'd like to try, please reach out to us at [email protected], and we can chat about how that process might work.   

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Anyway, I'm off to initiate the smoke test, so keep an eye out for the first surveys to come in with the tide. We'll be in touch again soon.

Restless Dead Preprint
about 2 years ago – Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 02:29:40 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Early March Update: Where Things Are At
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2024 at 01:44:40 PM

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to give a short update on where things are at with the Lesser Key post-campaign. Here we go!

Puppethand's Guide: As I mentioned in the last update, this is finished. You're seen the preprint. No one noticed anything egregious, so we're ready to send to the printer. At the moment for what I assume are obvious reasons, we're waiting for Kickstarter to pay out before we do that, so right now that should be early next week. 

Restless Dead: Also finished, but we got back the proofreader edits, and we need to reconcile those. I'm waiting for the designer to tackle some of that. Once that's back, I'll drop the preprint of that for your eyes. My rough estimate on that is the middle of next week, but we'll see. 

Backerkit: The preorder store is open (yay!), which you can check out here: 

Important: If you are a backer of this campaign, then the preorder store isn't for you. Access to add-ons and paying for shipping will be in the Backerkit surveys. If you happen to know of anyone who missed the campaign and might like to still get on board, send them the link above. This is for them. :-) 

What's the timeline on surveys then? Well, Backerkit recommends waiting to send the smoke test (and then surveys) until after Kickstarter pays out, so we're waiting for that here also. Backerkit surveys are all set up; I just need to push a button, and things will go. I'll send another update with more specifics on that process as we get closer to surveys going out, which will most likely be at the end of next week.

Finally, here's a piece of art by Bill Spytma that ultimately didn't make it into the Puppethand's Guide. It's an umbral puppet (aka a shadow puppet). Enjoy!

 We're getting there! Until next time, folks. Stay safe!

Thank you!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 02:54:57 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Thank You, Everyone!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 08:03:11 AM

A little over twenty-four hours out and we are already around 288% funded. Hot damn!

Thank you, everyone, for your continued interest in the Rainy City. We love playing and writing for this setting and are super pleased to be able to share it with you all. Despite mucking around with it for over fifteen years now (give or take), our enthusiasm for it hasn't waned. While playtesting some Puppethand Guide content a few weeks ago, we had perhaps the most outlandish, wild, and amazing Rainy City game session we've ever had (puppets, man...), and that's saying something considering some of the sessions we've had over the years (ask us about the Bombing of the Rainy City Parliament or the Red Sandestin's murder of the necromancer Meridian Grue sometime).

In terms of this campaign, please keep spreading the word to anyone you think might want to jump on the Rainy City bandwagon. We decided to keep this campaign rather simple, so we aren't doing any stretch goals. The zines are either done or almost done, so we'll be turning around fulfillment as quickly as we can when the campaign is done. Adding more stretch goals just pushes fulfillment out further than we want. 

Finally, here's a treat for you all. Since we designed the Lesser Key zines for use with Into the Odd by Chris McDowall, we had developed some Rainy City-specific starter packages and arcana to facilitate our internal playtesting. So, after cleaning up the material, we decided to release it into the wild, so you could use it in your Rainy City Into the Odd games. Here you go: 

• Rainy City Character Options for Into the Odd

Stay safe, everyone!