Dagger in the Heart, Giant Update
5 months ago
– Tue, May 21, 2024 at 06:39:08 AM
Greetings Delvers! It’s time for another project update. We’re talking shipping, PDF delivery, and timelines. We’re also showing some pretty (gross) new illustrations. Fun for all the family! So make sure you’re sitting comfortably with a drink in hand, cause it’s a big one!
94% of Pledges Managed
According to the backend of Backerkit (imagine a lot of lines and numbers) around 94% of you have completed your pledge management. Pats on the back all round! If you’ve not done it yet, though, get on it! We’re rapidly approaching fulfilment time, and you don’t want to be left out… Speaking of which.
Shipping update, with good news for Canadians!
We've now finalised the product specifications for the various rewards, which means we can properly estimate shipping costs for everyone.
We've also spent some time finding a better solution for our Canadian backers, and we're pleased to say that we'll be shipping to you with the help of Adventure Dice, who will be bringing your books across the border from the US and shipping them across your startlingly massive country. This means we can give you better prices and also be more confident that you won't be stung unexpectedly for taxes.
Pretty much everyone else will be seeing similar prices to the ones we estimated during the campaign. Roughly speaking, that looks like this:
Canadians, your pricing should be similar to AU & NZ pricing, between £11 and £17 depending on the items. There will be some variation and some edge cases, so if you see anything that looks wildly off base, please drop us a line and let us know.
PDFs for Existing Products
All this means that, once we've confirmed the shipping costs for your pledge, we can now lock your order and grant you access to the various PDFs for products that already exist.
Everyone's order will lock when we're ready to send out the Dagger backer preview PDFs, but we know some of you are dying to get your hands on PDFs for the existing books ASAP. So if you'd like us to lock yours sooner so you can access the existing Heart and supplement digital files, please comment and let us know, or email
[email protected] (
please use ‘Lock My Dagger Pledge’ in your e-mail subject field to help us find you).
Updated Timeline
This good news comes hand in hand with a timeline update. We’ve been working our butts off polishing Dagger, creating the GM screen content, reworking the Echo Edition, and more. We’re ecstatic with how it’s all coming together, but unfortunately it’s taking its sweet time doing so.
We had originally planned to have the PDF for Dagger and the GM Screen available by the end of May, but with the extra work that’s come from from the stretch goals, and the looming spectre of convention season on the horizon, we’ve made the decision to push back the timeline by one month to give us the time we need. Hopefully you’ll agree that it’s worth the wait!
All told, that means our new project timeline looks like this:
- June 2024: PDF previews for Dagger in the Heart and the GM screen are made available to backers.
- July 2024: Final files are proofed and sent to printers.
- September 2024: Physical fulfilment of backer rewards begins.
New Shinies
Now onto the fun stuff! Sar has been hard at work creating new illustrations for Dagger as a result of our More Art stretch goal, and the results are stunning as always. No spoilers from me, you’ll have to read the adventure to find out what’s going on.:
GM Screen Update
We’ve also been working hard on the GM Screen and the accompanying booklet which has got us all frothing-at-the-mouth excited. Here’s a sneak peak at the initial sketch for the GM side of the screen.
The idea here is to provide you with the most interesting and immersive blank canvas possible. The central panel has some core ideals and advice for GMing Heart, smeared in blood and right in front of you was the most overt delivery method we could think of. Meanwhile, the left and right panels feature in-world gubbins to inspire (after all, why should the players be the only ones to see pretty art?)
Atop this greeble-bedecked canvas, you’ll be placing whatever tables and references you desire, taken from the GM screen booklet. We realised early on that basic boxes wouldn’t cut it, after all, who wants to cover delicious details with boring squares of paper, so once more Sar has pulled out all the stops. Here’s some blank examples of the table boxes in action (of course the final ones will be full of handy reference material and cool tables):
We can’t wait to see what you get up to once you get your hands on the finished screen and booklet combo, and start crafting your very own madness-infused GM screens.
That’s all from us for now. We’re off to prepare for the UKGE next week. If you happen to be there, come say hi!
- RRD Team
Dagger in the Heart: Pledge management, Heart review, and a new Quickstart, oh my!
6 months ago
– Tue, Apr 16, 2024 at 06:14:15 AM
Hey all. Dropping in for a quick update today to let you know how things are progressing across the project.
Dagger In The Heart
We're at the point of wrestling all the text and illustrations into layout, and identifying which additional pieces of art we're adding from the More Art stretch goal. From there we'll be bringing on editors and proofreaders to polish the text to a mirror shine. (If you see any reflections in the book, don't listen to them.)
Pledge Management Now Open
Okay technically this happened last week, but we wanted to gently open the floodgates first, just in case anything fell over. The initial tests look good though, so behold! You should now be able to manage your pledge on Backerkit! Now's the time to double check what goodies you're signed up for, and plug in all that very useful information like your delivery address so we know where we're sending them to.
Pledge management should stay open up until the books ship. This should serve as a vague enough date to encourage you to plug in their details now so you don’t miss out (I see you there thinking “oh I’ll do it next week”. Did you know that procrastination is the leading cause of unfulfilled pledges? Don’t let this happen to you!)
Quinns Quest Heart Review
A rather cool dude in a very nice blazer gave a glowing review of Heart: The City Beneath which we just had to share for those who haven’t seen it (It might come in handy for anyone trying to convince their friends to join their game). Technically it seems like this review was recorded in the 80s? Which is all manner of confusing, but is just the sort of temporal shenanigans we endorse.
You can check out the review here:
Updated Heart Quickstart
An interesting side effect of the Quinns Quest review and the success of the Dagger campaign, is that an enormous amount of the existing stock for Heart-and-Heart-related books has vaporised overnight. It’s not the worst problem in the world to have, but it’s been quite eye-popping to see the numbers in real time.
This has opened up an interesting opportunity for us. Since we’re going to need to reprint a bunch of our books now, we want to take a little bit of time to add errata and minor tweaks to improve them where we can. Most of these changes will barely be noticeable, but we’re pulling out the stops to upgrade one book in particular: the Heart Quickstart.
The Quickstart booklet was one of the first Heart releases back in 2020, and since then we’ve learned a whole heap of new tips and tricks about presenting a cracking quickstart booklet to really hook a group on the game. With such a huge influx of new players, and a reprint on the way, we wanted to take a bit of time to give the Heart Quickstart the glowup it deserves.
The updated Heart Quickstart should feature:
- New layout, with more art and clearer presentation of the rules.
- New tear-out bespoke character sheets for each premade character.
- A tear-out rules reference to toss in the middle of the table for players to fight over.
- A spine! (The book kind, not the skeletal kind… although.)
- We might even be able to splash out on a little spot UV on the cover, as a treat. (Big ‘IF’ on this one based on costs.)
We’re still working with our printers to lock in the exact costs involved in the upgrade, which means that the price of these new Quickstarts might increase slightly once they land in the wild. However! Everyone who picks up a physical copy of the Heart Quickstart through this campaign will get one of the updated quickstarts at no extra cost. Just our way of saying thanks for supporting us. And of course, as always, if you have a PDF copy you can download the updated version for free once it’s live.
Here’s a couple examples of the kinds of upgrades you can look forward to. Take a look, and hopefully you agree it’s worth the extra effort!
Until next time, DON’T FORGET TO MANAGE YOUR PLEDGE! We’ll know if you procrastinate.
- RRD
Dagger in the Heart, Campaign End and Next Steps
7 months ago
– Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 04:56:40 AM
The team have had a long weekend of pagan-adjacent chocolate consumption to convalesce and return to our vaguely humanoid forms, so now we can start the next stage of development — finishing the various rewards and delivering them into your waiting arms.
Before we get into that, we just wanted to take a moment to share our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported the campaign. As our first hardback supplement for Heart, and our first Backerkit campaign, we honestly didn’t know how well Dagger would do in the wild. We’re happy to say that, thanks to all of you lovely backers, we blew our expectations out of the water. This proves to us that the hunger for more Heart is alive and well in the community, and validates our desire to create more Heart in the future.
So once more a huge thanks from everyone at Rowan Rook & Decard!
Pledge management & pre-orders
We've been hard at work over the long weekend getting the pledge manager set up, so that you will be able to confirm your orders and add or upgrade anything you'd like. We should be ready to send out smoke tests in a couple of days - those will go to a small percentage of you first, so that we can make sure everything is set up right, before we send out the survey to all 2500+ of you. Plus, our pre-order store is now open for late pledges, and it'll stay open till we lock down orders for physical distribution. As a reminder, we won't be charging shipping until later on, so that we can make sure we have the best possible deal for all of you. We'll update you to confirm in plenty of time before those charges are added.
- RRD
Dagger in the Heart, End of the Line Approaching!
7 months ago
– Tue, Mar 26, 2024 at 06:50:04 AM
There's only three days remaining before the Dagger in the Heart campaign comes screaming to a halt at its final destination. We still have a couple of hidden stretch goals to aim for, so if you were holding off on backing until the end, or have friends you think would like to get onboard before the end, now's your chance!
End of Campaign Actual Play
As a reminder, Grant Howitt is running an end of campaign actual play livestream starting this Friday at 3pm GMT (one hour before the campaign officially ends). The game will run as long as Backerkit's Overtime mode does, so the life expectancy of our doomed Delvers is in your hands. You can watch it on the campaign page, or over on our
Twitch channel.
Interview With Sar Cousins
We have also uploaded a text interview with Sar Cousins, the phenomenal illustrator for Dagger in the Heart, to snatch a covetous peek into their creative process. You can read it over on the
Rowan Rook & Decard blog.
The support has been overwhelming and we can't wait to see what happens in the last few days.
- RRD
Dagger In the Heart: Echo Edition Unlocked and Next Stretch Goal Revealed!
7 months ago
– Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 07:04:13 AM
It's been another great week on the Backerkit campaign for Dagger in the Heart. Here's the summary!
Heart Reprint and Echo Edition Stretch Goal Unlocked!
We passed our £125,000 stretch goal, which unlocks two different but connected bits of excellence for Heart lovers: An updated reprint of Heart: The City beneath, and a new collectors edition known as the Echo Edition.
Heart Reprint
Unlocking this means that all copies of Heart: The City Beneath from this campaign will be updated editions from our second printing of Heart. The updated edition will feature:
- 4 new pages of advice for the GM on creating Delves.
- A bunch of minor tweaks to the layout and text to incorporate errata or clarifications.
- Some new graphic elements and tweaks that sprinkle hidden (and not so hidden) messages throughout the book from doomed Delvers who have gone before.
- Some extra subtle changes and additions to the 'lore' of Heart, for the eagle-eyed reader to uncover, ponder, or disregard as they see fit...
It's important to remember that this second printing of Heart does not contain any new mechanics, equipment, or classes etc. So don't worry! This new edition will not invalidate anything from the original printing.
You don't need to do anything to get this new edition, all copies of Heart: The City Beneath purchased in this campaign will contain it. Additionally, if you have previously bought a PDF copy of Heart: The City Beneath (purchased through the Rowan Rook & Decard webstore, DriveThru RPG, or Itch.io) you will be able to download an updated version of the PDF once it's complete.
Echo Edition
The
Echo Edition of Heart: The City Beneath is a new collectors edition which contains all of the above, wrapped in a fancy new cover! (
It's pretty much a replacement for the long out-of-print collector's edition pictured below). This will feature the same cover design and materials as the previous collector's edition,
but with a different colour scheme to distinguish it: changing the red linen and gold foil, to a light blue linen and red foil instead.
You can grab a copy of the Echo Edition in two ways:
- If your pledge already contains a physical copy of Heart: The City Beneath (such as from one of the Heart bundles), you will be given the option to upgrade it to an Echo Edition for +£25 during pledge management after the campaign closes.
- If your pledge does not have a physical copy of Heart: The City Beneath, or you simply want an extra copy, you can add an Echo Edition to your pledge for £60 using the Add-ons page.
Next Stretch Goal Revealed: £150,000 An Official Heart Actual Play!
If we reach this stretch goal, we will set aside funds to commission a professional actual play of Heart: The City Beneath. A high quality actual play is one of the most common requests we receive from the community, as it's one of the best ways to learn a new system, or share with your game group to get them excited to play. This money will let us do just that!
There are only 11 days left in the campaign, and two hidden Stretch Goals remaining, so let's see how much further we can delve!
-RRD
