Dagger in the Heart, End of the Line Approaching!
8 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!
8 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
Dagger In The Heart, Pledge Updates and Ending Stream!
8 months ago
– Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 09:33:29 AM
Greetings backers. We wanted to send out a quick update to cover a couple of changes to certain pledge levels on the Backerkit campaign, and announce our plans for a livestream at the end of the campaign.
The ‘I Want Everything’ Pledge Is Now Cheaper!
An eagle-eyed backer pointed out that our maths was a bit off on the ‘I Want Everything’ pledge tier, which meant that you could use some clever pledge/add-on combinations to get the same rewards as the ‘I Want Everything’ pledge for slightly cheaper. (We’d forgotten to add the Heart Sourcebook Bundle discount to the combined ‘I Want Everything’ Pledge, which resulted in the pledge being £12.50 more expensive than its component parts!)
Good news is, we’ve sorted this now by reducing the cost of the ‘I Want Everything’ pledge from £160, down to £147.50. If you’ve already backed at that pledge level, no need to worry as this should automatically reduce your pledge cost to match. Bad news is this will slightly set back our funding level by ~£1,500. Still we’d rather take a small step back than accidentally overcharge folk!
Sorry for any confusion! (Maths is hard.)
Somehow, Heartsblood Has Returned
Turns out that, while digging around in the darkest corners of the storage room, Grant discovered a handful of extra Heartsblood copies. We’re as surprised as you are! The jury is still out on whether these extra copies are the result of simple misplacement, or a foreboding sign that they have been cursed with some kind of pulp-based mitosis. Regardless, rather than look a gift horse in the lipskin, we’ve decided to add the extra copies to the campaign instead.
As a result, there are now 5 additional Heartsblood pledges available for those who want a chance to snap up these one-of-a-kind versions of Heart: The City Beneath. (Remember to spay and neuter your books to prevent unwanted reproduction.)
The End Of The Campaign As We Know It
We’ve been informed that Backerkit have added a funky new end of campaign ceremony known as Overtime. Essentially, once the end of the campaign is triggered at 4pm GMT on Friday the 29th of March it will only officially shut down after a full 10 minutes have passed without any new pledges.
At first we were horrified at the idea of extending the already stressful campaign ending into a fuzzy ever-expanding horizon, but like the masochists we are, we decided to channel this terror into entertainment for your twisted enjoyment.
To that end, we will be running a special Overtime stream at the end of the campaign! During which, Grant will host a game of Heart featuring the exploits of a doomed party of delvers desperately attempting to survive as reality itself crumbles around them. The stream will last as long as Overtime mode does (or we collapse from exhaustion, whichever comes first).
The stream might last for all of 10 minutes, or hours! Who knows! Not us, that’s for sure.
Take care,
-RRD
Dagger in the Heart Week 1 Roundup
9 months ago
– Thu, Mar 07, 2024 at 08:37:42 AM
It’s been 1 week since the Dagger in the Heart crowdfunding campaign went live, and what a week it’s been. An incredible amount of support and excitement has been poured into the Delving Machine’s hungry reactor, sending this cursed locomotive thundering through stretch goals and letting us make something truly special for all fans of Heart: The City Beneath.
Unlocked Stretch Goals
We’ve raised over £105,000 in the last week, an outstanding amount which has seen us unlock a bunch of stretch goals. We spoke about the GM screen booklet and extra art stretch goals in our previous day 1 update, and since then we’ve unlocked three more and are fast approaching our seventh!
£70,000 Cover Foiling: All physical editions of Dagger in the Heart now come with fancy red cover foiling to give the books that extra shiny luxe feeling.
£85,000 Card Bookmarks: We’re making three different full-colour, card bookmarks for Dagger in the Heart to give to all physical pledges free of charge. Each bookmark features a different antagonist and handy roleplay and mechanical references for GMs to embody these larger than life characters.
£100,000 Extra Pay: We’ve managed to set aside extra funds to give our freelance developers (Gareth and Sar) a lovely bonus to show our appreciation for their outstanding work.
The Echo Edition
We’re also excited to announce that our £125,000 stretch goal is a big one! The Echo printing of Heart: The City Beneath.
If we reach this stretch goal, it will allow us to execute an update and full reprint of Heart: The City Beneath, including the creation of a new collectors edition, known as the Echo Edition. Like all echoes, these new editions of Heart are similar, but different. Warped by their time in the Heart and reflected back into your waiting hands.
Both new editions of Heart: The City Beneath will feature:
- Integrated errata and layout tweaks to create the best version of Heart to date.
- 4 additional pages of GM advice on creating Delves for your games (the most requested addition to date).
- Subtle changes throughout the book for the discerning delver to uncover, such as quotes, messages, and cyphers from doomed souls who came before.
The Echo Edition of Heart: The City Beneath will also feature:
- A gorgeous quarter bound cover of faux-leather, cloth, and foil. This cover takes the original design from the first printing of the Heart collectors edition (pictured above), and twists it into an echo of itself, by changing the colour of the cloth to light blue and the foil to a crimson red, to set it apart from the first edition.
How will I get the new edition?
If we reach this stretch goal, all backers of this campaign who purchase a copy of Heart: The City Beneath will receive an updated edition of the book free of charge (Physical or PDF based on your pledge).
How do I get a copy of the Echo Edition?
If your pledge does not already include a physical copy of Heart: The City beneath, you will be able to add one to your pledge using the Add-ons feature. Alternatively If your pledge already includes a physical copy of Heart: The City Beneath, you will be given the option to upgrade it to an Echo Edition during pledge management at a reduced cost.
Delver Obituaries
Do you know a Delver who perished in a memorable way? If so, you can post a short obituary over on the
Backerkit community post to honour them. If we reach the Echo edition stretch goal, their obituary might even show up in print.
An Interview With Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
We’ve uploaded a text interview with Gareth, the writer of Dagger in the Heart, to chat about his inspirations, process, and advice for Delvers setting out into the campaign for the first time. You can read the interview over on the
Rowan, Rook and Decard blog.
That’s everything for this week.
Let’s see how deep we delve and what horrors we discover as the campaign continues…
-RRD
Dagger in the Heart Full Funded in 43 Minutes and Stretch Goals Unlocked!
9 months ago
– Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 05:45:22 AM
Dagger in the Heart is funded!
Tremendous news, everyone: we’ve funded! In 43 minutes, no less! So you’ll get your book, now, with luck and a following wind and several months of work for multiple people and at least one (1) massive boat sailing across the Atlantic.
Thank you all for your support - this is our first time doing a crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit, and we’ve had to get used to a new platform and all the challenges that brings, so we’re really glad to see that you’ve followed us over from Kickstarter.
(That said, if you want to tell your friends about it - your richest friends, preferably - you should definitely do that. You’d most likely appear as a trendsetter - some sort of maven no doubt - and they’d thank you for it. Maybe with some of those aforementioned riches!)
Double thanks to those of you who joined us on the launch party. We’ve never done one of those before; usually we just vibrate nervously in tight circles until the project funds and then lie down in a dark room. It was great to be able to share our excitement with you, and to finally give the Heart community the enormous, doomed, gruesome adventure it deserves.
We’ve also hit some of our stretch goals!
Somehow, in less than 24 hours, we've also managed to blast through some stretch goals, happy days! Here's what's good:
£40,000: The GM screen now comes with a booklet, and we have plans for that booklet. We want to offer a fully modular GM screen that you can stick together yourself, and that only has the bits you need to run this session. So you’ll be able to pick out sections for - say - Tier 3 encounters, and aelfir names, and Technology and Occult delve inspiration, and tack them to your board ready to run that overpriced Vermissian ramble for gullible up-Spire high elf tourists that your players cooked up at the end of the last session.
Broadly: we wanted to give every Heart GM the chance to make their own lunatic murderboard, stitched together with hope and good intentions (and probably some blue-tack), and we reckon that this might be the best way to do it.
We're also hosting a discussion thread on the Backerkit to see what sorts of tables and references Heart GMs would like included in the booklet. Join in here and we might just make your most twisted dreams come true.
£55,000: Sar’s doing more art for us. They’ve already done loads but we’re paying them to do some more - incidental stuff mainly, to round out our collection and make sure every spread is as beautiful as it can possibly be.
Next up: more stretch goals! We’ll say more about that sort of thing in the future, so stay tuned to the campaign and let's see how deep this Delve will go.
- RRD
