Zephyr: An Anarchist Roleplaying Game Of Fleeting Identities

Update #18 - July Update! NPCs, Digital Tabletop and other bits
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 12:05:48 AM

Hello kinfolk!

I'm writing from an airport now since I'm jaunting from Tokyo to Fukuoka and back doing immigration stuff and prepping my apartment to move back to the south. This month has been very hectic and stressful on that end, which meant sadly I couldn't finish the book by this week, which was what I wished to do. I'm sorry! I hope next month, finally settled in my new place after the move I'll be able to send out the PDF. In the meantime, however, we did lots, and I wanted to let y'all know...

We are almost done with the NPCs for backers! The end result is swell and I've loved every second of working with these fellas. It's great because after three years of drawing Windfolk non-stop, whether you want it or not you start to settle and run out of ideas to spice-up their design. But working with y'all really revitalized the designs and inspired me to switch things up; it was very enriching, even for a creative loner like I am.

I also got to solve one design problem I had, which was the planning of my character sheet design and shifting stuff around and finalizing a design for it. The thing is, I had made changes to the rules from the last time (ages ago) that I had worked on the character sheet, and to reflect that (basically adding Traits) I needed to rework the sheet, and to change the function of the second sheet. 

This month I got to do exactly that, reworked the main character sheet, and will modify and render the second page so that it basically has the Cargo section (so all items) and the rest of the sheet is dedicated entirely to showcase a rules summary for players to reference. I think it's a very good use for the space of the second sheet, since Zephyr is already a pretty non-conventional game that has some heft to its mechanics, and so players would benefit a lot from having a quick rules summary there. Also, since the main other thing featured in the second sheet is the stuff you are carrying, I'll make it as if its the interior of a bag - the cover of which you "pull up" (the first character sheet) when you need to check inside : D (something like the sketch below)

Another big thing this month is that, with our discord community we been talking a bit about online platforms for Zephyr. The challenge ofc here is how to port the more physical, boardgamey aspects of the game online, in a way that's also accessible. For example, some of the more fleshed-out tabletop sims in the 3D department might have accessibility issues and quirks that make them not very friendly for TTRPG use, while the more TTRPG-ish simulators have good functionality for TTRPGs, forms, sheets, but no physics and the like. We are starting to test out platforms, have already tried Tabletop Simulator, and now we are trying out Role, which seems quite easy to access (but still need to adapt to the lack of 3D functionality). We'll be trying this one this Sunday with the playtest group and see how it runs, so we have a better image for what makes for the best online platform for Zephyr (whether going for something more boardgamey that is more unwieldy for PDF handling and stuff, or something more TTRPGish with little/no physics involved)

If you happen to know of a platform that you think would be a good option for Zephyr, this is a great time to mention it since we continue to test them out and find the best suiting one!

That's it for today. Thanks for your patience and for enthusiasm for the game! Remember you can join our Discord here if you wanna chat.

Best wishes,

Federico

Update #17 - End of June!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Jul 03, 2023 at 06:18:49 AM

Hi Windfolk!

A bit late to this one, but still reporting in. June was a pretty chill month for me; I took a couple of weeks off, had to handle immigration stuff, but still managed to round up and finish the character creation comics :) that means that Zephyr's current status is basically... there's one or two spreads left, as well as finishing off the backer characters, but we can safely say we are entering text edits territory. In fact, that's gonna be my main task the coming weeks: I expect I'll be able to send you a pre-edits PDF of the game book by July! Looking foward to hear your thoughts and feedback, and we'll have a chance to integrate any notes to our editorial pass.

So in summary, what's gonna be happening on my end in July:

-Finish a couple of final spreads

-Finish backer characters

-Start proofreading and doing some light edits before moving into actual line edits

So a quiet month overall, but next month should have you getting goodies in the end!

As always, appreciate your support and patience as we continue production, and let me know of any questions you may have!

Best wishes,

Federico

Update #16 - End of May Update!
over 1 year ago – Mon, May 29, 2023 at 10:03:13 PM

Hello kinfolk!

The end of the month is upon us and so I wanted to send you some notes on how everything is going. Basically... pretty well! I'm running out of bits to write and illustrate, we are only a couple of spreads left to fill out, and I managed to also refurbish some older illustrations/comic sections. I'm very happy with how comics are turning out, I think it'll be a really impactful part of the game during character creation :)

After that, I've taken the time to finalize several regional spreads as well as a few spreads tied to the Storehouse (where players can fetch the objects they'll take on their journey)

I've been also working with backers on their characters for the NPC section, I really like the ideas folk have come up with, and hope they find a life in y'alls games when you plug them in!

If you haven't emailed me yet for these, please do so at your earliest since we have time throughout June and July to flesh out your character :)

Aside from that, on a more personal note, I was fortunate that my current visa got extended for three months while my company visa gets processed by the government. It means I don't have to return to Argentina while I wait, which could have been quite hard for me, so I'm glad that's out of the picture. It allows me to focus on sticking to my current aims of sending the game to print around July-August :) which will give us more than enough time to edit the game and get it out the door in a timely manner. 

My next assignments, aside from finishing a couple of spreads. is to print and further test new variants of my character sheet. I think I can redesign it slightly to allow for more space and more clarity of usage for folk. I also will be doing a couple readthroughs to polish up the prose before going to edits.

If you have any questions, please reach out, and I hope to send you more good news at the end of next month!

Best wishes,

Federico

Update #15 - End of April Update!
over 1 year ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 03:46:01 AM

Hi kinfolk!

End of April is here and I wanted to give the usual end of the month report for how Zephyr is going :) 

This month I started to send surveys and charge for shipping, since we (fortunately) didn't have to change warehouses like last kickstarter, now our pricing, and also I am starting production for the Zephyr tokens. This is because that element in particular is going to be manufactured in a different place than our printer, so it's good to get those sorted before we start printing the maps, books, and boxes (which are all done in the same place). If you backed Xanadu, you know what to expect for the book quality - I was very happy with their finished result, the colors were very rich, so I'm hooting to see Zephyr's illos in there :)

Speaking of illustrations, this month I finished work in our Ophoi world map! This was the largest piece for the game, and I'm quite happy with how it ended up:

The map has a lot of detail in it, it's a big file and it gets cut up to represent the smaller regions in Ophoi. Hope y'all enjoy it!

I also have been working on the backer characters, so if you haven't reached out for your character and have backed on the two top tiers, lemme know so we can start working on them!

And I've also been working on a slew of new illustrations for the book :) There's only a few left now, and so I've been alternating more between pure illustration and filling out these sections as of late!

Relevant to this is that I upgraded my music composition tools, so I'm tinkering with the Zephyr OST. My idea is to make two specific categories of tracks that can service narration - one being your classic, long, subdued ambient pieces that you can leave in the background and that can represent different biomes of Ophoi while not getting in the way of the conversation. The other is a bit less subdued, and aimed at being around 40-60 seconds long, which you can play when you narrate the introduction to a new scene, locale, or situation (which, at least to me, is a usual happening when GMing). Here and here are a couple samples of how that could sound like.

That's it for today! My plans are that the book should be finished around July/August, which would give us more than enough time for edits and polishing :) I'll come back to y'all next month around this time (or earlier if there's something I think it's important to announce). Remember you can reach out to me at any time.

Have a good one!

Federico

Update #14 - Surveys Notification!
over 1 year ago – Sun, Apr 09, 2023 at 06:32:13 PM

Hello kinfolk!

I wanted to make a quick update today since I'll be starting to send out backer surveys this month, so expect to be receiving an email soon. Last project we did, I sent the surveys quite late since we were dealing with all the shipping issues of both the pandemic and the change of warehouse, which ain't the case this time, so now you'll have plenty of time to fill them out (and, in case of a change of address, notify me to [email protected])

Aside from that, not many news on my end! The Patterns section is coming out good, I'm filling out a few more entries for the Creature section, and I've added the last mechanic I had been cooking for the game, Entwining, about which I will talk in the next update :D

Also wanted to chuck out a quick reminder to folk that backed the project at the Kingsnatcher and Gods Unravelled level to contact me so we can build y'all characters and illustrate them :)

That's all for today!

See you in the next one,

Fede