$132K (thank you!) and the future of FIST
over 2 years ago – Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 01:09:25 PM

$132K RAISED!

Hello, operatives! It's been one hell of a month, and we hope you'll forgive us for running out of stamina and taking some time to rest in the coming weeks. From now on, you can expect an update at least once a month, and probably no more than once a week. If you'd like to follow along with development more closely (and contribute to the game's direction), we frequently post snippets of what we're working on in our Discord, via the #workshop channel.

With the help of a thousand-and-a-half backers (many longtime FIST fans, some new recruits), we've gathered the funds to deliver you an amazing box set by the end of next summer, and collected some accolades to boot! Since the Kickstarter began, FIST has been covered by prestigious publications like Forbes, Cannibal Halfling, and the Bastionland Presser (with a very cool livestreamed readthrough by Chris McDowall). 

Thank you so much to everyone who has spread the word, bought the game, and given us feedback over the years - with these funds, we can make the full-set experience we've been envisioning from the start. When your fantasy adventurers must return from the borderlands, when your mech pilots and cyberpunks tire of tactics and toxic love, when your starfighters and space-smugglers can travel no more, know this - that box has a mission, should you choose to accept it. Contained unassumingly, in this simple black box: the tools and knowledge needed to play FIST forever. 

STRETCH GOALS

We never got a chance to properly update the page during that last surge of funding, but the $125K PEER AID POCKET HANDBOOK stretch goal was unlocked! We've been excitedly discussing this one a lot, and we'll have more to share on it soon. In the meantime, here's a full-size version of the placeholder cover we've been using for CRY HAVOC:

There are a few things we'd hoped to include that we didn't quite raise enough for, namely an upgrade to the GOTY hardcover tier (which was chosen by the vast majority of backers), and the big finale megadungeon called CONTROL GROUP. We also had a few more stretch goals up our sleeve just in case a miracle happened and we surged past $200K - these were a poster-sized map for CONTROL GROUP (perhaps usable with miniatures), and an official FIST Actual Play. As we develop the box set, we're going to re-appraise the budget and scope for each goal and see if we can deliver them to you anyway. No promises, of course, but working within a very tight (or zero) budget has always been the type of challenge we enjoy. Restrictions breed creativity, as they say - and if FIST was a TV show, it'd be made on a budget of spit and nickels.

PLEDGE MANAGER

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause (and we'll do our best to give regular updates as to the shipping situation), but we won't be able to send out the Backerkit pledge manager email for a while. Before we can charge shipping, we need to know what exactly is going in the box set, and then we need to figure out its exact weight, and anticipate how shipping rates might change by August 2024, etc. There are some Kickstarters which get this email out right away, usually because they're run by professionals with capital - this does not describe us. Personally, most of my work experience is in the chain restaurant industry, so: hang tight. We're figuring things out we've never had to figure out before.

We hope to make pre-orders, additional add-ons, and tier-switching available via Backerkit, and we think these things will be possible if we're doing all the setup right. If there turns out to be some hitch, we'll keep you updated.

EARLY SHIPPING and PDFs

While the ship date for all rewards has been set to August 2024 (which is when we anticipate being able to send out the box sets), there are some things which we may obviously be able to send earlier. We'll be sending the bookmarks out to early backers who claimed them much sooner than everything else.  We're also looking into shipping core rulebooks out to people who ordered them with no other add-ons, but it may be best to leave the tiers alone so there's no confusion with the distributor. 

PDF delivery will be via itch.io keys. Keep an eye on your email for a message from itch which says you have a game available to download. Right now, we're trying to set it up so that you don't have to have an itch account to download, but we highly recommend making an itch account and claiming the keys we're going to send out, so you can be looped into the devlog, get any new digital files that we plan to bundle with the game (like the Quickstart Guide PDF), and get our emails, which will now be very normal and not annoying since we don't have a crowdfunder to push. 

That's all for now! Thank you again, everyone - we couldn't have done it without you.

All the best,

CLAYMORE

$100K and the home stretch...
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 04:31:36 PM

Hello everyone! It feels absolutely unreal, but here we stand: just past the $100K mark, with a whole new campaign for FIST locked in and beginning production. This means that, in addition to the upcoming SUPPLY DROP companion book we'd been putting together before the campaign launched, you'll be getting an entirely new setting and adventure unlike any FIST material you've seen before, all because you supported the game. Thank you, operatives... here's looking forward to CRY HAVOC.

Even if we don't meet our other stretch goals, we will reassess to see if they're possible with a smaller budget, so they won't be fully out of the question just yet (but may come in heavily revised, scaled-down, or digital-only form). We'll wait until after the campaign has wrapped to update you, and we certainly hope we can make two more new books (and spiff up the GOTY Hardcover/Box) the way we'd originally envisioned. The last few days usually see a jump in funding due to an influx of last-minute backers, so never say never - but if you want the biggest, baddest version of the box set, show folks the game and send 'em this way!

We ordered the bookmarks! If you backed in the first 48 hours, we'll try to send you one way before everything else ships.

For now, we're absolutely beat from a month of planning, promo-ing, press-kitting, and printing. A proper update about CRY HAVOC is coming soon, once we have some more concept art to show off!

Best,

CLAYMORE

Interview cross-promo with IKO!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Sep 17, 2023 at 01:39:52 PM

Hey folks! We decided to do a cross-promo between Kickstarters for this campaign, kind of like how Triangle Agency did a promo with us (if you haven't heard about that - there's a FIST x TA crossover mission on the way, more about that in a different update).

https://open.substack.com/pub/thelostbaystudio/p/exclusive-interview-claymore-designer?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For this one, we've partnered with IKO. In exchange for an exclusive newsletter interview (the only interview we've ever done!) which covers some tidbits about FIST's development, we're posting an IKO transmission about a Mothership bundle set that'll be launching next month! IKO, you have the floor...

/// INCOMING TRANSMISSION - ORIGIN: FLUMEN SECTOR

Hey Claymore, thanks for the space!

I’m transmitting this classified data from our secret off-world location. Here we’re preparing the imminent launch of Outer Rim Uprising, a mega bundle and boxed set for the Sci-Fi horror RPG Mothership. It’s the sixth bundle we publish, and by far the most ambitious one. It’s packed with zines, pamphlets, and player facing accessories that build an extensive setting. At the fringes of the galaxy, xeno horrors dwell and corrupt megacorps push their techno experiments beyond any bearable limit, while androids and humans unite and create rebel factions to reclaim power.

In the Outer Rim, the adventurers take part in the clashes between corps and rebels, face horrors, survive.

The bundle is highly modular, which might appeal to FIST operatives. You can use it to inject some spice into one of your Mothership sessions (for example using the faster than light supplement BLINK by David Blandy) or to run terrifying one shots (like The Hunger in Achernar by D. Kenny). You can also build a campaign out of several modules.

The bundle is not only a collection of cool zines, but also a box filled with kickass tools and many player-facing accessories. Game masters can drop on the table maps, blueprints, NPC cards, audio tape and more.

The bundle items are 100% original and compatible with the latest Mothership edition (1E). They are connected to create a vast setting, sharing NPCs, events, factions, locations.

On top of this, we’ve concocted the Campaign Handbook, the crown jewel of the Outer Rim and the real connective tissue of the bundle. It features a series of frameworks designed to help you quickstart an Outer Rim Uprising game, one shot or campaign. It’s filled with many cool generators, hideouts, factions, gear and even custom classes. Josh Domanski has written procedures to manage corp response over the arc of a longer campaign, making corporations the new true antagonist the players will face. The Campaign Handbook is a playground inside the playground, and it alone is probably enough to back the bundle!

The team behind the bundle is a roster of seasoned designers, most of them returning Mothership designers. We’ve worked for months to build security-for-hire megacorps; android labor strikes at gas-harvesting plants; failing experimental jump drives; a mysterious hunger haunting a derelict ship; high-security prison sabotage in a barely breathable atmosphere; illegal cybernetic parts for sale; and much, much more.

Outer Rim Uprising goes live October 3 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/outer-rim-uprising

/// END TRANSMISSION - DESTROY LOGS

And that's that! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the interview and the info about IKO's Outer Rim Uprising.

Best,

CLAYMORE

New stretch goals, add-on updates, and hardcover specs!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 07:21:34 PM

Hey everyone! Looks like the funding percentage is still screaming forward now that we're halfway through the campaign, and we're excited to (hopefully) bring you CRY HAVOC, our kaiju island pointcrawl campaign. CRY HAVOC will unlock at $100K, so tell your friends about the game! Here's a sketch of IKARA, QUEEN OF THE SEA:

We've added some new add-ons to the campaign: signed misprints, intel cassette tapes, and acknowledgements that come with community copies. If you're one of the 38 people who purchased the $200 "one of everything" tier, these will get added on automatically (and if any of you 38 fine folks wants an option to opt out of these rewards, we'll work out a solution).

We're announcing a new book for the set which will unlock at $125K! The PEER AID POCKET HANDBOOK will be an in-universe pocket zine outlining essential peer aid skills and principles for ultrahuman mercs (such as patient autonomy, effective communication, and somatemporal analysis), with pages of new tables, fieldnotes, and mechanics for practicing radical unlicensed medicine as needed. We considered making this new book exclusive to the GOTY tier, but ultimately decided that we didn't want to restrict any content we make on the basis of whether or not one can afford something expensive (and it would be particularly antithetical in this case). 

Here are the GOTY hardcover specs: 

• 160 pages, uncoated 80 lb text paper, black and white interior printing
• Matte cover finish (softcovers are glossy)
• Smyth-sewn binding
•  NEW $150K STRETCH GOAL: Black bookmark ribbon and full-color alternate cover illustration

We had hoped to offer foil embellishments as part of the GOTY hardcover as well, but our printer has stopped offering them for hardcovers since we began planning the campaign. If this feature comes back by the time we manufacture the books (or if we're able to find an alternate printer), and we can afford it, we'll post an update and ask if GOTY backers want foil! No matter what happens, we'll make sure the GOTY hardcover is a unique, durable item you can't get anywhere else.

That's all for now! We have a handful of stretch goals to reveal if we make it past $200K, but none of them are anything crazy (just an additonal poster and an Actual Play), and we don't expect to add stretch goals past $250K. We don't want to fall into the Kickstarter trap of piling on more and more doodads, and $250K would be a pretty impressive number to end on considering where we are now at the halfway point!

All the best,

CLAYMORE

$75K STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED - foil RATIONS sleeves for every box set + more add-on news!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 05:47:14 PM

Hey everyone! We just passed our $75K stretch goal, which means every box set tier ($35 box with no rulebook, $70 standard box, $100 GOTY box, and $200 combo) gets these foil carrying sleeves. They're extremely cool and we'd like everyone who can afford a box set to have one! We're thinking about modifications to current stretch goals (and interim stretch goals we might slip between the existing ones) which will add more exclusive GOTY upgrades, too. Please feel free to comment any ideas you might have - how about a foil cover design for the GOTY hardcover? A bookmark ribbon? Let us know!

The next stretch goal is the coolest one. It's another full-color campaign kit, brand-new, designed from the ground up for FIST: Ultra Edition. It's called CRY HAVOC, and we're $25K away from making it.

CRY HAVOC will be an open-world pointcrawl campaign on a hidden archipelago where ancient, magical megafauna are tended to by alien refugees who touched down before history began. The world became aware of these beings when IKARA, QUEEN OF THE SEA laid waste to a coastal city which dared dump toxic waste into her ocean. Since then, a villainous defense contractor has set their sights on the island, hoping to weaponize the kaiju, oust the aliens, and pawn the project off to the highest bidder. Instead of getting their own hands dirty, they've hired a PMC called the DOGS OF WAR, led by a mysterious cyborg warrior known only as HOWLING HOUND. It's up to FIST - that's you, the players - to liberate island outposts, defeat the enemy mercs, and learn the hidden history of Earth's kaiju gods.

We're terribly excited to possibly make this campaign, and humbly ask that you spread the word about CRY HAVOC to anyone who may be interested! 

 We've also got more add-on mockups to show! This is the homebrew storage binder as a physical object. Here are the first three pin designs...

The other three, as well as the referee screen, are still incoming. Thanks for reading, and here's to CRY HAVOC (and $100K!)

Best,

CLAYMORE