Quick Progress Update & City Map Preview
over 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 04:24:32 PM

Hey everyone! Quick update for today.

Progress Update

We've done a lot of work in the month since our last update, and we're now up to wrapping up the final bits of our writing and layout, and all of the mechanics are completely finalized. There are only a few bits of flavor sections that we need to finish up the writing and layout on, which mostly consist of some of the interviews with Reverb throughout the book. At the start of January, we'll quickly finish up the few bits we need to finalize, then we'll be moving on to editing the entire book. Currently, we're right on track for the Beta PDF release on January 31st.

Reminder About Locking Orders

We want to quickly remind everyone that we'll be locking orders on January 7th, then charging cards for add-ons and pre-orders one week after, on January 14th. After orders are locked, you'll still be able to change your shipping address up until February 21st.

City Map Preview

Lastly, we wanted to share a preview of the map of Prismatic Falls, Crystalpunk's core location. It's by a new artist who has recently started working with us on the project, Ferdinand Ladera. We'll be including a full-res version of this map, as well as the continent map, along with all reward tiers and pre-orders.

Enjoy the holiday season everyone!

Have questions? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Cheers,

The Plus Three Press Team

The Final Stages & an Updated Project Timeline
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 01:43:49 AM

Hey everyone!

With our initial delivery deadline closely approaching, today we’ve got an update on our timeline for the final stages of the project. Over the past 8 months we have made a considerable amount of progress towards finishing the Campaign Guide:

• We have refined and finalized almost all of the game mechanics and character options within the book into its final form, using the great feedback you provided us during our two playtests, as well as through our own internal playtests.
• The three of us have completed about 75% of the actual writing, with the rest of it currently in bullet-point form waiting to be properly done up. The lore and worldbuilding is pretty much complete at this stage.
• We have completed the graphical layout for about half of the book (mostly the mechanical sections). There’s a small preview of how the pages of the book will look at the end of this update.
• Our artists have been hard at work and have finished almost every single illustration required for this project.

At this stage, we've realized that we need more time for this project in order to ensure that the Campaign Guide is of the quality we are striving towards. In addition, we now need to account for expected difficulties with shipping logistics due to port congestion, which will likely set back the delivery date of physical copies.

The final PDF of the Campaign Guide will now be released at the end of February, and we are pushing for physical copies to be delivered by the end of May. 

The digital version of the Campaign Guide will now be released on our initial delivery deadline of February 2022, and the physical copies will now likely arrive in May, barring any major issues regarding port congestion when we get there. If you were planning to play a Crystalpunk campaign around February, we hope that the digital release will be enough to get that up and running in place of the physical copy at that time.

An Updated Timeline

January 2022

•  Jan 7th: Locking orders for add-ons and preorders (addresses are not being locked at this time).
•  Jan 14th: Charging cards for add-ons and preorders.
•  Jan 31st: Release of a Beta Campaign Guide PDF, which will include everything from the final. This is to ensure that no typos or similar small mistakes make it into print.

February 2022

•  Feb 21st: Locking addresses for physical copies.
•  Feb 28th: Release of the final Campaign Guide PDF (along with HD Wallpapers).
•  Feb 28th: Production & shipping for the physical copies of the Campaign Guide begins.

May 2022

•  During May: Estimated delivery time for physical copies. 
•  May 1st: Release of the Crystalpunk Chronicles eBook.

Reasons for the Delay

1. We underestimated the amount of time required in order to achieve the quality we want. During this year, we spent much more time ‘figuring stuff out’ than we anticipated — that is, writing art briefs, finding artists, finding organizational methods to make sure all three of us had the same idea about major worldbuilding elements, and learning that not every single one of our ideas could make it into the final book. Overall, we underestimated the difficulty that came with the scale of the product and working with such a small team, spending much more time on non-writing tasks than we anticipated. However, now having worked on this book for so long, we are confident that with this extra time we will be able to finish the book and make it to a quality that we will be happy with.

2. Incoming shipping challenges related to port congestion. The current port congestion and supply chain challenges may affect the delivery of physical books, so we’ve had to increase our expected shipping time to account for it. This has added an extra month to our estimated time for production and shipping, though there is a chance that we still have bad luck with the process. We are communicating with our manufacturer to see how best we can attempt to avoid these issues.

FAQ

• Should I worry about the project not being completed? No. This is a passion project for us and we are 100% committed to finishing the entire project and making it the best it can be. We also require no additional funding of any kind to complete the project and have been careful with the funds raised from our backers.
• Can I cancel my pledge? We understand that this new timeline may not work for you. If you want to refund your pledge, please send us a message over Kickstarter or send your backer info over to [email protected].
• How can I update my shipping address? Visit https://crystalpunk.backerkit.com and request your survey link by entering your backer email address. You’ll receive an email with a link back to your survey, where you can update your shipping information.

Thank you so much for your patience!

We understand that it has been quite a bit of time since the Kickstarter dropped, and we greatly appreciate your patience with this project and your trust in us to deliver. We truly want you to be impressed with the final product and we will use this extra time to ensure that the book is of the highest quality it can be. 

Here’s a little preview of how the style for the Campaign Guide has evolved and how it will end up looking. It features some of our completed interior spreads and our updated cover artwork in action.

Thanks everyone, have a great week!

Have questions? email us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Cheers,

The Plus Three Press Team

Backgrounds & Bad Guys Playtest and More!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Oct 10, 2021 at 04:45:13 AM

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since our last update on the project, so we’ve got a lot to share today. We have a new playtest to share with you, an update on our progress on the Campaign Guide, and some awesome new artwork to show off.

Firstly, we're excited to release the second of the two Crystalpunk playtest documents — Backgrounds & Bad Guys! This document contains backgrounds for player characters to choose from as well as monster and NPC statblocks for GMs to use in their Crystalpunk games. We're looking forward to hearing what you think about everything inside!

How do I get the PDF?

If you're a backer of any reward tier, or have pre-ordered the PDF of the Campaign Guide, you can download the Backgrounds & Bad Guys PDF by logging into your BackerKit account and clicking on the Crystalpunk project in your list of projects. There, you can click on "Get Your Digital Downloads" to download the playtest PDF. You will also receive an email containing a link to access the playtest.

If you haven’t made a BackerKit account yet, you can create one using the same email you used on Kickstarter. Once it's set up and activated, you should see Crystalpunk in the project list and be able to download the PDF by following the steps above.

If you test some of the options found in the document and have some feedback for us, be sure to head over to bit.ly/crystal-feedback2. We'd love to know what you think!

Progress on the Campaign Guide

We have been working steadily on all of the aspects of the campaign guide, and are currently at the stage of organizing all of our writing and ideas into the final layout. We still have a bit more actual writing ahead of us, as some aspects of the project have been larger tasks than anticipated — particularly, the writing of art briefs and getting all of our concepts and ideas together in a refined and satisfying way (we have had A LOT of ideas!) However, we are committed to work hard and meet the projected delivery date while also making sure the Campaign Guide is refined, easy to understand, and fun to read. 

In regards to the character options and gameplay mechanics, we are extremely thankful for all of the ideas and feedback you have given us through the forms and over at our Discord. Many of the mechanics in the book have been improved since the playtest, and we truly couldn't have done it without the feedback from the community. Thanks so much!

New Artwork

Our artists have been hard at work creating so many amazing pieces for the Campaign Guide and we’d like to show off a few of them today. Firstly, we have one of our Prismatic Falls illustrations by Dimitry, showing off some demon-fueled trains, airships, and elevators. 

Next, we have some new concepts for equipment and armor by Selin, featuring a channeling rifle, an arcane watch, a tactical shield, a tactical vest, and an arcatech guitar. 

Lastly, we wanted to show off our updated cover artwork for the Campaign Guide — Ozan worked on this amazing revision that we think is going to look awesome on the cover. 

Have a great week everyone!

Have questions? email us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Cheers,

The Plus Three Press Team

Crystalpunk Playlists!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 02:36:15 PM

Hey everyone!

The Crystalpunk Spotify playlists are here! These 12 playlists have been created specifically to be used as background music for your Crystalpunk games and each has a unique mood and pace to fit different scenarios. We’ve been using these in our home games to make sure each fits their intended mood, and we think they work quite well! You can access them at our Spotify page here: bit.ly/crystalplaylists

The best way to use these playlists is to put each one in a folder on your own account for ease of access, switching to the relevant playlist when the situation in game changes. Also, be sure to use shuffle and crossfade for the smoothest experience. Let us know if you have any song suggestions or thoughts on these playlists — we’ll be adjusting and tinkering with them over time.

Have a great week everyone!

Have questions? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Cheers,

The Plus Three Press Team

New Artwork & More
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 06:25:50 PM

Hey everyone! Just a quick update today.

Playtest Feedback

Thank you everyone for all of the awesome feedback on the playtest! There’s already a lot of great ideas, suggestions, and thoughts on the game mechanics presented which is helping us immensely as we iterate them further. We really hope you are having fun with the content presented and are looking forward to hearing more thoughts from everyone on how we can improve it.

New Artwork

Our artists have been hard at work creating a variety of different pieces for the Campaign Guide, including environmental pieces to show off the world and character pieces to provide visuals for the races and character options. One piece we’d like to show off is the awesome new concepts for the magic-fueled weapons by Selin, which you can find below. It features a Runetech Rifle, Pistol, and Shotgun, as well as a Runetech Hammer and Arcatech Blade.

We’re also excited to introduce another new artist who will be working with us on the artwork for the Campaign Guide: Yanli Wang. Here’s one of the awesome pieces he’s done for us recently: a nightclub in Prismatic Falls.

Finally, a quick update on surveys — over 96% have been completed! That’s almost everyone, thank you!

Have a great week everyone!

Have questions? Email us at [email protected] or join the Discord!

Cheers,

The Plus Three Press Team