The Prophecy of the Grand Amplifier
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 09:37:49 PM

In the age of broken logic, the Grand Amplifier will appear and the lost eye will open the way to the mind chamber of the Primaries, forever sealing the Light from the Darkness.

– Possible translation of the opening line from the 587 stanza Masters’ inscription commonly known as “The Prophecy of the Grand Amplifier,” and generally acknowledged as the most intelligible of the entire epigraph.

Everyone knows the myth of the Grand Amplifier. A story told by old sailors and grandmothers to their skeptical crewmembers and wide-eyed grandchildren. A tale of lost science and ultimate Potential, of ancient machines and final hope. The Grand Amplifier was built by the Masters and was their greatest accomplishment - a device that bolstered the least Potential into absolute power. They say whoever finds it first - the Kin or the Children - will burn the other from the skies. Unlike other myths, unlike most old nursery tales, this story is different.

This story is true.

The inscription known commonly as the “Prophecy of the Grand Amplifier,” was first discovered in Cycle 87.3 UC, in an otherwise unremarkable Masters’ cache subsequently named the Archive, on the upwind border of the Dark. The text, burned into an alloy wall, appears to have been written by hand using some sort of powerful arcanoelectrical tool. The bulkhead was eventually cut free of the structure and delivered to the Explorers’ Academy for study. For over 70 cycles, definitive translation has eluded the Guild’s best minds and scholars continue to debate the meaning of the engraving. The inscription appears to document the creation of the Amplifier and provide basic instructions regarding its use - or as some translators believe, a dire warning against such activation.

_________________________________________________________________

Wondering what the heck that was? 

It's a teaser from the introductory text of the Prophecy of the Grand Amplifier campaign that I am currently - feverishly - writing. I am about 3/4 of the way through the first playtest, I started a second run through with another group last night, and to date I have drafted about 1/3 of the actual text. In other words, I am working hard on my goal of finishing the writing by the end of February. 

I would be psyched to have some playtesting done "in the wild" however, and so if you are willing to commit to a running at least a couple chapters of the PotGA campaign and providing some written feedback (I have a survey!) please contact me at [email protected] and I can share all the relevant corebook and campaign files.

Backerkit off the starboard bow!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 08:44:10 PM

________________________________________________________________________________

My partner Stewart at Nocturnal Media is running the Backerkit page for Upwind and will be launching that tomorrow! Accordingly, you should receive an email shortly thereafter with login information for the site, and once there you will be able to do a whole bunch of cool stuff.

1. You will be able to specify which add-ons you would like purchased with any additional funds you pledged over and above the cost of the backer reward level you chose during the original Upwind Kickstarter. 

 2. You will be able to purchase any add-ons – like additional Knights’ Decks or Uncharted Skies posters - that you either missed the first time around, or have since decided you would like to include. 

 3. You will also have the option to increase your pledge level - from say just the “Core book PDF,” to “All Digital Rewards” - should you decide you need more Upwind Kickstarter-exclusive goodness.

 4. You, or more importantly all the gamers you know, will be able to also use the Backerkit page to preorder Upwind products, and we would be super grateful if you passed this link on to anyone you think might be interested in the game.

  https://upwind.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders 

Please note - while we are very grateful for their additional support, those who pre-order through Backerkit will NOT receive the free stretch goals, as they are one of the major benefits of backing the original Kickstarter campaign. They will however, be able to pre-order these items through Backerkit at the listed production prices. 

5. In the spirit of the season, Stewart will also be including a number of bonus add-ons from Nocturnal Media’s growing catalog. The Story Path cards are very cool and particularly appropriate for narrative games like Upwind. Stewart is also including some discounted PDFs of Ben Dutter’s awesome RPGs as a cross-promotion between his newest publishing partners. I backed both Hunt the Wicked and Belly of the Beast when they were on Kickstarter and am a big fan! 

I do have some additional news to offer about progress on the Grand Amplifier campaign (hint: it’s going great!) and the opportunity to playtest said adventure, but I’ll save that for next week so as not to overload you with too much coolness all at once.

I before E, except after C?
over 7 years ago – Sun, Dec 11, 2016 at 07:50:47 PM

I have just completed my final edit and organization of all the Upwind core book files and sent the lot off for a final proofreading! Yay! As soon as that is complete, I am planning to share the text files here so that those of you crazy enough to take off into the skies of Upwind without even a table of contents can have at it. This should also allow for some great crowd-sourced proofreading, so don't be shy about pointing out any errors you might find!

As soon as the proofing is done, the files will go into layout. James's fantastic art will be loaded up, and then it's off to the printers April 1st. No, seriously. 

In the meantime, I am turning my attention to the Prophecy of the Grand Amplifier campaign and will be working in earnest on drafting that book over the next couple months. I am excited to focus on adventure-style writing, as in many ways it allows more creativity than working on rules and formal setting. 

The Backerkit page for Upwind should be up in the next couple of days (I will link it here when it goes live), so if there are any add-ons you want to grab, or if you have friends who missed out and want to get in with the cool kids, that will be accessible soonest. 

For those of you who backed the game at the "Child of the Dark" reward level or higher, I sent out detailed instructions this morning on how to make your canon contributions. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. 

In the meantime, I am happy to field any questions about the game and our progress. Just let me know what you're thinking...

One Week
over 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 06:13:05 AM

It's only been a week since the Upwind Kickstarter closed but we are already back at it, working hard to finish the game. I'm in the middle of the final edit, James is drawing away like a madman, John is working on the OGL and Stewart is spinning up the publishishing end so we can establish production deadlines. 

As much fun as I had running the Kickstarter, I have to say it's great to be focused on the game again - focused on creating. I can't wait to finally share Upwind, but I hope in the meantime you are enjoying the Quickstart Primer. If you have not yet downloaded your copy, you can find it here. Please let us know via email what you think about the layout or if you have any feedback of any kind regarding Upwind.

Though these images do not have finished counterparts, I wanted to share some more of James' conceptual sketches - just because they're cool. As James completes new pieces I'll be posting select images here, so stay tuned to this channel. 

Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm.

By the Numbers
over 7 years ago – Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 06:44:02 PM

30 days.

$10,000 target.

4 social media goals. 

30 updates.

5 stretch goals. 

$32,891 in final funding.

496 of the coolest, most generous backers in the uncharted skies!

1000 thanks!

Game designers often work in isolation, wondering just how our efforts will be received. To finally put Upwind out there and get the kind of positive support our Kickstarter got makes the countless hours of effort worth it. Thank you all for an amazing ride and for (over)funding the project. There's a lot of work still to be done, but now I know there's at least 496 people out there looking forward to playing the game, and that's the very best kind of motivation. Mahalo!

After the business of closing out the Kickstarter concludes, I will transition to monthly updates through this channel to keep you posted about our progress and to share artwork and previews as the project comes together. If you have any questions or comments, please email me through our website.

If you backed at any of the canon contribution levels, you will soon receive questionnaires with specific guidelines that will lead you through the process of contributing your ideas to the game. If you backed any of the levels for online tutorials or game sessions, I will be contacting you soon to schedule those events.

We will be using Backerkit to support add-ons and fulfillment, so if there's something you want to add to your pledge, or if you're late to the party and still want to get in on Upwind, you'll be able to do so through that platform. We'll update you here when that launches. 

In the meantime, play through the Primer adventure and use the rules to run your own Upwind stories, then let us know what you think. We would love to hear any feedback you care to share about the setting, the mechanics or anything else related to the Upwind project. 

As our focus transitions to getting Upwind out to you all, keep watch here and remember to Defy the Dark!

Jeff Barber, Biohazard Games