One Hundred to Oni - Chapters 1-3
over 2 years ago – Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 05:45:33 AM

We've finally wrapped up the PDF for the first three chapters of One Hundred to Oni, a print-and-play mecha campaign that ended up being way more ambitious than we expected. It's Mass Effect, the Expanse, and Gundam rolled into one. If you purchased it, you should be able to download it via BackerKit!

Here's what's in this release:

Chapter 1 shows off how to run the campaign and explains our new innovations: NPC companions, which give you special abilities to use in combat, and abbreviated statblocks, which make every monster and NPC a breeze for the GM.

Chapter 2 fleshes out Lakshay and the Warzone into their own full-on setting. There are factions, NPCs, planets, intrigue, and more!

Chapter 3 begins the campaign in earnest, introducing the characters as battleframe pilots in training at Kade Academy, undergoing their final weeks of classes before they take the deadly final exam: the L.A.N.C.E. This section of the campaign acts as a standalone 2-level campaign that amounts to Mecha-Hogwarts, so if you want to dip into a short, low-level campaign, this is a great fit.

I'm hard at work editing and formatting the remaining chapters! Stay tuned. 

Also, now that the distribution of hardcovers is over, I've taken down the preorder store. So if you didn't grab One Hundred to Oni already, you'll have a bit to wait before you can take a look at it. I'll set up a place to download this campaign, as well as other Dark Matter products, on the Mage Hand Press store soon.

Last Shipping Update?
over 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 01:27:40 AM

Hey all! I think we’re shipping out the final wave of orders for those who have preordered on BackerKit. Importantly:

If you pledged and didn’t receive your order OR your order arrived damaged, send an email to [email protected] and we’ll get you squared away!

For those who have digital rewards:

You should be able to download all your digital rewards via BackerKit!

The last wave of pre-orders is going out in 48 hours! That means we’ll be locking addresses and charging cards for these orders in 24 hours. Make sure everything is set before we press the button.

I know a few orders have been lost in transit or stuck in international limbo. If you have any questions or think your order isn’t on its way, please email us at the address above. We want to make sure every order gets to its destination.

Oni!

We’ll also be sending out the PDF for the first half of One Hundred to Oni -- a standalone low-level campaign in its own right -- at the end of the month. I think you’ll be really interested in seeing what we’re doing with it.

What’s Next for Dark Matter?

We’ll do occasional updates as we finish up One Hundred to Oni, but the next big thing on the horizon is moving our products to the Mage Hand Press store and to Amazon, so more folks can dive into this campaign setting. We have plans for yet more Kickstarters in the not-too-distant future, and I think you’ll love what we’ve come up with.

Another Shipping Update!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 04:32:46 PM

Packages are shipping at the end of this week and early next week!

Last Books Shipping!

Getting this last chunk of packages shipping has been like pulling teeth. Suffice it to say, we’ve learned a lot of lessons, and in particular, we’ve learned that our fulfillment partner is really bad at handling Kickstarter-style traffic. We’ll be switching out of using this company as soon as possible, but you deserve a glimpse into the process we’ve dealt with so far.

In December, our orders went out fast -- faster than we expected. Somehow, the shipments were set to fulfill as soon as the spreadsheet was imported, which was a problem because we couldn’t make sure everything was working properly before shipping. Many orders were fine, but many more were WAY more than they should have been (like higher than normal international shipping rates for domestic packages).

Thus begins a saga of emailing and calling back and forth and getting very few solid answers from the fulfillment company. We wanted to know why our rates were higher than quoted, how to fix problems with imported orders, how to fix problems with orders that their previous fixes introduced, and so on. All in all, we had to fix everything by hand, reimporting around a thousand orders line by line. Moreover, we’ve actually done this about three times, because the system has no tolerance for weird data and doesn’t tell you which line of the spreadsheet has weird data. And we spent a good chunk of time simply waiting on the fulfillment company’s representatives to email us back. This sort of email tag with other companies isn’t terribly surprising, but the holidays really magnified the delays even through January.

However, we've gotten through the cruft and packages are going out! 

Order Issues?

If you receive your order and something is wrong -- damage, missing something, etc. -- send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "My Dark Matter Order", and we'll fix it right away.

Oni is Coming!

I’ve been working my butt off on One Hundred to Oni this month and this campaign is looking so cool. Let’s talk about how the scope of the campaign has shifted to give you some perspective on that.

Originally, One Hundred to Oni was going to be a very straightforward mid-level adventure following a squadron of mecha pilots across the Warzone, battling orcs and other nasty threats. I originally planned it as a sort of Apocalypse Now sort of thing -- deep in enemy territory, searching for a rogue operative from your side.

The first thing that changed was the level structure. In order to accommodate players and GMs who want to run this from 1st level instead of 3rd or 5th, we thought we’d add a short adventure at a boot camp before the characters earn their mecha wings. This section of the adventure ballooned into something really amazing: now it’s a huge, three-chapter campaign set in and around a mecha academy where you attend classes and befriend other cadets, who are all just trying to survive and prepare for the big, dangerous final exam. Think Howarts, but it’s mecha school. At last count, it had ten individual quests set in and around the school before you even get to 3rd level.

And those quests influence the rest of the campaign in a huge way. If you’ve ever played Mass Effect, you know how much a cast of companion characters can draw you into the story. Tons of these quests are tied into your NPC companions, who will graduate with you and prove to be powerful allies or sinister rivals in your mecha career ahead.

Once the players get out into the ‘verse, it’s also much more open than we originally planned. The writers really wanted to flesh out the Warzone as a standalone setting within Dark Matter, and they’ve done a terrific job of that so far. This contrasts a lot with Grax’s Club, which is more friendly to new DMs, but doesn’t offer a lot of space outside of the pre-scripted plot to improvise a wider world outside. To that end, One Hundred to Oni has a whole chapter outlining the important factions and world info that you’ll need to explore this corner of the ‘verse.

Lastly, I want to formally mention that, while One Hundred to Oni is a print-and-play book (and will run perfectly in that format), we are developing it so that it can turn into a full hardcover book with finished art in the near future. And we’ll be giving a PDF of that to everyone who bought this version.

Quick Shipping Update
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 02:55:26 AM

Hey all!

We've got everything in the warehouse as of a couple of days ago and we're getting everyone's packages ready to ship out. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you wanted your package a little earlier), the warehouse started shipping orders the second they got stock, so it's been really chaotic.

We've been playing telephone tag with the warehousing folks (who are understandably slammed with the holidays) trying to get the last few details lined up -- specifically, trying to get tracking information for orders before they're already in your hands, trying to make sure they stop massively overcharging us for orders, and making sure they don't send out way too many copies of books and starter kits to folks who ordered the slipcase (because of course that couldn't go perfectly smoothly!)

Many of you have your books already, some are in the mail, and a handful more are shipping soon. For everyone who is still waiting, hang on for a bit longer and I'll have better info on all the remaining orders soon!

December Update
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 12:34:32 AM

Lighting quick update in three parts:

1. First wave of shipping is indeed going out! The continental US gets stuff fast, so a few of you have books in hand. We're still working on wrangling tracking info for you.

2. All of the product is in the country and through customs. We're waiting on the dice boxes to ship to us from Wyrmwood (which should only be a couple of days) and on freight shipping to Texas. Then everything should be shipping out! I'll keep you posted when all of that happens.

3. We'll be at PAX Unplugged (properly masked and such.) If you'll be in Philadelphia from the 10th to 12th, come visit us at Booth 3639 and say hello!

Hopefully, I'll have another update for you before the holidays. If not, have a happy and nerdy holiday!