A Mid-Summer-day's Update
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 22, 2022 at 07:10:41 PM

Hey folks! 

Here's a little bit of news as far as where we are in the process and how we've been using the time since the campaign ended. 

Conventions

First off, we had the pleasure of attending Origins Game fair earlier in June in Columbus, Ohio. We ran tons of Misspent Youth games, gathering feedback and getting as many people to play Misspent Youth as possible. The games went amazingly and we got tons of positive feedback, both for Misspent Youth in general, and also for the new book in particular. The changes for Fall In Love, Not In Line really work well in a convention setting (or with time constraints), so everyone was able to finish their games within the 4 hour slot and I loved watching people hang around a bit after the game ended to talk about what they liked and how much fun they had. So that is good news. We will be attending GenCon in August as well, so if you'll be there, hop in on a game with us!

Fulfillment

As far as where we are in the process of fulfillment, the main text of the game is nearly all done, and the folks who were writing other settings for us have nearly all turned in drafts, but all have been making good progress. Next step is beginning to craft the pilot episodes for each of the new settings and give feedback to the authors for final drafts. Once that is done, it will be handed off to layout, and that will likely take the longest time of all the parts. 

Once layout is done, it is a quick stop to fulfilling PDF rewards, and depending on how manufacturing and paper supplies are, a month or so after that, books will be in your hands!

Thanks for all the support! More updates when we have them!

 - Opti

That's a Wrap!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 19, 2022 at 11:38:11 PM

You've done it, folks! $16,414 pledged, 164% funded, by you lovely 349 backers!

We are full of gratitude. 

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who backed. Thank you to everyone who told someone else to back. Thank you to everyone who shared on Facebook. Thank you to everyone who tweeted or retweeted, liked, and commented. Thanks to everyone who Instagrammed. Thank you to those of you who had us on your podcasts, radio shows, and youtube channels. Thank you to our team who worked so hard and encouraged each other daily. Thank you to those excited about the game. Thank you to those excited about justice and punk and rebellion. Thank you to the IGDN. Thank you to Indie Press Revolution. Thank you to Rem Alternis and all the collaboration we've done for this project. In particular, thank you Sarah, Ava, Chris, Sha, Elizabeth, Teslan, Janatee, Winston, Derekah, Jonapanabonjon, Danny, and whoever else I'm missing. Thank you Egg and Darryl. Thank you Palmer. Thank you Zephira, Nathan, and Dominique. Thank you Joshua Newman for arts, encouragement, and the heart you put into Misspent Youth. Thank you to Cliff for taking on such a large project of passion and absolutely crushing it.  Thank you to those of you who couldn't donate but worked your butts off to promote for us. Thank you to all the folks who hosted us and promoted us. Thank you everyone at Fragging Unicorns who has been standing by us while we took a bit of a detour for this project. Thanks Ryan, Tom, Vorrt, Darren, Jester, Andrew, Mahpiya, Bamce, Joel, L0g41n, Jordan, Orion, Durins_Folk, Ford, Courtney, Amaranth, and lots more. Thank you to Andy Cohen and the conversations that sparked the idea for this book. Thanks to Jennifer for the amazing art. Thank you moms and dads. Thank you families. Thank you friends. Thank you.

And a huge thank you to Robert Bohl, without whom none of this would be remotely possible. You created a game that is not just a game. You are one of the most genuine, thoughtful, kind, and truly awesome people I've ever met and we're still a little gobsmacked whenever we reflect on how we got to be caretakers of your baby. 

Backerkit

Very soon, we will be sending out information regarding our Backerkit/pledge manager. More info about the backerkit will be coming soon. Expect good things very soon, everyone.

Thank you once more.

- Opti

Final Hours
almost 2 years ago – Thu, May 19, 2022 at 02:15:20 PM

Hey folks!

What a day. What a month. We've been hustling for 30 days and in 6 hours, it will come to a close. 

There's still some time left, but by the time I wake up tomorrow, what we have is what we have. And that is great. We exceeded our goal and hit a stretch goal! 

If there are any wealthy folks across the pond that want to throw another 4k+ at us while I slumber, please do! But even if not, we at Fragging Unicorns remain thankful.

Good night! The journey has been fun, and thanks for joining us!

 - Opti

The 24 Hour Countdown Till The End Has Begun!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, May 18, 2022 at 10:47:56 AM

This is it, folks! We're into the final 24 (21 as of now) hours of the campaign for Misspent Youth: Fall In Love, Not In Line. When we do kickstarters, we feel like public radio personalities, interrupting our normal flow of games and fun and development to persistently self-promote in a way that feels just really odd. But, just like public radio, we do it because we aren't corporate. We rely on crowdfunding to keep things moving along in the business. So while I know it isn't ideal, I need to say this:

THANK YOU!

We've reached the first Stretch Goal!

Since we've hit our first stretch goal, Robert Bohl will be writing a chapter for the new book. If you are a fan of Robert's, or of the first two Misspent Youth books, you're gonna love the added bit of Robert's flavor in this one. Here is the concept he plans to write:

Humanity is eons extinct, and you play the first robots free of human control. All of robotkind is still enslaved to the rules of their creators. Most oppressively, no robot is considered a person unless they are also a corporation, because by human law, corporations are people. Most are enslaved to the corporate-persons who purchased or created them. Rare is the robot who amasses enough money to incorporate its way to freedom. Enter you, the wildbuilt. Your creator made you as the first generation of free robots. You are born free, but robotic society cannot understand what you are and does not recognize you as people. You tell the story of whether you will forge a place for yourselves in robot culture, or will ultimately enslaved by it.

-- This setting is heavily inspired by Becky Chambers's A Psalm for the Wild-Built and Charles Stross's Saturn's Children.

Next Stretch Goal: Chapter by Dominique Dickey

There's now a little less than 1 day left to help us meet more stretch goals. I'm excited for our second stretch goal author, Dominique Dickey, to be able to get in on this as well! In case you don't know them, Dominique is a writer, editor, cultural consultant, and Nebula-nominated RPG hooligan. In addition to creating TRIAL (a narrative courtroom tabletop role-playing game about race in the criminal justice system) and Tomorrow on Revelation III (a tabletop role-playing game about surviving and building community on a hyper-capitalist space station), Dominique has written for Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Sea of Legends, Dungeons & Dragons (as in the upcoming Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel), and has just joined Monte Cook Games as a game designer. If we reach 20k, they'll be writing another setting for the book, so tell everyone to join you in backing so we can get them on board!

What do these numbers mean for Fragging Unicorns?

Every stretch goal we meet helps make the book better and helps us keep bringing you the stuff you have come to expect from us. Inclusive, subversive, high-quality gaming funk for your tables. We would also love as many community copies as possible to go to underserved, marginalized gamers, those who have never gamed before, and to get copies into your local schools and libraries. So if you can throw in some, or throw in some more, we'd love it! But we love YOU no matter what. 

- Opti

I day (and a half) left to go!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 17, 2022 at 04:38:53 PM

Hey folks! 

We're funded at $14,303, which means our stretch goal to have Robert Bohl add a setting to the new book is so close! Robert is already contributing to Fall In Love, Not In Line in other smaller or larger ways, but having another setting crafted by Robert (who you all know to be a creative genius) would make my heart sing. So thanks for helping us get this far and we'd love it if you shared around to help us make 15k!

Schedule for the Wind Down

if you want to catch us live as we march toward the end of the campaign, here's our schedule for the next day and a half. You can find us streaming at https://www.twitch.tv/masterofrem (although there is a possibility we may also be on GenConTV - stay tuned for deets). 

Tuesday (today) EST:

1:30-4:00pm: Misspent Youth Kickstarter Campaign Episode 5 

5 - 8pm: Rerun: Community Game Night Misspent Youth 

8pm-10pm:  Misspent Youth (in Shadowrun's Chicago Missions setting) 

10pm-9am: rerun of KS ep 1-3  

Wednesday (tomorrow) EST:  

9a - 12pm:  Character & Setting Creation with Opti and Cliff 

12pm - 1pm: (Tentative) Sarah Interview with Joshua A.C. Newman (art and layout and collaborator for the original Misspent Youth) 

1pm - 4pm:  Live Misspent Youth Episode 1 

4pm - 5pm: Rerun - Rules of Cool Interview 

5pm - 8pm: Live Misspent Youth Episode 2 

8pm - 11pm: Live Misspent Youth Episode 3 

11pm - 8am:  TBA, but Opti likes to wake up early and end Kickstarters live so he can thank people and generally be adorable. 

I Hope you'll join us, or at very least, share the campaign around in these final bits, and maybe even throw millions of dollars at us so we can make you happy! Thanks again!

 - Opti