Howdy Pardner!

I know I sent you an update last week, but things are starting to move very fast and I've got more great news!

If you reserved your pledge pre-launch or you added the VTT Asset add-on, you're getting a link today from DriveThruRPG with your digital asset pack! I'm very proud of how this pack has shaped up. It includes:

Additionally, I've bundled in the Bounty Board asset pack that used to be a reward for joining our mailing list. The Bounty Board has been repackaged and optimized for compatibility with the Faro Board, offering the ultimate VTT experience. Combine these asset packs with our form-fillable character sheets to easily play Huckleberry online with your friends. If you did not pledge for the VTT pack, you can get it now at DriveThruRPG.

In the next few days, I'll send a survey smoke test to about 5% of backers. The smoke test gives me the chance to detect problems with how the survey is set up. If there is, I'll iron out the wrinkles before sending the main survey. ALL backers will receive their survey a few days after the smoke test is completed. I cannot fulfill your pledge until you complete the survey, so please do so as soon as you can.

The survey is needed to collect your shipping address and it is also your last chance to grab add-ons. Add-ons at this stage are now limited to the two books and the playing card decks. If there are any dice, war bags, or trays left over after fulfilment, they'll be very limited and likely sold in-person at conventions or on the Huckleberry webstore (coming soon!). After the survey is finalized, shipping is calculated and charged.

Time to talk about the elephant(s) in the room. Let's start with tariffs. U.S. tariffs have eased a bit since last year, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that some of them are unconstitutional. However, other tariffs still apply and the administration is signaling a renewed desire to impose new tariffs in the coming weeks. In other words, things are better now, but it's hard to say by how much. 

Huckleberry's campaign has manufacturing in the EU (Corebook and Bounty Book), US (Playing Cards), UK (War Bags, Dice Trays, Patches), and China (Dice Sets). This diversity was intentional. Most projects at our scale use a single manufacturer to save costs, but with last year's tariff volatility, a single manufacturer became a potential risk. If manufactured in the wrong region, costs could double or triple. To that end, Huckleberry is partially protected from the current tariff talk. For the international backers not affected by VAT or tariffs (which were built into the pledge price), your shipping rate has been subsidized by a similar cost. 

Unfortunately as soon as one logistics and shipping crisis slowly resolves, another crops up to take its place. The rapidly rising price of fuel directly leads to an increase in shipping costs. This affects freight shipping pallets to our fulfilment partners, as well as shipping pledges directly to you. Domestic shipping in the US alone has increased by 8% since just 2 months ago. For the foreseeable future, shipping costs will continue to rise for all crowdfunding projects, especially small ones like ours.

Despite the gloom and doom, I am working with excellent fulfilment partners to quickly adapt to these new developments. As I've said before, we've done our very best to keep your costs as low as possible. I appreciate your patience and understanding, as my goal has always been to create a great game at a great value for backers.

The bounty book is in the final stages of layout. Nathan has delivered the files to me, it's going to get a thorough proof-read, then I'll be releasing the PDF to you. Expect to get a link next week!

PDFs are scheduled to be delivered to our Printer on June 1st. After that, it'll be 4-8 weeks for printing and delivery to my fulfilment partners. Once stock hits the warehouses, fulfilment begins. We're in the final stretch and you should have your books in a few short months!

With that in mind, please go download Huckleberry v1.5 and give it a read! If you see any typos, please report them on the discord so I can clean them up before sending the books to print. I've already cleaned up a handful and re-uploaded the PDF, so it's worth downloading the book again if you already grabbed it.

That's about all the news I have today. Expect another email next week as I continue to deliver more digital rewards. As always, if you have any comments or questions, you can email me at [email protected]. Or come hang out with your fellow Mavericks on the discord!

Much obliged,
Steven

Howdy, pardner!

It's been a long ride, but we're very close to the end. I know I was supposed to drop an update last week, but I knew something special was right around the corner, so I pushed it back a wee bit. Hope you can forgive me. ;)

Before we get into the big news, I'd like to show off some new art! Some incredible backers have left their mark on Huckleberry. They've created three new Mavericks to be added to our roster of "Legends." You'll be seeing more of these characters soon, as we add their character sheets to the stack of pre-gens and release their backstories.

Character design by Simon Aspirot, Pasa Mangiok (Prim), Thad Schrader, and Marc from Tales of Myth & Mayhem. Art by George Sellas.

Huckleberry's mechanics are now published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. While the BackerKit campaign was live, I sent a poll asking everyone what license they would prefer Huck to be released under. Creative Commons was by far the favorite, receiving 62% of the vote and more votes than all of the other options combined. Ask and ye shall receive!

What does this mean? Basically, anyone who wants to make a game using Huckleberry's mechanics can freely do so. You can release your own bounties, player options, or campaigns. You could even adapt Huckleberry into a wholly new system. Been wanting to play Huckleberry, but in space? Now you can make it happen—you can even sell it!

The important thing to know is that this license is very open. The biggest requirement is simply that you attribute Huckleberry somewhere in your copyright text.  If you want more details, check out www.HuckleberryRPG.com/hucksrd. Don't be afraid to reach out with any questions.

If creating for Huckleberry sounds exciting to you then you're gonna love this. LongJohnJones has created not just one, but two different Huckleberry templates for Homebrewery, the free and open source markdown editor. The templates mimic the style of the Corebook and our Bounties. Directions to get started are built into the template, making this the quickest way to make high quality Huckleberry content.

If you like the templates, give him a big "Thank You!" He put a lot of work and love into these. He's also offered to answer anyone's questions in the discord!

Our accessories continue to work their way through various stages of production. Dice are in full swing, All Rolled Ups are almost finished and shipping to my fulfilment center next week or the week after. As of yesterday, Huckleberry's playing card deck is out of production and safely delivered to my fulfillment center in the US!

It'll still be some time before these accessories ship out, of course. Books have yet to start printing and we are shipping the entire pledge together to keep shipping costs as low as possible. But it's quite a bit of fun for me to see this project becoming a reality! 

Speaking of books, we are very close to sending the PDFs off to the printer! Season of Avarice is in layout right now and the Corebook is now finished. It's been automatically updated in your DriveThruRPG library, so go give it a download! This is by far the biggest update Huckleberry has received, adding 89 new pages. Dylan Grinder and Kienna Shaw's contribution was so meaty that we needed to break it into two chapters. Here's an overview of the major changes:

I need your help! The Corebook is going to the print in a few short weeks, which means I'm on a bug hunt. If you spot any typos, contradictions, or references to outdated mechanics, please report them to me on the Adventures in Lollygagging discord. We have a forum dedicated to squashing all the bugs and typos. Together, we should be able to take down the swarm. After that, A Season of Avarice is on its way to you and the process starts all over again!

Sometime in the next couple weeks, I'll send out surveys. It'll be where you pay for shipping and is also your last chance to add-on extra accessories. You can't have too many decks of playing cards... ;)

We are incredibly close to the end and I'm so grateful you put your trust in me to see this project through. If you're happy with Huckleberry v1.5, it would mean a lot if you told your friends, your favorite forum, or left a review on DriveThruRPG. As far as I'm concerned, this is just the beginning and the more people along for the ride, the better.

Much obliged,
Steven Alexander

Howdy, pardner!

It's time for another update! I'm pleased to report the Huckleberry train is still rolling steadily down the tracks and the final stop is in sight. Here's what we've been up to:

Files for both the cards and tuckbox have been finalized. Actually, the majority of the art was finalized a long time ago, but the EU and UK have product safety laws requiring certain markings and information to be visible on the packaging. There's also the extra complication that playing cards are often considered to be a gambling item, instead of a game accessory. The regulations are easy enough to comply with, but it is worth the extra bit of research to ensure we do things right and won't be turned away by customs.

After finalizing the files, they were sent to production! Manufacturing is being handled by the good folks over at Shuffled Ink. We have received physical proofs and we're very happy with the quality of both the material and the print. After seeing how the digital colors translate to ink on the cardstock, George has made some tweaks to the colors in our files. This isn't due to any fault or errors in the printing process, but rather that digital colors don't translate one-to-one when printed. That's the benefit of physical proofs - we can fine tune the results before printing the entire batch. A second set of physical proofs have already shipped and should arrive in the next day or two. I fully expect we'll be approving them as-is. After Shuffled Ink gets the greenlight, it's game on and the full print run begins!

Manufacturing continues for each of the accessories. Production of the dice is going full speed now that Chinese New Year is over. The good folks at All Rolled Up told me they started cutting and sewing the dice bags yesterday, with the trays to follow after that giant task is finished. This morning, I received an email that our patches are entirely finished and shipping out today. Overall, everything is going perfectly to plan with no setbacks or delays to report. 

Freight shipping of products might be a different concern, with the current economic conditions. Fortunately, this is a small project in the scheme of things and we won't be needing to rent cargo container space or anything like that. If necessary, we have the more flexible (albeit more expensive) option of air shipping, so we shouldn't encounter any trouble.

As an aside, I'm happy to say that costs for all accessories remained within my estimated budget. These rewards are the most expensive parts of the project, so things are looking especially good for the project in financial terms.

The main attraction! I'm very happy to report that yesterday I sent over the final notes to Nathan for our corebook. The final print update is OFFICIALLY IN LAYOUT! What an amazing adventure this has been. I was looking through my old emails recently, remembering the early days of Huckleberry, and I realized my first contact with Nathan was almost exactly two years ago!

Since then, Nathan has put together four major updates for the core book and over a half dozen scenarios. Now, we're working on the fifth and final update. This update is probably our biggest yet - maybe half of it is the new chapter, about 7600 words long, written by Dylan Grinder and Kienna Shaw. The rest is quite sprawling, impacting several different sections of the book. 17 new Hostiles are being added, 10 new player Traits, a hyperlinked glossary/index, rules clarifications, and a slew of other odds and ends.

As for the bounty book, good things are happening there too! Playtesting is over and scenario editing is in full swing. All scenario art is complete and when the text is finalized, it'll go straight to Nathan for layout. Hopefully this will coincide with layout wrapping up on the core book. After that, both books go to print. We're in the final stretch and the end is in sight!

I have confirmed shipping costs with my distributors and the majority of the shipping survey has been built. I've also done quite a bit of legwork here to ensure we offer fair and competitive shipping worldwide. When I have a firmer grasp on the estimated weight of the books, I'll be finalizing the back end and sending surveys to collect S&H, likely next month.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. Thanks for riding with us!

Much obliged,
Steven

Howdy Pardner!

It's been just about a month since I last posted and, oh my goodness, so much has happened.

All written content for Huckleberry is complete and in the editing phase! My collaborators really knocked it out of the park with their scenarios and hostiles. I'm very proud of how Huckleberry + Avarice are shaping up. After editing, text combines with each section's art in the layout phase. Speaking of which, George continues to create incredible pieces of art for this game (Check out "The Ugly", below).

This month, accessories are going to manufacturing. The dice manufacturer is already making the molds. These molds will allow them to make our custom six-die sets with the Huckleberry logo replacing the "1" on each die. The All Rolled Up and Dice Trays are officially on the manufacturing schedule with the good folks over at All Rolled Up. Patches are currently being manufactured by a third party, then sent to All Rolled Up, where they'll be affixed to the bags. They should be able to begin production by the end of the month.

That leaves just the official playing cards to be accounted for. These are surprisingly the most complicated to finalize. Playing Cards are recognized by many countries as a gambling accessory, even when made for a tabletop roleplaying game. As such, it's important to make sure we label and package the cards exactly correct, to avoid customs issues and increased tariffs. With that said, I've been working with an EU Agent and other knowledgeable people with experience in international fulfilment. I've finalized all the necessary requirements and should be able to move forward with printing the decks before the end of the month. As I'm learning all of the bureaucracy involved, I find that it's important to remind myself that other people do these things every single day. Just because it's daunting, doesn't mean it's impossible, or even difficult!

For the majority of my life, I've been fortunate to never have any major health concerns. However, in late January, I began to notice a significant drop-off in my energy levels and, consequently, productivity. I chalked it up to burnout as I've been working on Huckleberry for years now. Unfortunately, last week I began feeling so exhausted that I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I wasn't able to sleep, I wasn't hungry, and I didn't have the energy to respond to the even simplest of emails. After four days of suffering, I wasn't getting better and I went to the urgent care for help. They immediately sent me to the ER, who told me that my body was in sepsis. I had an internal infection without ever realizing it and that infection spread to my blood stream. I was rushed into an emergency surgery and admitted to the hospital overnight. Fortunately the doctors knew what they were doing and I was given a clean(ish) bill of health and checked out the next day, after 23 hours in the hospital. I spent the weekend resting up, and today I've hit the ground running to try and make up the lost time.

What's this mean for Huckleberry? Honestly, not a lot. I've fallen behind on developmental editing, and consequently those pieces of text are pushed back a couple weeks. But I'm back to work on Huckleberry full-time and I feel better than ever. Fortunately, the vast majority of Huckleberry's work was completed before the BackerKit even went live. Additionally, Huckleberry has a lot of facets. While I might have fallen behind on a few tasks, there are far more items on the list that continue to rumble down the tracks without impact. I don't foresee any major complications for Huckleberry arising from this particular speedbump.

George has been cranking out fantastic pieces for our upcoming scenarios lately. Want to know what happens to cattle that catch Mad Cow disease in the Wyrd West?? Take a look:



This is a piece from the upcoming Huckleberry: Slaughterhouse by Jaime Reyes Mondragón, where a cattle baron looks to cut costs by feeding his cattle with other cattle. Turns out, it doesn't take much for them to develop a taste for flesh!

As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. We're getting so close to the end of this campaign and I can't wait to get Huckleberry to print and into your hands. Thanks for riding with us!

Much obliged,
Steven

Howdy, pardner!

The holidays are over and work on Huckleberry is back in full swing. If you missed our Christmas update, we've started releasing some of the stretch goal content as playtest material. Today I've added a second full scenario to that document, along with a handful of new Hostiles. The Slaughterhouse by Jaime Reyes Mondragon shows us what happens when Mad Cow Disease crosses with the Wyrd!

As a reminder, these are early drafts of the scenarios and they will have revisions before publishing. They also have not undergone developmental editing, meaning that some mechanics and wording may be inconsistent with the corebook. Of course, they're still fully playable and promise to deliver quite a bit of fun. If you do test the scenarios, please leave feedback through the linked surveys!

Work progresses well on other bits of Huckleberry. I'll be putting in manufacturing orders for our accessories like dice, ARUs, and other pieces soon enough. I am working with experienced fulfillment partners and EU agents now to ensure all product compliance is met before manufacturing so that we won't have any hiccups with customs or shipping later in the process. This being my first major project, I'm learning a lot about international manufacturing and shipping, but this is well-trodden ground for my partners. We're in good hands!

The bulk of new text content has been created, from scenarios to hostiles to the new chapter. Only a few odds and ends remain to be completed. Everything else is undergoing internal playtesting and polish! Now that the scenarios are all completed, I'm able to put in art orders so that George can bring them to life. That's always my favorite stage of production. Seeing the characters, monsters, and world of Huckleberry take real form is such a treat. I'll be sharing some sneak peaks as they come in, of course. ;)

As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or join the Discord. Huckleberry is coming along nicely and I'm incredibly eager to get this book to print and into your hands. Thanks for riding with us!

Much obliged,
Steven

I've not been able to connect with one of you! If you're a backer at this tier, please check the email associated with your BackerKit account or send me an email at [email protected] so that we can get started on making your character. :)