Backwards: Regional American Gothic Horror

June 2024 Update
6 months ago – Sun, Jun 16, 2024 at 02:33:35 PM

Create a Monster (CaM)

As I said in our last update, the Create a Monster rewards are done! So, I can share a couple more previews below!

As a reminder, the stat blocks reflect an update to our typical layout for monsters. One of the changes that I’m making with these books is that I’m encouraging a little more autonomy among GMs when it comes to monster abilities. I’m doing so by taking the prescriptive rules text for abilities and making them descriptive with suggested mechanics. I’m also adding in potential adventure hooks based on some monsters.

The Postmasters (Create a Monster)
One of the two CaM previews this month is the postmaster, which is a lost soul tasked with carrying lost letters to the living. I loved the idea for this monster from the start. Again, it offers a different type of monster, one that is not necessarily about combat but rather is instrumental in introducing story hooks or building on backstories. Plus, it has some great tie-in to the greater lore and American history. The backer who came up with the idea of the postmaster was actually a descendant of a postmaster in colonial Maine too, and so it felt perfect to include in Backwoods.

Giant Parasitoid Wasp (Create a Monster)
Our other CaM preview for this month is a giant parasitoid wasp for Backwoods. The backer's core idea for this monster was something parasitic and/or eusocial. We landed on a parasitoid wasp and spun off from there. Really, this is a cross of two different types of wasps and we leaned heavily into the paper wasp's appearance as well as some other facts about paper wasps. For example, paper wasps make their nests by chewing wood and creating a papery paste. This wasp chews up bones for a similar purpose, which I think is wonderfully creepy. 

I also can't help but comment on the art here. From the start, we needed to demonstrate the parasitism in the art, but I couldn't think of a better "host" than a beekeeper.

I can share a couple more updates on the maps by Aaron Radney, which are so close to being done. Aaron is working on a list of minor edits for us before wrapping these up! He's removing and adding a few cities for me, cleaning up part of the Mississippi River, and updating some font-related requests. I'm loving how these are looking, as they head into the final stage!

Aaron is also working on the cover art for the trade/market version of Backchannels. Here is a quick preview of the thumbnail that we went with and the direction it's heading.

Some new art updates on the interior spreads for Backwoods. Nala J. Wu is working on two interior spreads for us, and I'm excited to share sketches for both! The first is a quick sketch of a beach in Provincetown, MA, where a globster has washed ashore. The second piece depicts three witches, dancing at midnight in the New England backwoods. I really love the perspective of this piece, which positions us as outsiders peeking at their revelry. I also like the logging truck, which the woods have conquered and claimed.

And that's all that I have for this update! Sorry for limited updates this month, but the team and I are as busy as ever.

May 2024 Update
7 months ago – Sun, May 19, 2024 at 08:01:32 AM

Create a Monster: Done!

As I said two sentences ago, the Create a Monster rewards are essentially done! Illustrations for all of the Create a Monster rewards are complete; lore is complete for all of the Create a Monster rewards; and a stat block has been drafted for all of the rewards. 

As a reminder, these stat blocks  reflect an update to our typical layout for monsters. One of the changes that I’m making with these books is that I’m encouraging a little more autonomy among GMs when it comes to monster abilities. I’m doing so by taking the prescriptive rules text for abilities and making them descriptive with suggested mechanics. I’m also adding in potential adventure hooks based on some monsters.

From the Newsletter: The Sea Pestilence (Create a Monster)
In our most recent newsletter, I previewed the Sea Pestilence, which just has tremendous art accompanying it. This piece will be part of Backchannels and is a great addition to some of the sea monsters that can be met while traveling a polluted, post-apocalyptic Atlantic. In fact, the suggestion fit so well that it replaced something else I had in mind for the “corrupted stock” of fish in the Gulf and Atlantic. I love how it brings in pollution and undead fish into one gigantic blob, and I think there are cool opportunities with the blob to incorporate flotsam/jetsam. Maybe the pestilence is a way to introduce an important plot item or larger adventure!

The lore was inspired by the backer’s own experiences growing up in Georgia but in reverse: they saw a school of shad and thought it was a Thing. I took that story and flipped it for the lore, which is more narrative than descriptive for this monster. I also modeled the narrative (to an extent) off of a great horror short story by Stephen King, “The Raft.” The story takes place in Pennsylvania and follows four college students who go for one last swim in an isolated lake in October. While swimming, they see a patch of oil and think nothing of it… That’s a mistake! The Thing traps them on a raft and waits hungrily.

SNEAK PEAK: The Whaling Specters (Create a Monster)
The third of our Create-a-Monster previews is the Whaling Specter(s), which is to be featured in Backwoods but can also be used in Backchannels. I love this idea for two reasons: it speaks to New England history and it naturally invites several different types of adventure. I love the idea of sailing past an abandoned ship --- how can you ignore the temptation to explore it? And what if by exploring it, you bring a curse upon your own ship and crew? On the other hand... what if instead of battling and defeating these ghosts, you were to help them find eternal rest through one last quest upon the sea?

I'll admit that the name was my pick (vs the Ghostly Harpooners, which is also a very solid name), but I couldn't pass up the wailing/whaling pun. I also had to create a wailing ability: the specters can wail a haunting shanty that discourages even the most courageous sailor.

Finally: what incredible art, again!

See the Sneak Peek section for a companion to the Whaling Specter.

In the newsletter, I can share some map updates from Aaron Radney. Aaron has started adding boundary lines and is playing with the color of the maps, labels, etc. A few things are still in flux:

• Color of territories in both maps
• Some of the text/labels and their appearance
• The shape of Lake Superior

Aaron is also working on the cover art for the trade/market version of Backchannels. Check out the thumbnails with color variants below.

PLUS: An Exclusive Sneak Peak Preview
In our newsletter, I shared a rough draft of the Devil Whale that Carlos was working on. The Devil Whale will be a monster for the Backchannels book but fits into the Backwoods setting as well. Well, the art is done, as is a drafted stat block and lore. Check it out below!

April 2024 Update
8 months ago – Sun, Apr 07, 2024 at 08:24:41 AM

April 2024 Update

This is our monthly update for the month of April. If you’d like to hear more from us, you can check us out on twitter, sign up for our newsletter, follow us on itch, or chat with us in our discord.

Hello, Backwards Backers!

Here is what I have for you in today's update:

• Create a Monster Tier
• Miniatures
• Thematic Character Sheets
• Art Previews

Also, if you're one of the very few people who has yet to complete their Backerkit survey, please do so ASAP.

Project Updates and Art Preview

Writing and art continues for both Backwoods and Backchannels! I'm waiting on some lore pieces from two collaborators (one for each book) before I dive back into that content, and while I wait, I have been working on the Create a Monster tiers and doing a little layout update. More details on the Create a Monster tiers below.

Create a Monster Tier

I am working away at the Create a Monster rewards and Carlos is working away on the art. 

• Illustrations for all but two of the Create a Monster rewards are complete! 
• Lore is complete for all but one of the Create a Monster rewards. 
• A stat block is drafted for one of the rewards and the remainder are in-progress.

You can find that drafted stat block below as well as an update to our typical layout for monsters. One of the changes that we're making with these books is that we're encouraging a little more autonomy among GMs when it comes to monster abilities. We're doing so by taking the prescriptive rules text for abilities and making them descriptive with suggested mechanics. See below.

Create a Monster: Survivor

I'm excited about a lot of our backer-created monsters. This one (the Survivor) is especially cool in that it isn't your typical beat-em-up monster, by any means. It's a Survivor of the Old World -- an undead corpse that can still speak and think but has limited capabilities otherwise. Inspired by the ghouls of Fallout but also the preserved heads of Futurama, this monster is great for advancing plot lines or introducing plot hooks, and it could give a fun twist on the trope of the pirate skeleton that accompanies or points to a buried treasure (e.g. Treasure Island). As an additional twist, I thought it would be great to introduce some unreliability to these creatures. Yes, they can be deceitful, but their memories are a bit muddled too: "Do you go left or right at the next fork in the tunnel? I can't recall, but there is a mutant alligator on one of those paths, so don't go that way."

Someone out there may catch some vague and obscure allusions that I make in the art and lore to David Byrne of the Talking Heads. Part of it is a joke about "Talking Heads" as a term, the band, and quite literally the monster in question. But I also really enjoyed David Byrne's film True Stories, which depicts a bizarre slice of Americana, and had thought his talking head narrator for the film would be a good inspiration for the art. The introduction to the lore is in the voice of a Survivor and alludes quite heavily to the narrator's introduction in True Stories.

Miniatures

In our most recent newsletter, I shared an unexpected change of plans for miniatures: I went to print them early and due to some unforeseen circumstances am now searching for another way to manufacture them. Basically, the person I was going to work with has moved and is no longer available to print, at this time. 

There should be no delay here, as there is plenty of time to pull this together. If there is any consequence, it will be a slight increase in expense, which I should be able to account for myself. I'm still looking for a new printer and have reached out to some folks.

Thematic Character Sheets

Our thematic character sheets are almost done! Sam Rustle has finished illustrating and painting both of them. Now I just need to make them form-fillable!

You will have already seen the line art and painted version for Backwoods: 

Now, here is the line art and paint for Backchannels! 

Art Previews

I am sitting on a lot of art that I am waiting to share until I can include the lore or other details with it. So, today's update will have only one monster, in addition to the Survivor (above). Below is a rat monstrosity by Carlos Eulefi, but not any rat monstrosity. It is a rat monstrosity featured in the Backwoods adventure "I Smell a Rat." 

In this adventure, a rich mill owner and their collection of Old World artifacts disappear. Years later, their grandson reopens their rat-infested textile mill, and characters are given the opportunity to investigate parts of the mill that have been hitherto unexamined. 

The story is loosely based off of Stephen King's Graveyard Shift, which (to me) is a great New England-gothic horror story, which takes place in a small town in Maine, primarily in a textile mill.

Otherwise, I can share some map updates from Aaron Radney, including a slightly more defined map of the American Lands and some of the initial mockups for the Gulf ward and Heartlands ward, respectively. I'm loving the color in the Gulf ward map and cannot wait to see the map develop in the next steps as Aaron adds locations and boundary markers!

And that's all that I have for this update! As you can see, it's busy as always, and the team is still making progress on both of the new books (and adventures too). You'll hear from me again in May!

March 2024 Update
9 months ago – Tue, Mar 05, 2024 at 04:43:39 AM

March 2024 Update

This is our monthly update for the month of March. If you’d like to hear more from us, you can check us out on twitter, sign up for our newsletter, follow us on itch, or chat with us in our discord.

Hello, Backwards Backers!

Here is what we have for you in today's update:

• Backerkit Update
• Kickstarter Updates
  • Create a Monster Tier
  • Dice have arrived
  • Final Recap: Adventures for the Backwards Universe
  • Art Previews

Backerkit

We have locked orders and charged cards! The exception? 20 souls who do not check their emails. If you're one of those souls, please fill out the survey. We need some of that information to fulfill pledges!

Project Updates and Art Preview

Writing and art continues for both Backwoods and Backchannels! Not a lot of updates on this front except that we're still making progress; art previews are below. However, there are several other updates we can share, particularly about the Create a Monster tier, dice, and our adventure books.

Create a Monster Tier

I have reached out to the Create a Monster backers, at least those who have filled out their surveys, and I have started the art process with the descriptions provided. What's next? Those backers will get to see the drafts of the art, lore, and stat blocks and then provide feedback. With their approval, we'll share some of those drafts in future updates!

Dice have arrived!

I have secured all of the dice for the pledges; see One Big Ol Bag below with a miniature for reference. Now, they sit and wait until we finish the books.

Adventures for the Backwards Universe

And that's a wrap on our adventures book funding push! In total, we raised around $2600, which is a little under what I needed for the books but definitely manageable. Thanks to all of you who contributed! I'll release the revised PDFs for Backwater Adventures and Backroads Adventures after I finish the most recent round of edits. The remaining PDFs and all of the physical copies will be fulfilled with this campaign.

Art Previews

First up is an update on one our thematic character sheets! As a reminder, these sheets are being created by Sam Rustle, and this particular one is for Backwoods. Last time, I shared the line art. This time, I can share some of Sam's painting as well!

Up next is some Backchannels character art by Tate Allen. A while ago, I showed off some of their art for a Geiger counter. This week, you can see their illustration for one of the characters in Basil Wright's section of Backchannels. Meet Lonnie's work-in-progress form):

Third is some more art from Luke Broderick, who is our New England local working on a Backwoods character. In our last update, we showed of Luke's Jersey Devil, and Luke also did our character archetypes and headless horseman for Backwoods. This character is Joseph Barrett, initiator of the Pale Scare, a widespread fear of witchery and the occult among New England politicians, and the Barrett Laws, which established an Inquisition-like organization to investigate rumors of witchcraft and devil worship.

Finally, one more map by Aaron Radney! Over the last two months I showed you the map for the southeast and the northeast, both of which reflect how the geography of the U.S. has been altered by climate change and nuclear weapons. You can see bits and pieces of those maps in this zoomed-out version of the American Lands, which incorporates two other maps that Aaron has done for us: Backwater (Louisiana, Mississippi, Southern Arkansas) and the northern outskirts (the American Midwest). This is Aaron's thumbnail for the map, which will see a few changes in future iterations. We'll definitely see the Texas coast in the future, as well as slightly more defined Great Lakes.

And that's it for this month! I hope you all enjoy the updates, and I look forward to sending some more previews next month!

February 2024 Update
10 months ago – Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 06:56:15 AM

February 2024 Update

This is our monthly update for the month of February. If you’d like to hear more from us, you can check us out on twitter, sign up for our newsletter, follow us on itch, or chat with us in our discord.

Hello, Backwards Backers!

Here is what we have for you in today's update:

• Backerkit Update
• Follow-Up: Adventures for the Backwards Universe
• Project Updates and Art Previews

Backerkit Surveys

You may have noticed: We're starting to lock orders and charge cards! Almost everyone has filled out their survey, but we are still looking for 20 or so folks to fill their surveys out. 

As a reminder: Due to the volatility of shipping prices globally right now, shipping fees for this project will be calculated one or two months before fulfillment. We will alert backers when shipping costs are finalized & before we charge your cards.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://backwardsttrpg.backerkit.com.

Create a Monster Tier

Now that we're charging cards, I'll be reaching out to folks in the Create a Monster tier who have filled out their surveys. I'm hoping to send some emails this weekend or early this week to get started! So, keep an eye on your email inbox. If I can't reach you there, I'll try via Kickstarter message.

Lots of great ideas in the surveys already, so I can't wait to get started!

Adventures for the Backwards Universe

As we mentioned last month and the month before, we had a couple of stretch goals that we didn't quite reach during the campaign: some adventures for the newest books in our series, Backchannels and Backwoods! We decided to make them anyway, and many of you have already added them to your order via Backerkit.

If you know folks who didn't get to support the original campaign and want some of the books, they can get them on Crowdfundr during Tabletop Nonstop: Backwards Adventures. This is a keep-it-all campaign, which means that you don't have to worry if we make our goal: we're making these books anyways. 

That said, although most of the funds have been raised via Backerkit add-ons and preorders, we still have some funds to make up. So, if you can help us spread the word, we'd appreciate it! In particular, here is a thread we're trying to promote on twitter: Backwards Adventures for Tabletop Nonstop.

Project Updates and Art Preview

Progress marches on! One of our writers is finishing up their section for Backwoods this week, which I'm very excited about, and I've been working on some of the remaining writing for Backchannels. Art continues to come in, and I'll share some more previews below. 

Art Previews

First up is a preview of our thematic character sheet stretch goal for Backwoods! These are being created by Sam Rustle, who makes some of the most beautiful sheets. This is just the line art, and Sam will paint the sheet next. You can see how it may look by comparing with some of Sam's other finished projects:

Up next is some Backchannels character art by Bakari "Aura" Griffin. Bakari has an awesome style, which I absolutely loved for some of our character archetypes (see Image #1). I'm no artist myself, but I love the sketched lines on these characters. We were lucky enough to work with her for some additional characters too, like Viola Ruiz and Langston Hurston below (Image #2). 

Third is some art from Luke Broderick, who is our New England local working on a monster from the broader northeast: the Jersey Devil. Luke is the same artist who did our character archetypes and headless horseman for Backwoods. And he finished some more character art for us too, which I'll preview next week.

Finally, another map by Aaron Radney! Last month, I showed you all the map for the southeast. Aaron is also working on a map of the northeast and of the American Lands more broadly. Plus he's working on the market cover for Backchannels, which will go on POD and store stock and more. As for his map of the southeast, Aaron put a lot of thought into these pieces and how the geography of the U.S. has been altered by climate change and nuclear weapons. Once again, the different mockups imagine an altered geography that can affect trade and travel. Below are the thumbnails for the map of the northeast/the Heartlands. I opted for Option B, but I can't help imagine the implications of Option C and A, in particular.

And that's it for today! I hope you all enjoy the updates, and I look forward to sending some more previews next month!