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MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!
Happy Monday everyone! Sorry if my voice sounds a little rough — it's been a very busy week of meetings and work. Here's all the updates on what got done and what's happening this week.
Big News — The Peppin Plush Is On The Way!
The Peppin plush has finally arrived and is sitting on my shelf. Here's the backstory: we've been working with the company Youtooz on this for a while, back when Kingmaker was really going strong. Unfortunately the timing ended up being really rough — by the time it came around, Kingmaker had already wrapped. I even had a meeting with them where I basically said I think we've missed the boat on this, but they genuinely still wanted to make it happen and I'm really glad they did.
The design was done by SaltyJub — please go show them some love on their socials at @SaltyJub. They did an amazing job with it.
The concept I really wanted was to include the whole party, not just Peppin. Peppin carries a little bag, and tucked inside are tiny plush versions of the rest of the party that you can take out and arrange however you like. The whole idea came from SaltyJub and I think it turned out incredible.
There will be a dedicated post with the teaser image coming later this week. We're planning a release this month and there will also be a giveaway, so stay tuned for that!
Team Bonus
I want to share this because it's only possible because of you — at the end of last month I gave the whole long-term crew a bonus. They've been putting in serious work after their own full-time jobs for years, and some of them were really feeling it financially. Being able to do that for them meant a lot to me. From all of them to all of you — thank you.
Show Updates
WarHams: A Chaos Odyssey (Black Crusade)
We have a recording tonight! No fires, no interruptions flagged — we should be good to go.
Thank you so much for the fan art, responses, jokes, and memes. We love all of it. Keep sharing it on Reddit, Facebook groups, wherever — and yes, Narrative Declaration does have its own Reddit community that you all maintain. I intentionally don't want to control that space because I want you to have somewhere honest to talk about the shows freely.
Jers is officially taking over the Chaos Odyssey art orders. I'm getting him set up in our project management software this week so everything flows cleanly to him. All the art orders are already ready — just need to get him onboarded tomorrow.
We're also looking at potentially having even more Chaos Odyssey episodes than originally planned, just given how long some of the story beats are running. We're really excited about where it's going.
Season of Ghosts
This is where most of my energy is going right now, so here's a full overview of where things stand:
I've started coordinating test sessions with the group to make sure everyone's character builds and personalities are clicking before we go into full production. I want everyone locked in and loving what they're playing before the campaign starts.
We'll be going over campaign integrations with them too — hero points, natural 1 complications, the natural 20 submission system for you all, and how we plan to integrate live streaming into the show.
On the live stream side: the plan is to broadcast sessions live so anyone can watch for free during the stream. After that, it goes straight to Patreon exclusively. The live stream is the only free window — after that it's here.
The NPC chat interaction system is still in development. The current idea is that when combat starts, a raffle runs among active chatters on YouTube or Twitch and randomly assigns people to creatures in the fight. You'd be able to type commands in chat to interact as that token. We might limit it to preset phrases to keep things from getting too chaotic, but the goal is that you can actually interact with the players during live combat.
Recording schedule: we show up 30 minutes early for tech checks, record for two hours, take a 30-minute break, then record two more hours. Each two-hour block is its own episode. We'll record weekly at the start to build a solid episode bank, then move to biweekly.
Patron tokens: I want to replace the title card at the start of each episode with a "thank you patrons" wall featuring the tokens of everyone who has submitted one or earned one through their tier. I need to coordinate with EzeDoesIt and Skelly to get that implemented.
To answer Alexander's question from the Patreon comments — yes, patron tokens will absolutely be in the campaign.
Skelly is working on character art for the cast. All the overlays, nameplates, graphical assets, and coding integrations are in progress. There's a lot to build and I'm giving Skelly the time she needs to do it right.
My Obsidian notes for this campaign are already a full spider web of interconnected lore and planning. It's my first time really using Obsidian for GM prep and I love it.
Other Updates
Odo was in town last week — that's why we didn't have a recording. Their job keeps flying them back and forth and they're pretty frustrated about it, but it was genuinely lovely to get to see them and their partner. I always love when I get to see my cast mates in person.
I need to follow up with Odo on a website text update that didn't go out as requested — getting on that this week.
Discord spam bot stuff is being addressed. There's no magic one-button fix, it's just an ongoing arms race with the internet. Working on getting the trap bot setup improved.
I'm also thinking ahead about Rotgrind plushies. I'd love to have something ready to celebrate the end of the campaign — when we get to the finale, I want to do something we're all really proud of.
I'm seriously considering bringing on a part-time assistant to help manage social media and the busy work. It's an enormous amount of busy work and it's clogging up too much of my day. If and when that happens I'll let you know.
A Quick Question for You All
Do you guys still find these weekly updates valuable? I know they can feel a bit repetitive week to week since a lot of what I'm working on is ongoing. Let me know in the comments — I always want to make sure these are actually useful to you.
Thank You
It's going to be a busy week but we're cracking on it. Your support is what makes everything here possible and I don't take that lightly. Please be safe out there, have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Monday.
Love you all!
— Zoran & the Narrative Declaration Team