Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely, safe, and fun week. Here's everything that got done last week and what's on the agenda this week.
Peppin Plush — Now Available for Pre-Order!
The Peppin plush is officially up for pre-order! I'll be doing a dedicated post for this separately with all the details, but the important thing to know is: once the pre-order window closes, that's it. This is the last Kingmaker merch ever made — there will not be another run of these. If you want one, now is the time. The pre-order deadline is around June 12th — I'll confirm the exact date in the dedicated post.https://youtooz.com/products/peppin-plush-9-inch
What Got Done Last Week
We got our Black Crusade recording done!
We also did a Rotgrind episode — and that's the end of Orin's arc. It's done! We had some good conversations after about things we want to improve, and we're really happy with where things are headed.
The Chaos Odyssey podcast episode is now up — it was giving me trouble getting it uploaded last week but I got it sorted over the weekend. Sorry for the delay on that.
Scheduling Note — This Week & Next
This week is light on recordings. Thurston is away, Hulkykrow is away, and several of the Season of Ghosts players are also out this week and next. So we're not rallying the group for anything right now.
Even though we're skipping the usual Monday night Black Crusade recording, we've rearranged to get a session in on the 28th instead. Thurston should be back by then and we want to give him some lead time to prep for the next arc. Speaking of which — the next arc of Rotgrind is Hulkykrow's arc, and if you caught the end of the last episode there are some teasers for what's coming. Skelly is already working on assets for it.
Show Updates
WarHams: A Chaos Odyssey (Black Crusade)
Chaos Odyssey continues to do really well and we genuinely appreciate all the support on it. The YouTube membership preview system has been working — a lot of people have signed up specifically for that.
I want to eventually standardize how all our shows are handled so it's clear and consistent for everyone on what to expect. Right now we've been experimenting across shows to find what works best for everyone's schedules.
Rotgrind
Orin's arc is officially wrapped. Really proud of that one.
Next up: Hulkycrow's arc. Assets are in progress with Skelly.
Next recording is moved to the 28th to accommodate everyone's schedules.
Tales of Bravos — Season of Ghosts
Big update here — the whole group has confirmed they're on board with everything. Here's the full plan now that it's been triple confirmed:
The show will be live streamed on Twitch and YouTube — free for anyone to watch during the broadcast. Think of it like a live studio audience recording. Once the stream ends, the VOD comes down. No replay, no archive.
After that, EzeDoesIt edits the episode and it gets sent to Patreon first. You all get the bulk of episodes early, in edited and polished form.
After Patreon gets a solid head start, it then goes to YouTube exclusive memberships, and eventually public from there.
The group has approved the triumph and complication system, the natural 20 submissions, and the natural 1 complications. When the highs are high and the lows are low — they know what they're signing up for and they're excited.
The live stream NPC token integration — where active chatters can be randomly selected and assigned to creatures during combat — is still in development. That feature will only be available during the live stream itself. You have to show up live to get randomly selected. Patreon gets the triumph and complication submission system regardless.
Fair warning on the token integration: we tried giving the community influence over the game once before and it disrupted everything. We love you all but we are keeping you on a leash for a reason. There is a balancing act here and we are very aware of it.
The Patreon API integration for tier-based priority in the raffle is still being worked on. It is being a nightmare. Me and Stan were genuinely yelling at it. We'll figure it out.
Season of Ghosts is not a combat-heavy show. The adventure is designed with a lot of roleplay solutions — you can talk your way through many of the encounters. There are some where fighting is unavoidable, but the emphasis is on story and character. I've been really impressed going through it. I think they did a phenomenal job with it.
Skelly has been working hard on the Season of Ghosts player animations and character art. The players got their info to her a bit late so she's been pushing to catch up, but she's doing a fantastic job. Her deadline has been extended to mid-next-month to give her the time she needs, especially since she also has some special Rotgrind pieces to do. We've already made memes internally about Minerva's character art — Skelly hadn't finished the head yet so she just put googly eyes on it. I'll share it when the proper art is done. I love this team.
I also want to start incorporating fan art into the show's title card as a rotating display instead of just the static logo. We apparently have over 100 pieces of fan art now and I want to get it in front of people more. Still working out the details alongside the token stuff and everything else — but I really want you all to feel like you're part of this, because without you we don't exist.
Marketing & Background Work
This week is mostly behind-the-scenes work for me. I've spent the last couple of months testing my workflow and things are looking solid, so now I'm pushing into more recent clips and really starting to integrate the animated shorts across more platforms. Social media presence is ramping up.
Mikura continues to do an incredible job on animations. We have around 100 pieces of additional fan art in the rotator. Thank you all!
Thank You
Short one this week but there's a lot happening behind the scenes. Your month-to-month support is genuinely what keeps the lights on and makes sure the team is taken care of. We don't take that for granted for a single second.
Please stay safe out there. Love you all — see you next week!
— Zoran & the Narrative Declaration Team