27,000 € Stretch Goal unlocked!
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Aug 06, 2018 at 10:33:30 PM
We did it, we hit the 27,000 € mark and have unlocked the second to last stretchgoal: The New Etherverse article "Charles Darwin and the Locomotive Systems of Mars" will be translated and all eligible backers will get the PDF for free.
The next stretchgoal is around 3,000 € away and with only 10 hours remaining I'm not sure we can reach it. But hey, I never thought we would reach 27,000 € in the first place either. ;-)
Somebody asked in the comments, how much the booklet from the next stretchgoal would cost, so he can increase his pledge to get closer to it. The price of the booklet would be 7.50 €. But please be aware: If you increase your pledge now and we don't reach the stretchgoal, there is no "refund" and you'll rather have to get something else for the pledged amount. I would therefore not advice pledging money for the booklet unless we are really close to the 30,000 € mark (or of course: beyond it).
Anyway, let's see what the final hours will bring!
Close to the Finish! New Stretchgoals revealed.
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Aug 06, 2018 at 06:26:40 AM
Only a little over two days to go before the project finishes. The last two days went really well and we are close to reaching the 25,000 € stretchgoal. If we manage to hit it before the project ends, every Mars sourcebook will include an introductory adventure.
Since we are getting close to it, we have also revealed two more (and most likely final) stretchgoals on the project page. It will be hard to reach any of them, but who knows? I also didn't think we would reach the adventure a couple of days ago and now it seems like it might be possible.
The new stretchgoals are:
27,000 € - Article "Charles Darwin and the Locomotive Systems of Mars"
If we hit this stretchgoal, we will translate another article from the "The New Etherverse", discussing the evolution of Martian fauna with a view at Darwin's theories. Three page PDF.
30,000 € - Article "A Survey of Mars" (and Addon-Booklet)
With this final stretchgoal, we would unlock the last Mars-themed article from "The New Etherverse", giving a first-hand account of an expedition to cartograph Mars. Furthermore, if we hit this stretchgoal, we will print the various articles from "The New Etherverse" in one booklet that will be available as an addon.
I'll give more information on the booklet if we get closer to the 30,000 € mark.
If you would like to see the adventure or any of the new stretchgoals become reality, spread the word about this kickstarter project to get more people on board! Share it on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Post it on RPG forums and newsgroups. Tell your friends about why Space:1889 and Mars are cool. Together we can at least reach the adventure, if not more! :-)
Adventure unlocked! And a Look at the Add-ons.
over 6 years ago
– Sun, Aug 05, 2018 at 11:51:47 PM
Wow, we surpassed our expectations and reached 25,000€. This unlocks the introductory adventure, which will be included in all Mars books. Thanks for your supports, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Let's see if we can reach one more stretchgoal in the last 36 hours - or even the final one.
One way to get closer to this mark (besides telling all your friends and acquaintances about this project) is by chosing addons. Since there have been several questions so far I would like to give some information about the already released books and on how to chose them as addons.
Increasing your pledge for addons: In order to chose any addons, you just have to increase your pledge amount manually. When you chose your pledge level, you can type in any amount of money that you would like. So for example if you chose the Colonial Officer level to get the physical book and PDF (35 €) and you also want the adventure "The Strange Land" (8,50€) and the dice set (13 €), you type in 56,50€. You don't have to specify what exactly you want at this stage - we will take care of this question via Backerkit after the project ends.
Shipment: If you already have a physical pledge level (one that comes with a shipment of the printed Mars sourcebook), you don't have to pay for extra shipment if you are fine with waiting for your addons till Mars ships. If you would like to get your already printed addons right after the Kickstarter, you have to increase your pledge sum for extra shipment (5€ for the EU, 10€ for the US and Switzerland, 20€ for the rest of the world. If you have no physical shipment included in your pledge (because you just chose PDFs or you chose the 1€ pledge), you have to pay for extra (or rather: first) shipment in any case.
What are your addon options? (for prices see the start page of the project)
- The core rulebook should be rather obvious, it includes all information for playing the game, creating characters and also gives a detailled overview of the setting. It has 256 pages and is printed in full-colour (the only book of the project range for which this is the case).
- The sourcebooks for Venus (176 pages) and Mercury (128) pages are the equivalents to the Mars sourcebook for the other planets. They mainly include descriptions of the various settings, but also some new character options (for chemical inventions in the Venus sourcebook for example) and of course creatures. The Mercury sourcebook also includes an adventure in which the heroes travel around the world-river in a daring race.
- Marvels of Mars (80 pages) has some overlap with the Mars sourcebook, since it is a booklet about Martian technology and creatures. You will find some information from this book in the Mars sourcebook, but of course it covers the two topics in much more detail than the planet sourcebook could.
- The dice set is a set of 9 special Ubiquity dice. With them you can chose to roll fewer dice than you normally would have to: 3 dice (copper) are regular dice, 3 more (silver) can rolled as two dice each and the final 3 (gold) can even be rolled as three dice each.
- The poster map set includes three posters, one of Mars, one of Venus and one poster of various Ether flyers.
- The adventures are mostly 28 to 34 pages long (all those that cost 8,50€ as addons). But two are longer than the others: The Fate of Angahiaa (64 pages) and The Ether Calculator (40 pages). The Fate of Angahiaa is set on Mars and is therefore an ideal addition to the Mars sourcebook. The Ether Calculator is set on Earth, in Wroclaw in modern day Poland. The other adventures are set on Venus (Thunders of Venus), Earth (Nocturne in the City of Lights [Paris], On the Trail of the Gods [Sudan], City at the Centre of the Earth [well...]), Mars (London Bridge has fallen down) or on Earth AND Mars (The Strange Land). If you want to check out the blurbs for each adventure, head to our DriveThruRPG page.
I hope I could interest some of you in any addons. :-)
What's inside the book?
over 6 years ago
– Thu, Aug 02, 2018 at 03:19:05 PM
Today I got another little blog post from Mars editor Dominic Hladek for you - this time with a closer look on what's inside the book (with a focus on one particular region). Have fun! :-)
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If you have read our former updates you know that we integrated a lot of classic GDW material about Mars into our sourcebook, but also added many new aspects. So, how did we structure the book?
The core part of the sourcebook are 8 chapters about the eight large regions, in which we divided Mars: You could consider these regions as continents if there were any oceans left on the red planet. Each of these regions not only describes the local peoples, city states and realms, but also has an individual setting focus. Let me explain this with an example:
The Western Basin comprises the former sea ground with all the city states around Tossia and Nectar. It ranges from the Coprates Valley and the surrounding mountains in the west to the Pandora mountains and Ionia in the east.
This means that the Tossian empire, Thymiamata and the Belgian colony in Coprates valley are all part of this region. The setting focuses on the inhumane acting of human invaders against Martians, and on the resistance and reactions of Martian rebels and realms in that area. Imagine H.G. Wells‘ „War of the Worlds“ or the dozens of TV shows and movies with alien invaders like „V “, „Falling Skies“, „Independence Day“ or Roddenberry’s “Earth: Final Conflict” – and switch the role of the humans and the “alien invaders”: In the peaceful Western Basin on Mars humans are the aliens who conquer, suppress and enslave the local population with superior technology.
The Belgian occupying forces of King Leopold II’s „Association Internationale des Planètes“ (AIP) have staked off their territory and installed a hard ruling by fear and punishment. But there are several other players in this area: The Martian rebels of Coprates desperately fight for their independence, but they are shattered in small resistance groups of Hill Martians, Canal Martians and even a few High Martians. The process of building alliances between these regional groups is blocked by many barriers between them. The vicinal Tossian Empire is a sleeping giant, but it is trapped in its own traditions, bureaucracy and crusted processes. The public officials are more interested in keeping the status quo and preserving the old traditions than in fighting the human invaders. Nevertheless, they built up cautious friendly relations to the North American settlers. Though the nation under the star-spangled banner has no official colony it established trade posts (and a baseball stadium) in the city of Thymiamata. There are diplomatic contacts to the Tossian emperor - and secret contacts to the Coprates rebels. So there might be hope for the rebels by dealing with humans to fight humans.
The chapter for the Western basin portrays this situation and all the mentioned power lobbies. Selected NPCs, city states and other aspects are described. As a gamemaster you can settle your campaign in this (or in one of the other 7) areas and give your campaign a focus on this setting’s network of aspects. It is a fertile soil for rebels, diplomats, mercenaries, weapon smuggler, adventurers and brave traders.
The other seven region chapters have different focuses, from the Western-like north pole region to the planetary romance feeling of the south pole region, from the desperate attempts in the “Green Vein” region to beware some last fertile and prospering parts of Mars to the dead Eastern Deserts, in which the ruins and treasures of the ancient Martian heritage are buried under tons of red sand.
Additionally, there is a general introducing chapter, chapters about creatures and technology (which were partially received from Marvels of Mars), mysteries for the gamemaster and 8 sample characters. If we reach the stretch goal, then an adventure will also be included.
Sixth stretchgoal unlocked :)
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 09:22:13 PM
As of now, every backer of the pdf or physical book will get an additional pdf-article, describing the martian Shistomik Tribe :)
At the next goal, the printed postermap included in the book will be printed on both sides, now including the map showing the location of recources and linguistic informations of mars.
Still ten days to go - we can reach another goal or more ;)
