I'm happy to announce that the printer is shipping the decks to me early this week, then I'll promptly turn them around to you later in the week--if there are no issues.

So once I send this message I'll click a button to send an email letting you know that you've got two days to make address changes.  If you don't need to update your address, you don't need to do anything. At that point addresses will lock.

I'm very excited to get these in your hands!

Meanwhile, if you haven't checked out our next project, "Worldographer 2025", please do!  It is a major update to our map-making software Worldographer that includes a revised UI, more generator features, prettier coastlines & rivers, and much more. See the linked page for a fuller list. If you are interested, please do click the "Yes, count me in" link on that page--it helps us plan.

Note: I've just made the tough choice to push it back a couple more weeks mostly due to 'life events'--one of my kids had an opportunity pop up that will have me traveling for a week, then we're at Gen Con (booth #263--would love to see you).

Thanks again!
Joe

Hi All,

Before sending the Encounter Builder decks to print, we added 2 more cards to the decks to make them 52 content cards, plus a cover/credits card & a promo card. (The printer likes 54 cards per deck.)

You'll find the updated files in your BackerKit downloads! They have 20240606 in the file names. You should be able to get to them via this link: https://restless-encounters.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards
And if that doesn't work (Backerkit doesn't give me an easy way to act as a backer and confirm the link--or I can't find it) try this more general link:  https://restless-encounters.backerkit.com

So now for the not so great news.  I under estimated the time our printer would need to get these printed and back to me.  The files were sent to them on June 6th & approved just a day or two later, but the decks won't arrive here until July 20th.  I'll turn them around as soon as possible so most of you will have them before the end of July.  (International orders will likely be an extra week or so in transit.)

What's next?  Many of you know us (Inkwell Ideas) from our best selling product Worldographer.  The current version has been out for 7-8 years, with regular small updates.  Next we're funding an overhaul with larger updates!  Learn more about it here.  And if you're considering supporting it, please click the "Yes, count me in!" button--it really helps us plan the project.

Thanks again!
Joe

Downloads Ahoy!

I've just had BackerKit send an email with instructions/links to download the files for this project, if you've completed the pledge manager.  If you haven't, please do, and expect a link within a day--it seems BackerKit requires a manual step by me to "lock" orders.

There is a zip file of the new Restless Encounters deck's files and another zip of the 3 Encounter Builders' decks.  For all the decks, we have a two files:

In both cases we have some extra bleed around the cards--if printing, trim them down to 3.5"x2.5" from the original 3.75"x2.75".  This is in case a printer isn't set up precisely--just a little bit of the border will be cut.  If you're cutting them yourself, look for tick marks on the edges of the cards to help you know where to cut.

We do plan to send these files to the printer early next week. If you're able, please download and look them over by Monday.  While I've edited them myself last week (in addition to a few weeks ago) and had a professional editor (Adam) edit them last week as well, a stray typo can be missed.  Or a final export can go awry.  So please post a comment (or email [email protected]) if you find an issue.

Thank you!
Joe

Hi All,

It has been almost two weeks since our campaign ended, but we've been busy finalizing the files/decks!  Our text has been edited one more time, and about half of the additional art has been submitted.  We have just 5 pieces outstanding right now--and we expect that by early next week.

(If you're seeing this and you haven't pledged, you still can here.  We'll keep that open until we're about to ship the physical decks.)

Our pledge surveys have also been set up.  Fortunately this campaign is much simpler than prior campaigns: in most cases we just need shipping addresses or one/two small clarifications.

So in minutes we'll send the surveys to a few of you as a smoke test.  Then in a day or two (or next Tuesday at the latest due to the US Memorial Day holiday) we'll send the surveys out to everyone else.

Thank you!  We expect a quick turnaround on this project.  PDFs should go out next week, and the files will go to the printer the week after that.  Then we should be sending the printed decks out in early/mid June.

Joe

Congratulations to all of us! Your support really does make this project possible, thank you! (If you didn't get a chance to pledge, you can still back the project here for a limited time.) 

To be honest I wasn't sure what to expect with this new project.  I really loved the concept--it truly did seem to hit a need for TTRPG game masters that isn't addressed by many other resources.  But it is different from anything else we've done.

We were almost done writing the cards before launch--I think just the two bonus cards were not started. But the writing is now 100% done and I read through all the cards one more time yesterday and sent them over to our editor to edit.  We are waiting on a handful of art pieces, but I'm confident we'll have those in the next week or two. 

So we plan to send the surveys as soon as possible. If Backerkit is like Kickstarter, they will take 2 weeks to collect payment (allowing time for people to update expired credit cards or anything like that) and then we can send out the surveys. Because two weeks from now puts us right before Memorial Day we may not get the surveys out until just after Memorial Day.  PDFs will go out at roughly the same time--maybe a day or two later.

Then we'll have about a week for anyone to point out any problems or additional typos before we send them to the printer. Finally it should be 4 weeks or so for them to print the decks and me to send them to you!  (Late June/early July--depending on the printer's backlog.)

Shout-Outs!
I feel very lucky to have some great friends & colleagues as fellow game creators.  Below are two of their projects that are worth checking out. 

First up, already launched & funded is the Oracle Monster Generator from Nord Games:

Use it & the many options on each of 420 cards to generate new monsters for your game setting!

Second, Jason at Earl of Fife Games has an upcoming Kickstarter called "Dungeons Deep and Caverns Old":

Delve into an ancient dwarven kingdom, navigating political intrigue and uncovering long-lost secrets in the Halls of Splendor. It is a campaign setting with 4 subclasses, 10 backgrounds, 9 new adversaries, 10 new feats, and confront corruption with a brand-new
5E sub-system.

Thanks again for your support!
Joe

Hi all,

With this Restless Encounters* crowdfunding campaign ending this Thursday at 11pm US eastern time** I wanted to preview our bonus cards.  While we originally planned to let the voting on what to do with our bonus cards run through the end of the campaign, the results were so far in favor of the Foraging Mini-system, People You Meet on the Road Generator, and to a lesser degree (but still strong) our Quick Hitters, we went ahead and developed these.

* If you haven't heard about this project yet, Restless Encounters is a standard poker sized deck of cards where the fronts of over 50 cards are art (NPC, monster, visual of the encounter area, or a map) relating to an encounter idea that would take place during a party's rest. The other side of the card is an outline of that encounter.  Our project page has a 15 card sample. The deck will also have a cover/credits card, a promo card, and the two bonus cards shown below.

** Backerkit has an interesting feature where if someone pledges in the last 10 minutes, it will extend the campaign by 10 minutes, and if someone pledges during that time, it will extend it again, and so on.

Unlike the rest of the cards where one side is art, these are text on both sides.  Note that these are first drafts and we'll be revising them as we test them out more (and looking for typos):

Thank you for your continued support on this project!  We're anxious to get everything finalized.  We expect to deliver the PDFs by the end of May and the printed decks a month or so after that, depending on the printer's workload.

Joe

Hey folks,

We've had a great first nine days for this project, especially considering the main reward is a single deck of TTRPG cards. (Not 8 or 12 decks or dice sets as we've done in the past.)  The whole crew & I have had a fun time putting these cards together and curating the list of encounters.

One thing that you can help us with via your votes is what to do with the "bonus" cards.  We originally planned for a 54 card deck (52 of them will be similar to the sample cards--one encounter detailed on a card, plus a "cover" card with credits and such and a "promo" card mentioning our other products).  But most card printers are set up to add in two joker cards--so that gives us two more cards of cool stuff we can make!

Please vote now in the attached/linked poll to let us know what you'd like to see. Our ideas are:

And of course if you're able to spread the word about our project, please do.  We really do feel it is filling a need that aren't addressed by too many other products or tools.

Thank you!
Joe

Hi All,

Thank you for your interest in our latest crowdfunding project!  At about 48 hours into this project, we're at over 400% our original goal. 

We did set that goal at the minimum amount we'd need to finish the project.  It is low because all of the writing we already done and about half of the art is done as well. In fact, we actually wrote 80 Restless Encounter cards and we're going to narrow it down to the best 54 for the deck. The extra funds will help us pay back what we've already spent (thank you!), give us more wiggle room for the art budget, and fund the larger print run we'll need.

And don't forget: We've got a poll question on the project about where do your PCs most often make camp.  Let us know what you think!  Also if you have other poll question ideas or any other questions, please post a comment.

Speaking of questions, don't forget to check our FAQ.  One key answer I want to point out is we are not using any AI to create any content on the project. And all the freelancers I'm working with have worked with us before--most before tools like ChatGPT were widely available. We're creators and want to support other creators.

Finally, if you have an opportunity to share/like/comment on our project, please do.  For example, here is our Facebook announcement. Facebook does a "good" job of relegating promotional posts--even to people who follow us--so it is helpful to share/like it and especially comment.  

Thanks again!
Joe