Quest Chest: Immersive Tabletop Roleplaying Adventures

Ringing in 2025! - Backerkit Charges Info and Timeline
about 1 month ago – Wed, Jan 01, 2025 at 06:20:06 PM

Happy New Year Adventurers!

Hey folks! 2024 has come to a close, and we're so excited to be heading into 2025, where we will be getting the Campaign Chest into your hands! Reading and testing is happening, and we're getting some awesome feedback, so we can't wait to hear what you think when you start running these adventures for yourselves!

As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ

This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!

Project Update

Backerkit Survey!

Backerkit is locked! We will be charging cards as of February since we're going to be lining up distribution early in the year.As we've said in previous updates, we're needing to push our fulfilment date into early next year to ensure that the Campaign Chest is exactly what we want it to be. Since we're using elements that engage the senses like candles and tea, product quality needs to be perfect, and we'd rather spend the extra time to go back and forth than send something that we aren't proud of.

Departmental Updates

•  Writing - Voiceover is done, and our INCREDIBLY talented V.O Artists are already hard at work bringing the Campaign Chest characters to life! We have some really exciting casting reveals coming up, so keep your eyes on our updates and socials!
• Layout - 100k words means a lot of layout! We're still powering through this, but it needs to be perfect before we release.
•  Art - Art assets for the booklets are nearly complete, but Austin has re-tasked to primarily completing layout so that we can ensure the guidebooks are ready to print ASAP. 
•  Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
•  Manufacturing - We're continuing to go back and forth with our manufacturer on samples, since we need everything to be just right. No updates here for the moment!

Thank you!

Short update this month since we're past most of the things that we'd need to update you about! We're hoping to have a firm shipment date shortly, but till then it's just head down, layout, and samples. So...so many samples...

As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)

Michael and Austin

December Update - Happy Holiday Season!
2 months ago – Wed, Dec 04, 2024 at 12:11:39 PM

Happy Holiday Season Adventurers!

Hey folks! The very last of our conventions is over, and with that we are putting 2024 to bed, and looking ahead to 2025. We're into the least interesting part of production right now, which is back and forth editing and initial product control with our manufacturing partners, and final tweaks with our layout. Nonetheless, we'll get you updated below!

As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ

This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!

Project Update

Backerkit Survey!

Backerkit is locked! We haven't charged yet, but we will definitely give you a heads up before we do. We'd like to charge a little closer to shipment date, since it doesn't make sense to us to have the shipping cash sitting in our bank account rather than yours for the intervening time. As a reminder, our initially projected ship date for the full campaign chest was December this year. As we've said in previous updates, we're needing to push our fulfilment date into early next year to ensure that the Campaign Chest is exactly what we want it to be. Since we're using elements that engage the senses like candles and tea, product quality needs to be perfect, and we'd rather spend the extra time to go back and forth than send something that we aren't proud of.

Departmental Updates

•  Writing - Done Done Doneski! The last of the Voiceover scripts are being written now, but the guidebooks themselves are fully written and good to go. For the full campaign chest we're clocking in at around 100k words. I'm pretty happy about how the story all came together, and I'm really psyched to get it into everyone's hands! 
• Layout - This process is time consuming, unfortunately, doubly so if we want it to be perfect. Since we haven't outsourced any of the writing, art, or layout to this point it means that we're going through page by page ourselves. It's a process, but it's looking good and will absolutely be worth it.
•  Art - One of the cool things about a project with this kind of scale is a huge canvas to play with. Since we have 5 boxes with far more pages than initially expected, we've increased the amount of art in the Campaign Chest by almost 25 percent. The art will include everything from images that look like field sketches to fully inked and detailed spreads! You can check out one of the character profile images below featuring two of the NPCs from Bazaar of Brilliance. 
•  Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
•  Manufacturing - We're continuing to go back and forth with our manufacturer on samples, since we need everything to be just right. In our latest batch of samples the colours on the box were perfect, which is great news, but the guidebook wasn't centered correctly, so that had to be shifted and re-sent.  

Manufacturing 

We're still manufacturing two of the boxes! Hooray!

Art Reveal! 

You can find anything you want at the Grande Bazaar, both material and ephemeral. Among the stalls and shops there is a small tattoo parlour, Emblems Unseen, from which a discerning customer can receive all manor of body adornments. It might not be the best known place in the city, but those who know wouldn't trust their bodies to anyone except its proprietor, Ezzex. In the chair is Rylan Thorne, an NPC players will interact with in both Bazaar of Brilliance and Masques and Murders. 

Thank you!

As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)

Michael and Austin

November Touch Base
3 months ago – Fri, Nov 08, 2024 at 02:18:10 PM

Quick Touch Base For November

Hey everyone! We won't have a full update for you in November, but we didn't want to post nothing at all. We are still working, finishing up layout, some editing, and artwork, and this should accelerate since we're officially out of Con season. We just got back from a single weekend where we were at Big Bad Con in San Francisco, Winnipeg Comic Con, and Magic Con Las Vegas, so we're planning to take a week or so to recover before hopefully starting in on our final sprint. 

In the meantime, please take care of yourselves, hold your communities tight, and be good to eachother.

October Update - Spoopy Season is Upon Us...
4 months ago – Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 01:51:02 PM

A Spoopy update for Spoopy season!

Hello Adventurers! We're just back from Edmonton Fan Expo and Dragon Days, with Magic Con Las Vegas on the horizon :D Despite the travel, we're still marching towards final drafts and finishing up artwork. We'll be sharing a little bit of both in this update, so read on!

As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ

This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!

Project Update

Backerkit Survey!

Backerkit is locked! We haven't charged yet, but we will definitely give you a heads up before we do. We'd like to charge a little closer to shipment date, since it doesn't make sense to us to have the shipping cash sitting in our bank account rather than yours for the intervening time. As a reminder, our initially projected ship date for the full campaign chest was December this year. We're not quite to that point yet, and we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure that you get the best possible adventure(s).    

Departmental Updates

•  Writing - Edits, the very important and also very boring part we're currently grinding through. It's not very exciting, and unfortunately that means there isn't a lot to update everyone on here. That being said! In honour of my favourite month, I'm going to be including a bit of the intro for Box 4, arguably our spookiest box in the whole campaign chest, below!  
• Layout - Our physical sample copy hasn't arrived yet; we were hoping it would be here in time to post some images of how things turned out for the layout on this update, but it'll have to be part of a different one! At the last minute we decided to get creative with some elements of the layout template, and, while we can't say much at this stage, people who know our love for puzzles and riddles will understand when we say how excited we are for you folks to start reading through the guidebooks :)
•  Art - Just like with writing, getting the bad guys right is huge for artwork. Too menacing and they become a caricature, but not scary enough and they have no teeth. We've gone through several iterations of a few of our villains, but we're getting to final drafts now for most of them. Later on in this update you'll see a concept image for our primary Box 4 villain, Morvaiel. 
•  Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
•  Manufacturing - Still waiting on samples! Otherwise, not much to update here :D 

Manufacturing 

We're still manufacturing two of the boxes! Hooray!

The Fun Stuff

Alright folks, if you made it this far we have some stuff we think is a pretty great reward for sticking with us :D 

Box 4, The Broken Bar, is the box we devoted to scary happenings and a more horror theme. We have a frighteningly powerful and inhuman villain twisting the fabric of reality, a tavern full of civilians, and cultists on the loose. We'd like to give you a preview of a portion of the introduction to this box, and some concept images of our baddie, Morvaiel. 

"You’ve been on the trail for days, feeling yourself closing in on your quarry when vicious storm clouds boil up from behind, seemingly pursuing you just as you pursue Oliver Harrogate. The storm descends just as your party enters the Avellan region and into a large forest of dense trees. Frigid rain lances down around you, fingers of ice clawing their way down your neck, soaking your clothes, and finding every inch of exposed skin. Even the surrounding forest does nothing to protect you from this onslaught, sheets of water pouring down through the treetops and a bitter wind whipping the raindrops sideways through the trunks into your cold-numbed faces. 

Two days of navigating the darkness of the trees and rain on low rations has left you all exhausted and hungry, only the knowledge of looming disaster continuing to drive you forwards. Every few minutes your eyes drift shut on their own, and only the growl and ache of your stomach allows you to force them open again. At almost the very moment you feel you can’t continue on and you’ll have to find the driest place possible to call a rest, you see a small golden glint through the trees. You almost think it a mirage, or some delusion born of desperation and hope, but as you paw water out of your tired eyes the lights remain. 

Your horses finally break the tree line into a rainswept field and a large cobblestone and wood building rises before you. A swinging sign protected by an awning and lit by torch proclaims this to be the Waystone Inn and promises food, drink, and rest to weary travelers. The stable around the side is welcoming and warm, and as you dismount and hand your horses off to the stable hands, the enticing smell of spiced meats and fresh baked bread draw you towards the front door."

Without giving too much away, the primary antagonist for The Broken Bar is Morvaiel, a truly ancient Spirit of Death with no love for mortals. We've worked very hard to create a creature that is new and fresh, but still brushes on all those little touchstones that we think of when death comes to call.  

Thank you!

As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)

Michael and Austin

September Early (or August Late!) Update!
5 months ago – Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 11:37:26 PM

Con Season Is Upon Us!

Hello Adventurers! Hope you're all doing well in your various quests throughout the world! We're at PAX this weekend, Rose City Comic Con the weekend after that, then Edmonton and Regina. September is a crazy month xD We've been heads down on testing samples and prepping some exciting music stuff, so we did somehow manage to miss the August update. We're here a couple of days early with the September update though :D Please read through everything to get a snapshot of where we stand!

As a reminder, if you would like to join the Quest Chest Discord to chat with each other, as well as ask any questions you might have, you can find it here - https://discord.gg/KUYaNQaPcJ

This is a great place if you want an up-to-the-moment update on things, or just have a question to ask us :) We definitely encourage you to head over there!

Project Update

Backerkit Survey!

Backerkit is locked! We haven't charged yet, but we will definitely give you a heads up before we do. We'd like to charge a little closer to shipment date, since it doesn't make sense to us to have the shipping cash sitting in our bank account rather than yours for the intervening time. As a reminder, our initially projected ship date for the full campaign chest was December this year. We're not quite to that point yet, and we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure that you get the best possible adventure(s).    

Departmental Updates

•  Writing - Bad guys. There's probably not a ton more satisfying that writing bad guys. Our big bad for box 5 is about as bad as it gets, mostly because he genuinely truly believes he's doing the right thing, and you're standing in the way. He's waited a long time to save the world, and you're doing your best to work against him >:D Box 5 is where a whole bunch of clues, props, and storylines converge, and getting to the end and the payoff here is both wonderful and also a bit sad for me. Pretty excited to be one more step closer, but I'll also miss these characters. 
• Layout - The layout template is fully complete and we've got the first couple of guidebooks squared away. We're going to be getting a physical copy very shortly from manufacturing, so that's exciting! We changed up a couple of things from the original example that we posted here, including maybe adding in a few easter eggs here and there ;)
•  Art - With the largest prop/art piece completed last month, it's been on to more, if smaller pieces. There are many many character portraits, landscapes, creatures, and more that are going into each guidebook and we want to capture them all in exceptional detail. We'll be sharing a bit more of that in the next couple of updates!
•  Distribution - Nothing new to report here. This is good news!
•  Manufacturing - Our UV problem is solved! We also identified a colour issue with both the stamp, and inside colouring of one of the boxes before manufacturing began (good news!) so we've gotten those corrected, and the new samples are on their way to us now. Once they all come in we'll post some pictures so that you can celebrate along with us! We may also have found a workaround for the tea, but it needs testing, so we're chugging away there too! 
• The Less Good News - We're looking at our expected runway in relation to some timelines our manufacturer has given us, and we think it's likely we're going to overrun our initial shipment expectation. Not by a ton, but we'd rather you knew now. We'd initially expected to be one of the very rare Kickstarter projects that delivers right on the projected date, ufortunately it looks like that won't be possible. Our adjusted target is shipping Q1 in the new year; probably only a month or two late. We'd rather ensure that the manufacturing isn't rushed and everyone is truly happy with what they receive, than force a crunch and possibly end up with boxes that disappoint. We're very proud of our work, and we know you'll be thrilled when the Campaign Chest arrives :)

Manufacturing 

We're still manufacturing two of the boxes! Hooray!

Thank you!

As always, thank you all so much for your support! It means the world to us as we build a world for you :)

Michael and Austin