$210k! Nanuk case mocks! Solo play!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Oct 17, 2022 at 07:17:46 AM

Goodness. The support continues to astound me! Thank you my friends, and welcome to all the new backers since the last update!

It's getting real!

Literally! I spent most of my time last week starting to get the pieces in place for manufacturing. I have a glowstick stretch-goal related announcement that's not quite ready to share (but which I'm quite excited about 😉🧪) and started working with Nanuk on the details of the case.

Many of you have asked exactly what it will look like—here's one of the mockups we've been sending back and forth! 

 My main priority right now is to lock-in a production schedule for the logistics and manufacturing of the game. One of the trickiest challenges will be getting all the pieces (boxed game, additional books, booster pack, glowsticks, case, posters, and stickers) orchestrated perfectly to land at a logistics partner who can assemble and send them on their way. I want to get that sorted first, so I can work backwards from the deadlines that come out of it.

FAQ: Will you have fulfillment outside the US?

This has been asked by quite a few of you! I'm making sure I have my US fulfillment sorted first because each company has different ways of handling international (some already have warehouses in different places, others don't.) Once I have my US partner confirmed and know their capacity and limitations, I'll begin contacting other partners outside the US. My goal is to keep everyone's shipping costs as low as I can! 

Personal note—I live in the US right now but I grew up in the UK and I'm French originally, so I know how much shipping from the US can sting! Will keep y'all updated on this. 💖

Solo play! 

One of the most common questions that I've gotten is "How does solo play work?" 

Let's do a quick deep dive! More in the Zone Reference Site.

First of all the most important thing: it's very, very similar to the main game.

The setup is more compact: locations on the left, characters on the right. The big difference from multiplayer is that you can have everything organized to face you.

Here we have an expedition with three members, a Chaplain, Scientist, and Writer, each with two Motivation cards defining their Phobia & Obsession. 

The overall run of the game is the same. You enter each location, do one or more scenes, and have the characters die one-by-one until you reach the Center. But without other players to bounce off... how do the moves work?

Roughly the same, with a tiny bit more structure!

The moves in The Zone aren't unrelated—they're specifically designed to interlock in a repeated cycle of doom where each play of the move inevitably pushes the character further towards their inevitable end.

This happens organically in multiplayer. But in solo play the recommended way to play each scene is to intentionally follow the cycle, using each move in turn and narrating or journalling the in-betweens. The moves all work just as they do regularly, except that in cases like Something's Not Right you play both the person saying "Something's Not Right" and the one who completes the thought with "It's Worse Than That..."

The most important thing is getting every scene to the point where something is Not So Easy. That's the ultimate calibration that tells you the story is pushing the characters hard enough. 

Here's the board of a completed game, where I played one Scene in each location. I quite like to leave the Scenes on the locations where I played them so I can retrace the whole story. 

(If I was playing an expedition with just one member, I would have removed some of the CHARACTER scenes that have interpersonal interactions)

In multiplayer, the final character's fate is dictated by the dead players. Solo play is similar. Instead of the regular deck, you use your hand of Not So Easy cards to represent The Zone. My Chaplain here was obsessed with "hearing the voice of God once again." They made their wish and The Zone said "NO, AND..." 

The Zone rejected their wish (NO!), and made it much worse (AND...)

Exactly how? That'll be for you to decide when you play ;)

FAQ: Can I do all this in the digital version?

Yes, but there are some limitations. The goal of the digital version was first of all to explore the boundaries of virtual multiplayer. During COVID, all I was thinking about was how to better connect with others! It's going to be quite a bit of work to get it as polished for solo play, but I hope to do that once the print version is well on its way to you all.

But please don't let that stop you: here's the instructions and documented workarounds. Let me know what you think!

AMA! What other questions do you have about The Zone?

As always, my friends—I'm so SO grateful for your support! I was thinking of covering the other games that have influenced The Zone in my next update, but I'm here to answer any and all questions you might have. 

Ask me anything!

And once again, thank you 💖🙌

$160,000 in 10 days! The ball is ROLLING
about 2 years ago – Sun, Oct 09, 2022 at 10:18:07 PM

My goodness, friends—what a week! We crossed $160,000 and 1,700 backers, which is absolutely incredible! I wanted to give you an update on what's going on behind the scenes.

📺 Tales from The Foxhole enters The Zone tonight!

@AcademicFoxhole, @JakiDash, @Mythematic, and @thebrandyrose will be entering The Zone at 4pm ET! Been a dream to have them play the game—it should be an absolute treat!

Spread the word and watch at twitch.tv/TrooperSJP

🔦 Some perspective

When I started working on The Zone, my only plan was to create an experience, and of course mutate all my friends. The first version of the game had a map and no Scene cards—more structure came later. We started playing before sunset, and my friend Nick Punt had the brilliant idea to give us all flashlights at the start, so we'd feel the reliance on them as darkness enveloped us. A game was born.

If you'd told me 4 years ago that I'd be able to bring this experience to so many people, I'd have wistfully looked off into the distance and said, "Hmm, wouldn't that be nice!" Right up to 10 days ago it was still very much a wistful dream.

Getting the ball rolling on production

The biggest difference between now and last Tuesday (and I suppose 4 years ago) is that I finally have something very concrete: an estimate for how many copies we'll want to print. A big chunk of this week has been reaching out to manufacturers and distributors so that we can get moving on production as soon as possible after the Kickstarter ends. Although there is still quite a bit of layout, art, and editing to finish, time can fly by really fast especially around the New Year.

And as I mentioned in the last update, this impacts not just the volume but the quality & type of components we can afford. 

An example: I *love* it when I open a board game box and all the components inside fit just so. The Zone may not have the dozens of different components of a game like  "Eclipse: 2nd Dawn for The Galaxy" (can you imagine!), but I still want to design the innards of the box to perfectly fit the decks of poker and tarot sized cards, the books, and leave just the right amount of space for anything else you might need to store in there.

Now that we'll have a print run in the thousands, I get way better options to consider, such as vacuum formed inserts!

(🙌 This is an area where your comments shaped the product—I'm going to make sure the trays are large enough if you decide you want to sleeve the cards)

Stretch goals? Kind of 😉

And that relates to a question I've gotten from a few of you: am I planning any stretch goals? 

The answer is—kind of! I decided at the very beginning of this project that I didn't want to fall for a trap that I've seen many other Kickstarters end up in: getting delayed because of overly ambitious stretch goals.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't expect some surprises. I've already been able to give a bonus to all the writers, to commission more art, and to look at nicer components. And this opens up a ton of improvements to supporting materials like the digital version at play.TheZoneRPG.com (hmm, could a  voiced version be interesting?)

So I won't make a graphic full of unlocks.  

But I'm obsessed with all the ways I can make the game juicier for you.

Oh what delights I have in store ;)

Prototypes!

And of course, I want to keep making progress on the game itself, especially because we have some *live* actual plays coming up later this month (I can't wait to say more!) I've been doing another pass at the game's cards so that I can print another round of prototypes to share with actual plays, streamers, and other content creators. 

It's also been a very good chance to go through and punch up the content—I will forever have a soft spot for the gruesomeness of the Surgeon 😱💉🩸

It's been lovely to get back into creative mode after spending the last few months with my marketing hat on. Just reminds me how much I love this game 💖

📺🧪 Are you interested in hosting an in-person actual play, or showing off The Zone somewhere? 

Or know other folks who might want to do so? 

Hit me up—I can get you a prototype of the game so we can spread the word.

Phew, that's a lot! 

Let me close by saying I'm especially grateful for all the feedback, ideas, thoughts, and questions. As I said mentioned above, your comments have already made the game better. Quite a few questions have come up, so I've put the most common answers in the FAQ.

Another question I heard a few times was about how solo play will work, so I'm planning to do a whole update on that next! 

It's just so helpful to know what's on all your minds. Your comments really help me to shape the game into the best version it can be. 

Keep 'em coming! What questions do you have? And from the bottom of my heart once again—THANK YOU! 

OVER 600% FUNDED! Thank you my friends!
about 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 02:50:44 PM

Raph here, creator of The Zone.

I'm absolutely stunned!

We funded in 2 hours, and as I type just passed $64,000 and 700 backers! WOW!!!

THANK YOU! I'm going to be real cheesy for a second and say just how emotional it is to see folks from the very first playtests—four years ago!—alongside all new faces who I hope will have an absolute blast playing The Zone! (And if you played the digital version, I'd love to hear your stories!) Literally years of work have gone into creating this experience. I can't tell you how much it means to have this support from every single one of you.

And this support doesn't just mean more copies of The Zone out in the world. Every new backer makes the game better for everyone!

I'll get into details in future updates, but we're now a GO on a larger print run that will allow superior materials across the board, better packaging, a higher rate to all the writers on the Book of Twists, even more art commissions, and more fun things I'll be announcing soon! ;)

Feel free to hit me with your questions, suggestions, and what you're excited about. 

Stay tuned, and from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU again!