August Update
over 1 year ago – Sun, Sep 04, 2022 at 03:54:34 AM

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well, wherever you are.

August has been a monumental month for us. After over two years of work, we’ve completed development on the core set. I’ll tell you, it feels pretty good to be able to write that sentence. As of now, the rulebook, campaign guide, and all of the cards are in the hands of our localization partners as together we scrutinize each of the 100,000 words in the core set and prepare to deliver print files to the factory a few short weeks from now.

Our current schedule has us delivering print files to the factory in mid-October. When exactly manufacturing will take place, however, is still a bit up in the air. I had hoped to have firm dates to share with you in this update, but for now, all I can share are the factory’s estimates.

Because of the ongoing supply chain instability to which we’ve all become accustomed, current estimates cover a wide range of dates. By our factory’s estimates, manufacturing and assembly will conclude anywhere between 6 and 15 weeks after file delivery. To put it another way, manufacturing could conclude as early as December of this year, or as late as February of the next. I will share the actual dates with you as soon as I have them. Once the manufacturing dates are solidified, we’ll know the fulfillment timeline as well.

More About Manufacturing

After much deliberation and internal struggle (that is, within myself, not within the company), I’ve decided to print the entirety of the first run of Earthborne Rangers at Ludo Fact in Germany. This was not a decision that I made lightly, as I truly believed that printing at least a portion of Earthborne Rangers domestically with sustainably sourced materials was not only possible, but was a forgone conclusion. That, coupled with the fact that we created (and attained) a campaign stretch goal to produce a portion of the initial print run in North America, made me very resistant to the idea of not seeing that part of the vision through.

After our first option for domestic manufacturing fell-through last winter, however, and we began the process of looking for alternate manufacturers, it became more and more clear that the number of factories in North America who a) had the expertise and machinery required to create a high-quality board game, b) could print it by the end of the year, and c) could do so with sustainably sourced materials, was extremely small.

We found a few eco-minded printers who specialized primarily in calendars, envelopes, promotional mailers, and the like, who had ready access to responsibly sourced materials, but  were either not interested or not able to take on the production of a high-quality card game.

We also found a few card-specialist printers who were interested in expanding their capabilities to produce Earthborne Rangers, but  were unable to acquire FSC-certified paper.

Lastly, we spoke with multiple established game manufacturers in the U.S. who had the capacity to print by the end of the year, but due to supply chain constraints, could not do so with sustainably sourced materials. There is a silver lining, however, in that there are a couple of factories who fall into this category who are interested in working with us down the road, and I hope to continue conversations with them in the months and years ahead to bring future productions of Earthborne Rangers, and future products, to the States.

Why Ludo Fact?

Although the decision to print entirely in Europe was a difficult one, I’m happy to say that we’re working with one of the most forward-thinking and environmentally conscious manufacturers in the industry. I’ve been in conversations with Ludo Fact about Earthborne Rangers since September of 2020, and they’ve been incredibly supportive and interested in helping us achieve our vision throughout.

If you’d like to read more about why I feel Ludo Fact is a good fit for Earthborne, you can read the “Ludo Fact Goes Green” section of their website here.

In short, Ludo Fact has all the qualities that I was hoping to find in the manufacturer of Earthborne Rangers. They’re FSC-certified, they source their paper from regional suppliers, and to top it all off, their factory uses exclusively renewable energy.

It’s worth noting also that Ludo Fact owns a factory here in the States, but as of now, that factory is not able to produce Earthborne Rangers to our specifications. It is my hope, however, that one day they will be able to do just that.

Valley and Pivotal Location Sets Preview

Over the last three months, we’ve previewed cards from the Lakeshore, Woods, and Old-Growth terrain sets. This month, I thought it would be fun to talk about how those cards combine with others to form the path deck.

The path deck contains the flora, fauna, natural features, structures, and characters you’ll meet on your journey, and the longer you remain at a single location, the more you’ll reveal from the path deck.

During a game of Earthborne Rangers, when you travel from one location to another, the first thing you’ll do is check the terrain type of the trail leading from your current location to your destination. This determines the terrain set you'll use to construct the path deck. Then, you’ll determine whether your destination is a standard location or a “pivotal” location. 

When you look at the Valley map, you’ll see that there are two classifications of locations, indicated by two different location icons. The locations marked by a yellow-gold “star” icon are called pivotal locations, and when you visit them, you’ll have the opportunity to meet characters and encounter features unique to those locations.

If your destination is one of the nine pivotal locations in the Valley, you’ll take the corresponding card set for that location and combine it with the terrain set when building the path deck.

If your destination is a standard location, however, you’ll deal three random cards from the Valley set and combine those with the terrain set instead.

The 14-card Valley set contains unique features, dangerous predators, and several fellow wanderers–many of whom will offer you side-activities that, when completed, reward you with new, powerful Ranger cards. 

After you’ve combined the terrain set with the appropriate location set, you may also be instructed by weather cards or mission cards in play to add a few more cards to the path deck. We'll preview examples of those at a later date.

Once you’ve built the path deck, you’ll proceed to “arrival setup,” where you’ll be instructed by the location card on how to stage the play area. Then, each Ranger will draw one path card, and the round begins.

If you’d like to stay as up to date as possible with Earthborne Rangers, I invite you to check out our bi-weekly podcast, the next episode of which will be released on Friday, September 9th.

Episode 13

Episode 14

As always, if you have any questions, you can reach us at [email protected], or you can send us a DM on Kickstarter.

Until next time!

Much Love,

Andrew

July Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 03, 2022 at 09:53:40 PM

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well!

I have a very brief update for you this month. We’re currently in the middle of finishing the layout of the campaign guide, the rulebook, and the packaging for the core set. We have until the end of this week to make final edits, additions, and revisions before those files go out for proofreading, so I’m going to go back to that as soon as I post this update. I’ll have a more substantive update for you all next month. Until then, please enjoy this preview!

Old Growth Terrain Set Preview

This month we’ll take a look at the Old Growth terrain set and the Ancestor’s Grove location, which can be approached via an old growth forest from the north.

From the campaign guide:

A reverent calm siffuses your being as you step into the Ancestor’s Grove. Each of the trees, from the smallest sapling to the towering giants at the grove’s center, has been planted over the final resting place of a loved one. You see several people, some keeping to themselves, some speaking softly with one another, some bearing gifts. Others tend to the mausoleums, ensuring that the trees above flourish and that the candles within remain alight.

Towering dolewood forests dominate the eastern portion of the Valley. Slumbering bearsloths cling to their branches and puffercrawlers roam their shadowed understories.

The Old Growth terrain set contains many dangers that may not seem dangerous at first. A cloudhive swarm, for example, may seem like a minor inconvenience at first, but if you hang around them too long, or if a bearsloth or a cloudhive shows up, you might suddenly find yourself surrounded by a swarm of angry bees!

If you’re ever in a bearsloth + bee predicament, finding some cherry moss can help. Not only can cherry moss provide an alternate source of food for the bearsloth (who might otherwise be tempted to pilfer honey from the hive, adding bees to the swarm), but you can simply eat some cherry moss yourself and deprive the bees of their prize, encouraging them to search for food elsewhere.

Here’s the lore entry for cloudhives from The World of Earthborne Rangers:

Cloudhives were the result of an instrumental Generational Project, a solution to the depleted numbers of pollinator insects threatening many plants with extinction. Cloudhives use a lightweight construction, genetic reprogramming, and the hive’s own heat to float. The hives can be several meters in diameter and drift from one area to another as the bees search for flowering plants. Cloudhives are fragile, so bees were designed to be defensive. Swarms are extremely dangerous.

Cloudhives begin in forests as a queen finds a spot high up in a tree and starts laying eggs. The drones hatch and construct a cloudhive in the tree branches. When this is complete, the drones heat the interior by vibrating their bodies and wings rapidly, while chewing away any small branches that stabilize it. While cloudhives originate in forests, bees prefer open areas with lots of flowers for food, so cloudhives are soon on the move.

Cloudhives drift in the wind currents above the Valley. They drop lower during the day as the air warms, letting the bees reach flowering plants. At night they rise to avoid predators. Cloudhive bees have an intelligent hive mind, and can navigate the air currents. Bees steer their hives, clinging to one side and using their wings to generate thrust. This means a cloudhive can stay in the same region for years if conditions suit the bees.

Cloudhive bees have numerous predators, including frogs, lizards, and other insects such as spiders and dragonflies. However, few predators go after the hive. Occasionally, a bearsloth might attack a hive that can’t get airborne in time, hoping for honey, but once afloat the hive is relatively safe. Although most aerial predators could destroy the fragile hive structure, they are wary of the deadly bees.

Cloudhive bees swarm against any animals that get too close to the hive, and their venom is extremely potent. They prefer to warn off would-be attackers while their hive gets out of danger. Thousands of bees swarm in ominous, billowing patterns in front of a threat, before attacking in a rushing wave.

If you’d like to stay as up to date as possible with the development of Earthborne Rangers, I invite you to check out our bi-weekly podcast:

Episode 12

Episode 12.5

And, as always, if you have any questions or just want to say hello, you can reach us at [email protected] or you can send us a DM on Kickstarter.

Until next time!

Much Love,

Andrew

June Update
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jul 04, 2022 at 03:28:08 AM

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well.

We’re in the final push to finish files for the core set, and by this time next month, we should be done with just about everything. We have an intense month ahead of us as we finalize the layout for the rulebook, campaign guide, and the packaging, but we’re as energized as ever and excited to see it through.

Manufacturing Update

Those of you who caught my appearance on a recent Covenant livestream and have been following along with the podcast know that our quest for sustainable manufacturing in North America has been a challenging one. We’re set for a production in Europe that will service our european backers and localization partners, but finding a manufacturer who can meet our specifications in North America has been very difficult, especially in the time-frame we were hoping for. We are not, however, giving up.

Since we do not have infinite resources there may come a time when we need to wave the white flag and print everything in Europe, but that time has not yet come. We have a few more leads to chase down that could yield a North American print run, and I’m cautiously optimistic that at least one of them will pan out. I will obviously let you all know as soon as I have something to report on that front.

While our quest to preserve the integrity of the vision for regional, sustainable manufacturing will impact our projected fulfillment date, we feel it’s important to stay true to the vision for as long as we can afford to do so, especially since that vision is at the heart of why so many of you support this project. Once we see how everything shakes out, and we know what the new fulfillment date will be, we will share that information with all of you as soon as we can.

If you’d like to learn more, I spoke at length about our quest for North American manufacturing in the most recent episode of the podcast. You can check out that segment here.

Mountain Pass Preview

Please enjoy this preview of the Mountain Pass terrain set as well as the Atrox Mountain location, which can be approached through the mountains from the west.

From the campaign guide:

During your training, Calypsa would jokingly threaten to send you on a patrol of Atrox Mountain whenever she needed to provide you with some extra encouragement. Now, struggling up the side of the mountain, you can see why. The paths around Atrox Mountain are a maze of narrow trails weaving between rockfalls and slopes of unstable scree. You see several irix, circling high above, and you know that lurking along the trail, there may be an Atrox, waiting to pounce.

The Mountain Pass terrain is the most challenging you’ll face in the early portion of the game. It contains multiple predators (Artox and Irix) and obstacles (like Shale Scree and the perilous Fractalwire)–all of which can cause injury if you’re not careful.

Thankfully, it also contains a few helpful cards as well, such as the Agitated Meadowlarks and the Spiderline Stanchion, which you can use to avoid falling prey to the mountain’s many dangers.

Here’s some writing from our lore doc concerning Fractalwire by Sam Gregor-Stewart:

Fractalwire is a bioengineered creation, although it was not part of any Generational Project. Instead, it was developed by a few well-meaning but overzealous activists in the latter half of the 21st century. The idea was to create a plant that could defend itself from being razed or cleared by landowners. That the plant still grows across North America is a testament to their skill, unfortunately for everyone who lives there now.

Fractalwire is a plant, although it bears an unsettling resemblance to brown razor wire with sharp leaves that resemble oversized thorns. The plant is slightly mobile, and tends to grow in coils in the undergrowth alongside other plants, making it hard to notice. The problem is that each thorn-leaf contains hundreds of smaller thorns along its surface, and each of those contains hundreds more, and so on.

When one of the thorn-leaves stabs flesh, the slightly flexible thorns dig into the meat in all directions. This makes the thorns nearly impossible to remove without doing significant tissue damage. However, as the victim struggles, this causes other vine coils from the plant to spasm and whip around, embedding more thorns. Eventually, the victim either dies from severe trauma, or stops moving. Either allows their fluids to drain into pores on the surface of the thorn-leaves, through which the fractalwire absorbs essential nutrients.

Habitat: Fractalwire grows in low clumps in relatively sheltered, dryer areas. The plant’s fractal-thorns give it a large surface area that makes it susceptible to high winds. It can also suffer from fungal rot or other infections if it’s too wet (because of all the pores in the leaves). In the Valley, people usually find clumps of fractalwire on the sheltered lee slopes of hills, or in the dry, sandy soil of upland pine forests.

Relationship with other plants and animals: Fractalwire coexists with other plant species fairly well; it doesn’t need much sunlight since it gains a lot of nutrients from its fluid diet, and it keeps herbivores from grazing on the plants around it.

Most animals steer clear of fractalwire, but there are exceptions. Caustic Mulchers aren’t bothered with it, as the thorns can’t penetrate the Mulchers’ legs and the body is kept off the ground and away from the thorns. Ironwool sheep are also unbothered by fractalwire due to their tough hides. They can’t eat it, but they can ignore it to eat the plants around it. Sometimes wild herds of Ironwood Sheep sleep near bushes of fractalwire for protection.

Human Uses: Cultivating Fractalwire is tricky and dangerous, but humans with tools can get the job done. Some Ironwool shephards out of Meadow grow Fractalwire into natural corrals for their herds, keeping them safe from predators at night. A few enterprising individuals have also suggested using it to protect settlements, but its indiscriminate nature makes most people worried that someone might get tangled up in it and die before they can be rescued. The one exception is Tumbledown, where Fractalwire is cultivated on some of the lower slopes below the outpost as another deterrent for things coming up into the Valley from the Verdessa.

--------------------------

As always, if you’d like to keep as up to date with Earthborne Rangers as possible, I invite you to listen to our bi-weekly podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Episode 9

Episode 10

Episode 11

If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] or send us a direct message here on Kickstarter.

Thank you everyone!

Much love,

Andrew

May Update
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 02, 2022 at 04:41:44 AM

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well.

As we emerge from a long, cold Minnesota winter, we’re rounding the final turn on development for the Earthborne Rangers core set. We’re not quite in the home stretch, but we’re getting very close. Card text is now finalized, and we’ve begun prepping art so that it can be included in our spreadsheet export script and placed automatically during card generation. To put it another way, we’re finally seeing art on cards, and it’s awesome.

Fischer just wrapped up his final draft of the rules text for me to review, so I’m looking forward to doing that in the coming days. Evan has really ramped up the art production in the past month, illustrating several pieces a week (many of them based on sketches by Joe) while directing our amazing group of contributing artists. Personally, I have a lot of “final touch” tasks ahead of me like reviewing the campaign guide, writing flavor text, and prepping art for cards. It’s a lot of fun to start seeing the final product steadily take shape as we chip away at our massive to-do list.

Since we’re all very excited to finally have cards with artwork, I thought I would start sharing cards in the monthly updates from here on out, so here goes!

This month, we’ll be looking at a few cards from the Lakeshore terrain set as well as the Golden Shore location, which can be approached by lakeshore from both the east and the west.

From the campaign guide:

Wherever sunlight kisses the shoreline, you can see how the Golden Shore earned its name: countless flecks of gold glitter beneath the water, sparkling through the light reflected off the surface. A breeze comes in off the water, causing the grass to rustle with a soft hiss.

The Lakeshore terrain is definitely one of the gentler terrain sets in the game, but don’t let it lull you into a false sense of security. If you’re not careful you can easily find yourself swarmed by lutrinals before you know it.

If you ever become overly fatigued or even injured by a lutrinal, there are medicinal plants, food in the form of tidewater muckets, and soothing activities like soaking your feet in a tributary stream to be found nearby that can aid in your recovery.

Here’s some writing from our lore doc about lutrials written by Sam Gregor-Stewart (much of this writing will also appear in The World of Earthborne Rangers):

Lutrinals are Asian small-clawed otters genetically mixed with house-cats, originally created as a designer pet back in the 2030s. The results were a swimming mammal with sharp claws, pointed ears, night vision, and a haughty, imperious attitude. As with many pets, lutrinals escaped into the wild during the onset of climate change. But there they grew and evolved, until now, two millennia later, they are a wild pack animal that lives throughout North America.

Habitat: Lutrinals are primarily aquatic mammals, so they almost exclusively live and hunt along the Silverfin and it’s many tributaries in the Valley. Some romps of lutrinals (like otters, a group of lutrinals is called a ‘romp’) have made their homes in more sheltered bays on White Sky Lake.

Lutrinals, like river otters, tend to burrow. Their burrows tend to be along river banks, and some have the disconcerting habit of shoring up the earth around the entrances with the bones of some of the larger creatures they kill and eat.

Diet: Lutrinals are carnivores. They primarily eat fish and mollusks, but have been known to take down larger prey. Lutrinals hunt in packs, and are clever and coordinated enough to swarm and maul animals (and sometimes people) that are far bigger than they are.

Predators: Atroxes, wolhunds, and bearsloths all eat lutrinals if they can get them. However, most of the threats to lutrinals are land-based. In the water, they have few almost no predators due to their natural agility and teamwork.

Behaviors: They are opportunistic and, like cats, can equate ‘hunting’ and ‘playing.’ Romps of lutrinals rear their young communally, teaching them to hunt and work with the rest of the romp in bringing down prey and driving off predators.

A few enterprising humans in White Sky have tried to domesticate lutrinals, returning them to the role of pets and companions that they shrugged off so long ago. Their efforts have reached some level of success, to the frustration of most of their neighbors. Domestication can only be obtained by finding a lutrinal pup and hand-raising them so they develop a bond with that person (and the humans who try it make the effort to find orphaned lutrinals, and not undertake the morally questionable and highly dangerous task of raiding a romp’s holt).

A semi-domesticated lutrinal retains its imperious, haughty, and curious attitude, but tolerates the humans that adopted it with amused playfulness and an eagerness to help (as long as the tasks are something it would find fun). They love diving into the water off of White Sky and bringing back a half-mauled catch of some sort to their owner. Unfortunately for their owners’ neighbors, they also love exploring, getting into boxes and containers, and leaving their distinctive musk-scent around their territory.

—--------------

As always, if you’d like to keep as up to date with Earthborne Rangers as possible, I invite you to listen to our bi-weekly podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Episode 7:

Episode 8:

If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] or send us a direct message here on Kickstarter.

Thank you all for your continued support. It means the world to us!

Much love,

Andrew

April Update
almost 2 years ago – Fri, May 06, 2022 at 05:22:32 AM

 Hi Everyone!

I hope you're all doing well.

Despite the months flying by, it's somehow still winter here in Minnesota. I usually have a pretty high tolerance for long winters, but I have to admit, I'm ready for this one to be over. I hope that wherever you are  the weather is lovely. If it's not, then hang in there! Spring's right around the corner.

This month we continue to be hard at work, ignoring the miserabe weather by putting in long hours as our summer deadlines approach. Fischer and I have begun the monumental task of finalizing card text and rules syntax, which involves us meeting for big chunks of the day, every day, reviewing and discussing every card in the core set, one by one. Sometimes we'll spend only a minute or two per card, and sometimes we'll spend a half an hour, all in an effort to minimize any rules questions that may arise during play. We should be done with that early next week, then we'll begin our review of the campaign guide.

Art is coming along very well. Evan and I are extremely happy with the work that our freelance artists are creating. We have a phenomenal group that we're working with. Each has been able to build upon the foundation that Evan and Joe have laid while bringing their own ideas to the table. It's a lot of fun to see it come together.

We've also been preparing to launch our pre-order store. I had hoped to launch it this past week, but it's not quite ready. Pre-orders have gone live on the Frosted Games and Fantasia stores as of this weekend, so if you know anyone looking for the German or Italian edition, please let them know!

As I mentioned in the last couple of updates, the best way to keep tabs on development is by listening to our bi-weekly podcast. If you don't have time for another podcast in your life, I also recommend that you drop by the fan Discord where there's usually discussion around the more salient topics we discuss on the show.  You can also check out a recent interview I did with Steven of Team Covenant where I talk about the evolution of the design and life post-Kickstarter.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you again for your continued support. The fact that the team and I can wake up every day and focus on this project as a full-time job is a tremendous blessing. We are extremely fortunate, and we would not be able to do it without you. Thank you!

Until next time!

Much love,

Andrew