Critical Kit

Hello!

I haven't forgotten about you. It's just been a ridiculously busy time at CKHQ. This is a biiiig update, so feel free to skip to the section you want.

1. Delays & issues

Anyway, as things are progressing dissapointingly slow at the moment, I've decided that I am going to drop you an update every Tuesday so we can keep up to date and to give you the assurance that Wires in The Woods is still very much moving on. Each update will have a little preamble like this which includes production updates, followed by something new about the game that I can reveal and closing off with the same list of important things (I know not everyone reads every email) such as changing your address, updated timelines, tariff info etc.

First up, crowdfunding is notorious for not meeting deadlines. We've succumbed to that here at 6 months over our initial date for release. We're not proud of that, but also I want to produce something that is above and beyond. With that in mind, once we've finished our fulfilment on Wires we'll do a debrief update for what went well, what went no so well and how we will use that in future projects. We are talking 2-3 months more delay here and nothing beyond that. The main issues we've faced with Wires are as follows:

- It was more successful that we anticipated. Which is fine, but it meant a little more writing on my part and more art on Simon's part. That in turn means more playtesting.

- Production has been tricky. Not long after we began sourcing production for Wires those pesky tariffs came into being. 70% of our rewards are heading out to the States, so we have had to negotiate where it's best to produce things and where it is best to distribute things. Rest-assured, we have sourced a lot of production in the UK which is a big plus, but we also won't make any final decision on fulfilment methods until we find out what happens on October 14th when the case against them is appealed. That said, we won't wait on this forever and will make a definitive decision by the start of November.

Okay, enough waffle on that. I'm sorry we're running late and we will keep pushing to get everything out to you ASAP. If you have specific questions I can answer them in the comments.

2. Production update

Well, some things are moving. We have now received the Buds comics, the bookplates and the patches are done and on the way to us. We've also ringfenced all of the other titles that were selected in add-ons, so when we are ready to go, we are ready! Check out the photos below:





Everything is looking gorgeous! Next up will be the neoprene mats.


3. Zeal (at last!)

One of the challenges in designing Wires in the Woods was finding a way to capture the ups and downs of a forager’s journey without falling back on the usual “health and hit points” system. We wanted this to be a cosy game where your story doesn’t end in death, but in pauses, discoveries, and new beginnings.

That’s where Zeal comes in.

Zeal is your forager’s enthusiasm for exploration; the spark that keeps their weird little brain pushing deeper into the woods. You’ll gain Zeal when you find curious items or invent solutions to the problems you encounter. But Zeal also slips away with every step you take: moving between locations costs 1 Zeal.

Certain forager traits or crafted items might reduce that cost, letting you wander further with less effort. But when your Zeal finally runs out? You don’t perish. You simply need a rest. The game encourages you to step away - take a nap, go for a walk, listen to music - and return refreshed, just like your forager.

Every forager begins with 8 Zeal, making it easy to track with a d8. Just place the die with your current Zeal facing up and turn it as you go.

It’s a gentle rhythm: gain Zeal by creating and discovering, spend it by exploring, and know that running out is only ever an invitation to pause.

Next update, I’ll be talking about Heft, or how much your forager can carry before it starts to weigh them down.

4. Useful info, FAQs? I don't know what they are!

- When will we see the game?
My hope is to get the PDFs out in November. We have a few final tweaks, bits of art and proofreading to do, but getting the PDF out is quick and painless. Shortly after this we will send it to the printers. The bad news is that, this close to the chaotic postal season, we are very unlikely to send physical items out. January will be a much safer time to fulfil.

- I've moved. How do I change my address.
Hang tight, we will contact everyone to ensure their address is correct before we go live.

- Tariffs. Wahhhhh!
We are doing everything we can to negotiate the ridiculous tariff situation. For the USA, we intend to ship everything out and cover the costs so you don't have any financial surprises. This means a bit more cost on our side, but we've got this.

- This section doesn't answer my concerns.
Drop a comment below. This section is a work in progress and we will keep updating it.

That's all for now. Thank you for your patience and we promise to continue being transparent about our progress.

Tim (& Simon).

Hey lovely backers,

This update mainly relates to US backers, but please do read on if you are outside the US as it may be of interest.

I'm a bit later than I anticipated on this one. Seattle was wild and exhausting - I slept 15 hours through this weekend, something that I haven't done since I was... well, many years ago before there were mobile phones.

I wanted to make this update about Zeal, but I think there is a more pressing matter, especially for our US backers. The T word. (I'll do a brief production update at the end of this post).

I've followed the tariffs closely since that silly little board came out in front of that big white building in Washington DC. They are a prime example of how the longer timescales involved in big crowdfunding projects are succeptible to global conditions. Previously it was wars, now it still is wars plus ridiculous trade policies, both introduced by idiotic old men.

The current status is that sending the books does not (or should not) incur tariffs. Books are protected under the IEAA and can't be subjected to tariffs. We've had several thousand books enter the US without a single tariff added since the tariffs were introduced.

However, Wires in The Woods is a much more complex project and many backers have items that would be subject to tariffs at varying levels dependent on the type of goods and the country of origin (for us this is a mix of UK, Europe and China).

We want to get everyone their rewards without having unrealistic charges placed on them, so I've worked hard to come up with some solutions based on the following scenarios:

1. The appeals court has paused its ruling that the tariffs are illegal, allowing them to remain in place until 14 October.

In any case, this would be the earliest date we could begin fulfilment due to delays in production we have already experienced. This gives us an accidental luxury of seeing what happens then. If the tariffs are deemed illegal, theoretically it will be full steam ahead for fulfilment with no fear of ridiculous hidden costs.

2. The tariffs are deemed legal by the supreme court and remain in place.

Okay, this is the worst case scenario - effectively what we have right now. However, we have a solution. We would send everything into the states on a pallet and pay the tariffs from our side at cost. Then we would get our consolidators in the US to ship everything to you with zero extra charges.

Sounds ideal right, why don't we just do that?

Basically, this will cost us more for the initial shipping, tariffs and fees for packing and picking Stateside. It will also add time onto the whole process as we transport everyting en-masse to the States.
 
We can, of course, do this and we have it as a contingency to ensure you get your rewards. However, because of the higher costs involved, we need to ensure we have the cashflow to pay everyone in the chain. This will add at least two months on to the fulfilment. That sucks, but it also solves a problem.

I know you will have a lot of questions, so please do throw them in the comments below and I'll answer them to the best of my current knowledge.

As far as production goes, we are expecting the first items in this week (Buds comics) followed by patches, playing cards and many other auxillary items this month. I'll send photos as I have them.

I am hoping to have the book ready as a PDF for all backers in the first half of October and we will give you a couple of weeks to peruse it, play it, ask questions and spot any glaring errors (which should be minimal thanks to our fabulous proofreader).

I promise the next update will be Zeal at the end of this week!

Have a great remainder of the week.

Tim (and Simon)

Hello,

Firstly, thanks to those of you who remembered to nudge me. It's been a busy time, so I'm grateful for all of you acting as my crowdsourced personal assistant.

I've got loads of stuff to add to this update, probably too much to make it a nice weekend read, so I will cut it in two and do the second part next week (during the week). Again, please nudge by Thursday if I ain't posted anything.

So, first up are some new STLs. I have no idea how this 3D printing business works, but a good few of you asked about having unsupported STLs. I've enrolled the help of the original designer and got that sorted.

If you already downloaded them, you should have an email with a new link to download them. If not, grab them from here and use the checkout code from this update.

Right, other business...

I was hoping to give you a production update. So much so, I went into the office on my day off as I received the following message from Royal Mail...



Only to get an email today that looked like this.



So, I believe these are some elements of Simon's art. Specifically the Buds comic. The sucky news is that I will be on a plane to Seattle on Monday. I've prepped a business neighbour to receive them for me, but unfortunately I won't be around to show take any photos until the 4th of September.

Which brings me on to Seattle. I'm heading out to Pax West to show off the games and promote a horror/western game which we are launching on BackerKit in October created by a writer who I have mentored over the past 18 months. 

The mentorship program was a little experiment of mine and it has gone well. I've already signed up my second creator and I will likely be making it into a formal thing next year where I help two writers create their vision and get them published.

Anyway, back to Wires in The Woods. I promise I will do that Zeal overview update next week, so please nudge me by Thursday if you have heard nothing. I've wanted to show you all how Zeal works in the game for a while now; how it ties to your temperament and abilities. It's been a fun mechanic to work on and Simon put down his drawing tools and helped me develop it.

Once we have the game out, I'd love to do a video with Simon where we talk about design choices and how we worked together. This has been my first major collaboration and, whilst it has been very smooth, it has naturally taken a bit longer as we  have discussed all the different ideas we both had for the game and shaped them into the ruleset we currently have.

I also want to discuss the tariff situation in more depth. We've done our best to have the majority of production carried out in the UK or Europe, but some things have inevitable ended up being made in China. More on that in the next update.

Right, I have to prepare for Seattle. If you are at PaxWest, please stop by and say hi. I have a handful of copies of the Quick Start from Free RPG day, and I'd be more than happy to give you one.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tim

This content is for backers only.

Hey all,

They say a picture paints a thousand words - which means I don't need to say much on this update ;)

That said, I have now finalised all of the rules and added some general "get you in the vibe" text for the book. Next week I move on to finishing the prompts for all five settings which will take me a couple of weeks.

At that point I will hand over to Simon to begin integrating my words into the layout. Once that is done, we will send it to our wonderful proofreader, make her suggested changes, and then send you the PDFs before everything heads off to the printers.

The good news is that, from the outset, I had a solid plan of the overall structure of the book, which means Simon has been able to start work on layouts without waiting for all of my words to be in the right order - all of which greases the wheels a bit. I'm hoping we can get everything to the printers in August, but that may shift depending on how things progress. I'll keep you updated weekly (and sometimes more frequently) from this point on so you know where we are. Crowdfunding projects have a reputation for moving goalposts and there is nothing worse than radio silence. There will be none of that here.

Once again I managed to state I wasn't going to say much then proceeded to bombard you with words, so by way of an apology, here are some of the full page art pieces showing all of the foragers from the book!



Simon is creating some wonderfully inspirational pieces to help immerse you in the world of Wires in The Woods. Please bear with us while we prepare your vehicle to this peculiar but intriguing world. It will be worth the wait.

I'll be back next week with a summary of the rules and to discuss some of the choices we made as the game evolved.

Hasta la proxima!

Tim (and Simon)