The end of a new beginning!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 10:38:33 PM

Good morning, heroes!

After breaking $300k last night, we’ve been rocketing right along! We’re only $25k away from the ultimate $350k stretch goal at the time that I’m writing this update, and we’ve got just over 5 hours to go! Will we make it? Who can say? If you’re considering any add-ons, now is the time; you’ll still be able to add-on things to your pledge during the post-campaign pledge manager, but that won’t count towards stretch goals - wherever we are when the campaign ends at 3:00 PM CST today, that’s it!

Livestream in a few hours!

Speaking of later this afternoon, I’ll be doing a livestream to count down the last bit of time through the end of the campaign! We’ll be streaming over on our Twitch channel, and we’re scheduled to start at 2:30 PM CST (but I might jump the gun and start early if we’re all setup and ready to go).

We’re on the cusp of greatness, everyone! Persevere! Become true heroes of Sentinel Comics!

-Christopher

The Last Day!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 12:21:58 AM

Good evening, everyone!

Just a quick update to say WOW! Things are really moving along here at the end - the past 24 hours have been quite the acceleration, and I can’t wait to see how the final 24 hours go!

$300k Stretch Goal: Achieved!

We just hit the $300k mark! How exciting! The Dark Watch sourcebook is officially happening!

There’s a lot of cool stuff that we’re planning for the Dark Watch book, including a pile of heroes like Expatriette, Setback, Mantra, Pinion, Night Hunter and more! The book will also feature numerous villains related to the dark, gritty stories associated with Dark Watch and Rook City, including Chairman Pike, Zhu Long, Night Snake, and some villainous groups like the Organization and For Profit! It will also introduce many environments, minions, lieutenants, and other elements of the street-level stories from the pages of Sentinel Comics, including an adventure in that setting!

Besides all of those elements that further expand the world, there are also additional tools for players and GMs interested in that sort of storytelling. That includes new optional rules for creating heroes, setting-appropriate Backgrounds, Power Sources, Archetypes, and Personalities, and Principles!

All in all, the Dark Watch sourcebook is going to be packed full of useful and interesting elements to add your games of Sentinel Comics!

Add It On!

To add the Dark Watch sourcebook (or any of the other great items) to your pledge, just follow the instructions posted in yesterday’s update! Here’s what the add-on chart looks like now:

Looking forward…

It seems very unlikely at this point, but it’s entirely in the realm of the possible that we might just hit $350k. 

If we do, we’ll unlock the Urban Settings book, which will be full of in-depth writing on the notable urban environments of Sentinel Comics, including Megalopolis, Rook City, Mordengrad, and even some more far flung cities, like Magmaria and Plavu’Col. Expect to see maps, supporting cast, and new elements in all of these places! However, that’s only if we get to that stretch goal level! We shall see...

Tomorrow’s Livestream!

Tomorrow afternoon, the campaign is ending! We’ll be live on Twitch for the last half hour of the campaign, celebrating the success and hanging out with any of you who join us there, at https://www.twitch.tv/greaterthangames - we hope to see you there!

-Christopher

The Final Countdown!
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 10:17:18 PM

Hello, heroes!

End times are upon us! This campaign ends in two days, so the front page of the Kickstarter has already switched from “days to go” to “hours to go”! The 48 hour mark will be happening soon, so we’re excited to see if there’s that last two days bump that many Kickstarters experience. Might we unlock that Dark Watch sourcebook? I certainly hope so!

How Do Add-Ons Work?

I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about how to add things on to your pledge. I’m going to explain that all now, with a series of helpful images!

So, if you’ve backed the campaign, when you’re looking at the front page of this Kickstarter, you should see a banner across the top of the page that shows what level you pledged at, plus a large green button on the far right side that says “Manage your pledge”.

Or, if you scroll down the page, that bar will turn into a tab across the top of your browser, with a blue “Manage your pledge” button.

If you click on that button, it’ll take you to a screen showing your payment information, your pledge and info on that pledge, along with a blue “Change your pledge” button. Click on that!

This brings you to a view similar to the one you saw when initially backing this campaign. In the bottom right corner, you can see your current pledge amount next to a green “Continue” button. Let’s take a look at the Add-Ons chart to see what we want…

So, currently, I’m pledging at the Special Edition of the core rulebook level. (I actually really should be pledging at the level that gets me the GM Kit and the Dice Set - I really want those, too! But anyway, I digress.) 

If I also wanted to add on The GUISE Book!, the Diamond Book of Monsters and xxtz’Hulissh Adventure Book, and The History of Sentinel Comics book, I would need to add $29, $29, and $49, respectively. Let’s open up a calculator to make sure I do this right.

Great! So, I change $99 to $206 in the current pledge field back on the Kickstarter page and hit the green “Continue” button! And that’s all there is to it! Right up until the campaign ends, you can alter your pledge amount to keep adding things on, so if we unlock that Dark Watch sourcebook, you could then increase your pledge by $39 to add that book on... but we're not quite there yet!

After the campaign is over, we’ll be sending out links to a post-campaign pledge manager site that will help you specify exactly what things you added on money for. So, for now, just increase your pledge by the correct amount and we’ll sort out the details in the not-too-distant future!

Friday’s Livestream!

Since Friday is the last day of the campaign, we’ll be doing a livestream here in the office that afternoon! Expect to see appearances from some of your favorite GTG employees as we count down the final 30 minutes of the campaign!

Starting at 2:30 PM, Central Time, I’ll be livestreaming over at https://www.twitch.tv/greaterthangames - come hang out and be excited with us!

Oh! Last, but certainly not least, Adam finished all the art for the GM Kit screen, and it looks GLORIOUS! Check it out!

Wow, that is going to look GREAT on the GM screen!

Thrilling times here for the rest of this week! Keep up the great work, heroes!

-Christopher

Just the FAQs, ma’am!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Feb 18, 2019 at 11:19:04 PM

Hello, everyone!

Today’s update will be pretty short, but I’m going to be here on Kickstarter all afternoon for reasons that I’ll explain soon! In this update, we’re going to talk about today’s plans to answer some questions. Then, we’ll discuss that stretch goal that we broke through this morning! Here we go!

Ask Me Your Questions!

Today, I’ll be hanging around in the comments section of the Kickstarter answering any and all questions! I’ll be there from now until 5:00 PM, Central time, so you’ve got 5 hours to get your questions in! My preference is to keep it to the actual Comments section of the whole campaign, rather than the comments on this post, as the Comments section properly threads posts and replies while the update comments sections do not for some unknown reason. So! I’ll keep an eye here to make sure no one is getting missed, but kindly take your questions over to that Comments tab up above to make things easier for everyone.

The State of Stretch Goals

This morning, we broke the $250k stretch goal! Stupendous! 

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Sentinels of Freedom video game that the fantastic people over at Underbite Games are working on. It’s really impressive, and Adam and I are both super into everything they’re building over there. We’re both heavily involved in the storytelling and look and feel of the game, and have an adventure story that we want to tell as a prelude to the events of the video game. This one-shot adventure issue connects the dots between the end of the Starter Kit adventures and the beginning of the Sentinels of Freedom video game, helping you jump right into the action and setting the stage for the cool events that are yet to unfold! 

As with other free stretch levels, the physical one-shot will be shipped to all backers who backed this Kickstarter for any physical products, while the PDF will go to all those same backers and also to those of you just backing for PDFs. More free content!

Final Stretch Goals!

What do these last few days hold? Let’s look at the chart.

We’ve only got two stretch goals left, and I’m doubtful we’ll hit both of them. I’d love to at least unlock the Dark Watch sourcebook, though! It’s got heroes, villains, environments, new rules, GM tips and tools - all sorts of great stuff! And the Urban Settings book is the first in a series of in-depth settings books that I’m really excited about… we’ll just have to see if we get that far!

OK, time for questions! Let’s do this!

-Christopher

The History of Sentinel Comics and some Videos!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 09:35:39 PM

Good morning to all you delightful people!

I hope you’re all doing well. Life is good over here - hectic, but good. Working on so many things, and pretty darn pleased with how all of them are going. Let’s talk about an awesome book, some videos about that book, and then another video about the RPG itself!

The History of Sentinel Comics Book

We’ve been really excited about this book, ever since it was proposed to us by Darren Watts. He and Christopher McGlothlin have been crafting phenomenal tales, using the framework of the stories from Sentinel Comics and who their creators could have been. Rather than put words in their mouths, let me give you a couple of excerpts from the book. (Mind you, the book is well into the writing stage and is very far along, but it has not yet begun the editing stage, so everything here is subject to tweaks and changes.)

The book has segments about how and where the comic company started:

It also has some ridiculous interviews with creators:

And there are plenty of spaces throughout the book for the names gathered by the “A Part of Sentinels History” pledge level to shine alongside important moments in Sentinel Comics history:

The book is also full of art from covers, panels, and more! 

Also, the last section of the book is a “Price Guide” that essentially breaks down the entire history of every published Sentinel Comics comic book, with callouts for notable issues and events.

All in all, this book is going to be a great resource for lovers of Sentinel Comics, but also a thrilling read for anyone with an interest in the history of storytelling and the business thereof!

Videos about the History of Sentinel Comics

For the last few weeks, we’ve been releasing videos on our YouTube page made by the delightful folks at Double Exposure, Inc. as part of promotion of The History of Sentinel Comics book. It’s a five-part video series - here are the first four!

Part 5 is going to be released next Wednesday. I know I’m looking forward to it!

The Last Overview Video

The last two updates have featured Overview Videos about Sentinel Comics: the Roleplaying Game. This update does as well! Here’s the third and final Overview video, all about the mechanics and gameplay of the SCRPG.

Thanks for watching! (Sorry for my very silly joke just after the 3.5 minute mark.) I hope these videos have helped you understand more of what we’re doing with this new stage of Sentinel Comics.

Next Week: the LAST WEEK!

This campaign ends a week from today! I’ve got more updates planned for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week, including a livestream next Friday afternoon to count down the last hour or so of the campaign. Look forward to more news on those plans in next week’s updates!

See you all there!

-Christopher