What's up backers, Alex here!

We’re overdue for another update so here we go!

Things are moving along nicely on the development front and we are still confident that we can get this Wave 2 delivered to you by Christmas of this year. 

We understand that our deadlines have historically been...off, but we’re finding a groove within the company that we’ve never felt before. The dial is moving forward and things are coming together in an exciting way.

Pit Boss Playtest is Live!

First, we’re happy to announce that The Pit Boss Bounty Pack is now free to playtest on Tabletop Simulator.

To play, make sure to join our Discord channel if you haven’t yet. Here you'll get the installation instructions for the free Middara TTS mod to play the entirety of Act 1, plus all the beta expansions we release before going to print.

The Discord channel is also great way to interact with us in real time, whether it's to give us feedback on the game, or to just chit-chat with us.

These Tabletop Simulator playtests help us tremendously in balancing the game, finding grammatical and mechanical issues, grow closer to the community, and tighten up each product to prepare for digital proofing.

You can also find our print and play for the Pit Boss here.

Pint-Sized Fury

It is well understood across Middara that humanity is not the first race to settle the planet. Many marvel at the incredible ruins left behind, and wonder at what powers created the artifacts that are now bought and sold by explorers and adventurers alike. But though humanity currently dominates, not every race has been driven from the planet. One only retreated below the surface. Rather than wallow in their near-extension, the Adlet has fully embraced its new conditions.

There is some debate among naturalists to what degree the Adlet is intelligent. There is much to suggest this may be the case, or at the very least that the Adlet species are so near to intelligence as to be within striking distance of humanity. It is unfortunate, then, that they continue to come into conflict, usually resulting in the destruction of one or the other.

Adlets are small, squat creatures, with short limbs and bodies covered in coarse brown fur. Flaps of skin run up their arms, suggesting batlike wings. These wings are entirely vestigial however, and now serve no practical purpose. They have ears extending larger than their heads, with full independence of motion from each other. This grants them supreme sensitivity to sound, able to make out the tiniest vibrations in the rock of their underground homes.

The youngest form of Adlet observed is called the Adlet Drudge, so named for the lives they lead. When observed, these creatures are always laboring, often in deplorable conditions, under the watchful whips of older taskmasters. Age appears to be the only determining factor in which Adlets rise through the ranks—those that survive their grueling work will eventually earn the privilege of perpetuating the cycle of abuse to the next generation.

Very little remains of whatever these creatures may’ve been like before they were driven underground. The interaction of raw Itlum crystal with organic matter is generally destructive—for whatever reason, this is not true for Adlets. They thrive of the choking miasma that would drown other species, and indeed seem dependent on it for survival. What little of their homes has been discovered is always suffused with a cloud of the stuff, produced through regular crushing of Itlum. They also make use of the crystal itself, either for tools or ingestion.

 Wave 2 Progress Report 

Here’s where we’re at:
 

Cave Sickle Queen - Bounty Pack 

• Complete and available to beta playtest now.

The Pit Boss - Bounty Pack

• Complete and available to beta playtest now

The Collector - Bounty Pack

• Currently being designed, estimated date for beta release is March.

Unintentional Malum: Vile Variations 

• 90% complete. To complete this fully, we also need to complete Acts 2 and 3. Completion of Vile Variation is on the backburner until then.

Pirates of Elenia - Story Pack

• All writing is complete and all the Encounters are designed. We’re currently developing in house and prepare for playtest. We estimate this going up on TTS by the end of February.
• We are still finishing up some tile art as well as some last minute sculpts that we’ve decided to throw in to make this expansion more immersive.

Act 2 + Act 3

• Act 2 writing is complete. This is huge for us! We're submitting it at the end of this month for our content and line edits. Additionally, our flowchart is fleshed out and the game is ready for design. 90% of illustrations and sculpts are also complete. We've focused most of the remaining artwork down to the Adventure Book and it's scenes. 

KS2 Promo Product

• All the Daily Stretch Goals, Act 2 + 3 Espers, plus the promo characters (Ai Chen, Toast, Nyx) are sculpted, sized, scaled and ready for print.
• The Bellicose PvP Teaser is currently under planning and design. More details about these product will be released in the near future.

Crawl Compendium

• Next in line and what Pete is most excited to knock out.

Trail of a Princess Adventure

• This product is outlined and is currently being written.

Art Book 2

• We'll compile this at the very end once all the artwork is finished.

Silvia (Day 1 figure)

• Drafted and ready for proofing. This is a small enough product that we'll probably tie this up last.

Production and Shipping Timelines

Based on production and ocean freight travel timelines given to us by our factories, having all these files submitted by June should still give us enough time to have the game deliver by the end of this year.

This gives us a few months of extra time from our last target date to have the files submitted by the end of March.

Unlocking the Pledge Manager for Wave 2 (and Wave 1)

Our goal was to launch this pre-order on Valentine's Day, 2022 but we feel that this just isn’t realistic.

We want to make sure that our quotes are finalized and our box dimensions and weights are accurate before we start the pre-order.

For these reasons, we plan on pushing the pre-order until the spring.

When we unlock the pledge manager, anyone and everyone will have access and we'll provide everyone with a link through our KS Updates, FB page, and newsletter.

Things could change, but our goal is to provide everything from Wave 1, Wave 2, and any holiday releases on this pre-order.

Prices will fluctuate from the campaign but will still be the best deal possible.

Bundles and “pledges” will also be available.

1.1 Inventory Update

The 1.1 Adventure Book, Rulebook, and Update Pack are all 75% off on the webstore. If you still need any of these items, grab them now. 

We will be clearing them from our warehouses in February to save on warehousing costs.

Folded Space Organizer

The Middara Folded Space organizer will be available for purchase this Friday (1/28/22)!

Check out the pictures below:

Folded Space told us that this organizer will fit all the cards sleeved as well!

Newest Rule Book Uploaded!

 Yo, Brooklynn here!

With a Middara Base Game 3rd print on the horizon, new content being slammed into Act 2 and 3, and our ever expanding Middara universe, I've been putting a lot of time into refining the Rule Book. 

The new 1.2 Beta Rule Book is live on our website. I'd really appreciate some help from those in our community who are willing to give the book a thorough read through. I want to make sure that any Rule Books (or rule sheets) we provide in future content, print runs, or sale online are rock solid. 

In addition to reflecting all the updates for Act 2 and 3 content you will be receiving, this Rule Book also includes the massive amounts of feedback we've received on Discord over the last year. 

This new Rule Book includes: 

• Tons of clarifications. 
• A lot, (but not all) FAQ included with some clever and minor rewording across many areas in the book. 
• We've fixed every reported Spelling error, grammatical issue, and math issue that has been reported.
• Expanded rules for Disciplines, effects, and Combatant Tokens. This was mostly done in cases where card/token size restrictions prevented us from including the whole intent or rule of an Ability. (Summoning, Exalted Espers, Gigas Grip, etc.) 
• An updated Index and Table of Contents.
• New Esper Rules that allow us to remove component restrictions on Disciplines. Meaning, you can have multiple people use Summoning without breaking the game. For those who don't love this, we also included a Variant to continue to Summon Espers and use them in essentially they same way you already are.
• A general refinement and expansion of our Variant Rules. 
• Some breathing room was added to pages that felt cramped. 
• New Rules associated with future proofing our game and content we add has also been added. This is mostly take care of in our new Alternate, Variations, and Loot LVL section.  

While I know it will never be 'perfect', we are striving to have the Rule Book as tight as possible before we submit the new digital files to our printers. 

We also know a lot of people want this rule book included in future content. We want that too. Alongside our commitment to provide significantly changed content to our backers, we will be trying our hardest to find a way to provide you with everything you need to enjoy Middara to its fullest. 

As we near our manufacturing deadlines, we're confident that we can come up with some clever solutions that can make all of us happy.  

Thanks for reading our update, we'll see ya soon!