Court of Blades

Court of Blades: The December Update-ening
over 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 02, 2021 at 07:34:44 PM

Retainers,

We hope, as ever, that this missive finds you well. The ram has touched the wall and we have sent away for our first proof for the Physical copy of Court of Blades. A single book is an expensive proposition, but to ensure that the final product is exactly what we want it to be before putting in the massive order that will get the books into your hands is an important step that we refuse to skimp on. We're waiting, vibrating with excitement to see how the hard work has paid off. Expect that we will be posting photos as soon as we've got it in our hands.

Our pre-order shop on BackerKit has a couple of extra goodies added in recent days. We've got stickers of all of the House crests as well as the Faction crests available as add-ons, as well as an option for a folded map of Ilrien added to a physical copy order. If you've been wavering on adding extra physical goodies, know that we will be locking in orders as of 7 January. There are still 95 Retainers who haven't completed their surveys, and if you find yourself among them, please rectify that!

We've been hit with a little hitch this month, however. Timeline for sewn-spine printing has been extended due to seasonal demand and so we are expecting that physical copies may come to us a couple of weeks later than we first anticipated. So far, nothing catastrophic but we crave your understanding for the inevitable (and unenviable) delays. PDF copies are still very much on schedule, barring some delays on some last outstanding pieces of art, so you should not be empty handed should the worst come to pass and we miss our February target for physical copy shipment by a couple of weeks.  The option to print without a sewn spine was considered, but our relentless commitment to delivering the best possible product to our backers saw us dismiss that almost immediately.

Community and Official Companion Zines are complete and undergoing final polish. They're chock full of extra content to add further flavor and texture (and mechanics!) to your Court of Blades game. As we've said in the past, the PDFs of those will be going out to you as they are finished. Expect to get those while we're all eagerly awaiting the physical copies.  

An extra big shout out to all of you who have sent us messages about your experiences with Court of Blades. The tales of politicking, romance, and skullduggery are adding fuel to our fire and driving us to deliver this game in the best shape possible. You gave us your hearts and your belief, and we will requite that love.

We're very excited about this next bit, Retainers. Court of Blades has been our world for the past two years, and seeing the finish line on the horizon and the prospect of the first look at a dream, physical and tangible has us simply alight. We hope that you're half as excited as we are.

Yours most gratefully

Navi & Shawn Drake

A Couple of Drakes

Court of Blades: The November Update-ening
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 02, 2021 at 01:59:54 AM

Loyal Retainers and Dear Friends,

We hope that the spooky season's skullduggery has treated you well. House Drake continues to be hard at work on the formatting and editing process for Court of Blades and things are rapidly coming together for an on-time submission for printing. Art is coming in, and we're really excited to share a couple of pieces with you this month. Al Lukeheart continues to floor us with their amazing ability to bring our vision for Ilrien to life.

Some of you might have noticed that our websites are currently down for the count. We're currently migrating all of our websites to a new, faster host.  All of your favorite Couple of Drakes information will be safe, secure, and searchable there as soon as we have that all migrated over.  Just another glamorous day's work.

So that's the long and short, Retainers. We're on-time, on-budget, and still keeping the big train moving to get this game out to you all.  Thank you so much for continuing to be present, engaged, and excited about Court of Blades. That makes all of this unsexy work our absolute pleasure.

Yours Most Faithfully,

Shawn and Navi Drake

A Couple of Drakes

Court of Blades: The October Update-ening
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 07, 2021 at 05:07:09 AM

Retainers,

We hope this missive finds you in good health and better spirits. House Drake is pleased to inform that the work on shepherding Court of Blades along the road to completion and distribution is proceeding according to schedule. The last chapters have been edited and passed along for formatting and layout. They're looking very good; a lot of little gremlins have been squished and nagging wrinkles have been ironed away. The result will be the book we promised when we asked for your support.

We've also received most of our solicited submissions for the Community Zine.  Nychelle, Diogo, Tim, Kristin, Peggy, and Shawn really brought their A game to this project, and the amount of cool, evocative, flavorful, gameable stuff that they brought to the world of Court of Blades is absolutely phenomenal. We've got more maneuverings for the Houses Minor, monster-hunting Mercies, a neighborhood with a dark secret, and even some tarot-flavored divination for the dabblers among the upper crust. The Community Zine's looking good, y'all. 

Our first look at the beautiful map of Ilrien commissioned from Tim Wilkinson Lewis came back yesterday and we were floored. It's still in the early stages, but already we're looking at something that exceeds our wildest expectations. Ilrien is a winding and baroque city, but under Tim's hand it's possessed of an almost primal organic look. It's very cool. I look very much forward to being able to post a future update where I can show you the finished version.

Al Lukeheart is similarly engaged in conjuring all of the beautiful art that will fill Court of Blades. I'm holding back on the art-show until we've gotten our Coterie illustrations. As soon as I have my grubby hands on them, be assured that I'll be showing them to you as well, Retainers.

Everything is proceeding, Coterie. Despite the general...-gestures broadly at the world- Court of Blades is on schedule and proceeding relatively smoothly. We're aware of the ruinous rise in price for both paper and shipping, exacerbated by a flood of cool TTRPG products here on Kickstarter and elsewhere. We've anticipated the friction points, and built our budget accordingly. We don't foresee any problems arising that we can't overcome along the road to getting this beautiful book and all of the juicy stretch goals into your hands.

Hopefully those of you who nursed a seed of quiet dread within your heart will be set at your ease until our next missive. We understand completely, appreciate your patience, and are humbled by your continuing support. Look for our next missive on the 1st of November,  but keep an eye on your inbox...the moment we have something to share, we can hardly help ourselves. Take care, hearty House Guard,  puissant Paramours, and resolute Retainers.

Shawn & Navi Drake

 A Couple of Drakes

Court of Blades Proceeds!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 05, 2021 at 01:55:20 AM

Retainers,

Let it be known that everything is proceeding according to our projected timeline. We're at the fun part of the process where all of our partners are hard at work and busy producing the content that is going to make Court of Blades the phenomenal book that YOU all made happen. The first edited pages are in our hands, and the spit and polish really makes those sections sing. We've gotten a preview of the style of the map, and the first round of gorgeous artwork. Community zine pitches (and some cool finished stuff!) are in hand and approved. Nothing that we can share just yet, but be sure that when we've got something cool to share, we'll post it here.

We appreciate your patience as you join us in sitting on our hands and vibrating with excitement. This is the flagrantly unsexy part of the process, and we're glad that you're still engaged, and excited. Hopefully those early PDFs are serving you in good stead while we all wait.

OH! And, as a fun additional note, we're currently reaching out to get a digital playkit put together for use on Roll20. More on that as it develops as well.

Yours most truly,

Shawn & Navi Drake

A Couple of Drakes

Court of Blades Early Release PDF version 2!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 05, 2021 at 02:58:21 AM

Retainers,

We wanted to let you all know that we've released a second version of our Early Release PDF for Court of Blades on BackerKit available to all backers and pre-order customers. We've fixed a couple of errors on the character sheets and one-shot character sheets, removed the unwelcome and unusable phantom bookmarks from the PDF, and properly credited Minerva McJanda in our acknowledgements section. Download the new Early Release kit, see fewer weird errors that slipped by our filter, play cool games, and be happy!

In the meantime, we'll keep the big train rolling forward toward getting the full game with gorgeous art, these zines (which are looking really good, by the way), and Court of Thrones into your waiting hands. Thanks again for your support and feedback.

Shawn and Navi Drake

A Couple of Drakes