Kickstarter

Thank you all very much for your patient support and care.  

The Dance and the Dawn is in fact coming together, although obviously slower than we'd like.  Layout and editing are virtually finished at this point; we're pretty much waiting on art, which is taking a while to generate.  If you have a particular use for the game content in the short term -- for example, if you're hoping to Orchestrate a run sometime in the near future -- please drop me a line, so that we can hook you up with a not-at-all-pretty manuscript copy. 

Meanwhile, the Dreams of Ice and Ash supplement has been written, and the prop goodie bags for those folks who ordered them have been assembled.  

I leave you with a small preview of the art that will eventually adorn our product...

...and the center is holding like woah. 

We've passed the 200% mark.  Thank you all, so much, for your unbelievable generosity.  Dev will indeed be putting together his Dance/Dawn/Dungeons/Dragons adventure module, and every single one of my backers will receive it. 

The Dance and the Dawn is coming together nicely on the production end.  A few key status updates:

• Our fantastic layout designer, Nathan D. Paoletta, has created a visual template for the game documents.  Everything should be put together in prettified form within a week or two. 
  
• We've acquired an artist: the formidable Gonzalo Ordonez Arias.  He'll be creating a small suite of full-color scene illustrations, which will appear on the cover of the game book and on internal plates.  
• The Dreams of Ice and Ash supplement now has a completely full cast of commissioned characters!  (So please don't ask for one at this point.  If you or someone you know is interested in donating at the $150 level, send me a message; I'm happy to work out a different prize of comparable awesomeness.)  

We're nearing the very end of the fundraising period -- so please spread the word as far and as wide as you can! 

It was my intention, some time ago, to come up with clever community incentives to help The Dance and the Dawn accrue further support now that it's reached its funding deadline.  In particular, I was going to say "I'll do thus-and-such if we hit $3000".  And then, before I got around to doing that, we did. 

So, er, go team.  Thank you all so much.  The reward that I never quite managed to promise you will show up in the relative shininess of the finished product.  Also, as a bonus, those of you set to receive ribbon-rose props will be getting twelve roses instead of six: a set for the Ladies of Ash included in the base game, and a different set for the Ladies contained in the supplement. 

And if we manage to hit $4000 (200% of the initial funding target), by your collective grace and generosity, then every one of our backers will receive an extra-special bonus prize.  Dev Purkayastha, the genius behind the original tabletop game, has volunteered to compose a Dance-and-the-Dawn-themed adventure module for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition... 

The Ladies of Ash, instead of accepting the Queen's invitation to the Midnight Ball, have decided to storm her frozen palace and put an end to her cruelty once and for all.  Their steel is sharp and their spells are mighty, and sure they will prove formidable adversaries even for so terrible a power as Her Majesty.  But along the way they will have to contend with the glittering Lords of Ice, who are at once their destined loves and their deadly foes...

That's right.  The gothic melodrama of The Dance and the Dawn thrown into a blender with good old hack-and-slashery.  You have no idea how much you want this. 

So help spread the word. 

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One final note: there are only a couple of spaces left for custom characters in the supplement.  (The $150-level reward will be taken down or replaced shortly.)  So if you think you'd like to be a part of The Dance and the Dawn forever, or you owe a present to someone who would, now's the time to act!

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Again, many thanks for helping to make this dream a reality. 

...but what a beginning it is. 

I am astonished by the goodwill and generosity of my backers.  It took less than 36 hours for this project to meet its funding goal; I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.  Thank you all for your help and your support.  

One especially exciting note: enough people have donated at the $150 level and commissioned custom characters that we can include a full alternate roster of Lords and Ladies in the Dreams of Ice and Ash supplement, as well as alternate versions of the Duke and the Queen.  Thus, with the supplement, you'll be able to Orchestrate the game twice with the same cast!

It is customary at this juncture, I believe, to remind past and future backers that the goal does not represent the limit of our ambitions.  We're very much still at the stage where more cash will translate to a better product for our customers -- more and higher-quality art, more and higher-quality layout elements, better physical materials for the printed editions.  If you're interested in supporting The Dance and the Dawn, or you know someone who might be, be aware that your aid will be put to good use.