OK, deep breath. 

Headline: it's October, and the books are not at the printer. But I reckon they will be by the end of this month. 

That's the bad news. Here's the good news: 

So we're not done, but we are moving ever forwards. However, as per the headline, I Have Not Written The Train. I am about to go out to one of my favourite coffee shops, however, and attempt to do the thing. 

OCTOBER. It's all about October now. 

- Chant

Holy shit.

You're not going to believe this.

Despite the buck wild times we are living through, in which postal services have entered a new stage of global chaos, the dice made it through customs. 

They're safely ensconced in Studio 2's warehouse, just waiting for the rest of the stock to join them. 

Right then. Back to layout.

- Chant

PS you've still got a few days to vote for your choice of microsetting, but if you fancy the Nightmare Train don't sweat it, because that one's winning by a landslide.

Bloody hell, it's been a while. Three months, apparently. Sorry - it's been a hell of a time. I'm just gonna say mental health is important, difficult, and a pain in the backside, and leave it at that. You're here for the book. 

Let's start with the bad news. 

You already know this, because I said the PDF of the book would be out in July, and it's August. Again, I'm sorry. But we're not that late. I've taken a break from laying out the core book to write this update, and the only thing left to write is one of the two micro-settings - and that's because I promised we'd run a poll on it to see what you want. 

Art is not complete, but Lore's on it, and we've got the funds to bring on another artist if we need to. 

My current plan is to send the books to print by the end of September. That's a two month delay, if you're counting. It's not great, admittedly, but there's worse out there.

And now, the good news.

As previously announced, we've got a weird and metatextual diner from Chris Farnell, which will come as an extra pamphlet and PDF, as well as the two promised for the core book.

The first of those is Hob's Cross, a folk-horror setting with troubling archaeology, deep-rooted traditions, and a couple of festivals not recommended for tourists.

The second... that's up to you! 

I've narrowed it down to three possibilities, any of which I'd be excited to write:
1. The Nightmare Train. A transcontinental train that runs and runs. Sure, it's haunted, but it's the realms it passes through when the stars are wrong that are the real problem. Be careful where you disembark.
2. Atlantis Station. A deep-sea research station. You can't leave, and you won't like what's in here with you.
3. The Chambers Building. A run-down apartment building where an array of eccentrics, degenerates, and fanatics work to serve or pervert the architect's cosmic plans for her great work.

Chris (Farnell, from earlier) turns out to be the single greatest asset to this game. He ran it on the Party of One podcase back in July, and a good time was had by all. Both. You can listen here:
 
https://www.partyofonepodcast.com/2025/07/04/459-disposable-bags-of-meat-with-chris-farnell/

Dice for US and Canada backers are now in the US. They're stuck at customs, and I fully expect them to be there for a couple of weeks because of the latest development in the absurdist comedy that is US import regulations, but they're on the right land mass and that is something.

That's all the news that's fit to write! 

Back to layout for me, and please do take a second to fill out the microsetting poll attached to this update, or I'm just going to write whatever I want.

- Chant

Hello folks!

Superbacker saika notified me this morning that one of the header fonts in the quickstart wasn't displaying properly on iPads (and presumably other iOS devices). After some futzing around with font types, the problem's solved.

I'm still planning to update the quickstart file in a couple of weeks when I send it to print, after inputting any errata or clarifying any confusing bits. I'll fix this font issue then so there's just one reissue. If you're experiencing this problem and you want to use the quickstart now leave a comment and I will reissue much sooner! 

EXPLANATION FOR NERDS (LIKE ME)
The TrueType version of the header font was fully embedded (and not subset) but simply wasn't displaying properly when the file was opened on iPads. I've never encountered this before with a commercially licensed font, and it's sort of a fun, in its way. I'm unsure if it's a compatibility issue, some weird licensing quirk (I must stress the font in question is used under commercial licence and fully embeddable!), or an unidentified third type of problem. The main thing is, switching to the OpenType version appears to have fixed it, based on the tests I've done with saika and another iPad user.

Thanks!
Chant

Everything's going a bit faster than expected, for once. 

It's sort of mildly warm outside so there's no natural light in my house; please enjoy these very quick snaps on a phone camera in a dark room. I'll try and get some nicer ones in due course!