A Victorian Storytelling Card Game of Drink, Danger... and Rubber Ducks! Includes GENUINE 100 Year Old Victorian Pennies!
Normal service will be resumed shortly... :-)
What-Ho Hellfire-ites!
And a massive hello from a sweltering London* - Official Capital of the World since 1838! **
Wow – what a couple of weeks it’s been at Hellfire HQ! Once again, I have to center stage to you amazing people – not only have 119 of you phenomenal fellows and fellow-ettes completed your Backerkit surveys (thank-you!), but a magnificent 100 of you have bought a little something extra (or even a BIG something extra) to add to your Kickstarter reward! If you haven’t yet - please just click here! It only takes a couple of minutes!
As always, I can barely tell you how much I appreciate that – it really is mind-blowing for me to see and hear about your excitement for The Old Hellfire Club and I can’t wait to deliver on all of your hopes for the game itself!
Just as a reminder – as an original Kickstarter backer there is a FREE mini-reward you can request from the Backerkit page and I would love to be able to give that to ALL of you!
So – what have I been up to? Loads!
· The text of the Kickstarter Backer Exclusive ‘Choose Our Own Adventure’ is complete! All I need to do now is lay it into a PDF, place some original Victorian illustrations, personalise every single copy as a little recognition of your generosity and send them out – there’s a chance I might have that done this very night!
· The Print and Play Edition is almost finished! I have just ten more cards to edit and some rules to clarify and its ready to send! In case you’d forgotten – EVERYONE who backed at £3 / $4 or more gets a copy of the Print and Play Edition AUTOMATICALLY as a part of their pledge to keep you entertained over the coming months!
· I am INCREDIBLY excited about my upcoming appearance on the BRILLIANT ‘What Am I Rolling’ Podcast with Fiona Howat to chat about THE OLD HELLFIRE CLUB and other storytelling and role-playing games! It’s a FANTASTIC show – I’ve listened since Episode One – and I cannot recommend enough that you give it a try!
· I’ve been up to my EARS in copyright law! As you all know – The Old Hellfire Club features roughly 140 GORGEOUS original Victorian period artworks that add some phenomenal flavour to the game, but you’d be amazed how close those artworks can be to STILL BEING IN COPYRIGHT. One painting I wanted to use loses its copyright status in July 2019 – in less than four weeks! But to stay 100% legal I can’t use it.
FUN FACT – This is why the game now features Christabel Pankhurst rather than her (arguably more famous) mother Emmeline! ***
· And – of course - lots of drilling down into the manufacturing detail so I can make sure you end up with the best possible game!
Incidentally - as several of you very kind people have been asking – Hellfire Progeny No. 2 hasn’t landed just yet, but it really could be any day now! We’re terribly excited and can hardly wait, but when it comes I may go silent for a little while. I hope it won’t cause anyone any inconvenience.
Finally - I just wanted to answer an uncomfortable question that’s come up a couple of times... we won’t be doing a Ripper expansion.
It seems like it would be popular, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
In the process of making this game over three long years I’ve done a tonne of historical research to make sure The Old Hellfire Club accurately reflects real people’s lives (as well as being downright hilarious!). If you do that kind of research on the Victorian era you can’t avoid the lives of the (at least) five vulnerable women who were murdered in Whitechapel in 1888.
The Old Hellfire Club doesn’t shy away from difficult issues - and we do include cards for both Whitechapel and a cut-throat razor. But we also aim deliberately not to glorify these injustices and instead to recognise and call out some of the harsh realities of the time so we never have to see the like again.
I can’t in good conscience make a game out of the deaths of those women or one that placed a spotlight on a killer who has to date grossly overshadowed the victims.
Emotionally I felt I had to draw a line somewhere and that this was it.
If you’re interested to know more about Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes or Mary Jane Kelly - I’d love to recommend the fantastic book ‘Five Lives’ by Hallie Rubenhold which provides the most extensive and deserved exploration of the lives of these five women I’ve yet found.
With that somewhat sombre, but very important note - all my best to you all, thank you and please stay safe,
Jamie
** Technical status evaluation now 181 years overdue.
*** Interestingly Christabel was a WAY more… colourful character than her mother, and Emmeline was both a founder of women’s suffrage AND debatably a terrorist.
What-Ho Hellfire-ites!
Just a really short message to say thank you again for being amazing, wonderful people!
In the just over 15 hours since The Old Hellfire Club Pre-Order Store launched on Backerkit over 60 of you have already responded with your survey answers and an ASTOUNDING 53 of you have bought an additional something extra! I cannot say how much I appreciate ALL of you!
If you haven't yet had a chance to take at your survey please do when you get a chance - it should be in your email inbox and it's the only way I can get the details I need to send you your rewards!
When you do - please do also take a quick look at the pre-order store - there is a FREE mini-reward listed there which is available only to amazing people like you who where geneous enough to back The Old Hellfire Club on Kickstarter!
(Although the genuine Victorian penny with an extra game rule - which is available to everyone - is also proving VERY popular AT £3/$4!)
All my best and thank you again!
Jamie
What-Ho Hellfire-ites!
What an incredible few weeks this has been – for many of you the last few weeks would have marked the anniversary of the time we first met when I was naïve young (!) game designer with a dream and a surfeit of tablecloths desperately trying to tell the world of a little game called The Old Hellfire Club at a quaint gigantic event called UK Games Expo 2018!
Sadly I wasn’t able to attend UKGE this year – its just too close to our due date for me to risk four days away, but this is where the (slightly delayed) Christmas miracle comes in! Because one of you WONDERFUL people, you Band of Hellfire-ites, decided to demo The Old Hellfire Club at UKGE out of the sheer goodness of his heart and for absolutely no benefit to himself at all. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to him or how touched I was when he told me – but I can say a MASSIVE THANK YOU for believing in my little dream… THANK YOU!
By comparison – our progress at Hellfire HQ has been very much behind the scenes, but none the less extensive! Since we last met I have...
· Finished setting up Backerkit! If you’ve never done this – it’s a MAMMOTH ordeal with TONNES of technical detail that really isn’t obvious before you start, but it’s now done!
A small handful of you will have received surveys already and a huge thank you to those of you who have already filled them in – this first wave really helps me iron out any teething issues!
PLEASE DO TAKE A MOMENT TO LOOK AT THE PRE-ORDER STORE – We’ve created a wealth of options for how you can enhance your game experience at every price level – INLCUDING A FREE THANK YOU OPTION FOR KICKSTARTER BACKERS FOR WHICH I NEED YOUR INPUT ASAP!
https://oldhellfire.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
· Attended the Distoy convention to meet with lots of amazing companies who could play a part in getting your copy of The Old Hellfire Club into your hands!
· Spent more time with spreadsheets than I ever want to do again (but I will because I can’t give you the best service without it)!
· Arranged our next media outing – if you don’t already listen to the What Am I Rolling? Podcast can I make a very strong recommendation that you do! Not only is it amazing, but The Old Hellfire Club will be featuring on it very soon!
· Defined our plans for new artwork with the amazing Bryn Jones – if you haven’t taken a look at his PHENOMENAL Black Rabbit series – you really owe it to yourself to take a look! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bryngjones/black-rabbit-irinushka?ref=profile_created
As always - there’s loads to do and I can’t wait to share it with you! As promised - I’ll be back in touch with you wonderful people as often as I can be!
One final thing to note – please do take a look at this absolutely outstanding campaign for a mixed fantasy/reality but still very real travel guide to London that is in its final hours on Kickstarter if you see this in time! I’ve backed it and I think it would be an amazing partner to The Old Hellfire Club – Plus Matt Mercer loved it, so I hope you agree!
In the meantime - our fantastic Choose Our Own Adventure is drawing to its close on Twitter, but you can still decide the rollicking exploits of our inestimable heroine by casting your vote - more details below!
All my best, Jamie
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* CHOOSE OUR OWN HELLFIRE ADVENTURE VI – CHP 33 *
The duel began as the SCANDAL broke - Earl Monnom caught with his valet!
A thousand evening papers blew down the street wrapping Imhotep!
I seized my chance to set him alight. Victorious I partook of...
CLICK HERE TO VOTE - https://twitter.com/OldHellfire/status/1140026765366181889
What-Ho Hellfire-ites!
Fantastic news! I have successfully escaped hospital (thank you so much for your kind wishes)! I have moved house (or more specifically my life has been moved from one house to another in my absence – thank you so much wonderful family!) And I am still eagerly counting down the as-of-yet-unknown days until Hellfire Progeny II arrives into the world! I hope you’ll forgive the slightly self-indulgent opening to this update, but life feels pretty great right now and I want to share it!
Right – what have I been up to this week…
· Every single one of you should have received a personal message of thanks from me on Kickstarter. It took a little while so some will have arrived sooner than others, but I really do mean it! Some of you will find that your message includes a couple of early survey questions that I need to ask to get to work on your pledges– especially Imperial and Accessible Edition backers – so please do take a look!
· The construction of Backerkit surveys, the late pledge store, and add-on options is well under way and I’m hoping I’ll be able to launch them all next week! Apologies for this taking a while – it’s really not obvious until you get into it how much goes into setting up a Backerkit page, but it WILL be worth it as we’re creating some PHENOMENAL opportunities at both the AFFORDABLE and LUXURIANT ends of the scale available to personalise your OLD HELLFIRE CLUB experience!
· The final component lists are with manufacturers as we speak meaning final quotes and agreements can’t be that far behind! Granted – not the most exciting news I could have passed on, but it’s another step towards getting this great game into your hands!
In less happy news – my hospital stay has meant that there will have to be a slight delay in sending out the Exclusive Backer Only ‘Choose Our Own Adventure’ Story (which will be sent to every backer) and the Print & Play Edition (which will be sent to every backer pledging at the Print & Play level or higher). At worst – I expect to have sent these out by mid-June, so the delay is only a couple of weeks, but I wanted to be totally upfront about this. No other rewards will be impacted by this delay. I’m really sorry about this.
In MUCH happier news – if any of you backers were one of the 1000s of fantastic people who took a promotional postcard from me at a gaming convention or from your friendly local game shop or board game café and kept it (as recommended on the back) – PLEASE GET IN TOUCH! As promised there is a reward waiting for you and it really is pretty amazing!
Finally – if you do have the time please do have a go at voting in the final stages of our LAST CHOOSE OUR OWN ADVENTURE ON TWITTER! More details below!
All my best, Jamie
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CHOOSE OUR OWN HELLFIRE ADVENTURE VI – CHP 21
Isabella Beeton had just finished a damning drunken review of the latest invention - kebabs - when I espied out of the corner of my eye THE PRINCE CONSORT’S OWN RIFLE BRIGADE swarming around a glowing obelisk that had just appeared outside the kebab shop!
Naturally Timothy, Isabella and I grabbed a handy GARDENER in the hope of solving the situation using some sort of herbal salve. Sadly this tactic failed so we ran towards TEA – the stalwart last refuge in any incursion by the armies of the undying!
Under this symbol of Imperial Might we planned our counter attack against the undead. I counted our resources - me, Isabella Beeton, a dog, my gardener and A NICE BIT OF CRUMPET! I respected him as a person, but was undeniably distracted by his hindquarters! After much flusteration the plan was set – it would be based around LAMBETH WORKHOUSE!
We would bolster our forces with a miniature army of consumptive orphans! But the diminutive rabble refused to fight, so I resolved to bribe them with...
CLICK HERE TO VOTE - https://twitter.com/oldhellfire/status/1131481207143915520?s=21