Hi Reader,

Happy holidays! Please, come in. You're just in time for us to light the candles.

What a year. In many ways, I won't be sorry to see the end of it. In other ways, it was wonderful.

Regent Printers in Hong Kong have sent most of the hard proofs. I've reviewed the pages and requested a few corrections. I'm just waiting on proofs for the spot gloss, gold foil and ribbon bookmarks ... those last two for the special edition. They should've gotten here on Friday. Everything is bumping up against the deadline to get the books printed and shipped before Chinese New Year, and I'm chewing off my fingernails to see if we're gonna make it. We need to hit that in order to fulfill the books in May.

But the proofs look amazing! This book is almost ready to print. I made some last-minute changes, including to one rule. That's unconscionable, really, but I made sure it won't make the book late. You can do that when you're a one-person shop like me.

After we get the final, revised soft proof from the printer, Cris will put together the PDF, and we'll send that out to all the backers who backed at that level and have filled out their surveys.

Meanwhile...

Prep for the Raccoon Sky Pirates Deluxe Kickstarter continues. I've got a rough but solid prototype that I'm playtesting. We've started getting manufacturers' quotes.

In this new edition, I've streamlined the mechanics. The raccoons have more widely applicable actions that are easier to role-play in a variety of situations. Instead of Complications Cards, you play Disaster Cards that track how close your ship is to exploding. To save each other's unhelpful actions, you sacrifice Trash in the form of poker chips you can write on.

I want most of the components to look like a bunch of raccoons stole them from other games. Chart your course across the neighborhood by laying down faux-Catan tiles inside a cut-out, faux-Monopoly board. Build your ship with puzzle pieces. Put bottle caps on a house map torn from a real-estate magazine.

Every changed rule or added component is designed to deliver the same experience as the original game, with smoother gameplay and more vivid visualization.

My current challenge: a couple changes have messed with the overall probability of success, so I'm working at getting the odds back to be more like the original game's. Your raccoons' chances have always been swingy, but they should still have a shot, however long, at amassing a fortune in Trash.

I'm already getting ambitious with ideas for expansions—Raccoon Space Pirates, Raccoon Time Pirates!

But let's take it one step at a time. We have a Kickstarter to prep for. If it goes well, maybe we can add all the bells, whistles and Roman candles.

Whew!

Sometimes, it's tough for me to pause and remember we're in Hanukkah and Christmastime. But I'm looking forward to a few days of rest this week. I hope you get some rest too, with your own winter holiday traditions.

Then, in the new year, I'll come back to the raccoons and sword & sorcery with renewed energy, with hammer and tongs. Blacksmith's tongs or salad tongs, depending on the game. But still.

Wishing you warmth and good friends to play with,
Chrys