PENCILS THAT ARE DICE? Plus Munchkins, Game of Torgs, and new Kovalic Art...
over 11 years ago
– Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 02:56:48 PM
My little kobolds,
There is so much awesome happening in our ol' evil wizard Tower right now. We've got custom pencils/dice, new art, and loads of announcements and updates. The last few weeks have been really productive and crazy...
KOBOLDS ATE MY PENCIL DICE!!!
So, you've like totally seen this amazing Kickstarter, right - it's dice...that are PENCILS! They're dice you can write with, or pencils you can roll!
KAMB is the new $14K stretch goal...and you can get in on that. You can back this Kickstarter from d20 Entertainment, and specify that you would like to receive KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY! orange d6 Pencils (they have pips on the sides and you can roll them). You need to check this out...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/d20e/pencil-dice?ref=nav_search
MUNCHKIN KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY!
There are reports in the wild that the Steve Jackson Games, MUNCHKIN Kobolds Ate My Baby! pack is hitting shelves. I haven't gotten my mitts on a pack yet, but they are availabe for sale from WAREHOUSE 23 and your friendly local game store:
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/munchkin-kobolds-ate-my-baby
A GAME OF TORGS!
The Soup of Ice and Fire Epic Adventure for KAMB!IC!!!
I just send AGOT to our crack editing/proofing team. After that, we only have to add the map and the pregenerated Kobolds, and AGOT will be ready to ship (digitially). At this rate, I expect AGOT to be ready by the first week in March - just in time for you to prepare and play with your kobolds before the return of a certain show to premium cable.
NEW ART from JOHN KOVALIC for EVEN MORE THINGS TO KILL AND EAT!!!
New art for Even More Things to Kill and Eat is coming in - and you are going to love it. When this is all said and done, this companion volume to KAMB is going to be the best art ever made for KAMB! Here, in its glory - the first look at - THE KNIGHTS WHO SAY GROT!
You can also see another sneak preview of THE COWLBEAR over at 9thlevel.com
Yours in Orange (and hopefully Pencil Shavings),
The Evil Wizards at 9th Level Games
A BANNER DAY FOR CARD GAMES ABOUT CATS AND DEADLY PHYSICS
over 11 years ago
– Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 10:56:09 PM
My little kobolds,
Today is a banner day for Kickstarters for card games about cats…and some other great games with the launch of “Schrödinger’s Cats” a new game we have a hand in and the insanity that is the $1,000,000 explosion that is Exploding Kittens...alot of imaginary cats are getting imaginary dead today.
9th Level Games, your humble Evil Wizards, helped to design Schrödinger’s Cats with Heather O’Neill and Heather Wilson, who are running a Kickstarter for the game right now. If this is successful, 9th Level will be producing the game to add to growing line of humorous, accessible and fun games…
Speaking of growing line, did you see the SNEAK PEEK of EVEN MORE THINGS TO KILL AND EAT? That we posted on our FACEBOOK page and our website last Friday?http://9thlevel.com/wp/blog/morethings2015_cowboyanddrunkenmaster/
Schrödinger’s Cats
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/594145763/schrodingers-cats?ref=nav_search
Uncertainty didn’t kill the cat, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dead. Dr. Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg taught us that. We’ve all heard about the cats in boxes experiment and maybe we’re even curious about the results — but trying such an experiment would be INSANE in real life! Now you can try your hand at challenging the uncertainty principle without risking the lives innocent kittens or exposure to radioactive particles! Awww!
In Schrödinger’s Cats players run experiments, form hypotheses, and try to one-up each other’s research. Players take on the role of a Cat Physicist such as Albert Felinestein, Sally Prride or Neil deGrasse Tabby! Using their special ability to help prove their hypothesis or at least debunk someone else’s, each cat physicist tries to determine the minimum number of alive cats, dead cats, or empty boxes across all the boxes in Schrödinger’s lab.
Thanks for giving it a look! We appreciate your support!
Cats! Cats! Cats! ALL HAIL KING TORG!
Chris
The Evil Wizard at 9th Level Games
Some Other Awesome Kickstarters that You May Also Think Are Awesome
Wilderness Adventures 28mm Fantasy Terrain
A full terrain set from the super cool guys at FAT DRAGON GAMES. Their last Kickstarter was chock full of awesome addons, and the final print and make your own terrain is beautiful, epic, and totally something that your minis will love to adventure on.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1679800548/wilderness-adventures-28mm-scale-fantasy-gaming-te?ref=nav_search
Unspeakable Words Deluxe
New deluxe version of the super fun word game with a Cthulhu theme from the cool cats at Playroom, designed by James Ernst and Mike Selinker, and drawn by our favorite and yours JOHN KOVALIC!!!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playroom/unspeakable-words-deluxe-edition?ref=nav_search
EXPLODING KITTENS
So, in case you are living under a rock, and missed this card game which has over a 28,000 backers in ONE DAY. It might have something to do with Oatmeal...or that it has to doing with exploding cats! Either way, it's nuts, and it looks great. And it has CATS!!!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens?ref=nav_search
Kobolds 2015, More Things to Kill and Eat, and the Endless Buffet !!!
over 11 years ago
– Tue, Jan 06, 2015 at 07:18:58 AM
2015 – The State of the Buffet Address
All my little Kobolds, the happiest and happiest of New Year’s Greetings to you!
9th Level Games hopes that you (like us) are looking forward to this brave new year! 2014 was kinda rough on your friends here at 9LG, and what follows here is a quick look at how 2015 is going to be stronger.
For many of you, the KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY! kickstarter is over, but for some some of you, the brave explorers and supporters that joined us on the Endless Buffet, 9th Level Games still owes you some goodies…and we have a schedule here to satisfy that hunger.
Now That 2014 is Behind Us
I think that it’s important that we reintroduce 9th Level Games to you. 9th Level Games is not a “big company.” It’s really just 2 dudes – Chris O’Neill and Dan Landis. When we are talking about Kobolds Ate My Baby! we are joined by our friend, John Kovalic. That being said, 9LG has never been a full time (or even really a part time) gig – but it is passion project that we all love, and are grateful for what it has produced and will continue to produce.
When we started the KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY! IN COLOUR!!! Kickstarter, the goal was simple - fund a new edition of the game, to get the game back in print after an absence of a few years. We never thought that we would get the support that we did, both in the form of backers, players and help on the books (from fan editors, etc.)
During the campaign, we got really caught up in it – and our expectations of how much work we could get done (from Chris, Dan and John) in a timely fashion was … well, it was incorrect.
KAMB! IC!!! took way longer than we expected. Our very aggressive goals were set because we just though we were going to just “redo” the game. What came out of the Kickstarter was something more – and we decided to really invest the time and effort to make it something special. The amount of work that we put into getting KAMB complete wasn't sustainable, which is one of the reasons that it has taken us this long to get to More Things to Kill and Eat.
Unlike a lot of groups, we don’t hire people to do the work – we do everything, from design and playtest, to writing, to art, to layout, to shipping, to packing, to conventions, to whatever. In hindsight, we could have looked to expand the team to meet the demands of this KS.
2014 turned out to be a great and scary year for all of us. Dan became a dad. Chris has a seriously crazy year in the “real world” of work. John continued to be more and more in demand as Munchkin and other Steve Jackson Games worked exploded. Our commitments for conventions were “ambitious” to say the least. In order to make 2015 work, we clearly had to make some changes.
So What’s Changing in 2015 – MORE 9TH LEVEL
The biggest change coming to 9th Level Games in 2015 is that CHRIS ONEILL will have more time to devote to this 9LG experiment. Chris has made some serious changes in his working life to create “official” 9th Level Games working time – for the first time ever.
What this means for you is that you will be seeing better communications, more product, and hopefully a slate of products in 2015 that dwarfs what you saw from us in 2014. This includes overhauling our websites, being more active in social media, and most importantly getting more games out to you. Cross your fingers, and wish us luck!
Even More Things to Kill and Eat
So, you may have heard that John Kovalic is a busy, busy, busy guy! Unfortunately for us, John has other commitments that trump KAMB (even if he loves working on Kobolds). A big part of the modern KAMB game is John’s art, and Dan and I look at John as a partner in this venture – so we can’t just go out and hire another artist (nor would we, John’s interpretation of our characters is a huge part of what makes KAMB special). Due to John Kovalic’s other commitments, we have been held up on the art for the new book (and its a ton of all new, all color art).
9th Level needs to work with John when he can find and make time to draw the Kobolds.
That being said, we have slipped deadlines on art for the book multiple times, and are now looking at getting the full art around the Middle of February 2015, which if all goes well, would result in us getting DIGITAL PDF copies to backers in MARCH (with printed copies out by the summer, hopefully before convention season). We will be very upfront around timing and delivery of this to you all.
We aren’t going to rush things, but everything but final layout and art is complete, so we are hoping for a fast turnaround once we get the new art. Early sketches and designs are really great…
Along with MORE THINGS, the second set of PRINT AND SLAY PAPER MINIS will be available (and based on the art that we have seen so far) will be great. When we have the book off to the printers, we will be getting this product out to everyone as well (and creating a set of multiple “hard cardboard” print on demand versions). These Print and Slays will be about 4 weeks behind the MORE THINGS PDF.
FARMAGEDDON and A GAME OF TORGS
After MORE THINGS, the final “buffet” challenge was updating a classic KAMB module, FARMAGEDDON. We had originally held off on this until we had MORE THINGS completed (since we wanted to include content from MORE THINGS as part of the FARMAGEDDON update). We still want that (as there is a ton about VOR and his priests in EVEN MORE THINGS TO KILL AND EAT), so…
In 2014, we did complete a full “convention level” module for KAMB called “A GAME OF TORGS.” We had a ton of fun running it at conventions (hopefully some of you got to play it with us). We are realigning our release schedule to get A GAME OF TORGS and out in the 1st Quarter of 2015. As a thank you for your patience* – we will be providing everyone that is a BUFFET SUPPORTER download codes for both modules as soon as they are available. A GAME OF TORGS could be available as early as FEBRUARY.
* Yes, we do realize the irony in giving away a George RR Martin parody as a way of saying thanks for waiting on a new book…dinner is coming.
MUNCHKIN KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY!
Another great stretch goal coming out in 2015 is STEVE JACKSON GAMES’ Munchkin Kobolds Ate My Baby! This mini expansion is special in so many ways. Kovalic just didn’t draw it – he designed it! Check out the link below for more information. It should be available at your Friendly Local Game Store in March/April of this year.
http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/kamb/
KNUCKLE SAMMICH
Now Available at Drive Thru Cards
As part of the Endless Buffet, we had given out a Print and Play of the “Beta” rules for a little card game that came to be called KNUCKLE SAMMICH. Well, with a lot of feedback and playing at conventions, we were really happy with how it came out.
We have released a full version of the game (much expanded and refined from the original BETA rules) – which is now available on DRIVE THRU CARDS
http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/124543/Knuckle-Sammich-A-Kobolds-Ate-My-Baby-Card-Game
This year, we are looking to do a full-boxed version of this fun little game, something that you could buy at game stores. We are working with some other creators on another card game, and will be printing the games at the same time (based on their Kickstarter launching this month). That card game is called Schrödinger’s Cats, and we will post more about that soon.
CONVENTIONS
9th Level is planning on attending ORIGINS and PAX EAST in 2015. If we have additional appearances, we will let you know – but are trying to keep things in check to focus on creating and producing in 2015. We would like to thank all of the great conventions that invited us out in 2014, especially GAMICON and NUKE-CON!
COMMUNICATIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, and QUESTIONS
The best way to get in touch with us – for any reason – is via email or twitter. I try to respond as soon as possible to either method.
[email protected]
@AllHailKingTorg
If you have any issues with Address Changes (either email or physical), or other information – you can still update your profile on BackerKit (www.backerkit.com), as we will always be pulling current data from BackerKit before sending out rewards.
EVEN MORE THINGS TO THANK AND THANK
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, AND WE HOPE THAT 2015 WILL BE AN AMAZING YEAR FOR BOTH YOU AND US!
Thanks again for being a part of it all.
ALL HAIL KING TORG!
Chris9th Level Games
[email protected]
@AllHailKingTorg
