November Update from Anna
about 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 06, 2023 at 04:44:18 PM

Hello, Dearest Backers,

Just saying hi from snowed-in Finland! One day, blue skies and sunlight—the next, we find ourselves shoveling the snow away just to get out of the house. Fun times in the frozen North!

But you're not here for weather updates. The work of the project continues according to our schedule. We're still working on stretch goals. The double-sided poster is all done and passed along to the production team. The notebook is laid out and ready for your future notes about shiny rocks, recipes for magic items, hex maps, and other notes and doodles. The coloring book is put together as well, queued for production. Even the flash cards are finished!

Meanwhile, Jakub has finished writing the second adventure: a delightful heist/escape room which will challenge the player characters to make use of their more unusual abilities, background skills, and creative problem solving. We called it Alchemist's Fugue, and it centers around a suspicious alchemist rumored to possess a powerful artifact. Included: mischievous spirits of chaos, probability shenanigans, quicksilver riddles, crows, reverse hot potato, and (potentially) world-changing consequences. All in good fun, of course!

I'm now focusing on finalizing the layout and illustrations for the Bedrock Lullaby adventure, and once this is sorted, all physical stretch goals will be complete (final edits and production notwithstanding). Then it's just the digital goodies, which aren't dependent on manufacturing. All in all, I'd say we're doing well!

For all of you keeping track, this is where we are in the project:

- Geologist's Primer - writing, art, and layout complete, in editing

- poster - in production

- notebook - in production

- coloring book - in production

- flash cards - in production

- Bedrock Lullaby adventure - in layout

- Alchemist's Fugue adventure - written, awaiting layout

- alchemy toolkit - in the writing queue

- adventure pebbles - in the writing queue

- random gem generator - all written, in production

- art pack - all drawn, in production

We'll keep you posted on the progress, and if you feel like you haven't yet had enough of me today, you can check out our YouTube channel, where I'm recently talking about zombie mushrooms... Coincidence...?

Love,

Anna 💎

October Update from Anna
about 1 year ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2023 at 11:41:06 AM

Dearest Backers,
It is my immense pleasure to tell you that I am no longer writing Geologist's Primer. 

And after this completely unnecessarily dramatic opening, let me rephrase: I have finished writing Geologist's Primer!

That's right! 360 pages of text and pictures already handed over to the amazing editing team, all already laid out. I am so proud of everything we made so far, and I can't wait for you to see it. I just hope the editors won't have too much to fix!

Now, what's left for me to do is some illustrations for the magic items, and after that, Jakub and I are jumping straight into stretch goals! In case you lost count, we're putting together: a poster, a notebook, a coloring book, two adventures, an alchemy rules toolkit, flash cards, and one hundred adventure pebbles. There will be plenty of shiny-rock stuff coming your way; rest assured, we'll be sharing snippets as we go.

Again, thank you so much for making this project possible.
Love, Anna 

Progress Update from Anna
about 1 year ago – Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 12:31:34 PM

Dearest Backers,

It's my greatest pleasure to tell you that the work on Geologist's Primer is progressing nicely; in fact, I'm almost done! Out of a hundred entries, all are already illustrated, 82 are fully written, as are the chapters on alchemy, legendary stones, earth magic, rarity and appraisal of gems, and more! And yes, of course, the 'appraisal' chapter also includes handy tables for estimating how much the gem you found may be worth. I know at least some of you were quite keen on this. The tables for creating random magical gemstones are also finished, so are the Bedrock Lullaby adventure and the poster...

I am elated that we are now in the part of the process where we get to unveil more and more of the book as it's coming together. Also, my parents are currently visiting, and my Mom (the inspiration and the core reason behind my interest in the natural world) says hi. Here she is, explaining to the local boulders the hard-rock truth about being glacial erratics - and quite irked at being interrupted. She's a retired geography teacher, and couldn't have found a more patient audience.

Hope you're having a marvelous day!

Love, Anna 

THAT'S A WRAP! End of Campaign Update!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 08:12:09 AM

We made it! Geologist's Primer is real!

The Natural World Library is growing, and it is all because of you.

We’re so grateful to each and every person who made this happen: first and foremost, our backers, the people who signal boosted the campaign, and everyone who helped get the word out about Geologist's Primer!

Our final pledge total for this campaign is $606,836 thanks to all our 9,547 backers. Because of your generosity, we're going to be able to produce a worthy successor the Herbalist's Primer, and make Geologist's Primer a book that you will fall in love with.

Thanks to you, we can...

Hire a science editor, and bring you a poster, notebook, coloring book, flashcards, and adventures—both as free digital goodies and physical add-ons! We also greatly appreciate your feedback over the course of the campaign, which helped us introduce the All Add-Ons Bundle, physical copies of Herbalist'sPrimer, and more.

Thank you once again to everyone for your time and generosity. We'll be sharing frequent updates with you about development progress, shipping, the BackerKit Pledge Manager, community copies, and more in the coming weeks.

We're only just getting started! Before we sign off for the day...

A few words from Anna herself!

Dearest Backers, 

Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey. I have never expected to find so many fellow shiny rocks enjoyers, and I am both humbled and honored to be the person you trust to deliver them to your gaming tables and bookshelves. Your love for the wonders of the natural world is truly inspiring. Your support and generosity make this whole project possible. Thank you for being here.

- Anna, the Double Proficiency team, and the Hunters Entertainment team

(Psst... We're overwhelmed with sediments right now, so we hope this pun is good enough!)

ONE HOUR TO GO: 600k crossed! Have you grabbed Herbalist's Primer yet?
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 07:19:25 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.