JANUARY NEWSLETTER: New Year, new book, new kickstarters, new projects
This month:
New book in development
Exciting side project
Great Commission Card Game Update
Next book release
+ more
Happy New Year! I’ve been waiting for the new year to announce the next books that’ll be part of the Word of Word Bible Comic and an exciting side project I hope you’ll be excited about too!
In March we will be launching a new Kickstarter for the Epistle to the Galatians. This will be a great chance to showcase how the comic will work for those scriptures which are not purely narrative. I’ve added the Kickstarter page to their “Coming Soon” previews, so please head there and hit “Notify me”. Not only will you be notified but the project will show the number of followers which makes an exciting stat and social proof for people browsing Kickstarter.
If you can’t wait until then, become a patron today and see the pages as they are released exclusively on Patreon. Plus you can get access to videos explaining the illustrations and scriptures on the pages, and add your comments while the book is still in development!
Skies of Belief TTRPG
In other news, I’ve been working in my free time on another game, this time a Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Its foundational elements will be akin to Narnia and Lord of the Rings, but will be an all-human low fantasy setting. I’ve joined forces with Chris Lowry and Beyond Cataclysm (a UK indie RPG and book publisher) to create this project which I believe many of you will find exciting.
In this world, there are ten human nations, each moulded by their distinct environments and remnant supernatural talents. The players explore unique cultures, strange lands, as well as diverse philosophies and religions.
They play Heralds of the Republic who need to understand what various people groups believe and their priorities to try and create diplomatic solutions. The philosophies and theologies integral to the setting reflect complex real-world ones so they are not just flimsy fantasy constructs. The setting has some supernatural elements but is more like an alternative historical setting than a high fantasy.
Read more about it and the system mechanics here:
beyondcataclysm.co.uk/skiesofbelief/
We are not doing the Kickstarter for this until Autumn, but I’d like to build up the following now in anticipation! So, please follow the project here:
Great Commission Game: Update
Over the holidays during Twixmas, we got two 4-player playtesting games going. It was a great chance to see what problems might arise from having most of the cards in play at once. We caught a few little glitches and now the rules are smoother than ever, with revisions and a few fiddly rules exceptions sanded off.
NEW TTS VERSION: These revisions are being added to the digital version of the game by Paul as we speak and the new Tabletop Simulator edition is just around the corner. It includes automatic deck creation and setup up buttons too. Fancy!
So if you were a Kickstarter backer keep an eye on your KS updates or the exclusive Discord for access to that in the next week.
Lastly, thanks so much to everyone who has already played the game on TTS and given their feedback, you are making the game better!
Next Release: Esther NIV
In March the new version of The Book of Esther will hit the shops worldwide. This edition features the NIV translation and is the same size and colour as the other NIV editions in the series (in case you have a WEB version). Yesterday I received the delivery, and we’ll being giving you early access to buy the book early next month so stay tuned!
Esther is possibly my favourite book we’ve done so far, with the colourful palace and clothing, the connections to “300” and it’s just a great self-contained story.
Prayer Requests
Gospels into Prisons: This month we’ll be offering more books to the Prison Chaplains. Please pray they read the email and access the offer allowing us to get more Gospels and bible books into the UK Prisons.
Other Languages: We’ve had slow progress selling the rights to other languages so far, please continue to pray with me that the Portuguese version and Spanish Kindles will be successful and be the first dominos in releasing many other languages around the world!
Audiobible Idea: We’ve got some ideas to create content involving the use of an audiobible alongside the comic. Your prayers are already starting to make the situation more positive. Please continue to pray so we can get these ideas off the ground.
