Reddit AMA and a few other things
over 4 years ago – Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 11:41:49 PM

Hi all.

Drew here. I know these last few days have been strange and confusing. We are so grateful for your continued commitment to this project. I'm happy to share that our manufacturer is nearly back to full force ahead of Pax Pamir pre-production, so things are looking positive for our timeline. We are not sure about the global repercussions of the outbreak to freight timelines, but we will certainly be sharing any and all updates about the manufacturing, shipping, and fulfillment process here on KS. Likely our next update regarding the production timeline will come during April as we end pre-production, and we get a better sense from our shipping partners later this spring.

Reddit AMA

In other news, Cole and I are going to be on Reddit tomorrow, March 24 @ 11AM-1PM CST. Come join us over on r/boardgames for an Ask Me Anything. We'll be connecting with the Reddit community and beyond about whatever folks are curious to talk about. Pax games, history books, movies, music, anything! AMAs area really fun and we hope to see y'all over there tomorrow. If you're really privy to the idea, set a reminder so you can get your questions to us early!

What's next

More info will come after the campaign, but rest assured that after the campaign each backer will receive an email with a unique Backerkit Survey which must get filled out with shipping information to complete the order! You will need to allocate your total pledged amount, and then you'll see a calculated shipping cost for your complete parcel. Any amount required to be paid in Backerkit (i.e. shipping and newly chosen add-ons) will not be processed until the end of the Pledge Manager period, estimated to be sometime in May. Again, more details will come when the Backerkit emails are sent out.

Also, just a reminder that y'all are amazing. We're reading the comments and listening to our wonderful KS backers. We decided to make the plastic insert just a smidgen wider for the card storage area to accommodate a bit more wiggle room for sleeved cards, and we are going to offer card sleeves as an new add-on in our Pledge Manager Backerkit. They won't be anything fancy with a custom design, but they will be practical transparent sleeves for those that want to bundle them with their order. We are still pricing this out and expect to get some details about the sleeves soon before the Pledge Manager period starts. Know these sleeves will be an optional add-on in Backerkit to all our KS backers and FLGS retailer backers.

Okay. That's all for now. Thanks Backers and we'll see you on Reddit tomorrow.

Drew

Some Non-Pandemic Reading for These Strange Times
over 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 12:07:22 AM

Hi everyone,

Folks have been asking us about how the COVID-19 virus might affect the production of Pamir. This is a difficult question. For one, the factory in China is gearing back up to full capacity and will likely not suffer any production delays from what has become a global pandemic. It certainly did stop us from getting samples made of the new ruler tokens made in time to capture photos for the campaign, but complaining about such a trivial delay seems silly.

It's a little harder to judge the wider impact of the virus on the other stages of the campaign, but Drew and I have built a number of buffers into the pipeline to account for these delays. We are both naturally cautious people, but we remain confident about the project's schedule. At the same time, I think it's important for us all to be aware of the other creators and small businesses who might be more directly hurt by the crucial preventative measures that many governments around the world are taking. So, if you have the resources, please continue supporting creative projects and small businesses.

I know many of you are likely finding yourself working from home these days, so I thought I should put together some writing I did for the first campaign. If you're new to Pax Pamir, I hope these essays will give you a glimpse into some of the work that led to the game. 

First, I wrote a long piece about why I bothered to make a second edition at all. This was not an easy decision for me to make as I have a natural aversion to second editions (espeically those that try to make a game more accessible). 

After that I began a little tour through some of the changes. The first one is among the wonkiest design essay I've written, and goes into some of the foundation logic behind the game's action structure. If you've played another Pax game or are interested in how board game development works at the micro level, you'll find plenty to chew on.

The essay that followed that offered a close look at one of the biggest differences between the editions: the revamped intelligence system. One of my favorite things about Pamir is how it handles spies and spycraft. If you'd like to learn more, you can give it a read here.

In the final entry, I wrote about immersion in game design generally and how Pamir tells its stories through both its physical presentation and through specific design elements. This was probably my favorite piece of the lot. 

Throughout these pieces I alluded to more which I never quite had time to finish. Sadly there isn't much time now to write more on Pamir--I'm sure you'd rather hear more about John Company anyway. But, I did write one more long piece on Pamir that covered the game's art. Since the website where it was hosted has since gone down, I'll be republishing it soon and will be sure to send you a link to the piece later in the campaign. 

That's all for now. Take care.

Introducing Myself and an Update on the Updated Ruler Tokens
over 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 01:10:21 AM

Hiya Backers!

Thank you all so much for an absolutely incredible first few days of the campaign! Cole and I are still so surprised this reprint campaign has done this well, and we’re feeling immensely humbled by you supporting this work.

I wanted to take an opportunity to introduce myself to new backers and share a some news about the campaign. I’m Drew, the other Wehrle in this gig, and I’ll be handling the bulk of the sales, operations, and project management for this campaign. Soon, we’ll share some times for an online stream and a Reddit AMA with Cole later next week, but for now you can find me me living in the comment section of this Kickstarter page. Drop a message if you have any questions about the game or your pledge! I am happy to help sort out any bits of confusion or concern the best I can.

Okay. Let’s talk about that set of replacement Ruler tokens for folks with the 1st printing.

After speaking with many of you, Cole and I have decided that each set of replacement ruler tokens will come with a small set of cards to replace the court cards with typos as well as a couple reference cards that address the slight update to Wakhan, covering Ricky Royal’s FAQ and errata. We are not printing and shipping additional rule books as a part of this update kit. The only gameplay differences will be reflected on the Wakhan reference cards.

We heard back from our manufacturing representative about the color matching for these replacement cards and they are confident that any differences will be not be noticeable during a game. That means we don’t need to send folks full decks of cards with the corrections and we can keep this “update kit” at $5. This also means that this update kit will likely ship as a little tuck box with the cards and tokens combined which will help keep shipping costs down. We’ll have the replacement token update kit available to our previous retailers that sold the 1st edition and may have customers curious about the changes.

All $5 Pledges and add-ons for Replacement Ruler Tokens will include this full update kit. Though the pledge level stays Replacement Ruler Tokens, know that it also includes the cards (we can’t change the description after launch).

Thank you all for being so passionate about this game and wanting the best experience with Pax Pamir possible. We’ll be talking more soon.

Drew

Funded and Then Some
over 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 01:54:12 AM

Hi everyone.

You are all incredible. I cannot believe how well we've done today. Even just a few years ago, I would have never imagined this tricky game about an obscure topic would find such an audience. I'm incredibly humbled. 

I don't have too much to say today outside of a heartfelt thank you. I'm incredibly grateful that Drew and I are going to be able to produce this game for you all. Over the next few days, Drew and I will both have some more things to share with you, including maybe a stream or two of the game, some general comments about the campaign, and, perhaps, a big preview for our next project, John Company: Second Edition.

But that's all for later. Right now I just can't stop thinking about the long road this game has traveled. It seems like only yesterday that I was carting books on Afghan history down the corridors of Parlin Hall at the University of Texas at Austin. I had more than one concerned mentor ask me why I was spending so much time reading about the economic history of central Asia and looking at books on Durrani coinage. I never had a very good answer for them. The game just felt urgent, even though I didn't know that anyone was asking for it. It feels urgent still.

When Drew and I first started seriously preparing this game back in the winter of 2017/18, we had no idea what we would do with it. This was a long time before Root's release, and we worked on the game mostly because it seemed like a good project to spend our time on. Building this game and then having the resources to publish it free of any constants the following year was an immense privilege.

Perhaps we're just cautious by nature, but when it came to doing a second run, neither one of us felt like there would be much an audience. The first run of the game had far outstripped our wildest hopes. From our perspective, it seemed like we had been able to make sure everyone who wanted a copy got one. At the same time, we kept getting requests for another run, and so we decided to create this new campaign. Even if there were just a few backers, we could justify the expense of printing the game.  

And then you all showed up. My goodness did you show up. Drew and I have been completely floored by the response to this campaign. We may not have any particular stretch goals or secrets to unveil over the next few weeks, but I want you all to know that what you have done today does matter. Every pledge committed to this campaign enables Drew and I to spend more time and resources on making more things like this game. And hopefully the success of this games means more designers and publishers will be willing to take a risk pursuing games that  treat their subjects and their players seriously. Pax Pamir is just one story, and there are so many more out there.

Best,

Cole