You guessed it! More shipping updates! And a message to retailers!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Sep 07, 2020 at 02:20:15 AM

Hello! Happy Labor Day Weekend! If you didn't realize it was Labor Day Weekend, you are not alone. My wife had to inform me. Also, I think it is just a US thing. Either way, I hope you have something exciting planned for the weekend. Just remember to be safe and wear a mask if you go out in public!

As always, I've got some shipping updates for you. They are pretty minor, but I want to make sure you are well-informed.

US: No new info here. We are still on track to start shipping Forgotten Circles orders September 9 or 10. I do, however, want to address one prevalent question from last week's update. If your order contains Forgotten Circles, we held back delivery on all items until Forgotten Circles arrived to send it all out at once. So if you haven't received your order yet, that is probably why. If you didn't order Forgotten Circles and still haven't received wave 1.5 product that you ordered (like the base game of Gloomhaven), then reach out to [email protected].

Canada: No new info here either. Everything from the previous paragraph applies here as well.

Australia/New Zealand: A small correction here: last week's update mistakenly suggested the Forgotten Circles container had reached the warehouse, when the timeline we'd been communicating was instead for it reaching the docks. Sorry if that caused any confusion. Pre-ship notifications were still sent out, and the container appears to be on target to hit the warehouse early next week, with fulfillment of Forgotten Circles to commence by the end of next week.

EU/Rest of the World: We still look on target to commence fulfillment by end of next week, provided a smooth delivery/receiving of our final container. The Fulfillment Europe team is ready to get your rewards to you!

UK: No updates here. It looks like the re-routed ship is still expected to dock over the weekend, so we'll just continue to monitor that situation. The Spiral Galaxy team remains at the ready to commence once it arrives.

China/Southeast Asia: No updates here, other than a reminder that the majority of orders have been shipped and may still continue making their way though regional HUBS for the next 3 weeks.

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Are you tired of seeing the words "Forgotten Circles" yet? Well, too bad, because I'm coming at you with another Diviner deck update! In case you need a refresher, this is a deck produced by Drive-Thru Cards for people who want to update the Diviner cards from the first printing of Forgotten Circles to the cards that are in the printing that was sold through this Kickstarter.

So, the thing is Drive-Thru Cards had a printing issue that didn't manifest during the proofing process, but caused some bleed issues to make the dotted lines that separate abilities to be barely visible. Just so we're all absolutely clear, I'm talking about the cards produced by Drive-Thru Cards, not the cards that are in the actual game box we sold.

So if you purchased the updated Diviner cards through Drive-Thru Cards, and this lack of visibility of the dotted lines bothers you, feel free to reach out to [email protected] with: a) a photo of the issue b) your Drive-Thru Cards order number, and we will get a replacement sent out to you. While we are working on fixing the issue, the listing on Drive-Thru Cards has been taken down, and I will let you know when it is back up with a version that does not have this issue.

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And now, a message from Price to backers of the retailer pledge level:

We're excited to have finally received your in-store Cephalofair marketing kits and will be getting ready to begin mailing kits to registered Retail Backers over the coming weeks.

Just a reminder, if you haven't completed your retailer registration survey that was sent to your Kickstarter email address yet or submitted business document requirements, you can reach out to [email protected], and we'll be more than happy to assist you further and get you access to the LIVE Frosthaven Retailer Pledge Manager.

We're very excited to work with your stores to promote pre-orders through the rest of the year and hope you find these materials valuable!

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All right, I think that's about it. I feel like there is a lot of game play stuff I want to talk about that is, like, 90% developed, but I want to get it to 100% before I say anything, just to make sure I'm giving you accurate information that isn't going to change somewhere down the road.

We've got plenty of time to get to all of that in the weeks to come, though. And actually, speaking of time, I am hoping to get to you the updated schedule for the project next week. Until then, have a great weekend!

Continued fulfillment updates, plus puzzles!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 12:13:18 AM

Hello! It's Friday! Sometimes it is hard to tell because every day is the same, but you know it is Friday, because I am sending you an update! As will still be the case for this week and the next few weeks, I'm going to start with some updates on fulfillment for wave 1/1.5, broken down by region.

US: Wave 1/1.5 orders (not containing Forgotten Circles) have been completed, with the exception of some lingering damages/replacement orders. Forgotten Circles will be arriving at the warehouse over this weekend, so D6 will take next week to send pre-ship notifications to all remaining orders that contained Forgotten Circles and allow for address changes, and then we should be on target to commence fulfillment for all of that by September 10th.

Canada: Same as US. Wave 1/1.5 orders (not containing Forgotten Circles) have been completed, with the exception of some lingering damages/replacement orders. Forgotten Circles will be arriving at the warehouse over this weekend, so D6 will take next week to send pre-ship notifications to all remaining orders that contained Forgotten Circles and allow for address changes, and then we should be on target to commence fulfillment for all of that by September 10th.

Australia/New Zealand: Forgotten Circles is just now arriving at the warehouse so expect pre-shipping notifications next week from the Aetherworks team, with shipping to commence soon after that.

EU/Rest of the World: Unfortunately, we've seen a few more days' delay getting to port in Hamburg, but the team at Fulfillment Europe is ready to hit the ground running as soon as it arrives and they've taken full inventory. We're currently projecting to commence the week of September 7th. More updates next week!

UK: Okay, this is a fun one (read: not fun). Shipments began this last week, but, in a bizarre blunder, our final Vessel containing UK product arrived and then left port this last week without unloading our container. Yeah... so, the vessel is in the process of pulling a U-Turn and is expected to dock/unload again on Sept 6th. From there, it will be a few days for delivery to the warehouse, at which point any remaining orders will immediately be able to resume.

China/Southeast Asia: All orders should be shipped out by their respective hubs by next week, so don't fret if you haven't received a shipping notification just yet. Once a package is shipped, note that some regions may take up to 4 weeks for delivery based on location.

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Development of Frosthaven is moving along, and I feel I have a much better handle what all needs to get done to wrap everything up, which means I expect to have an updated timetable for you in the next couple weeks.

Over last week, in addition to continuing work on the rule book and character development, I took some time to nail down the "puzzle book", turning pages of concept work into something more concrete, which was a lot of fun. It has been a while since I've had a chance to design puzzles.

So I am tempted to talk at length about what exactly this puzzle book is and how it works, but I think it would be better to just let you discover it on your own. I will say, though, that it is in some ways analogous to the "Envelope X" puzzle in Gloomhaven, but with all of the extensive feedback I got about that incorporated. So instead of just hiding a bunch of disparate clues everywhere and expecting you to connect the dots, this will be a much more directed experience, where you will receive feedback after each step.

And everything that results from going through this book has physical components included in the box, so we don't end up having to sell a separate small box as a last-minute addition to a sequel Kickstarter three years down the road. You know, like we did with *cough* "Envelope X". Lessons learned, right?

And with that, I think I will stop talking and go back to rule book editing. Until next week!

On schedule with fulfillment and a discussion of traits
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 12:11:50 AM

Hello! I hope your week has been great. I have some small fulfillment updates for you, but, since I haven't talked about any new systems in a Frosthaven for a little while, I wanted to get into the new trait system as well. First of all, though, the updates. In order to avoid rewriting what I wrote last week, it might be good to reference that if you don't remember.

US: No changes to the schedule here. We began shipping out wave 1.5 today, and the Forgotten Circles shipment is still expected to arrive at the fulfillment center in a week.

Canada: Also no change here. Waves 1/1.5 should be wrapped up by the end of today and the Forgotten Circles shipment will arrive in a week.

Australia/New Zealand: No change here either. We are waiting for the Forgotten Circles shipment to arrive August 25.

EU/Rest of the World: We are still keeping an eye on the shipment to our Germany based warehouse, and everything is on target. So no real change here either, as we are still expecting wave 1/1.5 and Forgotten Circles to arrive the first week of September. We'll let you know if there are any changes next week.

UK: Pre-shipping notifications are beginning to go out today, as expected, with August 25 being the beginning of shipping. We are prioritizing orders not containing Forgotten Circles, and then orders with Forgotten Circles will start going out when that shipment arrives at the beginning of September.

China/Southeast Asia: All orders have been picked and packed and sent to their respective hubs. If you have not received an email yet regarding your shipment, you will be shortly with several hubs continuing to receive/process over this weekend.

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Before we get to talking about traits, though, I wanted to share with you some images of the challenge coins. These are still preliminary, as the metal and enamel aren't final yet. We're still playing around with the translucence of the enamel and the Frosthaven coin will be silver, but I think they're starting to look pretty cool!

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And one other small update! Here is the link to the Diviner ability cards for the second printing of Forgotten Circles, which are now available for purchase. Again, sorry that took so long to get up there!

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All right, so let's talk about traits. Traits are something I mentioned briefly in an old update regarding the event design competition, but I wanted to revisit them since they've gotten fleshed out a lot more.

The basic idea is that, in order to past-and-future-proof the events in Frosthaven, event outcomes will no longer be dependent on specific classes, as they were in Gloomhaven, but instead be dependent on traits, which will be assigned to all characters in Frosthaven, as well as all past and future characters.

There will be 10 traits in total, and each class will have a combination of 3 of them. In addition, a class' race will be a less influential 4th trait that may come up occasionally. It took a while to come up with a compact list of 10 that could still be logically assigned in such a way to each character so they only had 3 each. These traits also needed to be split fairly evenly among all classes and come up roughly equally in events in a logical way. We eventually arrived on the following:

• Strong
• Nimble
• Armored
• Educated
• Resourceful
• Wild
• Outcast
• Arcane
• Persuasive
• Intimidating

So, for instance, the starting classes in Frosthaven have the following traits assigned:

•  Drifter: Strong, Resourceful, Outcast
•  Blinkblade: Nimble, Educated, Resourceful
•  Banner Spear: Armored, Resourceful, Persuasive
•  Deathwalker: Outcast, Arcane, Persuasive
•  Necromancer: Educated, Arcane, Intimidating
•  Geminate: Nimble, Wild, Arcane

All traits are represented in the starting six. Resourceful and Arcane are a little more prevalent, but that will change as you progress through the campaign and get more characters. If you are curious, here are the traits for the starting six Gloomhaven characters, the Jaws of the Lion characters and the Diviner. All of these lists, along with traits for locked Gloomhaven classes, will be in a table in the Frosthaven glossary.

•  Brute: Strong, Armored, Intimidating
•  Tinkerer: Nimble, Educated, Resourceful
•  Spellweaver: Educated, Resourceful, Arcane
•  Scoundrel: Nimble, Resourceful, Persuasive
•  Cragheart: Strong, Outcast, Arcane
•  Mindthief: Nimble, Outcast, Persuasive
•  Hatchet: Strong, Resourceful, Intimidating
•  Demolitionist: Strong, Resourceful, Wild
•  Voidwarden: Educated, Arcane, Persuasive
•  Red Guard: Nimble, Armored, Outcast
•  Diviner: Educated, Resourceful, Arcane

Of course, you could argue there are other traits that could be applied to these characters, but I tried to distill it down to the three main ones for balance purposes.

So, the next time a grumpy Valrath is about to drop a large, heavy vase, you better make sure you've got someone strong on your team before you try to help him!

And with that, I'll talk to you next week!

Short fulfillment update
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 03:50:13 AM

Hello! I am coming at you with a short Friday update on fulfillment. I know when I say "short" it usually ends up not very short, but we're gonna try really hard this time because I still have a bunch of emails I need to get through before the end of the day. So, anyway, here we go!

Fulfillment!

US: Wave 1 fulfillment is completed at this point, and the shipment for 1.5 just arrived today. Notifications are going out today, there will be 1 week for address changes and packing, and then shipping on 1.5 will begin around August 20. However, if you also ordered Forgotten Circles along with 1.5 products, we will be waiting until Forgotten Circles arrives to ship your product together. Forgotten Circles should be arriving August 28, which is when those notifications will be going out, and then shipping will begin around September 9. 

Canada: Shipping on wave 1/1.5 began today. The Forgotten Circles shipment will arrive August 28 and notifications for that will go out then, in preparation for shipping around September 9.

Australia/New Zealand: The Forgotten Circles shipment will arrive in the docks on August 25, and we expect to start shipping that out around September 9.

EU/Rest of the World: Weather has caused some more delays on the wave 1/1.5 shipment, which has now synced it up pretty well with the Forgotten Circles shipment, so we will be fulfilling everything together. Everything should arrive in the warehouse by September 3, and fulfillment will begin shortly after. We'll have more info on the specific timing next week. You'll receive tracking when your shipment goes out, but if you need to change your address, please contact [email protected].

UK: The wave 1/1.5 shipment docked yesterday. We expect fulfillment will begin around August 25. Forgotten Circles is expected to arrive September 2 to begin fulfillment around September 9. Notifications for both of these will go out three days before shipment, so you can look for that, especially if you need to change your address.

China/Southeast Asia: Forgotten Circles was a little late arriving due to some bad weather, so fulfillment of everything has been rescheduled to begin August 17 (Monday). You'll receive tracking when your shipment goes out.

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And one more time let's touch on the Diviner Deck from DriveThruCards. There were some delays, and so the final proof won't be arriving until tomorrow. So, barring any disasters, we'll turn on ordering on Monday. I'll let you know in the main page comments. I know I said almost the exact same thing last week, so I am sorry for these continued delays. We're almost there.

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And speaking of delays, we are still working with our manufacturer and other partners to finalize a new schedule for development and production of Frosthaven. We're not quite there on this yet either, but I just wanted to let you know that progress is being made. Hopefully I'll have a timeline for you next week.

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And I think that's it. You can always send a message to [email protected] if you have any issues, and you can reference last week's update if you have any replacement requests.

Was that short enough? Let's throw in one last update: my hand is at, like, 97%, at least for computer use, so I am pretty excited about that!

I'll talk to you next week!

More fulfillment! And some sculpting updates
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 01:50:15 AM

Hello! Apparently it is Friday again already, so let's see what I can do to update you on the current fulfillment situation. Across the board, we are experiencing some delays due to congested ports, but things are still moving along.

US: Wave 1 fulfillment was scheduled to have concluded by now, and we're almost there, but due to the late delivery of our final container, we have around 500 Wave 1 backers whose stuff won't be shipped until around Wednesday of next week. Thanks for your patience in this!

Canada: Wave 1 notifications went out earlier this week. Our final container arrives at the warehouse on Monday, which is one week later than we had projected, and shipping should commence by late next week. Smaller addons are being pre-sorted and packaged for expedited processing once things do get moving.

China/Southeast Asia: Forgotten Circles ended up falling behind it's delivery window this week but should be arriving today. VFI will be sorting over the weekend and hitting the ground running with all shipments on Monday.

EU and the rest of the world: Things are on track! Despite some port delays, containers are moving, and we appear to be on target to begin fulfillment in the next couple of weeks. We should have more information in next week's update.

UK: Things are on track, but we're also keeping an eye on delivery times as Forgotten Circles isn't too far behind the Gloomhaven stock arriving. We may see a slight delay here to sync up delivery, as fulfilling everything at once is most ideal, but we'll have more information by next week's update.

Australai and New Zealand: Completed! If you have questions/concerns about your Wave 1/1.5 order please contact us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to provide support.

Custom Support / Replacements

We can all acknowledge that things don't go right 100% of the time. Packages get damaged, a piece is missing from the game, etc. But don't worry, we are here for you!

Extra product is available at all regional warehouses specifically for support requests, so don't hesitate to contact us so that we can resolve any issue you have by whatever means necessary.

• Gloomhaven parts can be ordered from our website's "Contact" page: http://www.cephalofair.com/contact
• If you require replacement of something else in your order, please email us at [email protected], and we'll be happy to assist.

There are a lot of orders going out, however, so this does mean higher than usual support times for us as we navigate order inquiries, delivery/damage claims, tracking requests, replacement parts, etc. If you sent us a message and haven't heard back yet, please be patient, and we should be getting back to you very soon.

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I also wanted to touch on the Forgotten Circles Diviner card deck available through DriveThruCards, which I know a lot of you are waiting on. Our initial master proofing wasn't quite as close to the original artwork as we would have liked, so we finished reviewing a full array of proofs this week and made a final selection.

We anticipate our new proofing deck to arrive next week, at which time, if everything looks good, we just need to flip the "On" switch. I'll post something in the main comments section when that happens and probably also post something on Twitter. Sorry for the delay on this.

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Lastly, I wanted to let you all know that we have finished the drafts of all miniatures for the game! They were all sent over to the factory, where we will continue to make small tweaks as needed to optimize the molding and assembly process.

I'm really excited about how they all turned out! We made a concerted effort to have more detail and more dynamic poses than in the original Gloomhaven, and I think we've really come a long way. We've even gone back to the sculpts presented on the main page and added more detail to their bases to make them extra awesome.

So I just wanted to give big shout out to our extremely talented sculptors who have really made Alexandr's artwork pop: Chris Lewis, Chad Hoverter, Andrew Cothill, and Tom Mason.

I've been working on writing the rule book all last week. I think I'm at about 90% now with my hand, so it hasn't been too bad. The first draft of the rules is getting close to being done, but there will still be a very long process of editing and design after that.

And we're still working on figuring out an updated timeline, so I think that's about all the news I have for you... Oh no, wait. One more thing!

The 4th Gloomhaven community-driven campaign, which started all the way back before the Kickstarter, has finally concluded! You can find a Geeklist of all the posts about here, and BGG user Peter Krol was kind enough to put all of it together into a single document that can be found here. Marcel has also put all 10 scenarios into the Tabletop Simulator Frosthaven demo module. And remember that another Frosthaven-based community-driven campaign will commence some time after the game is delivered and you all have a chance to settle into it.

Stay safe and I'll talk to you next week!