Update and assurances, read below :)
over 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 10:50:09 PM

Hello backers and welcome to late August! I hope this month has been better to you than the last few have been on a lot of folks I know; my fingers are crossed for you!

Legal Update

To get it out in front of everyone, the contract with our former business associate has been signed and we've finally worked out a deal. I'm not super satisfied with it BUT I'm happy to have it done and to finally put all of this unpleasant business behind me. Session Zero Games is now free to move forward with all of its endeavors! I've got a lot to look forward to with my company no longer being tied to anyone else and we are free to re-issue, expand, or “remaster” any of the projects we’ve brought to you previously. Everything is about to get bigger and better!

They say you should always learn from mistakes and that means I’ve learned a HUGE lesson this time around, especially as relates to this project and the Tome of Magical Mystery... I didn't have a written contract in place! Everything was done by “handshake deals” through word of mouth or in emails with someone I had been working with for a couple of years. That ended up costing me dearly, both financially and through untrue allegations meant to dirty my reputation. I'll be posting an update on my personal website with all the TRUTH and the sordid details behind it so you can choose to go there and read the real story about what happened. It’s not what you’ve been told, that’s for sure! But I don't want to flood this post with that junk!

Important Stuff!

The important part of this update is that we've released the Fighter deck out to backers and Monk is on the way soon! I'm back to writing on the decks full fledged, the art is all collected (and beautiful!) and the class items are just waiting on me to finish balancing them out. The majority of the balancing had been 90% written for the last 5 months; I'm just fine-tuning them and running them through my editor before they get laid out on the cards. Once the decks are finished, we'll be moving on to the book. But for now, it's back to focusing on completing decks instead of working on time-consuming contracts and unsavory back-room politics.

We've been forced to split our attention on these because, honestly, to keep the company alive and deliver promised projects I have to keep building relationships with artists/writers/specialists and backers all at the same time. New projects help us grow, keep the creative juices flowing, and make us relevant in an ever-changing business environment! Be assured that when we put out new products and work on new lines it doesn't mean we're neglecting you and the projects you’ve so loyally backed. It means that we were overly ambitious with this HUGE project (especially dealing with the aforementioned back-room politics and finances) and, unlike some, we refuse to compromise the quality you expect and release some auto-generated garbage or some horribly balanced (or NON-balanced) content. I don't want anything hitting your inbox or mail box that isn't TOP QUALITY! For that, I'm taking my time and making sure it’s right.

I will make sure that anything going forward with the SZG name on it is topflight gaming material you’ll be pleased you backed and proud to show off.  Remember, if it doesn’t come from SZG, it’s not the legitimate, tested, top quality gaming you were promised or deserve!

What does this mean for you?

Free stuff, that's what!

You are all my biggest backers on my largest project to date. For that I thank you and I promise that I will do absolutely everything that it takes to make sure you get your digital and physical items. I wish I could guarantee you an exact delivery time, but we still have lots of work ahead and I was hamstrung with funds because of the unexpected partnership legalities I mentioned and because the scope of the work outpacing my original plans. Twelve FULL decks of amazing items, one for each class, each with a fictional Class Ambassador bringing you the lore and legend behind every entry. 52 items per class, plus 5 class bonus-items, plus one bonus item per deck that works with a similar item from the other decks… yes, we certainly reached for the stars with THIS project!

You will be BLOWN AWAY by how awesome the project is. We’re even in the process of re-branding it to reflect the true stature of the work, not the tongue-twisty “Decks of Adventurer’s Allurement” we’ve been saddled with since the Kickstarter. Who talks like that? On top of that, everyone involved in backing this project will receive some FREE UPGRADES as we move forward. This is a way of me saying "Hey look, I know you're eager to get your hands on this, and your patience has been… well, legendary. You had my back and now I got yours!”

I don't have a full list of the amazing items and extras you'll be getting for free yet but I plan on handing out different free content (full paid copies of PDF's and even some physical items in your boxes when things ship) to make this worth your time and money! I CAN say right now that I'll be sending out a free PDF of the first 3 decks to ALL BACKERS. Immediately. That way if you haven't seen anything at all then you will be able to get the Print and Play versions of the Barbarian, Bard and Cleric deck in hand today. You can download it and read it over, you can print the entire thing or you can pick and choose which items you want to bring to your table. At least you'll have some awesome art to gawk at and some fun stories to read! I'll make a package on my website and send you all individual codes to access the content. You can download it directly from sessionzerogames.com after you get the code which you should see tonight or tomorrow either through a Private Message or update for backers only here on Kickstarter.

Background and Branding Changes!

We're making some major changes behind the scenes on this project. As mentioned above, we're going to be re-branding the over-arching project and you’ll see those new titling incorporated into other projects going forward as well, including a REALLY sweet project we have coming in a few weeks that I can’t WAIT to show you! You’ll be getting the same quality writing and mechanics that you’ve come to expect in these class decks; remember, only SZG will bring you the full line of class decks with the continuity and excellence you’ve seen through the Fighter deck so far. Anything else is an imitation!

We're excited to dive deeper into the class-based equipment and make sure that we reach out to create awesome ancillary products that go hand in hand with it.

Please check out any upcoming SZG projects and know that anything you support will not only maintain the fun and gaming standards you’ve come to expect from the SZG brand, but also be helping us survive and create more things for the community to enjoy as well! Every extra cent goes straight back into this project until it’s completed, re-branded, and issued to the fullest for every backer who gave us their trust!

In Closing

We've weathered some big storms together, you and I. 2020 was a Demogorgon for us all, and in more ways than one. But now we’ve cut off the dead weight and are surging forward with more creative gaming than ever before. Here’s where the fun begins! I'm excited to find out where we go from here!

-Levi

Short update, just to ease some minds!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 10:47:53 PM

Hello backers! 

This is another short update just to let you know that hopefully next week I'll have a long update for those of you who want to know the details of where we've been and what we've been doing along with a TLDR version for those who just want to know what's happening and don't want to read a bunch of detail!

Work continues on decks! PDF's are being readied! We've got gifts in development to reward everybody's patience and time waiting! We aren't "going out of business" and we aren't "running away and not providing anything to backers". We're working on it guys. Stick with us.

We did just send out the Fighter deck Print and Play PDF and Monk is under way!

Thanks for your insanely deep pools of patience and I look forward to being able to spill the beans soon!

-Levi, Session Zero Games

I wish I had one of these!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 06, 2020 at 07:17:48 AM

Well, it's officially June and we're all still facing a lot of issues. The world seems to be going insane while it’s trying to slowly open back up… we haven’t seen anything like this before in our modern generation. It seems like everyone could use some Balm of Social Distancing as we face true waves of violence, insecurity, viral infection, and the need to do something good for our fellow man all at the same time. I know I'm just one man and my opinions may not be super important but through all of this I'd like to remind you of the famous words of two very important men...

"Be excellent to each other and PARTY ON DUDES!" - Bill S. Preston Esq. & Ted Theodore Logan

So what's with the silence on your end Session Zero?
 

Well, let's start with a major thing like "legal matters" which we can't yet talk about too openly. Our lawyers are talking to the other party and we're finally making some headway. We might not ever fully explain all of the small details but suffice it to say we're both trying to protect our assets and our... back sides by delaying any releases that may have been brewing previously. We don't expect the delay to last much longer and we do expect to have several big things all release at once as soon as we get the go-ahead from our legal team.

As we explained before WE'RE STILL WORKING ON THINGS; we just haven't been able to send them out to everyone at this time. It's a weird situation but we've worked really hard to get where we are and 2020 has not been kind in the way it’s treating the world. I’ve read comments accusing of us having vaporware or of not planning to deliver things to backers… honestly, what I REALLY hear when I read that is "other people have done this to me before, you better not!"

WE’RE NOT THOSE OTHER PEOPLE. We plan to be around for a long time to come and WE WILL DELIVER EVERY ITEM THAT YOU HAVE PLEDGED FOR!

We're still here, we're still working, we've got things to give you AND we've got plenty of new things we want to get to once we can take care of the situation we’re in right now. Believe me, we are really just as frustrated as you are. We just ask that you hang in there with us for a little while longer and you'll see things start rolling into your inboxes again!

Is there anything we can do to help speed up the process?
 

Actually, THERE IS! One of the issues we've been facing with two of our projects is needing to have printed copies of physical items delivered to us so that we can package and distribute them out to you! With the lock down happening we ran into an issue we never imagined would happen: ALL OF OUR PRINTERS CLOSED DOWN! We've been using the same printers for years now and their quality and pricing is what we've based our projects on. Now we've reached out and met new printers, we're swallowing the big pill of higher prices for the quality we expect and we're looking forward to the benefits of moving our printing back onto US soil for faster delivery times.

We've also hit a 6 month drought where not a single new project has been released; as you may know, small companies need to keep creating new and interesting things so that the ball keeps moving forward - both to keep our banks happy with the financials and to keep our company name and products relevant in the larger eye of the public.

With that in mind we're launching a new project that's live RIGHT NOW!

Hold on, let me make some short bullets that might assuage any fears here...

-The work is already complete, so it won't eat into our previous projects.

-The product and project are straight forward and simple so it won't overwhelm our schedule or push us farther behind.

-The proceeds above the minimum needed to deliver the project itself will go directly towards previous projects being printed at the higher cost printers on the faster timeline.

I'm happy to announce a gorgeously realized extremely limited-edition release of one of our oldest ground-floor products: Truly Wild Magic: Remastered!

Gold foil everywhere, elegant redesign of the entire layout and super premium card stock. Something that will make anyone who sees it ask, "What's that and where did you get it?"

You'll be able to tell them that it was a onetime thing only on Kickstarter but you were lucky enough to grab one while it was available. (Or maybe you grabbed a second one for just this occasion.) Check it out by clicking the link above, the link here or the image of the cards. Remember that by backing us you're directly supporting the existing projects and helping us produce them and ship them faster than before!

See you on the other side of this one,

Session Zero Games

Addressing the Public and Backers About False Claims, Please Read!
over 4 years ago – Mon, May 11, 2020 at 09:09:11 AM

Hello Backers and anyone else who happens to read this update, I hope this month is going well for you so far! I know we haven't had any major updates in a while and this is another small one but it's important and I wanted to take a moment to make sure you know where we stand.

There is another company we worked with previously that is causing legal difficulties behind the scenes. As with any issue, there are two sides to the story, and they are going out of their way to spread theirs. Unfortunately for us (and for you), their side is erroneous. While I hope to settle this issue as amicably as possible without involving backers, it has come to my attention that the other company is sending out confusing statements to backers of other projects and certain customers we share together.

Here is a screen shot of the recent update that some people have received:

As you can see it would be concerning to learn that a different company was claiming to be making progress on these decks and anything else that might be implied by this information.

Please rest assured that only Session Zero Games, LLC is working on the legitimate project that you have backed and while we are behind it is still being worked on. Due to other legal issues that are being handled in the background we can't discuss everything at this point but you will still be receiving all digital and physical rewards as pledged for on the project. Any other information not received from Session Zero, Session Zero Games or Session Zero Games, LLC is inaccurate and will be dealt with accordingly.

Please ignore any and all further messages about this subject from other companies! ONLY Session Zero is making the original, top quality 12 Class Decks and book compilation that you backed from the Kickstarter, with original art and design consistent throughout every card and page. Anything else is not only a pale imitation, but not what you pledged for. Thank you for your time.

Another update will be coming soon, we have yet to release the fighter deck due to similar concerns and want to make sure everything is well in hand before we do so.

Apologies if I scared you on Mothers Day! Take care and hang in there backers!

-Session Zero Games

Late Update for April!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 07:45:12 PM

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