April update
16 days ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 05:33:55 PM

Hey y'all! I do not have a lot to report as of now as we are still wrapping up narrative contributions. I have some writers still working on two villains, I am doing a mechanical fitting for the villains we have finished narratively, and I am playtesting villains as I can in my pro games.

I have been taking it easier than usual this past month due to burn out and I hope to pick up my workload once we receive all contributor words. It will be easier to understand what is left and what we can fit in there once that step is finished. Thank you for your patience.

A New Narrative Designer
2 months ago – Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 12:32:18 PM

Bidding farewell to Kienna Shaw

Exciting news! Our narrative designer Kienna has been hired by a little RPG company you may have heard of: Larian Studios. She has taken a step back from most active TTRPG projects after wrapping up her current work with us on the Vineyard RPG & Vineyard RPG: Adventures. We are immensely grateful for filling this role on short notice in 2023 after our previous narrative designer & co-creator M Ebel was hired by a games company full time. I'm not saying that people are guaranteed to get hired on full time when they pick up the ND position here, but it's happened twice now, so... I mean - I'm sensing a pattern. There's something in the pages.

In all seriousness: Kienna deserves the opportunity and I've been humbled to work alongside her for the past couple years. I've written a very Mom Is So Proud Post that you can check out here: https://x.com/isfridayTV/status/1759576103105224753

She will continue to contribute to the Vineyard RPG as her schedule allows. I'm eager to share her writing work on the whisperborne, Confessor Istillias, and more. In addition: Her narrative design has impacted the entire book positively.

Please welcome Khaldoun Khelil!

I couldn't be more hyped than to work alongside one of the most prolific and skilled voices in the industry! He will be taking over for Kienna Shaw as our narrative designer for both Vineyard RPG and Vineyard RPG: Adventures. His experience and skill within the World of Darkness & Dune IPs are especially thrilling for what we're aiming to achieve with The Vineyard RPG.

Short bio:

Khaldoun Khelil has been developing and writing games for over 20 years. He has written for numerous RPGs and worked for think tanks such as the Middle East Institute and the World Policy Institute. Khaldoun writes games of personal horror, political conspiracy, and dark fantasy.

His credits include work on Dune, Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Mummy the Curse, Vampire the Requiem, and Cthulhu Awakens. Most recently Khaldoun was the developer and principal author on The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat for V5’s Storyteller’s Vault.

Check him out here: https://twitter.com/kkhelil

Project Delay & The Rooms Are Described!
3 months ago – Tue, Feb 06, 2024 at 09:27:09 AM

Project Delay

We've run out of runway for the book so I've been paying with my full time job's income to contributors. Therefore, the production process has slowed way down. I'm only able to put 2-4k a month toward VRPG. I'm roughly estimating that we'll need to move digital fulfillment (and start physical fulfillment/manufacturing) in the Fall of 2024 because of this.

I had originally budgeted and scoped that the project would earn $100,000 to achieve the vision I had. When we funded $58,000, I made the decision to stick to my original vision. I'd rather the book be late than bad, because then it is bad forever.

Once I have 95% of the writing in hand (by March) then I will make a decision on what can fit into the core book and what I'll have to release as additional supplements. I apologize for the delay.

Room Tables

I've brought on Alex Gray, one of the fantastic writers over at dScryb to help us with your description tables for each section of the City. A small preview below:

Undead Gala Download Issues

I've received an inquiry about someone being unable to download their preview of The Undead Gala. If you are a backer and you are running into trouble - please message me on Kickstarter with your email! I'll send it to you ASAP.

New Year, New Villains
4 months ago – Tue, Jan 09, 2024 at 11:50:40 AM

The Surgeon / Arms Dealer has arrived.

We're experiencing some slowdowns on production due to holidays and personal matters on our team, however - work is still being done!

Chelsea 'Dot' Steverson is wrapping up drafts on the Guts and the Surgeon. What role does she play in your game? She has a complex morality and backstory that allows for her to be a neutral shopkeep, ally in taking down the Vineyard from within, or enemy. When your party members are infected with a Rot Stain, they may wish to visit them in the Dark Market to have such a limb removed. The Surgeon reconstitutes such body parts into weapons, harnessing the mythical traits of the Guts, before selling them under the pseudonym The Arms Dealer. Just think of the customization options! You can see Yorsy's rendition of the Surgeon (she/they) below.

We have found a sensitivity consultant with limb difference lived experience to make sure we are addressing or avoiding as many issues as possible with this type of story.

Delays in delivery

I apologize, but I regret to inform you that we will not be making our April 2024 delivery promise. It was too ambitious of me to estimate 11 months after funding. However, we are nearing completion and should be able to deliver PDFs in 2024. Currently, we are in discussion with a publisher to handle distribution and I am confident that the quality of the printed book will be satisfying.

I will have an updated timeline for PDF delivery once we finish editing.

The Undead Gala on Alchemy VTT

We've struck a deal with our friends at Alchemy and they will be ingesting our introductory adventure to their library soon. If you are a backer: You get this for free! Others may buy this from their store as it becomes available. We'll be sending you all updates on this as they develop, but you can expect sometime in 2024. No, this does not slow down our production - Alchemy is handling the conversion for us.