Guillotine: Crown of Blood

Summer Update!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 01:45:16 PM

Hi everyone! 

Thank you so much for your patience -- and, a special thank you to everyone who has joined the Discord. Your company has been wonderful and your feedback is invaluable. 

We’re hard at work implementing suggestions and corrections from the community and will have an updated playtest document (with additional foundation types, move updates, and more) coming out soon. 

We also want to invite anyone who has yet to join to the Guillotine Discord. Not only are we using it to improve the game before its launch (thanks to your input, playtests, and feedback!), we are also cultivating it into an LFG space where you can find and discuss your own Guillotine games. 

We’ve recently posted polls in the discord to see what additions, features, or mechanics folks would like to see from us. The results will shape our focus for the last few months of development. We would love to hear your thoughts. 

https://discord.gg/xE2tMFtmMB

One of the designers will also be running a public playtest on the Discord. Anyone who wants to learn the game or just play a session or two is welcome to join. Hope to see some of you there! 

In the meantime, we wanted to share the updates that we have been working on this summer. We’re excited to release the Guillotine character sheet and would love to know what you all think!! 

We’ve also updated the playtest document for readability and consistency. Some moves have been fine-tuned or corrected for clarity. 

The timeline is still on track to have the survey going out in late August, a digital release in September, and a physical release in October. 

Thank you so much again for following along, and for all your support! It's been wonderful to connect with the community and hear about peoples' characters, ideas, and feedback.

Playtest Release!!
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 06, 2024 at 07:51:52 AM

We are so excited to share the playtest of Guillotine with you all. In the link below, you will find an over 150-page playtest of Guillotine, as well as quick reference sheets for character creation and basic moves. If you’d prefer the playtest document or the Discord invitation to be emailed to you, please send an email to [email protected] and we’ll be happy to send it over. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14RJa7Ze0ZK7gtB8UpX-KBOhMKRBqu_75?usp=sharing

There’s more to come as well! In the next week, we’ll be sending out a character sheet, made custom for Guillotine. There will also be more added to the game before final release, including the stretch goals and tables to help you build your unique version of the Crown and Cause. 

We will also be incorporating feedback from you. And we can’t wait to hear how your playtests go, as well as what you think would make Guillotine a better game. Our plan is to give an extra month to the public playtest period, allowing us to begin finalizing Guillotine in early August. 

For the production schedule, that would mean we’re planning to send out the digital editions of Guillotine and go to print later in August. This would mean that we hope to be getting the physical edition of Guillotine out to backers come September. 

Here is the invitation to the Guillotine Discord server: we hope to see some of you there and to hear what you think of the game. 

https://discord.gg/CnuAp35yEC

Thank you, as always, for your support throughout the campaign! We are a three person team, and it means a lot to know that people are excited for the game. We’re looking forward to seeing your feedback and seeing the playtests go live. If you have any questions, feedback on Guillotine, or want to reach for any reason please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or through Discord. 

Playtest Release June 5th!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2024 at 04:10:24 PM

Hi everyone!! We’re here with some exciting news: the public playtest for guillotine will be coming out this Wednesday, June 5th!

Our playtest document will (hopefully) contain everything you need to run a session or campaign of Guillotine. It includes a blank character sheet template, all the playbooks from the original Kickstarter page, and instructions on Guillotine mechanics so that you can run or play the game for yourself.

That said, none of this is set in stone. While we work on the full book, we'll continue to revise the game based on player feedback and playtests. We would love to hear what you think needs work, what you’d like to see, or what’s already working well. What do you want to see in Guillotine?

Please also keep an eye out for the link to our Discord server. That will also launch on 6/5, to commemorate the playtest launch. Access to the Discord server is part of every reward tier, so it includes anyone who pitched in during the launch. It will be a place for you to give feedback throughout the playtest, meet others interested in playing Guillotine, and chat about your Guillotine campaigns and Crown resistance. We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!

The playtest doc is a public document: feel free to share it with anyone you like. And, if you want to bring a friend to the server, feel free to send them the link, too. Backers will still have access to a backers-only room as thanks for their support, so in light of that we are making the Discord server public!

One more thing: if you have any interest in running a streamed Guillotine game, you can reach out to us at [email protected] or through this page. We'd be happy to cross-promote your stream, as well as help facilitate depending on the size and scope.

Guillotine has truly been a labor of love over these past six months, and we can’t wait to share it with you all. We are endlessly, stupendously thankful for your support: it really cannot be overstated. And, we can't wait to hear what you think of the game, as well hear what stories Guillotine helps you tell.

Survey and Progress Update
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 04:17:08 PM

Hi everyone!! We wanted to give you all an update about the surveys and our overall progress.

The surveys will be coming out later than anticipated, mostly likely along with the playtest document late May. One of the reasons we are bundling the survey with the playtest document is because, through Backerkit, we can use the survey to record shipping information and fees.

Also, for security reasons, Backerkit only stores user data for up to two months—so, because of that, we can’t send the survey out too early or else we’ll lose all your info. (We don’t want to spam you with multiple survey requests, and this is the best way for us to avoid doing that.)

That’s all to say: things are on schedule but the survey will be coming you a bit later in the process.

We’ve been working away on the game and are happy to say that all the playbook art is finished and a layout draft is on the way. We’re also finished up the last bits of my ur pre-playtest document edits, with extra focus on the basic and playbook moves.

Updated Timeline & Future Plans
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 12:32:36 PM

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your support, for spreading the word, for all your patience. For all of it! We cannot express our gratitude enough.

We wanted to send over an updated timeline to keep everyone on the same page. Since we met our goal—and then some!—we need to extend our timeline to accommodate the bonus material. Here’s what to expect:

In late may we plan on sending out a public playtest copy to all backers. We’re excited to hear what you think of the game and will also be sending out access to a Guillotine discord server.

In late June, after doing the last round of edits and incorporating any feedback from you all, we plan on releasing the digital edition of Guillotine and sending it to print.

We hope to have the physical editions of Guillotine to backers in late July but shipping and printing times are dependent on plenty of factors out of our hands so this may be subject to change. 

We also wanted to say: because of all your support, we have some really great news. Since we were only $150 short of meeting our last stretch goal—pre-generated settings and starting situations—we have decided to include them anyway, in the spirit of camaraderie (and also because we're excited about them!) They’ll be perfect for players who want to jump right into the action, or if you just want some inspiration and examples to assist in shaping your version of the Crown. In short, you can expect a fully produced Guillotine game, with all stretch goals included!

Here's some more good news: we want to keep in touch with you, the backers, to get your input on future additions to Guillotine and (possible) future projects. Guillotine is made by a small, all-queer team based out of Massachusetts. If there is any money left over after producing the book, we plan to put that money towards creating a one-stop website where you can stay informed about Guillotine as well as any future projects. You can also weigh in on what we work on next—power to the people, and all that. 

The website is a future plan, but in the meantime, we still want to hear from you. Keep an eye out for the survey that will be sent to all backers this Friday, April 5th. That email will ask you for your shipping info (so we can get you the book!) but it will also have some survey questions so we can get input on what you want to see next. 

Thank you so much again for all of your help, and your interest in Guillotine as a project. We're so excited to bring it to you, and it wouldn't be possible without your help.