Good day, backers!

Twenty lucky individuals (you know who you are) managed to pledge at the Grim Collector level (a set of Grim Tarock cards with additional hand-drawn squiggles/doodles by Ian Miller on the box). This pledge 'sold out' within something like ten minutes of the project launching. Subsequently, quite a few of you whomissed out have asked us if it would be possible to make more Grim Collector boxes available to backers.

Well, after speaking with Ian, it would appear the answer is yes. Yes, we can!

Ian has agreed to make 15 more Grim Collector decks available to backers. These additional 15 decks will be available at GBP30 on a new pledge level that will be created at some point tomorrow Tuesday 19th November. Apologies for the deliberate vagueness, but hopefully this gives most backers a chance to read this update before the pledge goes live. It is the fairest way we could think of.

Naturally, as this pledge is limited to 15 collector decks, it is first come, first served. We will not be making anymore since Ian does not want to over commit himself - these doodles take time, you know!

So, keep your eyes peeled tomorrow, folks... And good luck!

 Huginn wrote:
I am struggling to remember this one, can you give us a little background on the picture?

A couple of you mentioned something that I totally forgot to include: What do the back of the cards look like? I apologise for this oversight on my part and will attempt to rectify this now.

Behold the back of the cards!




Another question raised was, "Will all the cards, including stretch goal cards, fit in the box?" The answer to this one is YES! The printer will ensure the template they use for the boxes fits however many cards we end up with (currently 78+4). Talking of stretch goals...

An announcement will be made very soon regarding the next couple of stretch goals. Since the Grim Tarock Kickstarter has been going so well, we have been frantically trying to keep up with all you backers, whilst at the same time ensuring we a) give you the best bang for your buck, and b) we do not inadvertently over-promise and end up getting our costs wrong. But do not fear; there is at least one more freebie stretch goal on the horizon!

Next update coming soon...

Cheers!

Ian & James


P.S. We also have some mockups of the art book interior coming soon

Art book

Just thought we'd share a mockup of the art book showing the cover and an interior spread. Please note that this is just a mockup - the final printed book may look slightly different, although only in a better way, of course.

The book will feature one plate per page, per card (including those unlocked during the campaign). So as things stand, we are looking at around 90 pages. Full colour, printed on a lovely paper stock with a beautiful cover, perfect bound in soft back format. This should give you a good idea of the type of book you will be getting. Not bad for a tenner!*







(*British slang for GBP10)


More stretch goals

The latest stretch goals are now up and ready to be had when we hit £18k and £21k:







Thanks for backing!
Ian & James

Hello! Hope you are all safe and well
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James SherriffCreator
May 20, 2020
Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well and keeping safe during these times.

This is just a very quick update to share the link to the official Cartamundi COVID-19 response (this is actually dated from a few days ago). You can read their company-wide update here.

In other, Ian Miller-related news, there is a very big project underway - one that Ian and myself have been collaborating on for the past couple of years. We will be making an announcement fairly soon, but in the meantime all I can say is that it is a board game and that it is set in a fantasy world born from his wonderfully grim, deliciously dark artwork.

As a teaser, here is a piece of concept art from the project.



I hope to have some news from my print manager at Cartamundi soon, and when I do I will be sharing that news here.

In the meantime, stay safe people!

Hi everyone! I trust you are all safe and well.

I received this email today from my print manager at Cartamundi:

"At the moment, it is due to be ready to leave Belgium on 17th July, then delivery is 2 – 3 days... If it is ready any earlier, I will make sure we send it out earlier, sometimes they do manage to gain a few days."

I am very sorry that this date is not any sooner, but I hope that you can appreciate the COVID-shaped spanner that has been thrown into the works! As soon as I get the decks from Belgium, I will commence shipping.

In the meantime, here is another piece of concept artwork by Ian for the upcoming tabletop game project. More info on that soon...



Stay safe folks!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all safe and well.

Good news (finally)! I received an email from Cartamundi to say that printing is finished and a thousand Grim Tarock decks are ready to be shipped from Belgium to me, here in the UK! I am so happy and excited to receive these. As soon as I do, I will be posting plenty of pictures!

Once I receive them (hopefully within the next week or so), I will begin the arduous task of packaging, labelling and shipping. There are more than 900 of you wonderful backers and there is only one of me, so please bear with me as I will need to ship these in waves.

On the subject of shipping, some of you may be aware that last year, the UPU (Universal Postal Union) agreed to allow the US to set terminal dues/prices themselves from 1st July. This met the US administration’s objective to increase how much they charge other countries for delivery. It will see a significant increase of over 100% in the rates Royal Mail pay for last mile delivery in the US from 1st July. Sad times for small businesses in the UK sending packages to customers in the US. You can read more about it here: Royal Mail adds World Zone 3 (USA)

What this means is, essentially my costs for shipping to the USA have gone up massively. I am now having to pay close to GBP3000 extra in shipping to the USA. Fortunately, I kept some money from the Kickstarter as a contingency against something like this, although I still have a shortfall which I need to make up.

However, I will not be passing any of these costs onto our American backers. It may mean that some backers in the US may have to wait a little longer for their pledge, since I need to source the extra funds from somewhere. I will reiterate, I won't to pass these costs onto any backers. It is not your fault that the shipping costs have risen so astronomically. I just had no idea until very recently that this would be happening.

So, please everyone rest assured that you will be getting your pledges soon and I will be swallowing all the extra costs. You have all been incredibly patient and understanding over the past few months, and I want you all to know that both Ian and myself really appreciate it! If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to drop me a message anytime.

And now for something completely different.


I have just launched the Facebook page for our latest collaborative effort - Ian Miller's Middgyr: Tower of Chaos!

So what's this all about, I hear you ask? Here is a quick summary:

A cold wind moans, its sighing a thousand alien voices breathing in your mind – meaningless, tenebrous. Yet promising everything. You look up at the great gates before you and at the impossible tower above. The gates are open. You take a step forward…

Middgyr: Tower of Chaos is a co-operative dungeon crawl board game for 2-5 players set in a world plagued by war and the increasing influence of Chaos. Players fight for their lives as they explore the mysterious Tower of Chaos, high above the swamps of Middgyr, united in their quest to end the war, yet each with their own veiled agendas.

Players take charge of four grim anti-heroes as they set out upon a vital quest that will take them through the twisted forests, crumbling bergs and foggy meres that crawl, slither and gibber from Ian Miller’s wonderfully dark imagination. One player takes control of the unknowable Tower of Chaos and its many devious denizens, acting as Game Master.

The labyrinthine Tower of Chaos will offer an immersive gaming experience, fast-paced and intense combat, and many challenging puzzles for the players to overcome. Middgyr aims to deliver an experience that will capture the very essence of Ian Miller’s legendary artwork with an expansive, story-driven campaign mode containing many twists and turns, as well as a number of different outcomes. Make the right choices and untold power, fame and fortune awaits – make one wrong decision and oblivion is your only reward...

If you are on Facebook, you can join the fun here: Middgyr: Tower of Chaos

If not, watch this space as I will be creating the mailing list soon.

Cheers everyone and stay safe!

James

Welcome to Ian Miller's Middgyr Tower of Chaos

So, what's this all about then?

First of all, please have a quick read of the pinned post which will give you a summary of what to expect from this upcoming board game, due to launch on Kickstarter in 2021.

To give you some background, I first approached Ian back in 2018 whilst working on the first issue of 28 mag. We wanted to interview one of the great fantasy artists for the magazine and, naturally, Ian was right up there at the top of our list.

As an 'older' gamer, playing games like WFRP and Rogue Trader back in the late 80s/early 90s, my formative years were greatly influenced by fantasy luminaries such as Blanche, Bonner, Smith, Ackland and Miller, to name but a few. Ian's work on the second Realms of Chaos book, Slaves to Darkness, was especially influential on my young, malleable mind. I was 11 or 12 at the time. This book, and particularly Ian's strange, often disturbing imagery, took me away to places my brain could not possibly conceive. Mind positively blown, I was now an avid fan.

Fast forward to 2018 and Ian had graciously agreed to an interview with me via email. The interview went exceptionally well, as Ian is an absolute gentleman and he was more than happy to not only answer our questions, but to answer them in detail, along with some interesting and often humorous little anecdotes. If you haven't done so already, I throughly recommend reading the interview (link to the free-to-download magazine is in the comments below).

I continued to correspond with Ian over the coming weeks and months, and we discussed various things, including possible collaborations. As a sculptor, my initial ideas focussed on creating some miniatures based upon some of his fascinating characters, but it would seem that John Robertson had beaten me to it and was already sculpting miniatures with Ian (John is launching a Kickstarter soon, by the way, and I strongly recommend that any fan of Ian Miller check it out).

So, sculpting miniatures being (kind of) off the table, we began discussing other concepts, including a deck of tarot cards and something a lot bigger: this game. Ian had always wanted to make some tarot cards and had already produced some illustrations to this effect, so we ended up creating Ian Miller's Grim Tarock which successfully funded on Kickstarter at the end of 2019.

Throughout this time, though, I was also working on the rules and background for 'The Game' as it was imaginatively known during its earlier stages of development, and Ian had started producing concept art for some of the creatures and characters that would populate our world. For the longest time I had thought that a tabletop game based upon the weird fantasy worlds of Ian Miller, be it board game, skirmish game or full-blown war game, would be absolutely amazing. Why had this not been done before? Where were the fantasy worlds that were entirely based upon Ian's artwork? Where were all the wonderful miniatures?

Somewhat perplexed by this, I approached Ian with the idea to produce a dungeon crawler board game. It was my firm belief that there was a sizeable Miller-shaped void in the fantasy table top games market, and the only thing that could fill that niche was, well, Ian Miller. But to do it justice we needed time, dedication and, above all, the quest for quality in every aspect of the project, from design to production (and beyond).

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I succeeded in convincing Ian that this was indeed a great idea and he got fully on board. This has been a project two years in the making and a real labour of love. I look forward to taking you on a journey over the coming weeks and months as we enter the final stages of the project. On this page I plan to provide updates relating to the artwork, game design, background, miniature design and so forth, hopefully in some kind of order and with plenty of teasers. There will be a website soon plus a mailing list, so keep an eye out for when I post about that.

I will sign off by saying that if you have any questions or comments, please post them below. Thanks for joining us on this adventure into the foggy meres of Middgyr!

All the best,

James Sherriff

Hello my wonderful backers!

Great news - the Grim Tarock has finally arrived in all its glory! More than 350kg spread across 27 boxes. Thank you once again for being so patient.



Look at all those boxes!
I've started sorting through all the boxes doing some quality checks, and so far they all look absolutely amazing! Once I have done these checks I will start packing the first batch. As per my previous update, I will be shipping these in order of backer number, as I feel this to be the fairest way to go about it.



Very excited to be opening these boxes!
A note to the Grim Collector backers

For those of you lucky enough to get hold of one of the limited Grim Collector pledges, I am heading down to see Ian later this week with your decks so that he can begin adding some delightful squiggles to the boxes for you. I'm pretty excited myself to see what lovely sketches he produces for you!

Once he has done these, I will drive back down to collect them for packing and shipping to you. So please bear with us whilst we do this. I will of course update you as to how Ian is getting on with them.





I am sure everyone is very excited at the prospect of finally getting these through the post! I will be packaging these in manageable batches of 30-50 in order to take them to my local post office and not overwhelm the postal clerk at the counter! Plus, I can only carry so many (each deck weighs around 300g, not to mention those of you who also pledged for the 400g art book). Naturally, I will keep you all updated as to shipping progress!

We are really close, folks. Thank you once again for being such incredible backers - your words of support, patience and understanding have truly been appreciated, by myself and by Ian. I cannot thank you enough for making this project a reality!

Until the next update...

Stay safe!

James

Shipping update #4 James Sherriff October 26, 2020

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all safe and well. Here's another quick shipping update for you...

The Battle of Boxes and Bubblewrap continues - I have now managed to post almost 400 parcels [of 911 backers]. As per previous updates I know this is a painfully slow process for those of you still waiting, but all I can do is say how sorry I am for the delay, whilst again assuring you that I am working hard to get your pledges to you in the not-too-distant future!

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have sent messages of support, as well as those of you who have posted a comment confirming receipt of your pledges (and how awesome the Grim Tarock decks are). Thank you all for being such amazing & patient backers!

As always, drop me a message if you have any questions and I will reply ASAP.

Take care people!

James

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Has anyone in the US gotten theirs?