A new adventure begins!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Aug 01, 2021 at 07:55:30 PM

Hi everyone!

It has been a few weeks since our last update here, but things are progressing nicely -- we're hoping to have some "wet proofs" of both books and slipcase soon, and are getting the other items to manufacturing as well. (If you're not familiar with the term, "wet proofs" are physical test copies of printed materials, in this case, the covers of the books and slipcase, so that we can see how the linen graining, foil stamping, etc will actually look and feel on the final books. We'll share pix when they arrive!)

We have also assigned all of the Pre-registration, Day-1, and Weekly prints to everyone who qualified by backing in time. Please check your pledge to make sure you got any that you feel you should. If you don't see one or more that you feel you should get, send us a message and we can lookup the time and date of your pledge to make any necessary corrections.

Finally, in case you were trying to add a copy of the 7" vinyl buy were unable... it had sold out! So since there are still a few weeks left, we decided to throw a few more into the count. At this point, the new total will be a limited run of 100 copies... only 9 more left! We won't be able to add any more pretty soon!

Our recent silence is only partly due to having minimal progress news to share, but we’ve also been hard at work on something big for the last several weeks (and months)… and now we're ready to pull back the curtain...

Announcing CARBON GREY: THE ROLE PLAYING GAME!

We here at Neurobellum/Magnetic Press have been life-long gamers – both tabletop and video games – and I spent 20 years as a producer in the gaming industry before jumping full-time into graphic novel publishing. But ever since, I’ve missed gaming with a passion… game design is and always will be in my blood. So after years of planning and preparation, Magnetic Press has finally announced the formation of MAGNETIC PRESS PLAY, an imprint dedicated to tabletop games and new media. And the first game in that slate will be launching next Tuesday August 3rd on Kickstarter!

CARBON GREY is a brand-new Role-Playing Game based on the popular graphic novel series created by Hoang Nguyen, Khari Evans, Paul Gardner, and Kinson Loh. It is set in an alternate history that at first blush resembles World War One, but with drastic, noticeable differences: fantastic and often futuristic technologies, supernatural abilities, unearthly creatures, and unexplainable phenomena that will leave you guessing. In the game, you will take on the role of an operative or pawn awakened from blissful unawareness to the fantastic forces secretly at play in the universe. You can play as one of twenty-four unique character archetypes, gifted with talents and abilities of your choosing.

Gameplay is built on the time-tested legacy of the D6 System by classic RPG company West End Games. The system has been used for many popular properties including STAR WARS, GHOSTBUSTERS, MEN IN BLACK, and THE DC UNIVERSE. The Carbon Grey Role-playing Game will be the first to use the official “Magnetic Variant” (D6MV) of these classic tabletop role-playing game rules.

The game will be offered as both a STANDALONE HARDCOVER RULEBOOK or a COMPLETE TABLETOP BOXED SET with twenty-one detailed miniatures varying in scale from 32mm heroes and enemies to a giant 96mm cannon walker, a sturdy 3-panel Game Master screen, 140 character and item cards, a large 24 x 36″ world/battle map, twelve d6 dice (5x stone dice, 5x light dice, 2x wild dice) with custom pips, and eight boards of punch-out map markers and tokens.

If you’re not that interested in tabletop roleplaying, that's cool, we’ve still got something you may be interested in…

The complete CARBON GREY series hardcover omnibus!

We’ve collected the entire original CARBON GREY comic book series – all 10 issues, plus bonus material – and re-edited into a single, striking tale of danger and destiny, following the prophecy of the 13th Grey, the daughter of Gottfaust who is destined to change the fate of the world.

Over 300 pages of gorgeously painted storytelling by Hoang Nguyen, Khari Evans, Paul Gardner, and Kinsun Loh, encased in a premium 8.5 x 11″ linen-textured hardcover volume with spotUV elements and curved corners. If you aren’t familiar with the series, this will be the ultimate way to enjoy it. And if you are already familiar, this will be the ultimate edition for your collection.

About the new campaign

One thing about this new campaign we’d like to point out – this will be our first major campaign in the “Tabletop Games” category on Kickstarter, and as such, we decided to run it under a separate Magnetic Press Play account focused solely on those types of projects. So while the account may be different, you can take confidence that the folks behind it are the same ones who have brought you the last 12 successful campaigns under Neurobellum. 😊

If you’ve followed our campaigns up to now, you’ll have a pretty good idea what to expect: we’ll be offering Day-1 and weekly bonus prints, as well as a whole series of stretch goal bonuses. And like our previous campaigns you can pre-register now to get an exclusive limited edition print of the omnibus cover art!

But please don’t worry --  we haven’t bitten off more than we can chew because the creative team behind these tabletop projects will be completely separate from our graphic novel production – it's like two separate departments under the same familiar roof! We have an experienced team working on Carbon Grey under the creative leadership of ENnie award-winning writer of the recent ALIEN and TERMINATOR RPGs, Andrew E.C. Gaska. He is making sure this RPG experience will be awesome.

We have a lot of exciting projects in the works for both accounts, and we think you will find everything to be just as worthwhile as ever. If you’re just interested in graphic novels, Neurobellum will keep you covered. If you’re only interested in games, we’ll have plenty for you to consider under Magnetic Press Play. And if you’re at all interested in the other side, we’ll make it easy for you to give something new a try. 😊

So please check it out and support us on Day-1! This is an exciting new chapter for us, and we hope you'll come along for the ride!

Surveys sent! Bonus prints being added
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 05, 2021 at 12:31:51 AM

Hi everyone!

Just a very quick note to say that the Smoke Test went well and all other surveys have now been sent. Please check your email for that notification/invitation from Backerkit. If you didn't get or just want a direct link right now, you can go to https://carbon-and-silicon.backerkit.com to log in.

If you have any trouble, let us know!

And a quick note regarding the bonus prints (pre-reg, Day-1, weeks 1-3): they have not been added to any carts yet, but we will be doing that very soon. Don't worry -- they will be there before we lock orders in late September! We'll be sure to let you know once those have been applied.

Thanks!

Survey weekend! Smoke test started!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 03, 2021 at 08:27:31 PM

Happy Saturday, everyone!

We know it has been two weeks since our last update at the close of the campaign -- the silence wasn't neglect just nothing to report until Kickstarter completed their collection process. But we were getting the Backerkit set up in the meantime so that as soon as Kickstarter finished we could push the "GO" button on "Smoke Test" surveys... which we did this morning!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Backerkit's survey process, the "Smoke Test" is a limited test run where surveys are sent to just 5% of the backer list to make sure that there aren't any questions or technical issues to fix before sending out the full batch of surveys. Hopefully by now we've gotten good enough at setting these up so that there aren't any technical issues, but it's still a good practice.

If you're one of the lucky 5%, please do us a favor and respond as soon as you're able so that we can be sure things are working properly.

Normally this process only takes 24hours to weed out any problems, so assuming everything goes as smoothly as expected, the rest of you should get your surveys within the next 24 hours. 

We have also opened up the Backerkit Pre-order store, so if you have any friends who missed out on the campaign, they can still join the party! Just point them to www.carbon-and-silicon.com, where they'll find a button to the pre-order store ready and waiting.

Slipcase dummy

We've sent the final print files to Mathieu and 619 for approval, and have been working with the printer on the slipcase specifications. They sent an unprinted dummy for confirmation, and it looks good! (And it is sturdy! You could knock someone out with one of these bricks!)

These sample dummies don't include the linen-textured machine graining, foil stamping, ribbon bookmarks, page gilding, etc. They are just meant to confirm proper measurements. Now that they have files and the order has been placed, they'll build a full sample with all of those nifty treatments soon. We will definitely send pix of that when it arrives! These are going to be some of the most amazing, premium, lush books Magnetic has put out (and we've put out a LOT of really nice premium books in the past 8 years...)

If you didn't pledge for the slipcase tier, you can still upgrade your pledge in Backerkit! That option should be pretty clearly indicated in the survey when you receive it, but if you aren't sure, just send us a message and we'll be happy to help you out directly.

We're really excited to make this milestone campaign one for the records!

Thanks again, everyone! 

An extra-bright morning sun...
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jun 21, 2021 at 05:10:02 AM

Hi everyone!

We're waking up a bit slowly this morning (perhaps a bit too much celebrating last night...), but we're already taking the next steps in the process. "What are those steps, exactly?" you ask?

Here's the basic shpiel:

• Kickstarter will start running your credit cards to collect your pledges this week. You should get an email from them about that soon. If Kickstarter runs into an issue with your payment method, they will email you a notification to please provide an alternate payment method. They'll keep that up for about 7 days at which point (after a final notification), they will officially close the campaign. Anyone whose payment was unable to go through will be marked as "dropped/uncollected." 
• At that point, everyone's pledge will move into Backerkit. All of your pledge information will transfer to Backerkit, even if your pledge was marked as "dropped/uncollected", so you will be able to pay your initial uncollected pledge amount later through Backerkit.
• We'll be using Backerkit for fulfillment again this time, and will start setting that up this week. By the time Kickstarter has finished collecting funds, we'll have the Backerkit surveys ready to send out. We are aiming to have those out around July 2nd or so. We'll keep you posted. These surveys will ask for your shipping address, but don't worry -- you will be able to update your address right before we ship, in case you aren't sure where you might be in that delivery window.
• We are proofing both books and laying out the slipcase with the printer now. Our goal is to send everything to the printer by July 2nd! Our goal is to have everything in hand and ready to start shipping by the beginning of November. All of the other bits (the sketchbooks, coins, patches, pins, prints, etc) are all relatively simple productions that we will begin in the next week or two, so we have no worries about hitting that date with those items.
• As mentioned in the campaign itself, we will be shipping all orders with our worldwide partner QUARTERMASTER LOGISTICS in an effort to keep those costs as low as possible. As each vendor seems to have different rate benefits in different countries, a few regions might still be a bit more expensive and/or other restrictions affected by current events (for example, recent events in Israel have closed that area for an undetermined amount of time...). There will always be localized delivery issues somewhere in the world at any given point, just know that we're doing what we can to make shipping as smooth as possible for EVERYONE. :)
• Digital rewards will be distributed through Backerkit directly, with the digital books themselves being distributed through Gumroad. We will announce the release date for those when we are close to fulfillment so that all orders can be processed at once. To set expectations early: it'll be closer to when we are about to start shipping the books themselves, so expect those links in November. We'll keep everyone updated as that date draws near.

About Add-ons

While add-ons were offered through Kickstarter directly in this campaign, we will offer the same add-ons through Backerkit as well (including the vinyl single). We will also offer copies of some of our previous Kickstarter books, but believe it or not, some of them have sold out. We'll be checking to see what we have left.

We may offer extra copies of some of the stretch goal items (sketchbook, stickers, patches, etc), but not all of them. (The coins are a collectible we really hope to keep exclusive to backers and Ambassadors...) If you don't see something that you were hoping to add, just message us and we'll see what we can do!

That's all for now. We'll be sharing some other stuff soon, like a campaign feedback survey (which can help reduce your shipping cost a bit for taking). Stay tuned for news.

AND THANKS AGAIN! YOU'RE AWESOME!

THAT. WAS. INTENSE.
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 12:01:17 AM

You all.

Seriously.

You're the best.

That was, like, the most edge-of-your-seat, final-seconds victory ever. I mean, we already made the goal, but that milestone was a whole different victory.

THANK YOU.

We'll be back tomorrow with a more legit update.