Badgers, Hamsters, Mysteries and More!
July was a weird month. Time for our August update!
Hello everyone!
We have been planning, rethinking, organizing and more for July. As many of you know, we are planning a crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit that has consumed a lot of our time as we put the campaign together. You should definitely go check it out. Badger + Coyote is being expanded with 40+ adventure hooks, and a travel-sized starter set!
The campaign is for Badger + Coyote and their Daring Adventures is a 2nd edition of sorts for the beloved game. In addition to the main book, we’re assembling a travel-sized starter kit so you and a friend can play anywhere you’d like.
We also decided to include a wooden token that players can personalize. The token is passed back and forth to denote who the current narrator of the scene is. Paint, draw, stain, and decorate it to make it unique to you (and share pictures with us)!
Behind the scenes, we’ve been working to bring our games to more people and have been speaking with Spanish and French publishers to translate and sell our games in France and Spain! Badger + Coyote is already available in Spanish, and a French translation is now in the works.
Our Games are Heading to GenCon!
Six of our games will be available for purchase at GenCon this year at Indie Press Revolutions Booth (Booth 449)! Make sure to stop by and check them out!
New Release! - Hamsters & Himbos
We released a new solo mystery game! Hamsters and Himbos is the latest mystery game of hunks and hijinks, with the investigation led by you: the president of the local book club. Can you solve the mystery of the giant hamsters that have appeared in Willowdale? We’re delighted with this silly and wacky mystery adventure and can’t wait to hear all the crazy capers y’all get into.
Games in Development
We’ve had to shorten our project list because it was getting a little out of hand! However, we still have a huge list of things we are working on in addition to Badger + Coyote. If you’re interested in keeping up to date on our tasks and projects in real time, our project tracker is public.
The Substratum Protocol
The Substratum Protocol is out of playtest, and is now heading to layout. We worked on assembling this first spread as a proof of concept for where we want the game to go graphically, and have been thrilled with its reception so far. What do you think?
The Substratum Protocol will be the first Hints and Hijinx Solo+ game. Delve the depths, gather clues, and implement a solution in a unique multiplayer mystery game.
Whispering Pines
Whispering Pines’ writing is on hold as we work on Substratum Protocol, but will be our second Hints and Hijinks Solo+ game released! With cover art assets by Tony Tran, Whispering Pines will be a 1980’s wilderness mystery game inspired by Oxenfree and Firewatch. We are working on allowing players to select a mystery genre at the start of the game. Conspiracy? Whodunnit? Paranormal? You decide!
Banda’s Grove Overhaul
Banda’s Grove is rules complete, and we are working on the supplemental materials now: The fully fleshed out quick-start setting, and a unique campaign called Echos Beyond the Realm. A lot of the new layout styles you’ll see in The Substratum Protocol are in practice for Banda’s Grove new layout concepts: A messy journal and notebook filled with slips of paper and handwritten entries.
The most recent update is an updated mechanic to how gaining tokens works, which will give characters a choice of choosing complications to gain tokens vs. spending tokens to avoid them. You can read more about it in our Drama Economy Dev Log.
Penumbra
Penumbra is a Grove System game. It will be our first game that explores a token-based magic and combat system! Take on the roles of adepts - humans who have mysteriously come into magical powers after The Event, as they try to grapple with the new realities of their world while avoiding being discovered by the Arte Corp, who steals adepts away for study.
Taking place in a near-future Savannah, Georgia, the flooded city is the epicenter of gathering forces both of our world and the other side.
Code Name: Q.S.R.
This one will be a while, but we’re in the early stages of writing the ideation for a silly, over the top, bombastic game of hollering and laughing on the high seas. Quirky Sailing RPG. Inspired by this phenomenal animation by Maike Prosoli. I’m incredibly excited about this one, but have no idea how to pull it off yet. Lots of research ahead. But definitely keep your eyes out for this one.
Writing Projects
We are proud to be a writer on both Stoneburner by Fari RPGs and Hatchlings Game’s upcoming Cryptid Creeks! Make sure to check out both!
For Stoneburner, we contributed a new Kit and Sector. The Scion is an apprentice character class with a teacher robot who can copycat their mentor’s skills, and can redistribute damage among the entire team. The Scion adds a ton of fascinating tactical decisions to the group.
And the Sector we wrote explores time dilation and contractions in truly fascinating ways - converse with your ancient ancestors, discover far future technology, and mine for rare temporal ores that can control time while making sure you don’t get lost in the timelines.
Reorganized Discord!
We spent a lot of time in the last month updating our discord server to support three overlapping communities: The Pandion Game’s fans, game designers, and artists.
We have dedicated channels now to support each and welcome everyone to join. The new artist community is called the Artist Corner!
Player Accessories
Finally, we have been working on developing player accessories! We have run into a couple of production issues, which we’ll be working through. But both are currently delayed. First up is the Tether Journal!
We were originally hoping to release these beautiful journals with gold foil covers, but after 50 books showed up with print issues, we are reconsidering it and want to make sure we can make a consistently good journal that will be bundled with the fantastic 2-player note writing game Tether. We may forego the gold foil. More details soon!
Second, are the Catalyst Cards. We’ve been running into manufacturing issues that we are working through, but we are working with PrintNinja on some options.
The Catalyst Cards are GMless and player aid cards that give prompts to players for things to do in the game. Making an 18 card deck with an A6-sized companion booklet, we want high-quality products, but still need to be able to sell it sustainably! We are currently looking into different manufacturing options.
They are currently available as a digital print-and-play pack, though!
Wrapping up
With Twitter dying, please consider following us on the other platforms!
Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Join our Discord, or Subscribe to our newsletter
2023 has been an outstanding year so far, and we’re just getting started. Thanks to each and every one of you for supporting our efforts and playing our games!
-Andy
Pandion Games