Chiron's Doom is a storytelling game about an ill-fated expedition to explore a mysterious monument. You begin by sketching out a few initial impressions of your mysterious monument, and then you meet three strange explorers who are driven to uncover its secrets. Across the course of a few hours (or weeks, if you play in real time) you will then guide them through their expedition day-by-day as it slowly unravels, and they strive to learn the truth about the monument before it's too late.
Originally designed as a solo journalling experience, Chiron's Doom can also comfortably accommodate up to 3 players. All you need to play is a deck of cards!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The CHIRON'S DOOM expedition is done!
15 days ago
– Fri, May 03, 2024 at 04:40:40 AM
We've made it to the end of the CHIRON'S DOOM Kickstarter campaign. The expedition is over - we've delved deep into the mysteries of the monument, and returned with powerful (possibly even dangerous?) knowledge. All that remains is the aftermath!
This is a bumper update, so here's a breakdown of what you can find below:
Expedition log. A summary of the campaign, including shout-outs.
A little help? Ways that you can help CHIRON'S DOOM succeed.
What's next, and staying in touch. Keep up to date with what I'm doing.
So where did the money go? A breakdown of the final campaign budget.
Kickstarter expedition. The grand finale of our Kickstarter expedition.
Expedition log
Now that we're here at the end, let's take a look at what we achieved together. As is traditional, let's begin with the gif that launched the campaign:
THINGS WE MADE
The plan was to keep this campaign lean, focused on producing the best possible edition of CHIRON'S DOOM with stretch goals all going towards making the core product better. Thanks to all 325 of you, I think we succeeded! Here's what we made together:
CHIRON'S DOOM. A new, updated and vastly improved edition of this game of ill-fated expeditions to mysterious monuments. The final zine clocks in at 56 pages, with new optional rules and play advice, stronger and more evocative prompts, updated rules, and a whole new layout.
Four stunning monument playsets. Created by a suite of extremely talented artists and writers (shout-outs below!), these playsets present four unique visions of the monument designed to get you playing as fast as possible. As part of the campaign we also produced beautiful art prints of each monument.
PEOPLE WE PAID
Thanks to your generous support, I was able to pay a veritable army of extremely talented people to ply their trades. It was an absolute joy working with each and every one of them - I was honoured to have so many luminaries of the indie ttrpg scene involved in CHIRON'S DOOM.
Galen Pejeau. Friend and collaborator, Galen once again set the tone for the whole zine. His cover brings me joy every time I see it. Vibrant, weird, inviting, so very eye-catching. The best.
Caro Asercion. Hope is a Lighthouse. Caro's art style is so incredibly distinctive - I've admired their work ever since I first saw The Giantkiller playbook, and I felt like an absolute genius when I realised I could commission them to illustrate a monument.
Sam Tung. Dreaming Oblivion. I love working with Sam. His art feels so alive, like it's a frame taken from a cartoon or movie. No wonder, given he's a storyboard artist! Sam is also crowdfunding a short film right now - check it out!
Vincentius Matthew. Wasteland Divinium. I first saw Vincentius' work on the cover of the excellent game Last Fleet, and just knew he'd knock a gothic sci-fi brief out the park!
Thomas Manuel. Hope is a Lighthouse. Thomas' thinking and writing about RPGs is always so incredibly insightful, and his game designs are equally brilliant. I was delighted that he chose the same genre as Caro, and I adore that together they produced possibly the most hopeful vision for CHIRON'S DOOM.
Rae Nedjadi. Dreaming Oblivion. You already know and love Rae's work. What I love about the playset he created is how quintessentially Rae it is. Heck, it includes the monument asking the explorers in a dream: "What apocalypse will I birth?" So Rae, and so very good!
Becky Annison. Wasteland Divinium. My dear friend Becky wrote 275 words of the purest gothic sci-fi you can imagine. Dead gods! A sci-fi necropolis! A character called "Deliverance Grindmarch"! It's perfect!
Melody Watson. I almost can't imagine writing a game without asking Melody to take a look at it. Her editing skills are top notch - she lifted the text of CHIRON'S DOOM in virtually every way imaginable. It wouldn't be half the game it is without her work.
I am immensely proud of what we made here, and none of it would have been possible without all of you. Thank you!
A little help?
Favour time! You've already done so much for CHIRON'S DOOM, so can I ask you to just a little bit more?
If you like CHIRON'S DOOM, head over to the itch.io page and give it a five star rating! While you're there, drop a comment or a review - I'd love to hear what you think. All of this helps nudge the algorithm so that more people can find the game and launch their own ill-fated expeditions!
If you'd like to talk about (or play) the game on a stream, podcast, blog, website, or wherever, give me a shout! I'm always keen to talk about my games, and game design more generally, and I'd love to support your work too.
The public launch of CHIRON'S DOOM will take place on Tuesday May 7th - tell your friends! Share the itch.io link with them, let them know what revelations await.
And lastly, play the game! Launch your own expeditions - perhaps things will turn out well for you, and you'll return with the truth? It's got to be tempting, right?
What's next, and staying in touch
This will be the last regular update for the campaign. I may pop in (very) occasionally to let you know about future crowdfunding campaigns or big releases, but if you'd like to stay in more regular contact here are a few ways you can do that:
Follow me on social media. You can still mostly find me on Twitter, but I'm also on BlueSky and (technically) Threads. I'm @ickbat pretty much everywhere.
Join the ickbat games discord. We've got a small but friendly community of game designers, heist masterminds, explorers, and all-round excellent humans over there. Come and join in!
Follow me at ickbat.itch.io. This is where you can find all of my games, and I'm expecting a flurry of updates coming soon, including the solo edition of Stealing the Throne, and updated layout for my classic game of daring aerial heists Sky Pirates.
Subscribe to Black Armada Tales. You can hear me playing cool indie RPGs with a group of really excellent people - it's top quality actual play, I promise!
So what's next for me? I'm about to kick off another playtest season of Speed Daemons, my Forged in the Dark game of illegal mech racing, about which I'm very excited. But that's a big game, so my next release is likely to be this:
AGAINST TIME AND DEATH: Two elite operatives face off against each other on opposite sides of a war for all of time and space. An asynchronous duet game of reality-spanning conflict, self-discovery, and (possibly?) romance, inspired by This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
I'm looking to try something new with this game, so keep your eye out for an ashcan release on ickbat.itch.io soon! A crowdfunding campaign will most likely follow.
So where did the money go?
If you were wondering about the final breakdown of the campaign budget, this section is for you! Are pie charts the worst charts? Let's find out!
INCOME
£4,006 - Kickstarter funds. That's all of you! And once again, a huge thank you for your support. I couldn't have done this without you!
£1,818 - BackerKit funds. Most of that was postage for your zines, although I'm pleased to say that backers did pick up 37 copies of Stealing the Throne, as well as a few other odds and ends.
EXPENSES
£436 - Platform fees. Kickstarter and BackerKit fees.
£889 - Art. Galen's gorgeous cover, the suit illustrations and icons, and the beautiful monument playsets courtesy of Sam, Caro, and Vincentius. It's always a joy commissioning art, and this time was no different!
£300 - Writing. This covered the three monument playsets written by Thomas, Rae, and Becky. My first time commissioning writers, and I'll do it again in a flash! I absolutely loved seeing how each writer responded to the monument art they were given.
£280 - Editing. Melody Watson once again doing heroic work!
£400 - Freelancer bonuses. The final stretch goal of the campaign financed £50 bonuses for all of the freelancers, and I'm so glad we hit it. It's always nice to pay talented people extra for their work!
£939 - Printing. This covered proofs, as well as printing the final zines and playset monuments. Here's something I learned this campaign: printing in full colour is much more expensive than black & white!
£38 - Shipping supplies. I had some supplies (thermal labels, biodegradable plastic sleeves, and envelopes) left over from my last campaign, so this just covered a few more boxes of envelopes.
£1,416 - Postage. No surprise that this was the single largest expense of the campaign!
"PROFIT"
£1,159 - what's left! It's a little misleading to call this 'profit'. For a start, I haven't included taxes in the breakdown above (and believe me, I had to pay taxes!). This 'profit' also covers my time: game design, writing, layout, and project management. Mostly, though, I think of this as a pot of money to invest in making my next game!
Kickstarter expedition: finale
What better way to conclude our campaign than with the final day of our Kickstarter expedition? As always, you can read up on the full expedition at this link, which will remain available after the campaign is done. Before we start, I want to thank everyone who followed along, contributing ideas as we went. It made these updates super fun for me to write, because I was also playing a game! A particularly big shout-out to our regular contributors: David Nivens, J. Tim, and Sam Chen.
We came close to final understanding, but it was not to be...
Day twelve (King of clubs): The monument takes one of the explorers. What happened? What do the remaining explorers believe to be the fate of their lost companion?
Banner-Admiral Atoch to Her Imperial Majesty, Divine Wellspring of the Ever-Blooming Mandate
I humbly regret to inform Your Imperial Majesty, long may Your rule reside in the blossom of a galaxy-spanning Spring, that the Princex Kairos is lost.
I dispatched a thousandfold swarm of knights to the caverns beneath the surface of the storm-cursed world to recover the Princex. Their tutors trained them well; they evaded us for longer than any could have managed, save for Your Elusive Majesty. Nevertheless, a cell of Swarm-Knights pursued the Princex into a colossal chamber at the heart of the planet.
What followed is difficult to describe. This chamber was filled with machinery of unimaginable scale, engaged in a whirlwind of activity. Whether through its efforts or as an unintended consequence, this machinery appeared to generate the titanic beam of energy which I have previously described to Your Abundant Nobility.
The Princex Kairos cast themself into this beam of energy before my Swarm-Knights could prevent it. If You will generously forgive the bluntness of my delivery, the Princex was surely destroyed. Nevertheless, I must report that one of the Swarm-Knights claims that he could hear the Princex’s voice for some minutes after their apparent death.
A short while later, the immense machinery inside the world ground to a halt. The quadrant-crossing beam of energy blinked out in the same moment.
It is clear that Autumn has fallen on my command. Accordingly, I have begun preparations for my coming Winter. It has been my honour and privilege to serve during the perfection of Your season.
And with that, we have reached the end of the road for this expedition. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, and I hope to see you all on the next adventure!
- Nick
Chiron's Doom shipping complete!
29 days ago
– Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 10:46:07 PM
Hello explorers! I come bearing excellent CHIRON'S DOOM-related news…
Shipping complete
As of yesterday morning, all of your CHIRON’S DOOM zines have shipped! A grand total of 243 packages all in the hands of the Royal Mail. They’ve already started arriving with backers in the UK, and I’m hoping the first of the international orders start to land soon.
Please be patient with international postal services. Give it a couple of weeks - maybe a touch more, if you’re one of my Antipodean or LatAm friends. Before you know it, you’ll have your zines and you can begin launching your ill-fated expeditions.
There are still a small handful who haven’t completed their BackerKit surveys, or whose payments have errored. If this is you, I can’t send you your zine until you get those details sorted! Give me a shout if you’re running into difficulties, and if you’ve lost your BackerKit survey you can find it at this link: https://chirons-doom.backerkit.com/.
Share those expedition logs
Nothing makes an indie game designer happier than seeing their games out in the world, and I’m hugely excited for CHIRON’S DOOM to start landing on your doorsteps.
When it does arrive, I’d love it if you let me know! Post comments here, share photos on social media (and tag me in so I see them - I'm @ickbat basicallyeverywhere), pop into the ickbat games discord and tell us which is your favourite monument playset, let your friends know all about your expedition plans!
If you like what you’re seeing, a 5-star rating, comment, or review on the CHIRON'S DOOM itch page is always going to make my day!
Next steps
We’re almost at the end of this expedition together, folks. So what’s left?
Final campaign update. I'll post a final update with some summaries of how this whole thing went, the last day in our Kickstarter expedition, some info on where you can find me, and some teasers for my next release. That'll also be an opportunity for me to offer one final thank you to all of you for making this thing happen! Expect to see that update around Friday May 3rd.
Public release. Some time shortly after the final campaign update I'll make the CHIRON'S DOOM itch page public, so the whole world can join you on your doomed expeditions!
Let's play some games together! Once you've got the zine and had some time to digest it, I hope some of you will be launching your expeditions. When you do, I'd love to hear about them!
In the meantime, let me know when your zines start arriving!
- Nick
March update (locking orders!)
about 2 months ago
– Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 12:19:14 AM
March 28th and the CHIRON'S DOOM expedition is moving quickly towards an end!
Brace yourselves for an onslaught of exclamation marks folks. These are exciting times!
Current status
Locking orders and charging cards in 24 hours! This is your last chance to pick up any add ons, double-check your delivery addresses, and update your credit card details.
If you haven’t filled in your BackerKit survey, please do so now! We’re doing pretty great, with 95% of surveys complete (thank you!), but that still leaves 17 folks yet to fill theirs in. If that’s you, I can’t ship your zine without a completed survey! If you've lost your survey, you can recover it here: https://chirons-doom.backerkit.com/.
Zines are here! Last week I received five big boxes full of zines, and they’re looking fabulous! Read on for some photos…
Monument prints ordered! I’ve placed orders for the monument art prints, and they should arrive next week, just in time for shipping to begin!
Show me the zines!
You got it!
The boxes arrived last week, and I’m really pleased with how these zines look! Galen Pejeau's cover art might just be even more stunning in print - every time I spot it out of the corner of my eye I get excited all over again!
I also think I’ve lifted my layout game with this zine. It has the signature clean ickbat games style, with added flare inspired by the excellent Classic Explorer Template from Clayton Notestine. (How could I resist referencing it for this project — it’s the Classic Explorer Template!)
When the zines start landing on your doorsteps and in your post boxes I would love to hear what you think! Share photos, and tag me in!
Have you considered a 5 star rating?
Speaking of hearing what you think…
If you’ve read the zine (or, even better, played the game!) and you like what you see, would you consider leaving a 5 star rating on itch.io? They really help boost the visibility of the game when it goes live for general purchase - I’d love to see as many doomed (brave?) explorers jumping on the game as possible when that happens!
If you’ve downloaded your copy of the zine, you should be able to see the CHIRON'S DOOM itch.io page here: https://ickbat.itch.io/chirons-doom. On the desktop version, there’s a little button that says ‘Rate this game’ on the top right of the page, roughly where the red arrow points in this image:
(I'm not allowed to rate my own game, but I would give it 5 stars.)
Click that button, select 5 stars, and you’ll have my eternal gratitude! (It is a little harder to find on mobile - you may need to rotate your device into landscape mode - but it’s there!) If you'd like to leave a review, that's awesome too, although note that itch.io reviews are not public. If you'd like to make your thoughts public, then you can always leave a comment at the bottom of the page!
Kickstarter expedition?
Where is the next update for the Kickstarter expedition, you ask? We did, after all, end last month on a pretty major draw:
Day twelve (King of clubs): The monument takes one of the explorers. What happened? What do the remaining explorers believe to be the fate of their lost companion?
Since that will be the final prompt for the Kickstarter expedition, and next month's update will (I think) by the final update for the Kickstarter campaign, I figured the synergy was too perfect to pass up. We're going to have to wait a little longer to learn the final fate of The Seer!
Next steps
Locking orders and charging cards in 24 hours. Last call!
Shipping. Once I have delivery addresses and the postage funds have landed in my account, envelope stuffing and trips to the post office begin!
The aftermath. With any luck, by the next Kickstarter update (April 28th) shipping will be complete, and zines will be arriving on your doorsteps. Assuming that goes smoothly, next update I'll wrap up with some final thoughts, let you know how you can stay in touch, and get ready to release CHIRON'S DOOM into the wild!
Thanks for sticking with me this far, folks. I'm excited for you to have CHIRON'S DOOM in your hands, real soon!
- Nick
Reminder: please complete your BackerKit survey!
about 2 months ago
– Fri, Mar 22, 2024 at 03:48:06 AM
A very quick CHIRON'S DOOM update, with one key message: please complete your BackerKit survey as soon as you can!
Seems like a good time to dust off a classic gif!
Please complete your BackerKit survey!
I'm happy to say that 87.5% of BackerKit surveys are complete! That's a grand total of 284 of you lovely backers, plus a few extras who have picked up the game via the pre-order store. A huge thank you to everyone who has already filled out their survey - I've really enjoyed seeing the results rolling in!
If you're one of the 41 people who hasn't completed their survey, please do so now. This goes double if you're a print backer - if you don't fill out your survey, I can't ship you your zine! If you've lost your survey, you can find it again at this link: https://chirons-doom.backerkit.com/.
I am currently planning to lock orders and charge cards on Friday March 29th. That gives you a week to finalise your orders, make sure your delivery addresses and credit card details are correct, and prepare for shipping to begin!
(To the best of my knowledge, no cargo ships will be involved in this project.)
Genre fiends
Those of you who have completed your surveys will know that I asked you a couple of questions. More on those in a subsequent update, but I thought you might be interested in this set of (running) results.
I asked you which genre your first expedition would be, and you said:
Honestly, these results are a real surprise to me! I thought gothic science-fiction and dark fantasy would be fighting it out for top spot, with science fantasy a distant third. Instead, science fantasy is the leader!
If you're one of the backers who picked science fantasy, I'd love to hear what that means to you down in the comments. What sort of expeditions are you planning? What sort of explorers? Do you have a monument in mind? Tell me more!
(Special shoutout to the backer who picked 'Something entirely different' and suggested 'Eldritch Solarpunk'. That sounds epic, and I want to play that game immediately!)
Did I mention that you should complete your BackerKit survey?
Yes? Okay then!
Back soon!
- Nick
It's time: PDF and BackerKit launch!
2 months ago
– Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 05:13:26 AM
Today is an exciting day: the CHIRON'S DOOM BackerKit has launched, which means your PDF zines are waiting for you!
Key details
Backers should be receiving BackerKitsurvey invitations, delivered to their Kickstarter email address. Follow the link in the survey email to supply your delivery address, purchase additional copies of the zine or upgrade your order, and pay for shipping. Please fill out your survey as soon as you can!
Zine PDFs are now available to backers! Once you've completed your BackerKit survey, you'll be able to access a unique download key for the CHIRON'S DOOM PDF and monument playsets. This is it! The finished zine!
The pre-order store is live. This is a chance for anyone who missed the Kickstarter to pick up a PDF or print copy of the zine. Here's the link - spread the word far and wide!
I am planning to lock ordersand charge cards on Friday March 29th. That gives you roughly three weeks to make changes to things like your delivery address and add-ons.
Stealing the Throne add-ons available! If you'd like to add a print or PDF copy of Stealing the Throne to your order, you can do so! This is a golden opportunity - right now, this is the only place you can buy print copies of Stealing the Throne.
BackerKit surveys
Backers should now be receiving survey emails from BackerKit. This is how I'll collect delivery addresses and shipping fees, and how I'll distribute digital rewards. The surveys will go to your Kickstarter email address (that is, whichever email you use to log into Kickstarter). If yours hasn't arrived by Tuesday March 12th, check those spam folders, and if you still can't find it give me a shout.
A few days ago I sent out a smoke test to 5% of backers, to kick the tires on the BackerKit and make sure everything was working as expected. That went smoothly, so now it's time to get the whole expedition crew together!
Please fill out your surveys as soon as you can - this will help me pin down how many copies of the zine I need to print. Your credit cards will not be charged until I lock the surveys down, and up until that point you'll be able to make adjustments (including to your delivery address). I'm currently planning to lock surveys down on Friday March 29th, so you've got a couple of weeks to make any adjustments.
Accessing your PDFs
The part you've all been waiting for: the official backer release of the completed CHIRON'S DOOM zine PDF!
When you complete your BackerKit survey, you'll see a "Get Your Digital Downloads" button. If you click on that, you'll find your unique download key granting you access to the final CHIRON'S DOOM PDF zine, plus separate versions of the monument playsets for easy printing.
To access the PDF files, just copy the download key link from BackerKit and paste it into your browser window. You'll need an itch.io account - if you don't have one already, they're free and quick to set up, and they give you access to a world of amazing indie tabletop game design. Why not take a look at some other games by the CHIRON'S DOOM expedition crew: Galen Pejeau, Melody Watson, Becky Annison, Caro Asercion, Thomas Manuel, Sam Tung, Rae Nedjadi, and me?
Once you've had a chance to look at the PDFs, if you like what you see please leave a 5-star rating on the itch.io page! It'll go a long way towards helping people find the game when it launches to the public.
If you purchased add-on copies of Stealing the Throne in print or PDF, your digital download codes will arrive when I lock orders and take payment.
What if you want to upgrade your pledge?
If you backed at the Explorer (£6) level and would like to upgrade your pledge to a print copy of the zine, the best way to do that is by clicking the "switch your pledge level" link below the "Get Started!" button. That will let you apply your current pledge amount towards the higher tier, so that you can get a copy of the zine for the same price as all the other backers.
Shipping and customs fees
As discussed during the campaign, shipping fees will be charged via BackerKit. I've tried to be as accurate as I can with these fees, and the good news is they're very close to the estimates provided during the campaign. For a single copy of the zine, the postage is:
UK: £2.70
Europe: £4.95
US: £6.55
Australia/New Zealand/Singapore: £7.50
Rest of the World: £6.40
Please beaware that any VAT, customs or handling fees are your responsibility. I'm sorry about this, but as far as I can tell there's no practical way for my tiny one-person-show to cover these fees. I'm hopeful that you won't be charged any - I didn't hear of any extra VAT/customs charges on my last campaign - but I wanted to make sure you were aware.
Late backers: the pre-order store is open!
If you missed the Kickstarter but still want to get on board, you're in luck: the pre-order store is now open. Click the link to order PDF or print copies of the CHIRON'S DOOM zine at the same prices charged during the Kickstarter campaign, or pick up copies of Stealing the Throne in print or PDF. If you know anyone who might be interested, send them the link too!
I'll be back with a regular progress update on March 28th, unless there's more news before then. In the meantime, fill out those surveys and tell me what you think of the PDF!
