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Flotsam: Adrift Amongst the Stars

Created by Josh Fox and Becky Annison

Flotsam: Adrift Amongst the Stars is a roleplaying game about outcasts, renegades and misfits living in the belly of a space station, in the shadow of a more prosperous society. You play through their everyday lives, interpersonal relationships and small-scale drama in the Below, a dangerous world where poverty, social strife and gang conflict sit side-by-side with alien technology and supernatural weirdness. Imagine the Belters of the Expanse watching as Earth and Mars shape their lives, the civilians in Battlestar Galactica living with the decisions made by the military and the folk of Downbelow in Babylon 5, abandoned to destitution and squalor by those who built the station. This game is about characters like that. The game is GMless and diceless, with rules that point your characters at each other and bring their relationships into sharp focus. They help you create a rich setting, flawed characters, and charged relationships which develop over time. You'll watch your characters evolve and change before your eyes. It's really cool.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

The final stretch
about 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 12:08:30 AM

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to say that we're very close to having the final version of the Flotsam PDF, and to sending the files to the printer. I have just sent, through Backerkit, the current version of the PDF. (If you don't see it, check spam folders, and if you still don't then get in touch and I'll sort it out.) This is not quite the final version: the index is incomplete, and not all the high resolution versions of the art are in place, and there's other bits and bobs like the ISBN to do. But in terms of the text and the layout, this is it.

I'm sending this out now because I'm sure you're anxious to see it, but also because there's inevitably errors, despite all of our quality checks. If you spot a typo or suchlike, please do get in touch - it's not (yet) too late to fix such things.

I anticipate that in the next few weeks we'll lock the PDF down and send you the final version, and send it to the printers for proofing. Depending how long that takes, we might be able to start shipping books out in March or April.

Thankyou so much for all of your support and encouragement which has made this possible.

One final thing:

Black Armada (that's me and Becky Annison) has a new Kickstarter launching in the next few weeks. It's called Bite Me! and it's about werewolves - what it's like to be one, and what life is like in a pack. I wanted to let you know about this and reassure you that my focus is to get Flotsam finished and out into the world. Becky is the author of Bite Me!, not me; and the only overlap between our project teams is Mo Holkar as the proofreader and copyeditor. His work on Flotsam is complete, so there is nobody working on Bite Me! who might be tempted to prioritise that over Flotsam.

So although Black Armada will be taking forward a new project, you can rest assured that this won't affect the delivery of Flotsam in any way.

Thanks again for all your support and I look forward to sharing the finished version of Flotsam with you very soon.

Best regards


Josh

Backerkit is live!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 03:31:02 PM

Hi all

Thanks to everyone who has responded to Backerkit so far. After waiting the recommended 24 hours to check for any errors in the process, it seems like the Backerkit survey is working fine.  I have now sent the survey link to the remaining 95% of backers, which means if you haven't received it, you should check your spam filters and get in touch if you still can't find it.

Please note that the product is still a little way off being sent to the printers. There will be the opportunity to update your details nearer the time, and I'll make sure to send out a reminder ahead of when we lock things down.

Finally, this also means the pre-order store is open, for people who missed the Kickstarter. Please do share the link on social media:

https://flotsam.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Thanks!

Josh

Backerkit
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 11:40:03 PM

Hi everyone

This is just a very quick note to say that some of you will have received Backerkit surveys just now. Most of you won't, but there's nothing to worry about - we deliberately send out the survey to 5% of backers initially, in case there's a problem with the survey that wasn't caught in our pre-flight checks.

For those of you that have received it, if you encounter a problem please do let me know by private message or comment here and I'll sort it out as quickly as possible.

Assuming everything goes smoothly, the remaining 95% of you will receive surveys very soon, and I will send a further update when that happens.

Thanks

Josh

Brief update
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 09:03:32 PM

Hello all

It won't surprise you to learn that things moved relatively slowly over the holiday period, so there's not a huge amount to report. Nevertheless, progress is continuing:

- 19 out of 22 illustrations now complete

- Proofreading and copyediting now complete

- Sensitivity reading now complete

January is moving slowly as well thanks to lots of health problems on the team. That includes myself - as I write this I'm suffering with what can only be described as The Lurgy, a persistent cough that has hammered my productivity - but also more serious issues which I've mentioned in previous updates. I'm still not expecting this to knock us off our planned schedule, but will keep you posted if that changes.

I've also set Flotsam up on Backerkit, and will likely hit the button on this some time in the next month, as long as we seem to be progressing ok. I'll send a dedicated update when I do this.

That's it for the update - but you can take a look at the latest art from Claudia below.

Yours

Josh

Final progress update of 2018
over 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 12:14:55 AM

Hey everyone

Things have been chugging along nicely since the last status update. We're going into 2019 with:

  • The main draft text complete
  • All five scenarios complete
  • 17 out of 22 illustrations complete (plus all the smaller spot illustrations)
  • Copyediting and proofreading underway
  • Layout well underway

In addition, after having a belated moment of realisation that Flotsam may just touch on some potentially sensitive material, I have hired Misha B as a sensitivity reader. She's already started work on that, and I don't envisage it having any significant impact on the timetable, as I should be able to make any resulting edits at the same time as I do the updates following copyediting.

So in short, things are progressing really well and the project is currently significantly ahead of schedule for the delivery dates I had planned (May for the PDF, June for the book).

Finally, some less happy news. The printer I had hoped to use for the slipcase has informed me that they will only do the job if they also print the book. Unfortunately their prices for book printing are much higher than my preferred book printer. So the long and short of it is: I've concluded it is no longer affordable to produce the slipcase. If you're one of the people who put in an increased pledge after the slipcase announcement, you'll get a refund on the extra money and should already have a PM from me about this. (Get in touch if you haven't.) I'm sorry to those who - like me - were looking forward to seeing this neat little addition to the project take shape.

Next update should be in mid-to-late January. In the mean-time, happy holidays and thanks for all your support.

Cheers

Josh