At the risk of understating the obvious, the TTRPG world—and the world in general, honestly—has been a little volatile for a while now. As creatives, this has forced the UO trio to reevaluate how we release our titles and materials, and what we release when we do. 

Luckily, like the gulley/alley/wasteland creatures that we are, we're malleable and thrive in chaos, so read on for the plan going forward, what new systems are entering our mix, and what new developing TTRPG is joining The Underground. 

New Systems, New Directions

We've been playing in the Cypher System space for several years now. We built our first large-scale world, Harrow: The Blighted Plane, using Cypher, and also created a ton of one-shot volumes for the system. Clearly, we're fans. But we don't want to repeat the same mistakes of our past (putting all of our eggs in the OGL basket) or do a disservice to our worlds and titles that would make more sense in an alternative system.

So going forward, you'll see releases and materials from UO in the Cypher System, Daggerheart, and Black Flag (as well as smaller, more indie offerings from Unplaytested Presents). We'll be leading each of the systems with our current primary worlds: 

• Cypher System - Harrow: the Blighted Plane
• Daggerheart - Foxfire
• Black Flag - Realms of Quaseloth

Which segues nicely into the next part of our announcement. 

A Relaunch, A Reboot, and A New World

We started creating Foxfire for the Cypher System, but we're pivoting it to Daggerheart. There are a few reasons for this—with the launch of Cypher System 2nd edition playing a small part—but primarily it's because after playing around with Daggerheart, it just feels right. It will be all of the same magnificent lore that we've created for it, but with even more original system materials than we originally had planned. Members will be seeing updates on this soon, so follow along for more details. 

Those of you who have been following us since our 5e days will recognize the name Quaseloth, which is the core fantasy world where our materials were set. We've experimented with converting them to Cypher System as member bonuses and freebies in the past, but we'll be focusing on Black Flag for the world going forward. Additionally, we're taking this opportunity to do a soft reboot of Quaseloth, so it better reflects its evolution over the years. No elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. Instead, we'll be showcasing the original lineages and cultures that we've developed for the setting. We'll also be slightly retooling some of our original, previously released Quaseloth titles and posts to better reflect the current status of the world. So look for older, non-canon materials to disappear as those new offerings drop. 

Members will get a great first look at a part of Quaseloth in the new developing TTRPG that we'll be rolling out to members, Realms of Quaseloth: Shadowgleam. Shadowgleam is a chem-stained, urban fantasy setting that we're incredibly excited to introduce to folks. Members will start getting looks at the gritty city next month. 

Speaking of members...

New Membership Offerings

We've retooled our memberships to a single all-access tier. Through that tier you'll get: 

• 15% Store Discount
• Free Cypher Shorts Genre Sampler Volume
• Early Access To Playable Materials From Upcoming Releases
• Early Access To Our Developing TTRPGs
• Exclusive Playtest And Feedback Forms For Developing TTRPGs
• Exclusive Hidden "Member" Tiers On Our Kickstarter Projects

Each month, starting with this one, members will get exclusive access to new Cypher, Daggerheart, and Black Flag materials. Some of those will be from upcoming titles in the pipeline (like some new Harrow goodies I'm incredibly excited about), some of them will be from our developing TTRPGs, Foxfire and Shadowgleam, and some of them will be à la carte offerings that we just think you'll have a great time with. 

Additionally, leaning into some new features that Kickstarter has rolled out, each time we launch a Kickstarter to bring a new title to life, we'll have hidden tiers for our members and past Kickstarter supporters. These tiers will have discounts and/or exclusive materials that won't be available outside of the tier.  

For micro publishers like ourselves, the consistent support from memberships is incredibly important. It allows us to hire the artists and other human freelancers who help us bring our titles to life, so we want to make sure we're able to reward that support accordingly in a way that works for our team and our members.

We'll have more updates and drops throughout the month, so stay tuned, and in the meantime, happy gaming. 

~ Jess Pendley

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