itch.io

Once more unto the distant shores and the far horizon. Another dozen copies, for 'tis dangerous to ply the skies alone.

Absolutely, I do. Here's 20 for the pile, Skydog. Now go and bring me that horizon.

Found your message there, hoss. Sending along a key with my heartfelt thanks for giving our weird little game a try. Let's get you rolling, what say?

Take from the Bank and give to the Belters now, y'hear? Twenty copies on the pile for your good works out there. Cold in space, not our hearts.

I ain't the kind to begrudge a buddy breathe to a buddy gasping. Plus it's old Chariot's birthday today. 

Seems the time for presents, don't it?

Hey there! We're so glad that you got Dungeon Jam to the table and enjoyed your time with it! It was a labor of love, so hearing that someone is out there playing it is always nice to hear. We're especially pleased that you enjoyed the minigame aspect! 

Dungeon Jam was absolutely built assuming a party of Jamdivers descending together to forage and then scampering back to the workshop to craft and sell. The bag-space economy and the hand-size economy for the Goldfarmer's Market was written to reflect that assumption. A single Jamdiver, alone and unafraid, is going to need some additional buff-itude to go and hunt bruits in the world below! Which, y'know, idea for future solo-mode modules. Dungeon Jam: Moonlighter edition.

Dungeon Jam is absolutely crying out for some cheat-sheets. It's kind of the going assumption with any game that includes a bunch of charts and randomizers, and I don't doubt that we'll put some together going forward. It was just important for us to get this up, active, and out into people's hands to assure ourselves that someone wanted it. Jam games often feel like a headlong sprint. After the fact, we get to dissect the process, and responses like these let us know how we can sand down the rougher corners. Thanks for that!

Can you give me a page reference for the attributes that don't exist? We'll want to fix that one ASAP.

Thanks again for the write up. Made our day!

Sure thing, hoss. I'll toss a couple of buddy-breathes on the pile!

Well bargained, and done.

Great callout! A Biome guide is a great idea!

Gracklewring has been suitably chastened. They forget your name already.

We however, have not. Thank you Dylan. We will keep it safe, and pledge to use it for no other purpose than to name you a Patron of the Pomarian Deep. 

For those hardy Jamdivers who took the plunge and decided to become patrons of the Pomarian Deep, who believe in Dungeon Jam and all that it might one day be, we need your name so that it can properly go down in history.

If you'd like to add your name below, you are free to do so! If you'd like a modicum of privacy (we have been known to attract wayward fey!) feel free to send us your preferred name at our business address acoupleofdrakes (at) Outlook dot com. 

Well that ain't good news, Belter. Sorry y'all ran afoul of some mean spirited Vultures out there. Good news is they didn't get nothing off of you. If your carry all and your cargo bay is empty, they won't take anything. Can't squeeze blood out of a turnip after all. It does indeed behoove you to make gas checks on thenway back to your airlock. You're still transiting modules. Good news is they won't let you die on the way to your airlock either, so you ain't gotta worry about the Gas checks killing you. Might still end your salvaging day, though. But further good news, they ain't going to waste a tracer on your boat if you're not an earner. And if you had salvage, they'd be too busy bustling it off to worry about sticking you with a tracer. Getting the frog march treatment doesn't trigger their Airlock move, thankfully. Though I know some folk think it's more thematic to be that kind of mean spirited, it ain't the intention to pile on both kinds of bad one right after the other.

After they make your life a little harder, yeah, they do in fact move on. Their damage is done and it's up to you to find some fresh and interesting trouble. Hopefully the odds break a little kinder in the future, Belter.

Thanks for the question! Yall let me know if that ain't coming through loud and clear, and we'll clean it up. 

Chariot, out.

Howdy Belter,

Your moves, your turn, always resolves before you make the Threat Move. Check Gas, Character Action, Threat. So when you decide to move into the airlock, check your gas, then move your pawn and resolve your action as normal. When that action's done, then you draw for your boogin. Means you can decide to be done and hit the breakaway switch before that haint has a moment to move in, if you want. But if it does reach your airlock, it makes itself cozy. No more AI movement for the Ghostie-goo, at least until the next time a threat is spawned. Then it'll come after you as normal. Leaving the airlock to do so.

As far as the infinite recursion loop of see the ghost in the airlock and bug out, yeah that is indeed a dilly of a pickle. If it's in there and you move into its space, you gotta steel yourself and try and deal with it as best you can. I'd suggest generous application of Grit and Gear. Also, if your ship's hainted and constantly dropping Ghosts on you, I'd recommend selling it and getting yourself a new bird. New cargo compartment without all the ghosts and such. Powerful expensive fix, but sometimes it's worth it.

If ever there's a question of simultaneous moves, rule of thumb is Player agency resolves before fallout. Then fallout, then threats. If it's two players that are tied in knots, initiator has right of way.

Clear as mud? Hope something in there's helpful to you, and if it isn't, ping me back and I'll see if I can't fix that.

Chariot, out.

Howdy, Belter. 

If you get an Amazon copy, we'd be more than happy to supply a digital copy to match it, and include all the various digital goodies and appurtenances at no additional charge. Capitalism is a real sumbitch, and we try and hide the sting however best we can. Send us a picture of your book or a copy of your receipt to our business email ACoupleofDrakes at Outlook dot com and we'll get you sorted soonest.

Chariot, out.

Howdy, Belter. 

If you get an Amazon copy, we'd be more than happy to supply a digital copy to match it, and include all the various digital goodies and appurtenances at no additional charge. Capitalism is a real sumbitch, and we try and hide the sting however best we can. Send us a picture of your book or a copy of your receipt to our business email ACoupleofDrakes at Outlook dot com and we'll get you sorted soonest.

Chariot, out.

Happy to be of service, Belter. Figured we'd find our way around the trickier corners together, and it's no trouble at all. Hope you find your fortune out here on the Gasping Frontier!

Chariot, out.

On the ship diagram, each of those numbers is a different threat start area. If you roll a 1, you appear in the 1 on the ship diagram. If you roll a 5, you appear on the 5 in the ship diagram. Means there's 6 places you might end up.

Howdy Belter,

Now at first blush, an uncontrollable bit of movement based on chance and without much in the way of predictability may not seem like much of a super power. However, there are times when you got a MIGHTY need to not be where you are right now: locked behind a bunch of stuck barriers, left with only the worst of bad news blocking your way out, staring into the hungry maw of an alien or over the barrels of a couple of pirates' boarding irons? Well then you want to duck into a vent and scurry like hell. Because wherever you end up, it's better than where you are.

It's a panic button. A hail-mary. A last-ditch effort that has saved more than one Void Rat from ruin on more than one occasion. When in doubt, get the hell out. Bamf.

Hope that helps. 

Chariot, out.

Happy to have you aboard, Belter. Free copies are free; unchanged and no-strings-attached. They come from the generosity of your fellow Belters, the same folks who decided to give a weird game about Checking Gas and scrap and salvage and compound interest a chance. Be mighty mean-spirited of me to disrespect their generosity by making the Buddy Breathe copies a mark of shame. I ain't callin' ya yellow, Belter. 

Hope you're enjoying your time out here on the Gasping Frontier. And I hope your well wishes for me and mine bounce back your way and three times the greater besides.

English may not be your first language, but it's more than enough to make me smile, and that is mighty indeed, friend. 

Chariot, out.

Howdy Belter. Apologies for the comm-lag, but we're adding the Roll20 playmat to the Drivethru page. Forgive our fumblin' and enjoy yourself the Roll20 Hack, now available for download across the various platforms.

Chariot, out.

Ah hell, comm lag's a real sum'bitch ain't it? Forgive the delay, Belter. Let's get you sorted.

You're absolutely in the right to use the Tier 3 bird for Tier 4, as that was our intent when we published the game--though it's no small amount of consternation to hear that the rule didn't get proper immortalized in ink and such. I think there's absolutely room to decide that it's different in your corner of the Belt, if you want a more even spread, and I won't blame you none if you do.

But the Consolidation left a lot of Military Hulks adrift, and so the bigger the bird, the more likely it is that it's Military.

Chariot, out.

It's still in the area of our to-do list affectionately referred to as the "meatlocker." Not currently a priority, but still something we intend to return to for further development and refinement.

This sounds absolutely excellent. I love a good ship story and am perpetually looking for new things to read. That's certainly worth a community copy! (Though in the spirit of full disclosure, I was going to make sure there was one for you anyway.)

15 Copies up on the board. Grab one and find the horizon for me, skydog!

Well, how could we possibly refuse? 10 copies going up, just because you asked so sweetly.

Sorry to hear you been havin' the Devil's own luck gettin your hands on a buddy-breathe copy. Just tossed 15 on the stack. If those are gone before you manage to snag one, let me know and we'll keep trying.

There are a few up presently! Thanks for the kind thought, sky dog.

We have put our heads together and come to the startling realization that while we have seen prints go sideways a /lot/ we have never seen anything quite like that. That is very strange.

Is it all of the various headings or did it hang up on just a few? 

Not at all, and it took over 50 hours to paint. Seriously, this whole AI accusation thing is getting out of control. 

Sprout Quest is an ashcan release. It's a digital only game for the foreseeable, too small and niche to justify crowdfunding or printing for the moment. But Dead Belt started out that way, too.

Time will tell, but for now, it's only a .pdf.

Great question! The Player Kit.zip includes all of the Character Sheets and GM sheets necessary to play the game and does not require purchase. 

Thanks so much for bringing the issue to our attention!

Thanks for reaching out, hoss. Couple of buddy-breathe copies just went up on the pile. Grab one and get salvaging. 

More copies are up, Skydog! Now go and find that horizon!

Errata:

Page 2

Under the Mercurial Court, "The GM then rolls 4D6 to determine which Sidhe ascends" should read "The GM then rolls D46 to determine which Sidhe ascends."

We'll get this patched up with the next update! Thanks for the all the eyes.

I look forward to hearing about it! Bring me some fresh scandal, Retainer. It sustains me.

Now. 

But for clarity's sake, typically when we reach a major milestone in followers on one of our social media accounts or we get linked an article or we celebrate a birthday or...someone asks nicely, we'll toss a couple copies up on the pile. 

Greetings Retainer Hopeful,
We're always happy to send over the keycode for a PDF copy with any proof of purchase, to include sending a fantastic selfie posing with your physical copy, in case you pick it up at the local FLGS and lose the receipt along the way, or get it secondhand. Just shoot us an email at acoupleofdrakes@outlook.com and we'll get you sorted. We don't do physical copy distribution for ourselves... yet. But Amazon always has Court of Blades in both soft and hardcover options.

Thanks for inquiring!

Howdy, Belter.

Now I'm not one to tell a scraphound what sort of thing in the cargo-hold steadies their nerve and makes them feel lucky or competent again, but we've all got our particular tricks for when the day's labor becomes hinky. The answer is an unsatisfying one, I understand, but to go ahead and pull the curtain back a little and divorce from the fiction, I'm gonna tell you Game Balance and Testing.

Glow's an edge-stat that don't get checked often like Grit, and having a surfeit of it makes for a less interesting and engaging experience. Also them OmniFlash batteries is miserable power-drawers and when we plugged one into a Kildeer, it damn near ate the fusion drive just keepin' itself topped up. Honest and true, Grit's refilled by suit-patches, little lucky-dos, a quick smoke, or maybe a little nip to settle yourself before you button up your hat and step once more into the old groaning ghost of a Bird. 

So yeah, Belter. I agree, when dealing with the fiction it makes plenty of sense to have some Flash batteries kicking in stowage more than a quick and heady "okay, I can do this" waiting back at the airlock. But also some things gotta get square on the meta-level. Indulge me, if'n it ain't too onerous. Or hell, scritch it out and change it. I ain't your pa.

Best of luck out there. Chariout, out.

Absolutely! We've got some really nice sheets on Roll20 as well as a fillable GoogleSheets version. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oTRb7CZoIYCyBOtszYVxTVepClfSHTue_7thzmRf...

Hope you find all the best kinds of trouble in Ilrien!

Each unit of Gas drops your Gas number by 1, Belter. So if you’re on 4, one Gas from the spares bank puts you down to 3. Same thing with any you scrounge on a Bird, each unit’s one box on your sheet. Be a lot cooler if they were tanks, I’ll grant. But it’s rough out here like that. 

Hope your luck hangs tough out there, Belter. Y’all let us know if you have anymore questions. We’ll keep the channel open.

Chariot, out.

Gotcha, hoss. Couple of copies going up now.