We're also doing three different contests during the campaign with some fantastic prizes, including $500, copies of the core rulebook and dice, and sets of art prints. You can read more about those contests HERE.
Goodbye To Kickstarter
And with that move, it also means that we're going to be saying goodbye to Kickstarter. Our updates and conversations on BackerKit and our other social media channels will be ongoing and we'll follow up on everything we're working on in those places.
We hope that you follow us there and stay in touch. But for the sake of closure, we're going to do a wrap up of our original campaign here.
Early Backer Recipes: If you backed in the first 48 hours, you have a PDF of Coyote & Crow recipes in your BackerKit pledge.
The PDF of the Core Rulebook: If you pledged for this, it was sent out in December of last year and is available for download through your BackerKit pledge.
Core Rulebook: All books went out in March/April of this year.
Donations: We're still working on getting these out, but progress is being made! You can read all about it HERE.
Roll20 Implementation: This is almost ready for full launch. Codes for backers were sent out through BackerKit back in June. The full iteration of the game will be announced very shortly through BackerKit and our other social media channels.
Art Prints: These were all delivered back in March to Seeker Level Backers.
Retailer Level: Those books shipped and the book is available for retail sale!
Stretch Goals:
Our spot UV cover and Cahokia map were included in the core book.
The Kag Chahi name generator is live on our website.
Native Creators were all paid bonuses upon completion of the campaign.
Our mobile app is available for free through both Android and iOS.
Our bonus story from Rebecca Roanhorse is still a possibility but we currently don't have a timeline for that as we are still working with Rebecca on finding an appropriate window in her schedule.
If you're interested in keeping up with us, please find us in the following places:
***Please note that due to how busy we're going to be over on BackerKit in the coming weeks, messages and replies left here on Kickstarter may go unanswered for some time. If you need to get in touch with us, please reach out through our contact form on our website and we can get back to you much faster. Otherwise, please find us on our other social media channels! THANK YOU ALL!
Our next crowdfunding campaign (and other fun news!)
7 months ago
– Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 06:44:50 AM
As you may or may not know, we decided awhile ago to move away from Kickstarter for our next campaign. We were offered the opportunity to join BackerKit as part of their new beta crowdfunding platform and we've jump on board.
Our campaign will launch on September 13th - just a few weeks from now! And you can sign up right now to be notified when it launches - HERE
If you sign up for notification and you back our project, you'll receive a free Chahi font! It will add great flavor to your next Coyote & Crow campaign. It's important to remind folks - we are leaving Kickstarter for BackerKit for this next campaign so you will be out of the loop on Coyote & Crownews after this new campaign launches if you don't sign up for notifications!
So what's this campaign all about? One of the first things you all commented on and asked about was "What sorts of stories can we tell in Coyote & Crow?" We thought we'd answer that question by bringing together 10 Indigenous writers and pairing them up with 10 artists to bring you a digital bundle of Coyote & Crow adventures for your RPG called Stories of the Free Lands, Volume 1 & 2.
Originally, that was going to be it. A nice, quick, clean, digital bundle of stories and off we go. But the world had other plans. Between development and staffing delays for the stories to shipping and product delays with other things we were working on, we ended up with a serendipitous situation. And so, we decided to add on some physical product options that were arriving at the same time as well as throw in some access to already released stuff as well.
You're going to get access to:
Stories of the Free Lands, Volume 1 & 2
Naasii, our new dice game
Our new Story Guide Screen
A chance to pick up our core RPG and our custom dice, if you missed them the first time around!
All of these physical items are complete and either in our warehouse or on their way, so we'll be fulfilling shortly after the campaign. And we should note that these physical products are not exclusive to Kickstarter and will be going into retail shortly after we start fulfillment. But getting these items and pledging for Stories of the Free Lands is the best way to directly support Coyote & Crow Games.
Donations
Last week, I made a big update on book donations and where we're at. You can read it HERE. It's been a rollercoaster for sure. And while I was pretty down when I wrote that post, since then, we've made some great strides! First off, we've had an amazing number of shipping credit donations from folks all over. It's been truly stunning. Second, we've had dozens of schools, libraries and community centers reach out and ask for a book. We've already started shipping them!
In addition, I'm having active ongoing conversations with the ALA and some other groups. I'll have more on that as we finalize our direction with them.
All of this means that within the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be able to update the website with a listing of all the folks who donated, as well as a list of places where donations have ended up so far. We'll keep adding to that list as donation information is finalized.
Other Things
No official launch date yet for Roll20, but it's coming soon. *fingers crossed* I believe they are in the final stages of testing the functionality. Our first novel, Hemlock & Sage, is going into its final editing process. I hope to have a release date soon!
A Final Personal Note
Every once in a while, my tribe, the Cherokee Nation, ventures out for what they call 'at-large' events. They bring storytellers, musicians, speakers and politicians out. It's been a long time since they did one in Seattle primarily because of Covid. But anyway, I got to go yesterday and not only see a bunch of great fellow Cherokees, but also my cousins and auntie who live up here. Even though we're only about an hour apart, I don't get to see them nearly enough.
But the big highlight was getting to speak to my chief, Chuck Hoskin Jr., about Coyote & Crow and to give him a copy. He was gracious and excited for me. Definitely an honor.
Chief Hoskin Jr., his daughter and I.
Coyote & Crow Book Donations
7 months ago
– Fri, Aug 12, 2022 at 04:14:53 AM
Hello folks,
I wanted to talk today about where we're at with our book donations and give you all the gory details. This is going to get a bit in depth and hairy, so buckle up if you want the full details.
When I crafted our first Kickstarter and set our goal out at $18000, I was estimating we'd have mmmmayyyybe 50 donations. I thought to myself, "Well, if I get that many, it's a good thing. I'll have 50 shipped to my house and I'll start emailing libraries and librarians I know and we'll get it done. One by one. Might take weeks."
That's obviously not how things have played out. We have 5000 books to donate which is INCREDIBLE. But in the meantime, a few things have happened. Shipping costs have gone up, paper costs have gone up, and the weight of the book increased dramatically as page count went up. We subsidized the shipping costs in our original Kickstarter as well, which hurt things even further.
But let me be really clear. We are not reneging on our promise to donate these books. They are in our warehouse and are set aside for this purpose.
There's more to this story though. In March, I brought on an Event and Outreach Coordinator whose job it was to help donate these books in an efficient and fiscally responsible way. You see, you can't just mail a book to a library, even if you have the money you need. They have protocols about which books they bring in and an unsolicited package at the door might end up in the trash. In addition, our goal was to get out our book to reservation and tribal libraries first. But with more than 5000 books, we have more than enough to get every rez library a book a dozen times over. So we've added schools, community centers and more to the list of places we want to get donations to. That adds even further to the logistical and administrative challenges.
I'm sorry to say that the person I hired for the Event and Outreach position left us in a bit of a spot as well. While the initial work from them seemed promising, I had to let them go last month and when I did, they took a scorched earth attitude and did not forward me any details or contacts regarding projects they were working on. Which means that at the moment, I'm back to where I was when I hired them in March.
To say I'm saddened and disappointed by all of this is an understatement. But I'm also dogged and determined. So here's where we're at:
I'm personally taking over the donation project again
I'm working on a temp/secondary system for donations (see below)
I'm asking some of you for very specific help (see below)
Individual Donation System
In lieu of waiting on the mass donation system, I'm implementing a system where a school, library, community center, etc. can request a donation directly. All they need to do is fill out this form: https://forms.gle/aBCJiYHhnkBLCvKq5 - ONLY ORGANIZATIONS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES SHOULD FILL THIS OUT. If you want your library or community center to get a book, send them this link. Do not fill it out yourself.
These books can only go to the US and Canada.
This secondary system will be free of charge for the book but will cost shipping. There are two ways this shipping can be paid for. First, the library/org can pay for it themselves. Or, individuals can donate the shipping costs via two items in our webstore, depending on whether the book is going to the US or Canada.
If you want to donate a shipping credit, simply go HERE for US donations or HERE for Canadian donations. Your donation will then be credited back to the next qualifying recipient for donations. You will not be able to choose or signify which library or org gets your donation credit.
Again, this is stop gap system meant to help get donations moving out the door and is in addition to our work to do larger scale mass donations.
How You Can Help
Our goal is this: to ship, free of charge, a large amount of books to an organization that can work with us to distribute the books through their established networks and channels to libraries and other qualifying organizations and can provide us with a list of where the books have been distributed to.
I need to be VERY clear on how you might be able to help. Please do not email or contact me with any version of "I might know this one person". That is very kind but ultimately less than helpful. Instead, here's how you can help:
If you are directly involved with the ALA, AILA, ATALM or any other non-profit or governmental organization that can directly help me distribute these books en masse, please contact me.
If you were working with our Event and Outreach Coordinator, Wulf James-Roby, and were discussing Coyote & Crow donations with them, please contact me.
If you think you know someone who works at an organization who might be able to help directly, please direct that person to this post.
Thanks all. We'll get this done.
Connor
Coyote & Crow Update #32
9 months ago
– Sun, Jul 03, 2022 at 10:45:00 AM
Great Things On The Way!
It’s been a while! We’ve got lots to talk about, so let’s get to it.
Our First Kickstarter
Fulfillment is complete with three notable asterisks. One, we’re still waiting for Roll20 to unleash the full version of their port of Coyote & Crow. We haven’t been given an exact date, but estimates are sometime in either August or September. The exclusive Story, Shadows over the Moon will be included in that release.
Two, we’re still hoping to schedule a time with Rebecca Roanhorse to write a C&C Story. We’re in agreement on the general concept, we just haven’t been able to find a spot in Rebecca’s schedule yet.
Three, the donations. The good news is, we’re working with the ALA and the AILA on a mechanism that will hopefully help us distribute a huge chunk of the donated books before the end of the year. Once that’s happened, our plan at C&C is to confirm a list of all of the places that received a donated book along with a list of all of the people who donated books who wanted to be named. Both lists will then live on our website and be updated as they are added to.
However, there’s still likely going to be a lot of books available for donation. Not to worry, we have a plan for them too! We’ll have more on that portion of the plan once we’ve wrapped the first wave of donations.
Where We’re at Now
As of today we’ve got a number of ways for you to get Coyote & Crow products.
Coming very soon - community content creation tools!
Canada
We’re having some issues with getting our games available on Amazon.CA but we’re working on it. Hopefully it will be up soon. In the meantime, check with your local game stores!
International
Check with your local game stores. Our sales team, PSI, is partnered with many international distributors. Your local game story can likely order from one of them.
Retailers
If you’re in the US: You can get inventory from Alliance, ACD or PHD.
If you’re in Canada: You can get inventory from Lion Rampant and Universal Distribution.
If you’re in the rest of the world: You can get inventory from Blackfire and many others.
If you’re having trouble getting our game, please contact PSI to order inventory directly at: retailer@pubservinc.com
OR
Order directly from us!That’s right. If you’re a brick and mortar retailer in the US, you can now order directly from Coyote & Crow games at wholesale prices. Please drop us a line at CoyoteAndCrowRPG@gmail.com and we’ll get inventory directly to your store.
Why We Need Your Help
Despite all of these ways for you to get your copy of Coyote & Crow, we’re still facing a real challenge that we’d like to get your help with. If you’d like to learn more in detail, check out this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/P5u56Yg1IsU
In short, we need to help local game stores become more aware of us. Despite being a huge success on Kickstarter, getting a Nebula nomination, and getting a ton of press, most local game stores have never heard of Coyote & Crow. Please tell them about us! You don’t have to order the game through them. Just let them know you’re a fan and that you want to see our games on their shelves. It really does help.
But we want to sweeten the pot! If a retailer places an order with us directly (as mentioned above) and they provide us with your email address (you being a customer of theirs), we’ll automatically include you in the early backer rewards in our upcoming crowdfunding campaign – even if you don’t back it! What’s the early reward? Well, we’re keeping that a secret for now but if you’re a C&C supporter, you’re going to want this!
Interact
We also have a ton of great ways to interact and engage with Coyote & Crow fans and with us. Here’s where you can find us:
We’ve got so much on the way. While the current economic and logistic environment in the world is going to prevent us from announcing hard dates on much of this, we’ll give you the best info we have.
Hemlock & Sage: The first novel set in Coyote & Crow, from author Tali Inlow, is currently going through its final edits and will be ready to release in the next couple of months! It will be available for PDF, E-Reader, Kindle and Print on Demand.
Coyote & Crow Story Guide Screen: This is currently being produced and should be available for sale before the end of the year!
Naasii: A Coyote & Crow Dice Game: Our first step into standalone games is being printed currently and should be available for sale before the end of the year!
Limited Edition Enamel Pins! (See the pic below) These will be available through very limited channels and are part of a limited print run. You’ll be able to get them at Gen Con this year.
Organized Play Kits: We’ve got organized play kits on the way. These will include a Story suitable for play in a single short setting, pre-generated characters, and more. Libraries and community centers will only need to pay shipping. Retailers will be able to get these at low cost.
Future Games: We have two tabletop game experiences currently in development. Those will likely come to fruition next year.
Our next crowdfunding campaign: There’s so much happening with this that I can’t really officially announce yet, but it will be happening soon and it will be glorious! We’ve got so much great stuff planned for it. It will hopefully launch before the end of September. Best of all, we expect to be able to deliver rewards for it BEFORE the end the year! Here's what I can say: It's going to include (*among a ton of other things) 10 Stories for Coyote & Crow written by 10 different Indigenous authors paired with 10 different artists!
Enamel Pins - All of the Paths and Archetypes
So, yeah! We have a lot going on. We're really excited to see you at Gen Con and other events. A reminder that Coyote & Crow will not attend any game conventions or events in a company capacity in any state where abortion is illegal. We can't pull out of Gen Con in time if Indiana institutes a ban, but we have other plans for that show.
I hope you're enjoying Coyote & Crow and I hope that you're taking care of each other as best you all can.
As they say in Cahokia, Mathanka Biizhii (Until She Returns)
Connor
Roll20 Codes for Coyote & Crow!
11 months ago
– Mon, May 02, 2022 at 03:32:41 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
