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Coyote & Crow the Role Playing Game

Created by Coyote & Crow RPG

A science fiction and fantasy tabletop RPG set in a near-future where the Americas were never colonized, created by a team of Natives.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Our new game, Wolves, has just launched on Kickstarter!
9 months ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 09:00:18 AM

Hello folks!

It's been a bit, but I wanted to let you know that our next game, Wolves, has just gone live on Kickstarter. I'm really proud of this game. It's a semi-cooperative game about community survival and features gorgeous art from Native artists, gifting economies, no plastics (and is FSC certified) and options to donate copies to schools and libraries.

If you enjoyed the Coyote & Crow Roleplaying Game and what our company is trying to do, I'd ask that you check out our new Kickstarter and see if it's something that speaks to you.  You'll find it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coyoteandcrow/wolves-0

I also understand that times are tough for many folks. If backing isn't an option for you, but you'd like to help, you can do so by letting other folks know about the project - through social media or any other forums you feel comfortable with.

Wolves, a semi-cooperative game for 3-6 players

Thank you again for all you did to help bring Coyote & Crow to life. This new game wouldn't have been possible without your enthusiastic support and love. 

Wado/Thank you,

Connor Alexander

Wolves is Coming To Kickstarter!
10 months ago – Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 08:30:01 AM

Wolves Is Coming!

I am so excited to announce the launch of our new stand alone board game, Wolves. It's a family friendly, semi-cooperative game for 3-6 players. 

We've decided to return to Kickstarter for this campaign after long discussions with both Kickstarter and Backerkit. As Coyote & Crow was done through my personal account, we've moved over to an official Coyote & Crow Games account.  You can sign up to be notified of our launch here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coyoteandcrow/wolves-0

And you can watch the new teaser trailer here:

We hope you'll continue to follow us on our journey to bring fresh perspectives and diverse ideas to the gaming space. Wolves will launch on July 10th!

Launch Day and Goodbyes!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 01:39:59 PM

We Are Live!

Head over to our new campaign page to back our brand new project, including:

  • Ten stories for the Coyote & Crow RPG
  • The C&C Story Guide Screen
  • Naasii, our stand alone dice game!
  • and a chance to add on our core RPG and dice set if you missed them!

As we've talked about previously, we're moving over to BackerKit for this campaign. You can find it here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/connor-alexander/coyote-and-crow-stories-of-the-free-lands

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!)
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 06:44:50 AM

Our next campaign is GO!


Placeholder Cover Art For Stories of the Free Lands Volume 1 & 2
Our upcoming campaign!

Here's what I'll be covering today:

  • Our upcoming BackerKit campaign
  • News on book donations
  • Updates on Roll20, our first novel and more!

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 & Crow news 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
over 1 year 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