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:
Coyote & Crow Update #32
almost 2 years 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: [email protected]
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 [email protected] 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!
almost 2 years 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.
Coyote & Crow - Update #30
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 06, 2022 at 12:02:00 AM
Greetings!
So many good things to talk about. Here’s what I’ll be covering today:
Where to get Coyote & Crow
Shipping/Fulfillment
Roll20 and other rewards and goals
Upcoming Events and Organized Play
Where To Get Coyote & Crow!
If you’re looking for more versions of the game, extra copies, or wanting to share with folks, here are all of the places you can look to get Coyote & Crow now and in the near future:
We’re working on an e-reader version of the PDF that will be available on our webstore. TBA.
Physcial Copies!
We release our hardcovers to the world on April 20th! You can get your copies in a number of places:
In the US:
Through your local game store or hobby shop. If they don’t have it, you can ask them to order it through Alliance, ACD, or PHD. If your store does not work with any of those distributors, please have them contact us at coyoteandcrowrpg at gmail.
Eventually, we’ll have this up on our webstore as well. TBD
Outside the US:
Eventually the book will be on Amazon.CA. We’re working on it, but it may take some time.
Through your local game store or hobby shop. If they aren’t carrying it, you can ask them to order from Universal distribution or Asmodee or any other number of international distributors that work with Publisher Services Inc.
Virtual Tabletop:
We’re currently working with both Foundry and Roll20 to bring you excellent VTT ports of the game. We’ll announce dates for these soon. (See below for more news on Roll20)
A Final Note on Purchasing
It might not seem like a big deal, but the hobby game industry, more than many others, is a fragile ecosystem and one that isn’t always easy to navigate. I won’t get on a soapbox here, but if you’re a supporter of what we’re trying to do here, please always follow these simple guidelines when purchasing anything Coyote & Crow related. You’ll be doing us a huge favor and helping to increase the odds that we’ll still be around in the years to come.
Buy directly from us, if you can. That’s always safe.
Buy from your friendly local game store. They’re probably awesome and help keep your gaming community strong.
If you need to buy online, buy from our direct Amazon link, or people we’ve directly partnered with like DriveThruRPG, Foundry and Roll20. Please don’t buy from online third party sellers. This helps ensure the quality and integrity of our services in the long run.
Okay, that’s it. Thanks!
Shipping/Fulfillment of Physical Copies
Yay! We’re almost done!
I have no way of knowing exact numbers, but I suspect the vast majority of you have already received your books. Thanks for all of the glorious posts on social media. Let me answer some of the hottest questions likely burning your brain if you haven’t gotten your book yet:
Multiple book orders were often sent out indivdually. This may mean you may receive multiple packages at different times.
While the first wave of fulfillment left the warehouse in GA before the end of March, I’m still seeing many people online posting that they’re just receiving their book. This means that even in the US, people are experiencing delays in receiving their books. Please be patient!
About a dozen folks have gotten damaged books or books with misprints. Not bad considering the massive number we shipped out. If you’ve communicated with me about those before 4/4, your book will ship out in the next wave (see below).
Canadian folks – you’re in the same boat as above, but please add on even more time.
Tracking and notification: The system at PSI automatically generates a tracking number for anyone who left a valid email address. With that said, MANY of you never seemed to receive them. It doesn’t mean your book didn’t ship. Please “Where’s My Book?” below if you’re concerned.
Retailers: I failed to mention that you may sell your books as soon as you receive them. Thank you for supporting us. Get those early sales in!
The Next Wave: Today I submitted the information for the Next Wave of backers to get their books shipped. This includes people who had damaged or misprinted books, as well as backers who finished their surveys AFTER 2/18.
The Final Wave: On April 30th, we’ll lock addresses for the final time. At that point, if you have not filled out your survey, more than a year after we sent them out, we’ll assume you’ve abandoned your rewards.
Where’s My Book?
So, your book hasn’t show up yet. What next? First, it’s very likely that it’s on its way if you locked down your address with us prior to 2/18 (the first wave). You may or may not receive tracking. It may arrive in more than one box if you ordered more than one. If you’re in the US, it will be arriving via USPS. If you’re in Canada, it may be arriving via UPS, but more likely Canada Post via USPS.
What this boils down to is:
Be Patient
Look for tracking notices in your email, spam, on your door, your voicemail, etc.
If you’re part of the first wave and you have not received your book by 4/12, please do the following:
Follow up with USPS or UPS if you have any tracking. If you have tracking, there’s nothing we can do to help you beyond that.
Follow up with us if you don’t have tracking. Please email us at coyoteandcrowrpg at gmail and include your name and shipping address as it appears in BackerKit. We’ll work to get you your tracking information and you can follow up from there.
What if you’re part of the Second Wave?
Those will be shipping out soon. I do not have information on when they will leave the warehouse nor when you will receive them. They will all be sent via USPS.
My book was damaged in shipping or has misprints!
Please email us at coyoteandcrowrpg at gmail and include your name and shipping information as it appears in BackerKit. Include pictures of the damages or misprints and we’ll get you another copy.
Roll20 And Other Rewards and Goals:
Your PDF copy of the game: Still seeing a lot of questions about this so I’m going to answer again here. We didn’t email you your PDF. It’s far too large to go into an email. Instead, you need to download it through BackerKit. If you ordered it, it will be on your pledge in the rewards section. Just go there, click the link and you’re off! These were added to your pledge in December.
Roll20: We’re in close contact with the awesome folks at Roll20. The port of C&C is coming along and we’ll release codes to all backers as soon as it’s ready. I know some of you are eager to get at it, but we’ll just have to wait until Roll20 is ready to go. Hang in there!
Donations
Again, these have not gone out yet. We’ve brought on an amazing Event and Outreach Coordinator, Wulf James-Roby, who will be working with numerous library and community organizations to ensure the books get into as many hands as equitably as possible. This will be a long process and we want to do this right. We will give you ALL the information when we have it. Please hold your questions.
Story by Rebecca Roanhorse
We’re still in touch with Rebecca. Currently her schedule is packed and while she’s eager to do the story, we’re still not sure when that will happen. When we have more information, we’ll let you know.
Upcoming Events and Organized Play
So much happening here! We’re happy to announce that Coyote & Crow will have a booth at both:
Origins Game Fair 2022
Gen Con 2022
In addition, I (Connor) will be speaking and appearing at NorWesCon on a number of panels in just a couple of weeks. In the coming weeks, we’re going to be reaching out to our supporters to find folks who are interested in:
running intro games at their local FLGS
running one shots at conventions
working in our booths at shows
Last Notes
I wanted to close by saying that I am literally awash in some amazing kindnesses. From people taking the time to email about why this book means so much to them personally, to more specific things like:
Finding out that some folks bought multiple copies of the book specifically so that they could donate one themselves to a local organization or person
Hearing about groups of Indigenous folks being excited to get together and play
That’s all for now! Again, if you need a reply to something important, please email me at coyoteandcrowrpg at gmail for the best response.
Stay safe, be kind, mask up, get vaccinated,
Connor
Coyote & Crow - Update #29 - Fulfillment, Retail release and DriveThruRPG!
about 2 years ago
– Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 12:06:38 AM
Greetings Folks!
We have so much to talk about – almost all of it good news! -so let’s get right into it.
In this update:
Retail release news
Drive Thru RPG release
US Backer Fulfillment News
Canadian Backer Fulfillment News
Retailer Backer News
Donation News
Late Surveys, Misprints, Damages & Bounced Addresses
Final Positive Notes
Feel free to jump around to sections that apply to you. For many of you this update won’t apply outside.
Retail Release!
Coyote & Crow will be released to the public on April 20th. You’ll be able to get the book at your local hobby stores – WORLDWIDE! Now, there are some caveats to that, of course. While it’s available worldwide (outside of Russia), we can’t speak to what individual distributors or stores ordered and we can’t account for every plane and boat everywhere. So there may be delays in some overseas cases and there may be situations where a distributor didn’t order or your local shop didn’t. In those cases, you can pester your local shops to order some. But, in general, stores in the US and Canada should have access to the book by then and can be on store shelves by that date.
If you don’t have access to a local game shop, you can get it from Amazon!Just go to Amazon and do a search for Coyote & Crow RPG and it should show right up. You can pre-order now.
In addition, our custom dice have a release date as well! You’ll be able to buy a pretty set of Qworkshop dice starting on May 18th. So if you want to make sure your store is carrying them be sure to ask your FLGS to order some. We’ll also have these on Amazon for pre-order soon.
I should add something very important here. Please do not buy your books from ANY online stores or from third party Amazon sellers. Underneath the title of the game, you should see “Brand: Coyote & Crow LLC” and sold by “Board Game Retail”. Anyone else is not authorized to sell our book and is hurting our business.
We’re really excited to partner with them and the core book is just the start of what we’ll have on the site. More information soon!
Fulfillment
US backers
Please be patient! Books are going out as fast as our fulfillment partner, PSI, can get them out. I have zero control over this but I know they are working hard. Books are going out and currently we estimate that we’ve gotten through about 95% percent of all of the books – that leaves more than 500 still to go out! They are going out via USPS and if you provided a valid email, you should receive a tracking number. I know we didn’t hit the original date that I gave you in our last update, so rather than give you another date that I don’t know if we’ll hit or not, I’m just going to say that books continue to stream out.
Canadian Backers
If you haven’t received your book yet (more than half of you), you are falling into one of two camps:
It’s on it’s way via UPS. You may or may not receive a tracking number but you will get a notice that UPS has a package for you and that you owe customs plus brokerage fees. There’s nothing we can currently do about that. You have a few options. You can accept and pay the fees and receive your book. Thank you! You can refuse the book and it will be sent back to the US. We will not resend the book. Alternatively, I’ve been hearing from some folks that there are ways around the brokerage fees that UPS is charging (not the customs fees). Here is an example: https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-avoid-broker-fees-just-in-time-for-online-xmas-shopping/#pencil We are absolutely not responsible for anything that happens if you pursue this route. That’s entirely up to you. But I wanted you to be aware of what some other Canadian backers have suggested. (I would read the comments on that article before you go ahead with an attempt).
Your book hasn’t left PSI yet. If that’s the case, Canadian backers will be shipped their book via USPS from the states. You will still have to pay customs and potentially other charges. Please be aware that this change is costing us even more money. We grossly underestimated our expected shipping costs to Canada when we ran our Kickstarter last March and going with USPS is an increase for us over UPS. We aren’t asking for pity or more money here. We just want folks aware that we’re doing our best to resolve what was an unintentional trip up on our part. We aren’t a massive corporation. Please be kind.
Retailers
According to PSI, they began shipping retailer packages out on 3/18. Since they aren’t open weekends, I would suspect that most folks will start getting shipping notices this week and get their books by sometime next week. In general. Retailer shipments are expected to finish by the end of the week. That means that most of you should have your books for almost three weeks before the 4/20 street date. You’re welcome to sell your books you received through this Kickstarter as soon as you have them. For books you get through distro, please hold until 4/20.
If you’re a Canadian retailer, you fall under the second category listed above. Your cases will be shipped via USPS.
In addition, if you plan to sell your book online outside of your store’s website, please contact us first at [email protected]. We plan to aggressively target online sellers as we want the only two entities selling our game to consumers to be Coyote & Crow, and your store.
Donations
Please Read This If You Donated A Book!
Some of you are still under the impression that because we’re doing backer fulfillment that donated books are going out. I spoke about this in our last update, but we’re not there yet. Donated books have not been donated! That’s not an error or a change of plan or anything. Everything is going exactly as we’ve planned it. First, backers get their books. Once all of that is done, we’ll start organizing how donated books will be processed. We cannot simply mail books to addresses you all gave us. 99% of those would end up in the trash.
In addition:
No library, school, etc. will get a book with your name on it saying ‘donated by’. That’s not how this could or would work.
We will be working to partner with organizations like the ALA, the AILA, and the ATALM to ensure the books are distributed equitably and consistent with school and library policies.
We have your lists of requests and we will do our best to ensure that each request is honored.
We have more than 5000 donations. That’s more than 3 books for every tribe and nation in North America.
This will take time. Lots of time. I hope that it takes months. But it could be more than a year. We will be working on this -and more community outreach – as quickly as we can but make no mistake that this is a long process.
As books become available through donated spaces, we’ll host a web page that includes a list of all donors(who wished to be publicly acknowledged) as well as places where donated books are available. Donors will not have their name connected to a specific donated book.
If ten backers picked one library and 9 other libraries didn’t get requested, we’ll be sending one book to ten different libraries. Equity.
Please hold your questions. When we have plans or when there’s news, we will fill you all in, I promise.
Late Surveys, Misprints, Damages & Bounced Addresses
Once we’ve heard from PSI that the initial wave of backers have all been fulfilled, including retailers, we’ll go back and lock in addresses from those who filled out their surveys after 2/18. Included in that group will be folks who had a damaged book or misprinted version. If you receive a damaged or misprinted book, please contact us [email protected]Include photos or video of the problem, and your name and shipping information as it appears in BackerKit and we’ll get back to you. Thankfully, that problem seems to be pretty minimal so far.
Lastly, bounced addresses. While our fulfillment partner has done their best to confirm addresses before shipping, if an address is undeliverable by USPS or UPS and the attempt to deliver fails, the book is then returned to Coyote & Crow LLC (as we’re technically the sender). If this happens -and so far, it’s happened three times- I’ll contact those backers individually and see what happened but we’re making no promises that we’ll ship the book again.
Final Positive Notes
Whew! That was some heavy stuff. With that out of the way, I wanted to say, I’m blown away by everyone’s excitement and enthusiasm for the game. So many of you have posted pictures or shared your thrill at receiving the book. We’ve had an enormous amount of folks comment on the beautiful art, layouts, and cover, on the size of the overall book and most of all the generous font size. In the coming weeks and months, I’m looking forward to hearing what you love about the game play and mechanics as well.
Near and dear to me is the Legendary system of advancement. Specifically the story telling aspect. If you love RPGs then there’s a storyteller in your heart and I hope this game helps bring it out.
Thank you everyone for helping me realize that my dream was a dream that many of you shared and supported.
Be safe, be kind, mask up, get vaccinated,
Best,
Connor
Coyote & Crow Update #28 - Follow Ups on Shipping and Our Nebula Nomination
about 2 years ago
– Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 11:14:05 PM
Let's Get Into It
Hey folks,
Many of you are receiving your books. Congrats! The response so far is that everyone seems to love the spot UV, the huge amount of content, the large print, and so many of the other flourishes we worked so hard on.
With that said, here some hard facts on where we're at. Please read this carefullyif you have fulfillment concerns.
First Wave: Fulfillment of the first wave is proceeding, however there have been slow downs with our fulfillment team. Currently, the first wave of books is expected to finish leaving the the center by 3/18. That means that if you're in this group, you should be getting your book by around 3/25 if you're in the US.
If you're in Canada - Yes, I'm aware that some of you are having to pay hard customs fees through UPS. I'm truly sorry for that if it caught you unaware. Believe me, the shipping costs on our end were brutal as well. We're taking a serious hit to ship books to Canada and we won't be doing this again for future projects. For this project however, there's nothing we can currently do or offer you. If you feel the need to point fingers and be angry, I'm your target.
Retailers: Your books will go out after the first wave of backers is finished and we have a current estimated date of 3/25 for them to leave the facility. That should give you about 3 weeks of sales before the book's expected retail date!
Donations: We're going to have much more on this later, but it's important that you understand (and I've tried to make this clear over the last year) that donations will be a long, ongoing process and are not part of this wave of fulfillment. I think some of you are under the impression that we're shipping donated books right now and that's not the case. We don't want to just mail books out - that's how they end up in the trash. Libraries can't just accept books that show up at their doorstep. We've just hired on an Outreach Coordinator who will be partnering with various groups to ensure that the books are donated equitably and in a way that they will reach the communities that need them and will use them. While we'll begin that process shortly, it may take months or longer to complete that. Again, please be patient. This is a massive undertaking and we're going to be working on it for awhile.
Second wave of fulfillment: Once all the first wave folks have been fulfilled, including retailers, we'll go back and fulfill folks who were late to fill out their surveys. We don't have an estimated date for those folks yet. We'll do the best we can. Once the second wave is fulfilled, we'll have a 'last call' with a cut off date. Once that date has passed, we'll conclude fulfillment. If you have not completed your survey by that date, you will not receive your physical rewards.
Roll20 Backers: We don't have a hard date yet, but we're hoping to be able to get backers access to both the core rules and the exclusive story, Shadows Over the Moon, as early as June. This isn't something we can control or rush, so please be patient.
Overall, my message is: I know you're excited (I am too), but please just give us a little time. The world is a jacked up place right now and I'm doing the best I can - and so is everyone I'm working with. If we get everything 99% accurate, we're still going to have hundreds of you with issues,errors or hold ups.
Nebula Nomination!
In other news, we've been nominated for a Nebula Award for Game Writing! It's pretty exciting stuff, especially because we're nominated along with some incredible TTRPG folks. It's really wonderful to see SFWA acknowledge tabletop gaming like they have this year. In years past the nominations were largely for video games. This year they nominated, in addition to us:
Thirsty Sword Lesbians from Evil Hat
Grandma's Hand by Balogun Ojetade
Wanderhome from Possum Creek Games
Wildermyth from Worldwalker Games
That's some pretty amazing company. Congratulations to them and please do look up their work. You can read more about the nominations here: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/news/
We've got some great stuff coming soon, too. Our official release date for the book, news on our dice and tabletop games, our Foundry edition and more, all coming soon.
