Shipping update
about 1 month ago
– Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 01:26:51 PM
Shipping update
Hi all, thanks so much for your patience. We've been busy trying to get Danse Macabre into the United States and then to backers. Apologies on behalf of us and our vendors for the lack of a clear timeline this summer. Here is the current status:
- The books have been printed and enamel pins manufactured. Everything looks great!
- Everything is in transit to our distributor, Studio 2, right now. We're working with a customs agent to ensure there are no import issues.
- The ETA for books arriving at our distributor's warehouse is the end of September.
- My personal focus is figuring out domestic and international shipping fees with Studio 2. More on that soon.
- As soon as our shipment arrives, we can charge shipping and start fulfilling.
All that said: we can't guarantee a timeline for physical rewards getting into your hands other than "hopefully soon/in time for Spooky Season."
Looking back, October launch–October complete fulfillment feels pretty good for a campaign that offered three books, a zine, a pin, VTT assets, and an original soundtrack.
We apologize, however, for not posting more updates as we tried to sort out printing and shipping. Despite the fact the creative development was done in the spring, it's taken months to get answers about the rest of the process. (I can write more about this in the future—but first, I want to get you your books.)
The Danse Macabre Quickstart
In the meantime, we have released a proper, up-to-date quickstart for the game (as opposed to the wonderful but older ashcan, Prima Mors). The Danse Macabre Quickstart pulls from the final Danse Macabre Rulebook. Please enjoy it and feel free to share with anyone you think would enjoy the game but missed the campaign. It's free, so why not?
Danse Macabre West Marches games
Also free: hop on the Stillfleet Studio Discord and play games with Danse Macabre's creator, Christopher Pickett. Chris has been running some West Marches games (drop in/drop out), and they have been epic. It's a fun way to enter the Abandoned World as you await your (not abandoned!) books. Let us know if folks want to organized a spooky fall mini-campaign…
More free stuff
This summer, while wrangling a shipping plan, we submitted several small projects to game jams. Two of the recent ones, with Anthony Grasso, are OSR-ish and echo the brutal beauty of Danse Macabre. These are free, so why not check em out?
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A 4-page, system-agnostic, introductory OSR adventure (about a "dragon" and "silk" and a dog, no quotation marks—for Appndx N Jam 2026) – The Weird of the Winter Worm >
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A preview of a new OSR-ish sub-system we're working on (oops-all-randomized, classless, high-lethality—for One-Page RPG Jam 2026) – ECLIPSE >
Speaking of jams—
The Grit System Game Jam
While trying to get Danse Macabre produced and shipped, we kicked off the first-ever Grit System Game Jam. It's wrapping up this Sunday at midnight. (As the old saying goes, "Time flies… because Time falsely died and returned with a maleficium enabling limited flight.)
If you have any cool ideas for Danse Macabre (or The Sometimes Kingdom RPG, etc.), now is an excellent time to jot them down and submit something, even a one-pager. Our guest judges will be awarding prizes, and we'd love to see hacks, mutations, and adventures other people come up with!
We are a tiny company, and we really appreciate your support and your patience.
I will post more updates much sooner than in the past, as we head toward charging for shipping, finalizing addresses, and sending out books.
Printing updates / Final digital rewards
6 months ago
– Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 12:35:00 PM
We're very close to sending the books off for the big print run
Hi y'all! Thanks for your patience as we finish up the "last-mile" tweaks to all five Danse Macabre books (counting both the softcover and hardback Rulebook).
By way of update, we're very close to being fully done with production work, but we're still engaging in some productive back and forth with the printer regarding CMYK values, foil placement, and finishes. This is a tedious but important proofing step: we don't want to print 500 or 1,000 copies and have a fixable error on the cover, however small.
It feels like we hit a Zeno's paradox moment with each campaign: the fun stuff is done, but we can't quite hit "PRINT IT ALL!" just yet. That said, we really should be done this week. I'll keep everyone updated when we send the final-final-actually-final files off to print.
In the meantime, here are some images of the second round of physical proofs, showing off the near-final covers and foil choices. These books are going to be easy to use for players and look extremely sick on the shelf!
Look out for updated digital rewards via BackerKit
In addition to finalizing print production, we have been hard at work finalizing the digital rewards. We should be able to send you all final PDFs of the books along with the Danse Macabre Original Soundtrack and the Danse Macabre VTT Bundle this week!
Note, the books have been updated to correct several small but important typos. Thanks so much to Alex McGuigan and everyone else who chipped in for a very helpful final round of proofreading.
We'll send all digital rewards via BackerKit first. We'll send the book PDFs later via Itch and DTRPG as well, for digital–archival completeness. So please check your BackerKit email's inbox.
Closing down the store and beyond
Once we get all the good stuff out to you + the printer, we will shut down the BackerKit store. So if you or a friend want the high-res OST files, this is your chance!
After that, I'll update everyone with a shipping schedule. Still aiming for this summer. Stay tuned! Thanks again for your support!
Closing surveys at midnight / Sending PDFs tomorrow!
7 months ago
– Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 09:38:44 AM
The serious bit
The headline says it all: if you want your name in the credits and haven't already posted it in a comment on an earlier update or DMed me, please fill out your (very short) BackerKit survey by midnight tonight.
The point of all this is just to credit you in the Danse Macabre Rulebook. Folks who don't respond will be credited using their Kickstarter names.
Reminder 1: this survey was sent to your KS/BK email address. It may have gone to spam. If you don't see it in your inbox or spam folder, please DM me, and we'll resend it to whatever address you want.
Reminder 2: this survey has nothing to do with shipping dates/fees, since we'll ship books in the summer. You'll get an email about shipping from BackerKit when the books are inbound from China.
The fun bit
Tomorrow, we should be able to send all 4 PDFs: The Danse Macabre Rulebook, Guide to the Abandoned World, Unsunken, and the Reliquary!
These have all been laid out, edited, illustrated, proofed, and set up for printing. We are giving them one last look tonight, adding backer names (after midnight), and sending them off to you.
Major thanks to the team and to all of you for supporting this game. We're excited to hear from backers once you get the PDFs and have a chance to read through them and use them at your tables.
In the meantime, we'll continue to work with our printer on finalizing the physical books + cool enamel pin. We're deep in the weeds on how to best add foil to book covers, ensure maps look good when broken up over spreads, and so forth. TL;DR: it's a lot of work, but everything looks awesome (and, as appropriate, horrifying).
More soon.
Quick reminder: surveys are out! Closing soon
7 months ago
– Fri, Mar 06, 2026 at 07:50:21 AM
Happy Friday! I have sent out BackerKit surveys. Let me know if you can't find a survey-related email, after checking your spam folder.
We are now on track to send you PDFs of all books next week. But to finish the Danse Macabre Rulebook—where you're credited—we need to close out the surveys at the end of this weekend. Please let me know if you need more time or have any questions. (It's super short, I promise!)
FYI, I am closing down Late Pledges on Kickstarter today. Please send your friends who missed the campaign to the BackerKit store instead :)
We'll have more updates soon as we send final-final-actual-final files off to print. We are still fiddling with silver foil and bronze foil layers on the covers of the Danse Macabre Rulebook (perfectbound) and Danse Macabre Rulebook Deluxe. TL;DR, everything is going well with design, but there are a lot of details to check with setting up fancy covers/interior covers.
Expect more next week!
BackerKit surveys on their way
7 months ago
– Tue, Mar 03, 2026 at 07:15:54 AM
Surveys, and then digital rewards
Thank you for your patience. Moving pledge management over to BackerKit, everything proceeded smoothly. Expect surveys in your inboxes soon.
Re names in the credits, many thanks to everyone who responded to the previous post. We have noted your preferred credits names. Apologies for asking twice, but you'll also see this question in the BackerKit survey. (I didn't know how long it would take to get set up the survey and get approved, hence asking the first time. My bad!)
Because we want to get our thank-yous in the Danse Macabre Rulebook, we are hoping to close the survey within a week. Note, if we don't hear from you, we'll use your Kickstarter name. Shipping will be charged after we print and get a better sense of costs.
FYI, we're also ending Late Pledges on Kickstarter to shift everything to BackerKit. This shouldn't affect any existing pledges, just new (late) ones, which can still happen via the BackerKit store.
Next week, we should be able to send you PDFs of most or all of the books—and then the Danse can truly begin!
