Thirsty Sword Lesbians (THIS BACKERKIT IS NO LONGER MONITORED)

We love you 1000%
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 05, 2020 at 11:31:54 PM

We launched this project asking for $20,000. On Tuesday you brought us across the $200,000 mark. Thank you so much for your pledges, your passion, and for spreading the word. Today we officially enter the last week of the campaign!

Since our update on Friday we’ve unlocked:

• New Playbook! The Bloody by Maria Fanning. This playbook embodies the warrior who protects all within the community, striking down those who dare harm those they care for. But many claim the Bloody takes to battle far too easily, far to readily, far too…...gleefully. Her conflict lies in managing her joy for combat with the feelings and nature of her community.
  
• New Setting! The Tragedies of Waldron Hall by Clio Yun-su Davis. In this setting inspired by gothic romances, you’ll step back into 19th century Devon, England and into the haunted corridors of the cursed Waldron Hall. Help a lesbian vampire reclaim her ancestral home, get lost in a sprawling hedge maze filled with buried secrets, challenge esteemed monster hunters to duels, and give into the most scandalous of temptations...
  
• New Adventure! Down the Rabbit Hole by Lauren McManamon. As teenagers, you all tumbled through a strange door into the most fantastical queer fantasy where you picked up the sword, saw tremendous adventure, and maybe fell in love with this place, someone special, or yourself along the way. You came home, exhilarated, content, and a bit sad that it was over. A decade later, you find the door again, along with a plea—the world you loved is now in grave danger. Your palm tingles with a need to pick up the blade once more.
  
• New Setting! Greasy Dock Goblins by Avery Alder. You live in a world of steam furnaces, whaling boats, and scoundrel riff-raff. Dock work is dangerous and cheap, but it's what the queers and goblins are left with. Up in high town, there might be a noble society of ladies and gentlemen; down here in the docks, everything is sooty, strange, mercurial, and mercenary. You depend upon a sisterhood among thieves. Lately, whispers circulate through the fog, talk of trade unionism and worker power. Do you dare believe in a better world? One complete with hot meals and dry socks? Underboss Murkwretch already has it out for you, and the fire-eater witches are warning you to watch your back.
  
• Hearts for Arts. Similar to Roses for Writers, this stretch goal gives a 10% boost for the art we’ll be commissioning to finish out the book and illustrate the stretch goals. We’ll incorporate more of these into the goals for the last week of the campaign to increase their commission even further!
  
• New Setting! Hyenas by Alex Roberts. You are actual literal hyenas. Hyenas live in roving female-dominated clans, hunting for prey of all sizes, snatching carcasses from lions if they’re lucky—and if they can work together. You know the “laughing” sound they’re purported to make? They do that when they’re excited. Or nervous. Or submitting to another hyena. Hyenas are reliant on each other, in a constantly shifting web of dominance and submission, and any time they make (or steal) a kill, they’ll eat even the bones and hooves. Leave nothing and no one behind.
  

That makes 19 new settings, 8 playbooks, and 3 more adventures funded so far… Okay, technically we’re less than a hundred dollars away from getting to play members of a roving clan of wild hyenas, but we’re going to make like a major news outlet and call that one early for the hyenas.

Next up: more hearts for arts and A Sea of Pink, White & Blue, a new adventure from Maria Fanning featuring a band of fascist-smashing transgender pirates smuggling medical supplies to those in need.

We’ve got a few more treasures on deck in the days ahead. Share the links on your social, do some self-care, and thanks again for believing in this project.

Treats Aplenty!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Nov 02, 2020 at 04:54:54 PM

Hey friends! 

Going in to the Halloween weekend here, we wanted to remind you that Sean Nittner has put together a complete tutorial on how to set up a TSL game on Roll20 using the free VTT assets all backers get (see Update #1). So if you want to enjoy some fun, socially-distanced gaming this weekend, carve out a little time to learn the ropes.

In the past four days we’ve ticked off three more stretches:

•  New Playbook: The Dream Mirror by Christie Fremon. Made of desire layered upon glistening desire until those dreams and longing sparked to life, the Dream Mirror knows how to be exactly what others want. But do they know how to be themself? How do they begin to untangle their own desires from those around them?
•  The Rainbow Scarab Circus, also by Christie Fremon. Thirsty for change, romance, and adventure, the people of the waking world come to you and your lesbian circus troupe for escape. You lift the veil on the Land of Dreams to help them learn how to aspire to more, uncover their hidden desires, and shake off the shackles put upon them by others and themselves. But the life of a performer is full of unexpected twists — in the waking world and the dreaming.
•  Roses for Writers x 4 by YOU! That’s right, thanks to the overwhelming support of our backers, we’re locking in a fourth pay increase for all our contributing authors. That effectively doubles their rate.

On the stretch goal horizon we have a new Playbook by Maria Fanning, two new adventures by Clio Yun-su Davis and Lauren McManamon. After that, we’re planning ahead for $200k and beyond. You’ve unlocked over 30 stretches so far... and yes, we have more in store.

Have a great weekend! Celebrate safely and responsibly, but please: treat yourself.

And thank you, as always, for your support.

Love and chosen families
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 11:42:49 PM

We’re halfway through the kickstarter with no sign of slowing down! It seems like new people are hearing about the game everyday, so please keep spreading the word far and wide!

Today I wanted to talk a bit about love and relationships in Thirsty Sword Lesbians. The game tells stories about bonding and facing obstacles together, and it’s up to your group to decide what shapes their relationships are going to take. You’ll find support in the game for romantic stories, but also for stories about forming non-romantic bonds.
Characters in TSL have emotional moments of support, facing danger together, and sometimes conflict. Several mechanics ask characters to be vulnerable with one another, and you have to empathize with or at least appeal to NPCs’ desires in order to sway them. These are all opportunities to explore relationships and what the characters mean to one another.

The Smitten move will make sure that there’s drama in your path to help tell an exciting story about your journey together, and the other mechanics likewise create fertile ground for meaningful moments and choices.
This is the central design philosophy behind the game’s approach to relationships: don’t mechanize the relationships; instead, use mechanics to evoke feelings and create situations ripe for affection, angst, and romance. More on this in a future update!

There’s no formula for how a relationship proceeds and certainly no mechanic for it. It’s extremely queer to design the shape of relationships and intimacy together, rather than following a blueprint given to us by society. The Entice move cares about what’s appealing to the recipient, Emotional Support depends on what’s meaningful to them, and you’ll probably find yourself trying to Figure Out your comrades and foes on a regular basis. The game cares about what each individual finds meaningful and desirable, which means it makes room for a spectrum of preferences.

While, of course, centering sapphics with swords, and providing the “Finally Kiss” move to create space to celebrate that we are able to show our love for one another through that physical gesture, something that we continue to fight for in the real world.

~April~

Busy, Busy, Thirsty, Thirsty!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 08:56:28 PM

We just finished an amazing weekend of gaming during Roll20Con! We ran a dozen events and helped raise over $15,000 for Code2040, an organization dedicated to breaking down the barriers which keep black and Latinx technologists from fully participating in the information economy.

We also enjoyed a kick-ass game of Thirsty Sword Lesbians with April Kit Walsh, Alexis Sara, Ana Valens, and Jamila Nedjadi. Flirting, laughs, and friendship intertwined in this actual play of the Neon City 2099 scenario from the book. If you missed it live, you can catch the video right here! The joy of watching these players whole-heartedly embrace the game was a refreshing break from the daily news cycle.

While we were busy with Roll20Con, y’all were busy here! Over the weekend we surpassed $145,000 in pledges and are now just shy of 4,000 backers. An amazing response that has unlocked 30 stretch goals in total!
You’ve boosted the pay for our contributing authors yet again, stoked the reserves of our Community Copies program, and enabled the creation of another setting, two more adventures and another playbook!

•  To Light A Fire In My Soul by Soup. In this post-post-apocalypse setting people with mechs survive in harsh environments under oppressive monarchies. Power a mech with love & friendship to spearhead a revolution or simply go on a soul-searching journey and help as many peoples as you can.
•  Romancing the Throne an adventure by Misha B. Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Reina Malvada is throwing a ball to meet and mingle with the eligible bachelorettes in the kingdom. It's invite only and sure to be the event of the decade. Did you get an invite? Do you crash the party? And, the most important question, where will you hide your sword?
•  The Lunar Realm by Bananachan. An adventure for the Battle Bards of the Solar System setting. The Moon serves as the stage for an annual music festival. Influencers, pop stars and fashionistas gather for this massive event, where the Lunar Committee of goddesses determines who are the winners for the year!
•  The Legion by Pam Punzalan. New Playbook! Chosen by destiny, the Legion is the latest to bear the name and powers of their legacy of past incarnations. Their conflict is figuring out who they are between their present self and the many "thems" that came before them.

Next up at $152k, we’ll give another pay bump to all of our badass contributing authors—which will lock in a fourth increase, effectively doubling their rate.

Finally, we want to be up front with EU located backers about the international shipping option we recently added: for international backers project will be fulfilled through our shipping partner (Mongoose Publishing) in the UK. The production timeline means this will happen post-Brexit. 

We can’t predict what will happen between the EU and UK in that period (and it seems at times like the UK government hasn't figured it out either), but it’s certainly possible that backers in the EU will incur VAT charges on goods imported from the UK.

If you're in the EU and this is a concern for you, please consider adjusting your pledge to one of the digital-only tiers and either have the POD version of the game printed for yourself or buy the hardcover of the game from a local in-EU retailer after it goes into general distribution a month-or-so after backer shipments go out. More details in our FAQ.

We had a terrific weekend, both with the con and here at the KS. Thanks again for your support, welcome to all our new backers, and keep spreading the word!

Found a bug? Let’s catch it!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 02:50:16 PM

Bugs are adorable. They come in many shapes in sizes. They aerate soil, speed up decomposition (nom nom), and pollinate flowers. However, one place we don’t want bugs is in our text (art is okay, like I said, they are adorable). 

So, if you happen to be looking over the prototype draft available in Update #1 and you spot a bug or error, please let us know!

We have a Google form to collect your bug reports and typo catches, open through October 28!

Thanks,

Your etymologist of entomology