Dear everyone, 

thank you so much! The announcement that The Roots of Soledad has founded kind of snuck up on everyone in the team, while we enjoyed our respective Sundays out. But what a way to crown this day.

For me, this has been an important milestone event in my work as a game designer. I worked hard to make this game happen, and am very grateful for everyone who contributed along the way; some are named in the rulebook, but I want to add my gratitude to NessunDove for exceptional work in all areas-- it's been a unique experience. 

I love to hear from people who play the game, and I hope to make more games in this family, so contact me online if you want!

We've reached the most important milestone: getting the game made. This includes producing the box, the rulebook, and the core deck of Character, Scene, Drama and Location cards.

But while Character and Scene cards are the backbone on the game, and their quantity was fine-tuned after years of playtesting, the only limits to our imagination for Drama and Location cards is the size of the box. For the basic goal of the campaign, we cut down on their number to ensure we'd be able to produce everything-- the base decks are made up of 60 Drama cards and 15 Location cards. But there is still room for additions, with all the ideas we most regret having to set aside.

So here comes the first stretch goal: adding 4 more Drama cards, up to a total of 64.

Drama cards are a concept both me and other designers have been perfecting for a long time: when you play one, things change both inside and outside the fiction. Some cards give the scene an interesting twist. Others challenge you to tell the story a different way.

You can play one at any time, even when you are not playing a character in the scene. They're a way to stay involved, to add zest to your game-- and to make sure magic keeps haunting your narrative.

Welcome to Soledad!

And thank you for coming along on this journey: nobody can found a new village alone. It's nice to imagine us gathering around the Iglesia de Paraiso, the starting Location of every game, all wearing the same kapok bloom on our lapel. Or the same sticker, at least.

The paths of Soledad hame many stories to tell, but let us start with numbers: 12 hours in, 100 backers, 60% of the goal required to make our most ambitious project real.

Most of all we enjoy this mix of old friends (be they of Matthijs or NessunDove) and new faces. One of our goals with The Roots of Soledad is to use the board game components to make a pure roleplaying experience more accessible, to ensure that mutual listening, improvisation, and reincorporation of other players' ideas sneak up at the heart of the game almost without players even noticing.

Reuniting with aficionados is wonderful, but so is introducing new people to the magic of roleplaying.

Thank you again for your support. The path is still long, time to get back to work!

PS. For those of you who got the Play with Matthijs add-on, we'll get in touch very soon to set up dates via your BackerKit email.