Dear people of Soledad,

thank you! There are so many new faces that milestones are going past faster than we can account for them-- you've unlocked the first upgrade to the Drama deck, and our next goal is to grow the Location pool along with it.

The Roots of Soledad is a story about people, but those people's lives are grounded in a specific place. We're no strangers to mapmaking games: our Zinetopia entry, Barbabianca, has you drawing to map the memories of a village in the deep Italian countryside. But Soledad takes a different approach, made possible by a set of extra-large hexagonal cards (our nod to hex maps, and to the rooms in Borges's Library of Babel).

A lot of the enchantment in the early pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes from José Arcadio Buendía's futile attempts to chart the land around Macondo. The landscape grows from the heart of the village, expanding with the story. The same goes here: the first Location you play is always the heart of Soledad, Iglesia de Paraiso. When you're the Director for a scene, you decide where to set the action-- in a Location that is already on the table, or in a new place entirely, picked out of four available Location cards. As you place them side by side, a map of Soledad and its surroundings begins to sprout.

Every Location is two-sided, each a different take on the same place. You can flip them randomly or pick, to ensure Soledad is truly your own. And some strange places, those marked by Duende, may do more than just provide a backdrop: they add special Directions to the scene, giving you the perfect chance for a dramatic climax.



 

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.