Update of Updates!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 03:23:33 AM

Hooray! 

All 2 Player Box Sets Have Been Sent

It has been a very long time coming, but we can finally say that ALL orders of the 2 player box set have been sent!

It has taken us way too long to get here, and this very last bit took a month and half longer than anticipated due to the UK government being slammed with shipping stuff and being slow in issuing our VAT#. But that is behind us now! All international orders have been sent. I can't anticipate when you all will get your packages, but I'd guess that the closer to the UK you are, the quicker it will be. I did a one-off shipping to Indonesia a few weeks ago and it got there in a few weeks. So if you A) ordered a 2 player box set and B) did not tell me specifically to hold off on shipping until all the models come in, you should get yours hopefully *soon.*

The rest of the models

The rest of the models are still being worked on. We have run into the same issues as everyone else regarding supply chain. There isn't enough metal. It is too pricey. The manufacturer is slowing us down by having taken too many orders and fitting us in on their timetable. But we are still moving forward. 

I do have one possible idea to speed things up, though. If we made some models in resin, we might be able to get them cheaper and quicker. 

What are your thoughts on some resin models? Do you hate them? Do you want all-metal models? Does it matter to you if the quality is the same? Let us know in the comments!

Now that international orders have been sent out, we are going to take more orders of our inventory before Christmas. If you are in the US, it is likely they will make it will plenty of time. Keep any eye out for that announcement!

 More updates about various things soon. Thanks for hanging in there, crew!

 - opti

October Update #3 (In November) - Lore Updates From the Grand Tournament
about 3 years ago – Wed, Nov 03, 2021 at 10:31:06 PM

I was waiting a little bit before posting the final October update to see if I could bring a bit more news, but that didn't pan out, so I can't wait any longer, and here's the final update for October! This one concerns the grand Tournament that we held at GenCon this year. And when I say Grand Tournament, there should be a few caveats noted. One: It was a 12-person only event. That will not be the case in the future. Two: all the gangs were pre-generated gangs as no one had the game long enough to make a list and paint something. Three: as promised, the lore was affected by the tournament, but this was a sort-of prequel. All the events of this tournament happened before the events happening at the start of the Gangs of the Undercity Core Rulebook. 

The Tournament

In the full-sized rulebook, there are bits of lore called the Drakaina letters. In them, the former boss of the Flaming Skulls, an elf named Drakaina, invites the heads of each gang to a meeting at an abandoned warehouse to discuss unification. By the time Gangs of the Undercity begins, however, the meeting is over and the gangs are at war. What happened in between? That was the focus of the grand tournament 2021.

Pre-Round 1

Each player controlled one of our factions. Before the games began, Opti read Drakaina's speech aloud to the factions, and they were each asked to secretly write down how their gang bosses initially felt about unifying the gangs and trying to claim power back from the uppers who are oppressing them. 

Early discussions between bosses and enforcers are shaking out like this:

The Valkyrs, Flaming Skulls, Bulls of Heaven, The Troupe, and, shockingly, the Lawjacks, are supportive of Drakaina's plan. The Shadow Caste and Hetairoi  are suspicious and some among them believe this is likely some kind of trap. The Neverkin are incredulous. They would rather rot in Kur than ally themselves with some of these slavers The Necro Goblins, Misfits, and Salvagers are undecided, but will go whichever way they see profit or gain involved. And while everyone saw them earlier, the Emerald Gridlock was suspiciously absent after the speech.

Round 1

While the bosses and their seconds meet with Drakaina, the rest of the gangs are taking the opportunity to shake down some opposition turf.   Twist is, these folks have hired some off duty lawjacks to protect their hoods. This round was largely teaching folks how to play or answering questions, and working out bugs in the process. 

Round 2 Setup

The bosses and their enforcers have met between themselves and are ready to come back to Drakaina with their decisions. But chaos erupts as they find Drakaina has been murdered!!!!

Split second decisions have been made:

An unlikely alliance of the Bulls of Heaven and the Lawjacks are committed to investigating the scene to find out who killed Drakaina!

For their own reasons, the Shadow Caste and The Troupe have decided it's better if no one knows who killed her and are destroying evidence!!!

Most of the other gangs are sensing danger, but also opportunity, so the Hetairoi, Salvagers, Necro Goblins, Misfits,  and Neverkin are stealing everything that isn't nailed down... and some things that are!

And the last two gangs, enraged by the death of someone close to them, have flown into murderous rages as the Flaming Skulls and Valkyrs are destroying everything and everyone in sight.

But where are the Emerald Gridlock ?

Round 2 Notable Events

During our Grand Tournaments, we are paying attention for cool moments and narratives that we can build on to affect the lore of the Undercity. Here are some that popped up in round two, that have already made it into our lore documents.
The Valkyrs' Adelante, furious over the loss of Drakaina, who frankly no one knew she was close to, came out murderous struck out at the Neverkin's boss, UpR1z3r. It looked like a mortal wound. 

Vengeance from the Flaming Skulls, maddened by rage at the loss of his mentor, was last seen pummeling the Shadow Caste enforcer Kartika.

The Bulls of Heaven's Chirashree has found clues to Drakaina's death, but The Troupe has noticed and went after the evidence for their own reasons.

The old Mess of Porridge factory is currently an inferno as Char has begun to burn everything in sight.

Round 2 End

The Neverkin have taken a pretty severe beating at the hands of the Valkyrs.  They will not soon forget it. Their leadership was rescued from the flames by some recently adopted rookies, however. 

The Misfits have forced the Valkyrs to retreat however, leaving them free to loot the warehouse...

The Lawjacks quit the battle soon and headed back to Jack Mile, with scraps of evidence, but nothing conclusive.

The Hetairoi decided this is not a cause worth fighting for until more is known, so they headed back to their turf for a block party.

The Shadow Caste has also taken notice that the Bulls have evidence and are after it...

The Salvagers and Necro Goblins have stayed longer than the others at the factory, even through rising smoke and fire danger, but may have discovered some loot the others missed....

The Misfits, however, found a secret hallway revealed by the weakening infrastructure of the factory. They decided to follow it where it leads. There is a high probability it will lead nowhere safe and they will die horribly as they burn to death along with the factory...

Round 3 Setup

As they made their escape, the Neverkin ran headlong into a Lawjacks trap. Will they escape or be captured?

Seeing an opportunity to strike at the Shadow Caste while they were vulnerable, the Necro Goblins are attempting to shake them down, but their soldiers and rookies are on the way...

As the only ones still left in the factory, the entire Flaming Skulls and Valkyrs gangs have arrived to throw more fuel on the fire. Accusations are flying back and forth while the gangs brutalize each other while others around them search, destroy, and loot.

The Salvagers have discovered the Misfits secret and are in pursuit...

And a final confrontation between the Bulls of Heaven and the The Troupe has erupted for control of the murder evidence. (at this point, it was clear that whoever won this particular game would be the tournament champ)

Round 3 

The Flaming Skulls prevailed against the Valkyrs, cementing their rivalry, while Vengeance laid waste to all around them. The last to fall was Acid, who wielded his bat Reginald to great effect, but could not stand up to the fiery wrath.

The Lawjacks well and truly stomped the Neverkin, locking them up as their misfortune continued to mount.

The Bulls of Heaven lost their evidence to the hands of the The Troupe, who now know who murdered Drakaina, but have buried that information and refuse to share it.

The Shadow Caste rebuffed the Necro Goblins handily, making haste, but also enemies.

The Salvagers overtook the Misfits and now own the secret they found underneath the factory...

The final results

The winners were given narrative control over how things played out. The first place winner was able to choose from a list of possible candidates of who killed Drakaina. Each faction had a list of 4 possibilities, none of which were the same, so the GotU team had NO IDEA who killed Drakaina until it was decided. 

Here's how things shook out. 

In third place: Flaming Skulls tied with the Shadowcast 

In second place: the Salvagers (Played by Taikei no Yuurei on our Discord channel)

And in first place: The Troupe!!!! (Played by Drakanore(Shaughnessy) on our Discord channel) Congratulations!!!

Plot twist...

The physical reward for winning first place (an enhanced boxes set OR a full table terrain bundle) was rejected!!!! Instead, Drakanore wanted to buy the game and gave the reward to the Neverkin player who came in last!!!!

So the lore that changed as a result of the final decisions?

Flaming Skulls and Valkyrs have a cemented rivalry.

The Neverkin have a wounded leader and a grudge against the Lawjacks

The Bulls of Heaven have a grudge against the Troupe, but also a strange alliance forming with the Lawjacks.

The Shadow Caste and Necrogoblins used to have a distrust, but it has boiled over into a rivalry for crime-related activity in the Undercity and beyond.

The Salvagers have discovered something important underneath the old Mess of Porridge warehouse.

Finally,  the The Troupe knows who killed Drakaina, but aren't telling. And further, they ended up helping the Neverkin to escape from the Lawjacks for some reason (because of Drakanore's decision to give his prize to the Neverkin player), meaning they've made enemies and friends along the way. 

Finale

Thanks to everyone who played in our Gangs of the Undercity Grand Tournament! The next Grand Tournament will happen at GenCon next year, but we will have other lore events at Adepticon (hopefully) and Origins (hopefully), and ONLINE! so it would be great to see you at one! Our tournaments are announced primarily through our discord channel, so if you wanna hop on and hang out with us, here's the link: https://discord.gg/RnUuQMt

More updates soon! 

Thanks for your continuing support.

 - Opti

October Update #2
about 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 12, 2021 at 09:14:39 PM

Ok, this is a fun update. This is how our convention season went this year. 

All things considered, it was a mixed bag with lots of ups and downs. Here's the breakdown. 

Reapercon

Reapercon is in Denton, so in Opti's backyard. So he got a booth, which wasn't very expensive, and set up a small booth. Everyone at Reapercon was there mostly for the Reaper minis and paints, but there was an exhibiter hall of about 20 people. It maxed out at 1,000 attendees, so fairly small by convention standards.  We didn't have any events, but Opti just hung out at the booth all weekend (with his pal Tim who also attended and is a better salesman, lol). Check out the pic below for our humble booth. DIdn't even have a sign, hehe. But we did well! Sold a bunch of 2 Player sets which gave us a good head start on stuff for GenCon two weeks later. 

GenCon

So two weeks after Reapercon, we drove up to Indianapolis. This time, we had help. Jester (Pat), Shenanigans (Darren), Mr. Johnson (Cliff), Ford, Vorrt, and Rob joined Opti up there. GeCon's booths were more expensive and exclusive, so we shared a booth with Rem Alternis, combining our forces and cutting our overhead. Here's our booth at GenCon.

 Bad news first. GenCon wasn't a great sales event for us. We were shoved in the back of the exhibition hall, we were sharing a booth, and our signage, while better than ReaperCon, was not nearly enough to compete with the HUGE, BOMBASTIC, EYE-CATCHING stuff all around us. So we learned a big lesson. I was ok with this lesson, because it was indeed helpful in the long run. I'll never show up to a con unprepared for that again, because now I know how things work. But the GenCon good news is really, really good. 

GenCon Events

We ran a lot of demos at the booth at GenCon and that drove people to some of our other events. We had two "learn to play/tutorial" events, both which filled up at 20 people each. Everyone who played it had a blast. We heard nothing but how slick Gangs of the Undercity was, how easy it was for non-wargamers to pick up, and how fun it was from long-time wargamers. Everyone was happy and as a result, we ended up filling our tournament the next day. 

I will post another update with the tournament happenings, but suffice to say, it was INCREDIBLE. Alongside being a proof of concept for our narrative, player-driven tournament style, once again, we had people coming up to us and telling us how much fun they were having. One person, Matt, said, "I've been playing wargames for years, and this tournament is without a doubt the most fun I've ever had playing a wargame." That kind of feedback sustained me, despite not great sales at GenCon. I reckoned, if people bought a ton of the game, but thought it sucked, we don't have a future. But I can work with low sales for a great game. We just need time and exposure. Like I said, more about the tournament in the next update, but... it was fragging awesome.  I made the 12 hour drive home no problem because I was amped with satisfaction

Origins

Just two weeks after Gencon (I was home for a week, then left again), there was Origins. Origins is traditionally my favorite con of the season, because it is so laid back compared to GenCon. But this year was different. On the way to the con, I got word that the big sign I ordered wouldn't arrive until AFTER the con ended. ARGH! Before I got to the con, I discovered that Origins' new computer system (which they implemented last year when there was only an online convention) really did a number on a lot of folks. Deleted events, messed up dates, misplaced registrations - and FUG got them all. First, we realized our online tournament was missing. Then we kept looking and saw that our tutorials weren't there. Then, we couldn't find any of our events, because they were not listed under "Gangs of the Undercity," but "Gang War in the Undercity." Then, we discovered that round 2 of our tournament was placed before round 1, making everything not make sense. When Opti called and tried to work it out, he was told the books had been printed and there was nothing that could be done. Of course, until the books were printed, there was no easy way to check on the events that had been submitted... so, a bad system all around. To finish off the bad news, when I arrived to the tournaments, our tables had been occupied by another game, which had the same time slots and table numbers. Ugh. 

I wrote a straightforward email to the folks at GAMA to tell them what happened and we pivoted as best we could. We didn't have the tables to run the full tournament, neither did we have the times correct, but we did have some allies. The folks at the Shadowrun demo area, friends of ours, had a table that wasn't being used for a few hours and they graciously let us set up and have our tournament there. There's a lot of commonality between us, both in terms of affection, but also game material, so it was a fun time. Afterward, we also let them use our minis for some of their games and it was a blast. 

The details of the Origins Tournament will be coming next time - it was fun, though! Shout out to Shenanigans (Darren), Mr. Johnson (Cliff), Dan W., Tim, Beth, Joules, and Zippy Opti up there and making things awesome. Also, shout out to Mike Messmer and the rest of the Catalyst Demo team for the gracious hospitality and rescuing us out of the fire. 

The Turning Point at Origins

Not very long after I sent the email to GAMA folks, I got an email back from John, the Executive Director. he wanted to meet up and asked what a good time was. I ignored it, because I was working the booth. But homeboy wasn't about to let that go and tracked me down at the booth, haha. He took me backstage and apologized profusely. He explained the new software system and all the problems they'd had with it and how he was frustrated as well. He promised to help make things right and actually went the extra mile as far as making me feel better for the cruddy experience. In short, things started to look up. 

Sales for Origins were between Reapercon and GenCon, so between the three, I think we have a baseline. While there, we made plans to attend Adepticon in March in Chicago, which is really where we think Gangs of the Undercity belongs, at the wargaming con. So hopefully, we'll see some of you there! And if you want to do demos or run games for us there, let us know! But... after three cons in one month... I don't want to think about conventions much for a while. But we learned a lot and again, that is value in itself. 

Here's the booth at Origins, which I think was getting towards acceptable!

and here is the media box we got that sat out by the registration tables.  One of these pictures is of a lovely snowflake of a person. The other is some random girl. 

Well, that is the convention update. Next up, the tournament/story/future updates!

 - opti

October Update #1
about 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 10, 2021 at 01:24:21 AM

Ok, folks. I have a lot to update about, so I'm going to break it up into chunks. 

The first chunk is practical and has to do with the nuts and bolts of the Kickstarter and fulfillment. The next update is going to be some fun stuff, and if I can't wrap it all up there, then the third update will be about what's happening in the next few months. Here we go. 

International (Beyond US) Fulfillment

Now that we are back from the conventions, we are focused on getting the game out to our international (non-US) backers. First, thank you all so much for your patience. The timing of this year has been downright frustrating and everything hitting at once was a huge pain, but mitigated by all of your support. 

As soon as I got back last week, I began talking details with our non-Northern American fulfillment company, GamesQuest.  The boxes are all completed, with quality-assured components, the boxes are ready to be loaded on pallets, the pallets are in my storage space, and I am filling out all the forms needed to ship things out. 

What I don't quite have a handle on is the SKU systems GamesQuest wants us to use and the paperwork regarding all the taxes, import/export information, etc. and what sorts of charges and fees I need to get paid in order for things to move forward. Of course, my contact is out of town this week, so my face to face (zoom) call will be Monday. All of that means, without any unforeseen delay, International orders will be sent out from the US by end of October!

This marks a big milestone for us, and we couldn't have done it, nor would it have been so fun - even through the woes, without you. 

Stretch Goal Minis

Of course, there are minis that don't come in the starter set. We have a handful that have made their way to us from manufacturing, but not nearly all of them, which means, as was always the plan, there is a second phase of shipping once we get all the minis unlocked from the stretch goals. I'll keep updating here whenever new minis come in. 

Cookbook

Not likely why any of you backed, but the cookbook has now passed the edit and sensitivity read stage and is now in layout. Look for that to come soon!

That's it for today's update, more in the next day or two! Thanks!

 - opti

Good News (and predicted painful news)!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 08:04:41 AM

Hey folks! The con season is upon Fragging Unicorns and there is a sort of stress in the air I've not felt before. I can't put my finger on it, but it feels a lot like "doing something big that I've never done before and hoping it turns out ok."

But in better news, I got shipping notifications for a big group of minis this week. The following minis have been sent to us and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival:

Triggerman (human cyber merc), Wardog Drone, Abimiras (wheelchair gunner), Yolly (cyberleg goblin), Rocky (cyberarm dwarf), Naqar (elf breacher), and the Yetin Kit.

So that's awesome news. The expected and painful news is thus: The Yetin kit, due to its nature (being a kit) and the size of the models, and the skyrocketing price of metals, ended up costing vastly more than any other normal models. So, while we believe we can maintain the lower price points on the normal minis moving forward, the price of the Yetin kit will have to go up significantly. This will not effect those of you who have already purchased the Yetin kit (or the Bulls of Heaven gang box), but it did hit us right in the money nuggets. 

Aside from that small update, the replacement Mormeghul models should be on their way soon, so in-between conventions in September, I should be preparing international orders to go out!

We're headed to ReaperCon this weekend, two weeks later GenCon, and two weeks after that, Origins. Wish us luck! Here is the booth at ReaperCon (I meant to send this message out this morning before I left, but I forgot to hit send, so now you have a picture!). The other cons will have bigger displays and more signage, but we are doing what we can! 

If you're in North Texas, come see us!

 - Opti