Hello outlaws,

For the past week or so in Copperhead County, we've been celebrating the "Funded in Three Years" sale—to celebrate being here on Itch.io for three years, our humble game will be 20% off, priced back at $15, for the remainder of March. (Our actual three-aversary is still upcoming, on March 18th.)

Obviously, this sale has some elements of a goof—on myself, for being here three years later, and on the world of TRPGs and the disingenuous way they're marketed in order to claim a share of the seemingly-endless rivers of cash that gamers have to throw at Kickstarter. Specifically, the way that some big-money campaigns from big-time publishers will set an artificial, absurdly low goal in order to blow past it and brag about how quickly they funded. It's a fake show of force to impress upon the consumer that the campaign has the momentum of a runaway freight train and that you, the humble gamer, should get onboard or get left behind.

(I pick on The One Ring out of both love and despair. Look, they're getting my 798 Kroner too. One of the insidious things about Kickstarter's tyranny over tabletop gaming is that, like the seductive power of the One Ring itself, it compels you to participate in its darkness.)

This isn't to knock anyone hustling for a piece of the KS money—in Copperhead County we understand that problems are structural, not individual. But three years into this grand Itch.io experiment, I'm thankful for all of the support I've received, proud of the progress I've made, and glad I have the privilege of tending my garden in the Shire, far away from the clashes of the great crowdfunding armies.

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What else is new? Well, one reason this post is a little late is that I was hoping to combine it with an art preview post. We've been slowly accumulating full-page pieces for the Copperhead County chapter pages, and are currently working on what may be my favorite one so far. But it isn't ready yet! So that art preview post will have to come in the future.

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Recently, I've been working on finalizing both some big-picture and small-bore setting details.

The big-picture issue is when, exactly, Copperhead County will be set. Longtime CC-heads may remember that the game was originally set in 201X, as a clever way to avoid a specific date. Then, during the chaos of the last administration, I was inspired to make it specifically 2017 so it was relevant to the current day.

But now, in 2021, is the year 2017 still relevant to the current day? In some sense, yes, but in another sense, 2017 feels like it was 400 years ago. Anything pre-2016 feels even farther away. I don't want to release a book this year and have it feel like an immediate artifact of a million years ago—I want it to feel like an immediate artifact of now! To pick on another game I really like, you can see this issue in Cartel, which is officially set in 2007. 2007! That year may as well be on Middle-Earth.

Another consideration is—after all of the chaos of the last five years, is anyone ever going to want to think about them ever again? I don't think so. So I think the official start year of Copperhead County will be 2022—when, hopefully, everyone will be going outside again.

In small-bore setting news, I've been finalizing faction text, including cutting two and belatedly changing some boring placeholder names for others. Cut factions, of course, aren't banished to the shadow realm—they might still pop up in the setting chapters. They just aren't getting a dedicated faction entry. I feel strongly that every full faction in the game should get a faction entry, and doing so means ensuring that everything that I consider a "full faction" has enough of a storyline to deserve the distinction.

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Anyway, this post is now long enough. 

If you're a purchaser of Copperhead County, thanks for joining me for three years of crowdfunding excellence. If not, and you're reading this, then you should probably go buy the game for $15. Let's get that funding!