The Fifth Season RPG Pre-Order Store

Hello backers,

Today we’ve got three sample spreads from the rulebook for you. When we made the Fifth Season Quickstart for the crowdfunding campaign, Hal created a basic page design for it. That was more a beginning than an ending though, so you can see here how the design has continued to evolve. I really like the shattering crystal effect he’s done for the sidebars. If I know Hal (and I’ve been working with him for 24 years, so I think I do!), he will continue to tinker and refine until we send the game off the printer.
Let us know what you think.

Chris Pramas
President
Green Ronin Publishing

Hello backers,

Chris Pramas here. I’m the President of Green Ronin and I’ll be handling updates here moving ahead. In January we promised a more substantial update would be coming, so let’s get to it.

We had an ambitious plan for 2023. Namely, to release three new RPGs in a year: Fifth Season, Cthulhu Awakens, and Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition. Towards the end of 2022, this seemed possible. Fantasy AGE 2E had been in development for many years at that point and was finally coming together. Cthulhu Awakens had been Kickstarted a year before Fifth Season and that was also nearing completion. Basically, as we launched the Fifth Season crowdfunder, both Fantasy AGE and Cthulhu were in layout, and it was something of a race to see which one would be finished first. Our plan was to release one game in the Spring, the next in the summer, and the final one in the Fall. 

Then January 2023, Wizards of the Coast tried to cancel the Open Game License and there were suddenly a lot of people looking for an alternate fantasy game and here we had one nearing completion. Fantasy AGE was also the game longest in development, so we decided to release that first, then Cthulhu Awakens, and finally Fifth Season. To be clear, work was happening on all three games throughout last year, but we had to allocate our resources to get it all done. 

What happened? Well, in short, we failed to get all the games out last year. Fantasy AGE came out in the summer. We had hoped to get Cthulhu Awakens out before Xmas at that point, but it didn’t ship from the printer until January. Fulfilment for the Cthulhu Awakens Kickstarter is complete and now it’s heading into stores. 

The reasons why it took that long to get Fantasy AGE and Cthulhu Awakens out are not unique or special. There are simply a lot of moving parts when making and launching an RPG. Relatively small delays, such as an extra week stuck in customs for one project and art coming in slowly on another, had a cascading effect down the line. Fifth Season suffered for being third in the queue, and it took longer to clear the decks for it than we anticipated. 

So, please let me personally apologize for the delays to this point. This hasn't gone the way we planned, obviously, but finishing Fifth Season is my number one priority. I am pressing to get the game shipped to backers in July and I will be here to keep you apprised as we reach our milestones in the weeks ahead.

The next update will be sample page spreads from the layout. Thanks for your patience.

Chris Pramas

Green Ronin Publishing

Hey all,

Apologies for this one coming in at the last minute, but we have another status update for you all, with some more art to show off. Here's Joseph Carriker:

Happy New Year, one and all!

One of the things we wanted to make sure of with these pieces was that they not only told a cogent story clearly rooted in Fifth Season’s setting of the Stillness, but that they also inspired a desire to tell stories there. They’re examples of the sorts of characters that players will be making themselves when the game is done, so they needed to be full of great, evocative imagery to fire imaginations.

Hey everyone!

2023 is rapidly coming to a close, and while Green Ronin is taking a much needed break this week, we still wanted to make sure this month's update went out. It's a super short one, but we do have some cool new character art to show off!

Here's Joseph Carriker;

"Probably the most exciting stuff we’ve got at the moment is some of the awesome and evocative art of the people of the Stillness coming in right now, so we thought we’d share some of the excitement.

As far as the rest of the project goes, we’re continuing work on the core rulebook in production, with the other projects at about the same spot they were last month (though further along in that process, naturally)."

We will be back in 2024 with more progress updates, but we hope everyone has been having a wonderful holiday so far, and that you'll all have an incredible New Year!

Happy Autumn! Let’s break down where we’re at with all the moving parts of this project, shall we?

Core Rulebook: In Production. The core rulebook (including the bonus scenario) is now in layout, and we are starting to figure out the art for everything. (If you didn’t catch the art samples last month, check out October’s update!)

Game Moderator’s Kit: In development. Once we’ve got the main book laid out, we’ll be pulling the important elements into the GM’s screen and the cards, and getting the scenario Ruin-Under laid out.

Map of the Stillness + Fifth Season Digital Map Pack: In Production. Art notes for all of these are wrapped and in Production’s hands. Once we start getting all of the art and cartography contracted out with our artists, this will be among them.

Comms of the Stillness + People of the Stillness: In drafts. These are nearly written and ready for an editor.

~Joseph D. Carriker, Jr.