(Read this update on Kickstarter, if you'd prefer!)

As far as progress, it’s more of the same over here at the Succubus studios this week. Just heads-down dev work, graphical layout, implementing playtester feedback, and eyes on the horizon for the final preorder and fulfillment.

We know that you all appreciate consistency with updates, especially on a project like Middara that has been delayed so long. We’re committed to give updates every week from now until this project is delivered even if there isn’t much to say other than “we’re still playtesting Act 3 and getting great feedback!”. There may be weeks here and there where something comes up that derails the publishing of an update, but for the most part, we’re going to be in your face every week with an update.

We want you to know that we love and appreciate you all for your ongoing support through thick and thin. Our lives are dedicated to making this project a reality for you.

While we’re getting ready to wrap this project up and get this delivered, we hope you’re enjoying the content updates we’ve been putting out.

Ian has spent the past two weeks going through our feedback document, going line by line, and implementing all the necessary changes into our files. There were about 1100 lines worth of feedback, and he’s finally gone through them all! For now…

Now that all the files are all up to date, our next step will be to reupload the files to share with the community and get the most recent files up on Tabletop Simulator. We’ll be starting this process on Monday.

Just as tedious and time-consuming as implementing playtester feedback, is running the final dev pass on our designs. Fueled only by coffee and Nekrogoblikon, Brooklynn has accepted his calling and is smashing his way through the task.

Currently he is done with Act 2 and all the Act 3 cards and has now moved on to the dev pass of the Act 3 Encounters.

The first Chapter of Act 3 is also done and just about ready to share with the community. A few more tweaks to some Special Encounters rules need to be ironed out, but we’ll be sharing that very soon, as soon as next week.

October 1st, www.middara.com. Be there!

Well, we did it. We got all of Lupercalia 2022 shipped out. All the US order went out last week, finally!

For orders in the EU and UK, your shipment should arrive at the ports on September 26th. Fulfillment should happen shortly after that.

For orders in Australia, Asia, and everywhere else, these should be arriving at the ports any day now. Fulfillment could begin as early as next week.

If you have questions / concerns about your Lupercalia 2022 order, email us at support@succubuspublishing.com.

Alright, now I'll let Kris take it away!

Every time you crack open that Adventure Book and set up an encounter, you’re in for a classic Dungeon Crawling experience. Every new Encounter brings some new challenge standing between you and victory.

To the victor go the spoils…

When designing Unintentional Malum Act 2 and Act 3, we set out to expand the toolbox we had as designers, introducing greater variation and diversity in the types of encounters we could create. The result is partly the ballooning scope of Unintentional Malum, stretching across all these years. Yet in the end, the product we deliver is one rich with tools, with ways to set up this and future stories.

You can fit a lot of adventures in here!

Act 2 and 3 includes new token types—routes to navigate complex dungeon layouts, new hazards, new terrain, and an army of new creatures! But today we wanted to dive into just one major new factor we introduced in Act 2+3: Sheets.

Visit exotic locales, whether you want to or not!

We’ve mentioned and shared some of these before, but it’s worth looking into the aspects and advantages of their use. Each Sheet could just as easily be split into six individual tiles. Why didn’t we do that instead?

Sheets fill a different role in our game than tiles. Each tile is meant to be a versatile, reusable section of a dungeon. One might be a twisted cave one encounter, a secret passage under a mine the next, and a overflowing Sickle nest later. With the help of tokens, special encounter rules, and varied connections with their surrounding tiles, each tile can be transformed and re-used over and over.

UM2 + 3 includes many new tiles, taking our game into parts of Middara you’ve never yet explored. These tiles are versatile enough to be reused frequently across our encounters, and each new set dramatically increases the scope of what can be created.

However, tiles are also a considerable investment of resources. They’re heavy in the box, and they take up a lot of space. Pick up the box, and you feel every last tile.

That makes it difficult to justify including dramatic, unique locations in our tiles. This disadvantage means that some unique, dramatic encounters would previously end up happening on dressed up tiles you’ve already used elsewhere. This works, but it fails short of the epic scale these encounters demand.

When I encounter that terrifying new boss, I’d much rather face them somewhere I’ve never seen before, and never will again. This is their unique domain, their secret hideout or forgotten tower. 

A sprawling ruin, crumbling slowly into the forest all around it.

This is where Sheets come into play. Rather than a new palette, each sheet is a dramatic set piece, preconstructed for the specific encounter or encounters that take place there.

This lets our designers go absolutely wild with sheets, creating terrain exactly crafted to the combatants you’ll fight there. A boss’s secret hideout plays to their strengths and helps further immerse you into the narrative. Each Sheet includes elements mentioned in the associated narrative, and captures the description used in each encounter. 

Sheets have their own weaknesses, of course. Their central strength of vividly capturing one location means, inherently, that each one has limited potential for re-use. That’s why we didn’t switch over to using them exclusively—there’s still clear purpose to modular sections that can be configured and rearranged into any story.

Thanks to our sheets, we can really narrow our focus in the encounters we think matter the most. This left us free to take the story in what we felt was the most interesting direction, even if we couldn’t justify the inclusion of a whole new set of tiles just so the characters could have a brawl in a steamy bathhouse. 

Remember to bring your towel, or don’t!

And of course, there’s nothing to stop us from combining them. Sheets can be brought together to form a massive battlefield, or combined with tiles to represent secret passages, underground caves, or the surrounding wilderness. Our designers used all sorts of exiting combinations in the encounters across Unintentional Malum: Act 2 and 3.

With sheets in our arsenal, there’s nowhere we can’t take you.

As always, we'll keep you posted on our progress toward production and delivery.

On top of that, you'll learn the secrets of the terrifying undead that guard the tombs and sacred relics of Middara’s ancient past. For those who would dare defile these places of rest, the departed may become their own best protectors. In the Codex, we’ll take a peek into the conflict between Elenia and the Empire of Brahma, and how the division between these nations shapes the Disciplines their citizens may learn.

Even magic can become another pawn of war.

Love you and stay sexy!