Update!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 03:27:33 PM

Just a quick update letting you all know that an updated version of Dark Matter is available now via darkmatter.backerkit.com! Version 1.41 has a number of little tweaks and a few big ones:

• New Race: Orcs!
• Reworked ranges for blasters across the board, and slightly reworked balance
• Modified blaster lineup: the Impactor Cannon has been replaced by an Antimatter Carbine
• A handful of other balance changes.

The full changelog can be found here. Have a marvelous holiday season!

Dark Matter is Coming Back!
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 10:33:47 PM

I wanted to let you know that, on July 29th, we’re doing another Kickstarter to make Dark Matter even bigger and better. Soon you’ll be able to get your hands on the Dark Matter Starter Kit, which includes everything you need to start playing, right out of the box. 

The Starter Kit features a brand new adventure, “Conspiracy in the Stars!”, penned by an all-star team of writers (our good friends Donathin Frye, Charlie Smith, Simon Goudreault, and Makenzie De Armas). The box also comes with a GM Screen, monster tokens, a fold-out battle map, standalone rules, and more! It has something for veterans and newcomers alike, whether you’re starting a new campaign or just dipping your toes in the tabletop RPG waters.

Check out the demo!

We’ll also be using this Kickstarter to do a second, larger print run of Dark Matter, as well as two longer and more elaborate adventures set in our science fiction universe. The Starter Kit is entirely finished and ready to go into production; we just need your help to fund the print run. 

Go out there and tell people about this awesome upcoming project, and remember to use #IWishIWasInSpace or #DnDinSpace whenever you do! 

January Update .5
about 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 11:28:27 PM

If you're waiting on a book, it should be shipping now (for real this time). Last random delay, I promise! 

Our community manager, Justin, was in an auto collision right before Christmas and (unbeknownst to him until this week) he suffered from a concussion that led to some memory issues. As a result, about 200 orders were sent to our distributor with an incorrect SKU number and left on hold. We've learned valuable lessons about having redundant checks on order statuses and driving safely. (Justin is fine, we promise!)

Quick January Update
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 12:18:35 AM

Last copies are shipping now!

There was one final delay for hardcover copies which also received additional merchandise, such as dice and stickers, as we needed to get the right number to the distributors before shipping, and our stock was in three different places across the US. That’s done! Book should be shipping today! 

If you haven’t received your copy of Dark Matter in about a week, email [email protected] with the subject line “Where’s my book?” and we’ll get it sorted out. Keep in mind that books heading out of the continental United States will take longer.

I appreciate your patience! 

December Update
over 4 years ago – Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 06:53:27 PM

Books are at the distribution center! You should be getting shipping notices soon!

December's Delays

A lot of you have been (rightly) asking for an explanation on why there was such a delay, since we had hardcover copies at the start of the month. For those of you who are interested, I want to offer a recap of the last month:

While the print run of Dark Matter was originally scheduled for 22nd of November, there was a small printing delay. These things happen, and we trusted our printers to make sure the books came out as beautifully as possible, but the timing couldn't have been worse: the short delay pushed the printing date from the week before Thanksgiving to the week after, literally December 2nd. Since we already had arrangements for a booth at PAX Unplugged (December 4th), the printers were kind enough to 2-day ship the first 400 books off the presses to Philadelphia.

Everything at the convention went off without a hitch! However, while the entire team was in Philadelphia, there was no one left in Texas to move the books from the printers to our shipping partner. This meant we couldn't move copies from point A to point B until the 10th of December.

Moreover, something we didn't know until after the convention is that the remaining books wouldn't be released until we had paid the remaining balance. This is all well and good, but was held up for a few days by us switching banks and for many more days by the printers' accounting department being insanely difficult to reach. (Checking my phone, I called our two points of contact a total of 23 times over the course of two weeks, and got a total of three replies.)

Printed! Woo!

That brings us to now: our books are printed -- they're gorgeous -- and your copy is in the mail, just as soon as its packaged!

 I'm sorry we couldn't get Dark Matter to you by Christmas. It was extremely important to me that we get it out quickly, and all the little bumps in the road amounted to us missing that goal. I'll be planning our next Kickstarter more carefully and improving how we move books around to get them out faster. 

 Happy Holidays,

Your friends at Mage Hand Press