SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1

Quick update!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 11:39:36 PM

Hi all,

Here's an update on where we are on the Cannibal Sector 1 kickstarter. Dave has been working every day on an apparently insurmountable amount of art that's needed and is down from the several hundred pieces of art required to fewer than 50 pictures left to do. The writing is taking shape, and Dave and Jared (Nightfall Games) are chipping away at the huge block of words and it's starting to look like a recognisable shape that will please fans of both the role-playing setting and newcomers to the miniatures game. The rules section has been completed and will be handed over to Nightfall for a polish and adding to the large body of work that will be the big book. The big book should be out early 2018, with the creative work on target to be completed in the first quarter.

In the meantime, the small book, listed as A5 in the Kickstarter, will be produced very shortly after the rules are finalised. Nightfall Games will take the text and turn it into playable rules that should be out this year so you can play the game with the awesome SLA miniatures you've already bought.

Ah yes, the miniatures. Let's take stock of where we are and what's remaining to be done for the Kickstarter. The following are complete in resin for all kickstarter orders and are currently being spun in metal and should be complete soon: Rooker, McNultie, Joe Fade, Shine, Ministry, Feaney, Manchine, Reton, Aetherman. Digger is slower to produce and we've not yet produced all 200+ required for the kickstarter, but we'll be ready before the big book is complete.

Bags are 95% complete, the pin badges are complete and in the warehouse, alongside 180kg of dice, while the medals/coins are complete but not yet in our warehouse, although they might be by the tile you read this email. Mantic have the terrain bundles for us and they should be with us in October or November where they will be met in the warehouse by the November delivery of the laser cut template sets and order tokens.

We are sorry for the delays in this project, and our silence, but we have been very busy on getting it complete, even if we've not been as communicative as we should have been.

 

In non-Kickstarter news, the SLA Industries RPG is back in shops, if you've not already seen it in your friendly local games shop - and if you've not, this is a perfect excuse for a visit. It's also been joined for the first time by Hunter Sheets Issue 2, the latest SLA Industries sourcebook to be printed. This book is a gloriously printed 80-page book, full of issues that SLA Industries would like their operatives to deal with. Oh, and Mark has taken delivery of a tiny new operative, which is one reason we've not been able to update you as much as we would have liked, so we would like to welcome Flynn Wallace to the world.

+++ SLA INDUSTRIES REWARDS OPERATIVE PATIENCE +++

Swift Update
over 7 years ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 12:21:29 PM

Good Afternoon all!

- There has been no massive change from the previous update, other than;

- Dave and Jared have been working on a load of the RPG content - more equipment, background fluff, etc; and it is soo cool! They have clearly had a bit of fun in this chapter and it shows through; with the dark humour that is so much a part of the World of Progress. I won't spoil the surprises, but i think its safe to say that the Player Characters will have access to some very unusual items..

- The coins are being minted!! We can't wait to see the first examples coming back, as this is a small but very cool little item!

- We are doing an inventory check on the Bags and Tee shirts that we have already printed  (gotta be one of the most boring yet necessary tasks) to breakdown the sizes / numbers, etc that we have printed and still to print. We are aiming to have those done and dusted by the end August. 

- Myself and Rules-Brad will be sitting down shortly to plan out the precise breakdown of all of the faction decks as well as the pick decks (for more random cards that aren't needed in a full deck). This is mostly logistics, then this list goes to Jared / Dave for layout and dropping in the art (most of which Dave has already completed). We can't nail it down entirely though, until Playtest on factions is done.

- Playtest on factions; well underway, Rules-Brad is on holiday but when he returns we will take onboard the latest feedback and with help from Andy, will update and polish a little. I don't think we will have many more passes before calling it complete on the factions for the initial game launch.

So.. artwork and writing is well under way, Garment printing is underway, miniatures are being 3d printed and cast as we speak (in resin for now).. and the Kickstarter is rolling along toward completion!!

In a different note - friends of ours are making a cool little Flyer; the LARC - and are producing a SLA loadout for it, seen here -

 Those Reapers are the very same renders that the Shiver Elite and Ministry are wielding, but are simply door mounted here. And the big Reavers in the wings are what you can expect to see some of the bigger inhabitants of the World of Progress wielding. 

 These will not appear in the wargame, but are very cool and make a great objective or scenery piece, if you would like to get your hands on a LARC - please head over to;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/978361943/the-kore-aeronautics-larc-a-vtol-for-32mm-sci-fi-w/description

And help them with their Kickstarter, the SLA LARC is already funded but the Military, Medical and News Variants are still to come (now.. what game would a News Helo and drones be handy for.. hmm..?)

Finally - its about 6 weeks until the SLA Open Day in Doncaster, why not come along and see the minis and play the game for yourself. Did we mention the cake? The cake is always awesome.. 

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++

Game play & some cool artwork
over 7 years ago – Wed, Jul 05, 2017 at 08:16:19 PM

Good Morning!

Apologies, i should have uploaded this update last night - but, here we go a little later than promised! We laid out the delivery plans for the KS recently, so here are the latest news on those;

Coins - we have confirmed the coin design, size, finish, etc. They will be 45mm wide and have an antique silvery finish to them. They look lovely, and should have a bit of heft and weight in hand. After a short debate on whether to go with the Companies recommendation of black / red enamel on one side - we opted for plain antique silver finish (as Jared pointed out - 1 side laminated may invalidate a coin toss..)

3d prints - KS Joe Fade is done and currently the resin production run is underway on him. 

McNultie, Rooker & Feaney are queued up to be 3d printed in the next couple of weeks (Alongside a very impatient Momma..) and will then have the resin production run straight away. 

Once those 3 are complete, we will have all of the master miniatures for Wave 1 prepared - we will send them off as a batch to be put into a metal mould(s), and should have all of those returned and ready for September. Those are, relatively speaking, a fairly fast and easy production run of approx 300 casts per sculpt (in metal).

Our Caster is still casting Diggers.. this will be a recurring theme for some time to come..

 Artwork & Content - Dave has continued to work through both the art content of the Rulebook itself, and also the Cards. Much of the work on the cards has been completed (with regards to art) - they will be laid out by Jared and then Jared / Rules team will ensure that each 55 card deck consists of the correct mix of Stat Cards, Equipment, Abilities, etc. 

Similarly with the Book itself - Jared & Dave have already got a massive amount of content and art prepared and are now working on planning the layout and "look" in detail. We have started a few projects on that front - as Jared has some extremely cool ideas in a few areas that will necessitate a bit of careful preparation. We believe though, that this extra attention to detail will result in a gorgeous book! Not only with regards to the contents of the book and art, etc but also the idea that we want it to be a very "cool" book on its own!

Rules & Content- the Core Rules are, 99% complete. We are happy with the playtesting on the mechanics such as movement, shooting, melee, Ratings, armour ,etc.. everything seems to be smooth and fun now, so we have progressed onto playtesting the Faction and Ebb. The earlier Factions are pretty much good to go, other than the odd tweak here and there - the latest updates introduced a lot of additional material; denizen missions, Ebb, Dream to name a few. We aim to have a couple of months of playtesting heavily on those, which we will round off with another pass or 2 of amendments and then on 2nd September at our open day we will have some focussed specific playtest game play. Jared will, in the meantime, set the Rules into the appropriate chapter of the book - much of the outstanding playtesting is more the Factions and Ebb, the majority of which are going on cards and not in the Rulebook so much, so we have time after the last playtest round up to lock those in and send them to print and still meet Novembers deadline. If you want to give the rules a perusal, or even print them out and give them a play - please go here;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7dwbqdRO_jtUEgya0Vzc0ZmbU0?usp=sharing

This is the open resource where we keep them, and we do update these - more regularly from here on in as the playtest increases. 

 I've put a few of Daves' more recent images on this update as well - the Xeno will be part of the next wave of Kickstarter miniatures, along with the rest of his Stormer buddies. 

 Our Warehouse is already beginning to fill.. lots of KS shinies in there and the stored components are growing weekly as more stuff arrives, is sorted and noted and then stuck away until fulfillment time. 

Right - thats all for this update, please check out that link - have a look at the rules, even better have a play! Let us know what you think of them? 

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++

BIG Update time! Where we at with the Kickstarter?
over 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 08:47:12 PM

Good evening all, apologies for the time since the last Update - but we have.. in the last 4 weeks..

Driven from Spain to Doncaster, Doncaster to Edinburgh.. Edinburgh we loaded up the entire Warehouse and KS Inventory back to Doncaster, processed enough for a Show and attended Chillcon.. all within a few days! We then sorted out all the stock, packed it all back up and headed to UK Games Expo for 3 days of amazingly cool Con work in Birmingham. We followed that up with 2 visits to our New Warehouse in Manchester where we placed everything SLA into its new home and trained up some superb and very dedicated new Staff Members before finally driving back to Spain.. All in less than 4 weeks! Having almost recovered, we have prepared this update to let you know where we are with everything KS..

So, here we go;

A4 Core Rulebook - Dave and Jared have been working flat out on this, Dave has created some truly awesome artwork and they have, between them, not only written some amazingly cool background and fluff but.. Jared has had a cunning plan.. (its a surprise.. so shh..) So - book is well underway and on track for arriving bang on time!

A5 Rulebook - The A5 Mini rules will be, literally, an edit of the Rules section in the main A4 book - those rules, are almost ready.. we are playesting the Factions at the moment but are very happy that the Rules Writers (Brad and Andy) have nailed the game itself! So, rules are 99% done, Factions are all under testing.

Dice - we have em all!! 165kg of them.. box after box.. all the core factions - we have even sub-packed a load of smaller bags for the KS, all ready to drop into KS packages.

Bags - the Ltd Edition bags are 90% complete, we have a couple dozen more to print and thats the full run complete.

Tee shirts - we are printing our way steadily through the Tee shirts and have about 60% of them ready to go with the rest ready well before dispatch.

Pin Badges - done, sat in Warehouse ready to go out.

Coins - sent to the medal making company, will be back in a couple of months, well before KS fulfillment date.

Scenery - those nice chaps at Mantic have confirmed that they have a big shipment due in the next month or 2 (the newer desprued bags) and they will send them to us at that point, again, well ahead of the KS dispatch. 

Template Sets - we have confirmed the size / layout of the templates. When we have the tokens sorted - i.e. decided on how many of each order, etc, we will then pass to our 3d laser printers (will choose suitable acrylics for each then). 

Token sets - We are currently planning the exact breakdown of the generic sets, as we now have the rules written. The faction sets, will be waiting until we have finished the playtesting on the factions and then we will plan what the breakdown of each is and pass to the laser printers (again, each faction will have its own acrylics, etc). The templates and tokens will be a short 1-2 week turnaround once we have agreed on the lineup. 

Art Print - Dave has not unveiled it yet, but as soon as its completed it will take about a week to come back from Printers.

Cards - 2 parts to those. 

1. Rules - for several factions are complete, we only need to map out what the 55 cards consist of. I.e. how many of each card, what equipment goes in a given deck, etc.

2. Artwork - Dave and Jared have completely planned the layout / graphics of the cards and Dave has done an insane amount of the art required for them. Headshots he calls em! and they are a work of art in their own right. When the Rules are locked down, we will have a short planning session, pass to Jared for final layout / art and then off to print! again, well ahead of November.

Glyph deck is same process as Faction cards. Artwork is well under way, rules are being playtested right now (check out the new Ebb rules!! they rock!)

The Miniatures! - Wave 1

Rooker - sculpted, 3d print is this week - resin cast run will be done early July. 

McNultie - as above

Feaney - as above

Joe Fade - as above

Manchine - Rendered, printed - resin production run complete.

Wraithen - Rendered, printed - resin production run complete.

Shine - Rendered, printed - resin production run complete.

Ministry - Rendered, printed - resin production run complete.

Aetherman -  Rendered, printed - resin production run complete.

Digger - Rendered, Printed, being cast every month (we need over 300 in resin!)

Metal casts - Other than Digger (resin only) the other 9 sculpts are being batched to send to our Mould maker. As the KS version of the miniature will be retired post KS, we want to get as many of the minis on as few moulds as possible; we will send them all off to have him figure out the best way to put those together. The run for all of these is relatively small, only about 300 spins - so that will likely take a couple of weeks only and all of the Wave 1 releases will be back well ahead of the KS (likely September). 

Wave 2 - we will tackle the remaining miniatures in Wave 2, but reserve the right (time permitting) to bring a few of them back to Wave 1. 

So.. i think that covers it all! A massive amount of artwork, story writing, rules writing, playtesting and behind the scenes work has been completed already. The biggest single component of the Kickstarter is the Rulebook itself, and Dave & Jared are working flat out on that. In the meantime, the Rules team have just about finished the Rules component and will call it complete once the Faction Playtest is done - as then they will be confident that none of the rules clash or are over / under powered. 

http://daruma.productions/Junior-SLA-Clothing-c23818305

For now - we have just unveiled an exciting range of new Kids / Baby clothing and garments, as I am expecting a very special miniature of my own arriving very soon; this is particularly exciting to me, so it only remains to say..

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++

P.S. Have we missed anything? 

Sector Rangers
over 7 years ago – Tue, May 16, 2017 at 10:22:16 AM

An older innovation than the Grit Stormers is the Sector Rangers. The Rangers are older than most suspect, having been founded in 400SD, but their existence has only just been made public knowledge, and their recruitment upped and opened so that the Sector Ranger training is now available to any nascent Operative signing on at Meny. Previously, those suitable to be trained as Sector Rangers were handpicked from each year's intake and trained separately. Now, the Sector Rangers are openly trained alongside their classmates.

  Dave has just released these fantastic Images of the Sector Ranger artwork that he has been creating for the CS1 Core Book. All of their armour and weaponry is being brought to life in lavish colour art, this gives you a bit of an idea of the sheer amount of work that is being poured into the CS1 Book.

  The Sector Ranger will be modelled for Wave 2 of the Miniatures release, along with his faithful Grit Stormer sidekick (more on this Stormer variant in a later update). The Ranger is uniquely trained, skilled and equipped to work within the confines of the Cannibal Sectors. 

Who can field him?

Brad and Andy are putting the finishing touches to the Faction Formations, and how they work. In addition to the standard Faction Patrols, we are introducing a layer of special characters, calling them Agents for now (working title - TBC) whom can not only be allied directly with some factions, but will (on occasion) work alongside other factions - some of them will never work for certain factions however. Joe Fade, for example is a SLA Loyalist and will only work for SLA Ops or Shivers. The Sector Ranger will work closely with Shivers or SLA Ops as those are very much his faction (we may even revisit him and sculpt a few Ranger friends for him after the game is launched). He will, if the circumstances are right perhaps work alongside the 9th or Cannibal Clans - albeit as a reluctant ally. It is also possible (although unlikely) that he may appear to work to a common goal with Scavs or even Dark Night - perhaps not as an ally but simply an enemy of my enemy, but never with Carrien.  He will also never willingly work for the Dream Entities - but then those sneaky Masters have been known to mess with your mind..

 The introduction of these Agents adds a layer to the game and gives you a lot of leeway in which Characters you can add to your Patrol as well as deciding what, tactically, they will bring to your Patrol. SLA is a very deep setting for a game and there are hosts of reasons whereby an Operative may appear to work alongside a faction which is, traditionally, their enemy. We asked McNultie for his views on working with each of the following factions;

Shivers - "Brave wee men and lassies. Make a great meat shield if some scunner is firing at you.. I worked with them once, it was right after i got demoted for chinnin Mrs Havelock.."

9th - "Renegade you say? I was wondering why they had black and red armour. I just thought they were more cheerful than the rest o thon Shivers.. That Feaney guy, he can drink.. i tell ya.."

SLA Ops - "Some of my best friends are Ops! If ye want the meanest, baddest, most kick arse people on Mort at your back, and you cannae find a Frother - the Ops are the next best thing."

Carrien - "Dirty wee beasties, best thing ye can do is give them a good kickin! Covered in fleas, manky.. always ganging up.. cannae stand em!"

Scavs - "Move awfy quiet for big lads.. they can fight though, i'll give them that - a few of my favourite barnies have been with Pit bosses. A couple of times though, oot there in the sector.. i could swear they had my back.. No! I've no taken nothin.. its true i tell ye."

Dark Night - "Is that who they were? I did think it strange that the wee lassie was giving out free drugs like, so far in out the sector.. but i figured she was just being friendly."

Cannibals - "No! I didnae get her number.. and next yin to bring it up gets a full dose of UV shoved right up their...!!!"

Dream - "I thought I'd just taken a bad batch of Blaze.. it got all trippy.. wasn't as bad as that night in the Pit though."

So, in game terms - McNultie could be fielded as part of an Ops Patrol or a Shiver Patrol without any issues, but could work alongside Cannibals, Scavs, Dark Night or the 9th as a neutral ally, he would never work for Carrien or Dream though, no matter how much he has drank!

 We intend to introduce characters for each faction, whom will perform similar functions - there may well be a Carrien named Agent, for example.. who is the Carrien Equivalent of a non Alpha Level special character. Not there to lead, but adds a certain something to your patrol.

 These special Characters, or Agents, will encompass many of the Miniatures in the Kickstarter as well as a lot more outwith the KS. They add a much deeper layer of flexibility to the Patrols, with certain of the Characters being insanely useful in given situations - if you are fighting the Dream, you best hope and pray an Aetherman turns up and lends a helping hand. If you are in tournament play however, fielding an Aetherman will either be a massive boon, or a waste of points.. depending on whether you draw a Dream Entity opponent.

 We will release more snippets on many of the rules in coming weeks, but please feel free to download them and try them for yourselves!

 Also, remember - those backers whom missed the 20% have until the end of the month to contact us directly for a special one shot code! This offer ends at the end of May, but please head over to;

www.daruma.productions

And grab yourself a bargain or 2 now!!

++ WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PROGRESS ++