Created by Peter Chiykowski, creator of The Story Engine
Create endless story prompts for writers, DMs, RPG players, teachers, and storytellers of all stripes.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Personal Update + Book Launch Tonight + Sneak Peek at Worldbuilding Deck
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 03:55:53 AM
Hi everyone! It's been a little while since I checked in, and I wanted to give a quick personal update and then share some really exciting news:
A new worldbuilding deck from The Story Engine will be launching in the next ~2 weeks!
You can see a sneak peek of it tonight at 9:30pm EST on Twitch, when I'm doing a livestream reading from The Story Engine anthology to give it a proper book launch!
If you miss the livestream, there are some teaser images below! But first...
Quick Personal Update
February and March threw me a bit of a curveball with a family cancer diagnosis and another relative whose health took a sudden turn and needed full-time live-in care. My wife and I ended up moving across the continent on short notice and dropped basically everything for 8 weeks to move, provide care, and finally set up our new home on the west coast of Canada! That's why I haven't been updating here.
Luckily, Funagain Logistics was able to take on all shipping duties, the talented (and Hugo Award-nominated) Brent C. Lambert of FIYAH Literary Magazine ran The Story Engine Deck's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and all I had to do was keep up with occasional pledge question or campaign follow-up.Â
I'm grateful I was able to take time to be with family when it was extremely important, and I'm happy to report that my family member's cancer surgery was successful and the other family member has moved on to a longer term care situation. Thanks to everyone who was patient as I was slower in responding to messages.
Okay, Let's Talk About the Worldbuilding Deck
It's a deck of cards for creating imagined lands, local lore, and story-driven world maps you can write or roleplay in—in real time. It’s ideal for worldbuilders, writers, loremasters, storytellers, DMs, and RPG groups.
The deck combines 6 types of cards that combine in simple ways to createcomplex settings with a meaningful past, present, and future. Depending on the scale you set for your map, you can create everything from a city full of unique districts and landmarks, to a sprawling land of diverse terrain types, ecosystems, cultures, and civilizations.
You can even combine an overworld map with zoomed-in detail maps of specific regions!
Here's an example location cluster, created using the 6 different card types in the deck.
I chose to interpret these cards to create The Bog That Appears on No Map, a swamp that grows a rare psychedelic bean. It was home to an inventor's workshop before the founder's untimely death. A colony of bean-eating bats recently infested the rafters.
But you can also create more complex location clusters with more areas and pieces of lore:
I interpreted this card set as the Masterless Road. For years, it's been maintained by citizen volunteers offering safe passage free of tolls, checkpoints, or thieves.
Recently, a crime family seized the area by force and started charging for passage and protection. In response, a secret society of warrior-poet freedom fighters have set up an outpost on Philosopher's Ridge, which overlooks the road. The ridge is known for a rare colony of cliff-dwelling lizards called Skyskinks.
Between the crime family squeezing money from the locals and the secret society launching guerilla attacks, the entire countryside seems ready to go to war—the perfect entry point for the hero of the story, or a trusty band of PC adventurers to wander in and make a mess of it!
You can combine multiple location clusters to create a map, and then explore and populate the map with characters and encounters created using the original Story Engine Deck!
To get a live look at it, join me in a few hours (9:30 pm EST) on Twitch for a livestream reading of The Story Engine microfiction anthology and I'll give a sneak peek at the deck as well!
I really wanted to give this book a proper launch, but there were a lot of challenges that hit along the road to its release: national lockdowns, the pandemic, the cargo vessel almost ship-wrecking, and then the family health emergency!
So I'm taking a day to celebrate it making it through all those obstacles!
This collection of stories was written during the development of the deck, and it features an absolutely incredible bunch of guest stories and guest narrators who recorded audio for the book!
I also have a limited number of signed copies available through my new tabletop merch store, Nat 21 Workshop!
Thanks so much, and I can't wait to show you what I've cooked up with the worldbuilding deck!
Shipping Is 100% Complete!
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 08:27:18 PM
Hi everyone!
Wowee, it's been one heck of a week, but I am thrilled to share the news that all rewards in all regions are either in the mail or packed and waiting to be picked up by postal carriers next week!
I am over the friggin' moon!
I know this has been a complicated and endurance-testing fulfilment process and I appreciate you hanging on tight through all the bumps in the road. What a journey!
I wanted a moment to say a face-to-face thank you to you, and to our fulfilment partners whose Herculean efforts over the past month have helped us keep parcels moving!
Please give another 7 days for the tracking notifications to process and send, but if you have not received a tracking notification by January 16, get in touch with me via Kickstarter DM or the contact page and I will check on your pledge for you. This moment marks a huge fulfilment milestone, but I believe the job's not truly done until every backer has their rewards in hand, so I'll continue to be available to troubleshoot delivery issues with you.
I'll continue to update you here on Kickstarter as parcels are delivered and new free content for The Story Engine gets released (and I want to gather and share some of the incredible storage solutions backers have come up with)!
And for those who have asked: yes, there is more coming from The Story Engine, and I'm thrilled to show it to you soon.Â
I won't spoil anything, but for now, let me say that if you'd like to be the first to know about the next project to come from my little corner of the Internet, you can follow me on my Kickstarter profile, sign up for The Story Engine Deck newsletter, or follow along on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. I'm all kinds of excited to show you what I've been working on!
Thanks for your support!
With gratitude,
Peter
Group 1 Complete + Group 2 Underway!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Jan 05, 2021 at 08:26:35 AM
Hello backers!
I hope you’re all enjoying a restful holiday (or something approximating that)!
I wanted to do a quick check in to fill you in on everything we’ve been up to since last week!
Group 1 Is Complete!
As of today, Group 1 has been completed for all regions for all Kickstarter backers and all preorders. All parcels are in the mail!
If you don’t have tracking yet, don’t panic! Funagain only recently finished off US/international Group 1, but these parcels may not be in the notification system until Monday because of holiday closures, so you might be waiting until Monday for your tracking number.
Hats off to Funagain who made our project a priority during their holiday crunch time despite all of the additional challenges of COVID-19 and postal carriers working at capacity!
Group 2 Shipping Is Underway!
EU Group 2: 120 of the 200 Group 2 EU parcels have shipped! As the Brexit/border situation evolved, our postal injection plan looked more and more as if parcels sent out now would be at risk of being sent back or assessed for duty via post-Brexit rules, so we pivoted. On the 28th/29th, we were able to secure assurances from Royal Mail that any parcels we sent through them under 2kg would be able to cross into the EU under the old rules and not be assessed for duty, so we shipped out every parcel we could under that weight limit. For the 80 of you over the 2kg limit (mostly people receiving deck + book + all expansions and boosters) we are going to wait until next week to see how the new rules come into effect. Right now, our plan is to send your parcels DDP. In the event it's not viable to send your parcels DDP, I will send via a regular carrier and reimburse you for 100% of any duty assessed on your parcel.
I just want to take a moment to applaud the incredible communication, support, and resourcefulness I’ve seen from the Spiral Galaxy team navigating an incredibly complex situation.
UK Group 2: Also underway! A chunk of UK Group 2 parcels went out today, and the rest should follow Monday morning.
US/International Group 2: As of yesterday, the books have arrived in the warehouse and been inventoried! We anticipate that we will start mass-mailing Group 2 next week.
Canada Group 2: Funagain Logistics pulled the fastest turnaround I have seen for freight and has already loaded the truck for Canada and sent me tracking details for it. Â I anticipate freight arriving sometime next week with Group 2 shipping to begin immediately thereafter.
Australia/NZ Group 2: You should all have received your parcels by now. If you have not, please get in touch and I’ll follow up with Aetherworks when they reopen in the new year.
That’s all our news for today!
Thanks again to our shipping partners for keeping parcels moving, and to all of you for being so patient as we clear the final hurdles!
We are past the point that we guarantee we can process address changes, but in the event you do need to update your address, get in touch ASAP via the contact form or via Kickstarter DM and I'll get your request to the right team to see if we can process it for you.
LAST CALL for Group 2 Address Changes + Shipping Progress + Holiday Card for Late Gifts
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 03:37:30 PM
Hi everyone!
Fulfilment is firing on all cylinders and it looks like Group 2 is about to start!
Wednesday (tomorrow)at 9am EST is the deadline for all address updates for all regions!
If you are in any country other than the UK/EU, please contact me via the contact page ASAP if you need your address updated. Please do still send your address change late if you can't get it in by  9am EST on Wednesday (tomorrow) and I will get a request in to update your address. It's just that after that date I can't 100 guarantee address update requests will be processed in time.
If you are in the UK/EU, you should have received an address confirmation email from Spiral Galaxy today. Please follow the instructions in the email if you need to update your address. Try to do so sooner rather than later. You should also read the extended section of the UK border situation below, which we're navigating carefully.
There are a few miscellaneous updates that I'll cover in more detail below. Here are the headlines:
Shipping update: Books are arriving now and Group 1 shipping is almost complete!
UK/EU update: We are watching Brexit and the UK/France border situation carefully.
Holiday update: I designed print-at-home holiday cards for anyone giving The Story Engine Deck as a gift that will be arriving late.
Shipping Update
All good news!
As we mentioned in last week's update, Group 1 shipping is complete in all regions except the US/international. This week, we're pleased to announce we're in the final stretch of parcels!
Roughly 8% of Group 1 parcels remain. There is a small list of backers left to ship: mostly those whose rewards require picking and packing of particular expansions and boosters in certain combinations.
They're working as quickly as possible to get as many Group 1 backers' rewards in the mail by Christmas. Â
I am told that sometimes it takes a day or two for the ship notification to follow up after the parcel is in the mail.
UK/EU Update
The Group 2 cargo arrived today as planned, and address confirmation emails went out.Â
For EU backers in particular, I want to give you a heads up about the precarious state of UK logistics right now, and to explain how we've been trying to plan for every eventuality.
A week and a half ago, when we started becoming concerned about the late arrival of the Group 2 cargo, Spiral Galaxy and I started planning multiple layers of contingencies to make sure we could ship your rewards before Brexit, even if our cargo came late. I priced out splitting shipments at my expense to send as many rewards as we had on hand to be sure they'd leave the UK before Brexit hit, and follow it with a second shipment later. Going into this past weekend, we had scenarios planned for everything from what time of day the cargo would arrive in warehouse and how long it would take to pivot to split shipping, plus which orders we could keep under Royal Mail's 2kg parcel guidelines for the fastest international processing.Â
We actually had three spreadsheets pre-loaded into their notification system for different scenarios that might arise if our cargo truck arrived hours late or the parcel pick-up truck came early. We were doing check-ins pretty much every day.
And then overnight, France closed its borders with the UK as a temporary emergency response to a new strain of COVID spreading in southern England.
Sigh. The best-laid plans of mice and men.
Luckily, our arriving cargo was already in the UK and did get in on time, but our parcel carriers all put a temporary freeze on EU-bound parcels. There have been thousands of lorries backed up at the crossing into France. Movement across the border is slowly resuming, but between the uncertainty of a no-deal Brexit and the snap closure backing up freight timelines, the situation is changing by the day/hour.
We are staying on top of it and checking in with our postal carriers frequently. Our current plan is to get the EU parcels moving on December 28 when we believe we may have another window to ship, but every expert we've talked to has no idea exactly what to expect with Brexit and which set of import rules will affect parcels already in transit when the UK leaves the EU.
At this point, we've done all the preparation we can to get parcels out and we will remain on standby to ship the moment we have a window.Â
In the event that your parcel does arrive in the EU with customs due, I want to assure you I will reimburse you for 100% of those expenses. Right now, we have a good shot of making sure it doesn't come to that, but I like to prepare for all eventualities.Â
And let me make the understatement of the year by saying that 2020 has not been a year of best-case scenarios.
In the meantime, we're hoping for the best and planning for every scenario we have control over.
Holiday Card for Late Gifts
If your deck does not arrive by Christmas and you were planning to give it as a gift: I can't tell you how sorry I am that we missed our shipping goals and that it could affect your holiday plans.
I know nothing can replace the experience of giving someone the perfect holiday gift and seeing their reaction as they open it, but I wanted to create something you could hand a gift recipient to make sure the day is still special.
Below are two print-at-home holiday cards I designed to let people know that you bought them a gift to nurture their love of storytelling, and that the delays are 100% NOT the fault of the gift-giver.
One version of the card is designed to give to writers, and another is designed for tabletop RPG players/DMs. Click the links to access easy-to-print PDFs with marked fold lines.
I hope these will bring some joy on December 25 if your deck doesn't make it by then. In the meantime, if you have any requests or need information, get in touch via the contact page and I will get back to you ASAP.
Shipping Progress + Free D&D Adventure + Deck Storage Alternatives
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 02:29:21 AM
Hi everyone!
It’s been a week of good shipping progress, and I'm pleased to share the headway we've made.
To recap: Group 1 includes backers who are not receiving a copy of The Story Engine Anthology, and Group 2 includes backers who are receiving a copy of the book.Â
DM me if you need help confirming your shipping group and I’m happy to help!
 US/international: Group 1 shipping continues at a good pace and is currently expected to finish next week. Cargo for Group 2 is expected to arrive next week. Shipping will begin ASAP.
 Canada: Group 1 fulfilled in record time (all 240+ parcels turned around in 36 hours on Tues/Wed)! Tracking numbers are being uploaded to BackerKit shortly, but many parcels have already arrived. Group 2 cargo expected to arrive the week after next.
 EU: Group 1 finished in October. The rerouted Group 2 cargo is expected in the UK warehouse on Tues, but delivery times have been inconsistent. We are going to try to mail out all of your parcels before Brexit, and are even exploring shipping your books separately if we have to. (Hopefully not!) No matter what, we will make sure you do not bear the financial burden of duty on your parcels.
 UK: Group 1 finished in October. The rerouted Group 2 cargo is expected in the UK warehouse on Tues. We are prioritizing EU orders to prevent issues with Brexit and customs, so Group 2 is likely to ship after Christmas or in the New Year. I cannot tell you how sorry I am that we couldn’t get your rewards for Christmas.
 Australia/New Zealand: Group 1 and 2 were all put in the mail by the end of November.
Also, I have two other updates to share:
I released a free Krampus-themed D&D adventure for punishing your players for all the horrible things they've done this year!
I have compiled a number of alternate storage solutions for The Story Engine Deck!
Read on for more!
1) A Free D&D Holiday Adventure
I was losing my mind refreshing my inbox for freight and shipping updates every hour, so I decided to take a break for a day and write a free D&D adventure to help you bide the time while your decks are in the mail. Pedro Galicia, the DM behind the wonderful TTRPG podcast World Walkers, co-created it with me, and I think it's a really fun little piece. We co-released it under the banner of The Story Engine and my new tabletop shop Nat 21 Workshop.
It's called Krampusnacht, and it plugs into your existing long-running campaign like a holiday special episode. In it, you get to punish your players for all the horrible things they did this year.Â
Remember when they robbed the shopkeeper over a low-level magic item? Or insta-killed the NPC you spent hours working on? Or burned down that beautiful mountain town before you got to read your painstakingly detailed description?
It's payback time!
Krampusnacht comes with ideas for connecting to the existing threads of your campaign story.
This was our goal, and unfortunately, we got the execution wrong.
Around the time I sent the factory the card count each tray would need to hold to contain all expansions and boosters, I also asked them to upgrade all of the cards from 300gsm to 350gsm card stock. I liked the heavier cardstock, and after seeing the treasure box in action, I wanted to make sure these cards could take a beating—especially if they’re being used in a classroom as a teaching tool year after year.
When the factory sent back the box specs, I forgot to double-check if they were based on the old 300gsm cards or the new 350gsm cards. It became clear when we were in full-swing production that it was sized for 300gsm cards, which are noticeably lighter and thinner.
My opa (Dutch grandpa) was a carpenter and always said, "Measure twice, cut once." And I definitely should have measured twice.
The main deck + all 3 expansions + a couple of boosters unsleeved
The main deck + all 6 boosters + 1.5ish expansions unsleeved
But not quite everything. It's actually TANTALIZINGLY CLOSE to being able to hold everything, which makes it all the more frustrating.
The shortfall is the result of adding free upgrades (the extra card thickness) on top of free upgrades (the compartments, treasurebox lid, and play surface), and I think it's frustrating because the design is SO CLOSE to being perfect that the small shortfall really stands out. But when you look at it from the perspective of the value added compared to the original pledge, I hope you'll be able to enjoy the added complementary features we did stick the landing for.
I've worked out a few solutions/recommendations to tide you over while I work on a master box design, which I'm aiming to have ready for early 2022. (A long way off, but this projected has taught me to be a lot more to be more conservative with my production/logistics estimates.)
Here are my recommendations:
Option 1: Main + Boosters in Box w/ Expansions Separate
This is what I do, and there are two ways you can approach it.
I've been storing my boosters in their folding packs on top of the main deck so I can easily mix and match, and then keeping one booster + the 3 expansions separate.Â
This is still really manageable for throwing the deck in and out of backpacks and satchels. The box is the size of a large laptop and weighs 1 kg (2.2 pounds), and each expansion is about the size of a Macbook charger, so it's still in a good range of portability.
I have hiked my deck up mountains this way and found it wasn't cumbersome.
Or if you keep all your expansions and boosters mixed together (which is also encouraged!), you can unpack the booster boxes and 1 expansion into the main deck box and just use two of the expansion booster boxes for overflow.
Option 2: Remove Tray and Use the Box
Some backers have removed the tray from the box and stored the cards in the full space of the box. They all fit, and if you add a little padding or zip-lock the decks, they won't jumble around.Â
As a designer, a little piece of my heart breaks thinking of the beautiful black matte utility tray being ripped out, but I won't be precious about the way I intended the box to be used, ESPECIALLY because I didn't double-check the specs, so you have my blessing to rip away.
Here's a photo of this configuration courtesy of backer Reinhard, who thought of this idea and made it work very well!
Option 3: Wine Box
I'm a scotch drinker, and I stored the early prototype of the deck in the box of Talisker Storm (a fine smoky dram if you're not snooty about age statements).
It got me thinking that wine boxes would be even better for storing these square cards.
If you find a nice wine box with a 3" x 3" square interior, you should be able to fit the cards beautifully. (Note it needs to be  at least 3" x 3" INSIDE, and most wine boxes only list their exterior dimensions, so be careful searching or eyeballing the right boxes.)
The cards are 3" x 3" (78 mm x 78 mm). A stack of 100 cards is 40mm tall. All 468 cards in the main deck + 3 expansions + 6 booster sets = 19.5cm unsleeved.
I always recommend trying to buy local when you can, but if you're looking for a SKU to start searching for, I found some wine boxes from Amazon and other retailers that appear to have the right dimensions.
PLEASE NOTE: I haven't had a chance to test-order these myself. If you test one and find it does/doesn't work, please report back and I'll share an update!
I've tracked down a few folding boxes in the right size. Some of these have to be bought in packs of multiples, but are really cheap, so you may be able to use the extras for boxing gifts or storing other components.Â
Note: I haven't had a chance to test these myself but the dimensions check out!Â
I know one of you was working on designs for a 3D-printed box which we might be able to make public at some point. I hope you'll share it when you're done!
I thought I would provide the card specs in case anyone else wants to build a custom box or explore custom storage solutions.
Card counts:
180 cards in the main deck.
180 cards between the 3 expansions at 60 each.
108 cards between the 6 boosters at 18 each.
468 cards total if you purchase all the decks.
Measurements:
The cards are 3" x 3" (78 mm x 78 mm).
A stack of 100 cards is 40mm tall.
All 468 cards in the main deck + 3 expansions + 6 booster sets = 19.5cm unsleeved.
If you want to allow room for the expansion/booster boxes as spacers, each box is a 79.5 mm x 79.5 mm square. The expansion boxes are 26.5 mm deep and the booster boxes are about 11.5 mm deep.
Please feel free to share your findings or designs and I'll pass those along!
That's All For This Week!
Shipping continues as quickly as possible. I appreciate your patience, your feedback, and your excitement as decks arrive.
If you want to share your creations on social media, you'll find me as @storyenginedeck on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
As always, if you have any questions, get in contact through the comments or the contact page and I'll get back to you ASAP.
