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Project Biomodus - A Transhuman, Post-Apocalyptic Action RPG

Created by Joseph 'BEAR' Thompson - TAPM Systems

Project Biomodus: a Tabletop RPG, where powerful transhuman hunters try to survive the biomechanical horrors of a dying, adapted world.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Shipping has begun! Hardcover Huntsman Edition shipping soon!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 08:16:36 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Shipping Update and a brief Post-Mortem
almost 4 years ago – Sun, May 31, 2020 at 05:54:46 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

A Question and an Appeal: Supporting People with a free PDF of Get Rekt (please read)
about 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 01:56:22 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

UPDATE TIME: PDFs have been distributed and Physical Copies shipping soon!
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 10:19:14 PM

Hey, wonderful folks.

So some of you may have already seen that we have some good news to share. Last week, I started the lockdown process for the shipping of Project Biomodus to the backers, and distributed the PDF’s of the book. 

If you are unsure where to get your PDF, please go to https://projectbiomodus.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards and you should be able to get your download there.

Some news on PHYSICAL COPIES!

I am currently starting negotiations with DriveThruRPG.com to get these shipped out to you. Given the delays, the price of shipping has increased dramatically, and funding to ship these items is going to be coming out of my own pocket (along with some of the later development costs). Your book will be coming as promised, I just need to negotiate a more manageable price and seek private funding if the Kickstarter / personal reserves cannot meet the need.

We have gotten proofs of the two versions though and they are looking SOLID

Plans for the future are as follows:

There are some edits that couldn’t make it for the print version, and while that is regrettable, I plan on combining a lot of different ideas into a PB companion that will replace the Project Biomodus Art and Lore book. It will still have art and more lore, but it will also include some additional backgrounds, some more modifications, configs and other goodies that you can actually use in your games, as well as an errata.

More information will come on that when it is available and more fleshed out, but those of you who have preordered or added on the art and lore book will get this book instead (as it will be an improvement over the original design).

As always, I highly suggest you head over to our Discord if you have any questions, comments or feedback, as our thriving community there are very capable of helping out, as well as having a more direct line of communication to the development team (which is me for the most part).

Please enjoy your PDF’s and if you are not seeing a download for you in there, please let me know.

Thanks again!

- Bear

Progress, Updates and another Discord Reminder!
over 4 years ago – Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 01:45:22 PM

Hey Folks,

It’s been a while since I have posted an update here, and I know you guys have been patiently waiting for one while work has been progressing ever forward. Firstly I want to go over a list of things that have been completed to give you an idea of where we currently stand:

  • Get Rekt Edition is ready to go. PDF’s of this version have been sent to all pre-orders and backer of Project Biomodus as a thank you for being patient with the delivery. If you have not received this PDF yet and you are a backer, make sure you check into your Backerkit account to receive your rewards.
  • Standard Edition is a gnat’s wing from being ready. We have had some printing issues with the proofs and DriveThruRPG (DTRPG) has been very kindly helping us locate those issues and to get them fixed. Here’s a Pic of how they are looking:
The Hardcover and Softcover Proofs of Project Biomodus (Standard)
  • Collector’s Edition (known now officially as the Huntsman’s Edition) is in the final stage of being compiled. The last step is a quick pass over the electronic files before they are moved to DTRPG for a Proof Printing.

Once that is complete and the proofs are signed off, then we will move to shipping.

I want to clarify again, that all of these questions, as well as other talking points on lore, systems editing, and other items of interest, are regularly discussed over in our Discord Channel. There are a lot of backers, players, testers, artists and other industry professionals in there who share a common passion for Tabletop RPG’s as a whole, and more importantly, it is the best source for real-time updates.

So why has everything been so delayed?

That’s a good question, and one that I don’t have an awesome answer for. This project ended up being a lot larger and way more complex than I had initially expected and prepared for (such is the way of first-time Kickstarters, I am told), and being a sole creator working with a lot of talented contractors and volunteers, when things happen to a key aspect or creator, production grinds to a halt.

To give you some highlights of some of these events over the last few years:

  • I had a flurry of life-changing family issues.
  • I had been dealing with the loss of a good friend to their personal demons.
  • My former partner and I decided to divorce. As a side-effect of that, my personal income had taken a pretty drastic hit, and so the available funds that I had to go into book production were reduced pretty hard.
  • I was placed in critical care twice for the above-related events.
  • I have changed day jobs twice, the first of which put a lot of additional burden on my book time, the second involving me uprooting my life in Northern California and moving to Southern California where I currently am now.
  • I became an American Citizen with all the cost and administrative burdens that come with the application.
  • Some of my family and California-based contractors were in the direct line of two of the biggest wildfires this state has seen to date, although thankfully none of them were harmed.
  • Recent personal events have had a very direct impact on my mental health, and that has been hitting me like a freight train.

However, production has continued throughout these trying times, albeit at a much slower rate than what I had initially expected. There have been a lot of lessons learned throughout this whole process, and for those of you who would ask me ‘what would I do different’ then I think it’s pretty easy to see what I would change. Here is my list of things I would love to pass on to you other creators and backers, so hopefully if you try to make your own game – and I really suggest you do – you do not make the same mistakes as I did going into the project.

  • Get More Funding – On top of the funds generated here, I have put roughly $20,000 of my own money into the project over the years. This is a mixture of legal fees for the trademarks being almost a third of the initial funds gathered, as well as contracting people for things that I thought I could initially do myself, but wanted someone who could do it much more in line with my vision, rather than my capability. Developing these books is an expensive and time-consuming drain on your life, and I don’t think I was initially prepared for that kind of impact.
  • Do not go into a Kickstarter with a Half-Completed System – in the beginning, I had a pretty well-rounded system, but into the first year, further playtesting highlighted some pretty dire problems, and a lot of the system needed reworking. On top of that the editing needed, as well as my own brand of retentive perfectionism, there was a lot of retooling for much of the content I had not yet written. This is on me. Further projects will be fully written out and ready to be compiled into print documents before I seek to go to Kickstarter again.
  • Simplify– I wanted to bring a lot to the table in the form of different books, different vectors to play and a whole plethora of other ideas erupting out of the initial release, but it is very quick to get overwhelmed outside of the core concept of your game. For this project I should have gone in with just the book, getting it done and then working from that point. Because I diverted my attention to additional within the book’s scope, I feel that may have impacted the development of the book as a whole.
  • If Your Book is Not Going to be Released Within a Year, Do Not Include Shipping – shipping costs have skyrocketed since Project Biomodus has been funded, and that is going to hurt when it comes time to actually producing and mailing the books. Thankfully, I am using DTRPG as a publisher and they have been very good at working with me, and they recently re-introduced their discount on bulk orders. If you know your project will take a while though, charge shipping at a later time (but make sure you are up-front on your Kickstarter page. Don’t just spring it on backers).

So what’s next?

Right now, getting the standard edition of the book to a signed-off print proof is my main goal. We have already applied the fixes to the Collector’s Edition, and production to proofing of that version should take a much shorter amount of time. When all versions of the book are ready to go, then I will be mailing the backer copies to you all, and making the book available on DTRPG for purchase.

You have all been impossibly patient and supportive with me and these delays, and I cannot thank you enough or your continued faith, support and interest in Project Biomodus. There is a lot to be said about the community we have built up here, and through you all I have been given the unique opportunity to see something so very important to me become a physical item in the real world that other people can enjoy and read. I can’t help but feel terrible that you have had to wait for so long to get the book in your hands, and I know to some of you, it is just another book, but I can tell you this much;

When I held that first, fully printed, fully colored version of Project Biomodus in my hands, I have never felt so accomplished and uplifted as I did on that day. It’s an experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life. So for all the bad that may have happened, or the hard times that made me lose hope or faith, you have been directly responsible for helping me to keep going on.

So thank you, my backers and our community, for everything you have done. I hope that one day you all can feel the joy of holding your own game. I hope you will know just how bloody amazing that feels. And if you do decide to go to Kickstarter and create your own game, know that I will be right there with you, supporting you and helping you to achieve that feeling too.

You guys are the absolute greatest.

With Much Love,

- Bear