Hello all.

First off, the guidebook is (almost) done! You can see it here to flip through.

I have one more pass to do, re-reading things, just lookin'. And, you might notice in the first few pages, that I don't have the list of Star Supporters in yet. These were people who pledged extra on the original Kickstarter campaign for no extra items. I'm giving them one week to get their names in.

Amy has started to ready the final print files for the cards. I'm going to update my designs for the new booster pack for print and put together a simple foil wrapper design for it. From there, getting files to the manufacturer is just about all there is left to do!

So I'll noodle on that in the week ahead. But we're about to be ready to get our print sample and begin manufacturing thereafter. 

We'll see these decks in Jan/Feb in our hands!

7DA
your pub gob

Hello folks,

As of now, the Smoke Test of surveys has gone out. That's 5% of people getting their surveys. Once it's clear that it covered all the proper questions and all that, you'll see the rest of the surveys go out later today or first thing tomorrow.

Your surveys ask some simple questions:

I will be manually combining orders that choose to be merged in this way before we ship, so you'll only be charged for shipping once!

Otherwise this project is straight forward, there were only a few items on offer! But you can add extras to your order if you so desire, of course. So just get your addresses in and confirm your orders, y'all!

Thanks,
7DA
your pub gob

Hello everyone!

We are in the final moments, just about done and over. And we've done amazingly!
I do not have my work computer back, so I opted for no end of project stream-- apologies! I know many people love them, but without my proper work setup it's really hard to make it happen.

However, I did take some thoughts from people's suggestions for a bonus two cards, and I'm putting them together! There were a lot of awesome ideas for what the two extra Major Arcana cards could be, but I've opted to go with an alternative Justice/Sheriff and Hierophant/Planner.


For the Justice card, I wanted to look at people who were being abused and left behind, or actively fighting to make things right for themselves. I think the Lavender Scare is often missed, but queer people were rooted out of the government (and elsewhere) during the 50s. Fear of the Russians blackmailing queer members of government and making them Red Puppets was the guise they used to oust as many as possible from positions in the state department and elsewhere. Of course, the 50s were a huge time with segregation coming to an end and a great deal of marching for equal rights for black Americans. For the foil, I did some obvious things with crossing out 'homosexual', and creating a sunrise behind the brave boy walking up the stairs among the white boys who were intimidating him on his way to school, but I also wanted to remind us of today's protests. The circles capturing faces that we can see is very much an homage to facial recognition technology that is being employed against us in exactly these kinds of scenarios today. I think it also helps people realize that many of these people in this image are still alive today. This is not the distant past. Justice is still far on the horizon, but we can make it real.

For the Hierophant, I like to think about art as a connection from the mortal world to the great divine, and this was a way to pay homage to black music as it is and was without being appropriated and claimed out of their hands by white folks. The Planner card focused the man who planned the suburbs for white families as a connection to the divine in a sort of trite way, thinking of him as a great visionary-- but among the arts that didn't create safe and white places to live, we can find so much more power. It doesn't on its own speak to the way rock was taken and claimed by white folks, Elvis and the like, but it at least recognizes the beauty in the black music as it was, in the hands of those who created it.

I'm finishing the guidebook, but think it can be done in a few weeks time. (So long as my work computer returns home quickly!) Then we'll move to pledge manager, where we'll work to combine orders for folks who backed the original campaign and just came here for the booster pack! 

Can't wait to see where we end up! Right now with an hour and a half left, we're 430 backers with $16,300!
Can we break even further?

We'll find out,
7DA
your pub gob

Our High School Sweethearts is reimagining a gay, black double prom king situation! This didn't happen openly in the 50s, of course, and it likely didn't happen in a desegregated school, though Brown v The Board of Education was 1954! Still, I wanted to acknowledge another MLM relationship and with black men, who are often left out of queer depictions. The brown foil here crowns the both of them, and adds a heart looped in two locked rings over the kneeling boy's hands, promising love forevermore with his man. At the top of the card, just above the two school administrators reading the prom king winners, we have a dove in brown foil as well.

For The Union, our World card, I got a chance to sneak some transgender representation into the deck! It's a bit busy at the small size, but on a card and with the foil brown arrows, you'll see it clearly in your hands. Children to kids in school starting to talk, to graduating together, then when we jump to this couple as adults, the man disappears and a second woman appears! Then marriage and growing old together, back around to children just being kids again.

I love these cards, and might touch them up a bit smoother when I have my computer back (work computer didn't want to work today!) But now we have all 18 cards for the booster pack complete...!
Or do we?

Do me a favor and check the rest of the deck on the campaign page if you would... I think we have room for two more cards in this booster pack... but which cards?! Where would you like to see another take on a card, or what minority groups do you think this booster still misses for fulfilling our MISSING AMERICA idea?

Just 24 hours left on the campaign, so tell your friends, parents, pets, postal workers all about it, and help us push past $15k! And so long as my work computer is back in its proper home tomorrow, I'll see you for a final hour livestream of readings and laughs as we bring in the end of this project.

Tata for now,
7DA
your pub gob