Gah Christopher, you're such a slacker 
I mean, we hit $50k around 11pm my time, last night, what are you, on vacation?
Seriously though, congrats on another stretch goal everybody!
(In case the smileys don't convey it, this post is obviously meant facetiously).
I'm optimistic... shared the kickstarter on a couple of comics forums I post on becuase... seriosly... if you like superheroes and games this is a no brainer. Either way I'm holding out for the 60k anouncement, because I suspect it might be the contest winner and I wanna see who is the baddest villain in the land.
The contest winner's character is actually in the Shattered Timelines itself. So the 60k villian is someone entirely different, that may not be related themetically at all to the expansions. Much like Ambuscade for Infernal Relics.
What? How do you mean that Ambuscade isn't related to Infernal Relics…I mean, sure, he uses guns instead of magic, and he doesn't ever actually deal any infernal damage, and he doesn't own any relics, and he uses drugs, but…he's…uh…french? Okay, so maybe you have a point. 
I kind of hope that, like Ambuscade, he is not related at all.
Like... imagine if it is Fright Train?
A nice big bruiser who ignores most damage, steamrolls over heroes, smashes the enviroment and is a good intro for new players.
Personally I am hoping that the villian will close the gap of a hero that is missing a nemesis (not including the villian the is nemesis to the freedom six) much like Ambuscade did. I believe it has been confirmed that Fright Train is not Bunker's nemesis and that they have special plans for him, maybe being Bunker's Promo card is that? I'd really like to see Absolute Zero's or Unity's nemesis over anyone elses, more so of Absolute Zero since he has been around longer.
Chris strikes again! Building up suspense and then bam, Mr. Mean villain.
This update is mean.
Dude, I SO want one (actually a couple) of those "blank" cards actually printed as an Oversized Villain card. Any chance we could make that happen? I'd put one on my wall.
Now that we have the update I'm waiting for Spiff to come out with the oversized blank cards. That should make fighting blank easier.
This update is Christopher.
The update did give away an exciting villian. It is the mysterious Questioniare. His real name was Mark, he was raised to question everything to learn all the answers to everything. When finally he asked the wrong question to a evil gypsy, who than put a curse on him that turned him into a living question mark. His villian cards actually fill in the blanks from his missing character card, thus allowing him to adapt to any situation. His Health cards even scale with one another giving him a max health of 500! Not to mention nearly each of his villian cards are indestructable, making things even more difficult as the battle rages on.
We need a " Christopher, Torturer of Expectations" villain deck. With cards that may, or may not, do what is written on them.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Where’s our update? Where’s our update? 
I'm working on it!
Ungrateful buggers! Can;t the man get a little bit of time to spend with (friends?Family?Dog?Bottle of beer and a … er… ill keep it family oriented)
Absolutely not! He must give us our kickstarter update NOW! He should have had it all ready, so he could just click send the moment we hit $60k. In fact, he should have had a cron job checking the totals every minute, such that it would AUTOMATICALLY send the update, the minute it was ready!
(As in the original post, if the sarcasm isn't obvious, I'll make it so now 
)
The Assistant? Name doesn't quite seem to strike fear in the hearts of superheroes... but I guess we'll have to wait and see what the deal is...
Sorry about the delay. Had to go in to the office to get art elements.
The Assistant. Um. How… unique I guess? 
Maybe they just want to surprise us and she actually has good mechanics? lol
But, Christopher, don't you have … an Assistant ?
Bwahahahaha.
The late Sunday updated is highly appreciated Christopher.
I have no doubt that she's probably very difficult and has great mechanics... the story sounds like she's been dead, so maybe she flips into a Zombie Assistant?
Maybe she first acts in the shadows, as the traitor she is, and heroes have first to discover sha's behind their problems.
I begin to wonder if the reward Environment deck could be the Freedom Five's headquarters...
I am actually a bit surprised at how lukewarm her reception has been, but that's ok. You'll just have to trust us. *grin*
You should probably mention that she's the second-place finisher in the Villain contest (like you did on Facebook, which is how I know). Congrats!
That's not very surprising : "The Assistant, demure office worker" doesn't sound epic 
But I like the concept - no worse ennemy than a friend turned hater, who knows all your secrets and weakness, takes care of everything for you, and has your complete trust. Very good story for a comics. And probably very good ennemy. But not very "shiny" at first glance.
As a playtester I'm very worried, if she's anything like snip who has been kicking our collective behinds throughout playtesting. It's mainly due to the fact that if we snip we lose, or the fact that s/he's snip snip snip. Getting reamed so much by this villain is thematically appropriate, but also slightly embarassing. I have the nagging feeling the assistant will be the similar.
I personally think she sounds cool as hell, and i can't wait to see her mechanics.
I agree with broccoli - I'm looking forward to seeing how she beats us down! 
I find her starting side unengaging. I love her backstory. I'm very curious what her flipped side will look like. My guess is that she will only flip once and not flip back.
This type of villain is one of my favourites. She clearly is well versed in everything Freedom Five, so she could obliterate them stealthily, or make them turn on each other. I feel it wouldn't take too much to get Absolute Zero on your side for a bit. She knows how each team member functions, and sabatoge could be huge. Also, I don't see Legacy punching the living daylights out of his World's Finest Assistant either, so I wonder how she manages to keep that from happening while she's Demure.
No HP on the front? She’s not even a valid target until she flips!
Ps. Love how she is left-handed.
She's BOTH handed! Typing on a hard-light keyboard with the other hand.
And then I gave >G five more dollars.
Oh, no, actually I'm really excited to see what she's like. I feel like this is going to be a big twist, where she seems harmless...
But then she has everyone's addresses, goes and finds Mrs. Parsons/Tachyon's wife, and holds them hostage and whatnot. I bet she's going to be much scarier than we think.
She might have Clue cards in her deck that works like Trial cards. When the conditions are met, the hero acquires the Clue cards. When enough Clues are collected, the heroes expose The Assistant, she flips to become Resentful Office Worker and has 5 HP.
I think she is going to be awesome and loooved reading her story.
This is what i see so far
a) She is Timeline centric - She died and then came back in time by (i think) 3 years (Notice the mention of the coffee mug that had not yet had its handle cracked - yet being the key word)
b) She has a very interesting saying at the end "They had a choice - me, their devoted servant, who gave EVERYTHING . . . or five total strangers. "
and que the mmmmm. I have a feeling her opening mechanic will be something like - Search through her deck to find (H) 'Perfect Stranger' cards - and then as heroes we have to save them. Once saved, she flips and becomes targatble. IN the mean time she is doing things to handicap us. I can easily see a card named 'Missplaced Equipment' and a discard effect, or 'Stained Uniform' and we have to skip a turn. I think she will be a -very- controlly villian. Not a lot of damage per say, not at first, but very shut downt he heroes while little things plink away at them, or at an alternate loose condition (all (H) Perfect Strangers in the trash perhaps?)
I for one am super stoked about The Assistant. I think it's cool thematically to have one close to you turn on you, and the idea of such a mundane-seeming character ending up as a super villain is really amusing to me.
Also, I really hope she ends up getting a nemesis. I just want to know what kind of hero has curly brackets as their nemesis icon!
About the "five total strangers", I for some reason assumed that meant the Freedom Five. Of course, how does this make sense when it's the Freedom Five who saved them? Well, this new expansion is all about wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, right? Well, then - maybe they (the ones who get saved) were kids at the time, or in a parallel universe/timeline where they're not heroes, or something ;).
It would be cool if she acted as an extra villain. You start off fighting Baron Blade and then at some crucial point she flips and you are fighting 2 enemies.
Oh man... we are only $900 away from getting a bunch of tokens we won't have room for in the box!
You know, like the tokens we currently have once the new expansion eats up all of the leftover* space. ;)
*For those of us who haven't sleeved up, that is.
They still fit quite nicely in the ziploc baggie card sleeves are sold in, and store snuggly in a dice bag (for those who cannot part with the HP tokens but use dice to track HP. Also, the rectangular counters are wonderful and I could DEFINITELY use more of those.)!
I, for one, love the tokens and markers and can't wait to get my hands on more of them. They fit fine in my sleeved Enhanced Edition, granted, I don't have any expansions ... yet.
I, for one, never sleeve my cards. The only one I have sleeved is my Young Legacy, but that one is fragile compared to the other promos. I like just having the cards in my hand without sleeves. I think it looks nicer. Plus, they sell replacements for nearly every card, so no big deal if a non-promo card is damaged.
I just feel as though the tokens slow the game down. I much prefer the use of D10s over the tokens. They're such a hassle.
Really? We actually find the tokens pretty useful. The problem we had back when using D10s was just running out of them; I only have 18 D10s. I love these tokens. It really doesn't take too long to subtract from the heroes HP, and for the villain, we find it easier to just count up with tokens rather than giving them their full HP and subtracting. It doesn't take but a second to do a villain 2 damage, and throw 2 tokens on him. Then whoever is running the villain just adds up the smaller tokens and replaces them with the larger values when the other people are taking their turns.
And we may not use the modifiers like "immune to damage" or "all damage: melee" as much, but those damage dealt/taken +/- tokens are a huge help.
I do use the modifier tokens as they help remind me of a lot of things when stuff starts getting crazy (Chairman style).
As far as the damage counters, I only have 12 D10 so with a full 5 player game I do run out and resort to the tokens. I only use the tokens on small creatures that have less than 10 HP vs trying to use them with Akashbhuta.
Plus, I sleeved all my cards so I barely have enough room in the box as is for more counters. I'm already going to have to carry the next expac in its own box.
I'd honestly love to see some sort of SotM knitting counters.
I agree that the amount of time it takes to wrangle the hp tokens is right on the edge of too much, however I'll bet I spend almost as much time spinning the stupid D10s in my hands looking for the right number as I would digging for tokens. I made little spinner hp trackers to be used for minion hp tracking, but I haven't gotten around to assembling them yet so I can't say if they're an improvement or not.
I use the 3D tokens which are posted on my site for tracking effects and states, and I really do prefer them to other available solutions. They took time to assemble, but now I have a manageable number of types of tokens (ten) which means I don't have to spend much time digging for the one I need, and I've got enough available so I never run out (and I could print more if I ever did). The entire set fits in a plastic card box I got at Tap Plastic, so it stores alongside my cards in perfect harmony.
Depends on how you store them. Mine are individually bagged by demonination, so it's easy to find what I need at the beginning. During play things get a little more fluid and clean-up takes an extra step, but it's been working pretty well.
Status tokens are kept in five eight-packs (3 damage dealt, 1 damage taken, and one of each special) with the additional Dealt and Taken living with my 1-hp tokens.
YES! WE GOT THE PROMO TOKENS!
On topic, my group only uses HP tokens for non-character card targets. The ones we really like and use the most are damage dealt/taken+/-1.
19 days for the promo Environment. I don't think we'll hit the promo hero, but I was wrong about $100k last time so who knows.
Probably looking at the last kickstarter and comparing it to this one (how many enhanced editions are selling for example) would make it easy to calculate a fairly close guess… but after doing that for hours for the election I dont wanna see a calculator until the week is over.
Hehe. I don't think we'll have trouble hitting the bonus environment, but hitting the $100k hero will be all about that last 48 hour surge. It surged so hard last time that Christopher had to make up new rewards :)
Still need to add my share to the kickstarter. Spiel in Essen and a large local gaming fair hit hard on my gaming budget. But I'll have some money saved up in time :D Love this game, I really do, and I'm looking forward to this expansion.
You could go ahead and pledge now. It won't charge until the KS ends. Not a big deal, just sayin. Glad to hear you like it!
Ah, I didn't know…It's going to be the first kickstarter for me, and I'm not even sure how it works.
Hm... I actually find it really convenient to use the tokens. We just sit all the numerical ones and conditional ones into separate piles in the center of the table. Also you can't accidentally knock a token and have it rotate to a different side.
You could also use a knitting counter, like this one. You can't accidentally knock that over either.
You know, I honestly think we will make it to the promo hero. We've got just under three weeks left, and it's climbing a little bit each day, but you're right, Broccoli. In the last few days it's up, we'll hit another big surge, and I'm positive we'll make it there when it hits.
Remember, everyone: positive thinking.
Honestly, based on the amount of pledges we get a day (about 2k a is the average) we'll end up with somewhere around 106k. Not counting the surge that kickstarters get around the last 48 hours when people who "starred" it get a notification. Sure, the daily amount could wane, but it's looking pretty good for this campaign and that new hero.
Actually the daily totals have been hovering around $2000-$2500 for a week now. If that continues, we'll hit the $100k bonus around Sunday 25th even without the anticipated last minute surge.
EDIT: darn axe-wielding ninjas.
With first edition i got knitting counters for characters and used a bunch of 6 sided dice for other cards.
With EE I've gone totally over to the HP tokens...I love em. I haven't used the modifier tokens much. I like the concept but either forget or there isn't one that marks just what I want.
Someone above mentioned wanting for of some tokens for effects that spread over many targets. I keep thinking it would be useful to have a card (preferably oversized) that has world modifer boxes. So when a card turns all damage into melee you put the all damage melee token in the universal (or some name) box. When all villain targets do damage +1 you put that in the villain targets box. When something reduces damage done by all non-villain targets you put a damage -1 in the hero and environment boxes.
Example sections:
Universal
Hero Targets
Villain Targets
Environment Targets
It seems like it would save on token needs and be a quick reference. Just a thought, haven't tried it in practice.
I usually just put certain things in a general area for villain targets. If something is boosting all villain targets' attack, I'll just throw one damage +1 token in front of the whole group. But we do it individually for the heroes.
I just use dice for tracking hp (percentile, d10, d6 depending on the hp of the target). We did use the damage modifier toeksn (eg "Damage Dealt +1") but in the end we've just stopped using those and make sure we remember/keep track of damage bonuses/penalties, etc.
Sounds like a great idea. This, along with damage types specifiers and turn indicators (until start of environment turn, until next hero turn, etc.) would pretty much cover all the bases.
If you can get me a list of every modifier you'd like to see on the card, I could probably put something together and post it to my site. Email me the info at spiffworld@gmail.com if you're serious about pursuing it.
So....I totally have changed my mind on the whole hating the token pack. Putting a token on every single thing that has a beginning and ending turn action is totally going to help keep everything in order for me. I'm stoked about this!
It'd be neat to get a universal modifier mat for tokens, to sit in the center. For example, if all villains have damage dealt +1, then you just put 1 counter in the "all villains" box. I think the categories you'd need would be "all heroes", "all villains" and "all damage".
That would reduce the need for extra tokens, and speed the game up IMO.
Will it be possible to show the exact layout of the 2 token sheets? It will allow me to determine if I want to purchase extra token sheets as alacarte for those extra start of turn and end of turn markers.
What he said.
Christopher told me that the token sheet will have twelve rectangles that have start of turn on one side and end of turn on the other. I think the rest of the rectangsl are damage dealt +1/damage dealt -1, but I'm not 100% sure and I don't know how many of them there'd be.
I think we need a secret 90k reward!
A super uber tiny low-cost one-card Haka promo will fit the bill. *nod nod*
What he said - Haka is an ancient warrior. It's only right we get play as a past version of him in the time travel expansion. Plus, he's too cool not to get the promo treatment.
They did say something about making a promo for Haka if they are given enough "Time and Space." I think it's not too far fetched, honestly.
Could I just get something clarified about the Kickstarter, 'cause I'm a bit confused. In that most recent update (the one introducing Silver Gulch), it also says that the new promo stuff (Assistant, etc) is included in the á la carte if you want additional copies. Can I just check whether we'll be getting copies of these things anyway and the á la carte is only if you want more, or whether we have to donate extra in the first place in order to get them?
All backers will receive 1 copy of the rewards for free. On top of that, you can add $5 to get additional copies.
Anyone know how much an extra set of the promo hero character cards (Dark Visionary and the Freedom Six) is going to be? I'm assuming $5 (and have naturally added that to my pledge), but wasn't sure...
Yes, $5 extra would cover an extra set of promo cards.
Yes, but would $5 cover a shiny Haka promo card?
Just you wait.
If you are willing to pledge $100,000, then I'm sure he'd have no problem making a Haka promo card for you.
I will give all of my money to >G if there is a promo of Haka wearing a hippo costume.
Ahem, er, just out of curiousity, how much money are we talking here...?
Hippo Suit Haka
POWER: Squash - Put target beneath Haka character card. At start of your next turn, put villain card into play.
IMAGE: Hippo Suit Haka eating a cheeseburger and sitting on General Voss. Haka is looking out of the card and shrugging his shoulders as if to say, "What? Don't judge me!"
Seriously, though, are we possibly getting a Haka promo card for being such nice little Kickstarting fanboys (and fangirls)?
Enough to make your wildest dreams come true.
Patience is a virtue.
(I'm not saying it'll help or anything. Just that it's a virtue.)
Does this include Dark Visionary and The Freedom Six? I thought you'd told me that Kickstarter backers were not going to be able to get extra copies of the promo hero cards.
I'm actually fine with waiting for a Haka promo if that's the case. I'm just pretending to be demanding; I don't play as Haka often enough to strongly desire more stuff for him.
Heck, I'm just happy we're getting seven hero promo cards this time. That's incredible. I'm really happy about that.
If I could have my way, I'd vote for holding off on the promo Haka, and request a resurrection of making promo villain cards. I want more of those. But that's for another time. Right now, we're getting some hefty rewards.
Let's hit that 100K!
So is persistence.
That's true! 5 points! Good response!
I am well pleased.
Blah, my signature is already too close to the 255 limit, thus I am unable to add further.
90k!
Show us the super uber awesome secret reward, please?
There's a secret reward coming?
I'm pretty sure that's just a hopeful request. (:
Yeah, since we're already decently past $90K, there's no secret reward. But that doesn't matter, because we're a little under $2,500 from making it to $100K! Maybe we'll be lucky enough to get that promo hero tonight!
Actually, there was a secret $90k reward - they just didn't make a big deal of it on the update:
The oversized cards for Citizen Dawn and both Omnitrons are being reprinted. The original oversized cards had a misprint (missing keyword), so the secret $90k reward is corrected oversized cards for those three!
It's a secret bug fix reward! :)
Oh, I totally didn't catch that as being a result of the $90K mark. I'm cool with this. Though I still don't like how much trouble it is getting those oversized villain cards out of their plastic seal. I love the oversized villain cards, but I was so afraid I was going to damage them that getting them out of that plastic seal was a trial. Did anyone come up with an easier way to free those things from their plastic prison?
Voss' oversized cards are also missing the Thorathian keyword.
And he is included, per the update - cgrater just forgot to mention it. 
Voss wasn't mentioned initially, just Dawn and Omni(s). But the update has been updated to include him.
We hit 100k! UPDATE NAO PLZ
Ugh... it's been what? 30 seconds and no update? WHY DOES EVERTYHTING BAD HAPPEN TO ME! UNFAIR EVIL RANTY RANT RANT!
Kidding. Please note the caps, bold, udnerline, and italics.
I am so happy we reached it. i was a little worried....
It's the Dude.
lol, yes, it is the dude.
I was expecting somebody like Unity... totally left field. And talk about... not even a costume. That said he looks like a great character...
Every time I defeat a villain I will yell "You just got SCHOOLED!"
lol the Scholar. That's hilarious. Great hero.
Well, he doesn't need a costume - he can transmute it at will. When he remembers. So - member of the Wardens ?
Well, there really isn't more in the day than an update! I approve, and now to actually peruse it.
He'sa Rhodes Scholar!
Whoa: That's a good point. A really good point, actually. Maybe he transmutes his clothes into the red and gold costume of the fifth Prime Warden. All we've seen of that guy is a golden atom-like shape coming from his hand, and since transmutation is all about changing atoms, that'd make sense. So why does PW#5 look younger?
Excellent theory, though; there might be something there.
The Rhodes Scholar, I would suspect.
The hand that holds the Philosopher's Stone seems golden, too.
There really IS a super awesome secret reward at 90k! Cool!
Now, where's our ultra uber uwesome secret reward at 110k? 
On that subject, and I mean no disrespect to Adam, but does his left arm seem longer than his right arm to you folks?
Here comes the usual rant...
110k!
Where's our update? Come on, even if there's no super awesome secret reward, as least give us an update every 10k milestone! :P
Oh, you want a 110K update? Sure, you'll get one.
I know! artwork, character development sketches, hints about Vengeance… anything! We are actually knocking on its door (which I never thought we would. I think throwing us a bone at the $10K might keep the pledges coming and get us there.
I am actually starting to… believe!!
As of this morning:
Kickstarter Trendline is $150k
Kickstarter Projected Max is $190k, Projected Min is $145k.
We are on track! We can make this happen!
What we want?
UPDATES!!
When we want it?
NOW .. and every 5k / 10k !!
What else we want?
May be this will work :)
$790 to 125k. I sure hope we hit 125k by the end of today and get juicy promo reveal.
Looks like we just passed 125k! Looking forward to the promo...
Oh, we did? But it's really late. We might have to wait until tomorrow to see Haka's promo!
I swear, if it's a third promo Wraith...
I'd die laughing.
I would LOVE for it to be that. I wouldn't even be mad. It'd be a hilarious prank.
It'd be funny if they now start off with a Wraith promo but then as you scroll down it reveals the actual one. Especially if the fake Wraith promo is obvious The Operative in Wraith's clothing. I would be willing to print it for fun.
3 days for another $25k? Not impossible.
Agreed. Positive outlook is all we need. We can make it.