Expedition Writing Contest: Language of Lovecraft

Adventurers!

With the writing and photo contests of January coming to a close (winners will be announced soon), that means it's time to announce the next one. Drum roll please...

Language of Lovecraft will be our next contest!

As we're celebrating the launch of Expedition: The Horror into the month of February, we wanted to put focus on our new cosmic baddies. However, we still wanted a theme for the contest, so we ultimately decided to give you two different themes to pick from. We want to see your best quests using new Horror monsters, romantic themes, or both if you're up for a challenge. The contest will run until March 8th at 11:59 PM (EST).

The winner of the contest will earn 500 loot points! All entries will be rewarded with 100 points for using either theme, or 200 points upon using both. (Which is perfect if you're looking to pick up the expansion, wink wink nudge nudge.)

Expedition has an audience of all ages, so make sure to mark your quests accordingly. Anything offensive or pornographic will be taken down and the entrant disqualified. We all love Cthulhu, but not like that.

We can't wait to fall in love with your new adventures!

Your Expedition Team

Expedition New Years: Quests, Voting period, expansion and more!

Adventurers,

Welcome to 2018! We thought we'd kick off the new year looking back at all we'e accomplished as a community:

Year in review

At about this time last year, the first-ever copies of Expedition were delivered to backers. Hard to believe, right?

Since then, Expedition has grown tremendously:

• From a community of 1,000... to over 8,000 players!
• We launched - and shipped - our first expansion, raising over $64,000!
• The team expanded from just Scott and Todd to more than a dozen team members!
• We had our first convention booth - at the 50th GenCon anniversary - where we played Expedition with over 300 people!
• The app was updated with tons of new features and fixes - totaling more than 500 commits!
• Community authors wrote more than 50 quests!

Most importantly, we've proven that a community-driven, open-source, technology-enabled game is not only feasible... it's a ton of fun!

New Quests and Contest Voting

The November-December writing contest saw four awesome new adventures ready for you to play! Splice, The Spirit of Festivus, Kingdom of Kelendia: The Curse and To the New World: An Expedition Story.

Cast your vote to help decide the winner of the $500 writing prize here:  https://goo.gl/forms/kkUOT2xEtIyCAmFF2

Voting ends January 15th at noon. Note that attempts to scam or game the voting system will result in disqualification.

January Writing Contest

Need an excuse to practice your writing? Want to win $100? Then you've come to the right place!

This January, the quest with the best out-of-combat roleplaying and character progression will win $100 in cash!

To enter, simply write and publish a quest with the Expedition Quest Creator by 11:59pm EST on January 31st, 2018. After the deadline, the Expedition team will judge all entries and select a winner. Additional consideration will be given to quests that are 40 minutes or longer.

Learn more about Expedition writing contests here.

Buying The Horror

The remaining Kickstarter copies will ship out in the next week (still finalizing the date).

The Horror will be available for purchase starting January 26th on the Expedition Store and in game stores. Want to support your local game shop? Point them to ExpeditionGame.com/retail for details on how to purchase Expedition from distributors.

Paperless Expedition App

Speaking of community-driven... one of our fans made an awesome digital version of the cards. It's currently available on the Android App Store. Note that it's a fan-supported app and currently only has the base set available.

If there's enough interest, he'll make it for web and iOS as well - so make sure to rate it and give him feedback in the app. Thank you, Mike!

New Features

The Expedition app has received several upgrades in December, including:

• Combat audio engine
• Ability to report errors and send feedback without leaving the app
• Improved app interface on large displays
• Remote play now in beta
• Fixed a lot of bugs - thank you to all of the users who reported them!

Interested in helping make the app even better? Your first contribution to any Expedition repo earns you 200 loot points!

Loot Club

We're working on a big update to the loot club to make it even more rewarding to participate in the Expedition community. You can now earn points by writing quests, improving the code, and sharing Expedition with your local game community. Loot points can be redeemed for cash and all sorts of Expedition swag.

We've also multiplied all loot point balances and rewards by 100 so that we can give out rewards for an even broader array of contributions. This month, we'll be integrating loot points with the quest creator, so that you'll be able to easily check and redeem your points!

Here's to many more years of adventuring,

Your Expedition team

$100 Holiday Photo Contest!

Adventurers!

We're happy to announce our first photo contest for Expedition! Starting today until January 2nd at 11:59pm, we'll be accepting entries to win a $100 prize! Here's how you enter:

• Take a photo and post it on social media (Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook), tagging us or using #ExpeditionRPG in the post. 
• Expedition, either the box or game, should be featured in the picture.
• Have fun with it! We  encourage holiday themed and silly pictures. (Though they don't have to be!)
• January 4th, 2018 edit: Bonus points will be awarded to photos that include people playing Expedition! While we love to see how photogenic our game is, we love to see the people who enjoy it too! 

Any entries that don't follow the above criteria won't be counted, so make sure to smile! Everyone is allowed three entries, so get to snapping some photos!

Here are the links to our pages:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you need an example, take a look at this stellar photo taken at the Expedition: The Horror launch party:

Note that by entering the contest, you agree to give Expedition and Fabricate, LLC the right to reproduce your photo for marketing purposes royalty free.

We can't wait to see your photos!

Todd, Scott, Greg and the Expedition Team

December Update: Writing contest extended, new QuestCrafter and new features

Adventurers!

We have several exciting Expedition updates this December, including an extension of our $500 writing contest (with even more ways to earn loot points), a new QuestCrafter and new features.

$500 quest writing contest extended

We want to make sure your adventuring experience is as fun as possible, and we've received feedback from authors that one month hasn't been enough time to write quality quests of this size. So, here's what we're doing:

• Extending the submission deadline to December 31st at 11:59pm. It's not too late to start working on an entry!
• Lowering the minimum word count to 15,000.
• Offering numerous ways to earn bonus loot points, including:
  • Earn a bonus point by publishing the first chapter of your entry by November 30th at 11:59pm EST.
  • Earn a bonus point for every 5,000 words you write over the minimum amount.
  • Earn a bonus point for incorporating a winter or holiday theme into your entry.

We've updated the writing contest page with these changes as well.

Thank you to all of the amazing writers in the Expedition community for sharing your creativity with us! And if you've been thinking about writing a quest but need an excuse, the $500 contest is the perfect time to try your hand at interactive storytelling :)

New QuestCrafter: Advanced Combat

Thanks to Greg's latest installment of the QuestCrafter series, you can now learn advanced combat techniques such as custom text and choices between rounds and changing combat victory rewards. Have questions or ideas that you'd love to see a QuestCrafter on? Email Greg at Authors@Fabricate.io!

New features

It wouldn't be an Expedition update without a bunch of features and improvements!

• Streamlined combat screens in app
• Improved display on large screens
• Fixed numerous bugs, including the "Error!" that would appear on Android / iOS app load.
• Show "Last Updated" and "Expansions required" on quest search details page.
• Added support for several new quest writing tools, including the ability to make paragraphs of text conditionally shown / hidden by adding a comparison operation like {{gold > 10}} to their start.

Thank you to all of the community members who shared their feedback, ideas and bug reports with us in November.

Scott and I are making good progress on both remote play and the audio engine. In fact, our composer just delivered the final audio files to us. Up next: now we have to polish and fine tune the code so that the more than 3,000,000 possible combinations of instruments, rhythms and melodies sound good together. We can't wait to share it with you!

 Until next time,

Todd, Scott, Greg and the Expedition team

Contest Inspiration, New Quests and More

Adventure Crafters!

With the big November $500 writing contest in full swing, thought I'd focus this week's update on inspiration.

Firstly: Some of the stretch goal quests unlocked during The Horror's Kickstarter are now available for play! Make sure to adjust your app settings to use Expedition + The Horror, and then look for the following quests in the search results:

• Raventree Manor (2-6 players)
• Darkest at Dawn (2-6 players)
• Invoco Tenebrae (2-6 players)
• Secrets of the Past (1-6 players)

Even if you don't have a copy of the expansion yet, we still highly recommend checking them out. They're some of the best Expedition quests yet, and can be a great source of writing inspiration!

Secondly, we've found that adding a bit more description to the world and NPCs (non-player characters) in your story can make a HUGE difference in enjoyment. To help you brainstorm interesting settings, situations and backstories, we now have 9 Questcrafter inspiration posts here: ExpeditionGame.com/QuestCrafter

And finally, don't forget that all contest entries must be publicly published by November 30th, 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time! At that point, we will validate that all entries (which may be single quests or quest series) meet the minimum 20,000 word requirement. 

If you have any questions or run into any technical issues, please don't hesitate to contact us via the "Contact Us" button or by emailing Authors@Fabricate.io

Thank you - and we can't wait to see what you write!

Todd, Scott, Greg and the Expedition Team

Expedition November: $500 Prize, art, and more!

Adventurers,

We hope you had a spoooOOOooky Halloween! And thank you to all of the authors that participated in the October writing challenge and earned loot points. If you haven't played in a while, there are now EIGHT new quests for your enjoyment!

November quest writing contest

The $500 NaNoWriMo contest begins! And, just in time, Greg Miller has released the first two Quest Crafter tutorial videos here and here.

We've also updated the Expedition Loot Club so that every quest you write earns you a loot point - plus a bonus point for your first quest! (which can be redeemed for cash and all sorts of Expedition swag).

Art and audio are almost ready

We've been hard at work on the stretch goals for The Horror, include commissioned artwork for each of the new quests, as well as the new combat music engine. Thank you so much to Chris Gebhart, Nicholas Coronado, Brian Dryer, Cory Smith, Greg Miller, JanoNath and Katie Sharkey for their incredible artistic and literary contributions to The Horror!

Here's a sneak peak of the art for "Darker at Dawn," one of the new expansion quests:

View fullsize

Instagram

We're now on Instagram! Follow @ExpeditionRPG for more sneak peaks and behind-the-scenes!

Until next month,

Todd, Scott and Greg

Quest Writers Weekly: The Latest Features and Inspiration

Adventurers!

With fall descending upon us, the time for the spooky and horrible is swiftly drawing near. There's just over one week left for you to submit your quests for the spooky quest challenge! Unlike most contests, there's no cap on the prizes here - so if you write two, or even three quests, you'll win two or three prizes!

And then, of course, there's the big one: The $500 November quest writing contest. Hopefully you've started brainstorming and outlining your quest - just remember that you can't start writing the quest itself until November 1st!

Writing inspiration

Excited to write, but not sure about what? Look no further than our weekly Quest Crafter series! Just in time for finishing up your Halloween quests, we have a double episode:

First, shudder in disgust with 20 revolting mortal remains that will haunt your players - or their foes.

Then, explore 20 curses in On Curses Most Foul for creative ways to hex your adventurers.

Feedback of the Week

We've seen a few quests do this really well, and would love to see more do it: Give the players a chance to roleplay and make backstories and motivations for their characters. Set the stage for your players with a few pages describing the world and conflict that they're about to take... and then take a step back as the writers and allow players to roleplay. Here's a great example from the start of the Goin' on a Bear Hunt quest:

New in the App & Quest Creator

We're making great progress on remote play, the music engine, and improved support for multi-chapter quests. And yet we still found time for some improvements!

• Added a whole new set of icons - Runes!
• Completed the switch from bracketed [icons] to :icons:, so that brackets can now be used to indicate large art. Try [hound_of_tindalos] and [hound_of_tindalos_full], and then look here for the full art list!
• Added a handy keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Enter automatically starts playing the quest from your current cursor position.
• Several improvements to the Quest Creator validator: if it crashes while validating, it now terminates properly instead of spinning forever. Plus, spellcheck and validator errors are now handled separately / persist properly, so that running a validation (which happens whenever you hit "Play from Cursor") or a spellcheck (which happens whenever you type something) doesn't delete the errors from the other one.
• Improved authentication system for Quest Creator. No longer gets blocked by pop-up blockers, and tries to pre-authenticate you so that the actual sign-in goes much faster.
• Added a FAQ to the Quest Creator homepage that talks about ownership and allowed genres. If you have any other questions you'd like answered, let me know at Todd@Fabricate.io!

Courtesy of WhispersOfTheWyrd

We're Hiring!

Love Expedition and board games in general? Hip on the latest social media trends? We're looking for a paid part time (2-5 hours/week), remote social media manager with an opportunity to also take on some customer support (if you're interested).

To apply, email Todd@Fabricate.io with:

1. Three of your most successful social media posts and why you think they were successful.
2. Three example posts you'd make for the board game of your choice (one each for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).
3. A list of 5-10 hashtags you would tag the posts with, showing the research that you did on those keyword to make sure they're popular but not oversaturated.

We can't wait to play your next adventure!

Todd, Scott and Greg

Quest Writers: $500 Writing Contest, New Features and more!

Writers and adventure-crafters,

We have several exciting updates this week!

First off, we just announced two new ways to earn money and prizes for writing:

November Contest - $500 Grand Prize!

November is traditionally National Novel Writing Month, but why not write an interactive adventure instead? Write a 20,000 word adventure between November 1 and November 30th for a shot at $500! Click here for more information.

October - Double Loot Points for Spooky Quests!

This October, publish a Halloween-appropriate quest and earn two loot points! (Plus a bonus point if you're a first-time author!)

New Features and Fixes

Scott and I have deployed several upgrades to the Quest Creator to make your life easier, including:

• when the app encounters an error in the quest (specifically, with {{ops}}, such as invalid syntax), it'll show you the error to help you debug it
• streamlined example quest
• remove line numbers from side of text editor to make the page less cluttered; add current line number and word count to bottom right
• fix some bugs with * on round and roleplaying cards and GOTOs inside of on round
• fix bug where multiple of the same style in a single paragraph, such as italic text italic, would mistakenly be treated as a single group (italic text italic)
• fix bug where the text editor cursor would sometimes jump randomly (especially when searching with control + F)
• fix bug where style detection included ops contents, so you’d get weird behavior with things like italic {{.numAdventurers()}}_
• add several words to spellcheck dictionary that are uncommon in general English but common in roleplaying

Writing Inspiration

Looking for inspiration to get started, or take your writing to the next level? Check out the new Quest Crafter section of the Expedition website (https://expeditiongame.com/questcrafter) for weekly writing inspiration. This week's post covers 20 ideas on how to make more interesting and personal enemies - a great way to get your players more invested and spice up combat!

Adventure onwards,

Tod, Scott & Greg