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Shinobigami - Modern Ninja Battle Tabletop RPG from Japan

Created by Andy Kitkowski

Shinobigami is an original Japanese story-focused tabletop RPG of drama, action, tactics and frenemies, set in a modern ninja cold war.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Shinobigami PDF Delivery!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:24:47 AM

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

Final PDF Materials: Need one more day to put together
over 4 years ago – Sun, Jul 21, 2019 at 02:58:26 PM

Hey everyone, a very quick update on the finalized PDF:

I noticed a few errors in the credits area of the book upon final layout delivery, just need an hour or two to complete. That means the finalized PDF will be delivering one day later than anticipated last week (Monday US time, instead of Sunday as mentioned earlier).

The other materials (additional scenario, scenario guidelines and koma/figure sheet) are complete as well, and will be packaged together for the backers tomorrow!

A preview of the Shinobigami koma/character pawn sheet!
A preview of the Shinobigami koma/character pawn sheet!

Thanks for your time, and see you tomorrow!

Last Chance to Confirm Backerkit Order: Final PDF Release this Week
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 01:53:06 AM

Hi team Shinobigami-

FINAL PDF THIS WEEK: Apologies for the delay on this update: We're a few days before releasing the finalized/finished electronic version of the game. I postponed this very update over a week in hopes to have it finished sooner, but it'll take another day or two to finalize it. In any case, it will go out to all backers within the next week! We'll also have a set of Shinobigami koma (character drawings used for the battle mat), a scenario design template, and another ready-to-play scenario that will be given to all backers at the same time the PDF becomes available, before/on 7/21.

As the PDF has been edited and all, we'll be going to print a week after: Everything is finalized with the printer for the first book.

FINALIZE YOUR BACKERKIT ORDER: We had a little delay recently, due to following up with a lot of backers over on the Backerkit system. With a few hundred backers not finalizing the details, we couldn't confirm a final book count. Luckily, the last two weeks we reached a "safe threshold" where we will be covered in the book and limited edition book count, so we're safe at this point. We haven't collected money from it/charged cards yet (we don't think it's fair to collect the money before we're actually pushing to print), but we will within the next 1-2 weeks. Still, please note:

* If you haven't received a notice from Backerkit to finalize your Shinobigami order and address, please reach out to us through the Kickstarter messaging system.

* If you have received the notice, please do go and fill it out. If you have any questions, contact us.

NEXT STEPS: On a positive note, Matt was able to join me in Japan for a week this last month. We had a chance to meet up with Shinobigami's designer from Adventure Planning Service/Bouken, Kawashima-sensei, over a long lunch in Ikebukuro; we spent that time catching up and talking game theory and design; and also talking/hashing out our strategy for the supplement book and deliverables, so that they won't see further delay. 

Hashing out details over some curry and snacks at a 24/7 diner in Ikebukuro
Hashing out details over some curry and snacks at a 24/7 diner in Ikebukuro
Just for fun, we compared "Serious Discussion Hand Gestures" between the US and Japan ("finger gun" vs "I'm holding a box")
Just for fun, we compared "Serious Discussion Hand Gestures" between the US and Japan ("finger gun" vs "I'm holding a box")

I'll leave us with that; the next update this week will have the final Shinobigami PDF and above materials; then or shortly after a guideline to the rest of the deliverables. 

And again, if you have any questions about the Backerkit, or have not received your email yet, please reach out to us ASAP!

Blades out!

Backerkit Surveys are out! Confirm your address and pledge level!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 12:27:40 AM

Hey Team Shinobigami!

The Backerkit Surveys have gone out to everyone. You can now confirm your shipping address and final pledge levels there. 

If you have not received an email form Backerkit yet, please first check your SPAM email folder/filter, then contact us in private.

For people who want to upgrade their Kickstarter pledge level: Backerkit can be a little confusing there, so I put together a guide with screenshots below that show you exactly where to click to upgrade your pledge.

 http://shinobigami.com/backerkit-upgrade-assistance-for-kickstarteroriginal-pre-order-backers/ 

In short, if you backed at the electronic level and want a physical book, you can't just select a book add-on; you have to upgrade your pledge to one of the levels with a physical book. A tad confusing but the above link should help sort you out.

If there's any problems, please reach out in private (my email is in the link above, too) and we'll sort you out.

Thanks!

PS: The public pre-order web store is open now as well, also through Backerkit:  https://shinobigami.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders 

Backerkit and Final Order/Shipping Confirmation to go out shortly!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 06:29:08 PM

Hey Shinobigami Team: Andy here with a quick update.

Shinobigami on Twitch: A Twitch user named Mitch from Penny for a Tale reached out to us, telling us that he's going to be streaming a Shinobigami session tonight (Wednesday) from 8PM EST. Normally I vet everyone/everything pretty carefully before announcing it for quality reasons (for people we've never worked with etc), but hey I figured Mitch seems nice so we'll roll the dice here! https://www.twitch.tv/pennyforatale/videos

New Shinobigami Discussion Site: With Google pulling the plug on G+, our awesome easy-to-reach Shinobigami community will be effectively dead. There are plenty of places to discuss our games on the internet (I'm fond of reddit and the Gauntlet RPG Forums), but we went ahead and created a new official discussion forum and sister Discord server, to post material, discuss rules and play, and interact with the community in a safe and spam-free zone that we control. It's for Shinobigami, our other games, and also generally using Japan/Japanese in RPGs, as well as discussions of Japanese language RPGs. It's called the Kotodama Hiroba (Hiroba == "Plaza/Courtyard"), and you can access it here:  http://kotohi.com/hiroba/ 

Backerkit: The Backerkit Page will be going live within the next 2-3 days. I wanted to announce the go-live of the page now, but I didn't realize until everything on the backend was finalized, that there's an up-to-48 hour manual review process in the end: So after carefully confirming all the details and pushing "Go"... oops, there's a 2-day wait. As soon as it's ready, I'm going to do a quick test then push it live for everyone. Here's what that means:

1) You'll be able to confirm your address. Don't worry on this front if you have moved in the last few years: We have NOT collected your shipping details through Kickstarter. We will not be shipping out the book to you until you've had a chance to confirm your address, so there won't be any chance of it going to the wrong place.

A slight hitch for folks planning on moving this year: Shinobigami is essentially three books: The Core Rule Book (which will be printing and shipping once we get a final headcount through Backerkit), the Expansion Book and the Limited Edition Hardcover book (which has both the previous two books combined under one cover): The latter two will be shipping towards the end of the year. So we'll be sending out a reminder once it's time to ship the Expansion book, to make sure to update your address through Backerkit if you moved this year.

2) You'll be able to upgrade your pledge. We opened four pledge levels for people to upgrade to: The "All PDFs/Electronic" level, the "Both books in hardcopy plus all PDFs" level, the "Limited Edition book plus all PDFs" level, and the "Limited Edition PLUS Regular Edition plus all PDFs" level. This will help us keep orders simple and make sure we can fulfill quickly.

3) You'll be able to add a few add-ons, if you want. Basically an extra core book; extra 2-book set; or extra limited edition book. This may work well for people in other countries who want to save on shipping. Also, just in case folks didn't have a copy of our previous works, you can also pick up a copy of Ryuutama or Tenra Bansho Zero at a discount.

4) You'll still get all shipping discounts due to being a Kickstarter backer. US Shipping Fees unsurprisingly went up in the past few years, but as always we are subsidizing some of those costs (especially for international orders). So there's no increase in shipping fees for the backers, even if you upgrade your backer level.

5) You'll be able to get the word out. We're running a pre-order store through Backerkit (at slightly higher prices; you early backers here get rewarded for your support), so others will be able to pre-order the game as well.

That's about it for now. As soon as the surveys have gone out to everyone, I'll post another update this week to make sure you received them.

Once the dust settles on the Backerkit collection, I'll be back with the finalized PDF and more updates (print estimate/status, additional PDF material, etc).

Again, next update coming in just a few days, stay tuned!