The Story Engine: Lore Master's Deck

Created by The Story Engine

Lore Master's Deck is the ultimate creative jumpstarter for writers, game masters, and worldbuilders who want to fill their stories with rich, interconnected lore.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Thank you!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 10:53:24 PM

A huge thank you to all 3741 of the writers, artists, storytellers, and creatives that backed our campaign! We funded at 675% of our initial goal with a total of $506,282 and unlocked a slew of amazing stretch goals along the way! The finished Lore Master’s Deck will have 300 cards, a set of Link Tokens, and is being released alongside 3 Lore Mastery Expansions, 3 Bridge Expansions, and a Lore Master’s Journal. We’ll also be planting 3,000 trees, giving away 30 decks to educators, and bringing on 6 guest writers to polish up our lore prompts before we send them to you!

 
Each and every one of you helped make that happen, and so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

So what’s next?

 
Whatever payment method you submitted will be charged today (and may have already been charged in some cases). Once it’s processed, you’ll receive a confirmation email that lets you know your pledge has gone through. You'll have a chance to update payment info if there are any issues, so you don’t need to worry about losing your pledge tier and the rewards that go with it. We’ll spend the next two weeks making sure everyone gets squared away.
 
Once we’re done with that, sometime within the next 8 weeks we’ll send out a backer reward survey that you’ll need to fill out to select the exact options that you want, and to tell us where we should send your rewards during fulfillment. You can also add items to your pledge and pay for shipping (and applicable taxes in your region, if any) at that time. We’ll announce that survey on our social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) so you can keep an eye out for it in your inbox. You will be able to request another survey through our BackerKit project page if you lose your survey link, and you'll be able to continue to add-on items or update shipping info until we deliver pledges. Our current schedule is to deliver digital rewards by March, and physical reward in October-December 2024.
 
For now, however, we’re going to raise a toast take a much-needed long rest. Then we’re going to get back to work. This campaign has been a whirlwind, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve created together!

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! ⚔️ Draw swords at 9pm ET for our Wrap Party Livestream!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 05:13:19 PM

Today is the last day of the Lore Master’s Deck campaign!

Here are the headlines!

  • Join us for tonight's wrap party livestream at 9pm ET featuring Deck of Worlds giveaway, live lore prompts, and sabering a bottle of bubbly ⚔️🍾
  • Link tokens unlocked for every copy of the main deck
  • Next 3 stretch goals with our $500,000 double-feature + bonus sharing stretch goal
  • Pledge tier consolidation

Livestream wrap party tonight at 9pm ET

At midnight, we draw blades! ⚔️
 
It may be the end – but we have no intention of going quietly! We’ll be counting down to midnight right here with one final livestream/wrap party that kicks off at 9pm ET.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W4Pd5sVgQM

We’ve lined up an entire evening of party games and party tricks, including card magic from Peter (you can try this at home) and a sparkling wine sabring demonstration from Miroki. (Please don’t try this at home. You’re welcome to open your own bottle of bubbly, but leave the swords to the professionals.)
 
Along the way, we’ll run a giveaway (details on the livestream), and host a pun contest, where you’ll have the opportunity to bombard us with your worst (best) puns based on lore we create together! We’ll be going right up until midnight (and beyond), so drop in at any point this evening!

Link Tokens Unlocked!

 
We blew past $450,000 overnight – and supercharged Lore Master’s Deck along the way! As a "token" of our appreciation, every copy of the main deck includes a set of link token, in addition to 300 cards, allowing you to start tracking connections as your world and lore come together!


Next 3 Stretch Goals

 
On the highway to half a million, we’re less than $11,000 away from our double stretch goal at $500,000. That includes the free PDF deck of Quickstart Prompts that you can use right out of the box (no assembly required), and another 10 educator decks to bring our total to 30.


The sample prompts are great when you just want to do a quick writing exercise, or if you need some last-minute inspiration for your next RPG session!

Also, for those backers who haven't yet, if you open our "500 backers share" Community Achievement page and click the button to share the campaign, you can help us unlock a free bonus PDF Outtakes Expansion!

Pledge tier consolidation

When we launched this project, many of our add-ons and pledge tiers were stretch goals that hadn't been made available yet. We released the add-ons first, and later the bundle pledge levels. During our opening livestream, we mentioned that before the campaign ends, the BackerKit dev team would be able to identify backers who had individually added-on items that would later be featured together in a bundle pledge level. Today, the BackerKit team is taking those qualifying early backers and consolidating their pledge+add-ons so they have the best pledge level bundle pricing available for their add-ons. You may see our funding level dip slightly at some point today when these changes are processed.

If you have any questions about your pledge or add-ons, don't hesitate to reach out!

See you tonight!

We're so excited to celebrate the final hours with you all!

We'll be going live from our YouTube channel and the BackerKit campaign page.

30 HOURS LEFT! New stretch goal + FINAL livestream + pledge level checklist + updated shipping table
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 04:11:16 PM

Hi backers!

30 HOURS REMAIN for the Lore Master's Deck on BackerKit and we are excited to see so much progress in the final hours! Here are the latest headlines!


Let's get into the details!

New bonus stretch goal

We're on track to unlock the $450,000 goal of link tokens, which will be included in every copy of the main deck!

If we reach $500,000 by midnight ET tomorrow, we'll release a printable PDF deck free of 12 tarot-sized ready-to-use prompts for characters, magic items, locations, creatures, and story hooks featuring our favorite prompts from our livestreams and demos.




Use them as examples, or as writing prompts, or templates for NPCs, monsters, and encounters for your home tabletop RPG game. The PDF will be distributed to every backer receiving a physical or digital copy of the main deck.

Also, please remember our OTHER bonus stretch goal! If 500 different backers share the campaign page and log their share from our Community Achievement page, we'll release a free PDF: the Master of Lost Lore: Outtakes Expansion featuring our favourite outtakes from the main deck!



Join our livestream wrap party!


There's no livestream today, but that's only because we're preparing for a MEGA LIVESTREAM WRAP PARTY that kicks off at 9pm ET tomorrow! Click the link to follow our YouTube channel and sign up for notifications for the live.


 
We'll count down the last few hours of the campaign together, and we've got a full evening of festivities planned to make it an evening to remember! 

  • A giveaway of Deck of Worlds + 3  worldbuilding expansions of your choice
  • Oodles of lore prompts, including the expansions!
  • We'll be hosting a lore puns contest in the chat (bring your best/worst puns to horrify Miroki)
  • Miroki will sabre a bottle of bubbly live on camera
  • Peter will attempt to perform some card magic using the deck

Tune in live on our campaign page to make some lore, and to celebrate the end of a successful BackerKit campaign!

New pledge level bundle checklist


We're making a list. We know it can be tough to keep track of all the different add-ons and expansions--especially now that we've added our massive CONJURE and DEVOUR pledge levels for the Lore Master that wants it all.


That's why we've created a checklist (also posted on our pledge page) that shows you exactly what you'll be getting with our biggest bundles. We want you to get everything you want, with minimal fuss and minimal confusion. Just follow the guide to find the pledge level that makes sense for you!



Updated shipping estimates tables


Later tonight we'll be uploading our updated shipping estimates tables to include our two new pledge tiers (CONJURE and DEVOUR) and reflect the updated stretch goal unlocks at the All Lore and All Old + New Decks pledge levels. The changes are minimal, and limited to certain destinations  within certain regions in those tiers. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about shipping!

Win digital sketch cards from our live-drawing lore art stream

Ruins are the granola of buildings. Or so we learned during yesterday's delightful live drawing livestream with Megan McKay (Doodle for Food), who drew a series of adorable sketches based on Lore Master's prompts.

Megan was kind enough to let us give away digital sketch cards of the four illustrations we did! You could win one by answering the writing prompts we posted in our discussion board!

We originally set today as the deadline for entries, but we are extending the contest until the campaign ends tomorrow!

  • What should we name the offices of the animal gods, including the sleepy serpent-god Coldbra? Answer here!
  • What should we name our specials of feathered, swamp-dwelling, ruin-munching camel? Answer here!
  • What message does our overly trusting hyena messenger need to deliver? Answer here!
  • What is foretold reunion linked to the SMILING BOOK? Answer here!



Here's a look at our NPC, a hyena messenger for the gods who is swole, smol, and overly trusting!
  
Lore Master's prompts are just as much fun for visual artists as they are for writers, so check out the stream to see the finished drawings!

That's all for now!


Thank you so much for everything you've done to keep the momentum on the campaign going! Excited to celebrate the closing hours with you!

*No more asterisks! It's allllllll here! + Live drawing with Megan McKay 🎨
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 09:17:39 AM

The Bridge Trifecta is here! 🥳


Our Lore Master's Deck campaign passed $400,000 overnight - and that means we've unlocked our final Bridge Expansion! The Story & World Bridge will officially ship with our CONJURE and DEVOUR pledge tiers, and is available as an add-on for anyone who wants to complete their card collection!


Getting to $400,000 means that you've unlocked all of the cards we had planned for this campaign. We can still add awesome link tokens to the deck (along with some other goodies) so keep spreading the word to help us run up the score!


Who wants to see a snake deity get chased by a God-reviewer critic?

Right this minute, we're live with artist Megan McKay who is bringing her amazing, adorable art style to create doodles in live-time with the community based off prompts from Lore Master's Deck. Join us now on the main page!



See you there!

By the powers vested in us we're launching the CONJURE 🪄 and DEVOUR 👾 tiers!
about 1 year ago – Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 08:34:53 AM

Hi everyone! Quickie update from us today, since a few cool things have happened in the last 24 hours 🤘🏼

  • New Pledge Levels!
  • Reminder: Share for our Lore Blooper Cards
  • World Building and Breaking Livestream today at 2:30PM ET

You want it all?

You've got it all! The CONJURE and DEVOUR tiers are here!

The new CONJURE Pledge Tier is perfect for anyone who already has The Story Engine Deck and Deck of Worlds and wants to pick up the new decks, accessories, and collectibles to fill out their collection. 👉🏽 Find out more here.


The DEVOUR Pledge Level, on the other hand, is for newcomers who are ready to go all-in with The Story Engine. This tier includes everything in the CONJURE Tier, along with The Story Engine Deck and Deck of Worlds, all 15 of their respective Expansions, and all 12 Story Engine Boosters. You'll also get all three playmats,  since you'll be getting our Tell Your Story and Build Your World mats with our Weave Your Lore mat to complete the set.

This is the tier for you if you've never purchased one of our products and want to get caught up on everything you missed. The DEVOUR Pledge Level is the best price we've ever offered for our entire collection, so you don't want to miss this opportunity!

👉🏽 Find out more!

This deck has a blooper reel 🎞️

Wanna see the prompts that didn't make it? Help us spread the word! We'll release a FREE outtake PDF if 500 backers share the BackerKit campaign before we end on Friday, and we're almost 20% of the way there already!

Every backer gets us closer to another stretch goal, and we will make fools of ourselves (in writing) to provide a little extra incentive!

👉🏽 Check out the Achievement Goal here.

 Nice world. Be a shame if someone... broke it 🤭

TODAY we'll be live at 2:30pm ET! We'll be joined by special guest Jordan Shiveley, who will be helping us build a new world - and then demonstrating how you can use Lore Master's Deck to break that world to unlock a better story!

Join us on our pledge page to watch live, or catch the replays of all our livestreams on our YouTube Channel! 

You'll be hearing from us lots this week! The countdown is on to our Wrap Party this Friday, starting at 9PM ET! Bring your confetti poppers! 🎉🎉🎉 See you soon!