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Beam Saber

Created by Austin Ramsay

Beam Saber is a Forged In The Dark game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life. They are trying to do their part, then get out physically and mentally intact. The organizations that perpetuate The War throughout all of known space are too incomprehensibly huge to take down. There is no “winning” The War, there is only surviving it. Hopefully you can help others get out too. If you want to purchase the PDF alone, go to https://austin-ramsay.itch.io/beamsaber

Latest Updates from Our Project:

FINAL UPDATE (?) AND POD SHIPPING!
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 10:30:53 AM

POD books are shipping!

I received the 4th POD printing and it looked great! The issues I'd previously seen were solved and I went over with a fine tooth comb but, thankfully, there were no new problems.

I am sending out the request for those books today! POD backers will receive an email from DriveThru RPG providing additional instructions. MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR SPAM FILTERS FOR THIS EMAIL. If you have any issues, please contact DTRPG here.

Some POD Backers still have not provided their shipping addresses or have had a credit card error. Today I sent individual emails to all of them, so keep an eye our for those too!

When you receive your book (or if you already have it) please remember to mark your pledge as fulfilled here on KS, it helps them know that I'm a reliable creator. Also post them on social media with #BeamSaber so I can see that folks have started to receive them!

Final words

Hopefully this will be the last update that I have to make regarding this Kickstarter campaign. It's been a long road but things are basically concluded at this point. If you would like to keep up with my work you can find all of my sites on my linktree. Of particular note are my Itch.io page where you can find other games I've made (AND Beam Saber supplements), my Patreon that has my WIP games and thoughts, and CalazCon! which is my (currently) in recording Beam Saber mega game actual play series.

Finally and once again, thank you all for your support and patience. This wouldn't have been possible without all of you. I hope you enjoy Beam Saber both while reading it and playing it.

October 2023 Update
7 months ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2023 at 02:59:23 PM

Here's how things are progressing with Beam Saber

OFFSET PRINTING

The offset printing backers SHOULD all have their books in hand or have a tracking number for their delivery. If you don't have either, please contact Indie Press Revolution's support staff. I know some people don't have their books because they either never provided an address or they moved and did not update their address. I've emailed all of them, but only a few have gotten back to me. At this point my ability to get backers their unobtained books is basically nil without their help, so contact IPR!

POD BOOKS

Third time was NOT the charm. I DID scream. 

There were misalignment issues with this one, making some pages or individual words blurry, and other pages had the middle half misaligned from the outer quarters. DTRPG staff looked into it and there's  nothing wrong with the PDFs I provided by their own admittance, so they've provided their own version of the files for printing. I will be getting ANOTHER refunded copy of the book to once again test if they've gotten the printing right. That means another 3-4 week wait for it to be printed and shipped to me, and then going over it with a fine tooth comb to make sure whatever they did with the file didn't break anything new (like making the art low res or something). As always, I'll let you all know what happens with this one.

SECOND PRINTING

I have decided to move ahead with a second batch of offset printed copies of Beam Saber. I've ordered another 2000 to be sold exclusively through IPR. They should be available late this year, probably early December as printing is estimated to occur in November. For the POD Backers reading this, I'm sorry that your books might get to you after a second print run becomes available. I hope that the transparency I've shown in these updates helps clarify the difficulties I've had getting your reward finished.

A Milestone
7 months ago – Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 04:10:57 PM

In July 2017 a group of friends and I played a stand alone session of Mobile Suit Zero: Firebrands.


In September 2023 I hold my first published and printed TTRPG, Beam Saber.

I feel... relieved to have it come this far. There's still some work  to do to wrap up the Kickstarter but this is a major milestone.

There are SO many people who helped make this. Page 2 lists a lot of  them, the biggest contributors, but there are more in the back!

6 years have passed since I started taking notes on my phone.

A lot has changed.

Two things that haven't are my love of mechs, and my love for Beam Saber.

I know I did a good job making it, and you should try playing it if you haven't.

I hope you'll watch what I do next.

SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE
7 months ago – Wed, Sep 13, 2023 at 03:05:07 PM

Here's how things are progressing with Beam Saber

OFFSET PRINTING

All of the books have shipped and most people have gotten them. Basically everyone in North America should have their copies, and copies are starting to arrive to European backers. However, several books are getting returned to Indie Press Revolution because the address provided by the backer is wrong (or there was some other issue). 

If you do NOT have your offset printing copy of Beam Saber you MUST contact IPR support! At the end of October I'm going to tell IPR to sell the remaining copies they've been holding back. Every backer has had multiple reminders to update their shipping address; this is your last one before your book gets sold on the open market.

POD BOOKS

I have requested a third POD sample that has been fine tuned with the direct help of DTRPG staff. Now I need to wait 2-3 weeks for copy to get to me, and then review it for issues. If this one isn't good, I'm going to scream.

Once it arrives, I will begin sending out the POD copies. THIS IS YOUR FINAL NOTICE TO UPDATE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS. I don't know what happens to a POD book when it gets returned to the printer, but I doubt they'll be as nice about it as IPR have been.

SECOND PRINTING

That's right! Beam Saber is ALREADY sold out at IPR so I'm now contemplating a second print run. It is, however, a LOT of money to make that printing, so I'm having to weight pros and cons about it. If you want the opportunity to buy an offset printing copy, please let me know in the comments! Also, PLEASE tell your local gaming store that they should carry Beam Saber and to contact Indie Press Revolution about getting copies. Very few, if any, game stores got copies of the book and their interest will be based on YOUR interest.

Talk to you all next month or when I have another important update.

Beam Saber print copies now on sale!
8 months ago – Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 02:25:13 PM

If you missed your chance to pre-order Beam Saber, you can get one now! There's a limited supply of offset print copies available through Indie Press Revolution so get them while you can! Also please share this post and help get the word out!

POD Backers

I know that some of you may be disappointed to read the above given the ongoing issues with getting the POD copies to you. Sasha is currently working on addressing the new directions provided by DTRPG to get the book POD ready. They say that it should be good to send in within a week. Once that's done, I'll request another POD sample be sent to me (can't believe I'm going to have at least 2 bad POD copies of the book, plus a third one that's hopefully good) and if there are no problems with it, I'll start arranging for POD copies to be sent to each of you.