October Update: Shipping and Tracking
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 09, 2020 at 08:06:09 PM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-Philes!

The Cortex Prime Game Handbook books are on their way now to backers! We’ve seen requests for more information about shipping and tracking numbers, so here’s an update with more details now that we have them.

Atlas Games is shipping out all of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook physical copies to backers who are expecting them.

• This includes the limited run softcover and the much larger stock of hardcover books.
• In almost every case of domestic US shipments, these are being sent by USPS Media Mail.
• Depending on where you’re located and when the pallet of packages is picked up by USPS (usually daily), these books can take as long as 10 days to get to you, but often much faster. Atlas Games is in Minnesota, so midwest gets them sooner than east or west coast, for example.

For international shipments, it will vary depending on several factors, but here’s some visibility into the process..

• Atlas prepares a shipping label and attaches it to the package. Depending on the shipping company being used, which includes Globegistics and FedEx, these are sorted onto pallets. You get notified that your book is shipped, but the tracking number isn’t yet in the shipping company’s system.
• A truck picks up the pallets and drives them down to the shipping company depot, which is often in another city. Globegistics is based in Illinois, for example.
• At the depot, the package is scanned in. This triggers a tracking event and updates the shipping number on the shipment company site. This is the first time it will show up as being in their system.
• The depot breaks down the pallet by international region, scans the books again, and loads them onto trucks that go to a port. At this stage your tracking number is updated again.
• Once your package arrives in the country of destination it’s checked through customs and evaluated, before being once again sorted to region and sent along. In some cases this means it goes into the destination country’s postal service, other times it’s handled by a domestic courier.
• Your package then gets delivered to you!
  

We’ve been informed by Atlas Games that more than ¾ of books have already been shipped out and more are being processed. There’s a likelihood that if you have checked your international tracking number and it’s saying no information is available, it hasn’t yet arrived at the depot. We expect these to be updated early next week after the long weekend (Indigenous Peoples Day in the US is Monday).

Shipping continues to be impacted by the ongoing pandemic, so even though the process will happen as described above, delays can happen. Remember that the initial shipping notice is confirmation the process has started, and you should receive tracking information following that. Rest assured your books aren’t in limbo - they’re on the way. Thanks for your support, and we can’t wait for these books to get into your hands!

Cheers,

Cam and the Cortex Production Crew

September Update Pt. 2: Shipping and Access Codes
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 09:22:24 PM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-Philes!

As we near the end of the month we’re delighted to announce that the books are on their way from the printer to our fulfilment partner, Atlas Games, up in sunny Duluth, Minnesota. From there they’re going to be packed up, labeled, and shipped around the world to all of you.

We expect this process to take at least a couple of weeks to complete, depending on the speed of media mail and the whims of ports and customs, but before you even get your books we plan on sending out unique access codes to every backer for the Cortex Compendium at CortexRPG.com. We will use BackerKit to distribute those, but every printed Cortex Prime Game Handbook also comes with a sticker on the inside cover with a code as well. That way if you know somebody who wanted to get into the Kickstarter but couldn’t, there’s an extra single-use code for you.

What you see on CortexRPG.com today is just the start. We will share more details about the Cortex digital platform in the coming months as more content, tools, and features are added to the service. Just as D&D Beyond grew into the invaluable resource it is today, so too will CortexRPG.com grow into your central hub of all things Cortex. We can’t wait to show you more.

The official “street date” of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook in book and hobby stores around the world is October 20, 2020. If you’d like to support your local game stores in this time of pandemics and postal problems, go ahead and ask them to place an order with their distributor. It would mean a lot to them, and it would mean a lot to us!

Peace,

Cam and the Cortex Prime Crew

September Update: Locking Shipping Addresses!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 08, 2020 at 08:00:59 PM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-philes!

This update is all about one thing: finalising the address we are shipping your physical books to. If you didn’t back the Cortex Prime Game Handbook at a physical level, you can go ahead and skip this update (although there are still thirty people who haven’t responded even to the BackerKit survey… if this is you, even if you only backed at a dollar, please go do that!).

You need to have your current address properly finalized in BackerKit (see below) no later than September 22, 2020!

Locking Addresses

Shortly I’ll be sending out a separate email via BackerKit that tells you I’m going to lock your addresses. This should include instructions and a link to go ahead and update your shipping address. If for some reason you don’t get that email but you DO get this one (or you read it here on Kickstarter in your app, or something like that) you should be able to go straight to:

Your BackerKit Projects

Select Cortex Prime, then it takes you straight to your order. You can edit your shipping address on that page. Remember to save your changes.

Alternately you can go straight to the Cortex Prime backerkit page and navigate to your account information there.

Reminder!

Don’t respond to this update—or send me a direct message on Kickstarter—with your mailing address change. All changes need to be made by you on your Cortex Prime BackerKit page, NOT on Kickstarter. Thanks!

P.S. We will have another update this month where we’ll share a bit more about next steps for Cortex, so keep a look out for that after you confirm your shipping address.

All the best,

Cam and the Cortex Prime production crew

August Update: Final PDF, Xadia, and Grayskull!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 02:35:24 AM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-Philes!

This month brings confirmation on deliverables for the Cortex Prime Game Handbook and two huge announcements. Let’s get right to it.

Backer PDF!

Backers should all soon get notification via BackerKit emails of your final, full-featured, linked and indexed Cortex Prime Game Handbook PDF. This is it, not a pre-release version or an almost-there version. Those of you who backed the PDF on BackerKit (rather than just the physical book) should also get access to this. As a reminder, this file is stored in your Digital Downloads folder on your BackerKit page, accessed via the Cortex Prime links you’ve had all this time. There should also be a direct link to download it in that email.

We are hard at work on creating a secondary PDF that is specifically designed for enhanced accessibility for those who use screen readers. Working in conjunction with DOTS RPG, a team of accessibility experts that specialize in the TRPG space, we’ve made some accessibility improvements for the PDF going out now, but there’s more to come. That PDF will be available to everyone who got the Cortex Prime Game Handbook PDF.

Printing and Shipping

As confirmed by our print partner, Taylor Specialty Books, the printed hardcover and softcover Cortex Prime Game Handbooks are scheduled to be complete and ready to ship to our fulfilment partner in Minnesota at the end of September. As always, this assumes we don’t have any further COVID-19 related delays.

Once they arrive at our fulfilment warehouse, our fulfilment partner will box them up and ship them out to backers around the world. Now is a good time to check your BackerKit account for your correct mailing address! There’s going to be another email next month that essentially says, “Here’s what we have on record, is this right?” from BackerKit, but checking it now can make things easier. Note: your Kickstarter account no longer has any bearing on your information, so updating it there won’t affect our records on BackerKit. You must update it on BackerKit for us to have the right contact and shipping information.

Big Licenses for 2021!

This month we were thrilled to announce the first two major Fandom Tabletop RPG licenses primed by Cortex: Tales of Xadia and Legends of Grayskull. Each consists of a line of gorgeous full-color print game books and our digital toolset, as well as an upcoming organized play program and much more.

Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince RPG is based on the Emmy-award-winning Netflix animated series, which has already had three seasons and was recently renewed for four more! With Tales of Xadia, we’re using flavorful mods from Cortex Prime to capture the heartfelt emotional resonance of the show with the broad variety of backgrounds and options that fans expect. Wonderstorm, the producers of The Dragon Prince, have allowed us to explore parts of this world beyond the story of the show, which makes it not only a must for fans but also a fresh alternative to standard fantasy RPGs.

Legends of Grayskull: The Masters of the Universe RPG draws from Mattel’s living myth featuring He-Man, Skeletor, She-Ra, and Hordak, as well as a dizzying array of other colorful heroes and villains, magical and technological marvels, and a cross-generational fan base. We’re excited to provide this evergreen core game handbook with which you can create your own Masters of the Universe or your favourites from toys, cartoons, and comics. Legends of Grayskull builds on Cortex Prime’s rich history of super heroic action and introduces a new take on some familiar Cortex mechanics to truly capture what it feels like to tap into the power of Grayskull.

That’s it for now! As always, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion over on our official discord.gg/EGwwfwS Discord server.

Peace,

Cam and the Cortex Production Crew

July Update: Hammerheads Spotlight!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jul 25, 2020 at 11:10:55 AM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-Philes!

With the Game Handbook off at press, the System Reference undergoing structural editorial review, and the Cortex RPG digital platform in development, and some other exciting announcements coming very soon, everything Cortex is coming together nicely. This month’s update touches on some of the above, just to keep you informed of our ongoing progress and what to look out for.

Print Proofs are Here!

We got our wet proofs in from Taylor Specialty Books. Tina reviewed them all for any lingering layout issues, Amanda joined her in taking careful note of anything that may have escaped our extensive proofreading pass, and now all of those notes and minor fixes are submitted. We’re still on track for September to get these books shipped out, barring of course any future delays due to the pandemic or other unforeseen factors.

Here’s a photo of Tina’s office helper contributing to the print proof review process!

Hammerheads Spotlight

Those of you who have read over the pre-release Game Handbook PDF may know about Hammerheads, one of the three spotlight settings in the Settings chapter. In order to give people a taste of Cortex Prime, we’ve assembled a standalone Hammerheads Spotlight mini-game with all of the rules you need in order to play a crew of Hammerheads agents. You can use this to teach your friends the rules or give them a go yourself. What’s more, this represents your first look at the Cortex digital compendium thanks to the tireless efforts of our engineering and content team at Fandom Tabletop!

Check out the Spotlight here and let us know what you think!

In the meantime, we hope you’re all safe and well and doing as best you can. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion over on our official Discord server.

Peace,

Cam and the Cortex Team