One of Us Will Die

Surveys coming soon, book upgrades, TWO streams to watch, and another poll!
11 days ago – Fri, May 29, 2026 at 09:42:26 AM

Hey everyone!

I'm still waiting for the Kickstarter funds to pay out, but in the meantime I've already put almost a dozen hours into the editing process - lots of reorganization and clean up happening as we polish the Lite edition manuscript into the final!

I also have another poll for you all to answer at the bottom of the update.

Surveys and What To Expect

Here's what you should know about BackerKit surveys (or a refresher and campaign-specific info for those already familiar):

• Sometime before Wednesday next week I'll send out the "smoke test". This goes out to about 5% of backers (randomly spread across pledge tiers). Once 90% of them have responded, or after about 48 hours, and assuming no issues, I'll send out the remaining surveys to everyone else.
• You'll get an email to the address you pledged with asking you to fill out the survey. I have had issues in the past with Apple ID emails, so if you don't get a survey and you use one, that might be why.
• The survey will ask you a few initial questions depending on your pledge tier (if you pledged for a tier that includes a VTT module, this is where you'll tell me which platform you want)
• You'll be able to add on additional items to your pledge. Payment for these items will be collected later alongside shipping and taxes, and you can return to your survey later to make changes up until I lock orders/addresses for shipping.
• PDFs and any other digital files will be distributed via BackerKit's Digital Downloads. The Lite edition will be made available right away, so you should get access to that as soon as your survey is filled out.

While you technically have several months to fill out your survey, make sure you do it soon so you don't forget! The only times I've ever had backers not get their rewards is if they don't fill out their survey.

Late Pledges Closing

When the surveys go out, I'll be closing Late Pledges on Kickstarter and opening Pre-Orders on BackerKit.

Streams!

We have two streams happening this weekend! 

1. Titus is going to be hosting a special stream on being a Director for One of Us Will Die tomorrow morning at 6am US Central. This session will cover topics like safety and player comfort, tone and atmosphere, genre and Archetypes, personalizing your game, improvisation, and homebrew. Hop in the Discord to watch this one!
2. Then, at 9pm US Central, Titus will be running a game for the Mythic Family actual play show.

Both of these streams will be recorded, so if they're not at a good time of day for you you can watch them back later!

Book Upgrades!

I looked at doing deluxe upgrades as an alt cover option, and it was significantly more expensive than just applying the UV spot gloss and two-color foil stamping to every copy (they charge extra per copy to make a 2nd cover option at all). So...I'm upgrading all the books! 80% of you said you were interested in having the upgraded version, so it just made sense to do it.

This does cost more for us to make, so if you want to help cover some of the increased costs you can use the Tip Jar in the survey to add a bit extra to your pledge. Or you can buy more add-ons if you also want more One of Us Will Die!

Poll Question

I had another question for you all! If I expanded the Role Cards pack to include Archetype randomizers, would you use them? I could also see them being handy for displaying your Archetype outside of your player screen since during standard play everyone knows each others' Archetypes.

They don't cost too much extra to add (and would be at no cost to backers), but I want to make sure they'd be used if I made them. Like the Role Cards, these would also be foil stamped. This upgrade would also add a tuck box rather than a resealable cellophane envelope for storage.

Thanks again for your awesome support! I can't wait for Daniel to get started on more art for the game as soon as the funding comes in.

- Josh

And that's a wrap! What's next?
25 days ago – Fri, May 15, 2026 at 07:49:57 AM

What a great ending to the campaign! Thanks to all of you, we unlocked a lot of stretch goals, expanding the book's contents tremendously.

Late pledges are still open for a little longer, and then I'll be transitioning to the BackerKit pre-order store for anyone who missed the campaign (which will be linked from the campaign page, so if you know anyone that missed it you can still share the campaign page link and they'll be able to navigate to the pre-order store).

What's Next, and what do you need to know?

Obviously, we now have to make the book! It's already fully written, but I need to edit it, Cassie needs to read through it and give us feedback, and Daniel has to create all the art and put it into layout. But in terms of what you can expect, we'll be using BackerKit for the pledge manager surveys, and I will send those out after about two weeks (once everyone's card has been charged).

Pledges and Surveys

Kickstarter will try for one week to charge your cards. If there is an issue with your card (e.g., if you bank blocked the transaction), Kickstarter will notify you and as long as you get your card updated swiftly your pledge should still go through. If your pledge does not go through, you will have the opportunity to get your card updated and pay for your pledge via the pledge manager (you'll still get a survey).

When you get your survey, you'll have the opportunity to upgrade your pledge, add any add-ons, and enter your shipping information. Payment for all of that will happen much later, closer to fulfillment. This is also when the Lite Edition rules will be shared with backers via BackerKit's Digital Downloads.

Communication

I'll share an update about once a month or whenever there's important info to share (like a date for charging for shipping, or when surveys go out). This will typically be a progress update on writing, art, and/or layout up until the printing order goes out, at which point the updates usually become timeline updates and the occasional preview pictures of rewards as they finish up manufacturing. 

If you need help with your pledge, first contact Kickstarter support as they'll be able to help you faster. Once you get your survey, initial help for that should go through BackerKit support. For questions, you can always contact me at [email protected], or in my Discord server (or the One of Us Will Die Discord), and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Special Edition Cover??

We may not have reached our 80k stretch goal to upgrade the cover with UV spot gloss and foil stamping, but I wanted to see if there was interest in a hardcover upgrade add-on option that would get you a copy of the book with these luxury upgrades. I need to double check the specifics with the manufacturer, but I believe it should be possible to do. This version of the book would cost $10 more than the base version, and anyone getting a copy of the book will be able to choose to upgrade to it later (including retailers, for any copy of the book they're getting).

But, I need to make sure this is of interest to enough people first. So, if you're interested in that, let me know in the poll below! The poll will close in a few days, so be sure to vote soon.

More Scenarios?

As you know, there was one scenario stretch goal we didn't get to. And Titus has some more he's been working on as well! We currently plan to release these in digital format for separate purchase (similar to the Shield of the City scenario) at a later date. 

And I think that about covers it! The next update will probably be in a couple weeks when surveys go out. Thanks again for all your amazing support, and I look forward to getting to work on editing the game!

- Josh

Murder in Malacanang UNLOCKED!
25 days ago – Thu, May 14, 2026 at 03:07:07 PM

14 down, 2 more to go!

We've unlocked our eighth new scenario with 5 hours left in the campaign! Up next we have our final scenario stretch goal, Amnesia, in which players start the game without knowing what Archetype they're playing, and the big one to upgrade the cover of the book.

I'm also expanding the unlock at 80k: if we get to this stretch goal not only will we upgrade all hardcovers with UV spot gloss, we'll also do foil stamping for the title! I think it would look really good with gold and red.

Pamaslang sa Malacañang

From Titus: "It's a murder mystery in the Philippines' White House. A satire on the country's political circus... and it was written before all the recent stuff happened. All resemblance to any real people living or dead is purely coincidental!"

Thanks again for your incredible support, and I can't wait to see what else we'll unlock before the campaign ends!

- Josh

Legend of Camelot UNLOCKED!
26 days ago – Wed, May 13, 2026 at 01:25:23 PM

Hey everyone!

We're into the final 36 hours of the campaign, and having unlocked a full new campaign for the book we're now racing to see how many of our remaining stretch goals we can get through before it ends! Next up is the new scenario Pamaslang sa Malacañang (Murder in Malacañang).

New Campaign: The Legend of Camelot

As always we have a word from Titus about our latest unlock: "One thing I love about the Arthurian Legend is it really feels like an RPG setting. People just keep adding characters and stories to it to the point that it truly belongs to whoever is telling the story at the time. It's so fascinating to me how the story is passed down from person to person, from medium to medium. From a collection of stories by Mallory, adapted into to a novel by White, which was then turned into a musical play by Lowe and Lerner, whose music my mother loved to the point of telling me the tale as a bedtime story, and now a social deduction TTRPG campaign. This is just one thread in a rich tapestry of retellings and I am so proud to have one in this book now. Thank you all so much."

As Titus said, thank you all for your amazing support so far, and let's see how many more of these stretch goals we can knock down before the campaign is over!

I also wanted to ask: For those of you who are fans of Arthurian legends (with any level of knowledge, detailed or otherwise!), what characters or locations do you most hope to be able to explore during the campaign? Or, what specific events would you like to see retold? Let us know in the comments!

- Josh

Final days stretch goals reveal!
27 days ago – Tue, May 12, 2026 at 02:40:20 PM

Hey everyone!

We're closing in on the last two days of the campaign and making some good progress toward our big stretch goal to add another full campaign to the book. Since there's only a couple days left to get more content unlocked and included in the book when it releases, I wanted to share the full list of remaining stretch goals we'd love to see unlocked:

As you can see, we have another two scenarios we'd love to be able to include in the book - both of which have been fan favorites during playtesting - and, if we can make it all the way to 800% funded in the next couple of days, we'll commit to doing UV spot gloss on the book's cover for an extra special finish!

Thanks again for your awesome support so far - we genuinely couldn't be making this game without all of you. And, as always, keep sharing the campaign! If you know people who have expressed interest but haven't backed yet, remind them that the Kickstarter is the only time we get to add content and upgrades like these via stretch goals, and that backing the campaign means getting access to the rules early! All backers will be getting access to the "Lite" edition rules once the pledge manager surveys go out in a couple of weeks.

- Josh