The next big thing...
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 02:28:27 PM

Hi everyone!

As hinted at in the last update, we wanted to share more details on the big news that has hit the internets this week -- 

Announcing CARBON GREY: THE ROLE PLAYING GAME!

We here at Neurobellum/Magnetic Press have been life-long gamers – both tabletop and video games – and I spent 20 years as a producer in the gaming industry before jumping full-time into graphic novel publishing. But ever since, I’ve missed gaming with a passion… game design is and always will be in my blood. So after years of planning and preparation, Magnetic Press has finally announced the formation of MAGNETIC PRESS PLAY, an imprint dedicated to tabletop games and new media. And the first game in that slate will be launching next Tuesday August 3rd on Kickstarter!

CARBON GREY is a brand-new Role-Playing Game based on the popular graphic novel series created by Hoang Nguyen, Khari Evans, Paul Gardner, and Kinson Loh. It is set in an alternate history that at first blush resembles World War One, but with drastic, noticeable differences: fantastic and often futuristic technologies, supernatural abilities, unearthly creatures, and unexplainable phenomena that will leave you guessing. In the game, you will take on the role of an operative or pawn awakened from blissful unawareness to the fantastic forces secretly at play in the universe. You can play as one of twenty-four unique character archetypes, gifted with talents and abilities of your choosing.

Gameplay is built on the time-tested legacy of the D6 System by classic RPG company West End Games. The system has been used for many popular properties including STAR WARS, GHOSTBUSTERS, MEN IN BLACK, and THE DC UNIVERSE. The Carbon Grey Role-playing Game will be the first to use the official “Magnetic Variant” (D6MV) of these classic tabletop role-playing game rules.

The game will be offered as both a STANDALONE HARDCOVER RULEBOOK or a COMPLETE TABLETOP BOXED SET with twenty-one detailed miniatures varying in scale from 32mm heroes and enemies to a giant 96mm cannon walker, a sturdy 3-panel Game Master screen, 140 character and item cards, a large 24 x 36″ world/battle map, twelve d6 dice (5x stone dice, 5x light dice, 2x wild dice) with custom pips, and eight boards of punch-out map markers and tokens.

If you’re not that interested in tabletop roleplaying, that's cool, we’ve still got something you may be interested in…

 The complete CARBON GREY series hardcover omnibus graphic novel! 

We’ve collected the entire original CARBON GREY comic book series – all 10 issues, plus bonus material – and re-edited into a single, striking tale of danger and destiny, following the prophecy of the 13th Grey, the daughter of Gottfaust who is destined to change the fate of the world.

Over 300 pages of gorgeously painted storytelling by Hoang Nguyen, Khari Evans, Paul Gardner, and Kinsun Loh, encased in a premium 8.5 x 11″ linen-textured hardcover volume with spotUV elements and curved corners. If you aren’t familiar with the series, this will be the ultimate way to enjoy it. And if you are already familiar, this will be the ultimate edition for your collection.

About the new campaign

One thing about this new campaign we’d like to point out – this will be our first major campaign in the “Tabletop Games” category on Kickstarter, and as such, we decided to run it under a separate Magnetic Press Play account focused solely on those types of projects. So while the account may be different, you can take confidence that the folks behind it are the same ones who have brought you the last 12 successful campaigns under Neurobellum. 😊

If you’ve followed our campaigns up to now, you’ll have a pretty good idea what to expect: we’ll be offering Day-1 and weekly bonus prints, as well as a whole series of stretch goal bonuses. And like our previous campaigns you can pre-register now to get an exclusive limited edition print of the omnibus cover art!

But please don’t worry --  we haven’t bitten off more than we can chew because the creative team behind these tabletop projects will be completely separate from our graphic novel production – it's like two separate departments under the same familiar roof! We have an experienced team working on Carbon Grey under the creative leadership of ENnie award-winning writer of the recent ALIEN and TERMINATOR RPGs, Andrew E.C. Gaska. He is making sure this RPG experience will be awesome.

We have a lot of exciting projects in the works for both accounts, and we think you will find everything to be just as worthwhile as ever. If you’re just interested in graphic novels, Neurobellum will keep you covered. If you’re only interested in games, we’ll have plenty for you to consider under Magnetic Press Play. And if you’re at all interested in the other side, we’ll make it easy for you to give something new a try. 😊

So please check it out and support us on Day-1! This is an exciting new chapter for us, and we hope you'll come along for the ride!

Overdue report - shipping status
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 06:07:20 PM

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lag in updates lately -- the past 10 days have been an emotional whirlwind... not to get too deep into family matters, but my stunt-pilot father was in a plane crash which forced some extended time away from the desk... he's doing okay and on the road to recovery, but it was certainly a bit of a distraction. 

We were also pretty focused on the big public reveal of MAGNETIC PRESS PLAY, our new tabletop gaming imprint with some VERY COOL things in the works! More on those projects later, but for now...

SHIPPING STATUS

Quartermaster has most of everything at this point. The last item to arrive will be the ORPHANS Box Sets which we expect to show up late next week. Assuming no further delays on that item, we should have everything to QML by mid-August, which could mean the following rollout:

United States and Canada 

• These will ship directly from QML here in the states.  Assuming no further delays, fulfillment is tentatively set to begin the week of 9/13.  They have to schedule their fulfillment teams and that is the slot we've locked in. Once they've begun packages start going out with a week or two.

United Kingdom and European Union

• These will be fulfilled by Spiral Galaxy in the UK.  Inventory will ship from QML the week of 9/13 and arrive within roughly 1-2 weeks in the UK. From there, fulfillment should begin by the week of 10/11.  A more accurate ETA will be available once the shipment is prepared. 

Australia/New Zealand from Aetherworks

• These will be fulfilled by Aetherworks in Australia. Inventory will ship from QML the week of 9/13 and arrive within roughly 1-2 weeks. Fulfillment could begin the week of 10/11. A more accurate ETA will be available once the shipment is prepared. 

Asia from VFI

• These will be fulfilled by FVI. (I'm sorry, I'm not immediately sure where that is located, but that is their primary hub for Asian countries...) Inventory will ship from QML the week of 9/13 and arrive within roughly 1-2 weeks. Fulfillment could begin the week of 10/11. These tend to take a few weeks longer to reach their destination because of different customs requirements in some of those territories. A more accurate ETA will be available once the shipment is prepared. 

We will of course post updates as soon as we have news on each of these phases.

Thanks for your patience and excitement! Now get ready for something else to get excited about... sneak peek!

And now your Ambassador Points can get you even more...!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 08:02:14 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you're starting a nice weekend -- just a quick note (in case you didn't get a message in your email inbox): 

Ambassador Points can now be redeemed for Gift Cards!

What does this mean and why should you care?

We know that shipping (especially international shipping) can be expensive these days, so we wanted to find a way to make those points a bit more useful. So we're running a test program until July 20th wherein Gift Cards are now available in the menu of ways points can be redeemed.

Why are gift cards better than discount codes?

1. Gift Cards act as Credit at checkout meaning they apply to the bottom line total, including shipping and taxes!
2. They do not take up the discount code slot, so they can be used in combination with other discount codes!
3. They can be used on anything in the store!
4. They can be transferred or gifted to a friend or loved one!

You can read more information on how gift cards work here.

So if you haven't registered to take advantage of the Points Earned during the Kickstarter campaign, there's even more incentive to do so!

If you're unsure what your balance is, or if you're not even sure if you have registered, just go to https://store.magnetic-press.com/#smile-home  and log in or sign up using the email address associated with your Kickstarter account, and you should find points waiting for you. (If not, send us a message and we can help get you sorted.)

Please note: you redeem points for Gift Cards in the Ambassador Point app -- not by adding a Gift Card to your cart like a purchased item!

If you don't have enough points for a Gift Card yet, there are many ways to earn points: Share or Follow us on Facebook or Twitter, place an order, or just celebrate a birthday! You earn 10 points for every dollar spent on the store, so they can add up quickly!

If this test run works out, we hope to make other exclusive items available for points: exclusive prints, Tees, and bling (coins, maybe...?) that will only be available using points... We've got lots of plans!

HOW TO REDEEM AND THEN USE A GIFT CARD:

1) From your Ambassador Point dashboard, select "Ways to Redeem" and select a gift card. It will say "View" to see the item/offer.

2) Click "Redeem" to complete the transaction.

3) You will then see a discount code that will make the Gift Card free at checkout. You must "Add product to cart" for the code to work! (The "Add to cart" button will turn into a checkmark if/when successfully added.) 

4) The discount code will be automatically applied to your cart, making the item FREE. You can have other items in the cart, too -- the discount will just make that Gift Card item free.

5) When you complete the order, your Gift Card will be emailed to you. It will contain a unique number. If you wish to share or send this Gift Card to a friend, simply forward them the email. The unique number is not tied to any account and can be used by anyone, so keep it secure!

6) To use the Gift Card number, enter it in the "Gift Card or discount code" box the next time you check out.

7) Voila! The discount code box should still be there to add another discount (unless you have a bundle in your cart... those take up the discount slot). When you're finished, simply proceed to complete your transaction.

Thanks! We really appreciate your support and want to do our most to keep you satisfied and excited! 

Even MORE Points have been awarded...!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 05, 2021 at 08:20:01 PM

Hi everyone!

Real quick update to let everyone know that there was an error in the formula that calculated points for everyone. We fixed the error and updated everyone's account... with 9x more points! 

The formula accidentally only assigned 1-point-per-dollar instead of 10-points-per-dollar... so we just issued the remaining points that you should have gotten the first time.

So everything should be straight now. Let us know if things appear confusing on your point account balance and we can look into it.

Now we've got some fireworks to set off... Happy 4th!

Ambassador Points have been awarded!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 03, 2021 at 08:05:06 PM

Hi everyone!

It has been a crazy-busy number of weeks around here, but it is so exciting to see all of these projects and pieces come together... The books are expected to arrive next weekend (after a long delay in customs... shipping has become such a nightmare...), and the ancillary stretch goal items are all on their way straight to Quartermaster.  The last remaining item on the list is the ORPHANS slipcase, which are trailing behind by just a couple of weeks. At this point, we are expecting everything to be at Quartermaster to start shipping orders by the first or second week of August.  

We know that is a bit later than the June ship date originally targeted when we ran this campaign in February, but no one -- our printers included -- thought that shipping delays would actually GET WORSE on this side of the Pandemic... We were sincerly hoping the pendulum would be swinging back to normal by this point...

We've come to adjust all of our more recent project schedules accordingly, but we can only do our best to make our best time on this one. We will definitely keep you posted but in the meantime...

...You've got points!

In case you missed the mention on the campaign page, everyone who pledged to the campaign will receive a number of Ambassador Points equivalent to their final pledge. What are Ambassador Points?  They're reward points that can be collected and redeemed for discount codes on our webstore, and a great way to further support Magnetic Press (and get some more cool books at a great price!

If you are already a webstore customer and part of the program, just log into your webstore account (which should be the same email address as your Kickstarter/Backerkit account). You should see those new points added to your balance under the heading "MONOLITH Kickstarter Reward Points."

If you don't have an account on our webstore, your points have been entered, but you will need to complete registration to use them. :)

• You may receive an invitation email with your personal link soon, but in the meantime, if you'd like to set up an account manually, just go to store.magnetic-press.com and click on the Ambassador Point button on the lower left of the screen to register.

• Click on that button and then click "Join now" or "sign in" using the email account associated with your Kickstarter/Backerkit account to be sure your points are there when you register.

It's really as simple as that! You'll see your current point total, the next available reward, your points history, and other information such as how to earn more and other rewards to redeem. If you have already redeemed points for a discount code, those will be waiting under "Your rewards" for quick and easy access!

If you don't see your points waiting after registering, you may be completely new to our webstore system entirely. Just message us and we'll add your points manually right away!

And if you want to sign up using a different email address, just message us and we'll look up your points based on your Kickstarter email address.

We've made earning points pretty simple -- follow us on social media, share your purchases, have a birthday... some things are so easy you don't even have to think about it. There are SO MANY AMAZING BOOKS to discover, we're pretty sure you will find something to spend those points on! And we're working on new exclusive rewards and Ambassador Perks that we'll be rolling out soon so sign up and stay tuned!

Thanks, everyone! Let us know if you have any questions!