So much progress!

We've gotten through rough layout of the ENTIRE core rulebook, which was a huge milestone, and now we're moving on to the job of polishing it. When I saw your feedback on it, I told David Chart, "I am stunned by the draft layout comments in the survey spreadsheet. They REALLY CHECKED the sheet and DIDN'T duplicate comments that were already made. No D&D fandom would do that. Really, it's amazing." Your excellent comments are making a big job so much easier on our end, so thank you!

At the same time, we're moving on to the accessories layouts. We've releasing backer previews of the rough Storyguide Screen, Memorials Page, and Mythic Europe Map (updated) today. Next up will be the Reference Guide. So check your dashboard in Backerkit.com for those downloads as they're made available!

Our NEW comments form for accessories is here: https://forms.gle/KZ4RbG9vVW2B7yoJ7 We're still taking Memorials suggestions there, as well.

Thank you, again, for your help making Ars Magica the best it can be!

-Michelle Nephew
  Atlas Games Co-Owner
  Ars Magica Definitive Co-Producer

Salve sodales! We've hit a major milestone, so it's time to share our win!

Early this week we delivered the last chapters of the Ars Magica Definitive Edition rough layout PDF. If you don't have yours yet, be sure to check your downloads page at Backerkit.com. I hope you love it as much as we do!

Now it's polishing time! This is the part where we take what was pretty darned good and make it exceptional. In particular, we need your help finalizing the new Mythic Europe map. You'll find that art at the start of Chapter 14: Mythic Europe. Please let us know if you find any issues, and enter them into our comments form here: https://forms.gle/vKfnRCtsuMDU1H7z5

We need your map comments, especially, and any last comments on the book, by THIS MONDAY APRIL 21. We also need your submissions for the memorials page by then. All of those can be submitted on our comments form.

Thank you for your help!

-Michelle Nephew
 Ars Magica Definitive Producer
 Atlas Games Co-Owner

Everyone in the game hobby is probably aware of the Trump administration's tariffs (import taxes), even if it's hard to stay abreast of changes that happen almost every day. I wanted write a note to explain how this affects Ars Magica Definitive Edition, and hopefully provide some reassurance.

We can divide campaign rewards into four categories:

There is some chance that counter-tariffs could affect #3, but it seems unlikely given that most countries are aiming at specific American industries for maximum political impact. There are no tariffs to worry about for #2 and #4.

This leaves us with Definitive Edition itself. As we have said from the beginning, we anticipated split fulfillment because we thought it was likely that Definitive might need to ship separately from other items.

Some publishers are confident that the tariffs as written do not apply to books. This may mean that we're in the clear. Yay! Or maybe that's wrong, and we'll be subject to the current 145% tariff on imports from China. Or maybe there will be a different rate for books and printed materials. I'm not putting much effort into finding out because whatever it is TODAY, it may be completely different TOMORROW. (Check out the breaking news this weekend about off-again/on-again tariffs and semiconductors, for example.)

If you are a non-US backer, we probably will need to use a fulfillment method that never clears formal US customs entry, thus never is subject to the import tax. We may do this by using a non-US fulfillment partner to handle all international packages. We are also exploring possible use of Duluth's Foreign Trade Zone to process and re-export goods without tariffs.

So that avoids tariffs for international customers. Since the books are Made in China, reciprocal tariffs on US-made goods should not apply to them either.

For US backers, Atlas Games MIGHT take a hit in terms of a tax we have to pay on copies we import in order to send them to you. This would be a harsh blow to our profit margin.  However, it's worth noting that we originally planned this book as something that we could sell to wholesale distribution (meaning at a 60% discount to the cover price), the campaign did better than our conservative projections, and a lot of the campaign is outside of tariffs (international backers plus categories 2-4 above).

If I had to decide today (which thankfully I don't), I would print barely more than enough copies of Definitive to fulfill our backer rewards and pre-orders, and not offer the book for wholesale distribution beyond our campaign's existing retailer backers. It's a tremendous lost opportunity, but we might be able to reprint it with a 0% import tax rate at some point in the future.

If you're anxious on our behalf, you can help us hedge against uncertainty by encouraging folks who missed the crowdfunding campaign to pre-order Definitive Edition. They won't get as good a deal as our campaign backers did, but pre-sales mean more copies we can definitely add to the print run (and, in the case of international buyers, keep outside the US to avoid the tariffs altogether).

Meanwhile, work on Definitive continues in our scriptorium!

Thanks everyone for your incredible support and patience in these trying times.

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Gmaes

P.S. Have you checked out the 3rd party Ars Magica Open License publications lately? I was browsing the category over on DriveThruRPG this morning and there's a lot there now, and more coming! It's so exciting to see this creativity unleashed.

Salvete Sodales. It's time for an update on all our Ars Magica progress!

LAYOUT PROGRESS: Our rough layout has been released all the way up through Chapter 13: Bestiary now! We've been posting previews to backers as we've completed each chapter. Our thanks to everyone who's been providing correction comments! If you haven't been getting yours, please check your settings in Backerkit. The previews include Doug Shuler's fantastic 2-page full-color interior art pieces, so you don't want to miss them!

SHIPPING ARRANGEMENTS: International trade policy is a moving target. At this point items made in China are subject to a 20% tax. There's also a threat that a new tax of an extra 25% will be put on any country that buys oil from Venezuela, which would include China. So that might mean a 45% tax. Who knows? We're continuing to monitor the situation and explore options. For example, we have a meeting next week about the potential of using our local port's Foreign Trade Zone to store and re-ship goods without customs entry.

SOFTCOVER POD FULFILLMENT: For softcover sourcebooks, we're taking extra time to update the production files before fulfilling those campaign rewards. This is because we realized the spines in the print-on-demand files were done in a couple of different styles over the years. For Library of Durenmar backers in particular, we definitely want a consistent spine appearance when all the books are shelved together! Also, our print-on-demand vendor is setting up local printing in both Canada and Australia, which we'll want to use to direct-ship to backers in those areas. For EU backers, the UK-based print location is unable to send higher-value shipments by a DDP method, so we may wind up shipping those from the USA to make sure they arrive without any customs fees or VAT demanded on delivery.

Thank you for supporting the campaign, and ave atque vale.

-John Nephew
 President, Atlas Games

Salvete sodales! Here are some updates on Ars Magica Definitive Edition.

One stretch goal of the campaign was to give backers a free copy of Mythic Venice, the open license Ars Magica sourcebook published by long-time ArM contributor Timothy Ferguson. These e-books are being distributed via DriveThruRPG; you should have received an e-mail with instructions on how to redeem your free copy. Thanks, Timothy, for this and all your contributions to the Ars Magica community!

Speaking of Venice, I want to make sure our backers are aware of Serenissima Obscura, a Backerkit crowdfunding campaign coming soon from our friends at German publisher Vortex Verlag!

The authors of Serenissima Obscura, Melina Sedó and Andreas Wichter, translated the 2nd and 4th editions of Ars Magica into German and published their long-running saga "Castel di Romena" in the German magazine Fantastic Adventure. They are enthusiastic about finally creating something for the Ars Magica universe again! We're excited too, and delighted to see a project like this appearing under the Ars Magica open license/CC-BY-SA.

We have a new iteration of the Ars Magica transmutation dice in hand. We found that the first design was just too intricate, making it difficult to read or ink.



This photo shows some of the new dice, 3D resin printed and with numbers painted. These resin prototypes are satisfactory, so our next step is the CAD/CAM work for machining an actual mold.

America's new regime remains volatile and unpredictable. As I write, there is a 10% tariff in place on goods made in China; the 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports are apparently going to go into effect on March 4th. Unless there is again a last minute postponement, there will no doubt be reciprocal tariffs on US exports at that time as well. Other tariffs have been promised or threatened.

Given how things seemingly can change unexpectedly over any random weekend, we're just moving ahead and we'll see what things look like closer to printing and fulfillment time. We have gotten updated quotes for Definitive Edition with multiple printers in multiple countries. At this point, a Chinese printer is the top contender, even with an extra 10% tax on the manufacturing cost.

One wrinkle that we've become aware of is that the executive order imposing the tariffs explicitly says there is no duty drawback. Drawback is where, normally, goods that are re-exported from the US within a certain time frame are eligible to have the duty refunded. These special new Trump taxes are explicitly not refundable. This means we'll be looking into ways to handle international backer fulfillment without ever having those Definitive Editions enter the USA. It may or may not be more affordable and reliable to just bring it all into the US first. There's also a possible way to use Duluth's Free Trade Zone to defer or avoid formal entry for re-exported goods.

Another aspect of the executive order was the elimination of de minimis duty exemption on shipments from China and Hong Kong. This was quickly suspended, because the capability to assess and collect those taxes on hundreds of millions of small packages per year did not magically appear with no advance planning or funding for systems development and upgrades. If the de minimis were in place, it might make sense to have US shipments of Definitive Edition shipped directly to US backers from an international fulfillment partner, but that is not something we'll do if it would mean seeing our backers get handed paperwork and bills for a full customs brokerage/clearance process.

One way or another, we'll make it all work out! I'm continuing to watch developments closely and research all our options for all the contingencies we can see.

-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games