Greetings Metanthropes,

Continuing our Early Access – Initial Release development blog, we have exciting updates to share about our game!

We’ve released a new build for Metanthropes - Early Access. This includes new releases for the Metanthropes System, and Introductory & Core Premium Modules. You can read the full Change Log if you want all the details.

The major feature of this new build is the inclusion of our amazing new Tokens, created by 2DStoryteller. These include:

• 4 Tokens for our beloved NPCs: the Conductors
• 4 Tokens for the Introductory Antagonists
• 16 Tokens for Protagonists and Human NPCs

Each of these Tokens are rendered in 3D, given a skeletal rig and a pose for their Portrait image, and also come with a top-down view for the Token on the Grid. We love how they seamlessly integrate with the visuals of The Opera map. More to come, can't wait to show you what we have in store for later builds!

The second major feature of this release, is the updated content of our Journals, especially the Narrator’s Journal: “Overture” that is included with the Introductory Module. This Journal, now includes guidelines on how & when to use our new & updated Macros that help Narrators create an immersive and memorable experience for their Players. These Macros control the lighting of The Opera while the story progresses and apply special visual effects. Journal text has undergone proofreading by the fabulous Penny Blake. We will continue to work on improving the Journal content in future builds and if you have suggestions on what you would like to see, please let us know in the comments.

In addition to all the above cool new stuff, we decided to revise the list of 3rd party Modules that are recommended as part of the Metanthropes: Introductory Module installation. We have trimmed this list down to the bare minimum for now, as we will be properly supporting other modules when we release v1.0.

Speaking of Metanthropes v1.0, we are now shifting our focus now to releasing it by the end of June 2024. We will be elaborating about the road to v1.0 on our next Dev Blog, and we want to share with you some major milestones that will be part of it:

• Support for V12: We can't wait to utilize Scene Regions and take advantage of the amazing new Scene and Grid features that come with V12!

• Upgrade to use Data Models: This back-end, long-awaited upgrade, is a major overhaul for supporting the proper way to handle data within Foundry in 2024. This will be a breaking change, requiring you to re-create any Worlds you have built prior, however with v1.0 we will officially support running persistent Worlds and long-running campaigns, from that point onwards.

• Support for 3rd party Modules. We typically run ~80+ Modules when we deliver our Sessions, so we value supporting a variety of Modules for our game. We want to be able to help our Narrators deliver an amazing experience for their Players, so having various Modules can really help - at the same time it can be very overwhelming for newer Foundry users. If you have any suggestions on what Modules you'd like us to officially support in v1.0, please share them in the comments below.

We're going to leave you with a teaser of the new original artwork for the Metanthropes: Introductory Zine - created by the talented Yorgos Cotronis. Early Adopters of the Introductory Module can see the full image in the Narrator's Journal: Overture, while others will have to wait for the reveal on our Instagram, over the next 4 weeks.

Stay Legit,

Stay Meta.