Against Time and Death

Shipping complete!
4 months ago – Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 04:09:55 AM

Happy December everyone! This is going to be a lightning Against Time and Death update, because there's really only one big piece of news... 

Shipping is complete! 

As of last Saturday December 13th, all of your Against Time and Death zines have shipped! I'm pleased to say that they've already begun arriving - here's photographic proof courtesy of about a dozen backers!

That's proof of delivery to backers in the UK, Switzerland, Poland, and even as far as Australia (all the way to my home town!). 

It's obviously a pretty busy time for postal services, so please be patient. I certainly can't guarantee it, but I did my best to get everything in the post before Royal Mail's recommended Christmas delivery cutoff, so with a little luck you'll have your copy very soon! 

A few quick notes

• Backers in the USA, I'd love to hear when you start receiving your zines. Shipping to the USA is obviously more complicated since the introduction of tariffs. That should all have been taken care of - Royal Mail offers a tariff pre-payment service, and printed books should be exempt anyway - but it'd be good to get some confirmation that everything has gone smoothly!
• If you're receiving three or more zines, they'll be delivered in two separate packages. In the end, this turned out to be easier (and, ultimately, cheaper) than putting together a small parcel. So don't be surprised if you get two envelopes from me, and thanks for your generous support!
• There are still a small handful of backers who have not completed their BackerKit surveys, or whose credit cards have errored. If this is you, I can't get you your zine until you get your details sorted! Give me a shout if you're running into difficulties, and if you've lost your BackerKit survey you can recover it at this link: https://against-time-and-death.backerkit.com/.

Keep sharing!

This is, obviously, a very exciting time for me. There's the satisfaction of successfully shipping a Kickstarter (on time!), and then there's the absolute delight of seeing it arrive with backers around the world. So please, keep sharing your photos, thoughts, and reviews to social media or on the ickbat games discord!

The holiday period is also an excellent time to start a game with a family member, friend, or a complete stranger. If you do get a game going, I'd love to hear about it! If you're feeling especially brave, you could even share your copy of the Time War Template, so we can follow along as you fight (and perhaps fall in love?).

Finally, please do consider leaving a 5-star rating on itch.io (and a comment or review, if you fancy!). These help drive the game up the charts so that more people can find it. And obviously we want to reach as many potential time warriors as we can!

Next steps

We’re almost at the end of this multiversal adventure together. So what’s left?

• Final campaign update. In January, I'll pop in one last time with a final campaign update summarising how this whole thing went. That'll also be an opportunity for me to thank you one last time for helping to make this whole thing happen, and talk a little about what's coming next.
• Public release. I'm currently planning to launch Against Time and Death to the public on Christmas Day. Tell your friends!
• Let's play some games together! Once you've got the zine and had some time to digest it, I hope some of you will be launching your own multiversal time wars. When you do, please share!

Have an excellent holiday period everyone, thanks again for your support, and I hope you love the game!

- Nick

Reminder: 48 hours until BackerKit lockdown!
4 months ago – Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 10:58:34 AM

This is your 48-hour warning: it's almost time for me to lock down the Against Time and Death BackerKit, collecting all your delivery addresses and shipping fees so that distribution can begin!

To do

• If you're one of the 30 people who hasn't filled out the BackerKit survey yet, please do so now! Especially if you're receiving a print copy - if I don't have your details, I can't send you your zine! If you've lost your survey, you can recover it at this link.
• If you were thinking of picking up add-on copies of Against Time and Death, Stealing the Throne, or Chiron's Doom, remember to add them to your order.
• Double-check your delivery address and credit card details, to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Dragonmeet

So Dragonmeet happened yesterday! I was there, and I can totally prove it:

(If you look closely, you can see a test print of Against Time and Death! I had it on the stall for people to flip through, hoping we could lure in a few more time warriors...)

If you're one of the folks who came by the stall to chat - about Against Time and Death or anything else - thank you! It was lovely to meet and talk to each and every one of you. I usually come out of Dragonmeet physically exhausted, but emotionally and mentally re-invigorated, and this year was no different. I'm excited to get zines shipped out to you, and then dive back into making new games!

Next steps

It's a pretty straightforward road from here...

• Lock down the BackerKit in 48 hours.
• Take delivery of the final prints (hopefully this week?).
• Shipping begins!

- Nick

November update: PDF release, and locking orders soon!
4 months ago – Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 10:15:32 PM

Folks, the Time War is about to begin!

Lots of exciting news so (as is traditional) this update will be filled with many exclamation marks. Brace yourselves!

Current status

• Final PDF available right now! That's right, the full, complete PDF of Against Time and Death is ready! Just log into your BackerKit survey to access your unique download code, and grab the PDF right now! More details on how to do that below...
• Locking orders and charging cards on December 2nd! As of now, you have just under a week to make any changes - grab some add-ons, double-check your delivery address and shipping charges (now included!), and make sure your credit card details are correct. On December 2nd, I'll lock everything down and charge cards ahead of shipping.
• Zines at the printer! With the text and layout complete, the zines are off to the printer. With any luck I'll have copies to show you very soon.
• Come say hi at Dragonmeet! I'll be at Dragonmeet in London on Saturday November 29th, a special guest at the Black Armada Games stall with Becky and Josh. I'd love to meet some backers, so drop by and say hello!

Accessing your PDFs

It's here! The official backer release of Against Time and Death in PDF! And it looks like this:

And also this:

Once you've completed your BackerKit survey (or right now, if you've already done it!), you'll see a 'Get Your Digital Downloads' button. Depending on where you're at, it'll either be here:

or here:

If you click that button, you'll find your unique download key granting you access to the final Against Time and Death PDF zine (plus supporting materials, like the playsets, playingcards.io template, and a link to the handy Time War template). If you backed at the Duet level, you'll have two download keys - one for you, and one to share with your friend/rival!

To access the PDF files, just click the download key link in BackerKit (or copy and paste it into your browser window). You'll need an itch.io account - if you don't have one already, they're free and quick to set up, and they give you access to all kinds of amazing indie tabletop games. Why not take a look at some other games by the Against Time and Death crew: Melody Watson, The Storybrewers, Adam Vass and Will Jobst of The Brain Trust, MacGuffin and Co., or A Couple of Drakes?

(If you ordered copies of Chiron's Doom or Stealing the Throne as add-ons, your PDFs will come when I lock down orders on December 2nd. I need to charge cards before I can release those!)

Help a guy out?

Once you've had a chance to look at the PDF (and admire Paul Tomes' stunning art), I'd love if it you considered doing two things:

• Leave a 5-star review and a comment on the Against Time and Death itch page. It goes a long way towards helping people find the game, and goodness knows we need as many time warriors as we can get! (You can also add a written review, if you want, but for some reason only I get to see those. If you'd like other people to see what you've written, comments are the way to go!)
• Drop a note here, on the itch page, or at the ickbat games discord telling us which of Paul's illustrations grabs you the most? Which is the corner of the multiverse you'd most like to play in?

And if you do launch your own Time War, I would absolutely love to hear about it! Drop by the discord, or tag me in on Bluesky.

Next steps

• Locking orders on December 2nd. Did I mention I'll be locking orders and charging cards on December 2nd? 
• Shipping begins! Once I have all of your delivery addresses and shipping fees, I start stuffing envelopes.

- Nick

Please hold...
5 months ago – Sat, Oct 25, 2025 at 12:35:18 AM

It's October 25th, which means it's normally time for your monthly Against Time and Death update... but I'm on a little holiday!

More information will be coming your way soon, but for now:

• Remember to fill in your BackerKit survey! Last time I checked we were sitting at a healthy 83% - let's get it to 100%. If you've lost the link to your survey, you can recover it here. 
• Share the pre-order store with your friends! Obviously you want to play Against Time and Death with them - why wouldn't you? They're your friends! So why not make it easy for them and send them this link?
• The unglamorous work of logistics and preparing for print continues. More to share as it comes available, but we're continuing to make good progress.

Back soon!

- Nick

BackerKit launching now!
6 months ago – Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 08:48:37 AM

It's happening: the Against Time and Death BackerKit pledge manager is now open! This update is a bit of an info-dump, so brace yourselves. Everything you need to know should be in the key details section, with additional details below the line if you're curious.

Key details

• Backers should be receiving BackerKit survey invitations, delivered to your Kickstarter email address. Follow the link in the survey email to supply your delivery address, purchase additional copies of the zine or upgrade your order, and (ultimately) pay for shipping. Please fill out your survey as soon as you can!
• Shipping will be added later. I don't yet have a weight for the final zine, and so can't calculate shipping fees. These will be finalised later, but there are some estimates in the update below to give you a rough ballpark.
• The pre-order store is live. Late pledges are now closed on Kickstarter, but the pre-order store is another chance for anyone who missed the Kickstarter to pick up a PDF or print copy of the zine. Here's the link - spread the word far and wide!
• I am planning to lock orders and charge cards in mid-November. That gives you roughly a month to make changes to things like your delivery address and add-ons.
• Add-ons available! If you'd like to add print or PDF copies of Chiron's Doom or Stealing the Throne to your order, you can do so! This is a golden opportunity - right now, this is the only place you can buy print copies of either zine!

BackerKit surveys

Backers should now be receiving survey emails from BackerKit. This is how I will collect delivery addresses and shipping fees, and how I will distribute digital rewards when they're ready. The surveys will go to your Kickstarter email address (that is, whichever email you use to log into Kickstarter). If yours hasn't arrived by Friday October 17th, check those spam folders, and if you still can't find it give me a shout.

A few days ago I sent out a smoke test to 5% of backers, to kick the tires on the BackerKit and make sure everything was working as expected. That went smoothly, so now it's time to get all of our time warriors together!

Please fill out your surveys as soon as you can - this will help me pin down how many copies of the zine I need to print. Your credit cards will not be charged until I lock the surveys down, and up until that point you'll be able to make adjustments (including to your delivery address). I'm currently planning to lock surveys down in mid-November, so you've got about a month to make any adjustments.

What if you want to upgrade your pledge?

If you backed at the Agent (£10) level and would like to upgrade your pledge to a print copy of the zine, the best way to do that is by clicking the 'Switch your Pledge Level' link below the 'Get Started!' button. That will let you apply your current pledge amount towards the higher tier, so that you can get a copy of the zine for the same price as all the other backers.

Shipping and customs fees

As discussed during the campaign, shipping fees will be charged via BackerKit. The exact shipping fees will be finalised once I have a weight for the zine (so I can calculate shipping accurately), but at this stage the estimated postage for a single zine is:

• UK: £3.30
• Europe: £5.05
• US: TBD (see below)
• Australia/New Zealand/Singapore: £8.25
• Rest of the World: £6.95

These estimates are, of course, subject to change.

Please be aware that any VAT, customs or handling fees are your responsibility (see below for a note on US tariffs). I'm sorry about this, but as far as I can tell there's no practical way for my tiny one-person-show to cover these fees. I'm hopeful that you won't be charged any - I didn't hear of any extra VAT/customs charges on my last two campaigns - but I wanted to make sure you were aware.

US shipping

I am currently exploring options for getting Against Time and Death to US backers. The two options on the table are doing the shipping myself via Royal Mail (as I have done on my last two Kickstarters), or shipping in bulk to a US distributor. Until I've figured this out, I won't have exact shipping costs, but to give you a very rough, subject-to-change ballpark, if I take the Royal Mail option the estimated shipping on a single zine is £7.70.

Whichever method I decide on, it is my understanding that you will not be charged any tariffs or fees associated with tariffs. There are two reasons for this:

• Royal Mail has launched a Postal Delivery Duties Paid (PDDP) service covering US tariffs. When I ship to the US via the Royal Mail, they automatically calculate and collect the relevant tariffs (plus a 50p handling fee) based on the information I have provided, and pass that money on to authorities in the US. 
• Printed books (such as this zine) appear to be exempt from tariffs. There's a somewhat long-winded explanation for this, but if you're interested the relevant sections of the Harmonised Tariff Schedule are 4901.99.00 (for printed books) and 9903.01.32 (for the exemption of printed books from tariffs; see Chapter 99, Subchapter III, U.S. Notes 2, subdivision (v)(iii) for the specific exemption covering 4901.99.00).

Wild the things you have to learn as a tiny little indie game designer... 

Late backers: the pre-order store is open!

If you missed the Kickstarter but still want to get on board, you're in luck: the pre-order store is now open. Click the link to order PDF or print copies of the Against Time and Death zine at the same prices charged during the Kickstarter campaign, or pick up copies of Chiron's Doom or Stealing the Throne in print or PDF. If you know anyone who might be interested, send them the link too! 

So when is the game coming?

Excellent question! I don't know exactly, but we are still on track to hit the December 2025 estimated delivery date. We're getting there!

- Nick