Backer FAQ: What You Get, Shipping and Timeline

Before you pledge to a game about the dead, you deserve straight answers about the living details: what arrives at your door, when it is likely to arrive, and what happens if the road runs long.

This page is written for two kinds of reader: the backer deciding whether to pledge, and the backer who already has and wants to know what comes next. Everything below describes the planned launch and is framed as an estimate, not a guarantee. Where a number would be misleading before the campaign locks, we leave it out on purpose. What we will not do is dress up a hope as a fact.

What is actually in the box

The core pledge is planned to be the complete HYBRIS set: all 206 cards of Set I, meaning every Warden, every Site, every Spirit and every Charm in it, plus the six tokens three of those cards need to be played as printed. There are no booster packs and no random pulls. You are not buying a chance at the game, you are buying the whole game. If a card exists in the set, it is in your box.

Alongside the cards, the launch box is planned to include:

• The full First Turning card set, printed to the same quality across every copy.
• A concise rules reference and a quick-start guide so a first game can begin in minutes.
• Player aids for the four turn steps, Dawn, Commit, Dusk and Rite, and the keyword glossary.
• Packaging designed to protect the cards in transit and store them cleanly afterward.

Premium foils and numbered editions, where offered, are cosmetic only. They look extraordinary on the table but grant no gameplay advantage, so a standard set and a deluxe set play from the exact same card pool. Nothing about MORANA is pay-to-win. You can read the full reasoning on the fixed distribution page.

Which set ships first

MORANA is built as a line of self-contained sets, and the one that funds and ships first is HYBRIS, Set I, 206 cards of Greek myth. It is finished and fully illustrated, and it is the one this campaign is about. It is a complete, playable game on its own. The Slavic First Turning is Set II and follows it to press; you can already play it free in your browser.

Any later set is a separate campaign and a separate delivery. You never need a future set to play the game you back at launch, and you are never quietly locked out of content you already own. If and when a later set is revealed, it will get its own page, its own showcase and its own honest timeline, and backing it will always be a fresh choice rather than an automatic charge.

Price, the Founders' List, and changing your mind

The most common question before any pledge is the one about money, so here is the honest shape of it. We do not print a price before the campaign opens, because a number quoted early is a number we might have to break, and we would rather quote nothing than quote wrong. What we can promise is simple: the Founders' List is free and binds you to nothing, and you hear from us once, when the campaign opens, so you are first to know and first to decide.

The Founders' List itself is free and non-binding. It takes an email and charges nothing. There is no payment now, no obligation to pledge later, and we write to you exactly once, when the campaign opens, and not before. You can walk away at any point.

The same holds after you pledge. On the crowdfunding platform you can adjust or cancel your pledge while the campaign is live, and payment is only ever taken if the campaign successfully closes. If it does not fund, no one is charged at all. Backing early helps a small, honest project reach the light; it never traps you.

And if you are not sure the game is worth it, do not take our word for it: play the First Duel free, print the full set and try it at your table, and read the open dev log on how it was balanced across four passes and more than 130,000 simulated games. We would rather you test the thing than trust us about it.

The realistic timeline, framed as estimates

Here is the part most campaigns rush and most backers wish they had not. We treat every date as a planned estimate, subject to change, because the honest truth of manufacturing is that some steps are outside anyone's total control. The sequence, from the day the campaign closes, is planned to run roughly like this:

1. Campaign closes and counts lock. Final pledge numbers and shipping addresses are collected. Only now do we know exactly how many of each item to print.
2. Print run is placed. Because MORANA is printed to demand, the order goes to the printer after the campaign, not before. This is the single biggest reason a fixed-distribution game is safe to back, and also why it is not instant.
3. Production and proofing. The printer manufactures the run and we check proofs. Card games have real lead times here, and quality is worth a short wait.
4. Freight and customs. Finished stock travels from the printer, clears customs where relevant, and reaches the fulfilment point.
5. Fulfilment and packing. Individual orders are picked, packed and handed to carriers, region by region.
6. Delivery. Your parcel completes the last leg to your door.

Stacked end to end, a conservative window runs several months from campaign close through to parcels landing. We would rather quote a cautious estimate and beat it than promise a fast date and miss it. When the campaign goes live, the estimated month will be stated plainly on the campaign page, and it may still move if a supplier does.

How print-to-demand affects your wait

Fixed distribution is the reason MORANA can launch honestly, and it is also the reason it is not shipped overnight. A game sold in random packs has to gamble on a large print run before anyone buys, sitting on inventory. MORANA does the opposite: we print after the campaign, in the exact quantity ordered, with zero unsold-inventory risk.

The trade-off is time. Printing after the fact adds a production step between your pledge and your parcel that an off-the-shelf product does not have. We think that trade is worth it, and we would rather you understand it going in than feel surprised by it later. In exchange, the game you back is far more likely to actually get made and to reach you as promised.

Regional shipping expectations

Shipping realities differ by where you live, and we would rather set expectations than paper over them. In broad, planned terms:

Exact regions served, carriers and shipping costs are finalized when the campaign goes live and may change before then. If a destination cannot be served responsibly at launch, we will say so on the campaign page rather than take a pledge we cannot fulfil.

What happens if a date moves

Delays are the norm in crowdfunded manufacturing, not the exception, and we plan for them out loud. If any planned date slips, our commitment is simple:

• We post an honest update that explains what actually happened, not a vague apology.
• We give a revised estimate rather than let the original date quietly pass.
• We keep communicating on a regular rhythm so silence is never the thing you are left with.

Print-to-demand removes the worst failure mode, a project that overprints and collapses under unsold stock. It does not remove the ordinary friction of factories, freight and carriers. Treating those risks as real is how a small, honest launch stays trustworthy.

How to reach the team

Before the campaign, the best way to stay close to the project and to be first in line is the Founders' List, where launch updates and the confirmed timeline are shared before anyone else. Prospective and confirmed backers with a specific question can reach the team directly through the contact on the press and contact page. Once the campaign is live, updates and messages also run through the crowdfunding platform itself, so an answer is never more than a message away.

Frequently asked

All contents, dates, regions and shipping details on this page describe the planned First Turning launch and are estimates, not promises; final numbers lock when the campaign goes live and may change before then. Rules terms are summarized from the official Rules Reference. This page describes MORANA only and does not reference any other product.