August Update #2 - Production Continues!
21 days ago
– Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 10:04:06 PM
Greetings Grand Festival Backers,
Price here with your quick “Everything is in production!” update, let’s dive in!
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- Gloomhaven Role Playing Game
RPG Production continues!
Word from our factory is they need a couple more weeks to get the master proofing copies (MPCs) to us due to the Deluxe Box Set taking more time than they anticipated to produce.
We’ve got September 15th on the calendar as the pending ready date for those. Following our approval, assembly of all completed production components will begin.
We’ll have an updated timeline to reflect this new schedule in the next update.
MINIATURES OF GLOOMHAVEN
Miniature production continues!
Our factory has finally solved the inconsistencies between models, flight stands, and base rings, so we are asking them to do what they can to ramp production up to make up for the lost time.
In the meantime, we are on target this week to have all packaging and tray map files submitted to our manufacturer so they can produce full-art samples for us.
We’ve previously taken a look at the
Gloomhaven: Core Set and
Gloomhaven: Summons models, today let’s hop over and take a closer look at the final production samples for the Frosthaven: Summons expansion set:
Result of Last Update’s Poll:We received 287 votes in last update’s poll in which you shared what Mercenary Company you were joining “strictly on the vibes”. Our leading Mercenary Company ended up being
TWILIGHT LANCE!
As a reward…Isaac told me I could let you a little bit more background on this group of ruffians:
END OF UPDATE
That's it for this week, we'll check back in on Sept 8th with our next update. In the meantime, let's keep the community polls going — we want to know what you're most excited for:
August Update #1 - Back from Gen Con & Production Continues
about 1 month ago
– Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 05:34:45 PM
Hello Grand Festival Backers!
Thank you for your patience as our team and factory partners returned from Gen Con (Indianapolis) last week. We’re rested, re-engaged, and our voices are mostly back to normal.
Mass production is still underway for Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven, but we’ve got some light updates to provide, let’s dive in!
Gloomhaven RPG
Mass production continues! No exciting updates or shenanigans, which is a good thing!
We had such a great time showing off the pre-production copy of Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game in person and received lots of great feedback from those of you in attendance. Whether you stopped by the booth or signed up for one of our RPG play events, thank you for stopping by and checking it out!
For those of you we missed, here are some photos of our showcase:
Miniatures of Gloomhaven
While we leaving for Gen Con, our factory partner let us know their engineers had discovered an issue that needed addressing surrounding our flight stands and flying monsters which has since been resolved and is currently being re-tested for quality.
As you are probably aware by now, our miniatures are plastic injected at mass quantities with molten plastic and steel molds. While this creates large quantities of high detail miniatures quickly, the variable factors (temp, plastic, timing, cooling, etc) can lead to quality inconsistencies without good controls and assurance checks.
We had performed flight-stand-fit testing throughout our preproduction efforts and called out models that a) fit their flight stand, b) were too tight to fit their flight stand, & c) fit their flight stand but less confidently. These had initially been addressed by the factory team who then kept (thankfully!) a very close eye on those miniatures as mass production kicked off.
What they realized was even despite their modifications to the molds, they still weren’t happy with what was supposed to be a “consistent” fit across all flying models.
With quality of these miniatures being top priority, we asked them to revisit the mold modifications and fix them ALL consistently across the full line.
Over the last two weeks they have paused mass production to do just that, and I’m happy to say the new samples we received last night are much improved, more consistent, and ideally much less prone to accidental slippage or breakage.
While a delay isn’t ideal, we’d much rather deal with this issue now then have to send you replacement parts further down the line when you finally get to those scenarios with flying enemies.
We also took proactive use of this time to discuss further small tray modifications we could implement to improve the user experience out of the box, such as finger indents for smoother removal/replacement.
Production should be picking right back up here any day now once I get the confirmation from our factory that their further testing was successful.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this 360 degree look at the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Summons Expansion Set:![]()
Mercenaries Wanted
We know this is predominantly a place to update you on our remaining Grand Festival efforts, but we’d be remiss to quickly touch on a new Cephalofair project that will be featuring many of the characters you’ve come to know and recognize from our crowdfunding games like Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, and the Gloomhaven RPG.
If you attended Gen Con with us, or are subscribed to our INSIDERS NEWSLETTER, you may have heard we’ve announced our next brand new game, MERCENARIES WANTED!
MERCENARIES WANTED ($24.99 USD) is a drafting game for 1-6 players designed by Cephalofair’s very own Dennis Vögele (Jaws of the Lion, Frosthaven, Gloomhaven (2025), Mercenary Packs, etc), and takes ~45 mins to play!
In Mercenaries Wanted, players won’t play adventurous Mercenaries this time around. No. Instead, you get to step into the shoes of an adventurous
Mercenary HR Manager!
That’s right! Because what is running a company of freelance mercenaries OTHER than one giant human resources puzzle?
END OF UPDATE
Thank you all for your time this week and letting us share about the exciting (and non-exciting) progress being made on all fronts.
I'll be back in two weeks with a very, very, short update to confirm that mass production on miniatures is back up to speed and share any other brief updates.
Let’s end today with a poll, how does that sound?
July Update #2: We're Meeeelting....& More Production Samples!
about 2 months ago
– Wed, Jul 22, 2026 at 07:18:12 PM
Greetings Grand Festival Backers!
We had some samples scheduled for arrival late yesterday, so we pushed the update to today. Thank you for your patience.
We've gotten our hands on them, so let's dive in!
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Gloomhaven RPG
Since our last update, all pre-production sample findings have been addressed, proofed, and implemented for mass production. We are in the manufacturing phase of the timeline!
We also had the Gloomhaven RPG: Core Card Set sample arrive, here are some photos:
With mass production underway our focus for the RPG will shift to the shipping plan. That means we will have less information while this part of the project is being manufactured, but we’ll gladly continue sharing updates, photos, insights as production moves forward!
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Miniatures of Gloomhaven
THE MINIATURES ARE MELTING!
Just kidding…well…sorta.
Our factory has let us know that over the last week they’ve been battling an intense heat wave that has led to some pausing of production due to the impact on output quality (warping, detail loss, etc). Plastic injection molding is already done at molten temperatures, but when it's too hot it leads to some engineering problems and warpage during cooling/setting. Luckily, this was all caught by quality control, but it does mean we’re delayed by ~two weeks in SOME of our production efforts. We aren’t happy about this, but waiting is much preferable to melted miniatures.
Finally, we thought you might appreciate an in-depth look at the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set now that we have 100% of the production samples in and approved:
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Gen Con
Just a reminder that Julie, Chris, Aaron, myself, and our amazing team of supporters will be out at
Gen Con next week
(Booth 351) showing off the Gloomhaven RPG and selling advanced copies of our Buttons & Bugs expansion
PUB CRAWLERS! (you can pre-order for Gen Con pickup
HERE).
We’ll be running official Gen Con events for
Gloomhaven,
Buttons & Bugs, and the
Gloomhaven RPG as well, you can sign up for those registered events
HERE.
Swing by the booth and you may also catch me showcasing a
brand new title we’re planning to release at PAX: Unplugged later this year!
(Don’t miss the reveal— SUBSCRIBE to our Insider Newsletter today!)
Can't make it to Gen Con? Don't worry! We've got a fun
little activity planned for Gloomhaven fans to participate in at home so
keep your eyes on our newsletter and socials above next week.
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End of Update
That’ll be it for this week.
We’ll be back on Aug 5th with a small post-Gen Con update for you.
Until then, have a great week and we hope you’re staying cool!
July Update #1: RPG Pre-Production Sample Arrives
2 months ago
– Tue, Jul 07, 2026 at 07:39:42 PM
Greetings Grand Festival Backers!
We have a LOT of production samples to show off in today’s update, and a pledge manager that will be reopening THIS FRIDAY, so let’s jump right in!
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-FINAL PLEDGE MANAGER OPENING
With Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven projects entering mass production, we will be reopening this FINAL WAVE pledge manager on Friday, July 10th, and these will remain open for approximately one month (closing date to be announced in a following update).
Some important notes on this final wave of pledge manager:
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Address: If your shipping address has changed please make sure your address is current and up to date now. To avoid any re-shipping fees or lost pledges, don’t wait until fulfillment is about to start!
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Add-ons: This is your last chance to add any additional add-ons to your pledge
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Pricing: The pricing for add-ons will be updated to reflect final production costs and retail pricing. This does NOT impact prior pledge discounts.
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Deadline: We will be leaving the pledge manager open for at least the next 30 days and will give at least 2 weeks prior notice to closure in an upcoming backerkit update.
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GLOOMHAVEN RPG
The pre-production copy (PPC) is in!
This is our final sample that includes full color printing and assembly to our specifications before we set the factory in motion for mass production and assembly.
We’re really glad to report that any findings we had in the white sample review have been addressed here and this is one of the most dialed in pre-production samples we’ve received to-date! Quality is on point, and assembly is accurate down to the last deck of cards.
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Our internal production team will be taking this final opportunity to collaborate with the factory and fine-tune the color saturation and contrast of the components.
Here you can take a look at part of our component review process, which involves inspecting every deck of cards and their accompanying tuckbox:
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GLOOMHAVEN PLAYING CARDS GIFT
As a special “Thank You” gift, we will be including a FREE deck of Gloomhaven: Playing cards in all orders containing the Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box Set! (A $12.99 value!)
You will receive this free gift if:
- You pledged at the “RPG Deluxe Box Set” level
- You pledged at the “Ultimate Gloomhaven Set” level
- You pledged at the "The Big One" level
- You add(ed) Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box Set to your existing pledge.
This will include any NEW backers of the Gloomhaven: RPG Deluxe Box set so please take that into consideration when the pledge manager re-opens later this week. No action will be required on your part other than making sure you have a copy of the Deluxe Box Set secured.
Any additional decks of Gloomhaven: Playing Cards added to your cart will be charged accordingly. The FREE copy will be added automatically at fulfillment and will not reflect in your cart.
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MINIATURES OF GLOOMHAVEN
This last week we received our white box sample for the Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Core Set and our first round of mass production samples as well!
The Gloomhaven: Core Set is the largest in the line as you can see in the photo below. It includes all the enemy miniatures you’ll need for Gloomhaven (both first and second editions). It also serves as a starting point for the Forgotten Circles, Jaws of the Lion, and Frosthaven miniatures sets, providing all of the returning monsters for those titles as well.
This shipment also contained our first mass production samples of the miniature BASE RINGS and FLIGHT STANDS.
Here is a preview of the models we received this week:
Our review and testing at this stage (mass production samples) includes the following:
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Quality Assurance: Review and call out any unintentional errors with the models such as warpage, deformation, and/or faulty assembly.
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Adjustments: Advocate for any adjustments in plastics used or plastic injection process including temperature, pressure, assembly, etc. In more extreme cases pursue fine adjustments to the mold tooling.
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Base Rings: Test fit all base rings to all model bases
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Flight Stands: Test fit all flight stands to all models
Miniature Mass Production Findings:
The Yay:
- The models look really great!
- They feel solid and firm, without being brittle.
- Quantities were correct.
- Base rings fit 100% of models; also fit flight stand bases
- Flight stands (that fit) fit securely and do not fall out even when shaken.
The Meh:
- Thus far, 2 models have had issues with flight stands falling out unintentionally when picked up. These have been reported and are being adjusted on their molds.
- A number of “flying” models (4 thus far) don’t yet fit their flight stand. The hole on their underside will be increased slightly on their mold to allow the flight stand to fit securely.
- Still awaiting more Gloomhaven: Core Set models
The Nay
- It was our intent for the identification numbers on the base rings to be both embossed and painted. Unfortunately, the factory was not able to produce these with the numbers raised high enough to be read on their own. Furthermore, they were not able to line the painted numbers up with the raised numbers, resulting in legibility issues. For this reason, we will be removing the raised numbers on the base rings and using a paint-only approach. This will allow us to keep the base ring material soft and flexible for ease of use while also ensuring that their numbering is helpful and legible.
What’s Next?
We have more mass production samples on their way to us for the Miniatures of Gloomhaven Core Set as well as the Frosthaven expansion set, as well as trays for test fit & review. We’re also locking in our final mass production run quantities. .
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INTRODUCING BUTTONS & BUGS: PUB CRAWLERS!
Grand Festival backers of Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs may be excited to know that we recently announced a NEW EXPANSION coming this fall… BUTTONS & BUGS: PUB CRAWLERS!
This tiny little expansion includes two new playable micro mercenaries (micro, NOT shrunken!): the Shaper Whistlecry and the Psyllium Fungal Monk, as well as a brand new mutli-path campaign.
Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers is
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW on
cephalofair.com (including advanced Gen Con pickup options). Order now and receive “The Flames of Ashtar” prequel micro-campaign FREE with your purchase when you add it to your cart!
We’ll be sharing more game insights and information as we inch closer to Gen Con, you can catch the latest tidbits in advance by subscribing to our new Insider Newsletter
HERE, which gets the scoop at least one week before our main newsletter.
GEN CON 2026
As a reminder, our team will be attending Gen Con 2026 (Booth 351) at the end of this month so come say hello!
We’ll have the above mentioned Gloomhaven RPG set on full display, a limited amount of advance copies of Buttons & Bugs: Pub Crawlers for sale, and restocks of last year’s Mercenary Packs.
Keen observers may also spot an “early preview” of a new type of Gloomhaven game in the Cephalofair Booth #351....
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END OF UPDATE
That’s it for this week. It’s incredibly exciting having so much physically in hand to share with you and hope you enjoyed diving in alongside us. We’ll be back on July 21st with even more!
June Update #2: Updating RPG & Miniature Timelines
3 months ago
– Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 06:45:54 PM
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Greetings Grand Festival Backers!As promised, we’re back this week with timeline updates for the Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven projects.
We’ve spent the last two weeks working closely with our factories to align expectations, confirm current and next steps, and build out realistic timelines we feel good about.
What we are presenting today is a conservative estimate based on those mass production dates provided to us, our past experiences with logistical time frames, and dependencies on mass production hitting its projected milestones.
We will be taking every step to make sure our remaining steps between here and fulfillment are completed in a timely manner and with quality in mind.
Before we get into the timeline, I’d like to give an updated commitment to our backer community:
Our Commitment:
With our final two Grand Festival projects officially entering mass production, our primary job and commitment from here is to:
- Update you twice a month!
- Communicate with both factories, multiple times per week, every week.
- Book freight in advance once guaranteed factory pickup dates are provided to us.
- Track containers as they cross land and sea. (We’ll provide you with the boat info to track along!)
- Coordinate with regional fulfillment centers so they know exactly when your pledges are estimated to arrive and plan for fulfillment start/completion dates.
- Provide daily backer support through fulfillment completion.
These are our top most internal priorities for 2026.
We know our original timelines were overly ambitious and development of these projects more complex than we estimated. We own that, and appreciate your patience immensely. We have an obligation to do better in the future when estimating delivery timelines. Thankfully, we’ve also learned a lot of lessons about “sharing the load” and leaning on more talented minds/hands than fewer, so staffing up has been a major initiative of 2026.
While we don’t have any crowdfunding campaigns planned for the immediate future, we hope you start seeing these changes manifest through the remainder of this project and as we launch other non-crowdfunding releases.
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Important Disclosures:
Additionally, there are some important disclosures and context to provide generally to these timelines:
Timelines:
- These timelines are estimates and subject to change.
- Any real or potential timeline changes will be communicated in our twice-monthly project updates as we identify them.
- Factors that can impact these timelines:
- Factory delays
- Pre-production/master production copy errors/correction
- Ocean freight delays due to weather, politics, piracy, etc.
- Port delays/congestion
- Holidays
- Fulfillment partner congestion based on other project fulfillment operations.
- U.S. tariffs & trade policy changes
- Factors that do not impact Grand Festival timelines:
- Restock/reprints of existing titles
- Announcements of new/future titles/projects
- Pre-order campaigns for new/future titles/projects
Mass Production
- RPG & Miniatures projects are being produced by two different manufacturers overseas.
- RPG & Miniatures projects are projected to arrive and fulfill separately from one another.
Fulfillment
- We will be working with regional fulfillment partners in the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, China, and UK (UK/EU/Rest of World).
- Regions will be fulfilled independently and ASAP once pledges hit their respective warehouses.
- December is typically “no-man’s land” for project fulfillment, so as indicated above and below, we’ve added an additional buffer to account for uncertainty between Black Friday and Christmas.
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Timeline Estimations
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JUNE
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RPG: Pre-production efforts between factory and Cephalofair completed. PPC approved.
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Minis: Pre-production efforts between factory and Cephalofair completed, molds completed.
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JULY
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BOTH: Pledge manager reopens.
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RPG: Mass production in full swing.
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Minis: Mass production in full swing.
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BOTH: Pledge manager closes.
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AUGUST
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RPG: Master proofing copy (MPC) approved. Assembly begins.
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Minis: Mass production continues.
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SEPTEMBER
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RPG: Ocean freight begins.
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Minis: Assembly begins.
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OCTOBER
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RPG: Ocean freight continues.
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Minis: Ocean freight begins.
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NOVEMBER
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RPG: Arrives for land freight to fulfillment centers.
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Minis: Ocean freight continues.
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DECEMBER:
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RPG: Arrives at fulfillment centers, begins fulfillment.
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Minis: Arrives for land freight to fulfillment centers.
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JANUARY:
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RPG: Fulfillment completion.
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Minis: Arrives at fulfillment centers, begins fulfillment.
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FEBRUARY:
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Minis: Fulfillment completion.
We’re doing our best to realistically plan for the “longest” case scenarios here and especially recognize how hectic ocean/fulfillment operations are during Nov/Dec. If we are fortunate enough that things progress faster, you’ll be the first to know!
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In the meantime…we’re still cooking!
It is a major internal milestone here at Cephalofair knowing that our portion of production work for RPG and Miniatures is finally coming to a completion. Shout out to our production team for all their hard work getting these fantastic new entries over the final hurdles and into the hands of our factory.
These projects remain our primary focus internally at Cephalofair. We are coordinating and planning logistics and support prep for the final two pieces of the Grand Festival while production begins. Please keep an eye out for the Pledge Manager to open sometime in the coming month. We will provide those specific dates in our next update.
With the RPG and Miniatures headed to production, members of our production, sales, and marketing teams will start to spend more time on
other projects that have been brewing behind the scenes. We’ve hired literally dozens of new contractors in the last six months alone to support the team with finishing the Grand Festival and moving our other projects forward.
This week we will be formally announcing an upcoming release that will be available for Gen Con pre-order. Similar to last year’s Gen Con release, we were fortunate enough to lean on external developers to help get this project completed while keeping our core team on the outstanding Grand Festival projects.
In an ideal world, I’d prefer to see us fulfill these two Grand Festival projects to you first. But smaller projects are quintessential from a business perspective and for us as a publisher. They help us cover overhead in between larger releases, support our game designers & staff, and drive ongoing retailer interest in our backlog catalogue. This is why, as a publisher, we have projects in all stages of development, even if they’re not the things on our immediate internal plates.
And why can you excitedly expect more things from us in the future.
Thank you for your understanding, your support, and your trust. We can’t wait to get Gloomhaven RPG and Miniatures of Gloomhaven onto your porches and tables!
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Gen Con is Coming!As mentioned above, our team will be out at Gen Con next month (Booth #351) displaying our factory copies of the Gloomhaven RPG, running demo events of all sorts, and
showcasing a couple new things we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes. You can sign up for our official Gen Con events HERE.
We’re still also looking for a few good booth “mercs” as well, so if you are already attending Gen Con and are interested in helping run some demos please consider applying!
You can apply to be Cephalofair Booth Staff HERE.
And if you want the latest scoop from us on new/upcoming releases, don’t forget to
subscribe to our newsletter HERE.
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See You In Three Weeks!
That’s it for today!
We’ll be back with more manufacturing updates on the first Tuesday of July (7th).
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