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Gloomhaven Grand Festival

Created by Cephalofair

We invite you to join the celebration and check out the latest in the city of Gloomhaven. From Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs, Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game, Miniatures of Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Second Edition and more, there is something for everyone.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

February update: moving ever closer to production
18 days ago – Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 02:25:59 PM

Good day! I hope you’ve had a good month, because we’ve been hard at work moving this project closer to completion! We don’t have any big updates or reveals for you this time around, but are happy to share our usual progress reports on where things are.

Let’s get to it!

Minis



On the miniatures front, we saw completion of Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Summons pre-production steps, pushing those SKUs into mold ready status! Only a few models remain on the Frosthaven & Frosthaven: Summons front, but the required revisions are known and in progress with our factory so we anticipate completion there any day now.

As our factory heads into their Lunar New Year break, we have been taking parallel steps with them to make sure we're set up for success to officially begin/continue molding across all SKUs on their return.

One of these necessary steps was the production of white wax samples of every miniature in their full quantities (I.e. groups of x4, x6, x10, etc) for the physical layout configuration of the vac trays in which these models will be packaged.



Another step has been auditing our final production quantities, product dimensions, and mold counts to validate our final production costs on the complete project. While we worked closely with our factory to price these products back at their inception, several variables are dependent on us reaching this final phase were we know the final parts-per-model, molds per projects, packaging dimensions, tray+lid quantities, etc. (This doesn't impact the price tag applied to this project, but has impacts on final retail and distribution pricing.)

We recognize this project has taken significantly more time than intended and estimated, and that a timeline for delivery is something we owe our backers, and we intend to shore up our final production timelines upon their return from their Lunar New Year break. There have been multiple surprises and lessons learned along the way, and challenges working with a new-to-us manufacturer and their workflow requirements, and for all the above we take full ownership.

Given the scale of this project, and the number of multi-piece models that will require sub-assembly, there are still a few too many variables in front of us to calculate our tentative fulfillment window, but we feel confident we're close to doing that with our factory partner and are putting pressure on them to help us make those commitments.


RPG

Things continue to move along at a good pace on the RPG. At this point, we are out of the trenches on page-to-page tinkering on the book. We’ve implemented all changes from the latest editing pass and are finishing up the final art integration, which was a gigantic lift from Arch. By the end of the week we will begin finalizing all page referencing efforts, which includes the table of contents and index.

We have also been finishing up graphic design on all other outstanding components of the deluxe box, such as the box itself, character sheets, and modifier cards.

All in all, if everything goes well getting the final quote from the manufacturer, we are still on track to start proofing and production on the other side of the Lunar New Year, which is very exciting. Once we can get into that, we can start getting you more concrete timeline information on the pledge manager opening and fulfillment windows.



Community Spotlight

This month I wanted to give a shout-out to Reddit user mremm3000 for their truly amazing MagHex scenario builds. I can’t imagine the work that goes into printing, painting, and assembling all of these layouts, but as they say in their post, the hobby “easily becomes a never-ending story.” I wish them all the good will in their continued endeavors, and know that we are all very impressed!



And that’s what we have for February. Have a great month, and we’ll catch you again in March!

January update: new year, new deluxe RPG box
about 2 months ago – Tue, Jan 06, 2026 at 02:31:38 PM

Good day! And a happy new year! It is a new year, and we are very much looking forward to concluding all outstanding elements of this project—the RPG and the miniatures—in 2026. We don't have specific timelines yet, as previously discussed, but as production gets closer, we will keep you updated on what we can confidently report.

One question that has been popping up more in the comments is when we will be reopening the pledge manager? We’ve still got some behind-the-scenes work to do before that is ready, but our intent there is to not reopen the pledge manager until the next wave is actually in production, so you’ll hear more news on that as we get closer to actual production on the RPG. Now let's get on to the updates!

Minis



We made a good amount of progress leading into the holidays and are proud to say the Gloomhaven core box has completed 100% of it's digital modification approvals, and we expect red wax sample to wrap up this month there as well.

Our full attention is on the remaining models across summons (Gloomhaven & Frosthaven) and the Frosthaven core box. For these few remaining models, our work is really done and fully submitted, we're just waiting on those models to be completed in their next steps at the factory side.

We're also now able to start engaging the factory on larger mass production steps such as molding timelines and production proofing ahead of mass production. January is an important month to give our factory our attention, ahead of Lunar New Year, so that's our plan and course of action internally here at Cephalofair.


RPG

Thanks to everyone who took a look at the full text preview PDF and provided feedback. It was greatly appreciated! We'll be using all of that feedback, along with our own internal editing review to make final changes to the RPG text. Once that is done, we'll implement the table of contents, index, and fix all page references. Meanwhile, we'll be finishing up art integration in the book as well as graphic design of all additional elements, like the cards and packaging.

One of the big elements we've been working on with the packaging is the deluxe edition box. We showed you an early mock-up of the box during crowdfunding, but now that card counts and page numbers have been finalized, we're getting down to the exact dimensions on how it will all fit together.


The current RPG deluxe box render (above) is our latest rendering of the intended production based on final component counts and assembly instructions. Most notable from previous renders is the addition of a second folding wall/lid to the front side of the box. The side wall (front) will fold up and connect magnetically to the side wall of the “cigar box” storage space at the top of the box. The top lid/latch will then fold down and similarly attach to the closed side wall, also magnetically. This is something we determined will give greater structural integrity and prevent components from sliding and forcing open the folding lid if it simply came up and over.

The “cigar box” top is something we intend to be a usable storage space for players (gloom masters especially) who would like a special place to keep other game components (board game map tiles, miniatures, standees, tokens, etc) handy for their current/next RPG sessions.

Beneath the “cigar box,” we have a shelf for the Mercenary Company pad, the Character Sheet pad, and the GM screen.

Beneath this will be a shelf for the full Rulebook.

And finally, two shelves for card tomes, which contain all of RPG system cards, which you can see below:


These two tomes contain four trays of RPG components, including:
  • 16 Class Ability Decks with Tuckboxes
  • 16 Class Advance Modifier Decks (under the ability decks)
  • 1 Ancestry Ability Deck (All Ancestries Combined)
  • 1 Misc. Modifier Deck (i.e. Curse/Bless)
  • 6 Player Modifier Decks with Tuckboxes
  • 1 GM Modifier Deck
  • 6 Elemental Bookmarks

IMPORTANT “WORK IN PROGRESS” PRODUCTION NOTES:
Class ability decks: To pre-emptively answer your question, yes, these are designed to fit sleeved cards. Our intent for these Class Ability tuckboxes is that they will be large enough to hold your sleeved class and ancestry cards required to play your character, providing you with a storage compartment for your character during an ongoing campaign.

Class modifier decks: As an intended bonus for backers, there will be two additional general player modifier decks than we originally communicated, meaning the deluxe edition can now accommodate up to six players in addition to the gloom master. These general decks (standard 20 card array) will also come in tuckboxes and enough room for both sleeves and advanced modifier cards as your character levels up and unlocks more cards via perks and temporary effects.

Elemental bookmarks: We are exploring with our factory having dedicated wells for the elemental bookmarks, and there appears to be enough room within the card tomes/trays to do so. We’re also taking careful consideration here to track needed changes to the bookmark size/length to ensure they won’t cover important gloom master facing information/charts/tables on the inside of the GM Screen.

Card tomes: The “card tomes” as originally conceived and depicted here, are essentially just that: two giant closing books of cards in card wells. The goal here is an internal vacuum formed plastic card trays with sturdy gameboard/cardboard exterior covers. 

The class advanced modifier decks nest in card wells below their respective class ability deck tuckboxes, with the ability tuckboxes firmly clicking into place above them to act as a lid. The two sides of the tome would then clamshell together snuggly.

We still need to vet with the factory whether this approach will work well with the ability tuckboxes staying in place and in good condition above their modifier deck counterparts. If not, we may explore additional lids to cover the card tome contents or pivot to four individual trays rather than two clamshell books.

Regardless, we and our factory feel confident in our ability to test and execute on whichever method ends up providing the best player usability and recognize this is our biggest area of uncertainty in production as we move forward with pre-press sampling. 

This week we are providing our updated production specifications, as well as these 3D renders with accurate dimensions, to our factory and allow them the necessary time to review and make the needed determinations on their part. This will occur concurrently with all our other efforts outlined above.

Community Spotlight

Our shout-out for the community spotlight this month is Boardiacs, who has a great series of Youtube videos on painting Gloomhaven/Frosthaven miniatures. Particularly impressive to me are Andreea's paints of all six Buttons & Bugs miniatures, which are, as I'm sure you are aware, very tiny. But the level of detail is remarkable, and you can watch even watch the videos at extra high speed as shorts.



That's going to do it for this month. Expect more fervent, continued progress on both projects in our update next month. Catch you then!

December update: full RPG text and miniatures progress
2 months ago – Tue, Dec 09, 2025 at 07:06:33 PM

Good day! Welcome to another monthly update. The big news here is that we are ready to share with you a full preview PDF of the RPG text, which is 345 pages of material for you to peruse. I want to get to that without too much ado, but we’ve also got some miniatures updates to share with you, so let’s start with that.

Miniatures


We are down to just a handful of outstanding efforts on the larger products in the miniatures line, and are continuing to put as many resources as we can to get pre-production for all these miniatures across the finish line. At this point we are awaiting 10 remaining digital modifications from our factory. These are primarily several multi-piece models that have taken more back-and-forth to achieve the right balance of detail and structural integrity. Mostly a couple bosses, some algox/inox, and lurkers. In addition to those 10 models we're waiting on final draft digital modifications we have 8 digital revisions that have been approved and for which we are waiting on physical red wax samples (making 18 in total). To make absolutely sure we're responding quickly to our factory partners, and assisting them directly in the modification process, we've contracted some additional help internally on our end. We are putting daily pressure on our factory and communicating with them about our expectations about being pencils down with pre-production efforts and heading into molds ASAP. This is the main priority for those who are working on it, and we expect to continue making this level of progress over the next month as we head into the mold-making process.



RPG

And here we are! Before I provide a link to the PDF, let’s talk about a couple things.

  • First, let me explain what this actually is—the full text of the RPG in the intended layout of the book, but with most art elements removed. A lot of the art integration is still in progress, but we wanted to get the text for you as soon as we could, so this is the solution we settled on. The intention of this as presented is that you can use it to actually try out the system, and to that end, you’ll also find a blank character sheet at the back of the book as well as a full art-filled version of the pre-written adventure chapter so that you should have no trouble running it.
  • Why did we want to get this in front of you? Well, you’ve been waiting a long time for this, and we also wanted to demonstrate where we’ve come with the project. But the other reason is that we want feedback! Now that the text layout is completed, we’ll be going through everything again in a final editing pass, but we’ve already been looking at this text for years, and sometimes it’s good to get fresh eyes on things—a lot of fresh eyes. So if you find something out of place as you’re looking through the book—a typo, a confusing bit of text, a layout error—please let us know by filling out this feedback form.
  • What’s still missing? The art, of course, as discussed above. But you’ll also see a lot of page references with “p.XX”, and that’s normal at this stage as well. Only once we are sure that no more text will be moving (i.e. all other text edits finished) will we go through and fill out the page references. That is also when we will do the table of contents and indexing, which are also still missing at this stage. Everything else should be there, so have at it and let us know what you think!

With all that said, here’s the link:

FULL RPG TEXT PDF

(It's a big boy—you may have to download it.)

What happens next? The goal is to complete all outstanding layout and editing efforts over the next month, which is when we can start engaging with the factory and figure out timelines regarding production and fulfillment.

Community spotlight

This month for the community spotlight, I wanted to shout out AmDirt—a Youtube channel that does live-plays as well as podcasts that discuss their sessions with more analysis. Detty and Gaz just recently started a playthrough of the new edition of Gloomhaven (which is a great place to pick up the series) after playing through Frosthaven and Crimson Scales (so there’s a lot of back content if you want to deep-dive, including 122 podcast episodes). They are an entertaining and incredibly positive part of the community, and I wish them success in their continued adventures (and for Gaz’s luck to turn around at some point)!



EU Mercenary Pack Fulfillment

I wanted to address this as well, as we expected to ship these out on Dec. 1, and that hasn’t happened yet. When it was clear that the shipping hadn’t begun, we began reaching out to the fulfillment company, but haven’t yet received a clear response. We will be meeting with them this week to resolve whatever is needed and will be updating the webpage when we know more.

_______

And finally, I just wanted to let you know I was the Storytime speaker at PAX Unplugged last month! If you want to learn more about the early days of Gloomhaven and my design career, you can check the presentation below.


That will do it for the update, then. I hope you enjoy the RPG text, and please use the feedback form if you have any input. Thanks, and I’ll catch you next month, January 6!

December update postponed one week
3 months ago – Tue, Dec 02, 2025 at 12:29:06 PM

Good day! It's the first Tuesday of the month, and we've been working on an update for you, but with the holiday weekend, I didn't quite get together everything I wanted to share with you, so I've decided the best thing to do is postpone the update a week.

I apologize for the delay, but the next update is going to be good, with significant miniature progress and news, plus we will be ready to share the complete text of the RPG!

So I will catch you next week with that, and then we will resume our regular first Tuesday of the month schedule for updates.

November update: mercenary pack fulfillment, new RPG content, and 10 years of Gloomhaven
4 months ago – Tue, Nov 04, 2025 at 03:19:24 PM

Good day! It’s your first monthly update! We’ve got a lot of progress to share with you on the RPG, but I did want to spend some time addressing some feedback from the last update.

Mercenary pack pre-order

I am happy to report here that all mercenary pack shipments have arrived or will arrive soon at all fulfillment centers, and we are ready to provide more concrete information on fulfillment.

Before doing that, I would like to first acknowledge our lack of communication on fulfilling this pre-order and apologize for that. This was not a part of this Backerkit campaign, which is why you weren’t seeing updates about it here, but you also weren’t seeing updates about it elsewhere, so it is perfectly understandable to look for updates here and be frustrated by a general lack of information, especially when we had advertised the packs through these updates.

Our policy moving forward, with both this and future pre-orders, is to provide more prompt updates by email when timing on delivery changes. We will be sending out an email update on the mercenary packs to all pre-orders shortly, but we wanted to provide a fulfillment update here for you as well:
  • AU/NZ: All orders have been added to their queue and are expected to start shipping out before the end of week.
  • CA: Shipping will start next week on Monday, with all orders shipping out by the end of next week.
  • EU/UK/RoW: The container has arrived in the EU, with expected delivery to the fulfillment center on Nov. 7. Barring any container delivery issues, we expect orders to start shipping next week.
  • US: Shipping will start on Thursday, and the majority of orders are expected to be shipped by early next week.
We’ve also added this information to the mercenary packs product page and will keep it updated there as fulfillment continues.

Delivery timelines

Another thing I wanted to address was the sentiment of wanting a specific timeline on delivery—wanting to know when you will actually receive the projects that are still outstanding. This is completely understandable, and if we had enough information on all the variables in the process to give you a timeline that was 100% accurate and was guaranteed not to change, I would love nothing more than to give that to you.

Unfortunately, there are just too many variables. At this time, it isn't possible for us to confidently share a timeline without a very real risk of creating further disappointment. Our policy moving forward is simply to provide you with as much information as we can on where we are in the project and what still needs to be done, so that you can see progress is being made. Only once we have entered production and we have solid timelines from our manufacturers, freight companies, and fulfillment partners will we be able to give you an estimate on delivery dates that we can be confident in.

Support tickets

And the final issue to address is support tickets. I know this has been a pain point for a lot of people, and I am sorry. Between fulfillment of Gloomhaven and other issues like the mercenary pack delays, we were hit by a high volume of requests that we did not handle as well as we could have.

We are happy to announce that our support team has put in the effort to resolve the full backlog of tickets and get us to a place of less than 24 hour turn-around time, but I also wanted to share how we are improving things for the future:
  • We’ve set up additional reporting on support tickets that give us a better view of how things are going so we can react more quickly when it comes to things like bringing on additional temp help during peak times.
  • We're working with our international partners to get direct access to fulfillment data so we don’t have to contact multiple different support channels for each ticket.
  • We're also looking into additional methods of ticket filtering for more efficient resolutions.
If you have a new issue or an outstanding one that you don’t feel has been resolved, please reach out to [email protected] so we can take care of it for you.

Minis



We continue to make progress with the miniatures project, though there is nothing new to report this month. We expect to see more substantial progress in the coming months and will have more to report in a future update.


RPG

We’ve got a couple of cool things to share with you on the RPG, so let’s talk about progress on our major outstanding efforts. I also just want to once again note that this is the top priority for everyone on the team who is working on it, and we are doing our best to get this all together quickly, while also maintaining a high-quality presentation.
  • Ability cards: Layout and editing of all ability cards (which are included in the deluxe set) has been completed, and the first thing we wanted to share with you here is the spread of cards from everyone’s favorite rock thrower, the Cragheart!





  • Art Layout: Arch here! I wanted to help demystify the “art layout” process for the RPG book. This is a process that I direct and coordinate with the help of Layne as well as our illustration collaborators. The focus is to make the book’s content look excellent while adjusting for printing requirements and overall usability. Some of this work carries through the whole book, like the filigree borders of the spreads. Other things need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Different information sometimes can warrant a different kind of presentation for both aesthetics and usability. It’s so much more than just “making things look pretty” (though making things look pretty is an endeavor near and dear to my own heart). The process also involves a lot of technical knowledge and problem solving.












Arch out!

  • Adventure chapter: I’m adding a new element to this list that I think is substantial enough to discuss here. The adventure included in the book has 25 scenes and 21 potential combats. While the rest of the book is largely art, text blocks, and tables, the adventure is more akin to the scenario book from the board game, with all the maps and extra information required. All the text and information is in its final draft, and layout is underway, but the layout process will be its own dedicated effort.

Community spotlight

As part of these new updates, we'd also like to spend some time each month to highlight some of the great videos, podcasts, and other art that has come out of it. This month, I want to give a shout-out to Youtuber Mahgatis, who is putting out a series of excellent, informative videos deep-diving each class in Gloomhaven. So far, he’s put together videos on the starting six, plus three locked classes. Here’s his video on the Cragheart:




10 years of Gloomhaven

A little over ten years ago, I put up an ambitious project on Kickstarter called Gloomhaven, and it drastically altered the course of my life in the best way possible. It was because of those initial backers, and the entire community that grew around them, that I was able to live my dream job designing games and build a company that now employs six other people who are all amazing and talented, as well as provides opportunities to countless other contractors.

These games—this world—would not exist without you, and for that, I can never thank you enough. Thank you for making the world of Gloomhaven what it is today and allowing us to continue to make cool things in it 10 years after we first started. I know we’ve stumbled a bit lately, but we are committed to improving our shortcomings and delivering fantastic products in an effort to truly show our appreciation of your support.

                             

So that's going to do it for this update. I know there was some understandable resistance to moving to a monthly schedule, but I hope the content of this update speaks for itself, and it is a little more clear why we thought the shift would be a net positive. I hope you found it informative, and I’ll catch you next month with more!