We have The Morgue! And it looks fabulous. We knew that the folks at Scout Books in Portland do great work, but they crushed it! Every time we get another one of the components of the whole package, it is both cool and gratifying to be able to hold it in our hands. Inside The Morgue, the guest constructors have created some stellar puzzles with fun variety, making this a perfect companion to The Conjurer's Almanaq. And we are so excited to be so close to getting everything out the door!
But, Seriously, Spoilers. As we get closer to shipping, we want to talk about spoilers a little bit. We have been scrupulous in avoiding anything that would spoil any part of your experience. You can never see a puzzle for the first time again once you've seen it, so we've worked really hard to preserve the special moments of the reveal, the exploration, and the solve for you. So, you can see the outside of The Morgue above, but no peeks at the inside!
Once there are a thousand Limited Edition copies of The Conjurer's Almanaq out there, and even more mass market copies, well, we don't control it anymore. Like many of you, we're looking forward to seeing reviews and blog posts, and maybe even unboxing videos (honestly, we'd love to see an unboxing video!), and we have a request. First, please let people know what you're going to tell them or what you're going to show them, so they can choose what they learn. Second, please don't spoil the solve of any puzzle without an extremely clear spoiler warning. Better yet, wait a while before posting spoilers for any solve. It's simply not fair to others. Thanks!
A Community for You. Since we know people are going to want to discuss things, we've created a new place for you to talk about all the Almanaq products. It's a currently empty subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/almanaq
which also has a currently empty wiki
https://www.reddit.com/r/almanaq/wiki/
If you want help on a puzzle, this is a great place to ask others for help. We're going to do some additional formatting to make it prettier, and we'll moderate a bit, but these are spaces for you, not us. Helpfully, Reddit has conventions on marking spoilers and an easy way to do it when you're post. If you're new to Reddit, check it out.
And, now some frequently asked questions...
Q. Do I need an internet connection? This is a book. No, you don't need an internet connection. Solve on an airplane* if you want!
Q. But will there be hints online? Just like with The Librarian's Almanaq, you'll be able to confirm answers and some partial answers, and also get hints at http://www.almanaq.com/hints. You do not have to do this; in fact, the vast majority of solvers of The Librarian's Almanaq have never visited the hints page. We expect that to be the same here. Since some people have asked us not to put any hints up immediately to avoid tempting them, we are not going to make them live until sometime in January.
Q. Do I have to write in the book? Nope. You can if you want to. You'll probably want to take notes, just like you do when you learn things in a physical escape room.
Q. How many puzzles are in the book? This is a hard question to answer! It depends on what you count as a puzzle and whether you really want to know about all the puzzles you haven't discovered yet. That would spoil some of the fun of finding them. When you're in a physical escape room, you're not told how many puzzles there are, and the same is true here. We've aimed for you to be able to explore the space of the book in the same way that you explore the physical space of an escape room, learning what you need to do as you go. Trust that you won't escape in an hour. The back of the mass market edition says "6-30 hours for 1-4 people."
As always, thanks for your support!
Roy and Emily
* Hey, it's not our fault that many airplanes have internet connections now. If that bothers you, solve on a desert island.
Next update in two weeks or less (actually, much less than two weeks at this point!)
