June Update: Production Nearing Completion, Locking Orders Soon
1 day ago
– Sat, Jun 06, 2026 at 05:14:12 PM
Hey everyone!
Exciting news! Mass production for Essence has an estimated completion date of June 18! We've started to receive progress photos of the final-quality assets from the manufacturer. After production is complete, we're anticipating about 45 days for shipping before we receive the games in the USA. Then we'll get straight into fulfillment. So once again, all physical rewards are still on schedule per our original campaign timeline!
Above is one of the progress photos from our manufacturer, showing the new finish on the game board, trading the old glossy finish for matte-linen! A far cry from the paper game boards of yore:
It's crazy to think about how far Essence has come in the past few years and how many copies will soon exist!!
Wrapping up the Pledge Manager
In other news, you may receive a few emails from BackerKit over the coming weeks regarding Locking Orders, Charging Cards (shipping & tax), and Locking Delivery Addresses. We'll initiate a 48-hour notice email for each of these steps.
The are a few straggling shipping addresses we still need to collect, but we still plan to proceed with the dates mentioned in our last update — locking existing orders on June 7 and charging cards shortly thereafter. The timing of these steps will have no effect on the fulfillment of your rewards, and if you have already completed the backer survey (most of you have - thank you!), then there is no further action required unless you'd like to review/confirm your shipping address, rewards, etc.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out and we are happy to help on a case-by-case basis.
That's all for now, just wanted to share a quick heads up on the above!
Thanks, and happy summer!
-Cosmic Stew RPG
PS - Go Knicks!!
May Update: Production, Timelines, Pledge Manager Closing Soon...
25 days ago
– Wed, May 13, 2026 at 01:08:31 PM
Hey everyone!
We hope all is going well. We wanted to provide a general update on everything that's happening in the Essence world.
Production
Essence is in mass production!!
After extensive back and forth with the manufacturer, and the approval of a final sample, production is in full swing. To this point, we have no concerns about the production timeline, and physical rewards are all still on schedule per the campaign timeline. We are right on track for backers to receive their games/rewards by the end of summer.
Pledge Manager
Just about everyone required has filled out the backer survey! Thank you very much, as this is helping things to run very smoothly.
Because the manufacturing process is on schedule, we went ahead and calculated shipping costs for all backers. The cost of shipping depends on your mailing address and the cumulative weight of your rewards. If you would like to review your shipping cost, you can do so by revisiting your backer survey. Final shipping costs are very close to the estimates we provided at the bottom of our campaign page.
As we have stated before, if you live in New York City, we have initially waived your shipping cost and will attempt to coordinate with you to have your rewards hand-delivered.
Lastly, on Sunday, June 7, we will lock all existing orders on the pledge manager. This will be the last chance to pre-order Essence or edit your backer survey, so make sure you've selected all the rewards you'd like to receive by then. We'll charge cards for shipping & tax on Monday, June 8. We'll send another quick update before then as a heads up.
A Field Guide to Moltania
The Field Guide is coming along nicely. This continues to be a fun, collaborative process while production is going on in the background.
We originally planned for the Field Guide to be around 40 pages, but with the amount of content we're hoping to include within the sleek A5 size, it's projecting to be... substantially longer. So, we have really been prioritizing its development to have the physical version in time to ship with your games! To ensure that we deliver the most complete, highest-quality RPG book possible to all who ordered, we'll be delaying the release of the digital version to the same time as the physical version.
Please reach out any time with questions or concerns. Always happy to hear from the community! For now, enjoy your spring—only one season away from Essence time!
-Cosmic Stew RPG
March 2026 Update - Production, Pledge Manager, Field Guide
3 months ago
– Sun, Mar 15, 2026 at 10:08:52 AM
Hello everyone!
We hope you have all been holding up well in this first quarter of another wild year. It's been two months since our last official update, so we wanted to let you know what we've been up to.
Our ongoing tasks have been managing the pledge manager and playtesting the extremes of the game to finalize the rulebook for print. We wanted to give ourselves ample time to refine the rulebook, as every bit of feedback gives great direction on how to organize the rules to make learning Essence as easy as possible!
Production
The most important news is that the manufacturer is back from holiday and Essence is primed for imminent production.
The team is taking care to ensure that everything is thoroughly accounted for within each box. We've been rigorously tuning the details so that each game comes efficiently and elegantly packaged for ease of use and to look nice on your shelf!
All in all, physical rewards are all on schedule per the campaign timeline, and we still plan for backers to receive their games near the end of summer.
Pledge Manager
Thank you to everyone who has filled out the backer survey and provided a shipping address to receive your rewards. About 60% of backers have filled out the backer survey so far. As a reminder, it is essential for all backers who didn't "Pledge Without a Reward" to fill out the backer survey before the pledge manager closes. This is how we will calculate tax and obtain your shipping address for the delivery of your rewards. There are also some opportunities to give feedback and help guide us in our future endeavors.
You should have received an email from BackerKit with a link to fill out the backer survey. It should be fairly straightforward, but if you have any questions about the backer survey, or whether you need to fill it out, please reach out to the team and we will help step by step!
Seeing as we are getting closer to the end of manufacturing, we will be calculating shipping costs next month to be charged through the pledge manager.
As a reminder, if you live in New York City, there is an option to avoid a shipping cost. If you'd like to explore this option, you do not need to provide a shipping address, but you do need to get in contact with us ahead of time so that we can coordinate the hand-delivery of your rewards. And don't worry, if you've already provided your shipping address, and we make contact prior to fulfillment, we can manually override your shipping cost.
We will likely keep the pledge manager open longer than we had originally planned, with an estimated closing in May - so keep telling your friends! We will give ample notice before the pledge manager closes.
A Field Guide to Moltania
In other news, we have been thoroughly enjoying our work on A Field Guide to Moltania. If you are hoping for some context on what the Field Guide will be, check out our previously published series: The Atlas of Rong'lu, available on our Patreon page or through the Cosmic Gazetteer backer reward (which many of you received). It has felt great to memorialize the setting and flesh out the world of Essence while managing the fulfillment process. We hope that the Field Guide serves as a great companion to Essence, granting depth to the region and allowing you to be more immersed in the Cosmic Stew.
That's all for now, but please feel free to reach out with any questions or just to connect!
Wishing you well,
:* Cosmic Stew RPG
Essence Pledge Manager is Open - Cosmic Gazetteer & Backer Surveys Incoming!
5 months ago
– Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 02:38:55 PM
Hey Everyone!
Happy 2026! This is gearing up to be a huge year for Cosmic Stew RPG and we're here to make the most of it. We started off our year with a fantastic evening of Essence demos in Staten Island, NY. Thanks to all who came out to play!
The Cosmic Gazetteer - Rewards Incoming
The first wave of backer rewards has arrived! For those of you who pledged to the Help us Make it, Explorer's Bundle, or Signed Limited Edition tiers, we will be distributing the Cosmic Gazetteer digital reward via email this week. We hope you enjoy!
All Backer Surveys Incoming
As we have not encountered any glaring issues with the smoke test, we feel good about releasing the backer survey to all backers via the BackerKit pledge manager. Thank you again for your patience while we figured out the best way to move forward. Here's what happens next:
- Expect to receive an email to the same email address as you receive these updates with a subject line containing "Response Needed..."
- Within the email, select "Click Here to Respond" to be redirected to the survey page.
- Kindly fill out the survey as it presents itself to you. Depending on your pledge level, there may be a few questions for you to answer.
- Confirm your reward selections and, if you ordered physical rewards, input your shipping address so that we may have your rewards delivered.
- Click "Place My Order" to finalize your order.
If you'd like, there are options to increase your pledge, purchase add-ons, or repurpose your pledge (if you previously pledged "no reward" but have changed your mind, you can switch to a reward tier instead).
The backer survey is a crucial tool for us to lock-in your rewards and ensure that they are fulfilled in a timely and organized manner. It should not take more than 5 minutes to fill out. If something is not clear, please reach out and we will help!
Important Note: If you are in the New York City area, you may select the "Local Pickup" option from the country dropdown list in the "Shipping" tab of the survey to save on shipping. Local pickup is only available within New York City.
Final notes on the backer survey/BackerKit pledge manager: Once you've input your address, it will automatically calculate and charge tax/VAT based on the tangible rewards you've ordered and your location. As mentioned before, shipping will be finalized and charged later once production is completed for the physical rewards.
Production Update
Finally, we received an update from the manufacturer on the timeline for games. We are reviewing the final digital proofs of our assets, before approving them for manufacturing. Production is projected to be complete by the end of April. This will give us ample time to receive the games and distribute them worldwide, so our timeline is still on track!
Our next update will have details on our lore and art book: A Field Guide to Moltania.
Wishing you the best until then!
-Cosmic Stew RPG
Happy 2026! Backer Survey Smoke Test Incoming
5 months ago
– Tue, Jan 06, 2026 at 01:40:20 PM
Happy New Year, everyone!
We hope that your 2026 is off to a great start! We wanted to send a quick update to start the year...
Good news: BackerKit has approved the Essence pledge manager to send backer surveys.
We'll start right away by sending out the 'smoke test' later today. A smoke test sends surveys to 5% of backers from each pledge level as a way to catch any errors or oddities and to ensure that the survey works as intended. Over the next few days, we'll closely observe how these first 5% of backers react and make any necessary improvements before making the survey available to all backers.
Important Note: If you are in the New York City area, you may select the "Local Pickup" option from the country drop down in the "Shipping" tab of the survey to save on shipping. Local pickup is only available within New York City.
In other news, we hit our most pressing deadline by submitting our final asset files to the manufacturer on December 20. It was a grind, but the updates were worth it! We were able to make a number of quality-of-life and aesthetic upgrades, including a full-art Aspect of Yoordai card and a Glossary of Symbols for player reference cards.
As planned, we have reserved our place in the queue for mass production after the Chinese New Year holiday. Everything is moving smoothly and on schedule!
We'll send a more formal update once the smoke test has run its course. More details to come. Have a great week everyone! :)
-Cosmic Stew RPG
