Cutting News! | NZGDC Roundup (Patreon)

[4 new SWORDS episodes]

AUCKLAND ADVENTURE

I've covered some of this already!

HobbyconHobbycon was a blast! Jean-Luc was a huge help getting me there and helping me set up! I reconnected with some people from high school as well.OverloadOverload was huge! It took 4 hours to see every stall!If they do a NZ Makes Comics Exhibit again, can someone let me know? It would have been nice to be a part of it.Dice Goblin TTRPG Design NightIf you live in Auckland and you're making a TTRPG, you should definitely start attending. A lot of great knowledge in that room.

ThamesMum and I spent a few days sewing tablecloths and cutting out characters for NZGDC, she was a huge help making my stall better:

NZGDC3 days of networking, teaching people Cut The Deck and generally having a great time. The public day on Saturday was non-stop! Someone was always playing the game. I got lots of useful feedback to go into the final version.

I did heaps of networking, tricked some acquaintances into upgrading our status to friends and regrettably caved and installed LinkedIn on my phone. Wopwop.

And then I got to meet my nephew for the first time! He's a good kid. And I got to go to Costco for the first time. We were going to go to the Zoo but it was raining. These things happen.Thames againSpent some time babysitting my niece. She likes me. I'm the cool uncle now. Caught up with Grandma and some Aunties and my Dad briefly. Found out a horrible secret? Trying not to think about it.MatamataSpent a few days decompressing in Hobbiton and donated some copies of my comics to the Take A Book Leave A Book cabinet, which disappeared overnight each time.I left Auckland with quite a lot of merch left over, but I was kinda rushed out of the city before I'd had a day to try to sell copies to more retailers. Next time.HomeFlew back to Wellington yesterday and immediately went to Wellingtaru 2 hours later for more gamedev networking. Whew!

ARMING SWORDS TO ZWEIHANDERSI've started taking preorders for a 500 print run of the book.I decided to hold off on X, Y and Z until after letting preorders run for a little while and until after I've had a chance to address complaints on the existing pages, so that it can end with a bang. I see the people going around saying I bailed on the project because X was "too hard" and I think you're showing your own lack of imagination, lol, lmao, get wrecktI am going to donate some copies of the book to Kiwi Christmas Books and Sam Orchard has offered to help me on my quest to donate copies to every New Zealand Library - so thank you to everyone who has chosen to donatea little extra towards that too

THE BEGINNERS' BLADE

There are 24 hours left to help get this boy funded! If he's not funded by the end of the campaign I will get some myself, so please don't hesitate to order one if you want one. I had big plans for a story arc, but A to Z ran long. On the upside, the one you get will be all the more rare, special and a testament that you're a true Swords fan! Wink!

CUT THE DECK : CHOPLET'S DUNGEON

I feel really good about the current state of the cards after all that playtesting. There are a few opportunities to tweak the rulebook but after a day or two of really hammering out the last few things, I think we're ready for production. I'd love to have it done in time for the Auckland Toy Fair and The Pav Awards which are both April 2027. Thank you to everyone who had a play, shared ideas and helped make it the best it can be.

FACEBOOK

The Swords Facebook page is about to hit 100k followers! Woohoo!

HEALTH

I was eating really well before my Auckland trip and then indulged thoroughly during my travels, so it's time to lock back in now. I dropped 5kg and now I'm afraid to look at the scales again, haha

R/COMICSI've decided to take a break from r/comics. I have a lot of reasons. The mods reached out and when I explained some of my reasoning they decided I had other motives:

We know you are stressed and NSFW comics are making it hard for us, SFW comics artists to get upvotes as usual.

So they'll be fine without me. And I'll still be posting my comics to r/SwordsComic

SWORDS ANNUAL SURVEYThere have been 326 responses to the survey and after 6 weeks, I think that represents the most I'm going to get, so let's talk about the results next week.THE SWORDS 2026 ANNUAL SURVEY

"Thank you for doing what you do! Keep up the great work!"

"I think your comic is pretty cute and funny"

"I really love the swords and I think you’re doing a great job!"

SWORDTEMBERDidn't do it! Not even a little bit! It was an act of self-care, because way too many other things were happening. Next time maybe.

TAXES AND CATCHING UP ON LOTS OF OTHER ADMINI've got 2 weeks to do my tax return. Can I do it on time this time? And not be a huge baby about it? We'll find out!

SOON > AUCKLAND ARMAGEDDON - 23rd October

I currently have no plans to attend Auckland Armageddon, because the Board Game Area has been cancelled due to lack of space. You can literally blame Teal'c and Sam Winchester having too many fans (it's fine though!! I'm not complaining!!). There should be signed copies of all three of my current books available at the NZ Comics table.If you are visiting Auckland, you can grab a copy of Swords: Cut The Deck from Dice Goblin.

SOON > ZINEFEST WELLINGTON - 1st NovemberI'll be tabling on Sunday, see you there!

Thank you for joining recently, Steffen, Vi, BeLikeJoker, Samantha, Lunar, Milos and Andrew! Total Patreon members : 8661/9000 > I'll self-publish a DnD book of Swords swords5 push-ups for every sign-up > 100/1195 complete

What I'm watching : The Night Manager S1; Taskmaster S22; The Madison; Supergirl

LAST CHANCE!