KickTraq

All right! Here’s the plan for the last 24 hours of this campaign: My hope is that we reach a total of $35,000, our second stretch goal, by noon tomorrow EST. If we do,  I go live on Zoom and Facebook (I’ve done it *once* before, so I hope I can... (Read More)

The traditional Mongolian writing system—a vertical top-to-bottom, left-to-right alphabet—dates all the way back to the early days of the Mongol Empire. However, in the script’s homeland, official and day-to-day communications have been written in the Cyrillic script since the 1940s. As a result, the Endangered Alphabets Project considers it to be an endangered writing system, and is working on a campaign to help revitalize the alphabet using an unlikely method: a card game. (Read More)

Wow. A great day today. Thank you all so much. Today's heroes and heroines: Neal Hamilton, Daniel Page, Brigit Greystoke, Jason Booth, Craig Armstrong, Brian York, Giustina Selvelli, Jeanne, Jeremy Mumford, Andrew Jelen, Philip Terry, Jill Chase,... (Read More)

A wonderful idea from Lelle Taffyn: if we are offering, in this campaign, a reward that would be a great gift for someone you know, but the reward won't be ready for this holiday season, there's a solution.  As she wrote: "people can “give”... (Read More)

This Friday (December 11) at noon EST, if we have reached our stretch goal of $35,000, I will hold a live event on Zoom and Facebook at which I do a random drawing among the backers of this Kickstarter campaign and award three prizes:   Third prize:... (Read More)

...which is why I'm sending out such heartfelt thanks to everyone who has backed this campaign to date, most recently Mike, Drabardi, Janey Whatmough, Taffy, Lorene Legah, Aylin Wilbert, and Luca Poggesi. The fact that I still have hair remaining,... (Read More)

Our team of elves has been working day and night conceptualizing and testing the game and the results can now be seen at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/ulus-legends-of-the-nomads/. Hot off the press, so please forgive (and gently point out) the... (Read More)

The race to $35,000 is well and truly on. In the past 24 hours our total jumped by more than it had in the previous five days combined, thanks to Birgit Grundler, Chris Balser, Brandy Ybarra, David Lindsay, Desiree, Jenna, Chuck Haberl, Donna, Craig... (Read More)

As another part of the Endangered Alphabets Project's initiative to support Mongolian culture, language, and writing, we've just published a blog post on Mongolian calligraphy, an astounding art form, at... (Read More)

Many, many thanks to everyone who emerged from the (U.S.) Thanksgiving coma to support us, namely Raptorus77, Richard Biggio-Gottschlich, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, David Millians, Maarten Joosen, Darren Flavelle, Will Strobel, Daniel Bernsen, Mariane... (Read More)

I've just posted the promised (first) expanded explanation of the game at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/ulus-legends-of-the-nomads/. This expanded account reveals the characters and settings we've drawn from the amazing panorama of Mongol... (Read More)

We've heard from a lot of folks who understandably want to know more about our game Ulus: Legends of the Nomads, especially if they're thinking of backing our Kickstarter. So tomorrow evening I'm going to open up a page at endangeredalphabets.com... (Read More)

We are steaming briskly toward our first stretch goal of $30,000, thanks to support from K. Brennan, David Tereshchuk, Karman Lucero, thegodofchuck, Peter Raftos, Jen and Jim, The High Frontier, Virgil Collins-Laine, Nicolas Agee, Benjamin Newman,... (Read More)

On (American) Thanksgiving Day, as we hit the midpoint in our most successful Kickstarter campaign yet, I want to thank everyone who has backed us, but also those who have played other crucial roles:  all kinds of people, especially from the Mongol... (Read More)

Now we've reached our initial goal (most recently thanks to Jonathan H. Liu, Diana, Iva Kravitz, Katie Schmirler, Viktor Cerny, Dan Parsonson, Martin, and Dennis O) and we're striding on to the first stretch goal of $30,000, I can really getting down... (Read More)

Thanks again to everyone who has taken us racing past our original goal. Now it's time to raise the bar and discuss extra incentives and extra rewards, one of which may, I think, be unprecedented. If we reach $30,000, our first stretch goal, we'll... (Read More)

Incredible. Ulus: Legends of the Nomads, has hit our funding goal in record time, thanks (over these past 48 hours) to Carrie Emmerich, Masha Lepire, Rachel Bender, Culturev, Jasmine Grewal, 胡志彤, John Miller, Anton M. Alekseev, ANevskyUSA, Eli... (Read More)

It has been pointed out—quite fairly—that we have not provided gender equality in our rewards. We have the grinning, hirsute Tuul’ch figure available on stickers, cards, and travel mugs, but no equivalent female figure. All too true. To make... (Read More)

The shagai have aroused more interest than any other aspect of Ulus! Here's a short video showing what they look like. Each shagai has four faces; each face has a traditional name. In the game Ulus, they are more than dice--they are the player's... (Read More)

Yet another great day. My thanks--the word is too weak--go out to Bin Tran, Tee Tsetsendelger, Mary Staples, Julia Lynam, Simon Devylder, Ken Lunde, Daniel Mercer, Sandsha Andreyev, Jaym Gates, Pete Tanghe, Drew Wendorf, Lisa Garrison, Chelsea Saul,... (Read More)

First of all, a jaw-dropping number of people to thank for another amazing day. The latest round of gratitude goes out to Kirjaval, Sean Leow, bshender, Donald C Caulkins, Tracy Gianotti, Christoph Frischknecht, Olof Pettersson, Maureen Mcguigan,... (Read More)

Every Kickstarter creator has, I'm sure, the same anxiety: after a flying start, suddenly the train stops dead. Well, it hasn't happened yet, and our third day was yet another incredible success, thanks to Emily, Marlene Vidibor, Nick Jensen,... (Read More)

The initial rush of the first day of a Kickstarter campaign often drops off during the second day, but--thanks to you--not in this case. Our best-ever second day, in fact, and my heartfelt thanks go out to Angel Andrés Cataño Flores, Jovan Ellis,... (Read More)

The Endangered Alphabets Project has never seen anything like it. Our campaign to support the Mongolian people by promoting their cause and their culture through our game Ulus was 26% funded within the first 24 hours. So enormous thanks to Erik... (Read More)

Ulus is a card game that puts players in the shoes of Mongolian gods and mythic figures as they work to decide the future of the Mongol people. Chinggis Khan’s era of expansion has ended, and now the leaders face a question of how this new empire will rule. These gods and legends have chosen human champions who battle to enforce their deity’s vision of the future. (Read More)