Salvage Union Starter Set

Hello Salvagers,

We'll get this upfront and out of the way, the project is unfortunately currently delayed.  We've had various issues externally which we've noted in other updates, but we've also now had internal delays to the project which will push it over our planned fulfilment of November.

To go into detail our initial plan with the Reclamation of the Wastes campaign was to have a lot of different areas that you can see in the example map, with relatively terse detail on them. However when we started to write and detail out each area we ended up adding lots more detail and additional content than we initially planned as we were having a lot of fun creating the areas, and fleshing them out each with unique ideas.

When we put everything together into preliminary layout however we started to realise the scope we designed was far too big for a Starter Set adventure designed to take players from Tech 1 - 3.

So we've made the difficult decision to rework the Reclamation of the Wastes campaign so that it better fits the initial brief of a Starter Set, reducing the size of the overall map, but with a series of richly detailed and more tightly designed areas for players to explore and play through.

In context the Reclamation of the Wastes is still looking to be about the size of one of our existing Salvage Union adventure modules, so it's not going to be small by any means, but will be a lot more manageable especially for new GMs and players to the game which is what it's designed for as a Starter Set

We work in an iterative style where we bounce work back and forth between us alongside playtesting whilst developing a game and that can involve it changing during the process.

We understand a delay is frustrating and never ideal, however we do believe that whilst a delay is temporary, the games we make will last forever so want them to be as good as possible when they release, that's not to say we'd ever want to delay for years, but that we do when we need to take that extra time to make them just right.

Those of you who supported the original Salvage Union campaign may remember we were delayed on that as well, as we took extra time to add additional content and make it as good as possible, and we hope the final quality of the product made up for that delay, which certainly wouldn't have been the case if we'd rushed to the initial deadline.

We're working hard at getting everything to the finish line still, and we're still aiming to have PDF's out by the end of this year (2025), and then to send everything to production, but we're going to miss our initial of November for physical fulfilment.

In regards to BackerKit as well as pre-orders, that is also delayed as we need shipping quotes to be as accurate as possible before we release and need to have all of the box contents finalised including the final size of the campaign booklet.

We do apologise for this, we know a lot of you are excitedly awaiting the Starter Set and put your trust and hard earned money into us to deliver, and we can't wait to get it into your hands as well, and can only hope it will be worth the additional wait.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch, and we'll endeavour to keep you updated on the progress of the project.

Thanks and happy salvaging.

Panny & Aled
Leyline Press

Contact and Social Media

Email: [email protected]

Salvage Union Discord - https://discord.gg/ppbS5xvCbQ

Salvage Union Bluesky - @salvageunion - https://bsky.app/profile/salvageunion.bsky.social

Salvage Union Instagram - @salvageunionrpg https://www.instagram.com/salvageunionrpg

Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/

Sign up to the Leyline Press Newsletter here.

Leyline Press Bluesky - @leylinepress  https://bsky.app/profile/leylinepress.bsky.social

Leyline Press Facebook - @leylinepress - https://www.facebook.com/leylinepress/

Leyline Press TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@leylinepress

Hello Salvagers,

Our apologies for the lack of updates over the last month or so, we've been hard at work getting the Salvage Union Starter Set finished as well as preparing for GenCon.

Starter Set Progress

Following some more internal play testing to make the Reclamation of the Wastes campaign as good as possible,  the copy is now all complete for the Salvage Union Starter Set and we're in the final stages of layout and editing.

We are aiming to release all of the PDFs by August at the latest. We'll be doing a short round of community proof reading, and then sending everything to production with our partners at Panda Games.

We are still aiming for physical fulfilment by November though this may be a little tight at this stage depending on how long production and shipping takes, and where you are in the world. We'll continue to keep you updated in this regard but broadly speaking we're still all on track.

BackerKit / Pledgemanager

When we release the PDFs in August we'll also be sending out BackerKit surveys to collect postage and your address details. Unfortunately shipping prices have increased due to a mixture of global circumstances and the tariff situation, we've done our best to keep these as low as possible but they will be higher than our initial estimates. You'll be able to upgrade your pledge via BackerKit and add any additional add ons and anything else you want with your order. 

Pre-Orders / Late Pledges

There will be a short pre-order/late pledge window when we launch the BackerKit to allow anyone who missed the original campaign to back the game and guarantee receiving it early. We are aiming to release the Salvage Union Starter Set at retail though due to the ongoing tariff situation there may be more stock issues than we'd hope, so this will guarantee you getting hold of a copy.

GenCon!

We're really excited to be going to our first GenCon in Indianpolis this year from Jul 31, 2025 – Sun, Aug 3, 2025.

We'll have all of our core Salvage Union as well as our range of other adventures, games and zines. We're also hoping to run games of SU at the convention.

You can find us in Booth 2885 in the Entrepreneurs avenue, and we'll be there for the whole 4 days!

Here's a map of GenCon to find us.  

Contact and Social Media

If you have any questions please get in touch!

Email: [email protected]

Salvage Union Discord - https://discord.gg/ppbS5xvCbQ

Salvage Union Bluesky - @salvageunion - https://bsky.app/profile/salvageunion.bsky.social

Salvage Union Instagram - @salvageunionrpg https://www.instagram.com/salvageunionrpg

Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/

Sign up to the Leyline Press Newsletter here.

Leyline Press Bluesky - @leylinepress  https://bsky.app/profile/leylinepress.bsky.social

Leyline Press Facebook - @leylinepress - https://www.facebook.com/leylinepress/

Leyline Press TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@leylinepress

Hello Salvagers,

We hope you're all well and enjoying the spring.

We're still on track with the creative on the project, with an aim to have PDF's finished by July/August, ready for final proofing and then to be sent to production to hit our fulfilment goal of November.
 
Split Shipping

We are still offering split shipping on all pledges of the Salvage Union Core Book, and the 3 adventure modules (We Were Here First!, Rainmaker, and False Flag). We had initially planned to do this via pledge manager however this has been delayed, you can read on below for more information.

If you wish to have your order split shipped please get in touch with us via [email protected] or BackerKit and we can arrange it for you.  You will need to pay an additional shipping cost to cover it, but we'll be able to ship as soon as we receive payment.

Tariffs, Pledge manager and Pre-Orders.

The elephant in the room is the unfolding US tariff situation which unfortunately does affect this project as the Salvage Union Starter Set is currently set to be produced in China. 

Backers outside of the US wont be directly affected by this as we can have the required Starter Sets shipped from China to the UK to distribute to the EU, Canada and Rest of World, however US backers make up the majority of backers on this campaign, and means we can't as a result proceed until we have the best idea of the overall shipping and manufacturing cost of the project, which the tariffs do heavily impact.

We've received production quotes from our current manufacturing partner at Panda Games in China, and normally we'd be getting ready to send the pledge manager out now to collect shipping, as well as getting pre-orders up for those who missed the campaign.

However the current 145% tariff on goods sent from China to the US means an approximate $12,000 - $13,000 tariff fee for the project based on the production quotes and the amount we need to send to only cover all backers in the campaign.

This is only shipping the bare minimum to cover, meaning we would have no stock in the US for any follow up pre-order, direct or retail sales. We'd effectively be out of stock immediately in the US. If we wanted to ship an amount of Starter Sets to cover follow up sales, the tariff fee would be closer to $25,000.

Whilst we can bare some of these cost, this is such a drastic increase that we'd realistically need to pass some of it on, as result if we were to send out the pledge manager now, US backers would need to pay significantly more in shipping costs to cover tariffs, potentially up to 2-3x our current estimates to cover tariffs, which we feel realistically is going to be untenable for the majority of backers and something we very much want to avoid. 

This would have a further impact on pre-order and our follow up retail sales plans as pre-order backers in the US would also need to pay the additional tariff costs, and we'd have to increase the RRP of the Starter Set by around 2-3x to cover the tariff cost, and it's unlikely as a result anyone is going to be interested in buying a $80+ Starter Set. This effectively kills any of our follow up sales, and means nobody will be able to pick up the Starter Set who didn't back the campaign in the US, which is bad for the overall health of the game as we wanted the Starter Set to help onboard new players.

The fluctuating and unpredictable nature of the tariffs also means that these numbers are very hard to predict, even if we were to significantly increase shipping costs for US backers to cover current tariffs, and then when we went to ship, the Trump administration could decide to increase Tariffs to say 250%, then we simply wouldn't have the money to fulfil the project and we'd either need to ask backers for more money, or just leave the stock in China until the situation changes. Meaning we can only safely launch pledge manager as close as possible to shipping to mitigate any risk of another price increase.

What we're doing.

The good news is that the Starter Set has not been sent to production yet, and we are using that to look at other potential manufacturers with our partners in Europe, who may be able to produce the Starter Set instead,  whilst this will reduce the impact of the tariffs, it may still have an impact in regards to increased cost and delays in production, as well as potentially certain add ons to the campaign no longer being produced. One reason most tabletop games, especially box sets with multiple components, are produced in China is because they are capable of offering a wide range of services which other manufacturers aren't able to do as they don't have the tooling, supply lines, and expertise in place. We are hoping this won't be the case of course but won't know until we can get more accurate quotes from other manufacturers. 

We also have some time to monitor the situation, tariffs may also decrease in which case we'd continue as planned though, we'd need to collect shipping as close as possible to shipping the project to mitigate any potential tariff increases.

We are also looking into further options beyond that to mitigate the impact of the tariffs and discussing solutions with other creators in the industry, though it's unfortunately a very difficult situation with no perfect solution, which we're sure many of you know is causing widespread issues across the entire tabletop industry.

In the short term this means the pledge manager and pre-orders are going to be delayed until we can have the clearest idea possible of the cost of the project, and what we need to charge for shipping, in the long term this may lead to production delays and increased shipping costs, especially if we need to work with a different manufacturer, however we are doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of this on you.

Our main priority is ultimately to fulfil the project for all backers, at the most affordable cost possible for backers, whilst staying afloat ourselves as a small, indie TTRPG company.  We'll keep you updated on the situation and hope to resolve it as best as possible.

We are of course sorry for the impact that this has had, and if you have any questions we're happy to discuss them. Feel free to comment here, send us an e-mail, or join the Discord where we're happy to chat directly with you.

Thankyou for all our support.

Happy Salvaging.
Panny & Aled
Leyline Press

Contact and Social Media

Email: [email protected]

Salvage Union Discord - https://discord.gg/ppbS5xvCbQ

Salvage Union Bluesky - @salvageunion - https://bsky.app/profile/salvageunion.bsky.social

Salvage Union Instagram - @salvageunionrpg https://www.instagram.com/salvageunionrpg

Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/

Sign up to the Leyline Press Newsletter here.

Leyline Press Bluesky - @leylinepress  https://bsky.app/profile/leylinepress.bsky.social

Leyline Press Facebook - @leylinepress - https://www.facebook.com/leylinepress/

Leyline Press TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@leylinepress

Hello Salvagers,

Another short update just to keep you up to date on the project progress for the Salvage Union Starter Set.

Campaign Progress

We're making good progress with finishing everything we need for the Starter Set, and finalising it all for print, everything is still on track for fulfilment in November.

Pledgemanager

In regards to Pledgemanager we're waiting on sending this out until we have the most accurate shipping cost estimates possible. We're currently waiting final quotes from our manufacturer in regards to weights and shipping. We're also monitoring the situation in regards to various tariffs that are being announced which may affect shipping costs.

We'll update as soon as we know more.

This currently wont affect our estimated fulfilment date of November 2025, though it may mean Pledgemanager comes out closer to fulfilment depending on the factors involved.

This also applies for late pledges which will go live when Pledgemanager does.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Happy Salvaging!
Panny & Aled
Leyline Press

Contact and Social Media

Email: [email protected]

Salvage Union Discord - https://discord.gg/ppbS5xvCbQ

Salvage Union Instagram - @salvageunionrpg https://www.instagram.com/salvageunionrpg

Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/
Sign up to the Leyline Press Newsletter here.

Leyline Press Facebook - @leylinepress - https://www.facebook.com/leylinepress/

Leyline Press TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@leylinepress

Hello Salvagers,

Another short update. We're still progressing with final layout, copy, and edits across the project. We're also finalising production with the manufacturer. Everything is currently still on track for our fulfilment date in November.

We're still holding off on releasing the pledge manager until we have the clearest idea possible of all of our postage costs, and will announce when that goes live, we're hoping this will be the case within the next 1-2 months.

Not much else to report yet, but if you have any questions please get in touch.

Happy Salvaging!
Panny & Aled
Leyline Press

Contact and Social Media

Email: [email protected]

Salvage Union Discord - https://discord.gg/ppbS5xvCbQ

Salvage Union Instagram - @salvageunionrpg https://www.instagram.com/salvageunionrpg

Salvage Union Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/salvageunion/
Sign up to the Leyline Press Newsletter here.

Leyline Press Facebook - @leylinepress - https://www.facebook.com/leylinepress/

Leyline Press TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@leylinepress