We've unlocked....

• Double Art
• $5 USD off shipping for Canadians
• $10 USD off shipping for everyone else outside the USA
• Two bonus stories
• A bonus poem
• Three bonus pieces of flash fiction
• Phone & desktop backgrounds using art from each of our three issues
• Six raises for Authors
• Six raises for Artists...

There's still time to unlock more raises, getting us to TRIPLE pay for contributors...and the final stretch goal we can even conceive of reaching, DOUBLE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING DISCOUNT...

If you haven't already, please consider backing and sharing the campaign so we can pay our contributors as much as possible.

Meanwhile...

TONIGHT

Join us right here on the crowdfund page, up top where the trailer video sits, at 7pm EST to join our Final Friday Livestream party!

Not long after we start there will be a 20 min set of live music by Gloamwalker, followed a TTRPG liveplay of DCC: The Dying Earth as run by one of its designers, Julian Bernick!



And don't forget our crowdfund exclusives like...

• All backers get a two-sided poster featuring fun retro-style S&S photography with live, costumed models!
  
  
• Back issues are available at a discount as Add-Ons
  
  
• You can get our face drawn into a scene from a story! (Also available as an Add-On)
  
  
• There's one spot left if you'd like your short story to get a developmental edit from the editor of NESS!
  
  
• You don't pay shipping until close to when we send the finished books out, approximately November of this year. Breaks the cost up nicely!

Alright, let's take this thing all the way to the 21st Aeon!

IN SHORT

• There's a new video showing off our physical formats. 
  
  
• You unlocked 10c/word for our authors!
  
  
• Our final livestream is this Friday at 7pm est, featuring a TTRPG session and perhaps more...
  
  
• The crowdfund ends at 12pm EST, Saturday. There will be the absolute madness that is Overtime, but noon is the official end of things so you'll want to make sure to pledge before then.
  
  
• We currently have 837 backers, can you help us get to 1000? What the heck will even happen if we do???

IN DETAIL

A MAGAZINE IN...HARDCOVER?

Seeing a conversation online between readers who couldn't decide if they wanted softcovers or hardcovers, we decided to help out by making this short video that shows off both formats!

NEW AUTHOR RAISE UNLOCKED!

• 10c/word for our authors
  
  
• Flash Fiction for the Timeworn Terra issue, written by James Enge, and...
  
  
• A short story critique by Matthew John for the lucky backer who got us over the line!

• Artists paid 150% of their starting rate
  
  
• Matej Kollár's issue 10 cover art for all backers as digital backgrounds, and...
  
  
  
• The backer who gets us across the line will be mailed this vintage November, 1973 issue of Fantastic magazine which features a shadowy tale of Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser.
  
  

LIVESTREAM - THIS FRIDAY AT 7PM EST

Julian Bernick will be running DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSIC: THE DYING EARTH for myself, some NESS pals, and some Swords Against! pals (Who are also NESS pals really but here we are, pals all around).



An RPG based on the fiction of Jack Vance, run by a triple threat DCC: The Dying Earth game designer, Timeworn Terra NESS author, and Swords Against! editorial staff member really feels appropriate for our final livestream! 

You'll be able to watch this game, and perhaps more if we can arrange it, right at the top of the crowdfund page where the trailer normally sits.

FINALLY, DON'T FORGET...

We believe strongly in doing our best for you, and certainly you're doing your best for us. It feels incredible to think of how much we'll be able to pay our contributors this year, and how well prepared we'll be to create the best magazine issues & books possible over the rest of 2026, all because you believe so strongly in what we're doing.

We have 837 backers and the snail knight is halfway down our giant chart of additional stretch goals.



Dare we dream of getting the snail knight all the way down? Dare we dream of going so far beyond 837 backers that we reach...



These final days are going to be a hell of a ride.

Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,

Hello hello!

• The final copies of issue one have been recovered! In a previous update we mentioned how we were trying to recover the last few issues from a distributor. Luckily, we did but there's now only 30 copies left and once they're gone that's it.
  
  Now is the ideal time to collect a complete run of issues 1-10 via the following pledge options:
  Gimme All Your Issues: Softcover
  
  Gimme All Your Issues: MOSTLY Hardcover
  
  Gimme EVERYTHING You've Got! (SOFTCOVER)
  
  Gimme EVERYTHING You've Got! (MOSTLY hardcover)
  
  
  
  It is also possible to grab issue 1 as an Add-On.
  
  
• "Pay Over Time" has been requested by some backers, and so we have activated it. Any pledge for $150 or more can now be paid for in four monthly installments with no interest or other complications.
  
  
  
  
• Our next livestream is SYNTHS AGAINST SORCERY, a riotous good time centered on the very S&S genre of Dungeon Synth. It will including live music by and interviews with notable individuals in the scene. The stream begins at 7pm EST, this Thursday right at the top of the crowdfund page.
  
  
  
  
• Thanks to our most recent artist raise stretch goal, all backers will now receive digital phone & desktop backgrounds of Jimmy Makepeace's cover art for issue 8! 
  
  

Next up is an author pay raise which will get backers an original piece of flash fiction by June Orchid Parker, starring her Suplex & Sorcery protagonist, Varika! Meanwhile the lucky backer whose pledge gets this raise over the finish line will earn a short story critique by Jeremy Pak Nelson to either use on a story of their own or gift to a writer friend.

Thank you once again for supporting and spreading the word about this year's crowdfund for New Edge Sword & Sorcery. it feels incredible to have achieved so much and still have just under half the crowdfund left to go!

Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,

IN SHORT

• Our remaining stretch goals have had extra rewards attached to them so our contributor raises stay exciting for you lovely backers. These include bonus fiction, story critiques, vintage magazines, original art and more! Details below.
  
  
• There are three more livestreams to look forward to!
  Friday, February 27th - SWORDS WITHOUT MASTERS ttrpg session run by the game's creator, with special guests as the player characters.
  
  Thursday, March 5th - SYNTHS AGAINST SORCERY! Jar Requard hosts an evening of Dungeon Synth featuring interviews and live performances.
  
  Friday, March 13th - FINAL FRIDAY LIVESTREAM VARIETY SHOW featuring a session of Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Dying Earth run by Julian Bernick; he co-write DCC: The Dying Earth, co-edits Swords Against! magazine, and has a story in issue ten of NESS, our Timeworn Terra special. 
  
  Does "Variety Show" mean there will be other entertainment? Maybe!

IN DETAIL

• Our authors will be paid the industry recognized professional pay rate for their stories.
  
  
• All backers will get to read a piece of Sword & Sorcery flash fiction written by dave ring of Neon Hemlock Press.
  
  
• The backer whose pledge got us to that raise will receive a short story critique by Molly Tanzer, which they can use themselves or gift to an author friend.

• Flash fiction for all, and a short story critique for one lucky backer.
  
  or 
  
  
• Digital art rewards (mainly phone & desktop backgrounds) for all, and a unique physical piece of art for one lucky backer.

Those unique art treasures begin with four vintage issues of Fantastic magazine, each featuring at least one major Sword & Sorcery tale by L. Sprague de Camp, John Jakes, or Fritz Leiber.



And if we make it all the way to the final artist raise, then two very special rewards will be available.



Did you know Molly Tanzer likes to doodle scenes from her Jirel stories as she writes them? Well, if we reach our final stretch goal then all backers will receive a digital PDF booklet of a series of illustrations she drew while writing the new Jirel story you'll find in issue nine!



The backer whose pledge unlocks this final stretch goal will be mailed a gorgeous, original work of art by Saprophial - suitable for framing and hanging on your wall, that's for sure!

Meanwhile...

OUR NEXT LIVESTREAM will begin at 7pm EST, this Friday, February 27th.

Swords Without Master is a game of adventure, violence and wonder. Become rogues in a world of swords and sorcery, living by your wits and prowess, plunging into the unknown, and seizing from it untold treasures!

Run by its creator, Epidiah Ravachol, you'll get to see this exciting new Sword & Sorcery RPG being run with a table of players drawn from the New Edge Sword & Sorcery circle of pals. Epidah will explain how the system works as he takes myself and three special guests through a short adventure in a system where you literally influence the narrative by choosing between "gigantic melancholies" and "gigantic mirth".



I can't wait!

Then, next week we'll have...

Thursday, March 5th - SYNTHS AGAINST SORCERY! Jar Requard hosts an evening of Dungeon Synth featuring interviews and live performances.

and in our final week...

Friday, March 13th - FINAL FRIDAY LIVESTREAM VARIETY SHOW featuring a session of Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Dying Earth run by Julian Bernick; he co-write DCC: The Dying Earth, co-edits Swords Against! magazine, and has a story in issue ten of NESS, our Timeworn Terra special.

Does "Variety Show" mean there will be other entertainment? MAYBE!

I've got my own ideas (Music, interviews, trivia...?) but am happy to hear in the comments any ideas for what you'd like us to include in the big final party we'll throw the day before our crowdfund ends at noon EST, Saturday March 14th.

Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,

IN SHORT

• The creative team has been finalized for a 'zine reward that will go to anybody who backs both this crowdfund and our sword-siblings at Swords Against!. Details below.
  
  
• The double-sided poster which all physical reward backers will receive has now been converted into two sets of digital rewards - phone & computer backdrops - for all backers.
  
  
• A second bonus story has been unlocked by people sharing this Bluesky post, and we're close to unlocking the first of three S&S poems!

IN DETAIL

THE ZINE...
...will be 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall, with black & white cover art on both sides, and two stories inside. The Swords Against! side will have a story by Bryn Hammond with cover art by Craig Brasco, and the New Edge Sword & Sorcery side will have a story by Milton Davis and cover art by Gary McCluskey.



Much like the Ace Doubles of old, or our Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery two-novellas-in-one-book (available as an add-on), this 'zine will have a "front" cover on both sides and you'll flip it upside-down to switch between them.



There will also be a digital version of this for those who back both projects in digital formats. If a backer chooses to get one magazine in digital and the other in physical formats, they'll receive the physical version whenever the magazine they backed in a physical format is fulfilled.


DIGITAL POSTER REWARDS
How will digital-only backers get the double-sided poster? Well, the answer is phone & desktop backgrounds.


These will be added to all pledges by all backers!


SECOND BONUS STORY UNLOCKED, ON TO POETRY!
Our launch day Bluesky post has been shared over 200 times, meaning there will now be a second bonus story in this year's issues.



Only six more shares to unlock a poem by Bryn Hammond, with two more after that...

The post - https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lsqlgpbbnvulxnqzgx7bcgcx/post/3meo2e2ttuu2e


FINALLY



So you may as well call dibs on whatever issues & books you want. Issue one has sold out in physical formats, and Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery's hardcover is down to the last few copies...

Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,