Locking Orders on Wednesday; Pre-Order Link Mistake
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 02:12:28 PM
Quick update
Things are still chugging along on the last two manuscripts. I had to dedicate several straight days to some construction projects at home, but this week we're back at it hard.
I engaged another editor to look at the final manuscript, Sunken Library, and I have excellent feedback from him on that manuscript. I'll share the results with the authors, get some changes made, and and hopefully drive this to conclusion.
Pre-Order Link Mistake
A helpful and hopefully soon-to-be pre-order backer pointed out that my link in the Kickstarter page to the hosted pre-orders had a mistake in it. No wonder so few were placed. I've since fixed it.
Locking Orders Wednesday
I'm going to lock orders this coming Wednesday, Aug 19, and for those that haven't paid with PayPal, charge cards.
That will allow me to begin the PDF distribution process. Add-ons come first and all at once. Then I'll deliver Roc, Dragon Hunt!, and Dark Lord's Doom as the final art comes in...which should also be on Wednesday. The final step is to make counters for the last page to help play.
So I expect that you'll start seeing the first three books Real Soon Now, but the last two might wait a bit, as I can't do layout, and thus art direction, until the editing is complete.
Edit edit edit edit . . .
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Aug 03, 2020 at 05:43:36 AM
Just a very quick update: I made a lot of progress on Catacombs of Living Death. It's getting pulled apart and put back together, and may actually grow by a few pages (I'm thinking 20 instead of 16).
I was talking to Christopher last night, and we both like where it's headed. It's going to feel very, very different than Crown, Curse, and Roc . . . much more sandboxy. In fact, it seems to be shaping up that it may wind up being easier to drop brand new characters into this one than the others. This surprised me: Adventure 4 of 5 is usually tough to say "oh, and you happen upon this quest..."
Not so with Catacombs. I anticipate a few more days of pounding on words, followed by prelim layout and art direction. Then I'll get immediately to work on The Sunken Library.
I'm a few more images away from having the other three books ready to distribute. In fact, if I can contact one or two of my artists in the coming week we might be able to put those into previewable final form.
But I haven't forgotten this; in fact, it's been dominating my mind share. Yesterday I re-read the edits with fresh eyes, though, and I think folks are going to like what they get.
Surveys 80% Complete; Spread the Word on Pre-orders!
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Jul 27, 2020 at 06:51:10 AM
You guys are doing great on the surveys, with just about 4 in 5 backers having already finished it up. I'll send out a reminder ping for those that missed it shortly, but by and large we've got time.
The other thing that y'all can do to help is point folks that might have missed the initial campaign at he Backerkit Pre-Order link. As noted in the last update, the additional orders do still increase the author pay, and of course, more folks is more folks, which increases the resources I have to make more cool books for people.
Anyway, work is a bit mixed in terms of progress. Making steady progress on the art on Roc, Dragon Hunt, and Dark Lord's Doom. DLD is in the proofer's hands, hopefully making it better, working out any broken links, etc.
I'm still working on Catacombs and Library. Catacombs needs a restructuring. It has a lot of nifty stuff in it, but the way it's laid out is going to make it harder than needed for a GM to run it. So first I have to dematerialize it, so to speak, and then put back all the bits that are there in an order that gives the GM the required info up front. This is not a small task, and it needs to be done right. Once I knock that down, it's onward to Library...
Surveys Away! Pre-order Open! Pay the authors more!
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 03:49:22 PM
Surveys Launched
I pushed the "go" button on the Backerkit survey today, so it's time to collect shipping, get any add-ons you want, etc.
I did wind up adding the Print+PDF bundles for the original Five Perilous Journeys, because oops, I forgot to put them in.
If there's something in my back catalog that you want that's not on there, let me know.
Pre-Orders Open!
In addition to the pledge manager, folks that missed the campaign can go to the Pre-Order Store and pile on. There are bundles in the store that are the same price as during the Kickstarter...but not all options are available at the discounts from the campaign: In particular, the "pick 1-3 PDFs" or "choose 1-3 books" are now simply a la carte.
But if you missed the campaign, come on in, check it out. Maybe buy a few things.
Pre-Orders increase Author Pay
In case you missed it from the campaign, the authors pay rate is determined by the total backers from both the Kickstarter campaign AND the Backerkit pre-order phase.
If we pick up another 45 pre-orders, that will increase the base pay for GM'd adventures to the $0.06 per word that qualifies for membership in the Science Fiction Writers Association. So it's not too late to help things out. Share the link, point folks at the covers or preview pages, and my Discord page!
Finding Gaming Ballistic
As seems to be required these days, you can find me all over the place:
A Word on Dragon Heresy for Not-the-USA
Dragon Heresy is a 5e-derived RPG that is what can only be described as a 'fantasy heartbreaker.' It's like D&D, but different. It's the origin of what became my Nordlond setting.
I have many physical copies in inventory, but they're all in the USA. Overseas shipping is ridiculously expensive (I once had to drop $75 to get a single copy to Australia) for these. I keep some inventory of all my other stuff in the UK with Kixto, but not Dragon Heresy.
At some point later this year, I'll run a crowdfunding campaign whose express purpose is to move boxes of books over to the UK. That runs something like $150 per box of 10, and my intent is to see if there's enough EU/UK/Rest-of-World demand to stage books over there.
That means if you're interested in what happens when a GURPSy guy starts mucking about with the D&D rules . . . I'd ask that you check out the PDF for instant gratification, and wait a bit on the physical product. The assumption for shipping right now is books for Rest-of-World are shipped from the UK. Moving a $60 book from the US to most other places is a net loss. Let's not do that and find a better way.
That's it! Get on those surveys! I'll go back to alternating between editing and painting my basement. :-)
Smoke Test Underway
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 12:11:55 AM
OK, pre-approval has been cautiously given, so the smoke test is going out to 25-30 folks to see if it all goes well.
If so . . . I'll send the surveys out.
If you have any questions or find errors . . . especially in shipping . . . please let me know!
