FUNDED! Now the real work begins.
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Jun 08, 2020 at 12:41:13 PM

Thanks to Wayne Steward coming in with a retail level pledge . . . and then upping it by a few dollars just to make us fund, we hit the line.

Now the real work begins!

Time to go full-out on layout and editing; art team: Assemble.

Wayne felt the same way I did: It was agonizing to see us so close to the goal. But we're there and now I can dig in fully.

Glorious Hype, and References
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 06, 2020 at 05:42:41 PM

I've made posts in various RPG forums advertising the kickstarter, that it's one week from closure, and that we had, at the time, less than $500 to go.

If anyone feels like dropping by and waving a "yay, TFTeam!" flag, here they are:

ENWorld

RPG.NET

THERPGPUB

If there are forums I should hit but haven't, let me know. There's actually a positive comment over on the RPG Pub already, so yay.

Dark Lord's Doom Cover Progress; $391 to funding!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 06, 2020 at 12:45:53 PM

Status:  So Very Close...

We'll just get this out of the way fast. We're only $391 away from funding. Anywhere from two (retail level) to about 16 pledges, and if the average holds, it's about seven. The project also has a record-breaking 632 followers, of whom 440 have not yet backed. We have 417 actual backers as well.

So this is looking pretty good for funding, and depending on how many of the following-but-not-backed come in, we could wind up anywhere from "barely squeaking by" to "record-setting Kickstarter for Gaming Ballistic," and a dang good way to ring in my making a go of just being a publisher.

We need 205 of the 440 to come in in order to it be the most number of backers for the "regular session" of Kickstarter. I hope we get there!

Dark Lord's Doom Cover WIP

Ksenia's been working and working on the next cover. She sent me three versions, I got feedback via Discord groups (The Fantasy Trip and Gaming Ballistic servers), and got that off to her to help the next iteration. I frequently use those two servers to get pre-press feedback from folks, and interact with the customer base. So it's a good place to find me and interact.

Here's the WIP of the cover:

And here are the modifications we decided on:

• Begin with this cover as the basis, because more folks (including myself) responded positively to that than the others; the other, however, have some strong pieces of those others that if brought into #1 will enhance the image. 
• The framing of the the cover is really good; I think if the dark lord were more obviously threatening or attacking the PCs while looking like he was moving forward, that would emphasize his power, his villainy, and that he's opposed to the PCs, not giving a speech.
• I like the size and position of the Dark Lord in this version, as it keeps the title overlaying "background" rather than "action." 
• We're going to need to watch the color and lighting of the doorway, so we keep the dark-iron of the title sharply contrasted with the background 
• I think overall folks like the shadowy demon figure on the back cover more than the balcony, but . . .  
• On the other hand, the demon is a bit more spoilery than the sorceror-dude, but this is advertising, so I'm OK with that.

I'll also be improving the back cover text; I got some great input from David that makes for a really fun "hey, play me!" message that emphasizes just how different this is from other adventures.

Dark Lord's Doom is very different. Inspired by books like the The Black Company, it's an “epic” different programmed TFT adventure: a mini-campaign that follows a single squad of characters over the course of an entire war, with encounters including patrols, desperate holding actions, massed battle scenes, siege warfare, street and house-to-house fighting, and a confrontation with an evil dark lord. Your characters can go from being common soldiers to having the fate of the entire kingdom in your hands. Like all programmed adventures you can run it solo or with a GM acting as the adversary player, but it supports play with one to four players.

This can definitely be shortened and punched up for the back cover blurb, but hits the highlights of this solo. Squad of characters. Fight a war. Glenn Cook's Black Company in feel. GM or solo. Good stuff!

I suspect that I'll see an updated pencil sketch next, then rough color, then final. I'll keep y'all posted.

$23,000 and 10 days to go; The Authors Speak
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 06:43:48 PM

Status

We're headed into the home stretch now, with the final sprint starting in about a week. The campaign has passed the 90% mark, and is less than $2,000 from funding. That's fewer than 35 people at the average pledge rate . . . we can do it, and more, given that just about 430 folks are following the campaign but haven't yet backed.

Life Changes

Just as an FYI, I got laid off from my 19-year stint at the HDD company I worked at. I'm not in a panic or anything; the situation is uncertain but not dire (at least, not yet). I'm going to see if I can take a run at making Gaming Ballistic a career, so hopefully you'll start to see more and more product from me over the next few months as I really give it a running start. 

The Authors Own Words

You've heard me talk about the works . . . now let's hear from the actual writers!

David Pulver

Dragon Hunt! is similar to my earlier Vampire Hunter Belladonna (or to Grail Quest), but it’s an even bigger adventure, the longest TFT solo ever produced. One of the things it does is describe a large sandbox-sized region to explore, with multiple named villages, castles, and monster lairs and NPCs, sharing an intertwined history that will be revealed as you adventure. The ostensible theme is hunting dragons, but there are lots of other monsters to encounter. Dragon Hunt is designed for one or two players; again, you can play it solo or with a GM as the adversary. It also introduces several new TFT monsters.

Dark Lord's Doom is very different. Inspired by books like the The Black Company, it's an “epic” different programmed TFT adventure: a mini-campaign that follows a single squad of characters over the course of an entire war, with encounters including patrols, desperate holding actions, massed battle scenes, siege warfare, street and house-to-house fighting, and a confrontation with an evil dark lord. Your characters can go from being common soldiers to having the fate of the entire kingdom in your hands. Like all programmed adventures you can run it solo or with a GM acting as the adversary player, but it supports play with one to four players.

Both are being edited and illustrated at present.

Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett

In Roc of Sages the characters get talked into going to a dilapidated and dangerous island in order to help their ghostly patron harvest parts of a very rare (and extremely dangerous) breed of Roc. This requires a trip to a rather forward-thinking temple, a showdown with a horde of League Collectors (and their ill-tempered boss), and the invasion of one of my favorite dungeons -- a giant drill, slowly boring into Cidri for reasons left unsaid. All that plus alchemy, questionable instructions, and possums of unusual size, as per Christopher's request.

Continuing on to Catacombs of Living Death, the newly-resurrected Sevantes has summoned them to a small, Christian kingdom to help him locate another powerful artifact, but wouldn't you know it, there's a plague on? Worse, the plague turns its victims into rot-spreading zombies. Worse still, to find the artifact they have to go upriver into ground zero of the contagion...and there's something even nastier waiting in the catacombs for them. Our answer to Ravenloft by way of Apocalypse Now, the trip upriver should give your players a few good shivers, and the choice they have to make on the way back will have large repercussions on what happens next.

The Sunken Library provides the epic conclusion to the Sevantes/OIan-Pok pentology! Sandwiched between a tense escape and a trip to the strangest library the party might ever visit is a chance to do the unthinkable -- assassinate the three heads of the Indhyna League and take control of the organization. Doing so requires subterfuge and planning, not to mention the possibility of saving an entire city-state. Just one problem: their patron's never been precisely what he seemed, and the last people he double-crossed are on on the move. As final acts go, it's a doozy.

Bringing it Home

The last third of the campaign looks to be where it's all decided. If a large fraction (about half) of the followed-but-not-yet-backed come in, we could pretty much equal Five Perilous Journeys in backer count. That would make for a nice project! And the sooner we fund, the sooner I can start getting busy with commissioning the interior artwork, which only happens after the project funds.

Ksenia and I did exchange notes on the art direction for Dark Lord's Doom, and I can't wait to see what she brings to the table. I really think the first cover for Dragon Hunt! is outstanding, and Christopher and J and I are working on the direction for the Jok Sevantes trilogy as well. We expect to have all five covers done by the end of June, if not before . . . so I'll keep folks posted.

Onward!

10 Days In, 83% Funded, 15 Days to go . . . and 400 followers not yet pledged
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 29, 2020 at 08:21:32 AM

We are ten days in to the More Perilous Journeys crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. We're over 350 backers, who have collectively pledged just under $21,000 of the $25,000 needed to fund. With 15 days left to go, the chances of us funding are strong.

Even so . . . funding sooner is better than funding later, for two reasons. One, a funded project draws even more backers, which is good for everyone. Second, as soon as the project funds, I start commissioning art and finalizing layout and editing. Basically lopping time off the back end of the schedule, targeting early delivery.

I've already started with some of the art: Ksenia Kozhevnikova, a long-time collaborator on Gaming Ballistic projects, is working on the cover for the 40-page solo/programmed adventure Dragon Hunt! You can see her Work-in-Progress image below. I loved this work so much I've asked her to do the other four covers as well.

The good news is that while we have 355 backers so far, we have over 400 folks currently "following" the campaign who have not yet pledged. Perhaps you're one of them. 

If so, I would ask that you consider pledging sooner rather than later, if you can. COVID has messed up everyone's plans and finances this year, of course, No getting around it. But jumping in now really helps the progress of the project, and once we hit that milestone, I can start engaging with the art team to move things along even faster.

Fifteen days to go!