Oh, Canada!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 06:28:57 PM

Into the USPS they have gone.

The Australia/New Zealand packages go next from here. I am literally in line for the little bags into which one stuffs customs forms.

Domestic Packages: in the mail tomorrow
over 2 years ago – Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 04:45:19 PM

I got all of the domestic packages boxed up. There were a heck of a lot more of them than I thought, and nearly all felt like unique orders. Slow going, but now complete, and all shall be dropped off at USPS tomorrow morning. 

For international stuff, "just buy it through Backerkit" was $1500 for 30 packages. So ... I won't be doing that. Each international order will need to be carefully considered for best method, and this is complicated (hopefully in a good way) by some info from Kixto. I'll report back later this week on this. I'm obviously reluctant to just say "I'll do THIS!" because ... wow. $50 each. Gotta be a better way.

Hand of Asgard expected Saturday
over 2 years ago – Thu, Aug 12, 2021 at 03:22:12 PM

I have received notice from the printer that hand of Asgard and Nordlondr Folk reprints are on the way to me. They should be arriving before the end of the day on Saturday, which should allow me to box up all of the remaining domestic orders and get them into the mail on Monday.

Final Two Surveys; Ballistic's Report for Aug 6
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 10:07:22 AM

On the off chance this helps: There are two surveys yet to be completed for physical goods. I am a day or three away from having all of the domestic packages (and Canada) in the mail. 

Once that happens, I'm going to refund these two pledges and turn my attention to international shipments.

But this is the last warning. I cannot keep incomplete pledges "on the books," as it can truly mess up inventory, and sometimes surveys can come in years after the due date. So...now or never folks.

Ballistic's Report for Aug 6

Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Aug 6

I set a weekly alarm for last night this time, so hopefully I’ll be ready to go each morning with an update these days.

The most important thing that happened is all the books from Delvers to Grow arrived, and physical fulfillment has begun. This means I closed the pre-order store ... but I was very, very pleased with the last-day response. The orders received really help offset the shipping costs, which are much higher than planned.

• All 2,000 books arrived at my house for the three example books and Crypt of Krysuvik.
• I spoke to Marshall LaPira about a new book; we’re going to try it systemless
• There are 78 packages shipped already; 42 more are packed and printed. This is my big task today and I hope to get a LOT packed up.
• I didn’t exactly announce it, but the next TFT project is going to be David Pulver’s Tower of the Moon, and I’ve already got it in layout, working on art.
• I’ve made substantial progress on a new Dragon Heresy item as well.
• I have organized the monsters (about 200 of them) for the volumes of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG Nordlondr Ovinabokin ... the Nordlond Enemies Book. More below.
• Phil Reed and I met for lunch last Tuesday at Brit’s Pub in Minneapolis. Food was good, conversation was good, and I’m well pleased with the plans we made.

Gaming Ballistic Patreon

To help with ongoing funding of art and speed eventual time to delivery, Gaming Ballistic started a Patreon in January 2021. Here's the weekly update on Patreon status.

• Membership status:     52 patrons and $353 per month.
• Special Content:     Patrons got to see David’s new adventure, in “all but art and maps” state.      Patrons also got the all-in-on PDF of the Omnibus edition for Delvers to      Grow, a patron-only special. The new Dragon Heresy book got a preview as      well. Yes, this was all in the last week.

Also gained a few patrons since last time. This really helps.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

Project where hardcopies and PDFs are going out or scheduled to do so.

• Delvers to Grow: All PDFs delivered. All books in      house. Fulfillment has begun.

Crowdfunding

Delvers to Grow(Launched Friday May 7 at 10am Central Time, Ended May 25 at 9pm Central)

• Pre-orders are now closed
• DtG still has two pending surveys that need to be      fulfilled. As soon as the last package goes in the mail, these get      refunded if surveys are not complete.
• All five books are in backers’ hands in PDF format.

Product Announcements

The full Product Cataloggot revised a bit. I also developed an order form, which is available upon request and was sent to a lot of retailers.

My SJGames project: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 4: Ring Fort was released to backers as part of the GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge! Peter Dell’Orto liked it.

In Development

Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.

• Tower of the Moon, by David Pulver. Maps are underway. Art is underway. Concept cover is being worked on by Billy Blue. The vector on this one has changed a bit. More later.
• A full day was spent planning the Nordlondr Bestiary. Five      volumes, 193 entries.
  • Each volume has a theme, though not 100% of all the       monsters in each volume fit that theme.
  • I may do PDF-only for these, as that lets me get all       of the hard stuff done, and then when the books are all out there, I can       do a push for the One Giant Hardback. I’m undecided on this one because       the physical books really help a project succeed.
  • Nothing here is set in stone

Friction

Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.

• Last week was a pretty good week.
• I still owe Steven Marsh a bunch of PDF files to get on Warehouse 23.
• The Kickstarter text editor keeps inserting random spaces into my posts. Do not want.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Very productive meeting with Phil Reed from SJGames.
• Had a video meeting with Marshall about our project,      which is to be the first systemless product offering from GB. You can tell      things are going well when your author keeps saying “Now that you say      that, it gives me another idea...”
• I posted some of my sword images to the D&D Fantasy      Art page on Facebook ... and have over 200 “likes” and nearly three dozen      comments. That makes it likely the most popular social media post I’ve      ever done.
• Speaking of swords, I sold another one, bringing the      tally of pieces I’ve moved out to four to paying clients. This more than      pays for all the tungsten, brass, and tungsten carbide I purchased as part      of my experiments. My Viking Martial Arts instructor has volunteered to      put them up for sale on his (pending) retail site! So that’s exciting.

Once you get your PDFs and Books...
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 10:07:18 AM

Once you start getting your books, whether they be PDFs or physical products, if you want to help Gaming Ballistic make more such stuff, and assist me in recruiting authors to make them, you can do so.

How? Well, there's my Patreon, but that's not nearly as good as saying nice things about the product in public. 

The r/gurps Reddit community is 8,400 members strong. The r/rpg Reddit is 1.4 million. Starting or joining a thread in that space is going to get a lot of eyes on.

The various forums like ENWorld, RPG.net, RPGPub, and others. 

The SJG Forums might bring some folks off the fence

Then of course there's Twitter (don't forget to tag @GMingBallistic and @SJGames, and note the spelling of my at-tag, because I had to lose an A), and Facebook.

Like I keep telling Phil Reed, there's nothing wrong with Gaming Ballistic that 1,000 more backers per project can't fix. With 1,500 people coming by for my stuff, large hardbacks become very low risk. Multi-book sets with slipcovers? Doable. 

I WANT to plan and execute big projects for this space. I really do. But the impact of scale - especially when most of the costs are up front and in development - are so mind-bogglingly huge to someone in my position that it's hard to overstate them.

In any case ... time to wrap up some more boxes for y'all.

Oh, also: I just published this week's Ballistic's Report for Aug 6. Check it out!