Fast, modular character generation. Would-be heroes from 62 points and higher as player characters, henchmen, or supporting cast.
The physical orders have all been placed, including for the Omnibus.
I should have everything here in MN by the first week in August.
Now I'll hack into the International stuff (not enough orders to change what I'm doing domestically) and see if there's a way to save any of us money with local production.
I've been rewatching Battlestar Galactica with my wife, so "the Final Five" is on my mind.
This morning, I polished up what I thought were the last errata, realized I'd missed some on Smart Delvers, fixed those up, and redistributed all of the files.
The latest, most updated versions are:
That should wrap up the five books, and I shall be sending the four that aren't already at my house to the printer today. Expect delivery to me in about two weeks.
The next step is to take these and combine them into the Omnibus print-only edition. That will take one of two forms.
The first form is "just put them together into a 100-page book." That's about five minutes of work and accomplishes the goal of "one book, with a spine, to sit on a shelf." I'm going to
It's not satisfying for several reasons, though. There's some redundant content here and there that doesn't need to be repeated, and (from a practical production standpoint) a 96-page book is infinitely friendlier than a 100-page one, because when 2,000 GURPS fans finally realize this book is what they need (hey, I can dream!), a big print run is way more efficient when page counts are multiples of 16.
So below-the-waterline, I'm going to do both.
I'll spend the very short amount of time required to just make an InDesign "Book" that puts the chapters together, come up with a slightly variant page-numbering scheme so it's clear what section you're in, and that'll be that.
Then having that ready in case the more complete surgery doesn't work right, I'll try and assemble the Omnibus into a single volume, eliminating redundant content, consolidating where I can, and seeing if I can bring the thing in at 96 pages. I've mentally identified a way to get to ... 96 and a half. Drat. But we'll see!
I'm not going to spend a huge amount of time messing with it, but I want to give it the old college try, as it were.
Once I place the print orders for the Omnibus, I shall send out the final warning to update your addresses, check your cards if you're having trouble with them, and close the pre-order store. This shall happen in a day or three. After that, the only way to get the books will be to wait until they go up on retail.
Once I DO lock the orders, I will finalize the PDF distribution lists and send out files using DriveThruRPG as promised. The Backerkit distribution is a great way to get intermediate-stage files to get eyes-on for proofing, but is terrible for future updates (something SJGames has to deal with as well). DriveThruRPG has a good system for version control on PDFs, so I'll be taking advantage of that.
So...that's where we are.
Also, once I lock all the orders and addresses and close pre-orders, it will be time to look hard at the international shipping status.
That means looking at orders from the UK, Australia/New Zealand, and Canada. I don't yet have a line on a short-run, low setup cost digital printer in the EU, so that won't work.
I also need to look at the inventory status and total cost of print-and-ship from my home base and from Kixto in the UK. That particular method might actually work out. The issue is unique orders: The setup cost even at Mixam is high enough to wipe out the revenue (much less the profit) on the small number of orders for each one.
Short version: I'm going to run the math and see if there is a win/win where I can print and ship locally and save us both money. If I can, booyah. If not ... I shall proceed with shipping out of the USA, probably via USPS to avoid any funky charges that I've seen with UPS. Small orders via FedEx are ridiculous so you won't see that.
I still believe that this set of products is "what the doctor ordered" to help win fans and get people playing (Powered by) GURPS games. The biggest thing you can do for me to help me out? When you get your copies, wander by your Favorite Local Game store and show them my product catalog as well as any physical copies you receive.
A decent flow of my product to retail stores will likely also pull Boxed Sets out of SJGames inventory. That's a win for both of us. And retail presence is fantastic for me in many ways. So I'd take it as a kindness to spread the word on this one. The more eyes on it, the better.
Thanks a lot for journeying with me on this one. I really think Kevin, Peter, and Marshall have done something special here, so saying nice things to them or about their books in various forums wouldn't go amiss either.
That's all for now!
I've pushed a PDF version of Dragons of Rosgarth through Backerkit for the 55 folks who got that. I'm going to do an errata sweep later, in time for the final "all files via DriveThru" distribution. But I want all PDFs to be in backers' hands NOW rather than "eventually," and the Omnibus is going to require my full attention for a few days, as nothing is quite as easy as it seems. Never is. :-)
Literally in the house, thanks to a few moments work with a hand truck.
Today is the day that I will be doing the last error corrections for the five PDFs, which will finalize the four Delvers to Grow modules.
From there, I will work to combine the delvers to grow books into the omnibus edition. There are 100 pages of content, but some of those are redundant with each other so it will not just be a staple job I don’t think. I’d really like to condense it to 96 pages since that is more friendly for very large print runs in the case that the omnibus becomes popular long-term. We shall see!