The weekly update comes round at last. Thankful, I am, for my backers and those also telling me “Yeah, grappling, but I can’t wait for Dragon Heresy.” Keeps me going.

Administration

I was on the Round Table with James Introcaso for Ep 146. It was a fantastic 75 minutes of conversation, and we talked RPG design, my Dungeon Grappling Kickstarter, Dragon Heresy, and why I like 5th Edition.

I procured and utilized a “licensing for existing works” contract. That was a good addition to my repertoire of agreements, and Real Soon Now I’ll procure a retail sales agreement template. That should be what I need: create stuff (professional services agreement), use other folks’ stuff (licensing of existing works), sell stuff.

I continue to realize that my marketing reach is growing, but not all it could be. I would encourage folks that are interested in Gaming Ballistic products to join the Gaming Ballistic Google+ group, for starters. Once the Dungeon Grappling RPG supplement goes on sale both here and on DTRPG/RPGNow, TableTop Library, and Amazon, I’ll be taking the next steps there. I will probably also go to either fortnightly or monthly updates for GB, to avoid the appearance/reality of spam.

The Kickstarter is almost 3/4 complete, both from a timing and funding perspective. I’ve learned a bloody ton about them for use in the next one, though some of the final bits – the Backerkit survey, how product is delivered, etc., are still in the future. Also: how and when to get paid. Judging from the Dungeon Fantasy RPG KS, that isn’t just “snap your fingers and get cash.”

Otherwise, it’s late November, so I need to decide when the fiscal year of Gaming Ballistic ends, for tax purposes. I understand that is arbitrary to some extent, but I really need to consult with a tax pro lest I do something stupid.

Dungeon Grappling

As noted, the Kickstarter is heading to the end of it’s 3rd week (of four) and is trending to a pretty happy place. The ultimate desire is something like $5,000, which will give me the ability to write checks for the amount of about $3,000-$3,300 (a lot of that $5K goes to print and ship costs for the physical product parts of the KS). That pays for:

• Layout
• Indexing
• Contributor Payments
• Background art for chapter-break pages
• The 3D art for making the video
• Some legal fees
• Help assembling the cover images into a print-ready PDF file
• eBook layout (single column, no art, yes tables, black and white only)
• Full color interior art (22 pieces, 331 square inches)
• A custom cover (an 11 x 11.5 cover art image, which will leave room for text on the side. I like how the D&D books do that – full fidelity to a great image, but clear space on the back for text.

One thing I have noticed – and it’s to be expected – is that folks are starting to move in and out of pledge levels. I would be very interested to know why someone might drop down to a $1 level, or perhaps go from print to PDF, etc.

By and large, I’m in a working mode here, with my artists doing and improving sketches. I’ve got solid submissions from two, and am working with the other two to get to that stage. I’m far from the point of being nervious in any way about timing.

Oh, and here’s a tip: never, ever buy a barcode from Bowker, though you will need to source your ISBNs from them. Why not? Because of this: Free online barcode generator. It might take some doing to figure out exactly how to use it, but it’s FREE, and if you vacillate on pricing, or whatever, you can just generate a new one.

Otherwise, steady as she goes, I think.

Dragon Heresy

The Big Project got some work this week too, with me updating monsters from my contributors into The Book of Deeds, and also reverse-integrating Dungeon Grappling into The Book of Heroes. I’m on a long business trip to Thailand in December, and I expect I will spend many nights banging away at monster writeups and re-reading both books for edits and progress. I know I need to re-look at the Ranger class writeup, as well as the Druid. The Book of Deeds needs a read-through. But still, closing in on the “done writing” point that enables me to get into the editing and art direction, and maybe even a bit of layout. Even indexing can start.

That’s going to require me reaching out to my team and seeing when the engagement point is. I was hoping in my wildest dreams that there’d be enough influx from Dungeon Grappling to allow me to subsidize the Dragon Heresy project with that revenue. That still might happen with retail sales, but probably not to the extent I was hoping. I guess Dungeon Grappling could explode in the last week or so. Stranger things have happened.