The Final Countdown

Well, we’re down to the countdown. 10 hours to go.

We’ll have to see a remarkable acceleration in pledges (or about five shield pledges) to hit the offset print run. It’s not impossible. We’re talking 6 shields, 25-30 Styðja sponsor pledges, or 50-60 Jarl pledges.

Not impossible. I will need your help, of course: share it out, pump it up, talk about it, tell folks what you like, and why you pledged. Point it out to retailers, especially.

What’s Next

The short version is that once the campaign closes, it takes Kickstarter about two weeks to charge all the cards and finalize the transactions.

As soon as that’s done, several things will happen.

Initial PDF Distribution. There is already a playable, laid-out version of the game kicking around. Likewise, I will cut down the rules to what was promised for the Berserker levels. That distribution of the initial PDF

In the meantime, Vincent and I are editing the heck out of the manuscript. Of the nine chapters (recognizing that Ch.9, Foes, is 1/3 of the book and the magic/spells section is very long as well), I’m finalizing Chapter 4.

I’ve added Skald, Social Standing, Runic Berserker, and the rest of the Clerical Domains to the characters chapter. I will be editing and adding the optional rules, including new rules for Flyting (ritual exchange of insults), as well as the optional rules for shields.

The rest, from backgrounds to Feats, will probably need to be set aside until the near-final layout is done, complete with maps, front matter, index, ToC, backer thanks page, etc. Then we’ll see where we are for page count, and hopefully we’ll be able to fit some of it. Because we both know one of those extra pages is a glossary and pronunciation guide, right?

Rest easy, though: for backgrounds especially, I’ve got an idea there.

When the funds settle, everyone at the $5 and up level will get something electronically. It may still be in need of some editing, layout shifts, or a bit more artwork, but you’ll be able to play the game. This should happen on or about May 11, depending when Kickstarter finished their thing. Might be a bit earlier, might be a bit later.

At that point, I’ll ask everyone to read and play it! And get back to me on typos, errors, layout issues, rules questions/clarifications . . . anything that doesn’t look right, bring it to my attention. There will be a dedicated blog post where I’ll collect your comments. I did this for Dungeon Grappling and it worked great.

Backerkit Phase Begins. Sometime in mid- to late-May, the Backerkit phase will begin. You’ll be able to order/select add-ons, see what shipping will look like, etc. By that time I hope to have my internal printing plans locked down, and will be able to confirm shipping, especially to my international backers. I’m aware of how painful it can be, and trying to take steps to avoid it.

PDF Finalization, Print, and Ship. Some time in June or July, I’ll close the responses, finalize the PDF, and send that out. At the same time, I’ll upload the B/W and Color 300dpi print files to DriveThruRPG as well as sending the two styles of book (assuming we don’t spike and hit $16,000) to my selected printer(s). The typical print cycle is 12 weeks, then a month for shipping. So that puts us on or a month ahead of schedule if that all works out.

Color and Black and White

The lead candidate for a color printing is not POD from my usual suspect. It’s a company in the UK that offered a fantastic price on a 200-book print run. Right now, I’ve only got about 50 takers for color, so I’ll have extras in case you want to add them in the Backerkit phase. The B/W books will be fulfilled by POD, since the price differential between POD, digital offset, and true offset in the quantities we’re talking about for this campaign aren’t enough to matter.

Are we done with Dragon Heresy?

No.

Just no.

I have at least two adventures planned. One short one that I will do my darnedest to get out Right Away that will be designed as an intro micro-setting. Several intertwined plot threads that invite sandbox play rather than a linear-style adventure thread. That one is tentatively called The Citadel of Northwatch.

The other is a much more ambitious setting called The Hunted Lands. There’s a cool nordic name for it too: Veiddarlond. That one contains eight different micro-settings within the broader location, and should be a great way to get from level 1 through level 5 . . . or even higher.

And I do have ideas for what “higher levels” would look like, but of course that depends on how this campaign finishes, and if Dragon Heresy looks like it has legs.

After that, I’ve got a few other projects in the works, including Hall of Judgment (a Powered-by-GURPS Dungeon Fantasy RPG conversion of Lost Hall of Tyr), and hopefully the sci-fi game Venture Beyond, by David Pulver.

But for now: share! Tell folks why you backed the project and why they should to. Make me a liar by forcing me to rework my plans and go offset.

I double-dog dare you.

Thanks for the ride so far, but it’s not over yet.

Douglas Cole
Chief Everything Officer
Gaming Ballistic, LLC