Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Jan 29
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: 31 patrons and $225 per month
- Special Content: Patrons received a preview of the Character Collections 3 WIP document for the first 11 pages.
- The funds from the Patreon are 100% going to be reinvested in the business for advance work. Pre-visualization and early-stage art for projects prior to launch is going to be the most likely sink for the funds. Some of these can turn directly into products; others have a longer lead time.
- A book like Character Collections 3 requires about $1,500 in art for the cover and interior illustrations. My goal for the Patreon is thus roughly that much, which would allow two similar projects to be “half full” of art when the writing is done each month. $1,500 in art would also cover something on the order of half the art for a shorter DFRPG book (full color).
New Releases
New projects available for retail sale.
- Gaming Ballistic Website: none this week. As soon as the physical copies go out for More Perilous Journeys, I’ll list the digital and physical product on the GB website.
- Gaming Ballistic on Warehouse 23:
- DriveThruRPG: none this week. I’ll be taking a look at what’s there in PDF format and updating. Probably mid-Feb.
Product Announcements
- No new title announcements
Currently Fulfilling/Shipping
Project where hardcopies and PDFs are going out, or scheduled to do so.
- Updates to CC1: Experienced Adventurers, Roc of Sages, Catacombs of Living Death, The Sunken Library, Dragon Hunt!, and Dark Lord’s Doom were pushed to backers via Backerkit.
- VTT-quality maps for Forest’s End were made available to backers’ download pages if you got the Forests’ End book from the Kickstarter.
- Pledges and pre-orders for More Perilous Journeys are currently closed.
At the Printer
The last stage of production. Following PDF finalization print orders get placed, then take anywhere from 10 days to several months to print and arrive at the shipping center, which is basically my house.
- The four volumes of the More Perilous Journeys Kickstarter campaign’s USA-bound physical copies that were ordered are in hand, ready to go. Boxes and mailers are also in hand.
- The Sunken Library was submitted for printing on Sunday January 24. Expect delivery next week.
- Rest-of-World production of these five books was submitted to Mixam UK on Monday Jan 25; Roc of Sages delivery to Kixto scheduled for Friday Jan 29; Delivery of the other four books is confirmed for Feb 1. Kixto will start processing those 50 orders pretty fast; they already have what they need.
Crowdfunding
Announced or active campaigns.
- Launched: Jan 17; Ended 5pm Central on Tuesday, Jan 26
- Funding Status: Funded; Passed final goal at 9am on Tuesday. Campaign closed at $34, 547 and 1,570 backers.
- Note: I predicted the campaign, if it went well, would hit half the backer total of the GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge: 1,400. The campaign smashed that, almost hitting the 1,587 backers for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG. This is a solid showing.
No announced or active campaigns for Gaming Ballistic. Two potential TFT projects are being eyeballed for the first quarter of 2021. They’re about neck-and-neck for which is likely to be ready for launch first. One of them is designed to go from launch to “books mailed out” in about a month. The other will be a longer campaign, but I’m really looking forward to it.
In Development
Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.
- Character Collection 3: Bandits and Outlaws made good progress and is on track to complete the writing this weekend
- Character Collection 2: Rookies is in the early stages of writing. This is a shorter (12-page) entry presenting starting characters of 30-33 points. Great for quick-start/grab-and-go play, fleshing out NPCs, or as hirelings for more experienced characters. If I’m on the ball, it too will complete writing this weekend. These free-form starter characters are fast.
- I have done a tiny bit of work on Norðlond Óvinabókin: the Norðlond Bestiary and Enemies book. By the way, that’s Nor(ALT0240)lond (ALT0211)vinab(ALT0243)kin. I’m also told that the -in in bókin is the article, so “the Óvinabókin” is a bit like saying “the the enemy book.” Now I know. And so do you.
- Various other Norðlond projects got some level of discussion with authors, and Kromm and I had several really interesting discussions on potential future projects. We’re friends, but only talk business every few weeks. This was one of those weeks, with at least three or four projects being bandied about.
- Mission X: there’s been some background work on this at the high level; more mission statements and strategies.
- Very close to formalizing a “go” on a medium-length Norðlond project. Working outlining with the author. Need final confirmation from SJGames.
Friction
Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.
- Noticed some my products were not up on Drivethru or Warehouse 23. Bad Doug. Bad! No biscuit. Fixing that. First Warehouse 23, then DriveThru later.
- I had an inquiry about getting a copy of Dragon Heresy hardback over to the UK. My WooCommerce package wanted to charge him $85 shipping for a $60 book. Yeah…no. I can use ShipStation to “only” have it be $46, but wow that’s unacceptable. I’m looking into getting a bulk order over there and may even consider a small crowdfunding campaign using GameOn Tabletop (which tends to cater to Europe) to see if I can stage things over. Also looking at signing on with ShipQuest to see what their rates are.
- Noticed that the ISBN and bar code for one of the More Perilous Journeys books was that of Vampire Hunter Belladonna. For Kickstarter backers, that’s not a problem. For the retail tier, and for eventual shipment and sale on Warehouse 23, it very much IS a problem. Ordered 100 corrected books for myself; the rest-of-world orders were ordered after the issue was found, so they’re already fine.
Fair Winds
Information about things that move GB forward.
- Phil Reed posted in the Daily Illuminator on Jan 24 about the Dungeon Fantasy RPG. I started a thread on the SJGames Forums to collect thoughts. If you have ideas, please put them there.
- One specific project moved to the “formally asking for a license” stage. No announcement, but I’m excited about it if it goes forward. Author has been selected as well…we’re ready if the jump-light turns green.
- I had a nice conversation with Phil and Steve over email about something. We’ll see how it works out. It’s not a big deal, but would make some things easier.
- I got some budgetary quotes from a new-to-me printer in the Netherlands (New Energy), and they were very thorough and also very competitive. That’s very good news, as European printing has a lot going for it. Deciphering the usage of commas and periods for decimals and commas respectively. Mixam is still the top dog for shorter books, but these guys look to do nice work. Plus, as always, a least-squares regression on the quotes allows me to predict any page count, any quantity to within $20 accuracy. So that goes into the spreadsheet to ensure I always get my goals right.
- Fantastic conversation with a local (and I do mean ‘down the street almost’ local) printer of cards for games. I’m super excited about the collaboration and product opportunities here.
- Now that the Norðlond Sagas books are live on Warehouse 23, I was asked to submit a Daily Illuminator to promote them. I suspect I’ll be doing more of that this year, and SJGames is being kind to oblige me in helping my marketing.
- I sat through a two-hour seminar on VAT in the UK and the EU on Thursday morning. The people presenting it were very knowledgeable about VAT but not so much about Kickstarter. Even beyond that, there are serious questions about how Kickstarter pays and collects user location data, and when a real “sale” is registered for folks not in the USA. As if international shipping weren’t bad enough, the cost and complexity of VAT compliance if you’re not careful can be gigantic. Thousands of dollars per year per country, if you want to directly sell product in that country. Some of this will apparently be harmonized come July 2021 as the “one stop shop” laws come up. But this particular new set of rules is 15 years in the making and designed mostly to look at Amazon (and the like, but mostly Amazon). Kickstarter is different. And since as a creator, you can’t know what a backer is actually getting or where they are until they fill out a pledge manager thing. So…it’s really understandable why folks would just throw up their hands and say “forget about it.” I’ve send a note to Nigel at ShipQuest asking how GB can usefully bridge this chasm; it feels to me like there’s a way.
