So, where are we?

Character Collections 1 is ready to go in physical form. It better be, since it was released last January.  In PDF…I’m going to add the new artwork as a grid of 1″ square counters on the inside back cover. Everyone who got this as part of More Perilous Journeys will receive an update to this file, one way or another.  The new character art will be kitted out for the short deck of 20 cards. I still have a few outstanding pieces of art for this, but I expect to have it 100% complete in a few days.

Character Collections 2 requires adding the grid of counters to the back cover. Otherwise, it’s flat-out done. I’ve even got the cards ready to spool.

Character Collections 3 is in the same state as CC2, except I’ve already spooled out one version of the cards. Turns out I need to spool another because my card vendor wants the files as front-and-back instead of my last vendor who wanted fronts, then backs, uploaded separately. As my girls would say: “Whatevz.” This is a trivial thing.

Character Collections 4 is underway. I have 40 names, 40 spell lists, and now I’m generating the brief paragraph of back-story for reach character. My team of artists can easily knock out the images for this in about 5-7 business days (10 counters each, and they’re easy and fast by design).  The book probably won’t be 100% ready when the campaign closes…but it almost certainly will be ready by March 14.

About those Stretch Goals

Right now, we’re sitting at 416 backers…with another 270 following but not backed.  This suggests we are strongly likely to achieve the 500-backer goal (in fact, 525 seems right), but need a surprisingly low 14 new backers until the “backed” plus “following” gives us a chance. So it’s possible…but we would need to see another 175 folks in the next four days to really cinch that goal. The “sharing is caring” commentary from previous updates still applies.  And if anyone knows a famous gamer celebrity with a million or so followers, a few retweets or casual mentions would probably go a long way.

The Next Few Days

So, over the next few days, I don’t have any more surprises for you guys. The re-vamp of the pledge levels has made the PDF+Print Books levels available as a one-click thing, and if you’re a collector, the All the New Things and Everything Old and New put those materials in your hands all at once.

If you really don’t care about counters, but just want the new books and cards that were not available previously, that is best handled by a $165 pledge at the Character Collections PDF+Print level ($35), with the decks added a la carte (there are rather a lot of them!). Right now, that’s CC1, 2, 3, 4, plus three decks for More Perilous Journeys (The Sunken Library is a 62 card deck all by itself!).

Anyway, the campaign will run through the weekend, then the 48-hour notice goes out Sunday night. Then the final sprint to the end, on Tuesday, 9pm Central.

From there, it will take me some time to get the Backerkit spun up. There are a LOT of items to enter in. I’ll do it as expeditiously as possible, but it’s important to get it right.

I’ll launch it as quickly as I can, and get the surveys out ASAP. I’m looking into a survey question type (multiple check-boxes) that would make picking out books, card decks, and counter sheets really blindingly obvious…but I don’t know if that can be done. I hope it can. If there’s  project that calls for it, this is the one.

The Backerkit Survey will run for 7 business days officially, after which I’ll start locking responses and instantly shipping PDF rewards. I expect all who actually fill out their survey will have the PDF part of their reward by the end of March. Easily.

Shipping and VAT

As always, the hardest part of setting up the surveys is getting the shipping profiles right.

Usually, the books are easy. In fact, for those NOT ordering any other items, even not-the-USA stuff becomes easier still, likely printing in the UK and USA, and then shipping out from there.

For “stuff,” that’s harder. I’ve mentioned this in the campaign as well. The cards print here in the USA; counters in China. I have confirmed with my fulfillment partner that unless we can get a statement of quality certified from the vendor, they can’t import the materials. That means “definitely yes” from the card manufacturer – they work for the Mouse, so their quality standards are practically surgical when it comes to safety and toxicity. The counter vendor has refused to certify their product or provide assurances or testing that it’s safe. I’m still too small to do that myself affordably. So I can’t collect all of the materials in the UK and then reship to not-the-USA. I can only do that for cards.

Double-fun bonus: I have to collect VAT on these “stuff” orders. I mean, I have to collect VAT on book orders too, but that’s 0% rate in the UK, 7% in Germany, and except for Evil Denmark at 20-25% for books, usually ignorable. I just pay it out of my margin.

But the “stuff” VAT is 20% (the EU VAT average is 21%, so 20% is a nice round number). VAT is also levied on shipping. Basically, for certain items, folks from not-the-USA are going to see a very substantial shipping bill. A pledge that is $35 in PDFs/Books and $130 in card decks will see an extra $26 in VAT PLUS the shipping charge. That’s probably on the order of $30 ($33 with VAT). So the shipping of four books and five decks of cards will wind up costing $60 (!!!!) extra to account for VAT and Shipping.

This sucks.

There’s no other way to say it. It’s a $60 charge on top of an already-pledged $165. One of my goals in 2021 is to see if it’s even remotely possible to cut this Gordian knot. More experienced people than me have tried. Most decide either quietly or vocally to simply not deal with not-the-US shipping on books OR stuff. I’m still committed to books. We’ll see how bad stuff is this go-around.

Even in the US, it’s not going to be awesome. Shipping is likely to be $11 or so for postage, $3 fees for boxes and handling, and then a pick fee on the order of $3-4 because of item count. Still looking at $15-20 when all is said and done. That’s not awesome, but it’s BETTER.

Manufacture Time

In any case, manufacture and delivery time is probably only two or three weeks for the books.

For the cards and counters, I’d expect four to six weeks.

That makes them the rate-limiting step. Then a week to pick and pack if all goes well, then they’re in the mail.

That basically says the accelerate schedule looks like:

• Backerkit: March
• Manufacture: April-May
• Pick and Pack: May
• Arrival: June I hope.

That’s much faster than October. And October could still happen. But it’s in all of our interests to go faster. I do note that I am very, very confident in my ability to get the cards. I can drive to the factory and holler at them if I need something. With a mask and a loudspeaker, but holler nonetheless.

(Note: irate Minnesotan? “Heya there. I was kina wonderin’ if you could print up my cards, doncha know. I mean, I got people here waitin’!)

The hard part is always predicting the overseas manufacturing and delivery.  That’s also where the biggest risk of timing failure is.

Back to those Stretch Goals

The other possibility for project push-out is if we get a Miracle on Ice situation, and out of nowhere, we get the sort of exposure that’s actually good. [1] If that happens, we hit the 700 and 1,000-backer stretch goals.

If that’s the case, I have work to do. I have to write the books (this can go pretty quickly; I can do up about five or six characters per hour, but it’s still probably a week to write, and then another two weeks for art. So if we actually hit both stretch goals, expect a month of delay. But it’s the kind none of us mind.

[1] Old joke. Sometimes you get an offer – artists are especially prone to receiving such proposals – to be paid for your work in that lovely coin of exposure. But this is Minnesota. You can’t eat exposure, but you sure as heck can die from it. I prefer to pay my collaborators in that lovely coin of actual cash.