Ballistic’s Report for the Week Ending April 9

Holy wow this last week went by fast. (There’s a double entendre there…more on that later). It was another production week, and a very good one at that.

• Backerkit is down to one person with physical goods, and five with all-digital, who still  have yet to complete the surveys.
• I did a few layout passes on Delvers to Grow, and it suggested some pretty significant changes to how we wanted to structure the manuscript, all for the better.
• I contracted with Ksenia Kozhevnikova, a wonderful artist who did my More Perilous Journeys covers, as well as the interior art for Nordlondr Folk, to do a new commission for Delvers to Grow. The old cover is awesome, done by Dean Spencer…but it’s not available for use.
• A whole lot of work was done on manufacturing for character collections. I ordered books and received shipping notices for them this morning. I put the first card deck into production. I finished and spooled out all 14 counter sheets. Hard work continues.
• The FnordCon3 virtual convention is this weekend. Registration starts at 6pm Friday. I’ll also be on the GURPS and The Fantasy Trip panel discussion on Saturday, April 10, at 3:30pm central!

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: 43 patrons and $283 per month
• Special Content: The preliminary layout document(s) for Delvers to Grow for feedback, torture testing, and comments.
• Note: The Patreon is going to get some work over the next few weeks. Goals that show what help me spend more time creating, and less time worrying about the basics. Maybe even some new content like interviews and videos. Look for that soon!

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

Project where hardcopies and PDFs are going out, or scheduled to do so.

• Errata’d copies of the PDFs went out, which enabled production orders of the softcopy books this past Monday. They’ve already shipped!
• All 14 sheets of counters are ready to go to the manufacturer, and if they reply to my email from yesterday, should move quickly to proof and manufacture. I did not expect these to go faster than the cards, but they did.
• I have put the reprint of the Five Perilous Journeys card deck into production!
• The CC1 and CC2 decks are ready for production review as well. I hope to finish CC3 and CC4 today. The MPJ decks are still going to be the most challenging, but I’m hopeful.
• The counter boxes have shipped and should be at my house tomorrow

Crowdfunding

TFT Character Collection (Launched Friday Feb 19; Closed on Tuesday, March 9 at 9pm Central)

 

• We’re down to fewer than a dozen uncompleted surveys that matter, and only two of those are for physical goods. If I don’t get responses by the time I’m ready to upload new PDFs, I’ll mark these digital-only surveys complete (there’s no further charges on them) and then close those out.
• This was a heavy update week:
  • Update #37 declared that yay, team, the print books got ordered
  • Update #38 warned addresses would be locking at 5pm Friday (that’s TODAY)
  • Update #39 was a request for input on whether when I have several repeat cards for non-generic counters (four or five “collectors” with identical stats in the book but unique and interesting coutner art) if I should give them a bit of the CC treatment and give them names and vary up the stats. Unsurprisingly, the answer was “yes, please!”
  • Update #40 was yet another reminder that I was locking addresses today, plus a detailed progress update and a bit of FnordCon3 advertising.

Product Announcements

• No new product this week…but look for something like eleven PDF uploads to DriveThruRPG this coming week.

In Development

Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.

• Delvers to Grow is really taking shape. Got some solid feedback on things we missed, and while we’re still tweaking the modules and templates…what’s really getting a lot of attention are the words. Very pleased with how this book is shaping up.
• Hunted Lands adventure still in development
• I signed a contract as Douglas Cole for something with SJGames. This one’s going to be fun to write.

Friction

Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.

• Still not having enough engagement and response on the counters from the company from China. One of the reasons I am so eager to push backer counts up is I can change manufacturers to new folks with better workflow and focus on my needs. This doesn’t require 1,000 copies. I think the break-even to move to new manufacturing is more like 385. That’s about 3x where we were with this project, of course, so it’s still a long way to go…but it’s not an unsurmountable long way.
• This isn’t exactly friction, but we made the decision to fulfill Character Collections ourselves. The print and stuff order numbers are just not high enough to outsource at this point.
• The cards are taking longer than I thought to get together. They’ll print fast…but the process of assembling the decks is taking a lot of time.
• I started a new diet and exercise and nutrition regime to try and lose weight. This involves intermittent fasting (only eating between 1:30 and 9:30pm each day, which usually means “two meals”), a protein-rich diet (shooting for 40-50% protein) which as a side-effect controls carbs and fats, a heck of a lot more exercise. So everything hurts.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Something like 100-110 of the backer orders for Character Collections are books-only, no “stuff.” I chatted with my wife and kids and a few others, and we’ll be processing those orders as soon as the books are available, since there’s zero reason to wait. That gets folks their pledges faster and eases the workload on any given day.
• The marketing stuff is starting to have an effect. I am not seeing huge bumps in sales, but I’m getting a lot more commentary on Twitter and more “likes” on the Gaming Ballistic group on Facebook.
• The fasting and exercise and dieting are going well. Thank God I can still drink black coffee though. It’s absolutely clear from my heart rate monitor that I’m getting better quality sleep. My goal is to lose 30 lbs, down to a target weight of “less than 170 lbs.” If I’m successful, though, I get to get myself a sweet, sweet Viking training sword or two.
• Speaking of Viking…my instructor cleared me to test for the next skill level at the martial arts school (Asfolk). I need to really strengthen my shield arm to ensure I can keep the shield engaged for the entire test without tiring, and a few other things…but that’s good news.