This week saw a lot of forward movement on the big three from last time.

• Delvers to Grow funded! That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that the KS is on track to be one of the lowest adopted by backer count of any Dungeon Fantasy RPG project to date. For the best recruiting tool to the system that has yet been published…that’s not what I was hoping.
• Nearly all the US packages for Character collections have shipped. I’ve finally got the CE Mark certification in hand for the cardboard counters, but I’m still waiting on the US-based cert for the cards. This was way more trouble and hassle and cost than I anticipated…and I anticipated a lot of hassle, cost, and trouble.
• I worked with my counter vendor to reprint some of the damage counters. I’m hoping these arrive soon. I think I have enough to fill my domestic orders, but not for international.
• I priced out moving the Character Collections stuff to the UK…and it was something like $1,200-1,500. Just to get 30 orders to the point they could be reshipped from the UK. That’s not going to work. I will look at other methods, but the future outlook is not happy.

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: 45 patrons and $310 per month.
• Special Content: Lots of updates to Delvers to Grow, including the first pass at the full 40-page layout.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• I’m down to international orders and a few lingering orders domestically that are the result of some weird issues with integration between Backerkit and Shipstation.
• International orders are still pending CEMark, and the US team is the lag here. This has not been a happy-making experience.
• Starting to see some problems with damaged packages and non-deliveries. Not much, but these are always a hassle. Means folks are disappointed with their stuff, and that’s never good.

Crowdfunding

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

• The pre-order store is closed
• Have resolved CE Mark issues with China, now waiting on the card stuff from NJ…but they keep saying “soon” with no actual follow through.

Delvers to Grow (Launched Friday May 7 at 10am Central Time)

• Despite a strong start, and funding this week (yay!), overall the campaign is on track to maybe hit 450 backers. This is far, far short of what I’d hoped for.
• The “backed” plus “following but not yet backed” is 639 people. That means it’s theoretically possible to hit the first stretch goal (but unlikely) but not the rest.
• I’m not entirely sure why this is. This is the best recruiting tool to GURPS via the vector of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG that has ever been created.

Product Announcements

No new uploads this week.

In Development

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

• Delvers primary book is finished with layout, is being tweaked for style, and art direction starts today
• Krysuvik got submitted, accepted, changes requested, and goes into editing and layout today as well
• I turned in the final-final version of my SJGames project. I hope ya’ll will eventually like it.

Media List

A lot of posts, podcasts, and press have gone up in the last week:

Character Build Example Update

If you’re going to reshare one post on Delvers to Grow, let it be this one:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamingballistic/delvers-to-grow-dungeon-fantasy-rpg-powered-by-gurps/posts/3192914

Podcasts and Interviews

• SJGames Live!: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1021421988 (video)
• Pocket Jacks Comics: https://youtu.be/T4FXNK7nRIg (video)
• Roleplay Rescue:  https://anchor.fm/rpgrescue/episodes/Delvers-To-Grow-With-Doug-Cole-Bonus-e10moob (audio)
• RollMongers/Attack of Opportunity: https://youtu.be/2RJlEp1TC-8 (video)
• Gathering of Ages: https://share.transistor.fm/s/cc7aa239
• Michael Bonet: https://ninjavspirates.libsyn.com/who-what-why-s28e01-delvers-to-grow-with-doug-cole
• GMShadow
• Nerdarchy: https://youtu.be/rWIwtxJ_5Bs
• Goddammit Zach!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEhnAUneE-E

Forum Threads

• Reddit (r/rpg): https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/n4yw8m/delvers_to_grow_fast_flexible_sub250point/
• Reddit (r/gurps): https://www.reddit.com/r/gurps/comments/n4uyij/delvers_to_grow_fast_flexible_sub250point/
• ENWorld: https://www.enworld.org/threads/delvers-to-grow-fast-character-building-for-dungeon-fantasy-rpg-and-gurps-df.680036/
• SJGames GURPS Forum: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=173201
• SJGames Dungeon Fantasy RPG Forum: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=173229
• RPG.net: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/how-to-get-a-complete-rules-legal-dungeon-fantasy-roleplaying-game-character-in-20-minutes-or-less.881303/

Twitter and FB Threads

• The Hard Sell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GMingBallistic/status/1392873432094740484
• Facebook/Gaming Ballistic: https://www.facebook.com/GamingBallistic/posts/960399034729439

Friction

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

• International shipping is really out of hand. This is not a surprise, but the fact that costs continue to escalate underneath things that are under development is really ugly.
• Delvers to Grow is predicted to be much lower than predicted in total backer count. My planning process means that it’s still profitable, but the inability to draw more than 500 backers to a DFRPG project puts all future large-format work in doubt for this game line.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• There was one bit of good news, but that has to stay under the waterline for now.