Back on track for a weekly update. This week was mostly about Tower of the Moon shipping. Even so, I got actual work done in the background on new projects.

• Delvers to Grow books are all out the door; international orders starting to arrive in the UK and EU. Only thing I have yet to do is pay Kixto’s bill.
• The Inns and Taverns systemless book continues to make progress.
• Did some more writing—but not a lot, nor enough—on Two Warring Houses.
• Tower of the Moon launched on Backerkit on September 3. Total orders stand at 261 with about 13 days left in the project. With the exception of those who ordered the OSR/Swords & Wizardry version of the book, all physical orders have already gone into the mail (!).
• Shipped the Retail Order; took a while to get that invoice signed off.
• GMShadow released both a full and edited version of our interview. Check ’em out!

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: 54 patrons and $366 per month.
• Special Content: Nothing in the last week, but I’m going to start releasing Bestiary preview pages Real Soon Now.

Patron ranks got another plus-up by one.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• Tower of the Moon: All Tower of the Moon TFT version and associated back-catalog orders have gone out. This includes the stuff that was SJGames centric (In the Labyrinth hardcovers, a few dice, a GM screen for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG).
• Delvers to Grow: All PDFs delivered. All domestic packages mailed. All international mailed and on the way, many in-hand.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

Tower of the Moon (Launched on Backerkit on September 3 at 9am Central Time, ends Sept 30, 6pm Central)

• This landing page on my blog replaces the normal Kickstarter page. Check it out.
• This is an experiment to see if a book that is 100% done does as well on Backerkit (or better) as a “crowdfunding” campaign (for a book that’s finished) on Kickstarter.
• The first 100 copies sold through; the second 100 copies only has 12 remaining. The third 100 copies is already ordered and expected next week.
• Even so, sales are not as strong as I’d hoped. The lack of community outreach tools other than my Constant Contact mailing list is a problem here. The prior history of TFT product suggested 500-650 likely customers, and we’re about half that, which is suboptimal.
• Have arranged to be on 3-4 podcasts or shows, one of which records tonight (Friday Sept 17).

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog got revised to account for the ready availability of Delvers to Grow.

The Delvers to Grow books are available for sale on the Gaming Ballistic web store.

• Delvers to Grow: Core Book in Printand PDF
• Delvers to Grow: Strong Delvers in Printand PDF
• Delvers to Grow: Fast Delvers in Printand PDF
• Delvers to Grow: Smart Delvers in Printand PDF
• The Crypt of Krysuvik in Printand PDF
• Delvers to Grow: Omnibus Edition in Printonly, with only five copies left unsold.

In Development

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

• Inns and Taverns, by Marshall LaPira. Systemless. Writing in progress.
• Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. Outline stage and writing.
• Nordlondr Bestiary, Books 1 and 2, by Douglas Cole. Dungeon Fantasy RPG. Outline stage and writing.

Friction

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

• The only outstanding bill that will hit me on a “retroactive” basis is the Delvers to Grow shipping fees, but I know about what that will be. Eventually I hope to recover much of that from a cash-flow basis by a refund of the inappropriate VAT charges on import, so that’s not a bad place.
• The pros and cons of the Backerkit launch seem to be leaning towards “not enough visibility, not enough sales” at this time. It’s not fatal, but another 200-300 sales at the current pace would be rather helpful.
• Was a bit of a dust-up over domestic shipping fees. Looking into the numbers, it’s still not wrong, given how involved it can be on the back end. Even so: hardly any way to win here, so it is what it is.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Tower of the Moon, despite having fewer sales that I want thus far, has paid some bills, paid for itself, and brought GB back up to a “full tank” in terms of development working capital. Would I rather have an extra 300 sales? Of course. But the project has helped.
• Girls are back in school, and I’ve started working out seriously again. That means I’m finding my groove from a productivity standpoint better, and more exercise means better sleep. That’s important.