Yay. Second weekly update in a row that’s actually on the week. But booo! My wife was out of town, and I had insomnia. Not a ton got accomplished other than the bare minimum. Some weeks are like that.

• Still haven’t been invoiced by Kixto; will pester them about that so I can come up to “current.”
• Work continues on the Inns and Taverns book
• Nothing on Two Warring Houses this week, but I did do a bunch of non-stat related work on Bestiary 1 and 2.
• Tower of the Moon launched on Backerkit on September 3. Total orders stand at 285, so I got another 24 orders in this last week. I have ordered copies of the OSR version of Tower of the Moon after doing battle with embedded fonts for a while
• With the exception of those who ordered the OSR/Swords & Wizardry version of the book (26 orders), all physical orders have already gone into the mail. This is the final week of the product launch, which ends September 30.
• GMShadow dropped the Delvers to Grow episode of his podcast, going through character creation, and the first real session has been recorded.

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: 53 patrons and $358 per month.
• Special Content: Nothing in the last week, but I’m going to start releasing Bestiary preview pages Real Soon Now.

Patron ranks fell off 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). Initial reviews are very positive.
• 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 in hand as well. Haven’t started to cut into those yet, but I’m hopeful.
• Sales are not as strong as I’d have hoped. My usual TFT projects wind up at 500-550 backers, and this launch has moved about 285, which is roughly half of what I was hoping for. Most of the email for this goes out in the form of blasts that are interpreted as mass marketing mailings (which, in truth, is what they are). Most folks opt IN to Kickstarter mails, but OUT of such things, which hurts uptake. Lack of good community and communication features in Backerkit Launch does not help.
• I’ve thus far recorded two podcasts, with another scheduled this coming week.

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 pros and cons of the Backerkit launch seem to be leaning towards “not enough visibility, not enough sales” at this time. I’m likely not going to venture this again for a product launch.
• I didn’t get nearly enough done this last week. I had a bad case of insomnia, and spent much of the week driving my kids to and from activities; normally my wife picks up half of that. Basically just a rough week.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Good feedback on Tower of the Moon from those who have used it and played it.
• The interaction with the Lawful Stupid guys was fun; they were particularly interested in solo play adventures, and we had a pretty far-reaching chat about gaming, which is always fun