Well, “every week on Thursday” didn’t work out so well. I keep missing the alarms (or my 7yo is playing with my phone and dismisses said alarm, which is equally likely).

October has thus far been a very “below the waterline” month, but this week I made good progress on the Bestiary, which is almost certain to be the next thing up.

In other important news, SJGames launched the second phase of the productization of the Girl Genius RPG, kickstarting the hardcover print version.

• I’ve poked Kixto again about invoicing, to no result. I think they might be on a “quarterly” plan or something, or just giving enough time for all packages to arrive. It’s frustrating for me, but one has to understand that follow-up to shipping can drag on months after the ship date, due to global chaos.
• Lots of feedback to Marshall on Inns and Taverns. Combined with his new job, that will set production date back by likely at least a month. That’s an internal date, so “a month later than I’d hoped” is still cryptic enough.
• I have made significant good progress on Bestiary Volume 1. My Patreon Subscribers will see a very preliminary version of the text and some stats. There are so many moving pieces in terms of traits that it’s definitely going to be a “many eyes make it possible” book but I knew that.
• Tower of the Moon got a nice review by James Eisert this week. You can get the print and PDF copies of the book on my website store.
• I’m gearing up for another Backerkit-only experiment, this one directed at the United Kingdom and ONLY the UK. See if there’s enough interest in locally printed stuff that I can support that largest component of my former international market.
• So GB is in a lull between projects, but work is accelerating on many fronts. I hope to have one more thing go live before year’s end, and then I need to use the winter break to carefully plan 2022.

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: 55 patrons and $370 per month.
• Special Content: Gearing up for a series of releases and previews and work on Bestiary. Once this starts flowing, there’s going to be a lot of it.

Patron ranks plussed up by one.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• Nothing new this period. GB is current with fulfillment and shipping.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

• Nothing new this period

 

Product Announcements

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

Tower of the Moon is now on the GB web store in print and PDF

In Development

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

• Inns and Taverns, by Marshall LaPira. Systemless. First draft submitted, feedback returned, progress meeting Sept 7.
• 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.
• Other ready-to-go support for systemless and the DFRPG. I’ve got several ideas on this one, but they simply MUST wait until I have Bestiary 1 and 2 closer to ready so they can go towards launch before the year is up.

Friction

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

• Still was having some motivation issues and writers block, but have forced nose to grindstone and am now making good progress.
• Kids are home for a five-day weekend due to MEA school recess, and that means – given the weather – they’re constantly in my office. This is not conducive to work.
• Pushing out the Inns and Taverns book was not where I wanted to be, but it’s where the book needs to be. I want the first offering here to lead strong, and there’s a lot of good to be had in the ideas. Lots of maps, lots of NPCs, lots of portable flavor for any game. But doing it right means doing it right.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Finally got my SSD upgraded. Wound up doing it myself, which thanks to Samsung transfer utilities, was actually easy. The Best Buy team was unfortunately useless, though, and wasted much time. Also: if you don’t already have one, order the M.2 screw kit from Amazon, because it’s $5 or so and you will waste a week if you don’t have them already.
• As noted, a rough week, but yesterday I got a lot of feedback to Marshall and I’m excited about the direction the book will take on Inns and Taverns and giving Marshall more time means I can – after Bestiary! – do more settlements for parallel release.
• I’m about 40% of the way through Bestiary Volume 1, though that means “enough in place for useful feedback” not “ready for layout.”
• Some of the research that goes on looking at monsters and creatures is really interesting. I didn’t know that a golden eagle, in a stoop, can hit nearly 200mph, making it almost as fast as the Peregrine Falcon (the record recorded dive for the peregrine is 242mph…that’s Move 118 in flight for you GURPS folks! That’s like 1d+3 imp  damage from a three-pound bird).