Once again, my efforts have nearly all been directed at the Bestiary. And this week there was a lot that happened.

FnordCon4, digital convention, came and went. I think the RPG panel on Saturday went well enough, and the “how to write for SJGames” went very, very well indeed.

• What went on this week?
  • Art: I have begun to commission art for the initial release, and some of it is already in hand.
  • I decided on content and updated the Kickstarter to reflect the new basic goal: 128 page hardcover. Minimum.
  • There is now a live preview link to the Bestiary KS page.
  • Lots of updates (but still not enough) to the import spreadsheet
  • Initial graphic design for the book got done, and one sample monster, the fjallatroll (mountain troll) got written up. Including art, because Juan Ochoa is really, really fast.
  • Now that I’m talking to my artists, the actual prices are coming in. The art costs are lower than I’d thought, but potential print costs are higher. So the numbers will revise down, but not quite as much as I’d hoped.
  • There are over 430 folks following right now. That’s not enough to fund…but it’s a fantastic start. I’d feel better if we doubled that before the project launches next week.
  • I got a new draft of Inns and Taverns from Marshall, and shall be reviewing that later today
  • John Marshall is running a character-building contest on the DFRPG Facebook Group, featuring Delvers to Grow. Check it out if you’re on Facebook!

It’s still going to be a big lift, estimated at 600-650 backers to be successful, and over 1,100 in order to hit 240 pages. But the numbers are no longer looking quite so grim to me. We’ve hit 600 backers on prior projects before (Nordvorn)…hopefully the historical trend of Bestiaries being popular (and the Girl Genius anecdote that a big hardcover book is in demand!) carry the day.

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: 56 patrons and $379 per month.
• Special Content: The patrons got early peeks at the Fjallatroll and the revised spreadsheet. Discordian Patrons have been seeing previews of all the new art as it comes in.

We picked up an other patron this week as well!

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

• The Girl Genius RPG closed on Kickstarter with darn-near 3,000 backers and well over $170,000 for a 208-page hardback. I note that hitting 1/3 of that would do nice things for…
• The Norðlondr Óvinabókin, the Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies book, will launch on Kickstarter on Thursday, November 18 at 10am Central (GMT -6). It will run for three weekends, until December 7, at 9pm Central (GMT -6).
• Please, please, please indicate interest in the DFRPG Bestiary by clicking the “follow the campaign” link even if you normally follow Gaming Ballistic in general. The closer the number of followers gets to 650, or even the big goal of 1,150, the faster I can place orders for art, and the bolder I can be on the production decisions.

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog is still out there.

In Development

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

• Inns and Taverns, by Marshall LaPira. Systemless. Revised draft submitted on Nov 11.
• Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. Outline stage and writing, but on hold as I blitzkrieg the Bestiary. Still aiming for at least one, if not more, of these systemless settlement books to appear at the same time as Inns and Taverns.
• Nordlondr Bestiary (formerly “volume 1” but now we’re just going big) by Douglas Cole. Dungeon Fantasy RPG. Preliminary text of the first 48 (of an initial 128) pages, spreadsheet for data import being filled out. Expanding spreadsheet to cover all 128 pages for the new goal. Whuff. I hope to really hit spreadsheeting hard this weekend, and thus get numerous samples out to Patreon members for test. I sometimes call this the Ovinabokin, Nordlond Bestiary, or the DFRPG Bestiary as shorthand. There shall be only one.

Friction

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

• I got a quote from a US printer for the Bestiary. It’s a good printer, in use with some of the major players in the RPG world and especially in other types of full-color books. But it’s really expensive: Twice as high as the EU printer I’ve used before. On the other hand, shipping these days is really high from overseas anywhere, so it’s possible that it’ll still win. What this does, though, is allow me to ballpark “worst case” for printing expenses, which I have done.
• One of the artists I was really hoping to include in this go-round has the audacity to claim that her impending marriage is reason enough to skip the Bestiary. The nerve. (In all seriousness, I could not be happier for her, but this counts as friction because I love her work. Congrats to her for her happy news!)

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• I now have quotes from both a domestic and eastern European printer for sewn-binding hardcover books. The unknown for the overseas printer is shipping cost, but my models now account for that
• I got good pricing from my art team on the illustrations for the book. This more than offset the expected printing/shipping cost increase. I was able to revise the funding goal down slightly ($34,000), and the maximum goal down as well ($63,000).
• As of today, 432 people are following the campaign, which hopefully means we’ll hit 500 by launch time, at a minimum…but we’ll see. At some point, you rolls the dice and you takes your chances (and hope you bought at least one level of Luck).