The VTT Module hits public release, and is making some sales! A whole bunch of PDFs and physical product of mine gets listed on Warehouse 23. I have a good call with Steve and Phil, and am advancing on multiple projects, including being very, very ready for a Tuesday launch of David Pulver’s Till Death Do Us Part on Kickstarter.

• Till Death Do Us Part even has hyperlinks in the text now. Art is all underway. A few tokens are done or close to it.
• Kickstarter launches June 7 and shall continue through June 20. PDF fulfillment is going to be lickety-split on this one.
• Which is good, because I’m going to immediately segue into a recon-by-fire into the Brazilian market with a translation of Fantastic Dungeon Grappling into Brazilian Portuguese.
• Solid progress on two other DFRPG projects not written by me. One is a Bestiary follow-on, the other a short rules supplement. Those are really aimed at a September/October due date, so they’re out there but not imminent.
• Two different systemless projects sit between now and then as well, and I shall transition hard to those soon.

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: 62 patrons and $571 per month.
• Special Content in June: Already seen a latest version of Till Death, with hyperlinks for easy navigation.

Lost a patron and several decreased their tallies. One was “not what I wanted,” which is what it is, the others were financial pressure, which I totally get.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• Nothing yet in June…but I’m going to need to hit the airwaves and podcasts to chat up the upcoming schedule.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary

• They promised ETA June 1. They lied. Books still in New York City. Now they’re just ignoring my emails.
• The VTT Foundry Module went on sale to all on Wednesday! Initial feedback has been quite positive.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

I have made arrangements to have the Bestiary PDF and the Delvers to Grow physical and PDF books hosted on Warehouse 23. Expect that soon, along with ensuring ALL of my products can be had in both physical and PDF form from there.

Now Available on Warehouse 23!

• Delvers to Grow: Core Book in print and PDF for the DFRPG
• Delvers to Grow: Fast Delvers in print and PDF for the DFRPG
• Delvers to Grow: Smart Delvers in print and PDF for the DFRPG
• Delvers to Grow: Strong Delvers in print and PDF for the DFRPG
• The Crypt of Krysuvik in print and PDF for the DFRPG
• Tower of the Moon in print and PDF for TFT
• The Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary and Enemies Book in PDF-only for now, for the DFRPG
• Dragon Hunt! for TFT is now also available in softcover print
• Dark Lord’s Doom for TFT is now also available in softcover print
• Roc of Sages for TFT is now also available in softcover print
• Catacombs of Living Death for TFT is now also available in softcover print
• The Sunken Library for TFT is now also available in softcover print

Now Available in PDF format on DriveThruRPG:

• Tower of the Moon (The Fantasy Trip)

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog has been updated for Spring 2022. It now includes Delvers to Grow, Tower of the Moon, and the Nordlond Bestiary. Any pre-orders for the Bestiary will be filled roughly April 2022, once the shipment comes in. I will be changing my retail discount structure to be much simpler, only a 50% discount level for retail orders.

Till Death Do Us Part (TFT), by David Pulver, launches on Tuesday, June 7. • Till Death Do Us Part even has hyperlinks in the text now. Art is all underway. A few tokens are done or close to it. Kickstarter launches June 7 and shall continue through June 20. PDF fulfillment is going to be lickety-split on this one.

 

Please follow the campaign and pledge the first day!

Combate Epico em Masmorras (Epic Dungeon Combat). Strategy change on the Nordlond Bestiary to Brazilian Portuguese. I’m going to get Fantastic Dungeon Grappling professionally translated. It’s only eight pages, and that will be very fast. We’ll use THAT as a test of the ability to reach Brazil with a PDF offering, and gauge market size. If that works out, I’ll do more. Maybe much more. The key output variable I’m looking for here is backer count, to size the market. Buy in will be BRL 10-15, or $2–3. Probably more like $2. Look for this immediately after Till Death Do Us Part closes!

Till Death Do Us Part (OSE), by David Pulver will mark Gaming Ballistic’s first release for Old School Essentials. I’m going to follow the TFT version very quickly with an Old School Essentials solo adventure kickstarter. The current plan is to convert all of the four solos I have to OSE and launch them in July, immediately following the TFT version of ‘Till Death. Pledge levels will include “pick 1 PDF,” “Pick 2 PDFs,” “All four solos,” and Four Print+PDFs.

Let Us Rejoice! is a systemless exploration of festivals and gatherings as great ways to make a world come alive. Uses and collects the Nordlond material that is scattered over several books as examples, but also goes further than that. This will be GB’s first systemless release, aimed at mid-August.

Unspecified DFRPG Project(s). A minimum of two, possibly more, DFRPG projects in late September or early October.

In Development

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

• Nordlondr Bestiary, by Douglas Cole. Dungeon Fantasy RPG. Almost there.
• Till Death Do Us Part, a TFT and OSE Project with David Pulver. First draft received, sent back with comments, revised draft received and laid out. Cover art revision received and cover laid out. ISBN obtained. Now starting to commission interior artwork.
• Let Us Rejoice! Systemless short book (probably less than 16 pages) on festivals in fantasy gaming, and why you should be using more of them.
• Secret Bestiary Project. One thing led to another, and a long-time collaborator is turning author on this short and focused expanssssion to the Nordlondr Bestiary.
• Secret DFRPG Short Project. Another Dungeon Fantasy RPG project, again with a new-to-me author, that will be a short rules expansion. Think Fantastic Dungeon Grappling short, hopefully bringing more optional awesome to one area of play.
• Secret Delvers to Grow Material. I’m working with a new-to-me author on some work expanding the Delvers to Grow landscape. I’m not sure if this will go to publication as a stand-alone or be incorporated into a future, broader expansion. I could see either way.
• Portuguese Fantastic Dungeon Grappling, by Douglas Cole. Combate Epico em Masmorras. Looking at doing FDG in Brazilian Porguguese as a market test, and explicitly stating it that way. We shall see.
• Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. Actually saw some writing over Valentine’s Day. On hold as other things come first.
• Inns and Taverns, by Marshall LaPira. Systemless. Still postponed indefinitely. A good time for this would either be along with Let Us Rejoice (in a few months) or real close to the end of the year.

I note that for new authors, Delvers to Grow and Bestiary entries are fantastic ways to get into the game, as such projects lend themselves very well to focused writing and fast turn-around.

Friction

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

• I feel like the books are moving backwards. Now we’re waiting for them to be unloaded at the customs pickup location so that the truck can go get them.
• Got some mixed answers on a question or three I’d hoped to receive more positive response on, but that was actually expected. Need more data to proceed. Yes, vague-booking.
• Wife came back from a business trip with a mild case of Covid-19, which she’s now more or less over (she went jogging this morning). We’re now outside the quarantine period, we’re masking externally with N95s, and hoping we stay well before we leave for vacation in seven days.
• Fought the system a bit with Backerkit to get some marketing done in partnership with SJGames, which meant that a window was missed. But see Fair Winds…

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

These last two weeks made some progress, but then really accelerated at the end. The last 2–3 days in particular were really productive.

• ‘Till Death is ready to rock. It’s been laid out, art is all commissioned, it’s been playtested a bunch, and I even got the hyperlinks in. Once the art goes in, which it should during the actual KS campaign, we’ll be ready for PDF deployment right away.
• Really good and productive conversation with a Brazilian Portuguese translator. And a much better strategy there. We worked out a cover, he made fun of DeepL and Google a lot, and we signed a contract. Work is underway. I’m hoping to have the KS page ready to go fast, and speak to KS to approve the campaign well in advance of launch. I want it to be as widely publicized as possible. Financial goal will be low, but the implicit backer count goal is likely in the thousands before I can really lean in on making many translations happen. Is this likely? No. Is it possible? Absolutely. The GURPS Brasil FB group has 4,500 people in it, 3× the number as the GURPS North America group. So it’s quite possible…but reach is key.
• Tons of movement on product listing in W23. That was a long time coming, but woot! Lots of books there.
• SJGames (Darryll) and I did finally work out the thing for promotion sharing on Backerkit, so perhaps Till Death will be the beneficiary of a bit of patron promotion, using their much larger mailing list (more than 10× what I have). While nothing is certain, it would stand to reason that many of the folks on that list have never heard of GB, nor bought any of my TFT products, so that would be a nice source of “oh, look! 16 TFT books I was unaware of!”