Two huge pieces of news this week. First was the thunderous launch of Till Death Do Us Part on Kickstarter. It funded in 12 hours, and is currently setting the record for most followers, with fully 100 more than my prior best-ever, the Nordlondr Ovinabokin. And speaking of the Nordlondr Ovinabokin…the books finally arrived in Baltimore!

• Till Death had a tremendous launch. Thanks to some gracious help from SJGames, I’m reaching a much larger market than prior campaigns, and the follower count shows it.
• We funded in 12 hours, with a per-pledge average something like 65% higher than I planned, which meant that rather than struggling to fund at ~450 backers, we funded solidly at “only” 250 backers.
• As I type this, we’re sitting just north of 350 backers, and the per-pledge average is actually increasing. If the “conversion” rate of followers to backers is anything like we’ve seen in the past…this might make up for a lot of stagnation in the first half of the year.
• After much, much angst, the books for the Norðlondr Bestiary thumped down on the deck at 2pm on June 8, and the team in Baltimore is every bit as organized as my freight team was supposed to be. 150 of roughly 335 orders were picked and packed, and they did the complex ones first. They expect to have all the rest done tomorrow.
• Conversations with artists on Till Death productive, some art already in.
• 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

• Expect to have all books in the mail by the end of June 10! Tracking numbers go out this weekend.
• The VTT Foundry Module went on sale to all on Wednesday! Initial feedback has been quite positive.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

Till Death Do Us Part

• …is now going gangbusters on Kickstarter.
• Funded in 12 hours, reaching $8,200 with about 250 backers
• The $33 per pledge that implies was much higher than the $18.25 I planned
• More than 10% of the backers and 40% of the money raised as I type this came from people electing pledges that clearly shout “I have never purchased any of GB’s stuff before.”
• This is not new news: Success in this business is basically “write cool stuff” crossed with “a huge mailing list”
• Added some PDF versions of my NPC cards decks from prior campaigns, and also a promise of a 60-card deck from Tower of the Moon plus Till Death. This is a bit of a jump-ahead on the $12,500 stretch goal, but the hard part about the goal is printing the cards, not making the document. So…

In any case, Till Death is shaping up to maybe make up for a lot of stagnation from Jan through May. Not on board yet? Pledge now!

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.

Combate Epico em Masmorras (Epic Dungeon Combat). Strategy change on the Nordlond Bestiary to Brazilian Portuguese. Fantastic Dungeon Grappling translation into Portuguese is underway. 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, assuming the manuscript is ready!

Till Death Do Us Part (OSE), by David Pulver will mark Gaming Ballistic’s first release for Old School Essentials. 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. Seems like some sort of card layout would make good sense as well.

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.

In Development

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

• Bestiary Project 1. Work progressses on this bestiary expansion. Some new NPC races, a bunch of monsters, and the author isss bringing ssssome really neat expansions to the lore of Nordlond to life.
• Bestiary Project 2. The least advanced, but we’re starting to get to the point where the author may be able to take a crack at it.
• Delvers to Grow Companion. Some new professions. A whole bunch of new disad packages. Epic Upgrades. Who knows what else will strike me? September/October plan.
• Gear Catalog 1? There’s a good start at what is probably a nice 32-page book, maybe a bit more. Also DFRPG.
• 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.
• 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.
• OSE Solo Adventures by David Pulver. Till Death OSE draft already exists, need to work on formatting, editing, and looking at the rules there, then get busy with the other three solos. Crunchy work.
• Small Rules Supplement 1. The author is making steady progress on this, and is probably going to have something ready for preliminary read-through, after which we’ll undergo several months of rigorous playtesting.
• Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. Actually saw some writing over Valentine’s Day. On hold as other things come first.

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 don’t say this much, but other than extreme lack of sleep, this was a good week…

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• ‘Till Death is just killin’ it. If a reasonable faction of those following actually turn into backers, this will be in the running for most-backed KS of mine, maybe by a long way. Having it outperform the Bestiary for number of backers is not impossible, though it is not likely.
• The other projects are making progress, visibly so.
• Finally, finally fulfillment happening on Bestiary. My goodness this has been a long time coming. But the books arrived in Baltimore with no damage, which I worried about.
• The new blood coming in on my Till Death project is so key. 11% of the backers are responsible for 40% of the funding, and that’s entirely due to new people coming on board, including several “catching up all at once” backers AND several retail orders! Retail!
• My family is going on our first real vacation in years, tomorrow.