Again it has been an eventful two weeks.

• Bestiary shipping is functionally complete, the project finished. While there are probably some outstanding issues, there are no major to-do items, only one-off issues to tackle as they come up.
• Paid the shipping bill, after pointing out some errors. Also got a lot of nice help/donations after posting this update: Thanks, people. It really helps.
• Till Death moving per schedule, which is amazing. I got all the books, I ordered the international materials, and even put several hundred books-only packages in the domestic mail. I expect to have all domestic, Canada, and AUS/NZ shipping complete by Monday July 25.
• The Combate Épico em Masmorras project ended. It attracted 125 backers and perhaps $628 backers against a $500 goal. Thus, technically the project was successful, but it does not represent strong evidence of a market that can be profitably served without major changes to strategy and tactics. See below for more.
• I should be receiving a ready-to-playtest draft of the shield book at any moment. It shall get extensive real-table playtest before it goes into production though.
• I generated all three contracts for the new projects; two are signed, I believe.
• I wrote and submitted a Hexagram article, my first game content writing for that ‘zine.
• I have finished layout for the OSE version of Till Death Do Us Part, gotten covers done for all four books, and submitted a draft Kickstarter page for approval so I can get a marketing link from them.
• A lot of time spent on stuff I can’t talk about, too.

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: 60 patrons and $453 per month.
• Special Content in July: Showed “The Art of Dungeon Grappling,” which contains art from my very first Kickstarter. Preview of full version of OSE Till Death Do Us Part. Preview of several covers for upcoming books.

Steady in July. I know what I need to do for 2023 to help with this, but I need some breathing room to do it.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• My post on the OSE Facebook page has received some nice attention.
• SJ Posted a Daily Illuminator written by him personally endorsing the Combate Épico em Masmorras “official status,” which applies to everything I do for that license: TFT and Powered by GURPS. If I’m permitted to slap the SJGames pyramid logo on it, it’s official content, though of course third-party content.
• I did a wonderful and fun interview show with Vicinius Watzl and Shelly Poison on RPG Next supporting the CEM Kickstarter. It’s in both English and Portuguese.
• James Eisert at Castle Archon read, played, gave feedback, and reviewed Till Death on his YouTube channel.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary

• Finishing up on this one.
• I got one of the best reviews/comments ever on the Bestiary.

Till Death Do Us Part (TFT)

• All books in house.
• All domestic books-only orders went into the USPS yesterday. I used Shipstation for this, so every backer got a tracking ID
• Today is “Canada” and “two groups of similar orders containing cards,” which is the lion’s share of everything. After that, we’re down to unique orders that only have one or two instances, because backers want what they want (and that’s fine). Those will get done a bit at a time over the weekend, but I don’t see any reason I can’t drop all orders into the mail by Monday.

Combate Épico em Masmorras

• Project closed, all files emailed out.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

Old-School Solo Adventures

• I’m gearing up for another slash at the solos, this time for the Old-School Renaissance market. Specifically with the Old-School Essentials set, as it has tremendous uptake and recent movement.
• Some of the covers need a bit of work (logo contrast and back-cover contrast) but I hope that these are well received.

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 and probably needs an update for Summer 2022.

OSE Solo Adventures (OSE), by David Pulver is aiming for crowdfunding start in early August. I have a KS page in the works, submitted for approval. It needs tweaking and is badly in need of graphical assistance, which is on the schedule for this weekend. But I’m excited for this one for a lot of reasons.

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.

Serpents of Legend. Formerly “Bestiary Project 1,” this is partially just a book of cool snake-themed monsters written by Marko Vujnovic. But it also contains some serious serpent-related cosmology for Nordlond, and a really nifty section on snake cults. This has been making good progress and I’m starting to see formatted draft material.

Shields Up! Closing in on a playtestable draft. I think this one will also serve as my test-case for Backerkit Crowdfunding. I want to give my Patreon Subscribers a few weeks to attack this with actual fights, and then off to the races. I expect this to hit crowdfunding mid-August.

In Development

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

• The “Bugstiary.” Need to work on a contract with the author, but I’ve got an approved outline in hand. This one is looking at 32 pages, and much more of a strict bestiary book of cool bug-and-insect themed monsters.
• 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. I’ve talked with a potential author on this one and we need to work out a few things, but not in a bad way.
• 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.
• 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. The new concept that I’m shopping around to my circle of authors and contributors will be another entry…but the nature of the concepts require a firm hand on the wheel for gamer utility. So not going public with that yet.

Friction

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

• Ultimately, one must take a realistic look at the Combate Epico em Masmorras project and conclude that as it was conducted, there’s no real market there for me at this time.
  • The number of backers was my smallest ever
  • The funding level was my smallest ever
  • Realistically, to make a digtal-only market viable at half or less the usual price for the product, I need on the order of a thousand customers, not a few hundred.
  • There’s clear expression of a belief that digital products are not worth much money
  • The lack of recent support for the GURPS Fourth Edition core rules, or the Dungeon Fantasy RPG ruleset in particular, does not make this a product that looks like a “must-have”
  • It’s surprisingly difficult for Brazilians to back not-from-Brazil crowdfunding; several of the usual payment methods are not available, and even the ones that should be (like PayPal) are not always like they should be
  • The Brazilian RPG market prioritizes print, but to get to an affordable product would mean a print order pushing 1,500 copies…and the best-ever Catarse in terms of backers was just over 700. On the other hand, that project did raise over R$ 300,000 – about $60,000 – which means folks shelled out something like $85 dollars each for deluxe print products.
  • Shipping into Brazil, and then distributing within Brazil, is a nightmare. When I had an order to Brazil for my Bestiary, GamesQuest begged me not to send it (I sent it; it arrived fine). So the “print elsewhere, import and distribute” option requires a lot of handholding from partners that I don’t have
  • Catarse, the Brazilian native crowdfunding platform, requires a Brazilian ID and permanent Brazilian address to use. I have neither of those things, so would need to find (and compensate!) a partner for this purpose. It’s also expensive, taking 13% of revenue.
  • Combined with license fees, Catarse fees, partnership split, and even some of the printers want a cut of revenue…that’s splitting the revenue a lot of ways in a market that has very high expectations for service, but can’t compensate providers for that care.
  • In particular, the expectation is what I call a “Field of Dreams” business plan: “If you build it, they will come.” The market there expects a vendor to do all the work and investment up front, with a complete and polished offering, and only then will they vote (or not!) with their Reais (R$). That’s not something I can contemplate at the moment: I need a string of successes simply to keep above water. A big risk and a big failure would be the end of GB pretty fast.
• As I said to one of my supporters: This doesn’t mean “not ever,” but it does mean “not now.” I may consider translations of future products in different spaces – and my translation partner Luis was excellent to work with. But for now…it’s got to be back-burnered.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Till Death is still screaming along to completion. Not only do I have all needed product in hand, I expect it all to be in the mail by July 25. This means that it’s likely that most domestic books and cards will be in hand two months after the KS first launched. That’s outstanding.
• I like the direction that Shields Up! and Serpents of Legend are headed, and the prospect of launching Shields via Backerkit is delightfully intriguing. It won’t be a huge book, but it should be a lot of fun. I’ve wanted to release something like this for a while.
• I feel like my coaching on a few of the projects has been very useful.
• Most days right now I’m running ahead of my to-do list. That comes and goes, and some of the projects coming up are quite large, but I don’t feel crushingly behind right now. I’m sure that’ll change.