A very productive week.

• Till Death Shipping is essentially complete; I have 16 international packages with orders queued up, and I hear that the boxes have arrived at GamesQuest…they just need to be checked in and then they’ll be mailed. That’ll be everyone.
• Combate Épico em Masmorras has a local POD option for Brazilians. Cool.
• It took me a bit longer than I was hoping, but I’ve edited and done a preliminary layout for Shields Up! It’s not a publish-worthy layout…but it will allow fight-testing. More than most of my work, this one will be driven by actual play feedback, and not theorycrafting. Oh, this means I formally accepted Danny’s manuscript and so he got paid for that milestone.
• The two Bestiary contracts are signed.
• The OSE solo kickstarter was approved over last weekend, and it’s already got 239 followers. I was mentioned in the Necrotic Gnome newsletter as well, which I reposted on my blog nearly in full.
• Still a lot of behind the scenes work.

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: 61 patrons and $457 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. Discord (and soon Patreon itself) got the preview copy of Shields Up! for fight-test.

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

• I recorded a “catching up with Che and Gaming Ballistic” podcast which should air around Aug 20 or so.
• The Kickstarter “follow-me” page is live for OSE Solos.
• 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.

Till Death Do Us Part (TFT)

• All domestic, Canada, and AUS/NZ books are in the mail, and I’ve received hundreds of delivery confirmations.
• We’re just waiting for GamesQuest to unbox the UK/EU/RoW books and send them out.
• I’ve had to revert one international pledge to PDF because I didn’t have an address by the time the books showed up at GamesQuest. After the initial notification and several updates and direct emails…well, that’s what happens.

Combate Épico em Masmorras

• Combate Épico em Masmorras has a local POD option for Brazilians. Cool.

• Project closed, all files emailed out.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

Old-School Solo Adventures

• Oh, why not: Here’s a full preview of the OSE Kickstarter page.
• You can also follow the campaign as well.
• Some of the covers need a bit of work (logo contrast and back-cover contrast) but I hope that these are well received.
• I’m working with Exalted Funeral to see if I can offer a physical starter set in addition to the PDF one. We need to work out details, but there are books in the UK, and there will be books in the USA…so for a change, the starter kits may well be available worldwide.

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.

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 (the Chaotic GM). 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! Testable draft in hand! Author paid. Fight-test … starts now if you’re a Patreon subscriber.

 

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.
• 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.

• I was really productive this week.
• Shields Up was a heavier edit that I was envisioning, but author and I have had excellent conversation as to why, what, and how to approach such things in the future. DFRPG is a low-fiddle game.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Till Death is very much on track to be done, from launch to “all books in the mail,” in less than two months.
• Shields Up is shaping up well, and I believe some of the new options for shield fighting will be a lot of fun.
• I got a lot of work done on a different thing entirely.
• I started exercising again. I’m suffering for it, and hungry some of the time, but I’m staying on track and hope to finally maintain my focus enough to lose the 30 lbs of weight I need to drop.
• I probably have enough followers on OSE Solos right now to fund on Day 1. This is good. What I need to do is hit the marketing the right way to see if I can attract many times that number. A break-out project here would help me in so many ways…
• I’ve got the opportunity this weekend to really steal a march on converting Dark Lord’s Doom…and I intend to make the most of it.