This week was mostly head-down on the Old-School Essentials project, but also a bunch of playtesting done on two different Dungeon Fantasy RPG projects. Complicated by my wife being away and then arriving home on a delayed flight that landed at 1:15am. I still don’t know what day of the week it is.

• The big push was on the Old-School Solos project. The campaign stands at a solid 540 backers as I type this, and has an astonishing 1,288 followers with 1,130 who will make the back/not-back decision in the final 48 hours of the campaign, it would seem.
• I’m seeing a lot of dropped pledges this time; financial stresses abound.
• Right after this goes live, I’ll be updating the campaign with a new stretch goal at 900 backers and adding the card deck as an add-on for purchase.
• Shields Up playtest continues with a lot of good feedback. The biggest issues turfed up this week involved synergy and niche-stomping due to some overenthusiastic “and this skill applies too!” that we’ll pare back so that the Wrestler doesn’t become better with shields than (say) the Shield-Bearer from DFC3.
• Serpents of Legend saw a near-complete draft as well as some active fight-tests. An amphisbaena surprised and TPK’d a party of 125-point characters; it did not TPK a party of 300-pointers. This is desired behavior, though we may tweak it down just a notch.
• Another KS velocity note: the last four days have been good but definitely slower than the week prior. About 10 backers per day, with would put me at about 600 headed into the final 48 hours. That would still put the project somewhere in the 2^nd through 4^th best I’ve done, even without any conversion in the 48-hour surge.
• I have finalized the core design elements for monster and NPC/PC cards for the OSE. Details below.
• Dark Lord’s Doom is fully laid out, but I’m working with Rob Conley to adjust the fights. Right now they’re a bit killer.
• The third interview for the OSE Kickstarter went live. Check that out in the media section.

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 $451 per month.
• Special Content in August: Preview of Shields Up. Preview of monster stats for Serpents of Legend. Dark Lord’s doom preliminary layout.

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 was on Talking Crit with Tenkar and Bad Mike, and we chatted for two hours. Robert Douglas, one of my playtesters and frequent backers, said “…those two hours flew by,” so apparently it was at least entertaining.
• I recorded Old-School Essentials with Che Webster, and it’s up and live.
• The interview I did “A Sonata in GURPS with Gaming Ballistic” with one of the Steves at Me and Steve Talk RPGs went live.
• Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic posted a short review of the version of Till Death Do Us Part that I sent him, the first of the four to be “basically complete.”

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• I still need to go through comp copies for ALL products via DriveThruRPG from TDDUP. That was a miss.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

 

Old-School Solo Adventures

• Launched Aug 4 at 10am. Funded by 11am. Currently just over $24,400.
• This is a very healthy project, in actuality and even more in potential. Various projections put the final total near $35-40K, which is dancing around 785 or more backers. More, maybe even 900–1000, is not impossible.
• Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design and Publishing and I iterated on the design of some NPC/PC and Monster cards for the project!

  I need to do a count, but I suspect around 160 cards, roughly 40 per adventure. Roughly.

• The Halfway Through! Kickstarter post/update has a lot in it.

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog has been updated for Spring 2022 and probably needs an update for Summer 2022 before the summer actually ends.

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, it was aimed at mid-August, but since that’s three days away, that’s not happening. I really wanted to get this into 2022, but it may slip into 2023. That’s not a problem as such; having a robust “what’s coming next” is good.

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. More work, this time on the rules and prose section. When fighting critters the size of hills, you might need guidance for fighting a monster while standing on top of the monster.

Shields Up! Testable draft being tested! Author paid. Fight-tests and theorycraft testing both going on if you’re a Patreon Subscriber.

In Development

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

• The “Bugstiary.” Contract signed. Work slower than anticipated (which itself was anticipated). 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. I know what I want to do with this one, and shall get on it as soon as this OSE project is finished.
• 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. On hold.
• Infinite Archipelago is going to be my new framework for settings that should cross over systems. I have plans for TFT/OSE version of Nordlond, plus more, that GMs will be able to pick and choose and place what’s there. It implies sea travel in many ways, so there are ideas around that. Looking forward to this as a building block for 2023.
• Secret TFT Setting by David Pulver. Chatted with David about plans for this, and there’s a hole in his schedule at the end of the year. Chatted more, and liking how it works.
• Secret Nordlond-ish Setting by [CENSORED].
• OSE Conversions of Character Collections. I don’t see why not. Monsters, ready-to-go PCs/NPCs with just enough background to make ‘em interesting. Some art for visualization. I may work on this together with two other CC volumes I’d like to make, so they hit as a six-book bundle.

The two settings are part of a grand plan you’ll be seeing more of next 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. 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 requires a firm hand on the wheel for gamer utility. Some of my early discussions with authors are fluctuating between “oh, I get it, that’s cool” and “…but surely those restrictions don’t apply to my cool idea!” Yes, they do.

Friction

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

• I will never again schedule my child for a camp that’s 40 minutes away. Holy crap that’s a lot of wasted time in the car.
• I remain somewhat to very apprehensive about converting those 1,100 follower-not-backed to backers. I mean, I don’t expect to get them all, but a healthy turnout here would radically change how I can go about my business, in a good way.
• Too busy this week; didn’t start on the big Viking training sword.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• The OSE project is really looking friendly. I’ve gotten some good feedback on the cards so far, so maybe they’ll be popular.
• Shields Up is looking really good. Initial fight-testing has shown some of the viability of the shield-fencing concepts for interesting play. We’re running into some precedent issues that challenge “thou shalt not nerf existing characters” and we have to address those before it goes live.
• Still wonder if I’ll actually cross the 1,000-backer mark this time. It doesn’t seem likely…but it’s also not implausible.
• Have done over $1,100 in sales from my Shopify store in August, which is outstanding. July wasn’t awful either, though maybe about half as much.
• Growth in “the typical project” backer count, more markets, some crossover, and stronger performance in my online sales from various channels is starting to make 2023 look healthy. 2022 isn’t looking bad either, but I can really start to see some turn-around in my prospects for achieving a no-regrets publishing career.