Each week I try and post an update of what’s going on at Gaming Ballistic. What went well, what needs more attention, and an eye on upcoming releases plus company health.

This past week was a crazy, head-down week. School started up for my girls, and that’s been good and not-so-good. Lots of work on the OSE solos, but also progress on the next set of Dungeon Fantasy RPG releases.

• Cranking on OSE solos. Daily. Three of four books are finished enough to be in “just fight test it,” and initial feedback and such has been decent.
• TFT and OSE are very different games, and require care for conversion. It’s been challenging, but fun.
• Shield’s Up is missing a few pieces of art and a finalization on the cover, plus spell-check and links. It’s pretty well done though.
• Got great testing feedback on VHB and I think folks will dig it.
• The landing page for the DFRPG Bestiary Kickstarter is live: Nightmare Fuel.
  • I’ll be doing the campaign on Backerkit Crowdfunding this time. I’m working with them on a comprehensive marketing/promotion plan
  • Folks signing up to be notified once the campaign launches is one of the big metrics Backerkit uses to predict product success; I’m not sure how valid that will be in the Powered by GURPS ecosystem, but we’ll see.
• I’ve got two of three manuscripts in hand for Nightmare Fuel, and a preliminary cover design (lacking art) for one of them. Time to start building the art team for all the projects!

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 $455 per month.
• Special Content in September: The initial preview of Vampire Hunter Belladonna was uploaded Aug 31, but it’s real close to September. A near-final version of VHB followed soon after. Shields Up (prelim) is next.

August saw a slight reduction in members and funds. We picked up another supporter, but really we’re fluctuating around 60-65 people.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• No new media this last week…been very head-down.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• Comp copies got updated for all recent products. That finally got done.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

 

Old-School Solo Adventures

 

Pre-orders are now open for the OSE Solos.

• Launched Aug 4 at 10am. Funded by 11am. Closed with 803 backers and $38,813; that will likely go down to $38,200 or so once folks who are having trouble navigating KS’s payment system drop out.
• Surveys went out a bit early, and I rapidly got about 65% completion. This was very helpful for me to determine shipping rates.
• “Charge Shipping Later” was met with no reaction from the vast majority of folks, but an unhappy few were very upset at being asked for (in their words, with some legitimacy) “a blank check” for me to cheat them on shipping. This irked me greatly until I realized that of my 800 backers, only 199 had backed any of my prior projects. Three in four people on this campaign are entirely new to my orbit; they’ve no reason to trust me yet.
• Nonetheless, the 2/3 of folks who filled out surveys in the first 2–3 days let me generate rate tables, and so shipping got posted and is now basically like any regular Backerkit project.
• International shipping still sucks. In many cases, the cost of shipping outweighs the cost of the products. I’m as irked about this as anyone, but there’s very little I can do about it. I managed to work with a frequent backer in AUS to get shipping from the USA to AUS/NZ down from $87 per package to $40 for AUS, and $45-60 for NZ. This is for books with a $50 or $85 pledge price. It’s crazy. In a way, Canada is worse.

Nightmare Fuel

This will be my first ever formal use of Backerkit Crowdfunding, though I did a semi-successful attempt at this with Tower of the Moon. It’s staged from Oct 13 to Nov 6.

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog finally got updated on Sept 3 for fall! I took the opportunity to normalize prices for my entire product line. PDFs in general went up by a dollar or two; most print books stayed the same, a few actually came down in price. But with a few exceptions, at least all my stuff is now on the same pricing curve.

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. I have a completed ready-for-editing manuscript on this book, and hopefully will be able to read it (and pay the author) this weekend. This one is on schedule, and part of the Nightmare Fuel campaign. This book is likely 36 pages at this point; growth to 40–48 would not be crazy-talk.

The “Bugstiary.” Work targeted at a draft mid-Sept. This one is looking at 36 pages, and much more of a strict bestiary book of cool bug-and-insect themed monsters. Part of Nightmare Fuel. Cole Jenkins is the author.

Garden of Evil. A last-minute addition to the Nightmare Fuel lineup, this is probably 20 pages. Contract signed (as I type this, actually) and Chares Seager is the author here. Manuscript already in-hand; need to look at this one this weekend as well.

Shields Up! Post-playtest updates made, and layout is complete including some final art, and some temporary images. I will probably offer this up as a flat-out add-on during the Nightmare Fuel campaign, in order to get an initial print run sized. This needs to go into art development next week.

In Development

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

I currently have eight books in active development, to be released in two waves. Four are part of OSE, another four are DFRPG. I suspect that will run me right up to the end of the year, though I could also see another project slipping in for December…but that’s not a great crowdfunding time. I suspect what I’m looking at here is that the DFRPG Nightmare Fuel project will be my focus for fulfillment through the end of the year, and “spare” time will be head-down in content creation, including several long-delayed projects!

• 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. This one is definitely moving into 2023. That’s not a problem as such; having a robust “what’s coming next” is good.
• Delvers to Grow Companion. Some new professions. A whole bunch of new disad packages. Epic Upgrades. Everyman Adventurer modules. Who knows what else will strike me? I know what I want to do with this one, and shall get writing 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.
• Mission X: It’s time to get working on this. I’d anticipate late 2023 or early 2024 as it’s a big project.

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.

• School started, which is good. A complication is my youngest has decided to get up nearly two hours before the bus arrives, and that’s time I usually block out to work or work out. Complicates things.
• Working with Backerkit to refine messaging on Charge Shipping Later (CSL) function. It’s vital to understanding shipping realities rather than theories (where are my orders actually going?), but I’ve suggested an interesting “opt-out/opt-in” for CSL during the survey that will allow folks to nope out if they don’t want to provide info before payment is known.
• Patreon is still an answer looking for a question, but it’s a vital part of what I do each month. Still pondering this and how to make it better.
• Uptake on the NPC/Monster cards for the OSE project is lower than I thought it would be, but I’m still learning that market. I’m getting about half the takers I thought I would for that product, but there’s still time, and maybe some marketing to do there.
• I still feel a bit behind on things, but I am, after all, doing eight books simultaneously. Such is life.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• I took a few days early this week and knocked out my “tedious but necessary” list. That felt good.
• I invited some backers from the OSE project who also were some of my earliest supporters to playtest the books. No “here’s a play report” yet, but that is probably waiting for the weekend.
• Three of four books are in “probably publishable” state; the last is in conversion.
• I’m taking a slightly different tack with Dragon Hunt, in that I’m working up all of the adversaries and player-character/NPC statblocks first. This is tedious as heck, but will pay dividends when it comes to do final conversion for the fourth book. I hope.
• Finalized Shield’s Up! Something like eight pieces of art on the book and it’s done-done.