It’s been only a week this time. But it’s been a very eventful week.

• The Nightmare Fuel bestiary project for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG went live on Backerkit Crowdfunding on October 13, hit 50% funding on Day 1…and then almost immediately hit the dreaded crowdfunding doldrums.
• Even so, Backerkit allowed me to change the funding goal, after I explained to them that funding revenue and funding income are two different things, and my pledge mix was coming in “hot” for income. So it dropped by $5,000 from $29,000 down to $24,000.
• As I type this, we are less than $900 away from funding. At the current pledge average, we’ll get there with about 10 additional backers. There are over 500 following the project via the mailing list who haven’t already backed.
• So not only are we close to funding, but that $48,000 “free hardcover omnibus” stretch goal – the only such goal – is not really out of reach. We need roughly 550 folks total to come on board to get there, and while that is double where we are now, we don’t even need to hit ahistorical levels of “conversion” to do it.
• The OSE solos project continues its journey to fulfillment, with major progress, and a major setback being resolved. The books arrived in the UK but Dragon Hunt had been used as a rugby ball; those are being reprinted. Cards got finished and picked up and are waiting on my floor. Books are scheduled to arrive here in the USA tomorrow, and if they’re not misprinted, fulfillment starts right away with those.
• Shields Up! is selling steadily (and is part of the All the New Things pledge level on Nightmare Fuel, so there’s that, too) and got a nice review from Peter Dell’Orto on Dungeon Fantastic. It also got a mention by my friend Roland Warzecha (who provided the back-cover illustration) of Dimicator.
• All the art direction got completed, and pieces are in work, for Nightmare Fuel last week. I (finally) made that a priority. Sketch work is already coming in. The cover for Garden of Evil got a “dirty color” version, to be refined, that looks good.

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: 66 patrons and $518 per month.
• Special Content in October: The finalized PDF of Shields Up.

October brought the return of two Patrons who had to leave, but now are back! I’m going to start sharing out semi-final and final monsters to the team Real Soon Now.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• A nice review from Peter Dell’Orto on Dungeon Fantastic.
• Shields Up! also got a mention by my friend Roland Warzecha (who provided the back-cover illustration) of Dimicator. Roland is one of the top researchers into sword-and-shield fighting from a practical sense, and he and my own martial arts instructor, Arthur von Eschen, have significantly informed the work that went into the book.
• I made a status and unboxing video, in which it’s rapidly clear why I’m not a million-follower internet influencer. Kickstarter Update #53 gives you a link to the YouTube video as well as the TL;DR synopsis.
• I got a nice comment (a few actually) about my ability to deliver Kickstarters.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• All OSE solo book orders placed. UK books have already arrived at GamesQuest, though Dragon Hunt was daamaged. US books to arrive Saturday 10/21. Cards in hand already. Boxes for shipping in hand.
• I provided extensive failure analysis for Dragon Hunt, and heard back from Mixam that while they’ve thought – and sometimes do – reinforce the corners of the boxes, they really didn’t think about the contact of the books with the inside corners even when things go as planned. My recommendation was to stand off the book corners by 10mm or more using a particular style of packaging, and they were appreciative of the suggestion. We’ll see!

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

 

Nightmare Fuel

• The campaign launched on Oct 13 at 11am.
• We currently stand at (check) 262 backers and over 97% funding: $23,334 of $24,000. Heh. $666 left to go. How evil…but then, the project is nightmare fuel after all. It’s not supposed to be good.
• I have some cute placeholder covers that are not the real thing. Nonetheless, some people have been asking for these covers in addition to the real thing. I’ll likely provide PDFs of the alternates at no charge, and physical prints and posters of the alternates as add-ons in pledge manager.
• Here’s an example of the real thing, a WIP by Brendan Lancaster, in the “ugly color” stage
• Stretch goal? Yes, at $48,000 every backer who ordered a physical copy of the Nightmare Fuel books gets a hardcover omnibus at no extra charge. The stretch goal came down from the original $48,000 as the per-pledge “spendable income” was higher than I expected by quite a lot.

Old-School Solo Adventures

• Books arriving tomorrow in the USA. Books mostly in hand in the UK; need to reprint Dragon Hunt but that’s being done on an expedited basis. Cards in-hand. All other inventory including boxes in house.
• This is ready for fulfillment as soon as the last few bits and bobs arrive and are inspected and deemed worthy. If things go to plan, a massive amount of material goes into the mail on Monday.
• That means I’ll put the OSE solos up for sale on my website and DriveThruRPG next week as well.
• The damage to the OSE Dragon Hunt! book was pretty ugly:

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, The “Bugstiary,” and Garden of Evil. All part of the Nightmare Fuel campaign.

Shields Up! Finalized, on sale, and print books are in! I must admit, I went with a matte-finish cover and I really like it. The OSE books got that cover too (because the OSE Rules Tome is matte) and I really like that as well.

In Development

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

With OSE Solos almost done, Shields Up! released, and Nightmare Fuel campaign live…it’s time to start on active development of some of these projects. Plus a few more.

• 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. Starting to wonder what the physical format should be. 8×10 is the DFRPG, but US Letter, A4, A5, 6×9, etc would all be potentially viable. Most likely is the 8.5×11 US Letter format, but I’m still musing.

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.

• The spectacular slowdown in pledges with the Backerkit Crowdfunding/Nightmare Fuel project after the first day was a shock. I expected, really, to get another 30% of the way there on Day 2 (that’s KS-typical), and have funded already. I didn’t expect all 685 folks from Nordlondr Ovinabokin to come on board, but I did expect to surge up to 500-600 folks quickly, and planned accordingly. We’ll fund; we might even hit the stretch goal, but most methods show us hitting about $35-40,000 (not bad, really). My ability to manage risk and production costs inside the project is good, but matched with an equally large inability to project which projects will be successful, which is not good.
• Still need to get cracking on editing on the three books, but the good news is that the pathway for that is getting very clear.
• Seeing the damage to the OSE Dragon Hunt book was disheartening.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Manufacturing of OSE solos is very nearly complete; we did take a setback with the damage to Dragon Hunt, but the process to fix this is pretty well-trod. Make a report. Provide a video with known content (all damaged books laid out) and once the damage is acknowledged, destroy the original books. Then production and shipping expedited by Mixam.
• The art for Nightmare Fuel is going to be really good.
• I got a breather a bit having completed a bunch of things at once. I can now see a clear pathway to full editing and layout of all three Nightmare Fuel books easily before the KS ends, which means “plug in art and they’ll be ready to go,” ideally before the two-week time frame between the Nov 6 close of the project and the roughly Nov 20. So that should go well.
• It’s very close to time for me to structure what I will and won’t be doing for 2023. I’m chock full of projects I want to do, but need to structure them out.