It’s been a big two weeks, though a quiet one from me as I went fully head-down finishing one project and funding another. Hard to believe November is here already, and we’re seeing the last days of the year.

• The Nightmare Fuel bestiary project for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG funded and finished on November 6. It did fine financially but had the lowest backer count of all of my DFRPG projects. Alas.
• I was not won over by Backerkit Crowdfunding overall.
• The OSE Solos have mostly arrived, but have two pending things. The UK-Hub books have been presented to the mail carrier but only a few “despatched” and on their way. I’ve requested an update. Also I need to ship the AUS-NZ books to the MyUS intermediary. There’s no delay there, as my collaborator won’t be able to mail them until mid-December. But I’ll take care of that in the next few days.
• Otherwise, that’s it. Finish one project, see another funding, and a lot of art and editing and layout. I did get the interior of Garden of Evil done, though, with my thoughts now turning to the Bugstiary.
• Oh, I got my Old-School Essentials boxed sets from the Kickstarter! I will probably do an unboxing video – they’re still in the shrink-wrap.

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 $478 per month.
• Special Content in November: The full interior pages of Garden of Evil. A ton of collaborative work on rules and monsters. Some playtests of the books. A lot of artwork shown.

A few folks dropped due financial pressures, which are everywhere. A few others probably dropped because October was pretty slender.

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.

• The OSE Solos kickstarter has only the UK-hub despatch notice and the AUS-NZ first-leg mailing. That will be a pending item for at least a month, maybe two.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

 

Nightmare Fuel

• The campaign passed the funding goal Oct 20. We finished at 399 backers (meh) and just over $35K, which is a very solid per-pledge total. Only 1% of backers have yet to finish up with card issues, so the final mailed funds will be roughly just over $32,000.
• This was my first experience with Backerkit Crowdfunding. Others have had excellent success, but my own users reported an experience that did not come with sufficient extra benefits (integration, ease of sign-up and use) to make the switch worthwhile. On my end, the loss of the Kickstarter “pull” buy-in instead of the BK “push” spam-mail feel was a definite problem. That doesn’t mean a better project wouldn’t have done well …
• Also, I didn’t feel they were terribly responsive to feedback. So there was that. They have their plan, they’re sticking with it, and I can either go with them or not go. I probably won’t go until they integrate with their pledge manager further.
• Speaking of which: that’s today’s task. Get the surveys as close to ready to send as possible.
• Garden of Evil has a final layout, and now there are some outstanding questions of monster power, rules simplicity, and overall tweakage that need to happen before it’s ready-ready.
• The art for this book is going to be amazing.

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.

The Old-School Solo Adventures are on sale on Gaming Ballistic’s Shopify Store!

• Dragon Hunt (for OSE)
• Dark Lord’s Doom (for OSE)
• Vampire Hunter Belladonna (for OSE)
• Till Death Do Us Part (for OSE)

I will put the physical copies on the store as soon as the UK-Hub orders get despatched. I will put the PDFs on DriveThruRPG at the same time.

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. Because it’s DFRPG though, and the last DFRPG project did not go well, expect to see this delayed for a bit.
• Gear Catalog 1? Has a revisor/author, and a structure, and a plan to get the manuscript done. This one should be fun.

• Inns and Taverns; Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. On hold. Need to re-scope this and start cranking.
• 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 response on the Nightmare Fuel campaign was suboptimal. That impacts my 2023 plans for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG and Powered by GURPS lines. It can’t not.
• Some of the editing work on Nightmare Fuel has been slower than I’d like. This also has implications for how I structure things in 2023 in terms of review and acceptance of manuscripts.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• The Nightmare Fuel art is really pretty. Really pretty.
• The OSE solos physical copies, with the matte covers look and feel amazing. Shields Up! is the same way. I may do more of that.