Ballistic’s Report – 10 Weeks of Silence, 2023

It’s been ten weeks since my last report. What started with some head-down grunt-work as I ran into the 2022 Xmas break collided with what was ultimately a disappointing finish to my Nightmare Fuel Bestiary project. Immediately after that, my plans for 2023 were all thrown into the air with the OGL de-authorization. Weeks of “what the heck do I do now?” combined with what was somewhat of a work-based existential financial crisis. But there’s nothing for a new start like just simply starting anew…so here we go.

• The Nightmare Fuel bestiary project is essentially finished as of this week. All parcels international and domestic have been distributed, and the sole remaining to-do item is the Foundry VTT module, which needs to go through the formal release process with Foundry and then it can go out.
• Otherwise, I’ve been, well, paralyzed with “what do I do now?” for essentially the past six weeks. I made a plan for early 2023 which centered around an OSE release, only to have that be skunked by about a month as Hasbro/WotC tried to de-authorize the OGL.
• Everything suffered. For that I apologize and can only promise it’s time to get busy.
• Even so, I have a lot of work done on the OSE book of NPCs and cards, plans for stretch goals, and an intent to launch something there in 10 days as I get my act together. I also have three TFT books being written by David Pulver and a Powered by GURPS Norðlond book being put through a second draft by one of the NF authors. So there’s stuff coming.

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: 59 patrons and $435 per month.
• Special Content in December/January: Not much, though a preview of the Foundry VTT was provided for testing (and excellent testing at that, revealing some errors since fixed) and again a preview of the NF Quick-Reference Cards.

My plans to relaunch interesting content got pushed back a bit by the funk of the last two months. The Patreon needs to be revitalized and I have a few ideas here, but I need to get on it. That’s a recurring theme.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• I did a few podcasts on the OGL thing with Tenkar.
  • My initial reaction to the announcement: https://gamingballistic.com/2023/01/13/gaming-ballistic-and-the-ogl-press-release-reaction/
  • Panel 1: https://youtu.be/KF0yWP-xOqI
  • Panel 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY_TYl3Us9g&t=1s
• The first one highlights the issue, the second on January 27 … which was really the end of the giant funk of awful where I had no idea what I was going to do with more than half of my 2023 plan rendered moot.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• The OSE Solos has been sort of done for a while…but some errors in international shipping led to lingering “not done yet” as GamesQuest had to receive and reship four or five packages all headed to the Far East (and one oddball to Germany that I cannot figure out why it would have come back).
• Nightmare Fuel is in the last stages of fulfillment, with International UK-Hub packages going out as we speak, same deal for AUS/NZ final stage to customer, and Foundry VTT module about to go live as soon as I’s are dotted and T’s crossed.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

• Nothing yet. I hope to stage and launch my next OSE project before February is out, though.
• Having looked at my schedule and revised, I’m reasonably happy with the new layout. I’m aiming for five major launches that do crowdfunding this year, with hopefully some ancillary projects that will go off of the success of the crowdfunding.
• We have OSE in Feburary, TFT in April, Powered by GURPS in June, OSE again in August, and finally Powered by GURPS in October.

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog is accurate as of Sept 3, 2022 but needs a refresh for new product and a Winter 2023 update. Look for that and dissemination of my new PbG products to all sales channels.

In Development

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

Let’s see where we are on other things…

• Let Us Rejoice! Looking at my planned releases and the work required, this is either 2024 or “as time permits” in 2023…and I hope it’s a non-crowdfund release in 2023 and time does
• 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. I’m hoping for this one in June 2023.
• Artifacts of Norðlond. Working title and Marko Vujnovic as lead on this one. I’ve seen a first revision by Marko based on an original manuscript by CRR, and it’s in the middle of a second revision right now. I suspect this will be a “surprise” release when it’s ready and as funds allow to do the art, with an appearance as a crowdfunding pledge level in June as well (probably another All the New Things level, which was well received in Nightmare Fuel).
• Inns and Taverns; Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. 2024 is likely, and I’m probably going to solicit new authors on both.
• Infinite Archipelago is happening. I have the first plan here with the TFT books David is making right now, and big plans for late summer or early fall for bringing Nordlond into the OSE and TFT as part of this line. Heck, I think I even have a logo for it. See below.
• “Gwalathar” TFT Setting by David Pulver. The solo books David wrote for me have an implied setting and there are a minimum of three books – likely more – planned and in writing at this time that blow out that setting as the first example of the Infinite Archipelago concept. April.
• Secret Nordlond-ish Setting by [CENSORED]. This one may need to push to 2024 given other things in the RPG-o-Sphere.
• OSE Conversions of Character Collections. Yeah. February. That’s the next project on my list and the work is going well if herky-jerky. I also have two really cool expansions to this line planned with multiple systems (not all together, a separate book for each) planned.
• Mission X: Working contract details with SJGames and I can’t really dig in on this until I have the formal list of materials accessible to me. I have been actively discussing this with SJGames and as one might imagine for a stand-alone RPG, the discussion of “what this will be” can get hung up on both macro and micro details. I’m still optimistic we’ll land on a happy place, but the trajectory to get there is non-trivial.

I actively encourage prospective authors to drop me proposals having to do with any of the above projects, but bear in mind that there are guidelines and strictures that must be followed to make a sale and move from concept to final.

Friction

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

• Ultimately Nightmare Fuel was financially mediocre for me, and it took the wind out of my sails quite a bit for next-step projects. Fulfillment has not been late but it has not been as smooth as I’d like, again largely due to international fulfillment issues, including EU law changes that came into effect in 2023.
• OGL Crisis. This was a monstrous nightmare for me, as it has become clear that my TFT/GURPS work needs to be supplemented with the OSE and other work. Plus: OSE is just fun to write for. But it pushed my projects back by a month at least, with the only saving grace being that getting from where I am to where I needed to be is tedious but not difficult.
• Hard to be motivated with a poor year sliding into a giant question mark; it’s taken me a bit to recover and pretty much everything suffered.
• My wife was gone for four continuous weeks of travel, with a fifth or sixth on the way, and that means I’m stay-at-home-dad. It’s fantastic to be there for my kids (truly), but it also means that when push comes to shove sometimes I’m looking at a four or five hour workday, which is no way to wear all the hats I need to.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• I am still very please with the NF books in general, and even if things ran over for cost, under for revenue…they’re great resources.
• I had fantastic conversations with Artiforge on future card printing and am still looking to engage in interesting ways there for future projects.
• The new strategy for how my earnings get paid out makes the delays less painful than they’d otherwise be.
• I’ve got my new after-delay schedule figured out, I think, with no real harm done. Still need to get busy,