One week this time, but a big one. My first time having three crowdfunding campaigns “feathered” and progressing at the same time. Also, my wife is awesome and earned a promotion to head her office and is the new Director of Engineering, Biogas at Montrose.

• Best Supporting Actors jobs from the UK Hub show 100% complete. Australia packages will be posted July 3, which will completely wrap up the BSA campaign.
• Today I will be locking orders (which I always say as “locking phasers” in Leonard Nimoy’s voice, because of course I do) on the surveys for Artifacts of Legend and charging those cards. That should provide “legacy” PDFs for all add-ons.
• Artifacts of Legend is still accepting late pledges, and this shall continue until such time as I place the print orders.
• I’ve elected to hold off on distributing the new artifacts books until early next week, because I really do think I’ll have them 100% complete by then, and I’d rather get them out to backers done than have to send out two sets of files, maybe three or four days apart. That being said: wow they’re looking good.
• Isle of Sedra was featured in the Daily Illuminator and the TFT homepage.
• The Isle of Sedra campaign is 76% funded with over two weeks to go. Pledges are running a bit “hot” to my projections (and I do try and be conservative) thanks to 44% of all backers opting for the “…and cards” pledge. The number of “followed but not yet backed” folks continues to increase. Please pledge if you can!
• I got a gorgeous cover and did a full pass of layout for Monster Hunter Belladonna. I still need to add art to it, but solid with text and no room for artwork is at least 36 pages, so it’ll probably land on 40.
• I put Best Supporting Actors, Serpents of Legend, the Bugstiary, and Garden of Evil up for sale on DriveThru RPG
• The 50-round challenge saw me burning over 1,600 calories in about two hours. It was effectively 50 rounds of intervals. Need to work on the strength and endurance of both sword and shield arms.
• I had a job interview. More on that when I know more.

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: 63 patrons and $452 per month.
• Special Content in June: WIP art direction and preview copies of both Artifacts books. New Monster Hunter Belladonna test file with layout but not art.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

• Best Supporting Actors is finished out of the US and UK. It’ll be finished out of Australia on Monday, July 3.
• Artifacts of Legend will see PDF distribution start next week. Maybe sooner. Time to consider a Late Pledge?

Media

• Isle of Sedra was featured in the Daily Illuminator and the TFT homepage.
• I’ve been asked to do a bit of an AMA about the Infinite Archipelago. I’ll need to decide on a time and channel, but look for it next week as well.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

• The Isle of Sedra for The Fantasy Trip launched June 22 with a goal of $21,750. It runs through July 15. It stands at 76% funding with 15 days to go. Backerkit projects (hrm, we’ll see) a funding total suggesting 420 backers, which is about 25% under the smallest such project for TFT that I’ve run.
• The Artifacts of Nordlond project launched, funded, ended at $14,739 of a $13,000 goal. The art is almost all in and in place, and I should get to lock-and-charge and initial PDF distribution of both legacy and first-pass of complete new PDFs next week. For a campaign that ended on June 10 and is a lot of full-color illustrations, I’m not displeased with total turn-around time.
• The funding did come in from Legends, which let me hit all of the art payments. It also lets me pre-fund the art for Sedra, which I’ll start doing next week. I’d be more comfortable doing so if we were fully funded, but things are soft right now.

Product Announcements

Now for sale on DriveThruRPG:

• Best Supporting Actors
• Serpents of Legend
• The Bugstiary
• Garden of Evil

In Development

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

Let’s see where we are on other things…

• 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.
• Delvers to Grow Companion. Some new professions. A whole bunch of new disad packages. Epic Upgrades. Everyman Adventurer modules. This can’t happen in its planned form with only 425 backers. I just now had an idea of what to do with this, so I’m going to see what I can make of it. I think I’m going to turn this into Patreon-only content. It’s the right level of “get it done over time” and a solid reward for the Patreon community that can come frequently. But it also means it’ll have to push out in terms of any sort of public release; the market just doesn’t seem to be there right now.
• Mission X: It’s time to start development work. I may wind up submitting a Kickstarter format early, and seeing how many followers I can get before launching.
• 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 permit.
• Inns and Taverns; Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. 2024 is likely, and I’m probably going to solicit new authors on both.

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.

Wish List

I’m looking for contributions for the Infinite Archipelago. Authors must be detail oriented, capable writers who can take on projects and deliver them to specifications while still respecting the constraints of both system and setting. Some “demesnes” have been mentioned in other works before and can be considered pre-approved for the right writer:

• Now that Sedra is likely happening, I would welcome adventures and scenarios set there.
• A realm modeled after a mix of historical and mythological “ancient egypt.” This could be an original homeland to what became The Scorpion Empire on the Isle of Sedra, or something similar. Known to be one of the origin places of the cat-folk mentioned in the Nordlondr Folk book.
• A realm loosely based on Kamakura-era Japan. Hints to this realm, called “Inthriki” in the Nordlond and Dragon Heresy materials exist, but could easily be altered to taste.
• The realm of Morevel, which was based on a mix of Hellenistic and mythical Greece with a focus on an uneasy period after totally-not-Philip-of-Macedon unified disparate states by force of arms. This one should probably be a set of idyllic, Mediterranean-climate island nation-states with lots of rowed galleys, phalanxes, heroes, and monsters.
• The neighboring nations – and we can talk about island or no, but probably yes – of Arnulf and Brionnu. These are “not Carolingian France, really” and “not Celtic Britain, we swear.” Arnulf and Brionnu were more or less created to give the Nordlondr somewhere to go raid and pillage…but that’s up for negotiation too.

Friction

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

• Artifacts struggled more than I’d like. Sedra is running 25% under expectations. RPG spending is discretionary spending, which means I’m very optional in folks’ spending plans. Even so: it means GB is teetering. I am not LOSING money. But I’m also not making any on a rolling basis. I’ve got about 3.5 months to go before I need to make a hard call on where I am.
• I was not 100% pleased with myself in my job interview performance.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• The last week saw my wife promoted to a junior exec position in her company, which she has earned by being brutally competent at her job. She had a series of client meeting recently with a very sensitive team that she seems to have navigated brilliantly. That will make up for a loss in GB income, but that is “zero” rather than “forward,” and I don’t like it.
• Sedra stalled a bit, but it’s not too late. I’m hopeful I’ll be part of folks’ spending plans in early July.
• I was not entirely displeased with the job interview. I feel that I presented myself well, my prior works speaks loudly, and there’s no question I’d bring a level of competence to the role that would allow a running start. A few “what about X?” questions I had were answered satisfactorily.
• I’ve started some concept art and actual design work on Mission X. Not a ton, but it’s moving.
• I did receive, and turn around, Monster Hunter Belladonna in two days. That leaves the much less intricate Sedra book itself to go.