Ballistic’s Report for October 13 – Three weeks, hard at work

• Isle of Sedra is currently at 96% survey completion. All books are in backers’ hands in PDF format. Cards are in backers’ hands in PDF format. Right now, I’m error-checking the books and cards.
• I’m hopeful to finish the error-checking process this weekend and get the physical books into Mixam on Monday. Card printing is delayed due to staffing shortages at the card printer. That’s a minor monkey in the wrench for about half the backers. PDF and book-only orders not impacted.
• Late pledges are still open for The Isle of Sedra.
• I started to dig in deep on writing the Mission X RPG. I chatted with Kromm quite a bit about it for lessons learned.
• More alternate Felltower. We finished the delve and prevented the demon from coming into the world. Now sitting on a substantial sum of spendable loot, not counting the cool items I can extract from the dungeon and wear.

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 $469 per month.
• Special Content in August:
  • Preliminary view of Sedra Sourcebook and Decks of Destiny cards to date.
  • Concept art for Mission X.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

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

· Isle of Sedra about to go to print. The cards will be delayed, due to staffing and scheduling issues at my card printer. This pushes out physical fulfillment by an unknown amount for orders with cards. That does leave 124 or so folks who got books but not cards that I can get crackin’ on

Media

• Geek Gamers did a review on the four TFT/OSR solo adventures and said really nice things.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

• The Isle of Sedra is in the final stages of Backerkit phase and accepting late pledges. If you missed the Kickstarter, this is a good time to get it, as page count estimates went from “96 pages total” to “144 pages total” since the project launched. That’s 28 pages for the GM’d adventure, 40 for Monster Hunter Belladonna, the solo/programmed adventure, and 76 pages for the Sedra Sourcebook.

Product Announcements

Now for sale on DriveThruRPG:

• Shields Up

Now for sale on my Shopify Store

• Artifacts of Legend
• Artifacts of Saga

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 has taken its first steps,and making this one has helped define the next. Logical next step would be Elazar, the neighboring island to Sedra, plus of course moving Nordlond into the mix for TFT and other systems.
• Mission X: The inspirational art has been pleasing to those who’ve seen it (largely my Patreon subscribers). I’ve starte for-real work on the core books, starting with what will be the equivalent of the Exploits books from DFRPG/MH/Action, and will get a pithier title at some point. My goal is to first set up the rules, then ensure the character generation book(s) are pointed directly at things you can do, and then I’ll hit a setting book which is going to be something like gear, tech, theme, and of course some critters.
• 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.
• Let Us Rejoice! Looking at my planned releases and the work required, this is 2024. However, there has been an interesting development here that will make the (early 2024?) release more interesting.
• Inns and Taverns; Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. 2024 is likely, and I’m probably going to solicit new authors on both.
• Conversion Work: Existing settings and publications to other systems.

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 rounding the corner from “thought” to “product,” 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 (or the region around Japan, Korea, and China which has so much game-adaptable history to it). 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. And “Carolingian France” is darn close to “Vikings, but continental” in their equipment and such, but the cultural differences are enough to make it quite interesting.

Friction

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

• The big holdup in Sedra will be when Artiforge has the staff and schedule to print the cards. I didn’t see that coming, but maybe I should have. Even so, not much I could have done.
• Things I can’t talk about got weird
• Had to run up to the in-laws’ cabin for a bit to winterize it after my father in law got appendicitis unexpectedly. He’s fine, but it was a quick, tiring trip.
• Wife gone all last week on business. That cuts down working hours a bit due to needing to chauffeur kids to all activities.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• The concept art on Mission X is really fun.
• Felltower continues to be a good way to spend a Sunday.
• Still not going to accept “sourcebook” style submissions that are planned on fewer than 64 pages. I mean, Citadel at Nordvorn is a single city and a few towns/villages and came in at 128 pages.
• Mission X writing is coming along; it’s not fast, but it is moving.
• I started making a scabbard for my swords. First time doing that. Fun.