Updated QR Deck PDF
over 1 year ago – Sun, Oct 09, 2022 at 10:53:48 PM

I added a title page, a key/legend on the reverse side, and several intro cards to pull out the special rules or caveats to grappling, dragons, and Blackbird Vampires. 

This has the side-effect of fixing an error where Belladonna's image and stats were widely separated. That would have messed up printing pretty fierce.

That ought to do it for content modification. I'll be submitting cards for printing Real Soon Now - tomorrow if the vendor is in, or Tuesday if they're on holiday tomorrow.

What new devilry is this?
over 1 year ago – Sun, Oct 09, 2022 at 05:02:30 AM

Quick update

• I pushed out fresh versions of the four primary solos. These are the ones that went to print.
• I got all the art for the cards as of last night. Ironically, they've been done but a long internet outage in Bogota prevented upload. I'll finalize the art in the next hour or so, combine the two files into one, and push a card update. 
• I ordered all of the books, for both UK and US hubs.
• I have a stack of folding mailers for books in my basement that is taller than my 12yo daughter

To-Dos and Schedule

• So, obviously I have to get the cards ready for print. Easily done, and I'll hopefully be pushing a fresh pack before noon.
• Help is useful in noting any discrepancies between card deck and printed book; There are something like 180 cards, so many hands, light work and all that. Even so, as the cards have utility beyond just these games, minor oopsies won't impact anything.
• I also need to get some forms filled out so GamesQuestUK is prepared to receive the books.

Expected arrival date of all required books to GamesQuest is October 14. Expected arrival date of all required books to my home in MN is October 20. No word yet on the cards; we've discussed that before. It's usually a few days of the mental equivalent of standing around pressing F5, then I get notified that they're done.

Regardless of card printing status, expect that those who didn't order cards - which is most of you - will have fulfillment start as soon as the books arrive and their quality is validated.

This isn't a 100% guaranteed thing with Mixam anymore. They absolutely biffed my last order of the TFT version of Vampire Hunter Belladonna, but they acknowledged and rectified the problem quickly. So here's hoping.

Regardless: There are 313 people in the US, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand who didn't order card decks but did order physical product. These start going out as soon as the books arrive.

Hiccup with AUS/NZ Timing

My reshipping partner in Australia is going on holiday. He's making a proper journey of it, and won't be back for reshipping until mid-December. While technically my Campaign schedule says "Print fulfillment begins: December" it does mean something like an 8-week push from when I was hoping to get them to you. My apologies for that.

Manufacturing begins!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 07, 2022 at 05:57:36 AM

I've placed the orders for the four new books at Mixam US and Mixam UK. I have yet to place the order for the limited number of Dungeon Grappling books needed in the UK (only 2, so I'll probably have to order five) but that should happen within the next hour.

I'm giving the cards a hard going-over today and tomorrow. I anticipate all of the updated art to be in hand by tomorrow mid-day, which will allow me to spool these for manufacturing readiness. The card deck sets have a few moving parts (box, label, cards) so there's some work there, but most of the manufacturing time here is queuing. Once it's time, they get printed, stacked, banded in like a half-day. Then into boxes, which may well also be automatic, maybe not. But it's usually wait, wait, wait, wait, printing is done in a day, come pick 'em up.

I'm expecting the books to arrive in the UK on October 13 (!!), and at my house in the US a week later on or before Oct 20. Fulfillment will begin as soon as the pieces are in place.

Last Call for International/UK-Hub Physical Surveys
over 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 09:22:11 AM

UK Hub Physical: Time is Running Out

Tomorrow I will be finalizing the PDFs and placing manufacturing orders for the US and UK hubs. 

I do not over-order beyond a few copies for the UK books; that just incurs ongoing storage costs. So...if you're one of the five people who haven't filled out their survey: this is the last day you can do it. I'll revert orders to PDF-only if they're not complete by tomorrow.

For the rest, I've heard back from my card manufacturer and we're making arrangements to get them printed after I tweak out some artwork and the final info comes in.

Change Pledge?

So, I had one individual from the US  who said he was impressed enough by the product that having seen it, they wanted to change their pledge to include the physical books.

This is possible, but it requires some manual intervention. I have to unlock the order, then the backer goes in and changes their pledge level and enters shipping address and credit card/payment info.

Then I re-lock it and charge the card, and we're good to go.

If this is of interest, please let me know quickly. If not, carry on, nothing to see here, please move along.

This is double-plus true of upgrading or adding on card decks or rules tomes. I have to jump on order quantities on this pretty fast, and I don't over-order these like I do books.

Content Creation is Complete; Entering Proofing and Manufacturing phases
over 1 year ago – Mon, Oct 03, 2022 at 06:12:58 PM

Content Creation

I just pushed out the Quick Reference card deck. That makes content creation "complete" in that all files now have the right stuff associated with them.

There are some intended updates to the art for the QR deck coming; I contracted with the artists yesterday and morning and she's promising me a one-week turn-around.  So some - but not all - of the repeat art cards shall be replaced with original art. Not just repeat art, but there are some deliberate blanks as well, that will be replaced.

So once the ... 20 ... or so black and white images come in, I'll update the file and queue them up for manufacturing. 

Surveys

Relatively speaking, we're doing well for survey completion.

• Only 37 surveys of any sort remain incomplete
• In the US hub physical orders, 9 remain undone
• In the UK hub physical orders, 5 remain undone
• For all digital/non-shipping orders, 23 remain undone (12 of these are 'follow the campaign' type pledges that probably won't ever complete)

It's the 14 physical orders that concern me, especially the UK-hub ones. If I can't get your surveys into completed state I'm going to have to revert you to digital. 

I have processed the "48-hour lock address warning" for UK-hub physical orders only.

The rest can honestly wait until I receive the books and cards at my house.

Speaking of which...

Proofing and Manufacturing

I'm going to give this another two days (call it Thursday morning) and then I'll be processing the final printable versions of books and cards.

I'll simultaneously place the orders for books for the UK and US hubs; the Rules Tome hardcovers for the US hub are already here at my house; the Rules Tome UK hub is already at GamesQuest.

I expect a roughly 2-3 week turn-around on printing.  Right now estimated ship on a 500-book order of Dragon Hunt is 9-10 days. Allowing printing time, that suggests that book-only orders could conceivably start fulfillment the weekend of Oct 20.

Book-and-Card orders will depend on when cards arrive. The way this tends to work is I get a window, and then suddenly I get a call saying "they're done." 100 card decks is a very light duty workout for the printer I use. They're also 30 minutes away from me...so the day they say they're done is usually the day I go pick them up.

If you see any errors or issues in the files, please do let me know. Individual issues can be sent to the Gaming Ballistic Errata Page.

If you have a whole list of them, putting them in a single word or text file and emailing me at [email protected] is the best way to get them to me.

KS Private messages, Kickstarter comments, or anything else is uncertain, and I'd appreciate the use of the other two messages. 

Once manufacturing is underway and I can anticipate the card delivery date, I'll push the button to lock addresses on the US hub, and finalize that. As I go through fulfillment, once it's done and the last day of pick-and-pack is in sight, I'll revert non-complete physical surveys to digital, complete final all-digital surveys, and ensure zero backers are in the "still waiting" bucket.

Almost there!