Cutting the ribbon on Exiles of Newmarket
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 11:02:40 PM
Blessings of the summer upon you all — even if your favorite conventions have been cancelled, and your local beach is closed. For me, this will be only the second time in 20 years that I haven't spent July 4th weekend at Anime Expo. But I am determined to make the best of it. I'll keep working on Places by the Way #10: Exiles of Newmarket; all of the locations and the new items are written up, so that just leaves Chapters 2 and 3.
Speaking of which: The Kickstarter campaign for module #10 has been approved, and you can preview it here! Previewing worked so well for us last time that I made it a point to do it again. I can launch at any time — I will hold off until later in the week, pending creation of the somewhat annoying, but supposedly all-important project video. I also want to figure out how this Backerkit thing works, where they email blast your past backers to notify them of your next campaign. I think the occasion is right — we made it to module #10, can you believe it?
We wouldn't have made it this far without your support, and I am thankful for everyone who kicked in to make Places by the Way and Found by the Way happen. It's still great fun writing for you, and this is just a milestone — not an endpoint by any means. My plan is to wrap up the Newmarket module promptly, so that I can get back to working on the random encounters book while this campaign is running and share some insights into that project through the updates. Its working title is Book of Chance Meetings, and I see it as my grand statement on the theory and practice of random encounters. With tables. Lots and lots of tables.
In the meantime, you should all have your rewards for The Paladin Queen's Forest campaign, as everything went out the door either physically or electronically 2-3 weeks ago. If you haven't received yours yet, please let me know.
In one door and out the same door
almost 4 years ago
– Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 11:09:13 PM
Here we are yet again: The last of the print rewards went into the mail today, and I just authorized Backerkit to distribute the digital rewards. I know the former went as planned, and I hope so did the latter — I'm old enough so that digital processes seem strange and disembodied to me unless they're framed in just the right way. If there are any problems, please let me know. Otherwise, it looks like we can close the books on another campaign. Thank you, everyone!
I'm going to take the rest of the evening off. Tomorrow, I need to write up some catalogue copy for Path to the Paladin Queen's Forest — then it's back to Exiles of Newmarket. Obviously, there's nothing new to report there since the last update. But I still expect that we'll be back on Kickstarter by the end of month.
Lo, the Paladin Queen Approacheth!
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Jun 06, 2020 at 01:14:48 AM
Remember that Robin Hood-themed Bugs Bunny cartoon, with the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Elmer Fudd/Yosemite Sam role, and the live-action clip of Errol Flynn at the end? I hope you do. You're a happier person for it, I'm sure. "Lo, the King approacheth!"
Anyway, the Paladin Queen arrived this evening!
Everything seems to be in order, and I already have the PDFs in hand. So fulfillment begins this weekend. Thanks again, everyone — and hey, this time we're just a little bit late!
So I'll take a break from working on Exiles of Newmarket until Paladin Queen is distributed. I'm happy to say that that project is coming along, and I should be ready to go back to Kickstarter later this month. The way Newmarket is shaping up, its structure will be more typical of Places by the Way/Found by the Way than Paladin Queen — your party finds a village on the cusp of being invaded by animated objects in the form of its discarded possessions, and they can stay and help, or wimp out and leave before the storm breaks. I'm going to have to brew up a new creature to help flesh it out: swarm of animated objects (representing small stuff like children's toys, tableware, etc.). There will be a subplot about a caravan guards agency that also runs a gang of cutpurses targeting the trade caravans that pass through town. In an echo of Thornbriar Hills, Newmarket will have a couple of merchants who sell useful items that are not magical, but they are cheaper than magic. And this time, the work will be far enough along so that the campaign will include an actual preview, in the form of the list of rumors that you can pick up by hanging around the Snoring Svirfneblin Inn. I'm already looking forward to sharing this one with you, and I hope you'll look forward to it, too.
A Clear Path Through the Paladin Queen's Forest
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, May 22, 2020 at 09:50:56 PM
Well, the point of the module is that you're not supposed to have a clear path through the Paladin Queen's Forest. But from a publisher's perspective, I can post this update with some clarity.
The good news is that the test prints for The Paladin Queen's Forest and Path to the Paladin Queen's Forest came back all right, and we have placed our order for the print run. The less-good news is that it looks like printing will take a little longer than normal — we're being told, three weeks. That suggests that I won't have the copies in hand to sign and ship until early-mid June.
I can't say I'm entirely surprised by this. I noticed that DriveThru RPG is also warning that it will take them longer than normal to fill PoD orders, and one of our on-demand printers for Ramen Sandwich Tees has been running behind for the last few weeks. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that all of them have slowed down because they've had to enforce physical distancing in their shops and warehouses, and the friction is finally showing in longer processing times. It's just how things are at the moment.
In the meantime, I continue to make the best of the remaining lockdown time. I've started working on module #10, with the working title, Exiles of Newmarket. As I mentioned in the last update, the premise is that a newly-wealthy village discarded their old personal possessions for new, upscale things and now the cast-offs have become animated objects that will haunt the villagers shortly after your party arrives. Since then, I've been fleshing it out — Newmarket, as the name suggests, became rich only after the road running through town became an important trade route and commerce replaced agriculture as its big thing. So the module now checks off two items from my list of ideas — it's the commercial village (as opposed to Darkharrow, which was a farming village), and it is also the animated objects village.
With the work coming along, I'm hopeful of launching another Kickstarter hard on the heels of shipping out the rewards from this one, so stay tuned. After I send Newmarket off to layout, I'll get back to the book on random encounters — another project that you may have noticed me mumbling about it. More details on that to come.
Idle hands, or lack of distractions?
almost 4 years ago
– Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 04:58:20 PM
I hope this finds all of you well. Here in Los Angeles, we're finally having a nice stretch of virus-slaying hot, sunny weather. I should step out and get some natural Vitamin D, but instead I've spent the weekend finishing up the manuscript of Path to the Paladin Queen's Forest and binge-watching anime.
The upshot of this, then, is that Path to the Paladin Queen's Forest has just been sent out to layout. Meanwhile, the proof of The Paladin Queen's Forest is almost ready for my review; I should have it within the next few days. We also have the cover art for The Paladin Queen's Forest, just arrived last night:
So all the parts are coming together, and it isn't quite the end of April.... I just ran through a list of different wisecracks to insert here, but all of them come off as unduly negative.... So I'll just say that I think I've been making the best of being told to stay at home and not go out for fun, and I'm actually grateful that your support has given me the impetus to do something productive during an otherwise unfortunate time. I still plan to lock down everyone's Backerkit orders on May 10.
Which reminds me to remind you that if you haven't filled out your Backerkit survey yet, please do so within the next couple of weeks — and if you haven't gotten your survey, let me know!
In addition, I think I forgot this time to make it clear that the print copies of older modules that you can get through Backerkit are not Kickstarter Limited Editions. The PDF copies are Kickstarter Limited Editions, but not so with the print copies. It's a quirk of how we've chosen to do things: Our on-demand printer requires an ISBN number for each title that we submit and store with them, and those cost a bit of money. So we conserve ISBNs by deleting the Kickstarter Limited Edition file once we've printed enough to fill rewards for that campaign, then uploading into that slot the Standard Edition that gets sold to the general public. OTOH, the PDFs remain with Ramen Sandwich Press in perpetuity, and we can easily distribute them to future Kickstarter backers. If this affects your decision to buy add-ons through Backerkit, you still have a couple of weeks to change your order.
I'll keep in touch and let you know how things are coming along. I hope that I will not have anything truly urgent to tell you until the reward copies come back from the printer. To pass the time, I invite you to check out your fellow backer Harold Buchanan's excellent gaming podcast Harold on Games, especially if you haven't yet listened to episode 30 with me. My vanity is often easily stroked, so I'll note that my episode recently exceeded episode 29 in download count, despite the fact that it had a month's headstart on mine! :p
