Cover concept: Elements
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Jun 04, 2019 at 09:39:45 PM

This isn't the full cover. But it puts the pieces in place, and uses a photoshopped placeholder image instead of the custom one I'll have done.

But I knew that the design needed megahexes, I mean...really.

Things may wind up changing or moving around a bit...but overall, this works for me.

Each book will have a different color background texture. This one is (supposdely) a blue basaltic stone. The Citadel of Ice will use a glacier sheet or an iceberg. Curse of the Pirate King probably a black silk texture (flag), and Crown of Eternity probably sand, for the desert that must be crossed. Colors will stay high-contrast for visibility, of course!

Still spending a lot of time hitting F5
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2019 at 06:59:55 PM

Slack-Jawed and Amazed

Good morning! We're entering the final week of the campaign, and I still can't help but pinching myself a bit watching the thing go.

I mean: 

This mostly doesn't happen when it comes to Kickstarters. Not in the middle of the campaign like this!

In any case we shall see. There are a couple milestones coming up: 

• If we get another 46 physical orders, we'll start moving past the minimum order quantity from my printer. That's kind of fun . . . and extra books past that first setup charge are very affordable (the beauty of offset print).  That's a good place to be for the campaign
• We're 121 backers away from being my most-backed Kickstarter campaign ever. 

Progress: Tokens, Art, and Layout

I wrote art guidelines last Friday. I did mention the tokens were prototypes, so here's what I can tell you about the final tokens

• The tokens will be full-body images, but in color with a contrasting color background. 
• The black-and-white tokens will have the background removed so that it is just a color or gray scale figure on a white background.
• The tokens and color PDFs will have the background inserted so that you can tell the monster or NPC type or role by what color it is.
• The NPC and monster cards will have 2” x 2” versions of the same token art...without the background
• I am a big fan of using layers in PDF files, so that color PDF that comes with the All the Things pledges will have the ability to turn the background OFF if you want to print your own color tokens that way

Starting this week, I'll be heavy into writing art direction, parallel processing with the final editing and layout of the fourth adventure.

Speaking of adventures, Curse of the Pirate King is finished with editing and layout. It's with the authors in prelim PDF form for a once-over, as we modified the structure of the great ideas contained in the book to ensure they were dealt with - wherever possible - by proactive player action (also called agency). They need to look it over (as do I, with fresh eyes) to ensure it's good enough to send out for playtest.

I expect to get corrections and edits from playtesters on Citadel of Ice and maybe some Ironskull castle as well. In a day or two, when those come in, the Master and Commander and the League and the Legion backers will get updated copies of all three for feedback.

Everything is on the Table

I'm not holding anything back on this one. The substantial re-orientation of the project - successful, gauging by the response! - was "the big thing" for this one. Right now, we're at a good place, and every effort will be focused on completing what we have promised, on time or ahead of schedule. 

Probably on time for this one. The project has a lot of moving parts.

Thanks for coming along on this Perilous Journey with me. As always, a quick tweet, response on a thread on BoardGameGeek or RPGPub or any of the others, or a nice comment in an RPG reddit or Facebook group from "not the creator" goes a long way!

All the Things: Add-on only for backers
almost 5 years ago – Sun, Jun 02, 2019 at 10:43:07 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Holy Wow.
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 01, 2019 at 07:26:45 AM

Yesterday was nearly unreal. 

I mean, I was listening to y'all, and I thought I heard what you wanted. Thanks for supporting my attempt to give it to you!

Just for perspective, we increased the funding total by 22% in one day. That day was in the middle of the campaign, as well, when the daily total is usually about 1/10 the average of the first two days. In our case, we increased campaign funding by $4,220 against an expected baseline of about $520.

That, as they say, ain't bad.

What now?

Now the real work truly begins. This weekend I'll be laying down art direction for the two finished books, and editing the heck out of the unfinished ones. We're adding a few new monsters and some variations to enhance the unpredictability of one of them, and boosting the "player facing" nature of the other. All good stuff; these are going to be fun to play.

I'll also be making a few trial NPC/Monster cards for demo. As I've said before, SJG has been VERY generous with their stuff, so the backs of these cards will be identical to those of Decks of Destiny. And when I say "identical," I mean they provided me the actual design files. So.

Now that I know I'll be doing cards, tokens, and back-cover art, that massively helps me spec out the art direction. I'll be reaching out to folks over the next few days to get it done. Each book will be given to a different artist, both to make each one visually distinctive, but also to speed time to completion.

Likewise, cartography. I'll be getting this rolling as well.

October? Really?

Pretty sure, yes. Giving David time to write the fifth adventure pushed the schedule back by 2-3 weeks, but that took it from "projected October 2 or earlier" to "Projected October 31 or earlier." So: still October.

Things could, of course, go pear-shaped. They could also accelerate. Wacky fun, is Kickstarter.

Thanks Again; Spread the Word

We've funded, passed stretch goals, and things are kicking along. The appreciation for the new pledge tiers is great . . . but if you want to help your authors, please spread the word of the campaign and the recent changes! They are (as of the time of this writing) 10 backers away from getting another bump-up in pay - you've increased their per-adventure share of the rewards by 70% already. I really hope we can bring in at least 150 more people - 600 backers is my current record, and I want to beat it! Also, at that point, the authors pay rate is 2.4 times the initial rate. 

There's no cap on that. If we hit 1,250 backers, they get paid five times base price. Rising tide lifting boats and all that.

So: please spread the word!

And Thank You!

New Pledge Levels Added and Campaign Update Live
almost 5 years ago – Fri, May 31, 2019 at 04:16:31 AM

I've revamped the campaign by adding a few new stretch goals and adding some "all the things" pledge levels, which include the new reward items.

NPC/Creature Deck

For quick reference and easy play at the table, nothing beats the utility of a printed NPC or monster card.

The basic add-on will be 42 cards in the "Creature and Wizard" size: 3.5 x 5". These will be printed on quality UV-gloss coated stock for maximum compatibility with dry-erase markers. 

There is not a unique card deck per adventure: there's a single deck that draws from the selection of creatures that come with the adventures, including the solo adventure if we hit the $21,000 stretch goal.

The "deck" will also be available in PDF format.

• PDF: $20
• Physical Card Deck: $40

Token Sheets

Each adventure has creatures and NPCs to fight, negotiate with, or charm. While print-your-own tokens are on the last page in each adventure, this add-on gets you a COLOR version of that page. Each sheet contains 42 1" square tokens depicting the creatures and characters from the adventure. There is a separate sheet for each adventure; if you want a physical sheet for each adventure, you'll want to increase your pledge by $10 per sheet.

• PDF: $5 each
• Print: $10 each

All the Digital Things! ($50)

This pledge level includes a PDF of all the rewards offered in the campaign in digital format.

• PDFs of all of the Perilous Journeys: Four at the moment, but if we cross $21,000, the fifth adventure - a 32-page solo by David Pulver - gets added as well.
• Color PDFs of the token sheets that come with the adventure. This is to support those with print-it-yourself aspirations who have quality color inkjet or laser printers
• Color PDFs of all the NPC/Monster cards, with a hyperlinked table of contents for quick reference

These are discounted as a bundle from their price as individual add-ons (see below for item pricing)

Bring Me The Things. All of Them. ($110)

This is the place for those that must loot and pillage.  This pledge level includes a PDF of all the rewards offered in the campaign in physical AND digital format.

• Print and PDF copies of all of the Perilous Journeys: Four at the moment, but if we cross $21,000, the fifth adventure - a 32-page solo by David Pulver - gets added as well!
• Printed die-cut token sheets, in color, of all the tokens that come with each adventure. These are printed on 1.6mm gloss-laminated stock . . . but see the stretch goals!
• Color PDFs of the token sheets that come with the adventure. This is to support those with print-it-yourself aspirations who have quality color inkjet or laser printers and for folks who want more of a particular token.
• UV-gloss laminated NPC and Monster cards. A minimum of 42 cards will be provided, but see the stretch goals: if we get enough orders, I'll include more cards in the deck. Maybe a lot more.
• Color PDFs of the NPC/Monster cards, with a hyperlinked table of contents for quick reference

These are discounted as a bundle from their price as individual add-ons (see below for item pricing)