Mini-Update: Delayed Full Update to next Week.
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 07:59:26 PM

Greetings All!

I Was going to be posting the divided up shipping fees by region and info about the new KS today and yesterday, but I ended up crashing hard. I just overloaded with the All-nighter pre-launch and sparse sleep before and I came crashing down.

I will be posting early next week with the info, as well as information about the inclusion of a Sage Edition Tier. (Likely 2 separate tiers, just had an hour long call crunching numbers and negotiating how to best navigate it.) If you would like the Early Bird reward, just grab the $1 Pledge Tier in the next 12 Hours to get that locked in for your account.

I also have the updated  new estimated arrival dates for regional shipments to the warehouses, the fulfillment centers sending out the product directly to you. I will get those included as well! We should be unaffected by the Canadian port strikes, but the US is rumbling, with any luck we should just sneak through before.

Thank you all. It's been a flurry, but I’m very happy to be moving forward. Going to sleep heavily tonight.

• Hos (Dungeon Scribe)
  

We've Shipped! 🎉✨FINALLY✨🎉
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 03:52:18 PM

We’ve shipped!

The final straggler (AUS) has finally been grabbed, so I am happy to say that we are officially in motion. This was a massive step, everything is finally underway!

From here they are en route to the three fulfillment centers and then to you directly! As my first time dealing with international freight, customs, and the regulations in scheduling, this was a mighty adventure. I’m happy it's done, and I’m even happier that it is on its way to you. It wiped me out, but it was a useful experience.

I’ll be sharing updates on the transit as they are confirmed.

(Fingers crossed the port workers on the East Coast of the US get a fair shake and don’t need to strike. If that happens, it’ll be covered in an additional update.)

Now that we’ve Shipped, What’s Left?

Shipping Charge: Card Errors.

Before this phase can proceed, there is an important step that Backerkit has brought to my attention: Errored Cards.

I want to provide a small group of individuals time to update their payment information. They will have a 20-day Window to review their Backerkit account and verify they are no longer card errors.

If you are one of these select few, it means either you haven’t been charged for the project or the associated taxes. Rest assured, this applies only to a limited number of backers, and they will receive direct email notification. I want to give them a chance to rectify the issue before proceeding with the final numbers. If you keep getting emails from Backerkit about the project needing attention, you might want to pop in.

Once resolved, the shipping fees that have been calculated by the fulfillment centers will be provided here by region. In the next update, you’ll be able to preview the charges specific to your region and add-ons.

To Summarize: In 20 days, I will share the shipping rates by region in the following update. Two weeks afterwards, the accounts will be charged accordingly to cover domestic fulfillment. It’s important to stress that this will not affect our timeline, as the product is still in transit as planned.

Creature Tech & Mini Adventures:

As mentioned in a previous update, individuals who ordered any of the mini adventures (Maps)  will receive all three. To ensure a seamless culmination of these adventures, I have enlisted the support of a trusted companion to assist me in bringing it all together.

Despite being compact adventures with limited encounters, I feel better having someone with years of experience to aid in tying up the loose ends. I am greatly pleased to announce the addition of Splattered Ink (Darryl) to the Mini-Adventure. We’ve worked together on Seeds of Decay (some of which items made it into the Magical Oddities), and now that Seeds has wrapped, he is happy to help out.

2nd Kickstarter: Tome.

Some of you might have seen the early signs, and undoubtedly will receive more information about it in the next month. The preparations for the Tome of Magical Oddities are well underway, and I’m hoping for lightning in a bottle again. It will be in book form, which was heavily requested, and it will feature over 500 items and the additions of decks 6-10.

For anyone interested, I’ve already set up ‘Sage’ styled add-ons for those who backed this Kickstarter to make sure you can grab things at a steep discount now that the development is sorted. Simplified, it will let you use the add-on tier to grab Sage Add-ons to act as additions for this campaign.  I’m also gearing up to be able to deliver beta copies of digital decks within 2 Months of campaign completion, now that I’m more experienced with Backerkit.

Am I happy to be launching before this one physically Fulfills? Absolutely not. However, its crossing the line between readiness to necessity, to cover expenses to ensure I can keep doing what I love. I’ve received immense aid from LootTavern and Friends to pull it off, so I have high hopes. None of this would have been possible without you, and I want to try and pay that back any way possible.

Thank you for letting me live this dream. Here’s to making it last a little longer.

Be Safe, and Keep Playing.

• Hos (Dungeon Scribe)
   

Foundry VTT & Completed Manufacturing!
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 24, 2023 at 01:23:23 PM

Greetings All!

Good updates all around. It’s less sizable than I wanted this update to be, but hoping to share the big shipping update in the next 2 Weeks.

Foundry VTT:

This is officially done! The Premium Content Keys are now available on Backerkit.

As some of you know, this was a push. I do not know Foundry terribly well. I’ve used it sporadically while being able to have free time in the past two years, and I’m a Novice at best. Due to this, I called in help and recommendations to get the completed product together.

BobtheTree has done my conversion, as recommended by DMDave and pals LootTavern and is touted as one of the best converters available. It was definitely a learning experience for all, so after several extra final steps, we are now live!

Extra Touches:

• Review, suggestions, and additional input from the Foundry Team.
• Review and edits from LootTavern reviewer Harrison.
• Tweaks and additional catches from select Backers!
  

This compounded the additional time, especially with GAMA falling into the middle of the schedule, I am proud to say this is finally knocked off the list as the final VTT.

Manufacturing/Shipping:

Manufacturing is completed! The shipments are split and the final list have been generated. 

This is a massive update as fulfillment is locked in, we should be leaving the manufacturer shortly (within the week quoted). I will have an update in the next 2 weeks with the shipping and fulfillment information.

This will cover Fulfillment, Freight, and Shipments which was supposed to be locked in today but my update meeting with Freight fell through today. I pulled the info and will follow up when we have confirmation.

Project I Love:

As most of you know, I was involved in the OGL Kerfuffle earlier this year, and it cost me a lot of personal time and stability. One of the many good things that came out of it was project Black Flag, which some of you might know better as the Tales of the Valiant RPG.

They are an amazing crew, Kobold Press has been kind to me for a long time. I have nothing but high hopes and am firmly rooting for them to keep tearing through their stretch goals. The next Kickstarter (if I survive this one) will be compatible with Valiant as a long standing partner.

Thank you all, I will be back with more news on the shipping/numbers and hopefully even more for the updates in the next few weeks. Until then, thank you again for your patience.

Be Safe and Keep Playing.

• Hos (Dungeon Scribe)
  

Micro Update from GAMA: Foundry and Shipping
over 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 07:02:19 AM

Greetings All!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks, and while a more comprehensive update is in the works, here's a quick summary of recent developments.

Foundry: As mentioned in the last update, work on the Foundry was completed on schedule and went through a quality review. From here, I spent the next two days on quality checks and assuring the art, layouts, and delivery was up to snuff.. However, during these checks, I noticed some gaps in the ingestion process that were beyond my expertise as a non-experienced Foundry user. A special thanks to NerdRaptor from our discord who was able to give frank and incredibly useful feedback.

Long story short, it was not ready for release. The ingestion was done by experience 5e converted but certain elements involving changes in charges, recharge, and bonuses granted by the items, simply needed to happen..

Wanting to stick with Core Foundry (without forcing additional Modules), I called in favors with the big guns. To resolve these issues, I called in the help of Matt from the Foundry Team, who has worked with me and my ingestor before. He was able to provide some much-needed assistance and actual coded examples, which allowed us to get the Foundry back on track. My ingestor is currently working on finalizing the edits here at GAMA as well, and Matt is working on the Keys for release.

Thank you again for the patience, I am also talking to another trusted ingestor from my pals at LootTavern for a possible polish pass post release, for an extra set of eyes. Feedback will be vital for this one!

Shipping: I was actually lucky enough to schedule meetings with my fulfillment centers here at GAMA. It was one of the big goals and had a small impression as to why this wasn’t rolled into an update last week.

Long story short, I was able to share and then leverage upcoming kickstarter plans and the fact that most of their bigger customers speak highly of me into additional discounts. I am so very proud and grateful for the help with this one, I hope it works out for all of us.

I'll have more updates on both the Foundry and shipping soon, likely around mid-week next week. I'll be home Friday and diving directly into this.

Keep playing and Be Safe!

• Hos (Dungeon Scribe)
  

March 2023!: Roll20 and Shard + Production Samples!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Mar 31, 2023 at 06:03:26 AM

Greetings All!

I wanted to release this by the end of the month, but I have been waiting for a few pending responses. Let's proceed with everything that has been approved and is ready to be shared! 

I should be getting a final timeline update 'Today' which has been said for the last few days. Please check the comments below as I will pin my update once recieved!

VTT Content: Shard and Roll20!

These are now available on Backerkit and the corresponding websites! (Roll20 is pushing out shortly, but should be open for purchase soon.)

Although the work was completed in mid-March, I didn't anticipate the delay in receiving the keys. I received them while attending GaryCon and have since been incorporating them onto Backerkit.

If you come across any errors, please don't hesitate to use the feedback form provided at the link below. I will be happy to forward the information directly.

Form for Feedback:Here!

VTT Foundry:

Unfortunately, my content provider has informed me that they won't be able to meet the end-of-March deadline despite my hopes and requests. They've asked for an additional two weeks to complete the content, which is disappointing but I value the quality of the final product more than rushing it. They've assured me that two weeks will be sufficient, and we will have the foundry content ready for the next update in Mid-April.

Existing Digital Content - Decks & Booklets:

I'm pleased to report that the release has been well-received, and some updates have already been implemented (you’ll want to redownload Decks 1 & 3). Thank you to those who provided feedback regarding formatting issues on the printable decks and minor errors in the booklets using the feedback form!

I will be taking the time next week to address additional notes and update the booklets accordingly. I will notify everyone once the updates are completed.

Digital Assets:

I have decided to give these items an additional week of polish based on feedback from colleagues (thank you LootTavern!). As part of this process, I've decided to use a more neutral color than the original dark blue and will be doing another pass with a textured metallic gray. This change will result in double the amount of placeable token options, providing more variety for everyone.

The updated items will be released in the next update, and additional items will continue to be added as the other bonus packs are released. I will notify you via the updates when this happens, so stay tuned!

Production Updates & Latest:

I am thrilled to share that we are moving along in production! The paper products have been progressing smoothly and are the bulk of the production, taking far less time than the boxes. The dice should be completed next week and then on their way to the warehouse for packaging along with the other items.

However, I am currently dealing with another minor issue concerning the Tome Box and the new Elder Artifact Dice Box, which I hope will be resolved quickly. I will provide more details below.

As this was the last round of samplings before mass production began, I wanted to share the changes and updates with you. I thought you might be interested to see what many of the final products will look like!

(Apologies if the photos look grainy, I took these as able during the week of Convention travel. If you are at C2E2, say hello!)

Decks - Magical Oddities 1-5:

I couldn't be happier with these, which is a great thing as these are the heart of the project. The changes and additional touches were incredibly useful during their first real table play. I was able to sit down and actually play and observe other players interacting with the decks in real-time at GaryCon, and it was a humbling experience to say the least!

The color coding and card index made providing a handful of rarities for a series of one-shots incredibly easy. The 2nd round of placement to make every single item stand out has really made it rewarding to receive a unique item.

(Apologies these didn't get pictures, but check out my Instagram Stories. I'll be playing with these today at C2E2!)

Deluxe Handouts:

I'm glad to report that these have exceeded my expectations. By combining different elements and adding some extra details and personal favorites, these creations have truly come to life on the page. I'm eager to share them with others, as they look amazing. However, I must note that, like the last set of samples, these sheets arrived folded down the center, which is disappointing. I've taken action with all levels of production to ensure that this issue is resolved and won't happen again.

Despite this setback, please take a moment to appreciate the 35 items included in the Deluxe Handout.

Dice:

I'm absolutely thrilled to have acquired these dice in hand.

They're truly stellar. I've had the pleasure of rolling and admiring them, and they are both visually stunning and perform well (at least for my character Sweets!). While I have very few additional comments, I should note that the stone dice are my first set of heavy ones, so I've had to adjust to their weight. With that said, I encourage you to take a look at the final designs and see for yourselves

Chest Box: The Best Boi.

This box is truly the best. It has performed flawlessly since the beginning, requiring only minor adjustments such as sizing early in the process. It has been an excellent carrier for all my decks and dice, and it has made transportation a breeze.

During GaryCon, I used it exclusively for all my transportation needs, and it easily fit into my backpack. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do! The magnetic closure is clean, simple, and works perfectly as a container. If you remove the tray, it can even hold up to 10 decks!

The Tome Box: The Sweetest and Most Stubborn Child.

Working on this box has been an eye-opening experience for me in terms of production. While it presented some challenges along the way, I'm grateful to have gained new insights and skills from this project. Unfortunately, the Tome suffered significant setbacks due to the swapping of production managers, resulting in a three-month delay. And just when we thought everything was back on track, a recent issue emerged.

Despite the delays, I'm thrilled with the end product. Originally designed to hold 8 Decks, we've increased its capacity to hold 10-12, depending on how you use the dice tray. We've also added a lower drawer to store stickers, deluxe handouts, and even your favorite book!

However, there is some bad news. We discovered that the lid pattern was flipped, causing the spine to open instead of the pages and lock. While it's not a catastrophic error, we're currently addressing the issue. Fortunately, the team assures us that it won't impact the timeline by a more than a ‘week.’

I am on them about this.

Maps:

Great news! We've found a solution for the Maps! Initially, we had planned to divide the Maps and send specific numbers to specific people. However, we've decided to send all three maps to everyone who received one map. This means that if you ordered one map, you'll now receive all three. You will still only receive the mini-adventure pdfs that were initially in your order, but its never too late to add them! (More on those in a later update)

If you added a map to your order, you're in luck because you'll be receiving all three. Congratulations, it's like having triplets!

Fulfillment and Shipping:

After sampling, the Map Tube was resized by Production to reduce the shipping size by just over an inch. This change allowed for the inclusion of smaller items, and I now have two US companies providing quotes, while the UK and AUS are updating their pricing. The updated pricing will be included in the next update, which will be shared as soon as possible.

Please note that once the update is posted, charges will not be processed until at least two weeks have passed. The goal is to charge within the same month as shipping so that fulfillment can be prepared, processed, and launched upon arrival.

Other News:

Despite the downtime caused by production issues, I have been actively working on continuing this project into a new series with my editors and revising artwork. I am happy to report that we have made significant progress on a new endeavor involving additional decks and a long-awaited book. Although not quite ready to make an announcement, we are excited about the potential and work already underway.

This really helped when feeling like progress was stalled in production and I wasn’t able to move it forward, continuing to do what I love. Being able to see it progress and grow in preparation, was a boon.

Rest assured that I will keep you updated on the progress and look forward to sharing more details with you soon!

It's a great feeling to finally be on the other side of this. As always, stay safe and keep playing!

• Hos (Dungeon Scribe)