The crowdfunding campaign "The Nordlond Sagas" produced four new books for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG. Get those here . . . and much more!
I'm excited and it's not even painted yet.
By Matsya Das
This morning I put the finishing words-and-layout touches on Hand of Asgard. I sent it to SJG for review. Since it, and Nordlondr Folk, are big books of character abilities, they get reviewed with more scrutiny for system compatibility. But . . . I really, really like the way the book is shaping up. Both of 'em, actually.
The only "words" thing left to do is to read both books word-for-word for content and nuance, and make sure everything matches with a DFRPG version of Norse-ish flavor. Mostly it all does, but never hurts to be sure.
I also have contracted with artists for all of the art in both books, including the cover. I saw a sketch preview for Hand of Asgard this morning. It's a dynamic, action-packed image that's 100% cleric and holy warrior, plus some monsters to be smited (smote? smitten?). Monsters to smite.
I'll also note for those keeping track of my comments on the financials of this overall project that the art is coming in under budget thus far, which is excellent. I'm currently projected to at least cover all the costs with the KS funds alone, which puts us in great shape for Backerkit.
Which reminds me: after I get all the contracts and advances out to the art team (that's today), I need to get back to putting the finishing touches on Backerkit. I think I've got shipping sorted, and just need to review all the add-ons and whatnot. I expect Backerkit to go live on schedule, probably this weekend.
Each week, I try and pull through the various blogs that post GURPS-related content. Over 100 blogs are in my script. Because things get a little crazy, I go back three weeks so if I miss a week, the content repeats.
GURPSDay Sept 27 through Oct 17
Some good stuff in there, including someone running a campaign in Nordlond.
Obviously the campaign ended and we funded. Backer count was lower than Hall of Judgment, and the last few weeks of the campaign - even the end - was atypical for one of my projects. We had one of the lowest conversion rates (followers who wind up pledging) of any of the projects, with 399 folks ending following but not pledged.
So something was different about this one, and if I'm going to continue to produce content folks want - within the bounds of my license - I need to understand what went differently here!
The hard work in this case is taking the writing of three different authors and making them seamless. Good lore continuity is paramount, and of course the text has to be crisp, well organized, and understandable.
So the last week has been spent in layout and editing. Mostly focusing for now on Hand of Asgard (which is coming together very nicely) and Forest's End. Some bits of the work are still coming in, and they're being added to the queue. Yesterday I got to waste an entire afternoon when one of the files for Forest's End - the town chapter on Skógurenda itself, got corrupted in InDesign. Had to throw away the entire chapter and restart. Ugh. But I got it resolved in the end, painful or no.
Nordlondr Folk had its art assigned a few weeks ago, so that's being worked in the background. It will certainly be the first book finished. I've got some art in place (you've seen two of the pieces, for the Allfather and the Goddess of Death) already, and I will start to commission more this week. Going to try and bring some new artists on board for this project to shorten the total delivery time, too.
But that's where we stand. I'll also be working shipping and Backerkit through the weekend, with the aim to get shipping settled and pre-orders open ASAP.
That's the scoop. More as I know it!
Well, the primary campaign is over. We did reasonably well; funding and coming close enough to an offset goal that I'm fairly confident we'll actually surpass it in Backerkit.
The next two weeks are the usual lull as Kickstarter charges cards and then distributes the funds near the end of the month - probably around the 26th.
My first order of business right now is finishing up Hand of Asgard and getting that to my art team. I've got some pre-existing art on this one (you've seen two examples in the previews) and I'll commission the rest. This one should be ready for art direction by the end of the day, I think.
Then the process of putting together the big adventures, seeing what will fit, both in terms of page count and also budget. We were shy of the funding needed where I can just add art and text willy-nilly, so I will have to be careful in how the adventure gets set down...but the setups for both adventures are really neat. More on those later.
For now, thanks for the support, and I'll do my best to get the Backerkit information - including shipping - settled quickly. The good news is that since it's "all books" I'll have a better idea right away of what weights and shipping are, since that's a fairly well-oiled machine.
More later! For now . . . much work to do to deliver these!
Now's the time! If you're going to jump in, this is your moment.
I mathed it out; the difference between a DriveThruPOD printing and getting it done in Latvia is less than $200. I'm confident we'll get that in Backerkit. So I'm declaring the offset print run a go.
See you on the flip side!