Printing Progress
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 10:40:32 PM

1. I fixed three pages in Forest's End and Dragons of Rosgarth

• Added John B. Harmon IV to the credits page of both DoR and FE
• Changed a ToC style to better differentiate between Dragonkin and "Everything Else."

2. Otherwise, I approved both sets of interior files and both covers for those books.

I'm not sure what the schedule will be. It usually takes two weeks to order the paper, but the paper I use is pretty standard stuff: 130gsm is (multiply by 2/3) just over 86# paper, and quite common for this sort of thing. 

For the little books, well, I expect them on my doorstep on Thursday. These are going to be beefier - using 100# paper and heavier cover stock - because doing so was super inexpensive and I expect these character-generation books to get a lot of use.

Printing is supposed to take a month or so. We'll see what the schedule looks like from there.

New Files Distributed
about 4 years ago – Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 01:24:51 AM

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

Printing and Shipping
about 4 years ago – Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 12:16:06 AM

So, I do not intend to give you a daily update. It just happens that things are moving quickly right now, but soon they will slow.

The Big Books

Today I moved the cover and interior files for Forest's End and The Dragons of Rosgarth to Livonia. They'll do the pre-flight (which should be OK I hope) and if things are OK, I'll get a soft proof. It may take two weeks to get the paper needed (about 2,250 square meters, or about 10.5 tennis courts). Printing is usually  relatively fast. I anticipate getting the books to the UK roughly the end of April, virus willing, and therefore to me in the USA at the end of May.

The Little Books

Today I received word that Hand of Asgard shipped to me today. [Edit] And there's Nordlondr Folk as well. So I'll get those next week.

Yeah, Mixam is FAST.

End of Production Work

That means that from my perspective as to "where do I spend my time?" my work on these four books is drawing to a close. The Campaign isn't finished until you have them all, of course, which is looking like May for the Rest-of-World and likely June for the USA. I'll see what I can do to nudge that around.

This means I will spin out one final copy of each book, incorporating all changes to date, and put them up on Gaming Ballistic for a bit, and then Warehouse23 and DriveThruRPG in due course.

Addresses

Because it's going to be darn near a month before I really even think about shipping this stuff, I won't put out a "final call for addresses" for 3-4 weeks. But at that time, I'll ask folks to go into Backerkit (not the original Kickstarter page) and validate that their shipping address is correct.

Again: that's likely an "End of April" timing. 

Until then, don't sweat it. 

Wrapping up Rosgarth and Forest's Today
about 4 years ago – Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 05:04:00 PM

I've been in contact with Livonia, and they've confirmed the particulars of the order for the two big books. So I'm going to take today for the last errors that come in, and tonight I shall spool the interior and cover files for both books, and send them over to my contacts to initiate printing.

They shall be sewn, lay-flat binding, using high-quality digital printing. I may also try and make a few copies of the books using Mixam's PUR process just to see how they hold up without sewn/lay-flat. I like that binding style for larger books, but especially for reprints - and doubly so for Rest-of-World reprints - not having to order 500 to 1,000 books at a time with a 4-6 week lead time is handy.

In any case: the printing process should start soon, with "soon" being subject to arbitrary and random delays due to COVID.

Printing has begun
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 02:44:46 PM

Printing

Today I made the final edits to Hand of Asgard and Nordlondr Folk. Both of these books are being printed by Mixam, and will be done in the US for US people and in the UK for the Rest-of-World. I have placed the US order, which they tell me will arrive on my doorstep next week (!!). I wound up ordering 300 copies of Folk and 165 of Asgard.

The UK order is much smaller: 80 for Folk and 55 for Asgard. I'll be placing that later today as well.

In both cases, reprinting is fast and easy, because they're small, stapled, and local. So I don't have to worry about "how many to order overseas or local so I don't run out?"

I have also received the final round of quotes for Forest's End and Dragons of Rosgath. I'll be ordering 500 of each, 150 to be delivered to the UK (for about 75 orders), and 350 to the USA (for about 210). They'll be sewn-binding, digital print...same paper quality used in the 2nd edition of Hall of Judgment and Citadel at Nordvorn.

I anticipate a month to print, and another month to six weeks to ship to me. As usual, getting them to the UK is likely faster, and Kixto will be handling fulfillment for me again when they get there. 

Even so: that means it's probably going to be mid-May before Rest-of-World fulfillment begins, and maybe late May or even early June before the US books start going out.

Pre-Order Store Closed

In anticipation of putting the PDFs up for sale - and thank you for your understanding on that front - I have closed the pre-order store. Once I get Forest's End and Rosgarth finalized and spun out for printing, I'll first send out "last" updates for the PDFs (there always seems to be one or two formatting things that creep through; some of that is the 'style guide' is (a) a moving target, and (b) somewhat subjective at times), then put those files up on Gaming Ballistic.

Some time later, they'll be available at Warehouse 23, but that will probably be a month or so. Print copies at W23 and Gaming Ballistic will obviously be in the summer.

Say Nice Things?

All of this is to say that the general public will be getting a look at the books later this week if things continue to go well. 

Should they pick up copies? What about Hand of Asgard, which lags behind the other books by a third or so?

Folks won't know unless you tell them. So if you have reviews, comments, play reports . . . please throw them up online. If you have a blog . . . make sure I know about it so I can put it up on the GURPS Blog Roll that I keep on Gaming Ballistic. If you don't, but still want to say something . . . send me an email and I'll publish it on my own blog.

So, major milestone today, with a few more coming later this week.

For now . . . I've actually got to hit up the Day Job for a bit. Later!