Hooray for Saturday delivery!
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, May 07, 2023 at 12:19:53 PM
Sometimes I lose faith that today is an improvement over yesterday... and then something like this happens, getting a UPS delivery on a Saturday. This didn't used to happen; I can remember when USPS delivered on Saturdays, but if it was coming by UPS or FedEx you could write it off until Monday. We do live in an age of wonders after all.
Print copies of the Orek modules arrived late yesterday, and I will pack up as many orders with physical rewards as I can today for shipment tomorrow. I expect that all physical rewards will be in the mail by Tuesday. As soon as I get the finished PDFs from art/layout, I will organize them for download via Backerkit (or DTRPG, in the case of Book of Hidden Paths) and start digital distribution. So we're almost at the end of road for this campaign. Thank you again for sharing it, and I look forward to seeing you again on Kickstarter.
As for what comes next, we're still sifting through some production-related details that will have to be settled before we can bring our new critical hits and fumbles system, Severed Heads and Broken Blades, to the public. The text is finished, but we need to do a rough-and-ready layout before we can reliably estimate printing cost. Almost the entire thing is tables (not much explanation needed for how to use them) and so our normal formulae for estimating page count won't work.
After that, we have plenty more in the pipeline. Running the D&D version of Path to Jarnborg for some friends last weekend got me pumped up to do more location modules, but that will have to wait. We're going to finish our series on random encounters, following up on the success of Book of Chance Meetings and Book of Hidden Paths with books on random encounters in villages, towns and big cities. That project has already spun out well beyond what I originally envisioned and I'm looking forward to tying everything together.
Until then, I hope you enjoy the Orek modules!
Yeah, I fudged a little about the Backerkit store....
almost 3 years ago
– Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 11:18:15 AM
By now, all of you have gotten a notice from Backerkit that this is your last chance to tweak your order. I know, I was supposed to close the store on Saturday. But I decided to have Backerkit send out the '48 hours left' notice instead; now, your orders will lock automatically sometime on Tuesday, and I will close the store and charge your cards at that time.
We're still waiting for the test copies to arrive from the printer. We ordered them a bit later than I promised in the last update, but even so, we have entered the last stages of the campaign and you will get your rewards soon. At the moment, I think beginning of May is a reasonable estimate of when we will be able to ship everything. We're going to bundle our order for the Orek modules with re-ordering our older modules (to make sure we're properly stocked for Gateway Con in Los Angeles next month), so our printer may take a bit longer to fulfill than they would without the re-order.
Also, I hope to come back to Kickstarter in early May with Severed Heads and Broken Blades. The manuscript is pretty much done, although playtesting may convince me to make some tweaks. Before we launch it, however, we need to do a test layout to get a reasonable page count estimate, which will determine the cost to print physical copies, which in turn will determine the price of each reward tier. Since 75% of the word count for this book is contained in tables, the formulae we have used to estimate page count in the past may not work. In addition, I insist on experimenting to see which page size will work best — again, the fact that most of the information is bound up in tables may require us to think differently about format. It's going to be a fun project, and I look forward to sharing it with you.
Soon
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Apr 06, 2023 at 01:54:59 PM
The big news and good news at the moment is that both Orek modules are moving through art and layout, and we anticipate ordering test prints — the penultimate step before ordering the print run — early next week. In fact, the test print is pretty much a formality; I can recall (maybe) one time out of all of our Kickstarters to date when we have needed to tweak something after getting the test copy from the printer.
With that in mind, I'm going to close the Backerkit store on the 15th. About 15% of you all have not yet filled out your backer survey. This is not a problem if your rewards are all digital and you have no desire to purchase any add-ons, since we will email your PDFs to you. Just make sure your address on file with Backerkit is valid, and we will be good to go. However, if you want to take advantage of the add-ons in the Backerkit store and/or your rewards include print copies, we need a mailing address from you. That info is not provided to us, so you have to make sure we have it.
All in all, this means the Backerkit store will only have been open for a few weeks. But we want to get the rewards out as soon as possible and move onto the next project: a system for amplifying on critical hits and fumbles called, Severed Heads and Broken Blades. It will be a short book, nothing but tables and some advice on how and when to use them. It will be fully compatible with both editions of Pathfinder as well as D&D 5E, so it will not be broken out into separate books for different systems. You can probably use it just fine with older editions of D&D and OSR systems, too, although we can't guarantee that you won't need to fudge to make it fit. I have almost finished writing it, but I will need to get advice on art and layout before bringing it to Kickstarter. Even so: Soon.
Surveys away!
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 05:09:06 PM
The smoke test has cleared enough to justify sending out the rest of the backer surveys, so they have been sent. We won't close the Backerkit store until at least mid-April, so you have a couple of weeks or so to browse our entire catalogue of RPG books and take advantage of the discounts therein.
If you're new to Ramen Sandwich Press, I particularly recommend Book of Hidden Paths, our deep dive into random wilderness encounters in Pathfinder 2E (you can probably make it work with 1E, too, if you fiddle with the level of certain creatures). I have always been pleased with how the book turned out and I actually think better of it than I do of its 5E doppelganger, Book of Chance Meetings. By that point, I had become more comfortable with the formula that I developed for Chance Meetings, and the scope of the Pathfinder Bestiaries allowed me to include a wider range of creatures. It really is a pity that Hidden Paths hasn't sold nearly as well as Chance Meetings. Now, however, not only are we offering discounts on PDF and new print copies, but we are also offering some print copies that have become scuffed in storage or on display at shows at 50% off. It's a great GM tool for throwing a curveball at your players, don't miss it!
Thanks for your support, and I'll keep you updated as soon as I can update you on the status of the Orek modules.
Where there's a smoke test, there is a fire
about 3 years ago
– Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 12:06:16 PM
Have I used that pun before? One of these days I will run out of 'smoke' puns and I may have done so already.
Anyway, now that Kickstarter has collected your pledges, I figure I might as well send out the backer survey. About five of you will get it shortly, and everyone else... probably by the weekend. The Backerkit store is already open and you can find the link embedded in the big blue button that I just added to the campaign page. This is your chance to pick up just about everything in our catalogue at a discount, and if you know anyone who missed the campaign this is their chance to get it on the fun. We'll probably keep the store open for a few weeks.
Thanks again for your support!
