Hi all, here's a quick update on shipping progress:
UK Backers - Have all received their books.
EU/AUS Backers - All books are currently with my fulfilment partner and I've sent over all requisite info (distribution spreadsheet, book weight, and all that other stuff). I'm hopeful this means all books will have arrived before my next update.
US/CAN Backers - The books arrived yesterday at the house of the wonderful Matthew Ayers, who's now handling fulfillment in the US to save money on horrific international shipping costs. The books have arrived intact (bar one disastrous unfortunate below) but the box certainly didn't, and there are some minor stubbed corners on some books. If you receive one that's been minorly scuffed, I can only apologise, but there's a very good reason for this -
The US Postal Service handled the box so badly they put a plastic apology inside to acknowledge what they did. Matthew mentioned he's never seen this before in his life, and the box itself is partially ripped and also - to the our mystification - has apparently been stabbed? There's one book that's been unsalvageably cut as though by a knife or pair of scissors. It's very bizarre. I suppose they didn't find the free drugs they were hoping for. In any case, the vast majority of books are completely fine but I can only apologise once again for the ones with a small bit of wear. For clarity, I shipped a few extras to account for things like, so everyone will still receive their books as intended.
Regarding the adventure, it's proving a bit of a bizarre creative roadblock, but this is partly because getting the physical books sorted has taken priority, and partly because I've been wrapping up my current job over the last couple of weeks, complete with an annoying level of travel. I will get the adventure done, and am currently revising the last draft version having received some trusted feedback.
May the postal workers not stab your book, Jamie Bernstein ---- Here are some fun photos of whatever the fuck USPS did:
The poor cut book
WE CARE [BUT NO THAT MUCH]
RIP (literally)
I'm running a quick update today to let you know that smoke test surveys are out! This means 5% of backers will get their surveys today to test if they work/there's no major issues before I send them out to all backers.
If you recieve a smoke test survey, please kindly fill it out, if you can, so I have data to let me know if everything is working.
For everyone else... expect your surveys in the next few days! Once I have positive replies on a handful of test surveys, I'll be sending them out to everyone!
Additionally, if you'd like some extra details on the "behind the scenes" for the project, like what the proofs look like and what's left in the timeline, please check out the post here.
I'll have another update ready for you in a couple weeks with details on fulfillment timing, and until then... happy gaming!
I'm happy to share that we've completed our first wave of shipping! This means that we have packaged and posted about three quarters of all items.
Please note, if you are an EU backer, it's likely that you will have to pay an additional charge when your zine arrives.
This charge will be between €3-€10. Whether you pay a fee, and the exact amount you'll be paying, depends on which country you live in.
We're so sorry about this. Unfortunately, new EU regulations were introduced between the end of our campaign and now, which means they weren't in place when we got your postage estimates.
In many cases, these new fees doubled the price of shipping, meaning that we've spent an unexpected additional £500+ from both the project funds and our own bank accounts on extra fees.
Now that we know about these fees, we will do everything within our power to avoid this situation happening again in future. Sadly, as I expect many of you already know already, the long and short of it is that shipping from the UK to the EU is going to become substantially more expensive.
Packages for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU are all on their way now and you should receive them by the end of August.
If you have not received your zine by 1st September, please get in touch and we'll work with you to resolve the issue.
Thank you again for all your patience and support.
I'm here with your monthly update for Mystery Snacks, letting you know that the layout for the book finished up this past month! It took a little bit of adjusting to get blocks of text and the layout to mesh, but with some expert help from layout artist BoRyan, it is done! Here’s a couple samples to check out:
Writer reviews + editing
After layout was complete, I sent a copy to all the project’s guest writers to make sure that any changes we made to wording to get it to fit on the page still had the same meaning they intended when they wrote their work. For me, this step was really important because I’d heard of folks having their writing heavily edited, to the point where they felt it wasn’t their work before, and, while I think my edits were light, I wanted to have full consent from everyone. If someone’s name is on it, I want to make sure they feel the work is still coming from them.
In parallel to this, the final laid out pages went through some line editing and a quick review from a family member who helped give some additional feedback and then… all adjustments made… I sent it for proof copies!
Proof copies ordered!
I’ve ordered proofs from Mixam (where I’ll order in bulk), Lulu (used for POD through RPG Trader), and DriveThruRPG (POD through… DTRPG itself). The hardest part of this was that that all had very slightly different templates for their interiors and covers, so it was a lot of small adjustments to get the pages to fit and still satisfy bleed requirements. I’ll keep you updated on the differences as proofs come in too since I’m very curious out the quality differences between the three printers myself.
Everything so far is on track, and I’ll keep you updated at our next check in!
Also, please check out the TTRPGkids dev log here for this update plus info on other TTRPGkids projects!
COMPLETED:
Feb – fund project
Mar – kick off guest writers (send guidelines, formatting + style guide)
Mar – set up pre-order store
Apr – guest writer check in
May – guest writer 1st drafts due
May – review 1st drafts
May – kick off guest writer 2nd drafts
June – guest writer 2nd draft due
June – kick off layout artist
July – final layout due
July – order proof (round 1)
NEXT STEPS:
Aug – proofs arrive, check, review update (round 1)
We hit our funding goal recently (and are dangerously close to achieving the "stickers for everyone" goal, too!) Thanks so much for the support.
This week I'm trying to jam out a short mechanics demo framed as a separate storyline centered on a separate (non-Captain) character. This way we can limit the scope (for example: managing a single lead character with a single companion, instead of an entire crew,) while showcasing the gameplay loop, and dipping your toes into the world without spoiling any of the guidebook. Should be pretty dope.
The Final Livestream
Our very last livestream will take place this Friday at 10am PST/1pm EST. You'll be able to watch it directly from the BackerKit page, or from my YouTube channel. I'll post another update once we're a bit closer to the day.
This campaign is a success -- and it's all thanks to all of you!! I want to thank each and every one of the 91 backers who decided to contribute to my quirky little project. I'm very very grateful to you all!
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What's next?
Now that the campaign is over, Backerkit has a 2-3 week period of processing all the funds and data from this campaign (and all the rest of the Zinetopia projects). Once the funds for the campaign are released to me, I'll try to set up the pledge manager as quickly as I can so that I can already send all of you the digital files for Raspberry Juice!
It should take about a week or two for me to set-up the pledge manager on Backerkit, which is a post-campaign platform that allows for processing of shipping fees and the fulfillment of all of your rewards. Once it's set-up, you will get notified and gain access to it. On the pledge manager you'll be able to modify your pledge to add additional goodies from the campaign, add a shipping address for fulfillment of physical goods, and pay shipping fees. If you're at the $1 Follower tier which bears no reward (other than my gratitude!), you'd also be able to change your pledge level to a higher one so that you can get a reward.
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Cheaper printing and shipping
I'm currently in discussions with my collaboration partner from Dieku Games to print and ship our projects together. This should help lower production costs and fulfillment costs for us as project creators, which would also translate to cheaper shipping prices for you as backers!
Raccoon is attempting to slash printing prices for everyone!
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The next update
If everything goes according to plan, you should expect the next update with details on how to use the pledge manager to be sent out in early April.
------------ Until then -- you have my biggest of gratitude -- Thank you all so so much!! ~Omer (tchinaboy)
We’ve reached the final moments of the campaign, and we just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you! You believed in Loreforge: Narratools, you shared, supported, voted… and thanks to your enthusiasm we’ve achieved new goals that once seemed so far away!
Only a few hours remain, and on the horizon we can clearly see the next milestone: a new NPC and a new Villain waiting to be revealed. We’re truly just one step away — but you know what? Even if we don’t manage to unlock this last piece, we’re so proud of what we’ve built together that these elements will still find their place in the project.
💫 Because Loreforge isn’t just a campaign — it’s a community of storytellers, creators, and dreamers. And yes, maybe we’ll still surprise ourselves before the end… but we can already promise that Loreforge hides some pretty amazing surprises for the future!
Kicking off our Indie bookshop recommendations for our community goals.
Share your favourite independent bookshop where ever it is so we can get to 30 recommendations. When we reach 30 recommendations every backer from A Digital Bookshop up will receive digital map fragments for each of those bookshops that you can include in your journals.
Call it professional curiosity. Who was your favorite love interest in the Mass Effect, from those listed? Have one that didn't make the list (even if it's in Andromeda!), share in the comments!
