Community

If you have gotten wind that we have another Backerkit campaign in the works for our next location module, scheduled to launch in early May as part of Pocketopia 2026, you are justified in wondering how The Book of Plagues is coming along when we're already planning out the next project.

The answer is simple, and it's all about our production process: Once I finish writing, I pass the manuscript to our layout artist and mostly put the whole thing out of mind while she works her magic. This leaves me free to look ahead to the next project, although historically I have spent too much of that time goofing off. She lets me know when the book is ready for press, at which point I close post-campaign orders so I can tell her how many print copies we will need. She orders them, then we both get to goof off some more while our printer does their thing. The print copies are shipped to me so I can distribute them to you all.

At the moment, The Book of Plagues is still in layout but we expect to send it to the printer at the end of the month or at the top of next month. After that, it depends on how long the printer takes to print and ship to me. The pledge manager is still open, so there's still time to order more add-ons and for anyone who missed the campaign to get in on the fun.

That is the state of play on The Book of Plagues; thank you again to everyone who supported it and I hope it makes your player characters sick.

In the meantime, I've forged ahead and started working on Places by the Way #15, Children of the Mountain God. I know that it is generally considered bad form to launch a new campaign before your most recent one has been fulfilled, but given the amount of advance promotion that campaigns seem to require these days, and the fact that our model favors a larger number of short products rather than a few lengthy products, it's hard to avoid.

I finally got the pledge manager for this campaign ready yesterday and sent it out this morning, so it should be in your hands. About a third of you have responded already, for which I thank you — and some of you have added on items to your pledge, for which I thank you in proportion to how many more items you ordered.

In addition, I can confirm that all of you who are due rewards for the cross-collaborations with this campaign should have received them by now as they were sent out two weeks ago. If you have not received yours, please let us know and we'll figure out alternate means of delivery. For those who you who received coupons good for 30% off on The Book of Chance Meetings and Book of Hidden Paths, you still have plenty of time to use it, but don't hesitate and don't miss out; it's a great deal on a couple of great books that have sold very well for us on the convention circuit so far this year.

Obviously, all of you are already informed and enlightened about The Book of Plagues, which is still in layout. But if you know anyone who missed out on the initial campaign, we have a pre-order store open on Backerkit where they can make up for lost time.

I usually get the pledge manager as quickly as I possibly can, usually jumping the gun on the two-week period that both Backerkit and Kickstarter like to allow for collecting pledges. This time has been a little different, because Backerkit’s process is a little more intricate than I remember, but mostly because I’ve been on the road so much the last few weeks hitting the convention trail to both Denver (GenghisCon) and Salt Lake City (SaltCON Spring).

But we’re almost ready to send it out — early in the coming week, I’d say. For those of you who ordered our Places by the Way/Found by the Way as add-ons, you’ll be able to choose which version you want. For everyone, you’ll have one last chance to tack add-ons to your order.

For those of you who participated in one of our Zinetopia cross-collabs, please keep an eye out for your specific rewards, as I intend to get those out to you soon. Those of you who also backed Hextopia will get from Ramen Sandwich Press a coupon — valid only from our web store at www.ramensandwich,com — for 30% off of our random encounters books, as many copies as you’d like to order. The coupons will be valid until the end of April 27 and you can use them up to 4 times.

For those of you who also backed Tent & Bedroll, you will get an email with a link for downloading a free PDF copy of Tome of Utility Drawer via DriveThruRPG. If you would prefer to not deal with DTRPG, please let me know and I will have it emailed to you as an attachment instead.

Thanks again for your support!

Just a quick update to let you know that Book of Plagues is written and I passed the files off to layout this weekend before leaving for Salt Lake City and SaltCON Spring 2026. You haven’t received the pledge manager because I haven’t quite finished putting together yet, but I figured it was more important (and a more substantial load off of my mind) if I were to finish writing the manuscript before I left town yesterday. I’ll get as much work done from the road as I can this week.

While The Book of Plagues is in production, I will move on to our next project, which is already on the drawing board and slated to be part of Backerkit’s Pocketopia event in May: A new Places by the Way/Found by the Way location module set in a rainforest and called “Children of the Mountain God.” It’s still early days, but it could use some followers to improve its visibility.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Zinetopia 2026 and backed The Book of Plagues! The campaign just ended, but there remains work to do — in addition to finishing the pledge manager and getting it ready for distribution, I have to organize my part of the two cross-collab cross-promotions that came with this campaign. This will happen as quickly as possible.

Of course, work on the Book of Plagues continues, and the writing is close to finished at this point. I finished writing the introduction while on the road earlier this week (more about that soon on my Substack blog, where you can always keep track of what is going on with Ramen Sandwich Press), and this leaves only a handful of entries and a brief appendix of random disease table to write up.

Unfortunately, we only made it 2/3 of the way to the stretch goal. But who knows? If the book proves popular enough, perhaps there will a Book of Plagues II, or perhaps additional material will find its way out in another form.

In the meantime, thank you again for your support, and I'll be in touch soon!