Hi everyone!

We're excited today to share that the manufacturer has sent a detailed revised timeline for the production process on Grandmaster.

This effectively means that we can expect fulfillment to begin in September of this year. It's a little later than we hoped, but works very well with our team's availability.

It does mean that we'll have a wait a bit on launching the campaign for Deluxe Arrows, since we want this book in your hands first.

Regarding backers outside the USA, we still intend to split our freight shipments so that the books with a final destination elsewhere in the world won't pass through the States.

We've asked BackerKit to split our account, so that you won't receive any more emails about the Gamers campaign. We expect that split to be completed today. Thanks for your patience!

When a mysterious FedEx package arrived on my doorstep recently, I wasn't entirely sure what was inside... but I had my suspicions, so I took a few unboxing photos, just in case. And it turned out to be entirely the right choice -- the manufacturer had send a full set of color proofs and ozalids (positive color test prints).

Before sharing the photos, the big information is that I only found one print error, which was a mistake we made during export. That correction has been made and we've approved the project for the next stage of manufacturing!

Also, I really wasn't prepared for just how large Art of Grandmaster is compared to Deluxe Grandmaster. The art prints in the big book are going to look incredible on your walls! (The final Art of Grandmaster has a gold foil title, which you won't see in these proofs.)

Because we're using sewn binding, rather than glue, the pages are grouped in sections of eight sheets. You'll notice how we carefully adjusted the page count so that the color plates would fit perfectly between the other segments, which was satisfying to see in person.

The final image shows how the vellum signature page will fit in front of the title page. Because I held it up to the light, you can see the text from the back of the signature page as well, but in the final book that rear text won't be visible through the paper.

With these approved, we can move on to the next stage with the manufacturer, keeping a wary eye on the evolving import and tariffs situation. If anything is guaranteed, it's that everything in the world of freight and shipping will surely change again by the time we're ready to start mailing your rewards. We'll keep you updated at each step of the way!

Hi everyone!

We have lots of good news to share today.

First of all, the manufacturing process has begun for Grandmaster and Art of Grandmaster. All of the files are at the printer. We expect next steps to include

So far we've made a half-dozen small, technical changes at the request of the manufacturer, mostly to conform files to the correct bleed and color space. For example, one piece of B&W art was processed in the digital file as 4C black (black from mixing colored ink) and now it's been provided in 1C black (just black ink).

We're prioritizing the vellum signature page, which will be sent to Misty and Larry, then back to the factory for insertion into the book.

Secondly, we've confirmed that (for now) the tariffs will NOT affect import of Grandmaster to the USA. Books and printed materials are not covered under the emergencies act, so they remain subject to the existing 7.5% tariff, which we budgeted for.

However, due to uncertainty with the USA for import/export, we are planning on fulfilling all non-USA orders from a fulfillment center in Hong Kong. This means that these orders will NOT enter or depart the USA. We're sourcing all manufacturing from Canada and China. After running the numbers, we do not expect shipping prices for backers outside the USA to be affected. While you may still need to cover VAT, by skipping the USA we expect to avoid any additional charges.

Our current plan for backers in the USA continues to be fulfilling from our warehouse in Los Angeles. If that remains the case, shipping costs for US backers shouldn't change either. If US tariffs on books change, though, we may need to revisit our plans and budget for US fulfillment. Thanks for your patience while we navigate the chaos caused by Trump's trade war.

We have also finalized the specs for Art of Grandmaster. It is significantly larger than originally planned, with perforated pages, bonus coloring pages, and a foil-printed cover. However, the trade off for the larger size and better paper, which we gained by consolidating manufacturers, was losing the individually-numbered covers. Thank you for understanding.

Miraculously, and despite the global chaos, we remain on budget. Whether we'll be able to ship orders in June as originally planned now depends on the speed of manufacturing. We'll keep you updated as the factory slots us into their production schedule. It's likely that international orders will ship first, since they won't have to cross the Pacific Ocean on a ship.

In other news, we expect delivery of the audiobook soon and look forward to distributing it!

We've also quietly been working with SJ Tucker on multiple new songs. She's been in the studio the last few weekends and has sent over some gorgeous unmixed files for us to review. We can't wait to share "Threes" with you!

Finally, we're getting ready next week to launch our next campaign, for The Gamers: Attack of the Pwns. This fantasy comedy episode of the long-running Gamers series was co-written by Larry Dixon and you can learn more about it here.

Hi everyone!

It's March and we have so much to share.

When it comes to crowdfunding surveys, a 90% completion rate is the magic number that we aim for. 90% tells us that we can safely place our manufacturing order, that we won't have any major surprises, and that we'll be making the right amount of product to avoid waste (or keep from running out).

Grandmaster surveys are now 88% complete, so we're almost there!

Before anyone panics, if you filled out a survey in the last month, you're set. BUT—if you haven't received a survey yet, this is a really good time to retrieve your survey and complete it.

However, we've also discovered through customer support inquiries over the last month that not everyone who thought they pledged . . . actually pledged.

It turns out there are at least a dozen people who signed up to follow the project, didn't realize they needed to pledge, and then sent support inquiries asking for links to surveys that didn't exist. The good news is that we CAN still accept late pledges. If you don't have a survey, and if it turns out you didn't make a pledge, visit this link to get your pledge in. But please, do it soon so that our manufacturing numbers are accurate.

As always, we're ready to provide support at [email protected].

We owe a massive thanks to the Valdemar fan community on our Discord server. As a final step before going to print, we released a proof of Grandmaster to a dozen fan proof-readers. Friends, these fans went to town. They pulled out original editions, compared italics, debated en-dashes and em-dashes, and worked through the book with a fine-toothed comb. And yes, they found typos that even our professional proofreader missed.

Since the stories came from different publishers and different eras, some even used different style guides! Some stories were retrieved from Misty's original digital manuscripts, while others were scanned and corrected. We've adjusted those styles to reflect a single, unified approach for consistency through the entire volume.

Meanwhile, the timeline researchers updated all of the dates in each chapter header, conforming them to the most recent version of the official timeline. Every story is now placed definitively where it belongs on the timeline, with other contemporaneous events listed as well so readers can place the story in context.

The good news is that we're now engaged in a final proofread over on Discord . . . and we're really, really close to done. While no work is ever perfect, we're all committed to honoring the text with the cleanest, clearest version of Grandmaster.

Well, so far 2025 is even more chaotic than we anticipated. Tariffs change from day to day, costs change as materials cross borders, and who knows what state the USPS will be in when we ship.

So we're taking concrete steps to mitigate all of that external chaos.

First of all, we're making sure that rewards shipping to backers outside the USA won't pass through the USA. Our fulfillment partner has warehouses in Canada, Hong Kong, and the EU. We'll fulfill internationally from one or more of those locations. (No promises yet on shipping to the EU from within the EU, but if we can we will.) In some cases we'll also source from different manufacturers, avoiding unpredictable import/export fees. The board game design community has been sharing horror stories about getting hit with bank-breaking fees when importing their goods to the USA, so we're remaining proactive to keep costs reasonable.

Secondly, we're exploring shipping US-bound rewards individually from a fulfillment center in Hong Kong, rather than from our Los Angeles warehouse. A quote is in progress. The political situation is so weird right now that this might end up being cheaper than importing and shipping domestically. We'll do our best to mitigate and cover all of Trump's extra costs, but it's impossible to know what policies will be in effect when rewards ship later this year. If the product due to our US backers gets hit by unmanageable tariffs, we may have to increase the cost of shipping for US backers. If you don't like the uncertainty, we encourage you to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know exactly how you feel about the current trade war.

It's done! Later this week (or possibly even today), we'll send out redemption links to download Art of Grandmaster. Since this book is ready to go, there's no reason to wait!

We're so excited to share all of the original paintings, coloring pages, and the new map in gorgeous high definition. All of the artists did amazing work and we hope you're as thrilled as we are with the results.

Based on a Discord poll of our backers, we've made the following decisions for Art of Grandmaster and Grandmaster:

This way you get not only the experience we intended for Grandmaster (with full-color pages and no borders), but you get every single pixel for your prints and digital downloads.

Before we go to print, we want to make sure that we got the 300 Loremaster credit recipients correct.

The easiest way for us to check this is by releasing a digital download to that segment of backers, so that you can double-check your names. (If you need to change your name, email us THIS WEEK at [email protected])

If you answered all 18 trivia questions correctly, please watch your inbox for an email from BackerKit with a link to that file.