Far Away Land 2nd Edition Kickstarter is Amazing

Fay Away Land RPG Ed. 2 is now Kickstarting! It funded quick and has 22 days remaining as of this post. It is a unique setting and RPG that reeks of fun.

Dirk Stanley released the first edition 10 years ago and I remember playing it and having a blast. The artwork you'll find reflects the whimsical nature of Far Away Land. While I am a veteran of RPGs this game made me feel like a kid again exploring places and fighting monsters where I had no idea what to expect. It's got gonzo elements from everywhere. 

Far Away Land has already zoomed past two of the stretch goals. 

The first is png files of the monsters so you can print them out and show them to your players. I guarantee you'll get a laugh and the players will wonder what the heck it can do. 

The second stretch goal is one of my favorites, hex map icons! These are fricking cool! No, I mean cool, cool. Colorful and quirky, and over 400 different elements. Whoever makes maps with these its going to look fantastic.

The third stretch goal is absolute candy. A digital generator for monsters, PCs, settlements and more things to come. He's just shy of this goal and I have no doubt Dirk will crush it before it's over. 

If you need more convincing, Dirk has a Facebook group dedicated to Far Away Land so you can see all of what he has to offer. 

Please check out Far Away Land, you won't regret it. Unless you don't like having fun. If you do back on of the best gaming creators we have.

Kickstarter Alert: Delvers to Grow

Just when you thought it was safe to take a break from Kickstarter, another one comes along and drags you back into its money devouring maw. Douglas Cole, the man behind Gaming Ballistic, Slayer of Dragon Heresy, Headlocker of Dungeon Grappling, and a pile of gaming material that could choke out a hungry umber hulk has just released his new Kickstarter, Delvers to Grow. 

Doug provided me with a sneak peek of Delvers to grow so let talk about what's inside. First off this is for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Of course it is, Doug is 'the GURPS guy'. And being GURPS is a point buy system, creating a character can take a bit. Delvers to Grow is a tool to assist players to create characters in minutes and GMs to create NPCs. 

Before we go any farther, this isn't a Kickstarter for one book. No, no, no. There FOUR delver books and if that's not enough there is an adventure by Peter Dell'Orto the other 'GURPS guy'. Let's take a look at the four Delver books first. 

Delvers to Grow: Build a Bjorn. Doug has included base templates with basic and advanced modules. Loadouts and spell lists are there for a fast selection. 

DtG: Fast Delvers. This book focuses on thief, martial artist, swashbuckler, and scout. They specialize in precision and deadly accuracy.

DtG: Smart Delvers. We got yer spellcasters here. We got yer bard, cleric, those druidy folk, and everyone's favorite, the wizard. Spellcasters take a lot of effort so this will help cut your time at the table.

DtG: Strong Delvers. The workhorses of the adventuring party. The men and women upfront standing toe-to-toe with their enemies. Jack up your barbarian, holy warrior, knight, and it wouldn't be a Doug book if it didn't include the wrestler. 

I love the idea of the different books for easy reference. The other huge benefit is the three point levels for each template. One at 62, another at 125, and the last at 187.  So these books go with any level of game you're running. 

Oh wait, you thought we were done? Nope. We still have the adventure, The Crypt of Krysuvik. Grab a few of those 125 point character templates and get your ass going on an adventure! Here's the blurb.

In The Hunted Lands northwest of Nordvorn, The bandit Krysuvik is said to have gathered much ill-gotten plunder, and taken it to his grave. It is yours . . . if you can find it and take it. Delvers have tried and failed to find his hoard. But a new clue has come to light that might put adventurers on the true trail of the treasure. The Crypt of Krysuvik provides details for the various locations that contain the clues – and tricks, traps, and monsters – that lead to the treasure. Slay, sneak, and negotiate your way to wealth using your own Delvers to Go or the included pre-generated characters.

Peter wrote it so I can guarantee you it'll be excellent. 

So How Much is this Gonna Cost Me?

Glad you asked. He's got a lot of pledge levels, but I'm going to talk about the ones I think are the sweet spot. At $35 you're getting all four Delvers in PDF and The Crypt of Krysuvik. Plus the stretch goals in PDF. Only $35!

But if you're like me PDF is okay. I use them for reference, but there is nothing like holding a book in your hand. At $70 you get all of the above in print and PDF. Wait, that deserves a !

There are many other pledge levels that cover even more material and Doug's back catalog. Make sure you check each pledge level and get the best one that suits your needs.

Stretch Goals

I like how Doug runs his stretch goals. It's not based on the pledge amount, but on the number of backers. This series of books are called Ready to Raid. 

At 600 backers Bandits and Outlaws is unlocked. These are the bad guys. Each is a complete character, with a bit of background, stats, equipment, and suggested use. Includes a full color icon for each character.

At 750 an array of Spellcasters. Use them as sages, hirelings, crackpots, adversaries, or starting characters. Again, spellcasters tend to take up more time than other characters/NPCs to create so having a batch of them ready to go is a huge benefit. 

At 825 backers Delvers and Thegns is yours. They can act as prominent (or not-so-prominent) townsfolk, rival adventurers, hirelings, or grab-and-go characters.

At 1000 backs Doug unleashes the final stretch goal of Pirates and Vikings. The other books come in at 24 pages, this one expands to 40 pages. A Viking longship, complete with two-dozen raiders? Oh yes. A modestly crewed 60' merchant or exploration vessel? Yep. Tack on a rowed longboat and a large sailboat, each full of pirates. Each vessel will have a hex-map illustration in the book.

In Conclusion

This is Doug's 11th Kickstarter. He's always funded and over delivered. He makes great gaming books. Delvers to Grow looks like another success in the making. The price point is generous and the quality is always top-notch with Doug. So don't resist the pull as your wallet floats out of your pocket and vanishes into the ether that is Kickstarter. It's a good thing because in July, yes this July, your mailbox will groan with amazing amount of great gaming content. Click any of pictures or links to pledge!

Successfully Funded! Some Stats and Insights

The Zine Quest 3 Kickstarter campaign for The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade came to a close. It funded within an hour and had a steady growth through the 14 days. Here are some stats from my campaign. 

Backers: 406 

Pledged: $4616, of that amount $1009 was collected for postage. 

Biggest Pledge Day: $1357 (106 backers) - this was the first day of the campaign. 

Project Followers: 284 at the end. The highest number I had was 301 at one point.

Converted Followers: 124 which translated into a 43% conversation rate. Which is excellent. 

Coffee Pledge: 2 pledged the coffee level. One was my mother who pledge a $100. I can get a lot of coffee with that. Equates to 28.3% of the total pledges. 

PDF Pledge: 115 wanted the PDF. Equates to 28.3% of the total pledges. 

Print/PDF Pledge: 287 wanted the zine in their hands. Equates to 70.7% of the total pledges. 74 are from international backers from 21 different countries. 

Reduced or Cancelled Pledges: There were many cancelled and reduced pledges this time around. It happens. I'm estimating $400 to $600 pledges were cancelled or reduced. The funny thing is when Ivy would ask me the check where I was at, I'd click on my page and a few seconds later I'd lose a pledge. I kept jinxing myself. 

My Take on this Year's Zine Quest: This year I started behind. The original idea I had that was mostly written was too large. And then Jim, my artist from last year, was already booked to the gills. So I was scrambling to come up with something that was interesting that I wanted to work on for the next few months. And search for an artist at the last minute.

I got lucky and I contacted Jason Sholtis. He helped me with my first zine and was available. His style really fit the style I wanted to go with this year.

Over a year ago I did an adventure for my Patreon called The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade. I always loved the title and concept. I wanted to expand it and thought it was perfect for this years Zine Quest. 

Printing: I also chose to go with a professional printer this year instead of printing it on my own. It'll be less stressful and after doing the numbers, much, much cheaper. In addition, it's going to give me a lot more options for layout. I'm excited to play around with that.

Maps: This year I recruited Rob Conley to help me with maps. His maps are amazing and will work great on VTT. I am added his maps for VTT play.

Editing: I have my editng team from last year. Joethelawyer and my wife, Ivy, will clean up my work. Make it look good. 

Distributors: I'm going to read out to distributors this year to carry my zine. I've attempted this in the past, but haven't had any luck. Fingers crossed.

That's a look behind this year's Kickstarter. I've got to get back to writing some crypts. It's been a blast so far. 

The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade Sneak Peek

Here is a glimpse at The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade's Jason Sholtis cover. Still needs tweaks and smoothing out some of the details because of the layout I'm going for. I wanted a 50's horror movie poster look and I'm pretty happy with its progress. 

Then I've been getting maps from Rob Conley. Some folks asked why I didn't use my own maps this time. I wanted to have maps that are clear even if small. Rob's maps are always fantastic and the map pack that'll come with the pdf will be very useful with online play. 

One of Zine Quest's rules is you can have black, white, and one color. Some of my favorite book covers are by Michael Whelan. He did these series of gray scale covers for HP Lovecraft paperbacks with a splash of red mingled in. That simple splash of red made those covers amazing and something that I always remembered. That's what I wanted for this zine. The pop of red. Here's a few sample covers by Michael. 

The Kickstarter campaign is going very well. I funded within the first hour and now stand at 657% funding. Which is phenomenal. With so many projects out there it's easy to get lost in the tidal zine tidal wave. And this was just the first week!

My next post I'm focusing on the zine projects I backed. This year I've invested a chunk of money to get zines. And to get physical copies. Last year, I backed a few oat the PDF level and it's not the same. I need to have it in my hand and on my shelf.

Now for more self-promotion. Please check out my Kickstarter campaign, The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade. It's been a fun project so far. And really, how can you have too many crypts to explore?

Zine Quest #3: The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get my shit together. My offerings for Zine Quest #3, The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade has been approved.

With art by Jason Sholtis and maps by Robert Conley I need to step up my game and make sure the writing matches the quality they produce. 

It goes live Monday, February 1st. 

My First Kickstarter Experience

In the Beginning

I started this in January of 2020. Kickstarter promoted their 2nd annual Zine Quest. I remember reading about the first one, but didn't get my shit together quick enough to take advantage of it. I mean Zine Quest is built specifically for someone like myself. A small game publisher with help from friends with little to no money having a time of it. I'd never attempted a Kickstarter. I'm always looking for different ways to share my stuff. But Kickstarter was intimidating. It had brought larger and more popular publishers to their knees. I'm not talking about the scammers, the folks that honestly wanted to write a gaming book and get it out into the public. I told Ivy what I planned and she helped me get my head wrapped around the process. 

The Concept

I dug up a concept I wanted to develop a few years back, Hunters in Death. I wanted to flesh out a hex crawl with an array of adventures that were discovered more then hooked into. Because these adventures shared an area with the other adventures there were connections. Also, during travels there were hints, some subtle, some obvious, of a nasty evil that lurked in the Komor Forest. The idea of the big bad was present through out, but not fully realized until their source was discovered. 

Getting My Art Guy

When Zine Quest 2 reared its head I jumped in with with the idea of Hunters in Death. I already had the setting mostly written. I'll come back to this later. I contacted Jim Magnusson for one of his killer pieces. I wanted to start with a killer cover. Jim delivered. His cover was a huge part of the success of the campaign. I hired Jim to do all the art for the zine to keep a cohesive theme. Jim thankfully agreed. Check out the cover and back cover. I thought the quote from Ernest Hemingway was perfect for the zine's concept. 

Still love it even after looking at it constantly for the last nine months. 

The Write Up for Hunters in Death

First off, I needed to write the information about Hunters and Death and what it was about. The concept. Sometimes I write things as if the reader is supposed to know what I'm talking about. And they don't. Ivy kept nudging me to rewrite it. It didn't sound like me. I hate when she says that. First, because that means I needed to rewrite it again. Second, because she's right. After doing as much as I could do with it, Joethelawyer volunteered to give it a much needed edit. Not only did he clean it up, he injected it with a big dose of steroids. His help was also a huge part of the success of Hunters in Death.

Figuring Out Pledge Levels and Pricing

I wanted to keep it simple. A pledge level for the PDF. A pledge level for both the print copy and PDF. Done. I get annoyed at multiple pledge levels. They confuse the shit out of me. But then there was the matter of pricing. Here was my math with no science or research involved. 

I figured I'd get 50 to 100 people to pledge. So I averaged it at 75 who'd take an interest in my zine. I went back and forth on my goal. I started thinking I should have a $1000 pledge level. So that meant the average pledge needed to be at $13.33. That wasn't going to happen. I finally settled on my PDFs at $4 and Print copies w/PDF at $8. In my head I figured a third would want PDF only and two-thirds print. So using my mind bending logic...

From PDFs I estimated: $100

From print I estimated: $400

Boom! Done. I set my goal at $500. I felt comfortable that I could hit that. And like Ivy said, if you don't reach your goal you'll still do it. She was right. Again. 

The Launch

There was some discussion before hand of when to launch. Zine Quest is run in February and could run for 14 days. Some took the strategy of waiting, to allow some of the deluge of zines to subside. I wanted to get involve as soon as I could. And I am glad I did. It seemed as the month went on more zines kept coming in. Plus, people's wallets aren't endless so I wanted to be in the front of the zine mall. Not in the back.

I was in the first batch of zines in Zine Quest 2. Not only that, Kickstarter selected me as one of their favorites. So my campaign spent a significant time one the front page. 

1st Day

The first day of the launch was on a Sunday. I was glad because if it was Monday, I would have missed a lot of the excitement. My expectations were shattered before the first day was over. It...was...fantastic. I whooshed passed my goal by a bunch.

The Campaign

It was a hell of a ride. While I was at work friends were texting me when I'd hit a pledge or backer milestone. By the end of the campaign I had nearly 600 backers and nearly $5300. While of course seeing the money is good to see, I admit I was more interested in the number of backers. Wow.

What I Didn't Know

When I created my pledges I had people pay for their postage. A $2 mailing charge for US backers and $4 for the rest of the world. When Kickstarter collected their pledge they counted the shipping into the pledge total. I wouldn't do it like that again. It makes sense that Kickstarter would want this to happen. First, it increases the chances of campaigns to fund and second, they get a bigger slice. But knowing this now. Yeah, I won't include shipping in pledges.

Realization

I decided at the beginning I was going to print all the zines at home. I have a Patreon where I print about 60 to 120 zines a month. To put it in perspective though those are usually one page, folded zines. 

Hunters in Death is a cover and 8 pages. With contributor copies and backers I needed to print 450 copies. And I wanted to print an extra 50 for those damaged during mailing and selling for those who missed the Kickstarter. That's 4500 pages that needed printing. Without mistakes. 

I needed to order more paper...and a lot more ink.

Don't Go For Cheap Ink

I'd been using this cheaper ink on Amazon for a while. I had a single Epson cartridge left. It looked so much better. So no cheap ink. I think we burned through eighteen cartridges. I lost count. It was worth it. Made the zine look much better.

Editor

Back to Joe. My editor for this project. After figuring out details Joe really helped hone Hunters in Death. He was quick to get back to me. He was as enthusiastic about the project as I was. His contribution was invaluable. And he tried to sneak in his character as much as possible. A little Easter egg, you'll find Joe's guy in there twice. A big thanks to Joe.

Ivy

Ivy supported me through the entire process, but she really got this project done. First of all she is the one who made me do read thrus when I didn't want to. And each damn time I'd find something I could tweak to make better. "Yes, this is good, but you can make it better." And we did. 

She took over the entire production process. I was struggling with getting the zine to print properly. I have been using MS Publisher for a long time. And it was dropping pictures randomly. I'd print ten copies and the last two would have a picture missing. Or drop the last sentences in text cells. Frustrating me to the point I was ready to punch my printer into pieces. I am not exaggerating about this part. She came up with another way to do the printing process and we switch programs to Affinity Publisher. No more problems with pictures or sentences coming up missing. She pulled all-nighters printing and assembling the zines. 

Then she helped organize the mailing. Much better than I ever would have. At the end I ended up getting sick (I know, a Kickstarter creator cliche), and she got the postage taken care of the delivered it to the post. 

Amazing lady.

Aftermath

440 some copies of Hunters in Death are now spread across the globe to 33 different countries. I still have about five people I don't have addresses for. I'll try one last time to reach out to get them their zine. I'm taking a break from it for a while. Then I'll put the PDF for sale on RPGDriveThru and offer the print copies I have left for those who missed the Kickstarter. 

Conclusion 

I have nothing to complain about. I learned a ton from the process. I'm glad I did Zine Quest and will probably do it again and do Kickstarters in general again. So many people were supportive and their excitement helped me get it done. So you'll see future projects from me, but not right now. A little time to breathe.

Kickstarter: For Coin & Blood 2nd Edition

Another Kickstarter I wanted to bring to your attention. Gallant Knight Games has written a second edition to Coin & Blood RPG. It's already written, artwork is done, and as soon as the KS campaign is done it looks like the PDF version is ready to go. 

One of the things I like about this Kickstarter is the simplicity of their pledges. One for PDF at $10 and one for print and PDF at $25. The print version comes with a hardcover they ship and the PDF. And now at both pledge levels you you get a POD coupon for a B&W softcover copy through DriveThruRPG. You can't beat those pledge prices. 

Here are a few excerpts from the campaign text to get you interested in taking a look.

Playing assassins, cult leaders, blackguards and more, For Coin & Blood is a different look at the other side of the coin of fantasy roleplaying games.

While most roleplaying games hide their murderers under the mantle of “hero” (I mean, what “hero” invades underground complexes in search of treasure and murders the denizens because their whole species is “evil?”), For Coin & Blood makes no pretenses about what it asks you to be. You’re the villains that other campaigns fight. You’re the cult leaders, assassins, fallen nobles, murderers, mercenaries, necromancers and thugs.

If that doesn't interest you I have no idea what you're doing reading my blog. I grabbed the first edition when it came out and like the concepts. Plundered the books for the ideas I could put into my campaign which wasn't that difficult since I have a similar philosophy. I'm looking forward to what the second edition For Coin & Blood has to offer. You've got less than 2 days to get on this! Go!

Kickstarter: The Majestic Fantasy RPG

 

So there is this guy, let's call him Rob, because that's his name. He's got this Kickstarter. It's called the Majestic Fantasy RPG. It's a standalone RPG & supplement for Swords & Wizardry. It covers 1st thru 5th levels. 

Rob and I have been friends for more years than I can count. I've played in all his variations of his campaign through the years. Basic, AD&D, GURPS, a brief stint of 3.0, Runequest, and most recently 5th edition D&D. I'm sure he snuck in Harn for a few weeks. 

This version however is his own creation. One where he's taken his decades of experience of running his campaign and solidifying it into a system that uses Swords & Wizardry as the chassis. I've  had the pleasure of seeing his system develop and play in games to try out the different rules and they work. They work fantastically well. Many of his ideas I've adapted for my own game. 

He's got 5 days left as of this writing. I hope if you haven't you consider joining his campaign. The buy in price is low at $8 for the PDF and $12 for the print. In addition you get a coupon to get a print version of Blackmarch which is the BEST hex crawl product out there. I'm bias, but I know my hex crawls also. 

The Majestic Fantasy RPG Basic Rules is waiting for you.  

Kickstarter Alert!! Phylactery 2

During this year's Zinequest Levi Combs of Planet X Games, Kickstarted The Phylactery. He kicked ass. He promised an Old School Heroic Zine and that's exactly what he delivered. Now he's doing a second issue, Phylactery 2, and this time he promising...

OSR-inspired material that is unavailable anywhere else, giving you an entire cover-to-cover zine devoted strictly to cool new adventures, quirky NPCs, wondrous magical items, marauding  monsters, fell locations, relics from beyond the mists of time and all sorts of heroic fantasy resources for your tabletop games.

This Kickstarter has four days left of this writing. Head over there and read about it for yourself. There is a lot of tantalizing details about its content and the amazing art.

And just to tempt you more, here's a sample from the first issue. Prepare to get pissed off if you didn't get a copy. Don't make the same mistake twice!

Hunters in Death is Done!

I put the final touches on Hunters in Death this morning. A final look through with fresh eyes. I can easily say this is the most work I've ever put into a writing project. Without my editors Joe and my wife Ivy and their persistence of wanting to go through it again, it wouldn't have turned out so damn good. They wanted it to be the best I could do. I'm glad I listened to them. 

The PDFs were sent to all those who pledged.

I've already begun the printing process. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to print from home. I'm printing 500 copies. I timed my printer, it takes 5 minutes and 15 seconds to print one copy. So after 43 hours and 45 minutes of printing, that's without mistakes, jams, or other creative things my printer likes to do, all the copies will be done. So guess what I'm doing this weekend?

I have about 450 copies spoken for. Once I get everyone's shipped I'll put the remaining copies up for sale. 

That's all for now. My printer needs my attention.

One of my favorite creators in the DYI/OSR community Glynn Seal has a Kickstater, Chewer of Fingers, with a few days left. It already blew past its funding goal and creeping up on the final stretch goal. I want to give another shout out to Glynn, I've backed him in many of his Kickstarters and every time he has exceeded my expectations. Glynn just does fun and interest projects.

His maps are fantastic. I study Glynn's maps to see what techniques I can steal. He didn't win his Goldn ENnie for nothing. 

The guy can draw also. Just look at this lineup of NPCs. Each mug has a distinctive look. And he has fun, pronounceable names! It's nice to run an adventure when you don't need a phonetic guide to pronounce the names correct. 

Let's talk about the buy in. I'm talking in dollars not pounds. PDFs run $8. Print copy is $24 plus shipping costs. This is sent directly to you, not a coupon through RPG Drivethru which costs you more. 

I need to mention his editor, they don't get enough love, Matthew Pook. He's edited many other offerings from Glynn. He does a top-notch job and a huge asset. 

Consider joining Glynn's campaign, Chewer of Fingers. Grab yourself a quality adventure. 

Kickstarter: Folk Magic of the Haven Isles

I wanted to give a shout out to one of the best producers of gaming material, Glynn Seal. This time around he is doing the artwork, the writing duties have fallen upon Richard Marpole. And editors don't get enough credit for the work they do, in this case Matthew Pook (Pookie). So what are all these fine chaps up to? They've come together to create Folk Magic of the Haven Isles. 

It's hard for me to resist anything with 'folk magic' in the title. It just appeals to me. A crude, primal form of magic that seems simple, but has the power to devastate a person, family, or an entire community. 

We're looking at zine-sized, 60 pages, a ton of amazing artwork by Glynn. From what he's shared, it's a no-brainer. You pledge. The content looks interesting with 14 magic-user sub-classes, 16 magic-user backgrounds, 7 tomes (spellbooks), 16 magical spells, and 4 oddities.  

I went in at the $16 pledge level to get the on-demand, at-cost print level and the PDF. But I'm thinking of schooching into the $26 pledge level to get a hard cover.

Alright. Stop reading. Go get a copy of Folk Magic of the Haven Isles. Then we can talk about it. 

Fireside Chat with Tenkar

Erik and I got together Sunday night and did one of his fireside chats. Here is the link. And that's what it was, a chat. More like two friends sitting around a table talking about gaming stuff. We covered my Kickstarter of course. Hunters in Death is nearing 400 backers. That's nuts. But we covered a lot of different topics. 

Erik and I have known each other since I started blogging in 2009. I think Ivy spoke to him before I did. I can't remember that far back. Erik has always been a big supporter of mine and has always helped me get the word out when I released whatever I was working on. But it's the first time we recorded our conversation. 

If you'd like to hear our chat please check out Tenkar's, Tavern Chat. It was a good time.

PS. Joe the Lawyer said that he just listened to the parts we talked about him and that those sections were too short. heh

Hunters in Death: An Inside Look

Hunters in Death has done well. The process of learning the ins and outs of Kickstarter has been a great experience. Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the first week of my first Kickstarter.

Let's get to the numbers and the different metrics I find interesting. These are the current numbers as I write this.

350 Backers

This number still baffles me. When I considered doing a Kickstarter I figured with the price points I established that I'd need 60+ pledges. I was confident I could get that. But I hoped to reach triple digits. Maybe squeeze into the 110 range.

- I blew past that the first day with a 155 backers. 

$3308 Pledged

I considered setting my pledge goal at $1000. But I decided $500 was better because I wanted to make this zine and learn the entire process of Kickstarter.

- The first day I already had $1466 in pledges.

Shipping Costs are Included in the Pledge Total

Another thing I did not know. When folks pledge, the shipping costs are included in the total pledge amount. It seemed a strange thing to me. But after some consideration it makes sense, as in Kickstarter wants 10% of it all. 

- The money collected for shipping is $710.

- 21.4% of my funding total. 

Super Bowl Affect

I was concerned that Zine Quest 2 starting on Super Bowl Sunday would sap the energy and excitement away. I figured people would be prepping or getting ready for Super Bowl parties and would forget about this zine thing. Ahh, nope. As soon as I posted Hunters in Death I received a handful of pledges before I even announced that I did it. People were searching for entries for Zine Quest and were looking to back them as soon as possible.

Reduction or Cancelled Pledges

I've run a Patreon for several years now so I am no stranger to cancelled pledges. It is a running joke at the Manor that when I watched my Kickstarter pledge page, it went down. So I stopped. 

- So far $185 in pledges were either cancelled or reduced to a lower pledge level. 

Increase of Pledges

It works both ways though. I've had a few people increase their pledges. Some have even pledged more than needed. I've had $55 in increased pledges. Granted $35 of that was from my mom, but it still counts. Thanks mom. 

Mailing Costs Scare

There has been some concern about my shipping costs. That I've charged too low and I'm going to lose money on my Kickstarter. And while the concern is flattering, I've got it covered. I ship out zines all around the world every month for my Patreon. I think most of the confusion comes when folks look at the package rates in which case I would be in trouble. These are considered letters. A 1oz. to 2oz. letter, my zine averages around 1.6oz. costs $2.24. The USPS increased their rates on January 26th, 2020. It used to cost $2.13 to mail. So please, do not worry about the shipping. I have it covered. Not my first time.

Project Followers

This was something I didn't know about. These are people who are following a project and want a reminder before the campaign is over. I asked a few veterans of Kickstarter about the conversion rate. There are Project Followers, Converted Followers (you know the person who came up with that term is a D&D person), then there is the conversion rate given in a percentage. The average was about 10 to 35%. Quite the range. 

Right now I am sitting on 322 followers, 31 have been converted, at a 9% conversion rate. 

The Pledge Pattern

It is well known that the first and last are the largest pledge days. Then there is all that space in between where pledges flat line. I expected it to drop to a pledge or two a day. Maybe have days where no one pledged. But it has been fairly consistent, after the first two days it has stayed steady and I feel I'm still going strong. I'll share the daily numbers at the end.

Excitement of Friends and Family

The first day I kicked off Hunters in Death I had people texting me, IMing me, letting me know when I received more pledges. It was fun. It was fun to see my friends online getting as excited as I was. And Ivy, she kept on announcing new marks hit. Each time I'd get 10 new backers or $100 more in pledges. 

Kickstarter Hangover

This is a thing. I released my Kickstarter. A flurry of social media posts to make sure as many people know about it as possible. Then follows the flurry of congrats and backed! and general support. I am not a social media person so while it was all great and positive it still took a lot out of me to be honest. At night it was difficult to settle down. I was wired from all the excitement of the day. On Monday I downloaded the Kickstarter app onto my phone so I spent the work day checking my pledge level. 

- Next year I'm taking that following Monday off.

Fighting the Stretch Goal Demons

With the success I started thinking of stretch goals. People asked me about stretch goals. I knew I couldn't offer physical items (see mailing costs scare above), but maybe a PDF stretch goal? Ivy gave me a good Gibbs smack. Because I swore ahead of time to keep it simple and focus on creating the best zine I could.

DIY

I don't know what the rate is for people making what they Kickstart in there own homes is, but that's what I'm doing. I'm printing and mailing everything from my home. I wanted to do this, for some reason, my first time out. Of course I thought I'd only get a 100 backers at most and knew I could handle that without an issue. I'm at 283 backers who will get a zine mailed to them. With my beautiful assistant, Ivy, we can handle that. It'll take a little longer, but it's worth it.

Costs

This goes with the DIY section. Because I am fulfilling this myself there are many costs to consider. Let's break it down.

0.06 to .07 for the 6 or 7 pages of paper

0.07 for the cardstock cover

0.04 for ink (best estimate)

0.14 envelope

0.70 postage in the US

2.24 postage to Rest of the World

1.01 made and mailed in the US

2.55 made and mailed to the Rest of the World

- Kickstarter and processing is 10% off the top.

- Taxes, I'll need to hold back 25% of the net profit.

- A $100 down for art plus I'm giving Jim a cut of the profit. 

- Editing, while Joe doesn't want any money I want to make sure he gets paid for his time. I'm thinking $100.

I'm estimating after all expenses and folks are paid, I might land about $1300. And that is a rough estimate and not taking into consideration any mistakes. 

Pledge Days Totals

Day 1

Total Pledges $1466

Total Backers 155

Day 2

Total Pledges $2406 (+$940)

Total Backers 257 (+102)

Day 3

Total Pledges $2704 (+$298)

Total Backers 284 (+27)

Day 4

Total Pledges $2917 (+$214)

Total Backers 307 (+23)

Day 5

Total Pledges $3111 (+$194)

Total Backers 327 (+20)

Day 6

Total Pledges $3244 (+$133)

Total Backers 344 (+17)

Day 7

TBD

7 day remaining in the campaign.

That's all I got for now. I hope this little shot behind the curtain is helpful. Thanks to all who have pledged and if you haven't please go on over and check out Hunters in Death. It's taking shape to be the best zine I've made. 

Kickstarter Zine Quest Selections

You may have heard there is this thing on Kickstarter called Zine Quest 2. All the cool kids are doing it. I wanted to share a few of the excellent zines I've found. Some will be bias because I am friends with the authors, but that doesn't mean their zines don't kick ass.

The creator of Dice Roll Zine #3 is Steve C. He's one of the guys I'm bias about. We game together and he's a cool guy. Man are his zines good. And big. My zines come in at 24 to 28 pages. Dice Roll Zine comes in at a punching weight of 40 pages. And it's full of good stuff. And he's also has a pledge level to get issue #2. Get it.


Hidden Hand of the Horla is written for Old School Essentials. I didn't need to hear any more to back this one. This Kickstarter is part of their 'Make 100' campaign. The premise is, you make a 100 of your thing and sell them. Cool idea. Ryan of Appendix N Entertainment has sold out of print copies, but there are unlimited amounts of PDFs. Grab a copy.


Here's another Kickstarter I am biased because I enjoy Dave Aldridge podcast, dpercentile so much. A fellow anchorite. Mudharbour is not just any zine, it's a kung fu fantasy zine. I shouldn't have to write anything else. I mean it's a kung fu zine. duh. It looks like he is using Black Hack for the base system. And there are a lot of interesting possibilities in here. Three Kung Fu dungeons? Whaaaat? I wanna know what a kung fu dungeon is.


The Hidden Necropolis is one I am very curious about because it uses the Five Torches Deep system. I have that system in PDF, but I've haven't played it. It's a 3rd level adventure that is written and playtested. He's has a stretch goal to convert it into 5e so you fifth edition folks, a few more pledges and you'll get a version for your game.


Phylactery says it focuses on the strange and bizarre. Cursed objects. Nefarious tomes of magic. Forbidden demon gods. And there is artwork by Karl Stjernberg, Adrian Landeros, and Ed Bickford. Amazing. It looks like a solid entry into the OSR zine scene.


The Forgotten Rites of the Moldering Dead isn't part of zine quest, but I had to put it here. There is one day left to get in on this one. Donn Stroud just makes good gamable material. Listen to this, RPG supplement containing tables to enhance and generate all facets of the dead, the un-dead, funerary rituals, and death rites. Huh? Huh? Come on, that is frick'n cool. He's also offering his former product, Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion. Get that one also. I have a small bookshelf on my desk for the RPG books I use the most. Lesser Key is on that shelf.

Alright folks. That's a wrap. Checkout these gorgeous pieces of art. These zines. These wonderful nuggets of gaming material. 

And oh, before you go, a shameless plug for me.


I heard Hunters in Death is pretty good also. 

Hunters in Death Kickstarter: First Day

Hunters in Death, for Zine Quest 2, was unleashed on Kickstarter today. An old-school hex crawl for low-level adventurers to explore. It exceeded my expectations by a lot lot. My goal was set at $500 and in the first day I'm approaching $1300 with a 135 backers. I was hoping to reach $1000 by the end of the two week campaign. So thank you to all the backs so far.

It looks like I have a 115 other people following my Kickstarter, so if I only get a portion of those also, consider my mind officially blown.

Here's a bit of a preview of what's inside.

• I've done the writing and maps. I'll add a few map samples. 
• Jim Magnusson created all the art. Check out that cover. Scroll down to see more of his work. 
• Matt Jackson created a new logo for me. I wanted a fresh logo for this project. 
• Joe the Lawyer is editing. Along with Happy Whisk. Between the two of them they should tighten up and sloppy writing I might have let slip through. 

This product is a look behind my GM screen, how I run my campaign. I've included house rules and other additions to make the Komor Forest a distinct setting.

In addition, the adventures that are included have threads connecting to them to what is going on in Hounds Head and the other adventures. The fun thing is when the players discover these on their own. I know its one of my favorite things when running a game and hearing them put hints, clues, or rumors together. 

The random tables I create have their own adventures within them. Some have ties to other adventures. I try to cram as much gameable material as I can into the pages. 

It's been a busy day full of social media. I'm not used to being on-line for so long. A lot of today's success is due to a bunch of folks who have shared, blogged, and podcasted about it. Thanks to all of you. And thanks to all my backers.

I'm now enjoying the Super Bowl. Almost the 4th quarter. Time to try and wind down and get ready for work tomorrow. Good luck with that.

As I end this post I'm at 142 backers pledging $1346. Wow. 

Zine Quest...Let's Do This

Kickstarter announced in November 2018 (I am late to the party, but the party ain't over) it is inviting creators to launch their own RPG-inspired zine for February 2019. Kickstarter said they will feature Zine Quest projects on a special collection page in their Games newsletter.

Here are the guidelines. Simple to follow guidelines that really shows they want the old school type of zine. 

1. Zines must either contain RPG or feature RPG-related content (like maps, adventures, monsters, comics, articles, interviews, ect.)
2. Zines must be 5.5 x 8.5 (A5) or smaller.
3. Zines must feature one-color printing. Note: You can print on colored paper. One color printing doesn't just mean black! You can use green, blue, or red ink if you think it suits.
4. Zines must be unbound, folded, stapled, or saddled-stitched. No hard cover or perfect binding allowed. 

Love it.

The Zine Quest starts in February. So they remind you not to launch your project until February 1, 2019. 

To get information from the Kickstarter's mouth here are the links.

Zine Quest

How to participate (Guidelines)

A CALL OUT

Today on my Gothridge Manor Podcast I called out my fellow Anchorites to get in on this and make some zines. Make some fucking content. The OSR, yes I am still using that term, when not chewing off its own leg, is a fierce, creative force. Let's have some fun.

Old zine makers, dust off those old long-armed staplers.

Wanna be zine makers, this is a great chance to get something going. 

Join with folks to develop content, to help edit, to discover new artists, and expand your circle beyond what you already know. My creation of The Manor opened myself up to entire population I did not know and I've become friends with many. 

SOMETHING IN THE WORKS

I spoke to Jason Hobbs to open up a channel on his Dungeon Audio Discord channel for Zine Quest. He will create an on-going chat. And I also purposed to have a voice channel where we could have folks experienced with zine making and Kickstarters we would schedule times to join together to answer questions. While I can help with zine making, my knowledge of Kickstarters in minimal. It is a different animal from backing to creating a KS.

Once this is up and running I will let you know. 

So are you up for a challenge? Is there a zine idea that's been festering in your mind like an unpopped boil? Are you ready to share the darkness in your mind?

Let's do this!

A Year Review for Backed Kickstarters

In 2018 I returned to Kickstarter by backing more than I had any other year. A total of 8 Kickstarters backed. I thought I'd go through and take a look at which ones I backed and how they did or are doing.

For Coin & Blood

I went in on the $5 pledge to get the PDF. It delivered on time. The concept is an interesting spin on developing villains. This is one of those ones I really love the concept, got the PDF, put it in a folder and forgot about it. And this is something I could really use. I put the PDF on my desktop so I am more likely to read it. No complaints about this Kickstarter.

Off the Beaten Path, Desert Excursions

I pledged at the $9 level to get a print on demand book. This was the second Kickstarter I backed by Thom Wilson of Throwi Games. He keeps his Kickstarters simple and easy to understand. Some of these damn Kickstarter pledge options are confusing. Thom is in the same space as I am, create short adventures. He also enlists the aid of MonkeyBlood Design, Mr. Glynn Seal added some fantastic maps. Thom's stuff is solid and inspiring. Good stuff and another well done Kickstarter.

Dice Coins

I was in at the $12 pledge so I could get two of the three d20 dice coins. I love these things. They are cool. Delivered on time. I did a video of them, so if you're interest give it a watch.

The Dragon Heresy Introduction Set Fantasy RPG

I was in at the $50 mark so I could get a big, fat hardback copy. Doug Cole is the mind behind this one. I was lucky enough to be there during the embryonic stages of Doug coming up with Dragon Heresy. It has an interesting take on hit points (and grappling of course). It really settles the argument about the philosophy of hit points.  Then add the intensity and depth of the Norse culture setting. These are the type of rulesets I enjoy the most, those that are built specific for a setting. Delivered on time and amazing quality.

Choose Your Own: Sci-Fi Stock Art

I plopped down $50 for this one. Another interesting concept, building your own stockart by using different elements. The artist, James Shields was going to produce Weapons, Ships, Portraits, People, and Scenes. Over 250 individual pieces of art. And he was throwing in $20 vouchers for his current work. This one was due in September 2018. Nothing yet. His last update he showed a bunch of work, but nothing looks close to being done. Sometimes Kickstarters end up being a ton more work than you expect. I'd love to see this one get fulfilled.

The GMs Tarot 

I started my pledge at 15 pounds, but then I threw in 12 more pounds for the stretch goals. To us Yanks that's $34.31. I like these kind of gaming accessories. Anything that helps with scraps of inspiration I am in. It was to deliver in September, but not yet. However, last week I received a PDF copy of the cards. I just hope I get my hands on the physical copy. Card PDFs are like getting cotton candy that tastes like pickles.

Woodfall - A mini hexcrawl setting

Went in for 15 pounds on this one. It billed itself as a swamp where witches, thieves, and outlaws are squatting. How can you say no to something like that. Well I got my PDF on time. I got my hardcover soon after. I've been reading through it the past few days and need to do a proper review. This Kickstarter went very well.

Lost Hall of Tyr

Another Kickstarter by Doug Cole. I pledged $26 for a print copy. This adventure goes with his Dragon Heresy setting. This Kickstarter ended a few days ago, but Doug has a solid track record of not only getting things done, but doing them at the highest quality. The man doesn't sleep. I have the utmost confidence that I'll be getting my copy by June 2019.