Books have arrived!
about 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 06:40:34 AM

Hello everybody!

Just a quick update here to let you all know that the books have landed in Zac's warehouse. We will not be sending them out this week given that this is a holiday week and the lot of us will be visiting family but we will be getting to them soon. So this is a LAST CALL on locking your info in for backerkit. We've got roughly 90-95% of everybody already but there are a handful left that still need to do so. With the books in, we are setting a firm date of NEXT MONDAY for all backers to fill out the survey and lock in their information. 

That's all. Told you it'd be a quick one today. Once we start getting shipments going, I'll reach out again. 

David Barrentine

Production Update
about 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 11:14:24 AM

Hey folks, 

Zac here with an update. 

BACKERKIT | The Backerkit has been up for several weeks now and about 90% of you have filled out the survey (thank you). All digital files are being distributed through Backerkit, so if you haven't filled that out yet, you won't have access to those files. I just triggered a reminder email to come from Backerkit to your email, so if you've yet to fill out the survey, there's an email with a direct link waiting in your inbox. 

PRINT FILES | The book itself is almost ready to go to the printer. David estimates that within the week it will head out, and then fingers crossed that there's no issues and it can proceed quickly. 

DELIVERY | The printer should have everything and be rocking and rolling in the next week, but once it's there, it's out of our hands. In recent months, I've had other projects get wrapped at the printer in 2 weeks, and I've also had things spin their wheels over there for 3 months. Our next update will be when we have a confirmed completion date from the printer, but we can all hope for delivery to start sometime between end of November and early January. 

1-SHOT GAME | David will be reaching out to you soon(tm) about setting up your game. He has the game determined and you'll work with him directly to set up the date and time. 

David and I appreciate the continued support and the speedy completion of the surveys, and we look forward to giving you another update in the near future. 

- Zac G.

Important Notice! (Backerkit and BOOK?!)
over 1 year ago – Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 07:42:45 PM

Well, the time has finally come. I have finished the PDF for Gribble's Guide to the Academic Adventurer! Some minor tweaks will need to be made before it gets sent off to the printers but they will be very small and consist mostly of making sure the bleeds and cover are all sized correctly. Now, with the project finally drawing to a close, the time has come to open up backerkit and start that whole process. So, that's going to be the majority of the update. 

First, once backerkit is open, Zac and I are hoping to make this process go swiftly. Our goal is to have a two week period where everybody can go through, see if there are any other add ons that are needed, update addresses if they have changed, confirm payment source, etc. Once the two week period is over, we will be releasing the PDF contents to everybody. That'll include Gribble's guide, the three one shot adventures, digital assets to use with your VTT of choice, and other PDF or digital related content. Now, it's important that you try to get your infor in as soon as possible because that will effect the time frame that you'll be receiving your products. 

For this project, we'll be sending out deliveries of hard products in two waves. The wave that you are a part of is dependent on how quickly you fill out the backerkit survey. With two waves, it'll make things a bit easier on us for the delivery end of things. We won't be in nearly the rush we were for previous projects to try and get everything out and hopefully that will aid in preventing issues of content getting damaged during the shipping process. 

Now, with all this said, I know there will be late comers to fill out the survey. I've been one of the late comers myself for other kickstarters I've backed. In the case that you miss the two week window when we open backerkit, you can still fill out the survey. You'll just need to make a point to contact me directly either through email or messaging me through kickstarter. I'll make sure you get your goods. I don't want anybody to miss out for any reason I can avoid. 

Now, for the printing information, we have an idea who we want to go with for the prints. They are in state so it should help in speeding up the process, but we still don't know how long this part of it will take until we speak with the printers. I'll be as transparent on this aspect of the project as I have with everything else. Once I know and E.T.A. on everything, I'll post here letting all of you know as well. I'm excited to get this into everybody's hands, and honestly into my own as well.  

I think that's about all for me on this update. I'm so ready for this to be out! Really looking forward to hearing what everybody thinks once they have a copy of their own. 

David Barrentine

Editing and Artwork
over 1 year ago – Sun, Aug 27, 2023 at 03:41:52 PM

Hey, everybody. I wanted to check in and give a quick update on the project as it's starting to come to a close. Two things specifically I want to touch on. The first being the editing of the one shot adventure and where that currently stands. It is the last big hurdle for me to wrap up this project. I've got the content in the hands of the editor and they are moving through it diligently but the document turned into a much larger addition to the book than I was initially thinking it would. Currently, with the added stat blocks for the monsters that appear in the adventure, we are sitting at a 38 page google document. Editing started work late the week after I got back from GenCon. The editor had another project he was trying to wrap up before jumping into the adventure document. Right now it stands at roughly 1/3 of the to completion. The speed this is going, I think the editing should be finished over the course of this coming week. Once it is, I'll be doing the revision work which I think should cover the course of a 1 or 2 evening stretch. Once that is finished, all the text for this book is ready to go and I'll get the last chapter laid out. I'm very excited and ready to be at that point because I think this is going to be a very enticing supplement at everybody's tables. 

Now for the art related news. Because the editing is taking a bit longer than expected and I have some time allotted before I begin the revision work, I've decided to to add some better maps and new maps to the accompany the adventure. Initially this was just going to be the final dungeon at the end of the adventure but I've taken the time to create a new map for the town that will be the opening focus of the adventure and to update the regional map of the area around Kalorr. Those that purchased the Knights of the Shadow Realm earlier map remember the regional map being a zoomed in version of the world map. Well, I wanted something bit more detailed to go along with this adventure and I've got both of the maps finished at this point. So, here is a sample of the maps that will now be accompanying the adventure. 

The Region of Kalorr

The Town of Braedon

I'm excited about both of these maps. I'm saving the final map so that it can appear for the first time along with the adventure. I'm hoping that the next time I make an update it will be to alert everybody that this project is wrapping up and the PDF is about to drop for everybody. Until then, I hope you enjoy the maps and continue to look forward to this coming out as much as I am. 

David Barrentine.

A Quick Update
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 07:57:53 AM

Hey, everyone! I wanted to take a minute to give a quick update on the project and on plans for this week. For the project itself, I was really hoping to have this finished and ready to hand out at the start of this week but we've hit a small snag that I'm trying to iron out. As it stands right now 4/5 chapters of the book are finished and ready to go. The final chapter, the one shot adventure, is still waiting on its last round of editing. Once that is wrapped, I can get it placed alongside the art and then this project is finished. I'll continue pushing to get the editing finished as soon as possible so we can get this wrapped. 

In the meantime, for this week, it's GenCon! And I'll be there helping Zac to represent the World of Game Design booth. I'll be working at the booth Thursday and running games the rest of the week. If you're up there, feel free to stop in and say hi! We'd love to see you. 

Also, because the book is almost finished and I want to share some of what it's looking like, here are a few screenshots from the various chapters.