Hall of Judgment for the DFRPG: Now LIVE!

[DouglasCole]

Today we passed the backer count for my most popular kick starter yet, having surpassed 328 backers that I got on Dragon Heresy. Tomorrow marks the halfway point for the campaign.

[Wayne]

How are the print numbers looking?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Wayne

How are the print numbers looking?

We're still doing a very brisk business in print: over 200 physical books ordered, for an amazing (to me) 2:1 print:PDF ratio.

So right now, we're hovering on the edge of the first of two possible print upgrades, though the full offset printing would be pretty sweet, relative to where we are the first upgrade will take us through to about 750 books ordered and higher, then we switch to offset.

The first upgrade adds a month to the delivery date (which if I get my stuff together, still might be end of August due to shipping), an offset printing more like 2.5 months.

[DouglasCole]

Hall of Judgment hits $10,000; Print and Ship Commentary

A bit of an update on writing and layout, a link to the Nerdarchy Live Chat I did last Friday, and commentary on where we are in hitting "print upgrade" stretch goals.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

We're still doing a very brisk business in print: over 200 physical books ordered, for an amazing (to me) 2:1 print:PDF ratio.

This might be indicative of your audience, as the DFRPG Kickstarter was over 90% print. Of course, not having a PDF option right off the bat (something that surprised pretty much everyone) might have had something to do with that ratio. But it seems we were desperate for print.

I keep expecting HJ to be on the Daily Illuminator, but it hasn't come up yet. I sure as heck hope the Illuminati haven't picked the holiday for this.

[DouglasCole]

Character and Monster Templates taking shape

I've been working on the writing, which is now in the "I have something for everything" stage, and now turning to editing and converting from Fifth Edition/Dragon Heresy to the DFRPG/Powered by GURPS stats and difficulties. That starts, well, now.
The other big thing I did was structure the creature and pre-gen templates in InDesign. This was (and will continue to be) laborious, but there's nothing to be done about that.

In any case, here's a preview. Starting with one of the Pre-Gen characters that will appear in the book, using the Wrestler template from*Pyramid #3/111

Hall of Judgment: Sample Pre-gen and Monster layout

[DouglasCole]

Hall of Judgment Final Week


We're in the final week for Hall of Judgment, and there's been a lot of movement on the Kickstarter! We passed $12,000 and that puts us on track to more-or-less equal Dragon Heresy unless we see something, as Mr. Furious would say, "either very good or very bad."

Layout: Block and Tackle
I've been working really hard to pull things together, and the efforts are paying off. In quick-point format:

• Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch, GURPS Line Editor and author of the DFRPG, will be contributing the Foreword to Hall of Judgment! I made the offer to SJG, Steve pronounced it virtuous (his word!), and I'm very excited to have that going in there.
• John Adamus, editor extraordinaire, turned around my manuscript in*twelve hours, and caught enough detailed points that it was clear he got both content and copy. If you're in the market for an editor:*hire this man.
• I've got the first full layout pour of the document in place. So there's a page for just about everything that needs to go there. Title page, Kickstarter Backer credits, Table of Contents, Crazy Norse Words pronunciation glossary, Town, Journey, Dungeons, the Hall itself, Grappling, Pre-gens, Bestiary, and a bit of modified backstory for those that care.
• The PDF as-is, no maps, no art, no orphan text fixes, is 116 pages. So my delivery target for a print book will be 128 interior pages; likely the PDF will be 131 or 132 for spacing and facing for the cover.
• The maps are still being worked, but there's lots of time for that. Each is a page in size, so they're easy to plan for in layout. No delays expected there.
• The pre-gens are coming along nicely. The eight promised with the book are done. I think I have 2-3 of the backer-submitted ones in hand already, if not fully laid out.
• The monsters are also coming along; perhaps half done. The core 16 that originally came with Lost Hall of Tyr are finished, and the 14-15 more that are added with Hall of Judgment are next on the list.
• Fantastic Dungeon Grappling got another small revision and is looking solid.

I've got 22 days left until the deadline set by "we plan to release the product in August" promise I made in the April 1 announcement, and the PDF will be ready by then.

Printing
That leaves us with the print question. At this point, we've got 275 (ish) print backers. That's more than enough to get us out of POD, but not enough to drive to a full offset print run.

Wild and crazy things can happen, and I hope they do. What does this mean? It means unless we see a wild uptick, I'll be using a short-run printer in the UK to deliver 140gsm interior pages (that's about 93# paper; typical DriveThru is 70#/105gsm).

Because the printing is in the UK and the fulfillment partner I'll be using is also in the UK, I expect to be working hard on the shipping side of things. I'll probably know more in two weeks on that score.

Ask Me Anything
I'm working on a "final week Ask Me Anything" session, probably a few hours long, sometime this week. Not sure what that will look like, but I want to do it and take questions about the process, the adventure, and anything gaming-related. Or viking related.

Campaign Close Process
That brings us to the finishing touches.

The campaign closes July 14, which is this coming Saturday. I would deeply appreciate re-shares on social media, and talking about the project in general. The better we do, the more likely SJG is to want to do this again.

When the campaign closes, I'll ready and fire up the Backerkit phase, which will have a short survey to get your pledges allocated to product. For those not getting add-ons, is all you'll do with the "survey" is:

• Validate you're getting the product you want
• Pay for shipping
• Select any add-ons you'd like
• Answer a few questions about the product, and what you'd like to see next

It is pretty important to be prompt on this one, and the survey period will be short: Probably 7-10 working days.

Note that Backerkit does not set the pace for*digital*reward delivery. As long as the funds settle and there's no weirdness with payment (this happens every campaign; it's depressingly normal) you'll get your PDF on August 1.

So that's it! This is the home stretch, and while there's still work to be done, that work is pretty well defined at this point.

Grab your axe and shield, board your longship and let's finish strong. Glory awaits.

[DouglasCole]

48 Hours to go!

The Hall of Judgment Kickstarter is the first 3rd-party license for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, and one of the rare 3rd-party licenses that Steve Jackson Games has issued. It's over 400 backers and 400% funding and climbing.

What's in it for you?

• A Foreword by Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch, GURPS Line Editor, that should make everyone that's wanted to publish for GURPS sit up and take notice
• 20 pages of viking-inspired town, with festivals, culture, and adventure seeds
• Three micro-dungeons to explore: a ruins and two underground warrens.
• Five maps by MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal), ENnie-nominated cartographer. These things are unbelievably cool.
• The main adventure, featuring a non-linear evolution in encounters, not-just-combat challenges, and more
• Over a dozen sample characters; five or six are backer submitted at the Thegn of Your Own tier!
• More than 30 creatures ready to play with a new open layout for easy digestion.

This book is VERY different, and quite frankly, better in almost every way than Lost Hall of Tyr, from which it sprung. 128 pages (rather than 64), full color, awesome art, and layered and hyperlinked for ease of use. The print copies will be 93#/140gsm interior paper; fulfillment is from the UK so international shipping should be pretty affordable.

Finally: let's not beat around the bush: let me quote from the aforementioned foreword: "...it bodes well for Dungeon FantasyRoleplaying Game fans and fans of SJ Games products in general. We now have evidence that licensing third-party publishers to crowdfund content for our games pays off. That isn’t a guarantee we’ll agree to every proposal—our standards remain exacting, and we still prefer
people we know and trust—but it means we’ll listen. Intently." -Sean Punch

Please support the Hall of Judgment Kickstarter. 48 hours to go.

[InfinitePudding]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

48 Hours to go!

The Hall of Judgment Kickstarter is the first 3rd-party license for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, and one of the rare 3rd-party licenses that Steve Jackson Games has issued. It's over 400 backers and 400% funding and climbing.

What's in it for you?

• A Foreword by Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch, GURPS Line Editor, that should make everyone that's wanted to publish for GURPS sit up and take notice
• 20 pages of viking-inspired town, with festivals, culture, and adventure seeds
• Three micro-dungeons to explore: a ruins and two underground warrens.
• Five maps by MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal), ENnie-nominated cartographer. These things are unbelievably cool.
• The main adventure, featuring a non-linear evolution in encounters, not-just-combat challenges, and more
• Over a dozen sample characters; five or six are backer submitted at the Thegn of Your Own tier!
• More than 30 creatures ready to play with a new open layout for easy digestion.

This book is VERY different, and quite frankly, better in almost every way than Lost Hall of Tyr, from which it sprung. 128 pages (rather than 64), full color, awesome art, and layered and hyperlinked for ease of use. The print copies will be 93#/140gsm interior paper; fulfillment is from the UK so international shipping should be pretty affordable.

Finally: let's not beat around the bush: let me quote from the aforementioned foreword: "...it bodes well for Dungeon FantasyRoleplaying Game fans and fans of SJ Games products in general. We now have evidence that licensing third-party publishers to crowdfund content for our games pays off. That isn’t a guarantee we’ll agree to every proposal—our standards remain exacting, and we still prefer
people we know and trust—but it means we’ll listen. Intently." -Sean Punch

Please support the Hall of Judgment Kickstarter. 48 hours to go.

That forward IS exciting! :) I know I speak for myself and a few of my friends when I say I was worried that DFRPG was going to be dead in the water. :) So this is awesome. I am proud to have helped kickstart this project. :D

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by West_Winds

That forward IS exciting! :) I know I speak for myself and a few of my friends when I say I was worried that DFRPG was going to be dead in the water. :) So this is awesome. I am proud to have helped kickstart this project. :D

Agreed, maybe people like Ken Hite will be interested.
If other authors can write a book for GURPS and some other system to better leverage tier work that could be a serious win for them, and us.