Update 17: Biweekly Progress Report
5 months ago
– Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 06:59:06 AM
Dungeoneers,
We accidentally missed a week due to family vacation brain, so we're back in the saddle this week with another campaign update! There's not a ton of newness, but there are a few things worth mentioning, so let's get into it!
Pledge Manager & Survey: 100% Complete
- A small handful (less than 7) of people still need to fill out the survey. I've sent reminders to do so this morning, so please check your email if you haven't gotten your files!
-
The cutoff for filling out the survey will be Monday, July 1 - exactly four weeks from today. If you don't complete the survey by then, you'll unlikely be in the initial shipping wave. This may increase your shipping costs, so please try to complete the survey before then or contact me if you haven't already filled it out!
Dungeoneering: Catalysts Book Progress: 100% Complete
- The book is finished! The PDF has been uploaded to BackerKit and is included in your digital downloads if your tier allows for it. Your survey has also been filled out.
- The books are here! And they look great!
The Great Spellcheck Survey: 100% Complete
- The Great Spellcheck Survey for Dungeoneering: Catalysts is closed! Thankfully, no errors were reported!
The Starlit Spire: 10% Complete (read below)
From the
last update,
I returned to the drawing board after some helpful playtesting, which made me realize my adventure was kind of s***. From that update, here's the new timeline for the adventure:
-
Starlit Spire PDF: September 2024
-
Starlit Spire Print Production: October 2024
-
Physical Fulfillment: October 2024-December 2024
That said, I've been playing around with some ideas, and so far, some stuff has stuck in a big way. Mostly, these things are a little too chaotic and in flux for me to share entirely, but I'm really happy with where its ended up. In the coming weeks I'll share more, including some screengrabs and the complete table of contents once that's patched in.
Thanks again for your patience with this! I know it can be frustrating waiting for the product you backed, but I'm confident this rewrite will result in a better adventure that's more fun at your table (and worth your money)!
Physical Fulfillment: 50% Complete (+10% from last update)
- Dungeoneering: Catalysts books are here (see pictures in the Catalysts section of the update)!
That's it for me. I'm looking forward to the next update towards the middle of July.
- Nate
Update 16: Biweekly Progress Update
6 months ago
– Mon, Jun 03, 2024 at 01:05:36 PM
Dungeoneers,
Since our last update, quite a number of big changes have happened! Some very exciting, some very annoying, all necessary. So, let's get into it!
Pledge Manager & Survey: 100% Complete
- There's a small handful (less than 10) people who still need to fill out the survey. I've sent reminders to do so this morning, so please check your email if you haven't gotten your files!
-
The cutoff for filling out the survey will be Monday, July 1 - exactly four weeks from today. If you don't fill out the survey by then, it's unlikely you'll be in the initial shipping wave. This may increase your shipping costs, so please try to fill out the survey before then or reach out to me if you haven't already filled it out!
Dungeoneering: Catalysts Book Progress: 100% Complete
- The book is finished! PDF is uploaded to BackerKit and it is a part of your digital downloads, if included in your tier and your survey is filled out.
- The books are here! And they look great!
The Great Spellcheck Survey: 100% Complete
- The Great Spellcheck Survey for Dungeoneering: Catalysts is closed! Thankfully, no errors reported!
The Starlit Spire: ??% Complete (read below)
I had the opportunity to run two sessions of the Starlit Spire over the past week / weekend with two different groups. Players created characters using the Dungeoneering system (in one party was a Warrior, Troubadour, Alchemist, and Berserker - another party was a Magician, Knight, Necromancer, and Sorcerer) and we started in two different locations (the Surface and the Archives). Each session was about 3 hours long, both parties made significant progress through multiple levels, and by the end of both sessions I had the worst thought I could imagine: this isn't very fun.
I find it important that I'm completely transparent with you, dungeoneers, as you ultimately are paying for this product. It should be as good as it can be, for the price point its listed as. Right now, I don't feel like it's that. Let me explain:
- While I was running it I kept coming across situations I wanted to improve, or situations I didn't feel would punch hard enough.
- The reasoning for the factions to be where they were didn't seem strong enough in play and were overall confusing between the two human groups (the Aethern and the Starborn).
- We had a handful of Stone Memories found as well as a Corruption, which were cool but in a way that made everyone else at the table feel like they were waiting to find their own Stone Memories or Corruptions, rather than get involved in faction shenanigans.
- The rooms were interesting and I wrote exciting encounters for them, but everything felt very static - it didn't seem like the players overall had a big say as to what or how things were happening in the Starlit Spire at all.
- The big reason the Starlit Spire exists felt like it had little sway over the area, despite it being the origin of more than half the factions being here in the first place.
- The overall design of the book left a lot to be desired for me. I tried to mirror the style in Nine Tombs, but this is a very different adventure than that. The end result is a book that feels difficult to read and, more importantly, actually parse.
So, I sat with what I had for a few days trying to figure out what I should do: polish up a few egregious problems and send out a mediocre adventure or push the adventure deadline back a while to account for what I wanted to do: rewrite major portions of the adventure.
I opted for the latter. Like I said, your money paid for this - you should get your money's worth. That being said, the new proposed timeline is as follows for fulfillment and delivery of everything:
-
Starlit Spire PDF: September 2024
-
Starlit Spire Print Production: October 2024
-
Physical Fulfillment: October 2024-December 2024
Thankfully, you'll notice that the physical fulfillment timeline is ultimately unchanged. Because of the vendor planning earlier in the campaign, I'm able to get the zines to me and GamesQuest a week or two after sending the files rather than several weeks or months later. If I'm able to get everything printed in October, that leaves two months for fulfillment which should be plenty of time in my experience.
Ultimately, I think this is the right choice for the adventure and for the project as a whole. Longtime backers will remember that I've released some sub-par product in the past (the original digital-only Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar from 2021, before its total rewrite in 2022) and I absolutely hated it being out in the public sphere. I'm not some kind of wunderkind when it comes to writing modules, but I know a bad one when I see one - I do not want to be in that pile.
Anyway, this is very long-winded and I appreciate your patience as I move out the deadline for getting the PDF for Starlit Spire. It's the last piece of this puzzle, so once its complete everything should move very quickly after that. I'll announce more news as it comes in over the next few weeks / months. Thank you for understanding!
Physical Fulfillment: 50% Complete (+10% from last update)
- Dungeoneering: Catalysts books are here (see pictures in the Catalysts section of the update)!
That's it for me - look for the next update towards the middle of June.
- Nate
Update 15: (Bi)weekly Progress Update
6 months ago
– Tue, May 21, 2024 at 02:16:58 AM
Dungeoneers,
It's been a little while! You may notice this is now called
Biweekly Progress Update - there just isn't enough happening on a weekly basis to give everyone news each week. I'll be giving an update every two weeks or so instead.
So, let's get into it!
Pledge Manager & Survey: 100% Complete
- There's a small handful (less than 10) people who still need to fill out the survey. I've sent reminders to do so this morning, so please check your email if you haven't gotten your files!
-
The cutoff for filling out the survey will be Monday, July 1 - exactly six weeks from yesterday. If you don't fill out the survey by then, it's unlikely you'll be in the initial shipping wave. This may increase your shipping costs, so please try to fill out the survey before then or reach out to me if you haven't already filled it out!
Dungeoneering: Catalysts Book Progress: 100% Complete
- The book is finished! PDF is uploaded to BackerKit and it is a part of your digital downloads, if included in your tier and your survey is filled out.
The Great Spellcheck Survey: 100% Complete
- The Great Spellcheck Survey for Dungeoneering: Catalysts is closed! Thankfully, no errors reported!
The Starlit Spire: 80% Complete (+10% from last update)
- I'm aiming on having the Starlit Spire to backers by end of this month - so far nothing has really shown that can't be done. The book is for all intents and purposes written, but editing continues. There's been a few major rewrites as I've gone back through it and a few things that needed some restructuring due to ideas that never really panned out.
- Again, Starlit Spire is still planned to be officially launched into digital downloads for you all in May. As always, I'll keep everyone in the loop with these updates on its progress!
Physical Fulfillment: 40% Complete (no change from last update)
That's it for me - look for the next update towards the beginning of June!
- Nate
Update 14: Weekly Progress Update
7 months ago
– Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 02:58:39 AM
Dungeoneers,
Apologies for missing a week on updates last week! Nothing ended up getting done, as we ended up doing some pet-sitting here at the house, along with getting some new furniture and taking advantage of the warm weather to get some work done in the yard(s). For this week though, lets get into it!
Pledge Manager & Survey: 100% Complete
- Surveys are out! Please check your email for your invitation to fill it out. I've gone in and soft-locked addresses so folks can get their digital rewards (including the Core Rules, Wanderers, Catalysts, and the Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar). Starlit Spire will arriving shortly behind, in May.
- Around 10 of you haven't filled out your survey! Please make sure to do so as quickly as you can - it'll make fulfillment that much quicker when we get to that phase.
- NOTE: It is important you fill out your survey when the email comes to you. If you don't fill out your survey, you cannot receive your rewards.
Dungeoneering: Catalysts Book Progress: 100% Complete
- The book is finished! PDF is uploaded to BackerKit and it is a part of your digital downloads, if included in your tier and your survey is filled out.
The Great Spellcheck Survey: 100% Complete
- The Great Spellcheck Survey for Dungeoneering: Catalysts is closed! Thankfully, no errors reported!
The Starlit Spire: 70% Complete (+5% from last week)
- At a point now where the bulk of the book is written and I've gone back to do some major editing. Because of my writing style, I tend to work consecutively (meaning I don't usually have a rough draft, rough draft 2, final draft, etc.) so there's a lot of stuff in the beginning I'm fixing up and, in major cases, rewriting.
- This means Starlit Spire will officially be launched into digital downloads for you all in May. As always, I'll keep everyone in the loop with these updates on its progress!
Physical Fulfillment: 40% Complete (+5% from last week)
-
After much deliberation, I've found the printing company I'm going to go with for Catalysts and Starlit Spire. They're an online company I've used in the past to really great success. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to secure my local printer I've used in the past, but I hope to team up with them again in the future.
- This all comes down to lack of funds, essentially - the cost of printing locally, shipping to the fulfillment company, and paying their fees to get everything logistically figured out over there is just not feasible. Doing even local printers in the UK (that's where GamesQuest is based) is still quite expensive and I'd still have to end up shipping a bulk of them back to me for extra stock.
- Doing it with an online company where I can split international orders and domestic orders (intl. going to GamesQuest and domestic going to me is the most cost-effective option.
That's it for me this week - hope you get out there and play some games!
- Nate
