Index and Page Border Issues - Grumble
over 2 years ago – Mon, Feb 07, 2022 at 12:52:25 PM

So, a problem.

Because the index got very, very large when I decided to make it as comprehensive as it is, I had to remove the Stothtroll - an altered troll that appeared first in Dragons of Rosgarth. This has seemingly caused to issues.

The first is that though I regenerated the index, it would appear that the pagination isn't quite right. That's irksome, and I'll have to fix it.

The other is that I have to go back and re-do some of the bottom border work, as some of the art is meant to go behind the borders, but that only works on a page-by-page basis. 

Removing that monster to get a detailed index has had some ripple effects, then, that I must fix. 

I still think the index is worth it, but grumble grumble growly growly growl.

Ballistic’s Report for Week Ending Feb 4, 2022
over 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 04, 2022 at 06:45:35 PM

Two weeks since the last one, but a very important two weeks.

Why?

• I more or less worked something like 10 days straight, minimum 12 hours per day, to get the Bestiary preliminary Backer-ready PDF out on Tuesday.
• I did take a small breather, but I got some great errata reports from folks, corrected them, and did an update to the file. I didn’t send out emails for it, because those are annoying, but there will never be copies of the file in Backerkit…just the updated version.
• I’m still pending a few images, but I am informed by the artist that they are, in fact, finished and as soon as he gets home from The Land Bandwidth Forgot he’ll upload them for me. I’ve seen one of them, and it’s really fun.
• I went through and closed out all Backerkit folks with $1 pledges, or digital pledges with no pending charges. That leaves FOUR folks with physical orders who haven’t done their surveys. I’m going to be sending files to the printer on Feb 15, and will probably close out all Backerkit accounts Sunday night, Feb 13.
• We continue to run test-fights against a few of the apex monsters, a few of which are proving challenging to tweak out. Getting some really fun insight into monster design and rules interpretation (and a few things that were there all along) from Kromm as we go.
• Initial response to the file has been sparse but positive.
• One request I’m giving serious consideration to is adding a not-Norse name for every creature.
• Most folks are using the errata sheet like I asked. This is good as it keeps me sane.
• Paid the final licensing fee installment for 2021; SJGames did reasonably well by Gaming Ballistic in calendar 2021, I think. I hope they think so too.

Gaming Ballistic Patreon

To help with ongoing funding of art and speed eventual time to delivery, Gaming Ballistic started a Patreon in January 2021. Here’s the weekly update on Patreon status.

• Membership status: 63 patrons and $504 per month.
• Special Content: First looks at the entire bestiary. Insight into next projects. And invites to test-fights and other trials to help make things better.

Steady going and lots of help this month.

Gaming Ballistic in Media

• Rory Fansler wrote a review on his blog about his initial thoughts about the book.
• I’m planning to post a few test-fight reports coming up shortly.

Currently Manufacturing/Fulfilling/Shipping

Projects where hardcopies and PDFs are going out or scheduled to do so.

Nordlondr Ovinabokin: Bestiary

• Initial distribution of the Bestiary PDF has begun, with an update already posted. During the campaign, the files are always located in the Digital Downloads section of the Backerkit account for a person, and afterwards, when the files go to the printer, I’ll “comp” a copy of the PDF to all backers using DriveThruRPG, because Backerkit stinks as an archival “oh my HDD died” resource and DriveThru is better for that by far.

Crowdfunding and Product Launches

The Bestiary Kickstarter is in the fulfillment stage, at least the beginning of it:

• Initial PDF and one update have gone out to all backers
• The next thing that’s likely to be complete are the VTT token packs (not the full Foundry aid, yet), which “only” require all the art to be in hand, which is shortly.
• After that, I’ll have to spend some tedious time updating the spreadsheet with the final copy of all text in the book. That’ll take a bit (days, not weeks) but is required before the next two steps.
• Once the sheet is accurate, I’ll spool out and edit the formatted-as-cards versions of the creatures, and then get those printing. I expect to have the cards in hand long before the books arrive in the USA.
• Finally, as soon as the card spooling is done, I’ll work with Nick and Nose to tweak the sheet into a form that Foundry can eat, and we’ll compile the Module that becomes the Foundry Game Aid (Unofficial) support for the Bestiary. This happens last because while the other bits are MY time, which is mine to waste, I don’t want to waste a single moment of N&N’s time.
• Finally, I expect the files to be at the printer on Feb 15, and hopefully minimal corrections and adjustments from Feb 15 through Feb 22. Then ink is scheduled to start hitting paper on Feb 23. I have no idea if Life will throw a monkey into this wrench, as it bumps right into all the supply chain stuff we hear about. When the books are done, most will come to the USA, and some will go to ShipQuest in the UK. I’ll also pack up international shipment of non-book physical stuff at the same time and work with Nord Games and ShipQuest to properly import it. Then physical fulfillment can begin. I’m expecting it to be very expensive; we’ll see how far beyond what I’ve charged for shipping that it winds up going.

Product Announcements

The full Product Catalog is still out there.

I still need to update the catalog. It’s been that kind of month.

In Development

Writing and content creation for announced projects. Some of this may be cryptic.

• Inns and Taverns, by Marshall LaPira. Systemless. Revised tavern submitted on Nov 11, returned with comments in early November. Nothing since then.
• Two Warring Houses, by Douglas Cole. Systemless. Outline stage and writing, starting to get more ideas on this, and writing starts again next week.
• Nordlondr Bestiary, by Douglas Cole. Dungeon Fantasy RPG. See above, workin’ hard.
• Secret Stuff: I’m in communication with other authors and working on my own ideas for 2022. Now that Bestiary is in the final stages, more of my time needs to go to creating new things.

Friction

Bits of news and items that put a monkey in the wrench.

• The biggest irksome thing is some of my apex monsters are getting bimodal feedback. Some groups are saying “wow, this cannot be beat” while others are finding “this monster is a chump that died the first round without getting a turn.” Some of this is simply approach to the game, and experience in taking advantage of every possible breakpoint or buff, some is just “yeah, oops.” But it’s an iterative process that very much turns on rules interpretations, which can be contentious.
• Well, it’s Feburary, which means April is around the corner. Time to start thinking about taxes.

Fair Winds

Information about things that move GB forward.

• Had a few great conversations with Kromm on things that help clarify monster design, rules, and philosophy for stuff. Been very helpful.
• Good conversations with one of my frequent collaborating authors about 2022. That shall continue.
• Still on schedule. Woot.

Calculated and paid SJGames license fees for Q42021, and it was a nice amount. Overall I think 2021 was a solid payout to them for TFT and hopefully it’ll keep up or grow next year.

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Oh, it's sweet but a typo, a little bit typo...
over 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 03, 2022 at 12:44:35 AM

I've sent out a new file, with a bunch of small fixes, but mostly because I did a search for it's and tried to check every single instance.

I have a muscle-memory quirk where when I type i-t-s my pinky almost always hits the apostrophe, even if it doesn't belong there. Maybe especially when it doesn't belong there. 

So I tried to go through and fix them all. It's still possible I missed some, but hopefully I squashed this one.

Other fixes include a fairly substantial adjustment to the Ylirkottur. It started in my head as a SM +1 creature, the reference art made it the size of a hillside, towering over trees, and then the artist and I revised it to be more like the size of a bus (SM +4). But I never revised the stats. Fixed.

I do not intend to send out new revisions daily. But I did want to get this out because the its-it's thing is annoying to me (and to you), and wanted a fresh version there with that mistake hopefully quashed.

new file name: Nordlondr Bestiary Full Prelim t20220202

One More Day. Sorry!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 09:25:52 PM

I've made it about 25% of the way through a detail review of known errors, and I don't want to distribute a book with a lot of little stuff I know I have to fix. So I'm going to ask for your indulgence for another day to get that done so that the draft is as close to publishable (well, except for the Index and Hyperlinks) when you get it.

I'll send out a note about errata reporting, and what's errata and what's not when the draft goes out, but for now, I'm still making corrections to the individual entries, and it's taking longer than I thought. Some of the stuff is nitpicky but takes time to get right.

Bestiary Preliminary Distribution!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 09:25:50 PM

OK, well...here it is.

In your Backerkit accounts, you should find a file distribution called 

Nordlondr Bestiary Full Prelim t20210201b

All the monsters are in there with full stats, and all have been given the attention of several sets of proofreaders. That being said, there are some known things yet to be completed:

• I have some missing art for the eðlufolk. I wanted new images for this book, and they're being worked.
• The "game birds" section is missing art and needs to be composited together.  That won't take me long, but I wanted all the actual words to get done first. 
• The Index is blank. I do that last so that changes don't ruin the links. Indexing is tedious and very dependent on the text being finalized.
• Hyperlinks are unfinished for the same reason as the index.

The images are currently exported in "medium" quality. Once the entire thing is totally finalized, I'll spool out one more version at maximum quality. Until then, smaller files are better.

Layers and Layers

For those of you who like to print-and-read, I took the time to compress the information into five layers. From back to front:

Beige Background. This is there for contrast and readability, but it'll eat ink like I eat Tostitos. Turn it off for printing.

Borders and Runestones. This has the top and bottom border,  as well as the runestone graphics that sit behind ST, DX, and the like. You can turn those off separately.

Graphics - Knotwork and Images. All of the images, plus the decorative knotwork that frames the page numbering, are on this layer.

Special Border on Top Layer. For a few images, I wanted to run the graphic behind the border. This layer holds the border and knotwork, plus an oval I use for contrast on the page number, for those few pages.

Text and Stats. All of the actual game stats and the page numbers should sit on this layer. If you turn the rest off, you should have a bland but otherwise useable page. This is the most ink-friendly layer assuming you turn all the rest off.

Timelines and Deadlines

The book needs to be 100% done and be sent to the printer by February 14 at midnight (the printer's time-shift means it needs to be in their hands the night before).

That gives us about two full weeks to look for errors, typos, rules inconsistencies, and the like.

Heck, if you have a great fight at one of your games and have a suggestion to tweak a monster...I won't rule it out, but...

Errata and Tweaks

This book is close to final form. So replacing one creature with another isn't in the cards.  Adding monsters isn't in the cards for this volume.

That being said: there are always mistakes.  If you find any, please report them here:

Errata Reporting Link

If you send me errata by email, chat, a separate file, or a marked-down PDF, I may not see them, and I may not get to them. The link above allows me to take feedback from potentially nearly 700 people and sort them so that when 100 people spot the same spelling error, I don't have to keep checking to see if I got it. I can check them off all at once. Any other way ends in madness (for me).

What's errata?

• An error is something that's a rules mistake, unclear, an obvious typo, or perhaps gets a verifiable real-world fact wrong. 
• What it's NOT is "We would do this differently at my table," "I don't like colons and you should never use them," or similar.
• Grammar mistakes are definitely errors, but things like "never start a sentence with 'and'" or being grumpy at using casual language in a gaming supplement are likely going to be left as-is. 
• One thing that's not errata, but rather a game-line decision, is that there are no point values for monsters or monstrous abilities. That's just how DFRPG goes. 
• If a critter is missing a spell prerequisite, you can either assume that it can cast the spell if it matters,  or that it doesn't NEED the pre-req to cast because as the introduction says, "Monsters Cheat." That being said, if there's room and a particular spell or ability is really key to use another, ping that as an error.

Finally: The DFRPG is not GURPS, and GURPS is not D&D. Don't cite GURPS as a reason why a DFRPG rule is wrong. A great example is Immunity to Fire - in GURPS, hard-stop immunity is pretty hard to come by because everything has points in GURPS, but it's right there as an ability on Monsters, p. 11 because in DFRPG monsters aren't built that way. Though many of these creatures bear uncanny resemblance to creatures we've grown to know and love/hate since the late 70's and early 80's, liberties have been taken, changes have been made, and passive voice has been used. 

With that in mind...I hope that you don't find much. I also hope you use the errata form to let me know when you do find something.

We DO Talk About Fight Club

If you have a fight-test you want to report on, please email me! I'll clean it up and publish it here and on my blog. 

If you have war stories to tell, join me on the Gaming Ballistic discord and tell them!