RPG Sidequest Decks

Pledge Manager Launched & Progress Update
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 10:09:57 PM

Hello RPG Sidequest Decks Backers!

We've just launched the pledge manager, so look for an email with your link to it. (Check Spam just in case.) We did launch a "smoke test" to a lucky 5% of backers last night and haven't heard of any issues, so fingers crossed we won't run into anything major.

I've just made a video showing the pledge manager and talking about some of the nuances, but in case you prefer to read the key points, see those below.

• If you want to upgrade your pledge level, you can do that on the first screen of the process.  Look for "switch your pledge level".
• The first question has short descriptions of each deck that you may want to copy to have available when choosing decks on later pages. 
• Any amount pledged for add-ons will be available in the add-ons step where you'll pick the specific decks you want at that point.
• You need to answer each question before you can move on to the next step. (If your reward has 10 decks, you'll need to pick each one before you can continue.  For initial reward choices there are green checks as you answer each... unfortunately there aren't green checks when answering add-on questions--that was a gotcha for me when testing.)
• PDF pledge levels only have PDF add-ons.  If you want printed decks, you'll have to change your initial pledge level.
• If you pick add-ons your shipping may go up at the end. For the US & Australia, shipping is flat because the US has no VAT, and in Australia shipping somehow didn't vary much if we shipped 4 decks or 15. But in all cases we did discount shipping a bit for larger orders.
• If you have any questions or special circumstances, email support at inkwellideas dot com or send us a private message through Kickstarter.

And for the general project update:

• Our Coastal Town Sidequests have 55 of the 71 cards written & laid out, and 38 have maps completed.
• Our Frontier Town Sidequests have 51 of the 71 cards written & laid out, and 31 maps are done.
• The Pulp Adventures deck needs only 2 adventure outlines to be written & laid out, and 35 have maps.
• And our Monster Hunts deck needs all but 2 adventure outlines written & laid out, but only 22 maps are done.
• The 6"x6" decks will be assembled in parallel to the rest of the decks.

So I believe we're not going to get the printed decks out in July.  We were expecting to get the PDFs out early in the month, and the printed decks would come at the end.  While we did limit the scope by not adding extra new decks, we did add 18 cards to each new deck, so that did make 72 more cards than planned. (A completely new deck takes even more time than just extra cards in other decks.) The pledge manager set up also took a lot of extra time over the past few weeks which slowed us down.

I do still fully expect the PDFs to come out in July--but the second half July. The printed decks will be out 4-6 weeks later.  As a backer of many projects myself (and some folks have commented "quality over speed" about this already) if a project slides by a few weeks I'm not at all concerned, especially if I'm getting regular updates.  I hope/think you feel the same.  I have begun posting new sidequest cards to our twitter & facebook pages, so consider following those. Please re-tweet/share if you're able.

In other news, writer Josh Parry has a new Kickstarter out. He wrote about 1/3 of the Pulp Adventure and Monster Hunts sidequests, and you can see one of them in the recently previewed cards. Here is a quick pitch for his Kickstarter "Welcome to the Isle of the Dreaded Accursed! When the sea goddess Elvirath discovered that her high priest had become obsessed with necromancy, she unleashed her wrath. Her once beautiful temple was desecrated, filled with hideous undead that used to be her most devout worshipers. Ships founder on sharp rocks. Sailors are dying of foul plagues.  Powerful creatures from the deep are surfacing again. It has to stop. Somebody has to deliver the most valuable sacrifice Elvirath has ever received." It is a tier two adventure for the 5th edition of the world's best known roleplaying game.  Please consider supporting the project--I am!

Thank you!

Joe Wetzel

Pledge Manager & Status Update
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 30, 2021 at 06:32:17 PM

Hi Folks,

It has been two and a half weeks since the RPG Sidequest Decks Kickstarter ended, so it seemed to be a good time for an update.

• I hope/expect to launch the pledge manager (where you can pick specific rewards) next week.  I had hoped that it would happen late last week, but the pledge manager isn't as intuitive (to me anyway) as the last one I worked with.  CrowdOx merged into BackerKit several months back.
• Our Coastal Town Sidequests have 51 of the 71 cards written & laid out, and 38 have maps completed.
• Our Frontier Town Sidequests have 42 of the 71 cards written & laid out, but only 20 maps are done.
• The Pulp Adventures deck needs only 5 adventure outlines to be written & laid out, but only 13 have maps.
• And our Monster Hunts deck needs all but 5 adventure outlines written & laid out, but only 22 maps are done.
• The 6"x6" decks will be assembled in parallel to the rest of the decks.

In order to get the PDFs of these to you by early July (and then get the printed decks out the door at the end of July) we're going to get the two decks that are almost completely written to editing in the next week or so. Meanwhile we've got Andrew Shields dedicated to finishing the two town sidequest decks (by mid June) and myself & Keith Curtis working through the maps, even as the text of the cards is being edited.

Soon after the pledge manager launches, we'll begin fulfilling any already completed Sidequest & NPC Deck PDFs. PDFs for the new decks will wait until they are ready of course. Physical orders will all be shipped together when the physical decks are printed.  The goal for that is end of July.

Thank you again for your support!  Please post a comment here if you have any questions that you think many other folks may have.  (If it is an issue specific to you, please send a private message.)

Joe

Amazing! RPG Sidequest Decks Funded & Next Steps
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 13, 2021 at 07:48:53 PM

Thank you all!  This has definitely been our most successful Kickstarter to date & I know you're going to get a lot of use from the resulting Sidequest (& NPC) Decks!  

We didn't officially hit the last stretch goal to make the Pulp Adventures Sidequest Deck 72 cards, but because we know there will be some late pledges, we're going to do it anyway!

Over the next two weeks Kickstarter goes through its process to gather your payments.  (Occasionally someone's card is being replaced or something else goes haywire.  In these cases, Kickstarter sends you a message with instructions to resolve the issue.) 

In two weeks, we'll be able to send out the Kickstarter surveys to all backers.  Expect to get bi-weekly (roughly) updates on the project from us until we've delivered everything.

Thanks again for making these new Sidequest Decks possible. We're very anxious to finish them up, with quality, and get them into your hands.

Joe, Keith, Andrew, Aaron, Josh, & Misha)

Final 25 Hours! Here's how to help us make all the new decks 72 cards each!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 12, 2021 at 02:10:30 AM

I hope you're as anxious as I am to see where this project ends up!  We've already expanded the Monster Hunts Sidequest Deck to 72 cards from the original 54 & we've also expanded the 6"x6" cards to 54 from 48. But wouldn't it be great to make all 3 other new Sidequest Decks (Coastal Town Quests, Frontier Town Quests, & Pulp Adventures) 72 cards as well?  They have already been expanded to 63 from the original 54, but 72 is even better!

To help us out, please re-tweet this tweet if you can, or share this facebook post.  We've also posted on Reddit in case you're a regular there.  And if you've got another way to share the project please do!

Thank you!  I know you're going to find these decks very useful and we're excited to make them even more valuable!

Joe

6"x6" Cards Stretch Goal Mock-Up
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 09, 2021 at 05:12:58 PM

Yesterday, we blew past our $140K stretch goal for the printed 6"x6" battlemat cards for $25!  (And the $130K stretch goal before that to make the Frontier Town Quests deck 63 cards, at no extra cost!)  We're happy you're able to help us make a better product!  We'll have another goal at $150K to increase the Coastal Town Quests deck to 63 cards, and another $10K after that to make the Pulp Adventures deck 63 cards as well. (We're basing the order of these goals on the poll results from one of our early updates.) And we'll have further stretch goals to make them each 72 cards like the Monster Hunts deck. (That stretch goal was placed first based on poll results.)

For this most recent stretch goal, it is a whole new deck so you must increase your pledge to get it.  (You will be able to increase it through the pledge manager later as well.)  For $25 we're committing to making a deck of at least 48 of these Battlemat scale (1" = 5' in real life) connectable maps.  Here is a digital mock-up of 12 of them (4 across by 3 high):

The cards will be double sided where the back is the second story of the front.  If a building is one story, the back will have a street on it (some simple straight pieces, some intersections, etc.) Some buildings will fit on one card, others that are more than 25' in either dimension will take 2 or more cards. (The inn above is 4 cards--and the backs have the second floor.)  If we don't have enough streets (not enough 1 story buildings) a few cards will be streets only.  The cards will be 16pt/340gsm thick (12% thicker than our other cards or Magic The Gathering cards if you don't yet have any of ours.)

We've now added this as another add-on that you can pick when you pledge (or go to the "Manage Your Pledge" link at the top of the RPG Sidequest Decks Kickstarter pages when you are logged in to select it as an option).  You'll also be able to add it after the Kickstarter via the pledge manager, but any funding after the Kickstarter doesn't help us hit further stretch goals.

If you're getting either Town Sidequest Deck, you'll get the Digital version of these at no extra cost.

Thanks again for your support!

Joe