Fulfillment, referee screens, and foil stamps
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 01:41:02 AM

Hi everyone,

So now it's really Wednesday and time for a full update.

Fulfillment Date

First up, an important scheduling update. Coordinating with the manufacturer and the fulfillment company, we've locked down the following date for fulfillment to begin: November 11th. So in just over a month, thousands of books and boxed sets will start winging their way out to you all all over the world!

November 11th is a little bit later than initially estimated (the Kickstarter says "Estimated Delivery: Oct 2019"), but this was unavoidable simply due to the different "windows" that the manufacturer and the fulfillment company both have, and the need to coordinate the two.

Referee Screen PDFs Sent Out

As I mentioned last week, the referee screen is finished! PDF download codes have now been sent out to everyone. (As usual with the download codes, if you can't find yours, please make sure you check in your spam folders. Gmail users, please also check in your Promotions and Updates folders.) I've ordered a test print of the print-on-demand screen inserts to check everything's ok. This normally takes a couple of weeks. Once the test print is confirmed, I'll send out codes for you to order the print-on-demand inserts at cost (or to order the inserts for free along with a universal GM screen).

I hope you're all enjoying the screen! I'm so pleased with how it's turned out — especially the 4-panel Peter Mullen painting, wow! If you have a minute, I'd really appreciate ratings / reviews of the screen (and any of the other Old-School Essentials books that you've got!):

• Click here to go to the Referee's Screen product at DriveThruRPG.

Possible Future Project: Referee Screen Print Run?

As the referee screen has turned out so well, I'm considering doing a high quality print run of it. This would be a full, standalone screen, as opposed to the inserts for a universal GM screen that will be available from DriveThruRPG. Here's an example of the kind of sturdy, high quality screen I have in mind.

I've been discussing this with the manufacturer and it seems like a very feasible project. I just need to gauge whether there's enough interest to make it worth doing a print run. (I don't want to have a big batch of these screens printed only to have them sitting around in a warehouse, you know.)

So, if this is something you might be interested in, please let me know in the comments!

Kickstarter Exclusive Leatherette Rules Tome

Now some exciting manufacturing news: I just got this photo in from the manufacturer!

Checking Your BackerKit Status

Lastly, a small followup from yesterday's update. A few people have asked how to check whether they've filled out their survey or paid their shipping fees. Here's what to do:

• Go to https://www.backerkit.com/for-backers and log in. (If you don't have a BackerKit login, you can recover your initial survey link here https://old-school-essentials.backerkit.com. You should then be able to create a login for future use.)
• You'll see a list of projects you've backed, including Old-School Essentials.
• By clicking on a project you can see all the details (e.g. what you ordered, your shipping address, etc).
• Check that your shipping address here is correct. You have until the end of the month to update it.

All for Now

More news next week!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

IMPORTANT: Shipping address lock down on October 31st
over 4 years ago – Tue, Oct 01, 2019 at 02:26:00 AM

Hey everyone,

I know it's not Wednesday, but I have some notes on an important topic that I thought warranted their own update: getting your rewards delivered to you!

Shipping Address Lock Down

I'm going to lock down shipping addresses in BackerKit on the morning of November 1st. Essentially, you have until October 31st to update any shipping address changes in BackerKit. After that date, it will not be possible to change your shipping address as all the data will be in the hands of the fulfillment company. So if you know you're moving house, please update your address now!

(I'll give more details on the fulfillment schedule in the full update tomorrow.)

BackerKit Survey and Payment Reminder

As of right now, 108 people haven't filled out their BackerKit survey. This means that I don't have a shipping address for these backers, which of course means that I won't be able to have anything shipped to them.

Also, 6 people's credit card payments have failed to go through. As these people have not yet paid their shipping fees, I also won't be able to have anything shipped to them.

So in case any of those 114 people happen to read this: you have until October 31st to fill in your BackerKit survey / pay your shipping fees. Orders which are still without a paid-up shipping address on November 1st will not be fulfilled along with all the others and will be delayed.

All for Now

More news coming tomorrow, including a photo of the finished leatherette Rules Tome and an update on the fulfillment schedule!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Black Box books have been printed!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 02:47:06 AM

Hey everyone,

It's Wednesday and time for your weekly Old-School Essentials update. Lots of exciting news this week about the ongoing manufacturing process!

A Quick Note About Shipping

First a quick note: judging by comments and messages, there seems to have been some confusion. Shipping has not started yet! No one has received any physical rewards. Here's the current rough schedule:

•  This week: Manufacturing of the boxes begins.
•  Mid October: All manufacturing complete.
•  Late October: Shipping begins.

(Those are just rough dates. I'll keep you all posted in future updates as the schedule becomes more concrete. And of course when shipping begins I'll definitely make that very clear!)

Black Box Books Have Been Printed!

The big news this week is that manufacturing of all of the books in the Black Box is complete! Check out these photos sent to me by the manufacturer... 

Now that we have the books ready, we've moved onto prototyping the box, as you can see in the second image above. (Not sure why she's got two copies of Core Rules in that photo...) Some comments on the box:

• It's going to be produced with really sturdy 2mm board.
• As the name Black Box implies, it's going to be black, not white like the prototype shown above.
• It's pretty deep, as you can see! The reason for this is that the five hardcover books stacked up come to about 5cm high, plus we're leaving some extra space at the top for you to fill with goodies such as: extra books (e.g. the Rules Tome or the Advanced Fantasy books), dice, character sheets, campaign notes, etc.

The Old-School Essentials Black Box is going to be a truly monumental gaming item!

Boxes Now Being Manufactured!

As I write this, I just received word that manufacturing of the Black Boxes themselves is beginning today! Here are some previews of the top and bottom "shells" of the box:

Referee's Screen Almost Complete

In last week's update, I shared previews of the info panels for the screen. I'm excited to now also be able to share a photo of the nearly finished final art panel by Peter Mullen! Get a load of this...

(See this update for previews of the other 3 art panels.)

This thing is going to be a truly beautiful gaming artifact! (Not to mention a highly useful accessory for Old-School Essentials and B/X referees!)

Next steps with the referee's screen:

• The finished art is expected in the next 1-2 days.
• Once the art is in, I'll release the screen in PDF form. Should be this week!
• I'll then send out download codes to you all.
• Setup for the print-on-demand screen will take a bit longer, I expect. I've never set up a screen product at DriveThruRPG before, but I imagine it involves a similar process to setting up print-on-demand books (which I've done many times) — I'll have to order and approve a proof copy before making the product available.
• Once that's done, I'll send out discount codes for you to order the printed screen panels at cost.

All for Now

More news next week!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Manufacturing of the first book is complete!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 03:16:17 AM

Hey everyone,

Gavin back once more! It's Wednesday and time for your weekly Old-School Essentials update.

First up, a little errata. There was unfortunately a bit of a mix up in last week's update and some placeholder text got published. (And it's unfortunately not possible to edit updates once they've been published!) Some of that placeholder text was supposed to explain my wonderful news that was somewhat enigmatically mentioned in the update two weeks ago. You probably got the gist of what the news is from the placeholder text, but I wanted to share properly this week. So here we go...

Gavin's News Take 2

I'm overjoyed to share the news that my daughter was born on the morning of September 5th. She was born significantly early (hence my unexpected leave of absence from this Kickstarter!), but is in perfect health and is growing quickly. She's in the hospital still and will be staying there until she's big enough to come home with us. My wife's staying there with her. I'm travelling back and forth from between home and the hospital every day. My wife is doing great too, following the birth. We're so grateful for our little family!

(By the way, the reason for the enigmatic update of two weeks back was that the whole thing happened so quickly and unexpectedly that my wife and I hadn't even had a chance to tell most of our friends and family what was happening! I'm sure you can understand that it would have felt weird to break the news in a Kickstarter update first.)

The Hole in the Oak Manufacturing Complete!

Now for some exciting news from Old-School Essentials land... The first of the 9 books that are being printed as part of this Kickstarter is finished! The manufacturer sent me these photos yesterday, showing the finished print edition of The Hole in the Oak. Remember that everyone who backed at a level that includes physical rewards will be getting a print copy of this adventure for free!

Referee Screen Reference Panels

A rough, work-in-progress preview of the reference panels was shared last week, but since then the final tweaks to the panels have been made. An interesting thing to note is that the content on the panels is (like the rule books!) modular. The first two panels summarise the most important info from the Core Rules book. The second two panels contain info from Classic Fantasy: Genre Rules. In this way, it'll be possible, in the future, to publish screen panels with info from other genre rules books, which can then be swapped out with the Classic Fantasy panels (or mixed and matched as desired).

This approach not only ties into the modular nature of Old-School Essentials, but also takes advantage of the intrinsically modular nature of a universal referee screen — it's trivial to swap panels in and out to tailor the screen to the game you're playing.

I'm just waiting for the art for the fourth and final screen panel to come in from Peter Mullen (see a preview of the first three panels here) and then the screen will be published! As noted in the campaign description, digital backers will get a code to download the PDFs of the screen and physical backers will also get a code to purchase the printed panels at cost.

All for Now

More news next week!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Production Photos!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 10:13:14 PM

*Matt here in for Gavin (shhhh don't let Luka know, I dont want the beatings again!) Here is your regularly scheduled Wednesday Update with bonus baby flair (Congrats Gavin!!!!!). Remeber Gavin might be in and out with for a bit and everyone can feel free to contact me here or by email at [email protected] . We have access here and on backerkit but not any Necrotic Gnome social media. So if you do have something URGENT feel free to reach out to Exalted Funeral (us) at your preferred social media, email, or carrier pigeon. 

Gavin's News

 Daughter was born earlier than expected. All doing well

Peter Mullen Cover: Last Chance!

If you want the Peter Mullen idol face cover on your copy of the Black Box / Rules Tome, today is your last chance! Fill in this form today. The form will be closed when Gavin wakes up on Thursday morning (around 07:00 Central European Time). See this update for more info.

Production Photos!

Just in from the manufacturer!

Referee Screen Reference Panels

work in progress

All for Now

Gavin