A modular adventure game in the tradition of the beloved 1980s role-playing rules. 100% old-school rules, 100% modern design.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
A personal note from Gavin
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Sep 05, 2019 at 02:50:43 AM
Hi everyone,
Gavin here with a quick update on an unexpected occurrence.
You know Kickstarters always have a disclaimer in their "Risks and challenges" section about "barring the unexpected", etc? Well, I now notice that I didn't write such a disclaimer in this Kickstarter. Nonetheless, the unexpected has occurred for me! (Unexpected events apparently having no respect for written disclaimers or a lack thereof.)
Without going into the details right now, something wondrous (and completely unexpected at this current juncture!) has come up in my personal life, meaning that I'll most likely be very much offline for some time. I don't know for how long. Some weeks probably.
So it is with my last gasp of online-ness for the time being that I write this update to you all who have helped bring my dream RPG into fruition. A few notes:
1. Imagine the lucky synchronicity that I wrote this very morning that manufacturing has begun! This means that Old-School Essentials is now at a stage where my input isn't required. Printing gnomes are furiously cranking up their engines, inking their presses, and unfurling vast reams of paper. This thing is being made and everything is well on track!
2. The dashing Matt Kelley of Exalted Funeral has gallantly offered to take the helm of this Kickstarter temporarily and will be keeping an eye on things while I'm away. (Thanks so much Matt!)
3. Please understand that any questions of a non-urgent nature that may arise may go unanswered for a while. Your patience is much appreciated.
Thanks for your support and understanding everyone! I'll be back in touch as soon as that's feasible.
Keep on keeping it old-school!
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
Manufacturing has begun!
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Sep 04, 2019 at 02:31:53 AM
Hey everyone,
Just a quick update today with a couple of topics, but one of them major...
Manufacturing Has Begun!
I find it pretty amazing to be writing this, after all these months of work since the Kickstarter, but the print files for the books have been approved by the manufacturer and manufacturing is under way! This means that we're actually 5 days ahead of schedule now, as manufacturing was scheduled to begin on September 9th. Hopefully this will lead to manufacturing finishing slightly ahead of schedule as well.
A side-effect of information being committed to paper is that any errors anyone spots in the books from now on will only be fixed in the PDF editions and will be errata for the print editions. Crossing my fingers that nothing major surfaces!
Credit Cards Charged in BackerKit
As I mentioned in last week's update, I charged everyone's credit cards for the payments that you authorised in BackerKit. (That is for shipping plus any add-ons you selected.) The vast majority of the charges went through (you will have received an email from BackerKit saying "Your payment has been processed for Old-School Essentials"), but some people's cards were declined. If you're one of these:
This could be because your card has expired. You need to update your card details in BackerKit.
This could be because the payment was flagged as fraudulent. You need to contact your bank to allow it.
This could be due to insufficient funds. You need to add funds to your card.
Failed charges will be retried weekly.
You can also choose to pay by another method (e.g. PayPal), if that's easier.
In order to get hold of the game along with everyone else when it ships out (estimated late October / early November), please make sure your payment goes through before then! Payments that haven't been completed by then will result in delayed fulfillment of your order.
If you've not heard anything about your credit card payment:
This probably means that you paid by PayPal (not credit card). PayPal payments in BackerKit were resolved months ago.
Otherwise, you'll have an email from BackerKit saying that either your payment succeeded or failed. If you're unsure, please look in spam folders etc!
Referee Screen Art Nearly Finished
Now, on a less "business related" note: I'm excited to announce that the final scans of three out of the four paintings for the referee screen are now in my hands! Here's a low-res preview showing how they look side by side:
3/4 of the front panel art by Peter Mullen
There's one more panel to come in still, which will be added on the left. I'm super excited to get this onto my gaming table! I think it will be a thing of great beauty to see this printed at full size! To recap, here's how you'll be able to get hold of the referee screen:
It's being produced as a set of print-on-demand screen insert cards by DriveThruRPG. (US Letter size, landscape orientation.)
Once the screen is complete (no fixed schedule for that right now), you'll receive a code to download the insert PDFs for free (to print at home) and to order printed inserts from DriveThruRPG at cost.
If you don't already have a universal screen, you'll be able to order one from DriveThruRPG. The printed inserts are then free, you just pay for the screen itself.
All for Now
More news next week!
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
IMPORTANT: Peter Mullen cover option!
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 03:21:10 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
PDFs finished!
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 02:14:44 AM
Hi everyone,
Lots of exciting updates this week as we enter the final stages of the project!
Major Milestone — v1.0 PDF Release!
We've just reached a seriouslymajor milestone: v1.0 of all PDFs have been released! Crazy as it sounds to say this: this means that the game is essentially finished now. A couple of notes:
Backer PDFs: All of you marvellous folks who backed the Kickstarter will find the finalised PDFs in your DriveThruRPG library.
PDFs on general sale: This also means that the game is now available (in PDF form) for non-backers! If you have PDF-loving friends who missed the Kickstarter, please direct them here to get the Rules Tome and here to get the Black Box bundle.
A Note on the Rules Tome Cover
You may recall that the pre-release versions of the Rules Tome PDF had a placeholder cover saying "Cover by Peter Mullen in progress". If you remember that, you may be surprised to now discover an Andrew Walter painting on the cover of the v1.0 PDF. (It's actually the cover that was used in the mockup images in the Kickstarter.)
I thought it was worth explaining a bit about what happened here. To be completely open: I didn't plan very well for the cover art and ended up having to change course at very short notice.
My original intent was to select a cover image for the Rules Tome from the panels of the referee screen that Peter Mullen has been working on. I thought it'd be a nice tie-in. It was only when I came to play with extracting sections from the referee screen art that I realised (at a very late stage!) that an image extracted from a larger piece is a very different thing to an image that's designed for use as a cover.
So I had to make a spontaneous executive decision on what to do. It came down to a choice between three things:
1. Use a Mullen cover that doesn't look that great (as it was designed to be part of a 4-panel referee screen, not a book cover).
2. Delay the whole project in order to commission a new cover. (With the manufacturer's printing schedules, this would probably have led to at least a 3 month delay.)
3. Use a different cover.
I went with option 3, choosing to use Andrew's dragon painting, which was the cover of the old B/X Essentials Core Rules. While it's not a new piece of art (which I'd hoped for), it's a great image and I think it'll look great on the printed books.
Print Setup Under Way
So the PDFs are finished. But what about the print editions of the game? Having finished PDFs is the first step to getting a book printed and I'm pleased to say that the next step — sending the files off to the printer — is now under way.
I sent off the first round of files to the printer on Monday and have been having some back and forth with their print specialists, ironing out any little problems relating to the output specs of the files. (I've been surrounded by CMYK, ink coverage, spot colours, DPIs, bleeds, and other such arcane printing terminology these last days. Fortunately, I really enjoy this stuff!)
The really good news is that all of the little print spec issues are now figured out. You may recall that I scheduled in a pretty conservative 2 week timeline for this stage. So we're actually ahead of schedule now, which is amazing. That means that I've got a really nice buffer now before printing begins on September 9th.
So we're completely on schedule for manufacturing to be complete at the end of October!
BackerKit Credit Card Charges
And now for something completely different... The moment which those of you who opted to pay by credit card in BackerKit have been waiting for — I'm going to charge the cards this Sunday (September 1st)!
I asked BackerKit for a bit of info on how this will work. Here's the full run-down:
Your cards will be charged in your local currency.
As the Kickstarter and the add-ons store were in Euros, the final charge will be calculated using the currency exchange rate from Euros to your local currency at the time of the charge (i.e. on Sunday).
The charges will be made via Stripe, so that's what you'll see on your credit card statement.
There'll also be a descriptor along with the charges: NECROTICGNOME.COM, so it's clear where the charge originated.
To reiterate what exactly you'll be charged for:
You've already paid for your Kickstarter pledge.
The charge coming on Sunday is purely about what you selected in BackerKit.
That means: shipping (based on the address you entered) and any add-ons that you selected.
Two further notes:
PayPal: People who paid for add-ons / shipping by PayPal have already been charged.
Change of address: If you're moving, don't worry. You'll be able to change your address in BackerKit right up until the books are ready for fulfillment. (I'll let everyone know in a future update when this is happening.)
Hopefully that's all clear, but please comment if you have any questions!
Please Rate and Review Old-School Essentials!
And finally, a request. Now that Old-School Essentials is on general sale, lots of people who aren't familiar with the game are going to come across it. One thing that really helps persuade such people to buy a game is the presence of ratings and reviews.
So if anyone can spare a few minutes to go through and click some stars or write a few sentences of praise at DriveThruRPG, it'd be much appreciated! Here are links to the books, for your convenience:
Preparing for manufacturing
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 02:28:25 AM
Hey everyone,
Wednesday evening (here in Berlin) is upon us and it's time for an Old-School Essentials update! Honestly, there's not a great deal of news to share this week. I'm working like crazy getting everything ready for print production, which is exciting work in the sense of it being the final stage of the project, but it's not the sort of work that I can really say that much about other than that it's going well. Nonetheless, a few tidbits...
Cover Files in Progress
Today, I've been poring over the print specs from the manufacturer and have started producing the cover files for the books. Here are a few examples.
Core Rules cover file
Classic Fantasy: Monsters cover file
Classic Fantasy: Treasures cover file
Final Read-Through
The other main thing I've been working on is a personal final read-through of everything. This is taking a long time, especially as I'm a pretty slow reader! I guess my slowness at least means I'm methodical, though.
As I read through, I'm making a few last little tweaks here and there, cleaning up wording and fixing any remaining subtle errors that I find (I think I've only found 2 so far and both were inconsequential). The only significant change that I've made during this read-through is in the introductory section of the Rules Tome. Sitting down and reading the book through from page 1, I noticed that the introduction was structured a bit strangely. To that end, I've reordered some of the intro sections in the Rules Tome and have tweaked some of the text to make it more specific to the book (i.e. a compilation of the Classic Fantasy material, rather than a modular game per se).
Final Art Arriving!
The count of pending illustrations is now down to just two! (And, I'm glad to say, both remaining pieces are looking on schedule. Tight but on schedule.)
Here's a fun piece that came in recently from Stefan Poag (who managed to sneak in one more before the end).
Worm attack! by Stefan Poag
All for Now!
Yeah, so like I said, nothing that major to share this week, except that everything's looking nicely on schedule for sending off the print files to the manufacturer next week to start the proofing process. Of course, this will also mean that v1.0 of the books will be published, which will mean this game that you've all helped bring to fruition is officially out in the wild! Hopefully next week I'll be able to report that this has all happened :)
