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Happy Spring!
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Winter was quite the rollercoaster around the offices of Johnny Rook Games, so much so that I wasn't able to get a winter newsletter out to everyone. This spring newsletter is something of a combined newsletter and it's quite long. Strap a seatbelt on and let's get into it!
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[Note: if you are a part of the current Kickstarter, much of this will be similar to our last couple of updates]
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Wow, What a Winter of Woes!
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We had a good start to the winter with a successful funding of Kickstarter 4: Of Hunger and Lies. However, we just barely hit the goal, leaving us very little wiggle room for one of our most ambitious Kickstarters to date. All signs had pointed to a much more successful run, especially after a very good first couple days of pledges. We're still not entirely sure why it just barely funded, but that's OK, we still funded, and because we always try to set our goal at exactly what we need to make the project for the backers with some overhead in case of future problems, we can still make our project. Several other talented creators we know had a hard time funding at all, and broadly speaking, TTRPG funding for smaller creators was a bit lower than normal this past Fall and Winter.
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Shortly after the campaign ended, I got an email from Hal Zucati, the producer of the dice that we offered in the Kickstarter. He had seen a YouTube video that I made about the dice and wanted to clarify some things with me. Now, I had bought the dice from another retailer and somewhere in that exchange I misunderstood something, and what I thought were last-of-the-line dice that we could market as Westgate Adventures! dice were, in fact, still in production over at Zucati! Ultimately, Hal was very gracious to us and we can still sell the dice sets as Westgate sets, although we'll continue to point out that you can get the dice without the branding directly from his site at about half the rate that we put up in the Kickstarter. Our rate was set somewhat high because we didn't know what the post-campaign costs would be other than some loose estimates on packaging that we received and were not sure how many would sell overall. Anyway, a slight setback. If you were a part of the Kickstarter and did not see the email, we did (and still will) offer refunds on the dice sets if you wish. Drop us a line!
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In Winters and early Summers, I do some short-term contracting that block out most of my time for about 2-3 weeks. We had anticipated this time when the Kickstarter was created so no work on the project happened shortly after it ended while I did the winter project. We still put out an update to the Module Monster book before I went dark though, in order to have some new content for everyone. When the project ended, I went back to work on the project while also trying to find a new job as I was otherwise unemployed.
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Then tragedy struck at the end of January when my grandmother had a stroke and passed away. Her and I were very close. She practically raised me and in her later years, I was her primary medical care and transport (she was 93). Further, due to my longstanding chronic unemployment, she had been helping me financially for several months. The weekend of her stroke, I was able to get another short-term contract which I'm currently working through, so financially things are OK (barely) but the contract is again taking up all of my time (it's 6 days a week, 12-14 hours a day) so again, little to no project work is getting done and it's only paying the base bills with no additional for savings for when the contract ends. Grieving and taking care of some of the death aftermath while trying to work a break-neck project that pays very little has left me exhausted, to say the least.
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On top of all of that, on my one day off every week I try to get something done on the Kickstarter. About every other weekend has produced a different nightmare, from forced AI updates to various software that I had to figure out how to disable and refuse to pay for, to small personal emergencies, and the most recent being just this Sunday morning when my printer decided to cause issues. Ugh. I was ultimately successful but wasted the day messing with it. Instead of finishing my planned map work, you're all getting this newsletter :)
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Spring and summer are looking a little bleak. Yet, the module will likely be finished soon! Hope remains!
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Project Status: Of Hunger and Lies!
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Of Hunger and Lies development is ongoing but is officially on a pause until my current day-job working contract ends. It looks like I will have all of May and most of June to work on the module. So, things look good for getting the book complete. I left off the text with it basically completed but in pieces and without a completed maps. On my single day off every week during my Winter/Spring contract, I've been working on the maps. As of this afternoon, the maps are looking very good. I was in contact with our printing rep this past week to get updated size requirements and made some mock-ups today. It looks like we'll have a very cool two-map, side-by-side view of the main streets and the balcony/rooftop level of the area of the story. I was concerned that it might end up too small and that we might have to make two poster maps, but it looks like they'll fit OK on a single side of a single poster. The other side will be blank. These are not mini-scale though. We'll have VTT versions available later that can be used with minis, and possibly mini-sized maps in pdf that can be printed.
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The module has been extensively revised and I think at this stage I can happily say that it will now fully live up to its title. There's a lot of Hunger and a whole lot of Lies in this version. The original printing was mostly hunger-related and only suggested where the lies were. In the years since it was first published, I've run it several times and was able to bring all that table experience into the revision. I hope it really "pops" this time. Still, Of Hunger and Lies is a short but intense investigative module done in something more of a late 1e or early 2e style and it doesn't always appeal to older (B/X, BECMI, 1e) or newer players (3e+). There isn't a proper dungeon, per se, and there are only a few combats. It's a lot of role-playing, frustration, and running. Still, I hope everyone enjoys something from the book. I've added some fun fog rules, movement ideas, and ways to look at and run older monsters.
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Project Status: Westgate Adventures! Module Monster Compilation
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The Westgate Adventures! Module Monster Compilation continues its development and I have to say, I think the experiment is so far, going very well. We've seen some unexpected good sales over at DTRPG and we're hopeful that they'll continue. Who doesn't like some new monsters?
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The book is currently in Phase II. We had hoped to complete Phase II by the end of the Kickstarter period but it might not get completed until this summer, although the illustrations are already completed and ready so Nick and I just have to complete the text. The rest of Phase II include some additional wandering table monsters from the first 3 modules and two brand new monsters expanding on the ditch-dog from Beneath the Ghoul Lair.
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Phase III will then begin, which is adding the monsters from Of Hunger and Lies and hopefully getting the cover done. The current cover is just a mish-mash of images but we intend to have a cover consistent with the rest of the Westgate module line. Phases IV and V will then be on a hiatus until we see about our final reprint Kickstarter, Ghosts From the Dark Wood. Things in the world are so up in the air, we don't know when that final Kickstarter will happen.
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One of the upcoming monsters, the tul-mikuq, illustrated by Francesco Accordi.
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Tariffs.
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Oh boy, tariffs. I won't go into this at length as it's a complex and ongoing issue for all game makers.
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As of right now, Johnny Rook Games is OK in terms of tariffs. We are such a small publisher that the tariffs have a limited effect on us - at the moment. This could change at any time. We are mostly monitoring shipping rates and international shipping overall. Because we have only produced books through crowdfunding, we already have our product in stock with only Warrens stock being very low. We also never intended to reprint any of our Kickstarter revised reprint projects, so when they run out, they run out. If we have to, we can continue to produce books in pdf-only format, although part of our entire vision is to only make physical books. The Monster Compilation is a small experimental exception but even then, we intend to create a POD version when the book is completed. There are a few short expansion modules that we offered in KS4 that could see publication in pdf format, possibly as PODs, but this is only speculative. Right now, there are no solid plans on publishing those.
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So, everything is OK here at the moment, but how stable? Time will tell. We don't plan on going anywhere for the time being. Until then, please game on!
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Nilbog as illustrated by Nick Dante Rockers.
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Stay in touch! We'll see you this summer!
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