Preflight Progress
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 10:34:04 AM
Dragon Heresy
Quick update this morning. Heard back from the printer, and honestly, for my first time doing offset rather than POD, I'm very pleased.
Only issues were too much "rich black" text instead of pure black (an ink management thing that can lead to ghosting and other issues), a pagination issue with the OGL page (fixed, and easily), them needing an actual p. 288 (my file was 287 pages), and two questions about the spot finish (some small lines that might not get coated well) and the exact color of the end sheets (a dull red to match the interior red).
Both of the last two will be addressed by making actual "wet proofs" and sending them to me.
But no color issues with images and no bleed or gutter issues. So excellent news there.
Hall of Judgment
In case you didn't know, the Hall of Judgment project, set in Etera, is going even better than I could have imagined. We passed $6800 in two days, which is even better than Dragon Heresy did!
This represents the first third-party license for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG by Steve Jackson Games, and I'm really excited to get that to folks. We'll see if the momentum continues into the weekend...
Success here helps the entire Dragon Heresy line, and the expanded adventure will certainly see the light of day in more than one form.
Monday Update - Printing Begins Today
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 01:25:03 PM
As you know, the PDF for the Dragon Heresy Introductory Set was distributed over the weekend. Pushing it out on June 17 puts it in about six weeks (44 days, in fact) ahead of the promised date. Am I proud of that?
Yes. Yes I am.
But I'm not done until the books are in your hands (and mine!).
Print Production
So, I set the final print files to render this morning, a process which takes about an hour or so to complete even on my Ryzen 2700X/GeForce 1070 setup. (I think I need more RAM and an NVMe SSD instead of my current one if I'm going to make more books like this).
It's a holiday in Hong Kong, so taking the extra day and sleeping on it let me make a few corrections to the text that slipped through (I got some advice on my faux-Icelandic from an actual Icelander, including the fact that what I thought was "leg-lizard" - fiðrildi and fiðrildar - actually translates to "butterfly."
Curse you, Google Translate!
So they're going to be renamed göngeðla, (GOYNG-edthla) which is "tunnel lizard." Which is what they are, so there we go. I also added the weight for deer ('cause they're tasty, tasty mobile meat) and a few minor stuff.
I'll spool out an update in a week or so for the PDF, probably about the same time I upload the PDF to my website and DriveThru.
Schedule Non-Update
Non-update? Well, I'm on schedule, so there's not much to change.
Tonight at about 6pm CST I will upload a roughly 200MB file to the printer's FTP server. They will "pre-flight" the document (which I already did in InDesign) and hopefully tell me that all my settings were correct.
And if things go wrong? if we have some errors on p. 128?
It's not too late. I can send single pages all the way through the proofing process. I, of course, hope to not have to do this.
Even so, it will be 4-6 weeks for proofing and setup and then printing. Somewhere in that 5th-6th week (end of July) the printing will be done and they go "on the boat" (literally, in this case) and will make the transit to the USA.
As noted, a smaller box will get shipped, also by boat, to Korea, where they'll be delivered to a fulfillment partner who does this sort of thing as a favor to indie gamers. There are maybe 30-50 books (so far!) that will go this route.
So another six to eight weeks after THAT, they'll have arrived on your doorsteps.
As always, I will endeavor to exercise Project Management Fu to pull this in if possible, and mitigate delays where it's not.
Hall of Judgment
I would do myself a disservice if I didn't mention that I've got another project launching tomorrow. This is the first-every third-party license for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS) from Steve Jackson Games, and I got it.
It launches tomorrow, and if you're also a GURPS player, you'll want to check it out.
More from Dragon Heresy?
Well, yeah.
I've got two self-written mini- or micro-settings in the hopper for Level 1-5 support. There are a lot of Level 1-5 options for character classes, races, and of course Feats that didn't make the cut that I will likely put into a chargen expansion volume. A fellow gamer and writer wants to do an adventure in my setting, with my game, and I'm thrilled about that.
I'll also finally be standing up a website dedicated to Dragon Heresy in the next few weeks as well.
OK. That's it for Monday. Hope you enjoy the game!
