Dragon Heresy: penultimate PDF update
almost 6 years ago
– Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 10:38:05 PM
I am currently in the process of distributing what is likely the second-to-last PDF file.
It's essentially finished. I have one or two more tweaks I might do, but after a careful look-over of the file I just sent out, if it still looks like it should, I will upload that to the printer's FTP site . . . all 200MB of it (that's the 300dpi printable PDF; the hyperlinked PDF being sent now is much smaller).
This is what the book is going to look like, though. Oh, sure . . . the printers might ask for color correction, and things might need to be changed or tweaked as a result, but this should be the game.
As always: thanks for joining me on this ride. I hope that the product meets your approval, and I also hope you go tell your friends to buy it.
I'll give a rundown of where the money went in an upcoming post. I think net/net I went over budget by about $2,200 on this one, just to get as much art as I wanted, plus a bit more to take advantage of the bulk printing rate (ordering 1,500 copies instead of 1,000 because this is the very best time to order them because the marginal cost of the next 500 is quite low as you scream down the cost curve for volume printing).
Hopefully with a few nice things said online, we can rack up some pre-orders for print and PDF.
From tomorrow onward, it should be 4-6 weeks to get the book finalized and printed, and then another 6-8 weeks until physical copies are in folks' hands.
Final Week: June 11-June 17
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 05:30:41 PM
So here we are. The last week before the interior files get submitted.
What did we do, and what does that mean?
Production Process
We're really down to two basic tasks at this point: art insertion and proofing.
Proofing continues. It's a big document and we keep finding things. Most are small. Some are annoying. Much like Pokemon, I'd like to catch 'em all.
I need to regenerate the spells index and the monsters index, which requires saving a new file and doing a "local" index, then copy/pasting that into the document. It's no big deal, and right before the files get exported at full resolution for printing, I'll regenerate both the Table of Contents and the Index one last time.
The art is the last thing. I'm down to the last few pieces and these are easily accomplished by a responsive team (see prior gushing update).
The COVER is the farthest along. I decided that dangit, I want round-back rather than square back (think ACKS or Symbaroum rather than Shadows of Esteren, GURPS books, or the DnD hardcovers), and I had to regenerate the cover to fit the new template. Then the spot-finish files. That didn't take long, and the printing company is looking at them today and should tell me "yeah, these are good" tomorrow.
The hyperlinking is done. The active ToC is done.
I made a few usability changes to the style, so conditions are now bolded as terms of art. So (as an example), two creatures might have each other grappled, but one is restrained, while the other is only grabbed. Bold for game-mechanics, plain-text for plan-language use.
PDF Rewards Distribution
Net/Net: I plan on spooling out the PDF for final reward distribution this coming weekend. That means next week (June 18-22) your PDFs will be sent out, which if I can get that done on Monday, will mean PDF is 6 weeks ahead of schedule.
This also means I'll do a brief clean-up on Lost Hall of Tyr and Dungeon Grappling PDFs for those that ordered them, and get all of the PDF rewards out next week. I might distribute these through DriveThruRPG - at-cost downloads for PDFs are really easy, and the updating and archiving of DriveThruRPG products is just easier and better than backerkit.
Printing Timeline
As noted before, it's a 12-week process by design, plus another 2 weeks for in-the-USA shipping. So if the official "go time" for the printer is Monday June 18, we're on track for all backers to have their book the last week in September (by Sept 24). We'll see if we can hold to that schedule or beat it; there are 2-3 weeks of potential pull-in, and of course infinite possibilities for delays.
Still: I think you'll get the books in September rather than October, so that meets my goals of "on or before the promised date."
Hall of Judgment for Dungeon Fantasy RPG
If you like Lost Hall of Tyr and are also a fan of Steve Jackson Games' Dungeon Fantasy RPG (Powered by GURPS), then you might also like to know that some time ago, I was granted a license to convert Lost Hall to the DFRPG system.
This is the first license of its kind for the DFRPG. I am pleased and humbled.
That being said, Lost Hall could use some improvement. It is a fairly linear convention scenario designed to show off the Dungeon Grappling system for 5e and OSR games. When played as a one-shot or at a convention, it works beautifully for that purpose.
However, putting it into a living campaign it suffers a bit. Too many constraints.
Well, Hall of Judgment will fix that.
First, I'm updating the interior look a bit to clearly differentiate it from Lost Hall.
Second, there will be a lot more "agency" in the game, with Isfjall (in DFRPG parlance, "Town") getting a more detailed treatment modeled after the information presented in Sean Punch's wonderful "Caverntown" mini-setting.
There will be a new map, courtesy of The Midderlands' Glynn Seal, that will feature both GM and Player-centric views.
There will be no fewer than three new "mini-dungeons" to explore, to allow some things hinted at in the Lost Hall of Tyr version to bear full fruit in Hall of Judgment.
Monsters will be updated to DFRPG standard, with intent to not duplicate existing creatures. Pre-gen characters will also be provided, likely 6-8 choices.
The Kickstarter for this version of the product is set to launch June 19 (next week!), and once the upgrades are done, I will back-convert the new edition of the scenario to Dragon Heresy. If you got Lost Hall of Tyr as an add-on to the Dragon Heresy KS, you'll get a free copy of the new updated Dragon Heresy PDF if you back the new Kickstarter, and and discounted copy of the Dragon Heresy PDF even if you don't back it.
I'd appreciate it if you backed it, though.
Future Dragon Heresy Plans
I'm not even remotely done with Dragon Heresy.
I have no fewer than four concepts on the drawing board.
The mini-setting tentatively called The Citadel at Northwatch was given some visibility on the Roles to Astonish Twitch stream. It's a solid adventure with several connecting parts, playable as a sandbox, that is designed for beginning adventurers. It will likely fall between 16-48 pages, ideally 24-32.
A much larger setting project called The Hunted Lands will cover many interacting things going on in this very dangerous area.
A To-Be-Named third-party scenario, again as a mini-setting, will look at an area closer to the coast.
Finally, a player character expansion with more backgrounds, classes, and races is on the docket to fill out level 1-5 of all thing things I wanted to put in the book but couldn't fit.
That's just what I'm working on right now. There's lots more in me noodle.
Thanks for coming with me this far, and I look forward to giving you your PDF rewards next week!
Best Regards,
Douglas
Oh, wow. The art. So much art. Hire these folks.
almost 6 years ago
– Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 12:23:19 AM
I'm mostly jumping on here to say how pleased I am with how the art is coming together here. Every one of my artists (and I'll name them and say nice things later) has come through on schedule, and the art density in the monsters chapter is really amazing.
Some of that is clever photoshop work (or not THAT clever, since I'm doing it) with Creative Commons photos of animals. Still more is taking advantage of some of the amazing stock art - in particular from Dean Spencer and Rick Hershe/Fat Goblin Games.
But here's the art crew:
Roland Warzecha is not jut a sword-and-buckler fighter. He's also a high-end illustrator. He did the front cover.
Rick Troula did the back cover, and has worked with me on all three of my projects. He's also contributed plenty of great images to this project.
Juan Ochoa is the man with the lightning-fast pen. His work is improving all the time, and when he's on fire, he's lightning fast. He did the cover for Lost Hall of Tyr, and a lot of the images in Dragon Heresy are his work.
Kriz Villacis worked with me on Dungeon Grappling and is doing still more on Dragon Heresy. He has a very detailed style that really puts a lot of texture and depth to the images.
Eren Arik has a nifty combination of painting and rendering that he uses where appropriate to create wonderfully nuanced images. I goggled when I sent him some of my shields for inspiration, and very quickly the images showed up mapped to the art.
Elizabeth Porter works in line drawing and coloring, and her composition and feel for characters is top notch. Each figure has personality that comes through in posture and inking even before she puts the coloring in.
John Blaszczyk specializes in figures and creatures, and is doing a great job with the variety of pieces I gave him.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Michael Clarke, my amazing graphic designer, painter, layout master, and overall wizard with InDesign that has helped me come up my own learning curve on these issues. He's also got a fantastic feel for the Nordic knotwork, and a lot of what you see and feel in Dragon Heresy is his deft hand.
Everyone involved has been responsive and a pleasure to work with. You would do well to tap them for your own projects!
