As the hours dwindle down to the last seventy-two...
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 01:24:01 PM
A quick update before I head out for the morning, since we're almost at the point when Kickstarter starts counting down the time left in hours rather than days:
We're almost funded! Tbh, I had hoped that we would reach that point well before now, but that's a gripe for another time. Right now, with less than a couple of hundred dollars left to go, there's no doubt that we'll get there, perhaps even before the, "The campaign is almost over, so get off your ass and pledge!" notices go out to the fence-sitters.
At the moment, there are 125 people following the campaign who have not yet pledged. Unfortunately, the numbers do not look good for making the stretch goal by the end of the campaign. However, I will remind everyone that copies ordered through Backerkit and through crowdfunding efforts subsequent to this campaign will count. I really want to make the stretch goal happen, but it's not exactly up to me.
As for the state of the book itself, I'm working on the second pass through Chapter 9 (Ocean), so almost finished with this round of revision. I'll leave you with another excerpt to tantalize you and, I hope, help convince those who haven't yet jumped in to do so within the next few days:
Another number
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 04, 2021 at 10:28:15 PM
Last week, I posted an update in which I confidently stated that, at just over 28,000 words, Chapter 3 (Forests) would be the longest chapter in Book of Hidden Paths. That should work out to just over 40 printed pages once it's all laid out.
Well, I finished the second pass on Chapter 5 (Hills) yesterday, and I invite you to check out the word count at the bottom of this screen grab:
Yes, Chapter 5 tops out at darned near 26,000 words, so it's almost as long as what I had thought would be the longest chapter in the book by far! That should work out to 40 printed pages. And so I will repeat that this is working out to be a very substantial book for the Pathfinder community to mull over and use.
The campaign remains pretty much where it was a couple of days ago: very close to funding, with more folks waiting on the sidelines that have pledged. If you've been waiting, there is no longer any reason to do so, as we're at a point where, at the very least, a normal end-of-campaign surge will put us over the top. The sooner you jump in and pledge, the more likely it is that Kickstarter will give us "You might also like..." placement, which will bring in more backers — and not only will that make my life easier, but it will make it all the more likely that we'll get to the stretch goal.
Briefly recapping a brief recap
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Nov 01, 2021 at 05:46:45 PM
Writing in haste to post a couple of bullet points that, in haste, I forgot to mention yesterday:
As many backers as we got over the weekend, we got even more who are following the campaign but haven't put down a marker yet. We have gone from needing all of the followers to convert into backers to fund, to a point where we need a third of them to do so in order to fund. All are welcome, of course — especially in consideration of the stretch goal — but I just want to point out that we now have more than enough potential support to reach our target. No doubt, many of these followers are waiting until the last 48 hours of the campaign to make their decision.
I know that there are backers who like to straddle the fence until they feel confident that a campaign will actually fund. As a creator, this irks me a little because early support becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, with the way things go on Kickstarter. But as a backer myself, I sympathize with why people do this; it's hard to get excited about backing a campaign that will struggle to fund. So I want to point out this should no longer be a concern for this campaign. We're almost there, and it won't take much to get us over the top. Might as well join the party now and help us toward the stretch goal!
The other thing I want to mention is a thing I should have done much earlier, but I just forgot. But considering how many new backers and followers came in just this weekend, maybe it's just as well. If you want to learn more about my background in the game industry and Ramen Sandwich Press in particular, you should check out Ep. 30 of Harold Buchanan's excellent gaming podcast, Harold on Games. It's over a year old by now and Ramen Sandwich Press' direction is obviously changing a bit with Book of Hidden Paths and Book of Chance Meetings, but it's still relevant. Harold is a celebrated boardgame designer — if you're interested in the American Revolution and you haven't played "Liberty or Death" by GMT Games, put it on your to-do list now — and gaming impresario as well as a podcaster and good friend of Ramen Sandwich Press, and he did a good job of editing so that I sound reasonably coherent.
65? Noice.
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Nov 01, 2021 at 08:44:29 AM
I'm going out for the day shortly, but I want to post a quick update to thank everyone supporting this campaign, especially those who gave it a real shot in the arm over the last couple of days. You have come from various points on the compass — not just Kickstarter itself, but EN World, paizo.com, Reddit, Facebook. Even YouTube — my goodness, you watched my video and you still backed this campaign? I'm impressed.
Thanks to all of you, we are now in a very good position to make this campaign successful — 75% funded and we're not even halfway through. As for the stretch goal, I'll just remind you that if this campaign funds and we can proceed with Book of Hidden Paths under a full head of steam, print copies ordered through the Backerkit store will count, as will copies ordered through crowdfunding experiments that we run after the Kickstarter ends (still aiming at Indie Go-Go and Game Found for supplemental funding).
I'll update the stretch goal tally late tonight. Until then, Happy Halloween!
Two numbers — and what did I get myself into?
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 11:52:21 PM
First of all, welcome and thank you to those of who pledged since my last update! This campaign still has well over twice as many followers sitting the fence as have backed so far, so I still feel cautiously hopeful based on the amount of attention that it has gotten and the potential for more backers coming in over the next couple of weeks.
I wanted to post an update after finishing the second pass through Chapter 3, the Forests chapter. I want you to note the little number at the bottom of this screen shot:
28,159 words. That should translate to over 40 pages when the book is all laid out. Just on Forests. Granted that this will be the longest chapter in the book — as was the case in Book of Chance Meetings — but still, it gives you an idea of what an undertaking Book of Hidden Paths has been, and the kind of resource it will be for GMs and really, anyone who wants to explore the material in the Bestiaries more deeply.
Also, note the number in upper right corner: 103 double-spaced manuscript pages. This is from the tail end of the chapter, so the total is actually 105 manuscript pages. That puts the 5-10 page papers I had to write in college (and then assigned when I was teaching college) into perspective. This is going to be quite a journey through the 2E Bestiaries.
At the moment, I am close to finishing the second pass through Chapter 4, the Grasslands chapter. I just need to figure out what to do with Kangaroos, which I somehow left on the first pass. Bestiary 3 describes them as "shy" herbivores, but they're still considered Bestiary material, and I think a kangaroo encounter therefore needs to involve more than, "They see you. They hop away."
