D&D 5E Modules: Tomb Raiders of Orek / Into the Royal Tombs

To the printer — and beyond!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 11, 2022 at 03:51:49 PM

Some good news before I head off to GMT Games Weekend later this week: Proof copies of both modules came back yesterday and as expected, everything looks fine. So we're placing our order with the printer today, which means that I should take delivery on the print copies sometime next week, which in turn means that your rewards will ship within the next 1-2 weeks. We're almost at the end point!

In the meantime, I have been outlining and taking notes for the next random encounters book. I'll discuss it at greater length in my very last update for the campaign, when I leave you all with a more detailed discussion of Ramen Sandwich Press' future plans. For now, I can say for sure that I have decided to break up my remaining writings on random encounters into three books, not two: One each for villages, towns and big cities. It turns out that there is more to say about villages than I had thought, and I would rather break up villages and towns into two relatively short books instead of combining them (somewhat awkwardly) into one big one. That way, I can bring the villages book to Kickstarter earlier than if I were to write a combined villages + towns book.

This does mean, interestingly enough, that Chance Meetings will wind up as a series of four books, when I had originally intended to write only book on random encounters! The waters do no run dry; instead, they keep refilling — rather like a toilet tank, I guess.

In any event, you will hear from me again soon. Thanks again!

Al-l-l-most there....
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 07:28:46 AM

Has it really been six weeks since the last update? Once again, you people really are too patient. I have to admit that after shoving everything in front of our art director, I set Tomb Raiders of Orek and Into the Royal Tombs aside for a bit (except to write up the Forgotten Realms ports of both modules, which are currently in layout). I have a couple of ongoing projects on my desk in front of me at the moment, and I also spent Labor Day Weekend at Gateway Con in Los Angeles, which invited me as a Special Guest. I always have a good time at Strategicon events, but unfortunately I left the con with a weird/nasty sinus inflammation that depleted my medicine cabinet for a week or so. And so that brings me to where we are at the moment.

And where is that? Well, both modules are off to the printer for a test print. So we're almost ready to order the print run — the test print almost never turns up any problems. I will finally close the Backerkit store on Sunday so that we can get a final count of how many print copies we'll need. If you want to make any changes to your order, this is the time!

I'm happy with the cover art for both modules — happy enough to tease both of them:

Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing these in the full glory of print.

That's all the news for now. I'll have more to discuss later, as we wind up this campaign and Ramen Sandwich Press move forward. And I'll post another update once we go to print.

Thanks again for your support!

On to Backerkit!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 18, 2022 at 04:39:06 PM

We're one week out from the end of the campaign, and the machinery continues to hum. Maybe I've been through the process enough times so that it has become routine and I don't have to dwell on it. But I stopped to take stock of where we are this morning and I was surprised to realize that things are actually coming along pretty well. Into the Royal Tombs went off to layout yesterday, and in exchange I got a layout proof of Tomb Raiders of Orek for review. So it looks like we're very much on schedule. And yet I did a bit of a double-take on that — are we really still on schedule? Guess so. All right, then.

Also, the Backerkit post-campaign store is open. All of you will get the links soon, with your backer surveys. But in case you want an advance look, this link should work. Feel free to share it with anyone who missed the campaign; all are welcome. We're offering everything from the Ramen Sandwich Press catalogue at a discount, as well as some extras. We still have some leftover hardcover copies of The Book of Chance Meetings, our popular book on random wilderness encounters in 5E. These are not available anywhere other than Backerkit/Kickstarter; as a stretch goal for that Kickstarter campaign, we offered to make the reward print copies hardcover. We overprinted to give ourselves a margin of error, and now we're selling the remaining extra copies. We have also added tees and tote bags from Ramen Sandwich Tees' new Gamer Philosophy line. I'm particularly pleased with the tote bags — we found a printer that does good work and offers a nice, heavy-duty canvas tote.

The Backerkit smoke test survey will go out shortly, so a few of you will get your backer surveys later today. Everyone else, soon. Thanks again for your support!

Ding! Ding! Ding!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 05:24:22 PM

I'm starting to write this when there are still 3 minutes left, but the message will remain the same no matter what happens in that time: Thank you to all of you who came out and backed this campaign! I'm looking forward to getting Tomb Raiders of Orek and Into the Royal Tombs into your hands. I'm still tidying up Into the Royal Tombs but I expect to hand it off to layout no later than this weekend. I still think it's shaping up well. The manuscript will probably top out at 12,000 words or so. This includes duplicating entries for new items that appear in both modules, but Into the Royal Tombs will also have a unique new creature — if you ever wondered how an undead mastiff would stat out, you'll find out soon.

Now, once the confetti settles, Kickstarter will collect your pledges, so please make sure that your credit card information on file is up to date. Makes things easier on everyone involved.

For my part, I will get the Backerkit store ready and I plan to have it open late next week. I'm always a little confused about when it's best to open the store — Backerkit says we should wait until Kickstarter is finished with pledge collection, which means waiting two weeks. But I've never seen that there's any practical point to that. So I kind of compromise and shoot for opening one week after the campaign is over. At that point, we'll make the entire Ramen Sandwich Press backlist available to you at a discount, and you can add on to your pledge or up your pledge level, as you like.

Thanks again, and you'll hear from me again as developments warrant.

72-hour warning
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 08, 2022 at 05:42:36 PM

We are now down to that point in a campaign where Kickstarter starts counting down in hours, so I thought I'd post an update just to let you know that we're still on track, everything is under control. I haven't been sleeping terribly well over the last couple of weeks, probably on account of the humid summer weather, but fortunately, caffeine exists and I've stayed pretty well focused on writing Into the Royal Tombs. I expect to finish writing it about when the campaign ends — by the end of this week. Tomb Raiders of Orek is still in layout, but right now everything is very much on track.

I'm pleased with how Into the Royal Tombs is shaping up. The biggest challenge was always going to be varying the experience of each tomb, so that it's not just: "Force the door, kill mummy, scoop up loot; rinse, lather repeat." Between the traps, monsters, treasures and the kobolds, I think it will turn out all right.

Once the campaign ends, I'll set up the Backerkit store and I expect to open it up by the end of next week. I'll be back in touch once the campaign ends. Until then, I'm going back to work, and I look forward to getting a lot more backers before the end!