For the win!
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 01:30:07 AM
Well, yesterday I groused about how it's always better to fund early, so I can stop worry about it and focus on the actual product. It must have gone from my mouth to someone else's ears, because we just hit our funding target this evening!
Thank you, everyone, and it really is a splendid feeling to know that I can focus on writing and otherwise getting the actual product ready for delivery for the next couple of weeks. More backers are welcome and much wanted, and I expect we will get more. But the relief that kicks in when the funding level hits 100% hasn't gotten old, even after 16 campaigns.
Into the Royal Tombs is outlined, and I started committing coherent sentences to paper on Tuesday. It will be more like a straight dungeon crawl than Tomb Raiders of Orek, with a little something to discover in each room after you force the door open. But your party will be there to rescue two wayward grave robbers from their folly, so there will be some narrative drive to it as well.
Red Pencil Weekend
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Jul 25, 2022 at 09:01:37 PM
At last, some real news: Places by the Way #11: Tomb Raiders of Orek is written up and I sent the manuscript off to layout last night. Late last night, but it still qualifies as last night. I prefer not to think of it as this morning. I still have to sketch out the maps (there will be one for the village and a tactical-scale map for one of the locations), but the manuscript should be enough to snap our art staff to attention when they return from Comic Con.
The manuscript tops out at 11,000 words, which makes it somewhat shorter than most of the modules in the series. Even so, Tomb Raiders of Orek includes some new mechanics — two new non-magical items and a stat block for swarm of bees — to pep things up.
Also, I reminded myself as I polished up the manuscript that when I originally conceived of Places by the Way, I imagined them as comparable to the booklet-sized d20 mini-adventures that AEG published back at the beginning of the D&D 3E open license boom. I wrote a few of those, and our target word count for them was 5,000 words. So as it is, you're getting modules that are over twice as long as I'd originally intended. Granted, this is probably because I just can't shut up once I start describing something. But even so, I consider this fact and I don't feel terribly guilty about writing 11,000 words instead of 13,000 or 15,000.
Now, it is on to Into the Royal Tombs, which will feature mummies, kobolds, a liquored-up sphinx and two frightened tomb raiders who are lucky to be alive when your party finds them.
Pledge activity has plateaued over the last week or so, which is disappointing but not particularly concerning. There's still over two weeks left, and we're stalled just short of the summit at 90-91% funded. I'll be stunned if the usual rush to get in the doors over the last 2 days doesn't put us over the top with something to spare. But it's always nice to fund as early in the campaign as possible, because I can stop worrying about whether the campaign will fund and focus on the actual work of getting the modules ready. And of course, it's always good to pile on the backers as a morale boost. So, thank you again to everyone who has already put down their marker for this campaign, and thank you, too, if you help us spread the word and bring in more pledges!
Public Service Announcement with selfish motives
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 06:58:53 PM
Something I forgot to mention in the campaign description, and it may be of interest to those of you who take an interest in the official D&D campaign setting: Because WotC has opened up the Forgotten Realms to third-party publishers (though with more restrictive terms than the OGL), each Places by the Way module has a sort of doppleganger — a version that is set in Faerun, as opposed to being as setting-neutral as we can make it. We can only sell them through Dungeon Masters Guild, and they're only available in PDF. At the moment, they're marked down 25% as part of DMs Guild's Xmas in July sale. So if you're interested, now is the best time to snap them up! We can't offer them as a reward or sell them through Backerkit.
Otherwise, this campaign progresses nicely. Work on the modules continues, and we're 84% funded and only 5 days in. Thank you for your pledges!
24 hours in, and we're halfway home!
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 03:43:40 PM
I always like to post an update at the 1-day mark of a campaign. Even if there's nothing urgent to discuss, I like to greet the early backers and, if needed, round up anything I may have forgotten to mention in the campaign description.
So, then: Hello! Day 1 was good to us, as we are more than halfway funded after 24 hours. It's a good start. Welcome to everyone, old friends and new friends alike. If you're new to Ramen Sandwich Press, feel free to browse our website, and I would also point you to the Soundcloud link on my Kickstarter profile page. My friend (and longtime backer) Harold Buchanan was kind enough to interview me on his excellent gaming podcast, Harold on Games, at the risk of letting riff-raff bring down the tone of the establishment. It's a few years old at this point, but not entirely out of date.
At the moment, I'm still writing Tomb Raiders of Orek, but all of the locations are set in place and it's now a matter of fleshing out the details. Once the manuscript is polished up, I'll send it off to layout. Layout will probably start after our staff returns fromSan Diego ComicCon, and I will start fleshing out Into the Royal Tombs.
I'll post updates as developments warrant; those of you who have backed our campaigns before know that I don't like to flood you with updates, but progress reports and such always make their way out once or twice a week, or so. Welcome, and let's enjoy this ride together!
