March Update (BOOK'S HERE. BOOK'S HERE!)
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 08:04:56 AM

Hello! We got proofs through of the standard and special editions of the DIE RPG this very morning. Wrap your peepers around these:

Nice, right? We're really glad it all worked out. Not gonna lie: we've had so many challenges through this process I was convinced the proofs were going to arrive on fire. But we're good! Look!

Without further ado, here's some fulfilment updates from Maz:

- We're going to ship a large number of these books to the US and a large number of them to the UK. (Currently they're in Latvia. Aside from the one I photographed; that one's in Sheffield.)

- UK, European, southern American & African backers: we intend to start shipping in early April, so please check your addresses now; we will lock them in one (1) week.

- If you're changing your address shortly please email us at [email protected] and we will hold your parcel till you're ready to receive it.

- US, CA and APAC folks: books are scheduled to take 5-6 weeks to make the trip door to door to Tennessee, but stuff can happen in transit and especially at customs; we will keep you informed.

OTHER THINGS

- Non-DIE orders are still going out in batches; you should receive shipping notifications when these ship out. We're expecting the bulk of these to be finished by end of next week; if in doubt email us directly at [email protected].

- We had some issues with Backerkit support emails not reaching us due to some over-powerful filtration, so if you've tried with them and had no luck, please get in touch with us directly

- US GM screens are currently being held in customs, but should be out well before the books arrive.

That's all for now. They're here! We did it! Now all we have to do is manhandle several thousands of the buggers across at least one (1) ocean. Wish us luck.

- Grant (and everyone else at RRD)

February Update
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 03:17:29 AM

Hi folks,

It’s been a tricky and frustrating few weeks. The bad news first: we’ve run into several more issues with material supplies and logistics, which mean it’s likely that we won’t be able to start shipping out orders for another four weeks or so from our last estimate.

Realistically, that means it’ll likely be April by the time folks in the UK and US begin receiving parcels, and May for everyone else.

The long version of why this has happened is fairly complicated, and relates to the supply lines for multiple different components for the books. Last time, we talked about how Covid-related issues were affecting our ability to source the right paper for our books - as a small publisher, even when we buy paper from places that aren’t affected directly by shutdowns, when the supply chain as a whole is affected, it can mean supplies we thought were reserved for us suddenly aren’t where we expected them to be. This can also happen with other materials, on very short notice - which is what happened to the bookcloth for our slipcases, as well as the special double-width ribbons we want to include in every book. We’ve also run into some challenges with the boxes for our dice sets, especially the Grandmaster ones, which were less robust than we were happy with.

In some of these areas, we did have a choice between using inferior materials (e.g. a grey cloth rather than a deep black or a thin ribbon rather than the double width one) and fulfilling quicker or waiting for the better material we want. We've decided that it's better to wait rather than release something whose quality we would be unhappy with providing you.

The good news is that we do now have new supplies secured for everything that has previously been challenging, and that the delays are measured in weeks rather than months. In addition, we’re getting new dice boxes and repacking all the GM dice sets, as well as laying in some stocks of replacements just in case there are any issues with the resin sets as they’re delivered.

Plus! The GM screens are on the move from Estonia to the US, and the stocks for the UK have already landed. We’ve reviewed all the proofs for the books themselves and approved printing for the internals and the standard edition covers - and if it looks like there will be any further delays to the special editions, we will get the standard books on their way separately, so that we can start to get parcels out to all of you.

And for orders containing non-Die products - those have started to ship out already. US and Canadian parcels will begin to go out in the next week or so, and most others should have already shipped.

We’re really sorry about the continued, additional delays; the knock-on effects of the issues we had just before Christmas have really hit the process very hard, and we’re as frustrated as we imagine you are by the extra wait. We won’t be starting any other crowdfunding projects until this is complete and the books are in your hands; in the meantime, if you have questions about your orders, or if the delay is too much for you, please get in touch with us at [email protected] so we can do our best to help.

- Maz (and Grant, and everyone else here at RRD)

January Update
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 18, 2023 at 06:13:51 AM

Hello! Some news:

You know that Coronavirus that was going around back in 2020? Turns out it’s still having some knock-on effects, and one of those effects is the way it’s currently ruining the international transport industry thanks to the way that China stopped functioning. This has caused some pretty sizeable delays in the paper being shipped to our printer, which means we have an updated delivery schedule:

UK: March

US: Late March/Early April

ROW: April

Dreadfully sorry about this. It’s going to be an absolute stunner when you get your hands on it, though.

Addresses for non-DIE products (that is: any other books or merchandise you ordered as part of the Backerkit) will lock down on or shortly after Jan 31st. Please tell us if you’re moving via email ([email protected]) so we can make sure our records are up to date.

The fancy dice and fair gold coins are both in America. Our distributors are checking over them and making sure everything’s up to scratch before parcelling them out.

Everything - except, crucially, the book - is finished! And ready to be moved around the world. But there’s that problem with the whole international logistics thing, so we’ll keep you updated as to how things are going as and when they happen.

Yours,

- Grant (and everyone at RRD)

Die December Update: Printing, Making and Freighting, Oh Boy
about 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 11:53:59 AM

Hello! Eagle-eyed observers will notice that I am not Grant; this is because Grant is currently coughing a lot and in no fit state to do anything strenuous like typing. I’m Maz, and I’m here to talk about fulfilment.

But First: Preorders Closing In January

We’re expecting that we’ll be locking down addresses and closing to new pre-orders in about four weeks, in January, so please make sure your address is up to date. This is the sort of boring task that you can definitely do during the holidays once you’ve run out of internet to read, and it’ll save time, energy and heartache later. If you think you’re moving house between January and April, please drop us a line ([email protected]) so we can make arrangements accordingly.

More Information Than You Really Want To Know About Fulfilment

So, with the PDF out, we’ve got seven main items to get to you (DIE RPG hardback; DIE RPG deluxe edition; Fair Gold coins; art cards; GM screen; resin dice; Grandmaster dice). Most of you will likely be mainly interested in the books, so I’ll tackle those first.

Both the hardcover and the deluxe edition of DIE RPG are in the process of being printed. What this currently means is a lot of back and forth between our designer Lone and our project manager at Livonia about the precise nature of the colour black; once they’ve resolved that, we’ll get proofs sent to us and we’ll be able to go to print. Rian Hughes, who’s designing the deluxe cover and slipcase, has also been hard at work and we’ll be liaising with him and with the slipcase makers to ensure those are as gorgeous as possible.

The slipcases need to be made after the books are printed, so those will be worked up in the new year. For print production nerds: we're doing with a Brillianta black bookcloth covering with foiling and a silkscreen print, so there'll be some intricacies to ensure the foil and silkscreen are properly aligned. We worked with Livonia on a similar process for the Heart special edition cover, so we know they're good at this.

Assuming things go to plan from here, we think the books will be shipping out from the printer at the end of January/start of February. From there we’re depending on the vagaries of global freight and international customs, but we hope to be able to start book fulfilment to the UK and EU in February, to the US and Canada shortly afterwards, and to APAC in March. We’ll keep you updated, obviously.

Because of the complexities of the book production process, these are actually the last items to be produced. As far as everything else goes:

• The art cards exist, and they’re currently with our warehouse; the next stage is getting them to the last-mile partners we’re using for UK/EU shipping, and getting a stack sent over to the US.
• The coins exist, and are in nice bags, and have been sent from Campaign Coins to our dice partners, who are sending them over to the US for onward shipping, along with…
• The Grandmaster and resin dice, which also exist and have been packed into boxes. The resin dice are due to land in America between Christmas and the New Year, and the GM dice will follow in early Jan.
• The GM screens nearly exist, and will hopefully be finished next week - we made the card thicker for these after seeing samples, and now they're nice and robust as well as being beautiful. Those are being split by the producers, FE Tootmine, and a batch will go to the UK and to the US in early Jan.

Once the dice and coins are in the US, a stack of those will be split for UK & EU backers and sent over to our UK/EU partners. We hope they’ll be able to wave at the books as they go past in the opposite direction. Then when everything is with our US partners, they’ll send a batch over to Australia for the folks in Asia Pacific.

I have drawn a helpful diagram to illustrate this, which you can see below.

That Is Too Much Information, When Will My Stuff Be Sent To Me?

UK and EU backers: hopefully February.

US and CA backers: hopefully late February/early March.

APAC backers: hopefully mid-late March.

Everyone else: your parcels tend to take a lot longer to clear customs and arrive, but we’re aiming to send them in March and you’ll hopefully get them within 3 weeks of sending.

Everything is being sent out duties paid, so you shouldn't have any additional customs fees to pay.

What About Retailers?

As per previous updates, if you’re a retail backer, please send us over an order form and we’ll make sure you get everything at the correct price sent at the same time as Kickstarter backers get their items. If you’ve not received an order form, email [email protected] and I’ll sort you out.

What About Stuff That Isn’t DIE RPG That I Ordered In The Backerkit?

We’re going to be working on shipping these parcels separately, starting in January. If you’ve ordered non-DIE things, please make extra sure your address is up to date.

Thanks And Happy Holidays!

If you’re celebrating, I hope you have a good one! If you’re on strike or strike planning, solidarity! If you’ve not yet watched Muppets Christmas Carol, please do so, they’ve finally put the best song back in the film! Speak in the new year,

- Maz, Kieron, Stephanie, Grant, Zach, and everyone at or near RR&D

November update
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 12:12:18 AM

Hello!

Firstly, thank you all for your corrections on the PDF. We have implemented those, along with a wide variety of other last-minute corrections, to make sure the printed book (and the updated digital version) are as smooth a read as possible.

If you go to your Digital Downloads folder in Backerkit, you should be able to download the updated PDF. There’s no structural changes, but everything is spelled correctly now, or at least we hope it’s everything. You should also receive a handy email with a link, but if you haven’t, go root around on Backerkit and track it down.

If you find any errors with this edition of the manuscript, and I’m sure some of you will, please keep them to yourself. Don’t tell anyone. It’s too late to do anything about them. If you feel they’re really egregious, wait until you get your physical copy and correct them yourself in pen.

STUFF!

We have some sample stuff to show you!

Firstly, here are the art cards. Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that we’ve already shown you the art card proof prints once before, and this is because the company that was printing them for us stopped printing them before our order was fulfilled. Bit of fun, eh? However we’re teaming up with our old friends Belmont Printing down in Northampton to cover us, and they’ve done a lovely job.

Secondly, the GM screen is here! It looks nice. We’re going to implement a couple of tweaks and then we’re good to start printing in bulk.

Thirdly! We’ve had notification that the Fair Gold coins have finished production, and they’re making their way over to join the dice for shipping to the USA.

RESOURCE UPDATE

RRD’s in-house designer Minerva McJanda is hard at work updating the player and GM resources to make them a) in line with any corrections you spotted b) form fillable and c) printer-friendly. We’ll let you know when they’re all done.

HARD COPY DISTRIBUTION UPDATE

We’ve run into some complications regarding our paper choices, which mean we’re now re-planning our printing process. The good news here is that we can be extra doubly certain that the paper we’re using will show off Stephanie’s amazing art to its best effect, and this also gives us some extra time to work on getting the best possible combination of materials for Rian’s slipcase and special custom cover. The bad news is that it’s getting less likely we will manage to print and ship the books to the UK before Christmas, which tends to be a fairly busy time for retailers regardless..

Given the number of books involved we’ll be working in pallets, which makes the whole process significantly cheaper (and we pass those savings on to you!) but also significantly slower (and we pass that waiting on to you!).

This is still an evolving situation, but we’ll do our best to speed things along while also making sure you get the best book possible at the end of the process. Transparency and communication are our middle names here at Rowan, Rook and Decard (you should see the birth certificate) so we’ll do our damndest to keep you informed about everything you need to know RE the timeline and production of your books.

That's all for now.

- Grant (and everyone else at RRD)