Project Update: Status Update!
Sorry you haven't heard from us in a while. Usually, no news is good news. I am going to update you on where everything is at, namely an updated timeline we have for manufacturing CYST hardcover and Xanthophobia.
Can You See Them? (hardcover) and Xanthophobia (both editions)
We've adjusted the story of CYST based on your feedback. We are wrapping up those changes now and then will go through another proofing process before we update the PDF in Backerkit. Dave is making good progress on Xanthophobia. We tried to schedule both of these products at the same, where they'd arrive here in the US for fulfillment at the end of September. Unfortunately, we could not make that schedule work. However, we are able to get both books printed at the same time with a delivery in Novemeber. We decided it was best to go with this schedule and get both CYST hardcover and Xanthophobia shipped together. This means that everything will still be fulfilled and at your doorstep before the holiday season! As with everything, PDFs will be available as soon as they are ready.
Can You See Them?, The Diner, Arcade, and Horror Softcovers
We already have The Diner and Horror Core Rulebook ordered and in our fulfillment center. Arcade will be done and proofed soon. As mentioned, CYST files are close to done and will be proofed soon. All of these softcovers will be printed at local destinations via with KDP or Mixam. We expect to have everything ready to go all at once (including the VHS sets which I will detail below), that way all you folks will be waiting on is CYST hardcover and the Xanthophobia versions.
Some exciting news is that we recently opened a new location, and now have plenty of space at our old spot to hold all of the books and accessories for fulfillment. This is where most of the DMDave fulfillment magic will happen. You can see pictures the stacks of VHS cases and some of the other accessories that we are staging. This room will soon be full of everything for this project and our team will have plenty to package up for shipping!
VHS Sets
Everything going into the VHS sets will be made here in the US. We're just waiting on components for them at this point, as well as the finalized Arcade. We already have a majority of the cases staged, and expect these to be ready to go with the other softcovers and accessories.
Additional Add-ons
Other smaller add-ons like GM Screens, pins, and so forth will go out on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you're waiting just for the hardcover and all you got was one pin, we'll wait for it to print. But if you went all-in and you're just waiting on Xanth, we'll send the pin with everything else. If you have any questions about this, let us know.
The shirts are coming from Printful, so those will probably ship directly from them.
Bonus PDF and PDF updates
Dave is still working on the bonus PDF that will be made available to everyone. We will post another update once we've updated the PDF file for CYST, or upload any new digital downloads. If you still need assistance with accessing the PDFs, let us know here!
We cannot thank everyone enough for making this such a great project, especially with your engagement and feedback. Let us know if you have prepped any games from the PDFs, I've been told that folks have already ran Horror at some local conventions! We love hearing about those games. Speaking of conventions, we will be at BGG.Spring in Dallas, TX this month, and then Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH. If you are there, feel free to stop by and say hello!
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Is there a possibility to add the DM screen, vhs edition, to the pledge? So it can be send with the physical books when they are ready? Thanks!
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I was kinda expecting this story to take inspiration like the movie Phantoms, The Void, or Rec(Spanish version). Video game inspiration like dead space, silent hill, or deadwood. There is a new game called the zone. I was thinking that to be similar to this, except more 80-90’s theme horror. This is my first time backing this type of game, I also just started dnd/role playing games. I’d like to hear everyone else’s thoughts. Or ideas they had for this. I mean no disrespect I’m just thinking out loud. Cheers
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I was looking to get the physical copy of the Xanthophobia Franchise setting, but I didn't see the Uncensored version on the Backerkit survey. Is it no longer available?
Project Update: CYST Hardcover + Xanthophobia Update
Happy Monday! Quick update on the production status of CYST hardcover and Xanthophobia. I talked to our manufacturer and they were able to confirm that we will have the hardcover of CYST in our warehouse by the end of September, and we can start fulfillment of those books shortly after that. As a reminder, everything else (less Xanthophobia) is going to be fulfilled before this timeline.
We are going to try and get Xanthophobia on that same schedule, but the deadline for getting the files to the printer is a bit quick, so Xanthophobia might be arriving in October. We are still working with the manufactuer on this schedule, but Xanthophobia either either be shipped with CYST hardcover, or shortly after.
Dave is hammering away at the changes to CYST and The Arcade! We will send out an update once the updated CYST PDF and The Arcade PDF are available.
That's all for right now, let us know if you need anything here or at [email protected]!
-Bob and Team DMDave
Project Update: Can You See Them? Revised Ending finished drafting... now in proofing!
Just letting you all know that I've added the new "heroic" ending to Can You See Them? that resolves it a bit more. It's another Chapter about 8 pages long and is pulled from '80s and '90s horror movie tropes.
I commissioned another piece of art to go with it, and it's in proofing, but hopefully, we'll have the new PDF ready for you by next week. As of this writing, our printer's just waiting on us to get the manuscript over.
I'll drop more information as things shake out.
Thanks again!
- Dave
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Is it too late to order Xanthophobia since I've already done my survey, or can I still make it an add on?
Project Update: Quick status update on all components for CYST and add-ons
Just got back from getting a ROOT CANAL (yes, it's the worst), but I wanted to pop in and give you an update on the status of the different projects.
Can You See Them? Hardcover and Softcover
CYST is getting a secondary treatment to adjust some of the expectations. The original set will henceforth be known as "the Director's Cut," and the new version will have a little more narrative drive for you. Thanks to everyone who gave us feedback.
Because the quality of the Mixam books was so-so, and you almost unanimously agreed to wait a little longer to make them a bit nicer, we'll be printing the books overseas to ensure that it has lots of nice little bits with them. Bob's coordinating that now.
Assuming no hiccups, those should go into production soon and be in their final destinations, probably by the end of the summer.
The Diner, Arcade, and Horror Softcovers
The Arcade is nearly complete. Once it's done, I'll have all these cleaned up and ready to go for you as a package. That way, even though you're waiting for CYST to finish up, you'll have these. All of these are printed at local destinations via Mixam or KDP.
You can expect these to start shipping relatively soon. We just got a new location we're using, so we might wait until we have that, but it has a full shipping facility.
VHS Sets
Everything going into the VHS sets will be made here in the US. We're just waiting on components for them at this point, as well as the finalized Arcade.
You can expect these to start shipping relatively soon. We just got a new location we're using, so we might wait until we have that, but it has a full shipping facility.
Additional Add-ons
Xanthophobia will come last as it was the last thing added, and I plan to have this printed overseas, too, so it's got all the fun bells and whistles. But I can't imagine it coming later than August/September. PDF, of course, will come out far before that—the censored version, that is.
Other smaller add-ons like GM Screens, pins, and so forth will go out on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you're waiting just for the hardcover and all you got was one pin, we'll wait for it to print. But if you went all-in and you're just waiting on Xanth, we'll send the pin with everything else. If you have any questions about this, let us know.
The shirts are coming from Printful, so those will probably ship directly from them.
Bonus PDF
Because the shipping schedule got backed up a little, I'm going to toss in a bonus PDF for everyone as a way to say 1) thank you for your continued support and 2) thank you for being patient. We didn't expect the campaign to do as well as it did, so it's changed our schedule a bit. So this extra PDF will be a way of saying thanks. I'll host a poll for it soon.
Let us know if you have any additional questions, concerns, etc. And thanks again, everyone!
Project Update: Third round of locking/charging order tomorrow!
Thanks so much for the feedback on our CYST hardcover fulfillment poll! We are gathering a quote from our manufacturing and making sure we can fit into that 4-6 month schedule. Once we have an official decision, you'll see an update from us!
Quick reminder that we are locking down and charging cards again tomorrow at 11 AM EST. We are at 86% of surveys completed, only about 139 more to go!
Thanks everyone, that's all for now!
-Bob and Team DMDave
Project Update: Fulfillment Schedule Poll!
We are up to 86% of you have filled out your surveys! Great work, and keep it up. Also a reminder, if you find any typos or issues with the PDFs we distributed last week (CYST, Horror Core, and The Diner), let us know at [email protected] or here in the comments.
Thank you everyone for the feedback on CYST and to those who found a handful of typos. Dave is working through these typos now, and working on The Arcade and Xanthophobia. We are taking in your feedback because we want to make sure you all are receiving a quality product. So, it's poll time!
Originally, we planned to print books here in the US with a fulfillment time of mid-April. We received the proofs for CYST and showed them off at GAMA Expo in Louisville to retailers and distributors. The proofs look good and are well made, but they do not have some quality improvements like tailbands, bookmark, color end sheets, gloss/foil cover stamping, and smythe sewn binding. So, in short, we can make a nicer looking book...with an extended fulfillment timeline if we print overseas. Also, with a longer timeline, we will have time to add in your feedback to the book (specifically around Abigail not clearly being in Acts 2 and 3).
Simply put, we can fix the typos and print the book based on the proofs we received if we fulfill at the end of April (1 month). Or, we can delay fulfillment by 4-6 months and print overseas with the added in component upgrades, plus add in more of your feedback. Let us know in the poll below, and as always provide your thoughts in the comments!
Tomorrow, Dave and I are going to review these results and comments and make a game plan. That is all for now, looking forward to hearing from you!
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So I've read through the module twice now. All in all I really like the module. What it contains is a very intriguing baseline of a story. However...there are some issues I have. Firstly is Abigale. As she was kinda advertised as the a main pull for the module and I was very excited to see where that was leading. Unforinatly, she makes an appearance at the beginning with little to no information on why she does what she does. Then is majorly absent for the rest of the module. Then the next major section is basically just disaster relief. I really like the roll tables for what could happen during the aftermath of the earthquake, but I don't exactly see the whole situation as something a player would be interested in playing. Then there are the Glowworms and Morlocks. Both very intriguing, yet under devolved as enemies. Morlocks make pretty much no appearance till the final encounter unless you hit a very specific, randomly rolled, encounter. I think the glow worms are a AWSOME idea for an enemy, but um let down that the mod basically says straight up they are nearly unkillable and more of a McGuffin as as soon as you lay eyes on them you black out and move to the next act. The most baffling part of the module was the "antagonist npc" which is referenced several times at the beginning of the book, but only has one scene where he tell the party what's happening then the book basically just says "then use them to antagonize the PCs." Which...I dont really know what to do with that honestly. The ending...ends right when I think things are about to get good. And no explanation for what the hell just happened to everyone. It feels as if...the PCs are not the main characters. It reminds me of like the characters in a found footage movie, like Cloverfield, simply going through the motions to survive as crazy shit happening adjacent to them. The story happens around the characters and not to them. I don't know... I really enjoy what content it has, I'm happy to have backed the project, and I deffinatly plan on running it. But I will have to do some work to do so. Creating my own story for connecting the Abigale scene with the rest of the story, adding in some more "wierd and horror themed" encounters, probably add in a way that the PC can fight and try to survive the Glowworms and rework the ending to have a more satisfying conclusion. Honestly, the way the game was advertised I was much more in the mind set that this would end up being a more "lovecraftian, surrealist, paranormal" adventure. I was expecting Abigale to be the main antagonist. Hell, just the name of the book, Can You See Them?, made me think this may have been a story about ghosts or spirits. The Diner I enjoyed. Although similar confusing about how things are suppose to work in story terms. For instance in the Mind Eatters one, at one point it gives a list of things that happen in each Act. And in one act it simply reads "one of the PC is taken over by a mind eater". To me, that's something that COULD happen sure...but to just put that in things that will happen this act...idk feels a little....half baked....I known I've said mostly negatives here but honestly I do enjoy the book alot...it just doesn't feel....complete. I am super hyped to get my hands on the Arcade, and even more so for Xanthophobia. Which is why I wanted to write my fully honest opinion. Not to try and knock you down or complain, but just to possibly try and help make Xanthophobia the best book it can be. Thanks. And looking forward to any future projects!
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Do we have dates for product shipping and shipping times by country?
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Hey! Checking just checking the PDFs and found a couple errata, any way to inform them in case there's chance to change them before printing?
Project Update: PDFs are distributed!
Happy Monday! I am happy to say that for about 78% of you, you can now see PDFs distributed to your Digital Downloads. We know you will enjoy them, and can't wait to hear about any games you run!
Dave is in the shadows working through The Arcade, so that PDF will be available soon. We are still on schedule to get the madness of fulfillment started in April. Abigail is watching us, we must hurry.
The next round of orders being locked down will be Friday. This also gives folks time with charge issues time until the next time cards will be manually charged.
That's all for now! Thank you to everyone, we love seeing the engagement and commitment to this project.
All the best, and game on!
-Bob and Team DMDave
