To reiterate the last update, the original print run arrived and everything was off by 1 page, thereby ruining every single page spread. Where a two-page map would be visible on a single spread, it was cut across a page turn, as the same for every spread that should contain a single room without a page flip.
To me, and I think to any GM, this would greatly impact the actual usability of the book. The intended page layout was something that I was very specific about in my emails with the printer and they appeared to understand. However, when I found the error, I was essentially told "you should have known that our preview didn't include the page adjustment caused by the end sheets and wasn't accurate". After a couple weeks of back and forth, I've given up working with that company. There goes about $3.5k and now I'm putting 800 copies of a misprinted book into the trash (well, the recycling).
Good News
So now I'm working with a new company and have just signed a purchase order. This one will supply a physical print proof copy prior to the print run, whereas the other would not. Trust but verify is important! I gave the previous company a pass based on solid recommendations but that was obviously not the right choice. Hindsight is 20-20.
This new company seems solid, but to compensate for the lost deposit money on the first print run, I'm having to print in China and do a smaller print run. Otherwise, I'd end up losing money on this. Additionally, printing this way is much slower. I likely won't get the books until November or December. So I'll do my best to get everyone their books by Christmas. This is the only time I've ever been delayed on a crowdfunding effort like this and its not fun to break the promise that I made to all of you about the timeframe in which you would get what you've paid for.
But I'm committed to getting everyone what they paid for, and at the quality that they paid for. To attempt to make it up to you for the delays, I'm going to get everyone a bonus adventure: The Corpulent Prophet. This was a stretch goal, but the adventure has actually been run a couple of times and is mostly done except for finalizing stat blocks and editing. The art on this will be somewhat minimal (see the above impact to budget), but I think it's the best way that I can apologize for the delays. This will be released as a PDF to backers. The print company needs files about 3 months ahead of time so it's unfeasible to make it apart of the main book. It may be later released as a product for sale, but backers will get it for free.
I've learned a lot about the process of working with a traditional printing company (I've primarily printed through Mixam before). So the silver lining is that I'm much better informed about the future of printing large, hardcover books. Originally, I'd planned to be done with this by now and instead be promoting my next release at this point in time! That will be The 10th Doomstar, written by Julian Bernick. Here's the mock up of the cover for that. It'll be a level-10 DCC RPG adventure, complete with pre-gens so that you can jump right into it! But I don't feel comfortable asking for money for another project until this one is complete, so it'll be on hold until then.
Art by Ben Marra
TL;DR
The Conquest of Chaos is still happening. I'll be providing a bonus level-1 adventure to backers to apologize for the delays. Future projects are still being developed. I hope that I still have your support when its time for those projects to come to fruition. I want to keep making great adventures and great games. Thank you for your patience on this.
Keep on rolling dice and keep on being kind to one another.
