All books have shipped, with the EU books the last to be sent out on Friday 18th. If you have not received your physical book, and have no relevant shipping updates, please let me know ASAP and I'll do my best to resolve it.
Stretch Goal Adventure
Will be sent out as a Backerkit reward tomorrow. Wormbait takes a group of adventurers on a small quest to kill some rats in a tavern basement. Lured in with the promise of free food and drinks on the house, what seems like a simple task quickly turns into a dimensional jaunt under the power of an abyssal godling and its bumbling warlock lackey.
The adventure is a single-session one-shot I've run myself, and comes with battlemaps in both colour, and print-suitable black-and-white. While I've written it to be setting-neutral, it actually features a tavern named in Vralkast in the docks of Sowshore, and the abyssal godling matches the setting's 'Harbour Gods'. As such, it fits into Vralkast with no changes needed.
With thanks to the wonderful Matthew Ayers, the one-shot has two versions - one for D&D 5e, and one for Cairn, in order to accommodate a wider range of dungeon-crawlers. That said, the only real mechanics are the stat blocks, and it would work just as well in other systems.
Lessons Learnt
I once again thank you all for taking a punt on my book. As my first crowdfunder, this has been a great and terrifying experience, and I've been somewhat riding by the seat of my pants to get this done with the timing and quality I expect of myself. I can only hope the book is worth it! If you use Vralkast in the future - or have any feedback whatsoever to help me improve for next time - please feel free to leave a comment here, or message me on Bluesky at @geckopirate.
I have every intention of returning again next year for Zinetopia, and hope you'll join me there; as such, I wanted to lay out some of the things I've learnt and intend to improve on, now that I've seen this process from start to finish. This might also be a fun insight into the 'behind-the-scenes' of running a crowdfunder like this.
Lessons:
Printing a book turns the cover significantly darker and muted; I'll be keeping this in mind next time to make the cover pop in physical.
Shipping is even more damaging than I thought. I need twice the packaging (though even that might not stop USPS and their boxcutters).
My local print shops do not have the capacity to print my books at the quality I need. Learning that lesson cost me a few weeks.
Even when I'm at my busiest, I need to keep providing updates. No radio silence! I owe backers that, even if there's no significant progress to report.
The more art I can get in advance, the better. Having all the character art from one artist is something I want to do again, but it does naturally increase the timeline. The more I can get in advance of the crowdfunder, the less delay there'll be next time.
The Pledge Manager isn't as scary as it seems. Navigating my way around it caused me a fair bit of stress and delay, and I did accidentally charge shipping earlier than you're supposed to while also sending the pledge survey later than you're supposed to. Whoops.
I should not offer an Early Bird bonus that's also an Add-On. This led to people accidentally getting it for free, but also buying it as an Add-On, which I had to work to refund and sort out to avoid feeling like a scam.
I should probably have used this to establish a mailing list. Ah well.
See you again when the tides turn, Jamie Bernstein
Vralkast #13 - Overseas Books + Knife-Wielding Postal Workers
Hi all, here's a quick update on shipping progress:
UK Backers - Have all received their books.
EU/AUS Backers - All books are currently with my fulfilment partner and I've sent over all requisite info (distribution spreadsheet, book weight, and all that other stuff). I'm hopeful this means all books will have arrived before my next update.
US/CAN Backers - The books arrived yesterday at the house of the wonderful Matthew Ayers, who's now handling fulfillment in the US to save money on horrific international shipping costs. The books have arrived intact (bar one disastrous unfortunate below) but the box certainly didn't, and there are some minor stubbed corners on some books. If you receive one that's been minorly scuffed, I can only apologise, but there's a very good reason for this -
The US Postal Service handled the box so badly they put a plastic apology inside to acknowledge what they did. Matthew mentioned he's never seen this before in his life, and the box itself is partially ripped and also - to the our mystification - has apparently been stabbed? There's one book that's been unsalvageably cut as though by a knife or pair of scissors. It's very bizarre. I suppose they didn't find the free drugs they were hoping for. In any case, the vast majority of books are completely fine but I can only apologise once again for the ones with a small bit of wear. For clarity, I shipped a few extras to account for things like, so everyone will still receive their books as intended.
Regarding the adventure, it's proving a bit of a bizarre creative roadblock, but this is partly because getting the physical books sorted has taken priority, and partly because I've been wrapping up my current job over the last couple of weeks, complete with an annoying level of travel. I will get the adventure done, and am currently revising the last draft version having received some trusted feedback.
May the postal workers not stab your book, Jamie Bernstein ---- Here are some fun photos of whatever the fuck USPS did:
The poor cut book
WE CARE [BUT NO THAT MUCH]
RIP (literally)
It's been a couple of weeks since my last update, and I have books - 250 of them to be precise, which now squat in the corner of my living room, whispering koans of dark magic at night when I go to pilfer a snack from the fridge.
As such, I'm currently in the middle of fulfillment! The current status update on all books is:
UK Backers - Have all received their books. If this hasn't happened, it's because Royal Mail is lying to me that you've got them, so please do reach out to me on the off-chance.
US Backers - I've sorted out the appropriate number of books to send, sorted out the custom forms, bought tape for the box, cringed at the shipping price, and will be sending it across the roiling waves before the end of the week.
All Other Backers - I've likewise sorted out the appropriate number of books in a box to send to my fulfillment partner and will be sending them this weekend.
All in all, this means I should be on-track with my previous goal of all books delivered within 4 weeks, and everyone should have them by mid-September at the absolute latest, short of any arcane apocalypse or grim personal shortcomings.
For those who have or will be receiving books, I'd love to hear any and all feedback, positive or negative, so that I can improve for the next time. Feel free to leave a comment!
All in all, this should mean my next update will be the narratively final one, with both adventure complete and tomes distributed. Terrifying.
May the pages find you intact, Jamie Bernstein
The Book, high up on a balcony to receive the blessing of the winds and maybe also the rain as well, why not
All v1.1 files have now been released as the final versions for both the main book and Field Guide. Massive thanks to those who let me know of lurking errors they found; I've fixed up everything reported as well as a few other odd errors with minor typos and hyperlinks going funky.
I've added Plain Text versions of both the main book and Field Guide for convenience and accessibility.
I'm nearly done with the Stretch Goal adventure; I've had a sizeable amount of writing block on this, and have actually had the concept written down in different forms for months now; somehow, it just never quite locked together in the way I wanted. I've now mostly got past that and cleared the biggest hurdle, so it's a matter of the layout and final quality checks.
The printed books are on their way to me. This means I can aim for full distribution completed in a month's time from now. This should not be taken as gospel, it's just my personal goal to aim for.
Refunds have been issued for duplicate Field Guides. As per people's survey answers, I've worked with Backerkit to refund all duplicate purchases of Field Guides.
Artist Appreciation has been paid out. Just under 50 Backers sent their appreciation to Michael, and I'm absolutely thrilled to see people's support for his work. Thank you so much! For those curious, it's worked out to provide better support than would have occurred with any kind of profit share arrangement, which was my goal in terms of providing additional compensation for putting a face to Vralkast and it's people with lower risk. I've paid the proceeds to Michael, who has actually been asked to talk about his work on Vralkast at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Sick.
Shameless Self-Promotion
If you have any friends (or foes even, I'm not picky) who might enjoy either Vralkast or the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide, both are now up on itch.io. Current sales of the Field Guide in particular will be going straight to Letty Wilson as a thanks for her brilliant work.
My next update should be on distribution and confirming all the books are traveling to UK addresses and global distributors.
The digital files for Vralkast, the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide, and the bonus Siren Song adventure,are all now available! I had every intention of completing this on Sunday, and was then immediately hit with a family emergency that ate my time, but such is life and it's now done.
The plain text versions of all three files without formatting will be available a bit later; producing them prior was difficult as I constantly iterate on the text, so I just wanted to ensure the main files were in people's hands first.
I really hope these meet everyone's expectations, and would love to hear any and all feedback - especially if it's an error, typo, or visual difficulty. You can simply leave a comment on this post to let me know, and I'll update the files accordingly after a bit once people have had a chance to read through.
Have double Field Guides?
As mentioned in the survey, I made the mistake of having the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide as an Early Bird reward, and an Add-On for those who missed it but still wanted access. This means that some people accidentally doubled up. For those people, you'll get 2 sets of files for the Field Guide - don't worry, they're identical, it's just vaguely annoying on the download screen. For those who requested a refund on the accidental purchase, I'm currently chatting to Backerkit support on how best to handle it, and have a few solutions in mind on how to ensure this is addressed properly.
Printing
Now that the final file is out, I'm going to focus on the printing side of things very soon (in all honesty, the commitment to it is a bit nervewracking). I have distribution lined up, meaning that the process should be pretty smooth once the box of books arrives.
Cool Art Cool Art
Lastly, I want to shout out Letty Wilson (@Toadlett) for her beautiful drawings for the Field Guide!
Mid-July update, and I'm sure you're bored of British people reporting how they're melting into the pavement, but rest assured my productivity has not been all that. With the mandated weather discussion out the way, the Vralkast PDF will be delivered to all Backers this Sunday, while the Field Guide will follow as soon as the final art commissions are done sometime next week.
Currently, there are 4 backers whose cards were declined for the recent survey; I'll be resending the command to charge your cards at the end of the week, but if that still doesn't work, please feel free to contact me through Backerkit support.
Vralkast
The sole reason I'm not posting the PDF now is that I'm out of the country until Sunday after becoming delayed slightly by the aforementioned infernal hellscape and a few final late surveys. I can only apologise. However, with it done, I'm going to send off the final print order, and have sorted out the cheapest shipping options I can, with trusted fulfillment overlords for North America, and then for Everywhere Else (it oddly works better that way).
Notably, the EU has literally just introduced an additional customs duty on foreign imports for the amount of €3, which I believe physical EU backers will unfortunately have to pay when they receive their book.
Field Guide
The Sea of Sorrow Field Guide is done with the sole exception of 4 pieces of art I've commissioned from the wonderful Letty Wilson. These are expected to be complete sometime over the next couple of weeks, at which point I'll immediately post it via Backerkit. I'm honestly quite proud of it, it's great fun. Don't google cave centipedes, they're an affront to existence.
All books have shipped, with the EU books the last to be sent out on Friday 18th. If you have not received your physical book, and have no relevant shipping updates, please let me know ASAP and I'll do my best to resolve it.
Stretch Goal Adventure
Will be sent out as a Backerkit reward tomorrow. Wormbait takes a group of adventurers on a small quest to kill some rats in a tavern basement. Lured in with the promise of free food and drinks on the house, what seems like a simple task quickly turns into a dimensional jaunt under the power of an abyssal godling and its bumbling warlock lackey.
The adventure is a single-session one-shot I've run myself, and comes with battlemaps in both colour, and print-suitable black-and-white. While I've written it to be setting-neutral, it actually features a tavern named in Vralkast in the docks of Sowshore, and the abyssal godling matches the setting's 'Harbour Gods'. As such, it fits into Vralkast with no changes needed.
With thanks to the wonderful Matthew Ayers, the one-shot has two versions - one for D&D 5e, and one for Cairn, in order to accommodate a wider range of dungeon-crawlers. That said, the only real mechanics are the stat blocks, and it would work just as well in other systems.
Lessons Learnt
I once again thank you all for taking a punt on my book. As my first crowdfunder, this has been a great and terrifying experience, and I've been somewhat riding by the seat of my pants to get this done with the timing and quality I expect of myself. I can only hope the book is worth it! If you use Vralkast in the future - or have any feedback whatsoever to help me improve for next time - please feel free to leave a comment here, or message me on Bluesky at @geckopirate.
I have every intention of returning again next year for Zinetopia, and hope you'll join me there; as such, I wanted to lay out some of the things I've learnt and intend to improve on, now that I've seen this process from start to finish. This might also be a fun insight into the 'behind-the-scenes' of running a crowdfunder like this.
Lessons:
Printing a book turns the cover significantly darker and muted; I'll be keeping this in mind next time to make the cover pop in physical.
Shipping is even more damaging than I thought. I need twice the packaging (though even that might not stop USPS and their boxcutters).
My local print shops do not have the capacity to print my books at the quality I need. Learning that lesson cost me a few weeks.
Even when I'm at my busiest, I need to keep providing updates. No radio silence! I owe backers that, even if there's no significant progress to report.
The more art I can get in advance, the better. Having all the character art from one artist is something I want to do again, but it does naturally increase the timeline. The more I can get in advance of the crowdfunder, the less delay there'll be next time.
The Pledge Manager isn't as scary as it seems. Navigating my way around it caused me a fair bit of stress and delay, and I did accidentally charge shipping earlier than you're supposed to while also sending the pledge survey later than you're supposed to. Whoops.
I should not offer an Early Bird bonus that's also an Add-On. This led to people accidentally getting it for free, but also buying it as an Add-On, which I had to work to refund and sort out to avoid feeling like a scam.
I should probably have used this to establish a mailing list. Ah well.
See you again when the tides turn, Jamie Bernstein
Hi all, here's a quick update on shipping progress:
UK Backers - Have all received their books.
EU/AUS Backers - All books are currently with my fulfilment partner and I've sent over all requisite info (distribution spreadsheet, book weight, and all that other stuff). I'm hopeful this means all books will have arrived before my next update.
US/CAN Backers - The books arrived yesterday at the house of the wonderful Matthew Ayers, who's now handling fulfillment in the US to save money on horrific international shipping costs. The books have arrived intact (bar one disastrous unfortunate below) but the box certainly didn't, and there are some minor stubbed corners on some books. If you receive one that's been minorly scuffed, I can only apologise, but there's a very good reason for this -
The US Postal Service handled the box so badly they put a plastic apology inside to acknowledge what they did. Matthew mentioned he's never seen this before in his life, and the box itself is partially ripped and also - to the our mystification - has apparently been stabbed? There's one book that's been unsalvageably cut as though by a knife or pair of scissors. It's very bizarre. I suppose they didn't find the free drugs they were hoping for. In any case, the vast majority of books are completely fine but I can only apologise once again for the ones with a small bit of wear. For clarity, I shipped a few extras to account for things like, so everyone will still receive their books as intended.
Regarding the adventure, it's proving a bit of a bizarre creative roadblock, but this is partly because getting the physical books sorted has taken priority, and partly because I've been wrapping up my current job over the last couple of weeks, complete with an annoying level of travel. I will get the adventure done, and am currently revising the last draft version having received some trusted feedback.
May the postal workers not stab your book, Jamie Bernstein ---- Here are some fun photos of whatever the fuck USPS did:
The poor cut book
WE CARE [BUT NO THAT MUCH]
RIP (literally)
It's been a couple of weeks since my last update, and I have books - 250 of them to be precise, which now squat in the corner of my living room, whispering koans of dark magic at night when I go to pilfer a snack from the fridge.
As such, I'm currently in the middle of fulfillment! The current status update on all books is:
UK Backers - Have all received their books. If this hasn't happened, it's because Royal Mail is lying to me that you've got them, so please do reach out to me on the off-chance.
US Backers - I've sorted out the appropriate number of books to send, sorted out the custom forms, bought tape for the box, cringed at the shipping price, and will be sending it across the roiling waves before the end of the week.
All Other Backers - I've likewise sorted out the appropriate number of books in a box to send to my fulfillment partner and will be sending them this weekend.
All in all, this means I should be on-track with my previous goal of all books delivered within 4 weeks, and everyone should have them by mid-September at the absolute latest, short of any arcane apocalypse or grim personal shortcomings.
For those who have or will be receiving books, I'd love to hear any and all feedback, positive or negative, so that I can improve for the next time. Feel free to leave a comment!
All in all, this should mean my next update will be the narratively final one, with both adventure complete and tomes distributed. Terrifying.
May the pages find you intact, Jamie Bernstein
The Book, high up on a balcony to receive the blessing of the winds and maybe also the rain as well, why not
All v1.1 files have now been released as the final versions for both the main book and Field Guide. Massive thanks to those who let me know of lurking errors they found; I've fixed up everything reported as well as a few other odd errors with minor typos and hyperlinks going funky.
I've added Plain Text versions of both the main book and Field Guide for convenience and accessibility.
I'm nearly done with the Stretch Goal adventure; I've had a sizeable amount of writing block on this, and have actually had the concept written down in different forms for months now; somehow, it just never quite locked together in the way I wanted. I've now mostly got past that and cleared the biggest hurdle, so it's a matter of the layout and final quality checks.
The printed books are on their way to me. This means I can aim for full distribution completed in a month's time from now. This should not be taken as gospel, it's just my personal goal to aim for.
Refunds have been issued for duplicate Field Guides. As per people's survey answers, I've worked with Backerkit to refund all duplicate purchases of Field Guides.
Artist Appreciation has been paid out. Just under 50 Backers sent their appreciation to Michael, and I'm absolutely thrilled to see people's support for his work. Thank you so much! For those curious, it's worked out to provide better support than would have occurred with any kind of profit share arrangement, which was my goal in terms of providing additional compensation for putting a face to Vralkast and it's people with lower risk. I've paid the proceeds to Michael, who has actually been asked to talk about his work on Vralkast at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Sick.
Shameless Self-Promotion
If you have any friends (or foes even, I'm not picky) who might enjoy either Vralkast or the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide, both are now up on itch.io. Current sales of the Field Guide in particular will be going straight to Letty Wilson as a thanks for her brilliant work.
My next update should be on distribution and confirming all the books are traveling to UK addresses and global distributors.
The digital files for Vralkast, the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide, and the bonus Siren Song adventure,are all now available! I had every intention of completing this on Sunday, and was then immediately hit with a family emergency that ate my time, but such is life and it's now done.
The plain text versions of all three files without formatting will be available a bit later; producing them prior was difficult as I constantly iterate on the text, so I just wanted to ensure the main files were in people's hands first.
I really hope these meet everyone's expectations, and would love to hear any and all feedback - especially if it's an error, typo, or visual difficulty. You can simply leave a comment on this post to let me know, and I'll update the files accordingly after a bit once people have had a chance to read through.
Have double Field Guides?
As mentioned in the survey, I made the mistake of having the Sea of Sorrow Field Guide as an Early Bird reward, and an Add-On for those who missed it but still wanted access. This means that some people accidentally doubled up. For those people, you'll get 2 sets of files for the Field Guide - don't worry, they're identical, it's just vaguely annoying on the download screen. For those who requested a refund on the accidental purchase, I'm currently chatting to Backerkit support on how best to handle it, and have a few solutions in mind on how to ensure this is addressed properly.
Printing
Now that the final file is out, I'm going to focus on the printing side of things very soon (in all honesty, the commitment to it is a bit nervewracking). I have distribution lined up, meaning that the process should be pretty smooth once the box of books arrives.
Cool Art Cool Art
Lastly, I want to shout out Letty Wilson (@Toadlett) for her beautiful drawings for the Field Guide!
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