Right. Tl;dr - we’re waiting for additional materials and doing a second round of sampling. As a result, there is another delay. On the positive side, VTT plans are coming together. Please read on.

You saw the videos, they look fantastic. However, they weren’t perfect. Some of the foil was misaligned on the special edition, and most importantly the boxes for Wretched Domains and the component kit were slightly the wrong size. It’s only a few millimetres, but it matters: being able to easily take the Wretched Domains pamphlets out of the box is the difference between them, and the box, lasting you for years or starting to show wear and tear within a few weeks; having the component kit box fit neatly into the slipcase without excess space means it’s going to travel better, without things moving around and boxes bumping each other. And, unfortunately, we’ve not yet seen samples for the slipcase: the first version did not fit the contents correctly, and it’s had to be remade.

We’ve made another handful of fixes at the same time, like adding a couple of lines of text or extra detail to covers and boxes, and we’re (finally) correcting the stats for the pregenerated characters in the quickstart. Major thanks to Slappy in our Discord who not only identified the issue but figured out the reason for it. (We forgot to apply the stat penalties for the Weapons. Oops.)

The manufacturer has given us adjusted templates, we’ve sent the new design files, and I’ve reviewed the digital proofs. 

At this point, I’m going to let a little frustration slip out. Sorry in advance. 

As you may be aware, we’ve had some issues with book materials already. Unfortunately the materials that our printer originally sent us were not right for this kind of book, and we’ve had to do a lot of work with them to get the right paper and coatings ordered in. Just before we locked pledges, we got a chunk more orders in. We’ve also revised how many copies we’re going to need for retail stores, based on how well some recent products have sold. In most cases, that’s great - we have fewer books sitting in warehouses. For the slipcase edition, the extra orders would have left us perilously short of copies. So we asked our manufacturer to increase our order of those.

This is not the frustrating thing. More orders is a good thing! 

The frustrating thing is that it turned out they’d only ordered enough of our paper to print exactly the quantities we originally estimated. Presumably with enough left over for a handful of misprints, but it’s been extremely difficult to get a clear answer from them. (What were they going to do if there was a serious print error? We simply don’t know. This is not how a big print run is supposed to work.). 

So not only do we have to wait three additional weeks for more paper to arrive before they can start the print run, it took way longer than it should have to find this out. 

Since we’re waiting for paper anyway, we’re using that time to get a second round of samples sent to us, so we can check the fit of those boxes with the revisions we’ve requested. Also so we get to see the slipcase up close, because it wasn’t included in the first round.

Approving the samples neatly aligns with the time for the extra paper to arrive. This is us making the most of an existing delay.

Manufacturing takes fifty calendar days (7 weeks, if you’re counting) after sample approval. Shipping then takes 6-8 weeks. 

So, on our new schedule: we will be collecting the books from the printer in July. We should have them in our warehouses by September, which means we can’t fulfil until September-October, for most of the world. Australians, you’ll get your books in the early part of that window. UK and Europeans, your books’ journey takes the longest, so you’ll be towards the end.

If you’re counting, that’s a three month delay and an explanation that covers maybe six weeks of that (three weeks for paper, three weeks for messing around with design files etc.). That’s because our printer’s initial timeline was… just wrong. We - Maz and I specifically, not the faceless RRD entity - were annoyed about the paper; we are even more annoyed about this. 

This sucks. It sucks for us, and it sucks for you. Usually I’d say we’ll do everything we can to expedite the process but we already are, and it has not helped significantly. We will continue to do that: we’re pleased with the results on the books we’ve seen, thrilled with the component kit, and we’re sure that as a result of the work we are putting in with our manufacturer, you are going to get something beautiful at the end of it. But we’re frustrated at how challenging and slow this has been, and we know you will share that frustration.

There’s no strong closing statement to this part of the update. Apologies are wearing thin, but nonetheless we are sorry for the continued wait. We’re keeping things moving as much as we can, and we have absolute confidence that you will get your game: we are moving forward more slowly than we’d like, but we are still moving forward. If your financial situation has changed, or your patience is also worn too thin, we understand: please email [email protected] if you want to change your pledge or order at this stage.

A couple of months ago now, many of you kindly filled in a survey to tell me about what sort of digital tools you wanted. The answer was Foundry, by quite a large margin - not unanimously, of course, but it emerged clearly as the preferred solution. 

So we’re making a Foundry module! It’s still in the very early stages, but we had a really exciting conversation last week with a Foundry studio and a Hollows fan who has already done a lot of work on a Hollows Foundry module, and things are looking promising. I’m not going to say more until contracts are signed, because that’s a really fast way to disappoint a lot of people, but that’s the plan.

We’re aiming for a release along with the physical books, but the studio also suggested we give you all beta access so you can play around with it and share your feedback. I’m happy they said it before I did: it’s a good sign we’re on the same page. We’re also hoping to make the community licence work with our VTT plans, so that if you choose, you’ll be able to release digital versions of your Hollows that work with the system we want to create. More on the community licence in a future update.

Foundry wasn’t the only VTT you wanted, and it’s not the only one we’re working on. We’ve been in discussions with Alchemy VTT for some time, trying to work out how it’ll deal with a game as feature-rich, in a VTT sense, as Hollows. We continue to do so, and if it works out, we’ll also make that available for free to everyone who pledged for VTT access.

In addition, we’ll have a set of free digital tools:

We would also really like to make a Hollows wiki, for those who do not wish to spend their entertainment time in a spreadsheet (to each their own). For it to be worth doing, and for it to be something we can actually maintain, we’d need an elite cohort of editors. If you are a Hollows fan with wiki editing experience, and might like to be involved with editing and maintaining a Hollows wiki, or even just providing your opinions on what makes a good wiki, please let us know in the comments, by grabbing Chant on Discord (chantwrites_25926) or emailing admin@rrdgames. I may not get back to you immediately, due to the printing and Foundry module, but I will absolutely get back to you.

Alright then. Onwards!

- Chant