TL;DR: if you’re in Australia, your addresses are locking down today. UK orders are all out the door, EU is about to start Packing. USA, small delay, but underway.
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It’s a ...
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7
Alex - Rowan Rook & Decard
29 days ago
May(s & Means) Update - Fulfillment starts NOW
TL;DR: if you’re in the UK, Europe, Africa or the Middle East, your addresses are locking down today. You will have an email from BackerKit about this.
Everyone else: books a...
13
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7
Alex - Rowan Rook & Decard
about 1 month ago
April Ways&Means Update - Fulfillment Begins
TL;DR: Everything is moving. For the UK & EU it’s almost moving towards you directly. Fulfilment will begin in early May.
You know those old slidy tile puzzles you did...
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Elaine Lithgow
2 months ago
Books books books! March Update
Greetings Delvers!
Just a short update today to let you know that the books are printed! It's all happening! So I'm get to show off some pretty pictures to share some of the...
20
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2
Elaine Lithgow
3 months ago
Locking Orders This Thursday and Shipping Update
Greetings delvers!
Just a quick update today to remind folk that we will be locking orders this Thursday 26th! So make sure you're happy with your pledge levels and add-ons b...
14
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3
Elaine Lithgow
4 months ago
Warm Up The Printers!
We’re back! It’s a new year and I’ve got a bucket load of exciting updates for all you sickos waiting to get your hands on Ways and Means. Let’s dive right in!
Orders Lock on...
TL;DR: if you’re in Australia, your addresses are locking down today. UK orders are all out the door, EU is about to start Packing. USA, small delay, but underway.
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It’s a ‘good news for some, frustrating news for others’ update, but all told progress is being made.
Here’s the timeline, broken down by region:
EU/Europe/Near East
This area moved slower than expected, but is still very much underway. Thank you for your patience.
Addresses have been locked, and data has been crunched & uploaded to our Fulfilment partners at the Dutch warehouse.
They were waiting for the final delivery of Delve Decks - which are being delivered to them today (Dutch customs spent a couple extra days checking them).
Smaller packages will still ship first, before moving on to larger, more complex orders .
Then they will process orders for European countries that require export paperwork - Norway, Switzerland etc, as well as our Near East and ‘how is this Europe?’ areas. I think of this as the Eurovision Song Contest fulfilment.
It will take a few weeks to fill all these orders. You’ll receive a tracking code and we will also update your order in Backerkit so you know when it’s shipped. We’ll also update you again when fulfilment is done, so you know if there’s been some unexpected error.
Last orders to EU territories should ship before the end of May, with the rest shipping out in early June.
Australia/NZ/Asia-Pacific
Good morning! We’re gonna start sending you your books from Monday next week.
Turns out that not only did our packages to Australia not contain any sand contaminated with soil or driftwood, but that they managed to check them in record time and all of the items are now sitting in the Australian warehouse ready to be shipped out.
So, shortly after this email goes out (at what? 3am Australian time?), we’ll send the ‘lock addresses’ email from BackerKit. You’ll have 48 hours to update your addresses, then we’ll hand over the data to fulfilment.
Aetherworks (who handle all our orders for the Pacific Ocean) will also do their own address check with you, and then parcels will be sent out. It’s a belt and braces approach, or perhaps t-shirt and sunscreen for our warmer neighbours.
Americas
Our Freight Forwarding partner was unable to secure passage for the goods on the boat they had informed us we would be using. Unfortunately, some extra paperwork requirements and using a slightly less frequent shipping route than normal has meant we’ve been delayed in sending the books onwards.
Very frustrating, but sadly out of our hands. We rely on trusted 3rd Parties to help us navigate the ever changing processes of International Freight, and until Maz turns to me and says “Alex, what cargo container vessel should RRD buy?” we have to keep being the client in this relationship. [nb. The chances of this are low, but probably still higher than they should be.]
So USA freight is booked on a boat in Rotterdam early next week, and should be on the mainland about 2 weeks later. We are now expecting final delivery to the US warehouse in late June. Once we know we’ve cleared USA border controls, we’ll lock addresses and get your fulfilment started as quickly as possible.
UK& Ireland
Our UK warehouse has informed us that all orders for the UK and Ireland have now shipped out. They did this lightning fast, and lots of people have already told us that their books have arrived. If you haven’t heard anything, or haven’t received a tracking link for your order, please get in touch with Jim or myself in the Customer Service mines by emailing [email protected].
Generally
Thanks enormously for your patience and support, folks - we couldn’t do any of this without you.
We’d love to see pictures of your parcels as they start to arrive - you can tag us on Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook, or pop links in the comments here.
As always, there’s a risk things will get dinged, damaged or lost in transit. If that happens to you, we want to put it right. We recommend taking photos of your parcel and the products inside if you’re worried there may be damage to your items - this helps speed up the claims process and get replacements sent out quicker.
If anything goes wrong with your parcel, get in touch with Jim or myself in the Customer Service mines by emailing [email protected].
We’ll write again in early June, with an update on how EU and Australian fulfilment is going, and some live ship tracking for the USA.
Dear Rowan, Rook & Decard Team,
My package arrived today. I was very happy to receive it, but I have to admit that I was quite surprised by the packaging.
Considering that the books are worth around £280, I was concerned to see that they were only protected by a rather thin layer of cardboard paper between them, with no padding on the top or bottom. The outer box itself also seemed relatively thin.
Fortunately, the books appear to be mostly unharmed. There are only a few very minor dents, which I can accept, although they do feel like they could have been avoided with better protection.
I sincerely hope that other backers receive their packages in similarly good condition. However, I would kindly suggest that Rowan, Rook & Decard ask their shipping partners to use better-padded packaging in the future. Many of us who pay extra for limited editions are collectors and naturally hope to receive these products in the best possible condition. Otherwise, a PDF and a printed copy in a binder would be enough.
As a positive example, I would mention Limithron, whose books arrived in their own inner package, which was then placed inside a larger, fully padded outer box.
That said, I would also like to sincerely thank you for the fulfilment and for the great work overall. I am very happy with the product and the art style, and I am really looking forward to give it a read through and trying the game with my family as soon as possible.
Kind regards
DasTrip
TL;DR: if you’re in the UK, Europe, Africa or the Middle East, your addresses are locking down today. You will have an email from BackerKit about this.
Everyone else: books are in transit to the final warehouses, on schedule.
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Freight deliveries for the USA and Australian warehouses are under way, as predicted in the last update, and will then move onwards to warehouses by road & rail.
Expectations remain that Australian packages will arrive at the warehouse by the end of May, and USA items expected for Port arrival before the end of May, followed by Duties, Amtrak and final truck delivery to the warehouse.
Here’s the timeline, broken down by region:
UK/EU/Europe/Near East
We’re almost ready to send our warehouse team fulfilment data. The last hurdle is getting all of your addresses locked in BackerKit. That email will be coming to you after this update and will give you 48hrs to make any address amendments.
Once that’s done, we crunch that data, and prep it for uploading to our Fulfilment partners at the warehouses. We’ve instructed them to be ready for upload on Tuesday next week (12th May), and then items start flying out the doors towards you.
We’ve asked them to prepare the smaller and quicker packages first, before moving on to larger, more complex orders (or anything where they need to produce export paperwork - Norway, Switzerland etc).
It will be our first time running a crowdfunding fulfilment with our new EU warehouse partners, Meeples. They have plenty of experience doing this kind of exercise, and they’ve had 2-3 months of fulfilling our website orders as well, so we’re excited to see how much smoother the process is when we don’t have to process EU Import paperwork for all our large parcels.
It will take a few weeks to fill all these orders. You’ll receive a tracking code and we will also update your order in Backerkit so you know when it’s shipped. We’ll also update you again when fulfilment is done, so you know if there’s been some unexpected error.
The last orders to these territories should ship before the end of May.
Americas
USA freight is due on a boat in Rotterdam tomorrow (8th May). Should be on the mainland about 2 weeks later.
After some formal checks and the ritual dance of the paperwork, it will be sent by Amtrak (ew) and truck (sigh) to reach the main warehouse. Once we know we’ve cleared USA border controls and the railroads to Tennessee are free from Heart Incursions, we’ll lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. More soon.
Australia/NZ/Asia-Pacific
Our Australian freight forwarders told us that the cargo was cleared for delivery today. So that will get loaded onto an aeroplane. I doubt it, but in my mind I like to imagine it’s one of those old Douglas C-47 Skytrains and the pallets get pushed out the back with parachutes like it’s the Berlin airlift…
Why does the man in the doorway look like he's wearing a business suit?... Perhaps my theory is true
Anyway, this normally takes a week to 10 days for it to be counted into the warehouse in Sydney and for the world to rotate sufficiently for both the Australians and the Brits to be awake for 1 work cycle to check everything over.
Once we know we’ve cleared Australian border controls and it’s all been inspected for sand contaminated with soil or driftwood (absence, not presence), we’ll lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. More soon.
Generally
Thanks enormously for your patience and support, folks - we couldn’t do any of this without you.
We’d love to see pictures of your parcels as they start to arrive - you can tag us on Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook, or pop links in the comments here.
As always, there’s a risk things will get dinged, damaged or lost in transit. If that happens to you, we want to put it right. We recommend taking photos of your parcel and the products inside if you’re worried there may be damage to your items - this helps speed up the claims process and get replacements sent out quicker.
If anything goes wrong with your parcel, get in touch with Jim or myself in the Customer Service mines by emailing [email protected].
We’ll write again once we’re ready to lock other addresses, or in early June, whichever occurs sooner.
TL;DR: Everything is moving. For the UK & EU it’s almost moving towards you directly. Fulfilment will begin in early May.
What kind of psychopath makes an evil toy like this for children?
You know those old slidy tile puzzles you did when you were a kid? Or the Wolf, Chicken, Grain boat riddle? Have you considered doing them for a job? But also parts of the river may be on fire, the chicken and wolf have closed the airspace around the far bank, and the slide puzzles occasionally have tariffs added or removed…
All this to say, that the moving of things around the globe for this project is well underway, and we’re approaching some seriously good news for all Backers in the foreseeable (and predictable) future.
Last week the Ways & Means books and new edition of Heart arrived in both our UK & EU warehouses from the manufacturer. They sailed through any legal processing, and as we’re sending this out, the warehouse teams have begun the process of picking & packing our freight deliveries for the USA and Australian warehouses.
The final timelines for the USA and Australian freight movements are both still in negotiations, with boats and airplanes operating in the challenging environment we call ‘the world’. But we’re working with trusted partners, and are confident with the timetables we have for goods to arrive. We are requesting that no Delving Machines are used, due to their habit of screwing with time, but we have been warned that we may be forced to use the most eldrich horror of all: Amtrak.
We’ve got our sights set on shipping all the final items out of warehouses before the end of this week, with eyes on fulfilment beginning in the USA and Australia/Pacific around the end of May/early June.
We’re waiting on the final delivery of Delve Decks to make their way to our UK warehouse from China. USA & Australian copies have already arrived, but we’re expecting this final piece of the puzzle will be completed before the end of the month. At which point we will have all the items required to fulfil our UK backers.
There will be one final movement from the UK to the EU of the Delve Decks, a quick hop over ‘het Kanaal’ to the Netherlands and that will allow us to begin EU and Middle East deliveries as well.
Here’s the current timeline by location:
UK
The first UK packages will go out at the end of April, starting with orders that don’t contain the Delve Deck and working up to the largest packages over the following weeks. We will post another Update shortly before addresses are locked for this area, this will also be accompanied by an email from BackerKit about Locking Addresses. Look out for that email, or update your address NOW!
It will take a few weeks to fill all these orders. You’ll get a tracking code and we will also update your order in Backerkit so you know when it’s shipped. We’ll also update you again when fulfilment is done.
EU/Middle East
The first EU packages will go out in early May, again starting with orders that don’t contain the Delve Deck and working up to the larger and more complex orders over the following weeks, once the decks have arrived at the warehouse.
Once EU orders have been processed, the warehouse will move on to Backers from EEA and Middle East countries. This requires export paperwork, and requires a little more time to set up and put through with the correct customs paperwork.
Further details about the exact timeline for both of these will be in our next Backer Update.
America, Canada, South Americas
Things are coming together nicely. The freight shipments to our US warehouse partners have been packed in the UK & EU. We’re booking passage by boat and air for these items at present. It usually takes about 30-35 days to get things by boat to the USA. But unexpected bugs (literal) discovered when the boat arrives in the US port or train gremlins (metaphorical) slowing movement on the tracks can add a few extra days.
Once we know we’ve cleared USA border controls, we’ll have a clearer sense of the timeline, and we can begin to lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. Currently we’re expecting that information to come our way around the middle of May, with fulfilment beginning after that.
Australia/NZ/Asia-Pacific
Pallets are packed for shipment to our Australian fulfilment centre – they'll be handling everything Asia-Pacific-related through the AusPost system. These will go onto an airplane in the next week or so and, customs willing, will be at the fulfilment centre in about 3 weeks time (mid May).
Once we know we’ve cleared Australian border controls and it’s all been inspected for illegal fruit and bugs (in this case, the absence of them), we’ll lock addresses and get your fulfilment started. Currently we’re expecting that information to come our way around the middle of May, with fulfilment beginning after that.
Generally
Thank you for supporting this project, folks - it’s been a fantastic creative endeavour and we couldn’t do this without you. We’d love to see pictures of your parcels as they start to arrive - you can tag us on Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook, or pop links in the comments here.
As always, there’s a risk things will get dinged, damaged or lost in transit. If that happens to you, we want to put it right. If anything goes wrong with your parcel, get in touch with Jim or myself in the Customer Service mines by emailing [email protected].
Expect more communication in the next week or two,
