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Hi, book arrived today here in France. The book is damaged in a few places (not surprising considering the very light packaging), plus I had to pay an extra 12€ in import tax, on top of the 50$+ of shipping fees which were supposed to already include VAT? The package label didn't mention anything about VAT being paid in advance, so I assume that's why it got applied again, plus treatment fees. This really isn't great.
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Love the book! While reading the godless class, I could not see in the class progression table when the character gains new aspects of divinity. Where can I find the information?
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Project Update: Shipping Update! (And an L.A. Based Error).
So, for most people, The Black Ballad has arrived or is arriving this week. Obviously, we are HELLA excited about this!
Of course, travel is the one part we have no control over, so it's always a bit of a nail-biter on our end hoping that our warriors make it through their journey without losing all their hit points. Luckily, most of them seem to be!
One Batch... is very confused, however.
If you see this in your tracking update:
Delivered, Individual Picked Up at Postal Facility
Email us at [email protected].
Easyship and the US Post office are very confused about why this is happening. We've already logged the 9-10 backers who reached out to us. We aren't sure if they are going back in for recalibration, are being sent to the warehouse, or... anything really.
We are in the dark :(
What we do know is that the post office has them, and they are either being rerouted to their final destination, or they are being sent back to us. Easyship will have an update on these ones for us in the middle of next week.
I'm officially waiting until this snafu is resolved before I announce full celebration and what's coming next, so hopefully... that's next week!
If yours turned up though! Tag us! @STForgeStudios on all platforms or #TheBlackBallad #STForge!
Only a few books got confused, so the vast majority of you should have yours by now (or tomorrow) without any issue!
-Rick
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USPS says my package was picked up in LA, 3000 miles away from my home. The correct shipping address is listed in the email I got from you guys, and USPS shows my town as the destination, so is this expected? Some sort of courier transfer? Thanks in advance!
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Everything looks fantastic. Thanks for producing such a beautiful project. Can't wait to run this!
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Just got my book (perfect shape, super excited). Where can i listen to the soundtrack (not the red opera, the one for this). I could have sworn there was a link somewhere but I can't find it. Thanks.
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Hey guys how you doing? Just a quick doubt its been a long time since I backed the projetc and I just recived my wonderful LootBox (Nice work fellas) I am not sure if the sunless crossing maps are the ones back in the book, or they are printed ones maybe digital (How do I redeem)? Thank you for you time XD
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Greetings, The box has an obnoxious shipping label on the front and a hole poked in one side. I thought the lovely loot box would arrive in a box so that it would be suitable for display. Not what happened. Also, instead of a USB drive, it looks like there is a card with a full sized SD card embedded in it. Are we to pop out the SD card and procure a reader to access the digital content. Ad Astra Per Aspera, Kevin
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Was there supposed to be a cardboard box? My loot crate arrived with the postage adhered to it and banged to bits. Had hoped to display this on my shelf.
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Project Update: Mini-Update! Pirate Ship, 4HP, Loot Boxes, and a Black Ballad Journey.
- We totally used Pirate Ship for the Loot Boxes, because they are pirates and their customer service is awesome. Don't ignore an email from a pirate in your box if you ordered a loot box!
- 280 of our Black Ballads went on a journey around America this past week and finally returned to the warehouse in LA. It's all good, we found them, they just wanted to go for a walk or something.
- 4 Horsemen Publications is our partner! There have been a few updates about them, and we've even had Val talk about printing in a past update. If you see an email from 4 Horseman Publications... you probably ordered a loot box. Because they have the fancy Pirate Ship account (see above).
- DriveThru RPG comp orders went out! Please leave us a review on Drivethru RPG!
If you start getting your Black Ballad, can you tag @stforgestudios on your platform or even post something on Tiktok and tag us! Our tags are #BlackBallad #TPK #STForge #DiAmorte.
Thank you everyone so much!
Loot Box orders and International Backers should be getting their boxes this week. Pirate Ship is super speedy and they zoomed ahead of the standard orders.
Because some of our books went on a little journey, the remainder is going out next week to about 606 backers as soon as I can press the "ship" button!
Everyone have a great weekend!
-Rick
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I’m a little confused about how the digital version of the soundtrack is delivered — I know there are QR codes in the book, but was there supposed to be a downloadable version we could access? I’m seeing conflicting information in other update comments about whether this was delivered by email or not. (And if it was, I’m not seeing it anywhere in my email.)
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Project Update: April Update! Black Ballads enter the world!
Greetings Everyone! Happy April!
...even though Chicago weather is pulling the typical "It's still winter! Psyche!" things are moving on! Here's the shipping update:
All remaining items have arrived!
There was a shipping snafu where 280 Black Ballads went to the wrong address, and we had to get them rerouted to the distribution center. It also turns out, that it takes like two weeks to box 1000 Black Ballads to ready them for shipping.... so writes down that mental note.
That said, all I'm waiting on is confirmation of the wandering 280 copies physically arriving, and I press the go button.
We've been packing up loot boxes, and have all of them (and they are gorgeous), ready to go. Labels for shipping should be arriving today or tomorrow and then we will begin a round trip ferry to UPS or USPS.
...and yes, we hand packed those loot boxes because we wanted to see how that process went.
International Backers: I secretly released all standard orders a week ago. They are being packed and sent out. Just a heads up, and one thing we have NO control over, is border taxes and fees. Some countries have them. Some countries don't. It changes based on government policy and is far far beyond our scope of influence and reach. So if you get an email saying your book is at your customs office and they slapped an extra fee on it, I apologize in advance. Hopefully it doesn't happen too much, but I know Canada vs US are currently having a government grudge match or something.
Storytellers Forge Store: https://www.storytellersforge.com/shop is up and operational! Now that we have the ST Screens and Poker Decks, we'll get those items listed up there soon. They weren't available as an add on or previously obtainable outside of the loot boxes but they will be going forward! There will be an email and discord announcement when they finally go live, so if you want that ping:
DriveThru RPG Question! I'm thinking of giving everyone who backed this campaign a free pdf on DriveThru RPG for The Black Ballad. I know a lot of you probably use that for your library and we are officially listed on there. I've ordered a print-proof of their fancy print version and I'm curious to see what it looks like, but... if I set up digital distribution as well there:
Would you guys find that handy? (Leave a comment!) Would you be so kind to leave a review?
Projects We Love: In the tradition of closing out one campaign, while we wrap things up, it's always good to spotlight other projects currently trying to get off the ground:
- The Libram of Lost Spells: Lost Magic Resurrected for 5th Edition. Storytellers Forge and TPK are good friggin' friends of each other. Hell, The Black Ballad is perfect for such things. The creative brains over at TPK Gaming have taken all the old, unprinted, and forgotten spells from prior editions and updated them, reforged them, and compiled them! Check out their page!
- Surviving Strangehollow. This campaign JUST ended and looks interesting as absolute hell. A hand-painted from the mind of Emily Hare, the unique fantasy world created attracted veteran writers from across the TTRPG and Literary sphere (seriously, check out their talent! I've worked with many of them personally!). The campaign may have ended, but preorders are even more important to newer studios!
-
The Esfah Sagas. Something for the Book Readers! I always love seeing novels on Kickstarters. This project is right smack in the middle of its funding period and here is the blurb:
"The Esfah Sagas is a high fantasy series originally produced by TSR (D&D, Dragonlance, and Forgotten Realms creators.) A reluctant dwarf prince would rather read about adventures than have his own—but when a quest is thrust upon him, he has no choice but to seek a legendary artifact to save his father’s life. Aaaaannnddd… he immediately screws it all up, releases an ancient lich, and frees an evil spider queen from the Gods’vault Prison.
This campaign includes 2 new novels, a comic book, and a playable 1 shot game module (5E) with optional 3d minis/models.
That's all we have for the April Update (and it's a lot!), but there will be another short one mid-month once I get some feedback on DriveThruRPG, the Poker Decks up on the store, and finally press that glorious ship button for everyone!
Thank you everyone!
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Project Update: March Update! Garycon, Books Be Shipping, Storytellers Forge is open!
I lied. Squirrels can't be over caffeinated. In fact, Hayles and Amanda ensure that I am always the perfect amount OF caffeinated and the Eldritch Editor Courteney always states I'm vastly more like an excitable black lab (who has a hated rivalry with bushes, long story, ask on discord).
ANYWAY Actual updates from Rick!
Black Ballad Production Phase is Complete!
Special editions were arriving at the Easyship warehouse in LA and at the Midwest Distribution Center (Aka: The Southgate Garage) over this weekend. We now officially enter the distribution phase!
- Singular book orders are going out from the LA Distribution center in the next two weeks. The steps they've gotta take are:
- Unpack the printed versions from their freight boxes
- Repack everything and drop in the occasional add-on / CD
- Get all the shipping labels ready and slapped onto the box
- and then out the door.
- Everyone will get tracking codes when they DO start shipping, but we predict the end of March for those.
- Loot Box orders will be a little longer. If you follow @STForgestudios on Tiktok you can see a few of our packing / assembly videos from the weekend.
- The Poker Decks, Nox Valar Maps, ST Screens are on a boat outside of New York waiting to port, and then get loaded on a truck over to my place so I can ferry them over and we can finish off the Loot Boxes
- Then we get all our shipping labels printed and make post office trips!
- We are still thinking late April for Loot Boxes to go out. Really, it's the Poker Decks that are the hold up, but at least they can wave at the United States from their boat.
Garycon This Weekend!
We will be at Garycon this weekend joining forces with the Total Party Kill booth in the exhibitor hall. If you backed the Black Ballad AND are quick enough with a request we can pull your order from distribution and have it on hand (where we can actually sign it!) for pick up. Email [email protected] to let us know and I'll make sure to set one aside.
For those that didn't back yet... we will have a small handful of copies available if you want to pick up one!
StorytellersForge.Com is officially open!
https://www.storytellersforge.com/shop
With our book leaving production, ST Forge Studios is officially entering year 1 of business! Our shop is open! You can get some items (Like the USB Bundles, Adventure Journals, Seventh Age Novels, etc) already if you haven't been there.
We've also been updating our blog posts and getting our website polished up. There will be a time post Loot Box delivery that I'll be uploading some custom Dice, Poker Decks, and other items individually.
...and speaking of Dice... man, on our discord server, we had 3 sets of damaged cases for the metal dice. We made ONE post with a photo of the fallen soldier...
and it was like the legions of hell were unleashed upon our general chat since we were going to let each of the moderators pick someone to give them away too...
Y'all are some serious dice gremlins and I love it.
But it also highlights that... don't F@$K with gamers and their shiny math rocks... screw zombies, dice gremlins can devour a chessex semi-truck in less than a minute.
Speaking of our discord.... you should probably join:
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Project Update: Feb Update! Shipping Times, Store Listings, and Loot Box Talk
The Bad News: - Free Character Sheet Packs :(
Let's lead off with the bad news: If you are one of the backers who qualified for the free bundle 5-pack character sheets for a BASE book order, we have to cancel those 145 free packs. Reason being? They won't be here in time. By ANY measure. So the choice would be: Delay 1600 orders for free character sheet packs until April / May and pay warehousing fees. Or strike the 145 free packs.
We've gotta strike them. Chinese New Year ate our shipping and manufacturing of them. Even though we ordered them back in October... glares at global events... yeah some things are valid delays.
That said, you can download them for free at our store: https://www.storytellersforge.com/shop
The Physical Book Update:
We are still on track for everything else. Our printer for the main book is a U.S. Based printer and we will have everything going to Easyships Fulfillment center right smack in the middle of March.
From there, all standard editions will go out pretty much instantly.
Loot Box orders will be coming to Chicago where we will handpack them during the month of March, and need ONE item from the pallet of merch coming from China: The Poker Decks. We are predicting loot box orders go out in April which is still ahead of May!
Pre-Order Store is Closed! BUT PAPERBACK VERSIONS ARE AVAILABLE!
If you missed the crowdfunding version, or the special edition cost was a little too spicy for you, the paperback is now available on Amazon for $64.99: CLICK HERE!
(That is a really solid option for International people btw).
Storytellers Forge Shop is now up!
Seriously! It's taking a while and it's still in beta, but check out our shop! https://www.storytellersforge.com/shop
We've moved off the backerkit store finally (because we are that close!) and we've got stuff available! I'm trying to take feedback on store ideas / layout while making squarespace work right. So I put everything in different categories like "International Friendly!" or "Free Stuff!" for easy searching. The main Special Edition Black Ballad book isn't up there yet, because we don't have the function to host preorders, but you can get the digital copy or some of our other books.
Also, we have a ton of photos of the adventure journals! These things turned out great! I'll end this post with a thank you, and then a swath of pictures for the adventure journals and other physical merch comin' in! Special thanks to our Eldritch Editor Courteney for taking photos as things roll in!
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Project Update: The Time Has Come: The Black Ballad Digital is Released (For Backers).
*taps.*
*taps again.*
Attention fellow androids, vampires, cryptids and hoomans on this ball of rock that hurtles around a gigantic ball of nuclear fire.
We at Storytellers Forge would like to officially celebrate: The Black Ballad.
It's been just under a year since we began this journey and speaking from my own coffee infused heart, thank you.
The full and final ADA versions and Epubs should be in your inboxes. Enjoy the fields of slaughter! Laugh manically when a TPK happens! Or brace yourselves for a tale of tragedy in the setting we have created.
Printing and physical versions are still weeks out, but please:
Tweet about it! Find us on socials!
Join our Discord!
https://discord.gg/7f7R5jNXkf
Share with us your thoughts on The Black Ballad!
It is with much pride that we were able to fulfill our end of the bargain and deliver something so gorgeous to our earliest supporters.
For those who have subscribed to the Backer Kit emails, but haven't bought in yet: The PDF and Epub Versions are available at https://www.storytellersforge.com/shop/the-black-ballad.
-Rick Heinz
