First off, I am really sorry for ghosting everyone for the past few months. It's been rough. The month of May was a difficult one due to a bunch factors, which culminated in the sudden death of my mother. I'm not comfortable going into all the details because it was very traumatic for my family, especially for me and my father. It was completely unexpected as we just celebrated Mother's Day a week prior, and she was totally fine, or so we thought.
The reality was not fine. My parents were very proud, but were going through financial and physical problems that they were apparently hiding from us. My mother recently turned 80 and my father turned 87 last week, so they're weren't exactly young. What kept them spirited and moving was their love of ballroom dancing, they had a crew of senior ballroom dancers and that was their main social outlet. Over the past year or so they were complaining about mobility issues, and were both suffering from hearing loss. So communicating with them got difficult. What we didn't know was they stopped dancing at some point, and were beginning to live in seclusion. I always suspected that my father suffered from depression, but he was also very private. My mom was the social one, and the only person that would call me regularly over the phone. My dad never calls me, so the morning he did, I knew something was up.
Dealing with her death was extremely difficult, especially for my father. Due to their estrangement from their only social circle, she was his only friend. Dealing with our grieving father was especially difficult, he was always grumpy, quiet, and a bit paranoid. But this was different, because it turns out that my father has been suffering from undiagnosed dementia. Probably the whole time. We all attributed his problems to common age-related decline and hearing loss, but also his general temperament and bitterness. Also, at some point last year he also lost his health insurance. It's clear now, and the more I learn about dementia, the more obvious it was. He's also in denial. For over the past two months I have been trying to care for this paranoid old man with dementia, who doesn't want to be helped. His paranoia and confusion has resulted in him changing all the locks in his house, losing his keys, his wallet, everything. He has to be bribed with treats to be let in. He thinks my siblings and I are trying to steal his money, his house, everything. It's been awful. I was able to have breakfast with him this morning, I bribed him with some candy and a breakfast burrito. He was not happy to see me, but I'm also aware that he's not the same man, and that dementia has impaired his brain. When I lost my mom, I also lost my dad.
I gave myself the World Cup (all of June and half of July) as an excuse to "not work", to simplify my days as I tried to take care of my dad, his estate affairs, his healthcare, etc. It helped because it's been really difficult to focus. I meant to kickstart everything right after the tournament, last week... to solicit some work, and get this project out the door, etc. But I immediately got sick with some sort of respiratory thing. So that took me out for the past week, fortunately it didn't last for a month (I have a weird compromised immune system, and when I get sick, I get sick for 4-6 weeks, especially respiratory diseases, like colds and covid).
Today I was able to follow up with Matt (doing layout) to get this project going again and out the door. GENCON is happening this week, so there will be delays because of that. Once I get the layout finalized, I'll be able to get the proofs, do some measurements, get the packaging needed, order the prints, and get things shipped. That's all we're waiting for. Unfortunately I don't have the timing, but I'll share that stuff as soon as I can.
All of you, who ordered the Inferno Road - Crawl Edition!, should have already received it directly from Doug. If you haven't, let me know. If you did, take pics and share it on your socials.
I haven't charged for shipping for anything, because it did not feel right to charge for shipping until it was ready to ship, plus I don't know how much shipping costs until I'm able to get the proofs and packaging, to weigh everything.
Soon, I promise. If you haven't filled out the survey, please do that ASAP, there are a few of you that haven't.
Again, my apologies for the delay. If you have any other questions, please ask.
Thank you for your patience as I work through this,
I screwed up the pledge manager, a bit, and accidently didn't allow anyone to add-on copies of the mega-edition alternative cover or the special Crawl! edition of Inferno Road. It should be fixed. The surveys won't be locked for at least another week, so you have time to add them if you intended to. Sorry about that The Count. As a treat, here's a teaser of the new poster-spinner art for this edition. Let's get those survey's completed!
In other news, DrivethruRPG is having a site-wide sale on DCC PDFs, which includes third-party published material such as mine. You can pick up the digital editions of all my zines and save a few copper. You can get DCC RPG RULEBOOKS for $5 right now including MCC and XCC! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?promo=1000742
Pre-Orders for Crawl! mega-edition, no. 1 are also still open for those that missed the campaign. Tell your friends! https://crawl-collectors-edition-no-1.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
A handful of you received your surveys yesterday, and most of them have been completed. The rest of the surveys are either in your email or on the way now. Make sure you get those surveys filled out, and you can add those last minute add-ons too.
I'll also be opening up the pre-orders page for those that missed out during the campaign (yes, it was short). So you can still pick up a copy of the mega-edition or the standard zine.
A random handful of you should have received your surveys from Backerkit. Please fill it out ASAP, and let me know if there are any questions or problems with it. Within the next day, I'll be sending out the rest of the surveys and then I can get the rest of the ball rolling towards fulfillment.
I'll also be opening up "Pre-Orders" for those that missed the campaign, but want a copy. Tell your friends!
It's been almost two weeks since the campaign ended and there are just a couple things left I'm waiting for. Funds need to clear (takes two weeks). Setting up the pledge manager was more complicated than I expected, and there is an approval process. Starting at some point, hopefully tomorrow, a "smoke test" will be sent to a small percentage of backers to makes sure everything is working well, then the rest of the surveys will go out soon after that. After that, I'll also be opening the pre-orders store, for those that missed the campaign.
On my side, we need to finish layout on the last couple pages, then I need to send for a proof. Only then will we go into production. I have to buy a lot of ISBNs, packaging, and figure out shipping. But I need the funds to clear before I can do any of that.
My April ship date was ambitious, but I'm optimistic. Packing and shipping is the easy part for me.
Rev Dak
Is it too soon to talk about Crawl! Mega-Edition, no. 2? I can wait.
