Community

Hey folks,

Below is a mostly intact version of the newsletter I sent out today. There's nothing in it that any Backerkit Backer need consider actionable. I'm just sharing it because it's relevant to my game making and that's why we're all here in this Backerkit update forum.

NOTE: Except there IS one thing that some Backerkit folks might want to see. Item 4 in the "other news" section at the end includes me thining that I should open up SYMA/VAPR orders in time for "Black Friday." That will, I fear, cause hurt feelings for backers who haven't yet received their packages. There will almost certainly be an uncomfortable overlap when one of the three warehouses is able to start fulfilling "simple" SYMA/VAPR orders while another warehouse is still struggling with complicated multi-item orders–I accept whatever yelling-at-me that earns me from you folks. 

If you are interested in getting the newsletter in the future, sign up at https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/pages/newsletter-sign-up. I won't be putting many more of them in the BK updates.

Oh, and I'm making this available to the wider "Backerkit follower" audience. If you folks want to find the two Thousand Year Old Vampire sequels you'll need to go over to thousandyearoldvampire.com in a couple of weeks.

And I'll say that again: You might be seeing this update and NOT be a backer. Don't think you are a backer just because you are seeing this. If you have doubts, go check your account.

High fives,
Tim H


ITEM 1: BACKERKIT SURVEYS ARE LIVE

The Backerkit surveys are out for So You've Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire. If you are a backer and haven't received one, go check your junk mail or log in to Backerkit.

If you are not a backer and full of regret, go to https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/ where you can get the PDFs right now. Soon I'll offer the books for sale proper. Money spent on PDFs now will be a credit toward buying the associated book in a couple of weeks.

I need to get a bunch of the backer books out before my conscience'll let me start selling directly.

I'm expecting to be at PAX U in Philadelphia next month. I've never been. I'm interested in going, but not quite excited.

I always do better when I have a reason to be some place and I am honored to be a part of the PAX Rising Showcase this year. This means I or an analog will be sitting at a table in the PAX Rising part of the con, demoing So You've Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire and maybe The Vampire Prisoner.

Demoing means, as I understand it, that you come up to me and we shout things back and forth. Our voices, though raised, will be unintelligible due to the noise of the crowd. I'll awkwardly push a book into your hand and gesture at a litter of paper and pencils on the table. You'll uncomfortably sit, trying not to meet my eyes, and hesitantly flip through the book. You'll start timing my pulls on my 2-liter of Mountain Dew (spoiler: Every fourteen seconds I take a drink that takes an average of five seconds.) I tilt the bottle back and you make your move, throwing yourself onto the floor and crawling away like a motivated spider.

You won't know it, but I'm watching your retreat through the green plastic of the bottle and big bubbles of glorp-glorp-glorp air and tiny bubbles of carbonation. I, like any number of unpleasant woodland creatures, was more uncomfortable with you than you were with me. Maybe you stole some of my dice on the way out–if so, I consider it a small price to pay for a few more moments of trollish alone time.

Other thoughts:

Be grateful that PAX U has a policy against "booth babes" or else I'd've gone through our entire exchange almost naked from the waist up.

I am doing a 'talk' or something at PAX U. Maybe I can be shirtless there? Perhaps if I crouch low behind the podium so no one will be bothered.

Oh shit, or maybe I'll be wearing one of these t-shirts! We'll have to see. T-shirts'll be up on the thousandyearoldvampire.com site soonish.

I swear to god that the "shirtless" bit above wasn't a setup for the t-shirt graphic. Honest. I, and I shit you not, cannot think that way. I can't plan more than three seconds ahead. This might be why, back when I was a video editor, I only ever cut tv commercials.

And I hope you'll use it. Go see "Memory as a Rock Out of Reach" by EMA & Tabitha Nikolai at the PAM CUT theater on Nov 21. Use the code PLUSPLUS2026-100 and get a free... Dang it. There. Use the code for a free ticket.

I'm bummed that there's a very good chance I'll have to miss it due to other commitments, and that after paying actual cash-money for my ticket.

...and see Ryan Browning's art show. One of the questions his work poses is "What kind of art would I make if I was a fantasy wizard and could cast Phantasmal Force and stuff?" I weasled a painting out of Ryan years ago and it has hung in my bedroom every since, even though it isn't at all saucy.

But seriously, few enough of you are from Portland and even less will be in the Richmond area. Is this a good use of our newsletter time together?

Below is one of Ryan's paintings from the show:

ITEM 4: I FOUND A LAYOUT ERROR!

Yeah, no idea how that happened except "Tim is just so sloppy even though he checked things more than once."

I put those little frames around the illustrations in the layout software. The frames themselves are a graphic, not just a computer-made line. There's supposed be a little moat of white between the outer line and the inner graphic but, as you see here, that's the bit that got fucked up.

I kick myself, lightly, for what, in retrospect, seems like a stupid way to do things. A few kicks in, though, my inner defense lawyer speaks up and says "Hey, wait a second. This wasn't a bad idea. The white gap needed to be consistent throughout the book and that would've been hard to do if the frames were embedded in the illos because the illustrations change size while getting positioned."

I am annoyed at myself for not catching, it though. I went back and checked those borders more than once. How did I not catch this?

If the illustration and the border line were different colors it would be cool, like things have gone off-register. But they ain't. Alas.

And, worse yet, versions of this mistake happened more than once. I'm thinking I must've somehow messed up one of the source frames.

This brings me to my next item, because when I found the error I was sitting on a plane waiting to go to...

I've already read enough thoughtful Metatopia write-ups that I know I am incapable of doing it justice. It's a great place and there are good conversations about games with interesting people. The whole thing is a playtesting con and there are lots of designers. Its really nice.

can't do Metatopia right so, instead: The Lost Boys musical.

I went. I'm not a musical kind of guy, not really, but maybe I sort of am? I don't see a lot of musicals. I did find a lot of pleasure in the Starkid Firebringer musical on youtube. And I'm a sucker for a chorus coming together at the end to make a big shared noise that gets me teary-eyed.

And I'll also claim I'm not a really a "vampire media" kind of guy but that isn't entirely true either. I really like the The Lost Boys movie. I was happy to get to fit the musical into my schedule.

The musical itself was ridiculous and neat and I'm glad I saw it. There were 'cuts' in the musical that felt filmic, pulled off with sneaky set changes in the dark and lighting effects distracting or sometimes even blinding you. The musical didn't try to be the movie, but it did try to be movie-ish in the dramatic cutting tricks it was doing. I admired it. And seeing people on a stage flying around made me think harder about how The Lost Boys relates to Peter Pan.

I also struggled to stay awake. I don't mean that in a mean way, it's just that I'd had a red eye flight into NYC and was exhausted. The songs were, I guess, the least interesting part of the musical–to loud and muddled, too long. Those are when I'd drop off. Actually, take that as being mean: The songs were mostly dull, overlong, and overloud.

Because I'm weak and sentimental I got teary at the end.

The next day I spent looking at art galleries and every person I met who knew me asked me about what else I'd been doing in NYC. I'd mention the musical, then they'd say "Oh yeah, Brian Boucher (fancy art reporter/critic guy) saw that yesterday, too. He posted about it on [social media site]" at which I'd harumph and say "I know, I was with him. We saw it together." Now I get why people pose with each other for social media photos.

I was also astonished, like slack-jawed with surprise and horror, at the length of the disorderly line waiting to get into the theater. Then I was impressed at how fast they got everyone inside and seated. Like the opposite of a fire drill. Just remarkable.

Humbling art gallery visit highlights included: A former roommate and a former work-friend had good shows at good galleries on the same block (ref. See "Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little." Gore Vidal). Not much later, I walked into a gallery I love, saw one of the directors who I hadn't seen in twenty+ years, saw her recognized me and felt pleased, then I called her by the wrong name even though I actually 100% knew her name. Just humiliating. To top it off, I think I dropped my disgusting, sweat-and-rain dampened hat someplace in the gallery-I-so-admire. I can clearly visualize them sending an assistant to the park to find an appropriate stick so they can, in the proper manner, poke the hat like it was a dead rat.

Maybe I'll try another pass on Metatopia in a later newsletter. And on my short visit to Washington D.C.

1. I hate working on cars and houses. The stakes are too high. Right before I left for Metatopia I had to pull out, clean, and recaulk the shower door track thing that sits on the edge of a bathtub. I was nervous about it coming unstuck while I was away but I returned home find it being appropriately invisible and forgotten, as is appropriate.

Related to that I had to trim a toilet flapper to fit a few weeks ago and I think that's been working without issue as well.

2. The Portuguese translation of TYOV has been sent to the printer. It's neat to have my stuff remade in so many languages. I think I shared the horrific drawing I did for the Portuguese endpapers, but maybe I'll do it again:

I'm happy with the eyes.

3. I'm reprinting the Playable Bookmarks. Dunno when the next batch will be ready. They bookmarks are printed by Firecracker Press in St. Louis: https://www.firecrackerpress.com/

4. I guess I should open up SYMA/VAPR for Black Friday orders. I'll feel gross doing so because not all of the Backerkit backers will have their stuff delivered yet, but the gimlet-eyed businessman in my guts is all "honeybadger" about it.

That same business guy is reminding me that I haven't had a proper job since I quit teaching and that maybe I should start a Patreon thing. It is both sad and funny when he suggests that because the business guy sees what needs to be done but can't do it without the feckless art guy and the feckless art guy is too undependable for anything that needs to happen on a schedule.

5. I'm reading one of the Wind in the Willows sequels, which might be why I referenced a type of badger in the previous entry. It's good. Washed the ick of The Circle of Light out of my mouth.

6. I flew back to Oregon on Tuesday, arriving after midnight Wednesday morning. It was the first time I can remember feeling impatient on a flight. I really, really wanted to get home to my family. I fear I'm becoming sessile-ish.

7. Railroad Corporation 2 is burning a desire-hole in my brain. I can almost point at the part of my skull where the desire is rooted. I have no time for games right now and must resist but, holy shit, I love train games.

For as much as I like train games, you'd think I'd be better at logistics.

8. I finally played Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast. The session was overfull of players and not the best introduction, but I could tell the game is as good as I'd hoped. I got to see two or three characters fill their little tracks at the end of the game. This meant they then changed in some way. This was usually represented by sticking a sticker over some part of the character sheet. Such a smart game.

9. I'm working with an illustrator on a "Worm" thing! We're doing style tests now. I'm super excited about sharing stuff once we've formally agreed to work together.

I think that is all. Please forgive typos and things.

Tim H

Hi folks!

I'm at a proper computer! Now I can write a proper update! Let's treat it like a FAQ:

1. What's this about two books? 
If your original pledge included the physical SYMA book then you are also getting VAPR. Both main books are included, even if your pledge level says "Physical Book + PDF". I think you can see them both in the little checkout window while filling your survey.

2. My shipping is expensive!
International shipping is the pits. It's going to be pricey, no matter what. If you are in the UK or EU it will still be pricey if you have add-ons, because those are getting fulfilled from the US. If you have an alarmingly high shipping number it might be an error, though, so don't hesitate to check in with me. Also, if your wallet is thin and you find the checkout process uncomfortably pricey, let me know in an email.

3. My credit card charge didn't go through!
3a. Check to see that your cc is up-to-date. 
3b. If you have credit card issues that are now fixed on your end, there's probably no need to send me an email–backerkit will try your cc again as we work through orders. I appreciate the check-in but it should work itself out. If it hasn't done so in a week or two, call your cc company and tell them the charge is fine. 
3c. Your credit card company is probably refusing the charge because backerkit uses a creator's separate Stripe account when they bill you. I think. Your cc company just sees my Stripe account, which hasn't been used for a year, jump up and start sending out hundreds of charges. It's not Backerkit's fault, and it isn't really mine, and we can't fault the cc companies for being leery in this age of scammers. Still a pain, though. 
3d. I might be wrong about 3c. 

4. Did anything really exciting happen while you were writing this update?
I accidentally closed the window in which I've been typing this. I shouted "No!" and put my hands to my mouth, like that would help. I did the "reopen last closed window" keystroke and everything is okay! Then I 'select all, copy'd so I'd have the text in a second place-–just in case.

5. Can I get bookmarks? Wait, no: "Can I haz bookmarks?"
The Backerkit fulfillment system is officially sold out of Playable Bookmarks, which means I am -almost- sold out of bookmarks. If you are an -overseas- backer who is ordering multiple add-ons, and you want some bookmarks, contact me directly at [email protected]. I should be able to find bookmarks for you if you are quick about it. Everyone else: I'm ordering more bookmarks now and you can get 'em later. 

What other questions need to get added here? 

Going to Metatopia fixed my brain up good. Sorry it made this fulfillment stuff a little buggy.

Books have arrived at both warehouses in the US. They'll start pumping out your packages soon.

I'm going to be at Pax Unplugged as part of their "Pax Rising" selection. This means that me or some me-analog will be sitting at a table, eager to sit you down and show you how SYMA or VAPR work.

-tim h

Hi folks,

SURVEYS ARE OUT. They might take awhile to show up in your email box or whatever.

The "smoke test" has been running and it looks like everything is working as expected. The rest of you will get your surveys tonight or tomorrow.

More good news: the first books are landed on US soil. Or, US concrete, I hope. They should arrive in the NJ warehouse tomorrow. 

I'm traveling and won't be able to monitor things as closely as I like. If issues come up then my newly appointed co-Backerkit-manager pal will step in.

Out of the slice of orders I've seen, I'm baffled at how few of you ordered t-shirts. People were asking about t-shirts. It seemed like everyone wanted t-shirts. The t-shirts are good t-shirts with a delightful surprise. I'd say 'fine, more t-shirts for me' but that's not how t-shirts work.

Note: You'll only be able to see the shirts for sale when you fill out your survey, and then only if you are backing at a Physical Book level or higher.

NYCers: I'll be doing a 'say hello' type event at the Twenty Sided Store in Brooklyn on Wednesday at 7. Check this link before going, just to make sure the event is happening.

Edit: When items are sold out they disappear from the add-ons list. The bookmarks are considered sold out, though I still have a few left. If you are an -overseas- backer I invite you to email me at [email protected] and I might be able to add bookmarks to your order. US backers, let’s leave the remainder for our high-shipping-paying friends—you can get more after the next print run. 

Hi folks,

The surveys are ready to send but I can't send them because there's an approval step I didn't know was there. Backerkit has to approve my survey package before I am allowed to send the test surveys which, in turn, takes some amount of time.

Argh.

I mean, I am glad they are checking things but I didn't know it was necessary. Not that it would've changed anything, I guess. I had some sort of low end illness last week that slowed me down quite a bit. 

This wouldn't be such a hassle except that I'm leaving on a trip next week and I can't take my computer with me. Fret not, it'll work out. (I'm saying that to myself, not to you.)

Happy Halloween,

Tim H

The good news is that there is not new bad news! Ah wait, I am being too superstitious so I'll try again:

I have actual bound copies of SYMA and VAPR and they are good.

Here is an "unboxing" video. Watch me open a box with a knife. Listen to me sputter, grunt, and make random exclamation-type sounds:

For those eager to see me get as emotional as I think I've ever been, skip to 5m15s. (Later: Oh look, the default preview image on the video is the thing that made me sad.)

I'll do a post mortem on the delivered books...later. December. There are tiny alignment issues with some stuff on the cover which feel odd, like they are off in a way that makes me suspect my original files because I can't imagine how only one corner is messed up. 

The very first TYOV printing had a cover alignment issue that took me way too long to diagnose because it was so unreasonable: The printer had very slightly distorted the gold foil matte so it was only off in one dimension. The printer owned the problem and were perfect the whole rest of the time I worked with them. 

I'm very happy with Standart Impressa's work. I'll be ordering a new run of TYOV from them soon. 

I'll have some "Good for you, bad for me" news to share next week. I'll give you a hint: "I spent a comically large bag of money to express a bunch of books to the warehouses so I, hopefully, can fulfill everything before Christmas." No way you'll guess my self-sabotaging, bad-business secret with just that confounding hint. 

Hi folks,

Sorry about the misfire earlier. A Backerkit function didn't work the way I thought it did.

The new solution is less elegant but it'll get us there. Go to the link in the 'for backers' part of this post and "buy" the free PDF download. You'll have to go through the checkout process, for which I apologize, but it'll work. If you live in a place where you can't access Shopify or whatever please let me know at [email protected]

I'll take the page down in November or December, after the proper Backerkit PDF delivery method drops in.

Note: I'm calling this "early PDF delivery" but these are the final PDFs. Maybe I'll tweak them if I do a second printing of VAPR/SYMA and fix the tiny mistakes I've found for that.

High fives,
Tim H

PS. I'm reasonably embarrassed about my false start last night. Here's a picture to look at so you don't think about me messing things up. I'll title the photo "The Alleyman's Pokemon" after the tarot deck that Seven put together.