Almost done with Shipping.
5 months ago
– Sun, Sep 08, 2024 at 01:39:49 PM
As a reminder, I am doing all of the work for this Kickstarter solo (which I will never do again) so the fulfillment process has been as hairpulling (if I had any hair) as the production process was through two years of Covid delays, two different layout artist changes, and producing two books instead of one.
And admittingly, life has gotten the better of me over the past three or four months. Even though I have been slowly working through the orders and books have been trickling out, I have not been paying attention to the comments section as much as I should.
June through August has just been a stupid busy time for me. I was promoted to a new position at work, spent two weeks drawing at a fair in July, I am part of a team preparing to run a gaming convention in November, I had my annual family vacation in August, and my only daughter is getting married in less than two weeks..... whew,... just typing all that was exhausting.
All that being said, I powered through about 45 orders yesterday in roughly 7 hours, with over $1800 in book orders, and sent about 30 or so emails. I only have maybe two pages of book orders left to process, about 30 or so orders.
And the hits just keep on comin.... I found out an unfortunate fact concerning drivethrurpg, THEY process book orders from a separate warehouse/factory that they process playing card orders. I intentionally created the OZ action deck on Drivethru so I could ship the cards with the books to save you guys shipping costs. Alas, I have to order them and ship them seperate if I do it through DrivethruRPG.
So, to avoid paying shipping cost x3, I am probably going to order the cards in bulk like I did for my last Kickstarter and then include them in the packaging with the dice, bennies, and other physical stretch goals and add ons that will be shipped directly from my home.
I already have all the dice and bennies ready to package so I'll let you guys know as soon as I get the card order in. I can still order decks through Drivethru when need be and when the fulfillment process is over they will be available to the public through print on demand.
I'm hoping to finish the book orders this weekend and then I will take a break from fulfillment until after the 20th of November (my daughters wedding day). It's an out of town wedding so as soon as I get back in town I will start packaging physical add ons and stretch goals.
AS PROMISED- I will not make either the Oz Pirates core book or the Oz GM book available for public sale until ALL book orders are out and I will NEVER make the special Kickstarter cover edition of the new corebook available for public sale,... ever.
I would really like to have EVERYTHING (books and stretch goals/add ons) shipped out by November 27 (the release date for the new Wicked Oz movie) as an arbitrary deadline. This movie has the great capacity to be a stinker but hopefully it will fuel some creativity for some great Oz home games.
The only Kickstarter related products still in production is the Oz Sketchbook and the Figure Flats. I do not have a layout artist for either (it wasn't in the contract), so I will be doing that work myself. Once the art for the figure flats is complete, I will update you guys on the production schedule with ArcKnight.
I think that's about it. I will make it a point to check the comments section at least once every few days and everyone look out for the email blast I sent out yesterday with shipping fee invoices. I've already gotten several responses so thx.
And to end on a Awesome News Note- I have decided that any and all Oz adventures (one shots and mini campaigns, basically anything except a full blown sourcebook) WILL BE FREE TO ALL OZ PIRATES BACKERS FOR THE LIFE OF THIS GAME. What that means, is that I will keep everyone's emails from this Kickstarter campaign on file and whenever any Oz one sheet gets posted on DrivethruRPG, you guys will get a PDF copy for free. As I am so close to closing this Kickstarter campaign, this is just a small thank you to you folks for your YEARS of patience.
Love u mean it... and we will Talk to you soon.
Dan
Update on shipping
10 months ago
– Tue, Apr 23, 2024 at 05:56:51 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
The PROOFs are in!!
10 months ago
– Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 06:30:12 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Proofs on the way
11 months ago
– Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 05:40:14 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
SHIPPING CHARGES
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Dec 04, 2023 at 07:05:03 AM
IF YOU ARE A DIGITAL ONLY BACKER, YOU CAN IGNORE THIS UPDATE.
PHYSICAL BACKERS (books and add-ons),
Both versions of the CORE BOOK are complete ( the Full color cover version and the alternate special edition Kickstarter only sketch cover version) and ready to be uploaded and printed through drivethrurpg.
The GM Handbook is almost complete and I expect to have a complete book ready to be uploaded to drivethrurpg this week.
Over this past weekend, I completed and uploaded the new Battle for Oz: Pirates Action Deck to drivethrurpg. I ordered a proof copy. As soon as I receive it and sign off on it, the Action Deck will be ready to be ordered and shipped from drivethrurpg to ALL BACKERS THAT PLEDGED AT A PHYSICAL BOOK LEVEL, and anyone that pre-orderd an action deck or extra action deck will receive an action deck through drivetrurpg. I am covering the cost of the action deck printing for each physical backer (as I promised in the first stretch goal), but each backer is responsible for the shipping costs for the action deck and their physical book(s).
I have ordered the Battle for Oz: Pirates bennies to cover all add on orders and they should arrive within the next week. That particulat stretch goalwas not met in the Kickstarter campaign, but I opened them up to pre-orders.
I have all of the Oz Dice in my office, ready to be shipped, another completed stretch goal that I am covering but the backers are responsible for shipping.
For all Contributor Backers (backers that backed at a level that allowed them to create an NPC) all of the Battle for Oz dice rollers are printed and ready to go.
So lets talk about shipping.
Everyone that is receiving a physical book, or action deck, will be recieving those items directly shipped from drivethrurpg. Everyone that is receiving a physical add-on, such as dice, bennies, a dice roller, or ship tokens; those items will be packaged and shipped by me.
That being said, I have started to audit the shipping charges that I TRIED to create in Backerkit but it looks my efforts were in vain. I blame myself because I think trying to pre-charge for shipping was a mistake and the shipping add-ons I created in Backerkit were kind of confusing. Some backers prepaid for shipping charges, but most did not.
I obviously can not cover everyone's shipping charges, just the action deck alone would be in the neighborhood of $400 plus in shipping.
So what I am going to have to do is audit each order as I package them, both at home and through drivethrurpg. If you are a backer that prepaid for some shipping charges, you will get credit of corse. I will create a spreadsheet and notify each backer if their pre order has not covered shipping charges after I estimate what those charges will be, and that backer will be responsible for those shipping charges. I will invoice any backer that has not paid, or has a balance after some credit, for shipping charges.
As an example, the proof I ordered from drivethrurpg for the Action Deck was $4.84 for shipping to my home in North Carolina. All my physical order book backers, I will be able to bundle the shipping charge for your book and action deck together to save on shipping costs from drivetrurpg, but the shipping cost for the physical add-ons like dice or bennies will be separate because I will be physically mailing them myself at the local UPS store.
I apologize in advance for any confusion, I've really just created more work for myself but thats ok. I will slowly work through each order, calculate the TOTAL shipping cost between both drivethrurpg and the UPS store and invoice each backer. I will only ship a backers order AFTER all shipping charges (if invoiced for one) are paid. The shipping charges will likely be done through Backerkit, but I will work with each backer individually. Pirate Press has a Paypall account so I will be able to accept shipping charge payments through Paypall at, [email protected]
Let me know if you have any questions. I am very excited to finally get the physical books and add-on goodies in your hands. It represents three years of hard work and a lot of support and patience from an awesome group of loyal gamers and backers.
I will create an update soon with some proof images of the action deck and bennies, they both turned out great!
Thank you,
Dan
