Dragons Unchained, New Stretch Goals, Shipping Estimate News, and I Serve Pie
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 04:26:23 PM
This update is massive.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
To say that I am humbled is an understatement. My brain is having a hard time with the fact that more people want to read my book than I have ever met in my life. The most I can give you in return at this moment is this silly stream of consciousness.
With this update, I want to talk a little about what we're doing with the money that you're giving us. Get ready for some boring percentages and transparency! But first, something more fun:
250k means playable dragons are coming.
I'll be putting in some overtime hours to write and playtest Five New Species for The Delver's Guide! One of the driving goals is to make a playable character that feels a little bit... grander than our friends the Dragonborn. The dragon species will be head and shoulders above others, and will require some extra consideration to fit into a party of barky dogs and cloppy horses. After all, it's my opinion that a delving dragon shouldn't just be beast + breath weapon. I'll be talking a little bit about the nature of these new species in an update next week.
Our campaign met several other stretch goals on its way to $250,000! We'll also be providing other things as well:
200k means a new delve is added to the Pathpost Dungeon Scout Kit.
Every one of the envelopes in the Kit is its own delve waiting to be added to your game. With the campaign meeting its $200,000 goal, I'll be writing a seventh entrance to the Dungeon in an adventure titled Sunday Omelette Club: Pterodactyl.
This lead points a crew to a secret circle of Beast World gourmands who meet once a year to see who can serve an omelette made from the eggs of the most exotic creature. The lead's source is looking to acquire the eggs of a flying lizard seen circling a river deep in the Arnerian rainforest. What might the crew find on their nest-raiding expedition? The Dungeon awaits.
150k means 15 new cards added to the Deck of Delvers.
The Deck grows, and so does Littfeld's population! Each of these cards has art of beasts and brethren living in the delving caravan. This brings the total number of these cards to 55. These will make great quick reference NPC stat blocks for GMs, reference art for player characters, or ideas for who one might run into while wandering the wagon line.
If the deck gets any bigger, we may need to split the darn thing in two...
100k means Virtual Tabletop support.
This is a work in progress, but we're proud to be able to bring you virtual tabletop content from The Delver's Guide to Beast World. We're investigating all the platforms we'll be able to support, but for now I can divulge this:
Everyone receiving a physical copy of the book will also receive its module for Shard Tabletop, free.
Huge thanks to Shard Tabletop for working with us on this! After the release, we'll be offering that module on their shop as well. We'll also be researching other providers to support as well.
Now the question is, where do we go from here? It just so happens that we had a few new stretch goals for just this occasion! And here is the first of them!
If we make $300,000 from the Kickstarter campaign, we will compile an art book containing concept art, unused sketches and commissions, and a tons of other content which helped to inform the visual language of The Delver's Guide. This book will be free inside the Dungeoneer's Box and Essential Delver's Kit, and available as an add-on to anyone else!
If we pass $300,000... we'll have to get creative.
A Note About Shipping Cost Estimates
To those who have been asking us about shipping costs, we hear you! We are still working out the final details of how we're going to be handling our overseas shipping. Our initial approach was simply going to be too expensive for y'all, so we've been working hard to figure out a more economical solution. We want the book to get into your hands without requiring a second mortgage!
Please be patient with us for a few more days as we get this squared away. Expect an update sometime next week.
Where is the money going?
One of the the promises I made myself when I started this project was to be transparent about where your money was being spent. I want to do more than write a great tabletop book; I want to do it in a way that is as ethical and just as possible. I've shown off some of our ad budget and analytics dashboards on our Discord server in the past. If you'd like to see some cool data, please feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] and I'll chat with you about it!
With that said, here are some cost estimates. Many of these percentages are based on fixed costs. Most notably, the cost to produce the book is based on a static amount we spent on commissions and up-front salary. For that reason, the "Book Production" percentage will decrease as we raise more money.
Here are some hard figures to go with those pie slices. If we stopped raising at exactly $250,000, I estimate the following figures:
$64,000 would go to profit share (ie: everyone but Cullen). This number is split between 14 people based on contribution.
$47,500 would go to the founding of Heartleaf Games. Some part of this would go to Cullen as salary, but since the Book Production money he's already spent is coming back to him, likely <10%.
Here are some questions I anticipate from this data.
So wait, your funding goal wouldn't have allowed you to break even?
Nah. I would have produced the book at a loss. It's just money.
Would that have left your profit share workers in the lurch? Aren't they depending on that money?
Nah. All those people also received money up-front. All profit share is bonuses because I wanted people to be invested in their work. Everyone in profit share is paid for just about all of their work already. (I owe Shamerli and Travis for a couple of sketches done during the course of the campaign.)
Why tell us this?
I tell you for a couple of reasons!
First of all, I want y'all to know that your money isn't going to waste. I am using it to pay really talented and awesome folks their dues. I want to pay them more!
Which brings me to the other reason I tell you all these numbers. I realize it looks pretty obnoxious to announce that we've made a quarter million dollars, then follow up with "please tell your friends so we can make more!" But as you can see, we're not quite at the point yet where we hammer stakes into the ground and set up shop. I want to get there, and I am doing everything in my power to make it happen.
But I need your help, dear backers. Over 70% of our pledge money comes from word-of-mouth. So, my request to you is this. If you've got someone in your social circle you think might dig our book, please share it with them.
Help us spread the word, so we can bring you more, on into the future.
I have so much more for you past this book. I am eager to share of myself, as much as you want to take. I'll have another update for you tomorrow, if you can believe it. Neat stuff in store.
Long live love,
Cullen McGuire
By the way, go look at Dungeon Scribe's 'Magical Oddities' campaign. It's really neat.
You can find it here. Their magic item cards are rad as hell, and I can't wait to get mine. They have our back too, so support for them is support for us. Now I'm gonna go gripe at Lexi about the fact that our graphics don't animate and whoosh about at all.
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