Production Update: July 12th (& Art Preview)
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 04:32:07 PM

Major progress.  

All of the maps have finished layout, and the skeletons for content set up.  Believe it or not, this is one of the most grueling parts, because it's just busy work and I hate it terribly.  More to the point, it's also more difficult to fit in among other things because it requires a fair amount of dedicated focus, as opposed to writing actual content for each of the areas of interest, which is more easily achieved in bits and drabs.

It also is a whole lot of work that doesn't really do anything to "move the bars" progress-wise.

But you don't care.  You wanna know when you'll get your copy of the book.  I get it.

I hate to provide estimates, but I'm aiming--AIMING--to wrap up the Pathfinder version by end of the month.  We'll see how realistic that is!  But fingers crossed.  5E conversion to swiftly follow thereafter.

The good news?  Damn thing is over 700 pages long at this point.  Now, it might shrink at some point, but if I were a betting man, I'd place a wager on 750-800 pages total when it's all done.  

Art Preview

Another returning NPC from DO1, Sorille, the courier.

New Kickstarter: Druid Enclave Setting Book
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 07:32:15 PM

Surprise, surprise: One IGS Kickstarter project ends, and another is born. This one's the Druid Enclave. It's gonna be super fun.

Check it out here.  

Why Another Kickstarter?  

To make things more awesome. I'll likely be doing a separate KS for each of the promised products in the pipeline. Many backers of DO2 and other projects have expressed their happiness at this approach, knowing that for every successful KS, it means the products they're already entitled to will become larger, better, with more artwork and resources funneled into them. 

Frankly speaking, it also makes it easier to produce the additional products more rapidly, because I can start to outsource and share the load a bit here and there.  

Can You Really Keep This Many Balls in the Air at Once?  

In my day job, I manage a portfolio of 60 IT projects. I have three kids. I'm still sane. Mostly.  

So, yeah.  

Does This Delay Development of Other Projects?  

No.  

Start-to-finish, with current IGS projects, the majority of the planned time is in producing art. We work with a cadre of highly skilled artists, who work hard to produce awesome results. But those artists have other commitments occasionally.  

And, frankly, now that IGS Kickstarters have been as successful as they've been, I really want to have the final product contain more art. It may be difficult to believe, but I need to plan art commissions several months into the future. (If I could clone every artist I work with, I totally would.) The "administrative overhead" of coordinating those in-the-future commissions doesn't take away from my focus of completing current projects.

Maps Finalized! & "Main" Map Preview
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 10:16:24 AM

All maps are finalized.  That means gridded, shaded, effects'd, and annotated.

Below please find all of the thumbnails... and a preview of the "main" map, the City Gate Exterior.  Nearly all of the annotated labels there represents its own "zoomed" sub-map, complete with detail.

Now comes the part that I feel writes itself: Content fleshout.  As in, each of those numbered pieces in each map gets its description and content written out.  Very excited! 

Clever or spatially-oriented veterans of Dark Obelisk 1 may notice that in terms of total square footage, Berinncorte Basecamp actually covers more than the size of the city of Berinncorte in DO1.  :)

Fulfillment Complete for Published PDF Products
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Jul 06, 2017 at 10:55:22 PM

Published PDF Fulfillment Completed!

Thanks as always for your patience.  I realize it's been a while since the campaign wrapped up.  The good news is that all PDFs for all published products have been fulfilled. 

Check your inbox, spam, trash, and other email folders for confirmation coming from RPGnow.  If you run into any issues, or if you feel you are entitled to a product that you did NOT receive a message linking you to a free copy of, please let me know and I will investigate.

Once again, thank you all very much for your confidence and support.  I welcome feedback on any product, at any time; praise or constructive critique can only help make future products even better.

Specifically, PDF fulfillment for 5E and Pathfinder has been completed for all of the following products:

• DO1: Adventure Book
• DO1: Dramatis Personae & Bestiary
• DO1: Players' Guide
• DO1: Premium Atlas & Map Pack
• DO1: Pregenerated Characters
• DO1: Extended Pregenerated Characters for Pathfinder

Hardcopy Fulfillment?

This is taking a great deal longer than anticipated.  I'm in process now, but I'm handling each shipment individually.  I was trying to automate the process, but came up short unfortunately so what I had hoped to trigger several days ago is only just today getting started.  

I will update once I'm absolutely certain that the orders for all published hardcopy products have been processed.  Once again, my apologies at the delay.

Fulfillment Clarification: Berinncorte Basecamp Not Published Yet
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Jul 06, 2017 at 07:12:25 PM

I've received a number of notes from concerned backers, telling me that they haven't received anything.  In all cases I've researched so far, that's correct.

Most backers are only entitled to Berinncorte Basecamp, the main product of this Kickstarter campaign.

Keep in mind that BB hasn't been published yet; I'm finalizing it now. 

Today's fulfillment notification was for Dark Obelisk 1 and its associated products; those that have been published.  Check the update detail from earlier today for the list of products that have been fulfilled via PDF thus far.

Sorry for the confusion!  Hang in there for BB and thanks for your patience.