Update #6: The One About Campaign Completion
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 01, 2022 at 04:18:39 PM

Hey all,

Thanks to the 208 backers who believe in this project, it's funded and getting made! We did it!

Just like last year, I figured we could do a little write-up of the data showing how things landed at the end of the campaign.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

First and foremost, out of the 208 backers, the tier split looks like this:

This was surprising to me. I've been asked a lot the past year on where / how to grab the physical version of the Dungeoneering base game, so I figured the Complete Version would be the big seller. If you've adjusted your pledge from Complete to Collectors (or just outright pledged at the Collector's tier), let me know what got you excited to pledge at that level!

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

Next, I was really surprised to see this metric:

According to data, the average "good" conversion rate is 1.5%-5%. We... achieved significantly higher than that. I'm curious as to whether this is an RPG zine thing, a Dungeoneering thing, or just a ZineQuest / ZIMO thing. Or something else entirely. If you clicked to save the project or follow it and then came back later to back, leave a comment as to what brought you back around!

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

There's a bunch of other data points that I'm sifting through on Google Analytics, but that feels a bit weird to share so suffice to say the data matches fairly closely to the first Dungeoneering campaign.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Here's some relevant information about next steps for the campaign and what to expect:

•  BackerKit surveys will go out on March 15. That will give enough time to make sure all charges are cleared and reviewed. Both Kickstarter and BackerKit suggest waiting two weeks to prevent any weird situations with chargebacks or double charges.
•  The BackerKit Grinning Rat Preorder Store will go live on March 30. If you didn't get a chance to back the project or are wanting more copies of anything, that's where you'll be able to go to pick up some stuff!

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

That's it for now, stay tuned for more updates as they come through. Oh, and as a little freebie, check out below some really cool mini-scenes the spectacular DC Stow put together that will be in the zine!

- Nate W

Update #5: The One About the Last 24 Hours
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 01, 2022 at 01:06:33 AM

Hey all,

We're finally here!

Share with friends and family! If you haven't backed yet, now's your last chance! We managed to unlock our first stretch goal "New Spells, Prayers, and Traps" which I was hoping we'd get since writing those is a blast. But I think we can finish stronger! Time will tell. 😉

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

Either way, once the campaign ends, a few things will happen:

• BackerKit will go live and you should receive an email to fill out our survey for your rewards. Most of fulfillment won't happen for a while, but you'll be able to lock in your order, grab some add-ons, and get your credit card on file for charging when we ship.
• I'll be reviewing backers and sending links to download the PDF of Dungeoneering as applicable.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Aside from that, it looks like I've got a bit of writing to do to meet this March deadline! I'll leave you with a preview spell that will be added as a part of our stretch goal I mentioned earlier: Gravity Reversal.

-Nate W

UPDATE #4: The One About the Pins
about 4 years ago – Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 09:08:58 AM

Hey all,

Take a look at these beauties!

I think they look great! Metal enamel pins with military metal clutches, so they won't accidentally fall off either.

For those who backed at the Collector's Version level, you'll be getting one of these as a part of your pledge! For everyone else, once the campaign concludes, these will be available to add-on your order through BackerKit.

I know I said I'd be quiet on the updates till the end, but I figured you'd all want to see these. As a general update, I've got the first round of edits implemented and the editor will be getting the next draft this week! Should be all set for a March digital release. I'll update more as we learn more. For now, thanks for backing and make sure to share with folks! 

- Nate W

Update #3.5.5: GR Newsletter Sending Tomorrow, February 19
about 4 years ago – Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 03:15:00 PM

Hey all,

Irritatingly, the email service I’m using for newsletters requires an approval period before I can send anything out. I’ve contacted support and am currently waiting for whenever they decide I’m cleared for sends. 

Thankfully there’s nothing too time-restrictive in it, but it’s annoying nonetheless. If you’re interested in signing up for the newsletter in the meantime (while also snagging the Dungeoneering Quick Start Rules pdf), head over to grinningratpub.com and click the top bar. 

Newsletter is coming soon folks! Thanks for your patience.

- Nate W

UPDATE #3.5: The One About Grinning Rat Publications in 2022
about 4 years ago – Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 03:18:10 PM

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay in this update! I had a pretty hectic weekend with the family; one with illness, diaper rash, exhaustion, and quarantining. I had meant to get this out when we funded but life finds a way, right?

Anyway, I wanted to spend this .5 update talking a little bit about Grinning Rat Publications. But first, I wanted to thank you all again for your support in getting this thing funded. We're chugging along on the book, with a rough first draft in the editor's hands. DC Stow is finishing up a few last pieces of art and I'm grinding out the d100 tables for the expanded rewards and monster generation.

But we can save all that for Update 4. Onto the news!

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

Grinning Rat Publications

The GR Calendar is live on the website, showing upcoming blog posts, newsletters, products, and other announcements. Eventually I could see this being used as a way to showcase playtests, streaming schedules, etc. -- but that's likely a long ways away.

Part of the reasoning for the introduction of the calendar is to keep myself on schedule (obviously, that's what a calendar is for). But a bigger part of it is to try and give some transparency to the content schedule that Grinning Rat is aspiring for in 2022. You can expect 2-4 blog posts, a newsletter, a product update, and likely a few other wild card items every month. And this way, you know exactly when they get uploaded.

For the remainder of the month of February, we're aiming for two blog posts:

• Investigations, Research, and the Art of the Boring Encounter
• Why Modern RPG Book Layouts Fail

In addition, we're looking at the first issue of the GR Newsletter to go out tomorrow, February 18! Speaking of which...

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

Just as a general reminder, we are doing a Dungeoneering: Wanderers giveaway! 

Those who backed the original Dungeoneering project were made aware of the giveaway in an update on that project, but I realized that I never made that announcement here: Once the campaign concludes, we'll be giving away Collector's Versions to ten lucky individuals who are subscribed to the GR Newsletter. 

To sign up for the GR Newsletter: head over to our website (grinningratpub.com) and click the top bar that reads "Get the Free DUNGEONEERING Quick Start Rules". Follow the instructions there and you'll be subscribed, get the free Quick Start rules (complete with everything you need to play Dungeoneering, including a starter adventure!), and be automatically be entered into the giveaway.

Regarding the newsletter, it's chock-full of articles, projects, videos, and other cool stuff found all over the internet. Subscribe today!

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

For Dungeoneering, the last international copies should be landing on doorsteps soon. For Wanderers, production will be ready to begin as soon as the campaign ends, with digital versions of Wanderers available to backers as soon as March (barring any extravagant stretch goals that need to be made). 

There will be a few more Dungeoneering-related projects throughout the year that'll be released across multiple platforms. Here's a really high-level list of some things coming soon:

•  Roll20 and Foundry VTT support for Dungeoneering and Wanderers (Late 2022): These will likely need to be purchased separately, but I'll work towards making sure we give a substantial discount to those who have purchased or backed either project.
•  Dungeon Types, Spells, Prayers, Traps, and Adventures (Throughout 2022, Patreon): Though exclusive on Patreon, these will likely be rolled up into purchaseable documents elsewhere at a later date.

There are other things beyond Dungeoneering that I've got my sights on this year as well, including:

•  A D&D 5E Starter Adventure: "Shadows Over Westbridge", which spans levels 1-5 and deals with powerful opposing factions, ancient dwarven ruins, backstabbing and betrayal, and a draconic entity deep within Kryptgarden Forest... (Late 2022, DMs Guild) 
•  A Mothership Third-Party Product: "Critical Mass", a mechbinding psychological horror game about two minds fighting for supremacy... (August 2022, Kickstarter ZineQuest 4). Click here to see a preview of the cover.

◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢

I'm really excited about 2022 and everything we're working on for GRP. I hope you are as well! The next update will likely be around the last 72-48 hours of Wanderers, so until then, stay safe and roll crits!

- Nate W