I promised myself the next update would be when the books arrived at distribution. And they have. I don’t know how long it will take for distribution to start, but hopefully not long. Backers are invited to reach out with pics of their books. 

 

For many of you, you’ll have your final rewards, and thank you SO much for your patience. 

 

One of the biggest hurdles this last year was a personal promise that we would not start another Kickstarter with hopes of employing excess funds to finish the last ones. We know how companies collapse when they fall down that very slippery slope. So, despite a few projects waiting in the wings, we won’t be turning to Kickstarter anytime soon. 

 

Truth be told, it’s been a really rough two years as we struggled to close the books on our one major failure, one that kept refusing to pull a profit despite numerous attempts to clean the slate. 

 

This was our board game Naramata, a project that was funded during COVID-19, suffered every single setback associated with the production, distribution, and the general global economy. Earlier this year, we finally managed to get our remaining copies into warehouses. I’ll stress that I am very, very proud of the game, but I believe it was just financed and produced at the worst possible time, and we’ve spent the intervening years trying to get it off the books so I can return to focusing on what I love, writing fiction and tabletop role-playing games.  

 

But the costs were impossible to avoid, which forced me to even get into another business, selling fantasy-themed gluten-free crackers if you can believe it. The last year developing Tavern Snaps has been a refreshing success, and it allowed us to get our other debts in order. 

 

I knew it would be a controversial decision to combine the print runs of Amethyst and Ultramodern5, but we couldn’t think of another solution that didn’t force us into tapping into credit cards. However, combining the print runs also allowed me to spend more time developing Amethyst Revelations and its associated novel, which is why both books ended up being way larger than previously expected, and I am very proud of the results.

WHAT'S NEXT

 

For 2023’s Ultramodern5 campaign, two publications are being released this month. The first, Threshold, has exploded into a much larger project than previously planned, and I cannot wait to show everyone what we’ve created. The second is Madness at the Megalomart Adventure, written by William Miller. I decided that each of Miller’s adventures would also focus on a new independent artist. Echoes of Noah 94 emphasized the talents of Memphis Wong, who had previously worked on Affinity. Megalomart will introduce backers to Lohan  Cruz. I’m going to extend this to the other two adventures still upcoming as well. 

 

As we’re currently only waiting on art for these two books (actually three; Threshold is presented as two), I opted to develop a side project to keep my time…

 

Oktober’s Arcane Almanac is a compilation, a greatest hits publication that combines the five spellcasting systems I have created thus far into a single book. If you have followed DEM from its early days and picked up each of our books, nothing in OAA will be unfamiliar. We put the smoke system from Torus, the cryption system from Paradise, the metron system from Conestoga, the dark system from Ultramodern5, and the sprout system from Amethyst Revelations into a single gestalt book of arcane rules. If you’ve purchased any of these, there will be a coupon going out if you wish to pick up the OAA.  

 

This should keep us occupied as distribution ramps up through the fall. 

 

 

Yes, there is bad news, something that almost caused an ulcer. As many of you know, both Amethyst and Ultramodern5 campaigns are being distributed by a new company, Studio2Publishing. This came as a result of our previous distribution company creating…complications. I won’t go into details as I kind of want that part of our past to remain there, but closing that relationship was ANOTHER reason why we had to combine the print runs and push the distribution of Amethyst back to now. However, I discovered when we did an inventory of stock that had arrived at the new warehouse some products were missing.

 

To compound that, a miscommunication with China resulted in one product not arriving in this shipment. 

 

It was at this point that I slammed my head into the desk.

 

Thankfully, all the big rewards are here—all the Ultramodern5 books, the Amethyst books, and the GM screens. 

 

But there is no Affinity. At least not yet. 

 

Thankfully, this only affects a few backers.

 

From my perspective, there are a couple options. 

 

1: While we lack standard Affinity, we do still have a few leather-wrapped clamshell affinity sets. These were limited to only a hundred units, and only a few remain. I’d offer a deal to upgrade your basic edition to a leather edition, but this would be on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

 

2: We can forward your credit to upgrade or increase other rewards, like the Amethyst leather sets, Ultramodern5 leather edition, additional books, adventures, etc. 

 

3: We can hold your credit until Affinity standard editions are printed and shipped. 

 

I am going to try and reach out to affected backers this week, but those wishing to jump into the que of limited rewards are welcome to reach out. 

 

 

Like I said, It’s been a rough few years. I won’t ask for absolution or sympathy. This is my company and my word on the line. We’re a company of one with a handful of freelancers. My health took a hit this summer, and my marriage almost failed last year, but I’ll dig out of this for the sake of a wonderful bunch of backers and supporters that have been more than patient. 

 

CHRIS