Sea Monsters for D&D 5E, Pathfinder 1E & 2E, and Black Flag Roleplaying! Plus Pirates & Plunder!

Backerkit surveys are on their way!
3 months ago – Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 02:33:30 PM

Hi all,

We ran our smoke test and found a glitchy survey question so we went back and worked with Backerkit to get things fixed. Turns out the system has trouble with "multiple option/multiple choice" questions and after several iterations we just deleted those and went with several staight-up multiple-choice questions instead. For the 23 backers who already got your surveys yesterday as part of the smoke test, we'd ask you to go back and recheck your survey now that we've got that sorted. For everyone else, check and reply to your survey ASAP! 

I've uploaded all of the digital downloads to Backerkit already, so once orders are locked, we'll be able to charge cards and distribute those downloads! Once we get a count on VTT resources, we'll be able to load up code banks for those or else send out individual keys, depending on who orders what. 

Generally speaking, we wait until we've got over 70% responses before we lock orders, to make sure everyone has a chance to get the items they want. Please double check your mailing address if you're getting physical products, as that's the address we'll use to ship them and we want to make sure nothing goes astray! 

If you are in a situation where you need to wait a bit before completing your survey, that's fine too. We will do several stages of locking orders and then will lock addresses before we start shipping, usually with 48 hours of notice. If you can, though, please complete your surveys at your earliest opportunity so we can get things rolling out to you! 

Backerkit survey submitted!
3 months ago – Mon, Aug 12, 2024 at 01:07:58 PM

Hi all,

We've completed setup of our Backerkit survey and submitted it for approval. We should hear back by Wednesday if not sooner on approval and any necessary edits. 

We sent out download links for PDFs over the weekend. If you did not receive links for any of your items, it may be that Kickstarter's output spreadsheet had some glitches in how it recorded items (this happens more often than you'd think) or in DrivethruRPG's batch ordering system for sending complimentary copies (ditto). One thing to double check is to make sure you are logged into DrivethruRPG, as their new(ish) system logs you out pretty regularly, and that has happened to many backers in the past where they thought they were logged in but weren't. 

In any case, PDFs will be available soon to download directly from Backerkit, so even if the initial Drivethru link mass mailing didn't quite work, you'll be able to get your PDFs directly from there very soon. 

Thanks again for your support of this campaign and we look forward to getting all of your rewards on their way ASAP! 

Hurray and many thanks! Fulfillment starts this weekend!
3 months ago – Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 02:23:59 PM

Thanks to every one of our backers, including special shouts to brandenlee as backer #400, and our final backer, the charismatic charles! We appreciate your awesome support in making this project a reality and look forward to getting all of your rewards to you as soon as possible! Here's what's coming up:

• PDF fulfillment: We'll be sending out links for PDFs this weekend. Kickstarter gives us a count of all people who have pledged for items and usually for add-ons as well, though in the past we have had some issues with add-ons not getting recorded correctly. In addition to sending out download links for PDFs, once we have our Backerkit surveys finalized you'll be able to download all PDFs directly from your Backerkit account. 
• Backerkit Survey: We are already well begun on creating the backer survey and we will submit it to Backerkit for approval next week. This survey will be your chance to incorporate your mailing information (for people getting physical rewards), calculate and pay shipping based on total order weight, and a chance to pick up any items you decide to add to your order and/or select options if you ordered something requiring you to choose after the Kickstarter. Once the survey is approved, we'll send out a "smoke test" for 5% of backers, to give us a chance to make sure everything is working as it should and answer any questions. Once that's good to go, the survey goes out to everyone. Answer your survey as soon as possible so we can collect information and get orders organized. 
• Physical Rewards: I'm going to be out of town August 18-24, so if we get surveys completed in time, I'll be able to start shipping physical rewards for items we have in stock, such as the 5E Sea Monsters, Pirate Campaign Compendium, Ultimate Treasury, and Legendary Loot Cards. Any that don't go out before I leave I can resume shipping when I return. For print-on-demand items like the Pathfinder books, I can process those print orders while I'm traveling, since they ship directly from the printer.
• VTT Rewards: For most VTTs, we'll be able to create "code banks" in Backerkit where each backer can get the appropriate code for the items they've ordered. In some cases, such as if we only have one or a few orders for a specific product/VTT combination, I also may simply generate the codes and email them to you directly.

Once again, we appreciate all of your support in making this Quick-Starter a reality! We love creating books for multiple game systems and am glad our fans who loved the original Sea Monsters for 5E also supported branching out this beautiful bestiary for multiple systems! 

Of course, we always have something cooking and we have a brand-NEW project coming that isn't just a previous book conversion. Instead, we are offering Priests & Prayers, a new class book for all things clerical, a perfect companion for our Battlemasters & Berserkers book that explored fighters and barbarians, and Templars & Tyrants that unleashed holy paladins and profane antipaladins! This 80-page 5E class compendium just finished in layout and is ready to go, and we are in the process of finalizing a parallel Pathfinder RPG class compendium, Legendary Classes: Defenders of the Faith! Once both are ready, we should be ready to launch our next Quick-Starter for both books around the last week of August! If you enjoyed our previous class books we hope you'll check this one out! 

Over 300 backers as GenCon begins! Come see us if you're in Indy!
4 months ago – Wed, Jul 31, 2024 at 09:37:35 PM

Thanks to all of you for continuing to board the Good Ship Sea Monsters, especially backer C. Rampersand who was backer #300! We are delighted to see your enthusiastic response and look forward to many more projects to come through the end of this year. 

If you are at GenCon, we invite you to come by our booth in "Studio2 Alley" (booth numbers 1929/2029) and say hi! We've got special GenCon Buy 2, Get 1 Free Coupons for you! 

Keep spreading the word to your friends and fellow gamers and we'll have more updates to come! 

Over $10,000 in less than a week! Plus a new video for you and GenCon ahoy!!!
4 months ago – Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 10:58:53 AM

Hi all and thanks so much for your amazing support! We send a special shout-out to Jennifer for pushing us over the $10,000 mark and we look forward to a lovely voyage downstream to next week's finish line! We hope you'll continue to spread the word to your friends and fellow fans about this great project! 

If you want some inspiration for how to incorporate these maritime monsters and nautical adventures in your campaign, one of our fans, Kevin B., created a fantastic video featuring his build of 3D terrain for use with one of the adventures in the Pirate Campaign Compendium called Tarin's Crown, an island assault on the fortress of a renegade pirate lord who has stolen a legendary treasure! Enjoy!

Last but not least, if you're going to be at GenCon this week, come by the LG booth to see us at 1929/2029 with our distribution partners at Studio 2 Publishing! We'd love to see you!