Category: Kickstarter

New Kickstarter “Sun Spots” is coming in September

Things are finally underway! Again! Less than two months until I kick off the Kickstarter for my Cthulhu Dark scenario “Sun Spots” and momentum is gathering as we speak.

Here are components of the project that are already complete:

  • The core text, playtested multiple times (~27k words)
  • The cover art by Chris Huth
  • Multiple interior illustrations by Jason Eckhardt
  • Interior art by Caleb Cleveland

Furthermore, I am already assembling the following items to be ready for the Kickstarter launch:

  • Interior art by Reuben Dodd
  • Blind playtesting
  • Layout and design by Gregory Geiger
  • Maps, including one hand-drawn, by Jake Coolidge
  • Interviews and press
  • Budget, pledge levels and possible stretch goals
  • Tentative “Director’s Cut” version of the book

So everything is coming together for the actual book. The video for the launch is nearly done, as is much of the art for the project page. I’ve got plans under way, and deadlines on the calendar. And over the coming weeks I will post here regularly, sharing planning and providing visibility into the project itself.

I can’t wait to share more with you. In the meantime, read some previews here.

Writing RPGs vs Fiction

Yesterday I delivered the fictionalized version of He Who Laughs Last, which was the final remaining stretch goal for me to deliver on that Kickstarter project. Working on that fiction was the hardest I’ve ever worked on a piece of writing for a few reasons, which I’ll discuss below, but, more importantly, I delivered everything to my backers that I committed to, which we know is not always a sure thing.

The fiction was the final stretch goal that I came up with at the 11th hour of the campaign, and, like so many before me, it ultimately represented an amount of work that was both unmanageable and unforeseen. I very much fell into that classic trap of adding scope and effort to a campaign without actually meaning to. In my mind, I thought writing a fictionalized version of a scenario that I’ve already written would be a piece of cake! What could be so hard? I’ve already got all the scenes created along with the pacing and overall frame of the story. I just need to create a few characters, run them through the fiction (like PCs in a game), and I’ll be set. <waves hand> No problemo.

Famous last words.

I do take comfort that I’m neither the first nor last Kickstarter project owner who has over-committed with their stretch goals, but good God I don’t wish that mistake on anyone. My campaign ran from mid-February to mid-March 2014. I had the finished book sent out in PDF in July 2014, and I delivered the actual physical book, as promised, on time in September 2014. I wrapped up most of the other stretch goals by the end of 2014. It then took me an entire year more — one year! — to write the 16k word fictionalization of the scenario. That’s a pretty long dragging out of a project.

Sure, I have lots of excuses why it got delayed, but really it boils down to me not realizing that writing for RPGs is very different from writing fiction. I love writing RPGs and I love writing fiction, and a lot of the ideas are very similar in how you create worlds and characters. But so much of RPG writing is just telling how things should be, providing a framework for someone else to launch their own version of the story. There’s a lot of room to be vague and miss key elements of the story. In fiction, you are writing a very specific version of the story, with details and characters that have their own lives and speak and talk in very specific ways. Furthermore, those characters then need to talk and act just once in your fiction — their actions are what makes the fiction work — so you are putting down one specific version of the story, with no room for characters to be multiple things at various times.

Furthermore, after spending so much time working on the scenario, I was very tired of the story and found it hard to take a fresh view of the fiction. I knew how all the scenes and beats would work out, and had the story so internalized that I skipped over crucial details (in the first draft at least) and needed to make sure I added in excessive details to the story so the mystery was complete. This also took a lot of time and effort that I didn’t realize would be necessary.

Ultimately, I want to write fiction more than I want to write RPGs. I love RPGs and they have provided a bootstrap for my writing career. And writing fiction, for me now, is more difficult than RPGs. But the stories I want to write are not open world for people to explore. I want to write very specific stories with very specific characters taking very specific actions. I still have a few RPG projects to work through (including one more RPG), but I will start focusing on writing fiction soon. Very soon.

Tales of the Caribbean Kickstarter

It seems like such a long time ago, but sometime in 2014, I submitted a scenario proposal for a Golden Goblin Press book of Call of Cthulhu scenarios set in the Caribbean. Much to my surprise, my scenario was selected, and I spent some time this spring writing the dang thing up in preparation for the book’s Kickstarter.

Well, now the day is finally here, and the Tales of the Caribbean Kickstarter is live!

You can even see a picture that’s already done for my scenario…

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It’s so amazing to work with talented people! So you should go back it, now!

What I’m Working On

I’ve been a bit silent here lately and not without good reason. Things have been very busy not only with real life but with my writing life as well. So I wanted to take this moment and update my blog on what I’ve been working on…

But first, I wanted to talk a little about real life. Last month I started working at Apple, going back to JIRA administration as a full time job. The most important part of this pertains to how program management and working in a larger role (with more responsibilities) really seemed to sap my energies and take from my abilities to write consistently. With my new job, I certainly work hard, but I have a lot of time at my desk, working, as opposed to spending my days in meetings, getting people to do their jobs. It was a critical change for me to move away from a more intense role and to a position that allowed me to process my work and get things done during the day.

Now I come home and have still have mental energy, so I can wake up refreshed and ready to write. This has been a great change for me and I’m very excited for my new opportunity. Back to my current writing projects…

1. Recently I finished a first draft of a Call of Cthulhu scenario for the upcoming Golden Goblin Press Kickstarter, Tales of the Caribbean. It was a unique honor to be approached by Oscar Rios and asked to submit a proposal for a Caribbean scenario. It was an even greater honor when they accepted my proposal! So I was on the hook, and got to work immediately (this was last fall). But then work got really busy and my mental space got gobbled up (see above) and I put off writing for far too long. There was a convergence in the late spring when I realized I needed to get a new job, partly because I wasn’t writing at all! But the new job came through, and I quickly retooled my lifestyle to get back to writing. So the first draft has been delivered. Lots of work still left, but the big effort is complete.

2. While my scenario He Who Laughs Last was delivered last summer, I still have one remaining stretch goal — a fictionalized version of the scenario.  I have it mostly outlined and some of it written, but still need to just sit down and write the damn thing. If I had been more productive last winter, it would already be done. But I aim to finish it soon because…

3. I am poised to launch my next Kickstarter on July 26th, 2015, for my Cthulhu Dark scenario Sun Spots. This scenario is actually 95% complete already, and there is much history to this project that I started in 2007. Suffice to say that I’m very excited to finally have this see the light of day. You will definitely hear more about this very soon. But even though the writing is done, there is a ton of project management and preparation for this next KS project. I’ve learned a lot from my previous project and aim to make this one even more successful. Stay tuned.

So that’s it — a lot on my plate and I’m really looking forward to moving through it all. I hope you’re as excited as I am about Sun Spots (and the Caribbean scenario as well), and I can’t wait to share more. Soon!

Delaying Next Kickstarter

I have made the decision to delay my next Kickstarter project, a 1920s Cthulhu Dark scenario titled “Sun Spots,” until the June-July time-frame. This decision originally came from not being able to get the two artists that I want to work with until then. But then real life got in the way of any more planning and it has turned out to be a good decision overall.

Because here’s the thing — while the scenario I plan to publish is written, the planning required for a KS project is quite the task and I’m just not ready for it. I created my project plan for the overall project, and most of the work is up front with PR, marketing and all the other stuff that goes into making the crowd part of crowd-funding successful. Even with one successful project under my belt, there are still a lot of doors to ring to raise awareness and all that just takes time.

My biggest struggle as a writer is not content — I have dozens of stories, blog posts, novels and screenplays in my head that I could work on every day if given the opportunity. But my life with my family, job and friends is quite busy and I find it hard to carve out the time necessary to make it all work. I feel like I am trying hard, which just means that I’m not doing if you listen to Yoda.

This is the backside of the 21st century writer’s ability to do it all himself. Yes, the barrier to entry has fallen away, but there is so much more work to do, all in the name of progressing one’s career. It’s no longer enough to just type at one’s masterpiece, then send it off to your editor and wipe your hands to go work on the next project. The flexibility of the modern writer cuts both ways, certainly.

But we go and climb back on the horse and hit it again, like some sort of Don Quixote charging at the windmills of literary self-sufficiency. So, yeah, the Kickstarter’s delayed.

Regardless, the projects need to be written, if only to keep me sane, so look for more writing as the year progresses. Onward!

4 Things I Will Do Differently in My Next Kickstarter

As I gear up for my next Kickstarter project (March 2015!), I wanted to reflect on the lessons I learned over the past year as project creator. But then spending time thinking of the things I didn’t do well seemed the wrong way to go about it. Instead I want to talk about the things I will do better this time around.

Running and publishing the He Who Laughs Last was one of the greatest experiences of my life, mostly because it allowed me to truly engage with my community when I had just been an observer before. Many of my friends and associates are writers, artists and designers in the RPG space, and now I am too. Writing and publishing a book is hard, but with the help of all the great people out there, you really get the feeling of being a part of something. That was definitely my favorite part of the experience.

And certainly, publishing my scenario, having people run it and getting feedback on the book (both good and bad) was enlightening and validating. And while it’s great to get positive feedback, you really haven’t made it until you’ve had someone complain that they “expected more from this project…”

So that’s all goodness — but what am I going to do differently?

1. Prepare Stretch Goals Ahead of Time: I love the idea of engaging with your backers and getting their help in figuring out aspects of your project, but damn, stretch goals can kill you. And while my project had nowhere near the stretch goal over-commitment of some projects, I still found myself a bit over my head when it came time to finish everything up. (Actually, I haven’t finished everything for my project, as I’ve still to write up a fictionalization of the HWLL story for my backers.) This is mostly because, in the heat of battle (aka during the project), I just came up with stretch goals on the fly, without really planning how I would go about finishing them (and all the various efforts I would need to enlist others in, which is a bigger challenge). Furthermore, stretch goals should be about continuing momentum and not just a given — there’s no reason to add stretch goals in the first few days if people are still backing. Instead, wait until the momentum slows and THEN add stretch goals. This time I will plan all of my stretch goals ahead of time, some big, some small, and only publish them once momentum slows.

2. Be Very Clear About Int’l Shipping: Ah yes, international shipping, the scourge of all Kickstarter projects. I had been warned about how expensive it was to ship internationally, but holy shit! Basically it costs $25 to ship a book from the USA to pretty much anywhere else in the world (Canada is cheaper at $20), which is just a lot of money to ship a book that only costs $7 to print. Oh, sure, you can skimp and pay $10, have it take 3-4 weeks and have no guarantee that it will arrive, or you can pay the higher cost and provide better service. I think it just means you need to be very, very clear up front how you’re handling shipping, and hopefully not turn away people with the high cost. Until I can deal in high enough quantities to justify working with overseas printers and distributors, it’s all POD and hand-shipping for me. That means higher cost for my customers, unfortunately. We’ll see if this impacts my overall project…

3. Find Collaborators Ahead of Time: I did a lot of preparation for my campaign, and it showed when I funded within 36 hours. Great — now what? As I floundered around on my first project, trying to figure out what to do next, I stumbled upon something amazing: other KS project owners. During my project I had three key collaborators help me: Oscar Rios of Golden Goblin Press, Kevin Kulp of Pelgrane Press, and Shane Ivey of Arc Dream Publishing. Each of these folks helped me by spreading the word during the project, which drove noticeable traffic to my project. You can see the bumps in the Kicktraq data, there at those bumps at the end of February and beginning of March. But all of these connections were made during my campaign (except Oscar, whom I knew before), and without any preparation at all. Really, the time for getting in touch with people is right now, just about a month or so before my project starts. I already have a number of people I can reach out to, but putting those people into the plan ahead of time just reduces risk and increases the chances of success.

4. Shorten the Project Length: After all was said and done, I’m not really sure my project needed all 31 days to fund at $9k. Looking again at the Kicktraq data, the only mid-stream bumps came from other campaigns (see above) and not from general momentum. And while Wednesday is the best day to get backers, I started on a Sunday and finished on a Friday, which isn’t the best time-frame overall. This time I’m going to try just 3 weeks, starting and finishing on a Sunday, and just nip the whole thing in the bud. If I have all my reviews and collaborators setup ahead of time, then there shouldn’t be any scramble mid-project to get them in line. I should hit my funding in the first few days and then use momentum to grab a few, key stretch goals. Then I rope in the remaining folks in the final 48 hours and, BAM, done.

So, yeah, I have some work to do.

Good Times!

Holy smokes! Our Kickstarter project funded at 300% with $9031! Amazing!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had no idea what to expect with my project and the overall support far exceeded even my wildest dreams. So very cool.

I have a lot of work to do and will be updating this blog soon with lots of good stuff. For now, I am going to celebrate with Gregory and then back to work!

A Whole New World

“You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.”  ―Obi-Wan Kenobi

Today, six months after making a specific decision to launch today, I pushed Launch for my first Kickstarter project. You may read about it the Kickstarter project page.

It’s been nearly a year since I first ran this game at a convention, when I first considered the whole Kickstarter thing. I’m now sitting here, two beers and a bourbon in, just hours after launching the campaign.

Back in 1999, I was wandering around New Chinatown in San Francisco, which is located on Clement Street between 3rd and 8th avenue. I loved it! The streets were teeming with life and you knew you were in a true city. I heard Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese and even Irish brogue before I heard American English. So many cultures all mashed up. I was single and unemployed, wandering those streets, looking at the sidewalk bins and dodging all the small, old Chinese women. I loved it – I felt home in San Francisco.

Three years later I was living with my wife, right at 5th Ave and Clement. The HUGE fish market was basically in my back yard, and every day I walked past the vendors dumping fish straight from the tanks on the back of the truck right onto the street. It’s how they do it on Clement.

And so I always look back at that moment where I innocently wandered just 20 feet from the apartment I would share with a woman who I had not even met yet, let alone spend the rest of my life with. I see that moment of not knowing — but still understanding — that my life would be impacted by that neighborhood. My wife and I would wander those streets every day, sucking in the life and craziness that is cosmopolitan San Francisco. We would visit the bookstore, the ice cream shop, the Japanese home goods store, and of course the Chinese market. We became part of the life that I had sensed all those years ago.

Right now, I have 18 backers and am nearing $800 on my first night of my first project. Just two hours in, I’m at 26% funding. My mind boggles. Yes, I have some good friends, but some other folks are starting to creep in, and the next week will be a test of my ability to create some buzz around the project.

What will happen? Will I fund? Will I double my goal? Will I skate by on the skin of my teeth? How will this project reflect on my writing abilities? Will people be interested in this project? Will my $1800 level fund (which would be so awesome) and send me to meet some new cool gamers?

It’s all on the horizon, just past where I can see it. But I have a feeling — a warm feeling that’s not just the bourbon — that I will meet lots of cool people through this project, learn a lot about myself and publishing, and then just have a good time sharing my story with the world.

I hope you can come along.