CE Marked! Also final domestic fulfillment milestones
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 24, 2021 at 05:42:32 AM

I'm down to the last dozen or so orders domestically...and I finally got the certificates of compliance for both the counters and cards for our European friends.

So, here are the next steps:

Domestic

The hold-up here is I'm down to three packs of shippable Five Perilous Journeys counters due to the loss of the one box, these tiles are the question mark. I've asked for an update from the factory.

The other rate-limit is my going unexpectedly out-of-stock on Dragon Hunt, but those have been sent to production and should theoretically be arriving on my doorstep this Thursday. 

I'll keep you posted.

International

Well, the biggest issue was the CE Mark, and that's taken care of now.

The next issues are that I still do need 3 copies of the Five Perilous Journeys counters and a single copy of Dragon Hunt.

The final issue, and it's non-trivial, is getting all this stuff over to Europe. I did a back of the envelope check on that, and it was insanely expensive - to the tune of $1,500 - to get the goods over there. That's $6.60 per item.

I'll be looking into better ways. Because that's . . . wow.

If I have to do it, I have to do it. But this is exactly why international fulfillment of Kickstarters is going away company by company. I'm going to reach out to some folks and see if they have better vectors for this.

Domestic Shipping - Major Progress; International pending certification
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 19, 2021 at 12:49:49 AM

So, I finally, finally, got to attack domestic shipping in earnest today.

We are down to five...FIVE...packages that are ready to go out except I'm out of inventory on a few things. Did not see that coming.

Four are awaiting a package of the Five Perilous Journeys counters to be replaced. Those were killed in transit. Totally waterlogged. In any case, the company is printing me some new ones. Hopefully enough, but it's going to be close. I'm pleading that they send me 20 (which WILL be enough) rather than 14 (which won't).

I also ran out of Dragon Hunt! That's the first TFT product (and second product EVER) I've actually gone out of stock on, but those have been reordered and will be here next week if things to go plan.

Finally, I really am expecting the CE Mark certification this week, having more or less bludgeoned the company I was using into accepting the advice THEY gave ME as acceptable. That was less fun than I'd like. But it should be OK now (knock on wood), and as soon as that is ready, I'll have about 70 lbs of product to move to the UK...I'll have to talk to my shipping guy, because holy wow. The first prices I got were over $1,000 to move a few hundred bucks of product. Hopefully we can do better than that.

But the US part of this is nearly done. I'll drop off all the pre-labeled packages at USPS and UPS tomorrow, and they'll be on their way. Then we just have the five remaining domestic shipments...and the international stuff.

Inching Closer to the Goal Line
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 13, 2021 at 08:49:08 PM

International Fulfillment

Let's start with the frustrating news. 

I'm STILL working with STC in China and New Jersey to get the cards and counters certified. After being told "here's exactly what goes on the label" I was then informed that "there's not enough on the label." (This is a left-hand not knowing what the right hand is doing issue between their offices).

This morning I reached what should be an agreement with them on how to resolve this, and I'm told the US lab should be finishing the testing this week. Once I have the compliance document(s), I will start working with Kixto to import the product to the UK and get it on its way. I expect it to be gigantically expensive as shipping seems to be completely out of control.

We'll see if this resolves as predicted, or if someone throws another monkey in the wrench.

Domestic Fulfillment

This is going a lot better! Backerkit is still trying to tell me to ship "stuff" via Media Mail (that's a no-no), so I've pushed the integration through Shipstation, which is working out well.

The slow bit is that now that the first 50 or so packages are out...nearly every new package is a one-off order. When you have lots and lots of options, hey...there are lots and lots of combinations. I've got a system worked out for finishing them up, but it took a bit to figure out how to do it right.

I'm hoping to have all the rest of the packaged boxed up and sent by USPS or UPS by Monday.

DFRPG is now TFT Fast

My next project is Delvers to Grow, by Kevin Smyth. 

I'm going to be unusually forceful on my pitch here, because I firmly believe what I'm about to say. 

This is an absolutely game-changing book for those who like GURPS and the Dungeon Fantasy genre, but find that the 250-point expectation is a higher-power campaign than you like to play, or find that you and your players get frustrated with Character Creation.

Kevin has penned a system that allows chargen in Powered by GURPS to be fast. TFT Fast. Five to 15 minutes to a playable, robust, interesting character with only a few decisions required. It's the best on-ramp to GURPS that has ever been written.

Yes, I think it's that good. I hope you do too.

First domestic physical fulfillment ready to ship
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 10, 2021 at 07:52:49 PM

Domestic Shipping of Stuff Begins

My family and I packed up 32 packages, each a bit less than six pounds. They contained the 32 domestic orders with

• All four CC books
• The More Perilous Journeys and Character Collections 2, 3, 4 counters
• The More Perilous Journeys cards
• The Character Collections 1, 2, 3, 4 cards

Remember that the CC1 counters were combined with the notional CC5 counters due to CC1 being 20, CC5 being targeted for 64, and thus the sum of 84 counters fit perfectly on two sheets. So no one will be receiving CC1 counters - they don't exist at this time.

I note that I was within $0.25 on the shipping cost for these. So woot! I got that math right.

I'll be boxing up and moving out 30-40 packages per day. I have 138 more to process, which I think is about 100 more domestic orders (and many of them are unique "one backer" package groups, it seems), and about 38 international orders, of which something like two dozen are books-only. I've waited on printing those because it might be easier, since I have to ship a box of "stuff" over for certain orders, to ship books along with from my existing inventory. I won't know that until the testing is complete.

CE Mark and Testing Update

The cards shall be tested next week I think. Not sure why it's taking so long, but it is.

The counters have hit a bit of a snag, in that they're flagging me for not putting a full address on the counter sprues, after telling me that I didn't have to put a full address on the counter sprues. They also want a "batch ID" and I'm trying to convince them that "April 2021" IS the batch ID. It's the only printing of anything I'm doing, so it serves both purposes.

I'm reasonably confident that this will be resolved. Next time I will invent a batch ID and I suppose get a PO Box to be the official address for the company. 

On the "good news" side of things, the labeling issue is the ONLY issue with the counters; they passed every other test.

So international folks are getting closer and closer to resolution.

Manufacturing Update - Good News
about 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 12:43:36 PM

Hey guys. It's been a while. Wanted to update you where we are...there's good news.

So, here's the story:

Books

The books are all in-house, waiting for the physical goods to arrive. I'm going to have to send a box to the UK for international distribution, and I decided to use my inventory here in the states for that. I'll ship them over with everything else.

Counters

The counters are all done and should be on their way to me via airmail. 

Samples of the counters have arrived at the STC testing site in  Dongguan, China. This is likely to be the long pole in the tent for the moment. I've sent in my confirmation for what tests to do, and I expect they'll want to be paid or something. Testing will not delay US shipment, but I need to get a CE certificate before the bits ship to the UK for fulfillment.

Cards

Surprisingly to me, this was the rate-limiting step. But I can confirm that the seven remaining files (CC1-4, and the three MPJ decks) were transmitted to Artiforge this morning.

The file will be checked, and if no issues are found, they'll only take about a day to print, and an unknown amount of time to sort into the 5x7x2" boxes we got for them. Nothing as special as I hoped, alas: The 1.5" or 2" box I was hoping for did not materialize do to internal cost issues at the vendor.

Also, the card test samples also arrived at STC New Jersey this morning. Same deal with the cards. I can't ship them overseas without the compliance certificate.

Finishing Up

I'm going to hazard a guess that it'll be "about a week" before I have all of the cards and counters in hand. I've ordered boxes: 9x12x6" tall. Those should hold the books, cards, and counters with a bit of room to spare (but not that much).

These will take a while to pick and pack. There's a LOT of folding and stuff to do: Assemble the box, tape the bottom. Put books in. Assemble the large counter box, put in counters, put in card box(es), secure packaging where needed, tape up box. Affix label.

And you guys have a pretty high level of uniqueness in your orders, so we need to make double-dog sure each one is packed correctly. Unlike the "books-only" stuff where I got 85 packed up in a few hours...these will take a while. Not "weeks and weeks" while, because 168 packages won't take THAT long to get done, but it won't be "poof, there we go."

Two Outstanding Issues

I have, as I said I would, gone through and manually completed the few folks' surveys who were PDF-only and zero balance. I have canceled the pledges of the "follow the campaign" individuals to get them off the books, as it were. 

There are two people who I need to email. One has physical goods with no survey address, the other has PDF-only but a $10 balance that I'm not comfortable just pocketing.

I'm going to send out one more email today, and one right before I send the last box out...but after that, I will refund your money and cancel the pledge. 

And that will be that.