Today is Halloween, so happy Samhain to all those who celebrate.
This has been a super busy month for your local Goblin. I've been to Big Bad Con, Phoenix Fire Festival's Autumn Meet, and Florida Pagan Gathering's Autumn Meet! I launched the new What We Possess project just yesterday, and it's funded already. Looking to jump forward into stretch goals now. If you've missed it, you can find it here!
And for funsies, I saw the new Five Nights at Freddy's movie last night. I'm a big fan of the series, games, books, etc, and have been trying to secure licensing rights to make the official TTRPG and more, so it was a lovely time.
The Timeline
While I was in Florida last week for the Florida Pagan Gathering, I received the email from my manufacturer I knew was coming. The "If we want to make our timeline..." email, with due dates. I love to be transparent, so let's share!
"We are approaching year end (about two months) and Chinese New Year is Feb 10, 2024. If we are targeting March/April fulfillment (US fulfillment), we need to ship out before January 25 or so. We need to set aside about 15 days for picking, packing and labeling. That being said, we'd better complete production before January 10. Printed products seem straightforward: if we can start mass production before December 1, we should have enough time. Regarding other sourced items, some might take much longer, for instance, the wood boxes."
Sounds clear to me!
So I am drawing up the final manufacturing numbers today. Preorders will stay up until the end of the year, but I am locking in the final numbers for what's being made overall. Learning our lesson from the Alleyman's Tarot, we're not going to order as many extra as we did there. It should be a reasonable number that could, by the end of 2024, really be all gone. For example, there were 4,600+ Alleyway Tarot sets ordered. I'm going to have just under 1000 extra made. Talking with New Titan about what will be best, or what they might want to go in on ordering extra, but we'll set it in stone in the next week or so.
So if there are any fancy items, especially like the 3-deck wooden box or the 8" Alleyman statues, that you wanted to get, NOW is the time to lock in and adjust your orders. If you reach out to me either on here or [email protected], I can unlock your order. Otherwise, reach out to Backerkit support in your survey and they can help you add items after you are locked in.
My Checklist of To Dos
Full transparency again is my favorite.
So I need to
Finalize deck files, gnabbing a couple card image changes on the way.
Finalize and edit the guidebooks, folding in the artist's comments and questions.
(mostly this looks like finishing card entries for the Oracle of Play, editing all 3, and getting intros written for each book.)
Add text blurbs to the backs of the deck boxes.
Nab one final card for the Astrology Booster (it's being worked on, just hasn't been completed.)
Get finalized tarot cloth, then Des Moines Findings bag is ready to go.
Finalize packaging for Booster Packs!
Things that are ready to go:
Art Prints
Podcast Booster
Blank Booster
3-Deck Wood Box
Alleyman Statues
Alleyman Tarot and Oracle Dice sets (obviously!)
Tulsa Collection & Longview Satchel
I'm pitching that I can have these things to them by November 15th, with the exception being the Guidebooks which I'll have to them by November 25th. If this happens, we could still hit March/April for US shipping, with international items leaving earlier from China, but likely arriving in that same April area. I do think that this timeline is a bit tight, and to account for issues, we may see a delay into April/May as being more likely, but a monthdelay isn't bad.
As always, I will do my monthly update in November to let you all know if this is on track, or if anything is still being worked on. There also exists the possibility that I get things done in time on my end and manufacturing hits a snafu, so we will see.
When we're done... The Normal Tarot 3rd Edition!
And the next decks are always being worked on. As is tradition for an industrious little goblin! The Normal Tarot's 3rd (and final) edition is being illustrated by Ezra Kimbell, our good friend who handled work on the deck boxes and guidebooks for this campaign, the reading mat and lords and guide cover for the oracle dice, and more! The new deck is already shaping up to blow me away, and the guidebook for this edition will feature the art of all 3 editions, so it can be used freely among the decks!
The Normal Tarot is a 99-card, very abnormal deck, featuring seasons in place of suits, a trio of knights guarding the Lady, Queen, and Mother in place of courts, and a totally reimagined Major Arcana with Omens, Ladies, Books, Kings, and Moons.
We will also take this opportunity to celebrate the final edition of the Normal Tarot by reprinting the 2nd Edition in Gold and Silver foils, as well as the original edition!
Alright friends, that's all for now! Next update should be the final update when things are still in my hands, and from there it will be up to the manufacturers to take the reins.
Fondly,
7da, your Pub Gob
We're Still on Track for Next Year | Accidental Mass Update
10 months ago
– Thu, Oct 05, 2023 at 12:03:26 PM
It's been just a week or two since the lastest update. But I just went to my board game project New Avernus on Backerkit and put out a cutoff update for people to let me know if their items never arrived, and to promote the new Take Me to the Dark campaign. New Avernus was my first forray back into games as a publisher since I got bigger, and I wanted to let them know I have a new games project.
And not thinking, I saw the option to send the update to my whole mailing list, and thought that sounded great. Get more eyes on Take Me to the Dark. Eesh, silly mistake!
A number of you are emailing me, concerned about where your items are, or why we're suddenly at a cut-off for the Oracles project when we aren't even shipping. I am assuming it did not say it came from New Avernus. That's my bad, and my apologies! The email about the cut-off is only for New Avernus, the board game.
We're not even manufacturing yet on this project, let alone shipping. I will update at the end of the month like always to keep you up to date on progress for this project. We should still be on for shipping in March or so in 2024.
But I'd be remiss to not at least use this moment to plug that Take Me to the Dark is now live! So if you like backing Pub Gob projects, you can drop $5 on there if you don't need a new game, or there are 3 amazing new games to be explored and discovered over on that project.
Okay, shameless plug over! Thanks everyone, and sorry for sparking confusion for people!
7DA
your pub gob
Hello Alleyway Backers! September Update
10 months ago
– Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 09:40:52 AM
Hello lovelies!
We are about a month from the last update (maybe a month exactly?). No video update this time, as I'm sitting in a hotel lobby and that might be a little rude to do. Not sure what the etiquette is there.
First thing's first, an update on where we are:
The Guidebooks
The Alleyway Tarot's card entries have been given to the artists to check over. The Oracle of Secrets is about to go out to them today to check over as I finish the last few card entries here at the hotel. The Oracle of Play will be another week or so to get finished and sent out to them to check. I've saved it for last because I get to be more prose-y with the entries in that book, telling small stories as part of sharing the card's meanings, and I'm ready to be a bit looser in that way. There will still be a short-form meaning entry at the top of each page, so don't worry about the full page being a bit more open.
This doesn't mean the books are done yet though, I still have some forwards to write and some post-card-entries elements to include, but they are close. The hardest lift was the card entries, and those will be done here in the next week as I get the Oracle of Play to artists, so that's worth a celebration! I know I certainly am, it was the part I was struggling with the most.
I am sitting with an artist today to discuss the tarot cloth and probably get stuff drawn up on the fly for sketches, so the finalizing can happen hopefully also this weekend for that design.
And that's it! I should still have most of the things finished before the 3rd of October, but there will undoubtedly be some overlap into the launch of the new project. So it goes!
With that in mind, I would be remiss to not mention Take Me to the Dark, launching on the 3rd. But first, I'm much more excited to share a Kickstarter from a project tied to this one itself!
The Fablemaker's Deck of Many Things
Hit Point Press is launching, on October 3rd at the same time as Take Me to the Dark, their Fablemaker's Deck of Many Things! Illustrated by the Eisner award-nominated artist Yoshi Yoshitani, the deck features 46 foil cards in full color and monochrome variants, as well as an oracle guidebook with new effects for 5e games, and the Jester card included in the Oracle of Play is from this deck. I was sent some sample cards and I wish I'd brought them along to include photos or gifs, they are STUNNING and beautifully foiled.
Every card features shining foil accents, and the accompanying booklet guides the user through oracle divination as well as using the deck in 5e.
Hit Point Press has been very good to our project. They gave us the Jester AND a precious White Dragon card for the Oracle of Play, as well as a Judgment in the boosters of the previous project from their animated tarot, AND their in-house 3d artist did the Alleyman miniature design that is also being used for the Alleyman statue, AND they are sharing some booth space with Pub Gob at PaxUnplugged at the end of the year. So when they asked if I could share, it was a no brainer.
I know it had taken them some time to get the Animated Tarot out there, but I just got a copy and it is truly incredible. I gasped at some of the animations on the cards. They were so alive, and having seen the wild foiling on this new deck, I think it's so worth looking at.
You can signup to be notified of their launch here!
And with that, I'm back to finishing the entries in the Oracle of Secrets for this morning! I won't be dropping another update when we launch the new project, but I will send out a Newsletter for those who want to stay up to date on new projects. Trying to stop using updates on campaigns as a method of letting people know about those things, and focus that more on the newsletters. A win-win for people who dont want to see that in updates so often and for those who want to follow all my projects to have a space to do so.
Thanks everybody, talk again in October,
7DA
your Publishing Goblin
August Update | The Final Cards | Take Me to the Dark
11 months ago
– Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 05:50:18 PM
As a fun side note, my cat, Mr. Tom Bombadil, got three teeth out (for $2000+) and is on pain meds, having a great time. Wooo, kitty. Okay, actual update time.
All the Final Cards
I'll be honest, I have no idea which of the extra cards I grabbed over time people are aware of or not. So let's take a look at all of the extras that were added to the decks over the campaign! 6 a piece! But first... the King of Ghosts is here.
The King of Ghosts
As you may recall, the King of Oars from the Alleyway Tarot had to be pulled due to some ownership of rights uncertainty between the artist and deck creator. Enoch, who did the Bag of Blades for the Oracle of Secrets, stepped up for us and delivered a brand new King of Ghosts!
ExtremeMeatpunks Forever – From The Official Bloodfuck Glacier "Brad Ultrabrad Experience" Tour Promotional Tarot Deck (Unsigned, worth $0.50 to collectors) by Heather Flowers
These are killing me! Definitely the part that will, if anything, delay the project overall. I sit down to write and 5 minutes later I'm scrolling on some other tab. Just too ADHD to stay on task. (In writing this update I walked away or did something else a total of 8 times.) But it is happening, and it is getting done. I'll be bringing in editors I have on other projects to help me check them over as I go, as I can't do all the parts of making these books myself this time, or it'll never be done.
I may even pull in my layout/graphic designer from another project to give me some help on the visual on the pages to speed that along as well. Anything I can do to stop this being the final hangup, and we will be good to go. I'll update in September with that progress, hopefully when they're done and heading to the printer.
But the covers for the guidebooks... that's different. Ezra delivered!
The Guidebook Covers
They are so fun, they are all giving off unique aesthetics and I love it. We've got vintage catalogue, we've got a game book, we've got a fashion magazine. They're so fun, and give a lot of love to the whole thing.
I've got the coins all designed but want to get copies made in hand I can show off, as the flat digital designs kind of suck to look at for coins every time I make them. I'm handing off the tarot cloth design finally to someone else because I keep doubting the thing I'm going for, or my ability to make it real. The cloth will be done long before the guidebooks at this rate even if I held off another couple weeks.
Then we'll be in the clear, and I'll begin getting the podcast moving on a non-deadline basis, which is my favorite kind of deadline.
In October, to take part in Witchstarter here on Kickstarter, I'm going to be launching Take Me to the Dark: 3 Games of the Strange. I'll be overlapping Games and non-Games projects from here on out. I'll be partnering with Magicraft and SFC to manufacture and fulfill my games, while New Titan will be handling manufacturing and fulfillment on my non-games projects, like the Alleyway Oracles, so there will never be struggles getting one done because of the other.
Take Me to the Dark will feature the 2nd edition of ZOETROPE, my time travel roleplaying game that runs on cards and is set to be played with zero preparation from anyone; What We Possess, a card-based ghostly story telling game where players work together to tell the stories of the living and the dead in a finite space before the ghosts lose their energy and fade away forever; and Secret Halls, a game set in Chicago 1993 with players taking on the role of mages trying to keep the peace among mythological beings and the unaware mortals. Secret Halls is made for one-shots but can be run as a longer form campaign game, and is likewise card-run, using a unique playing card deck.
Secret Halls also happens to be the game-setting of the same Earth that the Alleyman myth lives in. Jimmy Talon from the 2nd season pilot of the Alleyway Podcast is one-such mage, and the Moth Children of my old project, or Alexcia, are also going to be in there! I hope to see some of you there, but I'll be reaching wide and far to start gathering a bigger games audience, something Publishing Goblin is missing. But no worries, this won't delay future divination products-- the Alleyway Oracles or otherwise. Once the Oracles are finished and fulfilled, we'll be looking at the Normal Tarot 3rd edition, and a reprint of the 1st and 2nd editions, in Spring 2024.
Just wanted to drop some quieter updates about things. But first...
A Card's Removal
I just about had every card gathered and then we lost one. Unfortunately there is some confusion about whether the artist or the designer of the King of Oars had rights to license that card. I think in some time we could have come to an agreement and got things squared away, as both parties were interested in taking part in this project, but at this time we've all agreed to just pull the card from the project instead to make things easier for everyone.
It's removed from the credits list on my website and I'm seeing if Kickstarter can adjust the image I have on the campaign page to take it off as well, as I can't edit the campaign page once the campaign ended. That means I am going to find something to fill its spot before we go to print, but it's the only card in that boat. Everything else is gathered! So if you have thoughts on a new King of the 5th suit, let me know!
Jen and Carol have both been patient and understanding of the decision to remove the card, and we wish them well in the future, and perhaps to see them again sometime soon in a future project.
Downloads Page
All files that I have put out for general use have a home now on my website! Here on this Downloads Page you can find the Alleyman's Tarot guidebook, the Oracle Dice Guidebook, playtest versions of ZOETROPE and New Avernus that you can play for free on Table Top Simulator (if you have the game on Steam), and more. I will be adding other things over time, such as old books of poetry. Let me know if there are other things you would like to see on here! Obviously the guidebooks for these three decks will be there when they are done as well.
Newsletter
In the same vein, I have put up a Newsletter signup page on my website here! With the excruciatingly slow death of the website formerly known as Twitter, I find I'm losing access to people I adore, and who like to hear from me about new projects. So on this Newsletter, I will let people know when new items go for sale online, when new projects are forthcoming, and when they launch. You can expect about 1 email a month, perhaps slower if there's no news, or 2-3 emails in a month if some events end up overlapping.
Hope to see some of you on there! : )
ZOETROPE: Death Didn't Take
And in keeping to my guns on my projects, I have a game project launching on Backerkit in October. I don't mind overlapping projects if they are in different categories, but it feels bad to overlap projects in fulfillment with new launching projects when they are really targeting the same audiences. I'd rather you guys get your Alleyway Oracles in hand before I launch the Normal Tarot 3rd edition next year. But ZOETROPE is a game, and I'm due for one of those!
ZOETROPE is a card-based roleplaying game focused on being time patrol agents, solving (or causing) time anomalies. The game is made primarily for one-shots, and its pick up and play, so you can sit down on a night when someone couldn't make it to your normal RPG and be in the game in minutes. No real prep required not even on the part of the Story Leader! This is a 2nd edition of an older game that is now several years old, and that was only available as print on demand for $80+ for the core game, and 130+ for the expansions and core game together.
I'm excited to say, I'll be able to offer the new edition with all new art and templating from Rickie Lee Benedetto in a box set with tokens and new shapes of cards for just $25. This is my favorite game I've ever made or had a hand in making, and I am overjoyed to be able to offer it anew in this way, and at such an affordable price.
Gen Con is the largest board, card and tabletop games convention in North America. I go there to run games, talk to other designers and publishers, and generally rub elbows with people more famous than me haha. I failed (again!) to get a booth, so I won't be selling wares or anything, but I will be around.
I'm running games of ZOETROPE 1st edition in preparation for the game's launch in October on Backerkit, will have a copy of New Avernus on me to play with strangers, and I'll be running two sessions of my in-progress game It's Up to Us, a roleplaying game focused on kids and teens in suburbia dealing with dark and scary mysteries. Whenever it releases, it will come out with a free PDF of Five Nights at Freddy's specifics story telling pieces, as for me it's essentially the Unofficial FNAF TTRPG. I'll do my darnedest to get it to instead just be the official one, but licensing a big IP like that is not easy.
If you're going, feel free to ping me at [email protected], and we can try to meet up! I'll have my alleyman's on me and offer cards or readings as possible.
By end of August we should have another update with a variety of cards to share, add-on designs, and some early looks at the guidebooks. I have all the guidebook covers in hand, and those will be fun to finally share!
