The Kickstarter is Ended, Long Live the Kickstarter
over 5 years ago – Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 12:28:54 PM

This has been the most exciting Kickstarter ever.  Thank you all.  Thank you so much.  

I never thought that this game would garner this much excitement and get so many people playing it during the Kickstarter.  I am feeling the best possible combination of humbled and awesome and I hope this lasts forever.  

But this wonderful dream can't stick around long, there's too much to do.  

I have a schedule set up with my editor and have every expectation of getting the book to the printer before January 1.  I have more art than I can fit in the book, some of it is getting some massaging, but consider art all but done.  

My work schedule gives me all of December to work on this full-time.  I'm going to give you updates BUT MOSTLY IN THE MAIN COMMENTS SECTION.  For major mileposts I might put up a proper update, but if I do that even twice before Jan 1 I'll be surprised.  Secret:  I loath getting Kickstarter updates, it's almost enough to put me off Kickstarter, and I'm not going to wish them on you.

If at any time you want to check in with me please do so.  This book is your book, so if you have questions or concerns let me know.  

I am sitting here feeling all teary and giddy.  Thank you all again.  

$24,462! Add-ons and the end of all things
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 04:10:43 AM

This Kickstarter is being fulfilled by Blackbox (late backers will go through TryCelery).  I've worked with Blackbox on Dear Leader and they did an amazing job of getting stuff where it had to be.  I've fulfilled out of my garage before and I'm not doing it again.  No.  No no.  Blackbox is doing this and I am happy to get to work with 'em.

This time I'll be using their Blackbox Survey.  It's their Backer Survey handling service which makes everything smooth and tidy.  They assured me it'll work well, I trust them.  

The important thing:  I'll be able to offer "add-ons" when you fill out your Surveys. 

You'll be able to lump in a bunch of stuff, getting more bang for your shipping money.  This will include a steeply discounted second copy of TYOV, a prerelease playtest deck for my 1980s astronaut RPG Apollo 47, more copies of Dear Leader if I can scrounge them up, the Presidentiapocalypse card game, and the difficult to find gamebooks I've put out for the plagmada.org archive:  Everything is Dolphins, Habitition [sic] of the Stone Giant Lord, and The Complete The Oracle.  Oh yeah, and You're a Fucking Butterfly in case you've had a change of heart between Nov 15 and when the surveys go out.

And do we want a picture?  Okay, here's a picture:

Thank you all so much!

Multiplayer, an Editor, a New Backer Reward
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 08, 2018 at 11:58:53 AM

$20,000!  Dang, people!

To celebrate, I'm opening up a new backer tier.  The "Limited Income Backer Tier" is for folks who cannot otherwise afford this game.  Please don't back at that level if you can afford to do otherwise as there are limited slots available.

MULTIPLAYER

Thousand Year Old Vampire is a game you play solo in the dark, but let's face it:  The darkness is full of horrors and they seldom leave you alone.  Let us invite those lurking things to sit down and roll some dice with us:

I just got back from Metatopia (HELLO METATOPIANS, I MISS YOU!) where I playtested a multiplayer version of TYOV.  It mostly worked.  We were in a loud room working in two hour time slots in a hotel in New Jersey, and it worked in spite of that.  I stress-tested the game and found out what _didn't_ work, too (sorry second testing group).  

Multiplayer rules will live in the appendix.  They are not complex, and you will probably tweak them to best match what you want to do with your fellow players.  The group can share one book, passing it around to answer Prompts.  2-4 players is the optimal number, but we made five work passably under adverse playtesting conditions.  The game will go much slower, but you can adjust it by changing the dice you roll.  

The best part of the Metatopia playtest was when three of the playtesters declared that they had nothing in their next time slot and opted to KEEP PLAYING.    

Thank you playtesters, both at Metatopia and online and here in Portland!  

AN EDITOR

I can now afford to pay someone to make sure I am not writing down dumb things, which is the best possible thing that I could pay anyone to do for me.  Dr. Melody Watson is an Australian, but I'm going to pay extra to get proper American words out of her.  

Dr Melody Watson is a games designer, historian, editor and poet. Too many years of vampire larp have honed her love of all things bloody, ageless and tragic, and her games work focuses on experimental and historical games. You can find her on twitter @magicspacegirl, or check out her games and other projects at her website.

I am especially excited about her game LAIKA.  Has nothing to do with Thousand Year Old Vampire, mind you, but it is something I want to play as soon as I get calmed down post-Kickstarter.

So that's it for now.  Thank you again!  

The $13,000 Update: Stretch-Goal-like things, Metatopia, the coming of the doldrums
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 10:29:14 PM

THE BOOK IT GROWS

My most perfect version of the book is a full-color hardback with an embossed cover with some foil bits.  It has fancy endpapers and a book ribbon or two.  It has a book jacket so all the "shelf necessary" stuff like barcodes and blurbs can live on that while the actual book cover retains an artful déshabillé.  And maybe the thing has gilt page edges because what's more decadent then that?

That's my ideal book, and it looks like you are going to get it.  And it looks like I'll be printing in the USA, too!

Accessibility is important to me.  I'm going to use this 13k milestone to pledge to make a "prison issue" version (meaning softcover, possibly with some art edited out--I'm going to talk to a pro about this)  of the book which I will donate to prison reading programs.  

Next week I'm to make a "lower income backer" tier which offers the book at a discount to folks who couldn't afford it otherwise.  It'll have a limited number of backer slots, so don't back at that level unless you need it.

Printing offset at a larger volume also lets me offer you steeply-discounted additional copies of Thousand Year Old Vampire as an add-on.  The more we raise, they cheaper they'll get!

METATOPIA

Nov 1 to 4 I'm going to be at METATOPIA, a game design festival in New Jersey.  If you are there please come up and say hello so I can thank you personally and maybe we'll be new best friends.  

HELPING WITH THE DOLDRUMS

Kickstarters tend to fund most dramatically at the beginning and end, with things flagging off in the middle.  Thousand Year Old Vampire hasn't experienced that usual drop off yet, but it's bound to happen.  

If you want to help the project keep it's momentum, please share it with interested friends.  If you are a reviewer or actual play podcaster type, I'd love to have you talk about the game.  

Dear Leader Backer tier, a good video experience, $8000+, share your best character Memory
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 08:42:44 AM

I am so happy with this video.  Please watch the first thirty seconds at least.  It should've been the video for the whole Kickstarter project.  Maybe it's not too late...

Also:  I've made a new Backer tier which includes the Dear Leader game along with Presidentiapocalypse.  This'll also help justify the shipping costs for overseas backers.

Dear Leader and Presidentiapocaylpse sell for $55.  You're getting them for $50 plus a few more shipping dollars.  This is a limited tier of 42 copies, after that I only have my reserved stash I've hidden behind a wall in my basement.  

If Dear Leader copies are left, they will be offered as add-on items after the Kickstarter.

Dear Leader is a party game about North Korea.  Before you hit me with a chair for being a clueless jerk, please go and look at the completed Dear Leader Kickstarter here--it explains it better than I can right now.  

And finally:

Over 300 backers raising $8000+!  That's amazing!  Thank you all so much.

People playing the game:  

Share your favorite Memories (not memories) of the game.  Put them in the comments or PM me direct, include however you like to be credited.  No need to explain it, just share the thing and if I get enough good stuff I might make Halloween video out of it.

So many high fives:

Tim H