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Heroic Adventure! #1 - Evil Never Dies for DCC RPG

Created by Explore Dungeons

Shadowfalls has long been under the sway of the vile chronolich Hazlewud. Now, your party has set out to end the undead wizard's reign of terror for all time, across all time. A DCC RPG adventure for 4-6 PCs of level 3-4. Designed by Bob Brinkman.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

More about shipping costs
14 days ago – Sun, Dec 08, 2024 at 01:02:36 PM

Hi Everyone!

If you are in the US, this update doesn't really apply to you, but may still be interesting.

As I'm going through and calculating International shipping costs, I am sick to my stomach over how expensive it is. I can't do anything about the costs, of course, but I do want to be as transparent as possible to minimize the sticker shock when you go to complete your surveys.

The books aren't here yet, but based on page count I can accurately predict the standard (non deluxe) module will be about 11 ounces PLUS 5 ounces for international packaging. That suggests a shipping weight of 1 pound / 0.45 kg for 1 standard book and no extras. All of the Non-US countries I looked up (see below) don't increase the rate until after 2 pounds / 1.8 kg. 

This means adding a t-shirt or a set of dice or a second standard book won't increase your shipping charge, but adding all three definitely will.  I'm telling you this now so you can determine whether or not to add extras in the survey.

These are approximate charges based on looking up weights and countries manually TODAY. I have no control over postal rates. Hopefully they don't shoot up January 1st.

NOTE: First Class International stops at 4 pounds (1.8 kg) for most countries and then it switches to Priority International which gets VERY  VERY expensive.

We have pledges from the following countries:
USA - Media Mail, if eligible. (first 16 oz = roughly $8. If you add dice or t-shirts this goes up!) 
Canada - Currently unable to calculate prices, due to the Postal Strike
Australia, New Zealand - First Class Package International (first 32 oz / 0.9kg = roughly $41 postage.)
France, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Sweden, Thailand - First Class International. (first 32 oz / 0.9kg = roughly $31 postage.)
Italy, Norway, Switzerland - First Class Package International (first 32 oz / 0.9kg = roughly $35 postage.)

NONE OF THESE PRICES INCLUDE VAT or other import duties, taxes, etc. This is strictly postage.


Not exactly an exciting update, but hopefully a helpful one.

Chris

Thank You, Funding, Status, Pledge Manager, Canada!
17 days ago – Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 10:46:15 AM

Hi Everyone,

Thank you!!
First off, Wooooooooooooooooo we did it!! Well, YOU did it. And we really appreciate all of you. Thank you so much for the support.

BackerKit has already charged (or attempted to) all of the pledges, so if you get an email saying yours didn't go through, you should have a couple days to take care of it.

Funding
It takes a couple weeks for the money to show up on this end, but we're all busy finishing everything up.

Status
I already have all four maps in their final form from Brett and the poster maps have been ordered. All of the writing is done and edited/revised, and is currently in layout. So that's all progressing nicely.

Pledge Manager
I should have the Pledge Manager ready in a couple more days, and then BackerKit does a review of it, which can take a couple days, and then we will send out the surveys, and you can all come in and look around, pick up any extra add-ons you want, and pay for shipping.

Canadian Backers
Speaking of shipping... Our Canadian backers are currently dealing with a Postal Strike which means I can't ship anything to Canada until it's over. In fact, I can't even generate shipping quotes for Canada right now. That puts Canada on the Excluded Countries list *right now* in BackerKit. 

So IF you get access to the Pledge Manager BEFORE the strike is over, don't panic.  You'll still get your stuff, but it will be later and may require some manual intervention on my part. Stay tuned...

Not the most exciting update ever, I know, but more to come soon.

We're down to just a few hours! A new stretch goal appears!
23 days ago – Sat, Nov 30, 2024 at 09:59:34 AM

Hi everyone!

Thank you again for supporting this project and coming on this journey with us. There's only a few hours left and I'd love to see a strong finish to what has been a great campaign.  If you could take a moment to share this project on the social media platform of your choice, we would all really appreciate it!

I'm gonna throw one last goal out there, and it's really a stretch because we're so close to the end, but here goes...

If we break through $7000 I will draw the name of TWO lucky backers from those who leave a comment on this post with a link to where they've shared this campaign. Their copies of Evil Never Dies will get signed by the entire team! That's Bob (Designer/Writer), Chris (Designer/Editor), Dan (Cover and Interior Artist), Brett (Cartographer), and Raven (Visual Design/Layout).

We're excited to do this, but we can't do it without YOU.  So please help us spread the word.

Less than TWO DAYS left... unbelievable!
24 days ago – Fri, Nov 29, 2024 at 12:25:03 AM

Hey Everyone,

I hope all of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a good one. I spent some time with friends and family and managed to keep my promise to not do any work at all, which was really nice. 

But now it's after midnight, so I'm back at it again. I want to tell everyone Thank You again. Your support on this project really means a lot to all of us. YOU are what brought this from a cool idea to a real product, so thank you!

I updated the timeline / checklist as more stuff comes in. Things are still looking really good, as you can see below. If it has a dot next to it, it's done.

  • The manuscript is complete.
  • Additional content from Stretch Goal #1 (Bob) is complete.
  • Additional art from Stretch Goal #2 (Dan) is complete.
  • Alternate Art Cover from Stretch Goal #4 & 5 (Brett) is complete.
    Additional Art from Stretch Goal #6 (Dan) is in progress, to be done by early December.
  • Additional content from Stretch Goal #7 (Bob) is complete.
  • Editing and review process is complete.
    Layout process is in progress, to be done by early December.
    Post-Layout review can take up to a week. Files hit printer by mid-December.
    Digital fulfillment happens when files go to the printer by mid-December.
  • Cover art and interior art are complete. 
  • All 4 maps (3 + SG#1) by Bob are complete.
  • Map #1 (Crypt of the Chrono-lich) final art is complete.
  • Map #2 (The Holding of Elaro the Necromancer) final art is complete.
  • Map #4 (Merchant Guild of Emerson) final art is complete.
  • Map #4 (The Town of Emerson) final art is complete.
    Poster maps should be at the printer by mid-December.

We expect everything to be complete on our end by mid-December.
 
Turnaround time on printing could be as little as 2 weeks or as long as 5 weeks. (We won't know until we submit the files to them.) Fulfillment will begin immediately after receiving the printed books and maps.

I'm working on getting the BackerKit Pledge Manager set up. It's not hard, but it IS time consuming. Lots of little things to configure and of course there's postage to calculate. BackerKit doesn't do that for us, so I need to look up each country that has backers and manually calculate the shipping by weight and enter it all in. The plan is to have that done early next week.

We still feel reasonably confident that we could start fulfillment in January.

That's all for now, so I'll get back to it.

Thank you again,

Chris

Final Stretch Goal
29 days ago – Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 09:46:47 AM

Hi everyone!

In the last 3 days, we have hit, lost, hit, lost, and hit the final stretch goal.

This is actually fairly normal as we get closer to the end of the campaign, which is why I held off mentioning it until now.  Hopefully the turbulence is behind us and we can stay strong all the way to the finish line.

Speaking of which, we've got a little less than a week to go so if you're on the fence about add-ons, now is a great time to add them.

We've already started setting up the pledge manager and plan to open it in early December, after BackerKit processes all the funds and any stragglers get resolved. Everything is still on schedule for shipping in January so the pledge manager won't need to run super long.

I hope some of you had an opportunity to check out Planet of the Cyclops Con (Goodman Games virtual con) and play in some sessions. I was able to site in a fun 0-level funnel of The Sorcerer's Fate on Saturday. Goodman announced yesterday that they will be running an in person event (Dungeon Con) in Ft Wayne, Indiana this coming May.  I don't have a link for that yet, but I'll share it once there is more info available.

Preliminary work has started on our next DCC module Heroic Adventure! #2 - Vault of the Murderworm which we're pretty excited about. And of course, our DCC Day offerings for later in 2025.

KINLESS backers (from Kickstarter) will be happy to know we're dotting the i's and crossing the t's... giving everything a final once over before pushing it out the door (alone, into the cold night, much like our protagonist) and will be printing in December, shipping in January. What an arduous journey that has been, (for everyone involved).

Thanks everyone, talk to you soon!!  Please share this project and helps us end on a high note.

Chris