Status Report #14
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 08, 2022 at 12:11:27 AM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report. A special welcome to those of you who have just joined us via Pre-Orders. We must have been part of someone's Year End list. Thank you for joining us! We're excited to bring this book to you.

TL;DR: Holidays did a number on our work schedule, but we're gearing up to get all the remaining illustrations done this month. We work well in crunch mode and need to get everything finalized before Tracy records the audio book in February. Details below.

Note for Pre-Order backers who are getting PDF only: Bakerkit's set up options for charging shipping on pre-orders are binary on/off,  so I have to set them to On. Drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll switch you to the PDF Only pledge level which will not charge you shipping. I'm going to manually go in and double check all the Pre-Orders to fix this problem as well.

Most of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're one  of the 62 people who haven't, specific step-by-step instructions for the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

Holidays seriously impacted our work scheduled, so the numbers haven't changed much since our last report. However we respond really productively to crunch mode and if Howard can average 3 pictures per day over the next three weeks, we can get this book off to print by the end of January.  Having a concrete metric to reach for is super helpful for keeping Howard on track with a project.

• Intro & Chapter 1-8: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 9-11: in progress now
• Chapters 12-15 : Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: X-treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling, Random Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Accessibility,   Bibliography: Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play, Conquering Imposter Syndrome: In second revision. We have notes for these. Mostly they  need to be tightened up and given a voice pass to add jokes. Howard will tackle them as he reaches them in his art progress through the book.

Illustrations done: 101 (+5 from last update)

Illustrations probably done: 27 (Things like the hands showing card  tricks in Wonders of the Gods probably don't need to be re-done.)

Illustrations pending: ≈ 75 (58 confirmed art spaces + more because Howard keeps finding spots to add extra art and jokes.)

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book (includes the printed end  papers and spot gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a space in his schedule to  record and produce this next February. Well before the April 2022 deadline we set in the Kickstarter
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
• Streamed book Illustrations: Howard's Twitch has recordings of past streams.  We've prioritized getting illustrations done over streaming the creation of illustrations. It is possible that organizing a couple of streams this month will be helpful motivation, we'll see.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked  that level:   Scheduled for next Saturday! 
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be  giving you two  versions, the original is ready  for you  to download as   soon as you  fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers  matching the mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come later.
• Desktop Backgrounds:  If these are included in your pledge level, you can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds  as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as  Howard  makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're  done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these  as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after  the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):   These will be hand  drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on these until after the  printed books arrive in our hands. We'll  collect    information on  customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready  to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.

How the past weeks went

We're in a new year. I've already stowed the holiday decorations, and with them I've stowed the guilt for all the productive work we didn't do across those holidays. Now is the time for Howard and I to set metrics and get the work done fast. That's our plan. If Howard averages three pictures per day, we can get this book off to print by the end of January. 

Tracy reports that the game for backers is scheduled for next Saturday. After it is complete I'll see if there is video that you all can watch or if the game backers selected to not be published for the internet.

To show you the kind of work we are doing, here is an animated gif of the 66-67 page spread. Many of the pages in this book get this number of iterations to them.

To dig down into some of the fiddly things which complicate page layout, I offer this series of images where I wrestle with getting the footnotes and images to play nice together.

In the first column the image is nestled neatly between the bottom of the text and the footnote. Howard decides it will work better if the final paragraph of text is after the image. So I slide the image up (column 2) but for some reason InDesign decides that there isn't space on the page for the footnote, so it pushes the last line of the paragraph and its attached footnote onto the next page. It continues to do this even when I expand the invisible text container far beyond the space where text should go.  In column three I tweak the size of the image to be a little bit smaller and InDesign suddenly decides that there is PLENTY of space on the page for not only the last line + footnote, but also for the header which belongs on the next page. In column four I return the text container to its original boundaries and the footnote stays put. All is good. I have balanced text, footnote, and image. However if we make any sort of change earlier in the chapter, I may have to fiddle with this configuration again. Also I need to go tell Howard that I re-sized the art because he may want to tweak the text size in the dialog bubbles to be the correct size compared to the bubbles on the facing page.

This is why we'll have several passes through the book after all the images are in place that are purely to find out if InDesign did something weird to our layout when we weren't looking.

We're excited for the work ahead and to be bringing this project to life.  Your next Status Report will be Friday January 21.

Thank you so much for backing our project! 

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Status Report #13
over 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 19, 2021 at 03:44:48 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: End of year and our holiday season have impacted work, but progress continues.   Howard continues to work through illustrating. Tracy has scheduled his  game with backers and is looking forward to running it. Next update will be Jan 7. Details  below. 

95% of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're     one of the remaining five percent, specific step-by-step instructions    for  the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

This is one of those periods where the raw stats feel like we didn't  get much done, but we know we were busy on the project a lot. I'll delve  into the details of what we worked on in the detailed section below.

• Intro & Chapter 1-7: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 8-10: in progress now
• Chapters 11-15 : Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: X-treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling, Random   Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Accessibility,  Bibliography: Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the   Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play,   Conquering Imposter Syndrome: In second revision. We have notes for   these. Mostly they  need to be tightened up and  given a voice pass to   add jokes.

Illustrations done: 96 (+7 from last update)

Illustrations probably done: 27 (Things like the hands showing card tricks in Wonders of the Gods probably don't need to be re-done.)

Illustrations pending: ≈ 80 (59 confirmed art spaces + more because Howard sometimes double illustrates a page.)

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book (includes the printed end  papers and spot  gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a space in his schedule to record and produce this next February. Well   before the April 2022 deadline we set in the Kickstarter
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
• Streamed book Illustrations: Follow Howard on Twitch to be alerted when a stream goes live.   You can click that link to view recordings of past streams. Streaming  schedule has been lighter because getting art done is more important  than streaming and if Howard only has energy for one, he's going to  focus on art.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked  that level:   Scheduled!
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be  giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you  to download as   soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers  matching  the  mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come   later.
• Desktop Backgrounds: We dropped a  second  background last week. You can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds  as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as  Howard  makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before  we're  done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):   These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on   these until after the printed books arrive in our hands. We'll  collect    information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready  to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.

How the past weeks went

Tis the season for mourning the productivity which gets slurped into holiday preparations and end of year appointments/tasks. This which have disrupted work in the past two weeks: ongoing Long Covid, several medical appointments, the mystery of the constantly vomiting cats (found and fixed the bad water source), Covid boosters for 4 family members which mowed us flat, Christmas shopping, having one car in the shop for more than a week, people ringing our doorbell at random times because they want to drop off holiday treats (which is lovely of them, but politeness requires a quick chat and then we have to remember what we were doing), various distracting internet-based brouhahas that may or may not have an impact on our lives and business so we have to keep an eye on them to see how things shake out, something else that I've either forgotten or repressed.

BUT we did still get some things done. Not as much as we wanted, but some.

Tracy has scheduled his game for backers and is very much looking forward to running it.

I've spent some time communicating with our printer about paper and we finally have specific paper and pricing locked in. Hopefully I can make a down payment before the end of the year. I'm also shipping packages every day of the week except Sunday. This is always how running a mail-order retail store goes in the month of December.

Howard has spent a portion of this week working on writing projects, one of which is a master class for the Writing Excuses podcast that will get recorded tomorrow and will air in January. We're talking about audience expectations, how to set them up correctly within a story and also with larger scale branding/marketing. I say "we" because I'm one of the guests for this set of podcasts.  

Often living a creative life involves juggling delivering on current projects with doing groundwork for future projects. These two weeks had quite a bit of this kind of juggling. 

But Howard made some fun pictures

One of the things that Howard is doing is using one picture to set up a joke for another picture, as demonstrated by this image pair:

Christmas is one of our holidays and it lands next week, so we expect progress to be impacted through the end of the year. But we're also taking end-of-year steps to clear space in January so that we can pile through the work and get it done.  Your next update will be January 7th. 

If you have a holiday coming up (or just passed) we wish you joy in it. If you don't have a holiday this month, may you have light and warmth in a dark season. If you're in the southern hemisphere, we hope you're having a gorgeous mid-summer.  Whatever your personal circumstances, we wish you happiness.

Thank you so much for backing our project. We are so excited that we get to make this book!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Status Report #12
over 2 years ago – Sat, Dec 04, 2021 at 09:04:10 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: Work is proceeding slower than we'd like, but it is moving forward. We created new borders for the pages and Howard continues to work through illustrating. Tracy has scheduled his game with backers. Next two updates will be Dec 17 and Jan 7. Details below.

Almost 95% of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're    one of the remaining five percent, specific step-by-step instructions   for  the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

This is one of those periods where the raw stats feel like we didn't get much done, but we know we were busy on the project a lot. I'll delve into the details of what we worked on in the detailed section below.

• Intro & Chapter 1-7: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 8: in progress now
• Chapters 9-15 : Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: X-treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling, Random  Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Accessibility, Bibliography: Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the  Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play,  Conquering Imposter Syndrome: In second revision. We have notes for  these. Mostly they  need to be tightened up and  given a voice pass to  add jokes.

Illustrations done: 89 (+18 from last update)

Illustrations probably done: 27 (Things like the hands showing card  tricks in Wonders of the Gods probably don't need to be re-done.)

Illustrations pending: ≈ 90 (70 confirmed art spaces + more because Howard sometimes double illustrates a page.)

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book (includes the printed end  papers and spot  gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers  at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a  space in his schedule to record and produce this next February. Well  before the April 2022 deadline we set in the Kickstarter
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
• Streamed book Illustrations: Follow Howard on Twitch to be alerted when a stream goes live.  You can click that link to view recordings of past streams. Streaming schedule has been lighter because getting art done is more important than streaming and if Howard only has energy for one, he's going to focus on art.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked  that level:   Scheduled!
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you  to download as  soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers matching  the  mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come   later.
• Desktop Backgrounds: We dropped a  second background last week. You can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as  Howard makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before  we're done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):  These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on  these until after the printed books arrive in our hands. We'll  collect   information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.

How the past weeks went

This update comes with a side order of feeling like we aren't working fast enough. The Thanksgiving holiday sprawled over five days and impacted two more. Breaks are important for us to take in order to recharge, but when we come to something like this progress report, we feel bad for not having more to report. 

Tracy has been on the ball and has gotten the game for backers scheduled. Once it has been played we'll report how it went. 

Howard is focusing most of his time and attention on planning and drawing illustrations. This includes coming to me (Sandra) and requesting layout changes, which I make and print new pages. In fact, let me show the process of iterating pages. We have the entire book in its current state printed out on pages in a three ring binder

This book lives in Howard's office. He flips through it as he's looking at what spaces exist so that he can decide what to draw.  Often he discovers errors that need to be fixed or he wants the art space moved on the page. He marks up the page in question with a red pen and brings it to me.

In this case he was mostly marking formatting changes. Headers that weren't large enough to indicate that the things under them were sub-headers, lines that need to be moved, and that the beat charts needed to be a hanging indent format.  Not marked on the page are the requests for moving the art spaces. Howard told those to me verbally. I take the pages to InDesign and make changes.

I then print out the changed pages. Sometimes I also print out following pages if the changes flowed across more than the marked up pages. I take these new print outs to the binder and put them in place.

If I've changed more than the pages that Howard handed me, I double check to make sure that there aren't any additional marks that need to be entered into InDesign.  We call this process "iterating the pages." 

Depending on the day, we might iterate a single page 3-7 times while Howard is figuring out where the art goes and what the jokes need to be. He needs to see how moving words around changes the white space on the page. 

You may also have noticed that the border elements changed between the page corrections and the InDesign screenshot. That was one of the other tasks we accomplished this week. Howard created the graphic elements for the top and bottom of the pages. He may still tweak them, but the look is already improved and matches the look we'll have on the new cover.

This rapid iteration and tweak-as-we-go process is unique to Howard and me. It isn't something that would work if we didn't live in the same house and have a long collaborative relationship where we understand what each of us needs. We love getting the chance to work like this, which is one of the reasons we're grateful to everyone who backed this project.

In the next couple of weeks we're hoping to get in solid work on the project before our Christmas holiday. Your next update will be December 17.

Thank you so much for backing our project. We are so excited that we get to make this book!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Status Report #11
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 09:19:03 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: For December we're staying on an every other  week schedule for status updates, updates will happen on Dec 3 & 17. We're reserving New Year's Eve for holiday celebrations, so your first January status report will be January 7. Surveys have gone out. If you didn't get yours, click  the link below.   If you're a Legendary XDM who is getting your name listed in the book, please scroll all the way to the bottom of this update to make sure we have your name listed correctly. Details below.

Almost 95% of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're   one of the remaining five percent, specific step-by-step instructions  for  the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

We've reached a point where we're finalizing art rather than focusing  on text generation. There are still a few appendices that need some text, but over all the text is done and currently Sandra is working on merging notes from all the editors into one thoroughly edited document.  Art progress is as follows.

• Intro & Chapter 1-5, 7: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 6: Pending, we need to write up some pre-built NPCs before Howard can draw them.
• Chapter 8: in progress now
• Chapters 9-15 : Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: X-treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling, Random Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Accessibility,   Bibliography: Second notes merge, waiting on art.
• Appendices: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play, Conquering Imposter Syndrome:   In second revision. We have notes for these. Mostly they  need to be   tightened up and  given a voice pass to add jokes.

Illustrations done: 71 (+22 from last update)

Illustrations probably done: 27 (Things like the hands showing card tricks in Wonders of the Gods probably don't need to be re-done.)

Illustrations pending: ≈ 110 (88 confirmed art spaces + more because Howard sometimes double illustrates a page.)

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

•  XDM2e Hardback book (includes the printed end  papers and spot  gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
•  XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers  at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
•  XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a space in his schedule to record and produce this next February. Well before the April 2022 deadline we set in the Kickstarter
•  Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
•  Streamed book Illustrations: Follow Howard on Twitch to be alerted when a stream goes live.    You can click that link to view recordings of past streams.  Streaming schedule has been lighter because getting art done is more  important than streaming and if he only has energy for one, he's going  to focus on art.
•  Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked  that level:   Tracy  will be contact the six people directly to schedule  the game.   I pinged Tracy this morning and he said he was working on it at that very moment.
•  Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll  actually be   giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you to download as  soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with numbers matching  the  mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come  later.
•  Desktop Backgrounds: We dropped a second background last week. You can get zip files of the desktop backgrounds as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as Howard makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're done.
•  PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to  print.
•  Sketches in books (or on separate papers):  These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on these until after the printed books arrive in our hands. We'll  collect  information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready to  sketch.
•  Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.

How the past weeks went

We got Howard a Covid booster shot and it knocked him flat for four days, including one day where he spiked a fever of 102°F (38°C). That slowed down art production, but it seems to be having the result we hoped for of eliminating the "lung thing" which has him breathing heavy while standing still. We're happy for the booster to knock him flat for a few days if it grants him six months of breathing normally. Long Covid is so weird. 

Hopefully with the increased air supply, Howard will be able to put art streams back on the schedule. Though next week is US Thanksgiving, which will disrupt our household patterns and impact the ability to stream. 

Tracy reports that he's working on setting up the game for "Seat at the Table" backers today.

Curtis' role in the project is complete until we need him to sign bookplates.

As for Sandra, We've reached that portion of the year that I call "holiday brain frazzle" where the increased household admin tasks combine with increased business shipping tasks to result in mental overload. I'm uncertain the exact shape of it this year because both pandemic and the end of the daily comic have changed shopping patterns in our store. Have I already shipped most of the things because people placed their orders early? Or am I about to be slammed with a bunch more holiday orders that I need to get into the mail ASAP? I'm hoping for orders because fewer orders doesn't mean less frazzle. Frazzle is endemic to the season and if I'm shipping orders, at least I can picture someone being happy to receive the package.

Despite the frazzle, Sandra has been putting in time doing the tedious tasks of double checking every indent in the book to make sure that we don't have extra spaces, making adjustments to the styles for the headers, and working on getting copy edits put into the final document. Here is a gif of one of the page spreads we refined over the past couple of weeks. You can see that we still have design work to do on the headers and footers.

Another thing Sandra did was to import the list of Legendary XDM backers into a page spread. If you're a Legendary XDM, please check this page spread to make sure that the name you gave us is listed correctly.

If your name needs correcting or is missing, email SchlockMercenary @gmail.com. I'll get it fixed.

That's it for our current status report.  Your next update will be on Friday December 3.

Thank you so much for backing our project. We are so excited that we get to make this book!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Desktop Background: Atuin's Bracelet
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 13, 2021 at 04:01:32 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.