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Roleplaying Spell Effects 2.0 - Cheaper and Pre-Cut

Created by Arcknight

Revamping the best RPG Spell Effects to make them even better. Everything you asked for: Cheaper and Pre-Cut.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Bad, Good, Very Good. Update on printing and die-cutting.
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 05:41:51 PM

Believe it or not, more problems have arisen.

However, they've been solved, and we have very fantastic overall news.

If you're interested in the little details, here we go!


So, we announced a few weeks back that this PF2 pack was "done", and of course we meant it. We had made the dies, and we had finished the files, and printed the spell effects!

I have an old photo of the dies that we had made, so I'll repost it to give a visual edge to this tale.

When we posted our last update, we were very excited. And here are the finished printed sheets!

Everything was going perfectly....

Then, something we've never seen before. The die is 12x18", and the printed plastic was 12x18" .... but the die lines didn't match the printed plastic. But only barely.

We had no idea what was wrong, so we began to investigate, and it turns out the stepper motor of the laser Phil uses to make dies went - very slightly bad - cutting a die that was 12" wide (like it's supposed to be) but only 17.5" tall, making every shape slightly screwed up.

None of the other lasers have the size to make the dies, so Phil had to devise a way to create a new 12x18" die board on a laser that wasn't large enough to fit the board.

So, he found a way, and had to make all new dies AGAIN.

But, mission accomplished, and here's the NEW dies, and a photo of them overlaid with some printed spell effects.


So, side story. IN THE MEANTIME ...

Philip produces everything in Las Vegas. I have our main warehouse in Fort Worth TX. We have a second copy of our printer, die-cutter, laser, everything.

But. And this is a really shitty "but" - our printer has never worked. It cost a tremendous amount to buy, ship, use a rigger to place, level, and do repairs on, but it still had numerous issues.

We finally found a very competent repairman who knows these printers, and he's been working on it for MONTHS finding dozens of little problems and tackling them, but there has been one consistent elusive problem we could not overcome.

So, last week, for the first time EVER *drumroll*

We printed ^^ this sheet in Texas on our new printer. Look at that sexy beast, all lined up and perfect looking. This sheet is a Legendary Games' page and doesn't have unique front and back art though, it's just mirrored. So, one more test to prove that our double-sided stuff is printing....

BAM!! Look at that. 

Here's shots of Front and Back of our Spider Queen Horde set; 

It's printing beatifully.

So, this potentially changes EVERYTHING. If we can print in Texas, and Die-cut in Texas, and my new machinist can handle production for us, then Philip is relieved of doing the production at all! Meaning we're no longer held up when he's unavailable, which has been a major problem for years.

Unironically, since our TX printer never worked, and we couldn't find a repairman for a very long time, we took all of our consumables and sent them back to Las Vegas. Now that the printer worked, we needed it back to do more serious test and die-cut.

So Philip flew to TX with dies, plastic, and many other things we needed, and we've spent the weekend fixing little issues, cleaning the machines, doing print and die-cutting tests, and showing our machinist some of our secret tricks to make machines do what they're "incapable of doing". Lazy machines...

Here is results! 

We're getting pretty good at making dies! With these finished (and all that we've learned) we're going to be able to do some pretty neat tricks with the new Object Sheets we're planning to tackle next.

Shipping

PF / PF2 sets should be going out next week. If you've moved, please let us know so we can update your addresses. We're porting all of the addresses into shipstation now, so updating on backerkit will NOT be the best way to make corrections. If you'd like to update your shipping address, please send an email to [email protected], and give us your full name + correct address in the email. There's about 60 of these to ship, so it should be very easy to check your address in shipstation and update it if necessary.

Please do not send us the email that says "Hey, I need to update my address" and then not put your address. We get a lot of these... like ... a lot. An unreasonable amount of people send this email, without their address in it. I don't know why.

PF2 Spell Effects are finished - State of the Arcknight update
over 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 25, 2020 at 12:48:57 AM

We have a very large company-wide update that we are calling "State of the Arcknight".

I have not done this before, but rather than update an individual project from only their perspective, I instead decided to give all of our supporters and overall look at what we've been up to as a company.

Cross-posting this is impossible because of the photos and videos embedded, so if you'd like to read that update, please follow this link;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcknight/hardbound-support-5e-starter-set-lmop/posts/2902710

As far as the PF2 Spell Effects, TL/DR is that they are completely finished, and shipping should proceed on tuesday of this week.

Also, here's an owlbear. (details in the big update. See you over there!)

Pathfinder Update - Dies, Layouts, Info. Shipping Updates.
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 22, 2020 at 08:45:19 PM

Hey guys! Lets talk about the Pathfinder set.

Some of you are frustrated about the progress (or lack there-of) of this campaign, and I want to give you as much information as we have about the PF/PF2 set, where things stand, and talk a moment about the campaign as a whole.

Our First "Micro Campaign"

First off, this was our first "Micro Campaign" and a LOT of good came of it. To be clear, our plates aren't empty and we have a lot going on. We lauched this micro campaign because we knew we could make a better version of the 5E Spell Effects, and we could do it quickly and effectively on top of our current workloads. It was something we were 'squeezing in', and while it would push our schedule around a little, it wasn't that much impact.

The 5E Generic campaign was a great success. We were able to create all 3 dies on time, and ship 1100+ sets on schedule.

The PF set was not part of our original outline, and this is where we ran into trouble. After the success of the 5E Generic set, and creating 3 fresh new dies, we were optimistic that while it would strain our existing project schedule even further to essentially "double" the die-work and production process to make a PF set, it was something important and worth doing. I still believe this is TRUE, and a PF/PF2 set is deperately needed, but as our schedules pushed back against us and the creation of the PF dies did not go as smoothly as the 5E sets did, we suffered from delays.

Do I 'regret' committing to the PF/PF2 set? Absolutely not. However, it is frustrating to read comments that link the PF/PF2 set to our initial promises for the campaign at large. This campaign was never behind schedule, it was a shining example of things going right. However, I do ultimately regret how long things have taken to get the PF/PF2 set finished, and this especially relates to backers that have been waiting on the PF/PF2 sets to receive their 5E Generic sets.

What would I do Differently Today?

Somehow, it would have probably been best to seperate the PF/PF2 set from "this campaign". Let this kickstarter close, create the PF/PF2 sets, and when they're done ship them out. Nothing would change except the perception that this campaign is undelivered or delayed.

As a company that lives off Kickstarter, and planning to make many more, I would have loved for this to be a pure success on paper.

I'm also aware that realistically, I probably would not have made a new PF/PF2 kickstarter video, and launched a campaign for a PF/PF2 set... so maybe this is unrealistic. The audience was here, people wanted the spin-off item, and we accepted. Perhaps we could have made a web listing on Arcknight.com and "pre-sold" the PF/PF2 set through the website?

Where does the PF/PF2 set stand right now?

Philip and I are in different states, and sometimes have completely independant responsibilities and tasks. Right now, progress on PF/PF2 sets are on his shoulders, while I'm working on the Hardbound Support - DnD Starter project. Here's an update straight from Philip:

Sorry guys, the delay on the PF spells is entirely my fault. I’ve had a lot of issues making the dies, causing normal delays, but the abnormal delays have been caused by total chaos in my life as the shutdowns have annihilated my day job industry. And we’ve been scrambling to keep the business afloat. I could have burned more hours working on this spell effects set, but frankly I’ve just been exhausted.

Anyway, I’ve been working on the dies, as I said, and they stand at about half done as of now. It’s been very difficult to make, for no good reason, but I’m trudging through it and expect to be done mid next week (Tuesday the 26th or Thursday the 28th). The art is practically done, just need to make final print files, then from there it’s just print and cut (knock on wood).

On a more optimistic note, this product looks really awesome. I’m not even a big fan of square grid, but we really put thought and care into making as useful a layout as we possibly could for you guys, and I’m really proud of what we’ve come up with. It should be a great product, hopefully you all like it.

-Philip

The dies are one of the larger hurdles. Some of the finalizing steps aren't quite done, but they don't feel like a priority because the dies aren't finished. Once the dies are done, the other steps fall into line quickly. For reference, the 5E Generic dies were finished with minimal problems, while this time around our rule bender has frozen multiple times, the round tokens have bent incorrectly, and a lot of pieces are having to be re-adjusted. A lot of the rule is giving incorrect lengths and we're having to make pieces 2-3 times. It's not really anything unusual - this is just life when machining - but I wanted to mention it because the process in this case hasn't been as simple as "well, you made 3 dies, just make 3 more". Of course, sometimes it plays out that way, but in this case it hasn't.

What will the final form of the PF/PF2 set be?

So, it's not done yet, but lets talk more about what it IS that we're making here, because I'm not sure we ever confirmed our process.

We've taken the bulk of the audiences' advice, and gone with a mutual PF1 + PF2 set. When you boil it down, the shapes from the PF2 book are the exact same shapes as PF1. PF2 "rules" are very different, especially when it comes to spells.

The prudent suggestion, and the route we're going, is to create a set of dies for PF/PF2 that make EVERY available shape. You'll notice in the boards above, we've got over 50 shapes and tokens built into this set.

The shapes will apply to PF1 and PF2 at once, and since most PF1 players are already very familiar with the game's mechanics, we'll be putting the PF2 rules/text on the shapes to help the newer game (and lets be honest, the new spell system can really use the cheat-sheet reference for it's action costs and heightening rules. We will probably market the set as a "Pathfinder 2 set" to new users, but this is exactly what the PF1 audience wants as well.

If you're hawkish, you may notice that some of the shapes on the die-boards above don't match. Well, this is where things get interesting! That die-board is only going to show you the outer cut of the die itself, but check out the style guide for some of these shapes:

By using trace lines (and of course, transparent plastic), we can overlay the diagonal and othognal versions on top of each other. Same goes for cones and some lines. We're also including emanations, and many other shapes.

The set will include 5', 10', 15', 20', 30', 40' burst, 15', 30', 60' cone (both versions displayed), 30', 60', and full length line (about 85'), 10' emanation for Medium and Large creatures, 2x2, 3x3 squares (4x4 square reference is inside the Large emanation), and gobs of unit and spell reference tokens.

What if I'm waiting on my 5E Generic Set?

If you've backed for both the 5E Generic set, and the PF Set, it's simply a matter of shipping costs. Some people may wish to cancel their PF sets and free their 5E Generic sets up to ship immediately, or pay for split shipping to get them immediately. Domestically, the cost is probably less than $7-8, and we'll certainly discount the shipping since there have been so many delays. We can probably take as little as $5 to ship the 5E Generic now and split your order. You can reach out at [email protected] and we'll sort it out.

What if I only ordered a 5E Generic Set, but I've never recieved it.

These were all 100% shipped many months ago. If you are not waiting on a PF set, and you don't know where your order is, something is wrong. We will gladly do whatever we can in our power to help you find out what. Again, reach out to [email protected] and we'll take care of it.

If you're an international customer, or with the $5 Reserve, the situation is a bit more messy. These shipments were happening right when Covid started, and the agent that was shipping all of these orders went remote because of the lockdown.

I frankly do not know the final status of the $5 reserve shipments. As I last heard it, they were taken care of. Assuming some of these are NOT taken care of, I need to check paypal payment records against the shipping records, verify that some of you have paid, but not shipped, and then find a way to ship them. The best way to deal with all of this is also an email to [email protected] - but I should remind the international people that we have now burned through almost FIFTEEN different international options for distribution, and re-shipping. All of them, absolutely all of them, are un-helpful and non-viable. There simply is NOT a way to ship a product into Europe, deal with customs in bulk, then have it "re-shipped" as an EU-friendly package, and save money. The total costs of this process, in every case, ends up far exceeding the price to simply ship it to you directly PLUS your import fees. We have burned many bridges trying to make this work, and it's taken an incredible amount of time from us, and we're right where we started.

If an international backer wished to buy the 5E Generic set today, the "best" and frankly only legitimate option, is to buy it off our website at www.arcknight.com, and go through the regular international shipping process to your doorstep. The product is under 4 pounds, ships First Class International USPS for about $26 in shipping -AND- ironically, we have a new deal in place with stamps.com/shipstation which puts $100 insurance on each and every international shipment we make.

So, what we might want to do, is exchange the $5 reserve you've already paid us, for a $10 voucher / discount code, and have you buy the item from our website. Our warehouse runs like clockwork, the item will ship same day/next day, and there's plenty of stock.

We are now in a special shipping class.

This is a very fortunate and ironic benefit. We've been given a special shipping status, that puts insurance on every First Class International package that we ship. While this may not have any benefit to you on the surface, it's potentially a game-changer in the international shipping department.

Some number of international shipments simply go "missing". Its HEAVILY dependant on the country it's shipping to, but the bottom line is that insured packages are treated well, while uninsured packages are treated poorly. It's just how it is. Priority Mail packages therefore are very reliable, while First Class International shipments (to some countries) are not very reliable. Dealing with packages that go "missing" is a tremendous drain on our time and resources, and costs us serious money in replacements, and paperwork, and phone calls to the USPS and angry customers. This in turn leads us to generally make policy in Kickstarter projects of "we're only shipping Priority / UPS" and THIS is what  eliminates the "cost effective" option of shipments under 4 pounds entirely, and brings the shipping cost of virtually every package up to about $50-60.

This may make our First Class International packages reliable. Or at least "more reliable" enough that it becomes a legitimate option for us again. This would mean we can ship future projects that ultimately may bring our typical shipping cost from $50-60 down to $26-28 a HUGE savings for our average international customer (so long as the package is under 4 LBS, and on the assuption that these newly insured First Class International shipments are in fact more reliable.)

Long and Complainy - More more more issues with international shipping, SMH
over 4 years ago – Sat, Nov 23, 2019 at 12:52:20 AM

On the topic of international shipping

Essentially no progress has been made in any directions regarding international shipping.

This isn't exactly true, there's actually a lot of news, updates, and nuance. But no 'progress', because all of these options suck, and international shipping (apart from, merely just shipping it to your door ourselves) is across-the-board terrible.

Let me preface; if there was some company making a product, produced in China or printed in various regions, and it was shipped to distribution centers and shipped all over the world, we would be talking about the 'normal pipeline'. It's not unexpensive, but it's also sort of amertized costs since you must get the product from China anyway. We are NOT this company.

We are manufacturing everything ourselves, in our own facilities, here in the USA. This means our international shipping costs are NOT amortized whatsoever, and we're directly "importing" our product into various regions, and it is hell. Not because it's overly complicated to lose tremendous amounts of money doing something simple. No, if this was your goal, it's easy to accomplish. But if you're trying to -save- money by doing something that seems relatively simple, and passing along those savings to your international backers, god help you.

Now, in part for brevity, and in part for humor, I'm going to rant/complain a little at the expense of some people that ARE ultimately on our side and doing their best. I'm not really being critical of THEIR actions, simply lamenting the greater universe that we are all stuck in.


Poland - Private agent in the EU - Our first independent shipment has arrived in Poland, it has roughly 25 copies of the 5E Spell Effects in a box. Declarations / Freight Forwarding were minimized by sending this package essentially to ourselves; we declared the cost of goods, we receive our own goods, we distribute our own goods. Problem 1 > Customs will not notify the recipient that the package exists. He has to drive over an hour to a customs depo on the border and personally wait in line and ask for a package he 'assumes must exist', and fortunately they agree, "oh yes, we totally have this and it's been here for some time." Problem 2 > Our receiving "company" did not pre-place a purchase order for the products that we shipped ourselves from the USA. Therefor, we cannot prove that this package was requested, hence the package isn't technically allowed to arrive.... solid logic, right? So we solved this by having "ourselves" piggyback our friend's company name, and officially state that we have 'purchased' the items rather than just accept them. We're happy to pay VAT (of course, the package was clearly labeled and value declared in the first place). But in order to proceed, his business needs an EORI number, pay a registration fee, and ... wait several days and drive to the border again. This EORI number is for EU businesses to officially accept international packages, and since their business previously didn't ever need to accept an international package, they just didn't have one. Eventually, we got our package, and now we begin calculating costs to have our agent manually assemble these to ship to our EU backers. Again, not to insult our friend, but lets go on the assumption that now they'll need roughly $8-10 USD to ship each of these packages. Our agent has given us an initial estimate of $950 USD (we've already paid VAT, and over $130 shipping to get the box to the EU.) This would bring the grand total "shipping costs" per set to around $43, a savings of about $7 bucks, plus we've paid the VAT which in theory should be re-collected. However - this 'savings' is VS the Priority Mail price of $50 per package (plus recipient may get hit with courier fees), not VS the much cheaper First Class International shipping cost (which often go missing).


Black Book Editions - agents of "Game-On" in France, a dedicated EU re-shipper - Things are much much more irritating for the 'professional' version of doing the same thing. Our FPM2 batch has been sitting in France' customs for almost 5 weeks. Again, they "Didn't even know it was waiting on them." Now, one big difference between our private agent and BBE, is that this is a major company/warehouse in theory handling the re-shipment of many kickstarters. For these reasons, we were required to individually bag EVERY item, by SKU, barcode every SKU, and send it all with declared retail values. This batch of FPM2 stuff is lonnnnnng overdue, shipped in 2x boxes at an initial shipping price of $155.85 and $123.12, with declared values of $1643 + $1473 respectively (that means VAT alone is going to be another $600 just to import these boxes). This includes total products going to 39 destinations in EU (aka, after they scan and accept all this crap, they have to pick + pack 39 boxes with it). Estimated costs for pick + pack + box + ship are unknown, because all of our correspondence is in broken english and confusing as hell. They've told me twice now that we owe VAT (of course, on the declared import) and THEN we owe VAT for their assembly... we owe VAT for their picking fees, and we owe VAT for the BOXES and the LABOR. Now I'm well aware that this isn't how VAT works, and they agree, with the most shockingly confusing email to date confirming "oh yeah, you're in the USA, never mind you wont have to pay any VAT at all then." ... what does this even mean?? They'll certainly claim I owe VAT when they try to accept the packages and need to pay the $600 to receive it.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves - because unlike our Polish agent who was able to go and get the package, Black Book Editions has only confirmed 'yes, customs has had this for a long time' and that they need OUR EORI number to recieve it. .... Uhm. What? The company that professionally helps re-ship and re-distribute US-based kickstarter projects through France doesn't have an EORI number to import shipments, and wants ME to have one? This essentially implies we are the FIRST import they have EVER done? I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear this and it's lost in translation.

Eventually, they're going to bill me, and somehow I assume it'll be higher than my own agent's estimated $38 per package for assembly + re-ship. My rough total estimates have these at nearing $65 per shipment right now and climbing fast.


Lion Rampant Imports - Fantastic people, answered the phone promptly and let me talk to a warehouse manager and operations manager. Conversations went very smoothly, and they agree this is an incredibly light and easy to manage package, with a small number of shipments. Should be "no problem" just need to finish some paperwork and basic logistics stuff. They provided me with a standard fee chart - $3.50 base fee, +Box cost, plus direct shipping costs (once it gets to Canada), plus the initial large shipment cost, plus import duties/tarrifs. If we're sending 20x copies to Canada hopefully we can get the final costs down under $25 a shipment..... USPS First Class International shipments are $16.39 to canada right now. So, in a perfect world, we lose potentially $9 a shipment going through an agent that so far has been smooth and easy to work with. Of course First Class is unreliable, but at a cost of +$9 per shipment.... if less than 16% of these 'disappear' we SAVE money taking the risk. It's unreliable, but it's not THAT unreliable.


Aetherworks - Austrialian warehouse with dedicated KS re-shipments to AU/NZ region. Also seem like great guys. In this case, we have only 19x AU sets to ship. At this low quantity, their 'flat rate' fee kicks in, for $650 AUS ($441 USD) to cover everything. So we'll ship to them for ~$150, plus the $441, and end up around $31 per package. Honestly ... it's kind of upsetting how reasonable this seems in comparison. But again, its $22.33 per First Class shipment to just "send it ourselves", almost the exact same $+9 cost from CA, so as long as 16% don't go missing, we save money saying "screw it" and just shipping them to individuals.

On the topic of residual 'costs' to international shipping, aka time.

Again, not to 'blame' anyone. I love you guys, and we owe our business and literally our livelihood to our backers. But lets consider this an honest retrospective:

Almost 60% of non-spam emails we receive, company wide, are concerns/issues about international shipments that have gone missing or are significantly delayed by foreign customs. In virtually all cases, the USPS delivers the package to the host country ... and then "poof" who knows. Of course the backer/web customer is very frustrated, wondering WTF to do, and who's the culprit, and who's going to pay to reship to them. These email chains are 10+ emails long on average. If i'm not in a diplomatic mood, and I respond too curtly, they can be immensely offended that I'm not willing to lose serious money eating the costs and reshipments.

Less than 15% of our backers/orders are international. International backers are more polar in their purchases, strangely ordering the smallest orders (cannot understand this logic), and also the largest orders (makes perfect sense, since you'll save shipping costs buying 1 large order vs two smaller ones over time) - but this backfires tremendously when they go missing, or put in a Paypal/Stripe dispute claiming they never get their package. Every international package that goes missing puts us in a tough spot, do we upset our customer, or refuse to take a loss on the entire order. If Stripe/Paypal get involved it's a strange coin toss - either way we shipped the package correctly; 

A> When USPS shows the package 'delivered' to the host country, and then the package goes missing, we  win the dispute, because we did nothing wrong.

B> In the cases where the USPS "screws something up" typically because they delivered it to the host country successfully butttttttt "forgot to scan it properly" at some stage, the dispute declares that because the USPS is at fault .... WE lose the dispute and have to pay for the USPS' mistake.

Again, best logic ever. But regardless we lose a not insignificant % of our income from international shipments. And if a $200 shipment is considered "profit" of say, $50, having to eat an extra $200 in product, plus a second $22+ in shipping, doesn't just kill our profits from that sale, it kills the profits from several sales. So even small-ish rates of missing international shipments can completely kill all international profitability.

And now, with this latest batch of 'bad news' (from a cost perspective, physically the shipments are proceeding and all that), I'm just right back to scratching my head thinking to myself "I don't think I should even bother." I know a lot of people will be upset by this, but I really believe we will not offer international shipping solutions in the next campaign, per-say.

Amazon and Amazon.uk

Oh, I wish I could say here's our saving grace. And maybe it is. But wow there's a problem.

Now, I always assumed there would be some 'benefit' to amazon.uk from my stocking perspective. I figured that I could send products to Amazon, and they could funnel it off to Amazon.uk, with some streamlined process of getting American products into EU. NOPE! Strange as it may seem (or not strange), they cant offer me anything. I have to ship it to Europe, pay all fees, VAT, etc. to get it to an EU warehouse, and then it stocks and sells to the EU like normal. So if I'm out a % of total costs, if i want to recoup, I need to raise the cost on Amazon.uk.

I assume of course there's an end of day benefit to an EU buyer, because once it's imported there's no additional costs/ couriers, sure.

But I would not have suspected that an EU buyer would also get a significant benefit buying from Amazon.COM. Turns out, as soon as 5E Generic Spell Effects hit amazon.com, a slew of international backers jumped aboard and preferred buying the Amazon.com version of the item rather than buy the same item, at the same cost, from Arcknight.com. (everything else being equal, why give Amazon the 15% stocking fee?) Now, wouldn't this be the same? Either way it now has to leave an American warehouse and go straight to the EU backer ... I reached out and asked why - I know there's no international prime shipping, that's impossible. I was told that yes, they will pay international shipping costs. BUT, since Amazon is HUGE, they funnel all this product off to the EU, declare / minimize VAT, get it into the EU, and then the buyer doesn't pay a courier fee....

WAT. Isn't that the same scenario as above? No. If it's in Amazon's possession, and it's sold, Amazon can move it. But if it's not in their possession, and was never 'sold', thats an import of unsold goods to the EU, and Amazon won't touch my customs issues with a 10-foot pole, it's on me.

Long story short though, both Amazon AND Amazon.uk offer potentially significant benefits to international backers, from any country. Essentially if it can be imported and delivered cleanly, Amazon's on the job, though it may raise my costs to supply it (and therefore impact my profitability.) So, it's "possible" that even though I lose a % to Amazon, these international issues simply aren't worth the headaches - pass them off to Amazon, take a smaller cut, and let the chips fall.

In our next kickstarter, this may very well be our approach: We'll toss copies at Amazon, and international backers can grab them up ... but we're not taking direct international orders or dealing with anything - because it just kills our bottom line, and too much of our time.

But this isn't even the "problem". The 5E Generic set is 12x18" sheets, in a plastic bag. The final dimensions are therefore 12x18" + a bit. The cutoff for oversized items is 12x18" exactly, or else we incur a massive 'oversize' fee in addition to the Amazon listing fees + shipping fees. For the 5E Generic item, this could be another +$9 per order on a $40 MSRP product, obliterating any possible income from the entire listing - Internationally AND Domestically..... Making Amazon completely out of the question (for this product) for life.

SMH.

I'm working with Amazon to see if we can get an override or recalculation under the exception that this 'bag' doesn't actually increase it's shipping dimensions. If they accept, then I get to have the entire same argument with Amazon.uk, ESL. Fun stuff.


Pathfinder Set News

Philip has a new layout. A fan asked us if we're going to support PF2, not just PF1. That conversation led to the awareness that they're the SAME set.... except PF2 has "emanations". But the idea of Emanations aren't unique to PF2, they're just as relevant and logical in PF1, the term was just never coined. An "Emanation" is just an area spell like a nova that originates on a unit instead of a vertice. So whether it's in the 'rules' or not, MANY PF1 players (probably) already apply something like the emanation ruling to their games, or would be interested in having an emanation template if all else is equal.

What this means is that we can make a single "PF" 3-page layout, that has all the PF shapes, with the Emanations thrown in there. And if you want them, yay. And if you don't want them, ignore them.

This takes some tricks in the same manner as the 5E Generic sets with nested shapes, but that's good all around for everyone. The only step we're not finished with is trying to make sure the overlapping PF 'trace lines' aren't overly confusing, if we had an option to clean them up more, and we don't have many options anyway since only so many shapes / trace lines can nest inside each other regardless.


And then LASTLY - we have a very hard question : assuming the 'shape' of a PF1 fireball and a PF2 fireball are the same (which they are), and this single product can cater to both PF1 and PF2 players simultaneously (which it can), can the "Spell Text" as well become somehow agnostic, and appeal to both - or does the text absolutely have to go one way or the other.

We haven't spent much time on this question, and PF2 is 'new' and all new paizo products are PF2-based.... but this kickstarter was funded by you guys asking for "PF" sets, not PF2 sets (necessarily?) but perhaps what you're really asking is for shapes that work for PF - which this will be regardless.

I dunno, feedback much appreciated.

1064 / 1212 Shipped, basic update
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 11:52:12 PM

We currently have around 150 orders in our system, which includes ~100 PF Generic Sets (waiting on new template + dies), and ~50 International Reserve backers (waiting on updated pricing + options to ship).Therefore, as we currently stand, we believe that ALL orders that can currently ship, are shipped! If you have not recieved your sets, or think there is a problem, then you might have an issue with your order / account and certainly reach out to [email protected].We do have a few damaged sheets, many of which were replaced, but I'm sure at least a few fell through the cracks. Specifically, i know I was recieving emails asking for "replacements of XYZ item" and generally I would respond 'absolutely, we'll get it right out!' and in some of those cases, I'm sure I've dropped the ball and your read email is sitting buried in my inbox.So if there's any pending sheet replacements, also feel free to poke us again, to fix this immediately.

RPG Spell Effects 2.0 going Retail

The most noteworthy part of this update, is that as of right now, I see no reason we do not list this item for sale on our website, begin pushing it out to new customers via Facebook and other avenues, and see if we can't get ourselves a great end-of-year push.

This campaign, with it's 1200 backers, was an excellent surge that mostly paid old bills and cleaned books. We believe this product has a lot of potential, and we very much hope that people will see it and buy the heck out of it going into the Christmas season.

We're also LOVING the testimonials and praise you guys poured into our comments section, that stuff is gold and I'd love to find a way to cascade those comments into a video snippet or something.

This has been a fantastic kickstarter all around, and we've gone out of our way to commit to 'getting it done', efficiently, at cost, and ON TIME. This is a proof of concept, and we'd love to have the financial security to move right into the next project, and keep momentum rolling.

Future Arcknight Projects

We have SEVERAL kickstarters planned for upcoming projects, some larger and some small and clean. Above all else we hope you'll give each an honest look, and remember our efforts and our transparancy through this process. We want nothing more than to build a strong community, and be empowered to create awesome stuff, and deliver it to you, without worrying about the increasing pressures of marketing, distribution, website maintenance and all sorts of junk that tear project creators down.

Kickstarter lets us come to YOU, and cut everyone else out. That dramatically improves our bottom line, and lets us make offers that are otherwise impossible.

As a final reminder, in order for this cycle to work, we ask that you 'follow' us on Kickstarter, so you become aware of future projects, and improve our visibility while we keep making the coolest RPG stuff around.



International Reserve Updates

As mentioned in the previous update, we're waiting on logistics to be worked out with Aetherworks (AU), and Lion Rampant Importers (CA). Additionally, we've shipped a batch of 25x sets of the 5E Generics to our agent in Poland, which he will be able to stock and ship to anyone interested in the EU.

This process should continue smoothly, and we'll try to keep you individually notified (by country) as options change. HOWEVER, there may not be any general news 'for 1200+ backers', so I expect it will be more appropriate to solve region-specific issues in email rather than on the Kickstarter. Absolutely, feel free to ping us at [email protected]

International Reserve backers bypassing shipping

There is a 'glitch' so to speak, that I did not see coming or prepare for. People in the International Reserve put down $5 in the campaign, and have their sets waiting for a shipping option to claim them, but they still -exist- of course in Backerkit. As updates rolled out, showing people the finished 5E Generic packs, many of these people got excited, and filled out their Backerkit (which we needed to get your addresses), and then proceeded to add their 5E Generic set as an ADD-On, perhaps with map cases or other items, and pay for their sets.

This pushed your orders into our shipping software - since there is now a physical item attached to it - but you've never been charged shipping at all. This was not something we meant to be possible until after those shipping issues were resolved. Just something to keep in mind, and again, we'll be addressing all of your individual needs in direct emails moving forward.

Purchasing more Copies / International Reserve 'At First Class International Price'

Some backers have asked if they can get additional copies. As of tonight, we should have the official website listing to purchase packs for $40. HOWEVER, we are more than happy to give our Kickstarter backers additional sets at the original Kickstarter rate. So if you would like a discounted set, feel free to reach out and we'll give you a promotional code to get the rate back down.

Alternatively, you can still place 'pre-order' purchases for $30, which we will process as soon as we notice them, and that still has a legacy price of $30.

If you are an International Reserve backer, now that the item exists on our website, it IS possible to pay the much cheaper First Class International rate, and have this shipped directly (generally ~$22 vs $50). Again, reach out, so we can give you a discount code for the price difference PLUS refund your $5 reserve, and then process you as a web order. This will be incredibly easy through Squarespace, and generate a new order, and we'll just clear the reserve off the books afterwards.