We will finish printing at the end of July! Here's what you need to know about the sea freight stage.
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 04:18:11 AM

Lets begin with the exciting news. Printing is nearly complete!

We expect to finish printing everything on July 30. At this stage everything is being prepared ready to leave the factory and begin travelling to our fulfilment centres.

We still expect you will receive your pledge in or before December.

This sea freight stage is the most complex, and we are seeing significant delays and disruption, so how are we approaching this? 

We are advised that the delays are mostly caused by a container shortage. As a result companies are very reluctant to allow containers to leave ports as they want to turn them around quickly. So we will be sending our shipments as "less than container loads", i.e. in containers mixed in with other stock (usually we'd be looking at at least 2  x 40 foot containers and 2-3 x 20 footers just for us!).

By shipping this way we are advised this REDUCES the chance of significant delays.

Currently we are hearing of delays of up to 6 weeks to get stock ONTO a ship and again up to 6 weeks to get it from port to warehouse (there are additional delays for example in the US relating to truck shortages in some states where we are sending stock). So worst case that adds 3 MONTHS to our schedule.

We are doing everything we can to avoid this based on our experts advise.

What to expect now - 

• It may take a little while to get the stock onto the ships.
• Actual "on the water" times look roughly normal, but if Covid closes a port (as recently happened in China) this can add a couple of weeks as the ship gets caught up in that.
• It may take a little while to get the stock off the ships (especially in the US).
• Stock will be split across multiple containers and multiple ships, even if going to the same warehouse
• Stock will be at different times (as it will be on different ships with different schedules)
• We are VERY confident you will have your pledge by December.

We knew about the shipping situation when we planned this Kickstarter hence the December shipping date we put on the campaign.

But we want you to know that this next bit is going to take longer than normal, and we are doing our very best here to speed it up.

We will be updating weekly throughout, and will be here for all your questions.

And finally we'd like to offer you all a free digital map.

Free Digital Map

To celebrate Matt creating some rather epic sized maps over on Patreon here's a little freebie to help you through the wait for the Wilderness!

The VTT (140DPI) sized version can be downloaded from here. No sign up needed!

If you like enourmous dungeons you can back Matt's Patreon to get exclusove digital maps.

Cheers

Matt & Tam

Loke Battle Mats

The Stolen Song and Backerkit Update!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 12:38:32 AM

The Stolen Song PDF has been added to your DriveThruRPG title.

We have now added the Stolen Song 5E PDF Adventure to your DriveThruRPG title. This will appear automatically in your DriveThruRPG Library as part of the 'Wilderness Kickstarter Rewards' title so you won't need to do anything :)

This means your digital Wilderness is now completed!

The Stolen Song

This 5E module is a 50 page fully illustrated PDF with 9 new monsters, 2 new NPC types and 3 new magic items. 

This module was written by the Lithic Laine team, you can check out more from them here.

Please check your Backerkit is up to date! We charge cards and lock orders July 1.

This means you won't be able to change your card details or order items. We'll be locking addresses later in July so please make sure your address details are correct as well!

The factory estimate they will finish printing at the end of July and as the books set sail on the next step of their journey we will lock addresses and send the reports to our fulfilment partners to begin planning the final postage stage!

We are aware of delays in ports in China and the US and we are working with our partners to find the best way to move the books to the fulfilment hubs. There is also an ongoing container shortage so we expect moving the books from the factory to our fulfilment partners to be the trickiest phase of this Kickstarter.

Loke Battle Mats Twitch

Don't forget you can watch Matt live drawing our next books of maps over on Twitch at 22.00 BST every Monday! https://www.twitch.tv/lokebattlemats

Matt & Tam

Loke Battle Mats

A printing update and a closer look at Loke's Combat Twists
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 01:00:48 AM

A look at Loke's Combat Twists sample

Here is a closer look at Loke's Deck of Combat Twists. 

This rather beautiful deck of 150 cards is designed to help spice up combat encounters with some ideas which can mix things up a bit! From random targeting and unexpected wild magic through to tricky environments and much more, these cards let you deal some randomness!

Loke's Deck of Combat Twists is included in the 'Wilderness Master' and 'One of Everything Please' Pledge Levels, and is available in Backerkit as an optional purchase to add on to your order.

A brief printing update 

Our printers have given us an ESTIMATED date of the end of July for when they expect to finish printing.

This is great news and should help us deliver this project earlier than our December 2021 stated date. 

However as I have mentioned before the situation with international shipping is very challenging currently and will continue to be so throughout this project. So we can expect some delays getting the shipments from the factory to the fulfilment centres.

Please check your Backerkit Survey is up to date

We will be locking your surveys and charging cards on July 1. This is the cost of shipping and any additional items you added to your order.

Please can you also ensure your address is correct.

If you can't find your survey simply go to https://wilderness.backerkit.com to get the link resent.

Last Digital Piece

And Finally - We are just finalising the layout and proof reading the last PDF adventure for your digital Wilderness packages. We will add it to the title on DriveThrurpg ASAP. 

It will appear in the Wilderness title in your DTRPG library automatically.

Thanks!

Matt & Tam

Loke Battle Mats

Cards will be charged on July 1. Please check your details are correct in Backerkit. And help us plan the next Kickstarter :)
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Jun 09, 2021 at 02:41:21 PM

Please check your details! We will be charging cards on 1st July!

Please also ensure your order and address details are correct as we will be locking your order and charging your card if your survey is complete.

An update on where we are - 

Everything is currently with the printers and production is well underway! 

We hope to have a date soon when production on all items will be completed and we can start planning the sea freight stage. 

If you, like us, enjoy tracking the container ships as they set sail then you'll be able to as we'll share the ship names.

And speaking of Kickstarters.....

Planning is well underway for our next Kickstarter. We are planning to run this later this year as soon as we have the Wilderness pledges out. 

We're moving the schedule up as running early in the year means we always hit the Christmas rush with out freight and fulfilment which slows things down. 

By shifting forwards a few months we will be manufacturing and shipping at quieter times of year.

We are not ready to share too many details as yet but we can reveal that there will be 2 main products - 

• Ships and Space Stations Books of Sci-Fi Battle Mats
• Castles, Crypts and Caverns Books of Battle Mats

(working titles!)

We are also planning associated Little Books and tokens.

You can get involved by letting us know your thoughts via this survey - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTE6Uy68GUwyD8pzr1uhSr6bPlXMkFEEJjg-epK36zPQDZJw/viewform?usp=sf_link

And Finally.....

We don't often shout out to other Kickstarters, but this one is run by some awesome people and looks amazing. Check out Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting. We're backing it and we'd like to show it to you as it's full of new options for 5E and looks very exciting :)

All the best.

Tam & Matt

Loke Battle Mats

Please check Addresses and Card Details! And more digital content added!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, May 25, 2021 at 02:44:50 AM

Don't forget to check your details in Backerkit!

We will be locking pledges and charging your cards on July 1 so please make sure your pledge, address and card details are correct!

There will be a weekly reminder :)

As we prepare for the next stage - shipping from the factory to our fulfilment hubs - We will lock your addresses and share shipping numbers with our partners. We expect addresses will lock in July so we want you to have plenty of notice.

Digital Content Added

We have now added two files to your digital title in DriveThruRPG. They will appear automatically in the title in your library.

Tables Turned - 

Ok we promised you wonderful random tables and we got a bit carried away because we found this a lot of fun! So we have 20+ pages of 80+ random tables! Happy Adventuring :)

King of the Jungle - 

This digital map has now been finished and added to the Wilderness Tile. Available in gridded or gridless for VTT use and also in 300DPI for print.

What happens next?

We are mid production as we write this, so we're dividing our time between proofing and signing off the last items going to print and planning our shipping schedules.

International freight shipping - an update.

International sea shipping remains a challenge (I think I said this last year and I am afraid it remains true). You may already be aware of some of the current challenges if you have backed other Kickstarters, I will summarize these by saying its currently slow and very expensive!

We have allowed extra time and funds for this stage (getting the books from factory to fulfilment hub). It is likely there will be a long lead time getting the goods from the factory onto a ship as there is huge demand and a shortage of containers.  

We expect shipping costs for sea freight will remain very high for at least the next 6-9 months, we probably haven't built in enough to cover this (it will probably cost somewhere between double and triple compared to what it cost to sea freight The Dungeon around the world back in 2019), but we will make up any shortfall from our funds. We do not pass on additional costs to our backers.

We are starting planning early and we don't expect this to delay our delivery timeframe as we have added in a lot of extra time on our schedules.

So in summary we remain on schedule to have you your pledges by December this year.

Tam & Matt

Loke Battle Mats