April Update (2025) - Part 2 - I still don't know
11 months ago
– Tue, Apr 22, 2025 at 05:03:26 PM
Hey Folks-
So, I wanted to update you, but unfortunately the update isn't necessarily good news on some fronts. I'll break down the status of things as I know them.
Books
Australia/New Zealand Shipments Books
These are currently 'awaiting consolidation' which I think means that the subcontracted fulfilment company that handles this, Aetherworks, is awaiting having a full load of stuff to ship over. This is normal and it should be sent along sooner rather than later. To clarify, there are no tariff issues here.
UK/EU Books
These books are on a boat! The arrival in the UK is estimated at early June. From there it should take a bit more time. The GPSR requirements aren't yet dealt with, but from the sound of it that shouldn't pose a significant problem or delay, and I'll be looking into it once I have the US tariff issue handled.
US/CA Books
Ah yes, the problem child. No matter what happens from here, these books are going to be delayed at the moment, since they have not yet shipped out, and are currently being held in a warehouse. Unfortunately for Canada, their books are lumped in with the US books. I don't think I can untangle those shipments and send them separately at the moment. As for the status here... honestly I don't know. I keep being told by other publishers that TTRPG Books can be brought in exempt from the tariffs, but thus far I have not found a customs broker that does it. GamesQuest originally thought they would have been tariff exempt, but have now switched to saying they don't have a way to bring them as such and are looking into solutions. Others have told me they have a customs broker that does it, but I haven't been able to get in contact with any of them yet, and the ones I have had said they will not be exempt from the tariff. I am looking into this, but simply put I don't have answers.
I cannot just ship them into the tariffs without a plan as things stand. I was prepared to pay a 20%, 40%, 60%, or even risk of 100% tariff out of pocket, but we are now >150% all told, and with the chance that if I commit to sending them, the tariff could be any absurd number by the time they arrive. I know the books are late, and I know that if they'd been on time, they would have gotten ahead of the worst of the tariffs, but there's not much I can do about that as things stand.
So what comes next? Essentially, I have two (well, 2.5) options I'm currently looking into:
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(1 - Find a New Customs Broker) If, in the next few days to a week or so, I can find a customs broker that (a) will ship code them as customs exempt is (b) reasonable confident it will work, and (c) I can understand what the liability of reclassification would be an its not absurd, I will transfer the shipment to that service/broker and try to ship them over. I'm told these customs brokers exist, but if I can find one, I will try to use it. I've heard from other sources that of the ones that come in this way, about 70% get through customs without reclassification, so that's the odds we are batting at. Personally, I think that TTRPG Books are information products, and I can attest to the fact that plenty of ya'll read the books for fun without just using it as a gaming aid, so I would mark that in good conscience. Additionally, there's the chance the tariffs fuck off while the book is mid transit, so I'd give it an 80% odds of success from what I know now. But this is all predicated on the A, B, and C conditions above, which currently I do not have a customs broker of this opinion of the ones I've talked to. While I've been told by people this is how it works, I was also told that by GamesQuest folks, who later changed their mind after looking into it (and are currently looking for solutions, no complaints or shade to GamesQuest over this, just stating the things as I know them).
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(2 - Wait it Out) If I cannot find a customs broker that agrees soon, I need to get them out of the warehouse they are currently in. Since I cannot ship them to the US under the current tariffs unless I have some confidence they will be exempt and a customs broker that agrees with that (realistically), I will have to store the books for the time being. The current powers that be have suggested the tariffs might not be in place in 3-4 weeks, but I don't know how much trust you can put on that (...I put very little, but it could be true). They could also just double again if things don't go the way the powers that be want. If I am confident that tariffs won't change for months or years, I'd look into options, but shipping them into 150%+ tariffs simply doesn't make sense. Even if I ask backers to pay that (which don't reckon would go well), I cannot expect to recoup that degree of money (since many wouldn't want to pay, and that's fair). Ideally I would split the shipment and ship books to backers willing to split the tariff or something, but the logistics of that is just too complicated at the moment. If this becomes a long term problem going on for months, I will consider the options there.
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(2.5 - Magic Solutions) If the tariffs fuck off randomly tomorrow or return to some only vaguely unreasonable level like 40-60% and there is reason to believe they'll stay there for a month or so, I'll try to get the books shipped out. Not ruling this out, as they showed up suddenly one day so they could end just as suddenly, but this is a subset of 2.
So, that's where things are. Honestly, I don't know. You may have heard that some folks are suing over the tariffs, and I wish them godspeed and may chime in on that (don't know the details yet), but I don't expect that to resolve anything in a short term timeframe, even if the case has merit (which I have absolutely no clue on, even if I am certain the tariffs are problematic for the industry).
Remaining VTTs
Roll20 Module
This one was supposed to be ready soon, but has run into an issue. I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly what the issue is, but according to Munky (the person doing the port) it has to do with the spell lists for Spellblade and Occultist and the SRD spells they use. This is apparently something the Roll20 team has to make edits for directly. I don't understand how custom classes don't all have this issue, but I'm guessing they do and there just aren't many custom classes on Roll20 (I don't know Roll20 custom content very well).
As far as I know, it is done besides this issue, so whenever that gets resolved (which is currently between Munky and the Roll20 team) it should go live shortly after that. This sounds like it is at least >week off, since it needs the Roll20 developers to do things. I find the issue puzzling myself, but there's not much I can say about it other than that. Munk will make updates on the Roll20 channel once he has a timeframe for it.
Shard Module
I'm still waiting for an update here. I've reached out to the Shard team to get some clarity on what I need to do to distribute keys, but haven't heard back. Since that was >week ago, I'll see if I can reach out again. My understanding is that there was an early draft of this module that was mostly/partially complete, and I'm currently trying to see how complete that is and distribute that. From there, I'll see what the next step is based on how complete it is, but at the moment I don't have more details.
Summary
So... a lot of this is not great. I realize that I've made two updates in one month with a lot of words and said not much. But since there's not much I can do, I feel like the least I can do is explain to you the not much as it's happening.
I'm going to be level with you, the logistical side of the Kickstarters is always complicated. The last one collided with COVID head on, and this one with the tariffs. In both cases, the breakdown of international trade isn't entirely to blame. I tend to run late on getting things done, and because I rely on other folks for every step of getting things shipped and moving, everything goes just that much slower. Like, not to divest responsibility, this Kickstarter was a year late before running into the tariff-pocalypse. But now we have the tariff-pocalypse on top of that.
I'll keep you posted in the May Update, which is not far off at this point. It'll be May 1st if I have news, and maybe a week or two into May if the news is somehow still 'I don't know' (really hoping that's not the case, but what will be will be).
I'll keep trying to get things resolved. Hope you folks are all doing well out there, and I'll keep you posted. As always, if you want the most play-by-play updates, you can join the Discord, but I'll keep updating here once I have bigger updates.
-Kibbles
April Update (2025) - An incomplete update
12 months ago
– Mon, Apr 07, 2025 at 10:39:37 AM
Hey Folks-
So I was going to delay this update a bit until I made information, but I've got enough people reaching out to me for information that I don't think it makes sense to wait. I suppose I underestimated the level of concern a delayed update would spark, which is fair enough.
To jump right into it though: are the books on a boat? The answer is I don't think so. 'Kibbles,' you ask, 'how can you not know?' To which I'd say that's why I was delaying the update a bit. As far as I know, all shipping quotes are confirmed and settled, but I don't think the books are underway (they are either in the printer warehouse or the port warehouse... I think).
To explain a bit, the current step in the process is that the local-to-China shipping company (which is not the fulfillment company, but contracted by them) is fetching them from the printer warehouse, putting them through the port, and loading them onto the boat. I have no real insight into that process (I don't even know who that company is, since it wouldn't really matter since it'd be no one I'd ever heard of).
I should hear back once they are on a boat (usually they tell me what boat they are on). I haven't heard that, so I'm fairly sure they aren't on a boat. Moreover, there was some confusion on the size of the shipping container, which I think has taken the last week or so resolve (I'm not really part of that, since I have no idea how many pallets go into what shipping container, I'm just there to pass messages along and prod people when they don't reply for a day or two).
So, things are probably moving, books are on their way... but nothing about this process is fast, and there's not much I can do about that.
I can tell you that I'm apparently shipping roughly 15 tons of books, or roughly 10 cars worth books, which seems like a lot of books (...if my rough napkin math converting from KG is correct), and may be part of why this process takes a long time.
But that's not the only thing I don't have full information on the status of at the moment, unfortunately...
The tariffephant in the room
It's like an elephant in the room, but it's a somewhat terrifying tariff, you see. Well, unfortunately, I don't have much useful to say you haven't already heard somewhere else.
The reality of the situation is that it is chaotic and I don't think anyone really knows what's going to happen. As it currently stands, the tariff on my import is probably around 60% (for US books), but there's some people that think existing exceptions on books will hold up, there's some people that think the rules will change in the coming months/weeks/days again, and (as of today as I write this) there's been an additional 50% tariff threatened (which would bring the tariff to ~110% of enacted). That is obviously absurd, but so is a 60% tariff out of nowhere without time for businesses to plan around it (something that would take literal years). Everything about this is more or less unheard of, so what comes next is anyone's guess.
Part of why I was holding off on the update was to get more information, but quite frankly I don't think I will really know what the plan is until the books arrive in port and random tariff value is charged. Between the quickly shifting landscape and lack of clarity on how things are being rolled in highly nonstandard ways, it's difficult to say.
The bottom line remains: I should have the money to cover the tariff, regardless of what it is (0%, 30%, 60%, 110%). Obviously at some of those values I would be really painful, but I have most of the Kickstarter money (minus taxes, fees, marketing, printing, and shipping so far) sitting around, and that can cover w/e the tariff ends up being.
I'm not going to ask for folks to pay for the tariff because (a) if I'd been on time in delivery, I'd have gotten through before it, (b) folks have already paid I'm reluctant to charge them more when they wouldn't have accounted for that expense (that'd put them in the same situation the powers that be are putting in businesses in now, and it's not a great one), and (c) frankly no one knows what it would be to charge it until the last moment, so anything I charged would be premature guess. If you want to give me money, I'm not going to stop you, but that's what patreon is for.
Other Potential Delays for the EU
Across the pond I should call out I'm still trying to figure out the details on clearing the requirements for GPSR (I think I got that acronym right this time...) compliance on imports to the EU. Unfortunately this isn't something my fulfillment company handles, so I'm looking into what needs to be done.
This may result in delays for EU orders if the books need to be stickered or something to comply with it. I'm still looking into the details, but anything that requires yet another import service/company in the process is more delays.
I don't think there will be a major issue, but as I'm still trying to figure out what even needs to happen, I wanted to flag it early as a place where things could get hung up, simply because I don't yet understand the process.
Making the best of doom and gloom...
Anyway, while not all bad news, this update is a bit short on happy things, so, now is when I distract you from doom and gloom with cat pictures, as is internet tradition:
I bet that worked. You're not thinking of tariffs anymore, you're thinking but what subclass is that Warlock Kitty? Well, fortunately I have the answer for that; it has a Worldy Patron: the Provider subclass, and now your character can too.
(This was content written for April Fools this year, just like the Goodest Boi Paladin of previous years, don't take it too seriously, but I figured some of you wouldn't have seen it from the Discord, and wanted to share it here to have something a bit more light hearted to end on).
Anyway... that's the current state of things. Hope everyone is well, and I'll keep you updated once know more. Feel free to join the Discord if you want more play-by-play updates, otherwise I'll be back with an update next month by which point I really hope I'll have a better grasp on the where's and when's things in terms of shipping (...though I have little hope I'll have a grasp on the tariffs, since a month is long enough for the change half a dozen times).
All the best,
-Kibbles
March Update (2025) - Printing (almost) complete, shipping plans, updates.
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 04, 2025 at 02:04:49 PM
Hey Folks-
Breaking Down the Remaining Schedule
So I have good news and same-old same-old news, but they are the same news. Things are still marching along, and it will still be awhile before books are in your hand, and I fully understand that's going to be frustrating news for some folks; the KS is now more or less a year overdue, and with a total production time of 2 years, that's a lot of time. Unfortunately, not much I can do to report how things are going.
So, speaking of that, I've heard from the printer that printing will be complete for all products on March 10th (which is about one week from now). Printing be complete is just the first step of what needs to happen, so I'll breakdown the remaining steps:
- Printing is finished (This should be complete in a week on 3/10)
- Shipping from Printer to Port (This should be quick, days)
- Pallets of books sale across the ocean (This unfortunately will take awhile, boats work in mysterious ways where it is hard to give an exact timeline, but usually it takes weeks, depending on location)
- Books go through customs (This should be quick, but can take awhile, especially given circumstances and fluctuations in trade and tariffs at the moment, probably days, maybe weeks)
- Pallets of books to go regional warehouses (This should be quick, days)
- Regional warehouses do picking and packing (This is usually about a week)
- Shipping from regional warehouses to your doorstep (Usually days)
So, the bad news is, yeah, that's still a lot of steps when broken down like that. The reality of shipping is that there are a ridiculous number of steps and fiddly bits to everything, and all of those steps have forms, paperwork, and people involved that are being wrangled. The good news is, well, that's all that needs to happen, and the only amorphous step of uncertainty left is the boat shipping step, and at least we can watch the boat's tracking code as it goes once I have it loaded in.
I will lock addresses once the boats are getting to the regional warehouses. For logistical reasons, I'll have to lock all the orders at the same time, so it'll probably be when the boat gets closer to Australia that the orders will lock, which will be a few weeks before anyone else gets their books. Blame geography. Up until then (including now) you can still update your address if need be.
So, that's more or less the book update. Still a ways off, but the end is sight, its just a matter of ticking off each box until the book is at the door.
Other Things
Tariffs and uncertainty
Some folks have asked me how the tariffs will impact things. Well, the short answer is, I don't really know. Different tariffs have been announced every few weeks, and honestly all I can really do is wait for the books to get into port and see what I get charged at this point. I'm expecting this to be a pretty significant hit (probably tens of thousands of dollars), but I think I will just pay it out of pocket out of my margins. I've already charged people for the KS and shipping, so you won't see another charge unless something unexpected happens here. If absorbing ends up being impossible, I'll let you know, but I don't expect that scenario. Like I've said before, I haven't drawn any of the KS money and there's a fair bit of margin to eat into. I will certainly make less money, but at the end of the day if I'd been on schedule the book would have arrived before things went south, so it is what it is, just unfortunate.
Maybe if we are lucky the books will arrive during one of the flip parts of the flip flopping on how the tariffs go, or they will end up not including books for something, who knows. Either way, I don't think you, the end user, has any reason to be concerned, beyond that there's a good chance import and customs will take longer than usual as shipping chaos intensifies again.
Roll20 VTT Port
This is another major outstanding item, but I have good news here, in that I think its pretty close to done. I've heard from Munky that he's turned the structured data over to Roll20 for review; there is still some steps for formatting in the module once the module has moved from staging to production, but he believes it will be complete in March... which is this month, so hopefully it'll roll out sometime this month or earlier next month at the latest.
Wrapping Up
That's all I have for you folks, and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop by the Discord, as I'm almost always around. I'm working on new things for the future in terms of new content, but getting this Kickstarter shipping complete remains my top priority whenever there's something I can do for it. While that includes a shocking number of forms and spreadsheets, the show must go on, so I've been rolling out new content you can find on the Discordor Patreon(where are currently having a vote for the next wave of subclasses).
I don't know what the future holds with the next Kickstarter at the moment, but like I've promised many times, that won't happen until fulfillment on this one is fully wrapped up, and likely not for some time after that. I have some thoughts on that and what it might do to adapt to the current ecosystem and avoid taking the 2 year timeframe of this Kickstarter (since as patient as folks have been, it's certainly not been ideal), but we'll talk more about that in the future.
All the best,
-Kibbles
January Update (2025)
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 01:34:24 PM
Hey Folks-
Short update this month, unfortunately without good news on the delivery schedule. Printing was unable to be finished before Chinese New Year, which typically represents a fairly major delay on things shipping out of there.
This means that my best guess for delivery is now March/April, and, like always, that's my best guess as I won't have a locked down date until the books are in starting to arrive at the warehouse.
I fully appreciate this can be frustrating news - I'm right there with you. No one is more eager to get this project delivered than me.
I suppose the 'good' news is that there's nothing wrong; everything is marching along forward toward completion, just very slowly. There is obviously the potential for further complications to international shipping and trade, but there's nothing i can do there besides play it by ear as we see what happens.
I should mention that Roll20 development is well underway; I just got an update from the developer handling that (Meditating Munky, who some of you may be familiar with as he's handled other Roll20 ports), and while I don't have a firm ETA, it seems like he's make a lot of progress (I think he's through all the classes, basic set up, processing images; with the feats, spells, and subclasses for default classes to go).
Not much too add here, beyond that, as always, for people that want the play-by-play updates, feel free to drop by the Discord channel and grab the Kickstarter role (though it's mostly just an earlier version of the updates here at the moment), and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
How to make sure the schedule doesn't slip this drastically for a future book is certainly something I'm going to need to consider, but I think the simple answer was just that this book had too much stuff in it; nothing really went wrong in the development of it, beyond that each step (writing, testing, editing, printing) is taking longer than expected, and since there is no way of getting around those being largely sequential with, they've stacked up in an unfortunate manner. I completely understand any frustration with it, and, at the end of the day, it's certainly my fault we are here... but there's not much I can do about it at this point beyond pass along the updates as I get them.
I appreciate that folks have been so patient so far, and, of course, well let you know when there's more news, or when its time to lock down addresses.
All the best,
-Kibbles
December Update (2024) - Merry Christmas
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 09:09:35 AM
Hey Folks-
Merry Christmas (or your winter holiday of choice)! There's not too much to update here that hasn't already been said we wait for the books to trundle out of the printer and around the world, but I wanted to get one final update in for the year and I do at least have some exciting pictures as I have the print version (final print proofs) in hand now:
Delivery estimate is still 'early 2025', though it depend on how many hurdles are hit getting the books out the door of the printer and shipped around the world.
I'll keep you folks updated as it gets shipped. As always, you can get ahold of me on the Discord if you have any questions.
All the best, and hope you folks are having a good day.
-Kibbles
