CAL1 Conversion Booklets

After nearly a month since I ordered the print proofs, they finally got delivered on July 2nd. They both look good. Numbered "CAL1a" and CAL1b," these books provide all the game stats from earlier titles for use with Labyrinth Lord and the OSRIC system respectively. The stats come from CAL1 "In Stranger Skies," PG1 "A Players' Guide to Meryath," and CA1 "Dreams of Aerie," which constitute Calidar's Series 1. They go a bit further since they actually include game stats that weren't available in the original gazetteer, so that's a big plus.

CAL1a and CAL1b came out *after* CAL2a and CAL2b which cover the three books in Series 2: CAL2 "On Wings of Darkness," PG2 "A Players' Guide to Caldwen," and CA2 "How to Train your Wizard." The reason for this is that PG1 did not yet exist at the time Series 2 was completed. PG1 was a retrofitted into Calidar's title line up, so I could organize them into Series (one gazetteer, one players' guide, and one adventure each). Once PG1 was born, CAL1a and CAL1b could finally come through.

This being said, product bundles available from DTRPG are being split accordingly, resulting in separate bundles for Series 1 and Series 2, which should be more manageable. Calidar's page on DTRPG has been reorganized to help sort out its growing list of titles. Click here for more about the existing series and what comes next.

The only hiccup in all this is that CAL1a and CAL1b each have an extra blank sheet in the back, for whatever reason. This wasn't intended. Given the situation with Covid-19 and the production delays resulting from it, I'm not going to withhold these two conversion books to fix the irksome issue at this time. So there! You have an extra sheet for notes, front and back!

Previous Kickstarter Backers: These conversion booklets were not included in the kickstarters for CAL1 or CAL2. If you were a backer in either of them, you'll need to obtain these two titles separately through DTRPG. 

Beware of the Malefactor!

Another creepy wretch, complete with bpa-free container, preserving fluids (guaranteed low sodium, no msg), maybe even a warning label, and ghoulish motivations to enliven your most deadly dungeon plots—presented here with pertinent D&D BECMI game stats.

"Hell Toupee"—Halloween/Horror/Political/Funny/Gag/Novelty/Décor/Prop

Jar Malefactor*: AC 4, HD 4**, 32 hp, MV flying only 90’ (30’), AT 1 bite/2 claws (if any), D bite 1d6+1 bite/claws 1d4 each, Save F4, Str 7, Dex 7, Int 14, ML 10, AL Chaotic, Size: S, XP 225.

            Abilities: Undead; can be Turned as a ghoul; immune to non-magical weapons and mind-affecting attacks; bites and claws carry rotting disease (as a mummy’s; saving throw negates); hides in shadows as thief level 18.

            Sealed in a jar filled with an alchemical solution, the dismembered corpse of a malformed, evil individual gradually became undead. The process often takes years or decades before the creature awakes, when its erstwhile spirit wanders back from the netherworld to its preserved remains. Tatters of its memories still lie inside its brain, along with the spirit’s malevolent ethos.

            Such jars are sometimes forgotten among others on a shelf in a lab, in an obscure museum, or in a seedy curio shop. Some are displayed as attractions in carnival creep shows, perhaps past criminals stolen from their graves. At night when no one watches, the ghastly being unscrews the jar from inside and wanders the vicinity in search of clues on its veiled past. It spies on persons of interest for days or months, gathering information about them. In a raspy whisper, it questions isolated individuals while hiding in shadows, and attempts to slay those who fail to provide the clues it hopes for. If unable to satisfy a deathly yearning, the malefactor breathes lies or harmful truths it overheard from unsuspecting visitors, hoping to set one against the other. It returns to its jar after roaming about, closes the lid, and waits for another occasion to resume its quest away from prying eyes. Though toxic, the liquid in the jar heals within an hour any combat damage the undead may have suffered.

            The malefactor’s lower body and entrails have usually been removed. Partially hidden behind its head, its skinbound, skeletal limbs are folded tightly against its chest when inside the jar. It flies slowly when wandering, gray-green shreds of preserved skin dangling or dragging below. Its claw-like fingers and teeth bear a rotting disease, or as an option, may paralyze a victim as a ghoul. Immune to non-magical weapons, the malefactor is also able to hide in shadows or behind miscellaneous objects. Greater malefactors able to cast magic are rumored to exist in the workshops of necromancers. The jar, its fluid contents, and its occupant do not radiate magic, but the creature’s evil may be detected along with a smell of formaldehyde and moldy pickles. If it wishes so, it may fly away with its jar and hide it (or steal another with a similar concoction, after discarding its previous resident). The malefactor disintegrates after it finds the information it sought and exacts vengeance upon whomever it blames for its fate, whether evil or not.

Source: Original game stats from CA1 "Dreams of Aerie." Conversion for use with Labyrinth Lord in CAL1a "Conversion Guide to Meryath" (coming soon at DTRPG).

About Reviews

Calidar books have so far been well received. A lot of care and attention is paid to contents, creative and graphic, with text, layout, maps, and art. It has been a slow process, since yours truly has to juggle game design, floor plan cartography, project management, advertising, social media presence, sales, and accounting, while still learning the ropes of indie publishing. The work in these books represents the efforts of more than one person--Thorfinn Tait's contributions with geographical maps and book layout cannot be ignored, nor should the work of artists who endeavored to give faces to Calidar's heroes and villains, the project editor, Janet Deaver-Pack, and more recently proofer Hervé Musseau. Kickstarter supporters should give themselves a major pat on the back as well.

Personal reviews are a way to thank all contributors and to convey constructive criticism and suggestions with the expectation they will help improve future releases. Fans ought to consider this especially if they hope to see future products for the World of Calidar succeed and follow a path that will best address their gaming needs. It's all about communication, hopefully amiable.

What does a review entail? Some can be as simple as a star rating. These can be logged in directly at the source, on DTRPG, where Calidar books come from. It just takes a minute (click here). An accompanying comment explaining the rating would be ideal but not absolutely necessary. That's the easiest approach.

Other methods include more elaborate and effective ways of reaching a wider spectrum in the gaming community. Mentions or discussions in forums are excellent ways to get the word across to other gamers, to the author, and creative contributors. I usually keep an eye on discussions on Facebook, G+, Twitter (#Calidar), and on the Piazza.

One other good place to put in a review is EnWorld's ranking page (click here for the present review status of Calidar books). In order for a title to appear on EnWorld's chart, a minimum of 10 reviews are required. If you plan on posting yours there, a paragraph on what you feel is most important is enough to help readers get the right idea.

Your feedback is important and appreciated. Thanks!

The Flying Circus has Landed

Greetings all. I finally received the much-awaited package from the printer this afternoon -- discovered by accident since the delivery guy at UPS didn't bother to knock or ring the front door bell. Good news: the printer's proof for the hardcover looks great. Bad news: the softcover version was not included in the package. Gee thanks. I placed an inquiry with DTRPG to that missing printer's proof asap.

Overall, the hardcover book looks great. The premium paper stock is slightly glossy and feels good to the touch. The printing is very sharp, which is a relief, considering the large number of maps inset in the text.

I'll start the hardcover's Kickstarter fulfillment first thing Thursday morning (Dec. 7th). This means that many of you will be receiving this book before Christmas day. This might also be true to some of you outside the US (especially in the UK). As for the softcover book, I won't be waiting too long before getting this process started as well. The printing inside the softcover book is identical to the hardcover's. The file is evidently different for the cover, but it is otherwise set up exactly the same way as the hardcover's, so I'm not expecting more bad surprises here.

That's it for now. If you need to find out more about Calidar projects in general (or this one, when I release it for general sale to the public), click the advertising at the top of the blog page. I'll let you now peruse the pictures I just shot of the book. Cheers!

CA1 -- Calidar: Dreams of Aerie

Calidar Kickstarter Updates

Greetings all.

A few things have been going on during the past several days. First off, discount coupons offered as part of Dreams of Aerie's Kickstarter didn't quite work as I'd expected, failing to accomplish two key goals:  the first was to allow multiple purchases, the other therefore was to bundle shipping costs. The result of this was that the added cost of mailing separate orders exceeded the value of the discounts. Fortunately, I could pinpoint those folks with messed-up orders and at least reimburse them for the value of unredeemed coupons. I otherwise handled the majority of backers' orders myself, ensuring properly redeemed discounts and bundled shipping.

Another issue with these discounts was that they did not allow purchasing privately listed titles (they should have). This forced me to list CST1 & CST2 publicly. This is a temporary measure. These two booklets will be resuming their "private" status very soon. If any backers remain who still want to exercise their options to purchase these books with the discounts offered in their Kickstarter pledges, please contact me. I'll be happy to handle their orders myself directly (forget these coupons entirely). 

A final problem with the coupons was that they were intended to include both printed books with their associated PDF documents. I was able to send the PDFs to a number of backers whose names were listed with their purchases on DTRPG. On the other hand, a number of purchases only showed customer numbers. If anyone has purchased a printed booklet and is missing the associated PDF document to which they were entitled, please contact me. I'll be more than happy to have DTRPG e-mail the appropriate download links. My sincere apologies for the hassle this created for everyone.

What else? Work is proceeding apace on CA1 Dreams of Aerie. Joe Garcia is generating internal art. Eric Lofgren has completed the cover art, shown on the left. Thorfinn Tait is our man for collecting all the pieces and copyfitting everything. Many thanks to all three! Meanwhile, I'll be placing orders at DTRPG for everyone's deck plans very soon. If you are planning on adding deck plans to your Kickstarter pledges, now's a good time to do so. After I'm done with this part of the rewards fulfillment, I will not accept any other such requests as these deck plans will become available to the public. This should happen within the next few days. Deck plans are printed at locations separate from those handling the books, which is why I'm sending them out without waiting any further (they would have otherwise been bundled with the books, in December).

Calidar's system-agnostic game mechanics were released to the public yesterday. These are needed to understand game stats in Calidar books. Some of you are already quite familiar with this material, which was introduced in CC1 Beyond the Skies. The 12-page color booklet also provides an overview of the Calidar universe and a look at its "known world," the Great Caldera. Right now, only the PDF document is available, as a pay-what-want item. Anything you decide to pay for it will help support the product line -- thank you. Digital files have been submitted to the printer for pre-press approval. A printed version of these game mechanics should become available to the public within the next 3-4 weeks.

Thank you for your patience and for your support!

Dreams Day 1

Day 1 of Calidar "Dreams of Aerie's" Kickstarter: we did very well. By the end of Day 1, we've outdone CAL1 "In Stranger Skies." All numbers were better across the board. Thank you everyone! To help continuing this success story, do feel free to pass the word around, or simply keep chatting about the project, here, on Facebook, in forums, or on Kickstarter directly.

What else can I say, but "merci!" ☺️

A good number of you did share the campaign announcement, and this helped a lot. I'm very grateful for your enthusiasm and support. Judging from the funding pattern, it looks like "Dreams" should be at least funded by the end of the event. So far, we have at least 111 visitors who watched the video; 59% of them watched it all the way through, which is pretty good actually. Out of 111 visitors, 86 are backers at this point. Compare this with "In Stranger Skies" where more than 5,000 visitors watched the video and about 400 became backers (after 30 days.) That's very encouraging, even though June is a difficult month for crowd funding.

See You at 09:00 Central Time

See you all very soon this morning when the Kickstarter campaign launches for Calidar "Dreams of Aerie."  Search for this title on Kickstarter's home page.  I'll be back as soon as possible when the campaign launches, with the correct link.  The present one, for the preview page, will cease to work when the campaign launches.  You can also have a peek at the project preview posted on EnWorld, which reveals an extra poster map showing an "exploded view" of the aeries' upper floors on a night display of the main deck.  Until the curtains open, sit tight and enjoy the popcorn.

EDIT -- click here for the updated link.

Acute Designeritis Strikes Again

Here I am, just a few days before I launch "Dreams of Aerie's" Kickstarter campaign, looking at ways to improve the product.  I love the poster maps of the various deck plans.  They show much of the lateral outrigger masts and their unfurled sails.  On the other hand, with a landscape format, 11x17, a circular deck plan leaves out a lot of space, so I've embarked on a quest to produce an alternative map that referees will love: it adds on the outside of the main deck's top view the various upper floors of the aeries, displaying an "exploded" view of the whole.  The two images below show the original, daylight view of the main deck, and a section of the nighttime exploded view.  I'm only showing a quarter of the latter since it is a work in progress.  I'm not sure yet whether this will work, as some of the aeries have 4 floors above the main deck, which does take up a lot of real estate (pun intended) on the map sheet.

If you haven't visited the Kickstarter preview page, CLICK HERE.  There is still a bit of time left for comments and questions.  I'll be submitting the campaign for approval after elections in UK and Comey's testimony are over with, so I can see how this impacts the values of the US Dollar and the Pound Sterling (this affects the cost of printing and mailing outside the USA.)

If you are unfamiliar with the World of Calidar or the current project, check the tabs at the top of this blog for further information.

Cheers! 

Dreams of Aerie Update

So here we are, just a few short weeks before the Kickstarter launches.  For now, it is set for June 14th 2017, barring any unforeseen obstacles.  I'll post the link as soon as I have it.

Where are we with this project?

The book is fully written and all the deck plans are complete.  Editing  has already started, as well as a pre-edit proofing "out of house."  My present occupation right now is setting up the kickstarter.  Math and accounting have already been figured out.  The video presentation is ready.  One artist, Joe Garcia, has committed to handle internal illustrations. Cover art is being negotiated--I expect resolution in the coming days.  Work will be starting in earnest on the Kickstarter page itself in the coming days.

I'll be taking a short break early June at North Texas RPG Con, where I'll be running a part of Dreams of Aeries to eager gamers, twice.  There is still one seat available for each of these two sessions. Click here for these events.

Dreams of Aeries is both a mega-adventure and a stand-alone setting.  Because it takes place on a flying circus, it is relatively easy to set in any other fantasy world.  As with other Calidar titles, it is meant as system-neutral:   game statistics are streamlined and adaptable to game mechanics of most RPG games.

Components:  At 124 pages, Dreams of Aerie may actually gain extra pages, depending on stretch goals.  It is intended for use with up to 6 poster maps (3 labelled maps for referees, plus an optional 3 unlabelled maps for players.)  These loose-leaf sheets are printed 12"x18" and folded once to be mailed in cardboard sleeves (separately from the books.)  Kickstarter tiers determine which maps are included with the backers' books; any of these maps can be purchased separately if need be.  They display the flying circus's three decks.  The three labelled maps are reproduced inside the book, as two-page spreads, with specific sections inserted in the text where most needed.