Knave RPG: Second Edition

The Knave 2e Adventure Game Jam has begun!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Sep 07, 2024 at 10:59:45 AM

General Cleanup
about 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 12, 2024 at 07:30:57 PM

I'm calling the Knave 2e Kickstarter, essentially, complete. 

It's not complete, so don't think that I'm celebrating before the finish line, but I do think this will probably be the final update from me regarding fulfillment.

We've got 99 people who still haven't filled out their survey. If you're one of those individuals, once it's filled out and shipping's paid, we'll ship you your books. If you can't find your survey, email [email protected], and we can help you out. Please include your Kickstarter backer number, or the email address you used on Kickstarter so I can find you. =)

14 individuals have payment methods that have failed for one reason or another. No biggie. You can log into backerkit or go through your backerkit survey to add a different method of payment and get that fixed up. As above, if you can't find that survey, email [email protected].

32 individuals still need to have their books shipped. Most of those people are in the middle of a move and we're talking by email currently. A few individuals in that category are outside the US and I've got to get that info over to Zatu. Once I've got those tracking numbers, you'll get those tracking numbers.

11,398 orders have been shipped, or are in the process of shipping, or have been digitally distributed via Backerkit. All labels have been paid and printed, and tracking numbers have been emailed out to you. Vibrant works expects to be complete by June 18th. I don't have an exact "quantity per day" metric, but USPS is picking up from their location daily. If you don't have your PDFs, you can access them by logging into Backerkit, and going to the Knave project. They're under "digital downloads". You should also have links in your email from when they were sent out (around December iirc). If you can't find them or access them, email [email protected] and I can get you squared away.

Damages and Errors

If you've reached out to [email protected] because something is busted, or missing, I've got you in the spreadsheet, and will now begin moving through those. 

If you've posted about a damaged or missing item anywhere else online (including here on Kickstarter), I haven't seen it. Please send the email.

If something is busted, please send an image. It makes things much easier.

If I've told you something has been reshipped, and you're outside the US, you probably haven't gotten a tracking number. That's because Zatu hasn't given me any tracking numbers for those yet. Once I have it, you'll have it. It's definitely not ideal, but I haven't had the time to chase them down to prove they've done the thing they said they were going to do so that I can prove to you that they did the thing I said they were going to do. But I will!

Finally, I've shipped quite a few books over the past several years, and I've got to say, this is the most BRUTAL order destruction I've ever seen. I'm sending out new copies of course, but I had to share it. This is next level. Maybe someone should stat the mechanical monstrosity that did this to the poor books.

Thanks everyone!

-Jacob

Further Shipping Updates
about 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 04, 2024 at 06:14:34 PM

Updates below are broken into groups. Your group is determined by what you ultimately purchased, not what you backed. For example, if you backed the Kickstarter for only Knave (standard), but then added one of each zine through Backerkit, that's where you'll find your update.

"I bought 1 standard copy of Knave" [2535 people]

Your orders have not yet started shipping. Current estimate is that they should ship on or before June 18th. If you're moving, and you've reached out, I'll follow up before they ship out. If you haven't reached out, email [email protected] 

"I bought 1 standard copy of Knave, 1 Maze Rats, 1 Summer's End, 1 Willowby Hall" [1302 people]

Your orders have not yet started shipping. Current estimate is that they should ship on or before June 18th. If you're moving, and you've reached out, I'll follow up before they ship out. If you haven't reached out, email [email protected] 

"I bought 1 premium copy of Knave, 1 Maze Rats, 1 Summer's End, 1 Willowby Hall" [816 people]

Your orders have not yet started shipping. Current estimate is that they should ship on or before June 18th. If you're moving, and you've reached out, I'll follow up before they ship out. If you haven't reached out, email [email protected] 

"I bought 1 premium copy of Knave." [800 people]

Your orders began getting packed by Vibrant Works on June 3rd.  A very minimal number were packed on June 3rd as it was only trainers, going through the process. Work began in earnest today and is expected to be completed tomorrow. There is an outstanding question of how exactly USPS will be picking up the pallet, so it's possible they may sit on a pallet for a few days as the local branch continues to insist 'they just can't do it'. We shall see. You were emailed your tracking number through Backerkit today.

"I bought 1 premium copy of Knave, 1 standard copy of Knave, 1 Maze Rats, 1 Summer's End, 1 Willowby Hall" [358 people]

Your orders have not yet started shipping. Current estimate is that they should ship on or before June 18th. If you're moving, and you've reached out, I'll follow up before they ship out. If you haven't reached out, email [email protected] 

"I did not appear in that list! What about me?!"

Your order has shipped. You have been emailed a tracking number through Backerkit.

"I did not appear in that list, and I don't have a tracking number!!!"

You're probably a "straggler", meaning your survey came in after I'd already pulled all the data for these orders. If you know you got it in early, double check your spam folders. You can also see your tracking number in Backerkit. If the tracking number isn't in Backerkit, you're officially a "straggler". Current estimate is that your order should ship on or before June 18th.

"I've gotten my order, but something is wrong or missing."

Sorry about that. Be sure you email [email protected]. If you don't report a missing book or missing patch or upside down book or misaligned spot gloss, etc, by email your report probably isn't going to be seen, responded to or rectified. 

"I have emailed [email protected] but I haven't gotten a response yet."

I can almost guarantee I've seen it. I've also personally packed 1818 orders (so far) which has consumed a considerable amount of my attention. I'll get to it, I promise. Many of the problems reported affect multiple individuals (you're not alone if you got a book that was bound upside down). It's much easier to sit down and send out 5 patches at one time and respond to those emails all at one time, than it is to do vastly different things piecemeal as they come in. It's also better to "group like issues" for tracking and reporting what's happening.

"I have emailed [email protected] but the response I got was terse."

Yes.

"Does that mean you hate me???"

No. I'm not into "industry standard" customer service intros, outros, and other textual fluff. I've also been packing 1818 boxes myself, prepping for a convention, chasing down USPS, and quite a few other things. If you're at North Texas RPG convention this weekend, stop by my booth and I can give you a hug. Or we can fight in the parking lot if that's your love language. I believe Kelsey from Shadowdark will also be there, so if you'd like to ensure you stand by the Swordfish Islands booth and loudly tell her "How perfect her Kickstarter" was, while locking eyes with me the whole time, that's fine too. I'm down for whatever. :D

Additional Information

There is still not absolute clarity on the output Vibrant Works can/will have with these boxes. The June 18th date could slip. I don't think it will, but it's possible. If it looks like it's going to, I'll let you know as soon as I can.

Shipping Continues
about 2 years ago – Sun, May 26, 2024 at 01:16:41 PM

Hello,

Shipping continues. I'll start with the not so great news.

The bulk of US/Canadian orders are now expected to begin shipping June 3rd, 2024.

For Knave's fulfillment there are, broadly, 5 categories to contend with, and there are updates for each below.

• International orders
• US and Canadian orders (complex)
• US and Canadian orders (simple)
• Stragglers
• Errors/Reships/Redos/General Edge Cases

International Orders

These are being shipped by Zatu in the UK.

• I sent over shipping information for 1959 orders on May 4th.
• As of May 22nd, 1723 of those orders are confirmed as shipped.
• The remaining orders may have shipped, but I have not been given tracking numbers for them.
• Once I get tracking numbers, you will get tracking numbers.
   

US/Canadian Orders (Overall)

• Come, gaze into the abyss with me. This spreadsheet shows an overview of the orders that need to be shipped and books/zines need to be shipped in each one.
• The first column (Concat) is a concatenation of the items that need to go into each box, and the order is:
  • Knave Premium
  • Knave Standard
  • Maze Rats
  • Poster
  • Summer's End
  • Willowby
• Meaning: 010000 is an order for 1 copy of Knave (standard). 100000 is 1 copy of Knave (premium). 143021 is 1 copy of Knave (premium), 4 copies of Knave (standard), 3 copies of Maze Rats, 0 posters, 2 Summer's End and 1 Willowby.
• The Count column shows the number or orders that match. So there are 2535 orders in need of 1 copy of Knave (standard) [010000], and 119 orders in need of 1 copy of Knave (standard) and 1 copy of Summer's End [010010].
• The Item column shows how many items go into each box. 010000 needs one item in the box, 010010 needs two items in the box, etc.
• Maybe this is useful or interesting to see, maybe it's not, but this is how I have been determining what's a "simple" order, and what's a "complex" order.

US and Canadian Orders (complex)

• There are 990 "complex" US and Canadian orders.
• 969 of those orders have shipped.
• You should have received the tracking through Backerkit.
• The missing 21 orders come from the 101010 category (1 Knave premium, 1 Maze Rats, 1 Summer's End). This is the line highlighted in red on the spreadsheet.
• The 21 orders that have not been shipped should go out on Tuesday May 28th, or Wednesday May 29th. 
• They were not shipped because I ran out of copies of Maze Rats. We have the copies, but they're in a box at Vibrant Works, and I could not get my hands on them before the Memorial Day holiday weekend began.

US and Canadian Orders (simple)

• The top 9 order categories are being shipped by Vibrant Works/The Lighthouse for the Blind here in San Antonio.
• They received all of the book/boxes/zines/supplies on May 17th.
• They currently expect to begin shipping those orders on June 3rd.
• The delay appears to be caused by two things:
  • They have informed me that they are in the midst of relocating offices internally for a demolition/remodel, and this is proving to have a larger impact on organizing things than anticipated.
  • Based on a project planning call I had with them at the beginning of May/end of April (when the books landed in New York, but before they were trucked to San Antonio), they seem to have gotten a contract that is utilizing the physical floor space where they were planning to do our project.
• When they packed the Knave patches into envelopes last year there were almost no delays. They received the goods, inventoried them, and began shipping almost immediately. These current delays were not anticipated on either side.
• What I do know is that most of their contract work comes from the government and military (San Antonio being "military city USA"). My hypothesis is that we are much smaller, and only a second time job. If there's a timing/resource availability conflict between a big repeat customer and a small newbie, the newbie is going to be the one that waits. =(

Stragglers

All the orders and order information was pulled at the beginning of May after addresses were locked. If your survey came in after that you are likely not a part of these orders.

My plan is to begin working on those this week. There don't seem to be too many who fall into this category currently. But importantly, once I have your tracking number, I'll send it to you, so keep an eye on your email. =)

Guam/Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands

Quick side note that hit me as I was typing up this update. If you're in Guam, Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, your orders haven't shipped because of the ways I pulled and segmented data from Backerkit. Your orders will go out May 28th or 29th.

Errors/Reships/Redos/General Edge Cases

• CUSTOMS ISSUES: If you're in Portugal (or anywhere else)and you need an invoice in order to collect your package, email [email protected]
• DOUBLE THE PLEASURE! Some non-US people have said they have gotten double orders, in two separate packages. Please reach out and let me know if this happened. We're not going to have you send it back anywhere because that's likely not feasible, but it would be great to have that information to share with ZATU and to help answer the question of: how many copies of each book do we really have on hand in the UK? [email protected]
• WRONG ORDER OR MISSING ITEMS: Some people have also said they didn't get what they were supposed to get in their box. Please reach out to [email protected]
• MISPRINTS: There is a hit of spot UV gloss on the cover of the standard version of Knave. On top of the logo. A couple people have said theirs is misaligned. Not to worry. We can get another copy sent to you. I also have some reports of upside down end sheets. We'll get it fixed. Reach out to [email protected]

North Texas RPG Convention

June 6th - June 9th I'll be at the North Texas RPG Convention. Knave will be there too. If you'd like to arrange a pickup because you'll also be there, email [email protected]. We should be able to make that work!

More Shipping News
about 2 years ago – Thu, May 16, 2024 at 12:25:01 PM

US and Canada Backers

Books are in San Antonio.

If you have a "complex" order, such as 2 copies of Knave, 3 copies of Maze Rats and a poster, the components of your order are somewhere in those boxes in the hall outside my studio. They'll begin shipping very soon.

If you have a "simple" order, such as 1 copy of Knave, those books are still in the warehouse. They'll be delivered to the Lighthouse for the Blind tomorrow (May 17th, 2024). I still don't have a great grasp of what the pace will be exactly, but I expect the shipping of those orders to begin in earnest on Monday, May 20th.

International Backers

Last I heard, 620 orders had been shipped out. I think the rest are ready, but there has been a payment issue that is currently being worked out. I paid the invoice, they shipped those 620, then returned the money to me. I'm not sure if I typoed the billing address, or if they aren't keen on the billing address being a PO Box. Investigation and discussions are underway, but I do not expect it to cause any significant delays.

Potential Issue for "complex" orders

The biggest potential issue right now is with zines. It may not be an issue, so maybe I shouldn't say anything, but I'm going to anyway.

There's a confluence of events happening:

•  We had a lot of pre-sales and addons of Maze Rats/Summer's End/Willowby after the Kickstarter ended.
• A "cushion" of copies was incorporated into the initial print run to account for this.
• When the zines were finished printing, I picked up a single box of each zine to have at my studio (this was months ago).
• The printer shipped the zines to the warehouse where they have waited for the Knave books.
• When the warehouse received the zines, I got a invoice that said "We got X cartons of each title".
• Today when I picked up the books and zines for the "complex" orders, the warehouse told me we were short one box of each zine.
• The open question is: did the printer not update their count after I picked up those original 3 boxes? Or is one box of each zine missing? And which box count was I using for my math?
• Adding to this, we sent "whole" boxes of zines to the international warehouse. Meaning part of the "cushion" isn't currently accessible.
• We also have a decent number of people who still haven't filled out their survey/paid for shipping, so it's probably fine. But it also might not be if a whole box of each zine vanished. We will see!

I've got to quadruple check counts later today, but if we are short a few zines some "complex" US and Canadian orders may be delayed slightly. Should that happen, I'll be in touch with you directly. There are multiple ways to fix/address this, and it should be a very tiny number (if at all). Good news is, the zine printer is here in San Antonio so turn around should be pretty quick.

If you've got any questions/comments/concerns, or are moving, or have an issue with the package you receive, please reach out to [email protected]. Operate under the assumption that if you make a comment on Kickstarter or send a message through Kickstarter it will not be seen. Please email for help if you need it. We'll get you squared away. =)