Saturday update
over 8 years ago – Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 07:23:32 AM

People are getting their surveys in, which is great. More than half of the backers have marked their surveys complete and I"ll start going through them on Dec. 1st.

I also got to the lumber yard and picked up most of the lumber that I'll need for this project. Once the rest of the backers fill in their surveys, I can make another lumber run, but I have enough to get a good bit done.

Starting December 1st, the following will happen:

• I'll start going through the orders one by one to make sure the surveys are filled out completely. If they are, I'll finalize them (charge any add-ons you may have selected) and print them out for processing.
• If the survey isn't filled out correctly, I'll send that backer an email letting him/her know what needs filled in.
• I'll place an order for pen hardware. If you want pens in time for Christmas, please get me the order before Monday night. Remember that I'm offering a buy 4 get 1 free deal on the pens. If you need details, contact me, but essentially, if you buy 4 pens listed on the add-on page, you get one free; but that deal has to go through Paypal instead of through backerkit.
• Of the orders that I print out, if I have the case premade, I'll ship it out asap. If I don't have it in stock, I'll get it in the queue to be made.

Remember, if you have any friends who want to get in on this, I still have the preorder module going. They can get anything in the add-on menu (but I can't guarantee Christmas delivery). Give them this link to follow: https://hrothgar-iv-skalds-song.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

See you next week with another update

Friday update...please read...all of it....pretty please.
over 8 years ago – Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 02:38:07 PM

So about 1/2 of the surveys are in already. I've put together a preliminary wood list and I think I'll be headed to the lumber yard on Monday to pick up an early round of wood. As I'm packaging things up for the WARRIOR project, I can have the cnc cutting out what has been ordered so far.

If you have completed your survey

For those who have finished your survey, A. PLEASE make sure you have actually chosen product. There are a few people who put their address in, blew past the add-on menu and closed the survey. If you did this, I will not know what you want and your order will end up being the last one I work on. EVERYONE MUST CHOOSE THEIR PRODUCT IN THE ADD-ON MENU.

Next, go back over your add-ons. Is there anything else you want? Now is the time to add it.

Finally, close out the survey. 

I will not start closing out surveys until Dec. 1st. On Dec. 1st, I'm going to start going individually through the surveys and finalizing them. After this date, changes to completed surveys won't be able to be made and I'll start filling orders. Adding on after this date will need to be done on a separate order.

If you have not completed the survey

Hey! No worries. There isn't a rush here. I'd prefer to get everything in before the first of the year, but if you need extra time to see what Santa brings you and how much the wife (or husband) is willing to let you spend, that is fine. Surveys completed prior to Dec. 1, I'm going to really try to get done by the holidays. Surveys completed afterwards will be done (hopefully) no later than January.

As an FYI, I'm currently confirmed for the following conventions in 2016:

• Cleveland ConCoction March 11-13
• Indiana Comic Con April 29-May 1
• Origins Game Fair June 15-19

Strong Probability:

• Gary Con: March 3-6
• Reaper Con Oct. 20-23
• Con on the Cob: date unknown

Hopeful

• Gen Con Aug. 4-7
• Dragon Con Sept. 2-5
• Game Hole Nov. 4-6

Backups

• Tampa Bay Comic Con Aug. 5-7
• WBC July 29-31

If you know of a good Con, especially in the mid-west that I've missed, please let me know. I'm trying to finalize my show schedule and would like to get in at least 10-12 shows through next year.

A Word on Shipping
over 8 years ago – Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 08:18:15 PM

I got the surveys out last night, and sure enough, there is at least one thing that isn't working as smoothly as it should.

If you are one of my international backers:

First, thank you for backing my project! How cool is it that I can say that I ship to Austrailia, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, Germany, Denmark, and the other dozen cool places that I've gotten to ship to. The woman in my post office thinks that I must be some shadowy business conglomerate holed up in the back hills of Appalachia. 

But second: You were charged $15 for shipping at the project start and now when you fill your stuff out, you are being hit with a $15 fee for most items. The $15 fee was supposed to represent the additional shipping fee brought on by size/weight. You should not have to pay double shipping, so here is what you can do:

• shoot me an email at [email protected] letting me know that you are an international backer and that you have been charged $15 extra for shipping. I will credit your  account that amount since you have already paid your shipping up front.
• take a look at anything else you want to add. Go ahead and add it, but understand that there WILL be an extra $15 per item added on in shipping fees per item (for most items..the small/light stuff like dice, pens, and foam have no shipping fee).
• IF you have added a lot of things and don't think that the total you are pay for shipping is representative of the actual cost to ship, shoot me another email. I will take a look at your order, estimate a size/weight for that order, and put it into the USPS shipping calculator. If there is a significant difference I will refund that amount via paypal.com.

This is the best that I can do on shipping on this project. I swear, one of these times I'm going to figure out how to do shipping in a way that doesn't overcharge or undercharge you. Honestly, I think I usually lose money on international shipping but this time the change I made had a rather hefty unintended consequence.

If you are a  domestic backer:

It should be much easier on you. You didn't have to pay an up front shipping extra fee. I factored in $5 for shipping for a single product into the pledge amount. However, if you ADD ON a ROGUE, PRIEST, OR WIZARD, there is an additional $5 per item fee that is charged on Backerkit. This fee represents shipping in a medium or large priority box instead of a small envelope/box. 

If you add a lot of items and believe that you are paying too much for shipping, again, drop me a line and I will figure out the weight/size of the package, plug that into the USPS shipping calculator, and refund the difference.

I hope that works for everyone. If you have questions/comments, please let me know.

John

well, no survey tonight
over 8 years ago – Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 09:49:34 PM

I guess Backerkit wants to review my page before allowing me to send out surveys. They say it can take up to 2 days. Sorry about the misinformation. I'll get the surveys out to you as soon as possible.

John

Survey to come out tonight
over 8 years ago – Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 09:45:28 PM

It is time for the choosing...

..or for you to choose your stuff. However you want to view it. So here are the guidelines.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the way Backerkit is designed, questions are asked first and then you go to the shopping cart section to choose your items. So, what do you do if you don't EXACTLY know what you want? Not a problem, just follow the following steps:

• When the survey asks you for instructions, just type a placeholder in the field (like "asdf", and then go to the shopping cart.
• In the shopping cart, choose everything you want. If you want artwork, make sure you choose Yes under the artwork option. When you are all done, go to the top of the page and click on "1.Questions". This will take you back to the instruction question. Tell me specifically what artwork you want on what case. Artwork names and images are included below and on my web page.
• When you are done with the instructions, click on "Next: Add-ons". This will take you back to your shopping cart It should be unchanged from when you chose your items.
• Double check to make sure everything is in the cart that you want.
• continue on to the next page and finish your survey as normal.

I know this seems a little round-about. I wish I had the technical knowledge to build my own post-project survey, but I don't. So I have to make due with what is available to me.

Second, If you want special customizations, you must contact me before hand to see if they are doable. There may be a charge associated with customizations. Most of the time it can be taken care of with a $10 charge. Major changes may be significantly more expensive. be sure you remind me of any customized work in the instructions section. When I go into production, I don't look through emails to see what needs to be changed...i only look at the order slips.

Third, If you pledged at the $100 level, you get 1 free set of dice. You can choose this dice by going to the dice section of the shopping cart. There you will see an entry for *FREE* CHESSEX OPAQUE DICE. Choose your color. You are limited to 1 set of dice. you are free to add on other dice for a price discounted off of the MSRP in the DICE section of the shopping cart.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL OFFER

We are close to the holidays and pens are one of my biggest sellers this time of year. For backers of my KICKSTARTER projects, I'm offering a special that is going to be off the backerkit books. 

On Backerkit, you can see several different pens I have available. These are some great pens and make outstanding gifts. Through Backerkit, you can buy them individually in any style and hardware you want, but I will ship them with the rest of your order which may or may not be before the holidays. 

However, as a holiday special, if you purchase any four pens, you'll get a 5th one for free AND I'll get these out to you before Dec. 15. What you need to do is this:

• send an email to me at [email protected]. 
• Tell me what five pens you want, in what wood, and what color hardware.
• I will send you a paypal invoice for the pens, but will only charge you for four of them.
• As long as I get the order in before Dec. 1, I'll get the pens out to you no later than Dec. 15. Domestic shipping will be included in this offer. International shipping is generally about $25, but contact me first to confirm.

When can I expect my order?

I listed May 2016 as the ship date for this project. I was also expecting this project to do much better and thought I'd need the extra time to make the cases. But since the project is as manageable as it is, I'm going to do my best to get this out in December. However please note the following:

1. I'm in the middle of shipping the WARRIOR project. That project takes priority. 

2. I'm going to leave the Backerkit survey open for quite a while so that more people can join in if they want.

3. If you decide to wait until the end of December to fill out BACKERKIT, then I obviously won't be able to get to your reward until January...and I hate working in the workshop in January, so I'll probably be waiting for warm days.

So, don't feel the need to fill everything out tomorrow with the expectation that you'll get the case next week. I'm going to fulfill this project early. VERY early. I'll try to get some/most of it out in the next 6 weeks, but one way or the other, I plan on closing this project FAR before the projected ship date.

Image selection

Below is a list of images available for this project. It will also be posted on my web page at www.HrothgarsHoard.com. When choosing your image, please use the exact name listed below and be sure to tell me what case you want it on. I've weeded out most of the images that don't really work well, hence the skipped numbers on some of them.