The Dungeon Shipping News update!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 03:46:40 AM

The Books will soon be setting sail!

Very exciting news! The Books will be leaving the printers next week!

We have spent the past 10 days finishing the finishing on the books and quality checking all the books with our printers. As we have said previously we are very particular about our products and we have been running through everything on Skype in some depth to make sure everything is just so. 

While we have been seeing random page checks on random books thanks to videos like these, our printers have gone through each book page by page to quality check everything!

Here's a video from the printers of one of the finished books! (note this is a few random pages not a page by page run through).

Now they are green lighted they are being packed up and shipments prepared. The books will leave our printers next week and begin their journey to you!

A brief reminder - more will follow - about what happens next: 

• From the printers the books are loaded onto ships to the fulfilment hubs
• As the ships travel you will be able to track them
• Once they arrive at the destination ports they are unloaded and go through customs
• Then the books travel by road to the fulfilment hubs where your orders are picked, packed and shipped.

At this stage we move from being creators to project managers!

Now the books are moving our main role is to make sure you as backers have everything you need, while at the same time coordinating our printers, fulfilment agents (GamesQuest) and fulfilment hubs to make sure everyone is "in the loop" and have all the information and product specs they need to make sure things go smoothly.

While some backers will receive their rewards in October we anticipate most backers will receive their books in November.

As always reach out with any questions, and especially if you need to update your address. We have locked addresses and shared the information with our partners to enable fulfilment planning, we can make amends but you will need to message us directly so we can help you.

Incomplete Surveys

I cannot stress enough if you are one of the 99 people who is yet to complete your Backerkit survey then please do this NOW.  You can find your survey here https://dungeon-battle-mats.backerkit.com/ 

What to expect from us next - We are booking ships and shipping lanes so the next update will be packed with shipping estimates (to the fulfilment hubs) and a breakdown of which hub will serve which countries. We will share ship names so you can track your books on the water and follow your book from the printers to the destination port.

We will be putting out updates weekly throughout the fulfilment phase, so you will always be up to date with progress!

Hang in there Dungeoneers, your books are getting closer!

As always reach out if you have any questions!

Matt & Tam

Loke Battle Mats

An update on the Adventure Module!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 03:32:21 AM

The Peculiar Will play testing update!

We are getting closer to sharing our Adventure Module with you all! Set in the pages of The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, 'The Peculiar Will of Thurandius Drake' is a 5e adventure which will test your party as you negotiate our devilishly difficult dungeon adventure.

This weekend saw the first in depth test play through! We assembled a motley crew of our regular RPG party, experienced playtesters and some newer players and set off for many hours of fun.

Here are some of the pictures we took (no spoilers so safe to view!)

We are just running through the amends we highlighted during the testing, these are tweaks just to make sure everything is self explanatory and flows nicely through and then it's on to layout to make sure it looks good as a document.

We will pop out an update when we add the Peculiar Will to The Dungeon title in DriveThruRPG!

In the meantime you can roll up an instant dungeon using the Dungeon Run generator!

And Finally a quick recap on how to access the Digital rewards, which we are sharing via DriveThruRPG.

• You will have received an email code from DriveThruRPG at the start of July with a link which automatically adds 'The Dungeon - Books of Battle Mats (Digital Edition)' to your DriveThruRPG library.
   
• As we add the files these will automatically appear in The Dungeon title if you have used the link, you won't need to do anything or click it again.
   
• If its not showing up (it will be part of the existing title) try sorting your library by update and this will help find it!
• The exact title name on DriveThruRPG is 'The Dungeon - Books of Battle Mats (Digital Edition)'
   

Any issues or if you need the link resend please reach out via Kickstarter message :-)

Thanks!

Matt & Tam

Loke BattleMats

How to Get the Dungeon Generator and a shout out for Essen Spiel!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 01:10:25 AM

Good Morning Dungeoneers!

It seemed worthwhile to move forwards my planned update for Monday to help everyone find the Dungeon Generator!

Getting large amounts of data to large numbers of people is never a perfect process, and we are here to make sure you get everything you need so first and foremost if you need anything please reach out! 

As per my last update the Dungeon Generator "Dungeon Run" has been added to the Dungeon title on DriveThruRPG. 

You must have added the Dungeon title to your DriveThruRPG Library using the link sent from DriveThruRPG back at the start of July (or 2 weeks after you completed your Backerkit survey if this is later). The Dungeon Generator "Dungeon Run" will automatically appear in the title.

When we add the adventure module (Which Matt is off to playtest today) this will also automatically appear in The Dungeon title. Of course there will be a full update on this in the near future!

If you can't find the DriveThruRPG email link please just reach out and we can resend if for you :-)

Which brings me to Spiel'19!

We will be in Hall 6 Stand G122 and we would love to see you! Matt will be there all 4 days so swing by, we will have the first production copy of The Dungeon to show off to you backers so come have a look! We will also be announcing the retail launch date at Spiel.

Important to note we won't be launching to retail until we have fulfilled the Kickstarter and left a buffer to resolve any lost deliveries, you will get The Dungeon first!!!

We will also have all the existing books with us so you can come check out the library. And we will have a very special sneak preview surprise for what we have lined up for 2020 so you can see it in the early design phase.

Once again if you have any issues finding the DriveThruRPG content please do reach out and we will get you everything you need to download your digital content!

Tam & Matt

Loke BattleMats

The Dungeon Generator has now been added to The Dungeon in DriveThruRPG
over 4 years ago – Sat, Oct 05, 2019 at 02:29:26 AM

It's Finally Finished!!

We are delighted to officially announce that the Dungeon Generator - Titled "Dungeon Run" has now been added to The Dungeon title on DriveThruRPG! 

The Dungeon generator is designed to be used with The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats (either the physical books or the digital tiles) to generate random encounters and scenarios for your roleplay game in The Dungeon. This generator tool is not a roleplay game or system by itself, it is designed to work with your existing and preferred systems and is written to be as compatible as possible with all current systems. It is to help you roll up a Dungeon adventure using our Dungeon books (or digital tiles).

Contained within it are 120 pages of rules and guidelines for generating dungeons including encounters, covering everything from monsters, traps, areas of interest and even the Dungeon Boss.

Start at the “Building The Dungeon” section for an overview of how to use this generator book with your game and system.

The Dungeon Run has been a real labour of love for us, having evolved from a basic generator into 120 pages of everything you could need to help you roll up a dungeon! We hope you enjoy using it as much as we have enjoyed writing it!

FAQ's

How do I get the Dungeon Generator?

If you check out your library on DriveThruRPG you will see the Dungeon Generator, titled "Dungeon Run" has been automatically added under the Dungeon. You can download it from there at your leisure.

 Should I have had an email?

No. The file will be added automatically. The email you should have had through from DriveThruRPG with your code to access The Digital Dungeon would have been sent at the start of July (or if you completed your Backerkit survey after this then you would have had your code email 2 weeks after you completed your survey).

If you can't find your code email from DriveThruRPG with your link to access the digital content please message me and I will get it to you!

Coming Next

We are spending the weekend playtesting the Adventure Module and we will report back on our progress this next week. This is the last addition for the Digital Dungeon.

We are also of course getting very close to the fulfilment phase of this Kickstarter. You have all been amazingly patient and we are really pushing to get everything going as quickly and smoothly as possible!

When the books leave the factory we will be able to share some country specific estimates and which hub your book will be coming from! In the lead up to this we have now locked addresses and are exporting your data to share with our fulfilment partners (Fun fact alert! we are using 5 different fulfilment hubs with 5 different formats needed for their spreadsheets. Fun times).

If you need to change your address please message me directly.

Thanks again for your patience, we will be in touch again very soon!

Tam & Matt

Loke Battle Mats

Important fulfilment update and last call for address changes!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Oct 01, 2019 at 02:14:02 AM

The first part of this update is to report that we will be delayed by the public holiday in China celebrating the country's 70 year anniversary.

Despite both ourselves and the factory putting in the effort over the last week I am afraid today we have to announce that we will not be able to clear the books from the printers before the holiday starts.

This means that while fulfilment will still start in October (and we expect some countries will receive pledges in October) we expect the majority of you will now receive your books in November.

We are disappointed to have missed this deadline, not least because we have been burning the candle both ends on skype and WhatsApp with the factory in order to get the books cleared. 

Ultimately we are not prepared to sacrifice the quality of our end product, and so we have decided a delay is better than risking mistakes and inferior finishes.

This is important news as we are now issuing the 48 hour notice to make sure addresses are correct! 

In order to check your address please go into your Backerkit Survey (if you can't find the email from Backerkit you can recover your email here - https://dungeon-battle-mats.backerkit.com/)

Once this deadline has passed and addresses are locked we will need to start to send data across to our fulfilment partners, but first we will need to spend time checking and re-checking all the data is exporting correctly (to give you some insight it's a massive spreadsheet which links everyone's address details to their items and we need to make sure all the lines are exporting correctly. This is a manual job and its not something you can rush!!). 

We have never once had an issue with the export but it REALLY pays to check!

So What happens next?

After the books leave the factory they travel with our freight forwarder to the fulfilment hubs. In most cases this is by sea, and once we have ship names and shipping plans we will be able to share with you much more accurate dates for where the books are and when they will arrive at their destination ports.

We will share the ship names and which ship is going where to fulfil which countries. This is so you can track the ships as they cross the globe (its great fun and we strongly recommend it!)

We have instructed our fulfilment partner GamesQuest to fulfil immediately when the books are received in the hubs, so it will not be synchronised. Some countries will receive their pledges before others. We will keep updating you throughout so you know what is going on and when to expect your pledge in your country.

And finally - This is good news! The Dungeon Generator is finished and up on DriveThruRPG. There will be a full update on this once addresses are locked! For now if you want to have a peek it's in the Dungeon title, so when you check your DriveThruRPG Library you will see it's there to download when you go into The Dungeon title (it's called DungeonRun.pdf).

Matt & Tam

Loke BattleMats