Mother's Night
3 months ago
– Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 11:22:15 AM
Hello,
Today in honour of the Jorvik Viking Festival, not to mention the Year of the Dragon, we have uploaded the latest adventure to Drive Thru RPG. Click the image below to see more.
I've been wanting to write a truly mythological adventure for some time, and this one crashes you into the heart of King Beowulf's Geatland. With a little tinkering, it will work well as a one-shot. Just be careful not to unravel one of the jewels of world literature.
Mōdraniht is technically an Anglo-Saxon event, although scholars like Simekhave speculated about the links between the dísir, the norns and the whole Germanic Yule tradition. Think of it as "The Night before Christmas", Vikingverse style.
In other news, surveys are locked, cards have been charged, and we just have to wait for cargo ships to arrive before we can get those physical books out to you. As soon as I know, you will too!
Gifts of the Wyrd Podcast
4 months ago
– Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 01:45:28 PM
Hello,
Here is a podcast I recently recorded about When the Wolf Comes. Perfect for a lazy Sunnudagr in Þorri.
Give it a listen and a share!
Pósturinn Páll!
4 months ago
– Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 02:45:30 PM
Hello!
If you were an international backer of the physical rulebook, you should have received an email or seven about shipping. Thanks to everyone who entered into the spirit of solution finding!
Virtually everyone should have benefitted from a reduction in postage through a concatenation of carefully laid plans.
There is a modern retelling of myth to be written where Útgarða-Loki disguises the postal system as a black and white cat. That's a Postman Pat* meets Gylfaginning joke.
And so to celebrate, here is a picture of the print proof of the GM Screen.
* Broadcast in Icelandic as Pósturinn Páll, hence the title of this update. Thank me when you win your next pub quiz or game of Trivial Pursuit.
"Seven Feet of English Soil" - a postage update!
4 months ago
– Thu, Jan 25, 2024 at 10:24:31 AM
Hello!
More news:
For British and European backers*
I use Gazelle Book Services in the UK to distribute the existing novels and comics. Having exchanged emails overnight, I think there is a solution for British and European backers. Gazelle have a mechanism to move books from US into their UK HQ, and then ship using DPD which is good for large parcels.
This brings the shipping cost down to to approx. $20CAD for the UK, and approx. $50CAD for mainland Europe. It's cheaper, but it's not quicker. I'll spend some time this weekend checking in with Backers on that side of the pond by email.
For Asian and Oceania backers
I am going to make some more enquiries and see what can be done for far flung corners of the globe. Print of Demand and batch sending are on my list of things to investigate.
For Canadian backers
Yesterday afternoon's update should have everyone a little more relaxed. Homegrown Victoria BC backers have all volunteered to be press-ganged into helping. They are nice like that.
For American backers
I think you should all be good. We found and fixed one glitched account and weird postage amount yesterday night. Email me if you think otherwise.
And In General
Yesterday went about as well as Harald Hardrada's landing in 1066. (Before the battle of Stamford Bridge, his rival Harold Godwinson swore that the Norse leader would get "only seven feet of English soil" for his invasion. Because he was famously tall, you see? Harald was struck in the throat by an arrow and killed early in the battle, having worn no body armour while fighting with both hands around his sword).
In hindsight, it was obvious that the non-US shipments were crazy and I should have done the homework before contacting Backerkit. The clear message is "look before you leap (from your long ship)"!
So many apologies for the confusion, the collapse of the flanks and the general rout. Let's hope the counterattack is a little better.
If you have questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].
Fram, fram, konungsmenn!
ISS
* Blame Brexit for the extra typing
Canada Post to the (Partial) Rescue!
4 months ago
– Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 05:05:43 PM
Hello!
Having discovered the hard way that shipping anything from the US to anywhere is outrageous, I have conversed with a vísendamaðr or two and paid a trip to the local post office. Below, you can see the only printed currently copy in my hands out on a little excursion...
The good news is that, at least for Canadians, we can get the cost of shipping down considerably. The plan will be to get the rulebooks to me (in British Columbia) from the warehouse and box them up myself. That gets shipping down to around $30CAD.
This will probably be the system we apply to all international shipments, but we will have to balance cost with speed. For example, a UK-bound postage is likely to be around $75CAD airmail or $36CAD (and many moons) using regular mail. I also have to go grab a bunch of boxes and bubble wrap!
We're also looking hard at all the prices in Backerkit, to see if there are other discrepancies that have crept in or economies to be had. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve and will report back.
