Any More NaNoWriMo folks?
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 09:46:12 PM

Hi!

Just quick one here - I'm double checking to see if everyone planning to participate in the NaNoWriMo November writing event has contacted me. If you're one of those people and you haven't gotten in touch with me, then here's a friendly reminder to do so. Shoot me an email at [email protected], or Kickstarter message me!

Cheers,

Clark

More Info on Fulfillment
over 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 28, 2017 at 01:13:54 AM

Hi All!

Hope everyone is having a good Fall, and some good Halloween pre-gaming fun. I've gotten a couple of little pokes from some of you this week asking for more information, so I wanted to get in touch & update you. 

THE CARDS

While the cards are currently in production at the printer, I'm currently in the middle of sorting out shipping from the manufacturer. I'm on the cusp of having some very concrete news for you - hopefully right after the weekend. But, here's one piece of solid information I can tell you: We're on track to receive physical samples of the final proofs within a day or two of Monday, November 6th. You can definitely expect some big updates after that, with plenty of photos - and even some video, if I can manage it. Provided all looks good with those, the printer will start to get the wheels turning for shipping to our warehouse space - and those details are what I'm currently waiting on. More on that next week.

THE MINIS

Ryan is currently doing the 3D sculpting for the last mini. Kevin, our minis manufacturer, showed us a prototype of the first mini, which looked awesome, but was tiny as hell. We wanted these minis to be as functional in game play as possible, so our first call was to do them at what I guess is "classic" D&D scale. The result? Holy crap, SO effing small. So, we'll be scaling them up a bit, so you can enjoy the details more, paint them more easily, and basically, not lose them in sub-atomic space.

THE COIN

Several days ago, I saw a round of proofs from the coin manufacturer, & sent them some small revisions. I expect a second round of proofs from them any day, and then we should be good to go to print. Or press. Or whatever you call coin-making. Their turnaround time is super quick - I still expect the coins to be the first item to arrive.

THE DRAWNG CHALLENGE

A couple of you have also raised questions about that happened to the steam behind our October drawing challenge. The truth is, both my wife & I got swamped with work. Sorry about that. We loved the idea, & we loved the different challenges we had set up for it, but we got whammied with projects, work emergencies, and other drama. One of the odd paradoxes I've learned about creating a project like this is that it's very likely you will get so overwhelmed with the administrative demands of the project that you have no time left to do the creative work that continues to showcase the potential & viability of the idea. I still really believe in the RD website forums, and their potential to be great spaces for sharing ideas, works in progress, and working methods. Kelly & I will promise to get you some great new challenge material, if you promise to get in there, create a profile to log in, and start talking about what you're working on.

I'll be in touch hopefully early next week with some concrete news about the arrival of our stuff! 

Have a great weekend!

C

"Where's My Stuff?" More Info on Fulfillment
over 6 years ago – Thu, Oct 05, 2017 at 06:05:39 PM

Hi all!

Forgive my lack of dazzling visuals in this Update - I'm on a train to NYC, heading into the city for Comic Con this weekend. I'll be there doing double duty - both showing my own portfolio to art directors and editors, and also, talking up Reckless Deck to retailers.

My last update about our October Drawing (or writing) Challenge seems to have prompted an uptick in the amount of emails & messages from you guys, mostly asking me what the deal is. Though I've tried to keep you all as in the loop as possible, especially in the last couple of updates that reported notable successes in the progress department, I do have some more info now that I can share with you.

The cards are being printed as we speak. Before we could get to this point, there was a lengthy period of proofing, and then a process of prepping the files for print. The timeline going forward appears to be as follows: Printing will take an additional 2-3 weeks. Then, I proof the finished products. Provided all is well with them, I give approval, and the printers then ship all the inventory to me. Shipping will also take an additional 3 weeks or so. So, when we factor in the printing time, proofing time, and shipping time, we're looking at another 6-7 weeks before the inventory arrives.

I realize this is maybe a little longer than you may want to wait, especially given that you've waited longer already that I originally predicted when we started this process. I want you to know that Im right there with you. I'm as anxious to get the product as you are - especially with the holiday season quickly approaching. In fact, I've already stressed to my consultant, who is my line of communication to the printer, the importance of receiving the inventory before Thanksgiving. He and I are on the same page about this, and we are already making choices about how we proceed that are saving us time in order to make that happen, ad will continue to do so wherever possible, stopping short of affecting the unlit you of the products. As soon as the inventory arrives, I will begin fulfilling immediately. I have extra hands on deck for that process, and we plan to hit that as hard as we can until every last pledge and pre-order is mailed out. I definitely, definitely want you all to have your orders in your hands well ahead of Christmas.

The coin is ordered! the 3D model is currently being created from my artwork, and I should have that to see early next week. After that, it should take about 2 weeks for the coins to get to me. That makes the coins the first bit of the inventory scheduled to arrive. After that, the minis are on track to be done and available for me to pick up (since Forge Prints is local) around Halloween/first week in November. Then, if all goes well, the entirety of the cards & magnetic box inventory will be in somewhere in the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.

IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN NANOWRIMO, please message me. I know several of you were wanting your decks for this. I have a possible work-around for you that hopefully will help you use Reckless Deck for the start of this event.

I want to thank everybody for their continued enthusiasm and patience. It's definitely taken longer than we had anticipated. We lost some time over the summer dealing with problems with the foiling & gloss process, and we're feeling the effects of that now. I'm doing everything I can to pick up time wherever possible, and to continue to drive the momentum and the urgency on the printing end.

I hope you'll all consider jumping in on our October Challenge, and start posting some of your results. I'd love to see the Reckless Deck website forums start to buzz with ideas & creativity in advance of you all getting your decks.

Thanks again. I'll report back to you from NY Comic Con!

Cheers,

Clark

RD's October Creative Challenge!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2017 at 09:08:40 PM

 Hi all! 

The Reckless Deck Website Forum is now open for business, and we're breaking it in with an October drawing challenge! Getting excited to start using your Reckless Deck cards? Here's a great way to get started - and if you're participating in either MONTH OF FEAR or INKTOBER, feel free to use these prompts to help you with what you're working on with them. 

We talked a ton during the campaign about having a forum where we could keep the party rolling, and here it is. Several threads have been set up - one for daily challenges (which is where you can participate in this challenge), one for writers, one for gamers, one for critique, and one for kids/Apprentice Pack users. Go to www.recklessdeck.com, and click on FORUM in the top menu. When you go to the DAILIES thread, it will ask you to log in to comment - all you need to do is create an email login & password for yourself, and you're in! You'll be free to comment and post your work in any of the threads.

THE CHALLENGE

Here's how the challenge will work: Every Sunday, we'll post a new trio of cards on the forum. On that Sunday, the challenge is just to go for it, and make a character out of that card combo. But the challenge gets a little more twisty turny after that...

Monday: Mythology. Take the character you made on Sunday, and level them up to the status of a mythological character, or other godlike being. You can start at the drawing board again with a new character if your Sunday character isn't doing it for you - but it would be cool to see them evolve into deities from wherever they start. Feel free to add a bit of narrative about them, that tells us what that are the god or goddess of, or that their function is in the mythological world. (Wow, this is SO like the Gods and Monsters Expansion! What a coincidence...)

Tuesday: Narrative. Writers take heed! On Tuesday, we will post a piece of figure reference for for a potential character pose, and a quote or other word-prompt to build your character's story around. Again, you can keep working and developing Sunday's character, or you can create a fresh one.

Wednesday: Gender Swap. If you've been working on a female character, flip it, and show us the male version. And vice versa if you've been developing a male character. 

Thursday: Time Travel. Re-envision your character in a different era or a different genre from the one you originally created them in. And if they're not tied to a specific period or style, then put them in one! Reinvent them as the Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Arthurian Legend, or Film Noir version of themselves - or whatever version you can think of.

Friday: Flip of the Good & Evil Coin. Swap the alignment of the character you've been developing. If they've been good, make them evil. If they've been developing as an evil or villainous character, make them the good, heroic, or purified version of themselves. You can also take it a step further and make the monster-ified version of them, if you're going the evil route.

Saturday: Kingdom Come. Take the character you've been working on and develop outward - give them other surrounding characters that build their world. Show us their consort, or their enemy, or other family members. Develop their servants or masters, or their soldiers or staff. Anything that continues the visual idea you've started with and builds outward in a cohesive way.

And the whole thing starts again on Sunday with new cards! (There's already the first trio of cards posted, and the first added Tuesday narrative elements in the forum, so go take a look!) We'll be heavily sharing anything you come up with on social media (if you want that). When you post the stuff you work on yourself, be sure and tag us. So, get going, already! I'm excited to start seeing the forum fill up with exciting new work!

Good & Evil Coin Designs (& Other News)
over 6 years ago – Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 12:18:45 AM

 Hi All!

There's been a LOT of movement lately. This process is definitely accelerating, and it won't be too long before we're starting to talk about delivery and fulfillment. We crossed a major threshold today: Nerses and I fixed something minor - and it was apparently the last tweak of the proofing process! Hopefully, I'll be hearing about next steps in the next couple of days.

COIN ART

The first thing I have to show you is the final designs for the Good & Evil Coin. The coin, like the minis set, is shaping up to be considerably cooler than I thought was going to be possible at the start of this. I sent a preliminary vector file to the coin manufacturer, and they turned around a proof for me extremely quickly. I was really happy with their initial pass at it, and I had a phone conversation with them about how to give them more informative files to help them render the characters. These are the new files I sent them, which I think represent what the final product is going to look like:

Here's a look at a coin from a Kickstarter earlier this year that's the same size, color, and finish as ours that I've been using as a guide. If we can achieve the same level of detail and accuracy that I've seen in this coin vendor's previous work, this thing is going to be no joke.

It sounds like once I approve a proof, they're going to turn this thing around fast. In fact, it sounds like the coin will be the first part of our inventory to arrive. 

WEBSITE NEWS

This weekend, we put a lot of effort into completely overhauling our website! We put our application in for the 2018 TOY FAIR show in NYC, and we needed the site to reflect all the new designs & products, and to generally be looking its best as they review us & make a decision about granting us a spot in the show. We're still making changes and adjustments, but I encourage all of you to head over to www.recklessdeck.com to take a look. And it's not up and running yet, but it will have a FORUM feature, which all of you can join in order to post your work, talk about how you're using RD and what its doing for you, and to get & offer critique and response form fellow forum members. I'll be keeping you all informed as to when the forum is open for business.

I'd welcome any thoughts you guys have on how the website is working (& take a look at the Minis Contest art posted in the gallery!)

I'm sure there will be more news this week!

Clark