AMERICA: Your books are still in customs purgatory
over 3 years ago – Wed, Oct 07, 2020 at 10:00:59 AM

We've very sorry. We're doing everything we can to rectify it. Here's how things are standing:

- Your books, maps etc are all in the USA in a shipping container.

- A pallet in the container - not ours, someone else's - is made out of "non-compliant wood" which hasn't been heat-treated to kill invasive species that might be living in it.

- Wary about the east coast being overrun by pallet moths (or what have you), US Customs are deciding on whether or not they want to allow the remainder of the pallets into the country or send the whole lot back. 

- We're in contact with three different people daily trying to rectify the situation but we're largely powerless from here.

- If they let the books into the country, great - it should be a two-week process to get them to you via our US distributor. If they send them back, we'll need to restart shipping again, and at that point we'll work out a new timeline for everything. We're hoping it doesn't come to that.

It's monumentally frustrating. We're really sorry that you don't have your books yet, and that the situation hasn't advanced since we last spoke. Once we get confirmation one way or the other, we'll let you know in which direction your books are travelling. 

In positive but largely unrelated news, those of you who purchased a Heartsblood edition should have received a form asking you what kind of leather, blocking, custom text and binding you'd like on your copy. Let us know if you haven't received it and we'll sort you out.

- Grant, Chris and Mary

Book update
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 07:57:26 PM

TWO THINGS:

ONE. The books have made it to the United States. However, they're stuck in customs because something they're sharing the shipping container with has warranted a full inspection, so it'll be a little while before they're delivered on to the US distributor. We'll let you know more when we do.

TWO.  We're doing expanded digital distribution, which means: you'll have access to any PDF you got through this Kickstarter on DrivethruRPG.com. You'll receive an email with a code to redeem the products soon.

Also, if you'd like us to  add it to your account on itch.io or rowanrookanddecard.com, drop us an email ([email protected]) and we'll sort that out.

That's everything for now!

- Grant, Chris and Mary

THEY'RE ON A BOAT
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 09, 2020 at 02:02:28 PM

The books, that is. The books for America and Canada. They're on a big box, itself within a bigger box, itself on the back of a truly massive boat. All very technical stuff. 

Assuming the boat doesn't sink, we're expected to arrive in the US within the next couple of days, then we've got customs to get through, then they'll be with our regional distributor towards the end of next week.

WHICH MEANS that Americans and Canadians, or indeed anyone receiving packages there, has ONE FINAL CHANCE to change the addresses on their packages. Unprecedented stuff! If you've moved home, want to surprise a stranger with a mysterious package, or simply no longer want to receive your books then you can send an email to [email protected] and we can get our distributors to find your books and change the address printed on the parcel.

EVERYONE ELSE

You ought to have your books by now! So, if you haven't, the best way to find out more info is to send an email to [email protected], and we'll see what we can do. 

THE INEVITABLE HEART

The fantastic Go_JG has been hosting a regular game of Heart on their channel; using the Sanctum setup, our heroes (?) are the movers and shakers within the strange hive-town of Baffling Din. You can watch it from Session Zero here or watch it fortnightly on Twitch.

Right, that's all. We'll let you know more when we know it.

- Grant, Chris and Mary

Shipping and sending your packages
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 10:49:11 PM

A lot of work has been happening behind the scenes to get things packed, sorted and shipped. Some updates!

US and Canada backers

Folks, if you're in the US or Canada, we're really sorry, but there will be a bit of a longer wait for your parcels than we'd hoped. Due to Covid-related delays, our boat full of books is now sailing in early September, rather than mid August; once again it means a bit of a lag for your parcels to go out. This does have a couple of up sides: on one hand, we can take address changes now up until the boat lands and the books come through customs, as we can intercept the parcels to redirect them before they go out. And it means we have a couple of weeks to see what happens with the US postal service, which seems to be experiencing a lot of 2020 at the moment. Depending on how that situation evolves, we may opt for a different postal service once everything is on the right continent.

Posters, EU and Rest of World backers

- We made the decision to ship posters separately, in tubes, hopefully to minimise damage - so if your order included an art print, it's coming on its own as a separate parcel, and those should be shipping out worldwide today or tomorrow.

- UK backers should have your parcels now, or at least they should be on their way. 

- EU backers, your parcels mostly went out yesterday; they should be shipping by the end of the week

- And everyone else, your parcels should also be shipping by the end of the week. Most parcels have tracking information, but there are a few which were particularly weighty and therefore we struggled to get tracked services for.

As ever, if you're concerned about the whereabouts of your parcel, or it arrives damaged, please let us know so we can make it right.

Heartsblood Editions and original ink drawings

Wyvern has been hard at work on the Heartsblood editions, and has sent over some pictures of the blocking and foiling tests on the leather we purchased about 7,500 years ago, back when things were vaguely normal. We're particularly happy with how the blind blocking looks on the green leather, which was chosen specifically because it darkens when bent or heated. 

Jules and Kari at Wyvern are now making up a dummy copy to show us how the internals will work - we're trying out an open binding, which will mean you can see the stitching on the inside of the spine, and will mean the book lies flat when it's opened, making it more feasible to actually use the Heartsblood Edition at the gaming table. Once that's done and we can hold it in our hot little hands, we'll confirm the full order with them and update you on the timeline for that too.

If you backed at a level that included both a Heartsblood edition and one of Felix's original ink artworks, our current plan is to send both to you together at the same time - but if you'd rather get your art first, get in touch and let us know. If your pledge just included an art piece but no Heartsblood, we'll pop those in the post once we get back from holiday on the 22nd.

(Oh yeah - we're going on holiday for a week, now that everything is in the capable hands of our distributors. We're going to go for lots of bracing walks. The thought of being somewhere other than East London is staggering.)

Director's Commentary

We're nearly done on recording the supplementary behind-the-scenes audio for the Heart corebook (we're currently halfway through Adversaries); once that's done, we'll record an episode for each of the four sourcebooks and then interview Felix about the art and Mary about the business for an episode each. THEN we can edit it together, which takes longer than we'd like, but here we are. We're not sure how we're going to distribute it - all at once, in a podcast format, both, neither - but it should be done around the end of September.

That's all for now; more news when we have it.

Cheers,

- Grant, Chris and Mary

Shipping update
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 10:37:06 PM

SHIPPING HAS STARTED, WILL BE IN STAGES  

Hoorah: shipping has begun! If you're in the UK, you can expect your parcel to reach you in the next few days. US and Canadian folks, your books will be getting on a boat late next week, and we'll update you again once they've cleared customs and our distributors on that side of the Atlantic are ready to send them on - most likely in the third week of August. EU and the rest of the world are being packed early next week and will ship out as soon as they're packed, so they should be with you within 2-3 weeks if you're in the EU, and before the end of August for the rest of the world.   

If you're not sure exactly what's going on with your parcel, you're worried it's missing or it arrives damaged, please drop us a line at [email protected], and as ever we will do our best to make it right. And please let us know when your books land - we're keen to see them out in the wild!  

HEARTSBLOOD PROGRESS  

Felix has delivered his final batch of art for the cover of the leather-bound limited Heartsblood edition, and Wyvern, the binders, have come back from their furlough and are starting to ramp up production. The art went off to be made into plates this week, and the next step is the creation of a test copy with black leather and hand-made marbled end-papers by Jemma Lewis [https://www.jemmamarbling.com/]. We'll post pictures for you once it's finished, and let you know the next steps and a rough timeline for when you can expect the luxury version to get to you. In the mean time, we're sending all of the Heartsblood parcels with a free copy of the core book, so you don't have to miss out while you wait.

- Mary