Topic: Ref Book Crowdfunding Campaign - Fourth Try!
Notice 1: IndieGoGo requires payment up front when you make your pledge and this cannot be easily altered. Be very sure before you hit that payment button. Any refund requests will be minus the IndieGoGo/Paypal fee charged before LotFP ever sees any money.
Notice 2: This campaign is set up very differently than most crowdfunding campaigns. Read the descriptions carefully. If you have any questions, please drop a line to lotfp@lotfp.com or leave a comment at the tab above before laying down your cash.
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WHAT IS LOTFP?
Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a tabletop RPG company based out of Helsinki Finland, and Weird Fantasy Role-Playing is a horror/fantasy/adventure RPG. It is wildly imaginative and uncompromising, with top notch production values, striking art and a heavy metal attitude.
You can download a free version of the core rules without the artwork here and check out the guts of LotFP yourself, and you can download a fully illustrated 180 page LotFP adventure at no charge here.
You can see a gallery of previously published art (and even some art that will be included in the Ref book this campaign is funding!) here. Not safe for work.
WHAT'S THIS CAMPAIGN FOR?
The previous edition of LotFP (the "Grindhouse Edition") is just about sold out. We're out of copies at the LotFP headquarters, and there are few copies left in distribution. We need the core in print.
The Rules & Magic book (basically the player book) has been printed and is on sale from the LotFP webshop in Finland, but the Ref book has not yet been. We could go to press right now effectively reprinting the Grindhouse Ref book as a hardcover, but that's not good enough. It needs the professional layout and presentation to match the Rules & Magic book. And it could use some new art, additional editorial input, and all the great things that money can buy but that small publishers have problems financing out of pocket since they're not essential to the production of a book for it to still turn out pretty good.
So we here at LotFP hope you help to finance all of that and make this Ref book one that will both completely bury the previous editions of the book and be impressive enough to attract legions of new fans!
I ALREADY OWN A PREVIOUS EDITION OF THE REF BOOK, WHY DO I NEED THIS NEW ONE?
It'll be in hardcover. More durable, more impressive. It will have fresh editing. It will have a professional layout to match the new Rules & Magic book.
It will also have expanded content. LotFP is a living, growing game and so the advice in the book needs to be updated. But it will not replace the old advice, rather it will be presented alongside the previous advice in the book to highlight the fact that there is no one right way to play the game.
It will have a new introductory adventure, Lost Inn Space.
I will have a brand new section with tons of crunchy play aids, including a brand new creature generator (specializing in extra-dimensional mockeries of reality) with an expanded roster of sample monsters (but still no official game bestiary!), adventure generators, and all sorts of (hopefully) useful charts and tables to make adventure creation easier that will ensure that you keep this Ref book at hand when preparing your next session.
WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT "This campaign is set up very differently than most crowdfunding campaigns"?
We're doing two things differently than traditional crowdfunding campaigns:
First, the Levels 3 - 5 Perks DO NOT INCLUDE SHIPPING COSTS.
What will happen is when the book is ready, you will receive a coupon code for the value of the Ref book (or two), and you will purchase it from the LotFP Webstore, paying the regular shipping costs at that time (and adding whatever other items you wish at the time).
Many crowdfunding campaigns, even ones that are on schedule, either wind up producing larger books than originally planned (which should be a good thing for everyone, right?) or the post office raises their rates between the time the campaign ends and fulfillment begins. It has turned seemingly profitable crowdfunding campaigns into a grinder that causes the loss of thousands of dollars.
The estimated weight that this Ref book will be is 500g. Economy shipping for a 500g book would be 7,50€ according to current rates. 1000g for the 2-book perk would be 10,00€ to EU addresses and 12,50€ to non-EU addresses. But the book may be bigger. Or smaller.
But to the customer's advantage here, the extras will be added to those shipments at no added charge. (If you're pledging at Level 1 or 2 and therefore not getting a physical Ref book, and you want some of the extras, you need to add 4€ for shipping to your pledge.) And if we load up on stretch goals increasing the retail price of the book, Perk Levels 3-5 still get you the voucher for the full price based on your backing of the project here.
And then we can just add the value of any Stretch Goal Adventures to the voucher, and as each of those books is estimated to weigh about 75g, that would result in no increased shipping cost if just one stretch goal adventure is funded (and just a 2,50€ increase for non-EU residents if more than one stretch goal adventure is funded).
But again, those are all according to current postage rates, which may change at any time and we don't get much advance notice, and that's why we're not just adding 7,50€ to the cost of the perk levels and calling shipping costs covered.
Second, the price of Extras will only count 50% towards stretch goals!
Extra bits and stretch goals have also been a frequent financial killer of "successful" crowdfunding campaigns.
Publishers want to give you lots of cool stuff and extra tidbits. We really do. But this stuff costs money to produce. If you're running a campaign and you say the stretch goal for the next big improvement to the book is 2000€, and you get there because people bought 200 10€ fiddlydoos, and those fiddlydoos cost 5€ to produce... congratulations, you're on the hook for both the stretch goal improvements and the fiddlydoos, and you're down 1000€ out of pocket.
But I still want to offer stretch goals, and I still want to offer fiddlydoos. So every day, I will post what the "Stretch Goal Total" is, which will be what we use to determine when stretch goals are reached. (People running crowdfunding campaigns stare obsessively at their campaign page anyway, so this will not be any big deal.)
(This does mean that when the basic 5000€ goal is reached, the first stretch goal will be a bit inflated to account for the fact that the extras are counting 100% towards the base 5000€ goal.)
And that's how LotFP is going to attempt to run a fiscally responsible crowdfunding campaign where all the money goes where it's supposed to go and you get the best frickin' book possible and nobody goes broke delivering it.
EXTRAS
Each of these extra items may be added to your pledge. You may add multiples of each item if you wish. These prices already include shipping costs for Level 3 perks and higher. If you pledge at Level 1 or Level 2, add 4€ for shipping.
These items are exclusive to this crowdfunding campaign. While there may be extras of any particular item after your rewards have all been mailed out, they will only be sold in person at conventions, never online. (Do note that the Retail option allows participating retailers to get some of these "exclusive" items so they may show up elsewhere after the campaign.)
15,50€ T-Shirt
White LotFP logo by Lord of the Logos Christophe Szpajdel (responsible for Emperor and Wolves in the Throne Room logos among many hundreds of others) on a black shirt. Sizes Ladies' S-XL, Mens' S-XXXXL. Printed on preshrunk 100% cotton Gildan Heavy Cotton shirts. (add 3€ for sizes XXL and above).12,50€ 12-Dice Set
Opaque red dice with white numbering, perfect for every chart or rule found in the game:
1x d4
1x d6 (numbers)
3x d6 (pips with a Dead Sign in the 1 spot)
1x d8
1x d10 (0-9)
1x d10 (00-90)
1x d10 (000-900)
1x d12
1x d20
1x d3020€ Slipcase
A nice thick 1.8mm full color slipcase designed to hold this Referee hardcover and the Rules & Magic hardcover (which is not included in this campaign, but is available for purchase here). This extra includes JUST the slipcase, not any books inside!12€ Thulian Echoes Print + PDF
Zzarchov Kowolski (Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess, The Gnomes of Levnec, A Thousand Dead Babies) is helping out by letting LotFP release his new adventure. The print version will be exclusive to this campaign. Zzarchov of course gets a cut of every purchase of Thulian Echoes. (This is not a "Stretch Goal Adventure" and is only included if you add this extra to your pledge.)10€ LotFP Note Pad
48 page, A5-sized note pad (with cover artwork by Satine Phoenix!). The book has graph paper on one side of each page spread and hex paper on the other - perfect for your mini One Page Dungeons and Wilderness or general notetaking needs. (Gardening Society members get one of these free if they contribute at the Level 3 or more.)
STRETCH GOALS
Once a goal is reached, backers will receive an email to vote on what the next stretch goal should be. Backers will have 24 hours to respond, and then the results will be announced.
Possible stretch goals:
2700€ Full Color Layout
The layout will be in full color. (Note this does not mean all illustrations will be in color.)2600€ Indexes
A comprehensive index covering both this new Ref book and the Rules & Magic hardcover will be in this book.4273€ Developmental Editing
The Ref book is going to be one part advice and procedures, one part game tools, one part inspiration, plus intro material for new Refs. To help everything flow more smoothly and to help keep a unified tone, Joshua Yearsley (Nova Praxis) will be brought on board with this stretch goal.2200€ Color Section
A 4 page insert with full color art, like the one that appears in the Rules & Magic book, will be part of the Referee book.This goal may be reached multiple times.
3000€ Module Reprint
Older, out of print adventures need to be reprinted. Reaching this goal will get one of the following adventures reprinted: Tower of the Stargazer, Death Frost Doom, The Grinding Gear, Hammers of the God. The value of the adventure will be added to the LotFP store voucher backers received so you get it for just the cost of added shipping if the goal is reached. This goal may be reached 4 times, once for each adventure. Tower of the Stargazer will have to be first because of its "intro" focus (and more beginner and learning material on store shelves is always good), and after that backers will vote on which adventure gets reprinted next as the stretch goal is met.
Note: Certain estimates about how long the book will be were factored into some of these stretch goal costs and even in estimating the base costs of the book and campaign. Should we not reach the largest possible wordcount, some of these costs will be (much) less than what is listed. But we won't know until after the campaign is over. Which means that when such costs are finalized there is a chance that new stretch goals could be funded long after the campaign has ended just by updating the accounting!
RETAIL PACKAGE INFO
270€ gets you 20 standard Referee books (with the bookmark ribbons) at a 50% discount, shipping included - the standard LotFP direct retail discount at 20 units ordered. You get 2 more standard Ref books for every additional 27€ you pledge. In addition:
You may substitute 3 standard Ref books for 2 of the limited edition cover version.
You may substitute 1 standard Ref book for 1 of the Slipcases (just the slipcases, no books in them).
You may substitute 3 standard Ref books for 4 Rules & Magic hardcovers.
You may substitute 1 standard Ref book for 2 print copies of Thulian Echoes.
Email lotfp@lotfp.com before making your pledge to make sure we're exactly on the same page as far as what you'll be getting.
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