SHARD Release Progress

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    • Greetings indeed!

      And great news, folks... The files, as of last week, are finally in the printer's hands and the process of getting our stuff out there for you has at last begun!

      While waiting for the printing process itself to be complete, and waiting for our first products to be shipped back to us, I'll be busily preparing the PDFs that will be available for purchase online, and soon updating our website to include such offerings in our online store! There will eventually be links there that will direct folks to our products at Studio 2 (our publisher) where they can be purchased, pre-orders made for the hardcover books and other supplements themselves (like the Convenience Pack and the Game Master Screen), and even a link to Cafe Press where our newly-completed, highly-detailed World Map of Dárdünah (and perhaps more fun stuff, eventually) will soon be made available to everyone.

      Thanks again so much for your patience and continued excitement...

      Stay tuned for more!

      Scottie ^^
    • Great news indeed, Scott. Well done to yourself, Aaron, and everyone else involved in bringing the game to fruition. I'm so glad this will be a physical product rather than something POD via Lulu as foreign P&P via Lulu is insanely expensive these days.

      I look forward to the actual release and all the other goodies you have planned, such as that Convenience Pack you mention (what will that contain, for example).

      cheers!
      Colin
      RPG Freelancer: All Flesh Must Be Eaten, A|State, Atlantis: The Second Age, Castles & Crusades, Godlike, Hellas, Hollow Earth Expedition, Iron Kingdoms d20, Omni System, Talislanta, Waste World, Wild Talents, etc.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Colin Chapman ().

    • Thanks Colin!

      Yeah, Lulu is great for doing individual books for prototypes and demonstrations and such,...but when you're dealing with full-color, full-bleed, hardcover books like ours,..they just aren't cost effective for mass production...

      The Convenience Pack will contain multiple nice prints of all the stuff you don't want to have to rip out of the back of the Basic Compendium, or waste ink/time/money on printing yourself; all the essential sheets for playing the game like Character Sheets, Combat Tracking and reference sheets, NPC creation sheets with over 100 unique names, blank Animal Templates, a full-color glossy print of the Jade Calendar, as well as an 11"x17" map of Dárdünah and much more!

      Fun stuff!

      Scottie ^^
    • The torment! The pain! The agony of waiting! Aiee! My fingers are bleeding stumps from being chewed upon! My pate now bald from anxious waiting! Must... have... Shard... :gibber:
      RPG Freelancer: All Flesh Must Be Eaten, A|State, Atlantis: The Second Age, Castles & Crusades, Godlike, Hellas, Hollow Earth Expedition, Iron Kingdoms d20, Omni System, Talislanta, Waste World, Wild Talents, etc.
    • Hey guys, new here, but I can't wait to get my hands on the books. The welcome book is great and I really dig the artwork. I also can't wait to run some of the people at the local store through the intro adventure!
      "I am become death...the destroyer of worlds."
      J. Robert Oppenheimer
      Father of the Atomic Bomb

      The post was edited 2 times, last by apelord ().

    • Hello there!

      Welcome apelord!

      I responed in the Introductions section as well, but I figured I'd also answer Drohem's question about where exactly we're at in the final timeline before our product actually hits the shelves....

      Aaron mentioned to me that he was attempting to take an educated guess about when this first round of published materials would be hitting the shelves, so I figured I'd make the calls necessary to get a clearer time-line for everyone as well as provide a sharper understanding of how this whole process will unfold...

      The way I have been assured that this process will go, by our printer (EOS Press), is that the whole printing process (started around March 4th) will last till about the end of March. At that point our finished product will be placed on a freighter and will begin a 7-week ocean journey till it arrives at its port of call here in the USA. Once it arrives (hopefully about the 20th of May), it will need to go through Customs, which could take up to a week. This means that it may be the end of May before it finally gets on the truck that will carry it to our publisher's (Studio 2) warehouse, where it will immediately go into circulation to retailers and distributors across the world...

      When will you be able to order the SHARD RPG products, or otherwise get your hands on them?

      Well,...the good news is that, halfway through its oceanic journey (around April 24th or so), we will be presented with a "Bill of Lading" which will prepare us to receive the product in the port of call upon its arrival. This will also be a sign that the product is about 30 days away from hitting our shores... At this time our publisher will create a SHARD RPG presence on its website, enabling retailers, distributors, and the public in general to make "pre-orders" of our product in anticipation of it arrival... This means that possibly as soon as the end of April you'll be able to order SHARD products directly from Studio 2's site (with direct links from our site, of course), and by then you may even be able to order the really cool World Map of Dárdünah directly from Cafe Press and get it within a few days!!!

      Additionally, as Aaron mentioned, we'll be attending conventions like Origins, Gen Con, and Dragon Con with actual product to sell in our hot little hands!

      Our product for this first publish run will be:
      ...The Basic Compendium (core rules and fiction)
      ...a Convenience Pack (multiple data sheets, character sheets, and other fun playing aids that you'd rather not have to tear out of the book)
      ...the Gamemaster Screen (an artful, table-laden divider between the crafty GM and players)
      ...and finally, a World Map (chock full of even more beautiful detail than the simple map contained either in the basic book OR the Convenience Pack)

      It really is going to be an amazing year for us,...and we just can't wait to see how all of you like it... With a passion like we have had for SHARD over its many years of creation, sharing that passion with the rest of the world is something we are incredibly excited about...

      Take care,...and wish us luck!

      Scottie ^^
    • Hey there! Sorry for the later-than-anticipated response... According to our printer (EOS Press), even though there were some delays starting the printing process, those delays have been made up for by them making arrangements to insure that the shipping time has been decreased by an equal amount!

      The result of this is that, though they are still in the process of printing, we are still set to receive all our product by the end of May, which means it will be hitting standard distribution and circulation at the beginning of June as anticipated...with the potential for being able to pre-order by the beginning to the middle of May...

      We'll be on our way to GAMA trade show soon, where we'll have a chance to speak to our printer face-to-face about the progress, and where we'll also be able to schedule out when the Studio 2 site (of our publisher) will have our page ready to receive pre-orders from the public, at which time we'll mirror access to this feature on our own site...

      So far,...things still seem to be going smoothly!

      Scottie ^^
    • Thanks! And there may be more reorganization and additions as well once we really have the chance to sit down and start deleting old download stuff, adding up-to-date new stuff, and generally start discussing current progress and luck we are having at the many shows we'll be attending over the next six months...

      It's gonna be a wild ride!

      Scottie ^^
    • I hear you, man! I too and chomping at the bit for the final, real-life, book-in-the-hand-is-worth-two-in-pdf-format final release of this magnificent project. I first played Dardunah in 1993 in Aaron's apartment with Jeff Dee of old AD&D "contributing artist" fame and with Scott Jones and a gang of other unsuspecting role-players who I think at the time had NO IDEA what a mammoth work of love and creativity this would finally turn out to be! I remember the earliest incarnations when we used the Hero system to build our Janah and the utterly fantastic world that was woven in a tiny dining room in a two bedroom college apartment. I remember the sheer scope and grandeur of of House Arhidasa and the terror of the Isvar of Suffering, Adhitumuus. I went through characters like cards at a MtG game. But I loved the adventure still. I loved the so-rich-you-can-smell-feel-and-taste-it experience that is roleplaying in Shard. I can't wait for this to come to the world. I look forward to meeting many friends in the future and hearing of the fantastic sagas of their struggle. I think I'll go write a module!
      "Daggra" means "Enemy" in Tibetan.
      "Chora" means "Thief" in Sanskrit.