I was encouraged by Fred Hicks to write up this post as a cautionary tale for anyone who’s in the business of Kickstarting something. I nearly had a part of the School Daze project go horribly sideways, and it’s only through the convergence of awesome people that I was able to make sure nothing went wrong.

The Devil’s in the Details

When I first decided to do custom dice as a stretch goal for the School Daze Kickstarter, I did so after having done what I thought was careful research on the Chessex Custom Dice page. I was going to make dice that said SUCCESS! on the 5 and the 6, and I’d even made the template up in a nifty, school-like font. See?

I thought they looked pretty cool, and was happy when the stretch goal got hit.

A couple of days ago, I went back to the Chessex site to place the order. Now, their site isn’t the most advanced thing in the world, and it turns out that I had to send an email to place the order. But first, I thought I should check and see if what I wanted done could be done.

Mistake #1: I assumed that I would have no problems, and set my stretch goal without checking into things first.

If I’d check earlier, I’d have found out that Chessex has dice where they can customize either the 1 or the 6, but not just the 5 and 6. Customizing the 5 and 6 means that the other four sides have to have pips or numbers engraved as well, and those engravings count at “custom” sides.

Well, balls.

I thought about what to do, and my options were as such:

• Abandon the custom dice idea entirely (lame)
• Get dice with the two custom faces that were blank on the rest of the sides (also lame)
• Look at another vendor for the dice (did so, but couldn’t get the dice colors I wanted)
• Order the dice with 6 “custom” sides, but only get two actual custom sides (double-lame and expensive)

To give you an idea about that last point, I had projected I was going to order 200 dice, with two custom sides, at $1/die. That means a total expenditure of $200 + shipping. Doable. I even set up a get-a-book-and-dice tier for an extra $10 on the Kickstarter. But, to get 200 dice with all six custom sides, the price (as you might imagine) triples. $600 + shipping, and only two sides would really be custom.

Here’s Where I Got Lucky

First, I checked the Sand & Steam Productions finances. Due to some other factors (lower than expected printing costs for the books [yes, I did get a quote for those] and the Kickstarter going way better than expected), I had some extra money. Enough, in fact, to cover the all-custom-sides dice. The thing is, paying for six custom sides, but only getting two custom patterns? Lame, as stated above.

Second, I’ve got an artist basically on retainer. Brian (yeah, that Brian) is doing my art, and when I floated him the idea of doing a dice pattern, he agreed that it was within the contract we had signed (which was awesome of him). I gave him my idea, and he whipped something up. This, in fact:

Yeah, that’s sweet.

I talked to Chessex again, and sent them the details. The next day (yes, the very next day) they sent my pictures of the prototype they made of the dice. Feast your eyes:

I’m thrilled, stunned, amazed, and many other superlatives, at how these dice turned out. I don’t know that I could be happier. People are responding well to them, including the folks over on reddit, which is gratifying. However, this entire thing could easily have been way less awesome.

If I hadn’t had the extra funds to be able to afford these much more expensive dice, I’d be boned.

If I didn’t have a great working relationship with my artist, who was flexible enough to add the die design to his schedule on super-short notice, I’d be boned.

The Moral

If you’re going to offer something as a reward, make bloody-well sure that you can actually follow through! I. Got. Lucky. If not for the combination of the above factors, this entire portion of the project could have slid sideways in a very uncomfortable manner. I don’t want to count on such good luck again. That’s bad business. Learn from my mistake. Ask before you offer something. Double- and triple-check to make sure you can get what you want, how you want it, and for a price you can afford. Small businesses can only afford so many bad decisions. The number they can afford hovers dangerously close to zero, so be more wary than I was.

The Other Side

On a super-positive note, thing did turn out awesomely for me. I’ve got awesome dice coming that I can give to the backers that earned them. As well, if there’s a demand (and it looks like there might be) I’ll be doing pre-orders sometime in the not-too-distant future so these dice will be for sale to the general public. That’s a cool outcome for what could have be a really bad scene.

~Tracy

Hey all. I’ve been busy working on getting School Daze going, and I’ve got good news: apart from two character descriptions from two backers, all the words for School Daze are ready to go. That means the book will be going into layout very soon, which excites me quite a bit. Though I know that the writing of the game is good, and it’s an actual game and everything, somehow having someone else work on the presentation makes it that much more real. I can’t wait to see the final layout.

As well, I’m going to be running a lot of School Daze this summer. The first convention at which I’ll be showing off the game is Origins 2012, in Columbus, OH (May 30 – June 3). I’ll be spending a lot of time in Games on Demand, and I’ll primarily be running School Daze, though I’m down for Lady Blackbird, Fiasco, Misspent Youth, or Savage Worlds stuff as well.

My Origins Schedule

Wednesday: Open

Thursday: Games on Demand: 2pm – 6pm and 8pm – 12am

Friday: Social Media and Gaming seminar: 1pm – 2pm, Games on Demand: 2pm – 6pm and 8pm – 12pm

Saturday: Designing in Public seminar: 1pm – 2pm, Games on Demand: 2pm – 6pm

Sunday: Open

I wanted to make sure that I gave myself enough open time to spend hanging out with folks and playing random games, and I think I’ve done that. I love Origins as a show to hang out with awesome people and play awesome games. It also helps that it’s a local convention for me, so there’s no travel time for me to worry about.

Now I just need to work on my elevator pitch for School Daze.

I wrapped up the writing of the History of Trowbridge High, the list of the Teachers and Administrative Staff, and the four alternate settings. The words are in the capable hands of my editor even as I type this. Once she has them edited, then it’s off to layout, and we’re that much closer to seeing School Daze as an actual factual product.

As with all parts of this project, these last weeks have been interesting. Here’s a rundown of what has gone on thus far:

• Quoted out a new logo for the website, to say Sand & Steam Productions. Also, new business cards.
• Got my Vendor’s License, and sent off the paperwork for Sand & Steam Productions to become an LLC
• Wrote over 6,000 words for the History of Trowbridge High, staff, etc as mentioned above
• Sent off the pattern for the custom dice bags to Dragon Chow so production could begin on them
• Got a quote back for the printing of the physical books, and was pleased with the result (at least $3 less than expected)
• Set up a system to track my expenditures so I know where my money is going
• Sourced a bunch of stuff for the Back-to-School Kits for the two folks that bought them

And all of that is in addition to the time I spent working to secure myself a job following student teaching. It has been a good set of weeks, that’s for sure. A lot has gotten done, but that much more is waiting in the wings. Once the words for School Daze are edited, I’ll be posting them here for free, like with the playtest documents. Then, it’s all in the hands of other capable people.

I’m very excited to see what wonderfulness comes from the layout and the art. I’m confident about the words that are going into the book, but having Daniel Solis and Brian Patterson bringing them to life? Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Warning: This is a long one.

We made it! I honestly don’t remember another set of thirty-four consecutive days that has felt as long as these past thirty-four have felt. The process of running the Kickstarter for School Daze has been a unique one, filled with ups, downs, and even a few sideways moves, most of them internal, and not reflected in my actions, or the Kickstarter. But before we dive into the personal side of things, let’s take a look at the numbers.

Note: If you want info on getting in on the dice I offered as a late tier, then you need to head to the bottom of this post.

Numbers Never Lie

Oooo... Numbers

Those are the plain, bare facts. In 34 days, the Kickstarter raised $6,640 thanks to 159 backers. That’s a fantastic set of numbers. I especially like the 214% funded bit. The project raised well over twice what I needed, which is amazing in my view. I mean, this was my first project. I thought it would succeed (why start it, otherwise?), but I didn’t know how far it would go. Now, I know. That far.

Progress graph. Click to enlarge.

There are some interesting things that can be gleaned from this handy graph. First, this thing got funded fast. I mean really fast. The speed at which the project hit $3,000 left me stunned. It happened before the 48 hour mark had elapsed. That was stunning. From there, things changed. The funding moved along, gaining some funds, and eventually passing what ended up being the first stretch goal mark of $4,500. Then it… varied. You can see it there, about 2/3 of the way down the line. It went down, then up, then down, then up. Lastly that jump at the end came from the last days of funding and the flurry of pledges that tend to come in right at the end.

Everyone Likes Pie!

This pie chart is the lead-in to the actual sources of the funding. As well, it give the first look at what people were giving, on average. As you can see, it’s a near-perfect 2/3 to 1/3 split between outside referrers and people finding the project through Kickstarter. Given the exposure that I was able to get for the project, I don’t find that surprising. What I do find surprising is the average amount pledged. However, there’s a better way to look at that later. For now, let’s concentrate on the sources of funding in more detail.

So, Where're You From?

Unsurprisingly, Twitter was my primary source of funding. I’ve worked to create a network of awesome people for myself there, and frankly, I suspect that most of the Twitter pledges came from people I already know. And that’s pretty cool. Twitter is an important social resource for me. It’s part of my social support structure, and it’s happy-making to see my friends support me in this. I’m surprised to see the percentage of people that found the project through Kickstarter itself. That’s both cool and not. It’s cool because it shows the power of Kickstarter as a platform. However, there’s no way to manage that avenue. Most of the other sources of funding are such because I worked to put a message out there. Still, there are ways of getting info around, and you can’t control them all, so it’s no worry to me. As a note, there’s also one pledge that came in from my interview with Red Eye Chicago, but it didn’t fit on the page when I screen-capped the image.

Histograms Are the Only Thing I Remember From Into Stats

This lovely piece of data may be of the most interest to people looking to do their own Kickstarters. The $20 reward was far and a way the most popular, followed by the $10 PDF-only tier, then the $75 signed-copy tier. This is in line with the statistics I saw before I started this project. In fact, seeing that kind of information directly informed how I set up my own tiers. What’s interesting is, as we saw above, the average pledge was over $40. The $75 and $50 tiers certainly swayed that, which is to be expected since those tier and higher were the ones that got extra juice from the first stretch goal. Still, average of over $40 per backer is really solid.

The Personal Side

This entire process was a roller-coaster for me. There are no graphs to describe it, but I can attest to the swings that happened. If you want a rough idea, then take a look at the funding graph. That initial push had me elated. I didn’t know what to do with myself after the project was funded. I felt like I poured so much into the promotion of the project in the beginning. When it was funded I think I actually asked my computer monitor “you mean I’ve got 32 more days of this?”

There were two real emotional body-blows that I had to deal with as well. The first came when the project hit the $4,500 stretch goal. As soon as $4,500 hit, indeed, as I was typing up the update to let everyone know, a backer pulled out, dropping the total back down. Then, someone pushed it back up. Then another person lowered their pledge. That yo-yo action around the $4,500 mark continued for a week or more. That was difficult to deal with. I second-guessed everything, from what I’d chosen for the stretch goals, to what I said about the project. I didn’t help that my work situation has seen me off of Twitter for the bulk of my workday, so when I did tweet before work and after, it felt like I was doing nothing but talking about School Daze, which is far from cool.

It even got to the point where I lowered the goal for the second unlockable because I wanted to see the Trowbridge Student Guide become reality so badly, and it didn’t seem like the funding was going to get there. That fluctuation messed with me. I’ve since found out that such things are relatively normal. People’s financial situations change, and monies need to be re-allocated. So it’s no big deal, but it’s something of which I need to be aware if I do this again.

Misinformation

The second really big curveball came in the form of a lie. I won’t go into all of it here because I covered it in decent detail on the Kickstarter page here, and here. When I found out the lie of the story of the kids donating their pledge money to a fellow student whose house had burned down, I knew one thing with perfect clarity: I needed to get in front of it, and I needed to do it as fast I could. Kickstarter, especially for small projects like School Daze, is built on social capital. I’ll be honest, I considered just letting things stay as they were. But that made my stomach sour. I decided that I couldn’t go on with the project without making the truth clear. To that end, I recorded the above-linked video, and adjusted the stretch goal to reflect my actual intentions.

In the end, that entire situation worked out for the best. The project ended up far exceeding my expectations, and I got a lot of reinforcement that I handled it in the right way. What’s interesting is this: I’m not thinking about changing the way in which I deal with people in situations like this. I will always work with people from the presumption that they are dealing in good faith. I’m sure that I’ll get burned, but I can’t afford the hit to my worldview that would occur if I treated everyone with skepticism. That doesn’t mean that I won’t work to make informed decisions. What it means is, as a dear friend taught me: “This, too, is for the good.”

Forward Motion

So, the funding is done. Now, the hard work begins. I learned a lot from this process, but I still have a game book to work on making. I have dice and dice bags to commission, I have art and layouts to approve, I have words to write, and I have money to spend to see all of it done and done properly. One thing is for sure: I will be doing a Kickstarter for me next project. There is no way I could be where I am now with School Daze if not for Kickstarter. It reaffirmed so many positive things for me that I couldn’t imagine not going that route.

A Word About the Dice

If you didn’t notice, right near the end of the School Daze funding, I added a $30 tier that got backers both the print book, and a set of four custom dice, the same dice that all tiers $50 and above will get because the first stretch goal was met. It occurred to me that more people might want the dice, so I added that option in the 11th hour.

Now, since it was added late, I figured that not everyone got a chance. So, here’s the deal: If you PayPal me using this linked email address $10 by April 14, I will ship you the four dice. Doesn’t matter if you’re a backer or not. I’ll be placing the order for the dice right around April 16, so I have to have the funds prior to then. These dice are going to be ordered in as large of a quantity as I can get because that lowers the cost. So, if you want dice, hit the above link and make sure you tell me that it’s for dice!

Wrapping Up

This has been an amazing, wonderful, scary, delightful process. I want to take a moment and thank everyone who backed the project, my design team, and all of the lovely people on Twitter who helped me with information about starting a business and running a Kickstarter. Without all of you, this would have never had a chance of working out. I’m providing the ambition, but you all are making it possible for that ambition to amount to anything.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some celebrating to do. If you think I missed or glossed over anything, or if you have questions, hit the comments.

Now that I have that song stuck in your head, let me excitedly inform you that this week is the last week of the Kickstarter for School Daze. I’ve been working to figure out how to continually promote this Kickstarter, and I think I might have over-done things on Twitter, and such, so I’ve been holding off on pushing things. However, this is the last week, and I would dearly love to see the funding hit the 7k mark.

I’ve Never Been This Way Before

Other than talking about the Kickstarter, the other thing that I’ve done a lot online is remind people that I’m new to all of this. And, it’s true. I’m sure that I’ve made missteps along the way, and that if I had done things properly, the Kickstarter would be doing even better now. However, no matter the second-guessing that I could be doing right now, I’m thrilled with where things are at. Would I be even more thrilled if we reach the 7k mark or higher? You bet your sweet boots, I would. But none of that changes what we’ve already accomplished here.

School Daze is going to get published. The rest is just tasty, tasty gravy.

Hoping Against Hope, and Wishing Against Wish

Tasty gravy is tasty. I would love to hand you guys the main course of School Daze, and have it slathered with a huge, molten pile of the Trowbridge High Student Handbook. I want to see you guys play with what I’ve made, and see where you take the games that are set both in “normal Trowbridge,” and in the alternate settings the Student Guide will present.

That won’t happen unless we hit 7k, though.

This is the week, and I hope very dearly that we will get to see that happen. It would take this already magical experience, and turn the volume up to eleven on it. There will be clowns, dancing bears, and fire-eating circus midgets. We will see fireworks in the sky, and young couples holding hands as they walk along explosion-lit beaches. It will be Christmas, New Year’s, and Crazy Larry’s Semi-Annual Halloween Party, all wrapped up into one giant ball of awesome.

Sure, all of that will be in my head, but you will be the one to make it happen.

So go do it.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. Student teaching will do that to you. If you get a chance sometime soon, thank a teacher for what they do. It will appreciated, trust me.

The reason for my post today is because I’ve uploaded all of my recorded School Daze sessions to be part of the Actual Play category over at The Gamer’s Haven. Ethan, Nathan, and Jeremy (as well as the rest of the crew over at GH) are good friends, and the session audio for all of my other games and campaigns gets posted at The Gamer’s Haven, so I figured why not School Daze?

Due to lack of foresight on my part, I’ve only recorded three sessions, even though there have been over twice as many as which have occurred. Still, it’s better than nothing, and the three sessions will give you a good taste of what School Daze is capable of. From now on, whenever I run a session of School Daze, I’ll be posting it at The Gamer’s Haven.

You can find all of the audio here.

Oh, and that Kickstarter thing is still going. We’re almost to our first stretch goal!

I started student teaching this week, which explains the lack of updates around here. The first, and best news is that School Daze is sitting at $4,151 as of the writing of this post. That’s fantastic! We’ve only got a few hundred dollars to go until we get to the first stretch goal, and we’ve got 24 days to get there.

Being in a school full-time has had me thinking about something in regards to School Daze, though. It’s something that came up when I first started talking about the game, and since then, I’ve done my best to skirt it:

High School sucked for a lot of people.

My reaction the first time I heard someone ask “why would I want to go back to high school?” was “oh, god, they’re not going to like the game! Quick, do damage control!” My “damage control” was to say that School Daze isn’t real high school. That it’s high school like we see on TV, and in movies. Hell, that statement is even in the Kickstarter video. I didn’t want to scare people off. Lately, I’ve been thinking that I didn’t do my game justice.

What if School Daze were like real high school?

If you listen to the first playtest that I recorded, you’re going to hear the characters be shallow, self-centered, and generally act like high school students. In fact, I’ve seen that happen in every playtest. Yes, the events of a given game session or Group Project might be outlandish, but we all remember what it’s like to be in high school, and that comes out in play. It sits right at the heart of the game, and I’ve been shying away from it, so as not to scare off people for whom high school was awful.

I’m not going to shy away any more.

School Daze really does evoke high school. I’m proud of that. It’s why I made the game in the first place, for crying out loud. And so, I’m going to wear that badge with pride. Now, if you’re someone for whom high school was a scarring experience, I’ve got some things to say to you.

Firstly, I’m sorry. I work in a high school, and I suffered my fair share of abuse when I was a student myself. I know that the experiences you had during those years are formative ones, and they really shape who you are.

Secondly, you may just not like School Daze because of those experiences. That’s okay. I’m not coming to your house and putting a weapon to your throat, demanding that you love it. I would like you to, but that’s my pride in my game talking. I get it, and I’m not going to force anyone to play.

Lastly, and this is a statement that might upset a whole lot of people, maybe it’s time to move on. It took me a long time to grow up, to take responsibility for who I am, and to stop letting what was in my past dictate my present. I know that’s not an easy thing. Ask my wife, she’ll tell you how petulant, irate, and angry I was at times trying to grapple with the times that happened before I knew her. But, I’ve moved on.  Maybe you should, too.

I’m not suggesting that School Daze is a psychological healing tool, and that after playing a session wherein you get to experience high school in a positive light that the skies will open up, and all of the your scars will be healed. However, I do know that RPGs are both escapist, and cathartic. We play the warrior, or wizard, or cleric, or anything in between in fantasy games, and we do so (I think) in part to live out parts of ourselves that we don’t get to see in our daily lives. Just because School Daze hits closer to home doesn’t mean that it can’t accomplish the same things. Play the jock, or the bully, or the academic whiz, or just a reflection of yourself. Escape for a little bit, and maybe you’ll find something you love.

I’m really proud of my game. I’m proud of what it accomplished in play. And I don’t want people to be scared of it. I realize that there are issues wrapped up in high school that run deep. Like, really deep. But they don’t have to define you. And, if you think that playing a game where you can explore them with the buffer of imagination wrapped all around you, then School Daze might be the tool you can use to do that.

I know that it happened the day before yesterday, but I’ve needed a little bit of time to process what the funding of School Daze actually means for me. I’m (thankfully) moving past the point where I need constant validation to know that I’m doing good work, but seeing (as of the writing of this post) 90 backers raise over $3,700 in support of my game. That’s humbling, gratifying, and more than a little awesome. That means a lot to me.

The other thing that this means is that I’m doing this, for real. I am going to actually publish my own RPG. I’ve got some amazing art coming from Brian Patterson, I’ve got an amazing layout coming from Daniel Solis, and I’ve got my words being hammered into shape by Liz Bauman. I’ve got a dream team working with me to do this, and I get to do it properly, and pay them for their work. That’s a fantastic feeling.

It also means work. I’ve got a lot of ducks to get in a row before this project will be finished. That’s a good thing, because many ducks means I’m seeing to all of the little details, rather than doing this in a slap-dash manner. School Daze is going to be good. Really good. That makes me proud of the work that I’ve done.

The crazy thing is this: the Kickstarter drive still has 30 days left to go. Let me repeat that: 30. Days. People can still contribute funds, and I’ve set some excellent stretch goals for the campaign. I have no idea how big this is going to get, but I’m excited to see what the final results will be.

Finally, I have to thank you. None of this would have happened without people like you reading this site. So, even if you’ve not contributed to the Kickstarter, it matters not on bit to me. Thank you, all the same.

I’m a teacher, and I’m a game designer. I’m doing this School Daze project, and I had an idea. School Daze is inspired by a ton of iconic high school movies. Almost Famous, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Fast Times as Ridgemont High, Dazed and Confused, Clueless, Heathers, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, Superbad, and Easy A. Here’s my idea:

What if it would be possible to get awesome celebrities to play in a session of School Daze?

So here’s the plan. Over here on the Sand & Steam Productions Facebook Page, I’m asking which actors you would like to see play in a session of School Daze. Check that out, leave your suggestions, and I’ll see if there is anything that I can make happen. This might be a long shot, but I believe in how cool School Daze is, and I think having a celebrity session would be a lot of fun. So, head over to Facebook, and leave your suggestions! We’ll see what happens.

Click to head to Brian's website for the full-sized comic and his commentary

Words, for one of the first times in my life, are failing me. I knew School Daze was awesome. I wouldn’t have poured in as much attention and effort as I did if I didn’t believe that. But to see the support people have given the Kickstarter, in only the first day, well that’s a different brand of special. And, I got to see my game immortalized in webcomic form, which is what you see above. To see something you made used by someone else as a vehicle for their own creative works? That’s gratifying in a way that is difficult to quantify or describe.

Then there’s what Brian said in his post (which you’ll find by clicking on the image above). That’s some of the nicest stuff that I’ve ever heard anyone say about me. To think that I’ve inspired someone to that degree, and to be listen in such august company… well, it’s humbling. I am touched, thrilled, and rendered near-inchoate by the support that my game has garnered so far and it’s only a little over 24 hours since I launched the bloody Kickstarter!

[Insert string of righteous profanity and celebratory exclamations here]

The music is my head is veering back and forth between “Don’t You Forget About Me,” (because I totally feel like Judd Nelson at the end of The Breakfast Club), and “Dog Days are Over,” because that song just makes me groove. And I’ve really grooving right now.

I’m sure that there’s a ceiling on the amount of support that School Daze will get, but I’m also sure that I’m nowhere near that ceiling yet. There’s over a month left for funds to be contributed to this cause, and things are only going to get more awesome. Hang on folks, it’s going to be one wild ride.