Thursday, March 29, 2018

Announcing the Wilderlands of High Fantasy Revised Editions

Wilderlands of High Fantasy Announcement 
In November I promised to revisit the issue of the Wilderlands maps if nothing has been released by March for the Judges Guild's City State of the Invincible Overlord Kickstarter. I was able to work out a publishing agreement with Robert Blesdaw II to release the 18 maps I drew for the kickstarter project. In addition I am permitted to publish a series of revised guidebooks to accompany the maps.

Each guidebook will be around 20 to 32 pages and will contain the original listings edited for known errata and corrections. To avoid the issues of cost that accompanied other releases of Wilderlands of High Fantasy, I am following the pattern of the original releases.

The maps and guidebooks will be divided into four products, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy,
Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde, Wilderlands of the Magic Realm, and the Wilderlands of the Fantastic Reaches. Unlike the original releases, Map 6 Viridistan will be included in Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde although edited down to the format of the other four maps.

The retail cost is yet to be determined as I am testing the various print options. I am targeting $20 per bundle of printed map and guidebook. The maps will be printed as two 12” by 18” sheets. There will be five maps in Wilderlands of High Fantasy and Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde, and four maps in Wilderlands of the Magic Realm, and Wilderlands of Fantastic Maps. The backer and retail costs will reflect the quantity of maps within a product.

The PDFs will be free to all kickstarter backers. The printed cost to backers for all 18 maps will be slightly less than $20. The printed cost of the guidebooks for backers should be around $3 to $4 depending on which print format works out the best. I am tacking on a one dollar charge so it will count as a sale on both OBS sites, RPGNow and DrivethruRPG. There will be shipping charges from One Bookshelf.

I am doing this because as a Judges Guild licensee, the problems of this kickstarter affect my sales of the Majestic Wilderlands along with other projects using the Judges Guild IP. The above is what I can do to help with the resources I possess. Robert Bledsaw II is aware of what is going on and has worked with me to come up with a solution to get a portion of the product you paid for into your hands.

I will have the package of the first five maps and guidebook released by mid April as the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. I am trying to have remaining maps and guidebooks done by the end of May so I can release them for North Texas Con, a convention focused on older edition gaming. But it may not be until June until I get Fantastic Reaches out. The PDFs will be done first and I will release preliminary copies as soon as I am able.




13 comments:

  1. That's really, really cool! This is a very promising project.

    Two questions if you don't mind.
    - First, the images do not include hex numbers. Are the hexes going to be numbered in the final product?
    - Second, the announcement text and the back cover are a bit vague about the inclusion of player maps. I would assume they are in based on the "includes 10 poster maps" line and "The maps will be printed as two 12” by 18” sheets." Am I correct to think they are included?

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  2. Thanks for continuing to step up and give the backers (myself included) something worthwhile and cool for our investment.

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  3. Rob, you sir are a champion. It's great to see someone stepping up and doing what he can to take care of the KS supporters. The maps are fantastic, and I'm super excited to see your rebooted versions of the booklets. And maybe someday, as the icing on the Wilderlands cake, we'll actually see the City-state too.

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  4. @Melan

    1) Yes the hexes will be numbered. The Maps have done for a while and are still in the same format as my side of Map One CSIO that was mailed out a few years back.

    2) No player maps in the printed product. The reason for ten posters is that each Judges map has to be split in two in order to use OBS' poster format which only 12" by 18".

    Having said that, the issue of players maps will be addressed after the initial releases. I know that any printed bundle I offer will be at a nominal charge over cost.

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  5. I'm very excited about this. Very. Thank you for doing something awesome with this mess, Rob.

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  6. Hi!

    This is really great news! I can't wait for your new PDF files, and I plan on getting the digital files as well as the printed ones!

    I am extremely glad you were able to do this!

    I cannot thank you enough!

    Bruce Gray

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  7. This is excellent news.
    In the UK the print on demand books are printed and shipped from the UK. The City State maps and presumably the forthcoming Wilderlands are sent via international mail and therefore shipping is fairly high. Do you know if this is due to the UK printer being unable to do posters?

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  8. Quick question,

    Will this only be for the Kickstarter backers or can anyone purchase them?

    Cheers!

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  9. @Andrew, yes the maps and guidebooks will be made available on RPGNow/DrivethruRPG

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  10. Rob, I just got my CISO maps, and I'm immensely pleased with them. I really appreciate you being such a stand-up guy about not just letting the whole project drop.

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