Triangle Agency, Paranormal Investigation TTRPG

Shipment Update + Polygon Article + PAX Review
over 1 year ago – Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 02:06:26 PM

Hello, everyone!

This is a very emotional moment for me, and I'm sure other members of the team. We had an amazing time at the show, meeting some of you and tons of new people. And we've received a lot of nice feedback online! Some recent highlights:

• We were reviewed in Polygon, and Rowan Zeoli called us "the best game [she's] ever read."
• Grant Howitt (of Spire, Heart, etc.) said at the 40-page mark we were "already the best thing [he's] read in a decade."
• Snow, a designer I admire and creator of Songbirds and .dungeon, said we were on her list of games that will make you "look at games differently."
• Tim Denee of Old Dog Games wrote an in-depth thread about the typography in both our game and his game Deathmatch Island, paying attention to some specific details we wondered if anyone would pay attention to! 
• Someone at the convention ran up to me toward the end of the con, looked me in the eyes, and said: "I bought your book and spent yesterday reading it. Please don't stop making games." I almost cried, because sometimes I am not sure.

I'm extremely grateful for this attention, and frankly still a little stunned by it. We started this project with no idea how it would go, and with a theory that if I poured an endless amount of energy into something it would eventually be worth caring about. I'm glad to know we were right.

Time for some shipping updates.

The rest of the books are coming!

United States and Rest of World: I, like a bunch of you, was not sure why the second wave of our books was taking longer; I realized after some questions this week it was because of Black Friday sales. Our fulfillment partner has to juggle the immediate release of things purchased for Christmas from their much larger clients with fulfilling our games, so it's been a trickle for this second half of our US books.

They've assured me this will change soon, and they're fairly confident everything will be shipped out (if not necessarily arrived for everyone, given distance) by Christmas. And to be clear, I think they're making the correct and only good business call here. We are a small fish, no matter how many emails I send to them!

In addition, because of the delays and confusion, I've asked them to take the time to contact you all directly with shipping notifications. Please understand that these correspond to when the package is prepared, not necessarily when it is sent out, but the majority of the remaining orders should receive one when they start moving again. 

Canada: I've asked more questions about the strike and how it might affect shipping. Basically, their recommendation appears to be delaying a little, in part because the chances of packages getting lost/stuck in limbo is higher right now. I personally am also not interested in crossing a picket line, so I want to swerve away from options that even resemble that, as well. I'll keep you updated as I hear things (and I welcome updates from you, to help me stay up to date on the situation) but your books might be held back for a bit to ensure a smooth delivery.

EU/UK: I'm still seeing a few charges go through for shipments to Europe, so it's possible a few of the last ones are still trickling out. Keep an eye open for some announcements for retail and local pre-orders for new purchases soon, but those won't start going out until fulfillment is complete for backers.

AUS/NZ: Your books should all have arrived by now! If you have any issues with your order, please reach out -- with the caveat that I likely can't solve many problems until January at the earliest. I'm also working on getting a few copies we had in our cushion for this shipment available for purchase in your region for new players.

Pre-orders from our web store, including merch: These will be fulfilled after backers, roughly in order, and many are likely to arrive after Christmas. This isn't what I expected, and I apologize for the delay.

If you completed your survey/paid shipping after the deadline: These will be fulfilled last, but I'll be working to go over these and contact everyone individually in the new year.

If your order was stolen/damaged significantly: The first step is to make a claim with the postal service and fulfillment company in your region. 

• For the US, that's https://www.crwnstudios.com/pages/contact 
• For the UK/EU, that's https://gamesquest.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/29000015864 
• For AUS/NZ, that's https://aetherworks.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new

If your order was missing important components: Reach out to me about this at [email protected] -- I need to compile them all and figure out a solution individually, which will take some time and will start in January.

The Future of Triangle Agency

This PAX showed us one amazing thing - other people do want the game, and like our pitch, and are excited to join our community. This is really heartening, and makes me feel good about our chances to sustain work on additional projects into the new year. We (meaning mainly I) haven't had the bandwidth to get anything major started, but there are things on the horizon. Let me hit a few things I tend to get questions about:

• Triangle Agency: Architect by Alfred Valley - This is coming along really well. We've been working to polish the idea into something that doubles as a great play loop for thinking about the game and a GM prep assistant for creating Anomalies. Alfred is so smart. He recently turned in a new draft, which I'll be working on this month!
• The House Edge, a FIST module by B. Everett Dutton - I love this thing so much. B. turned in an amazing draft and now it's my job to edit, fill in some gaps, playtest, and eventually get it to you guys. Both THE and TA:A are going to be "ready when they're ready," and the version I provide here to backers will be text-based, but I have big dreams of producing them more fully for a physical edition.
• 3 Weeks Notice - Our game we teased at the 100k mark during the campaign! This is still in very pre-production, but we talk about it a lot. We know the shape we expect this game to be, but we make stuff until it's good and let it find out what it is. Will it be the same title? Will the premise be exactly the same? We'll see! It's lower on my priority list right now than continuing to build support for Triangle Agency.
• More Missions / Other Crossovers - I'm so excited to work on these, and think I will finally be able to really dig in starting in the new year. Keep an eye out.
• Another Game Jam - I'm tentatively planning a mission-writing jam around 3/3 in March next year. The community has been coming up with some brilliant stuff, and I'd love to help showcase that in an organized way. What do y'all think: should we prioritize more Anomaly Retrieval? Focus on a different category, or a spread of all three mentioned in the book? Do we like voting, and prizes, or would we rather keep it a chill community collaboration event? I'd love to hear from you!
• OTHER Games - I have no less than 3 concepts I really want to work on, of varying sizes. The pace that one of these comes out will depend entirely on when the mania to create them descends upon me in a wave. (This probably won't happen until I'm able to get some real rest.)

Thank you, so much!

That's the update. This week has been wild. Visiting the convention -- and seeing all of our books together in person for the first time, too -- was maybe the highlight of the entire campaign for me so far. We did it, and everyone's games are on the way, and after maybe a little bit of problem-solving, we'll be done.

I don't talk personally on here much beyond the gratitude, but the truth is that this project is way bigger than I imagined, is something I've never done before, and it means a lot to me on both an artistic and personal level. The weight of it all usually means I'm lead around with fear more than excitement. Even heading up to the convention I'm focused on worries: how can I make sure the books arrive, how can I make sure the booth looks good, how can I handle if people don't like it, what am I doing that might let everyone else on the team down. But in the hall, seeing smiling faces and finally getting to show off the fruits of three years of work, I spent most of the time happy. Proud. 

Things won't always be like that. They never are. But they were for a little bit.

Thank you for making this possible, on just our first game and first campaign. You've been very kind to me, and I will keep doing everything I can for you, too.

More soon,

Caleb

Quick Fulfillment Update + I'm Out-Of-Office December 4-9
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 03, 2024 at 09:43:17 AM

General Fulfillment Updates

Overall: No, nothing is wrong if you don't have your package yet. Yes, shipping is still moving. Check out the previous updates for a longer explanation of how everything works, and please be patient.

• Australia and New Zealand region shipping is complete. If you haven't received your package or been contacted by Aetherworks and you live in those regions, I'd check your spam etc. If you live in these regions and there's no sign of your package in the next week or so, feel free to reach out at [email protected].
• UK/EU shipping should be wrapping up now. I haven't gotten confirmation directly from them, but the portal lists all of the orders in this region as dispatched. If you haven't received your package or been contacted by Gamesquest and you live in those regions, I'd check your spam etc. If you live in these regions and there's no sign of your package in the next two weeks or so, feel free to reach out at [email protected].
• US/North America/ROW Shipping - This is the largest job and our shipping partner is about halfway through with shipments. That delay on the water + the US holiday has dragged this out a little longer than I'd like, but they're back at it this week. Your Backerkit account can give you an idea of whether yours has shipped or not, but in general: if you don't have your package, it is unlikely that something is wrong. If something is wrong, I can't fix it until we're done shipping all the rest of the packages anyway. 
  • Because tracking on these US packages is not detailed, and because our system would send them out when the label is created (not when the package is actually sent out) we opted not to be sending out person-by-person notifications to avoid additional stress/confusion. I think I would probably make a different choice next time based on how many emails I've received! But no tracking isn't an error, it's just the situation. Shipping to ROW and other parts of NA, as it is more expensive, uses different couriers, and could run into customs issues, should send out tracking emails when it starts.
  • I know it can feel bad to see that other regions are done and yours isn't. But for scale, each of those regions (Australia/NZ, UK, EU) had literally less than 10% of our US orders. CRWN is actually moving the fastest of everybody, even considering the delay! They're working hard to try to get everyone's in by Christmas, but there are no guarantees. Our goal was not Christmas, it was to fulfill our game as soon as we could! And we are doing that.
  • Orders from our online store will happen after all of our Kickstarter orders are fulfilled. They haven't started yet. 

Out of Office Dec. 4-9 for PAX Unplugged!

I won't be answering emails or support messages about shipments with any regularity starting tomorrow, the 4th, until the 10th. I'll get back to these after, but there is nothing I can do to affect your shipments or their timing at this point anyway, so any fixes we'll need to do will come after general fulfillment is complete regardless. If you need to contact me during this time, the best method is email: [email protected].

I'll be managing our booth at PAX Unplugged! Sean will be there mornings, I'll be there afternoons, and we'll be supported by Ben Mansky, Kodasea, and Michael Shillingburg! Come say hi if you'd like to, and if you already have the game on the way but want to support us we'll have some prints, mugs, and shirts you can pick up.

To get out ahead of something I've seen before: participating in a convention like this requires a significant time and money investment. Money for the table, then to ship and store games, then to staff the booth, then purchase the furniture, then figure out how to get everything back home. We had to start this preparation over six months ago in order to reserve a slot -- and at that time, we had no way to know if there would be minor delays in the manufacturing process, or to our shipment on the water. 

With other Kickstarter campaigns in the past, I've seen some gripes about books being offered for sale before all the backers copies had arrived. To be blunt, canceling at this point would be to throw thousands of dollars away and sacrifice a major opportunity for the game to be seen by a broader audience whose enthusiasm and interest we all benefit from. To be most specific: these shipments were sent out in their fully wrapped-up pallet form immediately following landing. PAX has not delayed your games by even one day. Everything for your games' fulfillment is paid for, and everything is in progress. I literally could not have done more to get your books to you faster. 

If my tone here sounds a little strained, it's because I've dealt with a few weeks of some pretty ungenerous messages already, and I am worried about what should be a triumphant time for all of us being spoiled by unnecessary anxiety and a lack of understanding of how this stuff works. But I've also seen lots of patience and kindness and excitement throughout this process, and am so grateful to those folks!

This is a time to celebrate! The game is coming! Come celebrate with us if you're at PAX, and if you aren't I hope we see you somewhere else soon.

More soon,

Caleb

USA/North America, Australia/New Zealand, AND UK/EU Fulfillment Begins! General Updates!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 08:46:03 AM

Books Have Landed!

After more than a week's delay at sea for mysterious reasons and a further multiple-day hold stuck on the ship for more mysterious reasons, we finally have our full USA/North America shipment! 

Our shipment to Australia landed a little over a week ago, but as far as I know they're still processing orders and getting to us in their queue. Australia & New Zealand orders will be fulfilled by Aetherworks, who I've heard have already emailed some folks on that list to introduce themselves.

Europe & United Kingdom orders will be fulfilled by GamesQuest, and as far as I know that ship has not landed yet. I'll update when I've heard from them. UPDATE: Apparently seconds after I posted this, they started contacting backers! Sounds like the ship has landed and they're scheduling orders now. Hooray!!

Orders to the Rest of the World will be coming from a few different places, and will take a little longer, but they're also in the queue!

I know y'all have been waiting a long time, and I appreciate your patience! It's been a long road. Not having any direct control over the books' progress or location over the last five months or so has been stressful over here, too, but I hope you find all the time to be worth it. We've made a beautiful game, and I'm sure you'll find some fun at your tables!

What Happens Now?

Since I know many folks haven't backed a Kickstarter campaign before, I want to talk a little bit about the steps to shipping out your books from this point. 

First, fulfillment companies process and prepare the orders in their systems. Everybody uses a different organizational system (and usually software) but we chose to work with BackerKit on our pledge management side because they do a good job of organizing everyone's information in ways that all of these companies can easily import.

Then, we enter a queue with that fulfillment company's other products -- when they can start shipping depends on how intense their backlog is, and to be honest we aren't given a ton of information about that! So there's often a little bit of delay based on their current status with other orders. (These places are professionals, though, and they've known we're coming, so hopefully not too long.)

In the case of US/North American backers, they won't be working this weekend, but should start shipping books out sometime next week.

Then, they have to pack and ship all the orders! We have several thousand copies going out to North American backers, so it's a multi-day process to get them all packed, labeled, and shipped. A full team of people work to get this done, but it's all work handled by human beings. 

An interesting accidental synergy: the Normal Briefcase Collection's box, because we boxed everything in the factory, will make shipment a lot easier than it would have been otherwise! Typically the thing that makes fulfillment take a while is having to pack a bunch of individual items into the order. The vast majority of our orders are just one box to be placed safely in another box. So it'll be comparatively easy!

We'll be shipping out in this order:

1. Kickstarter Backers & BackerKit Pre-Orders
2. Shopify Pre-Orders
3. T-Shirts & Mugs

If I get updates about where we are in this process, I'll try to share in comments of this post or future updates, but it's honestly unlikely I'll get this kind of granular feedback while they're shipping. I don't want them worried about me, I want them sending your books!

Fingers crossed, everyone (who completed their survey and paid for shipping) should have their books by the end of the year. I was really hoping to not be cutting it this close or to be shipping during the holiday rush, but this is where we are! It's been a big surprise seeing how much variance there can be at every step of the process; the last time we had direct control of anything was in, like, July! And since then it's been just watching and hoping things go well. Largely, they have! Just a few delays here and there that I've been told by everybody are pretty normal.

What About Address Changes?

If you still need a change, best place remains emailing me at [email protected]. This Sunday is the last day I would say is "safe" to do that for US/North American backers, but if you need a change and you contact me today or tomorrow even instead of the last possible second you will receive 1 Commendation to use in your upcoming campaign.

Also please keep in mind I'm the only person handling all of these requests, and there's been a lot of them already and will probably be more. If you send me an email (to [email protected]) please do so from your backer email or include your Shopify order number. Include the new address you want it changed to in your initial email so I can fix it without an extra question. Save me some time!

What If I Never Filled Out My Survey/Never Paid Shipping/Sent a Book to the Wrong Address?

You can still contact me to help you figure it out, but you'll likely get your books last, after everyone else has received theirs. I'll be contacting folks in these categories to try to tie up loose ends after we've fulfilled for everybody else. The longer you wait to do this, the less likely you are to get a copy of the game. Try not to be the person who emails me in a year or later looking for your game! You might not get it!

If you input the wrong address and we ship to it, that game is still your game. I recommend you contact whoever is living there and try to get them to forward it to you.

Mugs Look Amazing!

I don't have pictures of the shirts yet, but I finally got my camera to take some clear photos of the mugs. I can finally show you how they look in person!

You can also check out a video here. (And can follow me on Bluesky, where I'm doing more posting these days. I'll probably make a Haunted Table account there soon, too.)

We still have a few mugs left on our online shop, if you want em. Once they're gone they're gone!

And So Do Ripple Guns!

They're done, too! I can't post videos here (I'll share on our Discord) but they also light up and can switch between battery and plug-in! Kyle went above and beyond on this design. Thanks again to Ryan Kingdom for the initial Ripple Gun design, Michael Shillingburg for iterating on it in 3D, and Kyle at cutemonsterprops.com for figuring out how to make the entire thing (including ridiculous grip) in the real world!

Most of 'em you'll see decorating our booth at PAX Unplugged, so come find us at Booth #4232 to see for yourself!

Digital Updates/Accessibility Improvements

These have taken longer than I'd like, but they're still in progress! Sean and I recently went through an approval/editing process on the alt text for the Core Rulebook, and will hopefully see that implemented soon by Chris Hopper, who has joined to help us make our project more accessible overall. I expect the alt text will be updated more than once as we receive community feedback, but we're close to having it in a good place.

Alongside or shortly following the alt text/screen reader compatibility update, we'll be releasing a text-only version and adding bookmarks to the main PDF. Plan is to do the same with the Vault, as well. All this stuff will be free and update both on itch and on our website for download.

Architect/House Edge/Three's Company/Future Games

These are all still in progress! I wouldn't expect to see them before next year at this point, but everything's moving. 

We're working on ideas for the future, but nothing major to share yet! I'm hoping to have a simple community game jam in the new year, though...so it's a good time to start thinking of the best missions you've run and how you might write them up for a jam!

PAX Unplugged

It's coming up very soon! We'll be in Philly at booth #4232 all weekend, and will hopefully actually have games to sell! (Assuming they make it across the country in time.) At the very least we have shirts, mugs, and lots of gorgeous art prints that won't be available anywhere else. 

Come pick up some frame-able art from the book and check out our booth! We have a brand new giant illustration by Kodasea as our backdrop you're going to want to see. And if you want your game signed, bring it by! Depending on the time, you might meet me, co-writer Sean, layout artists Ben Mansky & Michael Shillingburg, or artist Kodasea!

Just as a note: we will not be offering booth pick-up for campaign orders. It would require a lot of hassle and introduce too many opportunities for our small team to make mistakes, and by the time of the con your games should already be arrived or on the way anyway! 

Thank you!

We are in the homestretch! I am so relieved to have made it here, and am looking forward to maybe one day taking a break, but for now I am doing everything I can to get the game to you and share it with new folks. 

If you've enjoyed the game, or the campaign, or anything at all: please talk about it! Social media is pretty spread out now, and we haven't paid for any advertising since the campaign, so attention on the game has been entirely word-of-mouth. Share what you like, point people our way, and try the game out with your friends. 

When you have your copy, post pics and tag me, or share on our Discord! I want to see them out in the world. I've never worked harder on anything in my life, and it's a delight to get to share it with you.

More soon, and thanks again,

Caleb

DEADLINE TOMORROW: Double-Check Your Backerkit Address and Pay Shipping!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 11:49:26 AM

Hi there everyone!

It's all in the title: addresses are locking tomorrow, so please double-check that you've filled out your survey, that your address is correct, and that shipping was paid successfully on your card. 

Failing to do this might mean significant delays on your fulfillment, as fixing things later will be much more difficult for me!

Check the last update for more details.

Talk to you soon!

Caleb

BackerKit Addresses Locked October 22nd - T-Shirt and Mug Pre-Order Deadline October 31!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 10:28:05 AM

Addresses Lock Next Week!

• Addresses will lock on BackerKit next Tuesday, October 22nd. Campaign rewards, add-ons, and pre-orders should ship between then and the end of November.
• You can change your address by revisiting your survey email link and adjusting it there. If you have any issues fixing your address or need anything else send me a message or an email at [email protected].
• If you're moving or your housing is unstable in late October or November, my #1 recommendation is to set the address at a third party's house (like a friend's place). The exact day things will ship out is not under my control. After addresses are locked, I'll provide information on how to contact each of our fulfillment partners to change your address through them in an emergency.

T-shirts and Mugs Available Until October 31!

• Pick them up here! 
• Mugs are $15, Shirts are $25, and you can get both for only $33!
• After October 31, stock will be very limited. We'll have plenty at PAX Unplugged, and then only have whatever is leftover after that.
• Learn their origin in our last update!

Check Your Cards and Orders!

• Right now about 100 Backers have had their cards decline/hit an error after multiple tries in the past few weeks, or have never filled out their surveys. I am testing cards every Monday, so please go into your survey and change your card if the charge is not going through. (You are likely also receiving an email from BackerKit asking you to fix your card information!) 
• If you do not complete your survey and pay for shipping, you will not get your stuff! My ability to help with catch-ups and fixes will become more limited over time, especially outside of the US. Please let me give you the stuff you already paid for!

That's all for this week! Thanks folks!!

Caleb