Yeld: 2nd Edition Store

October update: Good news and bad news. Please read.
3 days ago – Mon, Oct 14, 2024 at 04:20:17 PM

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a great Fall. The weather has been bouncing between Sunny and raining here in Portland. Today we have some good news to share with you, but also some bad news. 

The good news: Our books arrived in Portland at the end of September, just as expected. However, the process was... difficult. We had some surprising issues with the delivery company that stretched out the ordeal to 3 days, and in the end Nick and I ended up shifting several tons of boxes by hand into our long term storage. The whole thing was exhausting, but the books are secure and in hand. And they look great. We're so eager for you to see them! That's the good news.

The bad news: Last week we learned that several items are going to be delayed from our printers until early December. The full list is:

- The Action Board
- The Magical Disaster Deck
- The Loot Deck
- All Expansions

In addition, both boxes and the Game Master Screen are also delayed until November. We had been worried that the expansions would be delayed, but we hadn't expected the delay for the other items. Part of the delay comes from scheduling problems and backups at the two printers. This happens sometimes, and unfortunately there's not much we can do about it.

But...

Another part of the problem is that Nick and I have burned out pretty hard. We spent all year grinding away at the new book, new expansions and new items while also dealing with printers, doing monthly Patreon content, Modest Medusa strips and all the other regular Yeld chores, and it ended up being too much. I'll be honest, we bit off more then we could chew. By mid-August of this year I was completely exhausted, and 2 months later I'm ground down to about nothing. I know its the same for Nick. We've also both had some life issues that have made the last few weeks pretty difficult.

So because of all that, our work in August and September slowed down, and we delivered materials to the printer later then we wanted to. We were still "on time", and everything would have been fine otherwise, but when the printers hit problems of their own it set the delivery schedule back.

The bottom line: We don't expect to have all items on hand to ship until early December. Our hope is that once we do we can get everything out the door asap. We want you to have your packages in time for Christmas.

So what happens now? We don't have everything in stock, but we do have books. So we're going to start shipping orders that contain JUST books next week. We'll ship orders that contain other items as they arrive.

Here's a rough schedule for when we'll be shipping/releasing items and content:

Mid October: Shipping orders that contain JSUT Core Rulebook

Late October: Releasing Halloween Cat PDF rules for Patreon backers, available through Patreon.

November: Releasing all PDFs for Kickstarter backers. These will be available for download through Backerkit, Kickstarter and DrivethruRPG.

December: Shipping orders that contain Box Sets, Action Boards, GM Screens card decks. This should include all remaining orders.

Nick and I are sorry to disappoint you all. We were really hoping to have everything in the mail this month, and we're excited for you to get your hands on the books. This delay is pretty crushing. For us, its like getting to the end of a marathon and learning there's still a few more l miles to go. Nick and I are going to keep working, but we're also going to take a little time to rest and recover. We have more exciting Yeld stuff planned for the rest of this year and next, but we're not going to be able to tackle it and the shipping without some rest first.

One last thing: Some of you may have seen that the 2nd Edition book is now available to purchase on our store. We did not want to be in a position where we are selling our book before we delivered it to our backers who helped fund it. However, we ended up in a poor spot due to bad timing. Earlier this year we bought some advertising for our new release, and at the time we expected the books to be in your hands by now. So in order  to meet the expectations from our advertising we've listed the new book for sale in our store. However, we're not currently promoting or directing people to it, and don't plan to focus on it until we get your books out. That's our first priority right now. 

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. You can reach us here or at [email protected]

And thanks for your patience. We appreciate it.

- Jake

September Update! Important! locking orders, charging cards, shipping and more!
about 1 month ago – Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 04:20:45 PM

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great September. I know Summer is over (although it doesn't  and a lot of you are back to school (or your kids are), and you're probably exhausted! We'll try to keep this update short, but its an important one. Please read it!

Locking Orders: We will be locking orders on Backerit on Saturday September 21st. This means that you have until the 21st to make any changes to your order, including adding more items or upgrading your order. After the 21st your order will be locked. We'd also very much like you to double check your shipping address and update it if you need to!

Charging Cards: We will be charging cards on Backerkit on Saturday September 28th. That's two weeks from now. Please make sure that your card is up to date on Backerkit. If you have any issues (like you need to delay payment a little) please let us know. We can work it out! If you only pledged for digital items during the Kickstarter and haven't added any items in Backerkit we won't be charging your for anything at all, and you don't need to worry about any of this.

Shipping: We hope to begin shipping right at the beginning of October. In our last update we told you how we were able to find you a better international shipping rate. At the moment we believe that rate (which is listed in Backerkit now) will be our final one. However, we are still looking into 2 more options that may be cheaper. If one of those becomes viable we will change the rate. If this happens after we charge your cards on the 28th, we'll refund you the difference after we ship your package.

Delays: Here's some bad news. We've had some delays. As some of you know, I had a major computer malfunction which left me without a working computer for about two weeks. All illustration, layout and graphic design comes from me, so this happened at the very worst time. I spent the two weeks writing and drawing some art by hand, but this delay ended up costing is a lot. We're now running behind and unfortunately this means a few items are going to be arriving later than we planned. Specifically, the expansions. At the moment we're not sure how long it will take to get the expansions back from the printer. Currently our plan is to start shipping Kickstarter orders in early October. We'll start with orders that don't contain any expansions, and hopefully by the time we're done with those the expansions will be here. But I think it likely that it will take longer than that. My hope is we can ship all orders by the end of October. We'll share more news about this when we have it.

Magical Backfire Deck: And finally, here's something new to share! The Magical Backfire Deck was available as part of our Kickstarter (in the Box Set, and also as an add-on). This 36 card set includes 33 Magical Disaster cards, a chart card, a Universal Goat card and a Universal Snake card! The cards feature brand new art and complete rules for each Magical Disaster! We're really happy with how these turned out, and we think they'll add a lot of fun to your games! We're also finishing up the Loot Deck, which includes 20+ Loot items (the deck has multiple copies of each). Each Loot card includes new art and complete rules for the items! You can get both decks from Backerkit, right now!

That's it for now. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Jake

August Update: Important! Please read! Elves PDF, Shipping and more!
about 2 months ago – Thu, Aug 22, 2024 at 05:30:04 PM

Hi everyone! We have a big update for you today. Nick and I have been working hard all Spring and Summer to get your Yeld rewards ready to deliver this Fall. Today we'll talk about shipping, locking orders and our delivery plans! We're also excited to deliver the new Elves of Yeld PDF to you RIGHT NOW! This is an important update, so please read!

Elves of Yeld: The Elves of Yeld expansion was a stretch goal that we unlocked early during our Kickstarter campaign. We're excited to tell you that this expansion is available to download right now! Check your Kickstarter messages for a Dropbox download link, or your emails for a message from DrivethruRPG. You'll also be able to download the PDF from Backerkit when we fulfill orders this Fall.

Elves of Yeld is an all new 28 page expansion, featuring a full history of Yeld's Elves, a new adventure, new Monsters, Monster Titles, Monster Special dice, spells and a new Heroic Mentor with their own quest and reward. We think you'll like adding Elves to your Yeld adventures a lot!

Remember, you can add a physical copy of this expansion to your pledge in Backerkit! (if you haven't already).

Shipping Corrections and Details: We posted our shipping estimates last month, and a lot of you were concerned by how expensive your shipping was. We were concerned too! Since then we've been looking for solutions. We were able to correct an error that was causing US backers to be charged way too much for large packages. We were also able to work with a fulfillment service to get a  better rate for international backers. If you look in Backerkit you should see that your shipping rate has been adjusted (if you are an international backer or a US backer with a big order). For many of you this is a substantial savings. Shipping is still expensive, but this is a big reduction.

However, we are still looking into some other fulfillment options, and its possible that we may be able to make a deal for better rates for some of you. Backer Jussi Myllyluoma has really gone out of their way to help us find some leads. Thanks, Jussi! So we may be making further adjustments for some international backers before we finalize orders and charge cards in mid September. If we do, we'll let you know.

Here's something very important. These shipping prices are still just estimates. We don't think they will be more than the cost we've listed. However, we calculate these costs based on a range of weights, and that sometimes means that shipping is less than we estimated. When that happens we will refund you the difference. We've done that in our last two Kickstarter projects, where sometimes shipping ends up being a few dollars less than expected. Refunds like that aren't common, but we are trying to get you the best shipping price we can, and that includes sending your money back if our estimate is wrong!

If you have any shipping questions and concerns please let us know!

Locking orders: We will be locking Backerkit orders and charging your cards for shipping and add-ons in mid to late September. We have not decided on an exact date yet, but it will be between the 16th and 23rd. We'll let you know a week ahead of time. If this causes any problems for you, please let us know. We can a work around them! Before orders are locked you'll need to make sure you've done the following:

- Confirm your shipping address: Make sure we're sending your package to the right place. You wouldn't believe how often backers give us an old address, or forget that they've moved!

- Confirm you've added everything to your order that you want: We're offering lots of cool Yeld stuff, like Expansions, Loot Decks, GM Screens and more! Make sure you're getting everything you want!

- Confirm your payment: Make sure you've given us the correct credit/debit card!

Fulfilment Schedule: Right now the delivery date for our books (to our studio) is the last few days of September. We expect to be packing boxes and sending packages out starting in the first week of October. With luck we'll have most packages in the mail by the middle of the month. 

Here's a few wildcards:

- Two of our expansions, Magical Academy and Fight School, are taking longer than we expected to finish. Nick and I always overestimate how much we can get done! We've been working on both, and we hope to finish them next month. However, they likely won't go to the printer until the end of September, which means we may not get them back until the end of October. So if you ordered physical copies of these expansions we may delay your order a little so we can include them, or we may send them separately (depending on what we can afford). Or they may arrive just in time and everything will be fine. We'll see!

- We're expecting to have all of our items in stock and ready to ship in the first week of October. This includes all of our expansions, both decks of cards, the GM Screen, the Action Board, both boxes and the map. That a LOT of stuff! We're dealing with multiples printers and manufactures, and delays are always possible. To be clear, we are not currently expecting any delays, but in printing something can always go wrong. If we end up with a delayed item we'll let you all know.

Delivering PDFs: We are working on not just the new expansions but also revising older Yeld expansions for 2nd edition. This involves some corrections, editing and new additions, but also new layout and graphic design. We've decided that we'll be releasing PDF content to you as we finish it. So far we've released the Yeld: 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, the Freelancer Job Guide and (today) the Elves of Yeld expansion. Look for more next month. We'll also provide a full download list for each of you in early October when we start shipping orders. This will be provided through Backerkit as well as DrivethruRPG and as a list of Dropbox links in your Kickstarter messages.

Patreon: Unrelated to the Kickstarter, I'd very much like to urge you all to check out the Yeld Patreon. For the last 4 years we've been releasing new Yeld content every month on Patreon, including new expansions, Monsters, BTS content and more! Earlier this Summer we introduced a new $5/month pledge level. In addition to all of our normal content, these Patrons receive access to our growing library of 3d printable Yeld miniatures, as well as a new Yeld short story every month!

Support through Patreon gives supports Nick and I and gives us a monthly budget to use for expenses like attending conventions, buying office and art supplies, paying our various monthly subscriptions, mailing out demo packages for stores and gaming groups and getting the occasional burger at the place down the street. We really appreciate your support, and we think you'll find a LOT to like on our Patreon!

That's it for today! We'll be back next month with another update. Let us know if you have any questions!

- Jake

Small update: Hands on with the new Yeld book, International shipping and cats.
2 months ago – Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 07:25:57 PM

Hi everyone. Just a small update for you today. A look at the advanced copy of the Yeld book, some good news on international shipping and some new art!

The book! This week we received an advance copy of the Yeld:2nd Edition book from our printer. It looks great! Nick and I are both really happy with it, and we think you will be too! Nick shows off the book in this video.

International shipping: We've made some progress. We have found a cheaper shipping option which we think will save most International backers some money. We're also looking into an alternative fulfillment solution, which may or may not be cheaper. So it looks like shipping won't be as expensive for you as we feared! We're taking our time with this to gather all the correct information, but we will have new shipping costs updated for you as soon as possible. Probably around the 19th of this month. Thank you all for your patience and feedback! 
 

The Elves are coming! We're finishing up work on the Elves of Yeld expansion. Since this was one of the expansions that is free to all backers as a PDF, we'll be releasing the PDF for you around the 19th of this month. You'll be able to add some evil cats to your Yeld games, and we think that will be a lot of fun! 

Backerkit: Our Backerkit store remains open until mid September, in case you'd like to add on any extra Yeld Loot (like a physical copy of the new Loot Deck or the Elves of Yeld expansion).

That's it for now. We'll have a bigger update for you later this month!

- Jake
 

International Shipping
3 months ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 04:26:20 PM

Hi everyone. We don't have a big update for you today, but I wanted to address international shipping.

Many of you have contacted us to let us know that you are concerned about the cost of international shipping. We understand. We are too. The shipping rates shocked us. They are higher than they were a year ago, and certainly much higher than when we shipped the similar Mermaid Hunters products in 2021. The cost of postage has increased dramatically since then, including a big increase just this month. We also have a big heavy book, and the various box sets and expansions are heavy to. Some of you are getting very heavy packages!

We understand that these shipping costs are a lot to pay. We don't like it either. And to be clear, we're not charging you more than what USPS is asking us to pay (plus the cost of the shipping box and wrappings). No one has suggested that, but I know some Kickstarters really gouge backers on shipping, so its not unreasonable to wonder. 

Right now the shipping amounts you see in Backerkit are estimates based on current rates from USPS. I want to stress the "estimate" part. These rates are not yet set. If we can find a way to make this cheaper, we will. We've been really busy the last few weeks, but we have been looking into this a little and we will look into it more. Our hope is to find some way to lessen these costs for you. We'll have an update later in August to let you know what we've discovered, and we will not be locking shipping costs or charging your cards until the second half of September.

Thank you for your patience.

- Jake