Fulfilment Update - Nearing the US
over 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 04:21:17 PM

Hello everyone, 

We're making good progress with getting people their physicals. 

Non-US 

Short non-US update first:

• Dice were received at the UK warehouse late last month, so pledges should be with people.
• An entire of van of deliveries via DHL disappeared after being sent out, about 30 books to 'ROW' countries (mainly Canada, New Zealand and Australia) were lost with all hands in the post via a strange mystery no one at DHL has been able to answer. We send out replacement copies to all the affected order, and we're arguing a claim with DHL to get our money book. 
•  Replacements for the defective Consequence and Heroic Zines have now been sent out. 

If you're not in the US and haven't yet received your order, drop me an email to [email protected] and I'll investigate for you. 

US 

The books have arrived in America via sea in the port of Chester, Pennsylvania, and are being dealt with by customs currently. I'm hoping they'll read the warehouse in the next week or two, and then we can get on with the orders. 

This means we should be able to get you all your orders before Christmas. 

I'll let you know if this changes!

New Best Left Buried Projects

I thought I'd throw down some teasers for the next step in our BLB adventure.

As well as the five pamphlets funded through the Kickstarter, Nick Spence (of Hunter's Guide fame) has been working on a pamphlet for Dragonmeet, A Garden Most Foul. These will form a part of A Doom To Speak: Volume 2, to be released next year. 

Here's the cover monster, Pustulix and its mount Masticator! 

We're also done another adventure, this time much bigger, courtesy of Ari Santiago. It's called In Calamity's Wake. More info soon on this one soon, but it should release early next year! 

LATAM Breakout 

We launched another Kickstarter last week, #LATAMBreakout. We're working with five new creators from Latin America to create a bunch of games of their own. Each is filled with lavish art made by freelancers in the region, and there's a wide range of fantastic themes and gameplay mechanics. Check out the project here! 

Speak soon, and lets hope more books arrive sooner rather than later! 

Thanks, 

Zach

Fulfilment Update - Heroic Consequences!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Oct 03, 2021 at 04:48:44 AM

Hi everyone,  

We've got a very short second October update for you all as we've discovered an issue, but it's already well along to being fixed.  

The Issue 

THIS ONLY AFFECTS NON US BACKERS. The three stretch goal zines, Ancestries, Consequences and Heroic Adventures all went to print together with a page count of 32 pages. Except Consequences and Heroic aren't 32 pages, they're 48. This means the books have shipped with their final third missing.  

This impacts about 85 orders in the UK, EU and Rest of World. It won't impact any US orders, we've confirmed the print run for US distribution is correct.  

The Fix 

We're ordering a new print of the books and will be shipping them out as soon as we can. Our shipping folks are aware of the issue, and no more of the incorrect books will be shipped out.   

If you've received an incorrect book, your new copy will arrive with you as soon as we can possibly make it happen. 

You only need to take action if your address has changed. If it has, let us know via [email protected]

As for everything else, sadly no further updates from the shippers, although I'm hoping it will be close. 

Thanks, 

Zach

Fulfilment Update - October
over 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 01:09:46 PM

Hi everyone 

Some good news and not so good news in this update. Good for UK/RoW, bad for folx in the US. 

Good News

We sorted our EU customs issues, so people have been receiving their books for the last couple of weeks. Most backers should have had their copies sent by now, apart from a few unlucky folx who ordered dice. If you order is delayed, it'll be by a week or two, and I've sent you a short message mentioning this. The dice should be arriving at the UK fulfillment site within the new few days, and be sent out shortly after. 

The books look lovely in person, and we've only had positive comments from people who've had their copies. 

Bad News

The bad news is that getting these books to the United States is a nightmare, and has been a painful process for the last few weeks. I am aware this a long update, and I want to explain the reasons this is happening in a way that is as simple and comprehensive as possible 

I'm in constant conversations with no less than 6 sea freight shippers (who shall remain nameless) and I've still not been email to finalise customs info or a collection date with any of them, despite literally hundreds of emails back and forth. 

The international shipping ecosystem is a mess right now. While vaccines are in place and lockdowns are over for most regions, COVID (and to a lesser extent, Brexit) is still a nightmare to handle and wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.

The amount of freight we want to send (2 pallets, 2.5k books, 1.7 tons, roughly £55k of stock at retail value) is a very awkward amount, referred to in Industry as LCL (less than container load). It is too large for us to use consumer tools, but too small for us to book an entire shipping container, which means that the freight forwarder is having to squeeze us into another LCL shipment, or on top of a slightly less than full container. This is quite easy to do with a couple of boxes, but squeezing two pallets worth of books into a shipping container is very difficult. 

While it is staggeringly important for SoulMuppet, and also for our backers, to get these books to the states, our business is simply very small compared to 'real' industry, and the freight forwarders we are using would rather give the business to someone who will give them many times the volume. 

Industry sources are quoting the cost of a shipping container has increased by up to 5x since before the pandemic. These price shocks, and gluts of important resources like MDF and cardboard, make printing and shipping terrifyingly expensive currently. 

How do we move forward? 

• 1. Try to get the books onto a plane freight (rather the ocean freight). Because there's no shipping containers to attend with, this might be easier to arrange. However, it is FAR more expensive due to shortage of direct flights from the UK to US. My quotes (I've asked for them to explore this option) are close to 8 times to price quoted for the equivalent in seafreight, and would decimate the margins for the entire project. 
• 2. Send the books one by one to US customers from the UK. This would double or triple the amount backers backers paid for shipping. I'm open to exploring this if we can't get the books out in the next month or two, but this is an expensive option we really need to avoid if we can.  US customs are difficult, as a lot of products get dinged and delays and backers might also end up with unexpected customs fees. 
• 3. Wait for someone to agree to pick up the books. This could happen tomorrow (I think I'm quite close with one provider) but it might take weeks or even months. 

Next Steps 

At the moment, we're going to be forced to move forward with option 3. This is a problem we can't solve with the money we have available. 

I'll provide an update with new estimated shipping dates as soon as we have them. US copies will be a month away at least (the transit time via boat, including customs, from US to UK), but we will endeavour to get things to you by Christmas. 

If we can't manage this by then, we will re-investigate the above options. 

Thanks for your patience, 

Zach

Fulfilment Update
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 09, 2021 at 05:13:16 AM

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the lack of update. We're hard at work getting the books out to you, things have been moving at a horribly slow rate. As much as the parts of the world are beginning to recover from the events of the last 18 months, international shipping and Kickstarter fulfilment is still very difficult. 

US Backers

Your books are sitting in a UK warehouse. I've had to send a specific form to US customs (printed and signed with blue ink, no less!) before the books can be picked up by the fulfillment company. They'll be on their way once this form is received, taking 2-3 weeks to reach America and another week or so to be shipped out once they arrive.

UK/RoW

The pre-payment of EU sales taxes/customs fees has turned out to be more complicated then we expected, and has added a lot of paperwork we've had to process manually for each order. BackerKit does yet have the functionality to handle exports of this kind. Product feedback has been submitted so this might not be an issue in the future.

Essentially, if we submitted our paperwork with the retail value of the items provided, all our global customers would have overpaid on import taxes. Instead, we've had to use the retail values to create a total retail value (including digital products), and split the pledge value (including addons but minus shipping) to model an accurate customs value for each physical line item. We've had to consult with an accountant to make sure this is both accurate and legal, and then do a bunch of coding to create a final spreadsheet. 

If I wasn't previously a Data Analyst by trade, this work would have proved even more difficult and time consuming than already it was, or even impossible using consumer tools. 

The spreadsheet has been completed, but I want some time for backers to let us know if shipping addresses have changed due to the delays. 

Coincidentally, if anyone else is running a UK based Kickstarter and anticipates having these problems, drop me a message. Would love to help in any way I can! I've got some Python code ready it would a waste to only use once 

Shipping Info

If you have changed address, or will do so before the following dates, email us at [email protected], (CCing in [email protected]), and we'll update the info. 

Here are the revised dates: 

• UK/EU Customers: Mid September. 
• Other International Customers (Non EU: For example Canada, SEA, Brazil, Australia, etc): Early October 
• US Customers: Mid October. 

Thanks for your patience while we sort this out. 

I'm aware this is frustrating as a backer. If any of you are unhappy with the updates, or have any concerns, drop me an email at [email protected] and we can talk about remediation. 

Thanks 

Zach

Fulfilment Update - Books reached UK - US Soon
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 08:07:22 PM

Hey everyone, 

Short update with good news. The books successfully reached the UK warehouse this week and should be heading out to customers soon, hopefully next week. 

We're working on getting things to the US. We're hoping to have them picked up, and then it should take 15-25 days be sea, plus additional time for customs. 

Addresses have all been locked globally. If you're in the US and your address is going to change in the next six-ish weeks, drop an email to [email protected]. 

There is one pressing issue for UK backers, in that we're short some dice following a failed delivery by the Royal Mail. About 30 UK backers will have their orders slightly delayed while we source some more dice. I'll drop you a message in the next 24 hours if your work will be affected. 

When you get your books, do get in touch and let us know how they look. I'm excited to get my hands on my personal copies and play some BLB for the first time in a few months. 

Thanks, 

Zach