Henshin! A Sentai RPG - Guest Stars Expansion

Reaching our final form
4 months ago – Fri, Nov 01, 2024 at 09:34:04 PM

Hi all, 

Well, October is over and I am happy to announce that all physical & digital orders are out the door! Please keep a look out if you haven't received your package yet and let me know if anything arrives damaged or is missing from your order.

Thanks again for all of your support during this campaign! I am really happy with how everything came out and am excited that the books are in the hands of the people who helped make it! This year has been a whirlwind for me, between a new kind, new job and some family health issues, so being able to end on a high note of getting this out the door on time, is a dream. 

I also wanted to share some interesting facts about the campaign, with regards to what sold, which cover was the most popular and other musings. I'm trying to do more data analysis with each campaign to drive decisions for the next and I think you all might get a kick out of what I found. 

• The Tokusatsu Bundle was our most popular physical tier, followed by the Henshin! bundle! Bundling was an experiment for this campaign, to help give the expansion a broader context and draw new players in and it really paid off! 
• Speaking of experiments, the competing covers experiment was also a massive success! Ultimately, Gray vs Brown won out but not by a ton. 54% of backers snagged that one while the other 46% got Navy Vs Multicolored. Pretty close! As a result, Gray vs Brown will be our PDF cover!
• Rider Konchu was the most popular physical add-on, coming in at a whopping 56% of add-on sales. I may explore a larger Rider game as a result...it's clear to me that people are hungry for that kind of content. 
• In terms of digital add-ons, I Shall Not had the largest amount of sales but the Every Monster Ever bundle had the highest amount of revenue. Two things on this: I may explore more microgames just to add some smaller PDF options for future campaigns. It was fun to see this little 5 dollar wonder gain some traction. The Every Monster Ever tier was also something new I wanted to try after seeing really solid PDF sales from the 3 Minutes campaign and it's great to have seen a few sales for such a high price point, high value item. 

Until the next monster,

Sam

Something is coming out of the Cave!
5 months ago – Wed, Oct 02, 2024 at 09:09:53 PM

Hi folks! 

Exciting times here at the ol' Cave.

We are officially packed and ready to start shipping out!

I really enjoyed this step, more than I thought I would. There is something very gratifying about seeing your ideas come to life AND see people show an interest in your old work. One of the many benefits of all of this. Thanks for that. 

So what's next? Well, here's the plan: 

• I am going to stamp and mail out as many packages as I can before 10/14. I leave for NYCC then and won't be back until 10/20. I do have the following week off (10/21-10/25) so I'll take care of any remainders during that time. 
• The current estimate on Domestic is up to 5 business days so we should start to see them mid-end of the month given my timeline. International may take a bit longer.
• With that in mind, I will release all of your PDFs this Friday. Those will come through Backerkit so please keep an eye out for that email. This will include the Expansion book and Guest Star Playbooks so you can start using them. 

That's all for now! Get ready for guests,

Sam 

A whirlwind few months
7 months ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 08:33:59 PM

Hi folks, 

Sam here with an update on the Henshin! Expansion project. 

First of all, apologies for the lack of communication via updates here. My life has been a whirlwind and I am finally getting the chance to catch my breath. 

My second son, Sage, was born on 6/28, a few days late and luckily, he is happy and healthy. Shortly after that, however, my mother went into emergency surgery so I had to fly out to Massachusetts to help my father. Thankfully she is on track to make a full recovery, however, that took time away from this project and ate up the gap I had before SDCC. 

I am back now and am grateful that things feel like they are calming down. I am devoting most of my nights to finalizing this project and the good news, is that I am still feeling on track for sending these books out in October! The power of project management & good planning :P 

In terms of more concrete updates:

• Both covers have been printed and are in process of being hand numbered & signed.
• The playbooks for all 7 new Colors is also done. Shout out to Matthew Schuff for completing that very quickly! Backers will receive this as part of their PDF package upon fulfillment. 
• I have also ordered the necessary Henshin!, Rider Konchu and 3 Minutes books to fulfill the tier and add-on orders from the campaign. Check out everything together below!

• I've collected shipping costs from everyone who responded to the survey, which has allowed me to purchase packaging.

To finalize the prep for the shipping process, I will be locking addresses through Backerkit on 8/12 so please be sure to update any address information if you need to, before then. 

The next two months will see me completing the numbering & signatures and then packaging orders, in waves organized by tier and then organizing by domestic & international fulfillment. 

I am hoping to have everything out the door by 10/14 (before I head to NYCC). I will let you know if that expectation changes at all in a future update.

Until then, let's Henshin!, 

Sam 

Layout complete! Let's head to print!
10 months ago – Fri, May 31, 2024 at 08:19:51 PM

Hiya,

Sam here with a monthly update on where things are at.

As expected, we are done with the book layout. I’ve included a few sample pages below for those who want to see but overall, I’m feeling very happy with it. It compliments the existing material while still providing some newness. A refresh as it were:

Shoutout to Jean Verne for the hard work on this.

What’s next?

• Sending these off to the printer, getting proofs and deciding on the final cover strategy.
• Reviewing those proofs and if they look good, we print!
• Then I’ll order shipping supplies and the other CoM books for those who ordered a bundle.
• With all those in place, I’ll close surveys & collect shipping on July 1st.

Right now, that all feels really solid and will set me up for success. Things are a bit different in my life since I kicked this project off…I got a new job during the production of this (a dream job at that), that requires a bit more travel and my partner & I are about to have another kind (July 26th!).

I planned for this, deliberately leaving a big window between packing & actual shipping, to give us time to settle into what Junior #2 needs. Once I get a better sense of that, I can set a good packing schedule. October still feels realistic and you’ll stay informed if anything major changes.

Outside of that, I’m very slowly trying to break ground on an enhanced version of the token system, with more of a collect tokens to make moves kind of feel. Hoping to roll something out before EOY but it’s always on the back burner these days.

That’s all for now!

Sam

May Update - CLEAR Playbook Designs! Outstanding Surveys!
11 months ago – Wed, Apr 10, 2024 at 09:38:28 AM

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