If you are a domestic backer, your game ought to have shipped to you by now. If you haven't received it yet, it's likely due to an issue with address, in which case, please shoot an email to [email protected] at your earliest convenience and I will hunt down the issue and rectify it.
If you're an international backer, I need a few more weeks to get your game sent out (we're bombarding the reviewer circuit with inquiries as we speak, and nobody has had anything bad to say about the game or its presentation so I expect reviews to bolster sales a lot). I have been doing my best to market things on social media and outside of a random viral reel, I haven't had much luck, so I'm focusing energy on the review circuit.
tl;dr - if you're a domestic backer and don't have your game, you should email [email protected] to sort the problem with me. If you're an international backer and don't have your game, bear with me, and I'll get your game to you. If you want to speed up the process, consider backing Anthromancer on Patreon; otherwise just sit tight and trust me.
TABLETOP SIMULATOR MODULE DEVELOPED
This is pretty fun stuff: a streamer by the name of DeltaForceFemboy connected with me via Anthromancer's TikTok and took it upon himself to import the game assets into a custom Tabletop Simulator module. He did a very good job, even went so far as to grab some of the Midjourney art I've been using on Anthromancer.com to deck out the board. If you're looking to play the game long distance or explore it on your time, I've added a link to the module in Anthromancer's product description on the website store. Check it out!
We will likely start setting up a weekly or monthly session via discord once I've got my head out of my ass long enough to take the first steps towards that. I'm excited about this because I've severely underutilized the discord community (we haven't had anything to do as a community) and this might change that soon. We'll see.
(My friend Ben S. did a similar TTS module for me a few years back and I did an awful job of archiving it because I did not understand its utility and felt a sense of perfectionism about the presentation that I now understand nobody in the TTS world cares about. Shout out Ben, sorry I didn't use your module, I'm a buffoon).
NEW MONTHLY LOCAL EVENTS SCHEDULED
I've been realbusy, doing some legwork over the last few weeks to get a bundle of recurring monthly Anthromancer meetups put together, and if you're local I hope you'll come and check them out. The events are as follows:
First Fridays - Friday Night Mercenarium at Fantasy Shop St. Charles (2125 Zumbehl Road, St. Charles, MO 63303) starting with Friday, October 7th at 6pm
Second Wednesdays - Dragonfruit Divination at The Fortune Teller Bar (2635 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, MO 63118) starting on Wednesday, September 14th at 6pm (next week!)
Third Wednesdays (or "Web3rd Wednesdays") - Anthromancer Presents: Ancient Games and Blockchains at Trust Bar / Techartista Downtown (401 Pine Street, St. Louis, MO 63102) starting Wednesday, October 21st at 6pm
Fourth Fridays - Friday Night Mercenarium at Game Nite (8380 Watson Road, St. Louis, MO 63119) starting Friday, September 23rd at 6pm
I am a bit behind on getting these events properly listed on the website, but that'll be done within the next 2 days. In the meantime, I've listed all the event information on the facebook events I linked to above.
NEW GAMETYPE IN DEVELOPMENT
Since I'm basically stuck waiting until sales pick up to finish international fulfillment and do anything ambitious, I've started developing the game a bit further. If you've got your copy you'll likely have played Mercenarium, but I'm not satisfied. We haven't hit the zenith of what Anthromancer can do.
I've started to develop a game I'm tentatively calling Zodiac. This game will use the same components - the only thing that would be included in an 'expansion' would be a .pdf, and maybe some classical gaming dice to track HP (d6), MP (d20), AP (d4), XP (d8) and Time (d12)(which most of you nerds will have lying around, I'm certain).
Zodiac is more of a 'sport' than Mercenarium. In Zodiac, the Zodiac die is kept in the center space as a 'time ball' that players fight over. When you get the time ball, you have to get it back to your house; when you score, you add whatever value the die shows (it starts at I.) to your own 'clock' d12; at which point the time ball increases by 1. So in the first volley, you'd grab the time ball at I., and when you score it, your clock (d12) would increase by (1) bringing it to (2), whereas the time ball would be returned to the center space increased to II. If you score on the next volley, you'd go from (2) to (4) (or rather from II. to IV.). As the game progresses, 'time' moves faster. Maybe I'll tinker with that going the other way (as in, Time is running out), but once I've got something testable I'll see which narrative feels better.
Maybe I'm talking about this too mechanically, but the idea here is that you're fighting over time itself, and the first team to get their clock to strike XII. wins the game. Time would also be a usable resource; you might sacrifice a bit of time later in the game to cast a powerful hymn, hoping to earn it back quickly with an elevated die.
In addition, you'd play the game a bit differently; rather than summoning cards from your hand as you play, there'd be 'heroes' (which are JQKA court cards) 'leaders' (Lord cards), and various spells, items, and magic stones (the materia cards and hymns), and you'd start each volley with your team in a formation that you choose at the start. If a hero loses in combat, they get sent to the bench. The heroes wouldn't have 'edge values'; instead, their North, South, East and West dot values would correspond to their stat blocks; East (earth) is Melee combat, South (water) is Magic power, West (fire) is ranger accuracy/agility, and North (air) is mental stats like charisma and wisdom.
I am still figuring out how to test this system and I've figured out a lot of weird hidden depth to help explain how to generate your own custom leader cards. I'm quite excited; this game is fundamentally different from all the others I've developed within Anthromancer and it makes a much more intentional use of some of the idiosyncratic design elements that I kept in just because they were pretty; the big circles on the board have uses here, and the illustrations on the court cards lend them a much more mechanically significant 'stage presence' in this new context. Plus I've found a very clever way to incorporate the edge values of materia as a kind of 'ammunition' system -- and once you include the gaming dice (chakra stones) to track the various stats of your Lord...man, the possibilities get crazy.
It's one of those eerie feelings like, "this is what the core game was supposed to be all along."
This is my design ethos for the whole product! I'm not very interested in moving on to other games (not yet anyway) because I still see so much potential within the toolbox I designed Anthromancer to be. I love this game so, so much, and it makes me feel this sense of deep purpose to continue adding intellectual and creative labor to these systems so that every time you open the box you can have a rewarding experience no matter what.
If you're interested in getting early access to the Zodiac rules as I playtest them - and doing distance playtesting, helping me get feedback, and getting credited in future editions of the codex for community contributions - please support me on Patreon! That's where I'll be posting rules updates before they've been fully tested (at which point they'll make their way to the website as a free .pdf for everyone, as all of the rules eventually do).
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW
Thanks for reading, for real! This update took...lol, a lot of work to put together. I have been on the fence about getting a part-time job to help me get over this hump and the main thing that stops me is that I literally don't have time for it. Too much going on. I've still got a small roller skate of a window and if I'm very lucky the next few weeks will see some wind really catching the sails.
I appreciate the moment I'm in. And I'm grateful to have some kind folks paying attention. More good news soon, I promise.
Today’s a big day for Anthromancer. If you’re in the U.S. you’ll be thrilled to hear that I’ve completed domestic fulfillment. Last batch goes out today. International backers, I will be fulfilling your orders as new orders come in.
The new album dropped today. Absynthe & Honey is a departure from the abstraction of The Hymnal; it’s a very vulnerable story about the last two years of my life. I did more bass riffs on this one. I talk about the end of my marriage, the collapse of relationships with my business partners, being exiled for getting into NFTs too early, and discovering people who love me for who I am. It’s a trip. I hope you’ll listen to it.
I’m doing my best to make this new chapter of my life work.
Thanks.
Daniel James Drake
I have mailed 260 games and I have run out of money
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 12:57:23 AM
it begins
Ah boy, aw shit, oh crap. Here comes the self-imposed humiliation. Thank God I was clever enough to build my whole brand around being a (handsome, charming) literal idiot, or this would be a lot more awkward.
Alright so, here’s the deal. Cliffs notes first:
I have run out of money. (lol)
I've mailed 260 domestic orders. There's one more batch of domestic orders, and due to inflated shipping costs, international orders have been put at the end of my list.
If I can sell 100 games – only 100 – via the website, I will have the cashflow necessary to finish fulfilling all remaining kickstarter orders, both domestic and international.
If you want to be of any assistance in this, either post about your games on social media as you get them (to help me find more buyers), share the online store with your friends, or – gasp – support me on Patreon. Currently the Patreon is bringing me just enough income to fulfill about 3 international orders per month; I’m hoping that once y’all start to see how incredibly cool Anthromancer is, you’ll feel a bit more compelled to support the long term vision (and patrons get all kinds of cool stuff anyway).
Also, hey, if you’ve got smart comments to say about how you “never believed in me” (yeah I know you didn’t, but I don't need your permission or support to be successful) or “I deserve this because I got into NFTs” (never mind the drop was totally free, voluntary, and clearly was not a vector for shameless profit seeking - you're being pompous), don’t worry, you’re still allowed to keep it to yourself. I promise. You won't enjoy the way I reply to you, and it'll just stress the both of us out.
So let’s get into it.
I have run out of money.
While that’s not entirely true, I have maxed out the business credit card I opened to be able to fulfill kickstarter orders, and due to unrelated high-falootin’ drama (I have parted with my other business, I’ll tell you the story sometime) I need to pay my rent with a little bit of money from Anthromancer. So I’m in a position where I can either mail another 100 packages...or get kicked out of my apartment. Ah, the joys of living. Despite my workaholic urgency (I spent 3 days this week standing in a storage locker in 100+ degree heat building and sealing 260 packages with handmade signed thank you cards individually labelled with your provided first names)...fulfillment has ground to a halt. For just a moment. It could start immediately once I get some cashflow, but having cashflow is contingent on getting orders in, so here we are.
There’s a couple things I feel I should audit here. Things I’d like to come clean about so that you’ve got a better understanding of how I got in this pickle.
First of all: A confession about how we used the money from the kickstarter. You may know that we successfully solicited a U.S. patent (10,765,931, a number I have memorized for no particular reason) on Mercenarium’s ‘orientation line’ mechanic. This process was pretty expensive; we spent nearly $10,000 over the course of 2 years for the various filing fees and the time of our exemplary lawyer, Kirk, and most of that money ended up coming from our kickstarter take. That wasn’t the plan initially, but we had this debt breathing down our necks and took the risk, assuming we would be able to cobble together the money to finish fulfillment in other ways. I don’t regret this decision – I am convinced this is my ‘Stephen King publishing Carrie’ moment, and that having secured this patent will ensure our business has all it needs to grow once y’all see how awesome the product is. I swear, I haven’t been (totally) full of shit this whole time, and I will continue to put my ass on the line to prove it.
Secondly: I was still in my ‘adolescent anxious wreck’ phase when we planned the kickstarter, and between not having review copies ready to go (so our total income from KS was lower than it could’ve been), and not really understanding the full breadth of the fulfillment process (seems I always have to learn things the hard way), shipping costs have knocked me on my ass. Freight from China was triple what I’d expected (thanks, Obama); and shipping itself is higher, too. Domestic isn’t that bad – a bit higher than I planned – but international is, lol, wild. Most of the cheapest international labels I can find cost literally more than the game does at its new $50-$60 price point. So while there’s only 45 international orders or so, it’s going to cost me nearly $3,000 to get those games mailed. Ah, the joys of youth. My bad gang.
And, of course, that doesn’t account for the costs I had not budgeted for in self-fulfillment: cardboard boxes, tape, void fill, envelopes, card stock, paper, printer ink, shipping label stock, thermal printer, stamps, sticky tack, and craft tape. That’s approximately another $2,500 worth of stuff. Future me will be 1000% smarter about this; past me had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But now I have my own little fulfillment center and the rest of my life is going to be easier as a result.
INTERNATIONAL BACKERS:DO NOT BE AFRAID. I am still going to get these damn games to you. I care more about that than I do about continuing to eat healthy– I stocked up on ramen just in case I need to eat like shit for a while to fulfill my obligations here. It is so incredible to me that so many people from around the globe took a chance on supporting this project, and I am going to make sure you get your copy soon. I apologize for the additional delay, and I do hope that you can understand record scratch how I got myself in this situation. At least I’m fun to watch.
REAL TALK THOUGH.
I had an instagram reel get 10,000 views last week and I sold 15 games in a day. That moment...changed my brain. Calmed me down. Because if people are willing to drop $50 (plus shipping) on a board game that they have never heard of because of how pretty it looks, that means that I have a good product on my hands. I’ve known that, but once strangers start saying “yeah you do” by giving you $50...it makes it more real. I believe in this product more than I ever have. I see this awkward, humiliating moment in time as just one more stepping stone on the path to success. I’m grateful as hell to be in this terrifying financial predicament, because it’s added profound depth to my soul, and I’m already starting to see some photos from long-time supporters who are playing their first games with Anthromancer TODAY. It feels...unbelievable. Surreal and divine and I know that if I can hang on a little bit longer, the universe is going to provide me with the things I need to prosper.
Obviously, a bit of help wouldn’t hurt. I know there are some folks who have felt ‘put off’ by the way I have directed this train. I’m not too worried about that; I think they’re shortsighted, or judgmental of my messiness in toxic ways. I’m glad we mess with NFTs (the Ethereum merge is about to go down and I’ll get to gloat about having been right this whole time), I’m glad we spent money we didn’t really have to secure a patent (because we now have a frickin’ patent – if we succeed, our game will be untouchable, and that means lots of new editions and upgrades), and I’m glad I spent all that time and energy pouring extra, ridiculous value into the codex, because I am more convinced than ever that I’ve just self-published the deepest and most fascinating board game that has been published in generations. At least since D&D – and I am optimistic that our brand will one day eclipse that titan. You can call me crazy, or stupid, or foolish, and I’ll just cackle and say, “yeah, nerd, that’s the point, foolishness is POWERFUL MAGIC, try it sometime you goober, literally who are you trying to impress, don’t you know that you’re on a one way trip to death, you do you I guess.”
So, yeah. Be Moved to, uh...help me market Anthromancer. Let’s be real, we’ve got less than 1000 copies for sale. I don’t think they’re gonna last long once word gets out. Help me get the word out.
Zing zop! Sorry I’m a bit of an idiot, I promise it’ll all be worth it soon!
Daniel James Drake
that's right, I'm a 'mom's full name' kinda guy
the game entered sam's house
Digital Assets are Ready to Download! Also, new photos
almost 4 years ago
– Fri, Jul 01, 2022 at 05:23:27 AM
Howdy y’all. Took me a second to figure out the best way to do things; I fiddled with about 17 different shopify apps and download features in backerkit before I got frustrated and threw them all in the trash. All of Anthromancer’s digital assets are now available to download for free from our website; just head to Anthromancer.com and click the ‘Downloads’ tab. It’ll direct you to a Google Drive folder that contains everything sorted into 4 folders: Print-and-Play components, Manuals, Music, and then the FoxP2 sequence. Paywalls are a pain in my ass; share these files as much as you like.
(The FoxP2 sequence might be a bit tricky for Mac users since I could not resolve a version issue with my Apple developer account, but the instructions to de-quarantine the .app file are in the folder with everything else. If you can’t get it to work, send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll help you out pronto)
We are still a week or two away from shipping copies of the physical game out, but I have begun the process of in-person deliveries to local friends and acquaintances. So far, everyone has been blown away by the quality of the manufacturing, the presentation, etc. I’m honestly tempted to suggest you don’t download the digital stuff yet because it’ll make the unboxing a bit less spectacular for you! But that’s up to you.
If you decide to dive into the digital stuff right away, I’d absolutely adore it if you’d join us in the Anthromancer Community Discord – I’ve designated a #foxp2 channel specifically for folks to share their journey solving the FoxP2 riddle. A few of you Yggdrasil holders have already solved it! It’s pretty sleepy still, but I don’t expect that to remain the case much longer. A LOT of VERY cool things are happening all at the same time, and I can’t wait to see people engaging with one another in the discord without my prompting. It’s coming!
Also, yo, if you haven’t done so yet, please Pre-Save the upcoming album, Absynthe & Honey! I’ve worked all year on it (instead of twiddling my thumbs waiting for manufacturing to proceed) and it’s slated to drop on August 1st! Every one of those pre-saves helps me tremendously; and helps me get the attention of Spotify’s playlist curators (so I can maybe, just maybe, have some of that music catch a wider audience and give us all more people to play Mercenarium with, lol).
Lastly, please support me on Patreon! We’re gonna be dropping another few batches of NFTs in the coming weeks, tethered to music videos that are coming out to promote Absynthe & Honey, and my Patrons will be receiving first notice on all of that (and all kinds of other very cool goodies). If I can get another 100 people to support us monthly, I’ll be able to devote myself to Anthromancer full time – that means more games, deeper oracle meditations, more interesting content and video essays, and a more thriving community of fellow players and readers to connect with. So...become a patron of the Anthromancer project today!
The Eagle Has Landed!
almost 4 years ago
– Thu, Jun 09, 2022 at 04:07:44 PM
I am in a very, very good mood today.
I got a text from Hank yesterday, and wouldn’t you know it: 1500 copies of Anthromancer have been delivered to our storage facility right here in the wonderful city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Seven years of development, tens of thousands of dollars poured into a dream fueled purely by faith, hope and luck, all without a product to show for it...until now.
I swear a lot
Easy part over. Time to sell stuff!
I want (to continue) to remain fully transparent through the fulfillment process, so here’s a rough outline of things to know:
We have not acquired shipping boxes yet due to an issue with updating our business debit and credit cards. I have been waiting 3 weeks for our credit union to send new cards to us, and finally hunted down the problem on the phone yesterday. I will be driving out to their headquarters to pick up the cards in person tomorrow, at which point I can order the packaging (from ULINE) and we can get started.
We also need to update our ISBN barcodes with the new price – $59.99 USD – and get some stickers made up to slap on the products. Between inflation and...my newfound self respect, I guess, I’m very, very happy that we’re upping the price. This of course will not affect you if you’ve already bought the game, but is important to fix before we fully launch and start selling to game shops and bookstores.
I have acquired a cute little branded stamp for the outsides of the shipping boxes. So that’s a nice bit of flair.
If you live in the greater St. Louis area, I am happy to coordinate with you so I can personally deliver your product. I will wear a mask if you would like me to hand it off in person.
If you supported us at the ‘Dragonfruit Alchemist’ tier or above, I will be reaching out to you this month to coordinate your cosmic cross personalized Dragonfruit reading.
For everyone who prefers or will require shipping, Hank and I anticipate that process to start at the end of this month or at the very beginning of July.
I have closed our Backerkit Pre-Order store; if you would like to order another copy of Anthromancer, you’ll have to do so via Anthromancer.com and pay full price.
I am sending Final Notice to lock your shipping addresses once I publish this update. Look for that if you haven’t already done it.
In other news:
If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, or TikTok, you’re going to start seeing a lot more content. I’ve been holding back a lot in anticipation of the product’s arrival, but the last few weeks I’ve focused a lot of creative energy on establishing a sustainable pattern that can enliven our community a bit. This game ain’t gonna sell itself!
If you’ve claimed the yggdrasil token and the associated role in our discord server, you can steal an early look at the FoxP2.exe meditation experience (ask for details in the server). If you haven’t I’ll be sending out digital assets as we get into fulfillment (via backerkit) – so you’ll be able to access the print-and-play files, the full codex, and the high-resolution audio (plus the Fox sequence for windows and mac) in just a little while longer.
If you back us on Patreon, you’ll be getting some behind the scenes stuff this week; I’m filming a music video for Prima Materia on Saturday, I’ll be grabbing footage for the With Me music video during the fulfillment process, and I’m gonna post a single preview for ‘Guidance’ after I post this update. If you’d like to get hip to all that (plus support the ongoing project – plus get neat discord roles and stuff) please check that out – it’s not much right now but those 13 patrons have made a huge difference in our ability to get the games to St. Louisdespite the massive unexpected increases in shipping costs. Plus, they’ll all get shouted out in the credits.
I think that just about covers everything. But before I sign off...
A personal note:
I care a lot about this project. I also care a lot about life. My life, sure, but I understand that my life is only joyful and fulfilling if I exist in a world where other people are able to feel joy and fulfillment, too. Every decision I have made during this process has been in service of a goal: to bring joy and a sense of fulfillment to the people who play along. The product looks and feels the way it does because of this passion. I could’ve – and, perhaps, should’ve– stopped developing it a long, long time ago, so that I could publish a compelling strategy game, scale it immediately and sell it to Wizards or something. I did not do that and resisted the suggestion because for me this has not been about money. Money is the frustrating consideration that must be taken for granted under our economic system, and without good business sense, deeper purposes tend to wither and die...but I have long intuited that this isn’t an excuse to give into the profit-seeking impulse. I am interested in creating things that are great and that have some kind of productive psychic impact on the people who experience them. I am interested in challenging people in such a way that they grow into different people. The name of this project is Anthromancer because that is the point: bringing people together, sharing a human experience, and walking away from that experience changed. Hence, Be Moved.
In the past few months, I have been called a lot of names, derided here and there on social media, mocked, belittled, doubted, insulted and dismissed, in particular because we released a web3 NFT experiment into the wild in the form of our free-to-claim Yggdrasil surprise backer reward token. If I’m being completely authentic and vulnerable, this surprised me, angered me, and hurt my feelings. My intention remains the same. My passion for trying despite the odds remains intact. My vision for what is possible is not clouded by the presence of short-sighted profiteers, liars, and fools wracked with fear. Nevertheless, I did not come away from those encounters unbothered. I am, after all, a human being, full of complexity and richness much like yourself.
As Anthromancer launches and the brand is finally given the chance to grow into what I’ve known it can be this whole time, I expect to have more interactions with people who are furious and upset by my actions. This does not scare me. I have no intention of walking away from blockchain technology, or stepping back from the NFT space at precisely the moment when it is most interesting, most infinite in its potential. It inspires me and fills me with life, joy, a sense of hope for a future where art is seen as the source of power it is, where money is something playful and dynamic instead of something violent and restricting, and where community is understood as far more important to success than inheritance. I am an advocate for Regenerative Cryptoeconomics.
Through Anthromancer I intend to do the work that I was put on this earth to do: educate, entertain, inspire, and celebrate. If all you were looking to support when you backed Anthromancer was a board game, I am sorry if I misled you. I had to be talked out of hosting it under the ‘art’ section of Kickstarter – even if that is more correct – because, wouldn’t you know it: this is a business. It would have been foolish to try and fund this project under the art section, because all of the money is in board games. But I’ve always felt that label was inadequate to summarize the intention of this project.
Maybe it’s because the games are here and I no longer have to be afraid of whether or not I’ll ever be able to share this with people...but I can feel a part of myself spreading its wings. I am ready for the next chapter of my life, and I would be honored to have your support in this adventure.
Thank you for reading.
And...yeah, you know. You know the thing. Be Moved.
Daniel James Drake, Anthromancer Frontman and Creative Director
