Starship Warden Kickstarter Update
about 6 years ago
– Thu, Apr 02, 2020 at 08:39:25 PM
A note on Troll Lord Games, the Kickstarter releases, and General Production from our CEO, Stephen Chenault
This is a long one folks. Skip to the end: “Finally the Important Part” if you don’t want all the blather and blah blah in the middle!
As you all know, our collective countries are suffering from this horrid pandemic that has caused personal loss and economic hardship the likes of which we’ve not seen in some time. In the past several months, we have watched this virus spread from its point of origin in China (Wuhan) to cruise ships, then Japan, Korea, and then in a sudden wave into Italy, the United States, and the rest of Europe. It continues to spread. The health care industry along with various governments, the military, and other organizations are working overtime to stem the tide. Part of this stemming has included shutting down trans-oceanic travel and commerce, international travel, national borders, domestic travel, and whole sectors of the economy. This is having a devastating impact everywhere, not the least of which is the TableTop RPG and Board Game industry.
Many of you have supported Troll Lord Games in the past, and continue to do so, through Kickstarters, purchasing at various stores, online or through digital outlets like OBS, so I feel it’s important to put some information out there on how TLG is managing this and what impact it has on games you have already purchased via Kickstarter or had intended to do through other channels.
First, a few Ongoing Programs:
1) In order to help you pass the time while locked up in various homes, apartments, motels, hotels and vans down by the river, we are offering the C&C Players Handbook, Digital, for free. Follow this link here to get your copy.
2) We continue to offer a veteran’s discount for all veterans of the five branches of the U.S. military, the Reserves and National Guard. Please email us at [email protected] for more information.
Okay. Here we go.
As you may or may not know, TLG produces all its books and boxes using domestic sources. We have never outsourced our production to China, India, or anywhere overseas. I’m a huge fan of farmers markets and supporting local economies where possible.
There are multiple reasons for this, not the least of which is that I love my country and want to keep hard earned money here. This is not a judgement on those who do outsource, if you believe it best to do so, more power to you, welcome to America, that’s what freedom is! Haha. But…
1) Economy: It is good for the local economy. It gives my neighbors jobs, so they can pay their bills and I think that's pretty cool. (and keep in mind, you are the root of that, your support allows that to happen and we are all very thankful!)
2) Safety Net: It safeguards TLG from international incidents (I had a spiel here about the study and purpose of history and some other stuff but everyone made me delete it. My real passion is history and everyone is like “No one cares, Steve.” I might bring it up on twitch tomorrow!).
3) Environment: It is good for the environment as it cuts down on trans-oceanic shipping and pollution (I’m a huge fan of leaving the space you occupy cleaner than when you found it... That and whales. I've always loved whales, and my brain pan still hurts from the idea that all those cargo ships carrying all this stuff back and forth over the oceans causes so much noise that the whales can’t see/hear straight), and so on and so on. It’s just a environmental policy to produce domestically.
Does it cost TLG more than using manufacturing overseas? Yes, it costs more. There is no doubt about that. But that’s okay. That’s between me, Davis, Tim, my wife, the check book, and banks. 😊
Afterthought: I check regularly with our local manufactures to see where they purchase their raw materials. Paper, headbands, board, litho wrap and other materials are all purchased from local sources, except some specialty paper (that TLG never uses) from South Korea. So even the raw materials are domestic.
Second Afterthought: Dice are sometimes made in China. Sometimes domestically.
Third Afterthought: We have produced books in Canada. In fact, our first books were printed at Preney Print and Litho in Canada. That was in the long-ago times. And we will probably do so again in the future. But Canada, like Mexico, is just in the neighborhood. I love my neighbors.
With that in column A… We have column B….
Years ago, TLG invested in its own print shop. We produce a mountain of soft cover books for ourselves and various publishers and entities. As with our outsourced production, our materials are all bought locally with the sole exception that occasionally some of our paper, though purchased from a local company, is manufactured by a German Company (who in turn has the pulp turned to paper in Finland). This is replacement paper when our normal domestic supplier runs out, which is not very often. So by and large all our materials for the print shop are made in the U.S. with an occasional deviation to Germany/Finland (Won’t somebody think of the whales!).
I Don’t Care Steve. This is the longest brief I’ve ever read. What about my Kickstarter Pledge?
Almost there….
Printing domestically has a very positive outcome on our production in most circumstances. Recently the tariff wars caused supply issues. And now our current crisis has done the same. China’s closing up shop has had almost no impact on us, and the impact it has had was indirect and easy to navigate.
As soon as the virus jumped from China to Korea, we anticipated an interruption in the international trade and supply chain. I wasn’t worried so much about not getting books printed as we print domestically, but in the availability of domestic supplies. As soon as China shut down her provinces and closed shop I suspected that we would begin suffering from short term supply shortages, largely because everyone else - printers and publishers in all fields - as soon as they saw the overseas supply channel was shut off, would turn to local supply sources, causing some disruption and shortages for TLG. (You watched this play out in the toilet paper rush. There was no real panic buying. It was just normal buying, but everyone did it at once, and your local grocer was in no way prepared for that. Their normal stocks were depleted immediately, then they restocked as they always did and those were depleted immediately as well. This causes the illusion of shortages to the consumer...because the shelves are empty...so they buy more. Its a vicious cycle. Grocers are having to adjust a decade’s worth of habits and knowledge about their inventory control to accommodate a sudden rush from all their customers. The supply channel is only now shaking itself out).
With this supply channel threat in mind, as soon as this virus jumped the Korean border, we began stocking up on materials needed to manufacture books. We have at present about a three month’s supply of paper, a year’s supply of glue, extra parts for the equipment, and two Kickstarters and two month’s supply of packing material and boxes (all this was based on a slightly higher than average monthly sales to accommodate any upward fluctuations in our sales).
Finally the important part...
So, in short, we should experience no shortages in supplies to print or manufacture your books. We have more than enough materials to complete and ship the Amazing Adventures 5E Kickstarter, Codex Egyptium, Codex Celtarum, Gaxmoor and other Kickstarters.
Government Shut Down
This we have no control over. If our domestic producers are shut down by State or Federal order, then we can do nothing about that. However, that has not happened as of yet. We have already received the hardcover version of Amazing Adventures 5E from the printers so it is in the bag. Egypt and Celtarum should be print ready in the next short while. But on this point, we’ll keep you posted.
Wrapping up
In short, the unfolding economic crises and the pandemic has not impacted our production or release schedule. Any product that is late can be laid squarely on us here!
April 2, 2020
He Who Sits on the Elephants Back
Stephen Chenault
