the bard welcomes you
Hello everyone!
I am thrilled to announce that just next week, I will be launching my new kickstarter for my 5e book Monstrous Heroes! This book is all about playing monster classes. These are mythic race-class combos that go beyond mere humanoids.
Check out the kickstarter page!
Hello everyone! Can you believe it? This final update for this project! I am organizing this by topic.
THANKS × 1,000,000
First of all, I want to give each and every one of you a heartfelt THANK YOU. It is incredible to think that this project has wrapped up. As I state in the beginning of the Emporium, you all displayed such patience and graciousness as I battled what I thought was going to be a manticore, but turned out to be three hydras. There were some extreme challenges and complications that I had to face throughout this process, but we made it, and the book is glorious—an epic tome to last for ages.
The book is now available for purchase on esperthebard.com.
EUROPEAN ORDERS
It is possible that some European backers might not have received their books just yet, but I don't imagine it should be more than just a few days now (I sent out the last of the European orders on June 23rd). Reports that I have received state that when the book arrives in the backer's country, it gets a new tracking number from that country's postal service, and the backer is charged a customs fee, around $10 equivalent (this can come as an email or physical mail).
If anyone has questions or concerns, please message me directly. I want to make sure everyone receives their book and any issues get resolved.
HARD LESSONS LEARNED
This has been such a huge learning experience for me. I have learned a lot of hard lessons, and truth be told, there have been many moments in which I was quite hard on myself, frustrated about problems and because I did not know certain important things. Sometimes I felt like I was disappointing people, and I hate that feeling. The biggest challenge to this whole project was of course the pandemic, which caused the worst problems and longest delays. Even though that is not my fault, I still feel the weight of responsibility. That weight was crushing at times. Well, I am definitely going to apply the knowledge and wisdom I gained to future projects.
MY NEXT KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN
I plan to soon launch my new kickstarter, so look out for that in the coming weeks. It is going to be a campaign to get funding for Season 2 of Labyrinthine Gardens. If you have not yet watched Season 1 (Trials of the Neophyte), check it out here. It is still ongoing, though pretty far in. This is a narrated D&D adventure, not a livestream or a group playing, but a 100% immersive experience: all art, minis, storytelling, and gameplay. The viewers comment to influence the character's decisions.
The new kickstarter would serve to generate proper funding to make it possible for me to do Season 2. This kind of interactive narrated adventure is one of my favorite kinds of content to create, but it is time-consuming and costly, so I don't know if S2 could be possible without funding. There will also be a backer reward of a pdf adventure based on Trials of the Neophyte (S1), which will function as a long D&D 5e adventure with options to run it as a solo adventure for one character (like in the youtube series) or for a whole party. I'm also working on additional backer rewards and stretch goals, which I hope will be interesting to people. Once again, I will shoot for the stars, hope and pray for the best, and see what happens.
Until then, my brave companions, may your adventures be many.
—Esper
Hello everyone,
There are many things I want to comment on, so I'll organize them by topic.
UK/Europe Shipping
I have shipped out many of the books UK/European backers. The final set will go out within just a couple days. Trying to understand VAT is a complicated, confusing nightmare, and in the end, I came to learn that VAT is not something that I need to be handling. If I were a bigger company doing lots of business in Europe, then it would be. But as just a kickstarter, it is not something that I need to mess with, nor does it make any sense for me; A company has to register for VAT with each country they do business in, which costs several hundred dollars a year, and the company includes the VAT in the price of their products so that their customers do still pay it, it's just lumped together.
So for those of you in the UK, EU, plan on customs likely charging you for the VAT or some kind of "import tax". I really don't know how much each individual country will charge. I've tried researching it again and again, and I get conflicting information everywhere I turn. This whole topic is a mess.
I wish I would have known about VAT before I started this project, so I could have put that advisory in my campaign. I spoke with a UK financial services company, and the rep said that most Europeans will know and understand this VAT charge, but it will probably catch some people by surprise.
Canadian Shipping
The last of the Canadian orders have shipped out as of yesterday. I have received a couple reports of people being charged a $40–$44 "customs charge" or "import tax" in order to receive the book. This seems like madness to me, and I cannot understand why this is happening to some people and why the charge would be so high on just a book.
Australia/New Zealand Shipping
Most of the books have been shipped out. The final set will go out within a couple days. I have received no reports of customs charges or other issues (none so far at least).
Asia Shipping
All of the books have been shipped out as of yesterday. I have received no reports of customs charges or other issues (none so far at least).
US Shipping
All of the books have been shipped out. There are probably some still in transit at this very moment, especially if it was a recent order or there was an address change issue. US shipping was much easier and much less expensive than international.
How Did the Esoteric Encounters Fundraiser Turn Out?
Esoteric Encounters raised a good amount of money and helped tremendously with the increased international shipping prices. I will still be taking a hit of about $2,000, but that is like getting bludgeoned by an ogre's greatclub instead of taking a critical hit from a lich's disintegrate ray. I want to thank everybody once again for contributing to this fundraiser. You really saved me! I hope you are enjoying the encounters and dungeons.
If You Have Any Problems
Email me directly: [email protected]
What Is Next?
This project has been one heck of a rollercoaster. I have learned some big lessons, some hard lessons. I will definitely be applying this knowledge on future projects. I will still make a conclusion post here within the upcoming weeks. I am working on my next Kickstarter project already, which will be related to my interactive, narrated adventure on YouTube. If you haven't seen it yet, check out Trials of the Neophyte. This is a viewer-influenced, fully immersive experience—an adventure like none other!
Hello everyone!
This is a quick update on shipping. I have been making steady progress on shipping the hardcover version of the Emporium.
Essentially all the US orders have been shipped. I am making good progress with Canada, Australia, and Asia (e.g Singapore, Thailand). Shipping to UK/Europe will begin soon.
If you haven't got a copy of Esoteric Encounters yet, please consider doing so. It helps raise funds to cover the crazy international shipping costs (due to the pandemic), and it gets you a digital package of encounters/short adventures, maps, and creature tokens, all using content from the Emporium.
You can get it from my Backerkit pre-order store. I have to manually process each order that comes in (which I check regularly every day at the moment), and as soon as I do, Esoteric Encounters is available for you to download right away: https://espers-emporium-of-esoterica.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
There is a light at the end of the shipping tunnel. Thank you everyone who has purchased Esoteric Encounters and thank you all again for displaying such support.
Until next time!
Esper
Hello everyone! Here is the update regarding shipping the Emporium. I made a video that covers this big announcement, check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msWY2CGhz3k
International shipping fees have increased greatly since my campaign launched. I am asking for donations to help offset these costs. I am not a huge corporation, just a guy (so the additional shipping costs would destroy me). As a reward, I have created a companion product for Esper’s Emporium of Esoterica.
Esoteric Encounters includes:
* 50-page pdf of 14 short adventures that feature monsters and traps from Esper's Emporium of Esoterica
* Map Pack - Ruins & Hinterlands: 14 maps that correspond to the short adventures. They can be used on virtual tabletops or even printed at home.
* Digital tokens for all the Emporium monsters in the short adventures
You are able to donate an amount of your choice (starting from $15), which I greatly appreciate.
International shipping fees have shot up since the campaign backers were charged (back in 2020). So, in many cases the shipping cost went up by $25–35 per person.
These increases are mainly due to the global pandemic. It is also a matter of the Emporium weighing more than originally planned, because only a heavier satin paper was available (again, a consequence of the pandemic).
Once more, you have my sincere gratitude, and I hope this companion product enhances your enjoyment of the Emporium and sparks some great adventures for you and your friends.
Esper
Clarification: If you live in the United States, the Emporium is already shipping here. It's a slow process due to the backlog, but it is otherwise moving along. You are still very much encouraged to donate and get Esoteric Encounters.