We had a delay!
Unfortunately, we had a problem with our initial shipment from the printer. En route, there was some rough handling and we received a lot of damaged card boxes. We got those replaced, but I ended up having to go through several decks by hand and repackage. I counted something like 10,000 cards and repacked nearly a hundred boxes, but we’re back on track.
Here's the good news - I shipped about half of the rewards yesterday afternoon by Priority Mail. If all goes well, many of you should have your goodies in hand by the weekend. I think next Tuesday at the latest. I shipped most of the $25 rewards, $40 rewards and $65 rewards.
I did not ship the international rewards yet - I got some additional info about the best ways to ship packages of this relative size and I just need to secure some appropriately-sized boxes. If I am able to get enough boxes today, those will all go out tomorrow. Failing that, they will ship Monday at the very latest. Depending on your location it will be somewhere between 4 and 10 days for delivery.
What didn't ship: Anyone getting an Expansion set (except the $65 folks who paid for an extra shipment) will have to wait a couple of weeks until I get the Expansions printed. Since I originally slated these for August delivery, if all goes well you will get your goodies in July.
The one exception is for anyone who is able to attend the launch party. If you can make it to the launch, I will give you everything I have on hand and just ship the Expansion when it is ready.
Here's the other thing about the Expansion - my original plan was to send the "Kicked Up To Six" Expansion to everyone. This one adds Parts to the game to facilitate up to 6 (or even more) players. The thing is, I have been working a lot on the second Expansion that adds Accessories to the game. Accessories are a whole new layer of complexity and add some really interesting new elements.
So here's what I decided to do - I printed a short run of the first Expansion and I'm going to give that to everyone as promised. In fact, because of the damage delay, I was able to get those at the same time as the replacement boxes. So the folks who are getting two shipments will already be getting the first Expansion with their deck.
In the next couple of weeks, when I finalize the Accessories deck and get it printed, everyone who made a pledge including the Expansion will also get the Accessories deck. And those expecting a second shipment will also, of course, get the Accessories deck sent at that time. Think of it as a happy little appreciation bonus.
Deckboxes - here's another note, for those of you receiving deckboxes. I was, after all, able to get white boxes. I discovered something, however. I had signed and sketched on a box for a friend about a month ago. He had a demo deck in the box and was showing the game to just about everyone he encountered. Unfortunately, the great Sharpie marker writing is not holding up too well. Especially on the back and sides where the box gets handled the most, a lot of the writing has rubbed off.
We talked about covering the writing with packing tape or something, but I thought that would make the boxes look kind of weird. Instead I contained my sketching to the front of the deck box and signed it in a spot that gets covered by the front flap when the box is closed. I find that I really never need to touch the front of the box. It is just as east to hold it on the sides, back against my palm. I recommend this if you want to preserve the sketch and still use the box. Or you can cover it with packing tape. It's your box.
I just realized that while I had dozens of rewards laid out in an orderly fashion on top of the ping pong table I never took a picture. D'oh! That would have been cool to send. Oh well.
Last thing - we are still working on the Launch Party, but right now it looks like it will probably be the weekend of July 21 (Saturday). I'm not sure if we will host the main event on Saturday or Sunday (July 22) but we will probably have Mad Science The Card Game goodies and games going on both days, at least for a little while.
Everyone is invited and there will be games, shirts, stickers, special cards and such goodies available. At some point we will have refreshments, music, and possibly even a visit from the Skateboard Heroes. If you are interested in attending and need directions to Alterniverse (they just moved... across the street) send me a message.
We have several friends in the NYC area, so if anyone wants to take Metro North to Poughkeepsie, we can arrange a little shuttle action as well - we just need to coordinate times. If you are interested, let me know.
Thank you for reading this massive update. If you have any questions about your shipment, whether or not is was sent, or anything else, do not hesitate to contact me. When you get your deck, you may have questions about gameplay, shoot me a line and we'll work it out. If you want to come to the Launch Party (and KS pledgers will definitely be guests of honor!) let me know.
Again, thank you everyone for your support. This has been a load of fun and I feel like we're just getting started.
Talk to you soon!
Drew
