Kickstarter

The realist in me realizes that at this point, this Kickstarter is likely a failure. This is not surprising. I've been told by many that the first Kickstarter often fails, and it's a necessary learning experience.

If the goal is not reached, this project isn't dead. It will return for a second attempt probably next March, in a somewhat different form and with a hopefully less lofty goal. I big part of the cost was the intention to own the fabrication equipment, which even for low rate mass production can be quite expensive, accounting for nearly 80% of the target amount. If this kickstarter fails to reach that ambitious $11,000 goal, the next six months will focus on investigating the possibility of having a plastics company in the region handle mold making and manufacturing. Hopefully that will lower the goal.

As for the learning experience, it has been substantial. The first time out, you really don't know what you're doing, so there are plenty of mistakes to be made. The next time around, I intend to offer better goals and do better advertising, both of which will need me to find partners to get involved. Of course, a lot more questions will have answers straight out of the gate next time as well.

And there is some disgust factor whinging around for me as well. While this project struggles to reach $11,000 to do something for the good of the gaming community at large, Paizo and Reaper managed to reap more than $1.5 million for a miniatures project. Are so many of us really that selfish?

Still waiting for Chessex to deliver the blanks. They used to be a respectable company before that merger with Diamond.

Anyway, a few people have asked about bias that might be introduced.
There are three ways to compensate without involving horrifically complex math and CAD programming.

First, inertial flow. This involves the sawtooth edge. By orienting that edge in a stable pattern, inertia will flow according to that pattern, eliminating the possibility that a weight bias derived from that feature would result in a "loaded" die. The D6 would be a special case, where the flow is in two patterns weighting toward opposed corners. The D20 would be another special case, with interlocking patterns.

Second, balanced distribution. The pips are very specific in their influence by weight. Thus, the number will be distributed so that the polar opposite face on the die will involve the same number of pips.

Sorry for the delay in answering this question. I'm also in charge of Halloween fundraising for a non-profit open space preservation group, and the work on this year's haunted trail has finally gathered a head of steam. I was actually considering starting a kickstarter to raise funds for some rather expensive prop building but that would be biting off more than I can chew. If you want to support that fundraiser for me as well and you're in the Philadelphia PA area, you can come out and give the trail a tour for $5 on October 27.

Anyway, international shipping will add $7.50. Flat rate, anywhere the USPS will allow me to send things. You'll have to hit up their website to determine if they'll let you get things.

Also, chessex still hasn't delivered my blanks. I just ordered a second batch and will start hassling them over the missing first batch. :(

I can't believe I forgot about this. It has been asked quite a bit. The answer is, I have no clue, but I'll go get one.

Inside the US, I'll be shipping via priority mail, where the USPS will supply a box and ship at a flat rate.

But for overseas shipping, I need to go price small boxes at the local office supply centers and then get a sample box and a fistful of dice weighed so I can do a bunch of estimates via the USPS website.

Hopefully, a reasonable combination of price and estimated delivery time can be found.

I missed a question I was asked. "Also, will the dice have a way for braille reading people to tell which side is up? For instance, on a normal 20 sided die, usually either the 9 or 6 will have a line under it since the result could be either one depending on where you stand."

The best way to explain how things are done is rather ironically a visual example. Each facing will have one rough edge etched into it, as shown by the attached image.This way, every face will have a bottom. While we who can see only have to deal with trying to figure out which way is up for 6 and 9, Braille reader have to figure out which way is up for three different groups of numbers: 2 and 3; 5 and 9; and worst of all, 4, 6, 8, and 0.