Kickstarter

Navigating the intricacies of running a player organization in an online game can be a tough job. There are rules to follow, team members to inspire, and resources to be assigned. The road is bumpy for any person who volunteers to take on a role of leadership but it doesn't always have to be. Why not allow Ferrel the opportunity to share with you what he has learned through hardships and victories?

What is The Guild Leader's Companion?

The GLC is a guide written for online gamers that are or are interested in running their own player organizations. Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski has collected all of his knowledge and experiences as a successful guild leader and made them available to anyone that wants insight into just what it will take to be a leader. The GLC contains a detailed account of the numerous intricacies that go into running a player organization and strategies for dealing with the day to day challenges a leader may face. The Guild Leader's Companion is Ferrel's attempt to make life just a bit easier for leaders like himself and to give aspiring leaders and/or curious team members an insider's view of what goes on behind the scenes of player leadership.

Who is this Ferrel person?

Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski is the leader of the long standing MMORPG raid guild Iniquity and the Editor-in-Chief of Epic Slant Press. He has been an MMO player, leader, and raider for over ten years. In that time Ferrel has experienced both competitive and casual raiding, all forms of PvP, and has enjoyed a great deal of success with Iniquity. 

In 2008 Ferrel started Epic Slant Press to share his experiences with the online community at large. Since that time he has been involved with several podcasts, written hundreds of blog posts, and authored two books: The Guild Leader's Companion and The Raider's Companion.

Why a second edition?

In publishing his second book, The Raider’s Companion, Ferrel sought to bring a whole new level of professionalism to Epic Slant Press. He believed that with a little help from some wonderful people he could take the RC to the next level. Thanks to the amazing supporters here at Kickstarter The Raider's Companion enjoyed a successful project and as a result had an extremely professional polish to it. It was far and away an improvement over The Guild Leader’s Companion.

It became abundantly clear to Ferrel that while The Guild Leader’s Companion was successful from a content perspective it could be greatly improved on in the publishing side of things. He set himself on reworking the GLC's layout but quickly realized there was an opportunity to add more value and insight into the book. What began as a simple coat of fresh paint turned into a serious revision. The GLC2e has been grown (30% more content), refined, reimagined, and reformatted to the point that it can very easily stand on its own merits.

What will this project's funds be used for?

Your generous contributions will go to supporting the individuals who help bring The Guild Leader's Companion 2e to a high polish and the administrative fees associated with publishing it. You're not funding Ferrel to write a manuscript! That work has already been done! Your support will be going to editing, artwork, printing fees, reward fulfillment, and all the little expenses that sneak up without warning. 

Thank you for taking the time to learn about Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski and The Guild Leader's Companion 2nd Edition. Your support is truly appreciated and will go towards a book that hopes to make life easier for the thousands of players who take on the responsibility of leadership day in and day out.

The Team

Epic Slant Press is pleased to announce that the same team that brought you The Raider’s Companion has returned to work on The Guild Leader’s Companion 2e. Amanda Martin will be taking on all of the illustration and cover responsibilities, Ellie Bard will return as our stellar editor, and of course Adam “Ferrel” Trzonkowski is the author.

Stretch Goals

Each time that The Guild Leader's Companion 2e Kickstarter project reaches a new milestone above the original goal of $800 special rewards will open up! These rewards might be an item or service that Epic Slant Press adds to the supporter packages or a process that will improve the quality of the book! Every extra dollar from generous supporters will help to add another level of polish to an already great book. 

Kicking It Forward

The Guild Leader's Companion 2e is a Kicking It Forward project! We pledge to reinvest 5% of any profits from this project back into other Kickstarter projects. (We pretty much have to, Ferrel is a Kickstarter addict).

Amanda's Art

If you're curious what the art prints will look like we've included an example below! Amanda will draw any of your characters!

Update One: Funded in 20 hours!

I want to say thank you to all of the early supporters who came out and immediately backed The Guild Leader’s Companion 2nd Edition! Your efforts have made it possible for us to have the cover updated and a professional round of editing done. That is outstanding! The GLC2e is on the fast track to success!

We’ve got a whole lot of days left so please try to get the word out about the campaign. All of the additional funds we raise will go directly into bringing the book to new levels of professional polish. We also have some pretty cool additional rewards that will release if we meet our stretch goals. Each reward adds more value to all of the rewards packages!

I am also pleased to announce that our good friends at Guild Launch have offered to do their part to help us reach our stretch goals. They’ve sweetened the deal for the $2000 goal! If we reach that milestone we’ll randomly select one person to interview for the Guild Launch blog when the campaign is over. That supporter can talk about their guild, why they supported the GLC2e, and other things of that nature. It should be a lot of fun!

Once more, thank you for sending us off to a great start 20 hours after the announcement of our campaign! We still have a lot of time to hit some big milestones and create a book that is truly unique and special! 

Update Two: Second Stretch Goal Achieved!

Ladies and gentlemen we have unlocked our second stretch goal! Thanks to your backing and getting the word out this weekend we hit and exceeded the $1500 mark before Sunday! I am truly grateful for all of your support! Everyone at the $20 and above level will now be receiving a pair of Epic Slant Press six-sided dice in the rewards package! You can now game in style with our wolf logo!

I truly want to thank you all for committing your social capital and money to this campaign. Every dollar helps us improve The Guild Leader’s Companion 2nd edition! I can’t wait to get it into your hands. I am also pleased to say that we’ll be releasing a sneak peak of it within a week. Ellie is putting the finishing touches on some of the first chapter and I want to share that with you!

Once more I have to say how much I appreciate you all! We have a lot of days left to go and I’m excited about where that can take us. At this point, since we are funded, feel free to send me a Kickstarter message with the shout out you would like for me to do. I’ll go ahead and get that rolling!

Update Three: The GLC2e Sample Series

Hello kind supporters! Let me first say thank you and welcome to everyone who came on board over the weekend. I truly appreciate your support! We were able to raise a lot of additional funds and hit our second stretch goal. That was a wonderful experience! I hope to repeat it again over the Memorial Day holiday. 

Today I wanted to give everyone a heads up on The Guild Leader's Companion 2nd Edition sample series. Over the duration of the Kickstarter campaign I am going to release samples from the edited manuscript on Epic Slant for everyone to read. These samples will be bite-sized (about 700 words) and serialized. Right now you can read the first installment about The Organization Leader! When new articles come up they'll link to the originals and you can follow through the whole section one piece at a time!

With that said, I think that as a supporter you're entitled to a higher quality of service. Each time I finish a full section I'll post a backer-only link that will give you access to a special PDF version of the entire section as a whole. You can download it once, avoid having to click through one post after the other to read the whole section, and keep it for yourself to read on any device you want. 

Once more I want to thank you for your support. Your contributions and willingness to spread the word about The Guild Leader's Companion 2nd Edition have made it a success before it has even hit the shelves! This weekend is going to be another "get the word out" blitz so if you can assist in that please do so!