Outliers: the award-winning solo TTRPG of weird research

Lab Notebook Entry: Day Sixty-One
5 months ago – Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 01:59:05 AM

Hello Research Assistants,

A gentle reminder that there are just thirteen days to go until the BackerKit surveys are locked (although pre-orders may remain open for another week or so). If you're one of the 67 people who haven't responded yet, please head to BackerKit now to fill out your survey so you can get your stuff. If you've lost the original email, you can reset it at that link.

The timeline is:

• April 28th: surveys close (final reminder email)
• April 30th: cards are charged (plus two weeks for failed cards to be retried, etc.)
• May 14th: shipping officially starts (although some shipping will have gone out in advance of this)

Here's the plan for those who haven't responded by the cutoff date:

• Lab Technicians and Principal Investigators: I'll send you a direct message through Kickstarter a few days before the survey closes to remind you, and if you don't respond, you won't get your rewards with everyone else. I'll send out PDFs by direct email
• Research Assistants: your PDFs will be delivered by direct email
• Support only and backers who had unresolved card errors: no plan! If you don't respond, you won't get anything.

As I said, I'll probably leave pre-orders open for an extra week, but charge pre-order cards immediately.

Thanks so much for your continued support. It means the world to us.

Regards,

Marx //

Lab Notebook Entry: Day Fifty-Eight
5 months ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 11:20:40 PM

Good morning Research Assistants,

After some strange phone calls and voicemail messages earlier in the week about "broken down pallet trucks" and "uncertainty about tail lifts" I took it as a sign that something was about to happen.

So, imagine my surprise (it was not much, although I had expected it a day earlier) when yesterday I took delivery of a pallet from a very taciturn driver (I believe they spoke once to confirm my name) who may, to be honest, have been a traveller from another time.

On this pallet, under some much needed top and edge protection, and through a protective barrier of shrink wrap, were 26½ small-ish boxes marked mysteriously with "crowdfunding publication" and two numbers: the first, 80, and the second I did not recognise (seriously, it was definitely a number, but every time I looked at it it got all blurry and I couldn't tell what it was).

No time to waste though as extremely ominous black clouds had gathered above my house. As the truck ambled away, pallet truck and tail lift included, I was left with the task of hurriedly carrying the 26½ boxes inside, to be stacked neatly in my bedroom, much to the chagrin of the other occutrousers of my house.

As they heavens opened, I was suddenly greeted with a raucous chorus: tired, hungry, dirty children, demanding rest and food and not-cleaning. Then, another phone call, requesting politely that I determine how my time is to be spent over the next eighteen weeks. Then, further requests for food, this time from my own stomach.

So it was not until several hours later, in between calling regulators and directors, that I was able to open just one of the now-capitalised Boxes. But imagine my delight (this time it was real).

Folks, these zines are lovely. Aside from the general printing quality, which is great, we made the right call on the paper weight; the extra thick front and back frosted covers are really good; and the binding is much better than I had expected from the test print last year. My partner said "those look like something you'd get at a conference," so, job done.

I have rather a lot of these to process, but that's okay because I've got a few weeks before the survey closes. Please continue to fill them in! We're at 92% complete, but there's still people who've not added addresses and/or payments. Please check if you started and didn't finish, or if you've not started! The link is outliers.backerkit.com.

To head off a question I got once or twice: We're trying to get the annotated edition done soon, and I'll get as much of the print and play stuff up on Itchio and DTRPG platforms this week as I can.

And, I'm doing several test shipments this week to the project staffers. Zines and stickers incoming, project creators!

I have received a bit of bad news regarding EU orders: due to an error on my part, the DDP shipping to the EU is rather more expensive than I had originally planned. We can absorb the cost, thankfully, but it takes us close to the knuckle on that. I'm not asking anybody to do anything about this, because it's our fault, but please note that we have a lot less contingency than we had expected!

ZINES ARE COMING.

That's all.

Marx //

Lab Notebook Entry: Day Forty-Nine
6 months ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 12:20:02 PM

Hello lab assistants,

You're probably wondering why I'm messaging you only a day after I last did. Well, it's because I've sent out hundreds of download links today - digital copies for people who've entered their pledges and told me where they wanted the PDFs to go.

So if you've filled out your survey, check your inbox and spam folder: you should see a message from me (Marx Shepherd) if you've asked for Itchio fulfillment or direct email, or from DriveThruRPG if you requested it there.

If you don't see it and you've asked for Itchio fulfillment, it's coming, I just can't send more than 101 emails per day with the distribution method I'm using, so I'll keep sending those over the next couple of days.

There are about 130 of you who haven't responded to the survey yet. I'll send another set of links out next Wednesday with the new respondees!

Keep it real, and don't let the Regulatory Binder hypnotise you.

Marx //

Lab Notebook Entry: Day Forty-Eight
6 months ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 01:19:11 AM

Hello lab assistants,

Welcome to April.

Surveys and pre-orders on Backerkit are still open, and will be for nearly four weeks more, so if you haven't filled in your survey yet (it can be as quick as two minutes!), please do so! If stuff arrives earlier than I expected, I might lock UK and RoW orders (US, EU, and  now Australia/New Zealand are being dealt with by third party fulfillers, so I can't lock those yet) so their cards can be charged and addresses locked in. But anyway yes, please fill in your survey, even if you're a digital backer, so I know where to send your stuff!

Timelines: I am expecting zines to arrive "after Easter" which covers a period of about twelve months, but to be honest I think it'll be this week or next. Excitingly a massive box of stickers arrived at my house last week. It was so heavy I needed help carrying it to my "warehouse" (a void space under my desk). There were about fifty spare of either but they're selling like hot cakes, so if you'd like a sticker, feel free to add them to your order on Backerkit. They're pretty cheap and to be honest they're not much use to me after the campaign is done.

Bonus assets: you might remember that in February we built a big head of steam on this project before it launched, and I said we'd have some bonus print-and-play assets courtesy of FHC illustrator Carly A-F and layout designer James Hanna. I'm very pleased to announce that you can now download these from Google Drive. There are tokens (single and in Avery RND 25 sheets), a filing cabinet standee, and the lab money sheets. I'm waiting for confirmation on the play aids, which will be print-at-home lab notebook sheets and some sheets you can cut out and stick to the front of your lab notebook.

I think that's it for today, but once again, please complete your survey if you haven't yet! I'll check back in in a few weeks, when it's time to lock orders.

Abrazos,

Marx //

Lab Notebook Entry: Day Forty-Two
6 months ago – Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 02:06:34 AM

Hello Research Assistants,

Turns out I got the previous day counts wrong. To paraphrase one of my favourite podcasts, Lads on Tour, time is weird in the lab.

We're 48 hours-ish into the survey period and 69% of you (nice) have responded already. We've raised about 79% of the shipping funds I estimated which means that we're comfortable about breaking even on shipping (always a worry) so I'm in good spirits.

I just want to keep a little light pressure on in terms of getting these backer surveys completed, because it means you'll get your items sooner. If you're a PDF-only backer, you might wonder why you need to complete the survey, and the answer is that otherwise I won't know where to send your digital copies (although we have a fallback option).

Thanks to everyone who's already purchased add-ons, particularly community copies. I am a bit unsure of total numbers yet but there are probably over 500 community copies to be served up, which isn't infinite, but it's a damn high number of people who can get access to Outliers for free.

Anyway here's the link again. If you lost your email, you can recover your survey here.

Have a great day - don't feed the fax machine after midnight.

Marx //