The DUNGENERATOR: DIE in a Dungeon

AN INKY SLUSH BEGINS POURING FROM A DRAIN ABOVE YOU. Progress report!
10 months ago – Fri, Jun 06, 2025 at 04:13:10 PM

Greetings, Dungenerators!

Never fear: Progress is being made getting this big-ole-game-in-a-itty-bitty-box out the door and into your adventurous mitts! Unfortunately, it's the sort of progress that involves emailing back and forth with handfuls of people and fixing tiny erros [<- like that one], which doesn't lend itself to fun, splashy updates. 

However:

I Have Touched All of the Things

I've gotten to hold the physical pre-production samples in my grubby paws, and I'm very happy to report they absolutely do not disappoint!

The box is a compact 6x4x2 inches, everything lines up splendidly, and its colors pop. The "soft touch" coating feels Really Rather Fancy, and the magnetic clasp brings me as much joy as perhaps I've... ever known? I'm in love with this dang box, and I can't wait for you to get it in-hand too! 

The DIAD cards are beautiful, and the linen texture on them is better than I'd dared hope. With Modiphius's assistance, I splurged on casino-grade, "black core" cardstock for the DUNGENERATOR cards to give them a little extra "heft," and I'm quite pleased with the result there, too. (It did take some logistical heroics from our manufacturer, so hats off to them!)

The rulebook also got a premium "soft touch" texture coating on its cover, with some nice glossy stock on the interior. No notes there (though I did catch and fix a last-minute page number typo that snuck in when I last added a couple of sections). 

Everything - the double-sized DIAD deck, the Series 1 DUNGENERATOR (with tuck box), the two sets of dice, and the manual - fits perfectly within the box, so you can just chuck it in your go-bag (or through a window, or at an assailant before making your getaway; this thing is thicc)! There's very little extra room ("air") in this sweet little package, which should help with both shipping cost and damage reduction. Yay!

You Have Chosen Your Dice Colors

The dice colors shown above are just samples, of course. You voted to pick what dice colors will be included in the actual game box! And the results are in:

Most of the way, it was neck-and-neck between "Bright pink dice with black numbering (sort of Mork-Borg-esque)" and "Neon green dice with black numbering," so! I decided to split the difference and do the neon green with a nod to the runner-up with some bright pink numbers.

For the Pantone-fans (Fantones?) amongst you, the first set of dice will be 100C yellow (top left) with Black C numbers (bottom left), while the second set will be 375 C neon green (second from left) with 212 C pink numbers (second from right). (With the caveat that the other pink, 213 C, will be used in the case of there not being enough contrast between the green and pink.)

Like with all my components, I've done my best to test this palette for color-blind accessibility, and all looks good. It is my humble opinion that each and every one of these components is going to absolutely whip ass.

The Money is Leaving the Station 

"So, what's actually happening right now?"

As you may have heard, US tariffs are currently getting a "temporary reprieve" (down from 180% or whatever it was, but still up 30% from the start of the year), and so everyone now working on this project has been hustling to get it over the finish line, printed, assembled, and put on a boat (or, perhaps, multiple boats). 

This means I have completed the literally-thousands-of-items-long checklist of nested checklists that it took to create this thing, and now my job is to nudge folks along via emails and figure out how to send them terrifyingly large amounts of money across various oceans. The project has officially left the domain of "one guy in a tiny apartment clicking a mouse for 12 hours at a stretch" to the domain of "several groups of people in offices with weekends and sick leave." But fear not! I shall not rest, and I am an expert Emailer Guy.

"Too Long! I Shan't Read't!"

Everything is set up to get everything shipped before the tariff-window possibly closes; I'm just waiting on some emails that will let me send the manufacturer their money. 

Speaking of Those Pesky Tariffs:

I've been talking with Modiphius and BackerKit about the tariffs impact on backers (read: beloved Dungenerators), and as long as we stay on track right now, it should be pretty minimal. I may need to charge US backers a small tariffs surcharge (like a couple of bucks). BackerKit has put together a new tool to do this easily, so it'll just happen when shipping is charged (if it needs to happen). 

The main impact will be on distribution/retail margins; the game may now cost somewhere around $45 in the US. It's a big game with a lot of fancy components, but I'm not sure how many print runs will make it to the US market for that reason. If you have an American buddy that's on the fence about pre-ordering... this might be their chance to get a copy. We'll see. Fingers crossed!

Boats Are Notoriously Slow (but Steady)

My original timeline estimate had these shipping out in May, and we are fully beyond that. 

I apologize for that! Making even a small game is really complicated, and (as it turns out) this is a big, complex game that just happens to fit in a tiny brick of a package. There's been a lot of back and forth about getting the files just right for print; different requirements for different components and different manufacturing processes that had me rebuilding all the files (not just for DIAD, but for the already-completed DUNGENERATOR decks); and then on top of it all, a bunch of the world-changing events that always tend to creep into my plans to just make a dang ol' board game.

So! Here's the new estimate:

Manufacturing can take "up to" 6 weeks once payment happens. Let's just assume that it'll take the whole 6 weeks and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't. Payment should happen next week. 

Getting a shipment of goods on a boat and across the world to fulfillment warehouses usually takes about 2 months. This is going to be made a little more complex by the fact that everyone manufacturing anything complicated has put it on pause for a bit and is now scrambling to get their stuff made and put on a boat. 

So all told, shipping from warehouses to your door should start happening somewhere in the ballpark of August, but let's go ahead and call it September. 

I'll be updating you step-by-step as things proceed, and I also have some fun stuff planned to keep us all entertained as we wait. :D

"What Should I Be Doing?"

(You may be asking yourself. Or me, I guess?)

If you are one of the 47 people who haven't filled out your BackerKit survey yet, please do so! It's the only way I'm gonna be able to send you your cool stuff. I'm going to dig into the BK backend (BKend?) soon and figure out how to contact you one-by-one and get you set up. 

Keep your mailing address updated. I'll definitely send out another alert when it's almost time to pay for shipping, remind you to make sure your address is current, etc.

Maybe play the digital version while you wait? Or definitely check out some campaign playthroughs:

Board at Home has been crawling their way through the print-and-play version, and I think their videos are pretty great. 

As always, if you have any questions, suggestions, etc., just pop 'em in the comments below or send me a message here on Kickstarter. I read them all! 

Keep thy boots and torches dry, and talk to you soon, Dungenerators! 
- Rollin

TENTACLES WRAP AROUND YOUR SWORD-ARM. Lots of news!
12 months ago – Mon, Apr 14, 2025 at 03:51:47 PM

Greetings, Dungenerators!

I know: It's been too long between updates! I've been hard at work getting the final files ready for manufacturing, and each time I've started writing an update I've received some big news that requires a re-write. So, here's a whole bunch of stuff all at once. :D

A Box Has Been Designed 

Gaze ye upon its terrible beauty:

Okay, tons to talk about here:

Wait, that's not a normal box!

It surely is not! While the bottom of the box will be your standard everyday high-quality box-bottom, the top is actually a wrap that starts on the box's back, continues around the side, then to the front, and finally to a magnetic clasp (!!!) on the other side. So it'll open up like a keen little book (or a dread tome, if you prefer).

I'm certain that makes less-than-complete sense, so here are some shots of an earlier prototype print to further illustrate what I mean:

A Co-Publisher Has Joined the Party

The particularly keen-eyed amongst you might have noted the Modiphius logo on the back of the larger box. This is because I've managed to find a co-publisher for DIE in a Dungeon! (Or, truth be told, they found me.)

Modiphius has worked on a number of incredible things, including most recently the Discworld TTRPG. If they're good enough for the estate of the venerable Sir Terry Pratchett, they're certainly good enough for li'l old me! 

While I'll still have full control over my art and designs, teaming up with Modiphius is going to help in a bunch of different ways, including directly improving this project:

• I'll have better manufacturing options. Being able to produce a larger run with wider distribution in mind allows me to make the cool, larger, magnetic wrap-around box instead of the simpler (but still high-quality) double-sized clamshell/tuck box that I had planned. 
  
  It'll also let me include more stuff in the box for free (like the 2 sets of polyhedral dice you may have seen listed on the back)! (More on that below.)
   
• They'll help me extend my reach. DIE in a Dungeon will be able to reach at least 3 times the audience it would if I were to continue promoting and selling it on my own. This, in turn, should make it easier for me to continue adding more to the DUNGENERATOR series! (As well as, you know, continuing to buy food and rent.)
   
• I'll have better shipping options. My plan has been to ship everything myself from the US, but (as you are most likely aware) the internal struggles the US is facing regarding tariffs and the dismantling of the US Postal Service are throwing a wrench into the works. (More on that below, too.)
  
  Having access to the fulfillment partners Modiphius works with should bring down the cost of international shipping on the whole and allow me to do fun things like, say, make my EU shipping VAT-friendly. 

Tariffs? More like "Tear" "Ifs" 😢

Am I right? Is this thing on 

So! I'm not going to go over the entirety of what's happening with US tariffs or why it's disproportionately bad for the entire tabletop industry (this post from Cephalofair Games sums it up well and has a list of further links, if you desire to dig in), but in short:

• The current US administration is charging companies (like publishers) a hefty extra percentage of manufacturing costs to import goods. Other countries are doing the same in retaliation. The companies paying for manufacturing/shipping (like me) are the ones paying for it. 
   
• Tabletop games (which include components like cards, minis, or dice) often have relatively tiny margins of profit, as in order to get a physical game into wider distribution, one usually has to charge around 5 times the manufacturing cost at retail. So: Increasing the manufacturing cost (by increasing tariffs) increases the retail price by the same amount multiplied by 5(!).
   
• These tariff increases have been announced suddenly and changed almost on a daily basis, leaving no time for publishers to plan ahead. As crowdfunded games take months (sometimes more!) to get to market, there's no way to build in enough of a buffer to account for these drastic changes. It's a bit of a tricky pickle, to say the least. 

But Wait - Aren't You Planning on Manufacturing in the US? 

I was! However, because this project has an international audience, the tariffs from shipping from the US to the rest of the world would have hit me anyway. 

To break it down simply, the cost of manufacturing the high-quality but comparatively bare-bones version of DIE in a Dungeon (with a smaller tuck box, smaller and shorter manual, no included dice or DUNGENERATOR deck) with a US manufacturer is roughly equal to manufacturing the fancier version (with the cool magnetic-clasp box, extended manual, 2 sets of dice and a DUNGENERATOR deck) overseas, even if we add the cost of tariffs to the overseas version! 

Beyond that, US manufacturing simply isn't able to handle things like making dice or nice board game boxes. I can make card-only games here, and that's it. Even adding a small rulebook drastically increases the US manufacturing cost. 

All that being said, my choices currently appear to be:

• Manufacture this project in the US, never send it to retail, spend most of my runway on tariffs and shipping, lay DIE in a Dungeon to rest, and find a day job while I figure out what sort of thing I should make next,

OR

• Manufacture a cooler version of DIAD overseas, get it into retail stores internationally, fulfill this project (possibly at a loss) in the US, and hope that international sales are good enough that I get to keep adding new stuff to DIAD and the DUNGENERATOR decks.

Apologies if this all sounds a bit grim! I know that you support my projects and read these for a mood boost, not the opposite! 

I want to end this section on a positive note, so let me just say this:

I have never run a crowdfunding project that hasn't faced a gigantic hurdle (and survived). I have, so far, produced and delivered these silly little decks of cards through a worldwide pandemic, international shipping disruptions, the invasion of one of my manufacturers by a neighboring country, and another manufacturer being nearly swept off the face of the planet by hurricanes. Making cool stuff, and getting it to you to make your life a tiny bit better, is my life's purpose. I don't always know how I'll manage to get it done, but I will get it done. 

How Does This All Affect the Timeline?

Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure at this moment how all of this global news is going to affect the manufacturing and shipping times of the game. I have delivered the final designs to the manufacturer, and am currently in the back-and-forth emailing-and-tweaking process that leads to a lot of files named DIAD_box_final_v12_update_FINAL.pdf and similar. In the end, though, I'm confident that the result will be the coolest (and, by far, the most complex) thing that I've ever made. 

It will probably take an extra month or so to organize and wait for overseas shipping, and it might be smart to wait a little while and see if these tariffs settle down into something manageable. I'll be sure to update you as soon as I know more about this. As always, I really appreciate your support and understanding. It turns out that even one silly li'l (gigantic) card game takes years of effort to make! 

Let's End on Something Fun

Being able to make the fancier version for retail lets me include some polyhedral dice! I should be able to include 2 sets of dice per copy of the game, and I'd like the first to be the classic yellow-with-black-numbering pictured in the Kickstarter images and on the back of the box. 

I'm not sure what colors the second set of dice should be, though, so I figured I would ask you! 

Here are the options I'm considering so far:

• Black dice with yellow numbering (the inverse of the first set)
• Bright pink dice with black numbering (sort of Mork-Borg-esque)
• Darker pink dice with yellow numbering (perhaps salmon?)
• Red dice with yellow numbering (attempting to match the colors of the cards)
• Neon green dice with black numbering

Please let me know which of these you'd prefer in the comments, or suggest an alternative if you've got a good idea!

And with that, the update is complete.

Apologies for how long this one took- I finished the box design, started an update, was offered the co-publishing deal, redesigned the box, rewrote the update, heard about tariffs, rewrote the update, watched tariffs change constantly for a while, and then figured you'd rather hear a bit of uncertainty from me than nothing. (And rewrote the update again.)

Thanks again for travelling with me on this always-interesting journey! If you have any questions, drop 'em below (or in the Discord) and I'll answer them as best I can. 

Stay safe, keep your boots and torches dry, and see you again soon, Dungenerator!

- Rollin

A SKELETAL HAND PUSHES A TOME INTO YOURS. Rulebook released! Updates! Pretty picture
about 1 year ago – Mon, Feb 17, 2025 at 05:02:31 PM

Greetings, Dungenerators!

I'm very excited to report that the layout for the rulebook is complete! Your support let me devote the time required to make sure it was a "work of Art." (I know what qualifies as Art is fully subjective, but in my little heart I feel I've nailed it.)

Behold:

You should already have the rulebook files awaiting you in your inbox (both the web/phone-ready and the print-and-play version, from both BackerKit and Itch.io).

If you catch anything that looks off while you're perusing the rulebook, please let me know! I've been going over it with a fine-tooth comb, but it's easy to miss something small (or even large) when you've been staring at the same files for a month. 

Big thanks to everyone that's caught errors or made suggestions for both the cards and rules! I really appreciate that so many of you have an attentiveness to detail that matches my own, and I'm going to do my best to harness all of it to make this game the best it can be!

With that in mind,

WHAT'S NEXT?

• I'm going to make a few small tweaks to some of the cards. (You'll probably see an update to all the files that reflects this, but that'll be on Itch.io so that the BackerKit files don't get even more confusing.)
• I'll finalize the box design. (It's still looking like I'll get to put the game in a larger, fancier box with perhaps some extra treats, but I'm not counting on that until the ink dries!)
• The files will go to print! (Woooo!)

After that, there's still fulfillment itself, plus all the extra digital goodies to get done. But: Progress is being made, we're still on track for our timeline, and things are shaping up! 

I should have more news (and the box design!) to share soon. Until then, keep those scabbards oiled! 

Cheers,
- Rollin

A SMALL BIRD PECKS A CODED MESSAGE INTO YOUR FOREARM. Print-and-Play files released!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 09, 2025 at 05:47:17 PM

Greetings, Dungenerators!

Ah, it feels like only yesterday since last we spoke. Oh, how we laughed! Ah, but we were mere children, then. (Oh wait, that was Monday.)

Super quick update time:

DIE in a Dungeon Print-and-Play files are out!

They're already in your email inbox via BackerKit, complete with (perhaps-too-detailed) instructions and two flavors of PDF, one each to represent the factions in the eternal struggle between Letter- and A4-sized printer paper. Download, digest, and enjoy!

WHAT ABOUT THE BOX?

The print-and-play files will be updated with a printable, foldable box, but the box design isn't finalized yet because I'm talking with a manufacturer about possibly switching to a slightly larger and fancier box. Don't quote me on that. Box.

WHAT ABOUT THE RULEBOOK?

Likewise, the print-and-play files will be updated with a printable quick-start rulebook, but I'm still in the midst of designing that nasty lad. I must make him beautiful! 

For now, you'll have to make do with the pre-layout rulebook, here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NQwmujMmMzRJLgMP0L8rqCnV72rSaHo10Wl46yfiOBo/

WHAT IF I FIND AN ERROR/RULES BUG/BROKEN FILE?

If you have playtest feedback, rules questions, etc., please tell me! The final files haven't been sent to the printers yet, so I can still incorporate some changes if you find something wild I've overlooked as you play. The best places to post questions are in the comments below, the DUNGENERATORS discord, or (if you insist) the BoardGameGeek page (which I do haunt every once in a while). 

WHAT'S NEXT?

I'm going to finish laying out the rulebook! After that, I'll get to work on fun little projects like the token packs and the Ạ̸͔͈̞̀̅͑p̶͔͈̐̈́͒̐p̵̮͌̐̽l̷̢͙̖̣̊̚ȇ̴̻͊̾s̴̪̺̬̳̅a̴͈̯͛ȗ̶̧c̵̡̞̍e̷͉͐r̶̢͇̮͈̽̈ę̴͍̥̣̆̿̌r̵̟͉̼͒̍̈́͜͠ while I email anxiously back and forth with manufacturers and wait for bits of intrepid cardboard to make their way across the globe. :D

That's all for now. The rulebook will take a little while to finish, so the next update will probably be in a few weeks. (Best to let your inbox cool off a bit, anyway.)

I'm off to update the Itch files!

Until next time,
- Rollin

YOU GRIT YOUR TEETH AND STEP THROUGH THE PORTAL. Updates!
about 1 year ago – Mon, Jan 06, 2025 at 05:41:02 PM

Greetings, Dungenerators!

Time for another progress update:

MORE STUFF!
(or, at least, more ways to download and play your stuff)

You may have noticed some new files and codes from BackerKit appeared in your inbox over the weekend!

Itch.io keys have now been delivered for:

• ORC BORG (digital)
• ODD GOBS (digital)
• FRAGNAROK (digital)
• GOBLINFINITE (digital)
• The DUNGENERATOR: Series 1 (digital and print-and-play)
• The DUNGENERATOR: Series 2 (digital and print-and-play)
• DIE in a Dungeon (digital)

In addition, DriveThruRPG keys have now been delivered for:

• The DUNGENERATOR: Series 1 (digital and print-and-play)
• The DUNGENERATOR: Series 2 (digital and print-and-play)

WHY ALL THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS?

You may ask: Why do I need these files on multiple platforms?
Well, if you like, you can just download your files from any of these (free) platforms and call it good, but there are a few reasons I've taken the time to branch out:

• Having access to these things on different platforms means you still have access to them if a platform disappears. Redundancy == resilience! :D 
• Some of the platform(s) have better ways to distribute updates, while other(s) have ways to distribute (what I consider to be) superior versions.

The DriveThruRPG version of The DUNGENERATOR decks comes with the same VTT files as the Itch.io and BackerKit versions, but it also comes with a Roll20 VTT version of each deck that I've done all the work setting up. You can just plop them into any game you've created in Roll20 and have the full, zoomable deck with built-in, rollable room detail prompt tables! If you're using the decks to play a TTRPG on a Virtual TableTop, I think this is the easiest and slickest option. 

Itch.io has a backend that's really easy to add new versions to, as well as post updates about those versions, so smaller updates to the digital version of DIE in a Dungeon will be posted to Itch.io exclusively. I will wait for the final version of DIAD to be completed (with all the unlocked stretch goal fixings) before posting it to BackerKit, so that you're not drowning in a bunch of confusing versions. 

On that note,

THERE'S A NEW VERSION OF DIE IN A DUNGEON ON ITCH.IO

The version number going up by 0.1 might feel like a small update, but it took a lot of work and I think it'll have a big impact!

• Rob, the developer of PlayingCards.io, responded to my feature request and very promptly got some features in that let me fix the auto-card-flipping bug that was in version 1.3. Many thanks to Rob!
  This means that, currently, all known major bugs have been fixed. Wooooooo! :D
• Rob also added a bunch of graphic design-y customization features that have allowed me to fully revamp the new version with a bunch of beautification! It looks like this, now:

Which, honestly, feels so good to my heart and brain. I got to remove so much ugly white space, and I have gotten to make (almost) all of my own color choices!

There's no smooth way to port your "save game" from v1.3 (at this time), but if you're willing to start a new campaign (or use the Narrative Campaign sheet to record your progress and manually fix your deck), please jump in and try out the new version!

GOBLINFINITE IS BEING WEIRD

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to put together a better multi-platform way to access the premium ZOOG Edition of GOBLINFINITE, but hit a wall with the web version (which was my chosen method of making the generator cross-platform). Image-saving is currently broken on the latest version, and the developers I teamed-up with to build it are missing in action (one decided to go live on a farm, while the other got his identity stolen and went off-grid). 

While the Windows version of the latest build is working fine, there's currently no way to use the premium edition on iOS (because that requires the web version) or Android (because Android doesn't let you install whatever homebrew apps you like, all willy-nilly, anymore). If these are the only ways you can use your copy of GOBLINFINITE, please reach out and we'll figure it out. 

I'd like to devote some time to fixing the web version and adding a bunch of extra art that was never fully implemented, but that's looking like it will require me to learn Godot and code it all from scratch, so... it's going to have to wait a bit. 

WHAT'S UP NEXT?

The next couple of weeks, I'll be working on finishing the quick-start rulebook and releasing the current version of the DIE in a Dungeon cards as Print-and-Play files. 

I've been holding off on the PnP files because I'd really like to just release them once (when they're done) instead of, again, drowning you in small version updates, and I'm also waiting to hear back from a manufacturer and publisher (and receive some important template files). 

But! I also appreciate the eagerness to get playing the print-and-play crowd has shown, so I think I'll be releasing the versions I have ready sooner rather than later, then releasing updates as the last few small changes are made via Itch.io. 

I thought that was going to be a short update, but it kept growing! 
As always, if you have any questions about Kickstarter, BackerKit, game rules, etc., or want to share some dungeons you've made or campaigns you're battling through, please leave a comment, send me a DM, or visit the DUNGENERATORS discord. 

Stay frosty, Dungenerators!
- Rollin