Reckless Deck PSYCHE

First February Update
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 09, 2023 at 03:34:25 PM

Hi All,

First, let me say thanks for all of the positivity and support around getting Reckless Deck back in my hands again; it means a lot. And to those of you who aren’t feeling quite so positive, I understand why that is, and I hope I can allay some fears over the coming weeks.

PDF Request

The first thing I want to address with you is your very clear asks for PDFs of the content. Yes, this is something I can do. From what I understand, you want something with some aesthetics to it, instead of the plain black & white ones I made for the Core Set and the Epic Fantasy set, that all of you already have access to (To regain access, you need to sign back into your Backerkit account. Any problems, please start by recovering your Backerkit Survey.)

On the Reckless Deck website, there are downloadable print & play options for both a combination of Volumes 1 and 2, and a Descriptor Deck. These have card face designs that are  more simplified, home-printer-friendly versions of the full-scale card art. Like this:

 In order to get you the PDF's you're asking for, I need to:

• Generate card face art for all 8 Psyche categories in this style
• Place each set of card content in an 8-up layout, and add the new card face art
• Connect with Backerkit about making the new PDFs available for you all to download

This will take me a little time, but I will get going on this for you. I’ll also find out whether Backerkit will support delivery deck-by-deck, or whether it must be done all at once.

Some Financial Infoo

The other very clear ask I heard from you all was some insight into the project’s financial situation.

I want to reassure you again that the money was not “blown”, or “burned through”. The Kickstarter funds have been spent on:

• Kickstarter fees
• Backerkit fees
• Backerkit’s pre-launch and marketing services
• Playmat and coin manufacture
• Artists, writers, and designers

And of course, Shuffled Ink, our printer, has nearly all the funds they need to complete the printing.

OK, so why aren’t the presses turning?

Much of where we are is the result of trying to launch a big campaign in the middle of a pandemic. A LOT changed during and after the campaign, including:

• Shipping costs for both international freight and individual domestic US packages
• Cost of materials
• Moving the manufacturing from China to the US

Due to increased supply chain costs, the original campaign pricing structure was not what is needed to clear each and every present day hurdle. Prices for EVERYTHING have gone up in the past 2 years.

Once the inventory is manufactured, many of the individual PSYCHE items will need to retail at 26-30% more than what you were originally charged to account for manufacturing costs.

• The 224 card companions sold for $20 each in the campaign, and they’ll need to retail for around $26 each.
• The 60 card mini companions, which were originally $10 each, will be retailing for $14.

In the original campaign, I put the larger “Passport Tier” packages together to offer a discount to encourage more all-in backers. But I couldn’t foresee quite how large a discount that would end up being once we finally got to the (now US-based) manufacturing.

The revised, present day retail price for all the items in the Passport Tier is $501. Which means:

• “Cards Only” tier backers received a 39% discount compared to this total
• Passport Tier 2.0 backers received a 40% discount
• For original Passport Tier backers, it’s a 60% discount.
• And for those 25 people who got the Passport Tier at $150? It’s a 70% discount. 

According to Kickstarter, we are not the only project that has run into both delays and soaring costs following a launch during Covid. I get that it’s little comfort, but hopefully this helps show this is a larger problem beyond this project, that many creators are having to tackle and invent workarounds for.

That’s not to say I haven’t made mistakes. I’ve made several decisions I’d love to time machine my way out of. The amount I agreed to produce within the scope of this one Kickstarter was ambitious, and in hindsight, could have been broken down into several smaller campaigns. That level of “do it all in one” excitement didn’t offer any extra runway to manage Covid and inflation-related cost increases. Welp. There’s nothing I can do about it now other than see the project through and deliver, which I’m absolutely committed to doing.

Ultimately, I have no intention of asking any of you to cough up more funds. Given how much time has elapsed since the actual campaign, and the wild ride of the past year, I think more than enough has been asked of all of you. I have other funding options, and I’m pursuing them. I will for sure keep you up to speed on any and all developments.

We’ll talk again next week, when I should have some preliminary printer-friendly card face designs to show, and news on the (extremely awesome) Anthology. Thank you for hanging in.

All the Best,

Clark

Important End of January Update
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 03:10:53 PM

Hello All,

First thing: I owe you all an immense APOLOGY. You’ve all been on an absolutely terrible ride. This was not how this was intended to go, and I’m sorry. There has been a big development in the past few days that I want to share, along with plans to get this project moving again.

Before I go into that, I want to assure you that the project is still very much alive. The funds that you pledged haven’t been stolen or wasted - they’re 100% invested in the project. All the contributing artists, writers, and our designer have all been paid; all the coins and playmats are 100% completed; all the files for all the decks are laid out and complete; and our printer Shuffled Ink is sitting on a huge deposit. Everyone involved is still passionate about this project and wants to see it complete successfully; I hope we’re now able to move forward more positively.

Reckless Ventures is Back in My Control

The significant news is that, as of this past weekend, Reckless Deck is no longer owned by or associated with its previous parent company. That company is on its own journey now, and it no longer involves Reckless Deck - or me in my previous role as Creative Director. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update you all sooner, but I’ve been waiting for legal paperwork to be completed.

To confirm - my company, Reckless Ventures, and its properties, Reckless Deck and PSYCHE (& this Kickstarter in particular) are now 100% fully back in my hands.

The paperwork is signed, and I’m back in the drivers’ seat. As a result, I’m now free to finally begin making good on my promise to provide more communication and more accountability.

What Happened With the Previous Situation

When I joined with the prior company, there seemed like there was a lot of upside in it for Reckless Deck. It seemed like a great opportunity for it to level up, and reach way more people than I had been able to on my own. The agreement came with the benefit of support from a team of people with skills and experience in marketing, strategy, and project production. Additionally, there is remaining funding I needed to complete and fulfill the project, and the company agreed contractually to close that funding gap and to assist with managing fulfillment.

Unfortunately, none of that went as planned.

Approval to start printing kept getting pushed further down their timeline, and I was getting instructed to limit my communication, and to not discuss printing and fulfillment. Since it was no longer my company, I didn’t have the freedom to give you thorough or timely updates. However, by late December, I truly believed we were within 2 or 3 weeks of beginning production. Instead, I got the very surprising news that the company was closing.

Ultimately, they and I have parted on very good terms. I learned a lot of skills working with them that will help me complete the project, and met some incredible people who are real allies of Reckless Deck and PSYCHE.

What Now

As I said above, the good news is all the content creation is complete.

However, I mentioned that I need to secure additional funds before I can pull the trigger on the final bit of production. I have very solid leads, and I’m pursuing them aggressively. Hopefully, it will only be a little bit longer before print production is underway. I appreciate that you’ve heard “just a little bit longer” before.

I know that a lot of you are angry and feeling scammed. I fully understand why you feel that way. I’m going to do my absolute best to turn your experience around - though I realize for some of you, that won’t be possible. In an effort to try and earn back some of your trust, I’m going to promise you weekly updates for awhile, until production is well on its way. If you have questions, post them in the comments, and I’ll post responses to the FAQs.

I want to assure you that I’m fully committed to seeing this through. I’ve spent over two years working with incredible people to get to this point, and all the work is done. To not print it, fulfill it, and see it out in the world would be a waste of all of that. I also want you all to receive what you’ve paid for, so you can use it to create incredible stories and game campaigns.

I’m sorry this has been such a rocky journey, and that you’ve been left hanging with so little communication and information. I won’t let that happen again.

Regards,

Clark

An End of Year Update
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 09:59:33 PM

Hi All,

We’re heading into a new year, and I wanted to connect with all of you as we close out 2022. I want to acknowledge that this has been a frustrating year for this project. I want you to know that I hear all of you who are voicing unhappiness & disappointment. I get it, and you’re not wrong.

My hope is that we’re turning a corner with the new year, and in 2023, you’ll be hearing from me a lot more regularly and that you’ll be seeing some of the concrete results you all want and deserve. I don’t have much more I can share with you at this point, though I think that will change soon. And if that makes this another “no information update, " maybe that’s accurate. But more than anything, as we start 2023, I wanted all of you to know that you haven’t been scammed or abandoned. I haven’t ridden off into the sunset with your hard-earned funding. This project is still profoundly and dearly important to me, and I’m committed to seeing it through to completion. There’s still so much fantastic content Reckless Deck has to offer beyond this one roadblock.

I know that you’re frustrated and pissed - you have every right to be. And I get that you’re out of patience. But I do have an ask. If you see me posting on Instagram, Twitter, or anywhere else on social trying to add value to the creative community, trying to attract more followers or to get more people to jump on our creative train, I ask you to try to engage, and say something positive. Or, at the very least, say, “WTF is up with this $%#**% Kickstarter???” and THEN engage say something positive. I’m trying to build us a following that will render any potential doubt in what we’re doing immaterial. I’d love it if you could be a part of that, because I genuinely believe it will help get you what you want.

One last thing - I know some of you have individual concerns or issues that haven’t been addressed. Please trust that I’m busy aggressively dealing with the MACRO issues of our campaign right now. Once those are solved, I promise I will drill down into each and every message and do my best to make your personal needs and situations right.

I wish all of you a super fun and safe New Year celebration, and I’m excited to talk more in 2023.

Warmest Regards,

Clark

One more vital piece of info to access the digital platform
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 09, 2022 at 09:43:58 PM

Hi again all,

I hear your feedback from yesterday about not being able to access the Tabletop Simulator version of Psyche. There was some confusion on my end, and I left out an important step. You also need a link, which will take you to the as-yet-unpublished for the general public "workshop" of Psyche in Tabletop Simulator, and SUBSCRIBE to it. Otherwise, it won't show up in your available games. Sorry if I sent you all on a goose chase. Let's put this step in its proper place:

Install STEAM. Sign in to your account, or create one, and be logged in to it

Purchase/open Tabletop Simulator

And THEN, you need to follow this link to subscribe to the Psyche Workshop. It looks like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884268343

Once you do that, when you follow the screens laid out in yesterday's update in Tabletop Simulator, "Reckless Decks" should appear as a game that's available to you.

For those of you who want to access this, please let me know if this solves the problem.

Again, apologies for the confusion!

Clark

November Digital Extra, Available Now
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 09, 2022 at 05:39:14 PM

Hi All,

We’ve got an amazing & useful EXTRA for you. Given how long you’ve been waiting for your Psyche decks, and that NaNoWriMo is happening literally as we speak, I’m happy to announce that we’ve created an online version of Psyche, available immediately. It includes the full content of:

• The Core Set
• The Epic Fantasy Companion
• The Horror & Urban Fantasy Companion
• The Sci-Fi & Cyberpunk Companion
• The Steampunk & Victorian Companion

I want to clarify upfront that this is not a bait & switch, nor is it a replacement for your physical decks. My colleagues and I made this happen as an extra feature in honor of NaNoWriMo, and also because we thought you'd been waiting so long for it. You will still be getting your physical decks, and all the rewards you backed. Meanwhile, you can use this digital version for your writing, gaming, and character creation right away.

We are working on deploying Psyche on 3 platforms in total. The first one is a paid platform, and the following 2 will be FREE. It’s available right now on STEAM, a premier online destination for playing, discussing, and creating games. For this, you’ll need to create a STEAM account, and then add the in-game app Tabletop Simulator for $19.99. (Please know that the cost isn’t ours, and we don’t see any profit from it. The Tabletop Simulator app allows you to play many more games than our own card system, so it’s for sure not a one and done.)

We will be releasing 2 additional digital versions of Psyche on ROLL 20 and TABLETOPIA, which again, WILL BE FREE. We aim to launch these later this month. If you’d prefer to wait for the free versions, you absolutely can. However, if you want access to the Psyche functionality immediately, this is how you do it:

1. Go to the Steam website at https://store.steampowered.com. Click “Install Steam” in the upper right corner. This will prompt you to install the software and create an account.
    
2. Search for Tabletop Simulator in the main page search bar. Purchase Tabletop Simulator, which will then appear in your library. You can launch it from there.
    
   1. Once it’s open, click CREATE.
      

Next, choose SINGLE PLAYER.

Then, choose "Reckless Decks" (I know, we'll fix the name. Like I said, work in progress.) This will launch the digital version of PSYCHE.

There are excellent online tutorials that give you the basics of Tabletop Simulator functions. Click on this YouTube image to go directly to the walkthrough:

You can look forward to Project Updates alerting you to the release of the FREE versions of Psyche digital platforms as soon as they’re available.

I FOR REAL cannot wait to hear more as you put digital Psyche to use. Comment here on KS, and share with the community your discoveries around character creation and story ideas. Or, if you post on social, please tag us at #recklessdeck on Twiter and @recklessdeck on Insta.

Still in it with you.

Regards,

Clark