Quick Update About Surveys: with Action Items!
7 months ago
– Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 07:47:29 AM
If you’ve filled out your survey, Thank you! If you’ve yet to fill out your survey, check your email for something from backerkit.com. Or click this link and enter the email address you use for Kickstarter. https://a-function-of-firepower-schlock-mercenary-book-19.backerkit.com/
ACTION ITEM! If you are a HESH backer: I’ve added a question asking what name you want printed in the book. Please go back into your survey and make sure you answer that question. Sorry for the extra trouble! I missed adding this question before sending surveys.
ACTION ITEM: I plan to charge cards when we’re closer to shipping. That will probably happen in December 2025 or January 2026. If you need your card charged on a different schedule, I’m happy to do that! Just email [email protected] and I’ll get it taken care of. (Happy to do what I can to keep your finances or budgeting simple for you.)
Note: I’m behind on comms. Between Howard’s tooth adventures and my editing deadline for SLSC (files have to be turned in by Sept 1 to get books before Christmas) I am behind on responding to emails and messages. If you’ve reached out to me about adding items to your order, problems with your survey, or any other special request, I have seen your message. I hope to be caught up by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. If you haven’t heard from me by end of day on Wednesday, feel free to reach out again.
Your next detailed update is scheduled for the week of September 8-12
Thank you for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Small Promo: The kickstarter for ECHOES OF HEAVEN: THE FESTERING EARTH by Bob Defendi is closing soon! Don’t miss your chance to pledge to the project.
Surveys Coming Next Week!
8 months ago
– Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 04:12:21 PM
Greetings Backers!
TL;DR: We're sending out surveys. They'll go out in batches starting this weekend. Be on the watch for yours. You should have it between now and Friday. Cards will not be charged until closer to shipping. Your next update will be the week of September 8-12.
Details
We've finished our summer travels and are now settling in for five weeks where we have no scheduled events. Howard plans to get all the sketch cards drawn for Mandatory Failure orders. Then, while we have him in Sketch Card Mode, we're also going to have him draw the sketch cards for Function of Firepower. That way the sketch cards won't be a delay point in the upcoming packages. In order for him to sketch those cards, we need to know what you want. So that means it is time for us to send out the surveys!
Sometime between now and next Friday you will get your survey link. Filling it out quickly will really help us to be able to plan ahead to get things made. It will also get you first access to some special add on items that have limited quantities: Schlock Dual Plasgun pin, Petey Facepalm pin, Maxim 52 Stickers, and Seventy Maxims Play mats.
Thanks to a generous donor who made up the gap, the new Tagon's Tough's pin is included for all NCO and HESH level backers, but if that isn't your pledge level, you may want to add it. Or add some for gifting.
When you fill out your survey, please be sure to double check the shipping price and make sure you're good with it. We've done our best to set those prices in a spot where we won't lose money, but where you get the best price available. Unfortunately shipping costs for international shipments are high.
If you have any trouble with your survey or questions about anything, feel free to email [email protected] We're happy to help.
We'll have more detailed news and information in your next update during the week of September 8-12.
Thanks for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
July Progress Update
9 months ago
– Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 03:52:15 PM
Greetings Backers!
It is time for us to update you on our progress!
TL;DR: No action items for you. Howard caught Covid three weeks ago is recovering slowly. We'll be at Gen Con booth 1349. Come say hello if you're at Gen Con too. We're waiting on sending out the surveys until closer to shipping so we can have the most accurate pricing. Your next update will be the week of August 25-29.
Details
Travels and Covid
Howard tested positive for Covid three days after arriving in Minnesota for Writing Excuses recording. Our best guess is that he caught it on the plane. We rented a car and drove home as that seemed the fastest way to get home with the lowest risk of spreading illness. Despite spending two days in a car with Howard, Sandra never caught it. Since arriving back home Howard has been recovering. The cold/flu symptoms have subsided leaving him with fatigue and brain fog. He is better this week than last week, but we're taking things slow and not pushing anything. If he has energy to work, he will. Howard likes working and misses it.
Gen Con Booth 1349
Despite the covid-ness of our last travel adventure, we're still planning on attending Gen Con. If you're going to be there, come see us at booth 1349. Howard will be there as often as he is able. Sandra will be there whenever she's not at the writer's symposium teaching or being on panels.
Dice Trays, Pins, and Playmats!
We're debuting some new merchandise at Gen Con. If you're at the show, you should definitely stop by and pick some up. Most of this merchandise will also be available in our online store starting at 10am Eastern time on Thursday 31 when the Gen Con dealer hall opens.
We have four new pins! Petey, Schlock, and the Tough's Logo are probably all familiar to you. That Tough's Logo pin is automatically included at the NCO and HESH levels, but if you want an extra one or didn't get one, now you can have one. The purple octoctopus is a symbol from the Rune Wright universe. All of these will be available both at Gen Con and online.
We made some seventy Maxims play mats! These both improve your desk surface and give you a quick maxims reference.
One of our booth partners this year is Moss Works Creations. Their luxury wooden dice trays are gorgeous. You definitely want to stop by and see them. Their stock is limited, so we recommend coming early. (Moss Works is owned by our daughter Keliana and her husband Tyler.) After Gen Con is complete, an remaining stock will be listed in their online Etsy shop. I'll announce and link that after the show.
We'll have a few uncorrected pre-press copies of Structuring Life to Support Creativity. The fully complete first edition is coming later this year, but for people who don't mind typos and want a book right now, we'll have copies at the booth. (Pre-order here)
We're looking forward to the show!
Warehouse clean up progress
Sandra Continues to work on cleaning up the warehouse so that it makes sense instead of being an impossible jumble.
A comparison: The unusable side room in December 2024.
That same side room this week:
Another comparison: The front room in December 2024
Front room this week: Still jumbled, but the jumble is organized and most of it is simply waiting for us to fix a jumble elsewhere and it can be moved.
We're still in the process of deciding how to organize and use the side room space. The front room is going to have two work tables where we do things like assemble pin sets or process Kickstarter packages. It'll be nice to have the workspace in the area with proper heating and cooling instead of out in the large warehouse area.
What's Next
The bonus story is the thing Howard needs to be working on to move FoF forward. He may get some work done on it in the next week, but then everything will be on hold while we attend both Gen Con and Worldcon. It will be mid-August before we have another run of uninterrupted time to get work done. We're going to take good care of Howard and make sure that he's safe from infection despite our travels.
Your next update will be the week of August 25-29.
Thank you for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Small Promo: Our friend Bob Defendi is getting ready to launch the second adventure in his Echoes of Heaven campaign setting. If you like Role-Playing Games, you want to take a look at this! Click here!
June Update
10 months ago
– Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 08:34:51 PM
Greetings Backers!
It is time for us to update you on our progress!
TL;DR: No action items for you. Howard has been working on the bonus story. Sandra has been cleaning up the warehouse. We're waiting on sending out the surveys until closer to shipping so we can have the most accurate pricing. Your next update will be the week of July 7-11.
Details
Howard has been working on bonus story and reports the following:
These are the thumbnails of the latest PNG exports of the first seven pages, in numerical order.
1: Done until color proofing
2: 90%, awaiting paints on some panels
3: 50%, needs flats, paints, and some SFX refinement
4: Done, except not anymore. Background needs refinement, per decisions made on page 7.
5: 25%, ready for inking
6: 25%, ready for inking
7: 20%, still needs some noodling on an idea I had.
The idea goes something like this:
The Boloceade architecture is kind of organic, with curves and fractals and stuff. When the "rescue team" sets up on a comet in order to build all the tools they need to help out the dinofolk, the architecture will be similar, but won't be constrained by gravity.
Organic tech with curves and fractals is often summed up as "Giger."
No gravity constraints? Well, if you add some whimsy then the word is "Seuss."
So... I'm noodling on "Gigerseuss" for the design of things that will be appearing on pages 4 through 7.
If that word excites you as much as it excites me, well, you can see why I'm so happy to spend time on it.
Sandra's Warehouse Clean Up
The warehouse has become a huge mess. The layers of mess have come from years of moving from project to project with little or no clean up time in between. There are lots of things that used to make sense, but our needs have changed and we've never updated or reorganized. Even though we didn't quite meet the materiel upgrades goal, we're still spending some funds to make the warehouse better.
Here is the old configuration of our shipping station. It worked, but it also turned the room into a hallway only usable by a single person.
We're not done, but here is the current state of the shipping station.
We've now got more surface area to assemble packages. Box storage on the lower shelves. The coins and pins are all getting moved into the white trays so we can grab items for orders more easily. Not visible off the right side of the picture is another set of blue shelves where the book are set out for easy grabbing.
There are several other areas of the warehouse getting similar treatment. I'll share more as we get spaces cleaned up and making sense.
The Monkey coins have arrived and they look fantastic. We've also got the Tough's Logo pins in hand. We're expecting some other pins soon as well.
The next two weeks involve travel to Minnesota for the Writing Excuses Retreat and then Writing Excuses recording. We won't get much done on this project while we're gone, but we'll have the month of July to work before we head off to Gen Con.
That's our update for now. Your next update will be the week of July 7-11.
Thanks for backing our project.
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Status Report on Deliverables
11 months ago
– Thu, May 15, 2025 at 03:46:20 PM
Greetings Backers!
We're now about a month past the end of funding and it is time for us to report on our progress and give you an idea of when you can expect us to complete things.
TL;DR: We put this handy section at the top of most of our updates so you can choose whether to quick scan or to dive into all the details. No Action items for you right now. We're waiting on sending out the surveys until closer to shipping so we can have the most accurate pricing. We've ordered Monkey coins, mission patches, and logo pins. Howard is working on the bonus story. Sandra is cleaning up the warehouse and getting margin art placed. Your next update will be the week of June 9-13
Details
We've already placed the order for the Monkey coins, Toughs Logo pins, and Mission patches. We're trying to get the manufacturing done fairly quickly because the tariff situation may change without notice and the easiest way to make this part of the project predictable is to get things ordered. We're really happy with how the first three items look:
Howard still needs to design the HESH coin and JPL coin.
Howard has been working on the bonus story for this book. He's actually been streaming his progress to our Discord server and posting progress updates in the "projects and progress" channel. (You can join the server by clicking Join Hypernode Connect. Invite is good for 7 days, if you miss the window, just email [email protected] and we'll get you a new invite.) Pages 1-4 of the bonus story are done. Pages 5-13 still to go. Here is a spoiler free sneak peek at page 4.
While Howard has been working on bonus story, he's also been reconfiguring his workspace. Optimizing his space is often part of the way that Howard gets rolling on a project. We didn't quite make the "Material Upgrades" goal, so we can't afford all the changes we want, but we can afford some. Howard has been chatting about his changes in our Discord server and also on Bluesky.
Sandra has been using a little bit of budget to buy some new shelving for the warehouse. It has gotten incredibly messy over there as we've dashed from project to project without much clean up time in between. Fortunately our warehouse manager Aidan has been forcing Sandra to clear out and decide on actual long-term solutions instead of simply shoving things around to make space for the current project. Right now the mess is actually messier, because that's what happens in the middle of organizing. But hopefully soon I'll have some "look how much better this is" pictures to show.
As a final note before I dive into details on the status of all the deliverables: We're waiting to send out surveys for at least another month or two. The primary reason for this is that we want shipping prices to be as accurate as possible and that is easier when we shorten the time between charging for shipping and actually shipping items. Another reason is that my (Sandra) brain is overtaxed with tasks at the moment. I'd like to finish several of them off before I dive into the fiddly work of setting up surveys. I'll make less mistakes if I proceed carefully over several weeks. At the moment I'm thinking it will probably be around July when we send them.
We'd love to send this book off to print before the end of the summer. Whether that happens on the schedule we want depends on a lot of variables. We'll definitely keep you posted.
The List of Deliverables
Thank you for continuing to read! As a reward, here is a list of the deliverables for this project.
Core Items
-
A Function of Firepower PDF - Will be delivered a few weeks after we send the book to print.
-
A Function of Firepower perfect-bound glossy soft-cover - Howard is working on the Bonus story now.
-
A Function of Firepower sketch editions - We'll start these once we have books in hand.
Add-ons
-
Full-color sketch cards - Waiting for Howard to pick sketch options
-
Limited Edition “Ancient Earth” Print - Ready for test print
-
Coin: Not My Circus Not My Monkey - Ordered!
-
Coin: Jumpstar Prime Lyceum - Waiting for design
-
Tough's Logo Pin - Ordered!
-
Limited Edition Mission Patch - Ordered!
Exclusives
-
HESH Coin, Series 3 (for HESH pledge level backers) - Waiting for design
Digital Goodies
-
Desktop + mobile wallpapers: FoF Cover Art, Ancient Earth, Illustrated Maxim 52. COMPLETE
That's our update for now. Your next update will happen the week of June 9-13.
Thank you so much for backing our project!
—Howard and Sandra
