MekBorg and Steel Psalm

Discord and Facebook Pages
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 02:32:33 PM

Hey all,

We've got our Discord set up now to let in folks from the Kickstarter to discuss, playtest, shoot things, and show off their designs: https://discord.gg/YjTRUbHR

We have a very basic Facebook page for the same reason: https://www.facebook.com/people/MekBorg-and-Steel-Psalm/61561511076368/

Feel free to ping me on there and ask questions. I'll start releasing stuff next week.

Later!

 - Dave

Backerkit surveys sent to EVERYONE!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 12:06:27 PM

Hey all!

Bob here with an important update. The smoke test is at 82% completed, we saw no issues with those initial surveys. So.....our surveys are LIVE! This update contains a ton of information and is all-important to read. Some have been posted in a previous update so you might read the same text twice! Don't worry, there is new information in here 😄

Surveys

Backerkit is a survey platform we use for our post campaign management. We use it to gather physical addresses for those who ordered books or the ammo box. We also use it to distribute digital content, like PDFs. Anything you are receiving from the campaign will already be in your cart, with the amount you paid on Kickstarter already applied. You may add on any additional products you'd like or even change your pledge tier! Quick reminder: Everyone who pledged on this Kickstarter (excluding the $1 tier) will receive a free copy of the MekBorg Alchemy VTT pack. Additionally, those who pledged within the first 72 hours of the campaign will receive a free MekBorg pin. Both of these items should already be in your carts, if applicable. Surveys will stay open for a few months, and we will notify you when cards will be charged for any add-ons + shipping + taxes. We still need everyone to fill out the survey as quickly as possible to ensure we gather accurate product counts and shipping data to prepare for manufacturing and fulfillment. Even if you complete your survey, you can change your order (like adding more products or changing your address) until we lock down orders and addresses. We will communicate and give plenty of time before both of those happen. If you have questions about your surveys, you can contact Backerkit support using the "Contact Us" option at the bottom of your survey screen or email us at [email protected].

Quick note for backers who sign into Kickstarter with their Apple IDs: Backerkit cannot communicate with Kickstarter and gather Apple ID email information. If you have signed in with an Apple ID, we need to have your correct email entered for the surveys to be sent to you. You can either follow this helpful support guide by Backerkit or email us at [email protected] to assist. 

Shipping

This is a reminder that we will fulfill this campaign from our store in Norman, Oklahoma, US. This means we are handling everything from quality control to packaging and dropping off at the carrier. We want to see this project through from start to finish and are prepared to handle the fulfillment aspect of this project. We have a ton of experience fulfilling domestic US orders from our store, and USPS makes it easier for indie publishers like us to get books and games to backers in the domestic US. 

On international shipping, I worked diligently, talked to several vendors, and landed on the best solution we could find. Most international backers will be covered with DDP (duties and taxes paid), meaning the only charges that may occur would depend on your country's import tariffs, regulations, and a few other variables that are different between most countries. We were able to beat our original shipping cost estimate for most countries, but some costs may be higher than we estimated (depending on where you live). 

The shipping environment has significantly changed in 2024. We are doing our best to make the best possible shipping solution for everyone, and we greatly appreciate your patience as we did our research. If you have any questions on shipping, let us know directly at [email protected] (skip Backerkit support for these types of questions). 

Local Pickup

If you are local to Norman or Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, you can save on shipping costs by selecting the Local Pickup option! This can be selected under the Country down down field when entering your address. This will charge you $0 for shipping, and mark your order as local pickup. We can manually update your order to charge shipping if you change your mind later. 

Discord

At long last, we are prepared to post an invite link to our Discord server! Sorry this took so long to get out, we had to do quite the clean-up to make the server more accessible. There's plenty of information on the server to help get you started, but you'll likely want to get to #mekborg-and-steel-psalm to get chatting on this project! Here is an invite link. 

Pre-Orders

The Pre-Order page for MekBorg and Steel Psalm is now live! Those of you who missed the campaign can now go here to pre-order, or use the "Pre-Order Now!" button on the campaign page. We are excited that so many people reached out after the campaign wanted to do late pledges. Now is your time to get in on the action. Pre-orders will remain open until the project is closer to being fulfilled. 

Thank you so much for your patience. I am excited for the first round of PDFs to go out to everyone in July. Chat here, in Discord, or send us an email at [email protected] if you need anything! All the best, and game on!

-Bob

Dave is alive and making stuff.
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 09:06:22 AM

Hey everyone,

Dave here. 

I've been somewhat quiet the last few weeks since the campaign ended. All of our updates have come from Bob (big tall guy you'll meet at cons) and Bree (customer service bad ass lady). 

So, I decided to take a little "mental" vacation in June. 

I turned 43 this year and had Father's Day. We also did other interesting stuff at the store in Norman and had two or three (I can't remember) conventions we attended.

During this quiet time, I taught (or retaught, really) myself how to make terrain, paint minis, etc. Part of the problem of turning your hobby into a job—as in, I write RPGs professionally—is not having a real hobby. So I turned to minis and made that my hobby. 

Well, terrain building mostly, something I hadn't done in 20+ years. 

I chose this hobby for a couple of reasons. 

1. I have a retail game shop, and we needed some terrain badly.
2. I just finished a Kickstarter with minis agnostic rules, which needs minis and terrain badly.

To be honest, I'd always thought that Steel Psalm and Mek Borg would use proxies from other game systems like K47, Battletech, etc. But then I discovered Bill Making Stuff on YouTube. Bill is a fellow that takes rubbish and turns it into cool terrain and miniatures. And it looks super cool and MorkBorgy. So I thought why not bring this to this campaign? It fits perfectly.

I also got obsessed with Mordheim and Gaslands Refueled, both two very apocalyptic fun skirmish games. Mordheim is in typical miniatures scale: 32mm. But Gaslands was in 27mm (1:64). A lot of you've been asking what scale Steel Psalm will be in. I figured... why not 1:64/1:72? This makes it easy to take die-cast models, like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and transform them into cool mechs. To test this, I took one of my Hot Wheels cars, a 1:64 person, and a mech from Konflikt 47 and put them against some existing terrain to see how it looks:

I think it looks cool. With 1:64 and 1:72 (which are close enough, it's hard to tell, in my opinion), this puts that K47 Mek at approximately 16-18 feet in height. I feel that's a pretty fun height and pretty easy to kitbash and pull from other kits, toys, Hot Wheels cars, etc. It also makes it pretty easy to use preexisting terrain, like those Woodland Scenics trees I made that are standing in the background.

Now I know in previous entries I mentioned that the game would be 1:265, or Battletech scale. And you still can. In fact, I'll include some conversion rules in the main book. 

Anyways, this is a long-winded way of me telling you that although I've been quiet, I've been working and thinking and building stuff. You can probably expect to see a little more over the next few weeks, including the first major draft of the MekBorg/Steel Psalm books, as well as some "kit bash" guides on how I think the different factions should look. 

Of course, you're free to do whatever you want. 

In the meantime, go watch Bill Making Stuff. It's frickin' good. Plus, he's got a skirmish game, too, which you can download. 

Anyways, Bob's got a post coming soon about the Pledge Manager opening. So look forward to that.

Later!

 - Dave

Smoke Test 62% done! Surveys out on Friday!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 05:09:35 AM

Hey all!

We are all back and recovered from our busy convention schedule this past week. Short update today to talk about the progress of the smoke test.

Bob has been keeping an eye on the smoke test, and everything is smooth sailing so far. We have answered 62% of the smoke tests. As long as there are no issues, and we get close to 80% of the smoke test completed, we will send out the surveys to everyone on Friday! 

That's all for now. Talk to you all on Friday!

-Dave and Team DMDave

Smoke Test Today! Surveys Coming Soon!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jun 23, 2024 at 05:43:29 AM

Hey all! 

We've been approved by Backerkit to proceed with our smoke test for the survey! Bob will push this out today before heading to the last day of Origins. Here's some information about the smoke test and general information about the surveys that is important for everyone to read.

Smoke Test

A smoke test will be sent to about 5% of backers today. It is used to see if there are any issues with surveys that we or the Backerkit team might not have caught. If you do not receive a survey, do not fret! The remaining surveys will go out by the end of the week. We typically want at least 80% of the smoke test to be completed and resolve any issues we might find before we push the survey to everyone. If there any delays for issues, or to wait for the smoke test to be completed, we will let you know!

Surveys

Backerkit is a survey platform we use for our post campaign management. We use it to gather physical addresses for those who ordered books or the ammo box. We also use it to distribute digital content, like PDFs. Anything you are receiving from the campaign will already be in your cart, with the amount you paid on Kickstarter already applied. You may add on any additional products you'd like, or even change your pledge tier! Quick reminder: Everyone who pledged on this Kickstarter (excluding the $1 tier) will receive a free copy of the MekBorg Alchemy VTT pack. Additionally, those who pledged within the first 72 hours of the campaign will receive a free MekBorg pin. Both of these items should already be in your carts, if applicable. Surveys will stay open for a few months, and we will notify you when cards will be charged for any add-ons + shipping + taxes. We still need everyone to fill out the survey as quickly as possible to ensure we gather accurate product counts and shipping data to prepare for manufacturing and fulfillment. Even if you complete your survey, you can change your order (like adding more products or changing your address) until we lock down orders and addresses. We will communicate and give plenty of time before both of those happen. If you have questions about your surveys, you can contact Backerkit support using the "Contact Us" option at the bottom of your survey screen or email us at [email protected].

Quick note for backers who sign into Kickstarter with their Apple IDs: Backerkit cannot communicate with Kickstarter and gather Apple ID email information. If you have signed in with an Apple ID, we need to have your correct email entered for the surveys to be sent to you. You can either follow this helpful support guide by Backerkit or email us at [email protected] to assist. 

Shipping

This is a reminder that we will fulfill this campaign from our store in Norman, Oklahoma, US. This means we are handling everything from quality control to packaging and dropping off at the carrier. We want to see this project through from start to finish and are prepared to handle the fulfillment aspect of this project. We have a ton of experience fulfilling domestic US orders from our store, and USPS makes it easier for indie publishers like us to get books and games to backers in the domestic US. 

On international shipping, Bob worked diligently, talked to several vendors, and landed on the best solution we could find. Most international backers will be covered with DDP (duties and taxes paid), meaning the only charges that may occur would depend on your country's import tariffs, regulations, and a few other variables that are different between most countries. We were able to beat our original shipping cost estimate for most countries, but some costs may be higher than we estimated (depending on where you live). 

The shipping environment has significantly changed in 2024. We are doing our best to make the best possible shipping solution for everyone, and we greatly appreciate your patience as we did our research. If you have any questions on shipping, let us know directly at [email protected] (skip Backerkit support for these types of questions). 

Pre-Orders

The Pre-Order page for MekBorg and Steel Psalm is now live! Those of you who missed the campaign can now go here to pre-order, or use the "Pre-Order Now!" button on the campaign page. We are excited that so many people reached out after the campaign wanted to do late pledges. Now is your time to get in on the action. Pre-orders will remain open until the project is closer to being fulfilled. 

That's all for now! Thank you so much for your support. If you are at Sooner Con or Origins Game Fair, make sure to stop by and say hi! 

-Dave and Team DMDave