Monday, February 28, 2011

RPGNow and Drivethru download issues

Over the weekend, we were informed by some of our customers who purchased products on RPGNow.com and DrivethruRPG.com that they were having trouble, missing pages, download errors, etc.  After speaking to them this morning, they told me that because of the large volume of traffic they have been experiencing due to their New Zealand relief bundle, some of the PDF downloads have had some issues.  They assured me they were working on this problem and that anything you have purchased from them, stays in your library for all time and that you should try and log out, clear your cookies, and then try again (which some of our customers have done and this seems to have worked) or if this does not work, you might wait a day or two and try again.  If you continue to have trouble, please contact them and/or let us know and we will try and help rectify the issue.  Thanks, Tim

Saturday, February 26, 2011

wrong link for m&t

Sorry, I must have been doing too many things at a time, i screwed up the link for the Monsters & Treasure Hardcover.  The one I put up there is the digest version (which is at 9.99 anyway).  So here is the correct link.  My apologies! http://bit.ly/eRLuNB

TrollCon East and (late) weekend sale

Quick announcement: Because of the trip, the weekend sale is a little later going out. But it's up now. Until midnight Sunday, we will have Of Gods & Monsters in PDF on sale for $9.99 and Monsters & Treasure in Hardcover for $9.99.

Now onto TrollCon East... So far, things couldn't be going better.  We had a good turnout last night and some lively discussions.  Today we'll be playing some games, giving things away, and generally trying to cause as much mayhem and fun as possible.  So if you are in or near New Jersey, come out to All Things Fun today at 4 and join us, we would love to meet you, play some games and hang out!  For those of you who can't make it, you can go to there website and watch the fun on their live web feed, which is also recorded and stored there too. 
Ed and Dina have a tremendous store, filled with games, toys, hobbies, you name it.  Plenty of space for us Trolls to move around in and are just really great folks.  Check the yfrog feed at the bottom of this post for more pics from our journey and from the Con. 
New Jersey is great, we have found a Trader Joe's! Going to go ogle all the food and try to see if there is a way I can make some of it survive the long trip back to Arkansas.  But first, we need breakfast.  Both Steve and myself are big breakfast fans, so if anyone knows where we should eat near Berlin, NJ, post a comment and let us know!
More later from All Things Fun...

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Three Hour Thursday Sale Has Begun!

From 3-6pm CST today, The Black Libram of Nartarus is on sale in PDF form for only $3.00, down from $7.99! But hurry, you only have a few hours to save. Click here to get it now: http://bit.ly/eawFJz

Sales and TrollCon East

Alright, first things first.  This will likely be the last blog before Steve and I get on the road to New Jersey.  We are going to leave tonight, and hopefully roll into Ed's All Things Fun a few hours early in time to get a shower and shave in before the festivities begin.  The schedule for TrollCon East is posted in an earlier blog so I won't rehash it here but feel free to check it out and please join us if you are near New Jersey.  Just because we are going to be on the road doesn't mean we will be out of contact; we plan to post pictures of the trip, and put up news and blogs from the weekend.  Ed promises there is a live feed of the thing too, so those that want, can check us out and see what kind of trouble Steve is getting into and watch me get hit in the face with a pie.

Hardcover CKGs are shipping!  Slowly but surely the pre-orders are being built and shipped just as fast as we can.  It will be a bit before everyone get theirs, but we are working hard, I promise you that.

Now onto sales...as you may have noticed (and I hope you have), we have ramped up our sales, trying to offer as many options to people to save as we can.  Thought it might help everyone to know what the schedule is right now.  Mondays I put about 5 or 6 things on sale, a mix of print and pdf.  Tuesdays is our Facebook only Two for Tuesday sale, where you buy one, get one free either in pdf or print and only announced on our FB page.  Wednesdays we have our 2 hour fire sale blitz where something will be announced during the day and on a huge markdown, but only for 2 hours.  Friday is the twitter only sale, where one item (sometimes more but you have to look for them) in the print shop is on sale and only announced in our Twitter feed.  Then for the weekend we will have two items, one pdf and one print on markdown for 48 hours. 

You might notice a hole here.  Thursday.  I had nothing for Thursday until a few minutes ago. We had a good response to 2 hour Wednesday, so for now, I'm going to do a Three Hour Thursday.  At some point today and every Thursday, we'll put something either in pdf or print for at least 50% off.  So be looking out for that a little later today on here, Facebook, Twitter, all the usual spots. 

So technically this isn't my last blog before we go, is it?  I promise to be short in the next one about the sale. :-)


Monday, February 21, 2011

On the Troll Roads

Steve and I are gearing up for the long haul to New Jersey and TrollCon East at Ed Evans' All Things Fun in New Jersey this weekend.  It promises to be a good time.  Actually, a lot of the fun for me will be the drive.  As I might have mentioned before, the Troll Lord (known back in those days as Stickboy by me and Kenneth) have done a whole lot of traveling in cars, trucks, trains, planes, etc. going from Maine, New York, Arkansas, Florida, Chicago, Quebec City, to name a few.  Frequently it would go something like this:  I would drive.  Kenneth would get in the front with me, Stickboy would get in back.  We'd pack smokes and Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke, some chips. Fill up the gas tank and we'd head out. 

After about 10 minutes or so of talking, getting the route set in our head, we'd figure out where we were staying, make sure we had our stuff.  Say we were going to Boston, which was one of our usual destinations.  We'd head from Jonesboro or Little Rock or Maine, and Steve would always say, "If you need me to drive, just let me know."  I'd always nod, and say okay, but I really don't like to ride, I prefer driving.  He'd insist, and I'd say I know, it's cool.  I'll let you know.  Then I'd light up a smoke, look up in the rear view mirror and see him already asleep in the back.  He could sleep through a lightning storm inside a car I believe as long as it was moving.  Kenneth and I usually just play our insanely fun word games or banter puns about.  And if Stickboy was up, he'd laugh.  He has a great laugh, one that conveys genuine humor and interest, when most likely we were usually sure he couldn't hear us in the back with all the noise and wind.  No matter, all we need are someone to laugh and he surely does have a good laugh. 

However, when it was just Steve and me on the road, he would stay awake as long as he could. And he can tell stories for hours, he once talked all night driving to and around NYC looking for a hotel before saving our sanity and friendships by suggesting we go north a bit, and there we found the lovely city of Nyack, NY and quite possibly the best breakfast I've ever had, before or since. 

I tell you all this to explain that while NJ is a long way away, I am looking forward to it.  I'm looking forward to some old time driving with the Troll, and getting to meet some of the fans -- both new and old -- of Castles & Crusades and having one or ten beers with all of you. 

So who's gonna make it out to West Berlin, NJ to meet us and play? 

If you can't make it, we hope you will follow us on twitter, facebook, and on this blog.  Ed even has a live feed from his shop I'm told, so we hope to get a link to that when we can and I'll post it up here.  The dates and plans for TrollCon East were in an earlier blog but I'll repost it here:

It's going to be at Ed's establishment, All Things Fun.  They've got a great set up and plenty of room to have a great time.  It will start February 25 and go through February 27.  Here's what we have lined up:

Friday Feb. 25
6-8pm Meet and greet the Troll Lord and the TLG crew: Ask questions, talk, eat, drink, be very merry
8-10pm C&C game: We'll do a sort of introduction to Castles and Crusades, play with the Troll kind of gaming

Saturday Feb. 26
4-8:30pm Play C&C: This is where you can let your game go wild, plenty of time to game and chat.
9-10pm Match wits with Steve: Challenge the Troll Lord himself in a crazy game Ed has.  This should be a lot of fun. Compete against Steve for fun and prizes!
10-12pm Play C&C: More down and dirty gaming, late into the night
Midnight Steve's Massive Melee: If we have enough players present, Steve will run his classic Dungeon Crawl. It can fit as many players as we have and nothing but hack, slash death, and adventure!


Sunday Feb. 27
6am--Breakfast at Tiffany's, well, really at All Things Fun with the Trolls
Join us for bagels and Steve Chenault as we toast with plastic champagne flutes and break bread with Steve one last time before he heads back to the wilds of Arkansas.

Okay, it's late and Maggie the boxer is whining to go outside.  More later...

Weekly Specials

Hey everyone...

We have some more items on special markdown starting today.  They will be on sale for one week only, ending Sunday night (Feb. 27).  They are:

Codex of Erde is still only $3.50 and signed by the author. Only 5 left at last count (Hardback)

Star Siege Event Horizon from $29.95 to $15.99 (PDF)
Star Siege Another Fine Mess from $7.95 to $3.50 (PDF)
C&C Into the Unknown: Vakhund from $4.99 to $2.50 (PDF)
C&C Under Dark and Mistry Ground: Dzeegabd from $4.99 to $2.50 (PDF)
C&C Dogs of War: Felsentheim from $4.99 to $2.50 (PDF)
Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde from $24.99 to $14.99 (PDF)

Take advantage of these savings soon, before they are gone! 

More of a real blog later, just wanted to get these sales up for you.  --Tim

Friday, February 18, 2011

Free 25 Page Sample of the CKG

If you want see a preview of the Castle Keepers Guide, you can go here to download 25 pages of it: CKG Preview

Final Days for Savings

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know that a couple of our books on sale are ending today, the PDF versions of the Players Handbook at $9.99 and Monsters & Treasure at $7.99

In addition, sales on the following items will end Sunday evening:
Mortality of Greenfrom 4.99 to 2.99

  
Of Gods and Monsters from 24.99 to 16.99
Black Labrim of Naratus from 9.99 to 3.99
Malady of Kings from 12.99 to 4.99
Harvesters from 17.99 to 7.39
Heart of Glass 17.99 to 10.39
Usurpers of the Fell Axe 3.99 to 1.99

And the following bundle will stop Sunday as well.  You get the Players Handbook, Monsters & Treasure, Shadows of the Halfling Hall, Screens, and Fat Dragon's EZ Dungeons all for only $29.55! This is a great way to get a ton of stuff and whether you are just beginning or a seasoned gamer, you will get everything you need to play C&C. Go here for this deal: http://bit.ly/dIpTSR.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Don't forget tonight!

Tonight (Thursday) you can find Steve online at Beautiful Brains' Backroom Chat at 9pm EST. Steve, along with Christina and my sickly self if I will be online to answer your questions, talk, etc.  It's a great chance to talk to the Troll Lord online and get his thoughts on all things Trollish.  We will be giving away a Players Handbook to one lucky winner.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone that the Castle Keepers Guide is available in both PDF and Perfect Bound Editions. 


We hope to have the Hard Cover out soon, as Steve stated in an earlier blog, we have mostly resolved our issues.  We do appreciate everyone's patience and understanding; you guys have been great.  As a thank you, we are offering a 20% discount for the PDF to anyone that has preordered or does preorder the CKG in Hard Cover.  Once you have preordered it, simply drop me an email and I'll email you instructions on how to receive the discount.  Also as Steve has mentioned earlier, we have started producing and shipping the Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde as well as Gods & Monsters in Hard Cover, so that's very good news!

That's all for now I guess.  I do hope you will join us online tonight!




Wednesday, February 16, 2011

CKG Release and a note from the Troll Lord

We have the Castle Keepers Guide available immediately in PDF version as well as in perfect bound softcover.  The links to get these are in the following message from Steve:

Greetings All,

Okay, so we have some news finally. First off, thank you to everyone that have borne this wait with such patience. I believe it will be worth it. So what follows is the latest news and a special offering to all pre-order folks.

In short, I told the entire crew to slow everything down and walk through the tasks as if we had all the time in the world. We've worked the problem from several angles and have come to a good working solution that has allowed us to already produce the M&T of Aihrde Hardcover and Of Gods & Monsters hardcover.

We'll apply the same techniques to the Castle Keepers Guide (but there is one hitch, as always with this book). Essentially the problems lie in the wrap itself, and the board warping. The manufacturer of the binding equipment recommends that we use a particular type of paper that by-passes this process. We did not use this in the first place due to a miscommunication with our sales rep and paper sizes versus what we could and could not do, compounded with a steep learning curve on our part.

The confusion now cleared we have begun using this new paper. Essentially it combines the laminate with the toner, disallowing the need to have the cover wrap laminated. This is good as it saves on time and paper loss. What we lose is that crazy shiny look that you have on the PH and MT. I personally don't mind this as this new paper has something of a matte appeal, less glossy to it. The laminate works just as it does in normal wraps. Basically the book is less shiny, but just as durable. This is the route we will go for the CKG. So now it needs only ordering the stock and beginning the process anew.

All of this will begin tomorrow. These shipments sometimes take several days so it will be next week at the earliest before we start manufacturing the books..."the good lord willing and the creek don't rise" as Gary used to say.

But all that mess aside, I do not feel I can keep this book under wraps any longer. Effective immediately the CKG is available in Perfect Bound edition as well as the electronic version. We do not normally release the PDF until the book has been out for awhile, but in this case, it is time to get the book out in as many forms as possible.

Its a new age, so let the CKG usher it in!

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PRE-ORDERED THE HARDCOVER
If you have a pre-order in, whether you changed it to perfect back, or took a damaged CKG, we are offering you a 15% discount on the PDF purchase price. Please email Tim Burns at tim_burns at chenaultandgray.com for the information.

This discount extends to anyone who orders the book from now until it official release in 3298...just kidding. Its official release in the next week or so.

For anyone wanting a refund please email us at orders at trolllord.com and we'll get you taken care of.

To everyone, a very king Thank You. You guys rock.

Steve

post script: We are still wrestling with this #&@&@! warping and have many more miles to go to master it, and we will!

_________________
_____________________________
He Who Sits on the Elephants Back
The Troll Lord
Steve Chenault, President & CEO of Chenault & Gray Publishing, Troll Lord Games



Forums and Testimonials

Earlier I was looking around the Troll Lord Games forums, reading posts and answering a few questions in our Q&A section and realized I might not have posted any information about the new topic I've started on the forums.  Here's a quote from the Troll Lord's post in there:

Greeting All,

As the information from the Dens becomes ever more constant, whether you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, the Tusk, or pony express, it seems a fitting time to open up a Q&A on the forums. Tim Burns will monitor the Q&A directing Steve/Davis/Mark/Todd or himself to answer questions that pop up that might be directed at them that might otherwise have been missed due to dronken sloth.

So if you have any question you'd like to direct at the Trolls here the place

Troll Lord


This is an attempt to give all of you more direct access to us and to get your questions answered in a more timely manner.  Many of the dedicated forum users help answer questions about the game, Cons, etc. But if you have a question that is for TLG, then this is the place to ask it.  I'll check it each day and answer if I can, or direct it to someone who can.

As I was wandering around the forums, I noticed a question about testimonials. One of the forum members posted a link as to why people play Castles and Crusades that is on the TLG site here: Why Play C&C? And this got me to thinking it would be nice to have people saying why they like C&C again.  So for anyone that wants to post a comment for this blog, I'll start compiling a list and figure out a place to put an updated testimonials page on our site.

Thanks!

Under the weather

My apologies for not getting this blog out earlier, it seems the curse of the CKG has struck me.  We were doing some work and testing and after that, I started heading back north.  About 2/3 of the way home, my tire blew out.  I noticed when I got out of the car that I was feeling a little queasy.  Tire changed, I headed home.  Then when I got out of the car the next time, I knew I was sick.  And to make a long story short and much much less disgusting, I was up all night with probably a stomach flu.  So now I'm a little better and going to try and mush on.

Another curse, though one that is much more pleasant, the Curse of the Khan is now out in perfect bound soft cover.  It's a really striking book on the outside and a great adventure inside.  Casey Christofferson has written another winner for Castles & Crusades and Peter Bradley's artwork is again stunning and striking.  This was probably my favorite adventure of late to edit (many hats for this Troll) simply because it's so intriguing.  You can find out more about it here: Curse of the Khan.

Don't forget that tomorrow night (Thursday) you can find Steve online at Beautiful Brains' Backroom Chat at 9pm EST. Steve, along with Christina and perhaps myself if I can get to feeling better will be online to answer your questions, talk, etc.  It's a great chance to talk to the Troll Lord online and get his thoughts on all things Trollish.  We will be giving away a Players Handbook to one lucky winner.

In other news, our customer appreciation sale is in it's last few days, Sunday will be the last day, so get what you can before it's over! I think the best deals in there are the Black Labrim of Naratus from 9.99 to 3.99 and a truly great bundle at over 50% off.  You get the Players Handbook, Monsters & Treasure, Shadows of the Halfling Hall, Screens, and Fat Dragon's EZ Dungeons all for only $29.55.

That's all for now, I think.  My second wind has abated and I'm feeling kinda woozy again.  A little more later perhaps. 

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Winner Announced! Valentine's Day Contest

Thanks so much to all of you who entered our Valentine's Day Contest! The correct answer is, of course, Maine. I lived most of my adult life in Maine and the Troll Lord himself has visited there several times and we've drunk in a lot of bars through the state so we have a soft spot for the Pine Tree State. 

Congratulations to our winner, Cameron Williams! He will receive a free copy of Fields of Battle.  And don't fret if you didn't win, we will likely be running more contests in the future; everyone seems to like it so we might try and make it a weekly event.  I already have the next one lined up and I'll give you a teaser, it's an even better deal than this one.

A real blog will be coming out later today or tomorrow regarding the hardcover books, Curse of the Khan, release dates for digests and pdfs and more. 



Monday, February 14, 2011

New Release: Curse of the Khan

Curse of the Khan is finally here!  You can order it from the Troll Lord Game Store here.

Valentine's Day Contest

We like to give things away, it's in our nature.  So for Valentine's Day, we thought we would give someone a chance to get a free PDF of our newest release, Fields of Battle.  All you have to do is answer the following trivia question correctly and email your response here before Midnight tonight, CST.  A winner will be picked at random.  Only one entry per customer.  It's really that simple!

Here's the trivia question: What US State is the only state to be bordered by ONLY one other state?

Okay, send your answers here.  We will notify the winner tomorrow as well as post it here on the blog.









Friday, February 11, 2011

Inside the Main Troll Den

Waiting on paper, boards, mail, etc.  Snow slows EVERYTHING down in the south.  Won't be here until noon at least, so we set to work on new products, sales, answering emails, filling orders, making books, tweeting, writing, drinking Dr. Pepper, trying to keep our feet warm. 

First big thing of the day, adding Fields of Battle in PDF to RPGNow.com and DrivethruRPG.com. Took a while to get all the files set to PDF form and configured then uploaded but it is now there and you can get your copy now by clicking this: Fields of Battle.  It's got everything you can get in print form, including the terrain tiles and Siege Engine stuff from Fat Dragon Games.

We are still adding more stuff to our Amazon storefront, trying to get all of that laid out so that if you want to, you can order through them. Mark has been printing like a demon on the digests and Curse of the Khan, which should be available in less than two weeks from now. 

Let's see, what else?  Twitter Friday special is up and going through Midnight (hint: there are other specials in there as well), we still have our Customer Appreciation sale going, too.   There are some great deals going on there, so you should check it out before they are gone.  One popular item has been our starter pack, called the Castle and Crusade: Starter Guide.  You can get, I think, 4 items at over 50% off, including screens, Players Handbook, etc.

Steve has been, in between swills of Dr. Pepper and jumping up and down and acting goofy, working on a Troll's Tusk; check the facebook page for when that is done. It's always interesting to work in the main Den, I'm here a few times a week, more when we are testing print and everyone is working on the CKG, but usually I'm further north, working away inside my office.  But hanging out with the Troll Lord for a day is just like it was when we were back in college.  Fun.  Frenetic.  Nutso.  Imagine living in a pinball machine and watching the silver ball ping back and forth, up and down, slamming off things and generally wreaking havoc.  That's what it's like working with Steve (aka stickboy) for a day.  As crazy as it all is, it's still some of the most fun you can have legally.  We are very lucky...

Amazon Store

We are revamping our amazon store front and adding more products to it each day, so if you prefer to order through amazon, you can still shop from our page but can pay and ship through amazon.  Check it out and let us know what you think about it, any suggestions are more than welcome! TLG Amazon Store

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Customer Appreciation Sale and more Info

Since everyone has been so understanding and kind about our issues with the Castle Keeper's Guide, we've decided to say thank you.  And what better way than giving you a chance to save some money? For the next week (or until the CK issues are fixed), we are cutting prices on some of our most popular items in PDF form.  Here's a brief rundown of what we have done:

Mortality of Greenfrom 4.99 to 2.99
  
Of Gods and Monsters from 24.99 to 16.99
Black Labrim of Naratus from 9.99 to 3.99
Malady of Kings from 12.99 to 4.99
Harvesters from 17.99 to 7.39
Heart of Glass 17.99 to 10.39
Usurpers of the Fell Axe 3.99 to 1.99

And we have a very special bundle at over 50% off.  You get the Players Handbook, Monsters & Treasure, Shadows of the Halfling Hall, Screens, and Fat Dragon's EZ Dungeons all for only $29.55! This is a great way to get a ton of stuff and whether you are just beginning or a seasoned gamer, you will get everything you need to play C&C. Go here for this deal: http://bit.ly/dIpTSR. There are also some other great deals on our PDFs so you will want to make sure to take a look at all we have to offer.

Speaking of Fat Dragons, we incorporate a lot of their stuff, terrains, buildings, etc. into our systems.  They really have some great products and have been friends to the Trolls for years.  You should follow them on twitter @fatdragongames for their latest sales and news.  Make sure to bad mouth Tom, he loves it! :-)

The dates for Troll Con East are up and my previous blog gives you the details about this.  We hope to see all of you there.  We will be partying and gaming the whole weekend so it should be a blast.  We will have a live video stream for those that can't make it; I'll give you those details of how to get that feed as soon as I have it.  We will also be updating our facebook and twitter feeds and this blog so you should be able to enjoy the fun even if you can't be there with us.  But hopefully you can come out and see the Troll and his minions, have a beer, throw a pie in my face.  :-)

Do you have an Amazon account?  We are revamping our Amazon page and if you want to use your account there to order most of our books in print, you can do so by going to this page: TLG Amazon Storefront. If you don't see what you want, you can still order it from the TLG store, but we will be adding more items soon.

A few more things... We are still working hard on the CKG.  We think we have eliminated the issues, but are waiting to get in more supplies to test it out.  We will keep you up to date as to how it is going and as soon as we are satisfied with it, we will ship it out.  As most of you know, Codex of Erde is being discontinued.  It is on sale until we sell the last one then it will be gone. All of the ones we have left will be sent to you as a signed copy by the main author, our own Troll Lord himself, Stephen Chenault!  Get your copy here: http://bit.ly/edWLbI.  A rare opportunity to get both a treasured item and signed for the low price of $3.50!  They won't last so get your copy today.

Well, that's all for now, more later, hopefully with an update on the CKG.








Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Troll Con East!

Hey all, thought you would want to know that the plans for Troll Con East have been finalized.  It's been a long time coming, lots of stops and starts (not as many as the CKG but you get the idea) but it's finally here.  Talked to Ed Evans today, and while it's yet to be posted on the TLG website, I can give you the details here.  Hopefully we will see a lot of you out there! It's going to be at Ed's establishment, All Things Fun.  They've got a great set up and plenty of room to have a great time.  It will start February 25 and go through February 27.  Here's what we have lined up:

Friday Feb. 25
6-8pm Meet and greet the Troll Lord and the TLG crew: Ask questions, talk, eat, drink, be very merry
8-10pm C&C game: We'll do a sort of introduction to Castles and Crusades, play with the Troll kind of gaming

Saturday Feb. 26
4-8:30pm Play C&C: This is where you can let your game go wild, plenty of time to game and chat.
9-10pm Match wits with Steve: Challenge the Troll Lord himself in a crazy game Ed has.  This should be a lot of fun. Compete against Steve for fun and prizes!
10-12pm Play C&C: More down and dirty gaming, late into the night
Midnight Steve's Massive Melee: If we have enough players present, Steve will run his classic Dungeon Crawl. It can fit as many players as we have and nothing but hack, slash death, and adventure!


Sunday Feb. 27
6am--Breakfast at Tiffany's, well, really at All Things Fun with the Trolls
Join us for bagels and Steve Chenault as we toast with plastic champagne flutes and break bread with Steve one last time before he heads back to the wilds of Arkansas.

So that's it.  So please come join us if you can, you will not be disappointed. Directions and contact information for All Things Fun can be found at his website, oddly named allthingsfun.net. :-) And check our website in the upcoming day for any more info and any updates.

Oh! I forgot to mention that those of you who can't make it, we are planning on having a live video stream of the goings on.  Ed has the technology and we will use it!  Very excited.  When I know how it will work, I'll let you know, or if Ed reads this, maybe he will be kind enough to comment about it. :-)

Monday, February 07, 2011

Other News

If you haven't checked out the blog about the CK Guide, please do so here: http://bit.ly/dFEft7

Despite the issues with the CKG, Troll Lord Games and Castles & Crusades marches on.  We've just released Crusader Journal 24 in PDF form (for those of you that didn't get the free one with our twitter #tlgpromo) and you can get that here: http://bit.ly/fmWEOQ.  Also, we will be having a special bundled PDF sale very soon, so watch for that.

The Troll Lord himself and a few of us other TLG folk will be guest hosting a chat at Beautiful Brains from 9-10 EST Thursday Feb. 17. It's a great way to chat online with some of the TLG people and ask them what you want to know. More info here: Troll Lord Chat

We are discontinuing the Codex of Erde in print form.  We have about 20 left and they are marked down over 90%.  Get yours quick as we expect they will go pretty fast.  This link will take you right to it: Codex of Erde.

That's all for now... Hopefully I'll have more news on the CK Guide, TrollCon East and the bundled special for you later tonight or tomorrow.  






Important News -- CK Guide Update

Hey Folks,

As many of you know we are in the binding process for the CKG. We've pulled some amazingly long days (20 hours for Tim and I this past Friday) for the last 2 weeks. We've basically been working out kinks and problems and attempting to learn this new craft. The sad thing is that we did not have time (largely due to releases schedules for the trade market) to allow ourselves more time to learn this new craft. So many mistakes were made and much knowledge learned the only real way you can learn it...by getting ass deep into it and figuring it out. Which we've done, and then some.

All good fun and frustration and all that.

I won't go into all the problems we've had...almost everything chose now to break, from our cover printer to the dolly, Davis even managed to break our Goliath of a cutter, no easy task that...but they have certainly added to the time table. Multiple problems existed but a board warping was the worse. The board tended to curl up from the book block. This was largely due to the glue mixture and type.

On Saturday afternoon we thought we broke through and produced the first solid copies of the book. We waited for the book to settle and it did and it looked great. So we did another one following the same procedure and it worked great. Starting late Saturday night we began mass producing these things. It was just Tim and I at this point and we pumped out about 40 in no time. Great fun, excitement, etc etc. These are the pics the frog gave you. [url+http://yfrog.com/hs2r2vij]Frog[/url].

However, Sunday morning arrived and a slight curling had occurred. The books had continued to settle. With even more determination and now with Davis arriving (he's real good with all sorts of chemicals) we returned to the drawing board. We discovered the board the manufacture sold us was chip board, not davey board. And that, more than likely, accounts for the warping. As company quartermaster this is my fault I should have been more diligent in what product we were ordering (he used the word board, so the sales rep probably assumed I knew, even as I assumed he know etc etc). I've posted the pics below. Note: the glue on the cover wipes off, this book was not wiped down after set.

So where this leaves us is with board that warps and another few days before we can get new board in. Which delays the CKG yet again.

Now, you guys have been insanely patient. 5 years for some, months for many pre-orders. We really appreciate that. You don't know how much joy we take out of making games for this crew, that being you guys.

But I know also that it is time to get these books into your hands. With that in mind. I'm going to offer up these options for pre-order folks:

1) We can offer you a full refund with shipping and you can order again in the next few weeks after it is definitely out.

2) You can take a partial refund of $10.00 + 1/2 of your shipping and we can get you a perfect bound edition out by Thursday. We are UV coating covers tomorrow for these and they need a day or so to dry real good before we bind them.

3) We can ship you one of the books we have already printed. Please check out the photos below and make sure you are happy with the book. If you are we will ship it immediately as is. For your pains we'll toss in something free here.

4) Wait another week or such. We will ship when we are happy with final product.

Email comments, thoughts, order changes here: ckg at trolllord.com.

If you don't want to change your order, no need to email, unless you just want to yell at me or vent, which is fine! ;)

Again, I appreciate your patience in this and completely understand any and all frustration.

Steve

Post Script: This same problem has carried over to the MT of Aihrde and Gods and Monsters. But the fix for those books is much easier and we can ship those on Wednesday/Thursday with no problem.


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Sunday, February 06, 2011

CK Guide Update!

Let these pics speak from themselves... Steve has a flaming desire for the CKG among others.

More updates on other things after the weekend is up, but for now I think you'll enjoy the photos from the Troll Dens.


Thursday, February 03, 2011

Final Day of our Sales and Magazine Giveaway!

It had to end sometime, and it just so happens that all our big sales and our free Crusader Magazine giveaway are all ending at Midnight tonight.


Hardback Sale – When you buy Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde and Gods & Monsters together in hardcover, you save over 40% at our TLG Store. Sale ends Thursday, Feb. 3 at Midnight.


PDF Sale – All the PDFs of our products have been on sale for about 10 days now. You can save 30 to 50% off everything at RPGNow and DrivethruRPG. Sale ends Thursday, Feb. 3 at Midnight.



Free Magazine – We've been running our Twitter Campaign Giveaway for one week now. All you have to do is sign up to follow us on Twitter and we will send you a free copy of the Crusader Magazine, #24 at no charge. All we ask is that you follow us on Twitter. Not only will you get a free magazine, but you will get up to the minute info on our other sales, little insights into the Troll and their environs, some neat pictures of whatever the Troll Lord is up to, and much much more. Once you are following us, we will send you instructions on how to receive the PDF. Please note that we will send those instructions to you via DM (or messages) on your Twitter feed.



And, you can still get the free magazine if you are already following us on Twitter as well! To qualify, simply copy and Tweet out the following message:


Free PDF at Troll Lord Games! For more details visit http://bit.ly/hrWrYn #tlgpromo #trolllordgames.


You must put in the hashtags #tlgpromo and #trolllordgames to get the PDF. Special offer ends at – you guessed it – Thursday, Feb. 3 at Midnight. :)


Okay, that's all for now. I should have more information on what will happen and when it will happen at TrollCon East a little later today hopefully. Thanks for reading -- Tim

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Troll Lord in the Woods Sleeping, Dr. Pepper, and oh yeah, the Sales are ending!

The CKG is in full swinging production. We continue to churn these out as fast as we can. Remember it is a first come first serve basis so if you preordered a while back, yours should be shipping out very soon, if it hasn’t already. I spent the day with the Troll Lord yesterday, usually I am in my own little TLG world in the computer, typing out all this stuff to you guys. But occasionally the Troll Lord and I will get together and go over business reports, projections, etc., or more than likely he will rant on about the high cost of Dr. Pepper. We started trying to flesh out some ideas on upcoming promotions. As you know, we have been doing this PDF sale for a few weeks now. That will end Thursday by the way. And we’ve been offering MT of Aihrde and Gods & Monsters at 40% off at the TLG store. But both sales are coming to an end on Thursday so we have been brainstorming to come up with new ideas and I’ll tell you this now, he came up with a doozy. More details on this promo when I can.

What I can tell you about is the upcoming TrollCon East. It’s coming up soon and will be here before we know it. The dates are Friday Feb.25 through Sunday Feb. 27 at All Things Fun in Berlin, NJ. You can find a little more information on this Con on our website, but basically it’s FREE and there is an all night roleplaying extravaganza. Can you imagine – and really who hasn’t – spending the night with the Troll Lord? Last time the Troll Lord stayed at the cabin with me and some other friends clearing out some land, he slept until 11am! Of course he had filled himself up on Arkansas Moonshine and DP, but it was one of those rare moments away from family and work and he had the upstairs all to himself. I finally had to go check on him at 11 to make sure he was still alive. LOL. Sorry, I digressed. Anyway, we will be up in New Jersey on the 25th, there will be a meet and greet and TL will run a few games and I’ll be there for the pie throwing and to answer any questions you might have as well.

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY of our free PDF offer. For those of you who don’t know, we’ve been giving away a free PDF file of our Crusader Journal 24 to each person who signs up to follow us on Twitter. Even if you follow us on Twitter already, you can receive a free copy as well. Just go here and you’ll see our earlier blog with the details. One thing we did at the last moment to sweeten the deal was to offer on of Fat Dragon Games’ sweet Great Helmets. It’s of an amazing quality and you should really check it out.
We have a new Newsletter of sorts. In order to get the latest info on our specials (which literally can come from nowhere, be online in a matter of minutes, then gone just as quick) you can now sign up to be notified of these via a news bulletin. It’s similar to the Troll’s Tusk Newsletter but it will only come out when there are specials. It’s easy to sign up for and I can guarantee you there will be some bonuses for doing so down the line (hint hint, wink wink nudge nudge). Go here to sign up! If you don’t’ already receive our Troll’s Tusk Newsletter, then check that along with Specials. Click submit and that’s all it takes!

I really need a snazzy exit line, can’t you come up with something? Leave it in the comment section. Until I find a better one, this will have to do.
That’s all for now…

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