In no way when we launched this project did I ever imagine that we'd hit 200k and I can't thank you all enough for your enthusiasm and support.
So lets get down into business.
Variant Vote
Alright, here we are! And, arguably, most important vote you'll have. Which of the owlbear variants will we get. I've made this one so we can collect your main preference, as well as which variant you would prefer with each option (it'll make sense once you get in).
Vote closes in 4 hours (can vote here, however, it looks like the Owlbear Mini are clearly in the lead). I've been playing around with the order of options to see if it's impacted the results, Also, I'm pretty surprised at how well the mini did, considering I didn't mention it earlier.
pewter owlbear mini
Wallpaper Design
We've already started on a few of the items, I've got both of these concepts in from @alchenart (amazing pattern designer) I'm hoping that in addition to getting this cool patter to you, I want to use it for a few different things including:
box interior
owlbear cape underside
coloring page
Artbook endpage (inside the cover)
and probably a few other things as well
Pattern designs by @alchenart
Digital Rewards
I've been lagging on updating these, mostly at this point been trying to keep up with the kickstarter. I think I have a few ideas of what we're going to add.
Looking finalizing the following expansions as
(Digital Expansion #4) Owlbear companion for each class (for D&D)
A reminder, we're currently talking with a Canadian fulfillment/distributor, so we'll soon have CA-friendly shipping.
For EU and UK, I've met with our partners to talk about the new brexit changes, and we should be unaffected. We're shipping product to both UK and Germany, and will ship from that area, as a note, we will collect VAT whereapplicable (but it won't be on the total pledge cost, it will be based on a modified cost of the rewards), I am unsure how we'll end up collecting it but at this point we're having it folded into the shipping cost until another method is figured out of isolating it.
We know shipping from AUS to Asia and SEA countries is still not ideal, so we're looking for options there. We do recommend if you have a bunch of friends nearby to double up on orders/shipping location (if you do so let us know when you get into backerkit, so we can merge those). Not sure if we can land a warehouse to make things better, but we're still looking into options and doing our best in that regards.
For those outside the core areas we've identified and have not quoted, we'll be doing our best to reduce the cost for you. (if the shipping does become too expensive, we will be happy to refund you, or apply that credit to other purchases on our store).
Thank you!
Thank you soo much for your support, I can't wait to see what the cape will look like and I'm super excited to share developments as we go!
Andreas
Vote for Physical Item#3
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 03:25:14 AM
illustrated by @hessaimarian
Hey Caretakers!!
Just gotta say you've all been knocking it out of the park, and although we're starting to lose steam, this has been an incredible campaign launch and we still have 16 days to go!
So lets get started!
Thank you everyone for voting for item #2. As you may have guessed, the fishy companion is the winner! (which honestly is a surprise to me, fishy came out of left field, and happy to see it become a thing)
Vote For Physical Unlock #3
I just want to say, thank you for the conversation and interested for all these little items and accessories!
I'll have the vote close Saturday night (1/30) at 6pm PST
And since we're getting close to our 200k owlbear variant goal, I am curious to hear what you guys want for a variant? is it a new color (I know frosty owlbears seem to be on your minds)? is it a tiny or extra large owlbear? or a new plush design? (we've got concept art for Dragon Turtle, Phoenix, Griffin)
Thank you for the support and stay awesome!
Andreas
Cape Wins! Also Vote for Item #2 !
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 01:17:28 AM
illustrated by @hessaimarian
Hey Caretakers!,
As I said, you all are hitting stretch goals too darn fast! We're literally right outside our next physical stretch goal and yall keep crushing it!
Physical Item Vote #2
Alright, we can't keep this vote going for too much longer either, so we're gonna close this one off on THURSDAY 6pm PST. I know its a much shorter vote, but we're already getting to Item #3, and we're lagging a little bit.
I'm happy to announce the close of the first physical poll, and we have a winner! It was super awesome to see how close these were to each other (and how consistently close they were).
Also because the fishy was soo close, I had them both illustrated so we could show them off depending on what the final tally was. These will also go in the digital (maybe printed) artbook.
illustrated by @hessaimarian
Thank you all for being so awesome!
Andreas
More voting! and reaching 125k!
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 12:01:30 AM
Hey Caretakers,
We've crushed another stretch goal, $125 and it keeps rising! Also, welcome new caretakers, its super exciting to see everyone's energy continuing to push this project forward.
Digital Expansion #5
I wanted to do this sooner, but you guys are knocking down more things than I'm putting up! I haven't been getting as much feedback surrounding the digital content, and where we should take it. So I've put together a survey to get a better sense of what you all would like to have.
I apologize for all the surveys, but as a creator (and fellow backer of projects) I really do want to get a pulse of where the community wants this project to go, and what we can best do to help accommodate. (especially since these are stretch goals I haven't planned to get to).
Once we get some data, I'll share the results and we can go from there
Physical Unlock #1 Vote!
You guys are going fast. Since we should get started on Vote #2, I'm going to Close the Poll #1 Tomorrow at 6pm PST, so we're moving it forward a day so we can declare the winner (its pretty close), and get started with the next items on #2. VOTE HERE- https://strawpoll.com/79pv8ds4c
I should be getting stretch goal art from our artists either tomorrow or Wednesday, so stay tuned!!
Shipping
Also as a note on shipping, EU backers, we will be shipping from both a EU and UK warehouse, so both areas will be covered (what a mess brexit has been for us all).
We're currently in talks with a Canadian Distributor, so hopefully we'll have more to announce on that front soon.
Thank you all for the support and stay awesome everyone!!!
Andreas
and while I have your attention,
A project worth supporting
Tabletop creators in South East Asia is a very active growing community, and due to Kickstarter's limits on who can make a Kickstarter, have been unable to participate on the platform. Sandy Pug Games (a friend of the owlbear) has helped them out by being a business passthrough and working to fund three games, all by prominent #rpgSEA creators!
Its a digital-only campaign, but its definitely worth supporting with us!! (and its super super close to funding as well)
100k!!
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 11:34:28 PM
Well damn,
I didnt not expect our owlbear to gain as many hit dice as they did...but we just passed 100k... honestly this just makes me speechless because the Owlbear Plush has become our most ever funded Kickstarter project (and we've got 15 under our belt).
Stretch Goals
Now that we've got a few of these under our feet, I've had to reorganize how things moved around. And now we're on a solid path, its time to normalize their cadence. So every -50 and -00 level, we'll add a new Physical item, and every -25 and -75 we'll add a digital item.
Physical Accessory #1
I apologize for the language confusion, but Physical Accessory and Physical Unlock are the same thing. As we got further into the project, the potential scope grew more than I had anticipated, so generalizing the item to Physical Unlock (as that's what we can do) is a bit easier to understand than the implied meaning of accessory.
Anyways, the vote for the Physical unlock is actually really really tight between Cape and Fishy Friend.
Physical Accessory #2
Once the vote has concluded on physical Item #1 (Wednesday), I'll start the vote for the newly unlocked Physical Item #2!! As before, you're free to suggest new items or something different that you want to see for vote #2.
I try to include the most popular items, so if you want to see something feel free to mention it!
A reminder on Physical Items
Just a reminder on how the physical unlocks are working for this project. Instead of creating new tiers and addons (which just makes everything a logistical nightmare). We've put all of the Physical Stretch Goal items in two tiers (you have the tier, you get everything)
Owlbear In a Box ($60): includes one owlbear and one set of the physical unlocks, and
Owlbear Twins with a Box ($85): two owlbears and one set of the physical unlocks.
If you want more than two owlbears or two sets of physical stretch goals, feel free to wait until we get everyone into Backerkit, and the addons/upgrade selection will be far more easily managed.
As to whether they'll be individually available as add-ons, I'm hesitant to do such, as bundling everything together makes it easier for the warehouse to manage and process.
Owlbear Variant
I know many have asked for a snowy owlbear, (partially in celebration of Rime of the Frosty Frostmaiden). So as a stretch goal I've added an owlbear variant at the 200k mark. We've already gotten to 100k in the first week and I have no doubt we can get there! (Also this way it ensures that we can get appropriate volumes no matter how many of either we need to get.
When we reach the variant goal, I will provide options to you all (be them smol owlbears, big owlbears, or color variants) and we'll have everyone vote on it.
Thank you!
I still can't believe that we hit 100k, your support means so much to me and it's crazy to think that we got here 5 years after the Baby Bestiary.
If you like the sort of things we do, I've posted the links to Metal Weave Games (our company), and the Baby Bestiary (our cutest brand ever). If they fit your fancy, take a look, we would appreciate the follow.
Andreas's (creator's) Twitter (he talks a lot about ttrpg design/publishing, and you get peeks of cool projects he's working on.
