Check out the latest on the TTRPGkids works in progress to stay up to date on upcoming releases! This Dev Log will cover the closing of the StoryGuider project on Backerkit as fulfillment is now complete and status on the Mystery Snacks project. Additionally, I’ll be giving some hints as to what I have planned for 2026 – 2027!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission from purchases made using them. TTRPGkids uses this to keep the site going. Read full disclosure here.

Find my previous update (Dev Log #23) here!

Jump to:

• StoryGuider: project complete!
• Mystery Snacks: proofs are in!
• What’s next?

StoryGuider: project complete!

The StoryGuider project is completed! The Big Book of Heroes proofs arrived a bit early, and I was able to get all the POD pages up on DriveThruRPG for the small books, so I was able to send out all remaining POD keys to backers, completing fulfillment of the project!

Go here if you want to get a POD copy of StoryGuider!

Go here if you’re looking for the easiest way to print-and-play!

StoryGuider being closed is still sinking in… I ran the campaign, made 36 small books, 3 big books, and a coloring book in less than a year. The three big books combined is 806 pages, so that’s 806 unique pages in multiple formats plus the coloring book.

I can say that I probably don’t want to take on this big of a project again on my own since it was a lot to campaign, write, coordinate with artists, handle layout, etc with just me, but I’m also really proud of what I’ve made too.

StoryGuider was the first story game I started making with TTRPGkids, and, while it was from a request from a pre-K teacher looking for a fun way to engage their kids, I also made it for my kid and used these stories with kiddo when we were all still in COVID lockdown. It is REALLY COOL seeing these in a big stack in print and knowing that folks have these out there.

Anyway, thank you all for following along with this project, and I hope these games provide some fun adventures for folks to go on with their kids and classes!!

Victory lap task list incoming!

COMPLETED:

• Oct – campaign funds released from Backerkit
• Oct – send contracts for funded art to artists
• Oct – draft the Tome Traveller Trilogy (part of the Heroes series)
• Oct → Nov – collect first round of art from early artist kick-offs (from itchio and ko-fi prefunds)
• Nov – artists working on Heroes series
• Nov/Dec – finish writing the new Dragon series adventures
• Nov → Jan – reformat the Heroes series
• Jan – Heroes series art due
• Jan – order Heroes series proofs (round 1)
• Jan – artists working on Friends series
• Feb – Friends series art due
• Feb – Heroes series proofs arrive, review, update (round 1)
• Jan – Mar – reformat the Friends series
• Jan – Apr – artists working on Dragon series
• Mar – Dragon series art due 
• Mar – send backer surveys
• Apr – update + order Friends series proofs (round 1)
• Apr – update + order Heroes series proofs (round 1.5)
• Apr – set up digial pages for Friends and Heroes series
• Apr – fulfill digital print-and-play for Friends and Heroes series
• May – Friends series proofs review, update, reorder (round 2)
• May – Heroes series proofs review, update, reorder (round 2)
• June – reformat the Dragon series and make coloring book
• June – order Dragons series and coloring book proofs (round 1)
• June – set up digial pages for Dragons series
• June – fulfill digital print-and-play for Dragon series
• July – Friends series proofs arrive, review, update (round 2)
• July – Heroes series proofs arrive, review, update (round 2)
• July – Dragon series proofs arrive, review, update (round 1)
• July – start distribution of Friends and Dragons POD keys
• July – order Heroes series proofs (round 3)
• Aug – finish release of small books
• Aug – Heroes series proofs arrive, review, update (round 3)
• Aug – distribute Heroes series POD keys
• Sept – close pre-order store

NEXT STEPS:

• NONE!

Mystery Snacks: proofs are in!

For Mystery Snacks, all the proofs arrived!

I ordered proofs from Mixam, which is where I’ll be doing my print run and printing for crowdfunding fulfillment, and from DriveThruRPG and Lulu, which were my two print-on-demand options.

I want to do a deep dive post on the differences between these three later, but for now, my main points that I focused on and noticed were different between the three printers were:

Mixam, overall, seemed the best, but I needed to increase the cover weight a bit since the corners were curling. I also didn’t like how an arrow on some of the pages was appearing when it crossed the center seam, so I’ve adjusted that to end before hitting the seam and will see how that comes out in the next round. I’ve ordered another proof with the changes, and it should arrive in a couple weeks (Mixam was also the fastest turn around).

Lulu was second with some of the trim in the seam or across pages having more variation, but it looks pretty standard for print-on-demand. The cover weight on this one was good (I ordered different weights from different places so I could compare that factor as well), but both the interior and cover color was a bit different than with Mixam. While Lulu was still good, Mixam was a bit more vibrant, particularly with the orange. Still though, I think it came out OK. I fixed up the arrow issue on this one as well, adjusted the bleed for trim tolerance a bit, and have ordered another proof.

For DriveThruRPG, this one was a bit of a concern because they don’t offer staple bound options, so the center seam allowance is way different than with the zines. I ran into this issue with StoryGuider too where I thought I was good in the digital layout, but the actual proofs were kind of sinking into the seams. The color was also a bit further off from Mixam than Lulu. Ultimately, I decided that I preferred to keep everything in the staple bound format and wanted to keep the coloration between the mass print and POD versions closer, so I won’t be doing POD through DTRPG but will still have the digital version available through there and did not order another proof. That said, I did really like how StoryGuider came out on there – it did have black and white interior, but the cover, interior paper, etc were all good. I just think this isn’t the right format for this particular book.

SO! All that to say… we’re in the second round of proofs! Everything has been ordered from Mixam and Lulu, and I got the confirmation emails that they’re approved for print. Fingers crossed my next update announces that final proofs are cleared and I can get into talking about surveys!

COMPLETED:

• Feb – fund project
• Mar – kick off guest writers (send guidelines, formatting + style guide)
• Mar – set up pre-order store
• Apr – guest writer check in
• May – guest writer 1st drafts due
• May – review 1st drafts
• May – kick off guest writer 2nd drafts
• June – guest writer 2nd draft due
• June – kick off layout artist
• July – final layout due
• July – order proof (round 1)
• Aug – proofs arrive, check, review update (round 1)
• Aug – order proof (round 2)

NEXT STEPS:

• Sep – finalize surveys
• Sep – distribute surveys
• Sep – close pre-order shop
• Sep – proofs arrive, check, review update (round 2)
• Sep – order bulk
• Sep – digital fulfillment
• Oct – bulk order arrives
• Oct – ship to fulfill project (physical)

What’s next?

So, StoryGuider is closed, Mystery Snacks is on track, and all of my summer conventions are done.

For the rest of August, I’m going to be focusing on spending time with kiddo while we still have summer break, then, if I have some work time, I’m going to be working on building up my bank of articles so I’m not going week-to-week on the schedule and working on “secret project AB” which is going to involve going through a lot of data this month and giving feedback to the folks who I’m working for (it is TTRPG related).

I’m also renaming my secret projects because I was referring to them as 1, 2, 3, etc and with some now closed (at least for my part), I started losing track.

Next month, kiddo starts school and I’ll be continuing to build my article bank while also shifting attention to work on “secret project TB” and “secret project LB”, making sure I fulfill Mystery Snacks on time (there will be several days dedicated to shipping), and reviewing 80ish proposals as part of my job on the SXSW EDU advisory board.

And… seriously… I started getting hired for a bunch of stuff, and some have NDA’s and some just haven’t announced me yet, but there’s a lot of work on projects owned by other folks, which I’m really happy about because I’m learning a lot and getting to write for different genres and formats, which is refreshing.

After that’s all caught up (projected by mid-October), I’m going to be working on my Zinetopia project for 2027! Right now, my plan is to print Energeodes as a zine, which I’m REALLY geeked about. A couple years ago, a publisher tried to pick this up, and we even signed a contract, but they didn’t do anything with it and the contract expired, so I got the game back. I’m looking forward to really seeing it in print soon, and I’ll start adding it to my updates here once it gets rolling in a meaningful way.

And, past that… I have more plans, but I want to tease out some schedules and budgets and not overcommit first, so… with that, I hope you have a great end of the summer, and I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to tell you about some of the secret projects soon!!

---

Thank you for checking out this update and just kind of being interested in what TTRPGkids is doing! I hope it helps with seeing some of the self-pub, crowdfunding, and blog writing process for anyone who is thinking of getting into that themselves, and…

Until next time, happy gaming!

If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter to stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with the next generation of gamers.