Production is going strong! At this point, ALL items for the campaign are fully in production - including Caster Tiles and Tile Racks!
Tile Racks were able to be put into production this week due to a couple of targeted tweaks of our process that eliminated sufficient variance in the resulting product. This removed the need for the much more involved fix we were planning on as per the last update, and - most importantly - saved us about a month of delay on shipments. Tile Racks will begin reaching inventory in the next week or so, and shipping out with orders during the coming month.
Split shipments have occurred for February and March, but shouldnot need to occur for April - we are anticipating catching up on fulfillment and getting the remainder of March shipped within the next two weeks, and moving forward clean shipping out April in full, Tile Racks and all.
IMPORTANT:Caster Tiles contain a 3 inch diameter, powerful magnet beneath the cork surface. This is what allows the non-magnetic ball bearings to stick to the Tile. If you have a pacemaker or similar device, we recommend caution handling the Caster Tile, and suggest keeping it at least 6 inches/15cm from your device. If you're concerned about possible interactions, we recommend consulting your physician and device manufacturer for more specific guidelines.
And, speaking of 5E D&D, we've got a new project: The RPG Tracking System! Check the campaign out if you're interested in a fun, stylish alternative to traditional character sheets. More information below!
This new project is in design and development, and will not enter production for some time. As a result, it will not take resources from or impact fulfillment of the Hexagonal Gaming System, which is in production now, having completed design and development. In addition, it utilizes very different aspects of our production than does this project, so even when the RPG Tracking System begins fulfillment in Q3 of this year, when HGS is winding down, there won't really be any competition for production resources between the two. The only resource they'll share is shipping, but that is in no way a bottleneck for our accessory campaigns.
By The Numbers
Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in each. Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change as we begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. In addition, pre-orders remain open.
Wave 1: February - 456 backers
400 shipped, 56 pending
87.7% fulfilled
Wave 2: March - 622 backers
321 shipped, 301 pending
51.6% fulfilled
Wave 3: April - 912 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 4: May - 870 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 5: June - 810 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 6: July - 1,041 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 7: August - 1,151 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 8: September - 452 backers
Fulfillment not started
Pre-orders - 340 backers
Fulfillment not started
New Project: The RPG Tracking System - Live Now!
As I stated in the video, we have a new project for D&D 5E players:
Well, that about does it for this update! Thank you as always for reading and watching, and I hope those of you receiving your orders are enjoying them. The rest of you - hold tight, they're on the way soon! I'll be back around the 15th to let you know how it's all going.
~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood
Mid-March Fulfillment Update
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Mar 16, 2022 at 03:21:49 AM
Hello all!
I'm back with our mid-month check in. Let's see how things are going:
Tile Rack: We took some time to dig in and find out what was going on with the Tile Racks. They were still coming out a bit more variable than expected, and we weren't sure why - until today! We have isolated the issue, and have a fix that will work. That's the good news. The bad news? It will take some time, and there's no real way around that. We estimate that we'll be on solid footing with this item in about a month. In the meantime, we're not going to hold up orders for missing Tile Racks, so if you are in February or March and receive your order sans Tile Racks, don't panic - they'll be on their way to you as soon as they're ready, in a separate shipment.
Caster Tile: The ring magnets we've been stalled on are due to arrive soon. We've got the February batch of Tiles done up to the point of magnet installation, which occurs at the end of the process, and March is well on its way to completion. So as soon as the magnets are here, we'll be able to process these quickly.
Overall Build Progress: As of today, 70% of the needed inventory for February is complete and ready to ship, while more than 50% of the combined total for February and March is on the shelves. This sounds pretty low, but consider that Tile Racks, End Caps and Caster Tiles make up roughly 20% of the February build, and about 15% of the total Feb/Mar build. Being able to enter full speed production on these components will make a major impact on those figures. I'm also working with Ian, our COO, to pivot resources and players to Tile production as much as possible, to gain as much ground as we can. Production is confident that by month's end, everything (with the exception of Tile Racks and possibly Caster Tiles) will be caught up.
We're still seeing a lot of good production coming in day by day. You can see some of that in the video, in some (admittedly raw) footage I shot of our Hexagonal Gaming System inventory.
Shipping is paused right now, while we get some steam going on racks, but we will be shipping out as much as possible of February and March towards the end of this week. We'll start with orders not containing Tile Racks and Caster Tiles, just to keep things moving (split shipments, due to the modification of the order necessary in our software, take longer than full shipments to pack and label). Then we'll move onto the split shipments.
Again, I expect we will end March not totally caught up, but close to it. On the 1st, I can give an updated set of numbers (see below), as well as a new forecast based on the latest information on the Tile Rack.
Fulfillment Numbers
Below are the total number of backers in each fulfillment wave, as well as the number of shipped/pending status backers in each. Note that the total number of backers in each wave will change as we begin each new round of fulfillment, due to backers who have failed to respond to the survey being rolled into the next wave. In addition, pre-orders remain open.
Wave 1: February - 457 backers
115 shipped, 342 pending
25.2% fulfilled
Wave 2: March - 622 backers
0 shipped, 622 pending
0.0% fulfilled
Wave 3: April - 912 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 4: May - 871 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 5: June - 811 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 6: July - 1,041 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 7: August - 1,151 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 8: September - 452 backers
Fulfillment not started
Wave 9: Pre-orders - 301 backers
Fulfillment not started
Until Next Time
Thanks for your understanding and patience, and I'll be back on the 1st with the latest information.
~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding for Wyrmwood
Fulfillment Update: March 2022
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 03:03:03 AM
Hello everyone!
A new month is here, which means it's time to check in and see how fulfillment is going. As you're aware from the last update, we got a late start, so lets see how it's going... and what you can expect moving forward.
[Apologies for the weird aspect ratio - the video had to be uploaded via YouTube because Kickstarter refused to properly embed the file. Isn't technology great?]
Key Takeaways
Tile Rack: The parts we were missing have arrived, and they are good. The finished pieces thus far haven't been up to spec, however, so we're pausing production to iron the issue out. We estimate 1-2 weeks to be up and running on these, and we are already testing a planned fix.
Caster Tile: As we feared, the large ring magnets did not arrive in time. However, in keeping with our earlier decision, if this was the only thing holding up an order, we are aiming to split the order and ship the rest.
OverallBuild Progress: As of today, ~58% of the needed inventory for February is complete and ready to ship. Unfortunately, the delays in development and supply chain issues forced us into a later start than we'd hoped. But, there is good news...
We have literally hundreds of items being completed and stocked each day, and there's no sign of slowing down. Assuming it holds, we'll have completed all the items for the February wave in 7 days of production, and finish up the March build in an additional 11, meaning we'll easily be caught up by month's end.
Shipping progress: As you may guess from all of this, shipping has not been able to process many orders yet. While we have about 55% of the products needed for the wave completed, that does NOT mean we can ship 55% of the orders; it all depends on the mix of product in each order, and with 300 SKUs, there's a LOT of variety, and almost no orders are exactly the same. So our ability to ship a wave starts very low, and exponentially rises as we get in the home stretch of production. But our shipping department can ship a LOT of orders once they have what they need, ensuring that shipping will not be the bottleneck in fulfillment for this project. We've taken pains to carefully organize our inventory to make picking orders go smoothly, as well.
March Orders: Since we're moving ahead, and expect to pick up steam, we'll be locking March addresses in 48 hours - you should receive a follow up warning you to make any last-minute changes to your address later today. This will allow us to prepare and sort these orders so that when we're ready to ship, we can move fast.
Additional Information
Pre-orders: Typically, as new pre-orders come in for a project, we charge them once a week on Friday. From now on, we will be charging on Monday, starting next week, March 7th.
Monkeywood: We sent out a survey concerning Monkeywood, to any backer that ordered any Monkeywood items - this is covered in our last update, which was published, but without notifying all backers, since the vast majority of backers were not impacted. We've heard from most of the Monkeywood backers on their preference, but some did not respond. I'll be closing the survey to new responses today, so if you wanted to respond but didn't, please send us a message ASAP through Kickstarter or via email at [email protected]. If we haven't heard from you, we're going to leave your order as-is, and assume you are okay with the lumber as shown in that update.
FulfillmentNumbers: Given the current status, it's a little fuzzy as to which orders are filled or not (do partially shipped Caster Tile orders count as filled?), and so we're going to save the hard numbers for the next update, coming at the mid-month mark. We should be well underway with fulfillment of the February wave, if not nearly complete, and may have even started on March orders by then.
Until Next Time
That's about it for this one. While it isn't the news I'd hoped to report, it's important to remember a lot is still very positive - production is really moving fast, we should catch up soon, and there are no issues with the vast majority of product we're producing. Lastly, those impacted by the delay will receive a $25 Gyft Certificate with their order as our way of apologizing for the disappointment. And those late orders should be in your hands in a matter of a couple weeks.
Thanks for your understanding and patience, and I'll be back around the 15th to let you know how things are going. I fully expect to have much more positive news to report.
~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding for Wyrmwood
Fulfillment Update: Mid-Month Update, February
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 04:39:35 AM
Hello everyone!
As the campaign is now officially in the fulfillment stage, our updates will be stepping up to a bi-monthly format - you can expect them to arrive on or around the 1st and 15th of each month. This will allow you to know how we're doing as each month progresses.
So, without further ado, let's see how February is going.
Engineering and design is complete, and has been the biggest hold-up. In the past we've been a little fast and loose with these stages, which causes problems during production. By taking our time to get this right now, the actual production should be much more efficient, and thus faster, now that we're ready to roll.
The core products - that is, existing Tile designs in regularly stocked woods - are all ready to ship, representing maybe 10% of the ship out. Roughly 75% of the remaining production for the month is in progress now, and poised to move quickly. The remaining 15% is not yet begun due mostly to supply issues.
The Caster Tile and Tile Racks have been held up due to supply chain issues. We are waiting on the internal large ring magnet for Caster Tile, and the magnetic rails for the Tile Racks. They are due in a matter of days, so as soon as they arrive, we'll begin pushing through product as quickly as possible.
[Not mentioned in video] Goncalo Alves has been held up a bit, and is the only remaining lumber we're short on. It should be in any day, and we're putting more pressure on the supplier, which is very late getting it to us already. Luckily, there are relatively few numbers of product to make in this wood, so once it arrives we can produce the needed items quickly.
New Packaging arriving soon, due late this week, early next week.
Shipping should be ready to begin on many orders next week.
It's going to be a lot to ship the entire wave during effectively one week, but it's nothing we can't do, as long as we have product available. Our shipping department is able to handle the load easily, so it's just a matter of getting in the parts and materials we need.
In accordance with our guarantee, if we fail to ship out your February wave order by the last day of February, we'll include a $25 WyrmwoodGaming.com Gyft Certificate with it as our way of saying thank you for your patience as we navigate the various supply and shipping issues facing the world right now. We hope to not have many, if any, to send out... but if your order is late, we hope it softens the disappointment a bit to have this offer to look forward to.
The Heat is On
That's about it for now! Obviously, we've got our work cut out for us, but I hope you can see that we're hard at work to get these items to you as quickly as we possibly can, given the headwinds and climate we're under. You can expect another check-in on March 1st with the latest.
Thank you for your patience and support, and I'll be in touch soon!
~ Ed Maranville, VP Crowdfunding Fulfillment for Wyrmwood
Brief Update for Monkeywood Backers Only
about 2 years ago
– Sat, Feb 12, 2022 at 12:23:09 AM
Hello backers,
As you're aware, there are many supply chain shortages and other problems impacting companies worldwide, both large and small. Unfortunately, we are not immune to these, and we are experiencing them in a few places. One I want to talk to you about today concerns Monkeywood.
While sourcing lumber, we found we could not locate Monkeywood, until finally, one vendor had some in stock - a small quantity. But there were two problems with it:
1) It was an unusual size, which meant we would need to utilize extra labor time to use it.
2) It was dramatically higher in price than when we'd run the campaign, which meant we would be breaking even or losing money on many of these products.
Neither one of these problems was a deal breaker for me - I resolved to bite the bullet, absorb the added costs, and deliver for our backers, and we ordered the lumber. We did, however, order a small test batch, rather than ordering the whole campaign's worth all at once, just in case we ran into issues. This, unfortunately, proved wise.
Two samples to show the range of color possible - the right is as dark as it gets. Most will look like the piece on the left.
We've discovered that this material looks quite different from what we've sourced in the past. The reason for this, it turns out, is that this is, in fact, MonkeyPOD - a different species entirely! However, it is the only thing we can find from any vendor for Monkeywood. These samples are being provided to give you an idea of what to expect.
The darker sample, by itself
The lighter, more typical sample by itself
Based on the sample images we had in the campaign, this probably isn't what you're expecting, and I'm concerned that you may be disappointed if you receive this. As such, I wanted to reach out and show you what the stock looked like ahead of time... and offer you an option to choose something else before we ship.
Your Options
If you'd like, you may switch your Monkeywood pieces over to your choice of Bolivian Rosewood or Wenge for all Monkeywood pieces in your order. Both woods were offered at a higher price point than Monkeywood in the campaign, and generally will be closer to what you selected than the wood we've received. If you elect to switch, there will be no additionalcharge for these items.
I've taken a couple photos with examples of all three woods for a direct comparison:
Clockwise from top left: Monkeywood dark, Monkeywood, Bolivian Rosewood, Wenge
One more, with more focus on Bolivian Rosewood and Wenge:
Perhaps you're looking at these photos, and your decision is already clear - either you're happy with the material we've received, or you'd much prefer one of the two options offered above. Great! You can skip ahead to the next section.
But if you're still on the fence, I may be able to offer a little bit of guidance. If you like the look of the dark Monkeywood but not the lighter piece, I would recommend switching to Wenge. It's uniformly exceptionally dark, while this Monkeywood sample is atypical. In my opinion, you will most likely not be happy with the Monkeywood piece you receive - chances are low that it will be as dark as the sample here. If you like the look of the lighter Monkeywood, you may well be happy with what you get. But if you are torn, I would recommend switching to Bolivian Rosewood. It can vary significantly in tone - some pieces can be quite dark, even darker than the dark Monkeywood sample, but in all cases it will be tighter grained, more dense and offer more contrast.
The last question you may have is probably, "What if I receive the Monkeywood piece I ordered and don't like it?" You can reach out to us, and we'll set up an exchange as soon as possible, but there will be some delay. But, if you are asking this question now, I would strongly recommend making a switch now, which will save you (and us!) significant time and trouble.
We'll process all form entries as quickly as possible, and we'll be keeping a close eye for submissions as time goes on. If we have any issue processing your request, we'll reach out to you directly, so keep an eye on your email over the next week or so. Don't worry if you don't hear back from us right away - we'll be busy working through the changes for a bit, but we will get to your request. Please do not submit multiple entries - that will only slow us down. We'll issue confirmations via email after making the changes, and as long as you respond in a timely fashion, we expect we'll be able to process all of these requests prior to shipment.
Note that if you do elect to switch, there is a chance that your order is slightly delayed, as we will need to pivot and make some additional Tiles out of the new material you've chosen. But I expect this delay should be no more than 1-2 weeks, if it occurs at all, which is less than what you can expect if you receive a Tile you don't like and need to set up an exchange, so I would say it's still a fairly easy choice.
I apologize for the late notice and inconvenience, and thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding as we sort through these issues and work to deliver the best products we can to you.
