Army Ants Character Sheet

I've developed a few drafts of a character sheet and hated each one. I finally decided to draw the whole thing by hand and see where that went. I went back in and typed all the text (since my handwritten lettering didn't hold up so well when scanned) and I think it's getting there. I'm tempted to go back and make some of the boxes more uniform, but I love the organic quality of the whole thing. Feel free to give some feedback. I'll be tweaking it slightly (most likely) but this is probably where it's going... EDIT: Made several revisions and posted it again... here's the better one:

A pop quiz

1. Mike hasn't been posting much lately... this is because.

A. Mike is a total slacker.
B. Mike is busy playing Star Wars Lego III.
C. Mike is a bit overwhelmed with the end of the year at school, several grad school classes back to back, and the craziness that is life.

While I wish the answer was B, C is the correct response. I keep thinking that grad school will slow down a little, but the classes have been linked back-to-back-to-back (I'm taking 4.5 credit hour grad classes every 4 weeks) and the end of the year has been especially hectic at school. However, we're now in exam mode at school, and I'm at the end of week 1 of the FINAL course of my grad program. Therefore, the end of the tunnel is in sight.

Obviously, I didn't make my June 1 goal for releasing the Player's Guide for the MTDAA RPG, but I still hope to get it done and published this month. I'm also going to hold off for a month or two on releasing the newsletter, since I have to put the focus on the game and webcomic right now; the newsletter will get there.

And on the webcomic front, I've decided to slow my pace to a new comic twice a week - on Saturdays and Tuesdays - so that I slow my pace of moving through my backlog of strips and buy a little more time to get ahead on that as well.

I'd also like to update the blog more than once a week, but let's not get CRAZY here...

Complete Comics Volume 1 has shipped

The collected comics Volume 1 has been shipped to Kickstarter backers (they actually went out two days ago), and the earliest estimates from Createspace had deliveries early next week. Many of you will be getting your first comics collection this week, although some of the international customers may not see theirs for a few more weeks.

I received the patches this week, meaning that I have t-shirts, patches, tattoos all here ready for shipment. I hope to put those packages together this week, along with the original art for those who ordered that - and the copies of 2nd edition - and the trading card sheets, getting those out as a priority. I don't like any of the character sheets I've designed so far, so I'm still working at that. I'd like to get those done so I can put it all in one package. We'll see what the week brings...

If you've been play testing the demo edition for the new RPG and want to submit your play test notes, please do so in the next week. I'm about to shift the RPG back to the front burner (after getting a whole bunch of comics stuff done for the last month), so if you have anything you'd like to have considered for the rules, speak now!

Thanks, all.

- Mike

MTDAA Comics Volume 1 Now Live

If you didn't order your print copies via Kickstarter, you can do so now for MTDAA Volume 1: Tour of Duty. If you are a Kickstarter backer who ordered it, sit back and relax. Your copy is on its way. I will be fulfilling those orders over the next two days.

Thanks!

The Proof is in the... Pudding?

I received my proof copies of MTDAA Volume 1: Tour of Duty in the mail today. The box was a smidge beat up, and one of the copies (I ordered 5) had a ding in the corner... I hope that individual copies fare better from them. I'm a wee bit concerned, but at this point I'm all in with Createspace for my print publishing, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

I had to make a few minor tweaks to the cover and back cover, but everything else looks good. The book is how I always envisioned Army Ants, so that in and of itself is a win. The art was really built for this format.

If I get the approval in the next day or so (which I'm supposed to...) I will be direct shipping copies of Volume 1 to the Kickstarter backers who ordered it; this means you should have it by the end of next week, assuming all goes well.

I also received t-shirts and tattoos this week. I'm still waiting on the patches, still need to order the lunch boxes, and still have to design the character sheets. I hope to finish the Player's Guide in the next week or two, although I don't think that a June 1 launch for that is going to work out. Life has gotten quite busy of late. I'm going to make it a priority next week, but it may have to get in line behind my grad school class (which has had a 10-page paper due each week this month).

Consider yourself updated!

Negative, Negative... Just impacted on the surface

I should have known that titling my last few posts with obscure Red Leader quotes would lead to no good... the guy had a shot at taking down the Death Star and missed it. If you want something to go well the first time around, you send in your Jedi-in-training. That's what I get for invoking the lesser-known Star Wars quotes... that will teach me.

I digress.

Several backers reported problems getting the download of the first volume of comics from my direct link to the Google Docs account, so instead of trying to fix all of those, I've posted the comic to DriveThruComics and sent a download link to all backers who ordered the comics. If you didn't back the comics, this means that your time has come! Head over to DriveThruComics and get your copy. You may as well post a glowing review and tell all of your friends about it, too... I mean, you DID go to all the trouble of buying it and downloading it.

(Edit: I just realized that this is post #300. Woot for me.)

It's Away!

The first comics collection, MTDAA Volume 1: Tour of Duty, has now been shared in pdf with all backers who had that reward as part of their pledge level. I did this as a link to the Google Docs upload. If you have a problem with this for any reason, let me know and I'll look into it. The file was too big to simply attach to an e-mail, and I wanted to avoid making you download it through DriveThruComics, so I went with this route.

The second volume (another 228 pages) will be out in the next month or so, and work continues apace on the RPG. Other rewards of t-shirts, 2nd edition RPGs, tattoos and patches will be going out in the next few weeks.