The Traditional Pat Rothfuss Donation Blog

Back when I started doing Worldbuilders, the only items in our lottery came from me.

That changed pretty fast, of course. Authors started to jump in with offers of help almost immediately. That’s what made me think I could turn it into something more than just me goofing off on my blog.

Now, six years later, Worldbuilders has grown to be bigger than just me, but I still like to do my part.

Most of the items I’m donating are going into the lottery, where anyone can win them if they donate at least ten bucks. A few of the rarer things are going up as auctions, too.

And some items are available in The Tinker’s Packs, so you can go grab them right away if they make your palms all sweaty, or if you’re looking to do some early Christmas shopping. Then, tonight you can sleep easier knowing that you’ve made the world a better place, because 100% of the proceeds go to Worldbuilders.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • First Edition copies of The Name of the Wind. Signed by me. 

NOTW01

Back in the day, I remember selling one of these to a guy online for 60 bucks. I felt *really* guilty about it, like I was committing some sort of fraud.

Two years ago, we were selling them in the store for $700 each, but we had to stop because we ran out.

These days I have handful of them squirreled away. I hope they might help put my kids through school. But the truth is, it’s looking like they’ll all be gone before Oot and Cutie get to college. Sorry boys.

Still, for Worldbuilders, I’m willing to give up a pair of them. One is going into the lottery where anyone who donates can win it, other copy is going up on ebay. I’ll sign it however the winner desires….

  • Auction: An ARC of The Wise Man’s Fear. Signed by me.

WMFARC01

This, my friends, is a true rarity.

When we were getting ready to publish The Wise Man’s Fear, we didn’t want it leaking out into the internet before publication. But we still wanted to be able to show it to a select group of people. Reviewers and such.

So we printed a very, very few Advance Reader Copies. 227 of them, in fact. They were numbered before we gave them out, so if one showed up on e-bay before the book went on sale, we knew who we should sue into the ground.

My editor has copy #1. I have copy #2.

Just the number

This, as you can see, is copy #4.

A couple years ago someone sent me a link to an e-bay auction of one of these. It sold for more than 2500 dollars and it wasn’t even signed. I just went looking around online to see if I could find any for sale to see what they were going for, and I couldn’t find a single one. That means this is the only copy of this book currently for sale anywhere.

So… Yeah. This is a rarity. But I’m putting it into the fundraiser with the hope that it will bring in some serious money and make a bunch of people’s lives better.

If you win the auction, I will sign it however you like. Head over here to bid.

  • Your College Survival Guide. Signed by me, and signed and doodled by Brett.

CSG01

Ah the terrible secrets of my misspent youth.

This is a collection of humor columns I wrote for the college paper back when I was a student. This edition is annotated, and illustrated by my longtime friend Brett Hiorns, who now works with us at Worldbuilders.

This book was put together by a small press in 2005. Back before anyone cared who Patrick Rothfuss was. There were only 500 printed, so they’re fairly hard to find these days. I’ve put two of my remaining copies into the fundraiser.

One you can win by donating to Heifer on the Worldbuilders team page.

The other will go to the highest bidder on ebay.

  • The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle Volumes 1 and 2. Both signed. Also includes the Princess and Mr. Whiffle Coloring Book.

PrincessSet02

After all these years, I’m still surprised when my fans haven’t heard of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. I’m terribly proud of them.

The Princess and Mr. Whiffle Coloring Book is only a couple months old. It went over great during our IndieGoGo Fundraiser this summer, so we’re including it in all its geeky glory in this bundle in the lottery.

If you want to see more pictures from it, you can check it out on The Tinker’s Packs, where it’s available with both of the Princess books.

  • 5 Sets of The Name of the WindThe Wise Man’s Fear, and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. All signed by me.

NovelPack01

A complete set of the books, all hardcovers, all signed. If you already own copies… well…. the pages are really absorbent, great for cleaning up spills. They’re also really thick, so they’re perfect for propping up your computer monitor to it’s proper ergonomic height.

All three of these are also available, signed, in The Tinker’s Packs.

  • Copies of Unfettered. Signed by me.

Unfettered01

This contains “How Old Holly Came to Be,” my first published short story, set in Temerant. This book was published to help raise money for Shawn Speakman’s cancer treatment, and there were only 5000 printed.

I’m putting five of these into the lottery, but we also have some available in the store.

  • Copies of Rogues. Including signed and numbered BAST OFF! card.

Rogues01

The Bast Off doodle cards were one of the most fun things I’ve done. Brett and I only drew 250 of them, and I’m throwing five into the lottery.

There’s a few available in the store too, but be careful, supplies are very limited.

Since we’re talking about things in the store, I should probably take a moment to mention…

A Few New Additions to The Tinker’s Packs

  • Kvothe’s Vintish Court Rings.

Three_Rings_grande

The folks over at Badali Jewelry crafted these for us, based on the court rings used in Maer’s court.

The gold and silver rings are plated, (so we could keep production costs down) But the iron ring is actually made of real iron. Do you know how hard it is to get iron Jewelry made? Nobody does it, but Badali found a way.

You can buy these over in The Tinker’s Packs, and 100% of the proceeds will go to Worldbuilders.

  • The UK edition of The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

SROSTUK01

I got a few author copies of the UK edition, and a lot of people seem to love this cover design (including most of the Worldbuilders Staff) so I’ve given up my precious author copies to The Tinker’s Packs. If you want one, I’d grab it fast, because we don’t have many.

  • The Worldbuilders 2015 Karen Hallion Calendar.

KHCalendarCover_

I would just like to take a moment to point out that *I* came up the the title for this year’s calendar.

I don’t doubt you’ve seen Karen Hallion’s artwork before. (If nothing else, we have some of her signed prints in our store.) But there’s one piece of art I’m guessing a lot of you haven’t seen. Or at least haven’t noticed….

KHCalendarSpread_1024x1024

If you click to embiggen, you’ll see a couple familiar characters in the center page.

We’re very proud of how this calendar turned out, and it makes a great holiday gift. You can grab one over here.

  • Boss Monster with Limited Edition Bast and Bastas promo cards.

Boss_Monster_Bast_and_Bastas_1024x1024

Boss Monster is the game where you get to play the Boss in an old 8-bit video game. You make your dungeon difficult to get through and harvest the souls of the unsuspecting heroes you lure in with your treasure.

Turns out the folks at Brotherwise are fans of my stuff. So we worked together to create special promo cards based off my characters. Specifically, we’ve got Bast and Bastas cards. You can buy them by themselves, or bundled together with the game in The Tinker’s Packs.

  • Auction: Boss Monster with Bast, Bastas, and rare Quothe Ladykiller Card.

299px-Quothe_ladykiller_promo_cropped

This was the first character likeness thing we did with one of my characters. Brotherwise printed special promo cards of “Quothe Ladykiller, The Polymath.” And Worldbuilders sold them at our booth at Gencon in 2013. If you’ve played the game, you can tell from his stats he’s a bit of an ass kicker, and apparently Amanda has been slaughtered by him more than once while playing the game.

Brotherwise printed a couple hundred cards, but we didn’t know how excited people would be about it, and they all sold out at the show. We never even got to put them in the store.

But one lovely shining fan donated his card back to the fundraiser, asking us to make good use of it in the fundraiser.

So we’re auctioning it off, along with a copy of the game and the Bast and Bastas cards too. If you’d like the full set, you can bid on it over here.

  • Auction: A STEALTH ROTHFUSS copy of The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Signed by me.

SROSTStealth01

As I’ve already mentioned on the blog, Over the last month, I’ve signed of a lot of copies of The Slow regard of Silent Things.

IMG_20141020_115105782

(Here’s the shipment of books we used to fill orders for our IndieGoGo campaign.)

When I was signing 2000 books for the IndieGoGo, I stumbled onto a couple copies that had a weird printing error. They didn’t have the silver foil covering my name like the other books. SROSTStealth03

(Oooh… Spooky…)

I thought they looked pretty cool, so I grabbed them for myself. Because I’m a bad person. Then I felt guilty because I’d hoarded them all….

So I’m putting one up in the auction. If you’re into strange, rare misprints, here it is.

  • Auction: One (1) Favor from Patrick Rothfuss.

Golden Ticket Ring

I’ve auctioned off favors in the past, and it’s gone over extremely well. Here are the details:

This is a 10 karat gold ring redeemable for one (1) favor from Patrick Rothfuss.

Possible uses for the favor include:

Asking Pat to insert your name/likeness into a future book or story.
Asking Pat’s assistance in wooing the object of your affection, preferably from under a balcony at night.
Asking Pat to read and critique your unpublished manuscript (or your published one, if you really want.)
Asking Pat give a reading/workshop at your local library or University.
Asking Pat to give a reading/workshop at your house.
Asking Pat to give a reading/workshop in your bedroom.
Asking Pat to help you move a particularly heavy couch.
Asking Pat to follow you on twitter and post kitten pictures to you.

This favor has no expiration date. It can be traded, transferred, sold, or lost. In essence, the ring *is* the favor. You give the ring back when you cash in your favor. So if you lose it, you’ve kinda fucked yourself.

The nature of this favor is fairly open-ended, though some negotiation may be necessary depending on the nature of the favor. Certain ethical or legal restrictions may apply (though not as many as you might expect.) Under no circumstances will Patrick dance for you. Carnal favors must be approved by Pat’s girlfriend in advance. If you won this favor in the auction, and for any reason Pat cannot fulfill his obligation to you, he will personally refund your winning bid in exchange for the ring.

If you want in on it, go over here and bid.

  • One Full Set of My Favorite Fantasy Books.

PatCarePackage03

(So many books, Rachel had to stand on a ladder to get a picture of them all.)

A few years ago, someone asked me what they should read while they were waiting for my next book. So I posted a blog listing what the 40 best fantasy books and/or series were, in my opinion. Books that everyone should read if they wanted to consider themselves well-versed in fantasy.

My list contained 40 entries. But the clever among you will note that this is a lot more than 40 books. This is because some of the entries were for entire series. Like the Dresden Files, which I’m absolutely gooey over. (Currently 14 books.) Or Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series. (38 books.)

PatCarePackage10

When we had the option, I tried to buy nice versions of the books. We’ve got a leather bound box set of The Lord of the Rings. A beautiful special edition of Dune. A massive Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tome. They’re glorious.

All together there are over 130 books in this bundle.

We’re only putting one of these into the fundraiser, and it’s going into lottery. That means it’s there for anyone, and every $10 you donate gives you a chance to win it.

So there you are. Go make the world a better place. You know you want to.

This entry was posted in BJ Hiorns Art, gaming, Nathan Taylor Art, The Adventures of The Princess and Mr. Whiffle, Worldbuilders 2014By Pat40 Responses

40 Comments

  1. lodi16b
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 2:27 AM | Permalink

    The Rothfuss donations blog is always the best. Although being a good human should keep me coming back, I admit that I donate money in hopes to win Rothfuss goodies. Hopefully this year is my year!

  2. Posted November 12, 2014 at 3:07 AM | Permalink

    The D&D-esque “wish” ring is always my favourite part, great to see that you’re continuing that tradition.
    I’m also looking forward to reading the future blog entry about what happened to the Stardust Arc :)

  3. Posted November 12, 2014 at 3:31 AM | Permalink

    So much awesome! I want so many of the of these pretty, shiny things I have tunnel vision. It’s probably quicker and easier all round if I just make the worldbuilders ebay page my homepage I’m going to be camping out there for ten days anyway. It’s my sincere hope to win the lottery before the end of the auctions and buy EVERYTHING!!

    “I can’t hear you over the sound

    I heard this innappropriate quote in my head when I saw this post Show

    ” -Sterling Archer

    • Posted November 12, 2014 at 8:58 PM | Permalink

      Wow. You’re HTML-fu is strong. I’ve never seen that done before in a comment.

      • Richard Bissmire
        Posted November 13, 2014 at 2:30 AM | Permalink

        Hey, I’m lucky it works after a weekend watching back to back seasons of Archer and South Park, I think I might have lost touch with what’s socially acceptable in the real world. I walked to the post office Monday flipping everyone the bird, telling people to call Kenny Loggins and that’s how you get ants!
        Because do you know where we live Pat…Pat… Pat!

        PAAAAT!! Show
  4. Haze
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 5:46 AM | Permalink

    For most of this post I was lamenting putting all my money into the Lottery.
    But then I saw that last entry and it made it all worthwhile. I have my name in five times to win any and all books and games. Here’s hoping I get those 130 free fantasy books!
    Keep up the good work everybody.

  5. midobal
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 5:48 AM | Permalink

    The link to the Worldbuilders team page under the “College Survival Guide” does not seem to be working.

    Also, I was wondering that, since it’s been long since it went out of print, if it could be possible to create a digital edition to the “College Survival Guide” and had it sold at The Tinker’s Packs. It would be cool if it where possible. You probably have already though about it, but I’m giving the idea just in case.

  6. Seerow
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 6:05 AM | Permalink

    Is it bad that I own at least half the books in that care package, and still kind of want it?

    • Posted November 12, 2014 at 9:47 AM | Permalink

      That just shows that you’re my kind of person…

    • Kendall
      Posted November 15, 2014 at 10:06 PM | Permalink

      I love that you call it a care package! :-D

  7. katherineofyork
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 6:06 AM | Permalink

    As always, there are so many wonderful prizes! Thank you for your generosity, Pat.

    It would be so fun to have the ring (I’d only use it for good and not evil), but I have my fingers crossed for the big catalogue of fantasy novels!

  8. Posted November 12, 2014 at 7:00 AM | Permalink

    Holy cow I want that book bundle…

  9. Posted November 12, 2014 at 7:26 AM | Permalink

    I feel as though I should point out that your wife may have more to say about the carnal requests for favors than your girlfriend! ;)

    I hope one day to be able to take part in the bidding on the favor, but for now I will content myself with grabbing Unfettered to complete my collection. :)

    Keep up the good work!

    • Auri Rodrigues
      Posted November 12, 2014 at 8:05 AM | Permalink

      A wife AND a girlfriend?!?
      Holy shit, what a mess!!

    • SporkTastic
      Posted November 12, 2014 at 9:49 AM | Permalink

      Waiting for his wife’s approval would take a while, seeing as how he’s unmarried. ;-) Sarah, his girlfriend and the mother of his wonderful boys, though, might have something to say.

      • Posted November 12, 2014 at 8:56 PM | Permalink

        Yeah. She’s got a vested interest in the subject.

  10. Neville Longbottom
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 10:12 AM | Permalink

    I really do hope I win some nice stuff in the lottery this year. (Anyone else notice that the first three Dragonlance novels are in Pat’s Bundle?)

    But the best thing? I already have that. It’s the chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you good people and do something truly stupid like thinking we can fight poverty.

    That kind of stupid I can live with. I crave it. Charge.

  11. Beej
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 10:21 AM | Permalink

    Dammit, Pat, you (and some of the comments here) are making me cry at work again.

  12. cynrtst
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 10:55 AM | Permalink

    Earthsea is a series. Why only the first book?

  13. Quillan
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 3:22 PM | Permalink

    Damn you Rothfuss!
    A Cyrano de Bergerac reference can lead a man to reread the play, which, if he is relatively human, breaks him. I just finished crying you sadistic fuck.
    I also just donated some money, so now I am an even *more* broke college student crying. But its all worth it, keep making the world a better place.
    Thank you, thank you, and again I thank you.

  14. Posted November 12, 2014 at 3:41 PM | Permalink

    What I’ve learned from this post: I need to read the River World series, since they appear to be the only 4 books in Mr. Rothfuss’s book bundle that I don’t already own.

    Also of note: No Brandon Sanderson? Is it because you’re mortal foes?

    • Posted November 13, 2014 at 11:34 PM | Permalink

      No. Because I was putting together a list of “Classic” fantasy reads.

      Also, this was several years ago, before Brandon wrote his most recent 12 books.

      • Posted November 14, 2014 at 12:59 PM | Permalink

        Gotcha. And I honestly laughed out loud at that Sanderson productivity snipe… then realized that, yes, he has actually written 12 books in the last several years, thought about how I’m 1k words behind on nanowrimo, and cried a little, on the inside.

  15. gilgamesh
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 3:59 PM | Permalink

    Have you ever and/or would you ever put one of those favor rings in the lottery? I just think that someone who does not have thousands of dollars to spend should get a chance to win one. Just my opinion. Keep up the good work with Worldbuilders!

  16. MG Schroeder
    Posted November 12, 2014 at 5:26 PM | Permalink

    Thanks for always thinking of those of us who can’t afford to hang with the bids in the auctions we’d otherwise be interested in by throwing a duplicate or similar prize into the lottery. Very kind.

  17. Posted November 12, 2014 at 6:23 PM | Permalink

    “Carnal favors must be approved by Pat’s girlfriend in advance.”

    LMAO!

  18. jp
    Posted November 13, 2014 at 3:43 AM | Permalink

    Is there any chance of the Cealdish coins coming into circulation again? I love the look of them, but I missed my chance the first time.

    • Posted November 13, 2014 at 11:36 PM | Permalink

      We’ll be doing a new set of coins eventually. But not in time for this year’s fundraiser.

  19. jpylus
    Posted November 13, 2014 at 8:19 AM | Permalink

    Does anyone know if funds that go to Worldbuilders through the Amazon Smile program count towards the stretch goals?

    And if you do not know what I am talking about Amazon Smile is a way to donate small amounts of money to certain charities for every purchase you make on Amazon.

    • Posted November 13, 2014 at 11:37 PM | Permalink

      Not really.

      Also, it’s only about .5 of a percent, if I remember correctly.

      Don’t get me wrong, we’re glad to have it, but it doesn’t stack up very quickly, if you follow me.

      • jpylus
        Posted November 14, 2014 at 8:49 AM | Permalink

        Understood. Already over 89k! Keep up the good work everyone!

  20. idejs
    Posted November 13, 2014 at 3:45 PM | Permalink

    I noticed the progress thermometer isn’t on the blog right now. How are we supposed to know our progress?! Also, this is going to be my year to win something. I can feel it!

    • Posted November 13, 2014 at 11:38 PM | Permalink

      We’ve been having a few minor glitches as we work out our new additions to the charity. That was one of them. It’s better now.

    • jpylus
      Posted November 14, 2014 at 8:50 AM | Permalink

      You can also check the Worldbuilders page directly for now: Worldbuilders page

      • idejs
        Posted November 14, 2014 at 10:02 AM | Permalink

        Thanks for the link! I missed it somehow.

  21. ericturner29
    Posted November 14, 2014 at 10:31 AM | Permalink

    Does anyone know what the print run was for the 1st edition 1st printing of Name of the Wind?
    And roughly what proportion had which dust jackets?

    My mother has “the Fabio” – she’ll be delighted to hear how valuable it has become. :)

  22. Miralys
    Posted November 19, 2014 at 1:52 AM | Permalink

    I donated the last two years and never heard anything back. I didn’t even get a confirmation that I’m in the lottery. Wouldn’t it be possible to auto-generate a “Welcome to the lottery”-mail and maybe also a “Worldbuilders is over for this year, we were able to collect THIS much money”-mail? I only check your blog once in a while so a notification would be really nice.
    Cheers, Helena

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