Category Archives: Geeks Doing Good

GenCon 2016: The Happening

Heya Folks,

I posted my schedule for GenCon a few weeks ago because a few of the events I’m doing require tickets (Typically free tickets) and I wanted to make sure my people got their hands on them before they sold out.

I was right in being concerned, because a few things *are* already sold out, but we’ve got a lot of other festivities going on, so I thought I’d share with you a list of things you can do here in Indianapolis, with or without me.

  • The rest of my Con events

Since a few things are already closed, I figured you’d like to see the list of things that either don’t require registration, or that still have tickets available.

Thursday, August 4

1pm-2pm: Writer’s Craft: Convince the Reader to Care, Capital 1

Friday, August 5

4pm-6pm: An Evening with Pat Rothfuss

This one will be fun. I’ll be reading a bunch of stuff, answering questions from the audience, and telling stories.

This event requires a free ticket, and they’re more than two thirds gone, so if you want to check it out be sure to get in on it soon here. (Even if the tickets sell out, you can show up at the door and trust that some of the folks who got tickets will ditch the event.)

Saturday, August 6

3:00pm-4:00pm: Character Craft: Representing Unconscious Motivation, Capital 1

4:00pm-5:00pm: Writer’s Life: Writers and Mental Health (You’re Not Alone), Capital 1

These panels are all going to be good, but this last one is a subject I’ve wanted to talk about for a while now.

  • Concert Against Humanity

If you missed the Concert Against Humanity last year, it was a ton of fun, and this year it’s going to be on Friday, August 5th at 8pm. It’s run by Max Temkin and his team at Cards Against Humanity, and every ticket comes with swag bags that contain limited edition packs of CAH cards, and other swag from sponsors. (The value of the swag is more than the cost of the ticket.)

They even had me shoot a little promo video for them…

I’ll be grabbing a little bit of stage time, while other more professional performers like Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, Molly Lewis, and a bunch of other cool people do the real work.

Even better, Max tweeted out a discount code for folks to use to get $20 off the tickets.

It’s going to be an amazing time, and I’d also like for Jenn to keep her job, so if you’re at all interested, tickets are available here. I think they’re going to sell out, so you might want to do it sooner than later…

  • Limited edition Draccus

I’ve made it no secret that I love King of Tokyo. The folks over at Iello found out, and we teamed up to make a Draccus monster for the game.

DraccusAd

We launched these for the first time last year at Gencon, but we only had a limited number of them, and they sold out every day. This year, we brought more of our limited stock, so if you didn’t get a chance to grab one before, you can get them at our booth.

What booth is that? I hear you ask….

  • The Worldbuilders Booth (#267)

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Remember the booth I mentioned just a couple paragraphs ago? There’s a ton of stuff happening there throughout the convention. We have lots of geeky swag, the raffle, a deal for a free tote if you buy $100 or more of merch, plus signings with a bunch of cool musicians.

Here’s the full schedule of signings & meet-and-greets:

All of these people are great, so you should swing by whenever you can to check out some awesome merch and fantastic music doers.

  • A chance to play a game with me. 

KingofTokyo

In order to encourage people to swing by the Worldbuilders booth, we’re giving people a chance to come play a game of King of Tokyo with me on Sunday at 2pm. 

Here’s how it works: If you swing by the Worldbuilders Booth (#267) you can submit your name once for the drawing. If you buy something, you can get your name added to the drawing a second time. Plus, while you’re there, you can check out the cool things that we’re selling for charity. You can get your geek on while making the world a better place.

We’ll be drawing 3 names on Sunday morning, so if you’re at all interested be sure to swing by before the end of the day Saturday.

* * *

Hope you all have a great weekend. And if you’re at Gencon, I hope to see you there….

pat

Also posted in appearances, conventions, gaming | By Pat16 Responses

Geeks Doing Good: Foxen Nightlight, Draccus Plushy, and BatManda

Hey there everyone. As I write this, our Geeks Doing Good Fundraiser has been running for about four days, and we’ve raised about $97,000 so far to make the world a better place.

However Because we only go for a week, this means the fundraiser is more than halfway over. It’s ending on Monday, June 13th.

That means if you want to jump in and buy some of our book or game bundles, you better do it soon. Ditto if you’d like to help us spread the word to your geeky friends and family.

Today I’m going to show off some of the things that we added late to the fundraiser, or that we just haven’t put pictures of up in the blog yet.

For example:

  • Cloaks

This is something people have been asking for for years, so we’re finally giving it a try. These come in two different sizes, but they both have a bunch of little pockets, and that’s the important thing.

cloak

Also, I would like to add, that when I added this picture to the blog, I discovered it was called BatManda.

  • Terri Windling Prints

 

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(Click to embiggen, really)

I love Terri‘s art, and she was nice enough to send us some of her signed prints for the charity. These are hard to get ahold of, and we only have a few. So if you want some of this beautiful art in your home, you should grab one over there.

  • Foxen Nightlight

Foxen Nightlight Replica 8-1280

If you see this Foxen nightlight and haven’t immediately wanted it, I cannot help you find joy in life, because you don’t have the physical capability.

  • Secret Cubby Books

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The same is true for these cubby books. You absolutely need this thing in your life.

  • A Freaking Puzzle

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It’s so cool. The art for this is by Matt Rhodes (concept artist for Dragon Age: Inquisition), and we thought it made an awesome puzzle. It’s our first foray into puzzles, though, so if that’s something you’re into, check it out.

  • So Many T-Shirts

We’ve got all manner of shirts this year….

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There’s a shirt from Rat Queens, a comic I love with a fierce love. I’m so glad they were willing to come in and help out the fundraiser.

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We’re teaming up with Jim Butcher again on another Dresden Files shirt, this one all about PARKOUR!

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A new shirt from Temerant. Fair Warning: this one will be available ONLY during this fundraiser – after Monday, you won’t be able to get your grubby little paws on it ever again.

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And for those of you who have been asking for a Worldbuilders shirt, here you go. A nice, subtle way to wave your geek flag and show the world that you’re an awesome, generous, kindhearted person to boot.

Note: If you order three shirts, in the Indigogo fundraiser, you save ten bucks….

  • Eolian Mugs & Coffee

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These stoneware mugs are made right here in Wisconsin, but they look like something you might find at the Eolian. It’s a 22 oz. mug that can hold enough of your beverage of choice to get you through the day. And if your beverage of choice happens to be coffee…

We have three coffee blends: the standard Imre blend, a dark Tarbean blend, and an exotic Tinuë blend. The Worldbuilders team loves the coffee shop we worked with, and spent some quality time with the blends to make sure they matched the cities in the series. I know, I ask so much of my team, making them drink coffee.

  • Doodled Slow Regards

DoodledSlowRegard

Last year, we asked Nate Taylor to draw in a few copies of The Slow Regard of Silent Things. We figured he’d do some quick sketches or fun doodles, something small but unique. As usual, Nate went above and beyond, this time with full-blown ink illustrations. We asked him to illustrate a few more books for us this year, so we have 10 remarqued Slow Regards available, and they’re already starting to go…

  • Doodled Princess Books

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The last time Nate was in town, I dug through our vault and brought out some of the long-gone first edition/first printings of the first Princess book, and had Nate doodle in some of them. We’ve got five of those available now, each one with a different character doodle. The first editions are rare enough as it is, but one that’s double-signed and doodled is a rare treat.

  • Jonathan Coulton Picture Book

PrincessWSHCoverWe’re bringing this picture book based on Johnathan Coulton’s song back into print. My kids love it, and even if you don’t have kids, I’m guessing you’ll love it too….

  • Perfumes and Soap.

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In case you’re wondering, everyone agrees that Bast smells wonderful….

  • Draccus Plushy.

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What’s almost as cute as the plushy itself is watching Amanda lose her mind over how much she loves it in this outtake reel…

Okay. I’ll stop there. That’s all I’m going to put in the blog, but you should know that just *some* of the stuff we have up in the IndiGogo. There’s book bundles too. And the chance to buy a *ton* of games super cheap.

If you want to see the rest of the stuff, it’s all over here.

And if there’s anything you have questions about, be sure to hit us up in the comments or via email at fundraiser (at) worldbuilders.org. The team is working hard to answer them, and the fundraiser only has a few days left, so you don’t want to miss out.

Thanks for chipping in, folks. Thanks for spreading the word and helping to make the world a better place.

pat

Also posted in cool things, Worldbuilders | By Pat15 Responses

Geeks Doing Good: A Birthday Coup

Hey guys. Amanda here hijacking the blog again.

See, I think it’s time we start a little coup here. I’m forcing my way into the blog via hotel wifi for what I think you’ll all agree is a very good reason: Pat’s birthday.

See, Pat doesn’t want to talk about it, and he’d definitely never tell you about it himself. It’s just not his way. But Pat is very important to me, and I want him to have an excellent birthday. One where he gets exactly what he wants out of the day.

What he really wants, more than anything, is to have an exceptional fundraiser. He loves watching everyone come together over the common love for geekery and charity. He loves watching this thing he started in his living room grow and evolve into something amazing.

We’re launching our Geeks Doing Good charity fundraiser today, and we’re all really excited about it, especially Pat.

geeks doing good dates

Pat was going to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday to write a blog about it. He was going to skim right over the fact that it was his birthday, and that he spent the entire day travelling home from Phoenix Comicon.

Since he’s going to be so busy today, I think the best thing we can do for him is overwhelm him with how awesome the fundraiser is doing.

There’s something in it for you, beyond giving Pat an awesome birthday surprise. We have so many cool things that I’m about to go broke buying from our own fundraiser. Just look at all of the awesome.

  • A Draccus Plushie

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Everyone here at Worldbuilders HQ is pretty obsessed with this little guy, but none so much as me. Every time I look at him I get distracted. I giggle, and say “look at ‘im!” for entirely too long before I can move on.

He’s going to be $30, and I love him.

  • So many new t-shirts

So-Many-Tees

There’s the shirt from Sam Sykes with probably the best writing advice ever. He tweeted it to Pat, and when Pat demanded one on a t-shirt, Jeff one of the Worldbuilders Team, made it for him. Pat and Sam both loved it, and so did a lot of other people, so we’re doing as we’ve been asked and selling them.

We’re teaming up with Rat Queens on a shirt, which everyone in the office is excited about, but especially Pat. We’re bringing back a design they used to have, but has been sold out for a long time.

Jim Butcher agreed to do another Dresden Files shirt with us, this time depicting a certain Warden keeping busy and practicing his PARKOUR!!

And those are just shirts we’ve teamed up with other folks for. Our more traditional fare includes the much-requested Worldbuilders t-shirt, and a convenient chart of Ademic emoji to bring with you wherever you go. The Ademic Emoji shirt is a fundraiser exclusive, so if you want one, you should hop on that train now, before it’s too late.

  • Text-based wearables

Pat teased that we’re doing another shirt with Litographs, but the art wasn’t finalized yet. It is now, and guys…this shirt is wonderful.

Litographs

In addition to the t-shirt, it’s going to be on a tote bag (which Brett talks about pretty eloquently in the launch video).

Plus, the fine folks over at Storiarts have printed select text of Name of the Wind onto gloves.

Gloves

They’re beautiful, comfortable, and the perfect thing to wear for a long evening of writing.

  • Things to make you smell good

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Last year we debuted Auri’s Most Perfect Soap in the fundraiser, and this year we’ve worked with Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs to bring you the other soap mentioned in Slow Regard: Auri’s Sunny Summer Soap. According to Auri, it smells like sunlight, summer, and cinnas fruit, and even though those are ephemeral (and in one case completely made up) concepts, Black Phoenix absolutely nailed it.

While they were working on this scent, they sent over some samples of perfumes based on characters from the books. The smells of Bast, Kvothe, and Denna were not things I had expected to experience in my life, but they’re truly wonderful. You can get one, or you can get a 3 pack, which has been discounted to save you some money.

  • An actual children’s book

PrincessWhoSaved

For those of you who’ve read The Adventures of the Princess and Mr Whiffle books, you know that they’re not really for kids. The good news is that we’ve teamed up with Jonathan Coulton and Greg Pak to bring you a much better book to share with the wee ones in your life.

The Princess Who Saved Herself is based off one of Jonathan Coulton’s songs, and it’s a wonderful story. Parents and non-parents here love it, and it sends a really awesome message. It was originally printed for a Kickstarter campaign, and we’re helping bring it to a wider audience and get this book into as many hands as we can.

If you have a tiny human in your life, you should really consider picking this up.

  • So much other awesome stuff

SoMuchMore

We can’t begin to cover all of it here, but there’s a lot. You can get randomly-written-in copies of Name of the Wind. You can get Coffee from Imre, Tarbean, and Tinue. You can get Vintish Court Rings with YOUR NAME on them. The perks go on, and we’ll be adding more throughout the week.

As in years past, for those of you looking to participate who don’t have a credit card, shoot us an email at fundraiser(@)worldbuilders.org. We’ll help you figure something out, and make sure you’re able to participate as much as you want to.

See if something piques your interest. We have a little bit of something for everyone in this year’s fundraiser, and I think it’s our best yet.

And maybe leave a little bit of love here, or on the campaign page, for Pat on his birthday. He loves you all, and I think he’s going to love seeing the campaign off to a good start when he gets home late tonight.

Thanks guys,

Amanda

Also posted in cool things, Worldbuilders | By Amanda36 Responses

Foreshadowing: Geeks Doing Good

So for the last two years, we’ve run a summer fundraiser for Worldbuilders called Geeks Doing Good. It tends to happen near the begining of June, and it only lasts for a week.

*Because* it only lasts for a week, it can be easy to miss. So today I thought I’d throw y’all a heads-up about it launching next week.

geeks doing good dates

It’s especially important for me to give y’all some advance notice this year, as I’m going to be traveling back from Phoenix ComicCon with my family on the 6th, so I won’t be able to make a lot of noise about the festivities here on the blog until Tuesday or Wednesday.

For those of you who are new to it, Geeks Doing Good is an opportunity for Worldbuilders to experiment with some new merchandise and team up with cool people like Jim Butcher (like we did last year, and are again this year). We also sell unique experiences that might not be right for everyone, but are *perfect* for others (like the chance to go on the JoCo Cruise, or play games with authors or members of the Worldbuilders team at Gencon).

So yeah. Today I’m gonna give a little taste of what’s to come so you’re more likely to jump on board and/or help us spread the word when we pull the trigger on this next week.

Here’s a tiny piece of what’s on the docket:

  • So Many Shirts

As of right now, we’ve got a confirmed shirt with Jim Butcher, Sam Sykes, Kurtis Wiebe (of Rat Queens) and me. Also, because people have been asking for it, we’re going to do a brand-new Worldbuilders t-shirt, too.

Tee-ser

You can grab any of these, or pick up a t-shirt 3 pack and get a discount while picking a few of your favorite designs. (Or get three of the same shirt. Or get two of one shirt and one of another. Or whatever. What I’m saying here is that you have a lot of options. We’re giving you options.)

We’ll also have a new shirt from Litographs, this one inspired by The Name of the Wind. We can’t show you the art quite yet, but it’s a beautiful thing to behold.

  • A New Hoodie

Black_Ivare_Enim_Pullover

After how much everyone loved the Eolian hoodie last year, we figured we should do another one. This one is a pull-over, rather than a zip-up, to really show off Sarah Hartwick‘s “Ivare Enim Euge” design.

  • Bumper Stickers

Folks have been asking for a way to show off their Worldbuilders pride, so we took a suggestion from the crowd and produced a few different Worldbuilders Bumper Stickers.

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(I’m the one that suggested “Totes M’Goats”)

  • Many, Many Other Things

There will be other items familiar to those of you who have seen our prior fundraiser: Digital perks, game bundles, custom jewelry, cool books, and even a cabin on the JoCo Cruise.

I’d show you pictures of all the products if I could, but I know it’s better to wait until we actually launch the fundraiser. So instead, here’s a teaser collage. Clever viewers of the sort that like to dig though my books for clues will probably be able to make some educated guesses about what a lot of these things are.

Cluster

To see the full list in all its glory, you’ll have to wait until we go live on Monday. I won’t be blogging about it until Tuesday or Wednesday, but if you want to be notified as soon as launch, you can sign up for such a notification right here (which, conveniently, will also be a link you can follow to the campaign itself once it launches).

Thanks for being awesome…

***

P.S. As a reminder, I’m currently out at Phoenix Comicon (My schedule is here), and if anyone’s around and willing to help us by volunteering at our Mega-booth, (#740) they can contact the lovely Thera on Twitter.

P.P.S. My family will be with me on this trip. So be aware that if you see in public with a kid, that’s probably not the best time to approach me. Yes. My children are adorable. But they are not part of the convention attractions. Please be gracious and give us some space.

What’s more, when I’m with my kids, please be aware that I’m being a dad, not an entertainer, convention guest, or autograph machine. If you’d like to hear me talk about writing, see me read my stuff, ask me a question, or get something signed you should *really* consider going to one of the events we’ve scheduled for those specific purposes. Don’t try to do it when I’m trying to have a quiet moment and some ice cream with one of my sons…

Later all,

pat

Also posted in a billion links, cool things, Worldbuilders | By Pat5 Responses

The Final Day: Stories

As I write this, Worldbuilders has raised more than $1,200,000. Making this far-and-away our most successful fundraiser ever.

Simply said, it’s been an amazing year. Together we’ve raised enough money to change tens of thousands of lives forever. We are responsible for hundreds of families getting goats and sheep and pigs. We’ve raised enough money for hundreds of wells, thousands of chickens, millions of bees. We are planting forests full of trees. We are helping bring medicine and light and hope and self-reliance to people all over the world.

Because of your generosity and kindness, children will grow up healthy. Parents will go to sleep knowing their children had enough to eat that day. More importantly, those parents will sleep well, because they’ll have tools and resources to control their own lives and make sure their children will have food tomorrow, too.

We could not do this without you.

*     *     *

I have a fondness for stories in the same way that I have a fondness for drinking water and breathing air. Stories are how we learn the shape of the world. And, in certain circumstances, they help us shape the world into what we want it to be.

Given this, it’s not particularly surprising that during the fundraiser we’ve told stories about how Heifer International changes lives. We’ve told you about Fred, Florence, and their children, who lived the majority of their lives as refugees but who now run a successful farm thanks to the gift of a cow. We told you about the city of Bhairav, where yearly floods made it impossible for children to attend school until Heifer International helped the village to establish and maintain its own school.

But there are other stories in our fundraiser. Hundreds of tiny stories of people stepping up and chipping in to make Worldbuilders a success. Stories that have made me proud of you. Stories that, sometimes, have broken my heart a little.

There’s too many to share them all, but today we’re going to bring you a few. I hope you like them.

*     *     *

If you’ve been following us on twitter or facebook this last week, I’m guessing you’ve seen more than a few #BilboItUp pictures brought on by my recent blog.

Like this one from Riley:

Bilbo

“37 degrees with snow from last night. No paychecks while I wait for my new job to start. Scraping by during the month of Christmas. Sounds like a good time to donate!”

Or this one from Kelly:

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“Digging a bit deeper so I can donate again.”

A lot of people have cashing in their change jars, like Adrienne:

“I’ve wanted to donate for years, but haven’t been able to.  This year I saved my change all year and have been able to save $20, which I am thrilled to donate to such a worthy cause,  I only wish it were more.”

Or Humberto, who took some things into perspective:

“A worthy cause I am glad to support. I could never solve my own problems with $10. At best I’d get a single lunch at Subway or Taco Bell. The idea that $10 can do so much for someone else has made me reach into my pocket several times. I’ll gladly pack lunch from home to give when I can. Keep up the awesome work.”

Some folks got their families involved, like Christopher and his kids:

“My 5 and 6 year old kids were so excited about donating to Heifer that they were willing to sell us their Halloween candy. The biggest dilemma was pig, goat or sheep. They took so long to decide that Worldbuilders started up and I’ve been waiting for a day like today. [With matching donations.] I’ll get to share with them that because of the generosity of others, their sheep just turned into a sheep and a pig and two goats. Thank you!”

John’s daughter had a similar process, and made sure he sent us pictures.

“I told my 7 year old daughter, Julia, about Worldbuilders, and she’s matching my $1000 contribution with $5 of her own.  She dug into her bank to do this… see attached photo.”

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(This is a pretty awesome bank.)

In the comments of my blog, Swiltam explained how she brought her kids in:

“Talked to my kids about it, they each have a small savings account (as a single mom of 5, so you can imagine how small, and at the same time, how big that might be). They’ve each decided to donate, and some of them have decided to forego what gifts they would have received so we can donate more. Thanks for the honesty and inspiration.”

Or Gary and his two little ones, who gave all of their money to help out after he explained it to them.

“I usually give $30 to Worldbuilders during the annual fund raising.  Today Dec. 1st I read the Blog entry Pat wrote about his Mom.  Then Pat wrote about matching and the Heifer matching as well even though he thought he was all done donating this year.  I shared the Blog entry to my 6 year old and my 9 year old and asked them if they wanted to give to the fundraiser from their own money.  They have a savings jar and a spending jar each.  They both wanted to donate and my 6yr old said he would give $20 and my 9yr old said he would give $10.  They are great kids and just amaze me at times like this.  So here is $30 from me and $30 from the boys.  Thank you for giving me this moment with my boys and what you do for all the other kids out there through Worldbuilders.”

Some people are donating Christmas gifts, like Gavin and his family:

“We’re skipping (almost) all Christmas presents this year as a family. We want to make sure 2 girls get the chance to go to school. All of our needs are met, it’s time we help others.”

Or like Lauren and her brother.

“My brother and I are both pretty bad at Christmas presents.  Our wants are either pathetically simple (I would like some warm socks) or wildly unattainable (a $2000 gaming laptop).  But neither of us actually need anything*, and Christmas should be about warm fuzzies and making the world better, not knicknacks that sit on a shelf.  So we’ve decided that the best way to say “I love you” sounds a lot like “I bought someone else a goat”.  So here we are.  Personally I hate goats, after some bad experiences at a camp petting zoo, but I wish this goat many happy years of providing healthy food and maybe some income to its family, on behalf of Dan Bradford and his lovely new wife Lisa.  Merry goatmas, everyone.”

*not quite true, I really do need socks.

We had surprises too. People who went an extra mile, even after they’d already contributed something fabulous.

Authors Bishop O’Connell and Brenda Cooper matched the funds raised from their tuckerization auctions. BeLinda, the winner of the True Dungeon game auction, also matched what she paid for that auction with a donation.

There are some stories, though, that just floored us. Like this #BilboItUp.

Here’s one from the fundraiser page:

“In Hebrew the word for life is the same as the word for the number 18. It has become tradition to give gifts/donations in multiples of 18. It is my hope that my gift of $100 x 18 (life) touches 100 lives.”

$1800 is enough for 12 irrigation pumps.

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That doesn’t just install a pump (though that by itself is already pretty great). It gives farmers training in water conservation and irrigation techniques. 12 irrigation pumps help improve the yield of 12 different community farms. Which means those farmers will produce food more efficiently, and that makes it something they can sell for less. Which means the other people in their community can afford more food.

I think it’s safe to say that your donation will effect 100 x 18 people.

Of course, not everyone has 1800 dollars to give. Luckily people like Victoria understand that in Heifer’s hands, $20 bucks can change someone’s life, too.

“As a starving college student, I don’t have a lot of money, free time, or sleep. But I do have a roof over my head, food, and an education. Even though I can’t give a lot, I owe it to those with less than I do to give something. I hope the flock of ducks are cute as well as helpful!”

And Jeremy really hit it on the head:

“I often feel like I don’t have much (renting an apartment, used car, trouble saving for my own house) then I slap myself for being a spoiled idiot and think about people who have to plan ahead to drink water. This charity seems the best to me since it focuses on a sustainable environment. Fruit trees instead of canned peaches and the like.”

Honestly, there are so many of these little stories. If we included half of them, this blog would be ten thousand words long.

Okay. Just one more from Jacob:

“I’ve been farming for five years now, and have been lucky enough to help a small school in Tanzania start a farm so the children at the school can eat a simple lunch. Heifer International consistently renews my faith in humanity with the amazing work you do. Words cannot describe what a gift to the world you people are. Thank you.”

As I’ve said. Today is the final day for the fundraiser. We have until midnight UTC-8 to hit our final goal of $1,225,000, make use of all of the matching offered to us, and hit our final stretch goal.

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(Details over here, if you like.)

Okay fine. Just one more. From Ariella:

“My 8yo daughter heard me discussing WorldBuilders at the dinner table, and asked if she could donate. $2 may not be much, but it’s 15% of her savings. I think we’re doing something right with this one :)”

Thank you all so much, everyone. Thanks for caring. Thanks for helping out. And thanks for proving to me yet again that people are inherently good.

Here’s the link to the donation page. Just in case you might find a use for such a thing….

pat

Also posted in being awesome, Worldbuilders 2015 | By Pat29 Responses

Novelties: IndieGoGo Edition

As some of you may already know, we’ve been shipping out our summer fundraiser perks for a while now. If it weren’t for the constant arrival of the UPS truck, we would be buried by the sheer mass of packages we’re assembling every day.

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And that’s not an exaggeration. Look at the upstretched hand of some poor lost Worldbuilders Minion waving for help from behind this stack of bundled packages. We have to keep shipping things out or we’re going to be crushed to death.

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So rest assured that if you jumped into the Geeks Doing Good fundraiser a couple months back, your goodies are on their way to you.

While it’s true that we’re busy with fundraiser fulfillment, we still have some new items for Novelties that have been showing up here at Worldbuilders HQ, including a couple of signed books. For example….

  • First edition copies of The Mad Apprentice. Signed by Django Wexler.

_DSC0539 Django Wexler is a seriously cool dude, and he’s helped out with Worldbuilders before. This time, he donated signed first edition copies of his newest book, which is the second in The Forbidden Library series. If you want to be cooler than all of the other kids, you should grab your copy and support Worldbuilders in the process by buying it right here.

_DSC0544 This is a collection of the webcomic my good friends Pat Johnson and Nate Taylor did for years. I wrote the introduction, and this is from the limited edition that was signed by contributing artists as well. There were only 50 of these, and it has art from Worldbuilders’ own Brett, Shane Tyree, and Phil Foglio, just to name a few. If you want in on a hilarious webcomic, grab this collection over here.

  • Boss Monster 2 from Brotherwise Games.

_DSC0542 Boss Monster is a house favorite here at Worldbuilders HQ. When we get together and hang out, or have a team game night, it’s usually one of the first choices to play. And now that Boss Monster 2 is out, we have even more to play.

One of the cool things about Boss Monster is that every card is a geeky reference to a retro game or gaming archetype in some way. Boss Monster 2 is no exception. Here’s someone you might recognize. PatCard(Wrathfuss the Namer.)

It’s kinda uncanny how easily that managed to capture me using that 8-bit style….

There’s a few other faces in there you might recognize.

BossMonster2AuthorCards

Yup. Characters similar-to-but legally distinct from Sanderson, Gaiman, and Martin all make cameos as heroes you must destroy in your dungeon. And we have copies we can sell where the profits go to Worldbuilders. You can grab them right here.

BastAndBastas

As an added bonus, we still have some the limited edition Bast and Bastas cards they made as a promo. They play in either this game or the previous one. If you don’t already have them, we’ve got those for sale right here as well

Since we’re adding new stuff up in The Tinker’s Packs, we thought we’d add some of the items we launched in the summer fundraiser to make them available for people who missed out.

For those of you who bought one of these things in the IndieGoGo, don’t worry, we’ve already shipped out all the rewards containing these items. So if they aren’t already in your hot little hands, rest assured that they’re in the mail, making their way toward you…

  • Auri’s Gear Window Clings.

RachelAndGears

D’aww, look at how happy Rachel is…

These are pretty cool little things. We couldn’t choose between black and white when we were planning for the fundraiser, so we gave up and did both. A pair (one in black and one in white) is available in the store now for just $6.

_DSC0538

Here’s the white one on Amanda’s car, looking particularly glorious. Put them on your computer, in your car, on your desk, on your cat, whatever you can think of.

  • 2016 Beyond Words author calendar.

BeyondWords2016_Cover

Lauren Zurchin drove around the country again to take photos of authors in fantasy-themed costumes and settings. The calendar turned out great, and it had a great bunch of authors this year.

BeyondWordsGrid

The authors included Leigh Bardugo, Jim Butcher, Melissa de la Cruz, Tony DiTerlizzi, Kami Garcia, Lev Grossman, Robin Hobb, Tahereh Mafi, Garth Nix, Ransom Riggs, Margaret Stohl, Scott Westerfeld, and me. If you follow this link, you can see some pages, and grab a copy if you’re interested.

  • Karen Hallion 2016 Happy Endings calendar.

KHPages_cropped

Next year’s Hallion calendar is extraordinarily beautiful. The art is stunning, and Brett really outdid himself on the calendar pages themselves, giving each one a theme based on Karen’s art, and putting in little extra details everywhere for those of you clever enough to notice.

I’m immensely proud of it. You can get yours over here, and it’s early enough that no matter where you live you should have it in time for the new year without too much trouble at all.

  • Cheap 2015 Hallion Calendars

As some of you already know, August in the 2015 calendar features a few characters that might be familiar to you…. Denna-final

This picture pleases me to no end, so I figured we would discount the few remaining copies of this year’s calendar we have, while we put up the 2016 version.

So: Beautiful NEW Hallion Calendar: Available here for $20.

The calendar for 2015: Available here, marked down to $5 for those of you more interested in the art than keeping a calendar anymore.

  • Polka Will Never Die

PolkaWND_BK_Straight_NoSerif

In related news, we had some trouble with people making illegal versions of the Polka shirt a while back.

Screen Shot 2015-08-03 at 11.31.35 AM

I was filled with furious anger when I heard. But that is a story for another day. (And another blog.)

The problem is dealt with for now, but since people were excited enough about the shirt to start stealing it, we figured we’d give y’all a place to pre-order on the Tinker’s Packs.

Now, note that this is a pre-order. These aren’t shipping yet, because the folks who jumped into our Geeks Doing Good fundraiser need to get theirs first.

But rather than have people buying them from someone who is taking advantage of the designer who made the shirt and the charity, we’ve decided to make them available to purchase now. If you go in and order one there, you’ll be first in line to get yours after the other orders ship.

Show your love for Butters, and do it for a good cause. You know you want to.

* * *

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. In another month or so, we’ll be rolling out more of the items after we finish shipping things out to folks who backed the IndieGoGo.

Want to get an immediate heads-up when we launch new stuff in the store? Since I don’t always blog about it, the Tinker’s Packs has a newsletter for those of you who hate missing out on limited edition stuff.

But if newsletters aren’t your thing, you can always keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter, or just check the online store regularly.

Later,

pat

Also posted in BJ Hiorns Art, Nathan Taylor Art, Novelties, The Tinker's Packs | By Pat13 Responses

A Blog of Three Parts

Okay folks, we’re a little more than halfway through our summer fundraiser, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how well things have been going.

Last year we raised 25,000 dollars in the first day. This year, we raised that in under six hours.

As I write this, we stand at 112,000 dollars, and I’m hoping we have a strong finish in the next four days. I’d *really* like to beat last year’s total of $206K.

Today I’ve got three things to show you….

  • Show off a few new items we’ve added.
  • Bring a few things to your attention you might have missed in the excitement.
  • Draw your attention to our FAQ.

Let’s start with the last of these, shall we?

If you have questions, please look in the FAQ. Please? Want to know about ordering multiple items? It’s there. International shipping? There. T-shirt Sizing? Yup. You guessed it, it’s in the FAQ.

If you look there and don’t see the answer to your question. Please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments of the blog or over on the IndiGoGo itself. We’re keeping a close eye on both places.

Part The Second: New Items.

  • An Eolian Bar Hoodie

Hoodie

People have been asking us to make a hoodie for years, but we’ve been reluctant because hoodies tend to be expensive to produce.

But this seemed like the perfect time to test the waters, so we’re going to make one based on the Eolian Bar design, which has been our best selling t-shirt for years.

These are $55 and that includes shipping. They’re a little pricier than I’d like, but that’s because here at Worldbuilders, we don’t want to sell you something that was made by 8-year old kids in a sweatshop in China. That goes against the better world we’re trying to create. These hoodies are made here in the US, but that means they cost a little more.

Fair warning. If you want a hoodie, you should probably order it before the end of the fundraiser. Like I said, these are a bit of an experiment, they’re expensive to make, and really bulky to store. I don’t know if we’re going to stock them in the Tinker’s Packs after we’re done.

  • Signed Karen Hallion Denna Canvas

Denna-final

In last year’s calendar, Karen Hallion did a great job of this Kingkiller mashup that offers a theory about why Kvothe has so much trouble meeting up with Denna.

We liked it so much that we got 150 of them printed up, not as posters, but as canvas stretched over a wooden frame. These aren’t posters, they’re much nicer and sturdier than that.

We gave some to Project for Awesome last year, and they quickly sold out. Rather than horde them, we’re putting the rest up in the IndiGoGo. They’re numbered and signed by both Karen Hallion and Myself.

As I write this, there’s only 87 of them left. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

  • Multi-Color Shirts

TeeVariation2

 (Click to Embiggen)

Traditionally, we print our black t-shirts. Aside from being the traditional geek t-shirt color, black is pretty universal.

That said, many of you have made passionate pleas for non-black shirts. So we’re listening. We’ve decided to take another risk and try an experiment.

For three of our shirts (shown above) we’re going to be offering you choices for different colors (also above). When we send out our post-survey fundraiser, you’ll get to pick which styles, sizes, and colors you like best.

We picked these colors because they worked best with the designs, so while they’re still dark, you’ll have some variety this way. And the option to choose.

Fair Warning: After the fundraiser is over, we aren’t going to stock multiple colors in our online store.

Why? Because it means we would effectively have to stock 144 different items (3 shirts x 2 styles x 6 sizes x 4 four colors = 144). It would be pure madness.

When these shirts end up in the Tinker’s Packs after the fundraiser, we’re only going to carry whatever the most-voted-for color is. The odds say that color will be black. So if you want a non-black version of one of these shirts, the fundraiser is probably going to be the only place to get it

(Also, remember. You have the option to buy a shirt 3-pack as a 60 dollar perk. You save 15 bucks that way.)

  • Unfettered, in a few forms…

Unfettered combo

If you don’t know: This anthology was put together by Shawn Speakman. Shawn asked a bunch of his author friends if they’d be willing to donate a story to help him publish a book to help pay for his cancer treatments. I was happy to help. Because seriously. Fuck cancer.

Unfettered contains my first ever published short story: How Old Holly Came to Be.

Because Shawn published these books through a small press, they’re very rare. There were only 5000 of them printed. But we have 100 of them to put into the fundraiser. We’re just about the only place you can find them.

For you collectors out there: We *also* have numbered editions, signed by *all* the authors. Terry Brooks, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, RA Salvatore, Tad Williams, Jacqueline Carey, Daniel Abraham, Peter V. Brett, Robert VS Redick, Peter Orullian, Todd Lockwood, Carrie Vaughn, Blake Charlton, Kevin Hearne, Mark Lawrence, David Anthony Durham, Jennifer Bosworth, Lev Grossman, Michael J. Sullivan… and me.

sn-unfettered14

(Signed by 22 of the biggest names in fantasy.)

They only made 500 of these. They have a different cover. A color insert, and a slipcase to keep the book safe. They’ve been sold out for ages. But we have a few.

But wait, there’s more.

Shawn is putting together another anthology: Unbound. If you buy this perk, you’ll get both fancy slipcased books, signed by all contributors, with matching numbers.

What’s more, if you order this perk, you get first dibs on the same number when the next anthology after Unbound comes out. (We’ve worked that out with Shawn) So you can have the whole trilogy with a set of matching numbers.

  • The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle.

IMG_3719

For those of you who don’t know. Yeah. I did a picture book.

It’s been out for a while, but a lot of folks don’t know about it. It’s kinda… dark.

People have been e-mailing us, saying they’d like to buy copies, but they’d *also* want the geeky joy of being a part of the Geeks Doing Good fundraiser. So we’re throwing it in as a perk for those of you who haven’t heard of it. Or for those of you who have been waiting for an excuse to grab a copy.

The book will ship with the promotional gold-foil: “This shit is not for kids” sticker.

Part Two: Things you May have Missed.

  • Early Look at a new Jim Butcher Book

Aeronaut's Windlass

I pulled some strings with the folks at Penguin books, and they sent us copies of the promotional sampler for Jim Butcher’s new book. We’re going to be putting one into every book bundle. So you’ll get an early look at the book. (We’re including a few other samplers, too.)

  • Geek-A-Week Cards

We mentioned these before, but we haven’t done a good job of showing off the art yet.

geekaweeks1

(You pretty much need to embiggen this)

These Geek-aWeek decks are really cool, and I hope you guys take the time to check them out. Each card has a cool geeky celebrity featured, doing something awesome. Above are some highlights from Season 1, and below are some highlights from Season 5.

geeksaweeks5

(I’m in there, too. As you can see.)

The backs of the cards contain incriminating information about the geeks.

They aren’t just cool collectables. You can also play a game with them (Designed by Mike Selinker.) Even better, I just discovered today, that these cards are *great* when you’re doing tabletop rollplaying. Need an NPC? Pick one out of the deck. Suddenly Amanda Palmer is the Shady Fence you’re selling stolen jewelry to. Or Felicia day is the head of the Bandits that jump you in the forest.

Forshadowing: You might see a video featuring me doing something like this very soon.

  • Auri’s Brazen Gear

Auri Gear

Badali did such a good job on these. And since it’s the Year of the Gear, we decided to put them up into the fundraiser where you could buy them. Plus, they come with both a chain and a leather cord, so you can choose for yourself when it arrives.

  • JoCoCruise 2016

JCC 2016

A lot of people have been asking, so I thought I’d explain a couple of things about the cruise.

First of all, we aren’t covering your travel TO the cruise. You’ll still need to get down there yourself.

That said, the cruise includes everything during your trip. That means:

  • All your meals for 7 days. (Including room service.)
  • A *very* nice D3 balcony cabin.
  • Access to all exclusive JCC2016 entertainment and events.
  • Panels, concerts, cocktail hours, special gaming events….
  • Access to the 24/7 gaming room sponsored by Steve Jackson games.
  • *Guaranteed* seating at all the main performance events.

Still not enough? Jonathan Coulton, Jean Grae, Paul F. Tompkins, and Imogen Heap are featured performers. Plus notable geeks like Wil Wheaton, Molly Lewis, John Scalzi, John Hodgman, and N.K. Jemisin are all there doing panels, hanging out, and just generally being awesome.

I’ll be there too. Along with a few of the Worldbuilders crew. I’ll be doing some panels on writing….

Think about it for a second. Just think about going. Wouldn’t that be an amazing vacation? A great second honeymoon? Best graduation present ever?

The total cash value of the cabin is $3,991. Given that, I don’t see how you can *not* seriously consider buying the $5 perk that gives you a chance. Or you can buy 5 chances for $25.

Still not convinced? I’ll bring along my prototype Tak set and we’ll play a game. A beautiful game.

  • Auri Soap

soap

(I’m, seriously, ridiculously excited about this.)

We got a picture of the first test run of Auri’s perfect soap from Black Phoenix. It looks lovely, and I can’t wait to get my hands on some. I want to smell it.

Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily what the finished product will look like, but it’s a good start.

Those of you who pay close attention to the fine details of things (which, now that I think of it, is probably most of you) doubtless noticed that in the initial video we talked about doing a candle too.

The problem is, the candle needs to be made from the right ingredients. It needs to have beeswax and bayberry. (Which is what you get from laurel) What’s more, it needs to be a free-standing candle. Not one of those candles-in-a-jar. Because if it wasn’t like that, it wouldn’t be Auri’s candle.

The problem is, very few people make candles like that these days. Because the ingredients are expensive. And candles in jars are easier to make and safer to use. As a result, we’re putting that project on hold for now. I don’t want to make the candle for you unless I can be sure it’s perfect. Auri simply would not approve.

  • Two (2) Mayfair Game Bundles

games bundles2

Some of you may remember when the Worldbuilders Team unloaded 18 pallets of Mayfair Games off of a truck last winter (if you don’t, you should really watch the video, because Maria is adorable in it).

Since we had so many games, we’ve put them together into bundles for people. There’s a smaller, slightly cheaper one at $40, with a retail value of over $120. It has a few of the easier to pick up games, though they’re still wonderfully fun.

It was, of course, our duty to play the games, you see. To be sure that they were fun. Quality control, and all of that.

There’s also a larger bundle for $55 that retails for over $220. It’s some of the bigger and more intensive games.

Note: The games in the bundles don’t overlap at all. That means if you buy both of them, you won’t get any duplicate games.

*     *     *

Lastly: For those of you who are holding out, please be aware that we won’t be adding anything new to the fundraiser after today (Friday).

Fair Warning: Some of the final items we’re adding are limited in number, so keep an eye out for the update that will probably get sent out in the afternoon.

Have a good weekend, folks. Thanks for supporting Worldbuilders. Thanks for spreading the word, and thanks for making the world a better place.

Here’s a final link to the fundraiser if you want it.

pat

Also posted in Worldbuilders | By Pat54 Responses
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