Hello backers,
As you all are probably aware, the initial fulfillment dates offered during the campaign was July, 2021. I'm writing to inform you that as of now we will officially be late. I've asked Lotrek to give you a detailed account of the issues we've faced and you can read that below. Before we expound on the bad news let me inform you of the good:
The Cartamundi Decks (Ocean, Dusk, Midnight, Treasured editions) are all printed and look spectacular. They are either sitting in a warehouse in Germany (for rest of world fulfillment) or on the way to Gambler's Warehouse for USA/Canada/Mexico fulfillment.
The Metal cards and coins have been ready for some time and are also awaiting fulfillment from the warehouses.
The Wylenti Editions and the Prism editions are ready and awaiting shipment from Greece to the fulfillment centers as soon as everything is ready to go.
The 777 Dynastinae decks however are not ready. Lotrek will explain below.
I know what some of you are thinking (and what has been voiced by some). Why can't we ship out the decks that are completed as we await the finishing of the Dynastinae. Originally the idea was to keep shipping costs down but as things
A Note to Backers From Lotrek.
Hello Tempest Backers,
First of all I want to thank you for your patience and support, but I think it's time for you to hear some news from the usual source of the all trouble: His Royal Delayedness, Lotrek himself!
Although technically we're still not late (it's still July and it will be for a few more hours anyway) we understand that you're super excited -and some even super impatient- to get your decks. Veterans of Lotrek projects here are probably already having a laugh with that introduction, I'm sure.
One reason why the decks I print can be so expensive -and get more and more expensive in the aftermarket- is that they are supremely complicated and difficult to produce. Americans have a saying: "Don't bite off more than you can chew". I have a slightly different motto: "Bite more off than you can chew, and then chew it!" It takes time but eventually it works.
So, here's the story: 4-5 days ago, I was ready to deliver the good news to Omar: "Buddy, we're almost done!" I had overcome tons of troubling issues and obstacles with all the decks I printed and I had only the back side and a small portion of the front to print in order to finish Dynastinae, the last of the decks.
And then, the disaster happened: After applying a layer of varnish in order to prepare the sheets for the back foiling, an unexpected chemical reaction caused all the sheets to stick together and portions of ink and foil were transferred from one sheet to the other, destroying all of them, back and front! A few meters before the finish, I fell.
For the record, because every deck I print is unique and requires different techniques in different order, I've had to print the Wylenti decks 2 times, the Prism decks 3(!) times and I'll have to print Dynastinae for a second time of course. In total it's as if printing full runs of 7 complicated decks! The Wylenti and Prism were not reprinted because of any disaster but because I was not very pleased with the result. Some imperfections that perhaps the average backer would never notice were enough for me to warrant reprinting. I know I need to see a doctor but I don't have the time for it. I promise to do it when I relax a bit!
If you're interested in how the Dynastinae disaster happened here follows the story. It's a bit technical and if you find it boring you can just skip it and go to the end where I provide the schedule for the next steps. Those in the printing industry will find it interesting and may shake their heads...
I had a problem from the beginning. Dynastinae is printed using 6 UV inks: 2 white layers and CMYK on top. After printing almost half of the sheets, I noticed that there were areas in the faces of the courts that the white color had some marks. It looked a bit ugly... We decided instead of scrapping all the printed sheets to reprint on top of the existing printing. White UV ink is opaque anyway so I figured there was no problem in doing so. Indeed, it worked and the final result was amazing. Then, I took the sheets for foiling. Here we had the second problem, which was -and remains- a mystery. In the second half of the deck, the foil wouldn't adhere as it did in the first half! Same stock, same printing, same foil but there were little areas that the coverage was not perfect. We tried various solutions until I realized that we had spent too many sheets trying to solve the problem. Now, I had to reprint half of the deck to replace the missing sheets. I did that printing and hell, it didn't go well... The black background of the courts and ace of spades left some ink marks on the back side of the sheets as they were stacked together. It looked bad. Really bad:
The only solution was to do a pass with black ink on the faces to cover the imperfections of the black ink. But now we also had to print a black background on the back side to cover the ink marks. I thought that instead of using black and gold foil on green paper, I could use gold and green foil on black background. Not a big deal... And this was the end. After doing the printing, we applied the necessary varnishing for the foil. This destroyed everything. Now the sheets, old and new were garbage. Period.
After discussing with my printers, we concluded that since UV inks are drying with polymerization through UV radiation, when they're repeatedly heated, they "melt" again. Therefore, this is what we should by all means avoid in the reprint. PRISM which didn't go through all that treatment, didn't have any of these problems...
Next Steps
Obviously, I am reprinting the deck. Unfortunately, in August all the printers close for the summer season. Even if they weren't, I need to go in a secret place to hide from Omar's wrath as I feel he's sailing to Greece with "Tempest" any day now! Besides, I need the specific stock for the Dynastinae deck, since all of the sheets in question were trashed, which is, due to global shortages, isn't available at this moment.
So here's what's happening:
1st of September the new paper stock arrives in Athens. This is confirmed. I will do the ink printing immediately. I will let the sheets dry completely for a few days before I start the foiling. 4-5 days are enough, just to be safe.
6-7 of September I will begin foiling. With the sheets completely dry I don't expect any problems with the foil. This process will take a week.
14 -15 of September I will do the cutting and assembling of the decks, hoping to finish in 3-4 days. Then, I will send them via UPS at my expense, in order to have them in the fulfillment centers around the 20th of the month, when we will -finally- begin sending the packages.
I don't need to point out how sorry I am for this big delay but I am also absolutely confident that once you get the Dynastinae decks in your hands, you'll say "damn, it was worth the wait". Okay, with the exception of Vjose of course, our official complainer!
That was the whole story, Wylenti and Prism are ready, waiting to ship with their siblings, Dynastinae decks.
Thank you for your patience and congratulations for reading this all!
Wishing you a great time while I'll be struggling with the monster!
Lotrek
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@Lotrék and the fellows that print for/with him.
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@Lotrék and the fellows that print for/with him.
TotT is looking incredible.
