OOTS 10th Anniversary Calendar, 2014 Holiday Ornaments, and new T-Shirts

[apegamer]

did the shipping changed in the last few days? , I thought the shipping was $16.X to Germany yesterday (so a bit less than the calendar), but now I checked it and it was more than the calendar ($17.75) )

Yeah, it went up a bit. We did out best estimate of the calendar weight plus the weight of the stiff envelope and realized what we had for the product was too low. We adjusted it accordingly.

[Lissou]

Is there a chance I could pay for the calendar and, like other people have suggested, not get it shipped until book 5 is out? I really don't care if 2014 is over by the time I get the calendar, and I would like to secure a copy.

I understand if you think most people wouldn't be interested in that service, but if some people are, is it an option at all or would it be too complicated on your end? I'd be willing to pay a bit extra to get it on hold like that.

[Unisus]

I'm in the same boat, but I suppose this method wouldn't help Rich fund the printing of Book 5. Hmm, what to do...

If i pay for my preorder now, there would be no difference. I'm not sure how it was with the SSD preorder, but i would have no problem with paying in advance.

[ChristianSt]

I would be interested in Calendar + Book 5, (if it possible to ship both together without bumping shipping too much). Maybe I try hard to find other stuff that might be useful, but I know I want Book 5 anyway (though probably I would order that through my LFGS to safe shipment, but having more to add would make it more interesting to buy both from Ook).

[nogall]

+1 for the calendar + book 5 shipment to Brazil!

[NerdyKris]

You do realize that the book isn't even finished yet, right? It might even never come out, if some horrible catastrophe happened. You're offering to pre-order something that might not even come out until next Christmas or later. War and XPs was over a year after the end of the online portion of the strip.

I doubt Rich even knows what the price is going to be yet, given that he'd need to see how many pages of commentary and bonus strips are going to be in it. So you're offering to pre-order something when you don't even know the price. Meaning it can't be charged right now, so the calendar wouldn't be paid for until it ships.

And on top of that, if something happens to your card during those several months, and it gets declined, Ookookdook is suddenly stuck with a calendar they can't sell anymore.

[Lissou]

You do realize that the book isn't even finished yet, right? It might even never come out, if some horrible catastrophe happened. You're offering to pre-order something that might not even come out until next Christmas or later. War and XPs was over a year after the end of the online portion of the strip.

I doubt Rich even knows what the price is going to be yet, given that he'd need to see how many pages of commentary and bonus strips are going to be in it. So you're offering to pre-order something when you don't even know the price. Meaning it can't be charged right now, so the calendar wouldn't be paid for until it ships.

And on top of that, if something happens to your card during those several months, and it gets declined, Ookookdook is suddenly stuck with a calendar they can't sell anymore.

Easy way to solve that: charge for only the calendar, take the money, and keep it on hold, per request, to be added for free to any future card (be it book 5 or something else). This way they get the money, people don't have to pay shipping twice, and there is no worry that it might end up not getting paid for. And if the book is delayed people can always change their minds and add it to an empty cart to get just that shipped to them.

Now I don't know how hard it would be to implement, of course, but it seems to make more sense than asking people to pre-order book 5 before a price or release date have been set, which seems to be what you assumed would happen.

[factotum]

Easy way to solve that: charge for only the calendar, take the money, and keep it on hold, per request, to be added for free to any future card (be it book 5 or something else). This way they get the money, people don't have to pay shipping twice, and there is no worry that it might end up not getting paid for.

And if the person, three months down the line, decides they want their money back, what does Ookoodook do then? You're essentially asking them to turn into a bank for you and look after your money until such time as you want to spend it, and the administrative and legal ramifications of that would be enormous.

[ChristianSt]

You do realize that the book isn't even finished yet, right? It might even never come out, if some horrible catastrophe happened. You're offering to pre-order something that might not even come out until next Christmas or later. War and XPs was over a year after the end of the online portion of the strip.

I doubt Rich even knows what the price is going to be yet, given that he'd need to see how many pages of commentary and bonus strips are going to be in it. So you're offering to pre-order something when you don't even know the price. Meaning it can't be charged right now, so the calendar wouldn't be paid for until it ships.

And on top of that, if something happens to your card during those several months, and it gets declined, Ookookdook is suddenly stuck with a calendar they can't sell anymore.

If for any reason Ook doesn't want to offer such a deal, we can't stop them from doing so.
But if it might be possible and nobody would say they want it, then it is not going to happen.
On top off that, I can't imagine we harm anyone by asking whether this is possible.

So only when people say their opinion, something might change (and that s not limited to this topic)

[Onyavar]

I would be interested in Calendar + Book 5, (if it possible to ship both together without bumping shipping too much). Maybe I try hard to find other stuff that might be useful, but I know I want Book 5 anyway (though probably I would order that through my LFGS to safe shipment, but having more to add would make it more interesting to buy both from Ook).

Hi Christian, hi everyone else from Germany who might be interested in bulk ordering.

I just realized I'm in need of ordering my christmas present. Is there a way to share the international shipping and get a calendar each, as well as maybe a few of the books to fill the package?
Don't know where you live, but it's probably going to cost a lot less if we bundle things up, and then one of us sends the rest to the other(s) via our national mail.

PS: I'm in NRW.

[AustralianGrey]

After years reading the comic, owning all the books and having supported the KS, I finally created an account to post how awesome (and yet disappointing) this calendar is.

My 5 years old is starting to read the order of the stick and she loves it. So I was very keen on getting her the calendar, the pictures look awesome.
Big disappointment when I realised the calendar is on american standards rather than international standard for the start of week.

I can't blame you for making your calendar the way you like it, and also stick to your home country but the start of week on sunday killed my OCD tendencies . We had a big discussion a few weeks ago with my little one to figure out when was the start of the week with some US sources indicating that it was Sunday while others (international standard) told us Monday.

No big deal, she'll love that unicorn T-shirt !

[Cizak]

Could someone explain Julio's pun to me?

[Bulldog Psion]

Could someone explain Julio's pun to me?

"It cost a mint!"

Play on words.

"Mint" in one sense means the place where currency is printed and coins are struck, such as the U.S. Mint. "Cost a mint" is idiomatic for "cost as much money as they have at the Mint," or in other words, "cost a LOT of money."

"Mint" is also a small holiday candy made out of, well, mint (the plant). And he's using a candy cane, so candies, mints, and all that are already being invoked, in effect.

[Cizak]

Ah! I knew what mint was when refering to candy, and I guessed there may have been some other meaning I wasn't getting due to English not being my native language and/or not living in an English speaking county. Thanks!

[The Giant]

There are not going to be any pre-orders for Book 5. I'm not taking anyone's money for a book of that doesn't exist, may not exist for a months, is of unknown size, and has unknown costs (since paper prices fluctuate). It's not going to happen. People tried to twist my arm into throwing pre-orders for Book 5 into the Kickstarter, and I refused—and that was the best decision I made regarding the Kickstarter, since here we are two years later and I haven't even finished the online strips for it.

As far as "layaways" for the calendar, we're also going to have to decline that, for similar reasons. Indefinitely holding on to money and a product for people is not really a good idea, especially when the time period will stretch over two tax years. And what about shipping rates? The price of a Priority Mail medium box to another country raised by $17 last January; who knows whether it will rise again in the next six months? If I had put those calendars on sale last December and done the layaway idea people are suggesting, I would have actually lost money on each sale when the rates increased. That doesn't even take into account the hassle of people moving addresses between the time the order is placed and the time it is delivered (again, this was a huge problem for Kickstarter).

I understand that people want the calendar and that they want to maximize their efficiency, but we're not going to do any plan that puts us into a worse logistical position than just not getting the sale would. I still have Kickstarter stuff hanging over my head, the last thing I need is another indefinite obligation eating away at me.

Here's what I will do: I will order more excess calendars (above and beyond the pre-orders) than I was originally planning on. So it has a higher chance of sticking around in the store into the first few months of the year instead of selling out in January. And maybe everything will work out and I'll be able to put Book 5 on pre-order while there are still calendars available.

[The Giant]

Big disappointment when I realised the calendar is on american standards rather than international standard for the start of week.

I can't blame you for making your calendar the way you like it, and also stick to your home country but the start of week on sunday killed my OCD tendencies . We had a big discussion a few weeks ago with my little one to figure out when was the start of the week with some US sources indicating that it was Sunday while others (international standard) told us Monday.

I've literally never seen a calendar that starts on Monday in my life. I didn't even know it was an issue. So, not really a choice on my part, but probably one I would have made anyway.

[The Giant]

OK, now what I came here to say:

Kevin just informed me that Ookoodook is having a "Small Business Saturday" sale on all APE Games products—50% off, Saturday only. Since APE makes the OOTS Board Game, that means you can get the Deluxe Edition for about $27, instead of its usual price of $55. So if you wanted the calendar and thought you might get the game someday anyway, you can save a chunk of money by ordering them together on Saturday, November 30.

[CaDzilla]

So every time Z pointed his finger, he was indicating the object he was pointing to was a cliche?

[ella ventic]

Giant, that's the best news I've heard all day! I was just regretfully concluding that I didn't really have enough spare cash to buy the game right now; I'll be so glad to pick it up with the calendar on Saturday!

In other calendar-related musings: does anyone have a guess as to what the characters are saying in those two preview images? (Or is this not the thread for that-- keep this for serious ordering-related discussion?)

[ChristianSt]

I've literally never seen a calendar that starts on Monday in my life. I didn't even know it was an issue. So, not really a choice on my part, but probably one I would have made anyway.

I haven't even checked on what day the calendar starts (because if I hear about a calendar with weeks, I automatically think of them as starting on Monday), but I have literally never seen a calender that started not on Monday [from the Wikipedia article on "Woche" it states even that the German-speaking calendar-industry follows the ISO standard 8601, which defines Sunday as the last day of the week]

I understand that people want the calendar and that they want to maximize their efficiency, but we're not going to do any plan that puts us into a worse logistical position than just not getting the sale would. I still have Kickstarter stuff hanging over my head, the last thing I need is another indefinite obligation eating away at me.

Here's what I will do: I will order more excess calendars (above and beyond the pre-orders) than I was originally planning on. So it has a higher chance of sticking around in the store into the first few months of the year instead of selling out in January. And maybe everything will work out and I'll be able to put Book 5 on pre-order while there are still calendars available.

Understandably reasoning. I probably try to order it this year then, though. (Maybe it is possible to safe on some sort of German bulk order?)
Because even though SSaDT is still available, I don't want to risk it (and maybe I get some use out of the calendar, or give it a shot - I normally don't use paper calendars )

[sam79]

I've literally never seen a calendar that starts on Monday in my life. I didn't even know it was an issue. So, not really a choice on my part, but probably one I would have made anyway.

I haven't even checked on what day the calendar starts (because if I hear about a calendar with weeks, I automatically think of them as starting on Monday), but I have literally never seen a calender that started not on Monday

I'm feeling very multicultural as I've seen and used both kinds of calendar. Doesn't seem a big issue to me, though I find Monday=start of the week to be much more logical: even in the US (AFAIK) Saturday and Sunday are called the weekend, after all.

[Shivore]

Yeah we call them the weekends, because Sunday makes up one end of the week and Saturday makes up the other end. Doesn't make as much sense to me to call them that if Saturday is not the end but just the second-to-last day, but hey... that's cultural differences for ya.

[Accountant]

OK, now what I came here to say:

Kevin just informed me that Ookoodook is having a "Small Business Saturday" sale on all APE Games products—50% off, Saturday only. Since APE makes the OOTS Board Game, that means you can get the Deluxe Edition for about $27, instead of its usual price of $55. So if you wanted the calendar and thought you might get the game someday anyway, you can save a chunk of money by ordering them together on Saturday, November 30.

This is great! Question for Giant or Kevin - I'm shipping internationally to China and have already pre-ordered the calendar. Now that I know the sale exists, I'm interested in adding the board game to the order to maximize shipping cost efficiency. Is it too late to do this and get both items in one box? How could I go about combining both orders?

[apegamer]

This is great! Question for Giant or Kevin - I'm shipping internationally to China and have already pre-ordered the calendar. Now that I know the sale exists, I'm interested in adding the board game to the order to maximize shipping cost efficiency. Is it too late to do this and get both items in one box? How could I go about combining both orders?

The best way to manage this is to have us cancel your order (please mail me your order number at [email protected]) and refund you. You can then place a second order that includes the game.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Hmmmmmmm. That Ominous Foreshadowing t-shirt is ominously looking at my wallet.

[Everyl]

So every time Z pointed his finger, he was indicating the object he was pointing to was a cliche?

In a comic that parodies pretty much every D&D cliche on the books? Yeah, probably.

[Rizban]

BearDruid

This. This right here is so much the Aldhaven Vicious Betrayals character Bear.

[The Giant]

OK, so the 50% off sale on APE Games stuff is active now: http://www.ookoodook.com/store/CompanyAPE.shtml

[Anarion]

OK, so the 50% off sale on APE Games stuff is active now: http://www.ookoodook.com/store/CompanyAPE.shtml

Is the board game relatively easy to repackage and transport once it has been played? I'm interested in getting it and taking it to some friends that live an hour away, and I don't have a car.

[Grey Watcher]

Is the board game relatively easy to repackage and transport once it has been played? I'm interested in getting it and taking it to some friends that live an hour away, and I don't have a car.

Yes, it is. The box comes with a shaped plastic inside-thingy that all the cards and dice and stuff fit into quite nicely, so it's pretty travel friendly.

EDIT: At least, the original Dungeon of Dorukan version. I presume the same is true of the Deluxe, though. (Although, if I remember correctly, even The Shortening fit into the original box. Dunno about both The Shortening and Sticky Shticks at once. But I usually put each expansion back in its original box and just throw all three in a bag if I'm taking the game somewhere.)