Every three months, through our Patreon, we release an adventure or other short supplement for Against the Dark Yogi, Shadows Over Sol or Dime Adventures. Patrons get early access to these supplements, receive both a PDF and "at cost" print copy, and always get them for cheaper than retail price.
Needless to say, it's been a crazy year. I won't spend a lot of time reiterating all of the ways that 2020 has been different from most. Instead, I will focus on how Tab Creations has fared and what we've managed to achieve.
Our good news for the year is that Age of Ambition has been an astounding success! Our loyal fans successfully Kickstarted it just before the pandemic started to close down the US, and in spite all the challenges this year, all of the rewards have been released and sent to backers, with only minor delays.
The bad news is that this was the first Kickstarter we ran where rewards were delivered later than promised. We missed our delivery goal by about five weeks. That said, it took a global pandemic to make us miss our delivery estimates, so all things considered, that's still a pretty solid track record.
Our best news for the year, however, is that so far all of us involved in the company have stayed safe and remained healthy. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all of our fans, freelancers, families and those in the greater tabletop gaming community. Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by COVID-19.
Our Patreon, meanwhile, continues going strong. This year it released the Age of Ambition: Quick-Start, Shadows Over Sol: Crash Zone, Shadows Over Sol: Into the Flames, Age of Ambition: Will to Power and a bundle of five One-Sheet Scenarios, which included Age of Ambition: The Clockwork Plot, Shadows Over Sol: Not Another Step, Dime Adventures: Best Possible Life, Shadows Over Sol: Attack on the Damascus and Age of Ambition: The Vasjan Heresy.
This latter release was a new format for us, and one that was something of an experiment. Each One-Sheet Scenario consists of a single letter-sized page, with content on the front and back, and enough material for a single evening's gaming session.
In the end, I'm going to call the experiment a mixed success. On the positive side, it's easier to plan One-Sheet Scenario releases, there's less financial overhead, they were received positively by our patrons and it gives us the opportunity to offer some support to our less popular game lines.
On the negative side, we were hoping that more frequent, smaller releases would drive sales for the game lines they support, and it appears that they have not done so. Additionally, the One-Sheet Scenarios have not fared as well in DriveThruRPG reviews or sales. We may revisit this format in the future, perhaps using it for Kickstarter stretch goals, but for now we want to mull over how it would be best utilized.
Looking to the future, we've got big plans for 2021.
To begin with, Age of Ambition: A Little Murder is being written and will be released through our Patreon in January. Additional Patreon releases will follow in April, July and October.
A little later in the year, we plan launch our next Kickstarter, Shadows Over Sol: Jovian Whispers. This will be a combined campaign and sourcebook, much like Siren's Call. It will deal with the exploration and recovery of the Jovian colonies, five years after the Jupiter Group Incident. As the campaign goes on, the team will discover what really caused the incident and what they must do to stop an even greater future calamity. Writing is underway, and patrons will get a sneak peak in January. We hope to launch the Kickstarter sometime in the spring.
Looking further into the future, we're planning a reprint of our Ganjifa cards, as the physical decks have been out of print since early this year. Hopefully that will happen in the fall. We also have an Age of Ambition campaign and sourcebook in the outline stage, but writing on it is unlikely to start in earnest until after Jovian Whispers is out the door.
That's all for now. Good gaming, and stay safe, everyone!
Tab Creations
