Tab Update: Fourth Quarter 2021

Posted by Thorin Tabor on Nov. 23, 2021, 3:26 p.m.

Hello, Tab Creations fans, friends and gaming family! It's time to look back on this last year and forward to the year ahead. It's time for the Tab Update!

I know we always say this, but it's been a busy year! (What can I say? We keep ourselves busy!) Not only did we keep up with our quarterly Patreon releases and sneak in a couple extra, this is also the first year since 2014 in which we ran not one, but two Kickstarters! Let's dive in!

For us, the first half of the year was dominated by Jovian Whispers, the second major expansion to the Shadows Over Sol roleplaying game. Not only was it a successful Kickstarter, but we released it and seven unlocked extras, including four new One-Sheet Scenarios, a poster map of the Sol system, an epilogue and a system hacks document.

Then, in October, we ran our second Kickstarter of the year: a second printing of our much-demanded Ganjifa: Indian Playing Cards. This was a special one for us, as the original printing was our first-ever Kickstarter, way back in 2013. It also helps that Ganjifa has been one of our best-selling products. 

And, of course, throughout the year we continued to support our Patreon, just as our patrons have continued to support us! This year saw the release of Age of Ambition: A Little Murder in January, Shadows Over Sol: Visions in April, Age of Ambition: Escape From Prison Isle in July and Age of Ambition: The Butcher's War in October.

Along the way this year, we managed to sneak in a couple extra releases, notably Jovian Missions, a compilation of One-Sheet Scenarios for Shadows Over Sol and The Deadly Dive, a One-Sheet Scenario for Dime Adventures.

While in the first half of the year we were nose to the grindstone finishing up Jovian Whispers, in the second half of the year we've renewed our focus on outreach. Notably, we've launched a Saga Machine Subreddit for discussing our games on Reddit. We also sent out two surveys asking our fans what they want to see released and which game mechanics they like most and least in the Saga Machine system. We're hoping to still get a few more responses before we go over the results in a future Tab Blog post.

This year has also presented a number of challenges. Indeed, earlier this month our PayPal account was hacked and money was stolen. Thankfully, with some quick work on the part of our treasurer, we were able to recover all of the stolen funds -- but still, this cost us a week of time and effort that would have been better spent on Ganjifa fulfillment. Shipping backups, US postal changes and Britain leaving the EU, which complicates our print-on-demand fulfillment in Europe, also add to the frustrations.

Now let's pause and take a breath. It's been a good year, but now it's time to talk about the year ahead.

Our first order of business is to finish fulfilling the Ganjifa Kickstarter. At this point we've gotten quite a number of printing estimates, but we want to double-check all of the numbers and shipping times before selecting one - the shipping backup being what it is. After that, it's mostly a matter of waiting for the printing to take place and then sending out the cards to backers.

We also have a good number of new projects in the pipeline. This includes two Shadows Over Sol scenarios, both of which are currently being written. It also includes a new Age of Ambition bestiary, which has just gone from writing to editing, and another Age of Ambition scenario, which has been contracted but is still in the outline stage. All of these are likely to see release first through our Patreon.

Our next big Kickstarter project is a full-length Age of Ambition campaign and sourcebook. It's been fully outlined, and writing will begin as soon as the aforementioned bestiary makes it through editing. We expect to launch the Kickstarter sometime in the second half of the year.

Speaking of crowdfunding, this upcoming year we plan to experiment by running a couple "quick-starters." These are short, focused Kickstarter campaigns for a smaller product. In particular, some of the scenarios mentioned above may see release both through the Patreon and through a quick-starter. The reason for this is pretty simple: it's potentially an extra revenue stream. And if we can get more sales for our individual scenarios, we can afford to do more of them.

That's all for now! Good gaming and have a great year!

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