Shipping updates, rules questions!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 01:27:25 AM

Hey everyone!

This update in brief: Games continue to ship, people are having a great time with them, and I answer some questions.

Shipping Update

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: Fulfillment is happening right now, and should be completely shipped out by the end of the week! That’s right; Australian Ninjas are GO!

CANADA: Canadian shipments started last week, and they’re already arriving! There was some kind of weird bug with the spreadsheet, and it refused to believe that pirates exist. Important question: Does Canada hate pirates?

As a result, shipments were missing their copies of Scuttle! - never fear, they’re aware of the problem, and you’ll be getting a separate package with the rest of your order. Canada: soon to be home to pirates once more!

(Also, I found out what the MYSTERY PROJECT was - as guessed in the comments, it was the new Star Realms game!)

EUROPE: Fulfillment is happening right now! European Ninjas are ALSO GO!

US/ASIA/ROW: 100% of orders have been sent out! They’ve all been mailed, but might still be in transit. If you haven’t received your package by the 7th of September, let us know! You can contact Quartermaster Logistics directly on [email protected], or email us on [email protected]

Also, just as a reminder: a few item names got changed between the campaign and now.

• Ninjitsu! is still called Ninjitsu! 
• Traps! is now called Sabotage!, and can be found inside the main Ninjitsu! box 
• The Supernatural Expansion is now called Masters of Magic and is inside the Treasure Hunters Expansions box. 
• Heavy Weather and The Elements haven’t changed name - they, too, can be found inside the Treasure Hunters Expansions box. 
• The Promo Pack is separate to the main box; make sure you check the packaging! It’s only little. :)

If you ordered a copy of Scuttle!, it will have come with both its expansions and the promo pack inside the box. The expansions are called The Curse of Black Jack and Scurvy!. The promo pack is the little package which includes the Captain Bluebeard card.

If you added a T-shirt to your order, this will be arriving separately.

What if something isn’t right? 

If any part of your order is incorrect, missing, or damaged, email [email protected] with the following details:

• Your name. 
• The address you need any replacements sent to. (If you are planning on moving before the end of September, hold off on emailing us until you have a fixed address!) 
• Your backer number. (This can be found by going to the campaign page and clicking “View Pledge” on the right-hand side. You’ll see “backer number” at the bottom, beneath “your pledge”.) 
• A picture of what you received. This is very important! We need to see the damage and exactly what arrived to you to process replacements!

Because we renamed so much stuff (and no we do not plan on doing that again) we need to make sure that your missing items aren’t there under a different name.

How do game?

We’ve been getting some questions about the rules - just as a reminder, there’s a full How to Play video online:

Some people have been leaving rules questions on the Ninjitsu! BoardGameGeek page (which is the best place to get a quick response!) but I thought I’d cover them here as well:

Why do low-point secrets have better traps than high-point secrets? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

This is a question that came up a lot during playtesting, but once it was explained, everyone agreed with the current system.

Every treasure card in Ninjitsu! has a value from 2-10. (1, when the promo cards are included). If all of the high-value cards were incredibly powerful AND were worth the most, the player who drew the highest-value cards would win. Every game.

By making the lower-value cards have the more powerful abilities, the game isn't determined by whoever randomly draws the better hand! High cards are worth more points, but only situationally useful. Lower cards are more powerful, but obviously worth fewer points.

On top of that, it makes the "do I steal" game FAR more interesting. The risk/reward isn't a flat "High reward, high penalty; low reward, low penalty" - instead, stealing is a real gamble. You take a high-point card, you get a bunch of points! You take a low-point card, you don't score much AND you get hit by a powerful trap.

Stealing is now a really tricky decision - if lower-point cards had weaker traps, it would always always be worth stealing. The risk would be exactly proportional to the reward.

The game goes really quickly! Are we doing something wrong?

Maybe! Check out the how to play video above, and see if anything jumps out at you.

If everyone is just playing treasures and ignoring their opponents, it’s going to be a faster (and less fun) game. The cards are balanced so that secrets are generally more powerful than treasures, to encourage interaction and stealing.

It’s worth noting, this is a deliberately fast game. 2-player games generally go faster than 5-player games (because there are fewer players) - if you’re after a longer gaming experience, you can try playing to more points (some people play to 30 or 42) or play to exactly 21 points.

But as long as you’re having fun, you’re probably not doing anything wrong! ;)

The game goes too long! Are we doing something wrong?

Maybe! One thing I've seen is that games tend to go long when everyone dedicates themselves to stopping other players from winning, instead of ever playing winning cards of their own. 

If the player to your right is going to win on their next turn, it can be worthwhile to leave it up to your opponents solve that problem and spend your turn putting cards down so that you win on your next turn instead (after the player to your right has been defeated).

And remember - even if someone looks like they're going to win, they could be bluffing! It can be a good move to call that bluff, instead of spending a turn unnecessarily slowing them down.

You can also play more cards as treasures; they're generally a little safer than secrets (because they can't be stolen without the right action in-hand), although obviously they reveal exactly how many points you have.

If you're still consistently finding your games run long, try removing the 1-value promo cards (they tend to elongate the game) or play with the 5-player rules: winning at 17+ points instead of 21.

My group doesn't like this promo card! Can we take it out?

The base game and the expansion were carefully balanced; the promo cards, less so! If there's a card you don't like, feel free to remove it - it shouldn't affect balance. :)

I mean, the game belongs to you, so you can really take any card out if you want to. But I don't recommend doing that for any non-promo cards!

That's all for this update! I'll be back in a few weeks, writing from sunny LA! (The family and I are going to LA for a month! If you know of any rad gaming meet-ups in LA, let me know!)

Thanks so much for your support,
-Peter C. Hayward
Australian Ninja!

P.S. Don't forget to post a picture of your game when it arrives, and tag @PlayJellybean! It's so exciting, seeing my little ninja babies land around the world:

Games are arriving! Here is EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
over 5 years ago – Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 09:54:32 PM

Hey! 

Games have started landing at people’s houses! That’s right - games are here, and they are beautiful.

We've been getting some questions, so I thought I'd go through and answer all of them in a single place:

Where is my game? 

We just heard from our warehouse, and here’s an update on the status of every region’s games: 

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: The final details are being confirmed with the Down Under Team; this will start fulfillment shortly. Orders bound for Australia and New Zealand will be going out soon! (A large part of the Australian team came over to the US for Gen Con, so they’re running a little behind.) 

CANADA: We are next in queue after a particularly large project that they’re dealing with. I’ll keep you updated!  (They didn't tell us what the project is. My guess is either Root or Oblivaeon? I genuinely don't know, however!)

ASIA: It looks like fulfillment for Asia is finishing up now!

EU: They’ve processed the files, and almost everything has gone through customs. Once the last few items make their way through customs, they’ll begin fulfillment! They're also dealing with the same MYSTERY PROJECT as Canada.

US and ROW: The final orders are leaving the warehouse TODAY! 

What do they look like? 

Here are some photos from people who have received their games: 

Don’t forget to tag @PlayJellybean on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram when you get your package. :) 

Do I have everything? 

After we unlocked so many stretch goals for this project, a few names got changed! 

Here’s what everything is now called: 

• Ninjitsu! - still called Ninjitsu! No changes here. Hoorah! 
• Traps! - this is now called Sabotage; your copy should be inside the main Ninjitsu! box
• The Supernatural Expansion - this is now called Masters of Magic, and makes up one-third of the Treasure Hunters Expansions box. 
• Heavy Weather and The Elements - names are unchanged! These make up the rest of the Treasure Hunters Expansions box. 
• Promo pack - This should have arrived separately as its own little package! :) 

If you ordered a copy of Scuttle!, it will have come with both its expansions and the promo pack inside the box. The expansions are called The Curse of Black Jack and Scurvy. The promo pack is the little package which includes the Captain Bluebeard card. 

If you added a T-shirt to your order, this will be arriving separately. 

What if something isn’t right? 

If any part of your order is incorrect, missing, or damaged, email [email protected] with the following details: 

• Your name. 
• The address you need any replacements sent to. (If you are planning on moving before the end of September, don’t email us until you have a fixed address!) 
• Your backer number. (This can be found by going to the campaign page and clicking “View Pledge” on the right-hand side. You’ll see “backer number” at the bottom, beneath “your pledge”.) 
• A picture of what you received. This is very important! We need to see the damage and exactly what arrived to you to process replacements!
  
  Because we renamed so much stuff (boy howdy did we learn a lesson about doing THAT after the campaign ends!) we need to make sure that your missing items aren’t there under a different name. 

Where’s my email confirmation? 

Not all regions are going to be getting email confirmations of their delivery! We know for a fact that people in the US are; I’m not sure about the other areas of the world. (If you get one and you’re not in the US, let us know in the comments!) 

What if the mailing address in the email was wrong? 

Our fulfillment center incorrectly sent packages out using an older version of the spreadsheet, without the address updates. If you contacted us about changing your address, and your email confirmation had the wrong address, email [email protected] and we’ll get it sorted out! 

The easiest thing to do is just to forward her the email confirmation you got, but including your backer number makes everyone's life far easier. (Especially Nicole's. She will be very grateful if you include your backer number.)

Never fear, you will get your game. 

(Important note: if the USPS system has your change of address, it will be forwarded automatically! If it doesn’t, get in contact with Nicole and we’ll rectify the situation. :) 

How are you, Peter? 

I’m good! I’m technically having a week off, spending some time with my tiny adorable baby (picture at the end of this update), but he’s just gone down for a nap, so I’m taking this opportunity to keep everyone in the loop. 

Also, I just ate a spoonful of peanut butter*, so my mouth is all peanut buttery. 

*no regrets

How are YOU? 

How do I play the game? 

The rulebook contains everything you need to know, but there's also a How To Play video available:

If you have any rules questions that aren't answered by the video or the rulebook, let me know in the comments or ask on the Ninjitsu! BoardGameGeek page, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

Is there a typo on the promo card list? 

There is. :( That was a little bonus we threw in at the last minute (it’s literally just a list of which cards are in the promo pack) and so it didn’t go through the 97 rounds of triple-checking that everything else did. 

Captain Bluebeard is a JOKER, not a 3! 

(Fortunately, that's the only typo that anyone has found so far. Fingers crossed!

I’ve never played any of your games before - I should just throw everything in, right? 

No! Please don’t. I mean, it’ll work, but I really recommend playing with JUST Ninjitsu! until you have the hang of it, THEN adding the Sabotage expansion in, and only THEN adding the promo pack/Treasure Hunters expansions in, one at a time. 

(Some playtesters threw everything in for their first game, and it’s a less-than-ideal way to learn the game.)

(And if you have Scuttle! or a playtest copy of Brains! - the next game in the Treasure Hunters series - I recommend playing them separately before mixing them all together. Having said that, mixing multiple games together is absolutely my favourite way to play!)

But once you have the hang of it all, experiment with mixing and matching! There's enough game to keep you entertained for a long, long while. :)

I thought you said there was going to be a photo of your tiny adorable baby? 

I did! Here you go: 

Whew! What a lot of information (and one picture of a baby). 

If there’s anything I haven’t covered, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Most importantly - enjoy! I’m insanely proud of Ninjitsu! - I think it’s super fun, I think you’re going to have a really good time playing it, and I’m excited to hear what you think of the game. :) 

Thank you so much for your patience and support,
-Peter C. Hayward
Typing as quietly as is humanly possible 

Shipping Has Begun!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Aug 09, 2018 at 09:48:06 PM

We just received confirmation from Quartermaster Logistics that fulfillment has begun for our U.S. backers! They expect all U.S. packages to be shipped out by Friday, August 17th.

Shipments from our EU, Australia, Asia and Canada depots shouldn’t be far behind -- we’re just waiting for the official confirmation from each depot (and we’ll let you know as soon as we receive it!).

Over the last weekend, most of the Jellybean team attended Gen Con, which is the largest tabletop gaming convention in North America! At the show, we had the opportunity to speak in depth with Quartermaster about the delays between receiving our stock and shipping it out to our backers and how we can work to avoid this in the future.

Gen Con

We were lucky enough to receive a double booth space from Gen Con! This gave us plenty of room to demo and display the games. It took about four hours to set up from start to finish, but we were really proud of the results! 

 
Gen Con was our 4th convention of 2018. Peter's now a pro at running the Jellybean booth!

With round-the-clock demos of Ninjitsu! and Show and Tile, the Jellybean booth was always busy! 

A big part of Gen Con is the events! Peter was able to sneak away from the booth long enough to run playtesting events for our upcoming game, Adventures in Neverland!

 
While Peter was running Neverland Adventures, Nicole had the opportunity to meet Aaron and Wally from Whatz Games. They printed Ninjitsu! and were so excited to hear that it's about to start shipping to our backers!

 
We had an amazing show and we're so grateful to have met so many of you in person! 

We'll let everyone know as soon as we have confirmation that non-U.S. shipments are also on their way. Meanwhile, as you begin receiving your copies of Ninjitsu! over the next few days, please take a moment to share and tag us in pictures on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We can't wait to see you!  

Thank you all, 
Nicole Perry
Slightly Less Blue-Bearded Than Peter

How-to-play video, shipping update, Gen Con!
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 01:47:58 AM

Hey!

A bunch of news comin’ atcha, so I’m going to launch straight into it. First things first: I just finished putting together the How to Play video for Ninjitsu!

It runs you through the basics, shows off how pretty the game is, and allows you to listen to my adorable Australian accent. What more could anyone ever want in a video?

How to Play Ninjitsu!:

Shipping update

The games have not yet started shipping, but will start any day now, depending on where in the world you live.

Here’s where we are right now:

USA: Your copies of Ninjitsu! have safely made it across the ocean, through customs, and arrived at our distributor, Quartermaster Logistics, just after a few other enormous Kickstarters. What frustrating timing! As a result, we got placed behind them in the queue. They’re wrapping up those other mailouts now, and copies of Ninjitsu! should be arriving to US backers any time in the next two weeks.

Canada: Ninjitsu! is going to be distributed by Snakes and Lattes. They’re currently processing the spreadsheets and working on receiving the goods, and we expect them to start shipping games out in about two weeks.

Asia: Your games are going to be sent out by VFI! They have received the games, and it’s in their queue. We’ll let you know as soon as we have more information.

Australia/NZ: Copies to my home country (g’day!) and New Zealand have made their way through customs, and are almost at the top of the queue to be sent out by our distribution center. We aren’t sure exactly when these copies will start being mailed out, but the latest estimate we got suggested that they’ll be sent out around the same time as the US copies are, and should be arriving in the next two weeks.

Europe: The ship is about to hit port! The Jiaozhi Cup of Tea (as I’ve affectionately nicknamed the Ninjitsu!-carrying boat) is due to land on the 30th of this month. I don’t want to commit to any dates until it’s gotten through customs, but as soon as it has, I’ll post and let you know when your games are due to ship!

Everywhere else: Your packages will be sent out from our US location! They might take slightly longer, simply because they’ve got further to travel, but they’ll be sent out at the same time as packages heading to US backers.

We’re so close! If you stick out your tongue, you can almost taste the ninja. 

I can promise you, no one is more excited than I for you to get your games. When your copy arrives, make sure you take a picture! You can tag @PlayJellybean on Twitter and Instagram to have your shots retweeted/reshared with the world!

Gen Con

The biggest game convention in America is coming up, and we’re going to have our very first booth! Come find us at booth #2953, in Entrepreneur Alley!

The plan was to have Ninjitsu! out to everyone in the US before Gen Con, and right up until a few days ago, we thought we were going to hit that target. As it is, we’re expecting that when you arrive home from Gen Con, the package will be there waiting for you.

Because we were expecting have games out already, we’ve already organized a shipment of Ninjitsu! for the show. It’s only a tiny fraction, compared to the number of copies going out to backers, but it’s important that we show off the game in preparation for its upcoming retail release.

If you’re going to be at the show, come say hi! We always love meeting backers, and we’re really excited about our first ever Gen Con! (excited slash nervous! This show is a big deal for us, and we've no idea how it's going to go.)

Whew! That’s a lot of news. You probably have some questions, so our Operations Manager Nicole has tried to anticipate your queries and answer them in advance:

1) Why haven’t the packages gone out yet? The boat arrived a week ago!

While we loved keeping an eye on the ship, the arrival is just one portion of the journey, with a lot of coordination needed along the way! Once it makes its way to the port, it needs to be unloaded and our pallets get transported from the port to our fulfillment center’s warehouse. The warehouse then needs to receive and log and organize all of our items and become familiar with the SKUs so that the right items go out with each order! Because our fulfillment center works with so many companies and Kickstarter projects, they can’t always begin fulfilling as soon as our items arrive. Each project can take over a week to fulfill from start to finish, depending on the quantity of backers, but we know they’re working as quickly as they can!

2) Why will some copies be available at Gen Con?

Planning for shows, especially one as large as Gen Con, happens months in advance. We had every expectation of having the games in your hands before the show, but there are a few factors, such as our fulfillment center’s schedule, that we unfortunately just can’t always anticipate.

3) Can I pick up my order at Gen Con?*

Unfortunately, no! With packages going out as the show is taking place, offering Gen Con pick up would require us to hold all of the orders until after the show, even the backers who aren’t attending. By allowing our fulfillment center to proceed with shipments as quickly as possible, we hope to have the packages arriving as the show ends!

If you have any questions that aren’t addressed above, let us know!

Brains!

As soon as I post this update, I’m going to send Brains! out for blind playtesting! Kelly is in the process of coloring the last few cards, and the game now has a logo:

I really love the Treasure Hunters series - they’re (literally) what started Jellybean Games, and they do such a great job of bringing families together. You have no idea how pumped I am for everyone to get their copy of Ninijtsu! Any day now!

Thanks so much for your patience and support,
-Peter C. Hayward Greatly anticipating the Genvention Convention.

Boats, boats, boats!
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 08:56:51 PM

Hey!

All kinds of news today - mostly boat-related. Let's go!

Firstly - as a few people tracking shipments have observed - the US boat has landed!

That’s right, the Qingdao Coffee is no more! The people who own the ship were so excited about delivering our games, they realized that the boat’s life had peaked, and there was not even any point in continuing to run it.

Bow your head in a moment of silence for the finest ship that ever shipped. It’s going to be broken up into parts, and fed to misbehaving children. (Any children reading this: be good.)

This means that the games are in the process of moving through customs, which should be done within the next few days. The games are scheduled to arrive in the Quartermaster Logistics warehouse by the end of this coming week, and we'll start shipping them out as soon as we can.

I’ll update again the moment I know that packages are being sent, so that everyone knows when to start looking.

Ninjitsu! review

And just in case you weren’t excited enough about your incoming Ninjitsu!, we just got an amazing review from Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower - check it out here:

Spoiler alert: he had a great time with the game, as I hope you will too!

(It also might be worth mentioning - you win in Ninjitsu! by hitting 21 or more points; I'm not sure if Tom realized that or not. Fortunately, hitting exactly 21 is an official variant (it's in the rulebook and everything!) so both are correct! Just make sure that everyone knows which version your playing before the game begins.)

The Australian boat!

Look today is nothing but exciting news, so let’s just get straight into it: the Australian boat is landing today!

Our Chinese contacts, perhaps not realizing how obsessive I want to be about these vessels, never sent us the names of the ships carrying the remainder of Ninjitsu! - instead, they just informed us that the boat going to Australia is due to arrive TODAY.

It will still take a week or two to get through customs, but copies of Ninjitsu! going to Australian/New Zealand backers should be sent out shortly.

If you’re not a Kickstarter creator, it’s hard to explain this moment. Two years of effort, tears, sweat, and organizing endless logistics...they’re coming to a head. People are going to get their games and they’re going to get to play them. This game that was just an idea in my head in early 2016 is going to be enjoyed by thousands of people around the globe.

It’s happening!

The EU boat!

Like I said, I still don’t have any new boat names. The Australian boat has landed and presumably been destroyed, so I am not emotionally invested in that one. The EU boat is about halfway through its trip, so let’s give it a name. I propose “The Jiaozhi Cup of Tea” - it has a good ring to it, don’t you think?

The Jiaozhi Cup of Tea left at the same time as the Australian boat, but it turns out that someone moved the countries around and put China closer to Australia than to EU. Why would you do that!?

Our new friend the boat is scheduled to arrive on July 30th. Just like the other shipments, we’re estimating a few weeks to get through customs, then a week or two to prepare and start sending out packages!

Based on the position of the boats, our waves should be:

1) US
2) Canada
3) Asia
4) Australia/NZ
5) Europe

Why is Europe last?

Great question!

We didn't expect to be able to offer EU friendly shipping, but after working hard with Quartermaster to be able to fulfill from their European Depot, we were able to make it happen! Getting everything arranged for this pleasant surprise took a bit longer than it would've otherwise (we'd be shipping from our US freight if we didn’t have the Jiaozhi Cup of Tea), but we felt that the benefits of having EU-friendly fulfillment would make it worth the wait!

Brains!

While ships are shipping and Quartermaster Logistics are logisticking, Kelly and I have been working on Brains! She’s just finished inking ALL the cards in the game, and I’m putting together the final wording for a lot of the cards.

Here’s a shot of what Kelly has been up to:

(Her half of the process is much more exciting to share than mine, but hey - here’s a preview of what I’ve been up to as well: Play 2 cards from your hand as treasures then shuffle your graveyard. What does it mean? Well, you’ll just have to wait and find out! ;)

That’s all for this week! Like I said, I’ll be back the moment I have news. In the meantime, thank you so much for your patience and support - it’s been a long journey, but I think we can all agree that it’ll be worth it!

-Peter C. Hayward
What even IS a graveyard even

P.S. In each of these updates, I like to link to a currently-running Kickstarter I think you might enjoy. This week, it’s Pumpkin Patch: Bad Seeds, a $9 pocket-sized strategy game - just in time for Halloween! Check it out!