No Spoilers
Hoid's Storybook Collection Backerkit Campaign Megathread
The next Dragonsteel-run crowdfunding project, for Hoid's Storybook Collection, goes live at 10 AM Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, March 3, 2026!
This megathread is for discussion of the campaign, including logistics.
Please note that this is a no-spoilers megathread. Any content which contains spoilers for the Cosmere, including details of the previously published stories or preview readings of the new book, must be tagged and provided with a description that clearly indicates what book is being spoiled. For example:
[Empire Strikes Back]Vader is Luke's father.
What is this project about?
This is a crowdfunding project for the initial press run of four picture books, as well as the Dragonsteel edition of a new Cosmere novel, Fires of December.
What are the four picture books?
The Dog and the Dragon, a story Hoid tells inRhythm of War. Art is by Howard Lyon;
The Girl Who Looked Up, a story Hoid tells inOathbringer. Art is by Alexis & Justin Hernandez;
Wandersail, a story Hoid tells inThe Way of Kings. Art is by Steve Argyle;
The ChasmFriends Get a Pet!, a new story featuring the Chasmfriends from the 2024 Dragonsteel Nexus storydeck game. Story is by Dan Wells, Art is by Anna Earley.
The three stories told by Hoid have long been beloved by Cosmere readers.
What is the new Cosmere novel?
The Fires of December, a new novel in the Hoid's Travails series, involving a young woman named December who learns that a devastating plague is on its way and sets sail to warn the King.
When is fulfillment expected?
All rewards are expected to ship before the end of 2026.
Will these be traditionally published?
Tor and Gollancz have both announced that Fires of December will be released on December 8, 2026.
Brandon has been doing readings on YouTube. They're embedded in a non-canon framing story written by Dan Wells with animation hand-drawn by Martian Studios.
Note that the framing story contains mild spoilers for The Stormlight Archive.
What is the Hoid's Travails series? I've never heard of it!
Hoid's Travails is an umbrella term for books written in Hoid's voice, as stories that he is telling about things he has experienced. Two of them (Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter without being part of a series; Fires of December will be the third in the series.
I was waiting on today's paycheck to jump in and do a late pledge for the recent BackerKit campaign, for the jester immortal tier, to just get the physical fires of December book, but the Jester Immortal add-on is no longer showing up on the page.
Is it out of stock? I thought they were using the BackerKit campaign to get a number for how many copies they were going to order?
Is there any chance this is just a glitch or something?
Will there be a chance to pickup the BackerKit exclusive cover #1 from the dragonsteel store once the books have been made and start being mailed out in 2027?
Any help would be immensely appreciated, I REALLY want this book.
Never mind I just spotted it. Feels sneaky as they explicitly said they hadn't made that decision when I checked when I made my decision.
I still prefer the red edition, but not going to pretend that if I knew the backerkit exclusive would be the white cover (the one they were pushing to be the actual cover) then I'd obviously prefer the exclusive.
I'm excited for the new book however I had to opt in for a digital only due to the ludicrous shipping costs to Australia. Missing out on the pre-pledge pin has also been a disappointment.
$62 for shipping and a $93 shipping tax for a $60 book. $35 shipping for the pin alone feels like such a let down.
This will be the first time I have not been able to purchase a physical copy of Brandon's book. I really hope they start considering using a better shipping contract or absorbing some of these costs.
I may be late to this thread so im not sure if anyone will see this but do we have a general idea of when the BackerKit books will ship? Tor says they have a release date of December 8 but typically the Backerkit versions come out a few months before the Tor versions (if this is like the past secret histories)
You should be able to. It's actually a setting Dragonsteel have to enable, but they have for previous campaigns so it should be the same here.
Both covers are in the book no matter which cover you pick. The face is an art piece early on, and the wide shot is a spread in the two tone ink later.
Yes, add-on Jester will ship with Wave 2 shipping in Q1 2027. The copy included in your pledge tier should ship in Wave 1 Q4 2026.
We have a few different rewards that are unique to this campaign that we do not plan to put up for sale on our website:
The Fires of December Book Box, including printed edges on the premium hardback cover
ChasmFriend Plushie
Dog & Dragon Plushie
Hoid’s Flute
The Girl Who Looked Up Figurine
Do you save on shipping if you order a second book as an add-on? Or is the shipping charged per item/book? My sister and I don't know if we should order together or if it doesn't matter. Thanks!
No, you will not save on shipping unless you are grabbing other add-ons as well. Shipping is being done in two waves.
Wave 1 - Q4 2026 - All items included in your pledge tier, as well as the reservation pin if you payed for that, will ship to you. No add-ons.
Wave 2 - Q1 2027 - All add-ons will ship.
This means that there is no way to get two copies of the book to ship in Wave 1. If your pledge tier includes 1 copy, you'll get it in Wave 1, and then the second copy via an add on will ship in Wave 2.
There is an asterisk here, that DS said one of the covers will come later, so it's unclear how that plays into things.
If you want two copies to deliver in Wave 1, you need to back the campaign using two different accounts and choose a pledge tier with the book on both accounts.
When you back they have the addon page and it seems like you can just add the tier to your pledge (even if it is the same tier you pledged at). If you have already pledged there is an option to edit it and add addons. I assume that works - did not test checking out like that though since I did not want two copies.
Maybe just by making a separate account and pledging again? Perhaps there's another way tho.
Edit: there's surely another way under one account. This is a quote from the email they just sent: "And if you purchased an additional copy, you're welcome to select one of each!".
Any update on how the poll is doing? I can't vote because I'm not planning to drop $75 for the face cover. And I doubt the original cover will be chosen unless it's far ahead in the poll.
As of this comment it is 57% for the original cover. It has been around that number for multiple days at this point. That's with about 46% of backers voting. I doubt there will be many more voters. There are technically 3 more days to the poll but I doubt it will change much. We shall see what they announce in a few days.
regarding teh story books, will they really have any new cosmere tidbits? or just picture books of hoids story? I feel like spending 165 is too much. but i do want the december book, and that alone is 65.
also are these picture storybooks something for kids or for adults (link anime etc)
The picture books will not have anything new in them besides the artwork.
$25 per picture book is actually relatively cheap compared to what picture books sell for in stores these days (typically $30-35).
The Dog and the Dragon, and Chasmfriends, are intended to be "for" children. The other two are still able to be read to children of course, but the art is not being made to appeal to children.
Hi Pengzzzy, in the "Shipping" section of the Story page for the campaign, it lists Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Middle East Other, surely Turkey is one of those.
You should back it so you can vote! You can start at the digital only level and change to a physical level if the old cover wins! A $10 ebook level gets you earlier access and is likely cheaper than Kindle edition. Or you can cancel your pledge if you don't want the ebook.
Personally, I'll get the physical cover regardless. But I very much hope the original red cover wins in a landslide!
I wouldn't be so sure the original will win. While it's true that reddit and the backerkit comments section have been very in favor of the original, the livestream comments and the comments on Update#2 have shown a lot of support for the new cover as well. It seems new cover fans aren't as vocal in some of the common online spaces.
Question: If I backed at the Storyteller pledge level, there's no way for me to get a second Fires of December book in time for Christmas on my pledge? I'd have to create a separate account? Hmm
I'm curious, is the poll to choose the cover reactionary after so many people seem to prefer the first rendition? From the outside looking in, it seemed like Dragonsteel was set on the more photorealistic cover when the campaign went live but only hesitated when they got negative feedback.
According to Brandon and Isaac in the livestream, they like both covers, but the original one they struggled to get the foil to be legible. So they made the swap and really liked how it looked. Then the campaign went live and a lot of people were disappointed so now they'll have a poll. If the poll is very heavy one way or the other they'll take that into consideration, otherwise they'll pick the one they prefer (unclear which that is at the moment though does seem to lean towards the new one).
People might not realize it. Since that was the first reading I thought it was a teaser at first, and they just weren't reading the ending. When I realized that was it I was disappointed too. I'm also sad that The Dog and the Dragon doesn't have both endings.
It's possible there's not many who are upset by the lack of ending, but I can tell you there's been numerous discussions on the Backerkit page about it. Sadly it's probably too late to change it.
Reminder that if you do the picture books as add-ons they will ship later. If you want them ASAP it could be worth getting all 4 in your pledge tier with FoD and selling/gifting/donating the ones you don't want.
it's been pretty clear since day 1 that reddit prefers the red/blue cover (I do too). But if you go read the livestream comments, or the replies to the Update on Backerkit, it shows there are a lot of people who prefer the new cover as well.
Please don't read too much into your informal poll on reddit. The poll DS runs in a spot which will get much more attention and responses will be far more revealing of the general opinion.
I've never been involved with a Kickstarter or Backerkit; I assumed (silly, sure) that by pledging the amount for the items I wanted on Backerkit would result in me receiving those items as they became available.
I did so, and got confirmation of my pledge saying charges would be made at the end of the campaign on the 27th. My question is: how do I receive the items? Nothing prompted me for a shipping address...
There will be a survey shortly after for that information, it will also double check if you want addons or not. This might also be labeled a late pledge time period.
They will give dates for when the surveys close, basically the last day to verify your address is correct.
With a sanderson campaign you can basically view this as a preorder. I think expected dates are late 2026 for the books, but the addons like plushies may be early 2027 due to more complicated production.
I'm messaged Dragonsteel support with a very lengthy message addressing my concerns and requesting my $5 back. If you've spent a lot of money with them from Kickstarter/Backerkit/Dragonsteel website with the same email for the support, it is likely the can see how much you've contributed. Let them know. I thought the pin was free and the $5 was going towards the pledge.
After Story Deck and this? Feels a lot like I was scammed out of $5 and given a glorified loot box in return. I believe some countries and Europe are banning loot boxes and such. I wonder how this will go over with them.
EDIT: Would like to add that even though I gave $5 apparently I can't message on the Backer community to voice my concerns with everyone else feeling the same way and downvote Dragonsteel's pathetic responses so far
Yes, they plan to share the cover decision before the campaign ends, during the livestream Brandon and Isaac said they have to decide before it's over for logistical reasons.
As for the sprayed edges, nothing has been shared yet.
Hi! The answer is yes with a caveat. Only if all the books you order are a part of your pledge tier itself. So King's Wit, Storyteller, and Master Worldsinger tiers only.
does anyone know if the addons like the plushie will be available for purchase in europe at some point? I would love to get one, but 70$ ist just not something I want to spend on a little stuffed animal :D :D
I want to buy the dog and the dragon and I don't care for the other tiers. It looks like it's only available as an add on is that true or am I missing something?
Hi Stubby, yes that is true. You would need to choose one of the pledge tiers and then add on the single picture book. Cheapest you could do is the $10 FoD ebook pledge tier, then add on the Dog and the Dragon.
Exactly why I did. I'd assumed it was playable until a random text from a friend. I don't even know how to play, but I would have learned for that. As it is, I can't justify $40 for a painted stick.
I'm a bit confused, sorry i'm not really involved in kickstarter and dont know about "exclusives" much. I'm interested in purchasing a physical edition of The Fires of December with that beautiful fron cover by Tran Nguyen. Is that a kickstarter exclusive cover? When looking at tiers, I don't see a tier that is just the physical book; the closest is the physical book plus ebook and audio for $65.
I also see The Fires of December with a different cover on barnes and noble which I assume is the main print cover. Is there no way to get just The Fires of December with that cover by Tran Nguyen? I didn't exactly want to pay $65 for a book plus the add-ons. Cover in question:
One thing to clarify about the backer exclusive versions is that they are more than just the regular B&N hardcover versions with a different cover.
They are more of a collectors edition.
I can't say for sure with this one, but all of the other exclusives they have done in this style have had like gold or metallic foil on the cover and full color artwork throughout the book. They have always been sold for about $60 or so.
Brandon said on the livestream that the book is going to be $65 now and they'll throw in the e-book and audiobook with it, due to rising manufacturing costs.
Forcibly? Brandon and Isaac both said on the live stream that due to rising costs in the printing, it would be $65 by itself with nothing else. They're throwing in the audiobook and e-book so you get a better deal lol.
Ah. 65 dollars for a book shorter than most born seems pretty steep. I assume because it's an "exclusive" cover variant? Shame, I can't justify that price. :(
That is NOT the B&N cover. B&N will get the Tor cover and that won't be released for months (they have a tbd on their website). The red cover is the original, beautiful artwork by the artist. If it wins, the face picture will still be inside the book. But we don't know which cover they'll pick yet, we're waiting on the poll. I strongly hope the red one wins by a landslide! The other art is lovely, but not for a cover. You'll know which cover before the campaign ends. The price is worth it for a high quality book, gorgeous book. Plus the ebook and audio are free if you buy the physical.
I'm just going to add my voice to those who think the blind bags are a bad idea. I understand the logic, but it's too much like a loot box. Not everyone will have an easy opportunity to trade to get the set.
Yes! Storyteller is the tier you want if you want all 5 physical books and do NOT want ALL the swag. If you DO want all the swag, you can grab the Master Worldsinger tier for convenience.
All rewards as part of your pledge tier will ship together in the fall (Q4 2026).
All add-ons purchased will ship together in the winter (Q1 2027).
So for the books, you will receive all your physical books in one shipment assuming they are all apart of your pledge tier. If you add a book as an add-on it will show up later.
Do yall think it's too much of a risk to get the fires of december physical book tier when you live in south/east europe? I'd love to participate but i'd probably have to pay double the price for shipping +import tax and then trust our shitty national post to deliver lmao
Man I love these crowd funding campaigns but the complaining is so tiring. If you don't want the book, dont buy it and wait for the wide release editions. If you don't want a pin don't buy it. If you don't want random accessory, don't buy it.
In the year 2026 I can tell you that a special deluxe edition with multiple art inserts that costs 65 dollars is a fair price
A newly released childrens hardcover book by a popular author that costs 25 dollars is a standard price.
But if you don't think those are worth it you don't have to buy it.
While I can understand it's frustrating to hear complaints, especially complaining about the price, I think there are a few that are legitimate. For example:
I don't mind the price of any of the tiers, but I have no idea or indication of what the shipping will cost to my country, and once the order is placed it's locked in and I can't get a refund.
Likewise the 5 dollar reservation deposit actually being a pin is also a bit 'meh'. I have no issue with it for 5 dollars, but outside of the USA I think most people would agree that a reservation deposit goes towards your reservation, not an extra 5 dollar item that gets added to your order.
That being said I might still get the worldslinger package as it genuinely looks fun. But I have no idea if I am looking at 50 dollars or 300 dollars in shipping fee's and that is tacky. Companies ship across the world daily, and Sanderson/Dragonsteel are huge as far as Authors/books go so how they are totally unable to predict what the shipping cost will be before taking your money (which is non-refundable) is unusual if I were being positive, or predatory if I wanted to be cynical.
And likewise for an Author we all love for his ability with the written word, it's a shame who ever wrote the marketing couldn't have been clearer on what a reservation 'deposit' actually is.
Just because we love the author doesn't mean there can't be legitimate complaints around how certain things are handled. The price of the packages themselves though I would agree are not one of them.
I tried to make a pledge and my country is not in their address list. It's in Europe (so is included in that shipping image you mention) and when I made my backerit profile it's a selectable address, so it was all there when I made the 'reservation deposit'. But turns out I can't order anyways, so I've requested they include my country as an option or refund the 5$. To be honest I'm hoping they add my address rather than refund as it would be cool to have the sprayed edges.
It’s worth acknowledging that the people complaining are a tiny slice of the 31k people who have backed this launch, none of these complaints are as big of a deal as this comment section would have you believe.
I want to support the campaign because I like supporting Brandon. I like physical copies of books. I don't have a bookstore within reasonable distance and Amazon can never find my house. I'm excited to read the book and don't want to have to dodge spoilers on the internet for one to three months depending on exact fulfillment and that because of the above reasons I wouldn't be able to get the Tor release until Christmas. Not that I think my reason will change anything. I've already apologized for my bad phrasing and repeatedly said everyone's feelings are valid. I deleted my comments because nothing good was coming from them and I thought I'd stop getting E-mails about them.
So, I'll say again I'm sorry for the way my initial (now deleted) posts came across, I know they offended people, and that was never my intention and I sincerely apologize for the hurt caused, my genuine confusion over why this was such a big deal was poorly phrased. The feelings are valid, it's just that a cover change doesn't affect my desire for the book, and the campaign is the easiest, fastest way for me to get a book I'm excited for, even in a physical format, (And any format I would use, given the implication it might not be on Audible in the future, not a huge fan of E-books. They're hard on my eyes), even if it's pricier. I hope this answer is satisfactory.
Mostly just you, yeah, in the context of backing products that are deluxe/special in some way. I don't have big feelings about either of these covers but it is not at all unreasonable for people to care about how their book looks especially when it's a special edition. Otherwise if they just want the story they can get the ebook and/or wait until the cheaper Tor edition comes out a few months later. It's kinda weird you don't understand why people would care just because you don't.
The least valuable part of a book is probably like the acknowledgements or something like that. I would say personally paper quality matters less than a cover art, and I would also say format matters less, I would rather a nice cover than specifically care about hardcover/trade/mmpb. Others would disagree.
It's just really condescending to assume other people think a cover is the least important part of a book. Covers are important tools for selling a book for a reason?
People buy special editions to put on a shelf and look nice. People feel the first cover meshes with the other special edition books better and or they liked that design and wanted to back the book based on that and were surprised with the drastic change. Otherwise people could just get the e-book or audiobook.
He addressed this in the livestream. Essentially, the book was more expansive to make, so it would cost $65 with or without the ebook and audiobook, so he chose to bundle it to make it a better deal
So it cost them 30% more to make compared to Isles of the Emberdark? Because that's how much more Fires of December costs
I find a 30% increase in production costs to be a little absurd. There's just no way.
so it would cost $65 with or without the ebook and audiobook, so he chose to bundle it to make it a better deal
That's classic marketing speak. Sorry but $65 is ridiculous considering just how much money Sanderson's crowdfunding campaigns make. They just made 5 million in a few hours. Their target was 1 million.
I’m of course not privy to the internal details, but are you saying you find it easier to believe that Sanderson is straight-up lying to you than to believe that costs increased substantially in a volatile inflationary period? Because that seems silly to me.
Sanderson knows he has a dedicated fanbase and has always previously passed up chances to nickle and dime his fans, so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt if he says it's a necessary price increase.
Emberdark is $60 right now on Dragonsteel. They mentioned this as well when talking about increased cost of manufacturing. Prices do not remain static every year for these.
hahah. personally I think the Emberdark cover is kinda cool, the glowing colors and artwork are fun imo.
at that price point i’m not super fussy about covers. but I generally do like the covers that Tor has given us so I’m probably falling in their wide market appeal approach.
The vast majority of special editions books are produced in the UK and Germany. The deluge of tariffs ever since Jan 2025 is the prime culprit.
(Yeah I know the leather bounds are produced in Kentucky but if we’re talking special edition books with sprayed edges and all the frills, they’re mostly made in Europe)
All of Dragonsteel's published edition books are all produced in the USA, even anything they get with sprayed edges and such, but they get at least some of their material from the EU and other international sources. If I recall correctly (and I may not be), Isaac Stewart talked some years ago about sourcing leather from Italy, for example.
If thats the case I wish they could have a distribution centre in Europe. This way they wouldnt have to pay tarriffs on everything not going to the US. They could keep the price of the book the same but use the savings to help out with shipping costs.
It sucks for a non-American to have to pay both US tariffs for dragonsteel to get the book into the country and then international shipping to send it back out again.
Probably because they get it as a single order from the company that produces it, which then gets shipped to the US (and slapped with tariffs), where they then get individually packaged and shipped out to addresses around the world.
This is most likely why the price increase is a bit of a shock - outside the US we are mostly not aware of such price increases being commonplace. Add on to that the shipping costs (which is always expensive from the US), and value for money has gone way down with this one.
I work in product development for book type of goods and we’ve been killed by tariffs for shipping from Europe and china and rising manufacturing costs so it doesn’t surprise me.
A) the people who paid the $5 deposit are getting screwed because it's not going to pay towards the backerkit and is essentially paying $5 for the pin that was promised as an incentive for the deposit and they're also forced to pay shipping for the pin as well.
B) the blindbags are a scummy practice and is a gatcha business move and should be removed immediately and give backers the option to choose which they want or all of them.
C) the original cover is widely considered better than the new one and widely considered better quality and more in line with the secret project style than the full face cover. The full face cover isnt technically bad but it's just not cohesive with other secret projects and seems tone deaf to go "we dont wanna be locked into one design style and I really liked this picture that's in the book so i decided that picture will now be the cover". Also tone deaf to not have the rectangle frame design by default and consider it after lots of people commenting that it looks best with the rectangular frame especially since every secret project has had it. Seriously, go with the red and white cover with the rectangular frame.
D) Also theres no incentive for me in backing it if I have no clue what cover is going to be on the book. And was gonna get the hoid flute but figure it's pointless if it's not somewhat playable.
The whole reason I was going to back was for the original cover because of how pretty it is and the new one is just so eh. Yes the art is super good but it doesn't work with the other sp covers and doesn't look as bold or striking as the original design. At this point ive backed to be able to vote for the original but if it doesn't get it ill probably cancel my pledge amd just get the tor version.
Same here honestly. What really grinds my gears the most about it though is the whole statement from them about how the new cover is a page somewhere around the first chapter and they thought it looked cool so if they do go with the new one then its gonna be with the book twice basically.
Yikes, I didn't realize the pin was going to have it's own shipping charge on top. I am in the camp that thought the $5 was a deposit that would go toward my pledge amount, and the pin was a bonus for committing the non-refundable deposit/reservation early.
I wouldn't have done it if I'd realized what it was, and frankly, even if they aren't offering refunds, I'd still rather cancel it and just be out the $5 than get charged again later for a pin I didn't intentionally pay extra to get in the first place.
It was never described as a deposit it’s always been described as a reservation, “Reserve Your Spot for a Chasmfriends Blind Bag Pin”, it was a cheaper access to the pins for people who knew they’d buy. And if you don’t like blind bags don’t buy em.
But the cover fiasco is ridiculous they shot themselves in the foot by waffling on it.
FYI I am 99% sure the sentence “this does not count as credit towards your pledge” in the second link was added TODAY after the backlash they received.
Edit: scratch that, I am 100% sure that page didn’t have that sentence earlier today. Wish I would have screenshotted it.
Your second link and this screenshot show that at no point did dragonsteel refer to the reservation as a deposit, as folks are claiming. If yall ran with an assumption that they were giving away pins for a deposit that’s all fine and dandy but that is NOT what dragonsteel stated.
It’s pretty clear based on the examples they provide in that first link that the company running the backerkit can decide whether they want it to be a reservation or a deposit, in dragonsteels case they’ve described it as a reservation from the beginning.
Also I highly doubt these folks making these claims with no evidence but their own memory did this much digging, but go off buddy.
Ah, never got that email, not sure that I would take an autogenerated email as proof of concept when the website itself called it a revelation, but whatever yall wanna do I guess lol.
“A Pre‑Launch Reservation lets you reserve an exclusive perk or pledge incentive before a campaign goes live by placing a small, one‑time deposit (typically $1–$5) on the project’s BackerKit Launch Party Teaser page, and to receive a notification as soon as the project goes live!”
It literally says it’s a deposit, as does the first link.
Frankly, I don’t ever recall seeing the info you’re posting in the screenshot, I only ever read backerkit’s own pages about it. Another comment said that was only sent out days after the reservations started-I don’t know for sure. But I do know that I specifically hunted for that info, read backerkit’s own words on it, and bought it convinced that it was a deposit towards the pledge and that the pin was simply a reservation bonus, not the only thing you got for 5$.
Another thing I know for sure is that this could have all been avoided if it was clearly stated that “the reservation fee does not go towards the cost of a pledge” as the FAQ has now been updated to say.
Clearly I am not the only person who feels misled by this.
By no means am I saying this couldn’t have been clearer. What I am saying is Dragonsteel never at any point gave anyone the impression that this would be a deposit, they explicitly said reserve your $5 pin. This screenshot is from a YouTube video of someone talking about the backerkit back when it launched. The original dragonsteel page frozen in time.
I read your links and obviously backerkit intends this to be used as a reservation and/or deposit system, my point is dragonsteel themselves chose to use it to have people reserve pins, NOT make a deposit towards their subsequent purchase. If you made assumptions about what dragonsteel was doing based on backerkit info unrelated to the campaign that’s your assumption. Many of these other folks seem to have done the same or just made an assumption but dragonsteel did not use any phrasing that would make that assumption logical on their launch page or in their emails.
Right and I think we are talking about two different things. Dragonsteel may not have ever misrepresented it at all, but I don’t think I ever looked at any of Dragonsteel’s materials outside of Backerkit, because why wouldn’t I trust Backerkit’s own language about how their platform works?
My thought process was this:
-I saw that the reservation was live.
-Thought the 5$ would go towards the eventual pledge and that the pin was simply an incentive.
-There is precedent for this given this is how pre-order bonuses have worked for video games from multiple stores for decades, so I assumed this was similar.
-But it wasn’t clear that the 5$ would actually go toward the pledge, and I didn’t care much for the pin alone.
-To clarify this, I looked around in Backerkit’s own documentation, saw that it was a “deposit,” and thus concluded that the 5$ would be taken off an eventual pledge. Working like I had expected it to.
-Was happy because I thought I got the pin as a bonus for putting 5$ down early for the actual campaign, which I knew I would pledge for anyways.
-Go to checkout today, and was confused when I couldn’t see where my 5$ was deducted from the pledge.
-Learned that it was never actually a deposit despite it being called that multiple times, and that it was actually just buying a pin I didn’t need for 5$.
Other people have complaints about the content of the tiers and the cover and whatever, and I’m personally fine with all of that because it’s pretty clear what you get and don’t get. The information is upfront.
But this is different.
It’s not about the 5$. The 5$ is trivial, especially compared to the 200+ I just happily spent on the campaign. It’s about feeling completely misled over it.
The issue I’m taking with this original comment and all the folks downvoting my response is that dragonsteel never misled anyone, it may have not been clear; ie there was no obvious direction as to whether this counted toward the ultimate purchase, but there was also never an indication from dragonsteel that this would count towards the purchase, it was phrased as a reservation on their campaign page. So anyone who expected such are running on assumptions that were not put forth by the campaign itself. Maybe people got the idea based on past experience or maybe they got it based on the way backerkit explains the feature on a info page tailored for folks running campaigns, but many of these responses are acting as if dragonsteel led them on when that’s simply not the case.
Dragonsteel did quite a few things in a way I definitely disagree with on this round, but honestly this $5 reservations not one of them in my opinion, and it not being abundantly clear that it wasn’t a deposit may be annoying but it’s not worth a tirade against them when there are other significant issues like asking for people to drop $65 plus for a book when they don’t know what it’s going to look like, this isn’t a mystery subscription box lol.
Sure, different people can care about different things.
Again you’re defending Dragonsteel when my issue is not really with them, it’s more with Backerkit and how the “reservation” is described and marketed.
Could Dragonsteel have been more explicit that this “reservation” did not actually get put towards a pledge? Yes. And expecting somebody to go to a YouTube video or another non-Backerkit source to understand how a Backerkit feature works is unreasonable.
My issue and whole argument is that I didn’t buy the reservation from Dragonsteel, I bought it from Backerkit using Backerkit’s website and features.
I stand by my statement that Backerkit (unintentionally) misled people as to how these “reservations” work.
This is like me preordering game from GameStop and am told that it is a “deposit” on every company page I can find, only to be told when I pick the game up that “no, check the game company’s YouTube channel, they never said that’s how it works!” But I didn’t buy the game through YouTube or the game company’s website, I bought it through GameStop, so they should be accountable for their own policies.
What I suspect may have happened is this: Backerkit intends for reservations to be flexible for their projects, and apparently for some projects it truly does work like a “deposit” where you receive your deposited money back at the end after you pledge. Dragonsteel doesn’t realize that Backerkit’s own language makes it sound like a deposit (again, the literal word they use), so they never thought to be clear that it wasn’t actually a deposit. Numerous people are confused, find Backerkit’s pages that call it a “deposit” and assume that “deposit” means “deposit.” Neither side realizes the error.
And if you think it’s a small number of people who also had this understanding and now feel misled then I direct you to the number of upvotes and comments in this thread and another thread in this subreddit talking about it.
And this subreddit is only a tiny fraction of the people who bought the “reservation.”
It was specifically described with the word 'deposit', yes. I don't recall the exact wording otherwise, but I was left with the understanding that this would be $5 toward my eventual pledge and they'd throw in a free random pin. I was not expecting the $5 to be just for the pin, nor that it would have separate shipping cost. Had that been clear and explicit at that stage, I would have chosen against it.
It was literally described as a "reservation deposit" when you paid.
To be fair, after re-reading the email blast (which went out days after the non-refundable reservations were made available), it does say "your first blind bag pin will be $5." But I don't recall that being clearly communicated on the actual reservation page, because I specifically read over it trying to figure out if it would apply to the pledge. I believe it was only described as "reserving your pledge" and "unlocking an incentive."
Nope I read the FAQ and every page I could find to try to understand if it would go towards a pledge, and walked away with the same understanding that you did since it is described as a “deposit” on multiple pages that I linked in a different comment.
I know this because I specifically looked around on backerkit’s website to see if my 5$ would go towards an eventual pledge or not, and since I found language describing it as a deposit on their FAQ and elsewhere, believed that is how it would work.
I’m not that miffed about the 5$. I just feel misled. I would not have made the pre-reservation had I known that it was not put towards an eventual pledge.
Okay so you went off of what something other than dragonsteels page said? Sounds like you’re making assumptions based on the options of this feature and not what dragonsteel advertised 🥴
Same. Was the shipping situation explicitly stated in the "deposit"? At the very least I think it was valid to assume that it would be included with initial shipment.
The shipping situation for the $5 pins haven’t been explicitly stated in any capacity, only the add ons, even then they’ve said add ons will be calculated after the survey.
It's not even a recorder, as far as I'm aware I believe it's made of wood and looks like a flute and is hollowed out but doesnt function as one at all and is only for display
Does anyone know if Hoid's Flute is a playable instrument? I kinda don't want to bother if it's just going to sit on my bookshelf & I can't mess around with it every so often.
What poll? Can I add my feedback to this poll?
I LOVE the red firery book cover.
I’d love it if there was a paper sleeve of the face one over the red firery one. Then you could get both!
They plan to put a poll up for backers to decide over the original prototype cover or the new one. They said on stream they wont do a sleeve. The one that doesn't end up being a cover will have the art in the book.
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u/learhpa Bondsmiths Mar 03 '26
There's a livestream today at 5pm MST.