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I'm divided between the Infinity RPG Kickstarter, which seems like it could be a fun and interesting world, even though it's unproven and has sexist art, and the Dleta Green Kickstarter, which is guaranteed to be good, but I already have the original and I wouldn't want to pledge unless I could get the full core at 120k. Any thoughts on where I should go?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 00:57 |
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# ? Jun 6, 2024 05:56 |
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I'm divided between the Infinity RPG Kickstarter, which seems like it could be a fun and interesting world, even though it's unproven and has sexist art, and the Dleta Green Kickstarter, which is guaranteed to be good, but I already have the original and I wouldn't want to pledge unless I could get the full core at 120k. Any thoughts on where I should go? Infinity is being run as a pre-order and is pretty much guaranteed to come out anyways, plus they're using a 'generic' system and just trying to shoehorn it into their different games. The new DG includes the option to be new 'official' Delta Green in which your agents have to account for their actions, compromise themselves for an unknown agenda and watch their relationships spiral into the toilet while they end up alcoholics and putting a gun to their heads because they've seen too much. Or you can go cowboy style and burn every loving book you come across because you saw what happened to Janet after she read one of those things.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 01:02 |
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Welp, time to bring some self-promoting to this thread. I've got my Kickstarter ready to go, so it's time to throw it to the wolves. Do you see anything worth changing before I hit the "submit" button? Love it? Hate it? Too drunk to reply? Whichever viewpoint you have is worth hearing. http://buddingheroes.com forwards to the KS since the access key can rotate.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 01:54 |
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Cloak Gaming posted:Welp, time to bring some self-promoting to this thread. I've got my Kickstarter ready to go, so it's time to throw it to the wolves. Do you see anything worth changing before I hit the "submit" button? Love it? Hate it? Too drunk to reply? Whichever viewpoint you have is worth hearing. quote:If you don't know what a role playing game is, then think of the stereotypical group of nerds in a basement that smite dragons with dice and way too many math problems. Want the truth? That stereotype is far too correct, and that's what Budding Heroes is here to fix. Thank god you're here to save games from gamers
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 01:56 |
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boom boom boom posted:Thank god you're here to save games from gamers Yeah, gently caress those basement-dwelling, antisocial gamers with their math problems. Wouldn't know a story if it rolled initiative on them.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:06 |
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Cloak Gaming posted:Welp, time to bring some self-promoting to this thread. I've got my Kickstarter ready to go, so it's time to throw it to the wolves. Do you see anything worth changing before I hit the "submit" button? Love it? Hate it? Too drunk to reply? Whichever viewpoint you have is worth hearing. Yo seriously dude, I didn't read your whole thing, cause goddamn that's a lot of text, but I skimmed it, and is your entire selling point really, "the first tabletop roleplaying game that isn't boring garbage for horrible nerds!"?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:12 |
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Radish posted:Looks like Mechdeck isn't going to reach its funding which is a bummer. It seems like such a cool idea I'm not sure why there's such lack of interest. For the record, I thought it sounded cool as hell, but they're an unproven company, and if there was even a slight manufacturing defect/oversight and the mass produced pieces didn't fit together well, the game's pretty much a bust. I was interested, but decided not to risk it.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:12 |
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boom boom boom posted:is your entire selling point really, "the first tabletop roleplaying game that isn't boring garbage for horrible nerds!"? In a way, yes. The game's aimed at people who otherwise would have never picked up a TTRPG, parents who want a simplified version to play with their kids, people who want to focus much more on the worldbuilding/flavortext side of homebrewed settings, and people who want a game that feels less exhausting. The pitch is slanted toward the uninitiated, so I guess in hindsight I should have expected people in a highly-TG-experienced forum take the intro as a little hostile rather than tongue-in-cheek.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:19 |
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OK, you asked for it!
This KS as-presented will get $1200 in pledges and be obviously destined for failure after the second week. I'm sorry.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:20 |
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that is so much goddamn text dude
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:24 |
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Leperflesh already said everything I was going to (And a hell of a lot more besides), but yeah, I wanna stress your pitch is extremely TL:DR. In addition, I, personally, will almost never back an RPG that doesn't have a sample/beta rules document available to backers before the kickstarter ends (because I will check it, and if I don't like it, I will pull out). [edit] Especially since your pictures and delivery date give me the impression that your rules and stuff are well along in development/possibly finished.
Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:28 |
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Leperflesh posted:OK, you asked for it! Also you say that the company is already established and fully up to date, but then want the kickstarter to pay for ' $2,000 to cover business overhead (including repaying KS advertising loans, sales tax for all applicable supporters, and business renewals such as corporate filings, domain registrations, and rental fees)' While I'm sure a lot of companies use their Kickstarter money to do it, why are people funding your business renewals and corporate filing for a company that's apparently up to date with all that?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:33 |
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When trying to introduce a new audience to roleplaying, the best strategy is to first tell the existing audience to shove off.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:38 |
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InShaneee posted:For the record, I thought it sounded cool as hell, but they're an unproven company, and if there was even a slight manufacturing defect/oversight and the mass produced pieces didn't fit together well, the game's pretty much a bust. I was interested, but decided not to risk it.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:39 |
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Thanks for the input; as harsh as it all may seem there are plenty of valid points. I've obviously got more work to do before it's ready for the real public, and I'll give plenty of thought to it all. As far as immediate thoughts, obviously I know the text is long; I'll see what I can do to pare it down, but there really are plenty of people out there that have no idea what a TTRPG is, and those three basic sections slowly grew as I brought it to multiple people until they finally understood and were interested. A PDF download of a a mini beta set is a good idea, and as far as the price, yeah, I'll concede that it's on the high side. The original planned MSRP was a bit under $37, but hardcover in sub-10k quantities made that pretty impossible after taking distribution discounts and whatnot into consideration. I was trying to stick to having hardcover available, but I guess there's not really a reason to not launch with both a hardcover and a softcover available at different price points. PST posted:While I'm sure a lot of companies use their Kickstarter money to do it, why are people funding your business renewals and corporate filing for a company that's apparently up to date with all that? Up to date doesn't mean current positive cashflow and the next year is approaching quickly. I was trying to avoid using personal funds for the usual obligations after hitting the point of an actual public release, but if that looks like a sticking point or extra greedy I could strike that line and just eat it from the not-too-large profits that are meant to be put toward developing future extras that are going to be mentioned in one of the updates. Cloak Gaming fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:43 |
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Basically, I'm the degenerate Leperflesh is talking about and your KS doesn't have a hook for people that habitually check out new games. From my skim, I like the sound of the fluff/crunch divide being so sharp that you can change roles between encounters. That seems neat. On the other hand, the time combat in Continuum is neat, but the rest of the game's a mess. I can't tell with yours, so it gets dismissed like I've dismissed other novel RPGs on KS. Cloak Gaming posted:In a way, yes. The game's aimed at people who otherwise would have never picked up a TTRPG, parents who want a simplified version to play with their kids, people who want to focus much more on the worldbuilding/flavortext side of homebrewed settings, and people who want a game that feels less exhausting. I don't see why it needs to be said at all. You really should be focusing on what makes your game great for newbies or people looking for something light and fun. Instead, you call to mind all the Cheetos and Dew, metal shirt, boys club, unwashed gamer stereotypes and make people think "yeah, this poo poo's for dorks" and kickflip their browser to a CAH knockoff. InShaneee posted:When trying to introduce a new audience to roleplaying, the best strategy is to first tell the existing audience to shove off. Ah, the D&D Next approach. Echophonic fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:43 |
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This is just so egregious it bears special attention, because it's right at the top:quote:Old conventions are left in the dust. The group's strongman doesn't break open a door because he rolled a high number, he simply can break it open because it makes sense in the context of the story. The town's mayor doesn't reveal a secret because a character has a high charisma rank, it comes out during an actual conversation. Combat is no longer a tedious experience of players looking through tables for which bonuses and penalties apply, it is now a streamlined experience in which all dice rolls simplified and listed beside a quick menu of choices. Do you understand what rules are for? You can play group storytelling without any rules at all, if you want to. But the rules help the players and (especially) the GM make fair decisions about what happens when the players take a risk. Any time a character does something that might work, either the GM can be totally arbitrary about deciding what happens... or there can be a rule, that makes the results less arbitrary (or codifies the statistical likelihood of success). So when the strongman breaks down the door, maybe he does so because his Strength score means it's an auto-success; or maybe because his character identity gives him the ability to do it; or maybe because the GM just says so. But what if it's a big iron door with a powerful lock? Maaaybe he can still knock it down... but now, if the GM says he can't knock it down, is the GM just being mean? Or did he decide ahead of time that it's such a strong door that even a strongman character can't just bust it down? What if the strongman is tired - should that matter? The rules help the players to adjudicate these situations. Rules-lite systems usually have some over-arching mechanic. It may be a very simple mechanic, but it's there. In PDQ, my [Strongman +4] attribute may be one of only 5 attributes on my character sheet; but it still informs us that if the GM thinks there's any chance I can't just bust down that door, I can roll 2d6+4 and see. The rules also allow the players to accumulate expendable resources, and the GM to deplete them, in a measurable way. Doing that allows the players to make resource decisions: they can decide whether it's worth it to spend a resource here, or if they'd rather save it for later. Resource management can be massively detailed and complex - or it can be extremely simple, something like Hero Points, expendable to change the outcome of any single event, but slow to accumulate. Actual conversation? Do you imagine that in traditional RPGs, the players and GM do not roleplay conversations? Many systems no longer use a Charisma score or equivalent, but even those that did - going all the way back to original D&D - always gave the players the ability to affect the outcome by having an actual conversation. The mechanic is there (when it's there) to give players and the GM a way to differentiate between characters that are good at getting information, and those that aren't; to give players who aren't very good at in-character acting a way to play a character who is good at it; and to give all parties a way to decide what happens when there's some amount of risk of failure, without success or failure being totally arbitrary. Your comment about combat suggests you've never played a game with a good streamlined combat system. This means you are probably not qualified to write a streamlined combat system... or at the very least, it strongly implies to me, a potential customer, that you have no idea that streamlined combat systems exist, and that does not inspire confidence that your game's streamlined combat system is going to be any good. This paragraph gives an extremely poor impression. It's condescending, it's ignorant of the function and purpose of game rules, and it's giving the impression you haven't done your homework before trying to write publish a product worth buying. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:49 |
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There is a weird tone when reading it. Want to be an elven ranger over a robot with a rocket launcher? How mundane... or is it? EDIT: Perfect example is that I assume you have website? Why not throw links up there! After the Privateers setting you can have a link up that says "Want to know more about playing the privateers? Click here!" and wholesale remove the Putting It All Together section. LordAba fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:52 |
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quote:If a game lets character choices affect its mechanics, then that means there is only one objectively best set of options to choose for each role in the game. To follow that logic from a different angle, other games actively punish players for customizing their characters. Either a player searches for a guide on the optimal choices for their role, or the character permanently weaker than it should be. This simply isn't true, for modern well-written RPGs. Yeesh. e. Why are you doing combat on a grid, with movement and hit points, for a rules-lite system? Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 02:57 |
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Cloak Gaming posted:there really are plenty of people out there that have no idea what a TTRPG is motherfucker, those people aren't gonna be browsing the tabletop games section of Kickstarter!
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:01 |
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Leperflesh posted:This simply isn't true, for modern well-written RPGs. Yeesh. This is basically why I immediately close the tab when any RPG kickstarter opens with "we're not like those OTHER rpgs...". It's 2015, there's an absolute wealth of rpgs in every shape and form for a wide variety of audiences with disparate preferences. Creators who think they're some kind of revolutionaries by virtue of being different from D&D 3.0 are just showing how little they know about the industry they're trying to break into, and who the target audience is.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:04 |
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InShaneee posted:When trying to introduce a new audience to roleplaying, the best strategy is to first tell the existing audience to shove off.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:05 |
Leperflesh posted:e. Why are you doing combat on a grid, with movement and hit points, for a rules-lite system?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:13 |
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I hate to say it, but the art isn't very inspired either. For wanting to buck the traditional fantasy trends the pocket book and Budding Heroes font style looks very... generic inoffensive fantasy themed. It might be a work in progress, but it doesn't help at all. The Coldhammer Privateers dudes look cool, but it doesn't look like that style/quality is pulled across the whole range of products.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:14 |
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A lot of it just screams a lack of awareness of where the modern TRPG scene is at. There are a ton of games for cool kids, casual dudes, jus' folks, whatever. They may not have the mass exposure of D&D or Pathfinder or Dark Heresy, but the "light RPG suitable for new players" is a long-solved issue. Getting mass exposure for one is another story. Also "budding heroes" feels like a name I'd choose for a kids-oriented RPG, it's got a very "soft" feel to it along with the visual design. Every visual seems like the kind of colorful, pastel-ish design I'd expect for a kid's game, but nothing in the text seems to lean towards that.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:15 |
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I'm divided between the Infinity RPG Kickstarter, which seems like it could be a fun and interesting world, even though it's unproven and has sexist art, and the Dleta Green Kickstarter, which is guaranteed to be good, but I already have the original and I wouldn't want to pledge unless I could get the full core at 120k. Any thoughts on where I should go? Meh, I went for both. Having read the Mutant Chronicles book to get a look at the system, I don't think it's too terrible aside from hit locations. I'm a huge fan of the Infinity wargame too, so it wasn't that hard of a sell for me. I may end up paring down my pledge just a little though. I've been waiting for the new Delta Green for a while, and so immediately hit that one up. I'm not too crazy about the "full book" stretch goal thing, but I'm pretty optimistic about it getting there. If not, I may just drop down to the Trail of Cthulhu add-on. Crudeboy fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Oct 1, 2015 |
# ? Oct 1, 2015 03:52 |
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Cloak Gaming posted:Welp, time to bring some self-promoting to this thread. I've got my Kickstarter ready to go, so it's time to throw it to the wolves. Do you see anything worth changing before I hit the "submit" button? Love it? Hate it? Too drunk to reply? Whichever viewpoint you have is worth hearing. Pretty much all of the feedback has been spot-on, but if you don't listen to Leperflesh's well-articulated and very accurate comments you are a godsdamned fool.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 04:15 |
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Hey everyone, I'm helping Arc Dream promote the Delta Green Kickstarter, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. I can either answer them or get them answered by one of the writers. I also want to post a new PDF that breaks down the rewards for every pledge level: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7001919/Matrix.pdf
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 04:24 |
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clockworkjoe posted:Hey everyone, I'm helping Arc Dream promote the Delta Green Kickstarter, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. I can either answer them or get them answered by one of the writers. I also want to post a new PDF that breaks down the rewards for every pledge level: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7001919/Matrix.pdf There doesn't seem to be a difference between Rising Threats, Every Single PDF and Every Single New PDF?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 04:30 |
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Confusing pledge tiers aside, I mostly just don't understand why they keep answering questions with "if the book doesn't fund, it won't get printed". The project's 200% funded after less than two days, shouldn't that take care of that concern?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 04:38 |
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clockworkjoe posted:Hey everyone, I'm helping Arc Dream promote the Delta Green Kickstarter, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. I can either answer them or get them answered by one of the writers. I also want to post a new PDF that breaks down the rewards for every pledge level: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7001919/Matrix.pdf I emailed Dennis about this before, but if Arc Dream were to make a NEMESIS conversion for Delta Green, I would be all over that, especially if I could get a nice softcover supplement with the ORE rules. gradenko_2000 posted:There doesn't seem to be a difference between Rising Threats, Every Single PDF and Every Single New PDF? "Every Single PDF" was closed and "Every Single New PDF" was opened as a replacement because some people thought it would also get them the first edition PDFs, I guess??? Dunno about Rising Threats, though.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 04:49 |
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clockworkjoe posted:Hey everyone, I'm helping Arc Dream promote the Delta Green Kickstarter, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. I can either answer them or get them answered by one of the writers. I also want to post a new PDF that breaks down the rewards for every pledge level: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7001919/Matrix.pdf Any chance of the Delta Green kickstarter including scantily clad female miniatures I can use in my Warhammer 40k army?
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 05:22 |
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Helical Nightmares posted:This. This right here; if you have this feeling you've been in a bad Mythos game. Cthulhu shouldn't be run as Monster of the Week. A sense of mystery and creeping sense of "well poo poo" is central to a Cthulhu game. This is, I suspect, a large part of why they're pointing at Lover in the Ice as their go to example of play. It's super creepy and wholly original.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 06:32 |
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Re: people not being aware of what RPGs are, anyone these days who is even vaguely nerdy, and increasingly as nerd culture becomes regular pop culture that's "a whole lot of people," knows what the heck an RPG is. Anyone who reads Penny Arcade, anyone who's been linked to some episodes of Wil Wheaton's tabletop, anyone exposed to one of countless parodies of people playing D&D in cartoons or comics or movies or TV shows, has at the very least a passable basic understanding of a tabletop RPG is like (some people sitting around a table pretending to be characters and fighting monsters, there are books and funny dice involved). If I was making an RPG Kickstarter I would always start with the assumption that whatever audience I happen to snag in passing is going to be familiar with "what is an RPG?" and just cut straight to the chase accordingly.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 06:40 |
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gradenko_2000 posted:There doesn't seem to be a difference between Rising Threats, Every Single PDF and Every Single New PDF? "Rising Threats" is the current version of that reward, adjusted to make it more of a steal. Anyone who pledged $100 for Every PDF tier would be smart to instead pledge $80 for the Rising Threats tier. They can use that extra $20 to get other rewards if they want. InShaneee posted:Confusing pledge tiers aside, I mostly just don't understand why they keep answering questions with "if the book doesn't fund, it won't get printed". The project's 200% funded after less than two days, shouldn't that take care of that concern? The thing that makes us hedge the most is the fact that we're trying to do an expanded version of the Agent's Handbook called the Case Officer's Guide. That will have everything from the Agent's Handbook and about that much material again in GM chapters about the setting, monsters, spells, enemies, allies, running campaigns, and customizing things. THAT isn't funded yet. It's a stretch goal at $120K. But everybody wants it. So we have to hedge a lot to try to make sure people understand that if the project ends before $120K, they won't get the CO Book out of this Kickstarter. inklesspen posted:I emailed Dennis about this before, but if Arc Dream were to make a NEMESIS conversion for Delta Green, I would be all over that, especially if I could get a nice softcover supplement with the ORE rules. We're planning a conversion kit for Nemesis, CoC6, and CoC7.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 06:49 |
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clockworkjoe posted:"Rising Threats" is the current version of that reward, adjusted to make it more of a steal. Anyone who pledged $100 for Every PDF tier would be smart to instead pledge $80 for the Rising Threats tier. They can use that extra $20 to get other rewards if they want. That's not been made all that clear, which is one of my concerns about the KS in general. There are 50-some people in the 'every new pdf' category who should switch over but it's not been made clear to them that they should (and doing so will probably see a dip in funding when they do, as a lot of people just go for tiers and not add-ons). I've known there was likely to be an Agents/Case Officer's split before the KS but clearly most people didn't, and the difference wasn't well explained, given how many thought the Agent's Hanbook 'turns into' the CO book and so on. I've still thrown a silly amount of money at it, so will see what there is to put that towards when it's finished.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 08:47 |
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clockworkjoe posted:"Rising Threats" is the current version of that reward, adjusted to make it more of a steal. Anyone who pledged $100 for Every PDF tier would be smart to instead pledge $80 for the Rising Threats tier. They can use that extra $20 to get other rewards if they want. I'm still unclear on this. I want the new content, and I want it in a digital format. Am I actually missing anything by getting the $80 tier versus the $100 PDF tier? Not to be a jackass, but they really are making a hash of their reward tiers. I want to give them money, and it's surprisingly difficult to do so. I appreciate you trying to do damage control, though.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 14:08 |
Innovation: Deluxe is up. $48 for Innovation + 4 expansions, two of which are new. I'm never sure how I feel about Innovation, honestly, except that I think it has some of the worst terminology in a game. But I know some people like it, so this seems pretty much custom made for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's much a reason to Kickstart this vs. waiting for retail, especially since it's already met its goal.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 16:39 |
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GrandpaPants posted:Innovation: Deluxe is up. $48 for Innovation + 4 expansions, two of which are new. I'm never sure how I feel about Innovation, honestly, except that I think it has some of the worst terminology in a game. But I know some people like it, so this seems pretty much custom made for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's much a reason to Kickstart this vs. waiting for retail, especially since it's already met its goal. If enough people back it the box will be PURESTRAIN GOLD. I might be exaggerating. The stretch goals are cosmetic, and I have no idea if they're any kind of exclusive. It only ships to North America sadly.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 17:32 |
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# ? Jun 6, 2024 05:56 |
Zanzibar Ham posted:The stretch goals are cosmetic, and I have no idea if they're any kind of exclusive. I'm okay with cosmetic stretch goals, but they're not at all exciting. But I'm glad that it met its goal, regardless of whether I'm buying it or not. And the reason it's NA only is because Asmadi only has the rights in NA, someone else covers the rest of the world.
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# ? Oct 1, 2015 17:54 |