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Good to hear that he is making some attempt to fulfill his promise to refund people, which I felt was likely (he doesn't read to me like someone who deliberately set out to defraud, only someone who should never, ever be trusted to run a boardgame company) but couldn't be sure of. I was alerted today that Dan Verssen (of Dan Verssen Games), who is responsible for a number of reputedly excellent solitaire boardgames like Phantom Leader, Hornet Leader, Rise of the Zombies, etc, is currently kickstarting a new game called Cards of Cthulhu: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dvgames/the-cards-of-cthulhu Some pretty awesome art and a few interesting game ideas for $30, which will come with a poster, and as of the $20k stretch goal, an artbook.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:33
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Germ posted:Ahh ... hadn't realized that it wasn't an all-inclusive book. I just received my hardcover copy of Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, which is POD through them. Pretty nice, sturdy cover, seems like a robust binding. Paper's nothing special, maybe a little lightweight. No idea how it'll hold up since I just got it yesterday.
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Sep 8, 2013 22:41
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berzerkmonkey posted:Yeah, but those are video games that use a toy that carries what is essentially an importable character file that allows you to transport your character to other games. Skylanders is nothing like Golem Arcana. Yeah. The appeal of those games is that you buy a toy that you can play with, and then you can also take it and put it in a videogame and play with it that way. I don't particularly want that myself, but since it's aimed at kids and kids -do- (apparently) want that, it's going gangbusters. It's really not the same scenario as Golem Arcana, which makes me go "okay, so you're digitizing the rules implementation...now you just need to digitize the rest of it and I might be interested".
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Sep 12, 2013 03:46
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I'll just note that almost every RPG Kickstarter I have backed with very few exceptions (and those exceptions coming with pedigree I -know- I dig) I've done at an average price of $10 per PDF, with a few $15s and a few even cheaper. Past that it's just not impulse purchase territory and if I don't know your work I look at the likelihood of your product getting into play (I have dozens if not hundreds of RPGs and get through maybe one a year max if I'm lucky, so, near zero) and skip it.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:04
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Got my Torchbearer book. It looks exactly like a long-lost 1st edition AD&D sourcebook. Except, you know, with cool indie narrativist rules.
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Oct 1, 2013 04:54
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Gasperkun posted:Dragon Kings, the spiritual successor to Dark Sun, looks like it has leveled out and is making its slow push toward funding in about $6000. I would like to see this one fund to the 13th Age stretch goal, but I wouldn't have hurt feelings if it reached Fate Core also. I think the initial day limited its momentum to some degree, due to the way the pledge tiers were structured. Even with amendments made, it hasn't picked up a big enough boost, by the looks of it. I figured it was a shoe-in, considering how much love I hear expressed for Dark Sun, and this made by its (co?-)creator. Dunno about other people, but I haven't backed because 1) It may be by one of the main people behind Dark Sun and it may be trading on Dark Sun nostalgia, but it isn't Dark Sun, and my brief reconnaissance couldn't turn up much in the way of actual concrete detail about what it -is-. 2) The PDFs are too expensive for a pig in a poke. 3) It uses a ruleset I don't particularly care for and promises conversion for ones I might be willing to use only as stretch goals that haven't happened yet.
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Oct 11, 2013 02:18
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I believe there are some fans of the Way of the Tiger gamebook series around here - looks like there is a project underway to a) reprint the original series in new, improved collector's hardcovers, and b) create a prequel book #0 and finally finish the series with the promised-but-never-released book #7. The former will be written by the house writer at the company running the project, the latter will be co-written by said writer as well as the two original authors of the series. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/the-way-of-the-tiger-gamebooks-new-collectors-edit I think their prices are...ambitious and I wasn't that impressed with the series when they were Let's Played a while back, but for those needing some closure...
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Oct 12, 2013 01:49
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Bieeardo posted:There was another game-book revival Kickstarter a while back, a pair of (highly detailed) booklets for an aerial dogfighting scenario. That one was ludicrously expensive to get into too... but there were only two of those books (I think) instead of eight of these. Ace of Aces. There were actually several different planes originally published but the Kickstarter initially only pitched the initial two and I think was going to add more if they hit stretch goals, which didn't happen. I chipped a few bucks their way out of nostalgia for the game but, yeah, those were not affordable books. With Way of the Tiger I don't even have the nostalgia, personally.
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Oct 13, 2013 01:07
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Jedit posted:$100 for a game with 33+ sculpted minis isn't unusual. Cthulhu Wars was $150 RRP. ...which is why I wish they'd ditch the minis most of the time. Not that the Journey minis don't look gorgeous.
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Oct 18, 2013 05:05
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Jedit posted:Looking at it again, I really think they've done themselves no favours with their pledge levels. The boxed game costs $100 and gives Upgrades, but all the levels over $180 require you to pay $80-100 more to get Upgrades. That's actually not true - as far as I can tell almost every level that includes the boxed game includes the upgrades, with only the 2k and 3k levels having to pay to upgrade (even though they specify they include the Ultimate Journey level which includes the upgrades, which I think is confusing. Also they're giving you frigging thousands of dollars and they gotta pay for the poo poo the base-level peons get? Ooookay.). There are some several hundred dollar levels that don't include the game, though.
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Oct 19, 2013 00:52
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Does anyone have experience with the guys doing Shadows and Brimstone? It seems like a pretty good setup even for a game. A little twist here and there for Deadlands too. They did Last Night on Earth, A Touch of Evil, Fortune and Glory, etc. Some people really love their games, but I would at the very least recommend trying one of their other games (probably a Touch of Evil, it seems closest to what they're doing with Shadows of Brimstone) to see if you're one of them. I am not.
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Nov 14, 2013 07:22
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John McClane posted:Ugh I'm so tempted to go for 180 on the Journey Kickstarter. Anyone else throw down on it? I did briefly because they were doing a time-limited promotional freebie but as I saw more of the proposed gameplay it was pretty clearly not for me. Things like all or nothing damage for demons (especially combined with either a penalized kill or another dice roll to maybe purify them or maybe put them right back on their feet), spending MP to turn, and an apparent lack of individual character special abilities were all significant turnoffs for me.
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Nov 15, 2013 03:17
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I'd probably be in on Shadows of Brimstone in a heartbeat if it were being done by like, Z-Man or maybe FFG (though, as much as I like many of their games, they certainly don't have a 100% hit rate) or something, but I just can't trust Flying Frog sight unseen. It's certainly the right genre and the right theme for me.
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Nov 17, 2013 08:38
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Mona Lisa Overdrive posted:Could you elaborate on this? I too am a sucker for the theme of Shadows of Brimstone but I've been waiting for some kind of indication that the rules won't be a complete letdown. I have never played a Flying Frog game before. What kind of problems have you had with them? If the rules are of the same quality as Arkham Horror, which is not asking too much I think, then it is a safe bet I can have fun with it. I love Arkham Horror. I do not feel that Flying Frog's output lives up to that standard, and I think the general consensus here is that that's not exactly a high standard. In particular, the closest point of comparison would be A Touch of Evil, which has a similar theme of moving around the board working against some sort of evil force (in this case classic horror monsters rather than Lovecraftian menaces). There's a couple of clever mechanics - there's a group of village elders who have secrets (assigned to them randomly each game) - sometimes that they're a capable ally with hidden powers, sometimes something irrelevant like infidelity, or that they're some form of traitor; also, big bads have their own individualized minion chart that's what spawns the monsters (or other effects). But there's also a lot of other stuff that's not great. You roll to move (with large parts of the board dead space), characters are only differentiated by fairly minor individual powers and slightly different stats (and only the combat stat seemed to be checked at all regularly), and instead of having encounters that reward you with loot out of separate decks (though there is a shop from which you can buy a few specific toys), you either have an encounter -or- you just get a piece of loot, with the encounters mostly being entirely bad for you. And the loot is mostly boring because it just gives you a stat bonus and that's it at least half the time. My other big complaint was that the game really felt like it was designed for the competitive rules, with the cooperative version a lukewarm afterthought. The cards don't even reflect the existence of a cooperative version in their text anywhere. It does sound like Shadows over Brimstone shouldn't have that particular issue, though, since it sounds to be entirely coop-focused. I also wasn't real fond of Last Night on Earth but I haven't played that in years so I can't recall my precise issues with it.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:16
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And is it actually a good enough game to warrant purchase in this day and age? (I strongly suspect it isn't, despite my nostalgia.)
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Nov 19, 2013 07:26
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There's also a Zombicide-esque all or nothing damage system which works fine in Zombicide because damage values in Zombicide are fixed, so you've either got a weapon that can take that kind of zombie out or you don't. But Journey has higher values to start with and you have to roll to see if you generate enough, which seems like a recipe for frustration, -especially- in combination with the karma system where you either get penalized for a straight kill or have to roll more dice and risk the demon getting right back up unhurt to get good karma.
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Nov 23, 2013 00:44
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Got my OGRE today. The FedEx Office I had them hold it at turned out to have its package storage mostly full of copies of OGRE, which blew my mind.
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Nov 23, 2013 03:47
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Quite aside from the legality (which strikes me as extremely questionable), I'm not wild about the design of the project in general. Only the maximum tier gets stretch goals, supposedly (and that's the only thing you're paying for at that level, so the value of that tier will vary dramatically depending on how many goals they hit), but then later they list at least one goal as being for anyone getting the core set, and they say all of these things will be free addons. What? 
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Nov 26, 2013 01:39
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NTRabbit posted:There's currently a suggestion that their terms are entirely not reasonable because they had hoped to make a game in the same manner themselves in the future, so they're just using the threat of a lawsuit to get KS to shut it down because they have no actual right to do so the legal way. ...their post about it specifically says that they were working on a boardgame themselves and that part of licensing the trademark would be compensating them for the opportunity cost it represents to them. I'm not sure how much more concrete you can get. And they have a legal right to dispute the project, since they own the trademark being used and did not grant permission for its use. (Nor, apparently, is there evidence that Hasbro signed off on it either, which they would probably need to do anyway and which Moon Design is insisting on as part of any licensing agreement.) malkav11 fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Dec 7, 2013 |
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Dec 6, 2013 03:00
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Swagger Dagger posted:I voted for the time raptors, but I don't really know what I'm voting for since they're both in the book. I just read about how time-dino PCs work. It's basically Pelgrane slavishly copying their successful Hillfolk Kickstarter format, which had a completely meaningless funding battle between warring clans. Robin Laws seems to think it meaningfully contributed to the success of that project, and even though I couldn't care less myself, who am I to gainsay the man that ran it?
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Jan 22, 2014 01:57
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InShaneee posted:I think this is my new favorite example of how not to run a kickstarter: While this situation is by no means ideal, I think it's worth pointing out that the actual content is done and the PDFs were delivered to backers and later made available to the wider public. Doesn't let them off the hook for the physical print run, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be. And personally digital was all I needed.
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Jan 24, 2014 05:40
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Spincut posted:Yeah, that's...really weird. Don't you usually get a discount through Kickstarter? Not in my experience. You might pay MSRP, or rarely you might pay a few percent less than MSRP, but you're never saving money compared to what the game will cost at online retailers. And probably not saving money at all.
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Jan 28, 2014 02:19
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Spincut posted:Oh okay. I guess I never really have pledged to a board game KS. Most of my pledges have been to RPGs. I've pledged to all sorts of stuff and I don't think any of it's ever really turned out to be much of a savings other than the handful of RPG Kickstarters that piled on free stretch addons. And although that still costs them money and time, it's usually only free in digital form, which is effectively zero cost for distribution, whereas boardgames obviously involve printing and shipping costs by their very nature.
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Jan 28, 2014 02:46
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outlier posted:Had my eye on Fire Team Zero for a while. It's a coop WWII badaases versus aliens / monsters game, a bit like Level 7 Omega Protocol. Looked interesting but the kickstarter launched today ... Not sure where you're getting the idea that the stretch goals start past 450k - they actually start at 80k. Unfortunately, one of the things they're doing is gating stretch rewards by what tier you're going in at, so 460k is where people with the $130 level start getting left off the present list, and then a while after that you need to have dropped $330 or so to get the remaining rewards. I'd almost maybe be willing to put in $130 on strength of concept with enough rewards, but over $300 on a completely untried proposition? gently caress that noise.
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Feb 1, 2014 02:49
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I was hoping "rejigged" meant "rethought having three separate tiers of stretch reward at increasingly astronomical cost" but apparently it just means they mixed them up so that the higher tier stretch rewards are mixed in throughout. Which definitely is better than making people backing at those tiers wait until 9x funding before they start to see any return on that investment, but is still a bad, bad value.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:19
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Sefer posted:Since the tiers aren't limited, it could have been good if hitting the point where the next level of stretch goals started moved a bunch of people to the next level, but it could likewise have been bad if people start dropping out of the high tiers near the end so that stretch goals become relocked and more people drop down. I'm pretty sure something like that happened to Damage Report, which also had higher levels that originally weren't any different than lower levels until stretch goals were unlocked. They eventually ended up changing that- something along the lines of "if this reward isn't unlocked, you get this instead, and if this one isn't unlocked you still get it, just later than you get it if the goal is met." For me, having multiple tiers of stretch reward at all is hugely offputting, especially if I can't justify backing at the levels that get all the stuff (which I certainly can't here. Putting down over $300 on an untested boardgame from a brand new company? Even if I had the cash to spare, that'd be nuts.). A big part of the reason to back boardgame kickstarters is to get the Kickstarter bonuses - you're not generally saving money.
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Feb 2, 2014 07:43
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This is Indiegogo, and it -is- the flexible funding option where they keep your money either way, so fair warning, but Swedish gaming magazine Fenix is crowdfunding a three volume Best Of collection in English that's going to include strictly content that is either an original tabletop game of some kind (board, card, roleplaying) or content that's relevant to games that are available in English. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/best-of-fenix/x/449613 It's most notable because noted game designer and writer Kenneth Hite has been contributing to Fenix for a while now and several of his pieces are included. $20 for one volume in PDF, $50 for all three. There are also print levels that are more expensive and require additional shipping if going outside of Sweden, so I personally skipped those.
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Feb 11, 2014 06:44
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Evil Mastermind posted:Does Tabletop not play games correctly? I don't watch it because it'll just make me want to buy board games I'll never play because my friends aren't into board games. By most accounts, no, they don't. Personally I don't watch them because they mostly focus on the sort of basic, casual-friendly boardgames that bore me to tears. Which is fine. Their mission statement is to get people into boardgaming and that mission was accomplished for me 15+ years ago, so I'm not exactly their target audience.
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Feb 17, 2014 18:24
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Up Front! has been kind of a fiasco externally but could conceivably still deliver. I went in for the minimum for the giant pile of factions and I'm still not sure it'll even be my kind of game so I'm not real stressed about it either way.
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Feb 28, 2014 02:35
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tremulus and TBZ have definitely delivered the core product (though tremulus was not ultimately as cool as the pitch) but I don't consider either of them to be complete yet since they still have stretch goals outstanding. In particular, tremulus had three additional full playsets as stretch goals, none of which has yet materialized. And the existing playset is easily one of the most compelling elements of the tremulus package, so another three, if they live up to that, would enormously increase my satisfaction with that particular pledge. (There were also three expansions for the default playset of Ebon Eaves, two of which have appeared.) I haven't seen any word about progress on those on the Kickstarter page but possibly the official forums are being updated more regularly. In any case, new tremulus content does materialize every so often so I assume it's not abandoned. TBZ's been much more communicative and it sounds like the stretch goals are becoming more of a thing than originally pitched, so that's okay. Still want them, though! I'm not going to do a full breakdown of mine because I have something well over 140 projects backed and while many of those are for videogames or other unrelated genres I've also been heavy into RPGs and boardgames. And frankly, it's the same old story and mostly the same stuff other people have mentioned - almost everything has either arrived and been lovely or is delayed, perhaps dramatically, but still appears to be on track, with only a few sour notes like The Doom that Came to Atlantic City (which I may yet receive even so!). Personally I really don't care how long stuff takes as long as communication is strong and everything arrives in the end.
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Mar 1, 2014 06:05
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RE: Arcadia - Eric Lang, the guy behind Chaos in the Old World and several of Final Fantasy's original LCGs (that is to say, not Netrunner) is involved in at least some capacity. That said, he's one of four listed designers and the other three appear to be complete newbies, so who knows how much that matters.
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Mar 4, 2014 01:27
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Ettin posted:So hey, KS thread: Getting multiple entire product lines in PDF - the current Mutant Chronicles kickstarter has me in for 40 pounds for a ridiculous number of PDF books plus another 40 for the entire fruits of their previous Achtung Cthulhu kickstarter. Otherwise? Not much. I don't get to play more than one or two RPGs at a time and they take months and months, so $100+ is not a sane amount of money to spend on anything less than big, big bundles of product. And frankly, I'm still not convinced that Mutant Chronicles represents -great- value (I'm getting a whole lot more for my money in Bundles of Holding and similar), but I do know for a fact it represents a significant discount over their non-Kickstarter pricing so it'll do.
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Mar 5, 2014 14:53
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NTRabbit posted:There's no amount of PDFs that would convince me to drop $100 without a hardcover book and maybe a softcover with additional material forming the core of the offer. In this particular case there are pricier packages (around 60 pounds) that include a hardcover core book and a print player's guide (which I think is softcover) for the game in question. But to me, print books are dead weight that add a great deal of printing and shipping expense as well as storage issues. A nice print book is a lovely thing to have and all, but I'm only going there for stuff I expect to be using heavily (with a few possible exceptions for people I respect greatly, like Greg Stolze and Luke Crane). I'm picking up Mutant Chronicles and Achtung Cthulhu because they look like professional productions with some cool ideas, not because I have any solid expectation of getting them to table, much less playing them enough to justify print copies.
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Mar 6, 2014 00:41
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NTRabbit posted:I certainly appreciate this, but if I was skipping a hard copy entirely $15 would be my starting point for the main book in pdf format, and there'd need to be a hell of a lot of additional content and/or a good slice of creative invitation to make $100 worthwhile. Yeah, $15 is about my ceiling for a PDF and my expectations are pretty high for that. They're asking 20 ($30-ish) pounds for the core book + player guide in PDF and I wouldn't pay that. But the 40 pound tier ($60-ish) in this particular KS throws in all the unlocked books - another 8 sourcebooks so far and potentially up to 15 depending on how crazy the last few days turn out. (I'm guessing probably 10-11ish but who knows). And the Achtung Cthulhu addon is the core plus player guide plus another 9 books for the same 40 pounds. So that's a lot of stuff. And I'm a sucker for bundling. malkav11 fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 05:02
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I've been pickier than some and unlikely to go past "get game and maybe addons" tiers in any boardgame-related KS project, so I may not fit the profile they're talking about, but my boardgame Kickstarters that have arrived to date have all been at least solid and in many cases really enjoyable, including Zombicide. I certainly don't buy them for the minis and frankly, they tend to be a turnoff for me because they guarantee jacked prices and lots of paid addons. I only got Zombicide because of positive feedback from the initial release, and I ignored all their crazy-expensive addon minis, and the way they've started piling on expensive addons to Arcadia Quest (plus their failure to produce much of a hook beyond "campaign with achievements" and the relative simplicity of the mechanics they've discussed) was a big part of my decision to abandon that particular pledge. I would much rather have less fancy components (though I still want them to be sturdy) and a lower box price. Good art is a big plus, though. It was almost enough to get me into that Journey to the West coop game.
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Mar 8, 2014 03:12
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There seem to be a whole lot of people in this thread who seem to be missing that this is a fantasy game. Whatever else he may be doing with this RPG, he is not saying anything about actual human history. "There is no way to throw a spear so it goes through mail as though it weren't there." Well, sure. There's also no way to raise the dead, summon demons, throw fireballs, etc.
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Mar 16, 2014 03:56
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Rulebook Heavily posted:Except for all the parts where he says he wants it to be like actual human history, you mean. Nobody's mentioned anything like that so far, and he certainly says nothing like that in the Kickstarter page - I'm not really interested enough to sit down and read the whole playtest document just now. ""The setting is equivalent to 10th or 11th century Europe – it's not medieval, it's not feudal, and it's not chivalric. I'd say "Dark Ages" except historians don't say that anymore … screw it, the term applies. Dark Ages fantasy." doesn't mean "the setting -is- 10th or 11th century Europe" or that he "wants it to be like actual human history". It's fine and well to call him on his decision to include gratuitous torture and rape in his setting. I'm not too sanguine about that either. But it's pretty ridiculous to take clearly deliberately fictionalized elements of his setting and assume they reflect his understanding of how the real world operated.
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Mar 16, 2014 07:17
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jmzero posted:Sorry, but how else are we going to read "The setting is equivalent to 10th or 11th century Europe"? The technology, culture, and civilization he describes is nothing like 10th century Europe. What else would he be trying to make equivalent? (I mean, obviously magic in Europe at the time was much different, focused on hard-to-find reagents and per-cast memorization). I'd assume he was trying to distinguish it from all the fantasy based very very loosely on medieval or renaissance era Europe, myself. I mean, there's a lot of poo poo in, say, D&D that's nothing like real history of any era whatsoever, but clearly someone's idea of medieval Europe was part of the mix somewhere. As far as I could tell from his pitch, he's talking about a fictional world of that sort, filled with stuff he thinks makes a compelling, "consequential" and brutal setting where PCs are hard-bitten badasses using dangerous magic. Not making claims that this was how the Dark Ages were in Europe, not suggesting that this is how weapons and armor actually operate, etc. That leads to the sort of thing that's been quoted is the damning part, not how far off a fictional setting may be from real history.
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Mar 16, 2014 07:53
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Rulebook Heavily posted:
For gently caress's sake, that one sentence you guys keep trotting out does not mean what you're deciding it means. Unless you have some example of him actually saying his setting is supposed to be historically accurate and/or represents actual real world Dark Ages life rather than how things operate in his setting, which I have to think you would have brought up by now if one existed, I continue to think you're being ridiculous. But there's no use my repeating myself any further based on your misinterpretation of one quote. For the record, I think a lot of what you guys have quoted is appalling on its own merits and I am definitely not defending the content. I just think y'all are going way out on a limb that's not up to supporting you when you've cited plenty of low hanging fruit.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:01
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The class chapters have some game fiction in them, as do the story quests. The writing's not really stellar, admittedly. They don't appear to have included a figure for the Trickster as far as I can tell. Perhaps you're referring to the metal figurine that was shipped outside the game box with the metal coins, hero tokens and card sleeves? If so, that's the Torchbearer follower.
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Mar 25, 2014 05:20
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