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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Updated 12/1 - Here's The "Where The F' Are They?" List of (Mostly) Overdue RPG Kickstarters I've Supported

The below list is of RPG Related Kickstarters that were estimated to ship (I am using the ship date for the physical item, not the PDF if there is one) December 2012 or earlier.  I was going to add Indiegogo projects to the list, but they are so few (and this list got so long) I'll summarize as follows: LotFP stuff that I supported over the summer has not shipped, but Indiegogo doesn't force an estimated shipping date . Barrowmaze II shipped on time!


Colors for Actual Ship Date are as follows:

Red: Hasn't shipped and is (or will be based on new estimates) significantly overdue. This includes projects that have been shipping in dribs and drabs for months. If all backers dont have what they pledged for, it's in red.

Orange: Late but shipped, or recently missed a shipping date and hasn't shipped

Green: Shipped on time. Holy Shit!

DungeonMorph Dice
Goal: $5,000     Total: $20,620     Funded: May 22, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2011     Actual Ship Date: December, 2011

Adventurer Conqueror King System
Goal: $4,000     Total: $11,648     Funded: August 6, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: November, 2011     Actual Ship Date: April, 2012

Far West
Goal: $5,000     Total: $49,324     Funded: August 25, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: December, 2011     Actual Ship Date: Not Shipped (and has missed interim ship dates)

Far West - last update 11/19 (over 2 weeks ago)- updates approximately monthly -  First the main / lead artist flaked out in the middle of the job (and claimed to have finished work he hadn't completed), then Gareth got sick, "Far West" as a title will now be cropping up in unrelated media, making marketing a pain I suspect - If this hits ONLY the one year late mark, I'll be impressed. Backer portraits were due about a week after the update - haven't seen it yet. Cubiclde 7 has gotten involved in the process, so the new guarantee of Dec 2012 for the PDF is hopeful, but I'm not sold on it. Note - this project will be AT LEAST one year late.

C&C Classic Monsters
Goal: $4,000     Total: $9,108     Funded: December 2, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: January, 2012     Actual Ship Date: May, 2012

Quantum Roleplaying Game
Goal: $13,000     Total: $47,747     Funded: December 30, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped

Quantum RPG - last update 11/30 - recent updates have been for the new setting book for the as yet unreleased RPG - I don't care how you spin it, but kicking off a new Kickstarter without releasing the final product of the first annoys me. Invest more into something I don't yet have? Boggles the mind. Even better, the second Kickstarter failed ($7,751 out of $30,000 raised - it failed on 10/18). Gee, think it failed because no one has the first Kickstarter in hand yet? beta is now over - time to actully set the rules in stone - To be honest, I'm no longer excited about this project. I suspect when it ships it's going straight to the bookshelf. Still no new estimated completion date

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
Goal: $6,000     Total: $13,216     Funded: January 15, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship date: July, 2012 and still ongoing completed I believe

Adventurer Conqueror King System Player's Companion
Goal:: $4,000     Total: $20,622     Funded: March 16, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped  

ACKS Player's Companion - last Update 11/25 - Updates approximately monthly. Updated ship date 1/13 -feedback from early release PDF has been applied and the contents revised - Updates average one per month at this stage. 

Story Forge
Goal: $12,000    Total: $21,736     Funded: March 20, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: July, 2012

Dwimmermount
Goal: $10,000     Total: $48,756     Funded: April 14, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (New Estimate 4/26/13 2013)

Dwimmermount - Last Update 11/30 - Updates Weekly. Absolutely the best thing Travis (and James) have done is give weekly updates. In the Way Way Back, where updates were few and rumors were many, folks were getting might uppity, and with good reason. There was certainly a loss of some goodwill during the Way Way Back Times, and Travis is putting the effort in now, but things would have been so much simpler if updates had been weekly from the start, especially with the wide margin the ship date is being missed by.  BTW, the Progress Graph is annoying and tells me little except to remind me of how late this project already is. Strangely enough, this seems more late that Far West even though it isnt - I suspect that is due to all of the initial hype

King For a Day
Goal: $800     Total: $4,844     Funded: May 1, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (new estimate - December 2012) 

King For a Day - Last update 11/25 - Updates Approximately twice a month. I'm still somewhat doubtful of the December 12 ship date, but I'm willing to be surprised 

Artisan Dice
Goal: $300     Total: $91,542     Funded: April 7, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship date: May, 2012 and still ongoing completed now I do believe - this suffered from overwhelming response. If you are going to be late, let it be because you have too many customers ;)

Adventures Dark & Deep
Goal: $2,500     Total: $7,459     Funded: April 15, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Shipped September, 2012 - I was only in at the PDF level, but congrats for hitting the ship date ;)

Myth & Magic Player's Guide
Goal: $5,000     Total: $24,076     Funded: May 7, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped

Myth & Magic Player's Guide - Last update on 9/29 was in relation to it's sister project. PDF released to the wild, no hard copies yet. Last update related to this project was 9/21, about 6 weeks ago. Not the way to remain in contact with your customers. TWO MONTHS NO UPDATES!


Appendix N
Goal: $1,000     Total: $18,893     Funded: July2, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (New Estimate Late September  November December ? 2012)

Appendix N - Last Update 11/29 - Updates about once a week - Brave Halfling is like your cousin who is always late to appointments - whether it's a Kickstarter or a pre-order, the quality has so far been excellent, the timeliness has been poor. PDF versions of the releases look to be on time or close to it going forward - physical products is going to be a wait n see in my opinion.

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon
Goal: $2,000     Total: $16,017     Funded: June 3, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012 (New Estimate October November  2012? for PDF)
Nystul's Infinite Dungeon - no longer updates - Last update 11/6 - Estimate for physical delivery is November 2012. greatly expanded offering from initial description.

Dwarven Adventurers Boxed Set
Goal: $1,250     Total: $136,487     Funded: July 25, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012 (New Estimate November 2012)

Dwarven Adventurers - last update 11/28 - updates weekly - blew away it's goal and added so many miniatures to the set that missing the estimated ship goal was a given before the funding even completed. If you are going to ship late, this is the reason. Currently in process of shipping 1,400 orders. I'll post mine when it arrives.


CHAMPIONS OF ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering

Goal: $4,600     Total: $8,077     Funded: June 16, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Shipped

Champions of Zed - last update 11/5 - once this project started running late, the updates stopped. Maybe there is info at the forums, but is it too much to ask for an update via Kickstarter every two weeks?  2 months between updates, but project is now in layout. No new estimates completion date. Someone remind me why I backed this project...

Tabletop Forge
Goal: $5,000     Total: $44,413     Funded: July 9, 2012
Estimated Release Date: August, 2012      Actual Release Date: Not Yet Released

Tabletop Forge - Updates approximately every 2 weeks - last update 10/29. Its software. Software doesn't play nice. Updated software looks to be a huge improvement. Still, no update for over a month. I like the guys involved in the project, but are regular updates too much to ask?

Race To Adventure
Goal: $40,000     Total: $52,117     Funded: July 24, 2012
Estimated Release Date: Dec, 2012     Actual Release Date: Early 2013 (New Estimate)

Race To Adventure - Last update 11/14 -Updates about once a month - Board Game - Blame the delays on European vacations. No, really -"wouldn't you know it, August turns out to be a time when a lot of folks in our field are off on a vacation. But we're not talking about GenCon here -- we're talking about Europe, where we're going to be having the game manufactured. This sort of nations-wide month long vacation is super, uh, foreign to USA-based folks like us, so we simply had no idea it was coming." BTW, why bother linking digital expansions for us to download when we don't even have the core product yet? It's almost like pouring salt in the wounds

Fantastiqa
Goal: $10,000     Total: $23,580     Funded: August 9, 2012
Estimated Release Date: Oct, 2012      Actual Ship Date: November 2012

I need to find time to play this with my family. Box weighs a ton and a half ;)

Axes & Anvils
Goal: $1,000     Total: $35,000     Funded: August 11, 2012
Estimated Release Date: November, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?

Axes & Anvils - Last update November 16, 2012. It just went past due date. My guess? Jan / Feb  2013

Swords & Wizardry
Goal: $10,000     Total: $78,000     Funded: September 4, 2012
Estimated Release Date: November, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?

Swords & Wizardry - Last update November 21, 2012. Updates 3 times a months or so. It just went past due date. My guess? Dec 12 / Jan 13


If I missed any I'll post them, then add here for the next update.

Swords & Wizardry: The Actual 1st Edition Roleplaying Rules (Due this month)

11 comments:

  1. >>Dwimmermount - Last Update 11/2

    Erm, I don't think that can be right. I've been getting updates by email regularly every week. The most recent one (#36) arrived today

    ReplyDelete
  2. maybe erik is blocked from those updates for some unknown reason...

    ReplyDelete
  3. no conspiracy here - I failed to update the last update part when I updated the new shipping date for DM.

    fixed

    if James moved his updates to G+ the I'd be shit outa luck ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've backed Blade Raiders. Not many updates, con crud, and 3 or 4 months late now. Mind adding that to your list?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, November was the initial, estimated delivery date for Blade Raiders. Yes, it's late, but not "3 or 4 months late."

      Delete
  5. I've backed Blade Raiders. Not many updates, con crud, and 3 or 4 months late now. Mind adding that to your list?

    ReplyDelete
  6. so it is written, so it shall be done ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Got my Starships & Spacemen 2nd edition yesterday!

    No complaints about that. But on the flip side, I had no idea how small it would be. I paid $40 for a 90 page book. D'oh. Wish I had gone with the PDF if I knew it was going to be so tiny.

    It doesn't even qualify as a toolkit, much less complete game. Framework? What's there is good, but you're going to have to do much of the work yourself, coming up with starships for the fleets (just some basic examples are given), maps of the galaxy (no elaborate generation charts).

    Stars Without Number did a much, much better job, though not quite as D&D compatible.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Late though it may be, I'm still very much looking forward to Axes and Anvils. One thing that this particular KS brings up is that I'd much prefer if they concentrated on the core offering, rather than spending time and energy on peripherals. Conventions, dice, mugs, are nice, but let's see the rules first and then worry about the swag.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rather glad I didn't back Starships & Spacemen, now. $40 for a bare bones, 90 page system book is rather... much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Joseph Bloch: when I mentioned that it would be nice to get the rules, on the site, I was informed that the project was to be viewed as a whole. That's how the inspiration works. I really just want to see the rules, though; the rest of it does not affect me at all.

    Plus, on that one, he said he had to build a company to take care of all the (presumably unexpected) needs--and they ran another "blitz" kickstarter of a furry RPG to pay the bills incurred by the A&A kickstarter.

    A&A is also the kickstarter that added a bestiary at the last minute, but only for people who bought the book as hard copy (and up) then recanted and said everyone would get it. Not that I am suspicious of any ill intent, but it's frustrating when the proposal is not thought through, when things change on you, and when the people running the project don't account for their needs.

    ReplyDelete

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