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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Axes & Anvils Is a Critical Fumble - Time to Move on From This Train Wreck

On June 27th, Mike Nystul promised a Table of Contents for Axes & Anvils "in the next day or two". It's been nearly 3 weeks. This has been Mike's MO since the beginning: make promises and never follow up.

I think it's time to put Axes & Anvils out to the curb with the trash that is now Mike's reputation. Unless Mike comes forward with an actual product (or an entertaining story as to why he's still fucking up) this is probably the last I'm posting on this fiasco (someone should turn this int o a Fiasco scenario perhaps ;)

There is a community effort on G+ to put together a "Dwarf Themed" RPG to replace this fiasco. I need to check up on it's progress.

edit: I added this as a comment on G+ in answer to an inquiry of Mikes Kickstarter history:


3 Kickstaers were used to fund Castle Nystul LLC and a Dwarf Con, not the products that were being funded.

Money was running out, so Nystul tried an Indiegogo campaign for more money

Then he had to admit the money was gone and had nothing completed (even the product he claimed was already written before it was Kickstarted)

One product was taken over by a trhird party along with the liability of delivering the print items promised (Infinite Dungeons)

Another (Cairn) was sold to a third party. They will send printed versions of the kickstarter if the supporters now pay for shipping

A&A Mike kept / couldn't unload / can't finish / never wrote anything / your guess is as good as mine.


8 comments:

  1. According to the KickStarter page -- http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2063410154/axes-and-anvils -- he was trying to raise $1,000.00 and raised a whopping $35,038.00! :O

    Perhaps he decided to "retire?" Or maybe, go on vacation?

    No telling.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was rereading all this drama last night.

    It is things like this that really give RPGs and Kickstarters a bad name.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm happy to say that the vast majority of the Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns I've funded have either arrived, shipped, or have been making regular enough progress reports that I'm gonna stick with crowd funding. That said, there's one I funded that is 8 months over due, another that at least 1 in 8 backers have been told multiple times over multiple months "I'll reship it this week", and two Nystul ones (A&A and Cairn) that, if they ever arrive, may end up being used to get the fireplace going - the bad taste those two campaigns have left in my mouth has overwhelmed any interest I originally had for the games.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you have a link to that G+ community project? If not maybe I will start fooling around with ideas for a Dwarven setting on my own, (I'm not sure why they'd need a new game system to deal with dwarves and I'm pretty tired of all the crap new game systems sprouting up like maggots on a rotting corpse with no desire to add any more of the squirming little fellows to the party).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to know that there are others who are tired of "volume" over "substance." Producing something just to produce something is a drain on the community. Not just financially, but emotionally as well.

      Our shared community tends to put their "hearts and souls" into projects like this. They deserve better than mediocre product, just for the sake of producing something.

      Love your work, Jason.

      Delete
  5. Has anyone tried to go the route and request their money back via a charge back or just sue him for the sake of hurting him? This just tells everyone else out their that kick starter is a great way to steal money from this community and no one will do anything about it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ j. I did the charge back on two Kickstarters, and it works. I got my money back, and it was painless. You have to be prepared when you call, by that lay out the timeline and have a chain of communication ready showing you were contacting the person in good faith.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ...and what's that GooglePlus community name? The one about an all-dwarfs RPG.

    ReplyDelete

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