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Monday, October 13, 2014

Kickstarter - MorGalad Fantasy RPG (some sort of d6 pool system)

We all know some of the warning signs of a potentially bad Kickstarter. Hell, regular readers just saw the weekend drama of The Kickstarter that Shall Not be Named.

Here's another potential problem - The MorGalad Fantasy RPG Kickstarter.

What are the issues?

None backed, first created. Not a death knell on it's own, but always a worrisome sign. 

A $20k goal. This is really scary. If the Kickstarter that Shall Not be Named couldn't come anywhere near $8k while using Pathfinder & OSRIC as it's rule systems, how is a "rules light D6-based fantasy RPG inspired by old school RPGs" using a dice pool system going to drawn in those very same gamers? It's not.

The maps or okay, but the art is... well, here's the cover art:


Now, this might be the greatest RPG since Quantum (that's a joke, son), but lets sample more 
potential art:



I don't know were they got their numbers from, but some of these seem excessive. I pay $128 a month for a 5' x 10' storage room in NYC. $5,000 for warehousing costs? $6,000 for taxes? I don't see $3,500 worth of art here.

Is it a definitely a "bad" Kickstarter? No. Does it have a some significant potential problems? Yes

The goal is too high. The listed expenses are too high. There is little said about the actual RPG system being developed (it apparently isn't finalized - another not so good sign). And then there is this:
Funding will also provide a solid foundation for me to hire a team to stand strong and work hard on this project because I intend on releasing one edition and only one edition of this game.
First, I don't see that as part of the estimated budget. Secondly, that is some Nystulian "putting the cart before the horse" shit. Now is not the time to be hiring a team.

Rework the budget with real numbers, lower the goal, buy some stock art, unhire the team and finalize the system. Then we might have something.

5 comments:

  1. Uh....if their goal is $20K and they have $20K listed for expenses, how do they pay for the KS itself and shipping?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh... Rookie mistake. Plus it looks like they came up with estimates for everything and then multiplied them by ten.

      Delete
  2. For those who might be interested, the characters around the border of the cover read, across the top, "Morgalad Creators", down the left side and across the bottom, "Emili Amanda McNabb" (there is no final 'e' on "Emili" there), and down the right side, "John R Lauen". I note that the author gives his name as "John R.L. McNabb", so I presume that Emili Amanda is his wife, probably the lovely redhead in the photo.

    I hate seeing people who don't seem crazy right off do such a bad job of putting together a KS. Everything that they are doing smacks of passion without hubris. I just think that they need to sit down, think about what they can live with as a bare minimum, and go for that instead of overreaching like this. I think that part of the problem is that the major companies in the gaming "industry" have made such a habit of not disclosing how the market is actually doing that people get the wrong idea about it. That's one thing I like SJGames for, they publish an annual report of their finances for the public to see. It includes breakdowns by their game lines (no surprises there: Munchkin makes money hand over fist, relatively speaking, Ogre did well because of the Kickstarter, and GURPS is a labor of love at this point).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh that art was BAD.. that's not even mediocre..

    ReplyDelete
  4. So seeing a post that there were #126 of all RPG Kickstarters I checked it out. Sitting at $188, it isn't going to come close to making it. I read the example of play, badly written.

    I could forgive that though, but the costs? If you are paying $8,500 for production and another $11k for storage and "taxes"? You're doing something wrong.

    They seem nice, but not savvy.

    ReplyDelete

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