The timing of this "honor" is mistimed. Especially announcing it when the backers of Robotech Tactics are asking for refunds, not to pay again to ship stuff they ALREADY paid shipping on.
Had this been last year or even next, I doubt there would have been push back. Timing is a huge factor IMHO.
I do realize the whole Robotech fiasco is beyond ridiculous, but the dude has run one of the more successful gaming companies in this niche industry for almost 40 years...it's not like he's had a history of fleecing anyone.
He has a history of disastrous project management, including a preorder (Mechanoid Space) that is twenty years late (not an exaggeration). A bad reputation and bankruptcy are, or should be, natural consequences of being a bad businessman.
In addition, with RTT he lied to his backers for at least the last few years (telling them work was progressing on Wave 2, when in fact no work was being done due to lack of money). Since the expiration of the Robotech license allowed him to "run out the clock" on fulfilling rewards for the project, the suspicious is very strong that he crossed the line from incompetent to fraudulent during the execution of RTT.
If nothing else, he is trying to get away with continuing to operate as usual while NOT fulfilling and NOT offering refunds, rather than taking his medicine and declaring bankruptcy, as an honorable businessman would after blowing $1.5 million on a failed project.
I'm not the one who flushed a million and a half bucks down the toilet, and lied to backers for at least three years (and that's being generous - my guess is Siembieda NEVER intended to produce wave 2 of RTT).
Yeah, he has a loooooooong history of taking money for things and not delivering on pre-orders for products that don't exist (and likely never will). The Robotech Tactics Kickstarter is just the latest example of this. I love the Palladium system (well, as it appears in the original Palladium RPG), but I don't buy direct from Palladium anymore because I don't want to support a company that I feel is largely built on lies.
Next up for my fantasy heartbreaker: The Mage!
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I'm really doing it! I'm plodding forward with my fantasy heartbreaker!
(Those sentences were as much about positive affirmation as they were about
exposi...
Bat in the Attic's new Kickstarter
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This will launch very soon - a fantasy sandbox by Bat in the Attic Games.
Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms - the Northern Marches
I'm in, no question.
Gawd Almighty!
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I had to share this piece by Becky Appleyard because it combines two things
I love. This is a spoiler of sorts for the Baldur's Gate 3 Find the
Nightsong q...
Witchcraft Wednesdays: The new Daggerheart Warlock
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So a bit of a treat. Commenter Mike Wevanne, replied to my post from
Friday about Daggerheart, to let me know there is an official Playtest
section, The...
On the Action Economy
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This is always a sticky wicket for games.
My highest priority in designing Sinless was making a robust frame that was
easily understandable. I wanted t...
Murder at the Mahalo
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By Josh YoderCrimson Adder CuriositiesWeird Heroes of Public Access It’s
time to hang ten, heroes—we have a mystery to solve. Tiki Tony was found
dead at t...
Mythic One-Shots
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How do you run a *Mythic Bastionland* one shot?
There’s some guidance on the “Starts and Scopes” page at the front of the
book, but it seems to be a recu...
The Labyrinths of the Ancients
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All my Greek-inspired stuff in a Ethyria compilation on Patreon up now (40
pages).
It wasn't planned but I needed it fo...
Easy Tracks in Blender
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There's an add-on for Blender called BagaPie, which adds a whole lot of
functionality in various arenas (scattering etc.). The one that is most
useful ...
[Fanzine Focus XXXIX] The Travellers’ Digest #6
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On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the
rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial
public...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VIII.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
Community Greyhawk: Citadel Cavitius
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Today we look at a new book by a name that should be familiar to readers
and viewers of my YouTube channel; Christopher Hamwell. Citadel Cavitius:
Expandin...
Dark Tower (1979)
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From the back cover:
*An Ancient Evil* has overtaken a once holy shrine. Thus, a sleepy mountain
hamlet becomes a focal point for mysterious disappear...
A Review of 'Memoirs of Hadrian'
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(My friend and I did a multi-hour podcast on this. You can listen to it
here.)
A slender and capacious book, like the shadow of a flame on sunlit marble.
...
Link: Taskerland on NSR
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This feels a bit like the old days, when we used to have a discourse about
the RPG world between our sites. Taskerland also has some things to say
about wh...
Progress With My Card Game
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On February 9, 2018 I was struck with inspiration for a card game idea that
I brought to Gary Con 10 and play tested away most of the rough edges. I
had th...
Pulp: Adventure Location: Trindade & Martim Vaz
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History is fractally interesting. Start examine any event, or following any
citation, and interesting facts emerge. But some places, for whatever
reason,...
grodog's Top 10 Favorite Greyhawk Adventures
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On tonight's *Gabbin #353* "The Top Published Greyhawk Adventures!" show,
Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges feature Erik Mona, Carlos Lising,
and J...
OSRIC the Third
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The wise sages at Mythmere Games are hard at work on the third version of
*OSRIC* (“Old School Reference and Index Compilation”). You can support
this proj...
Tripping the Death-Cult OSR...
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So last month (I don't remember when) I read a bog post (I don't remember
which, except that it wasn't previously familiar) explaining old-school D&D
in ...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Adventure Writing Session Turns Into a Hex Crawl
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Last Thursday I got on to do another Adventure Writing Session and Paul
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flowe...
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
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Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the
time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the
unfathoma...
Should you PAY your GM?
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Let's start with the conclusion: GM-for-pay is okay.
In other words: there is nothing wrong with paying someone to run a game
for you, or charging people f...
36 units sold on day one
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Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally
gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on
its fi...
Fight On! number 16 is out.
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The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via
drivethru or lulu.
I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...
The Hungering Dark
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Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you.
Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone.
The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
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As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
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some s$&...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
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Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
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Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
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Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
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of redu...
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon
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It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page
draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to
indulge m...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
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available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
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...
James's Celebration of Life
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bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
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Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
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Let's Talk About Pacing!
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The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
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was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
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Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
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A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
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promote...
New website!
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Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
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If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
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Mord Mar - Session 5
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
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Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
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New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
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Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...
Your blog is a great place for schadenfreude sometimes, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of this "honor" is mistimed. Especially announcing it when the backers of Robotech Tactics are asking for refunds, not to pay again to ship stuff they ALREADY paid shipping on.
DeleteHad this been last year or even next, I doubt there would have been push back. Timing is a huge factor IMHO.
They could at least spell his name right.
ReplyDeleteCorrect spelling is for closers.
ReplyDeleteI do realize the whole Robotech fiasco is beyond ridiculous, but the dude has run one of the more successful gaming companies in this niche industry for almost 40 years...it's not like he's had a history of fleecing anyone.
DeleteHe has a history of disastrous project management, including a preorder (Mechanoid Space) that is twenty years late (not an exaggeration). A bad reputation and bankruptcy are, or should be, natural consequences of being a bad businessman.
DeleteIn addition, with RTT he lied to his backers for at least the last few years (telling them work was progressing on Wave 2, when in fact no work was being done due to lack of money). Since the expiration of the Robotech license allowed him to "run out the clock" on fulfilling rewards for the project, the suspicious is very strong that he crossed the line from incompetent to fraudulent during the execution of RTT.
If nothing else, he is trying to get away with continuing to operate as usual while NOT fulfilling and NOT offering refunds, rather than taking his medicine and declaring bankruptcy, as an honorable businessman would after blowing $1.5 million on a failed project.
It's all true, the Shadow DOES know ;-)
DeleteYou guys have serious issues...
DeleteI'm not the one who flushed a million and a half bucks down the toilet, and lied to backers for at least three years (and that's being generous - my guess is Siembieda NEVER intended to produce wave 2 of RTT).
DeleteYeah, he has a loooooooong history of taking money for things and not delivering on pre-orders for products that don't exist (and likely never will). The Robotech Tactics Kickstarter is just the latest example of this. I love the Palladium system (well, as it appears in the original Palladium RPG), but I don't buy direct from Palladium anymore because I don't want to support a company that I feel is largely built on lies.
DeleteWhen I saw the headline I assumed Kevin must have PM'd a SJW lady and told her she looked nice. >:)
ReplyDeleteExcellent to see this. Hope he soon faces other consequences for his egregious behavior, such as lawsuits and bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteA panel discussion featuring Kevin, Kenny-boy and Gareth. I'm verklempt so discuss amongst yourselves. . .
ReplyDeleteHighly appropriate, as long as the topic is "Incompetents, Frauds, and Hucksters of the RPG World".
Delete