Kickstarting and Screaming

Games
5277

Oldest outstanding-but-maybe-will-someday-arrive: Myth: Journeyman. They sent out all the printed materials a while ago, but I am still waiting on minis. ETA was in 2015. Ulisses bought the IP and has promised to deliver the minis at some point when they fund new print runs of the game, they understandably can’t tackle tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of minis entirely on their own. Also unclear what changes they might make to the game. So far I think they just crowdfunded like, a lore book or something, which I didn’t care about.

Other than that:
Waiting on Blades in the Dark stretch goals - a lot of this has fulfilled by now, but there were so many.
System Shock remake - they’re definitely working on it! So maybe! But definitely troubled.
Southern Monsters - an adventure game thing, the creator’s been needing to do other paid work to make ends meet but the plus side is we’ve gotten some of that to tide us over.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime - this I think got caught up in the general clusterfuck of SOTM: Oblivaeon delivery, but that delivered a while ago so this is still well overdue even considering that.
Spellbound Kingdoms: Arcana - a second sourcebook for a very cool indie fantasy TTRPG. The creator surfaces very, very occasionally to promise he’s still alive and intends to finish it. Sounds like it’s been a rough couple of years. Who knows if he’ll get there.
The Good Life - that Swery thing. Regular updates that I don’t read because they are very long. I assume it’s still underway.
Delta Green: The Labyrinth - the actual sourcebook has delivered but there are stretch goals (like a Caleb Stokes campaign that’s actually what I’m excited about) still outstanding.
Reign: Second Edition - Greg Stolze’s awesome grand-scale fantasy RPG in gorgeous hardcover boxset. Sounds like content is mostly in place and we’re waiting on layout, design, printing, etc.
Nighthawks: that Richard Cobbett vampire RPG. Regular updates, I assume it’ll come out eventually.
Orun - an afro-SF TTRPG that’s, supposedly, 95% done as of October.
Nahual - Mexican-influenced PBTA urban fantasy, getting there but not done yet.
Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles - second round of Gremlin Project’s tactical fantasy dungeon crawler, looking at wave 1 in Jan/Feb and wave 2 in June currently but that’s just estimated. I don’t remember if I did split shipping.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - wave 2 is either about to fulfill or is fulfilling.
Sentinel Comics: The RPG - core book just hit as a PDF, but I think there were some other things funded.
Millenium Blades: Collusion - printed, ready to go on boats as of the last update.
Hyperspace - that Sandy Petersen 4x boardgame. Like basically every SP Games project, delayed. currently somewhere in production, I think?
Carnival Zombie, 2nd edition - looked like a cool (and well loved) zombie coop set in Venice, which is unusual. As far as I can tell, delayed by being super fucking finicky about the minis I didn’t want to begin with. Maybe someday they’ll get things shipped.
The Orpheus Protocol - horror TTRPG, underway but this year has delayed things.
Middara - original ETA 12/2021, so.
The Iron Gate - new 20 Palaces novel(s) from Harry Connolly. Sounds like he’s struggling with it but still working on it.
Sleeping Gods - on ships.
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey - shipping some cosmetic minis next month but looking at Q2-Q3 for main fulfillment atm.
Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods - still doing assets.
Under Hollow Hills - fae TTRPG from Vincent Baker. Still in development but a prerelease version hit earlier this month.
Summer Daze at Hero-U - a Hero-U followup (two now) from the Coles. Sounds like one part is closing in on being done, the other less so.
The Great Wall - Awaken Realms semi-coop (and optionally, full coop) worker placement/wall defense game - still in production.
Unsettled - manufacturing is nearing completion.
Glitch - Nobilis followup from Jenna Moran. PDFs are out, waiting on physical book.
Glorantha The Gods War expansions - Sandy Petersen project, delayed, etc.
Return to Dark Tower - was going to post an updated ETA in a couple weeks from 12/8, hasn’t yet.
Geneforge 1: Mutagen - remake of Spiderweb Software’s classic RPG, currently in beta-testing, estimated February release.
Pasion de las Pasiones - PBTA telenovela RPG. Full draft completed, not yet final.
Hastur Rising - big Hastur mini for all Petersen Games stuff. underway.
Cloudspire reprint/expansion - not yet on ships but looking at Feb/March fulfillment
Torchbearer 2e - they have print samples, but haven’t actually printed the main run yet.
Skull Diggers - indie TTRPG. Still in design.
Final Girl - slasher flick solo game from the Hostage Negotiator people. In production, maybe fulfill in Feb/March but unclear.
Bullet<3 - latest Level 99 game, currently on track for Feb fulfillment
Nemesis Lockdown - reprint/expansion for Awaken Realms’ Alien clone. Looking at wave 1 fulfillment in April.
Intrepid - space station coop, currently in production
Monster Care Squad - indie TTRPG, currently in design
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles - dinosaur worker placement from Mindclash. In development.
Token Sesame - component holder. Looks like it’s going to production soonish but no update this month so I dunno.
Orbital - indie TTRPG in zine format, in design.
Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants - Forged in the Dark TTRPG about resisting vampire rule. In design.
Return to Planet Apocalypse - long, long way off yet.
Set a Watch expansion - moving into digital proofing.
7th Citadel - 7th Continent followup. In development.
Sig: City of Blades - Planescape-esque Forged in the Dark TTRPG. In design.
Worlds Without Number - fantasy take on Stars Without Number, well loved OSR space-TTRPG. Not sure where it’s at off the top of my head but Kevin Crawford projects tend to be tight and quick turnaround.
Cartographers: Heroes - everything from here on is recent enough to be unlikely to hit soon.
Frostpunk the Boardgame
Urban Shadows 2E - revamp of urban fantasy PBTA classic
Dire Alliance: Horror - a new coop/skirmish game from the Sadlers (coop) and the Undaunted guys (skirmish)
burncycle - latest Chip Theory Games title
Nemo’s War (more expansions)
Vindication Chronicles.
ISS Vanguard, shortly.

Yeah, I wouldn’t.

5278

Wow. You are waiting on a few games. :D

Quite a few and varied RPGs I’d love to try. Blades in the Dark among them, but also the others I hadn’t heard about.

I also considered Carnival Zombie. It seemed like a fun game and quite different from anything I own. I have gotten really picky about: who will I play it with though. And I wasn’t sure it would hit the table often.

5279

If there’s a type of KS I should really probably stop backing, it’s random indie RPGs. I almost never read them, let alone play them, and there’s been more than one Bundle of Holding where I went “well, this is a great bundle but I backed 6 of these games individually on Kickstarter, so, welp.” On the other hand, I want to support indie RPG development and there are a lot of cool ideas. And they’re like $10-15 each usually, so, meh. (In PDF, but I definitely do not have space for a hard copy of every one of these things, especially given that it’s a lot easier to fulfill PDFs and I’ve backed at least a couple things where last I heard hard copies still haven’t hit.)

5280

I kind of regret backing the giant box of OGRE. I mean, not really, because again it was an expression of appreciation and support of Steve Jackson Games as much as a desire for updated OGRE, but - to be honest, when I feel like playing OGRE I go back to the old VCR box copy I’ve had for years.

5281

I’ve played mine once. But it’s so gloriously ridiculous that I can’t regret it too much.

5282

Several of my outstanding Kickstarters still expected for delivery are on malkav’s list (Millennium Blades: Collusion, Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, Bullet♥, Intrepid). Most of the rest are video games, but they’re all looking good for delivering:

Boyfriend Dungeon: Progressing nicely, just opened up closed beta sign-ups for backers this month. The original delivery date given for the game was never supposed to be a delivery estimate for the game, but Kickstarter won’t let you put up a campaign without putting one in there, which can be a problem for things like video games.

Chromatose: Progressing well, had an updated beta release back in October. Most likely coming in summer 2021 instead of spring 2021 because of COVID.

Tiny Epic Pirates: On track to fulfill on time in March. Gamelyn has a strong track record on shipping games on time, especially in the Tiny Epic series, so no worries here.

Ex-Zodiac: Progressing well. Steam keys for alpha backers went out earlier this month.

Ascension Tactics: Progressing well. Estimated fulfillment date from the campaign is August 2021, so we’ll see how this goes in the coming months.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Ended last month, so there hasn’t been much time for anything to come up, but they put out their roadmap to date earlier this month and everything’s looking great. Estimated fulfillment date is June 2021.

5283

Despite never really getting into Kickstarter, I kind of understand this temptation. I just recently got into TTRPGs so I’ll frequently read about one and think, “oh, that sounds neat.” I can only imagine how much more frequently that would happen if I were following Kickstarter projects (and if not for a pandemic limiting my socializing)!

Though, I am waiting on the new edition of Torchbearer to come out since I adore Mouse Guard.

5284

Holy shit that’s a lot of projects. Kudos to you for supporting neat stuff you believe in. I’ll have to looks up some of the stuff on that list, like Under Hollow Hills- I do love me some Baker.

For me, I think all I’ve got out still is Sleeping Gods (shipping in the next couple weeks), Glitch (seemingly ditto), and the second wave of Etherfields.

5285

Oh yeah. Wave 2 of Etherfields, also. And Dice Throne Adventures/Season 1 Rerolled. And I late backed Guards of Atlantis II.

5286

Hell yeah, Dissensus! Welcome to the hobby. Hope it proves awesome <3

Mouse Guard is such a delight. I’m super excited for our local group’s next set of Semi-Organized Play campaigns, which includes a 3-month season of Mouse Guard Jan-March. It’s our third season playing settlers in the distant colony of Allhaven, and I can’t wait to see what absurd dangers and adventures come our way this year :-D

5287

I played my copy solo yesterday for some hours, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

It’s nicely made and easy to play but the game itself is like a bunch of disparate ‘choose you own adventure’ events that randomly resolve in resources, a stat challenge, or combat. I’m not seeing any ‘big picture’ story so far. It’s neat exploring each location for the first time, but I rarely feel like I’m given enough info to make an informed choice.

The main gameplay element seems to be about collecting enough food to combat the crippling fatigue…

Still on the first map and already my collection of quest and adventure cards is growing quite large and I can see it quickly becoming unweildy - most of the quest cards are just keywords that open/close story sections on the map locations, so you never ‘complete’ them, and adventure cards are never discarded. The manual even advises to make stacks of ones you rarely use.

I do like how the actual quest cards reference general areas/directions/landmarks, and you can determine where those are by studying the artwork on the maps. The combat is nice too.

But it feels like playing this game is about systematically clearing a bunch of random events to map out the keywords that are required to progress more optimally in a future playthrough (game is time-limited by an event deck). The manual even says to refer to your previous maps when playing a new campaign.

Maybe it’s just me though. I have like three quests that lead off in different cardinal directions, but if there’s an unvisited location on my current map I’m going there instead. Maybe it would feel more like an adventure if I didn’t feel compelled to visit each location. I have the same issue with CRPGs, like visiting all the question marks in Witcher 3. :)

5288

My first Kickstarter of 2021 is… very modest. Meet Colostle:

It’s a solo RPG. If you have seen others (like Artefact, The Adventurer, Thousand Year Old Vampire ), you will know that those are basically storytelling / journaling games. The game provides you with a prompt (an event, an encounter, a new location, …) and lets you write what happens to your character. They tend to be systems light, but there are rules that guide you.

For a few $/£, this seems like a nice little project to support. And I like the art style of the creator.

This is likely going to my small KS of 2021. But I’m looking forward to it.

5289

Seems like Colostle is doing well for a small indie project. It is getting extra content. And the physical version will also get a lined notebook for you to write down your adventures as you play through. It’s planned to deliver in 2 months too. I might even get to play it before I escape lockdown.

5290

I got my iircade in. Just need to clear a table to build it on…

5291

Primal and Monster Hunter World compared:

Number of heroes, minis, track record, …

It’s indeed worth considering SFG’s mixed teach record.

5292

A game I backed 7 or so years ago is refunding me now because it’s not being finished on time (Cryamore)

They’re still saying they intend to finish it.

5293

I looked it up and that final Kickstarter update is a rollercoaster

5294

That final post summarizes every reason why I’ve never ever felt the slightest temptation to create a kickstarter, even if it might allow me to realize some ambitions I’ve had.

5295

Well s/he is refunding…

5296

Been awhile since I checked what my kickstarter backed projects paged looked like.

There are 4 that are still in development, and not released, for me. Hell one of them is from way back in 2014!

Nighthawks
Darkside Detective 2
Witchmarsh
Asylum