Tag Archives: Kickstarter

RPGs

Hero Forge Backer Mini Ordered

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The Hero Forge Kickstarter was one of the first Kickstarters that I backed. I got swamped with real life and missed out on playing with the beta websites.

Tonight I finally made time to go online and design my mini and place the order. My Kickstarter pledge for $30.00 gets me a detail mini and free shipping. As one of the backers I have access to the beta hexagonal base, for no additional cost.

What is really cool, is that you can name and save the character and then click the share button to get a link to that character. My mini is my interpretation, limited by the options of the Hero Forge site, to make Griswald Stewart, my long-time character in my brother, Robert’s AD&D 1st Edition game. Griswald is a half-elf fighter/cleric/magic-user of 10th/10th/11th level , and is the one for whom Robert drew the wolf’s head image that is Griswald’s personal symbol. Griswald was the only one with a magic weapon when the group he was with encountered a wolfwere. Slaying this magical beast gave Griswald the appellation, “The Wolf”. Griswald’s father was a hillsman, who are based on the Scottish clans, so he is supposed to be wearing a kilt, it is the lower half of robes.

I will show pictures of the unboxing when it arrives.

I will now have to locate paints and other supplies to prepare it. I will do my best to put the wolf symbol on the shield. I will have a post or two on the progress as I paint it. That could take some time, as January is my busiest time of year at work, plus my first grandchild is due in mid-January, so I may not get to it until sometime in February.

I found the Hero Forge website to be easy to use. I could have chosen from many different genres, like science fiction, western, modern, or east-Asian. You pick a genre, body type, racial type and design from head to toe including facial expression. It is all point and click. The low end mini is $15 and is not suitable for painting. The detail mini is designed to hold paint, and there are three inch and six inch versions available, for a big increase in cost. Standard shipping is $5.00. It is also very cool that you can change your view of the mini in design to make sure you know how the whole thing looks and if it is to your liking.

If you want a mini that is massively customizeable, this is a quick and easy way to get one, although I find the cost to be one to limit my purchases to either favorite characters or major NPCs to use in my game. I only have eight lead/pewter miniatures from back in the day, so I don’t use minis in games I run.

I will include further impressions of the actual mini as part of my unboxing post in the coming days….

Griswald-HeroForge
Griswald-HeroForge
RPGs

Email Seeking Support for an RPG Kickstarter

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I just got an email, a follower on my Google+page, and a like on my FB page seeking a plug for a Kickstarter. It is one that has been mentioned over at the Tavern. NOTE: I am not mentioning which Kickstarter it is. I am sure Erik will have his own post about it.

Little ol’ me?

My attempts at blogging and going on about my experiences and ideas with the RPGs I play is good enough for them?

There is no offer of remuneration for my time to plug the product. It is not one that I would use, so even if they offered it to me for free, I would not use it. I find using devices, such as computers/laptops, tablets, or phones are not much use to me.

I may fire up my phone to use the calculator, if I need one.

If I am playing in the weekly Wednesday night Roll20 AD&D game, I have rarely needed my tablet, and my computer is busy with showing the Roll20 interface. I occasionally use the calculator program on my computer during play, usually to make sure I add up or divide coins or experience correctly. When I did try to use my tablet during a game, it was to display my character sheet or a map my character bought. I haven’t used my tablet in the last several weeks. This past Wednesday was session 30. We had a two week break for the DM to go on vacation, and I was late to one session due to work.

I have manuals for AD&D that I bought via DriveThru RPG and manuals for free and fee OSR style games on my computer and my tablet. I find having them on my tablet useful for reading while at work, so I don’t have to lug them all around. I also have dice rollers on my tablet so I can do adventure/game prep away from home.

If I were going to run a module, I would print out the pertinent parts.

I am a paper using guy. The one struggle is finding what I want. Even with an electronic format, I usually need to look at more than one thing at a time. If I can’t look at the player’s version of the spell and what the DMG says about it at the same time, I have to remember what the one I can’t see says. Yes, the books take up more space, but I can’t change who I am or what I am used to and most important of all, what works for me.

I am at a point in life where I should have more disposable income. My children are older, one on his own, and the other nearly on his own. Neither are going the college route. However, due to the financial condition I was left in by my ex and her love of credit cards, I still have some large bills, so I have to be selective on what gets my money and attention.

Kickstarters that I support with my money tend to be things that I will use or the geek factor is to good to pass up. For RPG stuff, something that has an option for both a PDF and a softcover or hardcover book is the most useful to me.

Kickstarters that I will support by sharing their link will be those that I find appealing and if I had more money to spare, I would pledge my dollars.

No ill will to these fellows, just not something that I can support.

Intersting….

RPGs

Kickstarters For RPGs and Related Items

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Kickstarter has been very popular for both complete RPG games, i.e. new ones, to new editions, to reprints.

I have participated in a few Kickstarters and have not had the funds to join in on all the ones that I’d like.

The Metamorphosis Alpha Kickstarter was one I was interested in, but it was more nostalgia than a resource for play, as I don’t have a group to do MA with, so I passed. Also because the complete book was at like the $80 level. In hindsight, I wish I had joined in on that one. I GM’d for MA back in the day. My manual was one lost in the water damage incident.

I bought some challenge coins from the Schlock Mercenary Challenge Coin Kickstarter. I like the one from the Polish proverb, “Not my circus, not my monkey.”, that is, “It’s not my problem.”

Projects I have backed:

Adventure Conqueror King – Funded. I have the softcover. I like it as a tool. I did not have the funds to support the other Autauch projects.

Hero Forge – Customizeable 3-D Tabletop Miniatures – Funded – Close to on schedule. Currently in beta. (I have beta access and need to make time to try it out.)

Schlock Mercenary Challenge Coins – Funded. Delivered coins on time. Still waiting on document about the history of challenge coins.

Judges Guild City of the Invincible Overlord – Funded – Close to on schedule. Some minor setbacks due to health and family but will be out a month later than initial projections.

The Great Kingdom – Film about the early days of D&D/TSR. -Funded. On hold due to lawsuit.

I believe I pledged to one or two others that did not meet their funding goal, but Kickstarter does not keep track of those, so I can’t identify them.

I have seen some that were obviously so poor that people were just looking for a quick way to make a lot of money. I have seen some that had a good idea and it was poorly executed or poorly planned so that when there was either mild to overwhelming success, the creators were not near the level of readiness they should have been.

Just the last few days, a Kickstarter for an RPG “sandbox” setting was reviewed at Tenkar’s Tavern (Since edited with more colorful graphics than the images from the Kickstarter, after a lawsuit was threatened.) and the creators whined about his critique instead of taking it for what it was and moving on and improving their product. It got very bizarre as someone at this project threatened a lawsuit and made all kinds of other ridiculous statements on the blog. They later deleted all those statements.

I was curious and went to that Kickstarter page and watched the introductory video that is supposed to be the elevator pitch. I was left scratching my head. I had to read more and dig into other things to figure out what it was. It mentioned four “core” books and 25 modules for this “setting”. Why does a setting need four “core” books if it is compatible with Pathfinder or OSRIC? They had a grandiose and interesting goal to have every business and building in every city, town, and village stated out for ease of play. Basically, a ready made campaign world where the DM had to do little more than run it or generate random encounters. At least, that is the way it came across to me. I think they should have spent more time in explaining what this RPG supplement is and why I would want it. Additionally, they need to polish the look of the product more. If they want to hit their timelines, if they had been funded, they should have had things much closer to a ready to go state. They have a map that looks like an old DOS game map, and the way they describe the modules is that it is a railroad for pre-generated characters, instead of something I can bring my own character into it.

After the storm they caused by their thin-skinned reaction to criticism, it was pointed out that they were using named creatures from WoTC that were not part of the OGL. I suspect they got a take down notice from WoTC and cancelled their Kickstarter. Rather than taking the blame for their own poor execution, they blamed the reviewer and those who agreed with the assessment of the reviewer.

From what I have read from those who have done successful Kickstarters, the main thing is a laser like focus on the goal and to have a near ready product, if it is a book, module, or manual, that only needs final editing and proofing, and layout if art for the project is contingent on funding. Other projects that require programming or a physical product need to have details of when it will be done, how it will ship, and above all, proper accounting for all aspects, including shipping/delivery, and taxes.

I think Kickstarter serves a useful purpose for getting the word out when venture capitalists are nowhere to be found. However, it requires the producer to actually have something, and deliver it on time or communicate delays early and often. Too many have under budgeted and lost a great deal of money when it comes to shipping, etc. If you don’t have the ability to stick with a project and see it through to completion, Kickstarter is not for you.

 

 

 

RPGs

Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D.

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We could not afford a lot of miniatures. We often used the redcoats and continentals you could order from the back of comic books, since they were small. We we lucky if every player had a miniature of their character.

We used Ral Partha mostly. I know there were a lot of companies doing them back then. You would pick up a package of goblin archers, some orcs. Slowly those who DM’d the most built up a collection.

Miniatures were not needed most of the time. Usually we only used them for the party to show marching/riding order or where we were relative to each other. A big piece of paper or wet erase mat would then have marks for the enemies, or a unique die, Lego, small Lincoln Log, etc.

We have played with nothing more than X’s and O’s or initials on the mat or paper to distinguish players from monsters.

Not all miniatures were painted, and not all that were painted were painted well.

[EDIT] – Here are pictures of my entire miniature collection. All but one is from Ral Partha, 1979. The skeleton, I am not sure of, and I can’t read what is on the bottom of the three-pack minis. They all have lead, and the warning on the back of the box mentions it. the cool thing about the three stage minis is that you could change your character’s pose mid-game, or you had three minis for whatever you needed.

I have also participated in the Hero Forge Kickstarter at the level to get my own mini. This will be fun! It has four days to go as of February 13, 2014.

Skeleton and Goblin
Skeleton and Goblin
Dwarves With Mattocks.
Dwarves With Mattocks.
Ral Partha Three Stage Character - Half-Elf
Ral Partha Three Stage Character – Half-Elf
Ral Partha Three Stage back of box.
Ral Partha Three Stage back of box.
Closeup of Ral Partha Three Stage Character.
Closeup of Ral Partha Three Stage Character.