Kickstarter

I backed Tianxia, and... I don't know. I might just be spoiled since I played a lot of LotW. I really hoped, given that it was Wuxia flavoured FATE, that they'd actually put in the work to refine and improve the core combat system, but it still fell kind flat for me.

It's a cool book, good fluff and such, but that aspect of it is something I'm still searching for. I like the ideas of FATE, but I'd still love to see just one game figure out how to make combat in the system actually good.

Haven't Kickstarted anything lately, but I put some money on the Heroic Fantasy ACKS they've got coming, on the 100 dungeons compilation, as well as a bunch of video games, some of which are yet to come out.

Satisfied: Darkest Dungeon, Hyper Light Drifter, Undertale
Not satisfied: Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera
Looking forward to: Delver's Drop, Witchmarsh

Yeah, I'd go for LoTW over Tianxia anyday, but i'm just running with what's available.

I find that FATE is a crapshoot that requires the correct players and DM's to sometimes get the running feeling you need. Sometimes I basically hang big ol signs of HERE ARE SOME ASPECTS, and run from there. I ran a combat demo with one player once with a Forest Crane fighter to demonstrate hazards and aspects while fending off a Stone Tiger PC to show it's not just rolling the dice all day long in FATE.

Engine Heart and a couple of others. All Veeky Forums-based products.

I backed Reaper Minis and got a shitload of minis for not very much. They're not great minis, but it's better than no minis and they were very cheap.

I have backed Star Traders 2. Currently in alpha testing, phase 2/3, and I'm one of the testers.

An RPG based on a minature game, gathered over 1000% of the goal, releases in may.

Unknown Armies 3rd edition is the only thing ive ever backed on kickstarter and i was very happy with the decision.

Backed what turned out to be the most autistic deckbuilder in existence. Didn't get a copy until the second edition was released, which is incompatible with what I have.

Fuck Kickstarter.

I've backed this, also satisfied, and I've also decided to back Song of Swords (anticipating it, but it's too early to have an opinion on how development's going). Veeky Forums related things are probably the best thing to back, since even in cases where vidya and similar KS are actually legit, there's only so much they can show you, while RPGs can have most of the basic rules (the important part) sketched out for people to look at, which makes it a lot easier to decide if it's worth throwing money at.

>What did you back?
Hillfolk

>Were you happy with the end result?
Completely. The Drama System rulebook is easily my favorite RPG product I own. It's really sad that nobody else has heard of / played the game.

I backed the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine.

The final product was... interesting.

>Torment
Was a really mediocre game riding on the fame of a classic.
I still cant tell if most of my issues with the game came from the Numenera side or the actual writing

Unknown armies- Awesome

Zweihander - Awesome

Red Markets- Still waiting

Keeping it Veeky Forums here...

Horror on the Orient Express: a nightmare
Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition: a nightmare
The Star on the Shore (CoC adventure): in progress
Tales from the Loop: beautiful book but haven't run it yet
Cthulhu Invictus 7th Edition: in progress
Cold Warning (CoC adventure): in progress

and then everything Stygian Fox has put up excluding their first one but I'll gladly shill for them because they put together one hell of a set of Call of Cthulhu adventures in The Things We Leave Behind

Is there a reason why big Veeky Forums-related kickstarters tend to have higher rates of success and backer satisfaction than the big video game related ones? I know that there's some big-name video game success stories from kickstarter too, but the rate of quality projects to bombs and disappointments seems to differ a lot between the two, especially in how their related boards have received them.

Are good Veeky Forums related products just easier to make?

>Are good Veeky Forums related products just easier to make?

That, but far more to the point, they require far less people and therefore far less cooks spoiling the broth and pulling the project to different directions, resulting in arguments and shitstorms.

Also far less nostalgia involved. Nostalgia is what ruined so many video game projects: it gave them a lot of money and in the end it turns out they didn't hold up.

Savage Rifts - Happy
Burning Wheel Codex - Happy
Battletech - Waiting still
RAFM Airship Pirate Minis - Indifferent
Reaper CAV - Happy
Reaper Bones I - Happy
Reaper Bones II - Happy
Dungeon Saga - Indifferent
Dreadball Xtreme - Happy
Pillars of Eternity - Happy
Torment: Tides of Numenera - Happy

also, for instance, I've taken to only backing Kickstarters for companies I trust, and their Kickstarters are normally like 'hey the book is written but we need money for art and bindings' which then has a ~6 month turnaround to a product in my hand

they also can't add as stupid of stretch goals UNLESS YOU'RE FUCKING MORONS LIKE CHAOSIUM

"Video gamers" have fucking shit taste and games are made for the lowest common denominator.

Once you'll be seeing mainstream ads for Veeky Forums it'll go to shit.

I mentioned that it's probably that you can have rules available for use before running a Kickstarter, and as such it's easier to tell if someone's trying to scam you and if a project's going to be trash. The only two things I've backed were
>author has good track record and provided playtest rules
>author's on here and has provided beta rules
which also help. Basically, it's harder to set up a proper scam, and shitty projects are less likely to sneak by as good.

Also

I've backed a decent chunk of the Onyx Path stuff and have been satisfied with all of it except Wraith20 taking a million years, but I also notably missed both Exalted and Beast. Delta Green and Unknown Armies have both been lovely. Eclipse Phase 2e is going live an hour from now.

YO DRAMASYSTEM IS DOPE AS FUCK

I'm cautiously hype for Cthulhu Invictus but I can't shake the feeling that it's gonna be a shitshow.

Making a book is easier than coding a game.

Oh shit, I forgot to mention that I backed Red Markets and have been overjoyed with it so far.

It still haunts me that I missed Dracula Dossier, Urban Shadows, Masks, and City of Mist.

NIGGA NO WAY

ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU'VE PLAYED THIS SHIT???

>That, but far more to the point, they require far less people and therefore far less cooks spoiling the broth and pulling the project to different directions, resulting in arguments and shitstorms.

This is the main reason why so many projects on Veeky Forums fall apart, funny enough. The only games that make it to the finish line are the ones with a single project head that's willing to keep pushing forward with crunch when everyone else just wants to argue over whose fluff is canon.

I keep meaning to read my copy of Hillfolk.

Do it, man.

I barely got to run the system itself, but I already tended to run campaigns fairly heavy with interpersonal drama. Reading Hillfolk literally changed the way I thought about those games. I swear it made me a better GM.

Well fellow Robotech backer, come join us in shitting all over the Rifts™ Boardgame®© kickstarter when it launches in a week or so. I wonder if if Carmen will attempt to an hero again like he did after threatening the RRT backers.

I've backed...

Robotech - I feel really deceived by the campaign as it was ran by Ninja Division with Palladium nowhere in sight. It made it look like Palladium was just a middleman. I plan on joining the raid on the Rifts™ Boardgame®© kickstarter that many disgruntled backers are planning.

7th Sea 2e - Disappointed in the game itself, but will steal liberally from the new fluff for my 1e games. I can't fault Wick for not delivering, it just really isn't the game I want.

Giga-Robo - Backerkit for it is launching in the few weeks. They've kept us posted on stuff and I am looking forward to it.

Thunderstone Quest - Backerkit will drop soon, I have no doubt AEG will deliver.

Non-Veeky Forums related

Mauhaus Cat Cafe - Opened for business and is a fun place. Been there three times since it opened.

Two Plumbers Brewery and Arcade - Kickstarter failed to meet initial goal. But my Brother-in-Law and his partner got their shit together and were able to open without kickstarter cash. They are doing great after the first month.

We'll see. GGP has a decent track record on Kickstarter, but they really went hard with stretch goals, and that might overwhelm them.

Wasteland 2.

FTL is more of a roguelike but it has classic rpg decision making

I'm still waiting on my physical Zweihander copy. They're taking so long to release it.

NO I HAVEN'T BUT I WANT TO MORE THAN ANYTHING THEY DID A TIE-IN WITH NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS

It and the supplement book are fucking incredible.

Engine Heart
Mummy: The Curse
Reaper Bones 1
Fate Core

Happy with them all. And my buddy's backed tons of board games. Only disappointment was the Kingdom of Loathing Mr. Card Game.

Well, they have the license for three years. Let's see. They're already talking about North African, British, and Persian setting books.

>tfw no GUMSHOE hack stretch goal
>tfw you'll make it yourself

>Dragon Expansion from Kingdom Death Monster
>Busty Barbarian Bimbos
>Engine Heart
>Fate
>Golden Sky Stories
>Bones 1 (technically split the $100 pledge 4 ways with my group)

Veeky Forums related Kickstarters have been good to me, and every one minus my Dragon came out only a few months later than expected. So far the only Kickstarter that has actively disappointed me was the Homestuck game but even then that was only $15.

I haven't Kickstarted anything since that initial spree though. There's plenty of shit that's out now that I'm interested in that I can get shipped to me within 2-3 days, so there's no reason to hold out for months. There are a few I'm sad I've missed though, like Shinobigami, The Other Side, and Unknown Armies 3e, but I was in a bad spot financially when they were out.

What's it like? I heard nothing after it was released so I assume it was shit or not interesting enough.

KS is all but dead those days, with only some shit-tier extra-niche extra-indie projects going on.

But I really enjoy running Tianxia

>Muh elitism
Nice meme.

The real reason is simple - it takes much less resources, manpower, skills and time to make good tabletop than it takes to make a subpar vidya

Video games are fucking trash.
Everything is a third person shooter with "rpg" mechanics.

Only one.
And only because Randy Greenbacke was "involved"

I only got to run one short season using the base Hillfolk setting, but I was pretty impressed—especially considering that, of the four players I introduced to it, two had never even played an RPG before, and the other two had only been in occasional D&D games.

They all managed to get into the swing of dramatic roleplaying pretty well. One of the players was visibly excited when she got to start our second session by killing off the chief of their tribe. That kind of enthusiasm and player engagement was really encouraging to see.

No, it's awesome! It's just a very different game. Different in a way most people probably don't want to run their games. Which is cool and all, but it means it was pretty much destined not to have the widespread appeal of something like D&D.

The two big points:

>It's a game about interpersonal drama.
The rules are almost entirely devoted to fostering interesting social interactions between characters. The resolution system it provides for procedural scenes like combat, investigation, etc. is intentionally spare, as it's assumed that most of the time, you'll simply narrate the outcome. What the game really cares about is scenes where one character wants an emotional reward from another, and making sure that those scenes build into more, similar scenes.

The way the game plays out, it very much resembles a TV drama.

>The GM and the players have equal power.
The GM isn't the sole architect of the "plot," he's simply the player who portrays all the secondary characters. The players are the main characters, of course, and EVERYBODY has the authority to narrate, to dictate details about the setting, etc.In fact, the game is built around this happening constantly: rather than the GM dictating the flow of the game from scene to scene, ALL players take turns casting scenes of the game, decided where they take place, what's happening, who's there, etc.

If you've ever played FIASCO, it's basically that idea writ large.

Well, I was talking more about their licensing and updating the back catalogue, e.g. Arrius Lurco etc.

Oscar's team has always done fine for content generation, but I feel like they dug a big hole to get even to the new stuff by going so far back.

If that DOES sound interesting to you at all, though, then I highly recommend you check it out.

I always tell people, I feel like just reading the rulebook made me a better GM. It changed the way I thought about my games.

Dig it: mega.nz/#F!7kZn2TCb!sT94-KhfkKGKozwtTZ8cOw

I backed an Orc warband miniatures from GT Studios, never backed anything before so I don't know what to expect I'm looking forward to them arriving in July. I only bought the 3 Warboss type heroes since I just paint.

If they look like the 3d models I will be happy. They have abit of a Warcraft look to them but I love orcs so yea.

I don't own a cthulu Gabe, but the premises always seem interesting.

What's wrong with Call of Cthulu 7th? What's the difference between it and Invictus?

>Call of Cthulhu
it took like 3 years but it came. glad the people running that kickstarter got fired

>Delta Green
tfw no Case Officer's handbook

>Driftwood verses
slow but steady

why they always have to be so fucking slow?

I don't think it's dead, but people are definitely more way after all the shit-tier stuff that go dead in the water a few months after being funded or get delayed into oblivion.

oh, CoC7E is fine; I was speaking more to the Kickstarter and the "fulfillment" thereof

the actual end result product is pretty good, and I've been transitioning my players over to it

oh and Invictus is just applying the new 7E rules to the Roman times setting (and then writing adventures for those rules and such)

case officer handbook when DENNIS HURRY IT UP

Don't forget to let people know Uncle Kev blew all their money on an EPIC trip to Thailand. He's a legend on the trap boards.

I was thinking about changing the target of the Japanese Penis Dinner Rumor from Monte to Kevvy.

Also nice repeating digits. Trips and Dubs. Have a page from the new Robotech comic, with mecha stolen from Astro Plan.

Still waiting on reaper bones 3
I want my tiamat dammit

Horrors of War: A DG/CoC book of scenarios by Scott Glancy. Now over two years behind schedule with no real tangible results at all. Glancy frequently goes months without posting updates, the last was in December.

At one point someone tracked him down at Gencon and basically shamed him into posting an update.

According to him the massive delays are due to his partner ditching, a family death, and accepting far too much work and since he doesn't have anyone to answer to for HoR it's the one that's suffered.

The thing I don't understand is that these goddamn scenarios were written already. I've listened to recordings of him running every scenario in the book at gencon for the RPPR guys. I don't fucking understand what is taking so long.

Delta Green RPG: Another project Glancy is involved in. Thankfully though, he's just a writer and not in charge. It's a bit behind schedule, but the main book has already shipped. I wanted the GM version of it so I have to wait a bit longer.

It also has a number additional products that were added due to goals and I've been enjoying my PDF copies of all of those. Overall pretty happy.

Upwind: A system involving airships, floating islands, magic, and high adventure. Uses standard playing cards instead of dice to resolve actions.

Book still isn't out yet but I've received an unformulated text version as a PDF. Been trying to find some people to play with. I assume I'll enjoy the final book as well.

Are you stupid? Because it involves vastly less work. The manhours involved in making a tabletop game is a fraction of a video game.

I'm a fan of the artists involved in this project so I backed it at $30 - I feel that's a decent price for two PDFs. I'm really tempted to shell out enough for both books, but I don't really want to drop $100 on a kickstarter.

kickstarter.com/projects/pandesmos/the-swordfish-islands-hot-springs-island-an-rpg-he

In the end, Kickstarter is gambling. I'm putting out my money hoping that this project will be worth my money. If it isn't I'm out some cash. If it's spot-on worth what I spent, I won. If it turns out I regret NOT going for a higher bracket, I still won in a way, but mostly loss.

It's a tough game, but I like to gamble. Plus, this one came with a 20-page preview, which is really neat.

drive.google.com/file/d/0B2vRPHp5ZV31YjYtMmhhTENZRXc/view

As far as ROGs I've backed:
>Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition
Solid syatem, one of my favorite settings and now I just need people to want to play something other than fucking Pathfinder.

>Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Solid, not much changed for 6th which is fine.

>Mekton Zero
Still don't have it.

>Powder Mage
Super fucking stoked. One of my favorite book series, and it uses Savage Worlds which I fucking adore.

Then a bunch of miniatures games.

You'd actually be surprised how many successful games started with KS.

Ditto.
And my howitzer

I tend to back physical things more than anything else. I'm a sucker for pretty, hardbound books. If they contain words I actually like, even better. I also generally don't back stuff unless I already know I'll like it--gambling isn't something I do on there. Established companies selling products I'm either already familiar with in a newer, fancier format, or companies that put out portions (or previous editions) of their products that I've already read through and decided I want.

I've never been disappointed--the closest I came was when I backed "Hexels", which are just magnetic Settlers of Catan hex-holders so you can stick them together and they don't slide all over the place. The creator took forever but did eventually get them all shipped out.

As far as RPGs go, I've only backed two. I'm happy with both.

The Burning Wheel core rules and codex are fucking gorgeous. I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that I'll never run the system, but the books are a joy to read and look great on my shelf.

I recently received the Unknown Armies 3e books, too, the ones in the boxed set with the fold-out GM screen/cover. Fucking ace. Love the system, too, I'm already gearing up to run that one.

I've never donated to a kickstarter but I'm considering doing it for the Tombstone skirmish game. I like the idea of a cowboy themed skirmish game. Might give it a try and hope for the best

>If you've ever played FIASCO, it's basically that idea writ large.

Well now I'm interested.

And oh, shit, it's by Robin D. Laws. Well why didn't you all SAY so? Like Greg Stolze, Laws is one of those names that I just trust to do things that interest me.

I trust Robin Laws, Ken Hite, Greg Stolze, and Caleb Stokes with my life.

Well you're in luck then, 'cause Ken also contributed to the plethora of alternate settings included in the rulebook. You can't say no to Kenneth Hite AND Robin D. Laws!

It's dope man, and my brief descriptions certainly don't do it justice.

I uploaded my copy here if you want to take a look, though of course I would encourage anyone to support the game by actually buying it. (Not least of all because that elegant little hardcover is one of the most aesthetically pleasing roleplaying products I've ever owned.)

SPELL failed its goals but the guy still sells the ruleset. Gonna run it at some point, my bro had a lot of fun with it.

I'm torn between how I want to publish my game. Do I want to get plenty of it done, then go to KS to try and raise funds to finish it (specifically for artwork - decent artists cost a decent penny) or do I toss it on Patreon and work it up piecemeal?

What do you guys things?

I don't play anything besides roguelikes when it comes to videogames, so no. No point in backing tabletop since everyone just plays D&D.

I backed Ruin of the Reckless cause it was made by someone I chat with often

Almost backed the Armored Core board game, but I realized it was too expensive for my current financial state, and backed out before they lost the license.

Mine comes from the fact that there's even less fighting and playing to be done than in PsT. It makes that game look like a fast-paced action game.

I just don't have the patience to read like a dozen books' worth of plot and detail and then make informed decisions based on them.

>everyone just plays D&D

¿¿¿

Get plenty of it done obviously

*everyone where I live just plays D&D and rarely wants to try other things
I tried roll20 but you know the rest.

Backed several Boardgames (Tunderbirds/LapDance/Mission to Mars) via KS and Indigogo - Quality okay and fun games

Mantic Deadzone - Campaign went okay, stuff is adequate but never played the game (got into it for proxying stuff)
Zombicide Black Plague - went well like a lot of CMON own Kickstarters, plenty of stuff good quality
MERCS Recon - game turned out ok (just ok) with large waiting times after campaign (Chinese factory had to redo everything) but even then the stuff was almost sub-par and in many cases unsusable. Mine is bad but acceptable if you squash your pinkie toe at the same time.
but all pales against the first and primo-examplo Clusterfuck that was Sodapop Miniatures Relic Knights (the first one) - Dumped a lot of money in it, got shit minis with delay of more than 1 year (supposedly big yadda-yadda with CMON, like I care...) and the game was dead even before anyone got a chance to play it....at least in Europe

I'd made hovering motions around that armored core game, decided that the weird 'everybody is doing shit at the same time' gameplay was likely going to bomb with my group, and stepped away. Then they lost the license, and I stopped paying attention, so probably dodged a bullet there.

I honestly find it pretty intriguing. Not enough to waste money on it, but I wouldn't mind seeing some tournament footage (as if).

I did it the first way and Veeky Forums rewarded me.

I backed giga robo, Alex is super based and keeps you updated frequently

Nah, it's not about that. When KS launched, EVERYONE was doing something there, both shit-tier stuff and legitimate deliveries.
5 years later, it's pretty much "small-scale niche projects that aim low and still fail to deliver". After all the "big" names delivered their projects, the site was taken over by literal nobodies, "producing" 99% of all content made by KS.

>What did you back?
Mage 20th

>Were you happy with the end result?
Fuck no, it was a book done unprofessionally by a moron. I didn't knew Brucatto before M20 as i started with revised and have i knew about him i wouldnt put any money for the project.

>Backed
>TTRPG
Tianxia
It's good. Pretty much what I wanted. Sure, it has few lacking bits, but I needed a ready-to-use, easy-to-get-into wuxia game to convince my players to play wuxia. They play it and enjoy it, so what to want more?

Call of Cthulhu 7e
I want my money back. It's 6e with cosmetic revisions

Delta Green
Already burned by CoC failure, so I guess I'm biased. It's not what I expected, but it's not bad by itself, so I guess it's a 6/10 in the end. Not bad, not good, could be MUCH better.

>Vidya
Wasteland 2
The game was postponed by over a year, was abysmal trash on release, so-so after they've patched it... and is fucking golden in Director's Cut. Took ages to get there, but was worth it.

Expeditions: Conquistador
One of the sleeper hits of 2013, definitely worth every dollar put into it. Shame it didn't reach any of the additonal goals, it could be so much better with those. Plan for this weekend is to play Expeditions: Viking, which just came out.

Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse
Yes please! One of the best games that came from Kickstarter. I wasn't expecting anything near this good, now I feel bad I only put 25 bucks on this gem.

Yea but he's talking about a comparison.
Many good video games and tabletop games succeeded due to KS.
But that's like a 5% of the total successful KS, the rest, are either scams or just crash for real due to devs spending the funds without thinking.

But who cares. You're not guaranteed anything with KS, it's just basically a Donation Hub. They may promise to give you this and that but they're not contractually obligated to do so, if they were, they would've been in a world of hurt or wouldn't have used it unless they had a low risk for failure, which defeats the point of Kickstarter indie shit.

Board games are so bloody expensive and I feel like people rarely play them enough for the money to be worth it, they almost just do it to collect them.

The most important factor for me is replayability. If I experience everything the game has to offer in one game, then I have no reason to buy it.

If the price is high and has little replayability, I could spend as much or less for a console game with better gameplay.

I have friends who constantly get new games that we only play one because they're either not fun or don't offer anything past the first session. It gets annoying.

Backed Engine Heart
Mostly because I appreciate Viral. I already knew what I was getting, but I was pleased nonetheless. Stickers were excessive. Dice are so nice I can't bring myself to put them in the bag with my normal dice.

Darkest Dungeon - I regret nothing. Red Hook finished the game and even continued to update it after it got out of Steam early access.

Journeyquest season 3 - Chipped in enough to get the early digital release.
Product was good, but I'm glad I didn't go for the DVD/Blu-ray release. They got fucked over by some Mongolians.

So... I've only kickstarted projects that were being developed by people with either a history of work or a very clear functional concept with evidence that they were striving to release the game come hell or high water.
Do your research and think about it before you toss money at a Kickstarter. Prudent backers prevent scammers from ruining KS.

How would you further define replayability in a board game?
I just don't get it in the sense that, board games come with a predefined setpieces, a deck of cards, some dice, some actions and reactions, rules and maybe even scenarios.

So, a board game that is let's say, an RPG, with a set of 8 characters the players can choose from and fight monsters in a randomly generated dungeon (let's say, using cardboard squares called rooms shuffled together and drawing them like cards), would that be replayable?
You surely have so many possible dungeon combinations and character pick combinations (8 characters, 1 character per player, 4 players max) even if you already know how the game is played and what will happen at some point in the game.

Chess, replayable the choice of moves you have varies constantly from one game to another.
Pandemic, replayable, the outcome of the game is based around a lot of choices and two different random factors (two decks of cards) therefore no other game is the same.
Risk, replayable except now there's more social interaction in the form of diplomacy (maybe, if you're into that kind of thing) and you still have a random factor, the dice.
Small World, replayable.
Game of Thrones TBG, replayable.
Go (Weiqi), holy fuck so much replayability.

Give me an example of a game that's not replayable.
Give me an example of a board game where you cannot experience everything the game has to offer in one game.

I played Sushi Go Party last week 3 times in a row and though it was fun I'd had enough by that stage.