RPGNow

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Tenkar's Tavern Overdue Kickstarter List - Updated 2/12/13


The below is a list of RPG Related Kickstarters that were estimated to ship (I am using the ship date for the physical item, not the PDF if there is one) February 2013 or earlier.  I was going to add Indiegogo projects to the list, but they are so few (and this list got so long) I'll summarize as follows: LotFP stuff that I supported over the summer has not shipped, but Indiegogo doesn't force an estimated shipping date . Barrowmaze II shipped on time!

Updated 2/12/13
Small side note - I find that the longer a Kickstarter goes past it's due date, the less I care about the product. Running long leads to apathy and kills good will.

I'll be moving the shipped items to the bottom, and the long overdues to the top. Yes, it's spring cleaning in January ;)


Colors for Actual Ship Date are as follows:

Red: Hasn't shipped and is (or will be based on new estimates) significantly overdue. This includes projects that have been shipping in dribs and drabs for months. If all backers dont have what they pledged for, it's in red.

Orange: Late but shipped, or recently missed a shipping date and hasn't shipped

Green: Shipped on time. Holy Shit!


Far West
Goal: $5,000     Total: $49,324     Funded: August 25, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: December, 2011     Actual Ship Date: Not Shipped (and has missed interim ship dates)

Far West - last update 2/8 -   updates are becoming weekly  -  First the main / lead artist flaked out in the middle of the job (and claimed to have finished work he hadn't completed), then Gareth got sick, "Far West" as a title will now be cropping up in unrelated media, making marketing a pain I suspect , then Gareth and everyone got sick again for flu season - Either they are breeding new strains of the plague at Adamant or the company is cursed -  Cubiclde 7 has gotten involved in the process, so the new guarantee of Dec 2012 for the PDF is hopeful, I've lost fucking hope - NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED -  5 out of 12 Chapters are not complete yet - Note - this project will be OVER one year late.

"Oh, and as an FYI -- I have to go to Los Angeles in mid-week (to work a convention), so I'm not expecting that I'll get a lot done, and will probably have to skip next Friday's update." At this point, does it even make a difference?

Know what the sad thing is? I've gotten to the point I no longer care. This will be going directly to a shelf. Nice concept but unable to produce a finished product  

Quantum Roleplaying Game
Goal: $13,000     Total: $47,747     Funded: December 30, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped

Quantum RPG - last update 2/11  beta is now over - a month between updates, but now promises to do them weekly - To be honest, this is another project I'm no longer excited about.   I suspect when it ships it's going straight to the bookshelf if not traded away. I'm beginning to see a trend here. I seem to no longer care about shit I already paid for, because publishers can't get their shit together.  Still no new estimated completion date. But hey, we're already being told the list of products to follow, if the core book ever gets published.

Josh, just so you know, the reason why the city book never got funded on Kickstarter has nothing to do with it being a city book, and everything to do with trying to fund another product for a line that was funded with Kickstarter and STILL has yet to release.

Appendix N
Goal: $1,000     Total: $18,893     Funded: July2, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (New Estimate Late September November December ? 2012  Pick a card, any card...)

Appendix N - Last Update 1/17 - A month between updates - Brave Halfling is like your cousin who is always late to appointments - whether it's a Kickstarter or a pre-order, the quality has so far been excellent, the timeliness has been poor. PDF versions of the releases look to be on time or close to it going forward - physical products are going to be a wait n see in my opinion.


The first batch of adventures should be shipping in early March. I'm willing to let John surprise me.

Dwimmermount
Goal: $10,000     Total: $48,756     Funded: April 14, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (No longer giving an estimate)

Dwimmermount - Last Update 2/9 Updates Weekly. You know what? It feels more late that Far West even though it isnt - I suspect that is due to all of the initial hype. And recent drama.

Read the latest update for what little actual news there is. Each week that goes on like this brings us closer to the project never bring finished.

Myth & Magic Player's Guide
Goal: $5,000     Total: $24,076     Funded: May 7, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped

Myth & Magic Player's Guide - Last Update 1/26. 1/14 was the first update since 9/29 (probably due to this post at 2000 Coppers) , and that was in relation to it's sister project. PDF released to the wild, no hard copies yet. Last update related to this project was 9/21, about 3 months ago. Not the way to remain in contact with your customers. NO SHIP DATE  The forum folks are getting angry, especially at the lack of communication. - I'm gonna break that shelf if any of this shit actually ships ;)


CHAMPIONS OF ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering
Goal: $4,600     Total: $8,077     Funded: June 16, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: August, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Shipped

Layout MAY be completed by the middle of February as per the latest update 1/31 (1 month after the previous update) - so sad I no longer care, but might get good value in trade for this.

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon
Goal: $2,000     Total: $16,017     Funded: June 3, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012 (New Estimate October November  2012? February 14th (?) for the PDF

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon - infrequent updates - Last update 2 / 1 Estimate for physical delivery is November 2012.  pre-layout version in PDF for backers - no idea when it will release - just realized, theres been no talk i can remember about the resin reward levels

King For a Day
Goal: $800     Total: $4,844     Funded: May 1, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012     Actual Ship Date: Not Yet Shipped (new estimate -December 2012)  No F'n idea, but Jim now says January 15th for completion. I don't believe it.

King For a Day - Last update 2/1 Updates frequently now. Jim has learned that being joking about your project's lateness while announcing your new Kickstarter isn't the way to keep your supporters happy. Late is late. But now since he's so late, he's offering a free gift if you support his other project. PDF apparently shipped. I guess i need to look for the email.

Axes & Anvils
Goal: $1,000     Total: $35,000     Funded: August 11, 2012
Estimated Release Date: November, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?

Axes & Anvils - 2/1.  Updates once a month. Doesn't say much. Playtest document available to backers. My guess? Jan / Feb  March? 2013 for release.

Swords & Wizardry
Goal: $10,000     Total: $78,000     Funded: September 4, 2012
Estimated Release Date: November, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?

Swords & Wizardry - Last update 1/23. It recently went past due date. There was a screw up with the module printings and I think we are still waiting on the Monster Book - so if your order is anything but just the rulebook, you'll be waiting.

Monster Book PDF is now finalized and it is huge. Waiting on delivery of the monster book so everything can ship.

Race To Adventure
Goal: $40,000     Total: $52,117     Funded: July 24, 2012
Estimated Release Date: Dec, 2012     Actual Release Date: Early March 2013 (?)

Race To Adventure - Last update 2/4-Updates about once a month - Board Game - 


"The games are printed. They're printed, assembled, shrink wrapped, all that jazz, and are sitting on the pallet ready to go. In fact, we would have shipped them a little earlier, but...

Safety testing. The safety testing results are expected at the end of this week. This is practically a pro forma process, as Ludofact, our manufacturer, has a sterling reputation and a strong drive to produce products that comply with Europe's exacting safety standards. And because of that...

We're starting shipping now. In fact, we're starting shipping as of last week, but because this is an international operation there's some variation to how all that will work out.

International shipments will head out straight from the warehouse. This just makes sense for us: we'd be making poor use of our resources (and your money) if we shipped our international packages to the United States and then back out; the shipping subsidy we took for international customers doesn't really cover more than a third of what it would run us to ship them that way. So straight from Germany it is! Some of the earliest packages have already arrived in the UK and other locations within the European Union. 

The rest of the games for US customers are getting on a big slow cargo boat across the Atlantic. Just this morning we got the lowdown on what that means, from Ludopackt -- the shipping arm of Ludofact. "Ets. 13.02.2013 Eta. 26.02.2013" was the coded transmission... fancy Euro-speak for estimated shipment date of Feb 13th, estimated arrival date of Feb 26th. Granted, that's just the time it'll take to reach the USA. For all we know it'll take a few weeks or more past the 26th to clear customs and make it to our shipping service in Fort Wayne, Indiana. But once the shipment arrives there, we'll spin up that part of the shipping operation and get the games out to all the United States customers within a couple weeks of their warehouse debut."



Maelorum, an epic Gamebook

Goal: $5,000     Total: $8,444     Funded: November 19, 2012
Estimated Release Date: January, 2012     Actual Release Date: Soonish?

"all of which is just a long process that must be done over and over until I am satisfied the bugs are out and the text is error free. I want to place my order for the books by the end of the first week in February"

tremulus: a storytelling game of lovecraftian horror

Goal: $5,000     Total: $62,723     Funded: October 2, 2012
Estimated Release Date: January, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?



"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

These words ring true, especially in the game industry, and despite all the preparatory work we had done to ensure everything was on schedule, there was one thing we could not account for, such a tremendously horrible flu season from which there has been little respite for the Blurry Ones, and especially yours truly. I have been terribly ill off and on since mid-November, and have labored under the illusion we'd still be able to achieve our release schedule with no one being the wiser. Suffice to say, this will not be the case. We can only ask for your patience and understanding, and let you know we're working to minimize the delay."


Tales From the Fallen Empire: Sword and Sorcery Setting
Goal: $4,500     Total: $12,435     Funded: July 18, 2012
Estimated Release Date: January, 2012     Actual Release Date: ?

Last updated 2/5 - Updates evet 2 weeks or so. Prject is in proofreading and final art stage




--------------------- DUE THIS MONTH ---------------------------



-------------------------- SHIPPED ----------------------------------

DungeonMorph Dice
Goal: $5,000     Total: $20,620     Funded: May 22, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2011     Actual Ship Date: December, 2011

Adventurer Conqueror King System
Goal: $4,000     Total: $11,648     Funded: August 6, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: November, 2011     Actual Ship Date: April, 2012


Adventurer Conqueror King System Player's Companion
Goal:: $4,000     Total: $20,622     Funded: March 16, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: January, 2013

ACKS Player's Companion - I now have the Companion in hand. Shame I'm no longer running an ACKS Campaign.


C&C Classic Monsters
Goal: $4,000     Total: $9,108     Funded: December 2, 2011
Estimated Ship Date: January, 2012     Actual Ship Date: May, 2012

Artisan Dice
Goal: $300     Total: $91,542     Funded: April 7, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship date: May, 2012 and still ongoing completed now I do believe - this suffered from overwhelming response. If you are going to be late, let it be because you have too many customers ;)

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
Goal: $6,000     Total: $13,216     Funded: January 15, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: April, 2012     Actual Ship date: July, 2012 and still ongoing completed I believe

Adventures Dark & Deep
Goal: $2,500     Total: $7,459     Funded: April 15, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: Shipped September, 2012 - I was only in at the PDF level, but congrats for hitting the ship date ;)

Story Forge
Goal: $12,000    Total: $21,736     Funded: March 20, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: July, 2012     Actual Ship Date: July, 2012

Fantastiqa
Goal: $10,000     Total: $23,580     Funded: August 9, 2012
Estimated Release Date: Oct, 2012      Actual Ship Date: November 2012

I need to find time to play this with my family. Box weighs a ton and a half ;)

Dwarven Adventurers Boxed Set
Goal: $1,250     Total: $136,487     Funded: July 25, 2012
Estimated Ship Date: September 2012 Arrived 12/3

Dwarven Adventurers - Shipped


Tabletop Forge
Goal: $5,000     Total: $44,413     Funded: July 9, 2012
Estimated Release Date: August, 2012      Actual Release Date: Not Yet Released (Beta Released)  Merged into Roll20

TTF recently announced it is merging into Roll20. Goodbye TTY, we hardly new ya.



There's a crapload of RED now.

If I missed any I'll post them, then add here for the next update.

Just as a quick note, Spears of the Dawn is on track to possibly ship MONTHS early.
If this happens, Kevin should get a special award ;)

Not due yet, but funding is complete:

Horror on the Orient Express: Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium


Numenera

Maelorum, an epic Gamebook

Magicians: A Language Learning RPG

Boss Monster: the Dungeon-Building Card Game

Dungeon Heroes - Your Lunch Break Dungeon Crawl

Agents of Change: The Time Travel RPG

Spears of the Dawn

FATE Core

To Be or Not To Be

Adventures Dark & Deep Player's Manual

The Skies Over Danbury

14 comments:

  1. FYI, just received my physical copy of Spears of the Dawn yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How do we know which bits you have updated?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maelorum, an epic Gamebook, tremulus: a storytelling game of lovecraftian horror and Tales From the Fallen Empire: Sword and Sorcery Setting are newly added.

      Tabletop Forge is newly removed with it's merge into Roll20

      Race To Adventure, Swords & Wizardry, Axes & Anvils, CHAMPIONS OF ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering and Dwimmermount (now that updates arent backers only, folks can lead the latest of this FUBARed project there) have significant changes from the last update/

      Far West - minor updates and a quote from Gareth

      Quantum - new comment from me

      Appendix N - update on new estimated ship date

      Myth and Magic Players Guide - no update on shipping and pretty much fluff updates on Kickstater

      Nystul's Infinite Dungeon - update on PDF release date - perhaps

      King for a Day - PDF released - i had no idea ;)


      Delete
  3. makes me never want to back a kickstarter again. in fact, i dont think i will. i will just buy products when and if they are done. i hate that this will hurt other small time publushers, but a few bad apples spoiled the bunch for me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah. Got to say this is pretty depressing. I just wish everyone had the same work ethic as Dan Proctor (Labyrinth Lord Ref Screen shipped on time and so too did Starships & Spacemen 2nd Ed), Peter Regan (Advanced RPG Character Sheet Pad) and Kevin Crawford in asking for funding for something which has already largely been completed and who have done their homework when it comes to what is left to be done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sensing that one surefire way to avoid health issues is by not initiating a Kickstarter.....it seems like KS is the sure path to developing months-long flu symptoms that are somehow devastatingly debilitating. Hmmm.....call me skeptical, but I think the real problem is that some people lose motivation to produce work when they've effectively already been paid for it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kickstarter is fine if the person doing it knows what the hell they're doing.

    1) For an RPG, DON'T KICKSTART IT UNTIL IT'S WRITTEN! And preferably playtested, too.

    2) Don't go crazy on of-the-wall stretch goals. Minecraft servers, conventions a dozen people will be able to attend, hand-made chainmail dice bags... If they're throwing the kitchen sink at it, I'm suspicious.

    3) If you hit the Kickstarter lottery and get $100k in pledges, don't let it go to your head. Deliver the book as promised, and use the rest to fund your next project without needing a Kickstarter.

    They are still a ton of great games on Kickstarter that I'll support, even (especially?) from new people. We've been at this long enough that the warning signs are starting to become apparent. Even a month or three delay is par for the course and I don't get agitated. Of course, nothing will ever predict "I got hit by a bus and was in a coma for three months; sorry the book is late!"

    ReplyDelete
  7. About the Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter: I only ordered the DM screen and the module, but I received both last week! Oh, and they threw in the mis-printed "1975" module for free, so I was kind of happy about that. Anyway, it appears that they are getting closer - with some of the products anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I also recieved my Spears of the Dawn Hardcover, last Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not very encouraging reading.

    You might add some other oddities, like the FATE Core getting hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you still have to pay extra to get physical books. That's just cheap...

    My kickstarter dollars will be few and far between from now on.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UGH! I hate to be on this list! I tried so hard, no one will ever know how hard exactly I have worked, but to my credit I have kept everyone up to date every week and been as honest as possible. I had an entire line up of 6 beta testers that were die hard fans just inexplicably drop out on me. I lost trust in people and made the decision not to release any more copies to people if I cannot trust them, thus forcing me to do the beta testing with just one other guy. The book needed more work than I anticipated butit has benefited tons from the extra time. If all goes well, I will place orders for my books early next week which is awesome. Sorry for being late, guys, but trust me it needed it. Kickstarter was a huge learning experience so if there is a next time, I'll know exactly what to expect.

    -Will Fincher "MAELORUM" Gamebook.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. will, in the grand scheme of things, you'll practically be on time ;)

      Delete
  12. Erik, that is my feeling as well, one month late is fairly on time for most kickstarters but I don't want to marginalize the fact that a lot of projects need to be more responsible, and I like that you hold everyone accountable.

    ReplyDelete

Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
and Humble Bundle as well as Patreon. Your patronage is appreciated and helps keep the
lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar

Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition