Yep, I'm still on the Kickstarter kick, which is good. I'm fighting off one hell of a cold (thanks Rach for sharing) so it's a bit hard to maintain any sort of coherent concentration for proper review reading the past week or so. Kickstarters however, just require my reaction ;)
The Beyonder RPG is an interesting project. It's written by a gamer that got his start in the hobby back in 75 or 76 and quickly decided he wanted to write and play his own RPG. So Beyonder is the genesis of the game played with his wife, kids and friends in one form or another for over 35 years. At least, that's what I take from the video. Pretty cool. It also looks like they were smart enough to hire a number cruncher to make sure the system works.
Also cool is the artwork. I really like what I see with the art. Evocative without going over the deep end, if you will. What I don't like is the pricing.
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| I want to stat this creature out for DCC, S&W and T&T ;) |
You want a printed version? $125 gets you EITHER the rulebook or the bestiary (and PDFs of both - a $50 value - not). Hardbound versions of both? $140. So, $15 extra scores 2 books instead of one. I don't get the pricing at all. Maybe this is that "new math" shit they've been talking about.
I'm intrigued by the setting and really digging the art and totally turned off by the pricing. Looks like I get to save some money this time.
Yeah, someone crunched the numbers, all right...
ReplyDeleteYeah, that pricing suggests a disconnect in what the electronic market will bear or a grand confidence in what they have ti offer.
ReplyDeleteEh. No worse than Frog God's prices.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I don't typically get their stuff either.
Hi there! This is Caleb McEntire, from the Beyonder team. Please excuse me while I creep up on your thread. :-)
ReplyDeleteI totally hear your comments about pricing. We had to decide a while back what kind of product we wanted to sell -- whether to simply plop our world into a basic document and get it on gaming store shelves, or to frame it with beeautiful art and design. We chose the latter. We pay our artists very well, and that is reflected in the price both of the .pdfs, with their excellent layout and art, and in the hardcover copies, where we are showcasing their pieces with high-quality printing. We know that these are high price points for the RPG community, but we believe that there is a market for beautifully crafted books like ours.
That being said, take a look at our "later earlybird" reward tier, which offers both .pdfs for $40 -- almost half of the 40 available slots in this tier are left!
Please respond with more comments or questions; I'm very happy to answer them. And hey, thanks for looking at our world! Whether or not you back our Kickstarter, it's great to see our labor of love going out into the RPG community.
Sorry, Caleb, but not at those prices. Not for something I know nothing about and very well may end up not playing -- because it turns out to be something I'm not interested in after all.
ReplyDeleteIf the Community -- at large -- begins "raving" about your game, then I might consider it. But "new" and "fresh" and unknown. No thanks.
Best of luck to you.
I mean, I could be wrong, but this is more expensive than any of the Esteren books through KS - and you'd be hard-pressed to beat their production value.
ReplyDeleteLovely, promising product I wanted to back but the backer tiers are...let's just call them 'less than generous'.
ReplyDeleteGreat News! The Kickstarter was a hit and there were also other investors to produce a BEAUTIFUL product. RPG Beyonder by Flying Nightbear Games has been open for distribution since the end of 2015! you can check out the website and find them on Facebook. fnbgames.com
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