I like Kickstarter. Heck, i can even find myself liking Indiegogo, although it's ease of separating fools from their money makes it more prone to scams than Kickstarter.
I'm not calling either project a "scam", BTW. They both do exist in PDF format, it's just that the promised and paid for print editions do not seem to be forthcoming, and both project creators seem to have gone to ground.
CHAMPIONS OF ZED looked damn cool and hit all the notes old school gamers like to hear:
Champions of ZED is the first and only comprehensive SANDBOX edition of the world’s first fantasy Role-Playing game! Champions of ZED weaves together the scattered notes and guidelines of the two original designers who created the fantasy RPG genre, and includes revisions drawn from the long lost Beyond This Point Be Dragons manuscript.Sadly, August will make it 2 years late, and the creator, Daniel Boggs, hasn't been seen nor heard from on the project's Kickstarter page since the end of January. I have the PDF. I'd like to see the book I paid for.
As for Angels, Daemons, and Beings Between, a Patron Sourcebook for the DCC RPG. I've had the PDF in hand for ages. Print copies were due in December of 2012.
The last update is from six months ago:
hi all it is with great pleasure that i can tell you that everything has been dispatched.It should be with you by Christmas.I never received my copy. Folks actually involved in the project never received their copies. See, Myth & Magic is not alone, and in that case, I know copies exist and some actually shipped. If you know of a dead tree copy floating around, let us know in the comments attached to this post.
Sorry for the delays at the end but it will be worth the wait.
Thank you all for your support and we all look forward to your feedback.
If you do not not have your order by Christmas Day please email me directly to update me. xxxxxxxxxxxxx@me.com
Many many thanks
Sean Connors
I was cowriter and received nothing, but a friend and backer here in Austin received his hardcopy.
ReplyDeleteit's promising there are copies out there "somewhere"
DeleteCaveat emptor? I guess the AG from Washington state is on to something... Even if it is election year grandstanding.
ReplyDeletethe AG is an active gamer apparently - or so my sources tell me
DeleteI'm especially disappointed with Champions of Zed, as I loved Dragons at Dawn and had exchanged a few emails with the author. I think I opened the pdf once, but I find it much easier to read and absorb a hard copy.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get a copy of Champions of Zed, preferably hard copy. However, given how the Kickstarter has gone, I'm glad I found out about the project too late to pledge on KS.
ReplyDeleteI backed both of these at the physical copy level as well, so I'm damn curious why the creators have both seemingly abandoned the internet instead of just fessing up about miscalculated funding or whatever the reason is. People are pretty forgiving if you just come forward and explain what the issues are, but there is also a strong possibility that they are just lazy or irresponsible people.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am not old-school enough, but I have read the pdf of CoZ and I find the whole thing to be a mess. The layout is horrible, the structure flows poorly, and I have little better idea of how to play than when I started.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping he would take the disparate source material and synthesize it into an easy to follow whole. Rather, he emulated perfectly the haphazard, ambiguous forms of the originals. His blog posts regarding, for example, Beyond This Point Be Dragons, were of a much different character and quality.
Sean Conors took the money, made pdfs and then disappeared. He's defrauded quite a lot of people and is too much of a coward to face us. I got stung for $51, pretty expensive for a pdf. I received excuse after excuse from Sean before the emails went dead and he stopped replying. I don't think he's made shedloads of money from us but he did lie on several occassions and failed to deliver. He's the reason I no longer back RPG kickstarters
ReplyDeleteI guess I dodged a bullet then. Liberation of the Demon Slayer was going to be published by Sean Connors. But, towards the end, we had an amicable falling out and I decided to go the self-publishing route.
DeleteI backed a KS by an amateur miniature sculptor. He took two extra years to complete the project, but he kept in contact and finally filled his orders. People often underestimate the task when they've never done it before.
ReplyDeleteSo far I've only backed about a half dozen crowd funded projects. So far only half of those delivered the physical product. One has emailed PDFs, promises, and explanations / excuses over the last 2 years. At least he's honest enough to give up dates. The others have gone MIA as far as I can tell. Given the stories like the ones in this post, I pretty much have sworn off backing any more.
ReplyDeleteI used to follow Sean's YouTube channel (TheOutsiders68). He seemed like a reasonable guy but maybe more prone to starting projects than finishing them. Did some pretty good videos back in the day.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a post over at the ODD74 forums from September, 2012, Boggs took a federal job which required him to cease all other non-federal work:
ReplyDeletehttp://odd74.proboards.com/thread/7761/announcement-regarding-future-sales
This "Federal job" thing is a load of baloney. If it were true, Boggs would have announced it on his Kickstarter page. He is hiding from the backers after having taken their money and refuses to reply to questions now. he's been told over and over again that he must communicate with the backers and he seems to conveniently "forget."
ReplyDeleteHow is this not crooked?
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI guess I can't complain too much. I've participated in over 20 kickstarters/Indiegogo projects and I have gotten what was promised in all but 2.
What is interesting is the two have haven gotten anything on were DCC projects (angels and demons being one, the halfling publisher fiasco the other).
So I guess its avoid DCC crowdfunders for me. ;)
Peter
Champions of ZED's PDF came out? I never got that either...
ReplyDeleteChampions of ZED's PDF came out? I never received that either...
ReplyDeleteWell, now we have pictures of the Champions of Zed books but shipping hasn't started. I think it'll be another Myth & Magic.
ReplyDelete