Tenkar's Tavern: Kickstarter - Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas (It's About Ninjas

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Kickstarter - Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas (It's About Ninjas - Need We Say More? Apparently Not)

Sometimes certain Kickstarter projects leave me scratching my head. Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas almost made me pull out my hair.

The video starts with some animated ninja shit before moving on to some boring ass talking heads. The the thing is, if you don't listen to the talking heads, you wouldn't even know what broad type of RPG system it is (dice pools apparently.) Color me not impressed.

How much are they asking for? $32,000

Any sample art on the Kickstarter page?

Nope.

How about the approximate length of the book (which they are claiming a March 2016 delivery date)?

Why would they.

You don't even need to go to the Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas Kickstarter page to read the whole pitch as it fit into a single screenshot:

Too much coffee? How about not enough of anything else to justify even a buck to get backer only updates. Hell, they've all been public thus far so why bother.

For all of the good projects out there it's the quick attempts at a cash grab that really annoy the shit out of me.

5 comments:

ENNDecember 19, 2015 at 11:43 AM
Would you say, in your expert KS opinion, that it might be b(r)oken?
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ForgottenDMDecember 19, 2015 at 11:56 AM
If it is not bokan don't fix it .
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GreyKnightDecember 19, 2015 at 11:58 AM
The "too much coffee" line explains the entire existence of this campaign, I think. It definitely has the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time nature.
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UnknownDecember 19, 2015 at 1:28 PM
But his shirt says to trust him, why shouldn't we?!
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Gothridge ManorDecember 19, 2015 at 3:58 PM
It's a good lesson on what not to do.
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Kickstarter - Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas (It's About Ninjas - Need We Say More? Apparently Not)

5 comments:

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