Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is back in a new 2nd Edition, and it looks to be glorious. +Jeff Talanian has gone all out with the art this round and I must say, I am extremely impressed. Jeff has a good eye for art but damn...
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| Del Teigeler did the art at The Tavern's Facebook Community |
What is AS&SH?
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is the creation of Jeffrey P. Talanian (Castle Zagyg, Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent, Mystery at Port Greely). It is a role-playing game inspired by the fiction of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, with rules descended from the original 1974 fantasy wargame and miniatures campaign rules as conceived by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
The heroes of an AS&SH game delve dungeons filled with horrifying monsters, lethal traps, and bewildering puzzles; they explore savage wilderness frontiers and hostile borderlands; they probe ancient ruins and investigate cursed tombs; they match steel against sorcery and sorcery against steel; and they plunder for gold, gems, and magical treasure.
This is the first KS that was not an impulse buy. I squirreled money away in anticipation of it. I even woke up a 6 am to be one of the first to back it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Erik... by the way, just saw you got my Tavern submission up on Facebook. Thanks for the props! Jeff's kickstarter is going to be awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe art and map for this is amazing. Definitely in.
ReplyDeleteGlynn Seal always delivers quality stuff!
ReplyDeleteBacked!
ReplyDeleteI'm interested. I wish there was a hardcopy backing level below $59. But I might go in for the PDF based on all the good words said about this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm proud to call +Jeff Talanian a friend -- not quite a RL friend, but more than a mere e-quaintance, as we both worked on the Yggsburgh project with Gary Gygax. Jeff's portions were more numerous than my own, as I had to withdraw from my lone sector (Rivergate) due to my late first wife's declining health in late 2006 (she passed in May 2007).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I remained "on" the project as cheerleader and sounding board of sorts until Gary's passing in 2008. In the 11 or so years since my selection to the team, I have emailed and/or chatted with Jeff over a few Internet media. I was proud to log in just after 6:30 AM EDT and pledge -- and see 39 others had done so before me!
Good things follow good people -- or, good managers and talented folk reap good rewards for their hard work. AS&SH Editor Dave Prata was also a part of the team and Jeff has done well in having Dave along side him. The success of this Kickstarter in such little time is a testament to Jeff's team's dedication to their craft and to their customers/the gaming community.
They got +RussNicholson to contribute over a dozen pieces for this.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, this project sort of dovetails with the fact that premium purchases make up a lot of some of these kickstarters, which sort of is a parallel to Monte Cook's Invisible Sun.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the page right at 5PM, about 34.28% of the revenue is for the tiers above $500, of which there are 8 total backers, paying an average of over $1200 per backer. If you add the $99 tier, that's another 20.79%, making it 55.07% and $15,732.00 total, with an average of $231.35 per 68 backers.
The "average backers" (basic book $59 tier) have the majority, but are less than the combined high backers. PDF users make up less than 2%.
I tie this into the Invisible Sun case since it seems more gamers are willing to pay for premium priced products. In this case while there are "regular priced" versions, even with the majority of bidders if you combine the first three tiers the KS wouldn't have been backed yet.
So I have to wonder if we're starting to see a trend of smaller followings of high bidders be responsible for projects. MCG is sort of taking the next logical step and cutting out the cheap versions. I have to wonder if we'll see an evolution of this trend.
The thing is, Invisible Sun ONLY had a premium buy in - $197 was the ground floor.
DeleteHigh end backers come into play on many KSs. But dont talk about the cash, talk about the percentage of backers.
High end backers are 9 as I write this. 2.7% of the backers.
So yes, there are some folks with money to spend, but they aren't as many as you infer.
I'm not saying that the high tier backers aren't the minority, but that apparently you can treat those as a market until itself. In other words, if this KS only had a $699 starting point, the KS would reach its goals. It's also interesting to note that the PDF only tier is rather small as well, where in many cases with other works the PDF only version is a signifcant chunk.
DeleteIn other words, we might start seeing an evolution where there will be some that cater only to those high tier backers, and I think Invisible Sun might be a step in that direction.
Meant to say $100 or more...
DeleteDarn. I didn't get the original as having a box didn't appeal to me. Now I can't resist. Sigh:-)
ReplyDeleteBacked with a quickness. Talanian is the man.
ReplyDeleteBacked with a quickness. Talanian is the man.
ReplyDeleteBacked! Great product that got me back in the GM's seat once again!
ReplyDelete