It seems The Taverners have taken it upon themselves to make a new challenge - who can find gaming Kickstarters with possible red flags. Now, just because something raises flags, doesn't mean its not a valid project. It does mean you shouldn't just jump in without doing some vetting on your own.
Which takes us to Valley of Kildar | For 5th Edition and other RPG games. Its a setting and adventure package. The map looks fine if a bit simple although many old school gamers would find issue with the walled off nature of the setting. These are not flags, just observations.
here come the flags:
1 - PDF buy in is just $5 American. For that you get -
• Color Map of the region
• "Zoom in" maps : town, village, forest, mountain and more...
• More than 20 quests (adventures) ready to play
• 12 dungeons with complete descriptions and layouts
• 15 buildings with complete descriptions, facades and interiors
• An illustrated Bestiary containing 12 "monsters"
• More than 20 NPCs with description and background of each character
• 32 battlemap sections
How will all of this be produced for 5 bucks?
More importantly -
2 - Print plus PDF buy in is $19 American. That apparently includes shipping.
It includes all the above in print plus:
• 32 battlemap sections printed on cardboard
• DM Screen
When the price is too good to be true, it means one of two things:
a - it literally is too good to be true and its a scam - or -
b - the project creator is clueless as to the cost of his project
I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here and go with clueless.
As an aside, there is no indication as to the size of the printed color map of the region not the printed "Zoom in" maps.
1st created, 1 backed.
the valley might be aggressively walled in, but you should be able to follow the river out, right?
ReplyDeleteUnless it's not a river and instead it's a trench
DeleteThe valley reminds me of Thunder rift
ReplyDeleteI suspect they are just dipping their toe in the water. They set the price crazy low so that they will get something for it and can buy out the project cheaply if there is a tiny bit of funding.
ReplyDeleteThere is no video that I see so these could be kids. No knowledge of it, just speculating.
If they use CreateSpace to do their printing they can likely get their product printed for less than $10, perhaps as low as $5 given the number of pages.
They might be kids doing this which would be like the scene big, "$167 dollars!"
So any profit will be considered a huge score.
I'm going to back it to see how it goes.
And speaking of being a newbie, I didn't realize I'd come out as Unknown. This is Hal Burdick.
Deletethey talk about:
Delete- booklets (plural)
- maps (plural)
- 32 cardboard battlemap sections
- GM screen
The last 3 aren't going to be done POD, Create space or otherwise.
Print backers are going to be a net loss for them I suspect, and that's assuming the that everyone contributing art and writing is doing so for free
Unless they have access to totally free professional printing equipment and supplies, there's no possible way they're getting the physical rewards out for under $19 a person, or even anywhere close to that. Without economies of scale, multiple color maps and 32 battlemap sections alone are going to run double that or more.
DeleteI don't think this is a scam, but the creators seem utterly clueless about what the rewards are going to cost. In the end, it amounts to the same thing: backers are likely going to get screwed.