LotFP Referee Book Indiegogo Update - This IS How Project Updates SHOULD Be

Wow. Is the latest update on the LotFP Referee Book brutally honest? Yes. Is it spam? Fuck no! This is what a project update should be. No holds barred, no vagueness, no bullshit dates that aren't going to happen anyway. 

I'm thankful James shared this via the project's page. I suspect not everyone follows him on G plus or catches him at Cons and this is probably the best way to ensure all backers have access to the update.


posted by James Raggi
Nov 24, 2017 • 1:09PM PST
Update November 2017

OK. Media-mandated update.

First note about why no updates: Because if I don't have anything definite to tell you, I'm wasting your time and mine. I back a fair number of crowdfunding campaigns, and I hate 'just keeping in touch' updates. It's spam.

As it was I was telling people at Gen Con "my part will be done by Spiel" and then at Spiel "by Dragonmeet" and now Dragonmeet's next week and it won't be ready by then. Hoping by the end of the year.

Because one thing I've learned over the last few years is that saying "I'll have it done by x date," or that anyone else telling me "I'll have my thing done by x date," (you all think I like only having one commercial release for the whole year?) basically is wishful thinking, so why in the world keep telling people that when I am quite obviously full of shit with it?
So that's why no official updates. If you're actually wondering if I'm still alive, I'm not hard to find either on social media or at conventions, but I don't consider it anything special to say anything on this specific website.

So the FAQ:

Why is it taking so long? Honest answer: I'm an idiot. Seriously. I'm going for an AD&D 1e DMG level of masterpiece. To give you an all-time great work of gaming. That's pretty much impossible to do on purpose, but even missing that mark it should be damn good. And writing such a thing, and not a workaday kind of thing, is significantly more difficult, and there are other excuses that aren't good excuses, and I'm slow as shit even at the best of times.

Is the project dead? FUCK NO. It's coming. Pretty much every crowdfunding thing I've ever done has been late as shit, and that's not at all a good thing, but it arrives. (and after the Ref book stuff there's still odds and bobs from other campaigns to get to as well...)

This is coming.

Are you working on other things at the same time? Besides managing other peoples' projects (mainly just acting as traffic cop), not really except for the few weeks in Nov/Dec doing the Free RPG Day thing, which has just been monsters or spells, projects of disconnected items that don't need grand narratives. (yes, it's that time again... will be out of the way very soon.)

So shouldn't there be some sort of penalty for this? OK, that's more a question I made up, but to let you know that every day there's no Ref book available, I'm losing quite a bit of income. Rules & Magic sales were up 50% between 2015 and 2016, and up another 25% for 2017. I have every reason to believe a Ref book would have sold similarly had it been available during that time. There has been a financial cost, so those of you into such things, you can enjoy that I've lost that while dragging my ass on the project.

For those of you being patient, I thank you. For those of you not so patient, I understand, and I just ask that you keep your understandable discontent to less-than-mad-rage levels because it's all going to be worth it.

Now for the audience distraction poll... one of the people set to be a "guest commentator" on the book is Frank Mentzer. He's been put into the naughty house recently. Is this a problem for you?