Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Urban Shadows Retrospective

Time to wrap up my Urban Shadows experiment with some analysis of what worked and what didn’t in the game. Some of this relates more to the group itself and some to how my personal meshes with the design ethos of Powered by the Apocalypse games.

Urban Shadows Retrospective

Overall the game did not work out as well as I had hoped. Perhaps my hopes were too high. I had a lot of fun running and playing this game at conventions and hoped to capture the same magic but on a larger scale with a prolonged game.

Part of the problem may have been a mismatch of expectations for my players and some of it was due to my own gamemastering style clashing with the rules. These two entwined not so much to ruin the game but to sap it of its potential.

Mismatch of Expectations

In retrospect the issue began in character creation. In talking with my players, they said it felt as if the playbooks had less in-built conflict than other Apocalypse games (like a Hardhold’s wants in Apocalypse World or the default assumption of dungeon delving in Dungeon World).

They also said that the playbooks seemed to describe more what you are than what your role in the game world is. Thus the players felt less initial direction and that led to less focus and excitement. This opinion mainly came from the player of the Veteran so perhaps it has more to do that particular playbook.

Obviously there is conflict in Urban Shadows. The Wolf’s territory and transformation both have serious downsides to deal with, ones I managed to bring up in play. Corruption threatens every character. But few of the playbooks are as set up to be threats to the others (besides the Hunter). In Apocalypse World, everything threatens a hardholder, brainers creep out everyone, a choppers gang are a bunch of thieves, and so on. PCs might be friendly but that is a long way from being friends.

But maybe for Urban Shadows I need to push more of that PC vs. PC tension myself.

The other problematic aspect of the game for the players was advancement. Bouncing between factions to earn experience felt artificial to the players. Rather than game the system, some chose to neglect interacting with other groups (which then sapped some of their enjoyment of the game).

My Fumbles

Some of my mistakes are the ones I often make. I failed to establish many NPC-PC-NPC or PC-NPC-PC triangles. I’m bad with characterizing NPCs on the fly.

Personally I definitely ran this game much less hard than I did at the convention. I wanted to see things play out and not snowball things from climax to climax. But for Powered by the Apocalypse games that doesn’t work. If you don’t push hard, the game tends to stall out. I didn’t push corruption and so no one got any of the corruption moves or risked retirement. The threats never rose to the level that required the PCs to worked together and so the three of them were forever in different scenes.

I had my reasons for avoiding hard moves. I’ve seen the effects of being overly aggressive under other MCs. Under more forceful MCs, the snowball and increasing violence turned the entire setting too grimdark. Most of the NPCs died needlessly (i.e. with no time to care about them) leading to the PCs becoming murder hobos by necessity.

I don’t want that. I want to collaborate and build a world rich in NPCs and relationships. But doing that while keeping thing snowballing enough to make the Apocalypse World games run well is a difficult proposition I haven’t figured out yet.

Figuring Out the Group

In terms of direction, this group of players in particular had issues with self-directed action. With a sandbox approach, soft moves (which is my fault) and little initial direction this was a recipe for a lukewarm game. Supporting that line of reasoning the player of the Tainted (who has a strong direction and some of the harder moves) had perhaps the strongest plotline.

Not All My Fault

There were a few things I blame the system for however. I find Storm and Threat categories too artificial. In my prep I found myself struggling to shoehorn threats into the supplied categories.

I don’t need the supplied structure. I know the impulses and methods/moves of the threats I create and the added paperwork just doesn’t help me.

The Takeaway

Going forward, I think I either need to push harder or provide the players more direction. Perhaps giving them a patron might be a wise course of action.

All in all I think this experience has convinced me of two things. First Powered by the Apocalypse games require hard moves even for ongoing games and that might be incompatible with a semi stable cast of characters (assuming violence is an option). Second, these games might not be the best fit for my GMing style.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Kickstarter Campaign Reviews, Part II

This week it is time for part 2 of my kickstarter campaign reviews. These games successfully funded between the end of 2013 and latter part of 2014. Most are long complete but a few are still dribbling out rewards. The majority were well run but others experienced some rough patches. Let’s have a look.

The Strange

Monte Cook’s Cypher system based game of interdimensional exploration raised a massive $418,478 (over 6 times the desired goal) from 2,883 backers in November 2013. As you’d expect, this came with a huge list of stretch goals, the last of which arrived early last year.

The rest of the campaign also went well. The main product appeared exactly on time, communication was good, and there were no serious delays.

The one downside is personal. I’ve lost all interest in both the game system and setting. It looks pretty and packed with ideas, it is just that I’ve moved on.

Demon: the Descent Prestige Edition

Then in December 2013, 2,076 backers pledged $150,235 to create prestige editions of Demon; the Descent. Tripling the goal allowed the team to produce a lot of extra books from material on the children of demons to a fiction anthology to a detailed look at Seattle.

Demon itself is an awesome game and I’m really enjoying running it for my online group. The prestige edition received shiny textured cover with a nice silk bookmark. It arrived delayed only by two months. The stretch goals also arrived fairly quickly with decent editing and production values. Pretty good by kickstarter standards.

TimeWatch

Now for a kickstarter that had some rough going. You’d think a time travel game would arrive early?

TimeWatch had a stupendous kickstarter raising 25 times its goal with $105,881 from 1,980 backers. As usual this meant many stretch goals and promises to keep.

There was a bad patch where the creator wasn’t very responsive and the book ended up being pushed further and further back.

Thankfully things have turned around. I received my limited edition book after almost a two year delay. The rest of the books have since appeared at a rapid clip. With Simon Rogers now helping with communications, we backers could feel assured that everything is back on track.

Mecha vs. Kaiju

One of the smallest kickstarters I backed, Mecha vs. Kaiju is a Fate based game that pits the PCs, pilots of giant robots, against equally giant monsters. It funded successfully with $4,600 (for a $3,500 goal) with only 135 backers.

The book was delayed as usual but communication was good and five months late I had my hard copy.

All in all a good game, which I played it at DunDraCon. The creator has gone on to publish several other books.

Deluxe Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition

And now for a really big game that led to a very big book.

The 20th Anniversary Edition of Mage: the Ascension raised $672,899 thanks to 3,926 backers, almost earning 10 times the original goal. This spawned a massive list of stretch goals for an already impressive product.

I expect to be following this kickstarter for years to come. When it funded in April 2014, the deluxe version was promised for spring 2015. As one might guess it took much longer than that, My copy arrived in March 2016 and I expect books (or pdfs at least) to trickle in for the rest of the decade.

This being Onyx Path, I can expect at least monthly updates on the progress of the various promised books and products. So far we’ve gotten a Quickstart, a book for Infernalism, epub versions of Penny Dreadful, and a practical guide to Magick.

That still leaves Truth Until Paradox 2, Gods, Monsters, and Other Familiar Strangers: An M20 Character Compendium, Book of Secrets, the M20 Art Book, Mage 20th Anniversary Edition Cookbook, and the Book of the Fallen.

A lot to look forward to.

Worlds in Peril

This Apocalypse World-based game expands the system to the world of super heroes. Though I don’t particularly like its mechanic of multiple playbooks (one for Origin and one for Role), it does bring fresh ideas to the Powered by the Apocalypse world.

The kickstarter itself raised $20,953 for a $6,000 goal from 730 backers in May 2014. Most of the extra money went toward art (appropriately for a comic inspired game). The final product got pushed back from October 2014 to the following May partly because of this. Thankfully we were kept entertained with many art and archetype previews.

Overall it was a good campaign. I used the game for a short “three shot” and definitely would consider using it again.

Urban Shadows

I recently finished a campaign of this Apocalypse World system game about supernatural factions within the modern world and played/run several great conventions games as well. So I can say the game itself is pretty good.

The kickstarter campaign while satisfying has been dragging a bit of late.

Urban Shadows earned $35,209 (for a $3,000 goal) from 1,076 backers in October 2014. While they promised the book right away, in fact it wasn’t until the next summer that I could finally consider the main project filled with the arrival of the final pdf.

The project has been slow with the stretch goals: extra archetypes and a supplement book called Dark Streets. The book and some of the archetypes finally arrived this spring and contains a number of pre-developed cities and advice for the game. That still leaves a few archetypes to look forward to, such as the Immortal (which I really want to have for my next game).

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Urban Shadows: Schemes and Claws

Finally we reach the conclusion of my Urban Shadows campaign. With a baby due in two weeks, I needed to wrap this story up fast. Complicating matters my players’ schedules failed to align and I only had two of them for the final session.

Schemes and Claws

We started with the love letters from last time beginning with Sam.

Psychic energy washes unseen across the city, closing portals and shoring up weak spots.

Sam opens his eyes. Around him mediums, wizards, and the attuned open their eyes and unlock hands. Their gaze focuses slowly in the dim light and gradually their ring breaks up into knots. Several rub their heads from the sudden drain in occult power.

A few of the men and women stumble out of the back room and into the bar. Others head home for the night.

Vasquez lies on the leather couch. “I need a place to crash until I regain my mojo.”

Sam sighs. “Fine you can use the couch.”

And he begins to pay off his debt to the wizard.

As the old man exits the room himself, he immediately spots trouble. Outside five spectral figures materialize in the evening air. Sam recognizes some “former” monster hunters including Skylar, a particularly nasty individual who perished facing down a fae. Sam was supposed to help watch his back.

Sam rolls +Mind, fails, and marks Night.

The ghosts heft translucent bats and knives as they move through the doorway and nearby walls.

The patrons begin to flee through the available exits as Sam backs into the back room. Piper pulls out a crude baton of wrought iron from behind the bar.

Vasquez pulls himself up as the door opens. “They are here for me!”

Sam ignores him and quickly makes some marks along the wall.

He let’s it out and succeeds with a 10+. He takes no corruption and chooses to frighten the ghosts away.

Runes glow where he touches creating a barrier impenetrable to the spirits. Two try to pass through anyway. As their corpus burns and sizzles, they and their companions flee.

A minute later, Sam ventures out into the mostly deserted bar.

“It looks like they are gone,” Piper says.

“We’d better close up, Piper. Could you get some of these people back home.” Sam looks around. “Sandra, you too, get home. I’ll stay here and watch the wizard.”

As she leaves, Piper shouts back to Sam. “Be careful. I see a group of ghosts camping on the corner.”
Anders rolls a soft hit with +Blood for his love letter’s custom move.

Ander lounges in his apartment after dark. Beneath him the couch groans under 500 pounds of muscle and fur.

His ears swivel as something taps on the window glass. He sees a cat marking the surface with its paw. A familiar symbol takes shape. The werewolf glances at the earthen jug.

Unseen something chitinous and black crawls along the ceiling.

Anders slides the window open. The cat crouches nearby looking out at the street. Anders smells the stench of the Passenger on it.

He lashes out with his claws, eviscerating the animal.

Anders gets a soft hit to Unleash. Something bad happens a little earlier than expected.

As the blood splatters the alleyway, a food truck pulls to a halt out front. A dozen oriental men pour out, armed and looking for trouble.

Then something bites him on the neck.

Anders fails his +Mind roll to avoid the bite but succeeds on a +Spirit roll to resist the poison. He gets a -1 ongoing to use his supernatural powers.

The beast crushes the strange hybrid scorpion centipede in his massive hand even as he feels the poison rushing through his body.

Anders slams the window shut. Outside he hears people rushing up the stairs to his apartment.

He looks back at the window and down at the alley. Two thugs crouch below.

Then a third flies through the shattered window at him.

Without thinking the werewolf grabs the man, slamming him the ground and sending his short swords spinning across the room. An instant later his entrails decorate Anders’s dining room.

This time he gets a hard hit on Unleash.

The front door crashes down as the men burst into his apartment. Anders leaps out the window disappearing into the night.

He gets another hard hit on his Escape roll. He chooses as his option to leave something important, his laptop, behind.

After putting some distance between himself and the thugs, Anders seeks out a local black market doctor. Mrs. Florence isn’t dirty but she isn’t above patching someone up without reporting it to the authorities.

He hits the streets with +Mortality and succeeds.

The gray-haired woman answers the door, unsurprised to see him. Anders explains he was poisoned. He gives her the remains of the bug and she takes some of his blood.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to help with this,” she says examining the creature. “You might need an expert.”

“I’ll ask one tomorrow,” he growls. “Just see what you can learn.”
After a night of prowling and sleeping rough, Anders returns to his apartment.

He finds his door repaired. A post it note on the door says. “Hope this helps. Call me if need more assistance. -Akiva.” A phone number at the bottom completes the message.

He pockets the note and enters the apartment. Everything has been cleaned up and repaired. No blood, no body. But also no laptop.

Anders heads out and gets himself a new computer so he can work. Then he visits “Doctor” Florence.

The old veterinarian explains the results of the tests were inconclusive. She directs him to a shop known as the Chimera.

Anders hurries over but finds it a burned out husk. He hears movement within however and creeps inside. Past the wrecked front space, he finds a partially intact storeroom and an African-American woman sweeping soot and charred stock out of the way.

“What do you want?” she snaps.

“I’m Anders. I need to know about this bug and its poison.” He hands her a vial containing its remains.

She shakes it. “I’ve seen something like this before. I’m Olga. Yes, it looks like a Jincan.”

“Jincan?”

“It is a ritually created poison. A jug of spiders, scorpions and other venomous insects is buried in the earth. They are forced to devour each other until only one remains, a preternaturally poisonous creature. They say its venom can counter supernatural abilities, leaving the victim mortal.”

Anders rubs the wound on his neck. His hand comes away wet with puss. “Is there a cure?”

“Yes, but,” she gestures around her, ”we are out of stock.”

“I see. What happened?”

“Some thugs on motorcycles tossed some Molotov cocktails in here. It must be Mary’s Hellions.”

“I’ll look into it. Order some more of the cure.”
As morning dawns at Sam’s, the sleepy old man is roused from his watch over Vasquez by a knock at the front door.

Sam spots Officer Harper standing at the door with his head held at an odd angle.

“What is it Jack?” Sam asks opening the door.

“I. Need. Assistance,” the man stammers.

Sam leads Harper in, donning his glasses as he closes the door. He spots the multihued blur of the Passenger over Harper’s shoulder.

“What happened to the cat?” Sam asks.

Jack reaches for some paper and Sam slides a pencil over. Rapidly he sketches a bloody scene in an alley. A hulking werewolf lurks over the carnage. In a window the possessed man draws a symbol.

The Jincan, Sam realizes. A hunter organization that uses oriental mysticism, criminal cartels and old-fashioned poison to destroy creatures of the night.

Sam gets a good hit on his Face to a Name roll.

“Look possessing people is not right,” he tells the Passenger. “Why don’t you head to the pound and get another cat.”

“I need help,” the spirit repeats. “Cat has no...hands.”

Sam sighs. “Alright go to the pound, get a dog. I’ll look around for someone willing. Give me a week and day before you go grabbing another mortal.”

“Yes.”

As Harper and his Passenger leave, Sam starts thinking of his other problem. The Jincan have poisons that can neutralize supernatural powers. He decides to stock up on the antitoxin.

Just then Vasquez emerges from the backroom. “Thanks for the protection.”

“That’s fine,” Sam says. “Now we are even.”
Ander tracks Mary’s Hellions to a nearby biker bar. As he hangs around outside he begins noting the license plates on the motorcycles.

A burly pair of bikers exits as he writes the numbers down.

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?” one shouts.

“I don’t mean anything,” he says as the men walk right up to him.

“You better not,” the larger of the pair says giving the werewolf a good shove.

Anders gets a soft hit on his Persuade roll so they don’t outright start a fight.


Anders refuses to take the bait and simply walks away.

Instead he calls Akiva on his cell.

“Oh hello, I was looking forward to talking to you,” the demon says.

“I saw that you cleaned up my place.”

“Yes, just a small favor. Perhaps you would be willing to help me out?”

“What do you need?”

“I have a contract with some ghosts that got evicted from their home. Perhaps you know something about that. Anyway, they need revenge on a mischievous wizard named Christine Day. They want her eliminated.”

“I’ll look into it.”

He hangs up and walks away from the bar. Then Percy turns the corner just ahead of him, his eyes glues to his phone. He turns in Anders direction and looks up. The wizard rushes over.

“Hey! Can you help me?” Percy gasps, his eyes darting around the street.

“What’s the problem?”

Percy glances at his phone as it chimes. “I ran into Akiva. He just appeared out of nowhere with a hungry look on his face. I bolted.” He steps closer scanning the crowds for the demon. “Vasquez and Neema both vanished. I know they made some sort of pact with the demons in town. I think they called them in. Now Akiva is after me. I need protection.”

Anders considers it. “Stick by me.”

Percy’s phone chimes again. He looks at the message and tells Anders, “hey I know something that could help you.”

“What is that?”

“Where those people who attacked you are. Or rather where they will be.”

“Okay, where?”

Percy looks at his phone again. “This way,” he says heading up the street.
Elsewhere, Sam visits the Chimera for supplies. Warily he creeps into the ruined shop.

An elderly proprietor greets him. “As you can see we are closed.”

“Sorry to hear that. What happened?”

The old man tells him how they heard the rumble of motorcycles just before incendiaries were thrown through the window.

As he finishes the tale, Olga exits the back with a box and a list of stock that survived the flames. Sam eyes the strange bug she has in a jar and put in a request for some herbs.

“A lot of demand for those,” she comments.
Percy leads Anders to a corner in a bad neighborhood as the sun sets.

He looks at his phone again. “Okay, they will be here in 10 minutes. Just stand there for a bit. Then we need to move.” He looks at the roof tops and the phone. He points. “There.”

Anders looks up and checks his watch. “A minute until nightfall. You sure?”

“Yes. They’ll be here quick.”

A few minutes later, Percy crouches next to the now hulking werewolf atop the building. A car pulls up the corner below them.

The phone chimes. “That’s them,” Percy says.

Despite gaining +1 forward Anders still fails to Unleash.

The werewolf leaps down. As he claws the men in the back to shreds, the others open fire on him. The bullets barely harm him but it buys the survivors enough time to peel away before he can finish them.

The gang takes 3-harm (killing several of them) and he takes 1 after his armor.

Breathing heavily Anders watches them go. Bullets fall to the ground, pushed out of his rapidly closing wounds.

Anders gets a hard hit on his Let It Out roll, heals 1-harm with his regeneration and takes no corruption.
Sam wanders the bar as evening turns to night. The crowd seems focused on the rumors of ghosts and how they seem to be popping up everywhere in the city.

The old mystic considers if perhaps last night’s ritual had some unintended consequences when an old enemy wheels himself into the bar.

Sam coolly watches Lukas push his wheelchair across the room. The crippled man’s grimace grows deeper as he gets closer.

Sam fails his Old Friends, Old Favors move. So they hate each other.

Sam recalls their previous struggles. Deals thwarted, souls stolen. What could bring Lukas here?

Lukas stops in front of him. His mouth opens as if he’s tasted something bitter. “I need your help.”

Sam sits down and waits.

“Look I had a deal with O’Malley. Some internal politics thing. But that bastard ran out on me. Now the guy we were trying to sabotage is after me.”

“So?”

“So. I need protection.”

“I don’t care. Find someplace else.”

“Hey! I know what is going on in the city. The ghosts. Akiva’s plans. The whole works.”

“I’m not letting you stay here.”

“You are going to want to hear this. I know you care about this town.”

“So you need protection from the demons?”

We consult the workshop rules. A brooch to make one invisible to demons seems possible. I tell Sam it will leave him drained. -1 ongoing until he rests.

Lukas nods.

“I’ll make you something to protect you. Then you leave.”

“Fine.”

Lukas quickly relays how Akiva has contracts requiring the removal of the Cthonian Eye. He’s nabbed half the survivors already. The others however managed to open a gateway through the Underworld to summon up the Verge, a device for seeing into the future. “That’s why all the ghosts are about. The Verge helps them manifest.”

“So where is it?”

“I’ll draw a map,” Lukas says pulling a napkin down off the bar.

“What if they move it?”

“It’s the size of a bus. It’s not going anywhere.”

Sam takes the map and goes downstairs. In his workshop, he forges a brooch to hide Lukas from the demons. The strain leaves him feeling ancient beyond even his advanced years. He emerges a half hour later and completes their deal.

As he watches Lukas vanish into the night, he considers his options. He owes Akiva and it is never good to owe a demon. He considers calling him.

But first he sleeps.

We use Old Friends, Old Favors again.
Percy looks at his cell phone. He makes a text and a message comes back instantly. He looks at Anders for a long minute.

“So you were looking for Mary’s Hellions?”

“Yes.” Anders says. “How do you know that?”

“I hear things. Anyway I know where they are headed. But we need to go to the Underworld.”

Anders nods.

“Follow me.”

Percy leads the werewolf to a ruined house and into the basement. He knocks on a closet door and then heads inside. On the other end they emerge into a forest of dead trees. The wizard takes him along a misty path to a rough road littered with bones.

The roar of engines approaches.

A few minutes later a dozen bikers accompanied by ghosts ride up the route.

The werewolf attacks. In moments the bikers lie dead or dying, their ghostly allies temporarily shredded.

This time he gets a hard hit on his Unleash roll. 4 harm to them at no cost to him.

As Anders cleans the gore from his claws, Percy speaks up. “We, er, I have a favor to ask you.”

“What is that?” he growls.

“I need you to eliminate Akiva. He’s still after me and he is going to keep coming.”

“Sure.”

Percy looks at his phone and grimaces. Slowly he punches a number into it. “Hey Akiva? I’d like to make a deal. Where? Sure, I’ll be there in an hour.”

He turns to Anders. “He says he will meet me behind a biker bar. The Strip.”

“I know that place.”
As they reach the alleyway, Percy quickly casts a spell over Anders. “This will bend light around you, making you invisible.”

Anders nods though he isn’t sure Percy still sees him.

Akiva then emerges from the back of the bar, accompanied by two lesser demons.

“So you’ve come around,” Akiva says.

“I just want to live,” Percy says.

“Too bad about that.” Akiva begins to raise his arm when his phone rings. The golden-haired demon sneers. “Don’t run off.”

Akiva checks the caller ID. “Sam, how nice to hear from you.”

“Yes, I think we should team up against a mutual threat,” the old mystic says.

“Which is?”

“The Cthonian Eye, the survivors at least, have obtained the Verge. It needs to be shut down. You want them dead too so let’s work together.”

“Oh I’d be happy to help, let me get-”

Akiva never finishes his sentence. Instead an increasingly bored and invisible werewolf rips him limb from limb. As blood splatter reveals the hulking beast, Akiva’s companions flee the alley.

As Anders munches on Akiva’s corpse, Percy quietly excuses himself.

The end. That’s where we ended it. Akiva’s plan dead along with him. The Cthonian Eye (the both of them) able to see the future but hunted. Ghosts on the loose and the Collector sealed away. And monster hunters moving in.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Kickstarter Campaign Reviews 2017, Part 1

Okay I am horribly late on reporting on my kickstarters. Normally I’d do an annual report in October. Of last year.

Over the past four years I’ve backed 31 projects, all roleplaying related, though I’ve been slowing down in recent years. Which is good since given how long the wait is for stretch goals (and in some cases the main product), just keeping track of what I’ve been promised is getting hard.

So for the next few weeks I am going to delve into each kickstarter campaign and examine how well it did and how well the creators delivered.

Hillfolk

My first kickstarter and one of the first to complete.

Robin Laws’s game of emotional struggle launched in October 2013 and made $93,845 (30 times its original goal) with 2,185. The result was an impressive list of guest authors each supplying their own campaign frames for use with the game system. Despite spawning an entire second book of these ideas the final product was delayed about five months. A series of pitch of the month then ran for another year before I could close the book on this kickstarter.

Throughout the organizers kept us up to date on the progress and with an advanced PDF already in hand, there wasn’t much frustration to be had.

As for the game itself, I’ve reviewed it here.

Mummy: the Curse

Ah, Mummy: the Curse (in more way than one).

One of Onyx Path’s early kickstarters, it began well. In January 2014 it made $104,831 (over 3 times its goal) from 1,767 backers.

While a seven month delay isn’t bad by kickstarter standards it was longer than expected. Much of this was beyond the creator’s control with various snafus in production. But again good communication helped immensely.

Where things seem to have gotten off track is with the stretch goals. Only a short while ago did the final nonfiction book (Cursed Necropolis Rio) finally arrived. There is still an unnamed fiction work due. I will be glad to finally cross this kickstarter off my list.

The other downside is that the line was the last of the 1st edition splats and thus almost immediately became outdated.

I’ve reviewed the main book here.

Telepath Tactics

My one video game kickstarter that I’ve backed, Telepath Tactics was not as satisfying as I hoped. This turn based strategy game seemed right up my alley but ultimately I found it less enjoyable (or maybe just too hard) for my liking.

The kickstarter did well, earning $41,259 (or over twice its goal) with 1,733 backers in April 2013. The stretch goals expanded the game well though the process of constructing the game took much longer than expected turning out be twice as long as planned and a year late.

I’m still glad I contributed even if I did not enjoy the end product as much as I hoped.

Obsidian Portal

In some ways this kickstarter has been very successful for me and in other ways I don’t know if I’ll ever get all that was promised.

The $86,308 raised from 1,692 backers wave over 17 times the original goal and the stretch goals promised became more and more ambitious. After funding in April 2013, they hoped to have much of it in place within a few months. In practice it took much longer and many features have yet to be delivered. Communication has been poor and they don’t post updated on kickstarter but rather their blog. Near as I can tell the last communication was two years ago.

Still the main goal was accomplished. As for myself I got a lifetime membership. A few more years and my pledge will have paid for itself.

Kingdom

From a kickstarter that went off the rails to one of the best I backed.

Ben Robbin’s story game made $30,303 from 1,113 exceeding its goal by an order of magnitude, Final delivery of the physical product was only two months delayed and well worth the wait. Communication was clear and stretch goals kept simple.

Ben has gone on to do two more kickstarters, equally well run. I’ll report on them in future weeks.

RPG Music

One last kickstarter to review for the week.

RPG Music was a great kickstarter: good value, almost immediate returns, and good communication. It was small (making $1,371 on a $500 goal from 201 and backers) but satisfactory. The one thing that went wrong had nothing to do with the kickstarter itself.

The people behind the project tried to run one that was an order of magnitude larger. 10 times the number of songs, 10 times the goal, 10 times the pledge costs. Obviously the last one is what sank it. Even if it meant that the backers were getting the same value, the price of admission went over the threshold that most of us (from the first kickstarter) would contribute.