Kickstarter Current Thoughts: 05-07-2017

Way back in the day, I backed many a Kickstarter projects.

Over the last say, two years, I've cut way back. Way back.

This is due to several factors.

Kickstarter is terrible at allowing a user to know what a vendor is about. There should be some type of dashboard that each vendor has where I can see customer satisfaction, how often they hit their marks, how late their product is, and other information. Things like posts before funding, posts after funding. It's always telling if you see that between the time a late project fulfilled and when it started the posts count goes way down.

Instead, we get what? Here's how many projects this company did. Wow. Thanks. That's not really useful information in telling me anything at a glance as I now have to delve into each project and see how they went.

It's 2017. Big data is a thing. This isn't some weird request to provide information that isn't instantly available with existing technology. Kickstarter, get your head into the game of providing better customer service!

Okay, so that's one.

Two, I've had trials and tribulations. Let's see, a few years ago, my formerly awesome mechanic just completely missed like $3,500 worth of repairs that my old Saturn needed. So it was new car time. New cars are expensive.

My mom's been hospitalized a few times. Life doesn't get easier when you have a chronic condition like diabetes.

I was hospitalized! Parking in an alley is awesome in most seasons but in the winter it's challenging. So challenging that I got caught on a huge snow mound and had to get underneath my car with a shovel to get out of it. The reward? A few slipped disks that prevented me from doing anything outside of laying down without being in excruciating pain. I was very lucky in that three months of physical therapy and a few shots to the spine were able to restore most of my mobility and make the pain manageable.

I was laid off! After 19 years at my last gig, they had decided, "You know, it makes more sense for us to have like, what, five job fairs and fire the people already working here" Corporate America for the win yeah?

That one worked out a bit better for me as I have a job making significantly more money and every time I talk to peeps from the old place they have some new issue to harp on.


Three, Kickstarter projects are often on sale. Anyone heard of Zombicide: Black Plague?



I didn't get the exclusives. I also didn't wait for it to be published. I also got it for 50% off. This doesn't count other board games that get deep discounts like The Others, another one I got for almost or 50% off. I ordered it and Amazon sent it to me the same day.

Anyone remember The Grand Temple of Jing? It was about this time I was starting to get leery of these games. I don't know if gamers are just terrible project managers or if they are a cursed lot of mankind because that project was massively late. two years or something late. I picked up my copy from The Miniature Market on some crazy blowout. Think I paid like $20 or $25 for it.  A Beautiful book by the way.

How about Razor Coast? Picked up the whole lot for more than 50% off.

So yeah, outside of some great exclusives or 'freebies' like giving you the PDF with the physical copy, I'm not seeing a lot of benefit for backing these Kickstarters when so many of them are just poorly managed and late.

Four, lack of accountability. Kickstarter continues to hide behind "it's not a preorder, it's funding a process" or some nonsense that if you took it to a bank and asked for a loan they'd laugh you out. As I alluded to above, way too many of the kick starters I've picked up have been the results of late or bad management. Heck, I didn't' even get started on Sedition Wars that decided for the good of the game to screw the initial backers in some obscure ways that didn't, by the way, make the good of the game viable.

On failures, I've backed? I was a backer of the Tome of Horrors, both of 'em. Should have known the warning signs on that one. Sigh. That doesn't count Drake.

That doesn't count some that are technically still going like Imbrian Art's where they're literally using new Kickstarter, sending out the goods to those people on the new Kickstarter first, and eventually will get to the original guys who sent them money. It's not that Jody isn't an awesome sculptor. It isn't that he hasn't had his own 'curses' but damn that's a shitty thing to do to people who originally believed in you.

 Another one that's long overdue is Assimilation Alien Host. It took in over $50 thousand and it's been bleeding out at a slow fraction. Thankfully the creator decided to actual start communicating with the backers again and on a regular basis and most people are happy with the communication skills and the slow but steady progress forward.

Five, there's awesome stuff out there right now! That isn't being Kickstarted! Don't get me wrong, I get that Kickstarter for many companies, like Goodman Games, is probably more of a marketing and preorder thing to engage with their potential customers than a vital necessity, but in the meantime, there are publications like Pathfinder Bestiary 6 out there.



You want it? You want it now? You simply go buy it. Done.

Sixth, I'm crazy. I have a problem just kind of backing a thing. Like there were some awesome awesome dwarf miniatures out recently, The Iron Crows!. My nature would've put me at a pretty high pledge level on that one.

Seventh, I'm not playing or painting! My new job is cool in that it's only four days a week, but it's four ten hour days, with an unpaid hour for lunch, and it's about an hour both ways so it's a thirteen hour day. Not complaining but it is a schedule that makes me pretty unavailable for anything during the week because I have to be up so early. And then on the weekend the dreaded adulting strikes! So even though I've bought the Other and Black Plague, I haven't done much more than look at them.

Why on earth would I back anything else?

Mind you there are a few I've backed just because they looked fun and were from companies that I trusted. In reality, I did not need to back Godoman Games and their new boxed set of the Duo but I like the Twain so even though I never used the Runequest stuff, I wanted to throw some support at them.

But overall? Yeah, my spending on Kickstarter, unless it gets serious about not only accountability, but customer friendliness in data sharing, is going to continue going down.

How about everyone else? How are you doing with Kickstarter? More? Less? The same? Am I way off my gourd here?

Classic Reprints and Modern Sensibilities

Gary Con is an Old School Renaissance (OSR) convention.

It's not my thing but I've never been much of a convention goer anyway. I mainly hit the convention scene to either run games or to find out the latest news and of course, buy the latest and sometimes exclusive products.

At this Gary Con, Goodman Games made a few announcements.

One of them was Kickstarter for DCC Lankhmar. This news didn't strike me as particularly impressive because it's the worst kept secret ever. Goodman Games already has a few adventurers out for it and it's a known factor that it was going to be coming out anyway.

On the other hand, the announcement of Classic D&D Modules being reprinted and having original stats and 5th edition stats? That was interesting.

And for most, it was met with a cheer.

Some insisted it was needless and a cash grab.

Cash grab? The old joke that applies to so many hobbies also applies here. "How do you get a small fortune in role-playing games?"

"Start with a large fortune."

But are all of the complaints about the nature of reprinting the classics invalid?

1. It's a cash grab: Well, it's true that Goodman Games may find it more profitable than Wizards of the Coast to publish a book. Looking at Wizards of the Coast, they've only done the work on a handful of the 5th edition books. A small handful in a small handful of products. If it's a cash grab, it's a weirdly designed one.

2. Goodman Games boasted that 4th edition was the game that Gary would have developed! As a gamer, that sounds like nonsense. As a person who knows what marketing is? Why wouldn't he say it? And in actual Dungeon Crawl Classics? Here's where I challenge you. If you never played Sellswords of Punjar, you missed out on a great heavily Appendix N influenced adventure. Slums, beggar kings, hidden dangers, hidden treasures and more! Hell, I wish that we were getting a Kickstarter of Punjar as opposed to Lankhmar.

It's not that I don't love Lankhmar, but man, I'm a mature gamer. That means I've seen TSR's version, I've seen Mongoose Games version. I've read the books the material is based on a few times. I'm not sure how much "new" material that Goodman will be able to bring to the table.

3. How can they afford to do it? They can't do anything without a Kickstarter. Again, as a gamer and regular dude, I can see the 'questioning' here. But let's come to reality. Many companies aren't using Kickstarter JUST for the funding, they're using it as a marketing tool. As the fees and issues of Kickstarter rise and ebb, the utility of the device may change. But for now? It's 'hip, Kickstarter' and it's 'cool' and it acts, regardless of what Kickstarter or any publisher tells you, as a great preorder system so publishers can figure out how much to print and make. Does every game publisher NEED to acKickstarter? Probably not. Is using it right now still a good deal and a great way of advertising and building a community? Apparently so.

Now feeling that the whole system of Kickstarter is being abused as only a preorder system? Again, I can see where that line of thinking is coming from. But hey, actually DOING things is hard. You know, like coming out with a rival system to Kickstarter? Like putting your own skin in the game? Like having some system where you can't be an established player? And who's going to vet all that? Counter culture is weird to me sometimes. "OMG! I can't like the thing anymore! But I used to love the thing!"

4. These adventures don't need any conversion! What next? Conversion for the old coloring books and the hex maps? Some of these points were pretty funny when posted with the covers. There seems to be this weird bit where the fact that the product is covering multiple functions, a reprint with more than just a single thing in it, is getting mixed up with the 'need' for there to be any conversion. It's a matter of convenience and WoTC would be foolish not to take advantage of print medium having conversions for the game that's actually on the shelves right now.

5. Gary Con was ruined by these announcements! It stole all the air out of the room! Blinks. Man, I didn't go to the convention but if a product announcement messed up your convention you got problems. Having said that, several other people whose opinions I put pretty good stock on and would give them high ranks in terms of 'honesty' in keeping the spirit of OSR alive, had great times. Maybe it's a problem where commercial issues start meeting reality but man, that complaint is highly personal so more power to someone who earnestly believes it.

6. Goodman Games blah blah blah: Sometimes I see some complaints about character or validity or 'old school creed' and all I can think is shut up. It's not that you shouldn't have an opinion of what is old school and what isn't, but damn, role playing games are going to be split so fine down these self-made definitions that it's going to look like a record store right before they went out of business with ten thousand different music sections that just made things harder to find.

For me, Goodman Games has 'earned' it's old school creed not necessarily in game mechanics but in the spirit.

I've played numerous adventurers in the line. Some are old school death traps. Some are exploration. Some have a mix of both.

The design and art and other bits are often, I don't want to say slavish imitations of the older games, but pay a lot of homage to them.

Their own game, if you feel does not draw heavily on Appendix N, or worse, you feel that Appendix N in its original guide, isn't what the game should be based on, you are not playing with the same reference as every other player who is playing with that reference, which, may not even be old-school in its mechanics but is certainly old school in its feel and origins.

Good for Goodman Games and hopefully it brings MORE of the older stuff back.

Kickstarter Thoughts 2/20/2017

Recently someone attempted to kill themselves after facing the ire of the internet on a late project where the person interjecting came off as offensive. When I say this project was late, I'm not talking days, weeks, or months. It was also a large project with some people investing hundreds of dollars if not more.

This is a terrible thing. No one should feel so harangued that they attempt to take their own life because of it.

Someone whose works I've purchased and will continue to do so when they meet my own criteria, as a KS creator, suggested that Kickstarter put in a method to allow producers to block backers from backing their creations to avoid any drama.

Literally creating a 'safe space' for themselves.

Kickstarter has many things going for it. It's a great marketing tool. The event itself serves as a potential way to build community and brand awareness.

To cut part of that potential audience off because there are some bad eggs out there seems counter intuitive to what Kickstarter does. Let strangers give you money for ideas that may not pan out.

1. How are you going to know who to band? What would Kickstarter's criteria be? Some blank, "Prevent Funding?" Are creators going to get together and pass along lists of evil backers? Are they going to create a list of Republicans to keep them from engaging in the Kickstarter Process? States that voted for Trump? And what happens when that list goes public? Because on the internet, everything eventually goes public.

2. What happens the first time a gay person is blocked and doesn't sue the creator, but sues Kickstarter? We live in a very litigious society in America. Lawyers sue people all the time. But lawyers go after the money. The money is not in some dude's $20 grand RPG. It's on Kickstarter itself.

3. In some ways, you're rewarding 'rude' behavior because now the person, if they want to buy your product, doesn't have to deal with the whole uncertainty of Kickstarter. They just go into a store and buy it. Note there is no HIGH GROUND here when this happens. It's not that the creator doesn't want the money, they just don't want the 'potential' hassle of dealing with people who may be assholes.

4. People are complicated. From the conversation, "I have multiple Kickstarters under my belt. I've never had an issue dealing with them, and my comments have never been an issue." So comments on your Kickstarters have never been an issue? So there is literally no problem on your own Kickstarters. This is some sort of preemptive tool. And what if someone was a bastard on one of the threads because they spent $1,000, the creators of that KS have lied and delayed and taken off with the money? Not everyone is a saint all the time. What if this person who's a bastard in that Kickstarter has already backed several of your games with no problem? Do you block them on the 'idea' that everyone should be good and noble all the time? Cause remember it's not about getting that particular person's money which you'll gladly take at the retail or even direct sales level later. It's about not dealing with the hassle of bad customers. 

5. People Change: Now here's the thing. The person's already said they have no problems on their own projects. They still want the money even if it comes later on. So what happens when your project, your biggest project ever, is years late? And you've stopped providing updates? And those updates you have provided have turned out false? Your 'safe circle' will turn on you. The best way to avoid 'trolls' is to well, finish your projects ahead of time and go above and beyond what you were selling in the first place. As the creator here already noted, they have NOT had any problems.

6. People will Circumvent Your Protections: Joe is a bastard. I'm blocking him. Joe tells Frank, "Dude, hook me up." Gives Frank the money and Frank use his own credit card to back the Kickstarter. Kickstarter is late, lies, etc... If Joe would have been a bastard under his own id, the chance of Joe not using Frank's id to be a rude asshole, especially if it's a higher end item? Are very low. 

7.Unintended Consequences: You block person A because he's 'bad'. Person A is popular in Circle Y. Person A tells Circle Y. So now you've got fans of person A attacking you for blocking a supporter of the cause. This happens all the time. When you engage with the internet, you're never just engaging with the one person, the one idea, the one topic. You are engaging with the internet. 

8. Where does it stop? So person B has backed your kickstarter. It's late. Person B is stirring the pot. You don't like that. You block him. This automatically refunds his money and blocks him from posting any more. You don't need him anymore anyway right? Your idea, that you didn't take to the bank for funding, still managed to get more than enough so screw that particular backer. How dare he question you and your methods after all eh? 

There might be a germ of a good idea there but among the things I've love to see Kickstarter do, like more accountability form the creators including being able to you know, report a late project more than once, this idea of "blocking the people I'm petitioning for money" is way low on the list.

So how far off my rocker am I here? 

Prepping Dem Bones: Bones 2 Kickstarter in De House!

I backed the Reaper Miniatures Bones 2 Kickstarter.

My goods arrived a few weeks ago. I have however been so busy that I wasn't in a hurry to open up the package.

Finally broken down and realized that I may a pretty big omission to my order and working with Reaper to see if I can fix my mistake.

But with all of these miniatures in house, I thought I'd take a moment to share some ideas on HOW to paint them.

There are a few things that can be taken into account and some of them are entirely optional.

For example, you can take it out of the bag and paint it. Use 'thick' paints for that first layer, something like Privateer Press, Games Workshop Base Coats or Reaper's HD paints. This will work. It may not be the best method and may lead to some frustration as paint can bead on the Bones material if it's just the slightest bit too thin.

Instead, I recommend having a list of supplies and deciding what you want to do ahead of time. Some of it may vary.

For example, if you're just using the Bones as stand in figures for your role playing games, then you might just take an unpainted figure and throw it on the table as a physical object to represent something in the game. No different than say using a Lego or Marble.

Actual Prep: You may be interested in taking it a step further. Read on!

Xacto Knife: For under $17 bones, Amazon has a good starter set. The benefit of the Xacto Knife is that it will allow you to clean the mold lines on the figures. For those with more experience and patience, the Bones material is soft and the knife will allow you to easily cut the figures up.



A word of caution. Be careful. Even when cutting away from yourself, if you're working on say, a rounded object, the blade and find it's way back around. I'm sure many people have a horror story or two about it as I know I do. Blood for the Blood God indeed!

Having said that, an Xacto Knife and mold removal isn't necessary if you're not worried about it. The Bones material is nice. This batch seems a little... firmer and more quality control in place than the last one. But if you're throwing some zombies on the table and aren't worried about mold lines? Skip the prep with the Xacto.

Cleaning: I clean my figures with an old toothbrush, soap, and warm water. I'm sure some one has some recommendations on what type of soap to use, but I've never had a problem with it.

Hot Water: Here's the 'original' deal. I like tea and hate boiling water. So I bought a electric hot kettle. Then Coolminiornot has this stuff, Insta Mold or something. You heat it up and can use it like a miniature mold. I've never really got the full 'geist' of it. My bad on that. But it's also handy for Bones figures. While I stand by my statement that the quality this time around is better, there are still bent swords and spears. Having something to get water hot quickly allows you to dip the afflicted part of the figure into the hot water. Straighten it out, and quickly put it into cold water. I've heard that the colder the water, including water with ice, the better off you are.



I've actually been using my Keurig for this. Alas, since I bought my Keurig, the electric hot water kettle has gone unto the back porch never to be seen again.

Bases: Many of the figures are fine as is. Some have smaller bases. If you have some glue, you can glue them to a more sturdy base. For most role playing purposes, 1" bases are good for medium sized creatures. Amazon has a fair amount of objects that can be used. One I've seen is the bag of 100 1" wooden disks. Strangely enough, the 1.5" disks are like, half the price. Look around.



Stand: This one is very optional. I use a few different things with blue tack to hold the miniature in place so that I don't touch it with my own hands. This helps minimize paint on me and helps me to reach different areas of the miniature without worrying about touching a wet part of the miniature. For those on the thrifty side, use old pill bottles. For those who want something a little different, I use these wooden squares along with the pill bottle,s along with a few other things.



Primer: I've heard a few horror stories about people using primer on their Reaper Bones. Don't get it honestly. I've used Vallejo Primer, both with a brush and through an air brush, as well as Army Painter primer and a few other brush on primers including Game's Workshop and Reaper's own brush on primer.

A bigger question for me, is what COLOR primer to us.

The figures here are some of the "Rats" from an expansion on the Bones 2 pledge, and some 'Giants' on the bones two pledge. The rats I hit with Army Painter leader and the Giants with Flesh. Saves a ton of time putting that first layer down as well as acting as primer. Note you can also see one of those wooden bases under the giant to the right. That big boy didn't come with an integrated base as the one on the left did.

Black is the most common primer followed by white though. I went with black here because the Bones are white by default. You can see the minotaur lord in the back on the left hand side along with a few others. Priming white over white? Not necessarily a great idea because you can't see if the primer is on the figure.



Note that color primer seems to be a thing now. I've seen the Army Painter ones, as well as a return to color primer by Games Workshop. Note I personally have not tried the Games Workshop color primers on the figures so can't say if that causes any problems.

But Vallejo has been doing some military color primers for a while and they work great as well. Even better if you're comfortable with an airbrush. The nice thing about Vallejo? They often have several sizes for their primers. For example, a nice neutral gray 200ml is under $17 from Amazon right now.



Take a look around and see if there are some primer colors that you want to use.

Accessories: I mentioned blue tack. I use that to hold the miniatures to other things. Sometimes I'll use it to hold a shield to a miniature or a miniature to a base.



Glue: If you're new to painting, you might not have any glue. Depending on how detailed you're going to get with the miniatures, you can do anything from skipping the glue, and just going with the single piece figures, to buying the different types of glue that will help you out.

Superglue is useful for keeping the pieces together. A word on that. Some of the figures are better off being assembled at the end of the painting process. This allows you to easily access parts that may be more difficult to reach after the figures are assembled.

Another note is that you should test fit the figures before you glue them. This allows you to see if there are any obvious problems or if you need to break out the hot water and do some bending to make sure that everything fits well.

For the most part, I didn't have any problems with the Bones figures. Most of the larger figures have huge tabs and fit nicely and glue quickly. The minotaur demon lord was a bit of a PIA but that was only because he had so many pieces to him. Highly unusual for a Bones figure.

For those who hate waiting around? Get some super glue accelerant. It makes the glue bond quickly. Some will warn you that it weakens the bond. I personally haven't had a problem with it. Your mileage may vary.



The other type of glue you'll probably want, is if you're doing any 'flocking', putting fake sand, dirt, grass, and other bits on your base, you'll want white glue.



White glue is pretty cheap so you can buy a small bottle and see how that works for you.

In terms of painting tools and brushes?

That's going to vary tremendously.

For someone brand new to the hobby, I strongly suggest you watch some videos and talk to friends who may already be in the hobby. If you have a local hobby store, go there. This hobby store doesn't even necessarily have to be a gaming hobby store. Some hobby stores may primarily be train or other type of hobby, but still have material relevant for a new comer to the hobby. See if they have any paint days.

One of the reasons Games Workshop does so well is that they have these stores. They also have some huge bundles that make getting into the hobby easier. If you just want something to start that's not going to murder your wallet, I'd recommend checking out Army Painter.



The Mega Paint set (which is pretty good price here) has paints, inks, and a few brushes. That's a good start to see if it's something you want to continue with.

If you get paints, get a cleaner and clean your brushes after every use.



It's important to clean the brushes because it keeps them viable longer.

For the more experienced painter who already HAS paints but is intrigued by time saving with an air brush?

The Badger 105 Patriot is a 'starter' air brush. It will handle a bit of abuse and while I always recommend thinning your paint before putting it through the airbrush, the 105 handles it a little better.



The strange thing, and I honestly don't get this, is that the Sotar, another air brush, is a more 'advanced' model, and at this time, is less expensive than the 105. Both from the same company. Perfect for the Vallejo primers.



There are a few things I didn't mention like a pin vice. Useful for using say brass rod and pinning two separate pieces of a miniature together and using glue to hold it. The pin creates more support. Useful for small joins or very large ones.

I'm working on a ton of things myself at this time. Just finished running the second book of Kingmaker, looking over the next chapter, The Varnhold Vanishing, one of my friends is prepping to run some Numenera, and well, the dreaded realities of work and what not.

But I was thinking, "Hey, I'm painting Bones. Other people might not be as familiar with the Bones and how they work. Let me throw together a quick blog post on it."

If you're new to Bones and have any specific questions, let me know. If you have some resources you'd like to share on it, let me know.

Kickstarters: Current and Ongoing and Those I've passed

There are so many Kickstarters out there these days, that I'm pretty comfortable missing months at a time and not looking into the various things going on because I figure at any time, there will be more that are ongoing.


Another problem is lateness. The Tome of Horrors miniatures, officially licensed from +Frog God Games , is late and the communication has been bad. Others like Alien Assimilation are late but communication has been good and you get to see the work as it's coming.


Another problem is cash. With a new car, the funds have been tight. Anything that has too high a buy in is pretty much dead in the water to me. For example, Basius 2 looks awesome but man, the shipping and handling, and the fact that it's in British pounds? Nope.


I was fortunate in that a few of the Kickstarters I backed were awesome enough to give me a refund. Needed it too for things like down payment on the new car and various other assorted bills that tend to just pile up.


The last problem I'll mention, is stuff I know is coming. While who knows when Center Stage is going to be done, I'm pretty sure +Reaper Miniatures is going to be delivering Bones II real soon. I'm a backer of that and well, I haven't finished everything in the fist Kickstarter so I imagine I'll be buried in that strange Bones material soon.


On the other hand, I did put in  for a book on miniature painting that comes with a few figures from Figone, the Figopedia.The guy doing it is a fantastic painter and if he can get some of that information into my small brain? That would be awesome. Even if not though, a few miniatures and some awesomely painted miniatures to peruse? Win!


Red Box Games by has done several Kickstarters. I had a bad experience, as everyone did, with the first one, but the second one was great. Picked up a lot of monsters. I skipped the others as they're character driven and his scale is more 'realistic' which means they look fantastic, but generally don't fit even with his other work by Reaper. However, his latest one may get bandits and as I've mentioned before, I'm not impressed with the current crop of bandit miniatures out there.


Dungeonmorph Dice? Awesome. Not too bad price wise either. I've got my eye on it.


Ancient Ruins II is a series of bases but man, between CoolMiniOrNot's recent bases and my old Happy Seppuku bases, I don't know. Prices aren't bad and I do like helping the 'little guy' so I'm going to try to get some money together for him. I've ordered from him in the past so I'm pretty sure it's going to be another quick turn around.




Strangely enough, I haven't backed a lot of role playing products lately. Between Pathfinder and 5th edition, I'm pretty set in terms of campaign setting and adventurers.


Not only that, but for whatever reason, the RPG ones tend to be just as bad if not often worse then the miniature ones in terms of dropping communication or just failing to deliver. Not saying they're all like that but man, when I look over the list of stuff I haven't backed and check on it to see if it's available now because it sounded interesting?


Throne of Night is way behind on some of it's deliveries, but it's had some stuff out?


The Reliquary looked to be a book of magic items. Looked pretty cool. Looked like something I could pick up when it was done. Wow. Still not done. Ugly stuff.


The Grand Temple of Jin: It sounded awesome but I had enough of mega-dungeons at that time. Still ongoing. Argh!


Southlands, now this one I'm 99.9% sure it's going to be out relatively on time. It hit when the funds were at an ultra low point though so as much as I wanted to, it had to go to the wayside. Their only behind one of the stretch goals for the previous KS I backed from them.


Anyone else backing anything awesome that the world needs to know about?

No Soup (Gen Con) For You!

After the horrors of the Chicago 2013-2014 winter, I asked the mechanic I've taken my car to, to look it over. I knew that it was a terrible winter. It was so bad that where I work shut down for a few days because they had to do a lot of mechanical maintenance and other bits aside. My car was having trouble starting and tended to be shaky when on the expressway. The mechanic is fantastic in terms of his mechanical abilities but...

Tells me I need spark plugs. Get those.

Next day car doesn't start.

Have huge drama getting it to Auto-Zone and it's a whole story here of how I wind up buying a new battery from Tripple A and having some locals repalce my starter.

Total damage including the sparkplugs? $500 bones roughly.

So that's in like May.

Then my mom is driving the car while taking my sister back and hey, there's this awesome snapping noise that sounds like the car's been struck.

NOW the mechanic has no time for me, but gives me a recommendation to another guy he knows.

Rear brakes completely shot.

Rear axle completely shot.

Water pump worthless.

Motor Mounts gone. That was the loud SNAP my mom heard.

There was some other things wrong too and all in all, roughly $3,500 bones.

First, while I know the mechanic who usually looks at the car knows what he's doing, he could not possibly have missed all of that if he had bothered to look for it. Seriously, it can't all happen at one time.

Second, the car is twelve years old. While it was a Saturn and was still getting about 20 mph, and its paint was peeling but not rusting because it wasn't metal, I knew that it was only matter of time before some serious issues hit.

I was honestly expecting it to be the transmission. After all, it was an old car.

But that just meant that if I spent the $3,500, that was something else I could look forward to going out.

So I went out and bought a Kia Soul.

So now I'm on the hook for a few bones for many a month.

But in theory, I could have still went to Gen Con BUT...

About four years ago now, my mom was experiencing debilitating pain when walking. I almost had to carry her down the stairs and had to bring a chair to the flights between levels so she could rest. So among the many reasons I hate doctors is that they don't' know what their doing. My mom went through x-rays, MRI scans, electro-shock tests, muscle tests, bone density tests, and a lot of finger pointing from one specialists to the next.

So with her diabetes, she gets a foot infection and BAM! Half her left foot has to go. But hey, turns out that the pain? That was PAD, Peripheral Artery Disease and yeah, for almost two years no doctor could figure that out. So before she gets the foot lopped off, she has to have arteries transferred to allow blood flow to get to the foot so that the surgery to remove the infected part of the foot actually works.

So then it's four months of physical rehab. The place isn't bad for the most part, but the food is downright atrocious. So terrible that she doesn't eat unless I bring food to her, so that meant for about a third of the year I was going to the rehab place every day, but hey, it was only a few blocks away so that was win.

But in talking about my hate of doctors, they give her a shoe that is visually not good. Where the front meets the back, there is an obvious overlapping section. They insist that she wears it. Hey, it gives her newly healed foot a blister. A wound on the amputated food of a diabetic.

So for the last oh, eightteen months I've been taking her to see a wound specialist. The meeting is before I'm off work so lots of vacation time used up there. Mind you I've used vacation time on some of my own things, because lord knows I get sick myself, but the majority of my vacation and floating holidays, went to taking the mom to the doctor.

So with little money and only a few days of vacation left, which I break into half days to take mom to the doctor, at least four times a month, I made the decesion to skip Gen Con this year.

On one hand, it's a bummer. I enjoyed running games and seeing all the great art and meeting the creators and getting Con exclusives.

On the other, well, I still haven't painted everything I bought from Gen Con last year. I still haven't played all the games I bought last year. I still haven't read all the books I bought last year. It's not that I wouldn't buy more if given the opportunity, it's just I'm not suffering from it.

Another thing limiting my disappointment with not going this year, is that, as in years past, several companies are doing sales for those that aren't going. Several companies are even selling the convention exclusives through the web store for the duration of the convention. I was going to pick some stuff up from one store, but for three books to ship it seemed an excessive charge. Perhaps it's a weird thing but if shipping three books is now $12+ dollars, it's a good thing I'm an Amazon Prime member.

Heck, some of the very late Kickstarters have even started to trickle in so there's that to keep me amused at least. Speaking of Kickstarters I'll have to do another post about that and my own recent actions with them.

Anyway, that's my sob story. I might have been able to sneak down there for a day but I wasn't going to pay $50 to wander the Dealer's Hall for one day and play a few pick up games when I have a regular group and two good gaming stores down here.

For those who did get to Gen Con, how was the trip? It seemed crowded last year but it's a big con and I suspect getting bigger with more mainstream acceptance thanks to movies and board games. Heck, Amazon has a deal of the day for numerous board games and the Fate RPG.

I do miss the food trucks through. Well I ain't missing no meals I assure you, the novelty of the food trucks and the variety of food is great. I wish we had them here. Chicago politicians seem dead set against actual capitalism despite the defense of that word whenever they want to stomp on someone, 

Anyway, tell me of the good stuff you bought. Point out some great threads of Con loot. Post some links to the awesome!

Late Kickstarters

Presented without any comment. I'm sure I'm missing one or two. If there's a yellow mark, that means that some stuff has been delivered. I suppose I should mark a few more of them that way but laziness and all.

Project Name	Due Date	Date	Late Days	Late Months
Tectonic Craft Studios	6/1/2012	3/8/2014	-645	-22
Dwimmermount	8/1/2012	3/8/2014	-584	-19
Steampunk Musha	10/1/2012	3/8/2014	-523	-17
Imbrian Arts Miniatures	3/1/2013	3/8/2014	-372	-12
Assimilation Alien Host	5/1/2013	3/8/2014	-311	-10
Relic Knights	5/1/2013	3/8/2014	-311	-10
Cthulhu Mythos Foundy Style	7/1/2013	3/8/2014	-250	-8
Drake The Dragon Wargame	7/1/2013	3/8/2014	-250	-8
Fractured Dimensions	8/1/2013	3/8/2014	-219	-7
Tablescapes	10/1/2013	3/8/2014	-158	-5
Domains At War	10/1/2013	3/8/2014	-158	-5
Dungeon Crawler	11/1/2013	3/8/2014	-127	-4
Kingdom Death	11/1/2013	3/8/2014	-127	-4

Kickstarter: Februrary Edition

So when it comes to the Kickstarters, I've tried to cut back on posting on them. I think I've been pretty successful. It's been a busy month with a lot of different posts.

But hey, it's almost February so let's look at where we're at.

Tectonic Craft Studios continues to flounder. I can appreciate the promises of "shipping in the next seven days" but since that was like a month ago, again the founder has bitten off way more than he can chew. I strongly suspect that if he is a sponsor at Adepticon in 2014, I'll be talking to him directly to get my stuff. I let it slide last year and at Gen Con but this is nonsense.

Dwimmermount: Remember my talks of nonsense? The guy tried very hard at first but life with twins has kicked his ass. I don't want to say I've 'written' it off as I suspect he's not doing it out of any sense of 'screw you!' as opposed to 'life is kicking my ass!'.

Steampunk Musha: Well, we've heard some stuff and it's been quite for a few weeks but it's still well past a year late.

Imbrian Arts Miniatures: I highlighted this one because partial delivery! Good deal. Fantastic stuff. His work can stand toe to toe with the best of the Confrontation minis when they were good.

Assimilation Alien Host: Man, I was excited when these were announced. I was like, "Yeah, Blasters and Bulkheads!" or something. That game has come out with a second edition already while I have no miniatures.

Relic Knights: Yeah, so unimpressed that these figures better knock me out right from the get go.

Cthulhu Mythos Foundry Style: Man, you see someone with vision and talent and you're like, "Hey, this looks awesome." And then basically months of nothing. Never preback another thing this guy does again but if I'm happy with the final product will buy at retail.

Drake is also highlighted but unlike Imbrian, these miniatures did nothing for me. Could just be that there are a ton of components, a lot of flash and some pieces that just don't look good or it could be that everything still isn't ready. M'eh. Maybe when the rulebook hits I'll be a bit more inspired.

Fractured Dimensions: Still waiting on those exclusive figures. The end should be near though.

Tablescapes: Rolling Fields aren't done yet and it's not really late for me but it's on the spreadsheet.

Domains At War: Remember when I mentioned that Dwimmermount guy with the twins? Who knew it could effect ALL of your projects? Like Tavis but never backing another thing he does. This will be three out of four I've backed and all of them late.

Dungeon Crawler: Relic Knights got hit by the China celebration. So did these guys. I didn't spend a ton of cash here but enough that I'm... annoyed at the delays.

Kingdom Death: M'eh? I initially overspent on this one to begin with and my board gaming hasn't been great lately but it looks great, the creator is heavily involved and things look to be moving quickly.

I suppose Cthulhu Wars are way later then I am keeping track of here and I should add it to the list.

I see that others have slowed down their backing of Kickstarters as well. It's hard to maintain enthusasim when cash is lacking and hundreds (or more) of dollars are already out waiting for product.

This doesn't count some that have essentially failed or big delays announced in other projects, including Robotech. Heck, it had Palladium's name associated with it. Who didn't know that was going to be late? Who?

As time goes on, are you backing more kickstarters or fewer? Do you keep track of it in Excel or another spreadsheet program? Still finding lots of new stuff to enjoy?

Project Name	Due Date	Date	Late Days	Late Months
Tectonic Craft Studios	6/1/2012	2/1/2014	-610	-20
Dwimmermount	8/1/2012	2/1/2014	-549	-18
Steampunk Musha	10/1/2012	2/1/2014	-488	-16
Imbrian Arts Miniatures	3/1/2013	2/1/2014	-337	-11
Assimilation Alien Host	5/1/2013	2/1/2014	-276	-9
Relic Knights	5/1/2013	2/1/2014	-276	-9
Cthulhu Mythos Foundy Style	7/1/2013	2/1/2014	-215	-7
Drake The Dragon Wargame	7/1/2013	2/1/2014	-215	-7
Fractured Dimensions	8/1/2013	2/1/2014	-184	-6
Tablescapes	10/1/2013	2/1/2014	-123	-4
Domains At War	10/1/2013	2/1/2014	-123	-4
Dungeon Crawler	11/1/2013	2/1/2014	-92	-3
Kingdom Death	11/1/2013	2/1/2014	-92	-3

Kickstarters: 2014 edition or late the lateness continue!

So as 2014 officially starts off, let the bitching begin:

Tectonic Craft Studios: Says stuff has been sent. Some reports of it being seen in the wild. Haven't seen mine yet. Somewhat annoying as I made a separate purchase earlier to show support and posted some stuff over on my miniature blog. Hope the stuff comes with instructions and that the various Q&A problems aren't widespread.

Dwimmermount: Tavis bounces up and down on this one. I think if he manages to get this and Domains at War finished, he should get out of the RPG pre-order business via Kickstarter. It's not that he's not a good guy or that he's not trying, but by his own admission his kids are doing what kids do, and that's eat time. You thought time elementals were bad? They got nothing on newborns. And again, if James hadn't been so late BEFORE his real world issues took over and dropped this in Tavis' lap, maybe it wouldn't be going on seventeen months late. Maybe.

Steampunk Musha: Well, ANOTHER round of apologies while the guy starts a separate Indigogo campaign to earn some funds. Can't blame the guy for wanting to make some money as everyone gotta eat and all that but notice he didn't do it on Kickstarter. I can only imagine that it wouldn't have ended well. We'll see if he keeps to it in terms of keeping people updated. This is another instance of a small company, basically one dude, just like Tavis at Dwimmermount, getting kicked in the face repeatedly by life. It happens but if you're not ready for it to happen, don't take people's money? Just saying.

Assimilation Alien Host: Man, another small company, another dude kicked in the face repeatedly. I hope that 2014 is better to this guy. He's a great sculptor, if his material actually can get you know, working in a timely fashion, it may have some real big potential but given all we've seen so far? I'll be happy to have these alien critters but would probably never support anything in a preorder style from him again.

Relic Knight: Lots of he said she said nonsense on this and bad customer service all around afaic. It's not going to make it out anytime sooner than March I bet. Maybe. Maybe April with the way shipping works. But hey, thank god they saved all of that money by doing this stuff in China and didn't have any quality issues eh? Oh wait, they did.... several times...

Cthulhu Mythos Foundry Style: Ah, half year anniversary mark. I'd love to see this one actually get out in the wild. It looks like a great figure. Guy did send out the other stuff and that was good for him because it saved HIM shipping money as old US about to raise price of stamps again. When shipments go down they'll probably complain about it again but it's a viscious circle.

Drake: M'eh? Dudes doing it have tremendous energy but I'm bored of their energy. Results, not how excited you are about them will be more impressive at this time. I'm actually at the point where I'm like, "Man, why did I back this again?" Hopefully when I get the sculpts I'll be like, "Ah man, that is awesome!" but as that hasn't happened with any miniature game I've got yet I doubt it. Mind you I'm not saying there won't be some great sculpts in it or anything like that, but is 1650 or other games like Carnivale taking the world by storm? Crickets you say?

Fractured Dimensions: Nothing like seeing all the sculpts you ordered complete except for the exclusive stuff and having updates that keep putting those exclusive sculpts further and further out. Unless there is some assurance from the company in question that the exclusives are getting done first, never ordering them again. It's bullshit.

Tablescapes: I don't even know if I should count this one late as it's like, "Well dudes, the original table was supposed to be in October, not the stretch goals." which of course I ordered but hell, I see it in my feed so threw it out there.

Domains At War: When you like work done by someone, you want to support it. This is however, 3 that I've supported by Tavis and all three have been late so never again a preorder from him. If it's out in the store and I like the sound of it, I'll look it over. Kickstarter anything by him? No.

Dungeon Crawler: Yeah, sounds like this one gets hit by the China bug of "Oh you mean you want it last year" as opposed to quality or communication issues causing it to bubble out into probably... let's guess April of 2014.

Kingdom Death: Another one that's hit by the China bug but at least unlike Relic Knights, the Q&A seems to be happening NOW as opposed to six months down the road where the creator then goes, "Hey guys, remember how we told you it was going to be five months for now, well, hey, there are some quality issues that maybe we should have caught, you know five months ago." We'll see how it goes. As time goes on, my willingness to back anything that comes from China drops. Too much drama and too much creator blabbing that its out of the control. Hey, do something in your control next time then eh?

I'm sure I'm missing out on some. I think Cthulhu Wars is also late but I'm too lazy to look it up.

So that's my first look at Kickstarters in 2014. Strangely enough, I've slowed down on supporting these things tremendously. When I can wait for sales, and wait for closeouts, and use old e-bay to get stuff NOW at prices that are for all purposes fantastic, why do the Kickstarter thing?

Project Name	Due Date	Date	Late Days	Late Months
Tectonic Craft Studios	6/1/2012	1/1/2014	-579	-19
Dwimmermount	8/1/2012	1/1/2014	-518	-17
Steampunk Musha	10/1/2012	1/1/2014	-457	-15
Imbrian Arts Miniatures	3/1/2013	1/1/2014	-306	-10
Assimilation Alien Host	5/1/2013	1/1/2014	-245	-8
Relic Knights	5/1/2013	1/1/2014	-245	-8
Cthulhu Mythos Foundy Style	7/1/2013	1/1/2014	-184	-6
Drake The Dragon Wargame	7/1/2013	1/1/2014	-184	-6
Fractured Dimensions	8/1/2013	1/1/2014	-153	-5
Tablescapes	10/1/2013	1/1/2014	-92	-3
Domains At War	10/1/2013	1/1/2014	-92	-3
Dungeon Crawler	11/1/2013	1/1/2014	-61	-2
Kingdom Death	11/1/2013	1/1/2014	-61	-2