Reading through this thread on rpg.net got me thinking that it’s been a while since I sat back and figured out where all my backed Kickstarter projects have gone. This time I’m only going to list the ones that are either late (still) or haven’t hit their shipping date. Bear in mind this is out of a total of 30 Kickstarter campaigns backed. Here we are in chronological order by estimated delivery date:
- Dwimmermount: An Old School Fantasy RPG Megadungeon. Est. delivery Jun 2012. Still not shipped. One year late. Huzzah!
- Myth & Magic Players Guide – 2E Revived and Updated! Est. delivery Jul 2012. Still hasn’t shipped. There’s been a lot said about this one, and very little of it is good. One year late. Huzzah!
- Champions of ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering. Est. delivery Aug 2012. Still not shipped (just got a pdf of the final a few days ago, though).
- Cityographer – City Generator & Mapping Software. Est. delivery Oct 2012. Still not shipped.
- Ogre Designer’s Edition. Est. delivery Nov 2012. Still not shipped (new estimate is October 2013). but I did see a final finished copy at DexCon earlier this month, so it does exist, and it is beautiful.
- Axes and Anvils. Est. delivery Nov 2012. Still not shipped. Apparently the money has been spent on other things, and who knows if this will ever see the light of day?
- Tavern Cards – Playing Cards that Create a Tavern. Est. delivery Apr 2013. Still not shipped.
- Creature & Encounter RPG Card Decks. Est. delivery May 2013. Still not shipped.
- Busty Barbarian Bimbos. Est. delivery date Jun 2013. Still not shipped.
- Napoléon. Est. delivery date June 2013. I haven’t gotten mine yet, so I need to call this still not shipped, but an update went out a few days ago saying they were in the process of being sent out.
- Dogs Playing D&D Poster. Est. delivery date July 2013. Update yesterday said the proofs were approved and it’s at the printers. I’m gonna hang this bad boy right behind my desk chair, so whenever I’m on my web cam, that’ll be my background. Muhahaha.
- Star Trek: Renegades. Est. delivery Oct 2013. They’ve officially said they won’t be making that date, and are now looking at “Spring 2014”.
- The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame. Est. delivery date August 2013.
- The Red Dragon Inn 4. Est. delivery date September 2013.
- Domains at War. Est. delivery date October 2013.
- Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. Est. delivery date October 2013. I was really on the fence, since I got 6th edition last year, but was swayed by the supposed differences between the versions.
- Cthulhu Wars. Est. delivery date December 2013. Oh man, I went way overboard on this. But it looks so cool…
- Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary. Est. delivery May 2014.
So, out of 30 backed, 10 are overdue. That’s a pretty miserable percentage.
With Citygrapher… the Beta has been out and licenses have been delivered for a month now. That has to count for something.
That said, I've backed a few of these as well and Might & Magic is one of the biggest disappointments.
I must be unusual in that I've backed only one kickstarter to date, deluxe Tunnels and Trolls, and I had to really think about doing that. I'm pretty sure it'll be the only one I ever back too given that I only backed that one due to intense nostalgia reasons(Such fond memories of the corgi edition back in the mid '80s).
Ironically, it too looks like it'll be coming in late, August 2013 is the intended publication date, but they initially wanted it ready for Origins 2013 in June. At this stage even the August date looks to be a little too optimistic. I think the difference here though is that it's being together by Rick Loomis, Ken st. Andre, Steve Compton, Bear Peters and Liz Danforth, all of whom have proved themselves in the game publishing field(or related) many times over many years. Of course it also helps that Rick Loomis is keeping everyone very well informed at every step. It's amazing what a difference regular communication can make with kickstarter projects. And of course, it helps a good deal that they've already put out 2 of the PDFs that were promised as stretch goals too.
I'm really looking forward to getting this one.
I'm right now only waiting for Champions of ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering. I emailed Dan a few days ago and asked for more updates and he sounded like he understood why I was slightly annoyed.
These experiences have clearly showed who can can trust upon to deliver. While it might be kind of backwards (since you would believe all aimed at delivering what they have promised), I now feel the need to pick out those who do.
Evil Hat have earned my trust, John Wick has as well. Plenty haven't.