A Leather Oracle...

Yesterday I posted some info on the latest TLG Kickstarter ending in a couple of days and voiced a bit of concern on the pricing of the leather books and some of the pledge levels.  I am very happy to say that my message and question got through and Steve Chenault was able to clarify things at the $125 level and higher. At that level, BOTH books get a complementary upgrade to leather -- meaning there is no need to add $50 to get the Player's Guide in leather to complement the core book.

This is great news and gives that level a lot more value.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you may want to as time is running out!

Here's the LINK if interested.  ;)

M

An Oracle Stares Into The Abyss...

Well, around 3 weeks back (give or take), I posted and promoted Troll Lord Game's newest Kickstarter for the Hallowed Oracle -- an adventure path for Castles & Crusades based on the Abyss Walker setting and novels by Shane Moore. You can read up on that HERE. Before the campaign, I hadn't really heard much about the Abyss Walker series but, I recently started reading them and I'm enjoying them. They are a fun, light, and fast-paced read.

Now given TLG's recent Kickstarters were more to do with updating and reprinting past titles, one would think that new material would be doing better in this Kickstarter campaign.  That isn't to mean it has done badly either.  The minimal goal was $3,000 and the current total currently sits a bit above 11,000.  In the past week, there has been minimal gains in the total funding the project has received.

It's might be worth examining *why* it hasn't been doing better.

The belief that it's an adventure path / module and not a sourcebook / accessory.

Well, for some, it may affect how much one decides to back it but there is plenty of material beyond the adventure path for players to enjoy.  New classes, optional rules, magic are all promised for this project and higher stretch goals promises even more material.

The belief that you need the C&C Rulebooks to play.

Thankfully, the basic rules and classes (up to level 5) are all there. Since the adventure path takes characters up to level 5, one has everything they need to play in the Hallowed Oracle books. That said, there are opportunities to add some of the other C&C books in with the Kickstarter at reduced prices. However, the best thing to remember is that C&C is very compatible to D&D and other similar, FRPGs. It would take minimal effort to port this adventure path to your 5th Edition game for instance.

The problem of not knowing anything about Shane Moore or the Abyss Walker books.

Well, this one is fairly easily fixed.  He has an author section on Amazon.com which can be found HERE where you can easily pick up on of his books. They are available as an ebook (Kindle) or you can get a physical copy if you are so inclined. However, picking up an ebook now and reading it (or at least starting it) can give you a taste of what the Abyss Walker setting is all about. There are several to choose from. Naturally, Google is your friend if you need to find more info.  ;)

There doesn't seem to be much activity in this Kickstarter.

Yeah. That's a problem.

Let me assure you that TLG have done many Kickstarters in the past and have ALWAYS delivered the goods. And, normally they are bit more talkative but they chose to start this shortly before GenCon. Why oh why, did they do this? Sometimes it's best not to ponder what goes on in their minds. Perhaps this was the best they could manage with the rest of their publishing schedule? Perhaps they thought they could manage both and really overestimated their capacity to do so? Many of the present backers are already loyal fans so a lot of the pledging happened early on. But Shane Moore himself has been active as have been a couple other people. If you are interested, pledge at the lowest level and feel free to ask questions there and participate. Hopefully that will dive up chatter and interest in the project. When that happens, we all win.

Some of the things seem expensive. 

Unfortunately, I don't agree with all the pricing I've been seeing and I think a slightly different strategy could have been employed here.  But gaming books *ARE* expensive and they are only getting more expensive. A couple years ago, WOTC released the Players Handbook for the newest edition of D&D with a price tag of $49.95. Fifty bucks for a book is pretty expensive but it is a full colour hardback with a page count of about 300 pages. Generally speaking, Troll Lord Games has always been VERY good about pricing but the reality is that it costs what it costs.  In comparison, the C&C PHB is $30 (190 page, full colour, hardback) and the C&C CKG is $50 (352 page, full colour, hardback).

At $40, you get the main book in hardcover which is going to be over 200 pages (but in B/W) along with a Player's Guide which has changed considerably since the project began and likely to be at least 90 pages. There is also and expanded map, PDFs, and a bonus adventure. The Player's Guide is *not* in hardcover at this level -- only a perfect bound softcover.  You'll need to boost you pledge to $59 to get the PG in hardcover as well. But at this level there are a couple more physical items thrown into the package. Now, I describe the pricing at these levels as fair but not great but I can't fault them to not giving the PG the hardcover treatment at the $40 pledge level either.

But the pricing for the leathers honestly irks me. They have a level at $125 that gives you leather copy of the core book as well as a regular copy of the main book and the players guide. The players guide is NOT in leather. Apparently a leather copy of that means an add-on of $50.  So at $175 total, you get a regular set and a leather set. However, unless my math is mistaken, you get can achieve the same with a $59 pledge and then add-on the two leather books at $50 each for $159 total!  The only thing you don't get is a special stretch goal where you get to immortalize a character in print but that goal is just shy of $5000 from even being unlocked with only 3 days left to go!  Unless those $50 leather add-ons are merely UPGRADING your books and that makes a lot more sense but this also goes to the previous problem with not a lot of people asking questions getting communication from the company regarding the project.  It would make for an expensive book but, leather isn't cheap to begin with either.  ;)

So... summing up?

There is a LOT of potential with this project with a few questions and not a lot of answers.  If this projects hits $16,000 before it closes, a lot more cool material will be added thanks to the talents of James Ward and another book will be added to the bunch. It will focus on the various gods and heroes of the setting and only serve to give it a bit more depth. The enthusiasm from Shane Moore is also very encouraging to see and, with the game system bits being largely written by Jason Vey, the project and material is in good hands.  GenCon is pretty much over and this project is soon to follow.

Now is the time to step up and pledge over HERE!

M

Dog Days of Summer?

Things have continued to be quiet here on the blog and have been for the better part of the year.  For the past few weeks, the heat and humidity have certainly not helped things either. Sometimes, I wish it was just that but most of my year has kept me busy for one reason or another and things just don't seem to be winding down the way I would like them to.  I'm trying to do a minimal amount of gaming and have successfully launched a Call of Cthulhu game (7th Edition).  It's a monthly game due to the lack of time and scheduling conflicts but the game (and system) thus far has passed the bar for the group and somehow, we are able to maintain a semblance of momentum.  To fill the gaming gap, the odd tabletop boardgame and random intervals of occasional video games (Forza and Doom lately) have helped keep me sane.

The 9-5 gig is really wearing me down these past couple of months and I'm hoping things will improve for the better.  I could probably use a nice vacation but, with present circumstances, won't be able to really get away this year.  So, I still need to get back to regular painting (my miniatures), and get back to some of my writing and publishing projects.  The book I am editing is about to get a lot more of my attention this month so that I can wrap that project up in order to tackle other longstanding ones.

So, as these dog days of summer begin to wind down later this month, I'm hoping to ramp up things on the creative end of the spectrum.  :)

Speaking of winding down, GenCon is wrapping up today and it looks like it was a lot of fun.  I'm so sorry that I couldn't go this year but am committed to next year's event!  A few noteworthy kickstarters are also wrapping up but... there are ALWAYS kickstarters wrapping up.  A couple in particular are worth mentioning... there is the Hallowed Oracle adventure path for Castles & Crusades which can be found HERE and, if you are an Evil Dead fan and like boardgames, you may want to check this campaign wrapping up HERE.  I'll have more to say on the latest C&C campaign in my next post.

Well, I have several things left on my to-do list before the reset button is pushed and the cycle begins a new tomorrow.  Need to get to it.

M

Weekend R&R: The Doom That Came To Atlantic City

Normally, the focus of my Weekend R&R are to review a single RPG product -- be it old or new. But we all have different ways to unwind and I recently decided to shift towards the Call of Cthulhu RPG and, given that the time I can actually get a game together is surprisingly challenging due to either time restraints and scheduling, I will find other ways to occupy my leisure hours. I love a good board game and, with my current frame of mind, The Doom That Came To Atlantic City had a lot of the trappings I am currently immersing myself with as far as theme is concerned.

If you are someone who has followed various projects or gone as far as back some on Kickstarter, the title of the game may sound familiar. A Lovecraftian themed boardgame which took many cues from the classic game of Monopoly which raised over $120,000 in 2012 only to have the project cancelled and the money disappear.

Never underestimate the power of the great old ones though.  Another company stepped in, secured the rights, and produced the game. They even went so far as to get backers of the original project copies of the game -- something they were not required to do but awesome nonetheless.  I was never a backer though.  I missed the campaign when it ran and stumbled upon it after it had already ended. With the delays and problems, I eventually secured my own copy of the game only just recently.  Part of the reason I waited on it was because it's a pricey game but the components of the game and high quality and the game proved to be a light-hearted distraction.

In many ways, the game plays in a very familiar way but, it is very much 'anti-monopoly'.  Your goal, as one of the elder gods, isn't to build, but rather destroy.  Power (through destruction) and cultists are the currency of the game and when you have accumulated enough of both and succeed in opening the requisite amount of gates, you can bring about the end of the world and win the game.

It's a simple game and, unlock Monopoly, it will not last you hours.  It is entirely possible to play a game under an hour though, I've had a couple which went on to about an hour and a half.  Luck is very much a factor here too and the dice can be fickle.  However, you aren't just constrained to moving around the board.  You can use gates to travel to other gates and bypass sections of the board.  You also can attack your opponents and steal cultists away from him as well as rain destruction and destroy homes.  Each elder god also has abilities which can be swapped out with other ones with Providence Cards and then are are 'Chant' cards to assist you as well.  And, because of this added dynamic, there is a bit of strategy to go along with the random luck factor of the dice.

The game is good in the sense that the style and theme of the game is actually well-thought out in a cute kind of way and doesn't feel like it's just been tacked on.  But the game also manages to remain accessible.  So, between that and the visuals, the game just works and will be one that will get pulled out from time to time -- especially if I'm waiting on the late arrival of a player before we can start up a Call of Cthulhu game.

Now, I was lucky as the normal retail price goes for around $75 from what I have seen.  I basically was able to get it for a little more than half that price.  Given the quality of the components, and the beautiful sculpts of the miniatures included in the box, it is well worth the full price of the game.  Just shop around first.

M

Kickstart This: The Hallowed Oracle (C&C)

To date, Troll Lord Games have done many successful Kickstarter campaigns.  Of course, being who they are, the products always come out even if they might be a bit late.  The various campaigns always do well and some do better than one might expect and others seem to fall short of what could have been.  Arguably, the biggest hurdle with the recent campaigns has been the nature of the material.

If we look at the last 10 campaigns, half of them have been reprints of sorts.  Going back a couple of years now, we have the latest and full colour reprints of the core set of books.  That is to say, the Players Handbook, the Monster & Treasure book, and the Castle Keepers Guide.  They are a fantastic set of books and, by far, their biggest Kickstarter.  It is also a campaign that took a while to completely fulfil.  While most of the rewards (the core books and subsequent swag) where delivered promptly enough, another massive stretch goal has just wrapped up which effectively completes the project.  With continued updates and news, fans were not worried and everybody seemed happy and other successful campaigns followed.

Amazing Adventures was a new line that went from a single softcover rulebook and got expanded into three books and TLG kept on doing a few MAJOR fundraising campaigns.  But recently, we have seen more reprints than not.  Always improved in some way which is nice but nothing really 'new' lately.  Classic Monsters, the Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde, and the Book of Familiars (both for 5th Edition and C&C) all got some attention.  But the last major Kickstarter of import was probably for the Mythos books done launched last summer (no physical products delivered yet but coming soon).

Clearly, something new is needed beyond some reprints and aside from the failed Brimstone & The Borderlands campaign, we have not seen anything new this year!

That is thankfully changing.  As TLG is wrapping up delivery on past Kickstarters, they have launched a new one and this one looks a bit different.

It's an adventure path set in the Abyss Walker universe.  The Abyss Walker is a series penned by Shane Moore -- which, for this project, means a new fantasy setting for us to explore!  The Hallowed Oracle is looking to be 200+ pages with a smaller Player Guide to go along with it.  New classes... variant rules... spells... and critters to be found as expected but what is nice about this project is that the base rules are included with the game.  In other words, if you don't have the C&C PHB, you can still play the game with just the Hallowed Oracle.

At this point, the project is already funded (it did so the first day) and it's now just a question of what stretch goals can be unlocked.  At this stage, it is already over $7,000 with almost 4 weeks left to go and the next goal is at $8,000 which means the main book is upgraded to hardcover.  Pledge levels are varied depending on what you are looking at.  You can pledge as low as $1 and then add-on stuff (if you want digital, this is your best option) but at $40, you get the physical books.  There is an interested pledge level at $150 which gets you the Hallowed Oracle, as well as a copy of the three core books!  Now these rulebooks alone would retail at $110 but there are a few other things at this pledge level which might be worth considering if you don't already have the C&C books.

Ultimately, the project looks promising and it's something new for this year which is already more than halfway done.  Now, I'm keeping things simple myself and sticking with a lower pledge tier but I'm a huge supporter of Troll Lord Games and Castles & Crusades!  I think it might be worth checking out.

To do so, you can find the project HERE.