Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Worthy Projects

With the Dwimmermount Kickstarter winding in its final days -- and I, once again, would like to thank everyone who's helped to make it such a success -- I'd like to take the time to point out three other Kickstarters that might be of interest to my readers.

The first is Joe Bloch's A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore for his superb old school "what if?" RPG, Adventures Dark & Deep. Though I don't play any form of AD&D myself, I'm nevertheless greatly impressed by Joe's game, which is an attempt to imagine what second edition AD&D might have been like had Gary Gygax remained at TSR to complete it. A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is a kind of stand-alone extract of the larger game, presenting new character classes, spells, monsters, and magic items to be used with your favorite class-and-level fantasy RPG. I have a lot of respect for Joe. He's not only extremely knowledgeable about matters AD&D and Greyhawk, but he's a really good guy to boot.

The second is the Myth & Magic Player's Guide. Myth & Magic is another project pertaining to 2e AD&D, though in this case it's a retro-clone of TSR's published 2e rather than an imaginary Gygaxian one. Again, I'm not a 2e guy, but I know many of my readers look back on it with great fondness. Plus, I'm one of those weirdos who considers 2e an old school RPG, whatever my opinion means, so it's more than deserving of a mention here. From what I have seen, this is going to be a very impressive piece of work and I wouldn't be surprised to its Kickstarter do quite well before it's over.

Finally, there's the Ogre Designer's Edition from Steve Jackson Games. This is something a lot of people have been waiting for and I'm glad to see it finally come to pass. I am, unfortunately, saddened that actual, physical copies of this new edition will only be available to backers located in the US. That means SJG won't be getting any backing from me, alas, but, at the rate this Kickstarter is tallying up its pledges, I don't think they need my $100 -- too bad for me, though.

23 comments:

  1. Ooo... The Ogre kickstarter is very tempting. I've always wanted a copy of that. 

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  2. Too bad for me as well.

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  3. Can your kickstarter raise another $4,000 by Saturday?  I'm bumping my pledge from $60 to $130.  It shouldn't be too hard to hit $40,000 if some other backers move their pledges up to the next-higher category.

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  4. But... it says you simply have to pay for shipping outside of the U.S.  for the Ogre game, right?

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  5. That's not how I read this: " You may have noticed that
    we’re not currently offering shipping outside the US. We are NOT happy about
    leaving non-US players out! If we can find an affordable and somewhat-reliable
    way to ship a 14-pound package outside the US, and deal with the inevitable
    customs issues, we’ll add foreign support options."

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  6. Hi James,

    Myth & Magic is not a clone of 2e.  It is a 'remake with tweaks'.

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  7. Thanks for pointing that I out. I must admit I hadn't noticed that before.

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  8. Cool beans, I had no idea about the Ogre project!  I like the crossover between Dwimmermount, Adventures Dark & Deep, and Myth & Magic.  Good times!

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  9. Here's one of the annoucements about that crossover - Joe and Tom will no doubt be posting their own!
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autarch/dwimmermount/posts/193974 

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  10.  Yeah, I read it wasn't going to be super accurate but how many clones are when you get right down to it?  Just osric and labyrinth lord.  I guess they're trying to be the 'pathfinder of 2e'...which might not be a bad approach!  But I still miss 2e and wish it had a proper clone or reprint.  I guess it's possible wotc themselves might do something like that now...

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  11. Actually there are plenty of mail-forwarding companies in the US now that willallow you to get a US postal address for a fee, so it's not an insurmountable problem. Butbewarned, the current USPS charges for theprorotype to Australia are around US$115...

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  12. Matthew James StanhamApril 12, 2012 at 6:23 AM

    There is a second edition simulacrum in the works, known as For Gold & Glory.

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  13. Yeah, For Gold & Glory would be the more straight 2e retroclone while M&M would be the darker dungeon, bfrpg, acks, pathfinder or c&c of 2e. The more the merrier I say!

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  14. Well, that's cheaper than the $1977 that SJG has on Kickstarter. Mind you, if you pay that much, then they will put you into the book in the artwork. If only I had $1977 to spare ...

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  15. I can't believe SLG isn't willing to ship to Canada.  That seems wierd.  Well, add it to your wish list, you never know who might get it for ya. :)

    Peace,

    -Troy

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  16.  They just added the note "Foreign Shipping - We WILL be offering foreign options, at least for
    Canada, Europe, and Australia. But we're warning you now: we’ve been
    looking very hard, and everything we find is expensive. You may get a
    better deal through your regular retailers." Hope that helps!

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  17.  Yes indeedy. Mine is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deeptm-a-curious-volume-of-for/posts/206453

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  18. Yep FG&G is in the works, it has been slow going with the editing, but it is coming along.  The current manuscript can be downloaded from feysquare.com .  As someone who came into the hobby during 2e, I am pleased that my generation also has some first & second generation retroclone love.

    In addition, congratulations on hitting 40k!  I am looking forward to the book, extra content, and additional art.  Awesome job with the shared goals!

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  19. BTW!  Congrats on hitting $40k!!!!

    So looking forward to the supplementary illustrations!

    Peace,

    -Troy

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  20. Count me as another Canuck who really wants to get one of those Ogre games...

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  21. This one should be interesting too:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamiechambers/metamorphosis-alpha-roleplaying-game

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  22. An update to the Ogre kickstarter from 3 days ago indicates that  international shipping will happen - this makes me very happy indeed, based as I am in the UK :)

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  23. Ogre:  some international shipping options are now available.  Canada $152, UK $192, and Australia $221.  [Hopefully interested people will see this.]

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