Octopus Overlords

baelthazar wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 10:02 am With both Dungeon Universalis and Machina Arcana both on KS, with the new Hopolomachus on the near horizon, there is a lot to think about. For solo play, Hoplomachus is an obvious fit, but I love Lovecraft and I hear MA does a lot of stuff well. But man, the sheer size of the toolkit you get in Dungeon Universalis is impressive!

Anyone here play MA to weigh in? It looks a lot like Deep Madness, and I have heard it has the same brutal difficulty.

I would read the rules for Machina Arcana first. They're readily available online. I have the last edition and it hit the table once. We were decidedly unimpressed, unfortunately. It isn't a horrible game, but I wouldn't call it a good game. It's just kind of meh.

Fishbelly wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:25 pm

coopasonic wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:40 pm TMB Trove Chest has shipped. Yeehaw!

What letter does your first name begin with? I'm curious how far they are from shipping "R".

Kickstarter comments seem to indicate Ks are getting their shipping notices as of today.

Fishbelly wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:25 pm

coopasonic wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:40 pm TMB Trove Chest has shipped. Yeehaw!

What letter does your first name begin with? I'm curious how far they are from shipping "R".

I'm a K.

coopasonic wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:32 am

Fishbelly wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:25 pm

coopasonic wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:40 pm TMB Trove Chest has shipped. Yeehaw!

What letter does your first name begin with? I'm curious how far they are from shipping "R".

I'm a K.

Bummer. Looks like I have a while to wait yet.

Damn my habit of using William instead of Bill for all written stuff!

Billiam flows so much better.

I would add an umlaut though for increased oomph.

Plus a new Blacklist Games KS in a few weeks. October is going to be a wallet-buster.

ah crap...

now to decide which other kickstarter(s) to drop.

Although I've started to use the lowest level pledges as a layaway program of sorts. They usually give you access to the pledge manager if you back even at a buck or so. Then when they do open the pledge manager, if I'm still interested I can up to the full pledge or whatever.

Want to run #horror or dark #fantasy #boardgames, #roleplaying games, or skirmish games? Our Horror: Series 1 #miniatures set is for you! Grab it on #Kickstarter on Oct 27 as either a standalone product, or combined with #DireAlliance: Horror for a special price!

Read more about Dire Alliance here. In short, it's a creation of the Sadler Brothers and the team that came up with Undaunted: Normandy.

I'm interested in Dire Alliance, but not in the minis. So it may not be THAT bad for me.

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 10:52 am

Plus a new Blacklist Games KS in a few weeks. October is going to be a wallet-buster.

Oh, dod gammit.

Bïllïâm, then.

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 10:52 am

Plus a new Blacklist Games KS in a few weeks. October is going to be a wallet-buster.

Yeah, Core Space is going to get a chunk of my money. Well, another chunk of my money.

I'll probably check with my FLGS to see if they are going to get in on the kickstarter, since I brow-beat them into stocking BattleSystems stuff.

Well dammit, this might be my time to stop resisting the siren call of Core Space.

Hep, we still haven't played Core Space. I need to introduce you to it. I think you would dig it.

I definitely would love to play it. I'm pretty sure I'll be grabbing a starter from this kickstarter.

I don't imagine that there will be any way for me to go in very deep on this one, if at all. I'm at least going to try to get in at the base level and hope for some pledge manager increases later on.

I think I'll create my own Kickstarter for a specialized board game storage shed. Pretty sure I can make my first million just from the OOers posting in this thread.

Climate controlled ?

T.A.R.D.I.S.?

Or maybe a Bag of Holding?

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:41 pm Climate controlled ?

Board Game Humidor.

"I see you're admiring that Settlers of Catan. First edition, 1995. Exquisite condition. You may note a slight hint of pine in the components, which pairs nicely with the musty cardboard."

Firelock Games just released their new Blood And Plunder Kickstarter.

My bank account is weeping right now.

Quite a few games have hit KS in the last two weeks that interest me. Kind of annoying since there was a long draught for me now they are all hitting at once.

The Thing


Frostpunk


Plunderous


High Rise


Windward

Well...you can probably save a little with Plunderous.

At least for now.

After careful consideration, and consulting our production partners, we have decided to suspend this campaign. Thank you to all 500 Plunderous Backers. Guided by your suggestions, we will return with a new campaign in the near future.

Hah, wow, I knew that campaign was lagging a bit but didn't expect them to cancel it.

The next Street Masters expansion is a stand alone game... and on indiegogo October 21st.

In.

They're killing me! But yeah, I can't pass up another set of conversions.

Dammit, Sadlers. Just start taking out direct deposit why don't you?

That's a must have for sure. I really need to get back into Street Masters. I've barely scratched the surface of the huge Aftershock base+expansions box.

hepcat wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:16 pm The next Street Masters expansion is a stand alone game... and on indiegogo October 21st.

In.

Indiegogo is an odd choice. Isn't that where shady crowdfunding campaigns go after being suspended from Kickstarter?

I don't think Street Masters is at all shady, I'm just surprised they chose that platform. I wonder if it's a Steam/Epic Games Store situation, where Indiegogo is taking a smaller cut than their big competitor.

It’s weird because they’re still using Kickstarter for other games from their studio, like Dire Alliance.

AWS260 wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:48 am Indiegogo is an odd choice. Isn't that where shady crowdfunding campaigns go after being suspended from Kickstarter?

I think it's because they have Altar Quest still in process, along with Hour of Need. The next miniatures project and game will be coming to KS at the end of this month, so KS is likely limiting them on new projects until others are delivered. However, they also probably have developmental/printing contracts in the pipe and need to get things funded, so they're using indigogo to collect payments.

Total guess. Normally it would be a red flag, but I don't think their reputation is in question here. I suspect if there weren't COVID-19 related delays to their existing campaigns (sliding them a few months), this would have been on KS.

Blacklist games are reputable. Of that I have no doubt.

On another note, I just saw a Fantasy themed version of DVG’s Warfighter series. I’m wary of their Kickstarter projects as I believe someone around here got burnt on some of their previous ones, but I’d love to grab this retail when it comes out....if it comes out.

Yeah, I feel the same way. I'll never back another DVG KS ever again. I don't agree with how they use it and I can get their core KS projects cheaper via retail channels. Above and beyond how they use KS as a pre-order system, the quality of their products is really, really bad for the prices they charge. I understand it's a numbers game, but the card and chit quality is bottom tier. To charge what they do, the value just isn't there for me and I've found it's become a major distraction while playing. Pavlov's House is a perfect example. The game play is outstanding, but the components actually are bad enough (to me) that they're a distraction. It's unfortunate.

I am also a bit turned off by the fact that Fantasy Warfighter is split into all these little packs, all with their own price tag.

That's what the Warfighter stuff turned into. I got roped into the original and fell for it with the WW2 elements before realizing what they were doing. Namely, the additional packs/armies/enemies were things (in my opinion) that should have either been included in a core set or part of a bundled expansion. I forget now the specifics, but for the WW2 stuff you had to buy 4 add on packs separately to be able to play both sides of a conflict. My quick review of the Fantasy stuff is the same - there's an intentional marketing/sales decision they've made to fragment the contents in such a way that if you want to have a full or complete experience you need to spend 2x the amount of the core set to get it. That's certainly their prerogative, but I'm not paying $120 in order to have what amounts to what other publishers/developers would likely consider core content.

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:16 am

AWS260 wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:48 am Indiegogo is an odd choice. Isn't that where shady crowdfunding campaigns go after being suspended from Kickstarter?

I think it's because they have Altar Quest still in process, along with Hour of Need. The next miniatures project and game will be coming to KS at the end of this month, so KS is likely limiting them on new projects until others are delivered. However, they also probably have developmental/printing contracts in the pipe and need to get things funded, so they're using indigogo to collect payments.

Total guess. Normally it would be a red flag, but I don't think their reputation is in question here. I suspect if there weren't COVID-19 related delays to their existing campaigns (sliding them a few months), this would have been on KS.

Sounds like we weren't the only ones wondering why they were using Indiegogo:

Why Indiegogo?
We are using it as a pre-order platform, not a proper crowdfunding one (which is a reason there will be no stretch goals). This for two reasons.

1) It offers what is known as "flexible funding" (i.e. funds pledged are collected regardless of if the “goal” is met or not), which is important because this reprint is happening regardless of how funding does.

2) With the sheer amount of Street Masters products we want to offer, it's a great platform to help consolidate our reprint items while offering a few new items for those who desire more.

But at the end of the day, I think we all know we're in for any street masters stuff. So just tell me what you're selling and I'll provide a credit card, Sadlers.

Pledge for my Wyrmwood gaming table just went in.

Hoo boy. Excited and terrified at the same time.

Whoo hoo, too many bones trove chest arrives Thursday. I must admit to being worried by all the stories of damaged chests though.