Why Go Through This Crowdfunding?

I think that it is interesting, every now and again to look back at what I’ve backed. And there are a number of games out there. But the interest is often tied to how my gaming tastes have changed. What did I back on Kickstarter when I started in 2014 and what am I backing now.

It provides an interesting opportunity to see that growth. Normally, you get a game and it leaves and there is no way to track it. I could go through Amazon, CoolStuffInc, and Miniature Market Purchases, but a lot of those are more recent. Kickstarter and now Gamefound give you a history of what you’ve backed over that longer period of time.

Plus Jesse from Quackalope went through his backing history, shorter, but larger than mine, with Devon from Devon Talks Tabletop. He had something like 225 games to go through and that’s almost a five hour video. I should have known that mine would take longer than it did. I thought probably two hours would be enough, it is not.

The Drink

Last nights drink was a Negroni. Back to a classic for me. I really like the flavor and it is a good summer drink. With how large I made it, I wish I’d started streaming and sipping on it sooner, but the flavor is always good. It’s also a nice mixed drink to make because it’s a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio with gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.

Upcoming Streams

So, clearly I have some more to talk about here with Kickstarter and Gamefound. My hope is that it’ll be about an hour and a half to finish up with no thunderstorms. So that is going to be on Monday at 8:30. Then on Wednesday, I plan on playing some more Paper Dungeons. Like I said, I want to get through that campaign. While I am working on an idea for a bigger game in the roll and write campaign space, you can see my Designer Diary here, I want to finish off the one that I already have.

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Are We Consumers or Investors in Crowdfunding?

I think this is the starting point of the conversation. Because, I believe that what we should expect is different between the two and often people don’t consider that. When I say people, I mean both backers and the project creators themselves.

According to Kickstarter, and I believe Gamefound as well, we are investors in the project. This is important to note because it does not mean that we deserve anything more than the project creators best attempt to turn out a product. If they fail, well, our investment failed and we don’t have recourse.

On the flip side, a lot of backers and project creators, treat the backing as being a consumer only. If we are consumers only, we deserve a refund if they can’t fulfill. We pre-order something and we should have the ability to cancel a pre-order if we decide that we want the newer shinier thing.

However, by the letter of the law, crowdfunding has us not as consumers, though we will – most likely – get a product at the end. We are investors in what the company is doing, whether it is a bigger company like CMON or a small company that’s launching their first game ever. By that, they do not owe us a product.

What Are We Owed Then?

This is interesting, because by the nature of investing, we aren’t really owed the product. The project creator is promising us one, but we aren’t owed it. And we might need to pay in more for our investment to get that return, the game, from it. And that is kind of lame. I want to get my product, so you do. Thankfully most board game projects deliver, albeit maybe late or costing more.

However, since we invest in the game and the project, we should expect some things. Mainly, I expect good communication on the status of the project. Jesse from Quackalope did a very good video covering this.

But I want to talk about it more as well. Because I expect good communication. And I think what that means can vary from person to person. And for a project creator, it might not seem that people are reading your updates. Here’s a secret, most people aren’t and that is a good thing.

Communication

I expect consistent communication once the project is done. Let’s make it simple, pick a day of the month, the 1st, last day, 15th, whatever day you want, and give me an update that day. Even if it’s just a thank you for backing message with a little of an update on development, that’s great. In particular, a thank you and some pictures, I will love that.

What I don’t want is no message for four months. Then a short message, maybe a picture, and letting me know that shipping has doubled. I want to know shipping has doubled, but that shouldn’t be the only reason for sending me a message. If shipping is doubled, I want you to link to an article about the shipping crisis. And I want to know what if anything I need to do about it. But I also want the benign updates that things are progressing.

But People Aren’t Reading My Content

Now, that is just fine that they aren’t. I know it might seem wrong but you don’t want people reading them, you just want people getting them. If people are getting an update, they will see the e-mail or notification for it. Then they will know that things are progressing and skip what you wrote. Sending out the communication is about what it says, for some people, but also to reassure people you are still working on the game.

If you send updates sporadically now people will assume either production is starting, shipping is starting, or something has gone wrong. And people will read those and be primed to be frustrated when something is going wrong. Also, more people read it and more people are frustrated. If you put it out normally, even if announcing a delay, people feel like you are staying on top of it.

But I Don’t Have Much to Say

Again, that is fine. I invest in your project because I like the idea of it. But also, I invest in your project and your company. The point of the message is to keep your investors happy. And you want to keep two groups happy. First is the group that always complains, it’s a loud but small group. The second, also small, is the group who will defend you.

If you don’t send messages, you lose that second group. I am willing to go to bat for you and for my investment, because I invested in you, if you keep me informed. Instead of that, I will be critical of you if you do not send consistent messages. For example, I still kind of defend Grimlord Games, I understand it is not their fulltime job. But they do not send consistent updates, they are well delayed at this point. My willingness to defend them is reduced because they do not communicate.

On the flip side, when Nemesis Games sent out a message asking for more support for shipping, I will defend them. I understand that shipping is crazy, and because they communicate now I am willing to give them more grace. Same with Creative Game Studio. Even though they ran into issues with shipping and how things are being charged, they keep communicating.

So Is There More?

Honestly, it is all about communication. If you show that you are being responsible with my investment, setting aside money, building in margin, and communicating success and struggles that I need to know, I don’t need to know all of them. I feel like my investment is in good hands.

Yes, behind the scenes, you need to know what you are getting into. And I expect that before going into your crowdfunding project that you have a plan. If you don’t, if you don’t have plans for shipping, for production, if you don’t have estimates, you aren’t ready. And as Quackalope talks about, it is hard to make money on a first Kickstarter or Gamefound campaign. So plan contingency money, plan not for everything that goes wrong, but plan to communicate when it does.

It is important to keep it moving forward, and it is important to keep communicating. It might feel like added work, something you don’t want to stop work on the game for. But just a two paragraph message with a picture of playtesting, or an update that says what you are working on. I keep on harping on it, but that is what I expect as an investor.

Finally, yes, I expect to get a product at the end. And whenever that end might be. But if for some reason that can’t happen, I expect to know why. And if it is because everything costs 2000% more than when you ran your campaign, I will try and understand. It sucks, but things happen, and I want to be understanding, but that means I need to know through the process. And hopefully, eventually, I receive that product.

What do you expect from a crowdfunding campaign? Do you see yourself as a consumer or investor?

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BoardGameTables.com Order

So this is the one that’s Foster the Meeple’s fault. Two games only, and that actually takes me to the point where I’ll have the games I want from BoardGameTables.com (which does make board game tables, but also board games, guess which one cam first).

QE

QE is a game where you are bidding however much you want to buy a company. The interesting thing about that is that you can bid however much you want. If I want to bid 120 trillion, I can bid that, if I want to go higher, I can do that. It does have a twist, though, in that the person who bids the most, well, they are automatically out of the running to win. So the prices are likely going to get crazy, but you can’t be too crazy. It seems like it shouldn’t work, but also, everyone who plays it likes it or loves it, so I want to play it.

Ghosts of Christmas

Foster the Meeple are the ones who pushed this over the edge for me, in terms of reminding me about it. But BoardGameCo was the one who brought it onto the radar. This is a trick taking game where you play tricks in the past, present, and future. And you can play to whichever trick you want in whichever order. Only once all are full does the winner get determined. And the trump suit can change on tricks, so it sounds mind bending but really interesting.

Kolossal Games Kind Of Order

So, I ordered these games from Kolossal because it’s about the first spot I’ve seen them available in the US. The games themselves aren’t put out by Kolossal, instead by Chilifox Games out of Norway. It’s a new game company, so limited distribution in the United States, but the two games I know of theirs are really interesting to me, so I wanted to grab them while I had the chance.

Riverside

Riverside is going to be roll and write game. But it has more going on than that. There’s not only the roll and write portion of the game, but also a little board that determines where the boat is on the river. Players are trying to take passengers on tours, drop them off at the right places, and score points. But that extra element of the river and boat position make it feel like a different sort of roll and write game than a lot out there.

Doodle Dash

This is a very different type of game than Riverside. Doodle Dash is going to be a straight up party game. In it, one person is the guesser and everyone else tries to draw a picture as fast as possible, based off of a word, for the guesser to get. But the fastest person gets to show their picture first, and then next fastest. And that second fastest player is rolling a die to limit how much time the rest of the players are going to get to finish their drawing. So there is a benefit to being fast if you can get the word across in a simple drawing. Seems like good chaotic fun for a party game.

All Systems Go

I like to call out the local game stores that I go to, and most of the time it is going to be All Systems Go. I generally trade in my games there, and while I didn’t this time. I did pick up one thing there.

Marvel Champions: Sinister Motives

I basically get all my Marvel Champions stuff from ASG (All Systems Go) and they know to set aside for me every time. Sinister Motives is going to give more Spider-Man characters, both heroes and villains to play as or against. And it’s just more content for Marvel Champions. Why do I keep buy it, because I love Marvel, I love the variety of characters you can play as and villains you can play against. And I really like the game. But it is one that I’m soon going to have to consider how much I want, because I don’t play it enough. The answer, though, is that I probably will want it all.

Miniature Market Orders

I will say, it wasn’t my plan to have two orders that were close to one another from Miniature Market. But it just happened to workout that way. In particular, I can blame another YouTube channel, Quackalope for me getting the second order. Jesse and Devon, from Devon Talks Tabletop, did a solo game list, and there was one I wanted to get immediately upon hearing about it.

Res Arcana: Perlae Imperii Expansion

This is more content for Res Arcana. I haven’t gone through all the content that I have for the game, but I already know that I want more. And the expansions are not always the easiest to find. Res Arcana is an engine building game where you are building an engine off of eight cards. And you don’t add more cards to your engine. Maybe you get a monument, but often those just offer a one time effect. So how do you build the most productive engine you can from those cards. Not sure that Perlae Imperii adds, but hopefully more of what’s already there.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Engineer Expansion

A mini expansion for Railroad Ink Challenge. This is basically some extra dice that you can use that mess up the board as you go. I don’t know specifically what the Engineer Expansion adds, it is just the last one that I didn’t have, so I wanted to grab it.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 2nd Edition

I’ve played the original version of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and I want to try this new one. Plus, I might have picked up some of the 1st edition, so I can compare. But I’ll talk about that soon. I’m hoping that this makes the game a bit smoother to play, but we’ll see. And I just like the fantasy setting and the interesting cooperative nature and card play in the original game.

Radlands

This is one that I don’t regret but also slightly regret getting. I regret getting it because it’s a small two player game, will I play it over Hanamikoji. On the flip side, it’s from Roxley, I like their stuff. And the artwork on the game is amazing. But I don’t know if Radlands is going to be one that’s easy enough to table often. I am excited to try it though.

Clank! Expeditions: Temple of the Ape Lords

An expansion for Clank!. I don’t know what this one adds in exactly. I’m assuming that it’s just going to tweak how the base game plays and add in some apes. I need to play Clank! some more before I add any more expansions to my collection.

Black Sonata

This is the one that Devon was talking about in the video I mentioned. I love the concept of this game. It’s a solo only hidden movement, deduction game. That sounds so crazy to be able to do as a solo game, but it works well. I’ve already gotten my copy and played it twice. Plus I picked up the Fair Youth expansion as well, so that adds in more or a new way to play the game as well. But the base game is going to keep my busy for a little while.

Amazon Order

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackle

I said I was getting some of the first edition of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and Skull & Shackles was the base set I landed on. This one is going to be a pirate based theme, which I like, and use the standard Pathfinder Adventure Card Game system. I picked this one up for comparison purposes, and I hope that I really like it because there are expansions I could get as well.

Coconuts

For something completely different, Coconuts is a dexterity based game. You use monkeys to launch coconuts into cups to try and get a certain number of cups stacked up. The whole point of this is to be a silly fun game. I had a chance to mess around with it a tiny bit at GenCon in 2019, and it’s a fun one. It’ll not get played for a little bit, unless I do it on the table, because kittens will most certainly chase and play with flying coconuts.

Crowdfunding

So there are a lot to talk about, seven in fact. Most of them are going to be pretty small ones because, well, I’ve been trying to do some backing of little roll and write games that are print and play. When a game is $5, for a print and play, and I get it immediately, I want to support the creators because it’s a cool way to get games out there.

Kaikoro

Kaikoro is one of those print and play roll and write games. The game doesn’t seem too complex, you try and keep Kaiju from destroying a city. That theme and the artwork are the selling point, but it’s also a $5 game that I can print, laminate, and play as much as I want.

The Dark Quarter

The Dark Quarter is most definitely not a roll and write game or a print and play. You can see a lot of that here. I think the system is fascinating that it is using. And I really like the dark/mature supernatural, monsters theme that Van Ryder is bringing to the system. For me this was an easy back.

Fortress of Terror

Back to more print and play roll and writes. This one is another $5 that has a fair amount of content with it now. But it looks interesting, almost a bit of a dungeon crawl nature to it, or exploration, something like that. So I’m curious about it, and the system that is being used for the game, it seems like an interesting one that could be fun to play.

Paper Railroad

Another print and play, this one is going to be a route building train game, I believe, with some pick-up and deliver elements thrown in as well. The route building might be secondary to the farming and getting farm rewards and shipping out those things. So I’m curious to see how it is for a roll and write. But it was $6, so one to back that I want to mess around with.

Pestilence – Escape the Plague

The final print and play roll and write game on the list. This one has the most interesting theme for me, or up there with Kaiju. The black plague is rolling through, and you are trapped in the city. You need to make connections, build up reputation and avoid the kings guard to get out of the city. That just seems so different, there are other games about the black plague, but to do a roll and write on it, it’s a different than normal theme.

For Northwood!

Speaking of something that is a bit different. For Northwood! is definitely a unique game. For Northwood is a solo trick taking game. That immediately caught my attention. Add in that it’s pretty cheap, it’s just over a deck of cards, I’m curious about it. They company is also the one that has done or distributed other solo games that I like, like Orchard and Black Sonata.

Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

Finally, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies from Red Raven Games just launched this week. If you want to read more about it, you can do so here. But I loved my play through of Sleeping Gods, and Distant Skies seems to build upon that system. And while I didn’t have an issue with Sleeping Gods for solo play, this seems like even simpler solo play. Plus some changes to combat as well, which I was fine with combat. But I’m super stoked for this one.

Final Thoughts

So what am I most excited for, well, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies and The Dark Quarter. But those two are coming in a while. Same with For Northwood!. So of the stuff that I’ve gotten, or is coming much sooner, what do I want to play? I really want to try and compared both of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Games. They can be played solo, so I think I’ll be tackling them soon. Maybe I’ll even stream some over on Malts and Meeples coming up here.

Which would you want to play first?

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They just dropped a teaser for what this game is going to be over on the Quackalope YouTube channel where Jesse and Shira from Quackalope and Alex from BoardGameCo unboxed something, you can see it here.

So What Is CMON’s 50th Kickstarter?

Good question. We see the Silver Surfer, and he’s the herald of Galactus in the comics and the Fantastic Four movies. And this is a Kickstarter with Spinmaster. But we already had the Fantastic Four show up in the Marvel United: X-Men Kickstarter, and we’re still waiting on all of Marvel United X-Men to ship.

Plus the mini for the Silver Surfer isn’t in a chibi style. So that also leans away from it being something like Marvel United: Fantastic Four, at least in my opinion. Now CMON does have some other games that they could be using. How would you build a Zombicide Marvel game? There was just announced a Marvel Zombies Disney Plus show, find more about that here. But Silver Surfer doesn’t fit as well for that.

I think that they could be doing a version of something like Cthulhu Death May Die. Why, because one of the gimmicks for that was that they had a giant Cthuhlu that you could buy. You could easily do the exact same thing with Galactus if they want. Plus the Fantastic Four would work decently well as a team of characters for something like that. Or, of course, it could be a completely new game. But with a Death May die style game you’d be able to have Dr. Doom as a villain as well in it.

When Is This Coming?

Well, there is a November 19th date in the video. I’m not sure that’s when it is coming, though. If it is, that’s really soon, that could also be when more information is being revealed for it, since it’s a Friday and Kickstarters don’t often launch on Friday. So I’d expect to find out more news on it that day, but we’ll have to see, it could be coming out then.

Whatever it is, and whenever it is, I’m going to be interested in it, because, well, it’s Marvel and it’s CMON. I really like Marvel United, and I wouldn’t mind having a heavier game and a game with more minis, because who doesn’t want cool minis?

What do you think it is going to be?

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