God. my Kickstarter queue is getting a bit … long. I’m looking at 7 games coming at some point in the future. At what point do I have a KS problem?
Most recently, I backed
Alice is Missing: A Silent Role Playing Game
and
Hel: The Last Saga
2 Likes
Knizia/Dutrait/Grail? Say no more. Say no more. Another game I’m backing since Guards of Atlantis II. I’m going for both board game and card game. Duh!
2 Likes
Having 13 14 items pending is definitely a problem. 12 13, of course, would be just fine. Ahem.
5 Likes
haha thank you.
Maybe I’ll get labeled SuperBacker before long. How exciting would that be? 
4 Likes
I dunno. When I got labelled “SuperBacker” it made me take a moment to accept that I was no longer “just dabbling” in Kickstarter projects. It’s a dubious honor for sure if it’s not something you’ve set out to do.
[EDIT: I have 22 projects awaiting fulfillment…]
5 Likes
My reaction when I got my Superbacker status was:
“Oh.”
Followed by realisation 
6 Likes
I ‘just’ have 9 awaiting fulfillment
Roll & Rome or Rome & Roll. Whichever way round it goes
GoA2
Madeira
Yokohama + Duel
Pax Pamir
Pax Renaissance + Pax Viking
Kanban
Oath
It’s a Wonderful World
Totally fine.
4 Likes
A question, for the folks who are all-in KS wise. Have you been burned by any yet? Non-delivery, cancelled projects, poor quality etc? I feel really fortunate that I haven’t been burned by any of the projects I’ve backed, but I have heard the horror stories.
2 Likes
Nah, I stick to the fairly big projects from safe publishers. Trickerion was the only time I backed a first timer I think.
I did bail on Living Planet quite close to fulfillment (lost out on ~£15 on the refund due to KS and PayPal fees), which was probably dodging a bullet. Maybe I could’ve fulfilled, played it and sold on for a similar loss? But that’s all hassle.
Sounds like Tasty Minstrel is going through the mill at the moment, but maybe a change of management rather than complete bust. Think this is the closest to dodge I’ve experienced though. Yokohama is complete and awaiting shipping so hopefully it’s far enough down the line to run through okay.
2 Likes
Worst experience I’ve had so far was Reavers of Midgard. I was gung-ho about it because it was likened to a spiritual successor to Champions of Midgard.
It was not. And the production quality took a hit. And, most importantly, Grey Fox not only failed to address the backers’ concerns or even take them seriously, they actually poked fun at them in interviews.
And, at the end of the day, Reavers is not nearly as good as Champions.
3 Likes
Not boardgames. There was a 3d printer a few years ago where they ended up going bust part-way through delivery, and there have been some very long delays (I was all-in on D-Day Dice 2nd edition and I’m still waiting for Project L). Who Goes There turned out to be a much worse game than I’d thought, but that was my fault for not reading the draft rulebook well enough and I’ve managed to sell it on. All the boardgame KSes I’ve been involved in have basically delivered what they promised, or are still plausibly promising it.
The only delivery problem I’ve had was with Wren Games’ Sensor Ghosts KS, where they used the same cardboard mailers as they’d used on previous occasions… but in this batch the glue was rubbish, and lots of people had missing stuff. They did an excellent job of making that good.
3 Likes
I have 9 outstanding and fortunately I’m not a super backer. I hope to stay that way.
Summary
- Spirit Island Jagged Earth
- Yedo Deluxe
- Rome & Roll
- 1861/67
- Clinic Deluxe Covid-19 expansion
- Ausonia
- 1840: Vienna Tramways
- 18DO
- 1822
The only problematic one has been Street Masters Aftershock, but I don’t mind. They seem nice and I’ve enjoyed playing with what I have so far. Maybe most importantly I still believe I’ll get the remaining bits.
1 Like
Sure. It’s been (look of horror) 8 years since I started backing Kickstarter projects. There’s been a few busts along the way. But a tiny percentage at worst. A handful of videogames that stalled out or vanished, none of which I’d given much money. A few PDF tier RPGs where the creator vanished. The Doom That Came to Atlantic City (got the game, but not from the creator) and Up Front (I backed at a low $ tier for all the promised freebies) are probably the highest profile failures I backed.
There’s a few that I still have some hope for years later - e.g. I backed some weird little indie game waaay back when called Radio the Universe, where the creator just updated last month to declare there was now a Steam page and a release date. I backed Myth and Myth Journeyman, the former of whose rules were a trainwreck, but it seems like things had improved by Journeyman…and eventually we got the game materials for the addons/stretch goals, and the core boxes for that project, but I am still waiting on the minis for that. At this point they’ve actually sold the IP to Ulisses Spiele and Ulisses are basically going to fund the backlog minis production as part of ongoing development…so, someday. Sigh.
But mostly, I’ve gotten what I pledged for and it’s been at worst middling, often some of my favorite RPGs and boardgames ever. And videogames…well, I still haven’t gotten to most of those.
2 Likes
The one horror story I’ve got is the one that should’ve been the hardest to fuck up. It was basically a box full of blank board game bits. But somehow there were numerous delays, despite the kit having been available at Essen just after the KS happened.
Then some copies of the kit showed up in a random shop in Finland. Then there was a final update saying the CEO had bankrupted the company and fled the country.
Absolutely bizarre.
2 Likes
Step 1. KIckstarter
Step 2. ???
Step 3. !?##@&%
I really thought I might be skipping this one. For now, it has my interest sufficiently piqued to back. I feel as though it’s slightly predatory the way they are marketing the card game… but for now I’m “whole hog”.
1 Like
To be honest with you, as a Knizia fan, the card game is a reimplementation of Trendy, and I consider that as a bonus.
Even the Medici card game was just a bonus really and not necessary
2 Likes
Currently awaiting 18 games...From a spree of catching up on the hobby.
- Zombicide 2nd edition upgrade and campaign - my partner wanted this badly, I barely kept him from making me go all in
- Obsession plus expansions - en route
- Spirit Island + everything - afaik en route (one of my all time favorite games)
- Rocketmen
- On Mars (via the Kanban KS, adresses will lock down soon soo …)
- Oath
- Viscounts of the West Kingdom + Campaign
- Pax Pamir 2 DE (via Spielworxx)
- Kemet Blood and Sand
- Brass Birmingham DE (via Spieleschmiede)
- Dwellings of Eldervale (production apparently nearly finished, prototypes last SPIEL looked great, confident game will arrive but no idea if it will be what I expect
- Blood on the Clocktower, late pledged after SUSD review… seems verry verry slow going
- A War of Whispers
- Microcity
- Mint Cooperative
- Unknown Planet - played at SPIEL and liked the game a lot, hopefully they wont run into production issues with the „wheel“ that holds the tetris pieces in the deluxe edition
- Moonrakers
- 18DO Dortmund (oops forgot that one)
- Frosthaven … maybe I forgot because we’re still knees-deep in Gloomhaven.
Previous Kickstarter Games
- Karmaka - played once
- Villagers - played solo wasnt motivated to teach the rules to anyone
- Table of Elements - awfully boring but educational
- Lovelace and Babbage - as a software engineer I had to have this but it turns out I hate being a human computer also I have a friend who is just soooo fast… I will forget the game at her house one day.
- Zombicide Season 2 - we went all in on all the extra stuff and we played this a lot for a while and then we didnt…
- Sprawlopolis - at this point the best game I ever received via KS. I love this little gem. And having this makes up for Karmaka and Table of Elements
In the beginning I only backed small games except Zombicide and I had little idea what types of games I wanted and how to figure out if the game was any good. I got sucked into the rabbit hole of reviews and all this during my research about Dwellings of Eldervale.
The only actual burn that happened was over two pairs of traveling shoes. by that point I had experienced how stressful a trip to the customs office could be and made sure that I either backed small things that aren’t taxed or were marked EU friendly … a project based in Spain seemed safe. What they didn’t tell anyone was that they imported their shoes via Switzerland probably because of lower customs… and so shortly before Christmas, as I was sick in bed with a cold I received a notice from the customs office they were holding my package. The fun I have had with German customs never ends. In this case they held the package for 7 days. What I didnt know was that they also counted the days of the weekend when they are not open. As soon as I was well enough I went to the customs office only to hear they had returned the package to sender a day before. When I contacted the company I saw on the KS page that a lot of the backers were mad about having to pay another 19% VAT… anyway in all the trouble the voucher I was promised never materialized and that was the last time I ever backed anything but EU friendly games, digital goods or Peak Design gear.
edit: how could I forget Frosthaven?
4 Likes
I didn’t know this was a thing! (Also a software engineer!)
1 Like
Unless you really really enjoy calculating numbers in your head… don’t… this is less about programming and much more about computing. I got into programming because I am lazy and would rather automate things than do them myself. So obviously not my game 
3 Likes