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I just won an eBay auction for all 4 of the Steve Jackson classic Car Wars Pocket Box Bundles for $109, new and sealed. It's like $164 after tax and shipping, but hey that's still right about $200 less than ordering from.Warehouse 23, even with their free shipping on orders over $200. Pretty stoked.
 
Just before I hit the sack, I thought I'd share the definition of making life really hard for yourself.

I always thought that book layout was a dark art but modern (ish) software and technology would make it easy. Clean up the PDF I bought from Wizards by converting it to a digital format with modern (ish) software? Easy! Ummm...

Exhibit A:

merged-preface.png


On the left we have the Wizards scan of the Basic players manual, the Preface (an easy start without any graphics or pictures). This is a forty or so year old book that I would like to clean up before I print the PDF out so thought I'd run it through Word. It's not a new version of word - 2007 or something like that - and the computer is pretty ancient in modern terms but compared to what was used back then it was moon landing stuff.

On the right hand side the Word version of the same page in the same (as near as I can get) font type (souvenir Lt BT) and in more or less the right size - 10 point font.

As you can see some of it lines up, other bits don't and there's acres of white space on the left hand side whilst I struggled to squeeze it all in on the right. They really were masters of their art when it comes to layout and design those layout people.

This one page took me half an hour of lining up, rejigging, tweaking and so on. Hopefully the next page won't but I'm starting to understand the size of the task now. Unless I find a better way of laying this out, it might take quite a while.

Understatement of the century. All this for a clean copy of the PDF without the 'fuzziness' that scanning an old book brings. I guess we've been spoilt by digital stuff for years.

Anyway, don't expect to see a hardback combined cleaned up copy of the Basic D&D game any time soon, is all I'm saying. And on that note, good night!
 
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I backed Cepheus Deluxe Enhanced Edition, with an add-on for a PoD coupon for another softcover (which I expect to use for a copy of Terra Arisen). Also, Storn Cook did this awesome painting of Elric and Arioch, and he has it available as a print and shirts, so I broke down and bought a t-shirt.

Today I got my Scenematic copy of Dark Horrors & Hidden Places. brettmb brettmb is one of those publishers who knows how to properly pack a book, so they never arrived all beat up like others I've gotten have. A couple of days ago, I got my copies of Primal Quest Essential and Primal Belief from Exalted Funeral. I've gotten some pdfs from them before, so this was my first print purchase. Again, they know how to properly pack something. I may have to buy from them again sometime. I also got an email about my pdf copy of Gangs of Titan City, but I had to email them as I can't find out how to download it. Hopefully I will get help on that soon
 
Into the Wyrd and Wild is fantastic

I own the original in softcover. Would still love a hardcover version, though. I was tempted to back the Kickstarter for the Revised printing but decided it would be a bit much to own two versions. Did anyone here happen to back that?
 
Got in my slipcase of the Malleus Monstrorum for Call of Cthulhu yesterday and it's beautiful. Unfortunately page 18 (the previous page 17 had some smudging but was easier to read) had an issue with the printing where the page looked smudged and a bit out of focus. Some sort of slip at the printer I assume.

So I emailed them last night to let them know and asking if they wanted me to send them a picture of it. Dustin replied this morning and definitely wanted a picture. Anyhow Dustin got back to me with "yeah that isn't right" and a bit after that I get a notification that they're shipping me a whole new slipcase!!!

I was floored, I was thinking that I'd be happy with some sort of store credit and I'd just print up page 18 and 17 from the pdf and place it in the book and call it good. I'm totally aware of how tight the margins are for these game companies and my emailing them was more about alerting them incase it was more than one book that had the issue. Because some aren't as understanding as I am about such things.

Anyhow I'm totally blown away with how fast they moved and how nice Dustin was. I might argue with R rmeints sometimes about things like my desire to want old 3rd edition (Avalon Hill era books/pdfs) RuneQuest but I'd never ever fault them for customer service. They're always fast to response and I think we all can agree that the RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu books are works of art.

Anyhow wanted to share that. :smile:
 
I own the original in softcover. Would still love a hardcover version, though. I was tempted to back the Kickstarter for the Revised printing but decided it would be a bit much to own two versions. Did anyone here happen to back that?
I did in PDF, but I haven't really looked at it yet.
 
Got in my slipcase of the Malleus Monstrorum for Call of Cthulhu yesterday and it's beautiful. Unfortunately page 18 (the previous page 17 had some smudging but was easier to read) had an issue with the printing where the page looked smudged and a bit out of focus. Some sort of slip at the printer I assume.

So I emailed them last night to let them know and asking if they wanted me to send them a picture of it. Dustin replied this morning and definitely wanted a picture. Anyhow Dustin got back to me with "yeah that isn't right" and a bit after that I get a notification that they're shipping me a whole new slipcase!!!

I was floored, I was thinking that I'd be happy with some sort of store credit and I'd just print up page 18 and 17 from the pdf and place it in the book and call it good. I'm totally aware of how tight the margins are for these game companies and my emailing them was more about alerting them incase it was more than one book that had the issue. Because some aren't as understanding as I am about such things.

Anyhow I'm totally blown away with how fast they moved and how nice Dustin was. I might argue with R rmeints sometimes about things like my desire to want old 3rd edition (Avalon Hill era books/pdfs) RuneQuest but I'd never ever fault them for customer service. They're always fast to response and I think we all can agree that the RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu books are works of art.

Anyhow wanted to share that. :smile:
Dustin Wright has been part of Chaosium for at least twenty years or more
Many of us around the world have had great customer service with Dustin
His personal touch goes a long way in this day and age
Certainly a major asset for Chaosium
 
I just got my print copies of Polar Fudge Adventures from Lulu. I like to order just a few print copies of my games. It makes them look like real games. When the books are all professionally printed and bound they are so, so cute and it make a joy to hold. I even have a phoney barcode on the back cover to make look more realistic.

I have issues.
 
So my copy of Katanas & Trenchoats arrived in the mail today. It was due 5 years ago, but finally got finished earlier this year. The amusing thing is they used backerkit, and it wasn't showing up in mine. The guy who is helping with the KS got backerkit to contact me today so I could access it, but like I said, it was in my mailbox when I got home. Given how long it's been since it was kickstarted, I'm not even sure I have much interest in the game anymore. It's like a spoof of WoD with Highlander mixed in, and I stopped being into that years ago
 
So my copy of Katanas & Trenchoats arrived in the mail today. It was due 5 years ago, but finally got finished earlier this year. The amusing thing is they used backerkit, and it wasn't showing up in mine. The guy who is helping with the KS got backerkit to contact me today so I could access it, but like I said, it was in my mailbox when I got home. Given how long it's been since it was kickstarted, I'm not even sure I have much interest in the game anymore. It's like a spoof of WoD with Highlander mixed in, and I stopped being into that years ago

That's one of the reasons I've never been keen on the Kickstarter model. I get excited about the game that I can run next week, not the game I might run in 18 month's time, if all goes well.
 
That's one of the reasons I've never been keen on the Kickstarter model. I get excited about the game that I can run next week, not the game I might run in 18 month's time, if all goes well.
I am a “super backer” and have spent thousands of dollars on Kickstarter but I have really slowed down the last few years. These days I much prefer to buy a published product and while I appreciate what crowdfunding offers the small or beginning publisher I have really grown to dislike the model especially since it has become a preorder platform by some companies. I also HATE Kickstarter exclusives, especially when they involve gameplay elements such as adventures or new characters and scenarios for board games.
 
I've really started to reduce the numbers and rarely back things now unless I specifically want something (recent example: the Vaesen KS). I still have too many in-flight/undelivered but I'm no longer adding to the problem on a monthly basis. But the amount of KS backed products I've, eventually, received and pretty much listed on ebay straightaway because I'm no longer interested in it is really shocking.
 
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That's one of the reasons I've never been keen on the Kickstarter model. I get excited about the game that I can run next week, not the game I might run in 18 month's time, if all goes well.
95% of Kickstarters I back follow through on time or some early (like anything Kevin Crawford does). So my experience doesn't really support that. I also don't back many games because I want to run them. I back them because I like the concept of the game (like most of the ZineQuest stuff I backed last year), and can riff ideas off into games I would run. I don't do alot of actual gaming any more for various reasons, so my criteria for backing them have little to do with whether or not I'm going to actually play them.
 
95% of Kickstarters I back follow through on time or some early (like anything Kevin Crawford does). So my experience doesn't really support that. I also don't back many games because I want to run them. I back them because I like the concept of the game (like most of the ZineQuest stuff I backed last year), and can riff ideas off into games I would run. I don't do alot of actual gaming any more for various reasons, so my criteria for backing them have little to do with whether or not I'm going to actually play them.
I also buy a heck of a lot more games to read than to play, although less than in the past, but I still find Kickstarter to be a hassle and much prefer to just pick up a finished game once it’s on sale. I realize that isn’t super fair to creators that rely on KS but it’s the truth.
 
Same. Also choosing to miss a lot of the mini-heavy boardgames. Thankfully over FOMO for the most part - these huge kickstarters just take up too much room (said the Marvel United boxes).
 
Same. Also choosing to miss a lot of the mini-heavy boardgames. Thankfully over FOMO for the most part - these huge kickstarters just take up too much room (said the Marvel United boxes).
I’m still waiting on the last Shadows of Brimstone expansion to arrive, the Viking and Conquistador sets. Pretty sure I have everything made for that game but it sure takes up a lot of room!
 
That's one of the reasons I've never been keen on the Kickstarter model. I get excited about the game that I can run next week, not the game I might run in 18 month's time, if all goes well.
That's one of the reasons one of my triage questions is how much is written and what remains to be done.
 
It’s also important to watch the stretch goals, oft times they will throw a project off schedule
Yes that's one also. I have a whole list. In fact I don't really back for stretch goals, and look particularly at ones that affect the primary product. For me stretch goals are nice to haves, but I don't back for them.
 
I also buy a heck of a lot more games to read than to play, although less than in the past, but I still find Kickstarter to be a hassle and much prefer to just pick up a finished game once it’s on sale. I realize that isn’t super fair to creators that rely on KS but it’s the truth.
I normally only back 4-6 kickstarters a year, with some exceptions. Not all of them are rpg's, as I will back some comics as well. Other than Katanas & Trenchcoats, the only outstanding rpgs I'm owed are three from last year's ZineQuest. One I've gotten steady updates on (and have gotten playtest materials), while the other two have gone silent. That's honestly the first time I've had that happen for an RPG. Had it happen to a couple of movies I back on Indiegogo. ZineQuest KS are pretty tightly run, since it's usually just the zine, and not much else. Given last year I backed more due to having extra income, 2 out of the 20 or so projects I backed isn't something I feel like complaining about. I've gotten more than my money's worth on a few others (the amount of stuff I got from the Delta Green ones I backed has been amazing so far), so I'm fine taking a couple of potential losses

I don't find KS to be much of a hassle myself, since I don't back many. Most of them didn't have a lot of stretch goals (many didn't have any at all), and with some (like Kevin Crawfords stuff), there is a short window on delivery time (since everything is written, and he usually is waiting for art). One of his was actually a few months early. The only big ones I'm waiting on right now is Green Ronin's Mythos rpg and Godsend Agenda, and I get monthly updates on both.

I totally get why people dislike KS; I've just been lucky that I've had way more good experiences than bad so far that I see no reason to not back stuff I find interesting.
 
I just won an eBay auction for all 4 of the Steve Jackson classic Car Wars Pocket Box Bundles for $109, new and sealed. It's like $164 after tax and shipping, but hey that's still right about $200 less than ordering from.Warehouse 23, even with their free shipping on orders over $200. Pretty stoked.
This just arrived today, plus dude also had a sealed Pocket Box Bundle that I added for $50. Good times.
 
I picked up Simply6 in the DTRPG Christmas in July sale. I'm not totally sold on the system, but I've also just flipped through and not given it a proper read yet.

Something I know I've bitched about here before in at least one thread is allegedly generic/universal games that have either only token support or no support at all for sci fi games. So I was quite pleased that in the Simply6 bestiary, a significant portion of creatures/adversaries are sci fi types! 19 out of 55 bad guys, if you want a precise number. That alone makes it worth the few bucks I spent on it.
 
So! I'm firmly in the Marvel United bandwagon now.

A FLGS had some Kickstarter exclusives, including the big box of all stretch goal characters. I've seen this on sale for 200-400$. At this shop, however, it was 89.99$ CAD (which, in US dollars, is, like, 40$, heh). Quite a steal for so much game content.


That's 53 heroes and villains (minis + game component cards and boards).

Admittedly, I'm less familiar with these characters than what was in the other Marvel United promo box. Still, lots of neat stuff and the kids love them.
 
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