Far West 12th Anniversary

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These are the ones I look for, and I especially appreciate the bolded one.
Paradoxically, I hate when higher pay is a stretch goal. That feels like extortion. “Oh well, we’d LIKE to pay our people more but… well… it’s just so hard. Maybe YOU can make it happen? If only you were more generous…”
 
Paradoxically, I hate when higher pay is a stretch goal. That feels like extortion. “Oh well, we’d LIKE to pay our people more but… well… it’s just so hard. Maybe YOU can make it happen? If only you were more generous…”
I suppose that’s one way to look at it. I just see it as reinvesting in the people who made the game happen. “We initially budgeted for our writers to receive X, but if can reach <insert goal>, we can increase that to Y.” It’s kind of like getting a Christmas bonus when your company does well over the year - it’s not expected, you still get your base pay, but it’s a way to reward the team when things go right.
 
Oh, absolutely; if they're small and discrete tasks like some more words, more art, a special edition book, or higher pay for everyone, cool. If they're something like "we'll upgrade your rewards with some extra stuff!" that requires extra work... well, that's potentially a problem.

And if they're offering extras for sale at silly prices with impossible shipping... well, HUGE RED FLAG, I remember CoC7e.
Also the sheer volume of stretch goals, and unplanned stretch goals are a red flag.
 
Paradoxically, I hate when higher pay is a stretch goal. That feels like extortion. “Oh well, we’d LIKE to pay our people more but… well… it’s just so hard. Maybe YOU can make it happen? If only you were more generous…”
It's more that they don't have the money for higher rates- your additional money helps with a larger budget for them.
 
I suppose that’s one way to look at it. I just see it as reinvesting in the people who made the game happen. “We initially budgeted for our writers to receive X, but if can reach <insert goal>, we can increase that to Y.” It’s kind of like getting a Christmas bonus when your company does well over the year - it’s not expected, you still get your base pay, but it’s a way to reward the team when things go right.
Yeah, that's how I've always seen it as well. The extortion angle was totally surprising:shock:!
 
It's more that they don't have the money for higher rates- your additional money helps with a larger budget for them.
Then I’d say make it a policy. Don’t draw attention to it, just pay your people. Do it every single time if the product does well enough.
 
Stretch goals were also a ridiculous concept, and nowadays they're a potential red flag for me.
I like it when the stretch goals are incremental improvements on the product. Fund us to X level and we hire a professional editor. Fund us to Y level and we get full-colour art. Fund us to Z level and we hire a layout designer.

You can probably guess that I like to back the small fish.
 
Then I’d say make it a policy. Don’t draw attention to it, just pay your people. Do it every single time if the product does well enough.
I dunno, I like seeing it. Is it shamelessly capitalistic, yes, the publisher is still making more, but it's at least getting redistributed and it's a nice public statement to make.
 
I dunno, I like seeing it. Is it shamelessly capitalistic, yes, the publisher is still making more, but it's at least getting redistributed and it's a nice public statement to make.
Again, same here. Also, in some cases the publisher is also the author, and probably deserves a bonus:grin:!
 
I like it when the stretch goals are incremental improvements on the product. Fund us to X level and we hire a professional editor. Fund us to Y level and we get full-colour art. Fund us to Z level and we hire a layout designer.

You can probably guess that I like to back the small fish.
so, what you are saying is that Shadowrun books need to be kickstarter campaigns? :tongue:
 
so, what you are saying is that Shadowrun books need to be kickstarter campaigns? :tongue:
The SR kickstarter would be more like "if we hit this goal we'll learn what an editor is, if we hit the higher goal we'll hire one, if we hit the highest goal then we'll fire the editor to give you the Shadowrun quality you expect".
 
I know it's old-hat to bitch about the art for Far West, and I know artistic license is a thing, but it's not... good? Like, it genuinely just looks like a costumed actor with a filter over it?

And I get it, sometimes that's what the situation needs - I think it works great for games like WoD - but here... not so much.
 
I know it's old-hat to bitch about the art for Far West, and I know artistic license is a thing, but it's not... good? Like, it genuinely just looks like a costumed actor with a filter over it?

And I get it, sometimes that's what the situation needs - I think it works great for games like WoD - but here... not so much.
It looks like the "ink" filter from Paint.net. I'll bet his mom is very proud too and taped this piece to her refrigerator.
 
I know it's old-hat to bitch about the art for Far West, and I know artistic license is a thing, but it's not... good? Like, it genuinely just looks like a costumed actor with a filter over it?

And I get it, sometimes that's what the situation needs - I think it works great for games like WoD - but here... not so much.
My vision isn't good and I could easily be wrong about this, but... isn't that 'old master' just Skarka himself in cosplay?
 
Hang on, before we get too advanced on this topic, I vaguely remember that some of the backer tiers allowed for those backers to be included in the artwork. They had to send their mug shots in so that they could be photoshopped (paint.netted?) into Far West's images. I'm pretty sure they're not all Skarka.

Whilst I'm not that impressed with these, I will give Skarka due in that there seems to be a cohesive style to the artwork. I've seen other RPGs where the artwork is of different styles and I find it rather disruptive.
 
Hang on, before we get too advanced on this topic, I vaguely remember that some of the backer tiers allowed for those backers to be included in the artwork. They had to send their mug shots in so that they could be photoshopped (paint.netted?) into Far West's images. I'm pretty sure they're not all Skarka.

There was a tier for that. This is one of the backer pictures:

1659574557979.png

EDIT: Well... apparently that's Tenkar - https://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/11/kickstarter-talking-about-far-west-late.html
 
Hang on, before we get too advanced on this topic, I vaguely remember that some of the backer tiers allowed for those backers to be included in the artwork. They had to send their mug shots in so that they could be photoshopped (paint.netted?) into Far West's images. I'm pretty sure they're not all Skarka.

Whilst I'm not that impressed with these, I will give Skarka due in that there seems to be a cohesive style to the artwork. I've seen other RPGs where the artwork is of different styles and I find it rather disruptive.
Including a previous Skarka game brought up in this thread.
 
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Hang on, before we get too advanced on this topic, I vaguely remember that some of the backer tiers allowed for those backers to be included in the artwork. They had to send their mug shots in so that they could be photoshopped (paint.netted?) into Far West's images. I'm pretty sure they're not all Skarka.

Whilst I'm not that impressed with these, I will give Skarka due in that there seems to be a cohesive style to the artwork. I've seen other RPGs where the artwork is of different styles and I find it rather disruptive.
I guess if you consider being consistent a virtue, he's been nothing but on all fronts in this project. (I genuinely don't care; I've never purchased or played a Skarka game and I only occasionally follow this debacle out of a mild curiosity, having been burned on a couple of KS projects myself).
 
Remids me of the "art"from Jennifer Aniston's early game Forward...To Adventure, which was illustrated by photo-manipulated pics of LARPers
Now I wish I had a copy of the L5R Larp handbook. It's been a while, but in my memory it was basically the same thing. And by photo-manipulated, they were just black and white. I think some samurai were wearing glasses, but that might be my faulty memory.

legend-of-the-five-rings-live-action-roleplaying-oriental-adventures-core-rules-6.png
 
One of the last few Shadowrun games (the third-person tactical ones) had a bunch of character portrait images that I am pretty sure were high-level Kickstarter pledge rewards, or something, based on the obvious models for the portraits...
 
Now I wish I had a copy of the L5R Larp handbook. It's been a while, but in my memory it was basically the same thing. And by photo-manipulated, they were just black and white. I think some samurai were wearing glasses, but that might be my faulty memory.

View attachment 48409
Honestly, for LARPs, especially for fantasy ones, I'm cool with it. It's a nice reward for folk for putting in the effort of making quality outfits, and can inspire other players by showing them that it's very doable.
 
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