Kickstarter Tempations and Idle Musings

As of this writing, Bones 2, a Reaper Kickstarter to make more miniatures in their special plastic, is on it's last day. It's doing fantastic. It remains to be seen if it does better than the previous one, but by almost any measure outside of that, it's doing great.

I myself am not THAT impressed with Reaper though. Mind you, it's not that they didn't deliver, but they had a lot of the same problems other companies did with their KS.

1. Poor communication when things weren't going perfectly. At one point they told the backers outside US that they didn't have to ship them their products. WTF Reaper.

2. Metal miniatures have died. In my gut, I knew this was going to happen. I paid for the Metal for a Year after specifically asking, "So with all the Bones Plastic stuff coming out, are you going to be able to handle making metal miniatures still? "Oh yeah, no problem. 12-15 a month per normal." Nada for many months. I'm hopeful that metal miniatures will make a comeback during the "China is working on this part of it" phase but now that Reaper has at least one machine in their own factory, someone's got to man that sucker too right?

3. Bones are not for everyone. Reaper oversold a few of the points of Bones like the detail. Several figures were pulled for Q&A issues. Many more simply don't have the details in them that the metal versions do. There is also the bendy weapon or part issue. There is also the "hey, my paint isn't adhering to the miniature" or "my primer is wet and sticky three days later." Minor issues but when you're selling something that's supposed to be paint and play right outside the box with no primer and with the same detail as metal for a fraction of the cost? Yeah, potential problems.

4. The cases had problems. I didn't have the glue issue that a lot of people had, but they were way too damn small. It's like Reaper said, "Hey, miniatures are still true 25mm right?" Thankfully I have a lot of miniatures that are either old or small, like bugs, goblins, and giant rats, so they went into those boxes.

5. Miscellaneous. People may not be happy with the selection, people may not think they're getting as good a deal as last year, people may still have figures from last KS that they haven't even looked at, etc... etc... etc...

Now, having said all of that, I'm down with it. The figures are very affordable and provide you a chance to dabble in genres you might not normally do so. In addition, there are a lot of NEW figures and until Reaper picks up their metal again, if they ever do, well, this is a quick way to get them.

Now supporting this KS? That in and of itself is a problem.

You see, there are other Kickstarters I'd like to be down with as well. And honestly, a lot of people told the companies, "Hey, Reaper is doing Bones 2 about now. You should wait." and for the most part, the response was something like, "Well, there's always going to be another Kickstarter around the corner."

And to be fair, there is a certain amount of truth in that statement. For example, Darklands by Mierce Miniatures just finished up. That took in over $100K, more like $150K with conversion in there. Mars Attacks is another one out there right now. 

Another one, Jounrey:Wrath of Demons, is a board game with some awesome looking figures. It's doing fantastic.

But having said that, NONE of them are sucking the air out of the room like Reaper is. If you're a smaller fringe company whose figures are going to be competing with Reaper for say, Fantasy stylings, you wait. End of discussion. Well, end of discussion if you're really on the fringe and haven't blown past your previous Kickstarters with huge strides eh?

For those I'd like to support...I'd love to support ShadowSea. It's based on the Song of Blades and Heroes engine and I've had previous editions and a lot of the miniatures. I've supported previous Kickstarters and unlike some companies, the guys here are pretty clear in the communications and get things done in a fairly timely manner. But... ah, the dreaded but... It's no huge bargain at the base prices. It's not that the prices are terrible. This is especially true considering the great detail and high quality of the sculpts. It's that well, it's expensive. This is where doing it later would have benefited them. I can't say that the totals have been directly effected by Reaper's KS but I'd be willing to bet money on it.

Another one, Elven Adventurers, is by a company that did two previous KickStarters and did a fantastic job with them. I'd like to support them but... well, I'm not 'feeling' it. The elves are a little goofy and they've throw in all sorts of weird mini-stretch goals that are popular, but aren't necessarily my cup of tea. They're funded too so I don't feel too bad about it.

The other problem in terms of money, is well, the real world sometimes has stuff on sale!  For example, Fantization is one of my "to go to" shops when I need something. They are carrying Scale 75 paint. I like the paint line. They are having a 20% sale. Well, bam, there goes some money. Money that could have went to another Kickstarter.

It's why I'm amused when people talk about not budgeting for Kickstarters. Yeah, you can not budget to pay the rent either. See how far that gets you. I'm not saying you have to spend X amount or Y amount, but if you don't know how much you're spending and aren't keeping track of things, it's an easy way to get into trouble.


Me? It looks like Reaper is allowing you to add to your pledge up to December 20th so I may go with just the Vampire level and try to support Shadowsea, but even so, it's going to be a close one.

December Roundup of November Painted Minis

For the Dark Age Games comes a weird looking combination of Hook Horror and man. It reminded me for some reason of the old R A Salvatore novel where some innocent is polymorphed into a Hook Horror and slowly loses its mind. I bought it when it first came out at Gen Con and tried to follow the painted picture on the blister. I bought it because as a monster, it didn't have a ton of bags, ropes, satchels, and other miscellaneous bits on it. I threw it on some cork and put some rubble around the base and some of the Army Painter tuffs.

Size comparison of those I finished last month but havent' posted up yet.

This is a Dragonblood Miniature. That company doesn't exist as that anymore. Many of the miniatures wound up with either Dark Sword Minaitures or Cavalcade Wargames.

It's an interesting figure that came with a wide variety of hands. The bad thing though is the arms are a little short. I put him on a round lip based because the Shadow Sea skirmish Game uses those by default and I might make this figure one of the Order of Yosoth summoners. Bad thing about digital pictures? You can see those flaws nice and bright. The right eye for example is huge compared to how it looks on the table top. Oh well. He's done at least.

And here's that assassin I was talking about when discussing Jason Engle's artwork the other day. I went with a fairly simple paint job on him because he, unfortunately, fell into that "I want it done" status.

Deepwars Kickstart Goods

One of the earliest Kickstarters I backed was Deepwars. I haven't played Song of Blade and Heroes extensively or anything like that, but I like the 'Gonzo' of the game. Magic, high technology, ancient races, fallen races, all that good stuff. I went in for the three pack and as a stretch goal it made it to the fourth pack for free.

 

They arrived the other day and while I haven't done more than look at them, I thought I'd snap a couple of pictures quickly and share what they look like.

 



For a 'standard' fantasy campaign, the Dark Marines have to be the best bet for the money. They fit right into the whole Mind Flayer and Far Realm thing so regardless of the 'tech' look some of them have, they are a fairly good fit. Surprised that the 'warrior' of the set is actually kinda small compared to the 'scientist'.

These are the 'ancients' of the setting. Elves anyone? Hate to say it but m'eh. I like the robot shark though.

While I like Mercenaries, or Fortune Hunters, as a general rule, too specific to the setting. Great for those who love the setting but the only figure I think I'll be snagging for use outside the boxed set is the machine, the resin figure in the back. It can make some weird space golem or something.

Another winner, the Scaly Horde was the bonus set. Almost every monster here looks like it can be useful in a standard D&D game right off the bat. I know the one with four arms may look a little off, but hey, Spellweaver anyone? The rest need no real thinking about even if the big fish is well, a big fish. I still bug one of my friends who lost a second or third level character when third edition came out to a giant catfish. He's still not happy about it.

There were a few other figures that came with it, but I didn't snap pics of them. The cards are a nice touch. I wouldn't mind seeing those for standard Song of Blade and Heroes games. Maybe if they do some specific miniatures for the game?

I'm also still waiting on the hardcover. Mind you, this is a Kickstarter that is on time. They tried to get it out early, but that went by the wayside. Nonetheless, I'm impressed it's out on time. That is a huge thing to me. They've also been very good about keeping people in the fold.

In terms of the hardcover, I'm hearing some good things about it . I enjoyed Shadowsea, or at least the first edition, so expect this to be good as well. I'm thinking about supporting the new Kickstarter but it's not really a matter of want, it's a matter of what am I going to give up that in order to do so should I go that route.

The other problem is, I think it's too soon. There are a lot of people who may have the funds, but want to see how this game works first. They want to play with their toys. They want to paint their figures. By overlapping the Kickstarters, I think they've done their fans a disservice.

What's worse though, is that the original had a very modest goal and made a fairly decent % over its initial goal, something like $18K. The new Kickstarter has a minimum goal of $30K. Hmmm.... Math is not being friendly here. They've gotten over the old goal for Deepwars but not much further than that.. I'm still thinking it over though. It's another one of those count the pennies and see what we'll see.

There are a lot of great miniature Kickstarters now but I'm tapped out. I'd love to back more of them but the funds are lacking, and while I generally think that the miniature guys are more on top of things than the RPG guys, the ones doing Blackwater and Tectonic Craft Studio have dropped the ball in months and quarters even so there is no 'perfect' medium for Kickstarters.