Boy, when real life intervenes, it really hits hard!
I've been gone from the blog - which had barely gotten it's feet wet - and the G+ boards in general. Fortunately, I've run in to some free time as my band slows down for the fall / winter season, and I'm back to talking about Sword & Wizardry, and old-school gaming in general.
As before, I'll be sharing my thoughts, house rules, reviews and general opinion of things gaming.
For today, getting back into the swing of things, I'll talk briefly about Kickstarters. Kickstarters are a great tool, that in my mind (and frankly limited marketing experience - I'm in the quality assurance field) cater best to established customers looking for one of two things: quality or quantity. Now, these are not mutually exclusive, but let's take a look at two current kickstarters that hit the 'net this week, Reaper Bones II, and Frog God Games' Sword of Air.
Reaper Miniatures Bones II will (and already has) pulled in huge numbers.
Seriously. Huge.
They hit their $30,000 goal in under two minutes. In 24 hours they had over one MILLION dollars in pledges. And for those that pledge (I got the first one, I'm still on the fence) they will get a great deal. There are already over one hundred minis in the core set, not including add-ons. This banks on quantity - though again, not being exclusive, the quality will be high as well.
The Frogs' Sword of Air (SoA) is chugging along nicely. They are over a third of the way to their goal of $75,000 at the time of writing this, with plenty of time to go. I'll be getting in on this, myself. Here's where it get's interesting.
The SoA Kickstarter has a higher price point than the minis, though for a single book. But what you're getting is a very high quality book. This caters to a more niche market looking for cool exclusive add-on's and stretch goals, as opposed to the Bones 'more, more, more' approach. Still, as the numbers rise, the Frogs promise more stretch goals (and frankly have some pretty cool pledge levels... hello Nuclear Edition!) and the quantity of product will rise. Again we see - these are not exclusive. Just more prominent.
I'm not knocking one over the other. Assuming I can scrounge up the $$$ I'll be in for both. Most importantly, I think these are good for gaming - the hobby in general.
Kickstarters make not only great platforms to create, but also great advertisements and marketing both in and out of the gaming populace. So, to wrap up this long-winded "hey, I'm back post", check out the kickstarters, and support the gaming scene. Because that's what these kind of things do, at their heart, whether by providing a quality product, a quantity of products, or both.
I'll be around, see you soon!
(btw, I don't work for either of these companies, and these are just my opinions!)
