OSR Old School Essentials Box Sets Kickstarter
darjr
I crit!
There are complaints. Some loud ones.
I get the desire folks have to wan't them to do other things.... but I think they have room to push the boxes evolution a bit. And as noted above, this is also funding new stuff.
I think independent producers don't have the capacity to print a bunch of products that they might not sell. When they did the Advanced Fantasy kickstarter, they printed extra copies to be sold through Exalted Funeral and other places, but those sold out quickly. I know nothing about rpg publishing, but it seems like it took a few months to get more copies printed and get them stocked.
The thing that will annoy me about this kickstarter is that I probably don't want the main product (the box sets, which have been out of print for a while now), but I might want the add ons like the adventures. Those might be available through exalted funeral later, but they might also sell out quickly.
I have sympathy for independent producers because I think they go from being just a person putting out pdfs of their homebrew to people selling things in a short amount of time. I think it speaks more to the difficulty of production and distribution for small producers (especially in a pandemic)
If it were "other things" I wouldn't be complaining. They have the Carcass Crawler zine to release new equipment; all the new adventures they can print; add-ons with new magic items or monsters (something like an Encyclopedia Magica or Fiend Folio). Further muddying the waters by reprinting existing books with a couple of new things just muddies the waters for fans and potential new customers.
In the end, it's Gavin Norman's business, and I don't have a stake in it. I just think it's unnecessary and a bit of a headache to explain to new customers. It is making the entry point into OSR gaming more confusing than it needs to be.
I do too. If this is what it takes for OSE to be successful, then so be it. However, I'd be surprised if a simple reprint wouldn't be cheaper than creating a new boxed set, with new art/layout/branding/etc.
darjr
I crit!
You have my sympathies.
I mean it is confusing. But the OSR is confusing.
The kickstarter may be a bad idea. I dunno. If I were him and had a chance to get Otis art on the covers going forward I'd jump at it too. My guess is that a kickstarter is the only way he could make it work.
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darjr
I crit!
Oh! I came here to post that this is kinda the DCC model. Look how many different art editions of the main core book there is. Now granted, it's only one book, and not a core set. But when you look at MCC then the Lankmar stuff, I'm almost as confused.
though I think Goodman Games is probably near the end of being able to print more new special covers of the core book.
though I think Goodman Games is probably near the end of being able to print more new special covers of the core book.
*Otus. I feel Elmore would be too divisive lol.
As I mentioned above, I think the classic box set makes sense, less so with the advanced box set.
But in terms of confusion, if you think about dnd, within ten years you have the original boxed set, greyhawk expansion, Holmes, Advanced, Moldvay, and Metnzer, all with slightly different rule sets. So if you are looking to get into early editions, you already have some research to do.
Froderik
Explorer
That's something I hadn't considered, but you're right. I got the Holmes set when I was about 11, bought the first Expert set the same year, a friend bought Moldvay Basic, we both invested heavily in the AD&D universe, and one of us picked up a copy of Mentzer Basic a couple of years later. We somehow managed to work through that confusion, and made four competing rule sets work together as one.
Despite OSE's somewhat confusing format releases, at least the rules are the same.
