D&D 5E 3rd Party Campaign Settings?

[Weiley31]

I'm actually burned out on 3PP kickstarters for 5E. Mostly because of how long it seems to bloody take to come out.

I may do one or two more backings this year, but after that, I'm taking a break from it.

 

[Eilathen]

I backed Tanares but it's a long way from release yet. About a month and a half after their two million plus dollar kickstarter closed, they announced that they'd be putting the RPG component on hold while they finished the board game component. We're now nine months past the estimated fulfilment date and we only just got the first beta test material.

Yeah, bit of buyers' remorse on that one. If a small backyard kickstarter by a newbie publisher goes way overtime, I can deal. When a multimillion dollar kickstarter with some of the biggest names in the industry does the same, and clearly does so in order to prioritise customers for a product other than the one I backed, it leaves a distinctly bad taste in the mouth. Oh well. Buyer beware, lesson learned etc.

Wow, so sorry to hear. And thanks for the heads-up. I will not give those folks any money, so no Tanares for me. If i hate anything, than it is companies who do not appreciate their customers.
I have had enough extremely late/subpar/non delivering KS experiences as well. The fact that KS is not held to higher standards (especially when it comes to non-delivering "creators") is disturbing and i have more or less given up on it as a customer.

 

[Incenjucar]

Wow, so sorry to hear. And thanks for the heads-up. I will not give those folks any money, so no Tanares for me. If i hate anything, than it is companies who do not appreciate their customers.
I have had enough extremely late/subpar/non delivering KS experiences as well. The fact that KS is not held to higher standards (especially when it comes to non-delivering "creators") is disturbing and i have more or less given up on it as a customer.

While I have no visibility into this project, a lot of projects in all places in the industry run into planning failures or unexpected events. Figuring out realistic dates is a skill, and even the best planners can't prevent randomness from ruining their schedule.

 

[humble minion]

While I have no visibility into this project, a lot of projects in all places in the industry run into planning failures or unexpected events. Figuring out realistic dates is a skill, and even the best planners can't prevent randomness from ruining their schedule.

Yeah, I'm usually pretty tolerant about kickstarters missing dates. Smaller companies or first-timers are extraordinarily vulnerable to slippage due to real-life problems affecting production, issues with art arriving on time, supply chain issues etc etc. I've backed some kickstarters which are running over a year late, and I'm mostly ok with that. Communicate with me and be honest about the issues and I won't be too cranky. It's just the fact that Dragori raised so damn much money for this project, and then just blatantly put the RPG customers in the fridge while they prioritised the board game, which got on my nerves.

I'm actually burned out on 3PP kickstarters for 5E. Mostly because of how long it seems to bloody take to come out.

I may do one or two more backings this year, but after that, I'm taking a break from it.

During lockdown, I developed a probably-unhealthy hobby of backing RPG kickstarters. I've slowed down a lot now, but I've still got loads of books pending from that fairly epic binge. Tanares is one that in the cold light of day probably looks a little bit generic and I might not have bothered with in regular times, but que sera sera.

 

[renbot]

I'm going to plug the Midgard Campaign Setting from Kobold Press. One of the most flavorful and fun campaign settings I've used in a while. A dragon empire, a Egyptian-adjacent empire, an undead kingdom encroaching into its neighbors, Amazonians (or near enough), Norse dwarves, etc.

Unfortunately, while KP is excellent at flavor and "fluff" (not the term I wanted but it is the only one I can remember to contrast "crunch"), it's "crunch" is VERY hit-or-miss: poorly balanced, spells and subclasses that try to cover every eventuality, magic subsystems that are very ponderous. I think it is a side-effect of putting out TONS of material to support the setting, but it can be kind of a mess.

That being said, I ran a nearly 3-year campaign using none of their races/subclasses and a very limited selection of spells and it went great. Note that the main campaign setting book as NO crunch as it is designed to be compatible with D&D, PF, probably others.