Frog God Games Offers Goodwill Compensation For Centre Stage Miniatures' Failed Kickstarters

Frog God Games has announced that it will be offering a dollar-for-dollar value of PDFs to backers of two Centre Stage Miniatures Kickstarters which failed to deliver to their backers. Though Frog God did not run the two Kickstarters - they were for miniatures whose art was licensed from them for that purpose - they say they feel the need to make an offer like this as a show of goodwill to fans who might have backed the Kickstarters because Frog God's name was associated with it.

Here's the text of the full announcement:

Frog God Games is well aware of the disappointment, frustration, and monetary loss suffered by backers of the two Centre Stage Miniatures Kickstarters, Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors Complete II, for which we had licensed monster images to CSM. Lots of our most loyal fans bought miniatures because they have our monster books and wanted miniatures for monsters from those books. When those Kickstarters did not deliver their products we watched in dismay as backers were left with nothing to show for their support of the Kickstarter campaigns. While Frog God Games did not run the Kickstarters, have control of the manufacture or delivery of its products, nor have any affiliation with Centre Stage Miniatures beyond the licensing of our art properties for the purposes of the Kickstarters, they did involve our licensed materials, and we did publicly support the Kickstarter campaigns. Since that time we have been looking for a way to lessen the blow suffered by the backers of the campaigns in a show of good will to our fans and those who might have supported the campaigns because they saw our name associated with it.


In recent dialogue on public forums with some of the backers of these Kickstarters, it was suggested to us that maybe we could offer free pdfs from our own product catalogue to backers of those Kickstarters so they could at least have something to show for their support. This was something we had considered doing at the time when the Kickstarters first seemed to have failed in their promised delivery of miniatures. At the time we thought an offer like that might be seen as adding insult to injury for trying to somehow diminish the severity of the loss suffered by the backers or otherwise wholly inadequate and inappropriate for the occasion. However, from our recent discussions with backers, we have learned that some would be receptive to such an offer as way to at least ease their frustration.


We’ve spent the last few days talking about the logistics of how to do this because we’re a company of part-time gamers, not very automated, and lots of backers are involved here. Unquestionably there are going to be a lot of glitches and delays as we get a handle on the process. There’s also got to be an absolute time limit on this program to not only limit the consumption of our already-limited technical resources but also to protect us from a potentially years-long process of receiving, processing, verifying, and tracking these orders—a task of no small measure for our technical limitations.


As a result of this process, for the next 6 months Frog God Games is opening thepdf catalogueof our online store at froggodgames.com and will give store credit for pdf purchases to match dollar-for-dollar the amount that a backer paid to the Tome of Horrors Complete and/or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters from Centre Stage Miniatures. Obviously there are some difficult logistics involved in this both to verify backers for the issuance of the credit and to handle the resulting online transactions. To try and create a smooth process and save the sanity of our web master and keep him from being overrun with countless details to keep track of, we will initiate the following processes:


1. If you were a backer of either the Tome of Horrors Complete or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters from Centre Stage Miniatures, please send an email to Chris at froggodgamesfreepdf@gmail.com. In the subject line of your email include the name under which you pledged to either or both Kickstarters, indicate whether it was one or both Kickstarters, and include the total amount you pledged to both of them combined (Example subject line: Joe Backer, TOH and TOH2, $375). Include in the body of the email any screenshots, emails, or other documentation you have to show your support as a backer and the amount of the Kickstarter pledges that you made. (We’re not looking for some kind of legal standard of evidence here; we just need to be able to see that you were in fact a supporter of the Kickstarters and for what amount to help us sift out any unscrupulous opportunists who were otherwise unassociated with these Kickstarters and just see this as an opportunity to take advantage of our offer for free products.)


2. Chris has prepared coupons to the froggodgames.com web store in increments of $25, $50, $100, $150, $200, $250, $300, $350, $400, $450, $500, $600, $700, $800, $900, and $1,000. He will respond to your email with one of these web store coupons in the full amount of your documented pledges, rounded up to the nearest coupon increment. For example, if you pledged $200 between the two Kickstarters, you will receive a froggodgames.com coupon in the amount of $200. However, if your pledges totally $201 you will receive coupons totaling $250, so Chris will not have to worry about creating hundreds of different coupons unique to individual backers. As a small game company, that sort of thing is frankly beyond the capacity of our personnel and online resources to handle. (Please note that if your pledge total was in excess of $1,000, Chris will issue multiple coupons in increments to get you closest to your pledge rounded up.)


3. In addition to the above offer, we are aware that due to hard drive crashes, loss of email accounts, and various and sundry other reasons all backers may not have documentation of their backing of the Tome of Horrors Kickstarters or may not be able to show the amount by which they backed one or both of the Kickstarters. To reasonably account for this we make this additional offer. If you cannot show us documentation of your support of one or both of the Kickstarters, send us an email at the above address and in the subject line state your name, the name of the Kickstarter(s) you backed, and write “No Documentation” (Example subject line: Joe Computercrash, TOH and TOH2, No Documentation). There is no need to include any information in the body of the email. In these cases we will take your word for it and will issue a coupon to you in the amount of $25. We apologize for being unable to honor higher dollar values in these instances, as we will already be opening ourselves to considerable exposure to illegitimate claimants, however we will honor emails sent to us in this manner, no questions asked. Please be advised, though, we will not issue more than one of these coupons to a single individual.


4. Please be sure that the email account through which you have sent these emails is one that Chris can reply to with the attached coupons and will not be sent to a spam folder or otherwise lost. This process is already going to be putting a great deal of stress on a part-time employee, and we are not going to be able to spend additional resources in tracking down email errors and hiccups, so please help us to get these right on the first try.


Important Note 1: This offer has an absolute time limit of 6 months. After March 1, 2016, Frog God Games will no longer honor any claims for backers seeking to receive coupons. Emails from backers received on or prior to March 1, 2016 will be honored even if we are not able to issue the coupons until after that date due to any backlog in processing. Coupons issued under this offer do not expire on March 1, 2016 and will be good until their normal expiration date of September 1, 2016.


Important Note 2: Please note that the store credit coupons are for pdf purchases only. They will not work for the purchase of physical product or in combination with purchase of such products. If you wish to purchase physical products, you will need to do so as a separate transaction so that our fulfillment process will not get messed up. Thank you for your cooperation in this.


Important Note 3: This doesn’t affect any of the above but is intended as an FYI to anyone that is intending to buy a physical product as well. All purchases of a Frog God Games physical book include the pdf of that book for free as well, so don’t use your coupons to buy the pdf of a book that you were already going to buy the physical copy of anyway.


Disclaimer (because we legally have make sure this stuff is clearly stated): Frog God Games is not affiliated with Centre Stage Miniatures or any of its principles and is not serving in any agency capacity for these entities. This offer of free pdfs is not considered or intended as a release of any claims or rights enjoyed by the backers in relation to the above-mentioned Kickstarters, and the claim or use of these pdf coupons is not intended to be considered as binding to the recipient for any legal purposes. Furthermore, in creating this pdf-coupon redemption offer Frog God Games is not making any statement or claim in regards to the Kickstarters, their outcomes, their hosts, their backers, or any pending claims or legal matters in regards to the Kickstarters or related entities.
 

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Greg V

First Post
From what I had read, CSM attempted to blackmail FGG by telling them that they'd drag their name through the mud if they didn't refund the licensing fee. The fact that FGG didn't back down and held their head above it all shows that they're truly a professional company. Taking care of the backers like this definitely earns my respect.

Hi PezlerPolychromatic,

I really appreciate your kind words and support. They mean a lot to us at Frog God Games. However, I don't want this thread to incite further animosity between the parties involved. And while what you have described is a possible interpretation of events, it is not one that we are choosing to adopt. We believe the offer that was made by the other party was in good faith, and while it was certainly a potential economic gain for that party we do not begrudge that as an honest endeavor. I think at the time we were a bit gun shy because of all the fallout that was going on and were afraid that it might have been something like you describe, though I think time has shown that it was ultimately not the case. Anyway, we don't want to create any sort of bad blood with the other party. We just wanted to set the record straight on the other thread where this whole thing came up again and was reporting some unintentional misinformation.

Which is also a very big reason for my post here, because - importantly - the other party that you are thinking of is not CSM. So I wanted to make sure that more misinformation wasn't being unintentionally spread that might cause people to pile on. There's already been plenty in this whole debacle. :)

Anyway, thanks again for your comments and words of encouragement. After all the frustration for everyone that went down with this last year, I'm glad we're able to provide at least a little bit of relief to those who have had to go through it all for so long.

Thanks again!

Greg Vaughan
Creative Director
Frog God Games
 

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JeffB

Legend
Way to go Frogs. I wasn't familiar with the previous minis KS or the failure/bad blood/etc, until the recent QOD2 thread. But this is a cool move.

Bill has done me a favor before with purchasing a product, and treated me like a friend, not a customer. IME, the Frogs are good people.
 

timbannock

Adventurer
Supporter
Indeed, these guys are the best. Looks like I'll be picking up that copy of S&W Rappan Athuk, the Player's Guide, and maybe a couple of PDFs finally, as a show of support.
 



Tyranthraxus

Explorer
Am a little confused.

Did the kickstarter not make the required total (and thus failed)
Did the company running the kickstarter take the money and run (which is a Felony?)

Little confused here.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Am a little confused.

Did the kickstarter not make the required total (and thus failed)
Did the company running the kickstarter take the money and run (which is a Felony?)

Little confused here.

The KS funded. The company running the KS filed for bankruptcy or something similar. I'm not as familiar with the situation as some others here are who actually backed it.
 

Greg V

First Post
The Kickstarter reached its goal but has never fulfilled. You can find details at the Tome of Horrors Complete Kickstarter page (there's a link in the article at the top of this thread), but I'd rather not rehash them all here if that's alright. Too many hard feelings to dredge up.
 



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