D&D 5E [Review] Valda's Spire of Secrets is my favorite expansion in all of 5E

[Shardstone]

promising something 18 months earlier than it arrives can be considered shady in itself.

3-6, you probably can explain, but 18? You need a real good explanation for that

Covid delayedcmy kickstarter by a year and a half due to no paper for my printer, then due to shipping by freight, then due to customs changes from covid. Dont speak so confidently from a place of ignorance.

 

[mamba]

Covid delayedcmy kickstarter by a year and a half due to no paper for my printer, then due to shipping by freight, then due to customs changes from covid. Dont speak so confidently from a place of ignorance.

I said they need one, not that there cannot be one.

I’d say the printer having no paper qualifies, but here it was the pdf too that was delayed. Just curious what explanation they gave, and not giving one and staying silent definitely does not cut it

 

[Micah Sweet]

I said they need one, not that there cannot be one.

I’d say the printer having no paper qualifies, but here it was the pdf too that was delayed. Just curious what explanation they gave, and not giving one and staying silent definitely does not cut it

I will admit that I'm no longer completely on board with Mage Hand Press. They are uncommunicative sometimes, and I feel their work is sometimes tentative and undertuned (despite all the great ideas). I'd also really like a proper Dark Matter supplement. But at the end of the day, most of their content is really good, and I value results.

 

[teitan]

I'll be honest, whilst it seems like this was very late - looks like they were projecting July 2022, so a year and a half late - the fact that they go it out, it's massive, and it's good makes it very hard for me to credit your accusations of "shady business".

Shady business would be if it came out never, or if it came out 1.5 years late but missing a lot of the material, or the material was just crap. Whereas this seems to have an insane amount of material, which by the accounts of people who have read it, is above-par in terms of quality, too. I can definitely understand being annoyed at a 1.5 year delay (usually that just means something outright is never happening), but I'm not seeing the shady.

The shady bit was dropping communication except to tell us about their next project. People were angry and we should be so that these things don’t happen. Trying to shame me into not being irritated by how it was handled is disingenuous. If you loaned me $200 and I told you I would pay you back by such and such a date and when i missed the deadline and stopped talking to you you’d be salty. Even after i paid you back would you be willing to do continued business with me? I wouldn’t.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The shady bit was dropping communication except to tell us about their next project. People were angry and we should be so that these things don’t happen. Trying to shame me into not being irritated by how it was handled is disingenuous. If you loaned me $200 and I told you I would pay you back by such and such a date and when i missed the deadline and stopped talking to you you’d be salty. Even after i paid you back would you be willing to do continued business with me? I wouldn’t.

I'd still spend the $200 though, once I got it back. And it's not really the same, since you did get what you wanted out of the deal eventually, so lending money is a bad analogy.

That being said, I hardly think MHP is perfect. See my post above for details.

 

[TwoSix]

The book is already out, so the quality of communication during the Kickstarter fulfillment process is irrelevant in deciding about whether to get the book or not.

It can certainly determine whether or not you support their later Kickstarters, of course.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The shady bit was dropping communication except to tell us about their next project. People were angry and we should be so that these things don’t happen. Trying to shame me into not being irritated by how it was handled is disingenuous. If you loaned me $200 and I told you I would pay you back by such and such a date and when i missed the deadline and stopped talking to you you’d be salty. Even after i paid you back would you be willing to do continued business with me? I wouldn’t.

This book was $200? Good grief. Being annoyed in a bit more understandable then.

 

[tsadkiel]

This book was $200? Good grief. Being annoyed in a bit more understandable then.

The book was not $200, it was $60 for the hardcover+PDF. The Core Bundle with book, starter kit, miniatures, GM screen and spell cars was $150. Plus shipping, there are other add-ons, and higher pledge tiers with things like fancy dice, so it's perfectly possible to get to $200, but that was not the cost of the book and certainly not what I paid.

 

[Yalım]

I'd be interested to hear folks' experiences with the classes & subclasses at the table.

For me, there was a pretty wide power band (e.g. Sellsword vs Dragon Acolyte, or Spirithost vs most of the Near-Humans), with options generally leaning towards too strong, like a lv2 Captain with just their cohort seem to easily outdamage an agonizing blast + hex warlock, and they get further ahead once their maneuver dice / subclasses come online. It's a shame because the production value is high, and like shardstone mentioned they cover a lot of archetypes that don't exist in 1st-party 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This book was $200? Good grief. Being annoyed in a bit more understandable then.

It wasn't $200. It was a while ago, but I'd remember that.