Tell your overdue Kickstarter story

[thirdkingdom]

D20 Delving from @Wizard Tower Games https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wizardtowergames/board-game-d20-delving
Fully funded in October 2022 with a promised delivery date of January 2023.

They've run into a lot of unusual issues with customs and printing and such, but communication has been irregular, imprecise and apparently contradictory at times. For instance, the last update a month ago (8/16/25) said; "The last of what we need to finish this game are being picked up on Tuesday of this coming week, then at that point we will be finishing the assembly of the game and begin shipping." ... "we will be issuing shipper trackers in a very timely manner after this coming week" Weeks later we have no tracking numbers or even word if things have been boxed.

That alone would not be of concern, but we've heard this before, like back in June 14, 2023 "however the wait is over. We are expecting our stock shipment in on Monday June 19th, so that means we expect it will take us about 10 - 14 days to complete all the games for shipping to you."

June 27, 2023: "As we promised shipping of the games should begin in the coming week or so."

July 13, 2023 " we have a pallet of all nice and wrapped, we will this weekend get it unpacked, unwrapped and begin production. " But the stock was damaged.

But that's ok, because they sourced another producer and on September 29, 2023 "We have been told our games have shipped and tracing shows them in Atlanta customs with a modified release date of 10/13 so that is what we are going with. Calling them they confirmed there are NO issues, it is just in their process."

April 24, 2024 (after other fairly frequent updates we get told that customs is not releasing the games that were produced 6 months prior. "
Make the darn things myself. My manufacturing equipment is capable of easily making these games, and since we make games for other publishers anyways. It is time to just do it ourselves.

I am trying to take the most proactive course of action based on the situation. I am grateful for all the support, and I will begin regular weekly updates as of today,"

But guess what? No weekly updates. The next one was May 24, 2024 and basically said "Look for a Game is in process update within 7-10 days."

And that didn't happen but we were told July 23, 2024 that instead of working on this they were working on another game and "We will be starting this weekend begin production on D20 Delving." Sure, I believe you...

The next update was September 24, 2024. Guess what, they didn't start production the following weekend, it took them 2 months to finish the production of the other game. How can you be that far off? "We have completed print and bind of our current game that was began before D20 Delving's decisions to be produced in house." And again more promises; "We are shooting to be completed with D20 Delving by November 1, 2024 for shipments to begins a few days after that. That is our target." But apparently some of their card stock was water damaged...

April 5, 2025 we were told "D20 Delving will be releasing in late April / early May" They didn't say they had their needed card stock, but since they were promising another date I guess they had?

June 4, 2025 "We are in active production of the game, with shipping starting over the course of June."

And that brings us back to the first quote.

I'm actually impressed that WTG has persevered through this whole thing. Twice having shipments not released by customs. Damaged supplies, etc. And do think their is an 85% of actually receiving the game.

My problem comes from expectation setting, failing to follow through on your commitments and unclear communications.

How many times were we told to expect one shipping date only to have it missed, usually with no timely explanation? At some point you should stop promising or implying dates of what will happen, and just state what has happened and what is next.

Don't promise weekly updates or a follow-up next week if you aren't going to do it.

And all of that is because of the poor communication practices. Good intentions are great, but implying things are all set to begin the next phase when they are not, and doing it repeatedly.

So yea, I think we'll get our games, eventually, but I'm concerned those parts that were printed years ago may not have been stored properly. I don't know. Are we going to get delaminated or curled cards and half-melted minis? I hope not. (Are those things hard to store properly?)

That's 1 of 13 TTRPG KSs I've pledge that has had issues. So I guess that's good? Though https://www.kickstarter.com/project...d-chronicles-a-dungeons-and-dragons-rap-album certainly under-delivered, but I did get more than I actually expected.

Looks like that's not the only game WTG has managed to, um, mismanage. It sounds like the release of Mark Hunt's BX Gangbusters is not going so well: Gangbusters B/X Edition? | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

 

[LordEntrails]

Looks like that's not the only game WTG has managed to, um, mismanage. It sounds like the release of Mark Hunt's BX Gangbusters is not going so well: Gangbusters B/X Edition? | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

I'm a big process guy. It's what I get paid to do for work now (I came from engineering). So making engineering teams more efficient with internally transparent processes and accountability. Reading through all of that plus my own experience with D20 Delving, I get the impression WTG doesn't have an organized process. Kind of like everything is seat of the pants and tracked mentally in Don's head. It's obviously a recipe for disaster.

Thought I've just started learning and adopting this process methodology, it comes highly recommended and seems promising. So anyone who is struggling with how to get done what they want might want to look into this book or associated classes; https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563

 

[Chromie]

Wicked Ones and Undead Awakening, the only kickstarter I was ever all in on. They had some terrible stuff happen but also absolutely went about addressing the project in the worst possible way.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/banditcamp/wo-ua-hardcover

 

[General_Tangent]

I mean, that stuff taking time is one thing - but not even having rules after all that time... that's something else.

I did read and re-read the creative team for the project and then after that one of the few open updates talked about how they had severed ties with their primary designer .

 

[chuckdee]

I did read and re-read the creative team for the project and then after that one of the few open updates talked about how they had severed ties with their primary designer .

I personally think you shouldn't be crowdfunding without a draft and a plan.

 

[General_Tangent]

Wicked Ones and Undead Awakening, the only kickstarter I was ever all in on. They had some terrible stuff happen but also absolutely went about addressing the project in the worst possible way.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/banditcamp/wo-ua-hardcover

I backed the first iteration of the campaign and stopped there. I had no need of a physical edition and paid no mind to the this campaign but to learn that they appeared to have dropped the whole thing and gone into hiding is shocking.

 

[General_Tangent]

I personally think you shouldn't be crowdfunding without a draft and a plan.

True. I always due my research into projects and I had an inkling that this wasn't going to be delivered. The only concrete things I have been able to gather is that all the dice have been manufactured and that there is a quick start available along with a cover page for the digital comic.

Beyond that there its all vapourware.

 

[chuckdee]

I backed the first iteration of the campaign and stopped there. I had no need of a physical edition and paid no mind to the this campaign but to learn that they appeared to have dropped the whole thing and gone into hiding is shocking.

I backed that one and relic. And they never updated the relic kickstarter. At least they release the files to the public... For relic they did nothing, not even communicate. And it's another one I'm pissed about because I went against my gut and gave more in BackerKit.

 

[CandyLaser]

I backed the first iteration of the campaign and stopped there. I had no need of a physical edition and paid no mind to the this campaign but to learn that they appeared to have dropped the whole thing and gone into hiding is shocking.

FWIW the author of Undead Awakening managed to get in touch with the original creator of Wicked Ones in order to get the rights transferred. While they couldn't do anything to fulfill the failed KS (or the one for Relic, by the same creator) they did make Wicked Ones available for free via Google drive. It's pretty good game! I ran a short campaign of it with my players and had a lot of fun.

 

[chuckdee]

FWIW the author of Undead Awakening managed to get in touch with the original creator of Wicked Ones in order to get the rights transferred. While they couldn't do anything to fulfill the failed KS (or the one for Relic, by the same creator) they did make Wicked Ones available for free via Google drive. It's pretty good game! I ran a short campaign of it with my players and had a lot of fun.

From what I understand he released the wicked ones files first, but redacted the uo stuff as he didn't have the rights. The UO person then created this shared Google drive as the enhanced release.