Tell your overdue Kickstarter story

[Grendel_Khan]

I mostly can't relate to the folks with tons of KS horror stories, but the only project I've backed where the creator completely ghosted, with no updates in over a year, is Horizon Rising, by L.F. OSR. Was a huge surprise, since L.F. OSR continues to do work in the industry, and their shop is still open and taking orders for other products. So it's not like they completely disappeared from TTRPGs—just from this campaign.

At this point the project is coming up on 2.5 years late, with no updates. I didn't put a ton of money into it, but it was a $43k project with more than 1000 backers—good numbers for an indie, system-agnostic setting book, probably mostly based on the creator's reputation at the time.

 

[timbannock]

I mostly can't relate to the folks with tons of KS horror stories, but the only project I've backed where the creator completely ghosted, with no updates in over a year, is Horizon Rising, by L.F. OSR. Was a huge surprise, since L.F. OSR continues to do work in the industry, and their shop is still open and taking orders for other products. So it's not like they completely disappeared from TTRPGs—just from this campaign.

At this point the project is coming up on 2.5 years late, with no updates. I didn't put a ton of money into it, but it was a $43k project with more than 1000 backers—good numbers for an indie, system-agnostic setting book, probably mostly based on the creator's reputation at the time.

Are they still fulfilling orders from their store? I vaguely recall for a time this didn't appear to be happening.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

Shinobigami was originally slated to come out in 2016. The first volume eventually was released in 2020.

However, for those like me who bought the Special Edition, which combines both the core and supplement volumes, we've received nothing. Double painful in my case since I added Tenra Bansho Zero as an Add-on, which was already released at the start of the campaign, and I haven't even gotten that.

At one point I reached out to them directly and they offered to send me a Standard Edition copy instead of needing to wait for the Special Edition. Despite several reminders and promises to send it eventually over the course of months, I have received nothing.

 

[Aldarc]

Would you mind sharing just a rough idea of how close they are / how much is completed at this point?

Link to the Stonetop Project Tracker Google Doc.

Most of it is done. I would say about three-fourths or four-fifths of the writing/layout is done. In book one, there are four more chapters that need to be written out of seventeen total: (1) Sites, (2) Discoveries, (3) The Game Ongoing, and (4) Making the Game Yours. In book two, it looks about 95 percent done. Most of what is left in book two is art, assembled tables, and the setting overview in chapter one.

I mostly can't relate to the folks with tons of KS horror stories, but the only project I've backed where the creator completely ghosted, with no updates in over a year, is Horizon Rising, by L.F. OSR. Was a huge surprise, since L.F. OSR continues to do work in the industry, and their shop is still open and taking orders for other products. So it's not like they completely disappeared from TTRPGs—just from this campaign.

At this point the project is coming up on 2.5 years late, with no updates. I didn't put a ton of money into it, but it was a $43k project with more than 1000 backers—good numbers for an indie, system-agnostic setting book, probably mostly based on the creator's reputation at the time.

My two big KS disappointments were with established TTRPG companies: i.e., Mindjammer Press and Dreamscarred Press. There wasn't really a reason to think before that to think that they would have been as horrible as they were.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

Was a huge surprise, since L.F. OSR continues to do work in the industry, and their shop is still open and taking orders for other products.

I don't think LFOSR is taking new orders. Everything on their shop has been marked as "sold out" for a long time.

He basically dropped out of contact with everyone he was collabing with. I don't know of any projects in the past 2 years he was involved in.

 

[Dustin Cooper]

Shinobigami was originally slated to come out in 2016. The first volume eventually was released in 2020.

However, for those like me who bought the Special Edition, which combines both the core and supplement volumes, we've received nothing. Double painful in my case since I added Tenra Bansho Zero as an Add-on, which was already released at the start of the campaign, and I haven't even gotten that.

At one point I reached out to them directly and they offered to send me a Standard Edition copy instead of needing to wait for the Special Edition. Despite several reminders and promises to send it eventually over the course of months, I have received nothing.

It's a similar situation with their previous Kickstarter, Ryuutama. We got the main book, but the last time we heard about the promised supplement material was a March 3 2020 update where they said they were about a week away from releasing a form of it to backers.

 

[joebobodo]

Grimmerspace for Starfinder was funded in 2019. We've gotten a few PDFs of work in progress, but that's about it. Last update was in March.

 

[Mannahnin]

Of my 25 I think just one has failed to come through so far.

Black God's Kiss is a bit over a year overdue (est delivery Sept 2023), but updates continue, the most recent of them Dec 1, and digital drafts of versions of some of the products have been released. Looks like work is still ongoing. I pledged for the deluxe boxed set, so ideally I'll get physical stuff eventually.

One thing which would be nice is if they included download links in their Kickstarter messages, not just via email.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Of my 25 I think just one has failed to come through so far.

Black God's Kiss is a bit over a year overdue (est delivery Sept 2023), but updates continue, the most recent of them Dec 1, and digital drafts or versions of some of the products have been released. Looks like work is still ongoing. I pledged for the deluxe boxed set, so ideally I'll get physical stuff eventually.

One thing which would be nice is if they included download links in their Kickstarter messages, not just via email.

I came very close to backing that, having adored the stories it's based on, but the feature creep on that was unreal and I got cold feet at the last minute.

At this point, I'm watching it like a pile-up on the side of the road. It's a little shocking how much of it is still undone, given that the source material is very simple and delivering the core product (S&W settings and adventures based on a handful of short stories) seems like it could be done much faster than it has been.

I do hope you get it. If it turns out well, I look forward to giving them my money, but very glad to have not paid up-front.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Mine is a small one but was still disappointing.

Lifted: Vault 01 is basically a zine-length "idea book" for a supers game along the lines of shows like Project Power or the like. It had some fairly grandiose stretch goals, but when do they not?

• Started on 17 February 2021.
• $1000 asked, funded to $3000+. No one is getting rich here, but a decent enough chunk of change to write a magazine, basically.
• Finally ships 15 November 2022. And it... there. Reads like a first draft of someone's notes for a game.

I like the author as a person but this was super disappointing.