Tell your overdue Kickstarter story

[Glyptodont]

Perils of Mars. Waiting 9 years on this. But the creator seems to have abandoned Kickstarter.

 

[Muad'dib Pendragon]

Two really stick out for me:

1. Myth & Magic Game Master's Guide and Collector's Complete was to be released in March 2013. Still chaps my hide New Haven Games (Tom Ryan) basically cut and run, yet still sells his stuff on DTRPG without ever having fulfilled the KS.
2. Le Morte d'Arthur & The Arthurian Concordance: due in December 2017 but delayed by Stewart Wieck's untimely passing. Fortunately, the Chaosium team stepped in and are finally fulfilling this.

As others have said, I have since mostly restricted my backing to known companies/individuals. Every once in a while, thoughh, I will take a chance...

 

[Thomas Shey]

I may be more tolerant of some problems that delay products, even for a very long time than others (and I understand why some others are less tolerant here); specifically medical and related problems can just be a thing, especially with one-man-band operations, and as long as I have the sense that the creator is trying to stay in contact and move forward as he can, I'll accept a lot of delay. As a specific example, the author of This Defiant Earth (an RPG to emulate 50's SF movies, a particular love of mine) had a number of medical and (related) occupational problems that delayed the product a lot, but he kept in contact with us the whole time, and it did come out, albeit really late; I didn't fault this though I'd have liked it earlier.

 

[Autumnal]

Oh hey! That looks relevant to my interests! Thanks.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Oh hey! That looks relevant to my interests! Thanks.

It really is a loveletter to the genre.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Into the Motherlands is more than a year late.

Who knows if it'll deliver, but this game currently on KS looks like a much more playable take, imo, on similar themes.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/molombo/zairoo/description

 

[Corinnguard]

I am waiting on the books for three Kickstarter projects that are about 1 to 2 years overdue. Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms, The Book of Spirits: An Ethereal Guide to 5e and Caliya's Chronicle of Runes. I've got the finalized PDF for Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms, so at least, I've got to enjoy reading its' contents. But I really enjoy holding and reading through the actual book. Every now and then I get a PDF update via email for Caliya's Chronicle of Runes that shows what stuff has been updated and added since the last PDF update. As for the Book of Spirits, I have yet to see the actual PDF.

So far, the only Kickstarters that have fulfilled their promises are those belonging to EN Publishing's Level Up RPG. Thank you @Morrus. Currently I have Level Up's Adventurers' Guide, Monstrous Menagerie 1 and 2, and the GPG Annuals for 2022, 2023 and 2024. All backed and delivered on time.

Currently waiting for the book from @Steampunkette 's Martial Artistry, I like its' Four Nations Combat Tradition. I think it might pair well with @Xeviat 's Elementalist (Myrmidon) in MoAR: Complete.

 

[Bae'zel]

I guess dolmenwood is overdue since it was expected in, I think, March (this might have been when they were expecting to have delivery to their warehouse) but thanks to Trump's tariffs necrotic gnome had to delay a little while they sorted things out, but it should be sent out in a few weeks so nothing too major and I already have the PDFs so I can play it now if I wanted.

I've only supported a few kickstarters and most of them from people I trust (Kobold Press, MCDM, I think Penny Arcade) so I haven't had any issues. Even small OSR kickstarters came through without a hitch but they were only something like 20-30$ and I wasn't too worried if it disappeared into the ether.

I also backed Dolmenwood.

It's finally rolling out to the rest of the world, but the USA and Canada are lagging behind even now, understandably.

What a mess. Bonus salt in the wound: us Canucks will likely have to pay extra fees (taxes? duties? brokerage?). It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I've been lucky, all my Kickstarters but two ended up well.

The first well is a video game I backed in 2019. They said it would come out in 2021. It's seems to be nowhere near finished, and I have six years of bi-annual updates where they say "we're sorry for being silent for six month, we'll do more frequent update". That irritates me immensely more than any possible delay.

The other one is actually an RPG. I backed Horizon Rising by LF.OSR. The guy wrote an update in early 2023 saying everything was almost done and ready to get to backers. Then radio silence for two years. No updates, no emails. He hasn't even logged on Kickstarter in over a year! His website is still up and people could put up orders for a while, but they would never get an answer.

I did some search, and apparently the guy is not dead. His name even crepped up in another campaign or two on Kickstarter in handling/distributing RPG products. But he's apparently unreachable.

It's really weird. Part of me is really angry at the lack of communication. I'm sure something happened in his life. But aside from getting crippled, dying or something like that, I figure out that at one point you get five minutes to let the people around you know that you're out of order and can't fulfill your obligations. But at the same time, it's just a zine, it cost me twenty bucks. It's not a big deal.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

What a mess. Bonus salt in the wound: us Canucks will likely have to pay extra fees (taxes? duties? brokerage?). It's the gift that keeps on giving.

That part is unclear. I'm still holding my breath.