Ken Whitman is a man who has been discussed at length across the RPG community in recent months. With a history of undelivered products and unfulfilled Kickstarters, his name has become synonymous with broken promises. After going radio silent for a while as his most recent failure-to-launch raged across the community, his d20 Entertainment website popped back up on Black Friday asking people to pay him $5 in return for nothing, in a move inspired by Cards Against Humanity.
Of course, when Cards Against Humanity did it, they were trading on goodwill. The first time they did it, they offered some "crap" - and then literally shipped manure to those who bought it. This year, they asked for money for "nothing". Folks paid it. But CaH has a lot of trust and goodwill in the tabletop gaming community.
Whitman's website had been offline until last week. I'm not going to link to it, because you absolutely should not go there and give Ken Whitman $5. Some rumours went around that he had packed up and moved to Atlanta with the intention of beginning an acting career; I don't know how accurate that is. I reported recently on Noble Knight Games' generous offer to fulfill Kickstarter pledges with their own stock. To be clear, Noble Knight Games is a store, unaffiliated with d20 Entertainment, which had some stock of the products that d20 Entertainment's Kickstarter backers never received. A classy move on their part - they were in no way obligated to do anything like that.
You can read some updates (or non-updates) about the Knights of the Dinner Table video pilot Kickstarter here (there was also a Spinward Traveller one).
Of course, when Cards Against Humanity did it, they were trading on goodwill. The first time they did it, they offered some "crap" - and then literally shipped manure to those who bought it. This year, they asked for money for "nothing". Folks paid it. But CaH has a lot of trust and goodwill in the tabletop gaming community.
Whitman's website had been offline until last week. I'm not going to link to it, because you absolutely should not go there and give Ken Whitman $5. Some rumours went around that he had packed up and moved to Atlanta with the intention of beginning an acting career; I don't know how accurate that is. I reported recently on Noble Knight Games' generous offer to fulfill Kickstarter pledges with their own stock. To be clear, Noble Knight Games is a store, unaffiliated with d20 Entertainment, which had some stock of the products that d20 Entertainment's Kickstarter backers never received. A classy move on their part - they were in no way obligated to do anything like that.
You can read some updates (or non-updates) about the Knights of the Dinner Table video pilot Kickstarter here (there was also a Spinward Traveller one).
