🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
enamel pins with fire, a raccoon with a match
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Hi Reader, Welcome back to game night. I'm briefly out of the smithy—Udo has to bury all the bronze swords in the backyard for that weathered look, so the ball's in his court. Still, I've been busy. I'm working on enamel pin designs. What do you think? Can you tell what B is? I've also been publicizing the game. I contracted with a consulting company called LaunchBoom to help me, because I don't know from marketing. Little did I know it would drop me into the crossfire of tabletop games discourse. LaunchBoom's main gimmick is to set up a "prelaunch" page for a Kickstarter, where I ask people to plunk down a refundable $1 deposit. If you back the game, the dollar goes toward your pledge, and you get a freebie too (five dice). If you don't, you get the dollar back. People who make the deposit are 20x more likely to back the Kickstarter than folks who just leave their email address. Given all the thousands of dollars I've fed into this game, it sounded smart. Well! It turns out this tactic blew up in board games last spring, when backers pushed back hard, angry to be asked for money before the Kickstarter even launched. Board game publishers have dropped the tactic en masse. And here I am trying to use it again. It takes six thousand raccoons to build trust and just one to burn it all down. I'm keeping my setup for this campaign, but I doubt I'll do it again. I'm grateful to the nearly thirty people who have already pre-pledged. Coming up! I'm going to GAMA Expo, February 23rd to 27th. GAMA's Horizons Fellowship made that trip possible, so thank you, GAMA. I'm looking forward to connecting with retailers and others in the biz. Then I'm a guest at Breakout Con in Toronto, March 14th to 16th, where I'll run both Raccoon Sky Pirates and Defy the Gods. I can't wait! Maybe I'll see you there. In the meantime, I'll try to keep the raccoons from getting into the strike-anywhere matches. Cheers, P.S. Seriously, what do you think of those pins? P.P.S. If you haven't yet, I hope you'll consider making the refundable $1 deposit and then join us in the private FB group. I'm talking more about Defy the Gods in there—including more work-in-progress art! |
Everlasting, Neverending Game Night
🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I had some flowers on the table, but this raccoon ate them. I call him Reggie. Careful, he bites. If you started coming to game night because you backed the original Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter, then this game night is especially for you. Because Raccoon Sky Pirates is coming back. The legendary box set, all black and white, that came in a little mailer box, will be available in the upcoming, imminent Kickstarter. It looked like this: But that's not...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. The irises are blooming, and M put some in a silver pitcher. So much else is blooming, too, but we'll let them grow. It's taken me a while to do game night because I'm recovering from surgery. This has meant enforced lying around, and that's a great opportunity to just soak it all in. I recently listened to Quinns Smith's interview of Jeremy Strandberg, author of Stonetop. Stonetop's Dungeon World-based mechanics don't exactly sing...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Isn't it beautiful out? Let's sit on the back porch today with some fizzy water and lol at all the dandelions. They get so tall when they’re ready to let go. I got some great games recently in the mail: Zhenya's Wonder Tales by Jason Morningstar and Last Train to Bremen by Caro Asercion. Slavic folk tales, cozy tragedy, liar's dice and a deal with the Devil! This is my favorite part of crowdfunding campaigns—when a little box of magic arrives at your door....