Finally ... A Darkest Dungeon Board Game!

The Fantasy Trip Kickstarter: A Good Deal?

After 35 years, Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games has finally re-acquired the rights to The Fantasy Trip, the tactical fantasy combat and light roleplaying game he developed in 1977.

The Fantasy Trip is comprised of a number of game books:  Melee, a game of tactical man-to-man combat; Wizard, a game of wizard duels;  Advanced Wizard, additional rules for Wizard characters; In the Labyrinth, role-playing and world building rules; Advanced Melee, expanded man-to-man combat rules;and 11 or so setting and pre-programmed adventure books.

The rights to The Fantasy Trip were owned by Howard Thompson, the President of Metagaming, and when Metagaming folded in 1982, Howard demanded an outrageous price from Jackson for the rights to the game, which Jackson refused to pay.  Thus, the game ceased to be published or officially supported after 1982.

The game retained a cult following, however, and people continued to play and support it.  Dark City Games even developed its own similacrum of The Fantasy Trip, called Legends of the Ancient World, and published numerous additional pre-programmed adventures, including The Dark Vale, which I previously reviewed on this blog.

Jackson recently took advantage of a copyright law that permits a creator to re-aquire the rights to their intellectual property after 35 years.

Steve Jackson Games is currently running a Kickstarter to fund the production and distribution of a revised version of the game.

In considering whether the new Kickstarter for The Fantasy Trip is a good value, I looked at the original price of the various game books, and applied the inflation incurred during the intervening period.  The original publication years, price and the inflation based on the US Consumer Price Index are indicated below.

The basic pledge for The Fantasy Trip is $60, and it included, as of the Kickstarter launch, the material from all five of those publications. Using the above amounts, you are paying less, in today's dollars, than the cost to buy the original five game books when they were published back in the day.

Of course, this price is before shipping, but then you also need to factor in the extras that are being provided with this new printing, including dice (not included in the original game), a box to hold the game in, melee character pads, two sheets of mega-hexes, proper indexes in each book, and Tollenkar's Lair, Death Test, and Death Test 2 pre-programmed adventures (which are an additional $10 each of added value).  All of those extras add $40 of overall value, and more stretch goals are yet to come.

If you have never played The Fantasy Trip before and are interested in the game, or if you have the gamebooks and want a cleaned up version of the game to play again, you should check out the Kickstarter.

Fighting Fantasy Kickstarter And Otherworld Digital Miniatures

I haven't supported kickstarter projects in nearly 18 months.  One of the last I supported was Darkest Dungeon, a video game that recreates, in large measure, the feel of the Torchbearer RPG.  There have been few projects since then that have attracted my interest.

The new Warlock of Firetop Mountain kickstarter has me intrigued.  The video game itself looks like a bit of retro-fun, and is a digital re-imagining of the first Fighting Fantasy choose-your-adventure gamebook.



What really got me excited was the partnership with Otherworld Miniatures.  It appears that the video game designers have digitized the amazing line of Otherworld Miniatures and are using them as 3D representations of the characters and monsters in the video game.

I'm a big fan of the Otherworld Miniatures line, and this may be the factor that leads me to back this kickstarter project.  I'd love to see a stretch goal where backers could purchase the set of miniatures that were digitized for the video game.

Darkest Dungeon Update

The squire and I kickstarted this video game, as it has a similar vibe to the original Diablo video game.

Here are a couple of examples of play, based on the current beta state of the game.  Looks pretty intense!

Miniatures Painting: Paint Brush Kickstarter

I make no apologies for pledging towards this Painting Brush Kickstarter.  It's being run by Games and Gears, who I understand are a reputable brush and hobby accessory company. 

Having suffered through various attempts at painting miniatures using Citadel and other substandard paint brushes, I've finally decided to buy some decent paint brushes to see what sort of impact better brushes have on my painting results.

I've also pledged for some of the synthetic brushes and the paint brush stand that are being offering as add-ons.

If you are dissatisfied with your current paint brushes and are thinking of stepping up your painting game, you might want to check this Kickstarter out.

Kingdom Death: Monster

Speaking of artistic embellishments, there was no lack in the Kingdom Death: Monster Kickstarter that concluded many moons ago. 

In addition to a multitude of nightmarish monsters and desperate human survivors, the game creator included pinup versions of the available armor selections and heroes as optional rewards during the kickstarter campaign.  The above miniatures are pinup versions of the Survivor and Twilight Knight characters respectively.

If you missed the kickstarter campaign, you can buy a boxed set of 8 pinups featured in the KD:M lineup for $100.  That works out to $12.50 per miniature (the pinup miniatures were $15 each during the kickstarter, and were quoted as $25 retail, so this a heck of a deal).

It was such a good deal, that I bought a set, which arrived in the mail today, even though I pledged for many of the same miniatures during the kickstarter.  I also purchased and received the Experiment Of Death collection, which was the KD:M creator's earlier attempt to produce the miniatures line in PVC plastic.

Experiment Of Death is accompanied by another Twilight Knight pinup, which gives me a chance to improve my painting skills, if I flub the first attempt to paint that miniature. 

Darkest Dungeon CRPG: Cosmic Horror

A brief interlude before posting more Magic Realm play-by-plays...

Darkest Dungeon is currently on Kickstarter.  I don't normally play computer role-playing games, but Darkest Dungeon reminds me of Diablo, one of my favorite computer games, so I just had to back this one.

Check it out!

Barrowmaze On Indiegogo

The Barrowmaze Indiegogo crowdfunding project is finally online.  Woot!

Cooperative Co-Ed Games: Kingdom Death Monster

The Kickstarter crowdfunding platform isn't just for vanity reprints of old rpg games and derivative hacks of same.  It also supports the development of innovative new games, like Kingdom Death Monster.

This crowdfunding effort finished up a day or two ago and raised over 2 million dollars.  I participated in the Kingdom Death Monster kickstarter because it is a cooperative, co-ed fantasy role-playing game designed for up to six players.  I'm always looking for co-ed games because my social circle is dominated by married couples, and any cooperative game I can find that allows equal participation by females and males facilitates game-night.

In the case of Kingdom Death Monster, the game includes three beginning female and three male characters.  It is a cooperative game, without a dungeon master, and all of the game mechanics are governed by various sets of cards.

You begin the game with nothing but stone weapons, and as you explore and defeat monsters, you upgrade your group's equipment and initial settlement.  And as you upgrade your equipment, you build new miniature figures to represent your character.  I love this facet of the game, as you can customize your miniature figure to represent your character with the specific weapons and armor you possess at any particular point in the game.

I also love the cooperative nature of the game.  Because there is no DM, you are cooperating with the other players, against the game mechanics.  I have several friends who dislike competitive games, so owning cooperative games allows us to include them on game-nights.

Here's artwork for four of the starting characters in Kingdom Death Monster along with the miniature prototypes.

  

 

My only complaint about this and other Kickstarters is the long lead-times between the conclusion of the crowd-funding effort and release of the final product.  This is not slated to release until November 2013.

 

Let's hope this one bucks the recent trend and actually ships on time.

Resource Cards: Swords N Wizardry Kickstarter

I was sorely tempted to participate in the recent Swords and Wizardry kickstarter.  I don't really need another copy of Swords and Wizardry, but one of the add-ons was sets of resource cards, something dear to my heart.  Unfortunately, there we no proofs or previews of the actual cards, or I might have pledged.

It will be interesting to watch the post-completion updates to the kickstarter, to see if they provide some sample cards.