Everybody Has One: Kickstarter Horror Stories

I interrupt my series of posts on things for your Torchbearer game to talk about Kickstarter, particularly, the projects that don't pan out. Unlike some, my investment was minimal and there is a happy ending.

A few years ago, hot on the heels of DCC RPGs release, Brave Halfling Games launched their "Appendix N Adventures" campaign. Basically, players would get a bunch of modules for a pretty low investment ($20 was the sweet spot, enough to get print and PDF copies of everything that got produced).

Two years later and I have yet to receive a single print copy of my module (PDFs have been released). Now, anyone on the inside knows John, the man behind Brave Halfling, has had an incredibly rough time since then. Couple that with his Kickstarter being more successful than I think he ever could have imagined, and I'm sympathetic to his situation. The only real thing I can fault him for is releasing print modules to stores before any of his backers received them. Aside from that, I think he did the best he could given the hand he was dealt.

That being said, I've also backed two other Kickstarters, both of them last year. Both delivered within months and both were leagues more complicated (one a full hardcover RPG, another highly detailed dungeon tiles). This is not so much a criticism as an observation.

Now for the happy ending. I had pretty much given up on this Kickstarter until I saw that Joseph Goodman, the person behind DCC RPG, was offering refunds. I reached out to Joe because I wanted some resolution. Rather than a refund, I traded my investment in the Kickstarter for a few DCC modules, which is what I wanted all along. I just want to take this time to wish John well and to thank Joseph Goodman for being an excellent human being.