I harbor quite a bit of nostalgia for this book.  I picked up the second edition at my small town book store after it had been ordered by someone and never picked up.  At the time, I had heard of Dungeon's and Dragons, but without any context, I didn't really know what it was all about.  So I flipped through this, and was immediately overwhelmed with the potential of what I had in my hands.

I took it home, immediately wrapped it with a brown grocery sack cover to hide the pentacle on the front, and started trying to make sense of it.  Later that week, I drove my beater pickup to a larger town a half hour away and picked up an AD&D 2e Player's Handbook and dice.  My little home town group never really used the Arcanum except as bits and pieces added into our home games, but I have very fond memories of flipping through it.

I would like to back the kickstarter for nostalgia's sake-

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/159628170/the-arcanum-30th-anniversary-edition?ref=category

However, I'm not familiar with the creator of this Kickstarter, though he seems to have some industry credit from Steve Jackson Games and others.  His name is K. David Ladage and has been posting about progress on the Arcanum on the ZiLa games blog since 2012.

http://zilagames.blogspot.com/

His last post there was July 16th, expecting to announce the release date for the book come October- but then launched the kickstarter 10 days later.  Reading between the lines a bit, it seems like the kickstarter was perhaps launched on a whim, and the previous plan suddenly scratched.  

Any opinions on this project or it's originator?

Thanks

Man this brings me back!

I did the same thing - I wrapped my copy in a paper-bag cover, because of the GASPS! I got pulling it out at school (In Los Angeles no less, where you'd think they'd be a little more open minded - NOPE) Between this and my Motley Crue 'Shout at the Devil' album my parents were sure I was upstairs constructing my flaming chariot to ride through the gates of Hell like a boss.

My inclinations are as follows (take it for what you will)

1) He's got a working relationship with Khepera Publishing - and I know that's a good thing. Jerry Grayson (owner of Khepera) is a real believer in the OMNI system and the old Bard Games worlds. While a gentlemen's agreement isn't an endorsement, depending on how you look at it - due to Atlantis and the Arcanum being so historically tied together, this certainly isn't a bad thing that they're both able to work on their respective projects in unison without animosity (quite the opposite, apparently!).

2) He's got some cred!

3) Resurrecting Bard Game's old material (and it IS worthy material to be given some new polish) means that it's a work of love not just financial gain. So that's gotta account for something.

The real question I have is: Will this game mesh with Khepera's Atlantis 2nd Age using the Omega System (OMNI system re-touched up)? For me if Arcanum doesn't mesh with Atlantis mechanically and seamlessly - that's a HUGE dealbreaker.

Just my opinion.

I thought it was a tabletop version of the Troika computer rpg (Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magicka Obscura).

Oh, one can dream..

Hell yes...in for fifty.

So, he's new to publishing, and though he claims to be "close" to finished it sure looks like all the hardest parts remain (sounds like all he did was render the prior text, which is the easiest part).

I'd pass.  He should have finished it before the Kickstarter, and requested the funds to do the printing and publishing itself.  Investing before he's actually done any editing, layout, writing new material, and playtesting, seems unwise.  

In fact, it sounds like he hasn't even worked out how he wants to create monster stat blocks yet, and he doesn't even know what types of creatures he wants to include yet and will be asking contributors after the Kickstarter ends what they want to see.  All his stretch goals have increase the number of monsters he intended to include, it started at 50 and is already up to 200.  

And, he has no printer or dice manufacturer lined up yet, and hasn't gotten firm pricing on those matters yet.  He already found out his intent to make custom dice may be impossible for the money he expected it to cost (because he didn't check before starting the Kickstarter and just went on a guess).

This Kickstarter screams delays to me.  Fives months until delivery? Naw, this one is going to be delayed I bet.

Based on my experiences with KS, I'm not going to back anything unless they have a manuscript.

Because even with that, it can be a year. Without it, you are just left hanging.

Oh man...I could've used this last year.

One of our gamers (an older gentleman) decided he'd like to run this game, and had it way back when.  We tried to track it down, but in the end I wound up getting the OMNI edition.

I don't like that edition.

I'm not in though.  Hardcover (and dice) $75??  Christ.

I thought these Kickstarters are supposed to give us some sort of break?

Quote from: Blackhand;676070I'm not in though.  Hardcover (and dice) $75??  Christ.

That does indeed look pricy. I just checked a couple of my newer quality hardcover (amongst them Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity) and they would set you back 39.95$. And that's big books, from quality authors. In that light 75$ seems steep.

Other that that, I'm not really intrigued by this project - what makes Arcanum special - the KS page tells me very little.

But good luck to the project and fingers crossed that they avoid the pitfalls already mentioned in this thread.

Quote from: Mistwell;675988So, he's new to publishing, and though he claims to be "close" to finished it sure looks like all the hardest parts remain (sounds like all he did was render the prior text, which is the easiest part).

I'd pass.  He should have finished it before the Kickstarter, and requested the funds to do the printing and publishing itself.  Investing before he's actually done any editing, layout, writing new material, and playtesting, seems unwise.  

In fact, it sounds like he hasn't even worked out how he wants to create monster stat blocks yet, and he doesn't even know what types of creatures he wants to include yet and will be asking contributors after the Kickstarter ends what they want to see.  All his stretch goals have increase the number of monsters he intended to include, it started at 50 and is already up to 200.  

And, he has no printer or dice manufacturer lined up yet, and hasn't gotten firm pricing on those matters yet.  He already found out his intent to make custom dice may be impossible for the money he expected it to cost (because he didn't check before starting the Kickstarter and just went on a guess).

This Kickstarter screams delays to me.  Fives months until delivery? Naw, this one is going to be delayed I bet.

Yeah, like to support it but I think there are some troubling signs here. And I don't want the book bloated by 200 hastily done monsters.

Agree with Silva, an RPG based on the Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magicka Obscura game would have been cool.

Quote from: Mistwell;675988This Kickstarter screams delays to me.  Fives months until delivery? Naw, this one is going to be delayed I bet.

I dunno, he seems to be handling finding out he fucked up the dice, quite well. I think he's launched before he was ready, yeah, but it looks like it'll turn out okay.

Quote from: silva;675907I thought it was a tabletop version of the Troika computer rpg (Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magicka Obscura).

Oh, one can dream..

So did I. I was excited for a minute.

Quote from: danbuter;676207So did I. I was excited for a minute.

Thirded .

That said - there was and still is this odd trend in Steampunk RPGs, to basically make them Shadowrun: The Steam Ages, rather than try and keep things to humans. Quite odd I find it - as compared to cyberpunk(ish) fiction/RPGs, where rather stance of pure humans, eventually animals granted human intelligence, dominates.