Quote from: RPGPundit;838327Seriously, "reeling" from the death of a guy in his 90s??

Not one of your most well-thought out statements.

Heres another one Id never let touch my money.

Castle Nystul.

Mike Nystul is the son of Brad Nystul, as in Nystul's Magic Aura from D&D.

Heres the rundown over on RPGG. Weird tuns of events.

QuoteMike Nystul ran out of money for not one, not two, but three Kickstarter projects:

Infinite Dungeons ($16,018)
Axes and Anvils ($35,038)
Cairn ($24,157)

And then he tried to do an IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for his company (which failed).

Without delivering on any of the projects, in March 2013 Nystul announced that he was completely out of money. He refuses to provide an accounting. We know that some freelancers were paid for their work, and there are claims that a bunch of money was lost on "Dwarf Con" (a convention promised as a $30k stretch goal on Axes & Anvils).

Infinite Dungeons was bailed out by D3 Adventures, and Cairn was partially rescued by Ross A. Isaacs.

Nystul continues to maintain that he'll deliver everything "somehow, some way."

Current Status as of February 2015:

Infinte Dungeons is back in Nystul's hands.

Axes & Anvils design has been turned over to Andrew Shields, and a playtest document has been produced. This is still being done under Castle Nystul.

The Book of Cairn was published by Ross A. Isaacs of SoulJar games. He has offered vouchers to backers for a POD physical version (backer has to pick up shipping). Nystul is still responsible for a number of stretch goals.

He also, unfortunately, tried to do a GoFundMe for miniature terrain (which was removed shortly after it went live).

Addendum: D3 Adventures had to bail on the Infinite Dungeon due to various problems with picking it up.

Quote from: RPGPundit;838327Seriously, "reeling" from the death of a guy in his 90s??

I was quite sad when I heard he died. Probably not "reeling" for me, but I understand the feeling and sentiment.

He was an icon and a big part of my childhood watching horror movies late at night.
I appreciate he had a long and probably good life, but it's OK to be sad about someone dying that's a kind of hero figure.

I felt the same when Terry Pratchett died, also a big part of my reading material and general "figure" that was always (well mostly) there writing stuff that I liked.

Quote from: Omega;838547Heres another one Id never let touch my money.

Castle Nystul.

As a fan of The Whispering Vault I'm sad to hear that Mike Nystul has gotten himself such a bad rep.
Another tempted by the heady mix of hubris and Kickstarter.

Quote from: Simlasa;838565As a fan of The Whispering Vault I'm sad to hear that Mike Nystul has gotten himself such a bad rep.
Another tempted by the heady mix of hubris and Kickstarter.

I'd say that if it ended with the first one. But two more? And two more after that that failed? That is a-lot of hubris. But yeah, something sure went wrong there and his rep is pretty shot to heck. Too bad as it seemed well intentioned at first and its possible he did the second to pay for the first. Wouldnt be the first time. Game Salute has made a business model of that stunt.

Quote from: CRKrueger;837970You were questioning his game mechanics not his religion.

(scratches his head)

Dude, unless I was posting on an open religion/philosophy discussion forum, anyone who questioned my faith would -- beyond about a post or two -- get a "I believe what I believe, and if for some reason passing my understanding that's a problem for you, go fuck yourself" for an answer.  There are subjects upon which the most mild-mannered among us will go off.

Quote from: TristramEvans;838341Not one of your most well-thought out statements.

I thought Lee was awesome, I even did a blog post about him.  But its silly to lament a death from someone who lived both so long and so well.

I think it implies a disconnection from the reality of death; I mean, if the death of a 93 year old man comes as a shock to you, it has to be because you really don't think of death as something that happens to everyone...

Quote from: RPGPundit;839004I thought Lee was awesome, I even did a blog post about him.  But its silly to lament a death from someone who lived both so long and so well.

I think it implies a disconnection from the reality of death; I mean, if the death of a 93 year old man comes as a shock to you, it has to be because you really don't think of death as something that happens to everyone...

Or its silly to think that the loss of someone who has been around forever is not going to effect someone. A person can get kinda used to them being around and the absence can be jarring. And some people just take any sort of death badly for one reason or another.

Back on topic. FGU seems to have an odd see-saw of a rep. Sounds like working for them was at times problematic. But at other times they just had problematic designers.

Quote from: RPGPundit;839004I thought Lee was awesome, I even did a blog post about him.  But its silly to lament a death from someone who lived both so long and so well.

I think it implies a disconnection from the reality of death; I mean, if the death of a 93 year old man comes as a shock to you, it has to be because you really don't think of death as something that happens to everyone...

Also not one of your more thoughtful comments.

Sure "shock" is not a word I would use to describe my response. But someone else's feelings about loss are not about me. And the world is not a better place for your sharing of your emotional response to someone else's shock. Your need to continue commenting about someone else's feelings of loss displays a disconnection from ordinary human compassion. It's the sort of behavior that makes people say, "Wow. That was a stupid thing to say" or "Hey, Pundit, I guess you haven't come as far from your self absorbed younger self as you thought" or just "Don't be such a dick."

Quote from: Omega;839022Back on topic. FGU seems to have an odd see-saw of a rep. Sounds like working for them was at times problematic. But at other times they just had problematic designers.

I have no knowledge of FGU. But regarding RPG companies in general, one thing I think a lot of people either don't understand or easily forget is that all RPG companies either are very small or were very small companies. Small companies don't have depth. To use the inevitable sporting analogy for talking about business...small companies don't have a deep bench. Often they have no bench at all and many of them can't even field a full team. This is compounded by the fact that many people who work in the "industry" do that as some.combination of a labor of love, a hobby, or a part-time job.

So screw ups and mistakes will occur in ways they won't in a larger company that has a full-time person for contracts, human resources, management, project management, editing, shipping, order fulfillment, or what have you. An RPG company is a lot more like the mom and pop, non-chain restaurant or shop round the corner than to some fancy, high end gourmet place or a standardized franchise or outlet that is part of a big national chain.

Quote from: Bren;839075But regarding RPG companies in general, one thing I think a lot of people either don't understand or easily forget is that all RPG companies either are very small or were very small companies. Small companies don't have depth. To use the inevitable sporting analogy for talking about business...small companies don't have a deep bench. Often they have no bench at all and many of them can't even field a full team. This is compounded by the fact that many people who work in the "industry" do that as some.combination of a labor of love, a hobby, or a part-time job.

So screw ups and mistakes will occur in ways they won't in a larger company that has a full-time person for contracts, human resources, management, project management, editing, shipping, order fulfillment, or what have you. An RPG company is a lot more like the mom and pop, non-chain restaurant or shop round the corner than to some fancy, high end gourmet place or a standardized franchise or outlet that is part of a big national chain.

Lies, all lies! In fact, I hope to expand my RPG manufacturing facilities to a second card table very soon!

Adding to that, many RPG publishers lack business and/or interpersonal skills, and frequently have to work outside their area of expertise. But the salary, benefits, and access to the company jet make it totally worth it. :cool:

Quote from: Vanquishing Leviathan;839103Adding to that, many RPG publishers lack business and/or interpersonal skills, and frequently have to work outside their area of expertise. But the salary, benefits, and access to the company jet make it totally worth it. :cool:

Yeah no one would believe the quantity of blow, hookers, and European sports cars available to the average RPG publisher.

As fucked up as Western Death-culture is, I'm just waiting to call his death a "tragedy", or for someone to say his life was 'cut short by smoking'.

Quote from: RPGPundit;839141As fucked up as Western Death-culture is, I'm just waiting to call his death a "tragedy", or for someone to say his life was 'cut short by smoking'.

No a 'tragedy' is when your local football team loses a game. :rolleyes:

Quote from: Bren;839143No a 'tragedy' is when your local football team loses a game. :rolleyes:

Touche!