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Author Topic: [GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!  (Read 571 times)

Harl Quinn

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« on: February 01, 2015, 05:39:50 PM »


Hail and well met! I'm Dale Meier (aka Harl Quinn). Together, my friend and business partner, Roger Huntman, make up Trooper X, a small RPG and fiction publishing company based in Omaha, NE and Coeur d'Alene, ID.

Between us, we've released a number of products in the RPG and fiction markets, including The Starfarer's Kit Character Folio for Traveller , "Vampire Hotel", "The Secret of Jack the Ripper", and the Ancient Steel Horror RPG.

Even though we've hit the ground running, we need your help to keep producing quality products. That's why we're coming to you, our fans, potential fans, and our local and online fandom and gaming communities for help.

We are in need of funding for the tools and services we use to create our products as well as funding for travel to conventions and promotion of our books. At this time, the travel funding is to bring Roger and his two minions out to Omaha for Nuke-Con 2015.

We're in need of a total of $5,400.00.

Broken down, this total is for:
   Adobe Creative Cloud & Software (2 yrs): $1,200.00
Expanded DropBox Account (2 yrs): $720.00
Hero Lab and Realm Works: $280.00
Editorial/Design Services: $800.00
Travel Costs (Nuke-Con 2015 or other conventions): $2,400.00, comprised of:
  • Inventory and Prize Support: $530.00
  • Lodging: $299.00
  • Fuel: $750.00
  • Food: $600.00
  • Vendor and Registration Fees: $160.00
You can learn more about our crowdfunding program, the reward levels, and our future products by going here!

BONUS: As a bonus incentive, when our funding total reaches $2400.00 - the amount needed to fund Roger's travel to Nuke-Con or other area conventions - we'll do a video stream of our online Traveller playtest campaign (Foreven: Scoundrels, Rogues, Nobles, and Worse) and provide the donors behind it access to the campaign Facebook group!

Thanks for your time and consideration!

Dale Meier (aka Harl Quinn)
"...maybe this has to do with my being around at the start of published RPGs and the DIY attitude that we all had back then but, it seems to me that if you don't find whatever RPG you are playing sufficiently inclusive you ought to get up off your ass and GM something that you do find sufficiently inclusive. The RPG setting of your dreams is yours to create. Don't sit waiting and whining for someone else to create it for you." -- Bren speaking on inclusivity in RPGs

VectorSigma

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2015, 05:47:37 PM »
I wish you guys luck, but I think you're going to have a difficult time raising that five grand in eleven days given what you've laid out on the GoFundMe site.  It takes a special kind of gamer to want to fund somebody else's con trip.

You may wish in future to consider placing more of your products somewhere online where gamers can find them (RPGNow, for example), rather than doing everything in print via Amazon.  The fact that all your reviews are five-star, same blurb, from the same reviewer won't inspire confidence in anyone, I think.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2015, 05:50:22 PM by VectorSigma »
Wampus Country - Whimsical tales on the fantasy frontier

"Describing Erik Jensen's Wampus Country setting is difficult"  -- Grognardia

"Well worth reading."  -- Steve Winter

"...seriously nifty stuff..." -- Bruce Baugh

"[Erik is] the Carrot-Top of role-playing games." -- Jared Sorensen, who probably meant it as an insult, but screw that guy.

"Next con I'm playing in Wampus."  -- Harley Stroh

Harl Quinn

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2015, 06:18:24 PM »
The 11 days indicates how long we've had the campaign running. Don't ask me why they don't make it clearer, it's just the nature of the site... Our Traveller products are available on DTRPG. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

Later!

Harl
"...maybe this has to do with my being around at the start of published RPGs and the DIY attitude that we all had back then but, it seems to me that if you don't find whatever RPG you are playing sufficiently inclusive you ought to get up off your ass and GM something that you do find sufficiently inclusive. The RPG setting of your dreams is yours to create. Don't sit waiting and whining for someone else to create it for you." -- Bren speaking on inclusivity in RPGs

JeremyR

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2015, 01:12:14 AM »
Maybe you should try a Kickstarter for one specific project?

It seems rather unlikely people are going to pay for you to go to a Con just out of the kindness of their own heart, especially when Go Fund Me features a lot of truly needy people with medical emergencies or financial crises.

Harl Quinn

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2015, 06:17:29 PM »
Quote from: JeremyR;814317
Maybe you should try a Kickstarter for one specific project?

It seems rather unlikely people are going to pay for you to go to a Con just out of the kindness of their own heart, especially when Go Fund Me features a lot of truly needy people with medical emergencies or financial crises.


I don't think being "needy" or "not needy" really plays directly into it Jeremy, especially when one looks here on GoFundMe and finds tons of other non-game businesses that have gotten some amount of funding, regardless of their end goal. More specifically, it's the niche nature of our hobby that plays directly into it. Just go here or here for examples.

Add to it the fact that I'm just another face in the crowd without a shred of fame to my name, and well, you get the picture: time to find another route to start things up. Our overall goal was to make use of GoFundMe to cover the startup expenses without getting a loan (getting a grant is nigh impossible anyway), and then using Kickstarter to cover project-related costs. To lay it on the table, my business partner and I are not rolling in the money. We both have debts related to education and home ownership. To tack on the debt of even a small business loan would be madness at best, shear stupidity at the worst.

Keep in mind, Jeremy, I'm not entertaining any visions of dollar signs in getting this operation running. I've read the articles about how tough it is in this business - in fact, I found out before I even got out of college that it was hard at that time (1992, if you really want to date things) to make a living on freelance gigs alone - and now it's impossible; I've seen the torch and pitchfork parties at various forums over issues ranging from Kickstarter failures to the fact that some individuals in the hobby and industry just can't leave each other well enough alone (and that's putting it mildly); additionally, I've already lost one business because I caught a business partner behaving in a highly unethical way.

Thanks for the advice, folks, but I think this thing has flatlined. I'll have OHT take it out back and shoot it and move on to find another route.

Later...

Harl Quinn
"...maybe this has to do with my being around at the start of published RPGs and the DIY attitude that we all had back then but, it seems to me that if you don't find whatever RPG you are playing sufficiently inclusive you ought to get up off your ass and GM something that you do find sufficiently inclusive. The RPG setting of your dreams is yours to create. Don't sit waiting and whining for someone else to create it for you." -- Bren speaking on inclusivity in RPGs

One Horse Town

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[GoFundMe] Trooper X Needs Your Help!
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2015, 07:22:29 PM »
Closed as per request of the OP.