What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

1. Thunder Road consensus is pretty positive. The average rating by my geekbuddies (who are mostly users here) is 8.06. I like it a lot but only have the base game. I think it's a really fun light game of classic trash aesthetics. Fairly short, lots of player elimination, super random. Notable outlier is Sag, who thinks it's only a good game once you add in a bunch of expansions, but makes the total package vastly overpriced for what you get.

1.5. I am tempted by the new expansion but yeah, the shipping. If I can throw in the other expansions at no additional shipping cost, that will probably sway me. For now it's a "Remind Me."

2. I had a lot of fun with Ascending Empires back in the day, but the uneven board made it a flop with my friends. I tried to pass it off as a space-time anomaly/warp thing, but they were unconvinced. So the new edition, that fixes that, looks great. But $110 plus shipping and tax is eye-watering. They also mention: "Every backer, no matter your location, is important to us here at Play to Z. However, shipping and sales tax remain expensive and is a cost that we all need to share." I am willing to pay my shipping and tax costs, but I don't want to ask anyone to "share" them with me, and I certainly don't want to be on the receiving end of any "sharing." This just sounds I'll be subsidizing backers in countries with a VAT and/or expensive shipping.

3. It would be nice if BGG would make a solo subcategory for their forums (so General, News, Rules, Strategy, etc., and Solo). This way I could block them all. They have a similar functionality for Geeklists involving trades.

I am probably going to be successful in resisting the new Dying Light board game kickstarter that just launched. It looks cool, but I already have so much stuff that never hits the table.

Ascending Empires is exciting to me because it's the first game from Zev's new venture. I hope it goes well for him.

dysjunct wrote: Thunder Road consensus is pretty positive. The average rating by my geekbuddies (who are mostly users here) is 8.06. I like it a lot but only have the base game.

I really like it. It’s light, fast, chaotic, and ridiculous. The setting is also a big draw for me. I prefer using all the bells and whistles, like crew leaders, car abilities, fire, etc. I agree that the whole package is probably overpriced, but it’s my only big game purchase in the last several years, so I’m okay with it.

dysjunct wrote: I had a lot of fun with Ascending Empires back in the day, but the uneven board made it a flop with my friends.

So did I. I built a single piece board to solve that issue, but my friends are ambivalent about dexterity games, which pains me. Unfortunately this won’t get played more than once or twice.

I think companies are charging more for shipping to cover eventualities (if it cost more than they charge you, they can be in trouble, but if it costs less, more money for them); they are now using customers to take all of the risk, including production and transport of all copies, even those they will send out to retail outlets. MSRP is even more worthless now.

It feels a bit like those ebayers who sell an item for low, but then charge unreal shipping. They avoid paying seller fees, and they trick customers into thinking they are getting a deal.

Not a Kickstarter I'm backing - well, not yet, there are two upcoming ones that look damn interesting - but Awaken Realms video release after 10 years in business of what they're doing in 2024.
And with game companies falling over regularly in the past couple of years and taking backers money down with them it's no surprise that a company that allows itself to grow at a sustainable speed has survived the past three years (and even protected backers from all those unexpected large cost increases in that time) and is producing quality physical and digital games - crikey, I'm quite a bit jealous of the people working there .
Anyway, if anyone is interested in watching it's here -

hotseatgames wrote: I am probably going to be successful in resisting the new Dying Light board game kickstarter that just launched. It looks cool, but I already have so much stuff that never hits the table. ...

I have exactly the same feeling and also the same reasoning as you ... but I can see myself failing my resist saving roll

southernman wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: I am probably going to be successful in resisting the new Dying Light board game kickstarter that just launched. It looks cool, but I already have so much stuff that never hits the table. ...

I have exactly the same feeling and also the same reasoning as you ... but I can see myself failing my resist saving roll

Edit: The below is about "Last Light"
I will say that I successfully passed my saving throw on the original Kickstarter, but a friend (who normally is a multiplayer-solitaire, fun-murdering, cube-pusher) saw it at GenCon last year and decided to buy it for some reason. Finally got to play my his copy a couple of weeks ago and I ran away with it by exploiting movement-enhancement tech. He tried to do the same but was chasing me. We decided these abilities were way too strong, and sure enough they are getting nerfed in this latest KS (ironically I think the only two that I saw). I thought the game was OK, but I'm pretty hard on most games these days. I did appreciate that it does accelerate rapidly towards an ending, just not sure how satisfying it will be in the long run. I'd play it again, but glad I passed on it. Oh, and the two other guys that couldn't get their hands on movement tech felt pretty out of it, and I don't blame them, but they were making a comeback (just too late since the game is short). Oh and the storage system is pretty terrible, IMO, but I'm a "bag it and throw it all in the box" kind of guy. My friend is getting the GameTrayz(TM) upgrades, which I think is a waste as the damn thing doesn't fit in the giant box already, and the trays he has don't work great as it, but not my call...

Edit: But I did fail my saving throw on Thunder Road, we'll see if I recover before the KS ends...

I think you are talking about a different game.

Thunder Road expansion for me, even with the ridiculous shipping.

Still watching Street Masters and trying to resist.

Non-gaming: Pledged for the next two issues of New Edge Sword and Sorcery, and the Farscape graphic novels (that launched today).

hotseatgames wrote: I think you are talking about a different game.

Oh gawd, I'm talking "Last Light" not "Dying Light", apologies...

southernman wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: I am probably going to be successful in resisting the new Dying Light board game kickstarter that just launched. It looks cool, but I already have so much stuff that never hits the table. ...

I have exactly the same feeling and also the same reasoning as you ... but I can see myself failing my resist saving roll

I may try and be good and cancel my pledge for Dante: Inferno and get Dying Light instead, I have a few narrative boss battlers to get through (Oathsworn, Aeon Trespass) while Dying Light sounds interesting - I'll watch a few playthrus and see if I my saving roll drops ... and I may need to save the cash for two of the games Awaken Realms announced yesterday

Every time I visit this thread, I tell myself that I will never back another Kickstarter. Less than an hour ago, I told myself that again. 15 minutes ago, I just spent another $77.00 on Kickstarter, to back an expansion and an upgrade pack for Vampire: Chapters. The game tells an engaging story, and our four-player group has had perfect attendance for every monthly session so far, about 60% of the way through the campaign. But the game is flawed, with 4 pages of errata in 6pt font, so I am not entirely at ease with this purchase. I know that our group will definitely enjoy the expansion, which includes 3 new characters. The upgrade pack includes some new items, corrected cards and booklets, and storage bags for the 150+ standees.

Shellhead wrote: Every time I visit this thread, I tell myself that I will never back another Kickstarter. Less than an hour ago, I told myself that again. 15 minutes ago, I just spent another $77.00 on Kickstarter, to back an expansion and an upgrade pack for Vampire: Chapters. The game tells an engaging story, and our four-player group has had perfect attendance for every monthly session so far, about 60% of the way through the campaign. But the game is flawed, with 4 pages of errata in 6pt font, so I am not entirely at ease with this purchase. I know that our group will definitely enjoy the expansion, which includes 3 new characters. The upgrade pack includes some new items, corrected cards and booklets, and storage bags for the 150+ standees.

You aren't tempted by the upgrade pack with all the corrected cards and books ?
I'm thinking if I see a 1st edition pledge going cheap in the next couple of weeks I may get it and then pledge for an upgrade pack ...

What was the consensus around here about Thunder Road?

Complete dud for my group.

Dungeon Degenerates new loot has arrived. I think its the first neoprene mat that I prefer over the original board. The text is clear and the artwork/coloring benefits from not being glossy. It also now joins Spirit Island and Arkham Horror as my games that have spilled over into a second box. I think every deck has been expanded at this point and with the new missions, this game rivals the old FFG games in content.