What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

Discord is okay for chat and VOIP (I use it for a weekly RPG) but for discussions it's too ephemeral to be useful. Like walking by a conversation at a convention: it might be interesting, might not, but either way it'll move on (or you will) before too long.

Ameritrash is a state of mind.

I guess I’m in the minority, but Discord is the literal equivalent for me. Steve M’s server is well managed, and game specific chats are moved to archives & easy to search. You get notifications for @‘s instead of having to poll a thread to see if there were responses. You can create subtreads to not overwhelm the “main” channel you started in.

I’ve been on that Discord for awhile and nothing about it feels any more “ephemeral” than threads here.

I wish I could upload some screenshots of how organized it is from my phone, but that’s kind of a chore on this platform where I’d need to place the file on some host like Imgur and then make sure I have just the right bbcode to make it work here. On Discord it’s a few button clicks.

I dunno, I’m just not seeing the advantages of boards.

I think the advantage of boards like this is that long form content is easier to post and see than it is on Discord. Then again that sort of content seems to have dried up as of late here .

Best image on a crowdfunded project ever:

This is for the game Cysmic that has gotten some positive press for how transparent the creator has been. Basically, he's doing whatever he can just to get the game made and not go bankrupt in the process, a true passion project. Anyhow, he's been making steady progress and finally funded today.

Frohike wrote: I guess I’m in the minority, but Discord is the literal equivalent for me. Steve M’s server is well managed, and game specific chats are moved to archives & easy to search. You get notifications for @‘s instead of having to poll a thread to see if there were responses. You can create subtreads to not overwhelm the “main” channel you started in.

I’ve been on that Discord for awhile and nothing about it feels any more “ephemeral” than threads here.

I wish I could upload some screenshots of how organized it is from my phone, but that’s kind of a chore on this platform where I’d need to place the file on some host like Imgur and then make sure I have just the right bbcode to make it work here. On Discord it’s a few button clicks.

I dunno, I’m just not seeing the advantages of boards.

In this case, the advantage was that we already had a board with a reasonably lively discussion here. Creating a competing Discord discussion has apparently caused a sharp decline in the discussion here. I'm not willing to switch to Discord, because my previous experiences with it were disappointing. It's too bad that so many other people felt the need to chase the newer hotness, but I suppose that is typical for board game players.

While I think Discord has certainly siphoned off some traffic, I think the lack of an easy way to upload images here has hurt traffic. I’ve seen the same think happen on Consimworld; both Facebook and Discord offer pretty much instant upload capability of images and esp for games, photos are a big draw for people reading content these days .

The biggest impediment to engagement is friction.

I'm invariably logged out every time I try to visit this site. If I open too many tabs too quickly I get rate limited/temp banned. Ditto for if I use my mobile browser. Image uploads don't work. All of those small minor points of friction make it harder for me to engage with the platform, never mind the structural differences between how content is shared on a chat server vs a forum. The expectations of a chat interface are much lower and so is the barrier to posting.

I get why most of the experience is why it is, spam is a hard problem, and I say all of this while thinking Discord is terrible for the commons and much prefer the era in which forums were dominant. I still search here when looking for discussions of old games and it remains a brilliant resource but friction is why most of my time has shifted to elsewhere. I do make the effort to post here when I think I have something of particular relevance to say and intend to continue doing so. It also doesn't help that several discussion generating folks like MB have stopped posting about board games anywhere.

Speaking of “MB”, I’m certainly going to pledge for Mythic Battles, but at what level, I’m not sure.

I am interested in the Egyptian stuff, but with both Pantheon and Ragnarock, I don’t need it on any level.

The expansions for the other two are going to be ordered for.
They mentioned there may be some Conan crossover stuff and that’s also hard to resist for me. Conan is one of my favorites.

I've been on a bit of a tear lately, probably to my detriment. Oh well.

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ShadowDark: The Rats of Ul-Gol . Eight low-level adventures for ShadowDark or other OSR systems. The draw of this, in addition to the classic fantasy vibes, is excellent and thoughtful GM and player maps. Player maps have all the traps and secret doors edited out.

The Slumbering City: A ShadowDark Adventure . Conan-esque sword and sorcery adventure full of hoary tropes that I nonetheless love, in this case the lost jungle temple to unholy gods, now overrun with mummies and other assorted jerks.

Yggdrasil Magazine, Issue One . Quarterly magazine for Torchbearer 2e. Great art, content is just okay.

Yggdrasil Magazine, Issue Two . Gave this another chance to see if the content would improve; it continues to be just okay. Unsure if I'll continue with the series. Very much an arty zine-style project, all about one guy's vision, which I respect but only kind of share.

Blade Runner: Replicant Rebellion . Flips the script on the typical Blade Runner story. In the first two cases, the PCs were cops hunting down rogue replicants. In this, they are replicants fighting for their own freedom, working underground to escape the oppression of the human world and (just maybe) escape offworld.

Oath: New Foundations. Goober project, I haven't played the base game yet. Ugh. I am liking Wehrle's designs more and more though, so it'll happen eventually.

Hollows . Focused around Dark Souls style boss fights. The combat is tactical and boardgamey, but there's also a whole cycle of personal corruption and risk, as you draw on your inner darkness to fuel your power. Free quickstart/preview available.

My list continues to dwindle:

Oath expansion: Of course. It's Cole Wehrle.
Tiny Epic Cthulhu: It's a co-op, which I'm not fond of, but I thought the inclusion of an old-fashioned spinner (and one that counts both sides of it) was cool. Plus, Cthulhu.
Tiny Epic Game of Thrones: This one was announced after Cthulhu, but is on schedule to be delivered before it. Campaign begun in March, whereas Cthulhu was started last November. My impression is that it was given to them as a whole design, much like The Last Kingdom. Anyway, it looked cool enough and I have the whole series, so whatevs.
Mycelia: A game about mushroom networks because my GF is a mushroom fan and it's a solo designer who has been very attentive throughout the campaign and production.
A small card expansion for Heroes of Land, Air and Sea: They were doing a reprint of the whole game and added a couple card decks for people who already have it, like me.
Peacemakers: Horrors of War: I was fascinated by the idea of a DoaM with the purpose of avoiding war. This is a second edition.

I'm also on the pre-order for CMON's Cthulhu: Dark Providence. Willing to take a chance on a competitive, hidden alignment Cthulhu offering, plus Martin Wallace.

I am doing my very best to (because of a few years worth, in playtime, of long games queued up to be played) only get stuff that I really really have to have or that is quite different to any I have already - and I have been good and not pledged for anything for a few months.

What I am waiting for:
Dying Light
Conan (reprint)
Nemesis: Retalliation
S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Upcoming this year that I have definite interest in (OK, will pledge):
Blood - standee edition, looks like a lighter version of Darkest Dungeon with interesting card combat. gamefound.com/en/projects/lms/blood_lms
Lands of Evershade - Another massive narrative adventure from Awaken Realms ... can't stop myself.
gamefound.com/en/projects/awaken-realms/lands-of-evershade
The Story of Many - This just looks like a fascinating open world rpg-like board game. It's still some time away and a lot more information needed but looks promising
gamefound.com/en/projects/george-pissas/...ection/project-story

I briefly considered blowing like 400 dollars on all of 7th Citadel and then reminded myself I thought 7th Continent was just ok.

Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitewinggamesnick/iliad-and-ichor

I'm a sucker for a good Knizia 2-player game and these both sound it.

Is this the first time Knizia has done a KS ?