Befuddled GM's page

Did the podcast help at all with the information drought?

Not especially. They reaffirmed that they are working on it and feel bad but they still didnt have any specifics on anything new. Basically its just under development and will be released at some point.

The fact that they only need layout is actually sort of troubling. That puts them in the exact same phase as the blight in terms of development and means they will be using the same personnel resources.

Either these are going to get delayed while the blight is finished or the blight is going to get delayed while resources are diverted to these.

I do project management with small(ish) companies for a living and have done quite a bit of product development in a resource limited context as a result. From what I have seen I dont see how a new Kickstarter could possible NOT take resources away from the blight at this point.

In previous updates the frogs have indicated that a large part of the delay in the blight is due to unexpected personnel issues that took staff off the project. A couple staff members got sick, one had a baby etc. Having major delays as a result of these kinds of personnel issues tells me they dont have a large staff with a lot of redundancy built in. My guess is they have 1-2 people with the skill set to do layout, 1-2 who can do editing development, 1-2 who handle logistics with printers and shipping etc...

They dont have whole separate project teams that can work concurrently. If a product for the new kickstarter needs layout work then the guy who was working on blight probably has to stop working on the blight to start working on the new project. Likewise with virtually every other phase of product development (with the possible exception of actual authors). Just as important I would imagine that FGG only has 1-2 people with project management experience to help guide and coordinate the process and when those guys are spending time on another project (and even just setting up and managing the kickstarter for the new project is probably a significant investment of hours) then they are not investing that time in getting the blight put together as quickly as possible.

This is especially true in this case as they indicate that the two new projects are already written. Thus they will probably demand the same sort of editing and layout resources that blight is currently demanding. If the new project were in the brainstorming phase it would be a little different.

I am sure its not wholly zero sum. 1 hour on the new project doesnt necessarily mean an hour taken off of the blight but given the size of the company its pretty hard to believe that starting up a second product line wont significantly impact the one in development. During some of their updates they have even admitted that the Bards Gate kickstarter caused delays in the Blight but that it couldnt be helped.

Will the product get to us? I have no doubt it will. But when you have already accepted a LOT of customer money for a product that is MASSIVELY overdue I think its pretty bad from an optics standpoint to turn around and divert ANY resources from that product to a new project.

I always get a laugh out of things like this. Yeah, it is disappointing that the dates get pushed back, but does it really matter? Not one bit. The work will get done, the stuff will be very high quality and be delivered, unlike Far West or Spinward Traveller or any of that stuff.

The book ballooned from an estimated 800-900 pages to over 1100 last I heard. Adventures that were originally going to be 25-40 pages ended up being 70+. I don't see that as a problem, I see it as a bonus. More content at the cost of what? Time? Oh well, there is plenty of stuff going on to occupy my free time as it is.

Frog God's products will always get delivered and will always be high quality. That is enough for me.

The timeline DOES really matter for many of us. I dont buy gaming books to read, I buy them to use the material at the table and usually I have a window of time when I can make use of that material. If a book ends up getting delayed so much that I am not able to use that material when I intended to, then I effectively wasted money on the purchase.

I know kickstarters are never on time. I felt reasonable confident that a plus or minus 50% error margin would be enough time for this to be completed (given that the campaign indicated the book was already written) which still put it in the useful time frame for me. The fact that this project ballooned to such an extent that its not going to fall in that +- 50% window means I am no longer sure that I am going to be able to use this product.

For lots of people that buy gaming books to read or without any set plan to use them the delay probably doesnt matter. I am fairly confident that I am not alone in only buying books I have a set plan to use though.

Definitely disappointing that the delivery date just keeps falling farther behind.

I dont know if the frogs were just absurdly optimistic about this kickstarter (to a really ridiculous level?) or if they gamed the system a little bit but I definitely have lost my confidence in their kickstarters going forward. Love their products but I will be buying them retail from now on.

Over a month since we have heard anything... update please!

I dont disagree about expecting projects to be late. If we were looking at a 2 month "oops, this took a little longer than expected" thats one thing. 6+ months is a different degree of error and so far we haven't even heard a timeline that sounds very optimistic about this project ONLY being 6 months late.

I cant say for certain but I strongly suspect that there is a certain threshold after the estimated delivery date where if a project has not materialized the odds of it ever doing so start to plummet precipitously

Been a month since the last update (which basically was just a - still working on it, timeline unknown update) and getting close to 4 months over due.

I am starting to get a little worried about the project. If they budgeted that the revenue from the Blight was going to support the company (or provide a significant portion of the companies income) through July and now that same amount of revenue is having to pay the way through January (at best? I just dont see anyway we get a physical product before then) it seems like cash flow could start to become a significant issue.

Between that and the fact that at 4 months past due we still don't have even an estimated release date, this project is starting to feel like it may have blown up to too large a project for the frogs to manage effectively.

I still trust it will get done but if this were any other company we would be firmly at the point where I would start to wonder if this project was going to be vaporware. That thought is a little disconcerting.

Yah I am not worried about it getting done, just wondering if there is any timeline for when I might get it into my greedy little hands.

Just got my Bards Gate pdf and it looks great so far.

Wondering if there is any update on the PDFs for this one? I figured they would be out first since the kickstarter was so much earlier.

4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 1, 5) = 12 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 4, 2) = 12 = 10
4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 2, 6) = 16 = 14
4d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 1, 2) = 10 = 9
4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 3) = 11 = 10
4d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 2, 3) = 12 = 10

Total = 5

4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 2, 1) = 9 = 8
4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 2, 1) = 12 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 4, 5) = 15 = 13
4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 6, 4) = 16 = 13
4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 4, 4) = 16 = 12
4d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 2, 4) = 9 = 8

Total = 5

4d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 3, 2) = 8 = 7
4d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 5, 1) = 12 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 2, 2) = 9 = 8
4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 5, 3) = 13 = 12
4d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 1, 1) = 8 = 7
4d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 3, 5) = 13 = 11

Total = -6

(I am on a roll!)

4d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 2, 3) = 13 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 6, 5) = 22 = 17
4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 4, 3) = 13 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 4, 5) = 20 = 16
4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 3, 2) = 9 = 8
4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 2, 6) = 16 = 14