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So in a stunning move, Archon Studios has released 4 new Starfinder minis. Not sure if you need to purchase all 4 for the next wave or not, I sent them a message.

So...I know the world had been wracked by COVID-19 for all of 2020, but are we ever going to see anyone actually fulfill their agreement to produce the Starfinder miniatures from the Kickstarter? Archon Studios seemed promising, but they completely abd abruptly stalled, no explanation. I know they are still making product because I backed Dungeons & Lasers II and have received about half that pledge already. So discouraging.

So going to ask a question out loud...if Archon is just working on getting wave 3 stuff tooled and set for molding.. .shouldnt the other waves be done at this point...i mean it's just an stl file and ppl are working from home..so why is the art not being shown that they are working on it. .

The only thing I can think of is that they didn’t have the capability at home to create the .stl files, or they were ordered to just stay home and isolate. My plant shut us down completely and allowed minimal people to work from home. What I didn’t like is when they said that there was no bonus mini to buy and all you had to do in wave three was buy any one of them for $10 and you get everything. I already paid $400 for these minis, so now you want me to spend more money on one I already bought to get the whole wave?!? We already saw that we are not getting the multiple sculpts of a specific mini that the Kickstarter promoted, unless we will get spoon fed the different sculpt at a later date?

So when I purchased Zo! and in turn received the 6 Wave 1 minis, I put a snip of my Pledge Manager for the All-In plus add-ons in the comments section of my order. Do I only need to do this the one time, did you already have our lists?

So Archon Studios sent an email today asking for us to go to their website to take a survey. They are asking us, with a 100+ mini release, here's the test:

As you know, Archon Studio is manufacturing and releasing Starfinder RPG miniatures in hard plastic. We are producing models from Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures Kickstarter. We have over 100 miniatures to make, and we manufacture them in waves.

To deliver most demanded by the community models first, we have created a survey on our website. It's anonymous and allows you to choose multiply models. Just point us which minis YOU need released first.

Results of this survey will shape our release schedule.

My first order went smoothly and I got the mini I paid for plus one of each of the other six released in wave one.

I've placed a second order for one mini and sent in my backer information again however I haven't received it yet.

The only complaint I have about Archon is that there's no acknowledgement that they've got your kickstarter info and will be acting accordingly. I think I would have preferred if they'd handled it via a NDKickstarter coupon or similar. Presumably this works best for their systems, but given the previous experiences with this project, sending money off and then waiting makes me a little more nervous than usual.

I worry too that I will not get everything I pledged for as well as the add-ons I added. So far, ok, but we will see in the end. I will say that I thought they released their 2nd set quicker than I imagined, so I am hopeful I get everything before I’m retired.

So I’m waiting on the second set of minis, they have shipped from Poland the other day. Who else is having any success with ARchon Studios?

I received my Zo! mini yesterday, plus the other 6 minis that they also had on their website. It was well packaged. Each mini is individually boxed and shrink wrapped.

Steve Geddes wrote:

Well, my first order with Archon didn't go well.

I ordered Zo! on their website and as instructed by their customer service wrote a message in their "anything you'd like to tell us about this order" space in which I told them I was a Ninja Division kickstarter backer and would email through all the kickstarter info I have.

I then sent an email referencing my Archon Studios order number with my identifying kickstarter info, my email address, my physical address and a list of all minis I am entitled to as an all-in backer plus the add-ons I ordered.

They sent me an automatic "we've got your email" message saying they'd answer it in forty eight hours.

Meanwhile they sent me a total of six emails telling me they've received my order...charged my order....assigned a reference number....they're processing the order....they've shipped the order.

I think the chance of them having included the kickstarter minis is negligible.

Anyone on the fence, I'd suggest doing as sanwah68 said above and waiting for the next wave - hopefully by then they'll have got a working process in place.

I did learn that a single mini costs $13 to ship to Australia and that there wasn't any choice of shipping method. They do appear to ship to PO Boxes, which is a plus.

Update on this. Archon got back to me and (I think) they’re going to send out a second package with everything that was supposed to go with Zo!

I’ve asked them to confirm the preferred process for future waves. Hopefully it’ll go more smoothly in future.

Did you get your minis yet? I received an email that Zo! was on his way but the package weight listed indicates that is the only mini even though I added my pledge list in the comments and as an additional email.

Well, my first order with Archon didn't go well.

I ordered Zo! on their website and as instructed by their customer service wrote a message in their "anything you'd like to tell us about this order" space in which I told them I was a Ninja Division kickstarter backer and would email through all the kickstarter info I have.

I then sent an email referencing my Archon Studios order number with my identifying kickstarter info, my email address, my physical address and a list of all minis I am entitled to as an all-in backer plus the add-ons I ordered.

They sent me an automatic "we've got your email" message saying they'd answer it in forty eight hours.

Meanwhile they sent me a total of six emails telling me they've received my order...charged my order....assigned a reference number....they're processing the order....they've shipped the order.

I think the chance of them having included the kickstarter minis is negligible.

Anyone on the fence, I'd suggest doing as sanwah68 said above and waiting for the next wave - hopefully by then they'll have got a working process in place.

I did learn that a single mini costs $13 to ship to Australia and that there wasn't any choice of shipping method. They do appear to ship to PO Boxes, which is a plus.

I got the same, your order has shipped, email too. I checked the assigned tracking number and it looks like it’s shipping from Poland. If ND was handling all USA shipments, what does that mean?

Actually based on the Game on Table Top page I think I only added the Blue Dragon which was not part of the Kickstarter.

I searched my past emails for the list of my pledge. Under an email from Game on Table Top dated 12/23/17, they sent me a list of everything I got in my pledge. Sad now to think that it’s been nearly two years just to get to this point.

I just ordered Zo! on the Archon Studios site. So the mini is $10 USD, not bad, however $13 shipping is not good. But, if as an All In Pledge, they ship me everything they have up to this point at no additional cost, then I'm ok with that.
This whole deal with these miniatures was bad from the start with ND, but if Archon is going to come through like this with the quality of the minis I've seen in renderings on their site, then it will have to do. I was one of the "fortunate " ones to have received the first two waves from ND and I will compare those minis to what Archon ships and see if their quality is better.
I went through a period, like most due, where I saw Kickstarters, got enticed by that campaign, saw the abundance of stretch goals and renderings of the minis and pledged to way too many of these, including Black Rose Wars, Sine Tempore and two of the Zombicide offerings. It had taught me to be more judicial and investigative if I ever want to pledge to another Kickstarter going forward. I really need to do my research on these offerings, I don't think I would have pledged to this if I knew the troubled history of ND in the first place.

I understand Archon does not owe backers anything.

They were a subcontractor who got royally screwed by there employer. I assume they have lawyers working on that.

However.

I believe Paizo does owe backers something as they convinced people to invest in the kickstarter despite there misgivings about ND.

The solution with Archon is a nice start, but it should have been paired with an optional refund / trade credit, even if its discounted a % to account for Kickstarters cut for people who are really really not interested in un-assembled plastic minis.

That isn't what the paid for and they should have some other option then Key Lime Pie, or starving.

This could all be true but I also meant it from the standpoint that it was a bold move by them since they had to assume several attendees who pledged these minis would stop and vent their spleen on them

If ND is si insolvent, how did they end up with a booth in the Exhibit Hall at Gencon this year? Those booths are not cheap, not to mention the expense of travel and lodging.

So based on the timeline, it sounds like those of us who went all in will be waiting years for total fulfillment. The bonus minis are a nice deal but am I missing something? Also, the update said Archon would be fulfilling EU backers only. Does this mean those of us in the U.S. will be still dealing with ND?

So I looked at the Paizo online store and saw all of the Starfinder minis, available for sale like people are saying. My question is, and I don't know the intricacies of how all of the business end of it works, if ND was contracted by Paizo to make minis for them, and ND created this Kickstarter, where is the disconnect? Wouldn't Paizo have provided funding for ND to make their online minis, and wouldn't the money ND took for the Kickstarter have gone to what we ordered in our pledges?

Or, is it that ND is honoring the Paizo minis first and do not have the capability to produce for both groups...or is it that ND repurposed our Kickstarter money for other projects and blew us off? I am now confused and even more upset by the fact that it seems like most of the line is on sale online and we sit almost empty handed except for the few of us who received token minis?

I wish I knew the full outline of what was supposed to happen in the production and releases of both sets of minis. Not the gory details, but we are all owed an explanation however unpleasant it may be.

Stormforge

ND isn't the first repeat Kickstarter Creator to use funds for a new project to finish an old one.

It does not look like Kickstarter places any sort of financial reporting requirements or minimal standards of practice and some companies just dump all of the money into one big account, cross there fingers and hope it all works out.

In ND's case it looks like they did not recognize this and adjust the pricing on successive KS's to account for it and ended up where they are now.

They are also not the first to make this mistake as well.

I'm not saying that they are Summersnow, however, it was a perceived perception that they did this too many times and it caught up to them, leaving us as well as Paizo victims of this practice. It will definitely give me pause now if I ever do another Kickstarter to do more research first. Spending the money is not too horrible if what I get in return has value, but this hurt and what makes it worse is not having answers, or at least answers that are acceptable. Of course, I may not want to know the answers which might make me more mad.

MadMattUK wrote:

And now I'm in the situation that, even if by some miracle I got my all-in pledge, I no longer want it.

The window in which I could have started a Starfinder campaign with my group has passed.

Frankly, I'm now so soured on a whole system for which I was originally really enthusiastic that I wouldn't run a campaign even if the opportunity arose.

Yeah, I don't think that Paizo acknowledge that type of experience enough publicly or recognize the long term significance for the game that it has. Let's go over the early adopter (the most loyal type of customer) experience for the game if you went all in. You got a book that fell apart almost instantly (admittedly they fixed that after the fact but it could take months and reports now show some replacement books suffer a similar if delayed problem) and at best got a dozen of the miniatures out of over a hundred funded with people reporting that even that tiny fraction were frequently of dubious quality. Have there been bright spots? Sure, the adventure paths and the boxed sets are popular quality products but it doesn't negate that the core experience has been deeply flawed.

I don't believe that Paizo are in any position to force Ninja Division's hand so I don't expect that but I do expect a public acknowledgement of just how much of a bad situation it really is as opposed to just taking a just hope and wait and see approach publicly. I'd also hope to see in the case of a failed crowdfunding venture like this to see what they did to ensure its success in the first place knowing that ND had a long history of at best delayed projects and what their plan is going forward. It's one thing if a company's joint venture with another takes a nose dive as I don't think customers deserve any "insider" knowledge if their own money wasn't wasted but it's another when that initial capital is put up by the end customers and they're the ones left with little to no product to show for such a sizable monetary input. YMMV.

I...

and that's the other victim because of ND, Starfinder itself. This turned a lot of people off of it because of what they did. I also heard that ND would take the money from one KS pledge to finish up the previous pledge like some gamer Ponzi scheme.

Sinvel Menter wrote:

kadance wrote:

Rail Raiders...

Wasn't that the kickstarter that ND was selling at cons and even in retail before fulfilling all the pledges?

Wait, people from ND actually show up at cons trying to sell stuff after these debacles? I might have to go to one just to give them a piece of my mind...

They are most likely merchant intermediaries that have 0% input/knowledge on how things are being handled (cause I highly doubt the head(s) of ND are out in public like that). Giving them “a piece of your mind” would be just as an effective as giving the cashier at McDonalds “a piece of your mind” over the food they’re selling.

They were actually at Gencon this past year. I spoke to several people there about the Kickstarter and even met Scott, the guy handling it all. He seemed like he had a bad attitude and couldn't be bothered. I should have known something was up then, but I had backed several other KS projects, CMON, boardgametables, Munchkin, and all were successful.

I too went all in. I received two small packages, probably the 1st & 2nd waves. Now I am worried that $400 is bye bye. Paypal nor Kickstarter will even condsider refunds since it goes beyond their timelines to report violations. I am hopeful that Paizo can remedy this, it would be a shame to tarnish the work that went into Starfinder from Ninja Division.

I am attending Gencon this year and I have been looking for Pathfinder ACG events and have found none so far, are you hosting ACG events this year?

Class deck Kyra is a strong melee fighter, with ample healing ability. I haven't played her, but she seems a good choice for Wrath. Another poster said the B deck monsters hand out before/after damage like candy. I think healing will be crucial.

Keep in mind Keith Richmond said the most important skill in Wrath is Knowledge. Ezren in the Wizard deck has strong Knowledge. But on the other hand, many Season 0 veterans are going to be at Gencon playing Enora with the Wizard deck, so maybe a Wizard's not the way to go.

You want to avoid the Poison-focused Rogues. Many demons in Wrath are immune to poison, and all the undead are.

I've played Harsk and Arabundi from the Ranger deck in Season 0. I prefer Harsk. Fighting with d8s becomes difficult in the later seasons (perhaps through 3 it wouldn't be so bad). Arabundi does have Knowledge (d6+2). Be warned, however, that the dexterity-based Rangers have a poor choice of weapons in their class deck, which favors the melee rangers.

Thanks Elcoderdude. I figured healing would be essential in WotR. I wish the Paladin deck would be out at Gencon so I could use that but they said that it wouldn't be out until after.

So I am signed up for Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild play at Gencon, this is my first time playing in the Guild. I signed up for Season 1, Adventure 1; Season 1, Adventure 2; Season 1, Adventure 3.
I have downloaded and read the Guild rules so now I am asking, what is a good character deck to buy for me to use? I usually play the cleric in my home campaign and in Wrath of the righteous, it seems like a likely character to play.
Please give my your thoughts on this as experienced Guild players.

So I am new to the Adventure Card Game and I have questions that the rules didn't seem to answer and that I couldn't find watching youtube video demos.

1) When you are placing random monsters or barriers or other card types in locations during setup, can they be elite or should everything start out basic at 1st level?

2) During a combat where the monster card says must be defeated by magic, and you have none, does that mean that you automatically take damage, less your defense, if any?

3) I'm unclear of how to take damage when the monster or encountered card says take 2d4 damage. Is this in addition to the normal damage, can you reduce the damage with additional defensive cards you have in play? It seems like this extra damage could wipe out a 1st or low level character in one hit.