Interesting Kickstarter Catch-All

I was weak. I backed Tainted Grail. I don't solo my games, but I just may solo this one.

Nevin73 wrote:

I was weak. I backed Tainted Grail. I don't solo my games, but I just may solo this one.

I backed it for $1. Not sure whether I'm going to come back and fully back it or not.

So there used to be an amazing virtual LAN program called Evolve. It made playing any game that supported LAN so super simple to play online. Better than either Hamachi or GameRanger.

Evolve got bought by Player.me, which incorporated their game tracking portion of Evolve, but not the VLAN. So the Evolve folks are now trying to crowdfund their new VLAN venture, called Bowstring, on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...

Evolve was so amazing I've totally backed this. I want it so I can easily play stuff like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter or Starlancer easily. I implore you to check it out if it sounds interesting to you. Thanks!

This inflatable car roof rack is a pretty neat idea! I don't need anything like it myself now that I own a truck, but back in my car only days, this would have come in real handy.

Serengeti wrote:

This inflatable car roof rack is a pretty neat idea! I don't need anything like it myself now that I own a truck, but back in my car only days, this would have come in real handy.

That is cool! I love it when people come up with ingenious new uses for older technology.

I also like that it works with a 4-door saloon.

I know typos happen, but that one is pretty damn funny.

Feegle wrote:

I also like that it works with a 4-door saloon.

I know typos happen, but that one is pretty damn funny.

I don't get it, what is the typo? A saloon is a sedan.

For the product, wouldn't the constant pressure on the door gaskets cause them to compress and no longer keep out the weather?

LeapingGnome wrote:

For the product, wouldn't the constant pressure on the door gaskets cause them to compress and no longer keep out the weather?

The only part through the door gap is a narrow flat strap. Unless the door gaskets are very old and damaged, they should be fine. I wouldn't expect you'd leave the product on long term anyway, just when you need to haul something.

New game from the creators of Exploding Kittens: Throw Throw Burrito

The world's first dodgeball card game. Collect cards. Play your hand. Throw things at your friends.

Seems fun, but I probably won't back.

LeapingGnome wrote:
Feegle wrote:

I also like that it works with a 4-door saloon.

I know typos happen, but that one is pretty damn funny.

I don't get it, what is the typo? A saloon is a sedan.

For the product, wouldn't the constant pressure on the door gaskets cause them to compress and no longer keep out the weather?

I have never heard it called a saloon, but apparently thats the British term for a sedan . To me a saloon is an old timey western bar. I imagine thats the way it is for most of us Americans.

Do have to say though the concept is great, I wish I could afford a set.

Igneus wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:
Feegle wrote:

I also like that it works with a 4-door saloon.

I know typos happen, but that one is pretty damn funny.

I don't get it, what is the typo? A saloon is a sedan.

For the product, wouldn't the constant pressure on the door gaskets cause them to compress and no longer keep out the weather?

I have never heard it called a saloon, but apparently thats the British term for a sedan . To me a saloon is an old timey western bar. I imagine thats the way it is for most of us Americans.

Do have to say though the concept is great, I wish I could afford a set.

I withdraw my criticism. Now, I'm giggling at Britishisms. That's one I didn't know.

sedan == saloon
station wagon == estate
compact == hatchback
Sports Utility Vehicle == Chelsea tractor

Posted in the TTRPG thread, but I guess it should go here too... my friend's new rpg of cultists trying to balance everyday life with the need to summon the dark god Soth.

Soth kickstarter

I played a few playtest games. Great fun, very dark humour. Being a successful cultist is hard.

Any Forza fan knows what a saloon is, too.

I think I watch way more British car shows than a normal person so it didn't register for me that saloon was weird there.

Critical Role, the group of LA area voice actors who have developed a large viewership and following when they started streaming their campaign after what had been a 2 year home game, are kickstarting an animated special. It is set to cover a 6 month stretch of time between events of their home game and the stream broadcasts starting. They were looking for $750,000 for a 22 minute feature. In under 24 hours, they are over $4.25M with 44 days of the campaign to go. It could very well turn into a mini-series production.

For the record, I am a huge Critical Role fan. It brought me back to D&D after a 30 year hiatus. It has done the same for many others and introduced so many first timers to the game. Titmouse is doing the animation (Big Mouth, The Venture Bros., Metalocalypse, Niko and the Sword of Light and Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures).

Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina

I believe titmouse also did the Diablo 3 teaser/lore animation.

How many people here don't know what Critical Role is? Just kinda curious how far they've penetrated into general nerdom.

I tried the podcast a couple of years ago after I finished Adventure Zone and it just did not click for me. I wanted to like it because so many people speak highly of them, but it was just bad. It felt like I joined a campaign already in progress, there were too many people, a lot of them sounded similar, and they were all talking over each other constantly. Did they start in a video format? Because I could see that working better but as a podcast I stopped after 1.5 episodes.

I’ve been aware of Critial Roll since around the time it started.

Like all podcasts, I’ve never listened to a single episode.

I hadn't backed a game in years, but Silk looked interesting enough. Especially since I got a Switch key as well.

Silk is a Sandbox RPG Adventure Game and a tribute to the late Mike Singleton, especially his groundbreaking 1984 game The Lords of Midnight.

With a lo-fi visual aesthetic and a lightweight interface that delivers endless engaging decisions, Silk is an innovative role-playing adventure like no other. Rise into glory by running your caravan from the Roman Empire to war-torn Three Kingdoms China. Defend yourself from bandits, sandstorms, and rebellions by hiring Advisors skilled in everything from battle to wayfinding. Fall in love with your own unique party of Advisors and the enchanting world of the Ancient Silk Road in 200 AD.

I really like the art style, the concept and the time period. Not too many games out there that take place in 200AD!

There's a demo out as well (link goes straight to a ZIP file download).

LeapingGnome wrote:

Did they start in a video format? Because I could see that working better but as a podcast I stopped after 1.5 episodes.

Critical Role is streamed to Twitch primarily, then archived on YouTube. The podcast came later and is just a rip of that audio. Sounds like it's as bad as I feared. With weekly episodes pushing four hours or more I'll just never make time to catch up at this point. It's good fun though.

The two 'seasons' of Critical Role are different campaigns entirely - new characters, etc. I'd honestly recommend skipping the first season entirely and just jumping into the second - it's what I did. The jump in production value is huge, and the second season is a more manageable 50ish episodes so far, instead of the 130ish plus of the first season.

I'd also recommend watching one or two episodes with video at least to get faces for the names and voices, and then you'll be fine with audio for the rest of it.

I really liked season 1 a lot but....yeah...it's a LOT of video to work through!

Season 2 hasn't grabbed me quite the same yet, but then Season 1 started with them at level 10 and they aren't even at that stage in season 2 yet, so i'm hoping it'll coalesce into having some sort of main plot thread in there somewhere soon (I'm only on episode 35 or 36 I think at the moment).

Side note : The first episode of Relics & Rarities got posted to Youtube in the last few days and it's worth a watch too. Deborah Ann Woll runs a very different game than Mercer (she seems a lot more "physical" in her descriptions and characters, and the game has a focus on puzzle and mystery solving and less on epic miniature battles) and it looks like it has a much more relaxed, "story of the week" format rather than a massive on-going campaign.

Only downside, she has Matthew Lillard guest starring in the first episode and I caaaaaaaannot STAND Matthew Lillard. He rubs me the wrong way in literally everything he's involved in.

Tanglebones wrote:

The two 'seasons' of Critical Role are different campaigns entirely - new characters, etc. I'd honestly recommend skipping the first season entirely and just jumping into the second - it's what I did. The jump in production value is huge, and the second season is a more manageable 50ish episodes so far, instead of the 130ish plus of the first season.

I'd also recommend watching one or two episodes with video at least to get faces for the names and voices, and then you'll be fine with audio for the rest of it.

Well said. However, there is a ton of great material in that first campaign. The final battle alone is amazeballs. Also, they do a bunch of one shot stuff that are fantastic as well. They tend to play against character in those and they get pretty good. Added to that, there are several really good guest stars including Joe Manganiello, Will Friedle, Patrick Rothfuss, and Felicia Day. So if you do start with the second campaign and catch up, you can always go back to the first campaign and knock those out while waiting for Thursdays. It's free on youtube as well as their twitch channel.

I managed to catch up just by having it on my second monitor while I played games or did stuff.

Tanglebones wrote:

The two 'seasons' of Critical Role are different campaigns entirely - new characters, etc. I'd honestly recommend skipping the first season entirely and just jumping into the second - it's what I did. The jump in production value is huge, and the second season is a more manageable 50ish episodes so far, instead of the 130ish plus of the first season.

I'd also recommend watching one or two episodes with video at least to get faces for the names and voices, and then you'll be fine with audio for the rest of it.

Totally agree to give a watch or two. While it is completely unscripted (outside of what a DM would normally prepare ahead of time) these are professional actors riffing off each other, and many of the interactions are physical in nature.

There is around a 20 minute background recording of the Campaign 1 (Vox Machina) group that gives character party history. The production value increases drastically even a handful of episodes in. They were running on a shoestring budget and equipment. They also switched over to D&D5e from Pathfinder, so there are some learning pains there as well.

Campaign 2 is good to get into the ground floor of a new party. What is lost until the last few episodes are the character bonds that were there from the start in the first campaign. Not a knock at all and I am really enjoying it. I caught up live to the first campaign about half way through and have since re-listened to all of it on the podcast and a partial rewatch on the YouTubes (yes, I know the hours!). For me, it is the best emergent storytelling out there. It is theater, improv comedy, and dice rolling all in one from people who love the game and their characters. The number of epic events and emotional beats that occur, most determined on a die roll, are numerous. I have also laughed harder and more frequently than I have at countless scenes than I have most anything else.

TL;DR: Season One rewards you more than you would imagine if you get through the first handful of technically challenged episodes and you are glad there are 130 episodes rather than daunted.

pyxistyx wrote:

Only downside, she has Matthew Lillard guest starring in the first episode and I caaaaaaaannot STAND Matthew Lillard. He rubs me the wrong way in literally everything he's involved in.

Are you me? I don't know what it is about him, it's like fingernails on chalkboard. Even a picture of him makes me cringe. Saw a recent news item about him being unhappy about getting replaced in a new Scooby Doo project, and I was like "outstanding!" And I don't even care about Scooby Doo.

manta173 wrote:

How many people here don't know what Critical Role is? Just kinda curious how far they've penetrated into general nerdom.

I didn't know what it was before reading the replies.

Perhaps the best example of Critical Role IMO is a video one of the players shot of their home game before streaming it was ever an idea. For anyone claiming their emotion and enthusiasm are trumped up for the cameras, this is a fantastic counter. If you don't like this 10 minutes, you won't like Critical Role. No spoilers, as this occurred well before the first episode. I will now shut up about CR (in this thread, at least).

Thanks, will check out video. Had never heard of them before. I don't even listen to the GWJ roleplayng, except that Bioshock one, which was okay but IIRC scripted.