Kickstarter Updates

[ZMiles]

I was looking back at the Kickstarter page and I saw there hasn't been an update since the end of 2020. Has the Giant said elsewhere what his progress is on the remaining stories? (CPPD, Julio Scoundrel, Dim Sum, Sir Francois). Did we ever learn what 'mystery prize #9' and 'mystery box' was?

[PLD]

I was looking back at the Kickstarter page and I saw there hasn't been an update since the end of 2020. Has the Giant said elsewhere what his progress is on the remaining stories? (CPPD, Julio Scoundrel, Dim Sum, Sir Francois). Did we ever learn what 'mystery prize #9' and 'mystery box' was?

{Scrubbed}

[Peelee]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

I never saw anything indicating that, to the best I can recall. I know the cameo and the extra stories were all four one person each, but nothing about the mystery box not being for all backers.

[PLD]

I never saw anything indicating that, to the best I can recall. I know the cameo and the extra stories were all four one person each, but nothing about the mystery box not being for all backers.
{Scrubbed}

[Peelee]

{Scrubbed}
Ah. I'd conflated the 1.25m mystery prize with the mystery box. My bad.

[littlebum2002]

{Scrubbed}

Wait, what? What is this supposed to mean?

[PLD]

Wait, what? What is this supposed to mean?
{Scrubbed}

[KorvinStarmast]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote} Wait, I do. :smallfrown:

[Peelee]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}Wait, I do. :smallfrown:

I've never even played Dark Sun and I'm excited for the Dim Sun story.

[PLD]

[QUOTE=Peelee;25607954]I've never even played Dark Sun {Scrubbed}

[Sir_Norbert]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

I don't agree. We're well into book 7 of a 7-book epic; the threads are being gathered together for the big push towards the grand finale. If the rate of jokes has declined, it's because this isn't the place for continuous joking, not because Rich can't do it.

[littlebum2002]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

Oh I gotcha. I thought you were talking about all 4 stories. I can see your argument about Dim Sun but the rest can definitely be done as serious prequels like the stories in Good Deeds.

I disagree with you that he will abandon the Dim Sun story, but I could definitely see him waiting until the main story is finished to release it

[Crusher]

Wait, I do. :smallfrown:

Me, too! Still hoping 5e comes out with a setting book for it.

[PLD]

Oh I gotcha. I thought you were talking about all 4 stories. I can see your argument about Dim Sun but the rest can definitely be done as serious prequels like the stories in Good Deeds.

I disagree with you that he will abandon the Dim Sun story, but I could definitely see him waiting until the main story is finished to release it{Scrubbed}

[KorvinStarmast]

I don't agree. We're well into book 7 of a 7-book epic; the threads are being gathered together for the big push towards the grand finale. If the rate of jokes has declined, it's because this isn't the place for continuous joking, not because Rich can't do it. True, and he's dropped a few here and there lately.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote; some responding text scrubbed here, too}

[Malfarian]

I've personally seen multiple kickstarter campaigns totally collapse and fail to deliver. Does that excuse this one? no, but overall my feelings are the goals were met. The books were reprinted. Many add ons were done.

An anvil hanging over your head for creativity is quite difficult. I think refunds should be given down to the level of the most fulfilled pledge level and an apology for not getting it done. Clear the emotional weight.

That's just my opinion however. I'm so delighted this story exists, it's brought untold joy to my life.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff:Hi all, so a previously banned poster showed up and really kicked up a bunch of trouble. At some point, the usual post-scrubbing became too onerous, so about 10-15 posts were removed altogether from this thread, some of them harmless aside from the content they were responding to. Sorry about that.

Anyway, carry on (civilly and within the Forum Rules), thanks!

[littlebum2002]

Well I guess that answers that question.

Anyway, this might be easy for me to say since I only got the lowest tier reward, but I think the kickstarter went about as well as could be suspected. Rich clearly underestimated how much work was left on the main comic and thought he would have had a lot more time to spend on Kickstarter bonuses, but that happens. I've gotten chewed out by a boss more times than I wish to count for over-promising on a project, because sometimes you just get so excited about something that you convince yourself that you can make it work, even if the little modron on your shoulder (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0068.html) tells you it's not possible. And that was BEFORE he hurt his hand.

Considering all that, and considering how many kickstarter projects have just fizzled out without delivering anything, I think the fact that he delivered ALMOST everything so far is better than could be expected, and I am sure the rest will be delivered eventually, just probably after the main comic is finished.

[ZMiles]

I'm happy with how the Kickstarter went too. I backed at the $224 level (set of all 7 print books which were then available), got them, and really enjoyed them along with the swag (the notepads, etc.) And I also enjoyed the O'Chul, Therkla, etc. bonus stories. As far as I'm concerned, I got my money's worth and then some.

I wasn't trying to complain or anything. I was just trying to make sure I hadn't missed anything (i.e., that Rich didn't send out one of the remaining stories and it went into my spam box or something), and was also curious if we ever learned what Mystery Prize 8.5, Mystery Prize 9, and Mystery Box were.

[Malfarian]

I'm happy with how the Kickstarter went too. I backed at the $224 level (set of all 7 print books which were then available), got them, and really enjoyed them along with the swag (the notepads, etc.) And I also enjoyed the O'Chul, Therkla, etc. bonus stories. As far as I'm concerned, I got my money's worth and then some.

I wasn't trying to complain or anything. I was just trying to make sure I hadn't missed anything (i.e., that Rich didn't send out one of the remaining stories and it went into my spam box or something), and was also curious if we ever learned what Mystery Prize 8.5, Mystery Prize 9, and Mystery Box were.

His silence seems very out of character to me, given the years of amazing relationship that he's built here for all of us. I really hope he's well.

[Kish]

Rich doesn't like talking about his health but he clarified a number of years ago that he is, in fact, not well, but not in the way people mean here. He has a chronic condition, it's not life-threatening, his wife takes good care of him, and we should always expect comics to come in clumps, as he has good days and bad days.

[lio45]

Rich doesn't like talking about his health but he clarified a number of years ago that he is, in fact, not well, but not in the way people mean here. He has a chronic condition, it's not life-threatening, his wife takes good care of him, and we should always expect comics to come in clumps, as he has good days and bad days.I think there’s a general long-term trend towards lower productivity, though I haven’t done the actual calculation (it would likely — at least indirectly — break the Forum Rules to post that data).

It’s not unreasonable to wonder if the remaining rewards will ever see the light of day at this point.

[pearl jam]

There's also a trend toward more intricate art which shouldn't be overlooked when thinking about such things.

[lio45]

There's also a trend toward more intricate art which shouldn't be overlooked when thinking about such things.True, although the comic has never had "the art" among its strong points. In fact, the bad/utilitarian art has pretty much always been a distinguishing feature for it.

The comic's golden years (definitely NOT the early years!), where content and dialogue quality were at their peak, had worse art than today, yet better art than the early years. Art quality is completely orthogonal to the story/dialogue.

[littlebum2002]

TThe comic's golden years (definitely NOT the early years!), where content and dialogue quality were at their peak

When was that? IMHO the story now is better than it has ever been. I've never been more on edge waiting to find out what is going to happen than I am now.

[Vinyadan]

True, although the comic has never had "the art" among its strong points. In fact, the bad/utilitarian art has pretty much always been a distinguishing feature for it.

The comic's golden years (definitely NOT the early years!), where content and dialogue quality were at their peak, had worse art than today, yet better art than the early years. Art quality is completely orthogonal to the story/dialogue.

I disagree, I think the art is good. The props, characters, and settings are deliberately simplified, but there's composition and use of colour, shots, and gestures, and for me those are among the best in the webcomic scene. You can tell where things are happening, the importance, power, effort, or emotional charge of an action is well expressed, characters are easy to tell apart, and the presentation looks nice and professional.

[Keltest]

When was that? IMHO the story now is better than it has ever been. I've never been more on edge waiting to find out what is going to happen than I am now.

For me the story peaked around War and XP and Dont Split the Party. BRITF was ok, Utterly Dwarfed was really unimpressive to me.

[littlebum2002]

For me the story peaked around War and XP and Dont Split the Party. BRITF was ok, Utterly Dwarfed was really unimpressive to me.

https://media.tenor.com/w-PCA2wkMQEAAAAC/mind-blown-shocked.gif

Utterly Dwarfed was far and away my favorite OOTS book. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Yours just happens to be wrong.
/s

[Tzardok]

For me the story peaked around War and XP and Dont Split the Party. BRITF was ok, Utterly Dwarfed was really unimpressive to me.

Why exactly did you forgo the chance to call Utterly Dwarfed utterly unimpressive? :smallconfused: :smallbiggrin:

[Keltest]

Why exactly did you forgo the chance to call Utterly Dwarfed utterly unimpressive? :smallconfused: :smallbiggrin:

I was saving up for calling it Utterly Contrived.

[Peelee]

I was saving up for calling it Utterly Contrived.

If you said that in Klingon it would have been utterly Worfed.

[Metastachydium]

For me the story peaked around War and XP and Dont Split the Party. BRITF was ok, Utterly Dwarfed was really unimpressive to me.


[IMG]https://media.tenor.com/w-PCA2wkMQEAAAAC/mind-blown-shocked.gif[IMG]

Utterly Dwarfed was far and away my favorite OOTS book. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Yours just happens to be wrong.

WaXP is where things started to really get good and DStP is massively underrated if you ask me. It's easily one of my favourite books. Perhaps the favourite, even. That said, BRitF is crazy strong and contains some of my absolute favourite strips of all time (most notably, Ritual Behavior and Temporary Weakness).

UD, in the meantime, is not bad at all(, even if I'm not terribly fond of stuff like the Dwarven Council sub-arc (which, on the flip side, gave us the Likeable Death Worm of whom I'm a great fan). Heck, some of it is just top quality. The whole Godsmoot sequence would belong there, as far as I'm concerned and To Remember Them By is an incredibly wel-delivered, heavy-hitting wham strip – easily the biggest of its kind in the whole comic so far and the next four strips or so never quite lose that momentum.

[Zarhan]

WaXP is where things started to really get good and DStP is massively underrated if you ask me. It's easily one of my favourite books. Perhaps the favourite, even. That said, BRitF is crazy strong and contains some of my absolute favourite strips of all time (most notably, Ritual Behavior and Temporary Weakness).

UD, in the meantime, is not bad at all(, even if I'm not terribly fond of stuff like the Dwarven Council sub-arc (which, on the flip side, gave us the Likeable Death Worm of whom I'm a great fan). Heck, some of it is just top quality. The whole Godsmoot sequence would belong there, as far as I'm concerned and To Remember Them By is an incredibly wel-delivered, heavy-hitting wham strip – easily the biggest of its kind in the whole comic so far and the next four strips or so never quite lose that momentum.

Agreeing with you there. After BRitF which was superb, the UD was quite a bit of letdown. Consider: In BTitF we get


Major character developments for Elan, Haley, Vaarsuvius (and to a lesser extent Belkar, with the fake development becoming real)
Elan/Nale backstory as part of the greater-scope plot
Greater-scope focus does not deviate from search for Girard's gate - it's present there all the time
Some insight into IFCC's scheming
Rise and fall of the Linear guild


UD, on the other hand, is essentially filler from around 1016 to 1132. The important bits of UD are


Continued character development for Belkar, some for Roy
Closing of the minor loose end with Haley with Crystal & Bozzok
The major exposition about the worlds that had gone before and the new purple quiddity
Some information on why Durkon behaves as Durkon does (but he doesn't really fundamentally change, even though he says to Redcloak that he's trying to be more flexible)
...umm, that's it?


The only really important bit (in relation of the overall plot, with the gates and all that) is the exposition about quiddities. Of course it was a major WHAM when it came so it compensates a bit.

Durkon's backstory is...flashbacks. Yeah, they are sort of interesting, but there's the whole end of the world and all that looming, and it's not really even present in the book. Frankly, Roy could have just defeated Durkula at the Godsmoot, defeated Hel's scheme, Durkon would have gotten the briefing from Thor, a random cleric present would have done the resurrection, and they could have just skipped straight to the North Pole. Or possibly even earlier. Especially the canyon run was just...tedious.

Don't get me wrong - there's still lots of good stuff in there and all the puns with Death Worm made me chuckle at least, but most of the stuff about Durkon's extended family and dwarven politics is something that really would have belonged in a separate bonus book. It probably wouldn't be that big of a problem if BRitF hadn't been so strong. It's just that in previous book, Elan's past was quite masterfully worked in to the ongoing storyline, without having to yank the focus away to the ages past.

I'm glad that we are finally approaching the final showdown (even though we are stuck in a meeting for now).

[Eric the White]

I was saving up for calling it Utterly Contrived.

I couldn't disagree more. I loved how Durkons plan rolled out, both with the Vampire and with preventing the vote. So many moments of awesome.

[BrotherHanson]

This looks like a good thread to drop in and say THANK YOU to all the Kickstarter people from way back when. I didn't even know OOTS existed until a few years ago. After I read everything online I bought hardcopy books, and I gather that was only possible due to the Kickstarter. I'm glad there's a Patreon now so I can pay it forward some (https://www.patreon.com/oots/posts).