Dwimmermount

[Chainsaw]

Eh.....what?

[francisca]

Project Update #48: Good News Emerges from the Dungeon
Posted by Autarch
I'm very happy to announce that this afternoon, James Maliszewski transferred to Autarch the Kickstarter funds necessary for us to complete the Dwimmermount project and pay the artists who haven't been compensated for their work.

The next step will be to negotiate a transfer of the rights we'll need to develop and publish James' draft and use the contributions of the artists whose work was done under contract to him. The details of this agreement will take a little while to iron out, but we're confident that a happy arrangement will be reached. James has clearly demonstrated his intent to do the right thing and we've received some invaluable assistance in drafting a proposed contract that we feel is fair to all parties.

This transfer of IP is the last barrier to progress. Once it's lifted we'll begin working out a new estimate of when we can deliver the remaining rewards and bonus goal items. Some of these, like the wilderness mat, are very close to being ready to ship. Others will take longer to finish polishing, but in every case I have no doubt we'll be able to do justice to the vision of Dwimmermount and fulfill the promises of this Kickstarter.

I know backers have waited a long time already, and although we're moving forward again we're still a ways from the finish line. Autarch remains committed to the offer of discount coupons described in the last update as a way of making restitution for our role in the delays; we'll have those ready soon. However, if at any point you feel that you've waited long enough or lost faith in our efforts to deliver on our promises to you, I'm glad that we've now reunited Autarch's responsibility and ability to offer a full refund on the Dwimmermount pledge of any backer who chooses this option.

I hope that you'll continue to stand by your investment in this dream, and even if not that you at least got more out of the experience than if you'd invested your pledge in the stock market instead. Whatever your decision, I want to thank you for having helped get us this far. Game on!

Yours,

Tavis

[Machpants]

WooHooooooooooooooo!

[francisca]

Yeah...I think I'll let my $10 ride. I mean, I got Devilmount out of it.

[T. Foster]

Improbably enough, this looks like a win for everybody. JM wins because he's free of his unwanted obligation and gets to ride off into the sunset (and, presumably, got to keep at least some of the KS money). The KS backers win because, let's face it, the completed-by-freelancers product they'll ultimately get will almost certainly be better than an actually-written-by-JM product (especially one written by going-through-the-motions JM under duress). Tavis Allison wins because he's managed to spin this fiasco (which was at least partially of his own making) into a PR victory - had the product actually been completed and released as originally intended there would (presumably) have been a ton of grousing about how lackluster and pedestrian it was, and how badly it failed to live up to its sales-copy hype, but now pretty much anything he does will look like a huge victory. And of course bystander popcorn-munchers win by having gotten several months of Intense Internet Drama to watch and kibbitz about

[Ghul]

I ordered it (print, $40). Maybe it will be pretty good. To be honest, I would have rather seen James get back to it some time in the future and finish it how he envisions, instead of handing it over to other dudes to finish. Probably too high fantasy for my tastes, as I'm more of an REH guy than a JRRT guy, but I love mega-dungeons, sprawling maps, and lots of ideas.

[deathanddrek]

I went in at $10. I always do (with two exceptions) because of the whole "in Silicon Valley, out of 20 funded companies, 1 is a big success, 4 scrape by and the rest fail" thing.

Not that I expected or hoped James would fail. I sincerely wish the best for him.

I'll stay in. A fancy pint of ale costs more anyhow and it would be great to get a polished version of the Dwimmermount we have so far.

---

Speaking of Kickstarters, I haven't played AS&SH yet! It's just sitting there burning a hole in my brain. Anyone want to get all Hyperborean on G+ sometime?

[Matthew]

Improbably enough, this looks like a win for everybody. JM wins because he's free of his unwanted obligation and gets to ride off into the sunset (and, presumably, got to keep at least some of the KS money). The KS backers win because, let's face it, the completed-by-freelancers product they'll ultimately get will almost certainly be better than an actually-written-by-JM product (especially one written by going-through-the-motions JM under duress). Tavis Allison wins because he's managed to spin this fiasco (which was at least partially of his own making) into a PR victory - had the product actually been completed and released as originally intended there would (presumably) have been a ton of grousing about how lackluster and pedestrian it was, and how badly it failed to live up to its sales-copy hype, but now pretty much anything he does will look like a huge victory. And of course bystander popcorn-munchers win by having gotten several months of Intense Internet Drama to watch and kibbitz about

So it seems! It is almost as if the curse of Castle Greyhawk rubbed off on Maliszewski, and now as with Gygax before him he is about to lose control of the intellectual property. Will we see a "true" vision of Dwimmermount in thirty or forty years under another brand, Mountzewski, perhaps? I jest, I jest. Best of luck to all involved!

[francisca]

So it seems! It is almost as if the curse of Castle Greyhawk rubbed off on Maliszewski, and now as with Gygax before him he is about to lose control of the intellectual property. Will we see a "true" vision of Dwimmermount in thirty or forty years under another brand, Mountzewski, perhaps? I jest, I jest. Best of luck to all involved!

Don't even jest. Sorry to James and his fans, but there is no comparison here.

Dwimmermountebank is an academic, paint by numbers, pale imitation of the real thing, type of project.

Castle Greyhawk comprises a big hunk of the genetic material a whole genre is made of.

You'll note I didn't even put the two in the same sentence.

[JRT]

I'm glad to see Dwimmermount got back on track. I think James just hit a rough patch and it got out of hand--I do agree he's probably burned out on writing, since he's slowly been disengaging from his blog. People seem to think he's giving up total control over the IP though, and that hasn't been confirmed--he might just be licensing it for 10 years or something.

The Interesting thing for me to see, though, is that Dwimmermount is perhaps the most successful Kickstarter for an old-school 1e D&D project. Somebody mentioned Swords and Wizardry, but in part that is being backed by Frog God games, and even that one (78,000) pales in comparison to their other Pathfinder ones (125,000 and 250,000). It seems the success range for others is under 20,000 for the old school projects--Ghul got 13,000, James Raggi got 18,000. Looking at Kickstarter, Dwimmermount beat a John Wick setting for Pathfinder. The clear winners in terms of financing would be Monte Cook for Numernera (500,000) and the Fate core rules (430,000). (And that's not counting the Numernera computer game being backed right now). It's also a little bit depressing to see what counts as a success in the RPG field if we go by these numbers.

Not holding my breath on either, however, and that's a damn shame for everyone involved: Gygax Games, Ghul, Ernie, RJK, anyone who remains who played in CG, the fans, but most of all, for Gary.

I think Gary would be more disappointed by all the infighting and back and forth rather than the Castle not being published.

[Matthew]

Don't even jest. Sorry to James and his fans, but there is no comparison here.

Dwimmermountebank is an academic, paint by numbers, pale imitation of the real thing, type of project.

Castle Greyhawk comprises a big hunk of the genetic material a whole genre is made of.

You'll note I didn't even put the two in the same sentence.

With regard to the pale comparison, therein lies the depreciating humour (at least for me)!

[Falconer]

Castle Grey Hawk discussion for the most part split off into its own thread.

[JRT]

Like I said in the other thread, this was perhaps the second most successful "Old School" Tabletop RPG project on Kickstarter. He got more funds than, say Chris Pramas of Green Ronin and John Wick's individual Kickstarter projects.

Hopefully it will be something satisfactory to the backers. I feel bad it didn't go as well as it could have, but I guess James had a bit of bad luck.

I think this kind of shows how many people were fond of James blog, as well as how much pull he had in the movement. Assuming James is going to retire from the Internet, I kind of wonder if the lack of the Grognardia blog will have any negative effect, as I think a lot of people discovered other blogs, places, and publishers from Grognardia.

[Falconer]

The clear winners in terms of financing would be Monte Cook for Numernera (500,000)

Yeah, man, what’s up with that? I watched the video for it when it first launched, and I thought, No-one’s ever going to want to support this pathetic crap!

[Wheggi]

James M. wasn't really all that relevant except to the sycophantic desperately looking for a teat to suckle on. Don't know why everyone that was throwing him under the bus before is now all "yay Dwimmermount is going to be released. Well played James and that other guy!" It's just baffling.

- Wheggi