Frank Mentzer's Empyrea Fantasy Setting on KS

[Falconer]

This is actually turning into something brilliant. All anyone needs to do is to sell a map with a fantasy-like name and then fill it up in a half-assed way.

And you can even just use an old Judges Guild map as your map.

Yeah, I’m honestly in awe of the audacity of this. Ask for the most money ever, attach the most names ever, state up front that nothing’s written and the company is unproven and still promise the fastest completion ever, and, sit back and hope it all comes together!

[T. Foster]

So, in the event this thing fails to hit its goal (which is starting to look more likely) what happens? Presumably all of the guest contributors just go back to their lives, but what about Frank and his 15-person in-house staff? Do they retool to something less ambitious and try again with a lower goal (maybe $50-75K) or does Frank fire them all and ride off into the sunset, taking his notes and thousands of hours of chat-logs with him? If I were Ted Fauster (and, to be clear despite some joking around to that effect, I'm not ) I'd be wishing Frank had set a funding goal somewhere closer to the $100K range and set all those other systems and guest contributors as stretch goals...

[blackprinceofmuncie]

I'd be wishing Frank had set a funding goal somewhere closer to the $100K range and set all those other systems and guest contributors as stretch goals...

I'm sure Ted Fauster is still too busy basking in the glow of being named assistant To The Creative Aide to worry about finance. After all, Frank managed to raised $250K once. He has Experience. He is a Professional.

[EOTB]

I think Frank and Gail have more in common as to the riding off in the sunset thing than people suspect. This isn't really about Empyrea, it's about Frank and Empyrea being contemporaneously on the same plane with Paizo and Monte Cook.

[Juju EyeBall]

Because the first draft is always perfect and requires no subsequent editing time.

[blackprinceofmuncie]

Because the first draft is always good enough if you are trying to meet the minimum legal requirements of the Kickstarter terms of use.

Fixed it for you.

[RandomEncounter]

Lol, I was about to post the 5000 words a day junk but EOTB beat me to it.

Not that I need another campaign setting. I learned my lesson after the CSIO Kickstarter.

Which by the way is apparently why the KS has JG branding. Bledsaw probably hoping Frank can bail him out of a dark place. Frank mentioned CSIO involvement on Facebook somewhere.

Claude aka "EOTB" comments are hilarious. (I know it's not you EOTB, it's obviously a hacked EOTB account)

[Geleg]

yeah, I was going go quote the 5,000 words/day bit too.

That pace is extremely ambitious, as anyone who has to write much for a living can affirm. I did it once for 3 days in a row ... with a job interview on which the writing depended on the 4th day, and it was brutal. There's almost no way I could see someone sustain that pace for long. (let alone integrate the writing styles, flavors, and egos of lots of other writers)

[Melan]

More than that, this is the same quantitative thinking which is sinking the hobby like too much ballast. 5000 words, or 10,000 words or 20,000 words... what kind of words are they? What do they contribute to the game beyond word count (and the almighty 0.2 freelancer cents per word... if that)? Why would I pay for 10,000 bad words instead of 3000 very good ones? I believe they can type. But can they write?

[Falconer]

Alex, is “1E/2E” code for

1. 1E, but we want 2E DMs to buy, too
2. 2E, but we want 1E DMs to buy, too
3. 1E and 2E stats both fully included
   (in which case why not give them separate booklets)
4. we haven’t figured that out yet / not sure of the difference

Considering most of the “Legendary Guest Authors” are names mainly associated with 2E, the second option would be my assumption, but, it seems a odd lumping, in any case.

This was finally answered, any my suspicion confirmed. “Focus on 2nd edition, rather than 1E.”

[Blackadder23]

I'm sure he can write 5000 words a day, the question is whether he will.

I'm also shocked that he doesn't realize that having so many collaborators - far from mitigating the chance of failure - actually increases it.

[francisca]

I'm sure he can write 5000 words a day, the question is whether he will.

I'm also shocked that he doesn't realize that having so many collaborators - far from mitigating the chance of failure - actually increases it.

Mythical Man-Month, etc...

[Falconer]

Which by the way is apparently why the KS has JG branding.

You may have missed this, but, it’s because the map Frank used in his home campaign is actually just Wilderlands Map #5 Valon.

[T. Foster]

Alex, is “1E/2E” code for

1. 1E, but we want 2E DMs to buy, too
2. 2E, but we want 1E DMs to buy, too
3. 1E and 2E stats both fully included
   (in which case why not give them separate booklets)
4. we haven’t figured that out yet / not sure of the difference

Considering most of the “Legendary Guest Authors” are names mainly associated with 2E, the second option would be my assumption, but, it seems a odd lumping, in any case.

This was finally answered, any my suspicion confirmed. “Focus on 2nd edition, rather than 1E.”

Yeah, "1E/2E" always means, "2E, but you can use it with 1E if you want" because to 2E fans there's no difference between the two.

[RFlowers]

"The ship and the inn sound cool. Is there any more info you could provide about them at this stage? " - question from Kickstarter comments.

Not sure why but that question is hilarious to me.

Quarter of a million dollars. We have a ship. We have an inn.