What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

That designated contact is the person handling the liquidation of HGG. I wouldn't hold your breath as the priority will be to sell that product to pay outstanding debt of HGG. Its not the shippers product to decide what to do with. I'm guessing anyone claiming ownership of one of those copies through Kickstarter backing will need to go through the French courts.

Mythic just told everyone who backed the Rainbow Six Siege board game (me being one of them) that we will be on the hook for extra shipping. They are throwing in another 2 maps to soften the blow. How much that blow is yet... they haven't said.

A pretty shitty situation, and it will definitely mark the last time I engage with Mythic.

This seems to be a regular pattern lately. I think environmental factors (COVID, accelerated demand, etc.) have overwhelmed even the guarded estimates that many KS projects made in the last couple years. I've seen regular reports about this same problem, many of which aren't even offering anything extra like Mythic. Petersen Games did the same thing for the now-almost-five-year-old Cthulhu Wars KS. The contrast there is that they didn't make it mandatory. They just produced some extra stuff for anyone who was willing to chip in for the shipping. (As usual, they got an overwhelming response from the devoted audience.) Don't know if that changes your opinion on Mythic at all, but it's definitely not unique to them.

There are things in their statement that make it sound like they are at least partially to blame for their current state. www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/...3751008?ref=activity

I feel bad for people who pledged based on Mythic's intent to print the game in various languages. They are now only doing English, French, and possibly German. Their solution is to send PDF files to everyone else. I think this is unacceptable, but I also see statements all over the place that asking Mythic for a refund is like talking to a wall.

I sincerely do hope it all comes out alright. I have played the game at Gen Con and thought it was a very cool implementation of Rainbow Six. I look forward to getting my copy.... if possible.

Mythic is on life support. They sold half of their developed IPs to other publishers, fired almost their entire staff and really struggled with their last fulfillment (Darkest Dungeon).

This is actually a good sign, in my opinion. It makes it more likely they will actually deliver 6: Siege. Many of the Rallyman Dirt backers wish they would have asked for more money and solved their issues.

Yeah, wasn't trying to let them off the hook for anything. Business decisions are business decisions and circumstances change. The language issue is certainly understandable from a printing cost perspective, but it's also something that should have been accounted for in the initial plan. Dropping access to it AFTER you've discovered that it somehow won't be profitable speaks of poor planning. Per what Charlie said, they seem to have followed Petersen's path, as well (firing almost all the staff except those necessary to get the last projects out the door.)

Mythic and Petersen are both examples of poorly run companies that got hammered by their own issues combined with the global ones.

Presumably most kickstarters still deliver without a price change or crisis?

Sagrilarus wrote: Presumably most kickstarters still deliver without a price change or crisis?

I'd say about a third of the campaigns that funded before the shipping crisis have asked for more funds.

Purely anecdotal, but I've only had one do so and that was the already notoriously disorganized and somewhat shady Cthulhu Wars one. Since the beginning of the pandemic and the rise in shipping costs/increased demand on the market, I've been involved with:

Oath
Ankh
Tiny Epic Pirates
Tiny Epic Dungeons
Root Marauder expansion
John Company, 2nd Ed.
Tiny Epic Vikings

None of them have asked for shipping funds. That's in part a measure of whom I'm dealing with: Gamelyn's campaigns are always planned to the tiniest (ahem) detail; Leder Games would be far more likely to eat the shipping costs than to convey them; same for Wehrlegig. Still, I almost expected that John Company would be requesting some assistance in that respect because of the size of the company (Just Cole and his brother), the size (and weight) of the box, and the niche they occupy in even this niche hobby, but it didn't happen. The campaign I've been in that most closely approaches Mythic's usual output would be Ankh but, likewise, there was no request to cover increased costs when it shipped and delivered in the summer of 2021.

I have only kickstarted one game since the start of the pandemic: Masters of the Night. Everything went perfectly, and the game is great. The only thing that bothers me is that I don't really have any use for half of the stretch goal add-ons, but at least they all fit in the second box for convenient storage. It's odd though, because it was a first-time effort by a guy who still hasn't designed any other board games yet. But BGG lists six publishers for the game, including Ares and Asmodee. One of the selling points for me was that Universal Head did the graphic design for the game.

Based on some high-profile shenanigans involving other kickstarters in recent years, I don't anticipate kickstarting anymore games. It seems that the profit margin on board games is tight enough that only established companies can reliably deliver the goods without any drama.

In retrospect, I think you all are right. There have been several campaigns that have asked for additional shipping, but it's not as high as a third. My bad.

hotseatgames wrote: Mythic just told everyone who backed the Rainbow Six Siege board game (me being one of them) that we will be on the hook for extra shipping. They are throwing in another 2 maps to soften the blow. How much that blow is yet... they haven't said.

A pretty shitty situation, and it will definitely mark the last time I engage with Mythic.

Pretty sure in one of their main announcements around New Year, after they finally emerged from a few months radio silence, they said that all their projects will ask backers for more cash - I've got HEL to come, plus Darkest Dungeon (I took their offer last year of not paying and they would hold it and deliver it in the future ... can't see that happening now) so looks like I better have my card ready.
There's no point in even asking for a refund - first because they take months to answer support emails (unless you're buying something from their webshop), and because they have so limited funds that they are only allowed to refund a set number per month ... so a refund request now may take a couple of years to be fulfilled.

My Kickstarter experience boils down solely to Earthborne Rangers, an LCG-style card game, that's due to deliver next month. But here's how they handled shipping and shipping charges in the uncertain times. TLDR version: great!

During funding, Earthborne Games said they wouldn't know shipping costs until closer to fulfilment. They did have estimates based on various quotes of what it was likely to be. They did catch a bit of flak for this at the time but the pledge manager stayed open until Jan this year, so if you'd only backed the $5 tier (like me) you were able to wait and see what it was going to be before committing.

They routinely talked about shipping in their fortnightly podcast and I'm pretty sure it came up a few times in their monthly-ish newsletter. They were pretty great about keeping backers informed and were transparent about costs going up and down as time passed and they searched for the best quote.

In the end, the shipping ended up being what they'd estimated during the campaign and they only charged for it last month.

They are not manufacturing or shipping from China so perhaps that has sidestepped many of the problems other publishers have encountered? Instead, the game's being made as sustainably as possible in Germany and shipping out from there.

charlest wrote: In retrospect, I think you all are right. There have been several campaigns that have asked for additional shipping, but it's not as high as a third. My bad.

I think it seems/seemed higher because when KS campaigns go bad, the word of mouth ( bad ) spreads a lot faster/farther/more vehemently than when everything proceeds as normal. And some cases, the goat rodeo KS were high profile/big $$ ones. Nobody is gonna get too bent over extra shipping on a $30 game, but a $300 all in pledge, yeah people are gonna get vocal.