Numenera signed hardback for sale

Signed hardback copy of the Numenera core rulebook.  Has signatures of both authors.

Asking price is $75 plus shipping costs.  Contact peteramthor@gmail.com if interested.

For those not interested in a physical copy you can get pdfs at:

DrivethruRPG   or   RPGNow

Keep watching the blog for more random gaming goodness to come up on sale.

Jaded Gamers Diary: Numenera

Well over on Facebook every now and then they show you a 'memory' of something you posted that day a few years back. Well the other day it showed me one of something that I had sat off to the back of my mind. Two years ago I got really pissed off with the delivery of a Kickstarter and I started posting about it. Then suddenly several eyes were on me as I had caught some attention. Including the attention of the people behind the Kickstarter. Couple that with me being a generally unhappy person at that period of time AND having my fill of pent up anger that I hadn't vented in months. Well lets just say I got a bit bitchy. Looking back on it I wonder if I took it to far, then sometimes looking at other things I wonder if I didn't take it far enough.

Something in my mind clicked and an old name came to my mind. Jaded Gamers. Yes, this would have a made a great Jaded Gamers post. Maybe, just maybe, I need to pull the name back out. I'm sure those who were involved way back then won't mind. Actually I'm sure they will get a good kick out of it. So without further ado I shall make the first (of hopefully many) Jaded Gamers Diaries post. I'll do it covering this Kickstarter and the game it produced.

Perhaps you've heard of the game from that Kickstarter. It was called Numenera, ring a bell?

I can already here a few select people groan. But I must go on, I must.

Long story short on this. The print copy of the game (which is what I backed for, I'm a print copy kind of person) was released at Gencon before it could be sent out to backers due to how close the printing date was to the con. I completely understood that, Gencon is huge and there is no way any big company can pass up on doing a major release there. The day after Gencon it was on Amazon at their usually marked down really low prices. A couple days after that people were talking about their copies they got from Amazon and talking about the copies they picked up at game shops. Then Amazon sold out... and restocked. While people were talking about the copies they were getting at overseas game shops.

We backers were still waiting. Well except for the ones who picked up at Gencon and they told us to be patient. Easy to do when you aren't the one wondering where your backer reward is.

This went on for a month. Some mix ups at the distributor was pretty much what we were told over and over... oh and that it was fixed... over and over. Then the straw that finally pushed me over the edge. You see there was also a Kickstarter for a Numenera video game that came up previously... which I also backed but only for a digital copy of the game. But there was one backer level where you could get a copy of the regular print copy of the game as well. Those backers were getting their books now as well. Yes you read that right, people who backed another Kickstarter were getting the books from the Kickstarter that we had backed before we got our copies.

That's when I started bitching and asking questions. Somebody said they must have used a 'backers last' idea of fulfillment, they said they didn't, but damn if it sure didn't feel like they did. They said backers were a priority, but damned if it felt that way to us. I got loud on my social media about it and started attracting a crowd and a lot of emails from fellow backers who were also angry. Meanwhile they were bending over backwards to make sure a store got their copies as quickly as possible (UNLESS they were a store who backed them at the retailer level... then they were left waiting and told to be patient as well).

Finally I got an email they were sending me a copy directly over night, well two day since the USPS won't guarantee over night to an area as rural as the one I'm living in. They even sent me a signed copy to boot. Months of waiting and watching everyone talk about how great the book was and finally my copy had arrived. I flipped through it for a second tossed in a storage tub and it's been there ever since. A month later a second copy arrived from their fulfillment company also. Oddly addressed to Peter Amthor and not to my real name, which isn't what I gave for my delivery address. I took that one down to a local game shop to put on their shelf in an attempt to sell for store credit... it's still sitting there.

So back to where I was heading and no that wasn't short but fuck how can I expect to make that short. After all there is still stuff I left out. When I saw the memory of that pop up on facebook I headed over to Kickstarter to look at the project page and saw something. Well holy shit, imagine that, people still waiting for their stuff.

The Numenera Kickstarter comments section

Not anything like before but evidently they are still having problems with fulfillment. Or not really trying to hard to fulfill anything. As I said back before when all this was going on they appear more concerned with 'new money' from new people than with 'old money' they've already gotten from people before.

Apparently it's happening on a few of their other Kickstarters as well. People still not getting what they backed for.

The Strange comments section

Numenera boxed set comments section

So after seeing this I'm a still so glad I decided to never again back anything that Monte Cook Games does. Nor will I ever buy anything they do, or even play in a game they put out. I'm just to that much level of 'fuck this' with them.

If you want to buy their stuff I'll give you a link with my affiliate code attached. Because I'm like always needing a few more cents in credit at Drivethru to buy stuff I really want.

Monte Cook Games on DrivethruRPG

Also if you are interested in reading my old blog posts on this just look for the 'numenera' label at the bottom of this post and give it a click.

Now to go find something to complain about next time.  Because bitching about shit feels so good.

Iron Kingdoms and pdf pricing

Privateer Press recently released the Iron Kingdoms rpg as a pdf on drivethru and related sites. This was after abandoning their own app designed for distributing the book as an ecopy. However the pricing immediately had some folks stepping back (including myself).

Iron Kingdoms RPG core rules

 

$41.99 for a 362 page book is rather steep when compared to many other games of the same size out there. It's only around ten bucks cheaper than a print copy at that. This breaks down to 11.59 cents per page that you are paying. Outrageous pricing? Well maybe, but lets take a look around.

 

Looking at other current popular newly released rpgs we'll see Interface Zero coming it a twenty dollars and running at 323 pages. Now this comes up to 6.19 cents per page. Major difference here and IZ is on the top ten sellers list, so maybe the pricing has something to do with that.

 

Interface Zero 2.0 Full Metal Cyberpunk

 

Shadowrun fifth edition cruises in even cheaper than this. 489 pages at 19.99. Even more significant of a price drop coming in at a hair over four cents per page. Again it's on the top sellers list as well although I'm sure some of that is from the game being a long running favorite with a large dedicated consumer base.

 

Shadowrun Fifth Edition Core Rulebook

 

So with this it really looks like Privateer is pricing themselves way over what others in the market are charging on a per page basis. Or are they? When is the last time you saw a twelve page pdf for a game selling for 48 cents? Or even 72 cents?

 

Lets go on back to Shadowrun and pull up some of the supporting products. Shadowrun: Firing Line sells at 12 dollars and comes in a 66 pages. This breaks down to 18.18 cents per page, much more expensive than the Iron Kingdoms book on a cost per page breakdown.

 

Shadowrun Firing Line

 

The Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion continues this trend. Clocking in at 14.99 and 96 pages long. This results in the paying 15.61 cents per page. Again the cost per page is higher than Iron Kingdoms and their 'over pricing'.

 

Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion

 

The smaller the size the more the cost seems to grow. Vortex, one of the first books to come out for Numenera has a price tag of 5.99 for 30 pages. This sorts out to a hair short of twenty cents per page. Those must be some good pages.....

 

Numenera Vortex

 

So is Privateer Press pricing themselves way to high? Depends on how you look at it. The trend seems to be the core book is sold cheaply and then the price cost per page rockets up on supplemental material where people aren't so keen to notice the costs. Most of this is perspective as people look at four bucks and forty bucks and can tell you which is costs less, they just fail at checking into what they are actually getting per cent in each case. Buyer beware, do your research and all the usual advice before making a purchase. Also never stand down when questioning prices but also don't go dismissing the prices before doing some actual breakdowns on the math.

 

Numenera - Just when you thinks its over.

Just when you thought I was done.  Hell I thought I was done.  Then I picked up something at the post office today much to my surprise.

After raising my voice on my blog and in a few other places last month about the delay in receiving my copy things got done.  MCG sent me a priority 'fast as you can get it there' package through USPS.  Which is fine as I use a PO box and most delivery services don't deliver to those.  I got it in a couple of days, confirmation and all that. It has been sitting in a plastic tote in my room since then as I have no desire to even read it.

So today I get a package in the mail from PSI.  The service that MCG is using for their shipping.  Inside is another copy of Numenera.  First I thought it must be the copy that was shipped before and it really did get lost in the mail.  Nope it has an October shipping date AND it has Peter Amthor on the address (which isn't my real name, I gave MCG my real name for shipping).  So this was shipped after, like weeks after, I received the first copy. 

What does this mean?  It means their shipping company is really, REALLY, screwing up.  All I can guess at is that they are really still way behind on shipping books out.  As in they just now got to my copy.  Or maybe they just now got around to checking the 'ship these now they are late' notices from MCG.  But honestly I don't even know since they didn't have the correct name for shipping on it.  Personally I would be switching companies for handling this stuff next time, but that's just me.

So if I would have just waited as they wanted us all to do it would have been another month.

Now... I think I'm done.  I don't foresee anything else that could possibly go on with this Kickstarter that would even be worth wasting my time over.

Numenera so now I'm a liar

Well so now I'm a fucking liar.  That's just great....

From Tammie at MCG.

"In a previous email you indicated that you had responded to the backer survey and were surprised that your name wasn't listed in Numenera (corebook) as a backer, and I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but I'm afraid you are mistaken. You did not respond to the survey in October 2012, which is the survey from which the names were downloaded."

Like I've said before.  Last penny of mine they well ever see.

Numenera finally an announcement

First off there is evidently a bit of a misunderstanding about something I said on my last blog post:

"As a final note it appears that Shanna Germain is the only person from Monte Cook Games that is even trying to do any sort of damage control or PR about this whole thing.  Probably not an easy task right now but if books don't start showing up soon overseas it's not going to be getting any easier."

Shanna evidently took that as "only doing PR".  Not sure how she took only that away from what I said.  I was trying to point out how she has been the ONLY person to step up and try to communicate with fans and backers about the problems going on.  You go and find a Numenera fan community online and chances are you will find her there as well.

Do I have a bad attitude and very unlikely to trust others?  I'll admit to that.  When I get aggravated about something my attitude goes to hell rather quickly.  I've also been screwed over and lied to by a few game companies out there (7th Circle comes to mind immediately) so I'm hesitant to trust any of them.  And yes most of them appeared to be all about the best of intentions and sincerely caring.

Now on to Numenera fulfillment updates.

Finally a press release from Monte Cook Games about it.  Here is a quick link:

http://www.montecookgames.com/kickstarter-fulfillment/

Things I find interesting here.  The fact that retailers, distributors, game shops and even Amazon got their books a couple of weeks ahead of the backers is referred to as a hiccup that occurred in the fulfillment process.  341 orders with no address, mine better not be in that pile because I was told they had my address over two weeks ago.  That there will be more Kickstarters for other games from MCG... no thanks I'll wait and get it cheaper from Amazon if its something that I really want.

Other notes,

More folks overseas are talking about getting their books finally.  Now if only the fulfillment company could figure out where Missouri is.

A 'Your Welcome' to the backers who have contacted and thanked me from making some noise on this issue.

I did not do these blog posts with the intent of doing some sort of damage to MCG as one person suggested.  I doubt anything I say could have much affect on their bottom line.  IF I was doing that then why haven't I linked to these blog posts in the various Numenera communities?  I only linked back to this from my own G+, Twitter and Facebook accounts.  The only community I mentioned them in was the Kickstarter one on G+ that I moderate and now co-own.

Now then hopefully my book will actually reach me.  Then I can trade it off for something I want because currently I have nothing but a bad taste in my mouth because of it.

Numenera updates

Well here is a batch of updates regarding the fulfillment fiasco of Numenera.

First off I've apparently attracted some attention to myself... which was actually part of my goal with this.  Now Shanna Germain has responded both on a G+ Kickstarter community I co-own and on facebook as well.  Here is her response on G+:

"Peter: We don't know why you didn't get your book yet, but we are very sorry that's it taken so long. We are Fed-Exing you a new one on Tuesday. If your original book reaches you, please keep it with our compliments and gratitude for your support.

As a side note: I wish I could give you some small idea of how hard we are all busting our asses to get these products out to everyone despite the hurdles of shipping, processing, creating a product, and being the largest RPG Kickstarter to deliver so far. So while I agree that we didn't do a perfect job, it is not for lack of desire or attempt. We are already holding planning sessions on what went wrong and how to fix it for the delivery of the rest of the products. Backers are our first priority and always will be. We just need to get the shipping companies and delivery systems to be on board with that philosophy in the future as well. "

So a copy is supposed to be in the mail to me for sure this Tuesday.  The original book has still not reached my PO box as of today either.  I'm rather sure it never went out the door from their fulfillment company seeing how long ago it was supposed to have been shipped. 

Then right below that another backer in the US spoke up and said he's still waiting on his book as well.  Along with his name not being in the book either because the 'internet glitch' that apparently ate my survey must have ate his as well.  There has been no response to him unless it was via email or private message.

Then over to the Kickstarter comments section we start to see the overseas backers starting to get even more agitated about their lack of a book.  They have also started pointing out something that I said earlier on.  It doesn't take this long to ship overseas.  Having bought sold and traded games with people overseas for over a decade I've always laughed at how long people claim it takes for overseas shipping.

As a final note it appears that Shanna Germain is the only person from Monte Cook Games that is even trying to do any sort of damage control or PR about this whole thing.  Probably not an easy task right now but if books don't start showing up soon overseas it's not going to be getting any easier.

Numenera waiting continues...

Another bit from the comments section of the Kickstarter:

"I understand that living in Australia I have to wait longer than usual, but this is another kickstarter I have paid top dollar for only to see the product I helped come to market become available in local stores before I received anything."

But evidently we see them caring more about their future sales then they do about taking care of the problems they have right now:

"A big focus of the MCG summit is to resolve the shipping issues for future products."

"We are working hard to ensure your next fulfillment experience from MCG, which for many of you will be the awesomely creepy 96-page adventure, The Devil’s Spine, goes smoothly."


But hey they have a MCG summit and apparently can't respond to emails on time right now and will be behind on them when they come back.  So the summit is someplace with no internet access and none of them have iPads or smart phones?

Also the people who backed the Torment video game were getting theirs as early as the 3rd of September.  Twelve days ago.  Which is plenty of enough time for somebody to ship a book overseas.  Trust me I know, I've sold and bought books from people overseas before.  Either the fulfillment company is not telling MCG what is really going on or there is something MCG isn't telling it's backers.

Also I've had a few backers jump up to defend MCG.  They are all backers who have received their copies by the way.  Like this guy who has had his for weeks now:

"I'm happy to get this product produced... That's why I backed it. Getting it first, getting extras etc are all very nice but it was on Kickstarter to get it going at all.
It's a bummer getting things late but because of us there is a line of other products already in the works. I'll take that over treating this like a pre-order. It would probably be smart of all gaming kickstarter warn about things like this though.
I'm not trying to put down people disappointed by the shipping issues, we all are in that boat. Just trying to remind people of what we did help get going here."


Seems Australia backers are really unimpressed.  Here's a comment from the updates section of the kickstarter:

"I received my copy of Numenera today (10 SEP). But NOT from you, from AMAZON, whom I ordered from as I wanted a second copy, they shipped it on 31 AUG by Standard (NOT Expedited) shipping. The books have been available on sale here in Australia since a few days before that. I don't know whether this is because of the one week delay resulting from your miscommunication with the shippers or because the shippers are merely incompetent, or because you have chosen to use incompetent couriers (I won't use Amazon Expedited Shipping because, though it might arrive *somewhere* in Australia quicker than Standard Shipping, it is rarely in the same state as I am when it does and they then use the most incompetent couriers possible - who deliver to a similar street address in another state, or the wrong street and number in the same suburb, or who claim to have made delivery attempts and left notes when they haven't and then want me to travel to their depot on the other side of the city to pick it up and do their job for them). Whatever reason, I am not impressed. I hope it will arrive soon, and I hope that the next items that I paid for IN ADVANCE will actually get to me at least around the same time as they appear in stores here in Sydney."


Here is some more of the 'Getting them to the stores is our main goal' type of dialogue.  I mean they'll apparently bend over backwards for a retailer but backers are told that 'it's out of our hands' or 'wait a little longer' etc.:

"We've heard a couple of people mention online that they went to their local game store and were told they couldn't get a copy of Numenera for a number of reasons, such as the distributor not being able to get them, that they're out of stock, etc.
We've talking with our distributors about this (we really, really want you to be able to get books!) and they said the best way to fix this was to get specific examples of where the books aren't available so they can help make that happen. We're also hoping that this kind of dialogue will ensure that the future products will be available in stores when you want them to be there."

Numenera aggrivation

It's been a month from release date now and I'm still waiting on my backer copy of Numenera.  Since the 14th of last month ANYBODY could order a copy of the game (at a deep discount) off of Amazon and get it in a couple of days.  Those of us who invested our money into the project were left waiting.  Within a day or two after Gencon retail stores in the US and overseas had copies on the shelves.  Again those of us who invested were left waiting.

From everything I've heard the books didn't start shipping to backers until around the 20th.  AFTER all distributors, game shops and online retailers had received their copies.  Folks in the UK are still waiting for their books as I haven't seen a single backer there say they have gotten theirs.  People who backed the Numenera video game kickstarter at a high enough level have already started getting their books while many of us who helped pay for those books to get published are still waiting.

My name isn't even in the backer list in the back of the book evidently due to an 'internet glitch'.  I even redownloaded the latest pdf version and they haven't even bothered to correct it there.

Now they are telling those of us still waiting to.... wait a few more days.  What are we waiting for now?  A second printing?  Did they sell out of the initial run to retailers instead of setting enough aside for their backers?

Also I've seen a person on their staff keep bringing up how many pdfs we will eventually be getting and the value of them.  Excuse me... I'm not a big pdf reader for big books.  PLUS I backed early on before most of those were ever even attached to my backer level.  I backed the kickstarter for the book from the get go.  If all I wanted were the pdfs there was a cheaper level for that.  I wanted the book from day one.

Now.... I don't want the book anymore.  All my enthusiasm for the game is completely gone, my excitement is now aggravation.  It all went away as I watched online as people were talking about picking it up from the stores, Amazon and online retailers.  The book, when I get it, will either be traded off as soon as possible for something I may actually use OR it will be setting on my shelf gathering dust until it turns to dust.  I have no desire to even crack it open now. 

We backers have really gotten the short end of the stick on this.  All we are getting in return is a bunch of lines on how they are going to make it right.  Which means they'll eventually ship the book out and go "See we're all good now right?".  That's not going to make it all fine and dandy.  I will NEVER back another Monte Cook project again because chances are everybody else will get it before I will.  IF he ever does something I really want again I'll just wait and pick it up from Amazon at that deep discount because I'll be getting it sooner and cheaper than his backers will.