Sunday, December 2, 2012

FASA Kickstarter

I know that I'll get a few random web searches turning into dances of joy or cardiac arrests, after reading the title. Let's cover a few points.

  • Apparently some of the guys from old FASA have come together to form new FASA.
  • They do NOT have the license for either Battletech or Shadowrun.
  • They seem to be selling PDF and hard copies if Earthdawn, Blue Planet, and Fading Suns in their web store, as well the 15mm Fantasy minis game, Demonworld
  • Their Kickstarter is 1879, a massive Victorian Sci-Fi project involving 15mm minis, an app for the iPad, and a role playing game.

I have great love for Victorian Sci-Fi, even going into the large scale battles that 15mm allows. The ambitiousness of the endeavor isn't my sticking point, it's the $325,000 goal.

We are dealing with three separate fleshed-out projects here. Any one could garner sizable goals. Combining them is almost absurd. Wouldn't it be smarter to figure out which project would have the least risk/biggest profit margin and go from there? They're trying to create their branding in one fell swoop, which could be profitable, but more likely shall see what would have happened if the creators of Cop Rock signed merchandising and syndication deals before the pilot aired. There's investing in a product line, and then there's signing Martha Stewart to a product line when she was twelve.  There's only so much good faith you can count on a gamer for.

The RPG looks like a variant of Space: 1889, the minis are "heroic" 15mm with bayonets big enough to cut down trees, and the screen shoots of the app are so early in development that it could be orcs, Redcoats, or gangs of break dancers.

C'mon "FASA" who has the rights to Renegade Legion instead?

UPDATE:  It looks as if scant days into the fundraising, FASA has cancelled the project outright. Forty-some pledges and under $3,000 probably put the fellas in panic mode.   Grandiose expections, poor presentation, and limited promotion killed this from the start.  Let's see when they restart the project next years (sans app) how they present it.

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