Let's Get Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
about 5 years ago – Mon, Apr 01, 2019 at 10:31:59 PM

T’is I, Biggus Benus!

Hi all, well it was almost two weeks, a few days over, since the last update.

Today's update has a little more news (we also cover a quick couple of other things) with firstly, expanding on the last update, and secondly, throwing in some new stuff to talk about and look forward to. What follows is hopefully going to enable you to better decide if you wish to remain on this adventure, now that I have the helm!?! or transfer the value of those items you are still waiting for into a 4Ground credit note! 

Please remember, if you are going to Salute this Saturday, I am there and I am available as much as possible to talk with you.

Should I stay or Should I Go Now

First, we'd like to thank everyone who has been able to get in contact with us since our last update regarding LoFR. Well, the responses have been a mixed bag, but I’m enamoured with all you diehards who got in touch, just to say hi to us.

Those that have said they want to get out ASAP, have been clear in their reasoning and for that we thank you, but there is a third group of us that are a bit ‘We Don’t Know Yet… we have questions!’

Please hang on to the bottom of this update and possibly you will have a better idea of what you'd like to do.

For those who have said they are sticking with us, that's awesome! Thank you for saying you will be seeing this through to the end (but you still need updates). As was said in the last update, there will be an extra Druggoi Glutton thumping his way to you folks with…a little tasty something to get you rolling (30 little somethings actually).

Dice, Dice, Maybe

What of the dice and why did we have the changes anyway? The dice have gone through several iterations; we came to you with three differing polyhedral dice = three scaled options worked into the stats. Then for the Beta Weekend = five dice all D6. Why? Well, five options give greater nuances than three (what you see in LoFR is but a tiny part of where this game has gone and grown from, with this evolution having been happening since way before we even started 4Ground as a company). We played our games sometimes with a battlefield combative focus (that’s the game + card decks that you backed), but for us, we have also played fantastic adventure-focused games. As I’ve often spoken of in the past (yes, there’s no water pistol at my head now) these require gaming with adventure-focused decks and slightly differing stat cards.

I have often talked of adventure focused gaming for the future and have said this will follow on at some point. That future adventuring development would've had to have a disjoint from those polyhedral dice as our LoFR adventure focused games have always used D6’s (originating from our old and much beloved home-brewed games based on HeroQuest).

A few weeks on from the end of the kickstarter, we came to you and said we want to make changes to the game’s dice. We had a go with the D6’s, with all the attendees of the Beta weekend at OTT (as was BoW) in Northern Ireland. The uptake was good and fluid, though inevitably less competitive with triggering in-game critical hits only if a crit-card was in hand (if not it is counted as a double hit instead). The general consensus at that weekender was, as it has also been since, from you guys collectively; consensus wise the D6 are good, but just using coloured regular D6 is not so good (colour recognition issues etc). We were informed that many people felt that those people with colour-blindness would struggle with the regular coloured D6.

Please let me digress just a little!

Way back, 30 odd months ago, it was decided by the person in overall charge of all things 4Ground to do a kickstarter. They also decided (probably for very good reasons) that during the kickstarter they would focus on just one aspect of LoFR, that focus being skirmish-level battle gaming. A short time after the kickstarter, that person had the opportunity to go and develop the profession they had been highly trained in over many years, before working within 4Ground.

It was at this time, though medically not really back to full working fitness, that I started to take more responsibility for this project because I knew Cad had his hands very truly full, what with being short-handed in day-to-day 4Ground management as it was (with lots more to do than he had thought he would have only a few months earlier and that without a successful KS).

As the originator of the original fluff for Fabled Realms and the concept designer of the buildings in our terrain collection by that same name, the adventuring focus has always been of greater interest to me in most of my games in LoFR. Many things were now being changed because I was now putting myself forwards and it was going to be done to my satisfaction. I wanted the same dice to be used in battle focused games as those used in adventure focused games. I wanted custom dice that had a real purpose in-game.

With regard to the plastics, when the samples did finally arrive (very late), no way was I going to offer them as miniatures (BTW I will have those samples with me at Salute this Saturday). 3D printing was not my choice but before Cad knew it, it was to be his, but now I agree with him that it is a great way forwards for our industry (though our seven 3D printers are not the same as each other, even though I thought they would all work to the same build quality). No way could we have anticipated so much down time on one machine to another! It is not that we ask too much, but they are very different in their abilities even though each is the same model. We have two of them, sometimes three, that don’t seem to have been made within the same quality parameters as the others; those other four are fantastic. They just keep going, on, and on, and on, happy as the day they started.

You can pick it up again here!

We can now say with confidence that the custom dice (colours and emblems) that are to be used in games of LoFR will now be sent out to you guys as soon as we have them land in the UK (the only game component coming from China). Along with the A5 rulebook and basic decks, these will be the same dice needed for either adventure or battle gaming in LoFR. The battle decks (F4B) will not be coming at the same time but you can be the first to have adventure decks (F4A) if that is a direction you want to go in.

Here are the final versions of the custom dice, you will note that three colours now have critical fail on them. These only count as normal fails unless otherwise stated (mostly used whilst adventuring). As you can see the coloured D6 conversions are also listed below them (this is so people can know how it is worked out). You will see that each colour die has a different symbol/emblem so that they can be identified separately of colour.

The next update will be about two weeks after Salute. I know it will probably be answering many more of the questions that have been asked (please understand it is the only way to enable all the questions, that can be answered, to be answered to all involved). Also, with it will be a return slip for Credit Notes, to enable you to request a credit note. This will be the only time this is offered and after such time as will be stated in that update, the 30 Custom Dice (5 each of one colour and 10 of blue), A5 LoFR Rule Book (minus a lot of fluff and other hobby-stuff as that's all in the final A4 that you backed, to come later) and also the free Glutton Miniature.

Kind Regards

Ben Cresswell-Jeal

Director of 4Ground

Fabled Realms 2019
about 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 08, 2019 at 07:58:32 PM

Dear Backers of The Legends of Fabled Realms,

The Legends of Fabled Realms kickstarter has become a difficult project to realise but we are committed to making it happen and deliver it to you. This ultimately means that there is now another delay and we don’t yet have an estimate for how long. As soon as we can provide a release date, we will inform you all.

So what have been and what remain issues; there are several reasons for why this has been so and we will cover them with you but today right now you need an apology, for in recent weeks, there has been a lack of communication on our part. This does not help the situation and I personally am deeply sorry this has happened.

If, as a backer of this project, you want personal communication with me, no problem, my email address at 4Ground is [email protected]. I want you to feel you can ask me personally, so for those who don’t know me; I am Ben (the talking head) often known as ‘4Ground-BigBen’ or 4GBB and I will be directly involved with the continued progression of this project.

So that I am quite clear on my perspective on this, we are where we are, but what is more important is we rectify and redress issues, especially in keeping you informed. So until we deliver, if you would like to have an update, mail me directly (please also give me your backer number). I will be asking Kris to post regular updates, but I personally owe it to you to be available to give you a real time update if only once a week but as I say Kris will be posting general updates as and when.

Many of you know the Fabled Realms is a gaming setting very dear to my heart and I am pleased to now be given the lead. I know we have lots of adventures before us...but I can say more of that another day!

Making The Miniatures

The issues encountered have always been with the minis, from the proof of samples in plastic, to moving away from plastic. If you remember, every item that was in our power to produce you have all already had, long before this KS was due to ship. We have kept you in the loop regarding 3D minis, hence the first Dwarf, then after the feedback you had the three goblins. This was no gimmick, as in truth the postage was relatively heavy for such a stunt. This was a genuine concern of ours, that you had in your hands, examples of what we want to do when making your models. I will be on hand at our stand at Salute and I will have the sub-satisfaction plastic samples with me to show. I will talk about any aspect of this project with you and understand if you want to give me it from your perspective!!

So we have gone for 3D printing, not just masters to be cast but for each and every model you actually get. We’ve had some issues with the print resin, the quality being very variable. This has meant some print runs will work fine and then the next, on the same machine (with new sealed resin tank and cleaned as always), is full of failures. Change out the resin tank again and immediately we are good to go again. All sealed tanks are from the same delivery, so has this batch of tanks aged before use. Luckily ‘Lurkio’ Luke is back with 4Ground full-time and his input regarding these issues is already invaluable.  He is sorting alternate arrangements regarding resin etc.

I could go on but this is not the time.

The Next Stage

Moving forward we would like to provide you all with a choice as to what happens next for your pledge:

Receive your remaining kickstarter items as planned OR receive a credit note instead or in part for those items you do not want.

Those who wish to remain with us until the end of the kickstarter venture, thank you. To show I mean this, I want all of you to have one additional rather beefy Druggoi Glutton miniature for free. Those who are understandably upset with us because of the delays and lack of communication can receive a credit note that will cover their remaining outstanding items at a proportional value. This is obviously going to be a differing amount for each person, based on their own pledge, so please contact us at [email protected] with your backer number so that we can sort through this option for you (this can't be done for you immediately but it will be done as quickly as we can).

Again please contact me as stated above or with [email protected] with any issues regarding the kickstarter and you will be responded to. Whether that’s about production, shipping or game rules. There will be regular updates going forward, even if they are just “Look at what just finished printing”.

Kind Regards

Ben Cresswell-Jeal

Director

Production Update
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 12:00:11 PM

Hi All,

Well its been a few months since our last kickstarter update and we are still hard at work producing the models for the Legends Of Fabled Realms.  So far the Starter Sets for the Sell Sword Guild, Eightfold Path and Druggoi Covens have been finished, as well as the Terror as we knew it would be a long beast (over 500 of them at 12 hours of printing a piece just for their bodies).

As you know the rules are finalised and now the packaging is being ordered so starter sets can be fully packed.

We are also planing on doing something a little special for Christmas by sending out a small package with three little troublemakers out to each backer to say thank you for bearing with us while we produce the staggering amount of minis we need to fulfill the kickstarter.

For any of you heading to Warfare Reading, Andy (the codifier of the rules) and I will be there to answer any questions and Ben will be there on Sunday.

Regards,

Cad

Return from Gencon, Rules Update and Production
over 5 years ago – Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 04:31:06 PM

Hi All,

As some of you may know myself and Ben went to Historicon and Emma and I went to Gencon.  We had lots of great feedback from those of you we met there and were able to show you the PVC samples we had received.

During the time I have been away (which is almost a month) Luke has been responding to messages coming through on the kickstarter and via email and trying to collate all the issues of "vomitey dwarves".  It appears that all of these issues have been caused by a batch of "hollow" dwarves that were made to test if the hollow versions could be used as they are able to be produced in 3/4 of the time.  We decided to run the test of these samples as we would not want to do something like this without testing and we thought these samples were the best time to do it.  The result is however that there was some liquid resin left in the void and that with the increased pressure from heat they started vomiting out liquid resin (or creating their own orifices).  These are clearly not suitable for the final product and as we stated in the last kickstarter update if any one with a vomit dwarf (or any other issues) can email us then we will get a replacement sent out.  The replacements dwarves are all being sent in a batch at the end of the month, so if you have already let us know about your dwarf but have not received the replacement yet, don't worry they are coming.

Production wise we have now finished over 2,000 of the production models out of the 14,000 we have to produce for the kickstarter.  We are currently checking them all for defects and getting them ready for packing.  There are two members of staff working on the production full time at the moment, as well as Andy, Ben and I working on the fluff section of the rules.

Rules wise the rulebook (minus the fluff) is now finished, and can be found here. The cards for all the characters from the starter sets and most of the cards have also been finished and can be found in the file.  We are still looking for feedback and even though this is the file that is going to the editor and proofreader we will be updating an online version of the rules going forward if any points/rule changes are necessary.

Now we are over our craziest period of shows and have gotten out all of the current products that have been finished for the kickstarter, we should be putting out updates more regularly.

Regards,

Cad

Kickstarter Dispatch and Dwarves
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Jul 05, 2018 at 02:36:46 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.