Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Too Bo Coo on March 11, 2014, 03:23:25 AM
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Hoi Mates, Just saw on Dwarven Forge's FB page that Stefan announced the KS starts Wednesday at 11am EST.
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For those wondering --- he's referring to the SECOND Dwarven Forge kickstarter which will be Caverns instead of the standard dungeon pieces.
So, yes the Caverns kickstarter begins on Wednesday. I'll be sitting this one out (after discovering I have A- tons of DF stuff, and B- found an unopened cavern set amongst my boxes!). I will however likely pick up some stuff later after the stuff arrives on the shore. I've actually been meaning to swing by and grab up some expansion sets for additional furniture/doors/stairs.
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FUNDED! That took all of 9 minutes!
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A nice set, but I will pass as I did on the first... shipping outside the US is just too much. It seems like the latest USPS price hikes have made the US even worse than Canada for shipping outside the country. Never thought I would see that... :'(
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I hear you! There is some big benefit to being an expat, I can buy these now, send them to my parents house and pick them up for X-mas and avoid the shipping and customs expense. I had a Jansport backpack filled to the gills with DF stuff!
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Yep, and I feel the pain from a US perspective - as I can't afford to ship anything outside of the U.S. It's rather ridiculous. Here we're in trouble because:
1) our postal service is obnoxiously expensive
2) private carrier alternatives have no interest in the public market and only ship for businesses (and quite economically I might add). If you walk into a FedEx or UPS store the prices are equally obnoxious.
Sooo...yep. :-[
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It has only become so expensive in the past few years though. I think almost as little as 3 years ago (maybe 5) I could get a small parcel shipped to me, in Ontario, Canada, from the southern US for like $5-6 (untracked). For me to send the same parcel in Canada to the next city over would be $8-10 (all in-country packages have tracking). Now the same package costs about $15 while the Canadian price has not really changed much.
Though Canadian overseas postage is silly. I cannot have tracking unless I pay like $70-80 for expedited shipping, and a package of like 500-1000 grams costs over $30 for regular airmail. o_o
At least its still reasonably cheap to ship small packages from the UK to Canada. lol
But back on topic...
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Stefan's video is crazy good. I said it on the kickstarter, I haven't seen a pitch so good since I first saw Lou Zocchi pitching Game Science dice on YouTube (after which I never went back to crappy tumble smooth dice again)! lol
The caverns aren't bad as well. They aren't my dream, though. Since I already have a lot of water caverns what I really want are frickin ROUGH HEWN. Still, the warmer paintjob shows makes them seeme different enough and gives them a slightly drier feel, and it's nice to have variety.
.. a US perspective - ...
1) our postal service is obnoxiously expensive
I really disagree. Just recently it came up a bit but compared to elsewhere our shipping is very reasonable. It used to be nutty cheap, the way our gas still is. It's only now our postage is starting to be a reflection of the actual world we live in, where the oil bubble is bursting. And in the US you have to consider state to state is further than in the EU country to country most of the time. Compare to Canada as Too Bo Coo says. I pity canadian miniatures sellers on ebay, because their prices are pushed down because bidders factor in the crazy high shipping costs to get stuff here to the US.
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Stefan's video is crazy good. I said it on the kickstarter, I haven't seen a pitch so good since I first saw Lou Zocchi pitching Game Science dice on YouTube (after which I never went back to crappy tumble smooth dice again)! lol
The caverns aren't bad as well. They aren't my dream, though. Since I already have a lot of water caverns what I really want are frickin ROUGH HEWN. Still, the warmer paintjob shows makes them seeme different enough and gives them a slightly drier feel, and it's nice to have variety.
I really disagree. Just recently it came up a bit but compared to elsewhere our shipping is very reasonable. It used to be nutty cheap, the way our gas still is. It's only now our postage is starting to be a reflection of the actual world we live in, where the oil bubble is bursting. And in the US you have to consider state to state is further than in the EU country to country most of the time. Compare to Canada as Too Bo Coo says. I pity canadian miniatures sellers on ebay, because their prices are pushed down because bidders factor in the crazy high shipping costs to get stuff here to the US.
Agreed, USPS is pretty affordable, most likely because it's still Public. I live in the Netherlands with TNT, a private company. The very mediocre service is VERY expensive. When people talk about how bad the USPS is, they really dont know how good they have it.
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Let me put it this way though....international shipping is absurd. I think our standard shipping is fine. Our international letters are fine...but anything remotely heavy costs an arm and a leg. Oddly when it gets heavy enough international priority mail kicks in and is okay.
As a whole though, it's pretty bad for international shipping. Has anyone tried the ebay international shipping center?
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I think I had one package sent to me in Canada via the Ebay international shipping service thing. It wasn't any better as it forced me to pay duties upfront. With regular shipping, I am charged duties less than 5% of the time, so being forced to pay it upfront is lame.
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I think I had one package sent to me in Canada via the Ebay international shipping service thing. It wasn't any better as it forced me to pay duties upfront. With regular shipping, I am charged duties less than 5% of the time, so being forced to pay it upfront is lame.
That was my take as well....
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BTW DF KS is at 750,000 in less than 24 hours!
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The four pledges at $3000 each have gone, as have 105 pledges at $875 :o
Mad, they're all mad I tell you o_o
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Them folks like their caverns, I guess :D
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Agreed. I like caverns, but the idea of shelling out 3k to get 1k worth of painted tiles and 2k to play one session of D&D with Stefan, is not very enticing. He seems like a great guy, but paying to play would stress me out too much everytime people got sidelined chitchatting. I'm sure I'd be thinking, "Oy! You guys know what your story about the 4th level Ranger you ran in Junior High School just cost me $100.00!?!!" lol
but seriously, a big chunk of change to lay out... I got a couple of sets myself, that should be more than enough for my personal needs :D
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I'm convinced that big money stuff to meet the creators of these various Kickstarters - are just...for people who have too much money. :D I'm not surprised the KS went so fast. The first one was very successful and resulted in an excellent product (clever product actually...as the painted resin tiles are still much nicer, and now the painted plastic ones are nearly the same cost with far fewer designs etc.).
So everyone who got in on the last one probably jumped on this immediately. I'd expect a cool 2-3 million by the time it's done.
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The problem with the older DF tiles was not the cost as much as the durability. I worked in my FLGS for about 4 years as a teenager and we had a few of these sets sitting on shelves. They were beautiful, but you could feel from the material that the chips and cracks were just waiting to happen. For me it was the durability, not cost, that held me away. The new tiles I like better because the 'genericness' of them means that they can also be put together more ways. I'm really happy with the couple of sets I have and I know when I have kids and we use them, I wont stress over accidental falls and such. Stefan to his credit really produces a very nice product and now is far more affordable in the cost:durability ratio.
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I agree shipping outside US is too much ! Plus the VAT you may have to pay when you receive your parcel (20% !). I give up ! :(
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I agree the older pieces are definitely frail...but I've yet to break any, and I'm confident that I can suffer a piece or two broken (heck might even be able to mend them). I always thought DF was on the verge of failing as a business (stuff was super expensive and never in stock) so I'm glad to know I can go forward and not have to worry about being able to buy more DF stuff when the desire arises.
I do think with the slightly better cost (and as you mentioned durability) I think DF is reaching a whole new audience. I do hope in the future they discover how to produce much larger pieces though...as I'd have been more than stoked to have all of the old sets redone in new material and available for 25-30% less. Some of the old pieces are just incredibly cool sculpts...so much character etc. Here's hopin' they figure out how to do so cost effectively.
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I'm already in on this caverns Kickstarter. I got my Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles from the first KS last November, and had a blast painting them up (and even managed to play a game!) and can attest to their value & quality. I feel bad for you guys who live overseas though.
Funny story: I actually live about 3 hours drive north of the Dwarven Forge HQ, so if you guys want to pledge at the "play games with Stefan" level and then donate the experience to me, I'll make the drive and ensure it's money well spent!! lol
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I haven't looked at the shipping costs...but the boxes that came for the first KS were quite small (all very carefully packaged to minimize the size). It wouldn't have been too nightmarish to ship them abroad...maybe $30. Shame I don't have the money/time or I'd offer to get a foreign group buy and ship the stuff. Well you guys can always buy the pieces later from DF's European distributor (was told they had one).
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Well you guys can always buy the pieces later from DF's European distributor (was told they had one).
They do, at http://www.dwarvenforge.eu
Classic Dungeon Room and Passage set £110.00 or $135.00 from the US - pretty much $ to £ conversion :-[
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I'm already in on this caverns Kickstarter. I got my Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles from the first KS last November, and had a blast painting them up (and even managed to play a game!) and can attest to their value & quality. I feel bad for you guys who live overseas though.
Funny story: I actually live about 3 hours drive north of the Dwarven Forge HQ, so if you guys want to pledge at the "play games with Stefan" level and then donate the experience to me, I'll make the drive and ensure it's money well spent!! lol
I thought Stefan worked out of Brooklyn NY? And Jeff is in California. No?
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I thought Stefan worked out of Brooklyn NY? And Jeff is in California. No?
AFAIK Dwarven Forge is based in Carbondale, Illinois.
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AFAIK Dwarven Forge is based in Carbondale, Illinois.
I'm not sure what AFAIK is, but I was correct that Stefan's studio is in Brooklyn. I guess the AFAIK thing is the admin offices? That must be Jeff then. Cheers for the info!
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I'm not sure what AFAIK is, but I was correct that Stefan's studio is in Brooklyn. I guess the AFAIK thing is the admin offices? That must be Jeff then. Cheers for the info!
I believe AFAIK is an abbreviation of "as far as I know".
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I believe AFAIK is an abbreviation of "as far as I know".
lol of course! Cheers!
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I thought Stefan worked out of Brooklyn NY?
He does, or did anyway. Remember that crane fell and destroyed his apartment or part of it? There is a thread about it in the Dwarven Forge forums, IIRC.
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The new lava add on pack is excellent for those of you who haven't seen it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dwarvenforge/dwarven-forges-caverns-dwarvenite-game-tiles-mini/posts
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I've never been a huge fan of lava stuff from their old sets. If I have one slight beef with the caverns KS it's that they went away from the easy-recognizable squares. While a bit silly looking in a cavern, it helps immensely when measuring movement etc. I'm still not in on this KS and won't be, but the design bugs me a little bit. :?
Glad to see it's a good and proper success. I only have a few more bits to paint from my previous KS...might have to knock those out soon.
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I have 3 sets, but I plan to sell one on ebay. I like the caverns and in fact have decided to rebase my Otherworld and dungeon delving minis to clear disk bases to they get the best use of the DF terrain.
I agree, lava does not excite me either, it's too niche to use in a game. "You see a room with a lava floor, what do you do?", "We turn around and go another direction..."
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DF announced that they will be adding a dungeon tiles passage pack as an add on in the current campaign. Anyone who wanted those in the first one should go check it out. They're not available yet, but will be soon... Here's a link to a sketch of how they will work...
http://www.dwarvenforge.com/caverns/pass_ex.jpg
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While interesting, I'm really really glad I have a lot of the old corridors...(in fact, damn you...I just paused mid-post and ordered a new "old" resin corridor set on ebay! ACK!). One of the beefs I have with the dwarvenite is simply how many pieces you need to assemble a simple passage. I do like the idea of the narrow passages though - I just think you'll end up knocking the dungeon about constantly moving minis through it.
It's fun having a buddy in AZ who's into DF stuff also, as we're kind of text-message painting buddies...both sitting at our tables texting and posting pictures back and forth.
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4 hours left!
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It hit 2 million bucks, wow...
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Doesn't surprise me. I think one of the reasons is that Dwarven Forge pre-painted resin stuff was always expensive. If you look at the DF forums you have a lot of stonkingly rich fellows who own 100+ sets of the resin stuff. This means, like my buddy, you have a lot of people who are buying in with $500+ investments. In addition, the last Kickstarter was well run, delivered promptly and was exactly as advertised.
So this is a known quantity, from a reputable company, and a sequel product to an excellent prior release. There weren't many questions floating around about time-table, materials, likelihood of delays etc. I think people know exactly what they were getting.
I didn't get in on this as I have plenty of caverns, but I'm happy to see the range expand and I may very well buy some cavern expansion sets in the future (I like the small pieces allowing you to make chasms etc.). I say well done to DF.
I think I guessed they'd 2-3 million, so it looks pretty spot on. :)
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My gaming budget is dead for a few months. But I got everything
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I'm hoping the next one is for tavern pieces..that's really all I'd get in on at this point. I have plenty of most other things. I need a few floor pieces but I may just make those myself.
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I bought a couple of extra sets to sell in the post-KS market. Just like with the first KS, there will be people who will want sets but didnt get them. Selling 2 sets at a very reasonable price and I've already gotten the add ons for free, sell three and I get it all for about $150.00. I'm fine with this. It took a year, but I sold my KS1 Zombicide minis for $500.00. Paid for the entire game plus a ton.
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Yeah that's probably my plan with my Robotech kickstarter (which is shipping with about $1000 worth of minis for $250...). I figure I'll have enough figures that I don't want/need or can't use to recoup most of my initial investment. I had the money this go round, just passed on it. Buying the stuff from DF is not exactly a great deal (I imagine Stefan is making more money on these than the resins considering the prices) but if I desperately "need" something I can stomach it.
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Yeah that's probably my plan with my Robotech kickstarter (which is shipping with about $1000 worth of minis for $250...). I figure I'll have enough figures that I don't want/need or can't use to recoup most of my initial investment. I had the money this go round, just passed on it. Buying the stuff from DF is not exactly a great deal (I imagine Stefan is making more money on these than the resins considering the prices) but if I desperately "need" something I can stomach it.
The DF stuff is luxury gaming. Selling off a few extra sets makes the whole price very palatable. :D
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Considering I work a low-paying job currently I've sold off...literally tons of gaming and hobby stuff to keep my the other hobbies afloat. The huge stack of DF boxes is going nowhere. It's like wargaming gold. lol I may purchase a snake or foul beast to protect it...maybe with some swinging spike traps for good measure.