Ogre 6th edition Kickstarter

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**RiTides**

I really want to try this game... cheers to those who have waited for it for so long, please share

. You need folks to play against, after all!

**Catyrpelius**

RiTides wrote:
I really want to try this game... cheers to those who have waited for it for so long, please share . You need folks to play against, after all!

If your going to Templcon we might be able to get a game in...

**dementedwombat**

I have a couple SJ games (Hacker is staring me in the face at this very minute actually). Always seemed like a "off brand" company, as in not quite up to the production values of the "big names". That said, I am a fan of Bolo and from what I can tell they seem at least similar (although reigned down to a less universe destroying power level).

Probably buy Car Wars first though. Really need to get my hands on that.

**Nevelon**

dementedwombat wrote:
I have a couple SJ games (Hacker is staring me in the face at this very minute actually). Always seemed like a "off brand" company, as in not quite up to the production values of the "big names". That said, I am a fan of Bolo and from what I can tell they seem at least similar (although reigned down to a less universe destroying power level).

Probably buy Car Wars first though. Really need to get my hands on that.

I wouldn't call them "low" from a production value standpoint. I will grant you that they are not high-end. SJG is a good, solid middle of the road company. But they must be doing something right, as they've been at it successfully forever, where a lot of other companies have come and gone. And they put a lot of effort into making sure their games and rules are good, if not shiny.

I played Car Wars for years. It was a fun game, but I'm not sure if the modern gamer would appreciate it. We'll see what the kickstarter/new edition ends up being. I liked Illuminati, INWO, and a number of their beer-and-pretzle games, but not Munchin, strangely... GURPS is a little too crunchy for my tastes, but their sourcebooks are incredibly well put together, and can be tapped for information for other systems.

Overall I'm a big fan of SJG as a company. I wouldn't call them an "off brand" though. While they might not have ever been the top dog in the gameing world, they have alway been there making quality products.

**dementedwombat**

That's fair. I wasn't really knocking the company, just saying they don't seem to have as flashy of a presence as some others. Might just be me looking over their website back when I was younger and getting really put off by all the weird pyramid stuff and gigantic catalog of games spread out in no particular order.

Also I play Battletech and love it. I don't think car wars intimidates me. I have read the reviews and it sounds like it does a lot of stuff in an overcomplicated way, but to be honest I actually like really complicated games with lots of detail and crunch. Besides, I have to mess with the car design rules at least once. I'm a little bit of a gearhead on the side, so it appeals on many levels.

I can't stand Munchkin either. I'm actually a really cooperative gamer I've found, and the fact that Munchkin is absolutely nothing but "screw your buddy" without even the pretense of an entertaining game and all parties enjoying themselves just turned me off to it.

**Alpharius**

Update #116

Oct 10, 2013
Ogre Has Arrived: News From The Front
9 comments
26 likes

A while back we got this communiqué from one of our soldiers on the front, Eric Dow. He was one of the first to sight the Ogre arriving, and it's been a long road since then.

START TRANSMISSION

We converged on the Ogre Logistics Facility at 13:45. Keith had already secured the site and engaged the environmental controls. Carl approached from the southeast, and Stacy and I came from the southwest. We were planning to prep the loading facilities for our Kelly Services team, who were scheduled to rendezvous with us at 14:00 for a briefing.

Before we could start, we received word from the trucking company informing us that our transport had been disabled at the port, and they were making emergency repairs. We were now scheduled to receive the goods at 16:00, a full hour later than the 15:00 plan. I negotiated with them to extend the two-hour unloading window since we were going to lose Carl and one of our three-person Kelly team at 17:30.

I then got a call from Darryl and Devin, who volunteered to help out. After I confirmed this with their command, I gratefully accepted their assistance. Fully staffed at 15:00, with no unloading to do, we proceeded to clean the facility and replace ceiling tiles while Keith set up the recording and surveillance equipment.

At 16:00 our truck arrived, and we started emptying it 20 minutes later. It took us unloading a few hundred copies of Ogre to hit our stride, and 75 minutes into the processing saw us hit the halfway mark. At that point, we were down two team members, and it wasn't looking great, but at least we had found our rhythm. Darryl and Devin handled nearly every copy of our beloved Ogre as cameras rolled. Stacy, Carl, our Kelly team, and I added to a steady wall of Ogre in the facility’s allocated spaces. We wound up with almost four mini-rooms loaded in this configuration: 3 boxes high, 4 deep, and 18 across. That's 860 copies in total off this container!

After attrition had taken its toll, Keith set the cameras to autopilot and jumped in, and I secured energy drinks from our FLGS two doors down. The combination saw us moving steadily again. We lost another Kelly member at 18:00, but we got to the 2/3 mark and pressed on. By 19:00 we were down to the last few columns, and by 19:20 we were done!

END TRANSMISSION

That was Day One, six weeks ago. Imagine that happening six more times, and you'll have an idea of what the unloading process has been like. We’re now pleased to tell you that the Ogre has officially landed! All boxes have arrived and are in our Logistics Facility, ready for the Launch Party and for shipping.

The transmission also included some pictures. You can find more at our Flickr set. We'd like to extend a thanks to all our staff who helped with the unloading: Eric, Keith, Carl, Devin, Darryll, and Stacy. You rocked it.

One of those boxes is mine!

**Catyrpelius**

I wonder if those were A or B boxes?

**Balance**

dementedwombat wrote:
That's fair. I wasn't really knocking the company, just saying they don't seem to have as flashy of a presence as some others. Might just be me looking over their website back when I was younger and getting really put off by all the weird pyramid stuff and gigantic catalog of games spread out in no particular order.

I like that the head of SJG is sometimes called 'Uncle Steve'... He's built a good company and seems to enjoy being a major player without trying to go mainstream (which can be a dangerous overextension) or rush things.

Keep in mind the biggest line for the company for a long time was GURPS, their RPG rules. Other than a phase in the early 2000s when they did GURPS versions of a lot of other RPG settings and a few licensed products, a big feature of GURPS has always been support for home-brewed settings. The previous edition of GURPS had a ton of books that were one small step removed from scholarly historical works. Want vikings? GURPS Vikings has rules for historical viking stuff, fantastic viking stuff, and magic for viking-fantasy. Probably some notes on space-vikings, too. Very cool books with bibliographies for those that want to read more. And the rules were simple enough to get the idea that they were useful for those who preferred other systems...

On the other hand, I personally never got into GURPS. The system combines some of my least favorite bits of d20 and point-buy systems. Lots of good ideas, just not to my taste.

Beyond the massive GURPS line, SJG has a history of other games. Illuminati is an old card game, and they even did a CCG version of it when CCGs were super hot. For tabletop games they've done Car Wars in several incarnations, including budget releases and deluxe box sets.

SJG is also pretty solidly 'good for the gamer community' with e23 and Warehouse 23 as early specialist online retailers (physical and delivered respectively) and other projects. I've ehard Steve Jackson had his special rules for a sea battle game using Lego pirate ships he can't publish but runs for fun at tournaments.

dementedwombat wrote:

Also I play Battletech and love it. I don't think car wars intimidates me. I have read the reviews and it sounds like it does a lot of stuff in an overcomplicated way, but to be honest I actually like really complicated games with lots of detail and crunch. Besides, I have to mess with the car design rules at least once. I'm a little bit of a gearhead on the side, so it appeals on many levels.

The 'classic' Car Wars was primarily complex due to fiddly movement rules. As I remember, it was kind of a mix of square-based and turning arcs... So you would move a token around, then could 'even up' to the grid for free. I think it must have been a compromise to make things easier on the grid-map users, but playable as a straight table-top game. Car Wars taught me the basics of doing formulas in a spread sheet, back in the 80s.

Vehicle design seemed a bit more fiddly than Battletech, and everything from motorcycles to big rigs had potential roles.

dementedwombat wrote:

I can't stand Munchkin either. I'm actually a really cooperative gamer I've found, and the fact that Munchkin is absolutely nothing but "screw your buddy" without even the pretense of an entertaining game and all parties enjoying themselves just turned me off to it.

I've enjoyed Munchkin, but I think it needs to be kept to 'play a quick round while we're waiting for someone else' to be most fun. However, it's undeniably helped SJG weather the last decade of financial weirdness.

**dementedwombat**

Wow, "calculate movement with turning arcs and angles, then snap to the nearest square on a grid map" sounds like a completely horrible system. Did they ever clean it up at any point during the different editions?

**helgrenze**

Balance wrote:
.

I've ehard Steve Jackson had his special rules for a sea battle game using Lego pirate ships he can't publish but runs for fun at tournaments.

http://www.classic-pirates.com/espg

Here ye go, Mates.

**Balance**

dementedwombat wrote:
Wow, "calculate movement with turning arcs and angles, then snap to the nearest square on a grid map" sounds like a completely horrible system. Did they ever clean it up at any point during the different editions?

Last edition I got is pretty ancient... The 'snap to square' part was mainly a convenience thing as I remember. You didn't have to do it, and it wasn't a huge deal as the squares were 1/4", and the basic car tokens were 1/2" x 1" as I remember. It just made things saner when using cardboard chits on a grid map. Chits that seemed to move if a breeze swept through the room or similar.

(And they made a ton of cool grid maps pre-made for arenas, pieces of towns, trucks tops, etc. )

Vehicle creation in Car Wars was pretty crazy, though. You picked a chassis, which included bikes, trikes, cars, trucks, big trucks, trailers, hovercraft, helicopters, planes, boats, etc. Each with different guidelines. Add an engine and a few other required bits, then start adding armor, weapons, and other equipment. One thing about the system that feels somewhat old-fashioned is that you could accidentally build a car so underpowered it couldn't move. I prefer newer systems that assume the in-setting designer is a bit more capable.

Still, you could do wacky things like missile-boat subcompacts or pickups with small artillery weapons in the bed.

**dementedwombat**

Yes please. I just remember someone in a review said that him and his friends all loved building internal combustion cars with the biggest engines possible and a couple of guns that could fire to the sides, then fighting as they went down a quarter mile drag racing strip.

**Catyrpelius**

There was an update last night...

Project Update #117: "104 Tons Of Chipboard Stock," A Thank You From Grand Prix International

Can you feel that? It's the ground shaking as the launch of the Ogre Designer's Edition keeps steadily rolling at us, and yesterday a welcome and very appreciated break hit the office when a package from our printer rep, David with Grand Prix International, reached my desk. The package was opened by our Production Manager, Sam, and the first I knew something was up was when I read the included card:

David's always being remarkably generous with his time and going out of his way to work closely with us -- I've joked at times that he's effectively staff; we print and reprint so many games that David spends as many waking moments working on games like Munchkin, Zombie Dice, and Ogre as any one of us at Steve Jackson Games -- and this card was exactly what I needed to help get through an insanely busy day.

But the card was just the start of the fun. Also included in the package was a signed and framed copy of the Ogre blueprint poster. Yes, the exact same poster that your support unlocked as the $100,000 stretch goal. This will look amazing on one of the walls in our office!

And mounted just beneath the poster is a small plate that really drives home just how big and impressive the entire Ogre Designer's Edition project has been. Because of the years we spent working on the game before this Kickstarter project launched -- and as a result of your generosity -- the plate reads:

"The game that required 21 rounds of quote revisions over five years, 83 total die cut, vacuum form and injection molds, 104 tons of chipboard stock, 56 tons of paper stock, and resulted in 14 containers of product shipped over the course of two months."

Wow. I knew there was a lot of raw materials used in the creation of the game, but I had never really sat down and thought through just how much chipboard and paper we transformed from blank materials into a truly remarkable and memorable game.

Thank you to David and Mike at GPI, to all of the partners in Hong Kong and the factories in China, and to all of you for working as a group to take our ideas and hours of sweat and produce what will very likely be the largest game that I ever work on. I'm proud of what we, together, have created, and I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you when your games arrive.

And to those of you visiting us in Austin this weekend, I hope that you will find a moment or two to accept a personal thank you from me. The game wouldn't be what it is without your contributions.

- Phil Reed

**helgrenze**

So, made my hotel reservations for this weekend.
Found out that my job gets extra discounts from Priceline. Got a room at Extended Stay America less than 1/2 mile from site..... for $30 a night.
Yep Walking distance and all that.
May take a road trip to South Austin during the stay.... for some BBQ at John Mueller Meat Co. Just hope to get there early enough to get some.

**helgrenze**

Just for Info's sake... Sat I will be wearing a Pirate theme T-shirt... Unless Steve makes me a REALLY nice offer....

**Tannhauser42**

Just got back home from the Ogre Launch Party. Didn't spend too much time there, wife wanted to get home at a reasonable time. Anyway, picture of Steve Jackson signing my copy of Ogre:

And, yes, the box really is that big.

**Alpharius**

I still can't believe how big that game box is!

**RiTides**

Wow, nice pic! Tannhauser, have you played it yet, and is it fun?

**warboss**

It does appear that there is some scale discrepancy between the box and the designer.

**Alpharius**

TWO updates!

Update #118

Oct 20, 2013
Day One Launch Party Wrap Up
14 comments
19 likes

Greetings from the Ogre Launch Facility! Devin, Stacy and Brandon here, sharing some highlights from day one of the party! More pics will show up on our flickr soon – until then, enjoy!

Morning Queue

Webcast Happiness!

We're looking into Quality Control

Empty cartons can be used as tables.

My Little Brogre

Update #119

Oct 20, 2013
Calling German-speaking Ogre Supporters!
Comment

Was ist das? It's the draft text for the Ogre Designer's Edition rules -- in German!

http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/products/ogre6e/img/german.pdf

Mike Rosotta and Birger Krämer have been working hard to bring you the German rules, promised in the $375K stretch goal.

German speakers, you can help us, if you like! Please send your feedback to Birger (birger@sjgames.com) by Mon, 28 October.

Danke schön!

-- Daniel Jew

Can't wait for that shipping notice!

**AndrewGPaul**

Tannhauser42 wrote:
Just got back home from the Ogre Launch Party. Didn't spend too much time there, wife wanted to get home at a reasonable time. Anyway, picture of Steve Jackson signing my copy of Ogre:

And, yes, the box really is that big.

Is that Steve signing the box or to the right of the box?

**Alpharius**

Update #120

Oct 20, 2013
Launch Party, Day 2
6 comments
15 likes

The festivities are almost finished and we have some more photos for you! The party surpassed our wildest dreams. It was a pleasure meeting all the wonderful Ogre fans who visited, some from a long ways away. More about the party later!

We look forward to starting shipping this coming week! That's for the "we like nothing better than moving large numbers of heavy objects" values of "look forward."

Austin-area supporters who did not come to the party: We're trying to ship things so they hit more or less everywhere at the same time. Good luck to us on that, but at least we are trying. That means the local copies ship last. However, if you want your STUFF urgently enough to come pick it up, you can. Send a note to kickstart@sjgames.com. We can arrange for you to pick it up at Wonko's. However, you've only got till the end of October to notify us, because not long after that we expect to ship the last copies!

- Brandon & Steve

Steve signed many games!

Special thanks again to Nicholas Scholtz and Doug Church for graciously donating their OGRE copies to auctions benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund..

Lots of OGRE memorabilia, including these prototypes, was on display in the museum.

Instead of tables, today we built forts out of the empty OGRE cartons.

**Alpharius**

THE END TIMES ARE NIGH!

OGRE HAS STARTED SHIPPING!

Update #121

Oct 22, 2013
Shipping News / War Room Update
14 comments
22 likes

Shipping has started, and we are already discovering ways to make it better. That is Good Spin (tm) for "We broke the system on the first day." In particular: You are supposed to receive e-mail with a tracking number, but for those shipped Monday, no mail was sent. The error was here, not at FedEx or USPS. I am unhappy, but I am also relieved that it was caught immediately. I am assured that the problem is understood and is getting fixed! I failed to ask during the meeting, "You WILL go back and send mail to notify those whose packages have been shipped, right?" So that's a question for tomorrow.

Many people have asked, in many different ways, when we will finish shipping. I can't answer that until the shipping process is debugged. If we have to throw more bodies at it, we will, but right now it looks like we just need to throw more brains. There will be regular updates.

Ogre War Room: New Version for iOS

A new War Room version is now available in the Apple Store. Still free. This adds several features requested by users on the forums, including the ability to add notes to each Ogre and the ability to roll up to four dice at once.

Work continues on other versions: the Android app will get an update before too long, and we hope soon to release the Windows version (which will launch with most, if not all, of the features recently added to the iOS version).

– Steve Jackson

**Nevelon**

I need to go change my e-mail's "how often should I check for new mail" setting to every 5 seconds.

Or just spam the "Check Now" button like a monkey.

Can't wait.

**Alpharius**

OGRE is on its way!

Update #122

Oct 24, 2013
Tracking Numbers Received!
13 comments
7 likes

We are beginning to get reports of tracking numbers received! And yes, Eric has assured me that the supporters who did not get automated tracking number notices are being notified manually.

We are now up to over 300 shipments a day, which means that we might finish with everything except Weird Individual Problems on November 10, give or take a day. If (when!) that estimate changes, we'll let you know.

The goal was to have everything arrive at more or less the same time. Let me emphasize that "more or less," before anyone starts trying to calculate International Ogre Time-On-Target Day. We can't get a whole wave out on one day. The truth is that some of the boxes will probably arrive before the last ones are even shipped, but we're doing what we can.

And at this point we will NOT quit work halfway through a day because we finished shipping one wave; we'll jump on the next wave and get more boxes out the door. The shipping order, basically, is: West Coast US first, then East Coast, to accommodate the fan-sponsored launch parties. Those have now been shipped. International is happening now: Australia and Singapore first, then Canada. Europe is its own deal - see below. Then back to the US for central addresses.

European supporters: If you supported for both swag and games, you will not get your two packages at the same time except by blind coincidence. Your swag will come from Austin, but your game box(es) will be shipped by our German partners, Pegasus. The staff of Pegasus is just a tiny bit preoccupied this week because it's Essen. We think this is a very good excuse, and we want them all to survive Essen! Again, we will keep you posted.

– Steve Jackson

**Catyrpelius**

I'm on the East Coast! This is awsome news.

**Alpharius**

Catyrpelius wrote:
I'm on the East Coast! This is awsome news.

Same here!

Also, Go Red Sox!

**RiTides**

Is the game fun? Haven't seen much on gameplay from the launch party.

Also, no plans for retail yet?

**Catyrpelius**

Alpharius wrote:
Catyrpelius wrote:
I'm on the East Coast! This is awsome news.

Same here!

Also, Go Red Sox!

Screw the Sox!

**Alpharius**

RiTides wrote:
Is the game fun? Haven't seen much on gameplay from the launch party.

Also, no plans for retail yet?

Unknown at this time!

But we should start hearing soon:

Update #123

Oct 24, 2013
Copies Are Arriving!
22 comments
8 likes

Comments on the last update have included some “Mine is here!” So that's a few dozen down, a few thousand to go.

Having said that:

It’s definitely too early to write and ask “Has mine shipped?” or “When will mine ship?” or “Is my address on the West Coast?” or any variation on that. The people who could answer those questions are busy shipping games, and they need to keep shipping games. As we get farther along, I’ll try to post more specifics. I hope that very soon I can say, for instance, “If you live in New Zealand, you should have gotten a tracking number by now.” Please keep in mind that tracking-number mail is exactly the sort of thing that your spam filter loves to eat, so check that spambox!

Those first few dozen who didn’t get automatic tracking number e-mail should now absolutely have gotten a manual e-mail with the tracking number, except for those who FedEx says have already gotten the box! Those first shipments were to the supporters who registered for the party but did not make it. If you were on that list, you should now REALLY have gotten your box or at least your tracking number. So go look out your front door. If you can’t see the street, it’s probably because there’s a box in the way.

Yes indeed – as commenters pointed out, Pegasus’ help on the shipping means, in theory, no extra VAT on the European copies, though it may (or may not) delay the arrival of the package by a few days. Even though they may start shipping later, they’re starting from inside the Eurozone.

“When will APOs be shipped?” Well, if your address is APO San Francisco, it will ship with San Francisco, and after that the service will send it to where it believes you are. If you’re on a carrier, the map will fit nicely on the flight deck. If you’re in a sub, I don’t know where you’re going to play; please send a photo. Rare earth magnets are your friends?

I see several people saying “I should have done a launch party!” How much of that is serious interest in that kind of event, and how much is just poking us about shipment schedules? If you want more gamer parties, we can keep that in mind. If you’re just giving us a hard time, that's fair, too. (Please remember: the central US would have been shipped after the coasts no matter what, because in delivery terms it’s closer; the gamer parties just slipped the coasts ahead of the relatively small number of non-US, non-European orders.)

Also please remember: If and when you find a real problem, writing to kickstart@sjgames.com will get a quicker response than posting it here, both because we will probably see it sooner and because we won’t have to stop to look up your email address.

The goal is in sight . . .

– Steve Jackson