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Americans
Zombies...again :(

After the trainwreck of a Kickstarter, I've basicly given up on Wyrd.

I'll be putting the RPG stuff, and the rest of my Malfaux gear up for sales later this year.

Credibility is lost, and this "Game" sounds like pure liquified gak on a stick.
And, uh... "dropped everything"? Seriously?


Seeing as this guy can do it, Grot 6 is going to go into the game business himself. !@#$ it. I'll promise you, it will not be as pointless as this one sounds.


I'll push it, make a million, and then go on and come up with an even more... outstanding idea, so you won't even WANT the original RPG!!! pinky swear!!!

I'm actually really excited about this. It's great to see another player muscle in on GW's turf.

My major hope is that the scale is close enough to 40k that I can use my IG stuff, at least for play testing if nothing else. If it's anything like Malifaux, they'll release an open beta when it comes time to start open play testing.

My ultimate hope for Ruined Planet is that it's good enough that I never have to play 40k again.




Also wik: Why's everybody upset about the Wyrd Kickstarter? What happened with it? All my experience with Wyrd has been extremely positive.

 Grot 6 wrote:
After the trainwreck of a Kickstarter, I've basicly given up on Wyrd.

I'll be putting the RPG stuff, and the rest of my Malfaux gear up for sales later this year.

Credibility is lost, and this "Game" sounds like pure liquified gak on a stick.
And, uh... "dropped everything"? Seriously?

Seeing as this guy can do it, Grot 6 is going to go into the game business himself. !@#$ it. I'll promise you, it will not be as pointless as this one sounds.

I'll push it, make a million, and then go on and come up with an even more... outstanding idea, so you won't even WANT the original RPG!!! pinky swear!!!

I agree with you on the "pure liquified gak" part. I put no faith in Mark at all after hearing him make that comment. Still, I don't think that's the sort of thing to sell off your stuff over. Just don't support any more of their kickstarters, should they do any in the future.

The only questions about Malifaux should be the same as any other game. Do you enjoy the game? Do you like the figures?

Yeah, so far, it seems like whoever is writing the backstory is just focused on taking old tropes and doing the exact opposite. Not exactly original. Space Marines are 7 feet tall? Ours are 5 feet tall! America wants to build a fence to keep out the Mexicans? Mexico will build a fence to keep out the Americans! Hopefully they'll hire a real writer as they get closer to making this into a real game.

But I'm also skeptical of anything that goes to army scale. Just not my style.

 Thatguyoverthere wrote:
Also wik: Why's everybody upset about the Wyrd Kickstarter? What happened with it? All my experience with Wyrd has been extremely positive.

Wyrd hired Mack Martin specifically to work on the Malifaux based RPG Through the Breach. He was, for many people, a great sign that Wyrd was taking the RPG seriously and it wouldn't just be a money grabbing bit of fan service to build the back story of the world.

Since then, the RPG has been delayed quite a bit. It was originally expected to be released Sept 2013. PDFs of the books were finally sent out Feb 28th 2014. The books are being printed now.

Honestly, none of that should have surprised anyone. The kickstarter explicitly stated that more money would equal more content in the books. The problem is that Mack has jumped from project to project and many feel that, in doing so, he has neglected his work on the RPG. He had a major role in the production of M2E and now he has "dropped everything" to work on this game.

Add on to this the fact that Wyrd didn't do a great job of updating their kickstarter after the campaign and many people got seriously frustrated. Wyrd has a real problem with putting up information on their forums and nowhere else. They seem to occasionally forget that they have more casual fans who don't stop in to visit the forums very often but who still want to be kept updated on the status of the games in production.

Did the RPG PDF's actually get sent out on the 28th? I need to check my email folders, as all I received was the promise PDF were coming "soon".

This is the last I heard:

We're setting up the download servers now and hope to have them ready for everyone on Monday. We'll have more details about how to download your copy as soon as everything is set up.

That was on the 28th.

Yeah, on the 28th they said they'd come out today... and I doubt they'll show up in the next 3 minutes.

This sounds pretty garbagy.

And I can't say I have a much interest in a new game that will require me to have 100-150 models on the board. No thanks.

Man - you guys pass judgement quickly on a 3 sentence summary of a game that is likely years away still.

Yup, don't tell anyone about your terrible scifi TTG idea unless you want to be judged on your terrible scifi TTG idea.

Schmapdi wrote:
Man - you guys pass judgement quickly on a 3 sentence summary of a game that is likely years away still.

Yes, because it only took them three sentences to say two incredibly stupid things. It's like a runner taking one step and then breaking both his ankles. The only potentially good thing they've said about it is the space-borne faction that specialises in energy weapons.

If this was a situation like Defiance Games' Alien Wars, there would be some potential. DG decided some stupid things about that setting, but the stupid things are invisible and the foundations are sound. Treat the Bugs like a particularly dangerous and common pack hunter that forces the Marines to go rescue colonists sometimes and not like an existential threat, and treat the Watch as guardians of individual cities backed up by a diplomatic taboo against destroying satellites whose purpose is to stop war crimes and not all-powerful DMPCs and the setting has a lot of potential. The stupid things in Ruined Planet are not invisible - the Zombie miniatures and misshapen Marines are not something that can be handwaved away.

It almost sounds like a cross between Sedition Wars and Deadlands except that it's supposedly an army sized scale. I've no idea who they think the target demographic for that is but I've not heard an overwhelming demand for such in my neck of the woods.

I cannot understand why they would go in the trouble of getting a company scale game in their production queue, most companies that attempted it had serious issues and they either downscaled to skirmish level or stopped existing.

Big model count means big tables and time, neither of which is ample in present day, likewise the investment to get into the system will be high (plus it opens the company in prize comparisons, no mater how fair they may or may not be).

That been said, I love reading about sci fi, unfortunately the small snippets of background info sound less than stellar, a space based faction with energy weapons because no mining? what? the main drive for space exploration will be mining for everything, minerals, water, oxygen, everything will be mined and if the faction is clever enough, they will use the hollow cells of sufficiently big metal asteroids for habitats and ships.

So far it seems quite disappointing.

 Breotan wrote:

 Grot 6 wrote:
After the trainwreck of a Kickstarter, I've basicly given up on Wyrd.

I'll be putting the RPG stuff, and the rest of my Malfaux gear up for sales later this year.

Credibility is lost, and this "Game" sounds like pure liquified gak on a stick.
And, uh... "dropped everything"? Seriously?

Seeing as this guy can do it, Grot 6 is going to go into the game business himself. !@#$ it. I'll promise you, it will not be as pointless as this one sounds.

I'll push it, make a million, and then go on and come up with an even more... outstanding idea, so you won't even WANT the original RPG!!! pinky swear!!!

I agree with you on the "pure liquified gak" part. I put no faith in Mark at all after hearing him make that comment. Still, I don't think that's the sort of thing to sell off your stuff over. Just don't support any more of their kickstarters, should they do any in the future.

The only questions about Malifaux should be the same as any other game. Do you enjoy the game? Do you like the figures?

Unfortunatly it is more then that. I "enjoyed" the game when it came out. It was pretty good and had lots of potential, then Wyrd picked up a GW sized case of stones and decided to be the TFG of gaming. Do they have nice figures? Sort of, as in some of them are awesome, some of them are completly out there and need to go away.I had alot of fun putting together my pandora crew, then taking her and her stuff out for a spin, and adding in my other two, then I got caught with the serious case of "what the heck are you doing?" when they decided to be argumentative on thier board, cater to thier favorite kids, and say they were going to come out with an RPG... and then outright use the funding to promote the trainwreck that is Malfaux 2. To use the funds in that manner, then pee in my face and call it rain was pretty mucht o me the spit in my face that took it to the next level from TFG to D bag.

A couple years ago, these tools were gamers, same as us, making some new, fresh stuff and putting out a really neat premis for a game. With the advent of thier "!@#$ you, I'm too famous to even take the trouble to update a friggin kickstarter...." I am now at the point where they can go blow. I pitched off a couple of my excess crews, and am on to games and compnaies that are a heck of a lot more consistant and interesting, and arn't falling back andretconning thier whole premise and pretty much using thier figures and game system for a money grab.

Wyrd then goes and does... this thing. Even from what I read, I think mack should lay off and focus on the projects at hand, and stomp the good idea fairy to death and work on quality, rather then going out and going full bore lame. This gak doesn't even make sense, even from the incoherent premis listed here. THAT is new and something I want to put money on? How so?

Then we could go on about the GW level greed of the pricing for plastic figures. Whats that about? I loved the sotries in the books for the first two or three books, then we get into.... whatever this is now.

I don't even want anything to do with Wyrd, now. They fethed up in epic fail proportions. And the worst thing about it- they continue to do so.

so this sounds a lot like that old tabletop wargame, Vor: The Maelstrom.

One of the factions is Space America, and Earth is being consumed by horrible space radiation. You rolled on tables to determine terrain details based on what continent you fought on, such as if you were against Space Soviet Union, or Space Zombie Egyptians.

By the way, to all you people who are going nuts since the RPG isn't out yet... you do know that parallelism in game development is the norm, right? Most companies do and SHOULD attempt to develop more than one IP at a time, especially since 'focusing on a project', NEVER EVER makes it go faster unless it was already shorthanded. You simply cannot double manpower on any project and expect it to come sooner, especially if common constraints are involved (ie, editing, printing, delivery)

Zombies sell lots of models, therefore zombies.

Doesn't matter if it's sci-fi/ historical/ fantasy, add zombies and they will come. Add Cthulu sprinkles on top if you really want a runaway Kickstarter.

 Killionaire wrote:
By the way, to all you people who are going nuts since the RPG isn't out yet... you do know that parallelism in game development is the norm, right? Most companies do and SHOULD attempt to develop more than one IP at a time, especially since 'focusing on a project', NEVER EVER makes it go faster unless it was already shorthanded. You simply cannot double manpower on any project and expect it to come sooner, especially if common constraints are involved (ie, editing, printing, delivery)

Development of multiple projects is well and good, but most companies have separate teams for those projects. I don't think I've ever heard of a developer "dropping everything" to work on a pet project, even if the company is winding down operations over the holiday season.

It might be that you've "never heard of it" precisely because most are smart enough to see what a negative response it'd get, though.

 Bolognesus wrote:
It might be that you've "never heard of it" precisely because most are smart enough to see what a negative response it'd get, though.

Yeah, this is a good point. Don't attribute to malice and all that.

None of that excuses such a boneheaded idea. Space zombies? Again? And why would you train soldiers in increased gravity? I expect better from Wyrd.

 Guildsman wrote:

 Bolognesus wrote:
It might be that you've "never heard of it" precisely because most are smart enough to see what a negative response it'd get, though.

Yeah, this is a good point. Don't attribute to malice and all that.

None of that excuses such a boneheaded idea. Space zombies? Again? And why would you train soldiers in increased gravity? I expect better from Wyrd.

Because you want your troops to be as ineffective as possible to 1G gravity conditions?

 PsychoticStorm wrote:

 Guildsman wrote:

 Bolognesus wrote:
It might be that you've "never heard of it" precisely because most are smart enough to see what a negative response it'd get, though.

Yeah, this is a good point. Don't attribute to malice and all that.

None of that excuses such a boneheaded idea. Space zombies? Again? And why would you train soldiers in increased gravity? I expect better from Wyrd.

Because you want your troops to be as ineffective as possible to 1G gravity conditions?

Seriously. I think the assumption at work is "oh, if they train in extra-strong gravity, they'll be super strong!" Which is, frankly, comic book-level nonsensical.

 Guildsman wrote:
Seriously. I think the assumption at work is "oh, if they train in extra-strong gravity, they'll be super strong!" Which is, frankly, comic book-level nonsensical.

Training in slightly higher gravity could be advantageous, as could training in slightly lower pressure environments (altitude training, basically). Training in gravity so high and for so long that it makes you noticeably shorter is first going to destroy your knees if you're lucky, your spine if you're unlucky.

The only way around that is some sci-fi handwavium, such as that used in the Culture novels where they have internal biological/ machine systems that can gradually change bone density to adapt to the higher gravity.

Even ridiculous stuff isn't so bad as long as there's some reasonably smart attempt to explain it.

The main question being: why are you jumping through hoops to give us shorty pants marines?

 scarletsquig wrote:
The only way around that is some sci-fi handwavium, such as that used in the Culture novels where they have internal biological/ machine systems that can gradually change bone density to adapt to the higher gravity.

Or you could just use gene mods to encourage bone strength development directly and skip the middleman. Such gene therapy might come naturally as a result of trying to cure osteoporosis.

Sway wrote:

 Thatguyoverthere wrote:
Also wik: Why's everybody upset about the Wyrd Kickstarter? What happened with it? All my experience with Wyrd has been extremely positive.

Wyrd hired Mack Martin specifically to work on the Malifaux based RPG Through the Breach. He was, for many people, a great sign that Wyrd was taking the RPG seriously and it wouldn't just be a money grabbing bit of fan service to build the back story of the world.

Since then, the RPG has been delayed quite a bit. It was originally expected to be released Sept 2013. PDFs of the books were finally sent out Feb 28th 2014. The books are being printed now.

Honestly, none of that should have surprised anyone. The kickstarter explicitly stated that more money would equal more content in the books. The problem is that Mack has jumped from project to project and many feel that, in doing so, he has neglected his work on the RPG. He had a major role in the production of M2E and now he has "dropped everything" to work on this game.

Add on to this the fact that Wyrd didn't do a great job of updating their kickstarter after the campaign and many people got seriously frustrated. Wyrd has a real problem with putting up information on their forums and nowhere else. They seem to occasionally forget that they have more casual fans who don't stop in to visit the forums very often but who still want to be kept updated on the status of the games in production.

Ah, I'm fairly regular on the Wyrd boards, so the comunication thing didn't really strike me. And complaining about delays in Kickstarters is sort of like complaining about rain getting things wet.

 Grot 6 wrote:

... the trainwreck that is Malfaux 2.

Wot? Malifaux 2nd Ed is sooo much better then first ed was. In my mind, it's the prime example of what a game company should do, taking a broken, clunky or unbalanced ruleset and making marked improvements in the new edition.

I like M2E too. Granted, never played the first edition so I have no idea what it was like. Otoh, bitter people are bitter.

Sining wrote:
I like M2E too. Granted, never played the first edition so I have no idea what it was like. Otoh, bitter people are bitter.

Not really much of a clear statement here, chief. Are they bitter when you chew on them,or do they just taste bitter to you with a nice white? Usually I like tasty people boiled, then bitter people baked, but to each his own.


Malfaux 2 is just about selling... stuff...now. That's it. Fun is out of the game, they remade a whole game system on the back of the one people started with, and pretty much shot themselves in the face over it. No one I know really gives Malfaux much of a look anymore. Figures go from ok, to out there, and the price makes you just want to put them back.

In a nutshell, I'm not a fan of Wyrd. They are unprofessional, and "winging it" never was really one of my favorite attributes in game companies. I don't like the dogpile crowd over on the board, and I don't think the game is very good anymore compared to playing it when it first came out. Things could have been better with the KS project, but they decided to do what they did, and lost my attention. About now, I'm just ready to get the stuff so I can sell it off and recoupe my losses.

 Killionaire wrote:
so this sounds a lot like that old tabletop wargame, Vor: The Maelstrom.

One of the factions is Space America, and Earth is being consumed by horrible space radiation. You rolled on tables to determine terrain details based on what continent you fought on, such as if you were against Space Soviet Union, or Space Zombie Egyptians.

Yeah, this sounds nothing at all like Vor. You're description sounds second hand, at best. "Space America" is the US in that game, united with Mexico and Canada, to form the Union. The setting was extra-dimensional, to allow for a sandbox effect. For it's time, it was fairly unique and forward thinking.

The new Wyrd game sounds uninteresting, and unwieldy. "Army Scale" doesn't appeal to me at all anymore, and I'm sure I'm not alone. It will be interesting to see more details though. Might surprise us.

~Eric