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It turns out that the t-shirt has almost as many words about robotech as the interview. He asked about imaginary rpg books (since he does zero prep seemingly for interviews) and Kevin says they're in the pipeline.

Kevin does admit to being way behind - commenting that a lot of the stuff they talked about at Gen Con 2016....still isn't out.

I couldn't watch any more of it after that.

That's the guy who took questions from the community for Kevin last year or two years ago and didn't ask him any of them.

He's a fan friend that goes to Palladium's Open House.

So, did they ever actually release whatever exciting book that was supposed to be coming out? I think it was REF Marines or whatever?

 Stormonu wrote:
More like "meh".

It was a lower case y for a reason!

:-P

Merijeek wrote:
So, did they ever actually release whatever exciting book that was supposed to be coming out? I think it was REF Marines or whatever?

Yes, they did release it - I did actually pick that book up (from a second-hand seller). Six new cyclone motorcycles, everything else was rehashed from the Sentinels book with "new" artwork for the REF mechs by Chuck (Personally I liked the older versions better, but ...eh). Wouldn't say it was worth it - especially since it was five years late. I only picked it up because the material available about the Sentinels is so sparse - even the comic book for the series was unfinished. About the only value *I* got out of it was the Sentinels timeline at the beginning (which for whatever reason, wasn't in the first Sentinel release book).

Funny thing is, I will never use the Palladium system for any Robotech RPG games - I'd much rather use the likes of Savage Worlds, or Battletech if I was really pressed. I just happen to have received the old Robotech RPGs from a friend years ago, and when the KS showed up, I learned they had redone some of the books, and picked those up to see what had changed. Still have them, don't suspect I'll get rid of them, but at best they're reference material and nothing I'd use the actual stats for.

 warboss wrote:
It turns out that the t-shirt has almost as many words about robotech as the interview. He asked about imaginary rpg books (since he does zero prep seemingly for interviews) and Kevin says they're in the pipeline.

I watched one of his interviews back in the day, and I have to say, I've watched one too many.

Am I the only one who thinks those bases look terrible? Seriously I thought Scott may have made them real quick himself just to have something to post for this update.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Am I the only one who thinks those bases look terrible? Seriously I thought Scott may have made them real quick himself just to have something to post for this update.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out Scooter had fired up a quick send off on those bases, you could make those in google draw in about five minutes after all. I'd think Kevin was running around on the down low trying to find a fan friend to do the renders for free because I am Palladium and you should help Unca Kevster, but someone would have broke the silence about being approached to work on spec by now I'm sure. Kev can't slap a NDA on them before telling them he loves their work and thinks that Palladium would be great exposure and they should work for free. At least I'd assume not. If I got an email about work that started with agreeing to a NDA before telling me what the job was I'd pretty much drop it in my spam folder. Course that could be happening.


Hi, this is Kevin 'I am Palladium' Siembieda and I noticed your design work and would love to talk with you. Included is a Non-disclosure agreement you must sign off on before we can discuss the fabulous opportunity that awaits you! Excelsior! Trademark! Copywright! Be sure to send the NDA signed, sealed, authorized, filed in a disused lavatory in a filing cabinet marked "Beware of the Leopard" with the first response as we cannot proceed with the modalities.

Signed,

Unca Kevster 'Nigerian Oil Minister of Palladium' S.

 vonjankmon wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks those bases look terrible? Seriously I thought Scott may have made them real quick himself just to have something to post for this update.

They've received some stinging rebukes. But I'm not THAT critical of them. They'd arguably be "adequate" at best, and just like the miniatures, if they're handled by a skilled modeler, they might come off looking reasonable.

The two flaws that make them problematic for me, firstly is the etching. If the bases are only a few mm thick (much thinner than the resin bases I'm usually working with), how thick can the etching be, that it won't compromise the base's structural integrity. On the 50mm one, the twin parallel lines just off centre look like a VERY easy breakage point. So the only two options are to make them substantially thicker than the existing bases, or to have the etching so thin as to be almost pointless (ie, better to have a stencil kit that you could spray detail onto).

The other issue is the placement of the ID tab. Several of my Malifaux crews have used resin bases or metal base inserts, and one way to add variety is to just reorient the bases, so that it doesn't look like they're standing on the same ground. The ID tab means that each model is going to have that dumbell thing under their left foot. And it doesn't seem like there's going to be more variations, just a single version of each, though that could change.

That brings up a third point I hadn't considered. Why, on the 40mm base, would you put a raised protrusion in the exact spot you're most likely to have a contact point with the model, the point where you're gluing the left leg to the base? This'd be OK if the models weren't created with mostly parade rest stances, or if they had points of articulation that allowed for altering the stance in an easy way.

This'd all be okay, if the pricing was reasonable. But Back2Base-ix for example, does bases for approximately the same price, $8AU (~$6.30US) for 5x40mm or 3x50mm, for much higher quality.

The fragility of bases is only a problem for people that actually play the game.

How many of those are there?

 TwoGunBob wrote:
Wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out Scooter had fired up a quick send off on those bases, you could make those in google draw in about five minutes after all. I'd think Kevin was running around on the down low trying to find a fan friend to do the renders for free because I am Palladium and you should help Unca Kevster, but someone would have broke the silence about being approached to work on spec by now I'm sure. Kev can't slap a NDA on them before telling them he loves their work and thinks that Palladium would be great exposure and they should work for free. At least I'd assume not. If I got an email about work that started with agreeing to a NDA before telling me what the job was I'd pretty much drop it in my spam folder. Course that could be happening.


Hi, this is Kevin 'I am Palladium' Siembieda and I noticed your design work and would love to talk with you. Included is a Non-disclosure agreement you must sign off on before we can discuss the fabulous opportunity that awaits you! Excelsior! Trademark! Copywright! Be sure to send the NDA signed, sealed, authorized, filed in a disused lavatory in a filing cabinet marked "Beware of the Leopard" with the first response as we cannot proceed with the modalities.

Signed,

Unca Kevster 'Nigerian Oil Minister of Palladium' S.

NDAs are fairly common if you work with design. Anytime people want me to produce an OEM design for manufacturing, I usually have to sign a NDA before they will even discuss the design with me.

You'd sign a NDA and then find out they wanted you to work for 'exposure' and 'spec' and for the awesome chance to work for Palladium the '142nd fastest company in the west' but no money and find it binding to the NDA that you couldn't even say you were approached to work for nothing?

Edit: Cause I'm honestly curious, I'd consider it my time wasted and any contract was in bad faith to begin with if a company were trying to muzzle me about them fishing for work to be done for free.

I've done editing work for free under NDA but they were up front about it and asked if I could work for free and well, you get what you pay for. Never had anyone approach me waving a NDA and THEN tell me they were seeing if I would work for free but don't tell anyone because the NDA was binding me to silence.

Poor Irving.

Well... it looks like Kickstarter are taking a much harder line on people's comments than they previously have.

I sent Merijeek's post from earlier today in the Update commentary, to a friend, and it's gone. And Meri is claiming in the commentary it was deleted.

The post read "Well, Kevin specifically said it wasn't spent on a yacht. So I'm going 98% chance it was spent on a yacht."

So... that's a change. Speculation, especially snide speculation, is a deletabe offense. Meri being Meri, doubled down on this by posting in the general commentary. So I expect a suspension sometime in his future. But feth that. I want an " I'm with Meri" tshirt.

Better to quell dissent than actually answer reasonable questions. So feth them.

Still think it means Grifts(tm) 2: Shut Up Carmen It's My Game is coming soon.

I *think* KS recently gave creators more abilities to 'police' their comments sections?

Maybe?

Funny thing a gRifts: The Bored Game is that I'm sure all the work put into reconfiguring the kickstarter is how to silence Robotech backers and voices of criticism rather than actually making the game presentation BETTER. There will still be no rules available, no manufacturer information, the board itself will still be a cocktail napkin. They will just try to stop people asking basic questions and pray they can delete comments that ask for accountability BEFORE giving over any money.
Unca Kevster sees this as a, "how can I silence my critics?" versus "how can I make this project can I make this project so awesome and irresistible that people will overlook my failure on Robotech and still invest?"
I don't think there's anything Unca Kev, Wayno, Car-man and Scooter can do to make gRifts a success short of finishing Robotech and that's the one thing they blatantly refuse to do apparently. All this work to weasel out of their obligation and they are surprised and disappointed that the gaming community is holding them to their agreement to produce a product people paid for.

That's one of "the things", right? Their communication basically comes down to Kevin feeling entitled to our money and perhaps giving us something in return for it "soon".

What amazes me is that Palladium fans actually enable this behavior, they defend it and claim to happily cough up their own money (I sincerely doubt many of them do) for the privilege.

Palladium is the actual welfare queen of the gaming industry.

It comes as a real shock to them that there are customers who hold them accountable, that their reputation has an impact on their bottom line.

Well, I hope there is sufficient negativity out there so a quick search can show that pre-order or any other money up front investment is a proven fools game with Palladium Books.
Why do you think I always type their full name every time I post?
It gives me that warm fuzzy feeling every single time I post some negative comment about them.
I am not normally a petty guy...

 Alpharius wrote:
I *think* KS recently gave creators more abilities to 'police' their comments sections?

Maybe?

That's plausible because I don't think Kickstarter has started monitoring projects that are over three years old and still not completed..
You would think a service would worry about that kind of thing.. Sad thing is if Palladium has power to prune their comment section..
It will start to look like a government document discussing area 51.

But the other thing is I watch the interview video and Kevin was very happy to have sold 70 copies the first day and plans on selling
all he brought of 120 copies.. That's only about $2500, I don't think that would even cover table cost.

Then you think at the same convention.. Piazo released Star Finder.. I feel they are a small press company too, but made a lot better
decisions and continued to grow.. If they only sold a 120 copies of it for the whole convention of 60k people attending it would be a
complete bust and think the game would be a failure.

 Genoside07 wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
I *think* KS recently gave creators more abilities to 'police' their comments sections?

Maybe?

That's plausible because I don't think Kickstarter has started monitoring projects that are over three years old and still not completed..
You would think a service would worry about that kind of thing.. Sad thing is if Palladium has power to prune their comment section..
It will start to look like a government document discussing area 51.

But the other thing is I watch the interview video and Kevin was very happy to have sold 70 copies the first day and plans on selling
all he brought of 120 copies.. That's only about $2500, I don't think that would even cover table cost.

Then you think at the same convention.. Piazo released Star Finder.. I feel they are a small press company too, but made a lot better
decisions and continued to grow.. If they only sold a 120 copies of it for the whole convention of 60k people attending it would be a
complete bust and think the game would be a failure.

Yeah, I mentioned that on the previous page, a 10x10 booth cost $1600 last year. The PB booth was definitely larger than that. That he's proud of selling out a print run of 120 is just showing how deep into the rabbit hole he is. Everything he does is awesome. Any critique is ignored.

Hell, this is the ONLY book they had produced this year, to that point. If 120 books is a significant marker on your balance sheet, it really does call into question as to how they keep the doors open.

Morgan Vening wrote:

Yeah, I mentioned that on the previous page, a 10x10 booth cost $1600 last year. The PB booth was definitely larger than that. That he's proud of selling out a print run of 120 is just showing how deep into the rabbit hole he is. Everything he does is awesome. Any critique is ignored.

Hell, this is the ONLY book they had produced this year, to that point. If 120 books is a significant marker on your balance sheet, it really does call into question as to how they keep the doors open.

That's what I see also.. They are a old company and have a bunch of baggage that Scott will needs to deal with.. First is the fix the RTT wagon because it is pulling everything down..

Next is to have Kevin stop announcing product until it is leaving for printing.. This "we are working on it and its coming out soon" is making them look like fools.

Even looking at Gen Con, they had four days of chances to sale product to over 60,000 gamers (not regular people) and they are happy to sale 120 books.. That is a less than a one percent

of possible customers being sold to. My other worry is Palladium will finish RTT and slob out everything, so it will be a dumpster fire at low tide when it arrives with no chances of resurrection.

 Genoside07 wrote:
But the other thing is I watch the interview video and Kevin was very happy to have sold 70 copies the first day and plans on selling
all he brought of 120 copies.. That's only about $2500, I don't think that would even cover table cost.

Wait a minute, was he talking about core boxes?

Because those are $100, but that'd be down to $70 with the booklet coupon, as I recall.

That's still $8,400 (70 x 120). Where are you getting $2,500 from?

Even just those 70 copies at discount would be nearly 5 grand.

Obviously that's still pocket change compared to the scope of wave 2, just curious why one of us seems to be having a massive math fail.

Unless you were talking about the expansions? Which, yeah, sure, go ahead and keep the lights on $20 or $30 at a time.

No, Kevin in the interview was talking about the new Rifts book release that should be around $20-$25
So I was doing quick math of 120 (copies sold) at $25 should be $3000 and table cost should be alot more
than that... Also including the fact that 120 books for 60,000 people is not a whole lot..

Even moreso, that $3,000 wouldn't all be profit - gotta pay the freelancer, artist and print costs to have made that book in the first place. Well, at least the print costs.

I just have to wonder what - beyond RT funds - keeps these guys in business that they can can even keep their doors open anymore. There is no way one book release per year can do it, nor the sale of T-shirts, playing cards or tumblers. They have GOT to be close to having draining those RT funds, if they hadn't already done so long ago.

It's really a good question. I would love to find out.

Prostitution?????

I wonder if there is still RRT money and perhaps they are living off of the interest it generates.

Kevin knows he will never see that kind of cash again.

 n815e wrote:
I wonder if there is still RRT money and perhaps they are living off of the interest it generates.

Kevin knows he will never see that kind of cash again.

It is really sad that Kevin thinks it is okay to just keep the money and not work on it..
He acts like he is working on RTT.. but the years of nothing is the proof of whats really going on.

I agree with most as our current situation is Harmony Gold will loose the licence in 2021 and Kevin
will be forced to say what happened to the kick starter money.. and that will not be pretty, I am sure of that.