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I imagine that Kevin will claim that there's an NDA in place and he can't speak to what happened to the money.

Of course, what's really happened is that the money was given to Palladium Books, and Kevin is Palladium Books. And he can do whatever the hell he wants with HIS money. So go to hell, peasants.

Perhaps hes doing like other shonky businesses and been telling staff 'money's a bit short, I promise to pay you next week'.

Or in the case of freelancers they havent been getting paid anyway. And why should he? The amount of time Kevin has to waste rewritting submissions so they meet his standard.

Unfortunately Palladium Books and Kevin have pointed out the error of Kickstarter: if a creator really does not want to give the money back and is not getting the rewards done,he only has to take a few simple steps.

There is only one method that they cannot dodge: do not send them any form of money... ever.

This is why what few "White Knights" they have, I have no patience or time for: if it suits PB's purposes, they can take these people's orders and say they are "working on it".
How many times does it need to be demonstrated that PB feels only a token need to make good on a consumer exchange?

Their Christmas package is a fine example of that: we give you whatever we feel like and will receive your wishes but will not necessarily fulfil them.
I just bet Kevin looks up the name, would find me and throw the lump of coal in the package.
I am pretty sure he considers himself a saint.

 Talizvar wrote:
Unfortunately Palladium Books and Kevin have pointed out the error of Kickstarter: if a creator really does not want to give the money back and is not getting the rewards done,he only has to take a few simple steps.

There is only one method that they cannot dodge: do not send them any form of money... ever.

This is why what few "White Knights" they have, I have no patience or time for: if it suits PB's purposes, they can take these people's orders and say they are "working on it".
How many times does it need to be demonstrated that PB feels only a token need to make good on a consumer exchange?

Their Christmas package is a fine example of that: we give you whatever we feel like and will receive your wishes but will not necessarily fulfil them.
I just bet Kevin looks up the name, would find me and throw the lump of coal in the package.
I am pretty sure he considers himself a saint.

I'd be willing to buy you a Palladium Christmas Bundle/Sale/Grab Bag thingie just to see if it would happen!

I'll PayPal you the money this December - just shoot me a reminder!

 Alpharius wrote:
I'll PayPal you the money this December - just shoot me a reminder!

I think... I may view this as being a rabble-rouser.
I am curious myself.
It could be an interesting "place your bets" moment.
But the devil is in the details: should I insist on the Starter Box or ask for Robotech RPG books?
Would I get the starter box because they need to get rid of it, or do they get me everything else I did not ask for?
To be sure, your money may be better spent on Morgan ordering a package.

Ask for wave 2? Or a proof of progress perhaps?

Morgan would also be a good choice, but given their hefty shipping charges, we'd be pissing away a substantial amount of money on a gag, and the best case scenario is someone receives '$90 to $95 worth of product' (or whatever it is they boast about) they don't actually want, and probably can't even resell at a loss.

Given them like $100+ or whatever to send him a pile of crap would really be a 'jokes on you' kind of moment.

Hell, even if they didn't go the coal route, a pile of dusty Rifters would be about as valuable (give or take, as a fire starter).

evilsmurf wrote:
Perhaps hes doing like other shonky businesses and been telling staff 'money's a bit short, I promise to pay you next week'.

No. It's on record that he just flat out tells them they'll be working for him for free. Everyone in the office has to take a "turn" at working for several months for no wage.

This came out some years ago when some writer or other in his employ quit when presented with the requirement to work for free. Unca Kev wrote a murmur or something where he treated it like the most natural thing in the world that people should work for him for no wage as well as cast a bit of subtle shade on the writer as not being dedicated enough.

Got a link to that?

Sounds like it might be one of the more...interesting things that KS has written in a long time!

 vonjankmon wrote:
If you are a fan of Robotech but have not watched Macross Frontier you need to fix that. Robotech is how I was introduced to the whole mech franchise thing so it holds a special gilded place in my heart but Macross Frontier is seriously good without having to have the "Watched it when I was a kid" gilded memories that Robotech has.

+1

The whole idea of mashing up an idol series and a mecha combat series sounds mad, but Macross Frontier really makes it work. The intercut concert scenes and mecha combat in the first episode are truly epic.

Has anyone ever estimated how much money just the shipping would cost?

Would we guess it was more or less than 1/10? 150K etc.

 Talizvar wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
I'll PayPal you the money this December - just shoot me a reminder!

I think... I may view this as being a rabble-rouser.
I am curious myself.
It could be an interesting "place your bets" moment.
But the devil is in the details: should I insist on the Starter Box or ask for Robotech RPG books?
Would I get the starter box because they need to get rid of it, or do they get me everything else I did not ask for?
To be sure, your money may be better spent on Morgan ordering a package.

Well, you're either getting a lump of poop or an RRT starter box.

So..I'd request anything BUT a starter box. Though I expect you to get one anyway.

WithintheDungeon wrote:
Has anyone ever estimated how much money just the shipping would cost?

Would we guess it was more or less than 1/10? 150K etc.

~73% of the backers are located in the US, based on the Community data page on the campaign. Glancing at the USPS site, there isn't a flat rate box large enough that would hold a core box and battle cry extras bag, and the one closest to the core alone is $16.55 (no idea what the cost was back in 2014/2015).

Let's say $25, on average, just to ballpark it, and average out between the smaller orders that maybe they got away with something roughly around $20'ish, some that were substantially more in the $30 range, and not sweat the exact breakdown of who got what (with Showdown and Reckless backers, one person might account for multiple boxes, but we have no idea what the actual distribution is on that).

That'd be about $100k right there. And again, that's probably a low estimate.

It also leaves about 1,400 backers who weren't in the US, and had presumably higher shipping costs involved. My group that got a double reckless had 2 large boxes shipped to us containing wave 1 (4 cores plus bags per), and I think it was $50 per box. Even if we assume an average of around $50 per non-US backer, that's another $70k.

So, low end, that's an estimate of $150k, and something closer to $200-250k+ wouldn't surprise me at all.

"But Forar, you just said 100k and 70k, but you're starting around 150k? Lawl you fael @ mathz", some might point out.

The reason I did so was that there are 343 backers listed at the "new dawn" level just getting Rick's VT, which obviously they have not gotten. Now, yes, I'm sure some of those might have upgraded to a Battle Cry or higher during the Pledge Manager, but we don't know. They're an unknown variable that could lighten the load on shipping they had to do, and a couple hundred backers would add up pretty quickly.

And because this thread is full of pedants ( :-P ) I'll also point out that yes, this obviously ignores the costs incurred with design and production and shipping and the omgwtfbbq levels of overstock they seem to have procured and a half dozen other elements that have come up. This is just musing about shipping, and I think it's pretty safe to say they probably dropped 10-20% of the funds received on shipping to backers.

"So doesn't that mean they'd need hundreds of thousands more to ship the rest, even if they could produce it?" Well, yeah, I mean flat rate boxes for US backers would probably be cheaper, because for many it'd just be a bag or two of extra sprues and maybe an add on or two (based on the average contribution being ~$270, and Wayne saying they got roughly another 10% in the pledge manager, so ~$300 per backer either becomes a Showdown with minimal add ons or a Battle Cry with substantial add ons, as an average, balanced against the New Dawn (Rick Hunter VT) low end and the 'why did you think you needed 20+ core boxes?!?' high end.

However, even if the 27 figures fit in a Large Flat Rate box, that'd be another ~65.5k to the US backers alone. I'm ruling out the Small and Medium boxes because some of the larger figures (MPA, FPA) probably add up where the medium might not work out, and the small definitely wouldn't. If they pulled off the Medium box, that'd still be nearly 50k. And again, that's before ROW backers, which would presumably be double that, if not more. 100-200k as a ballpark, in shipping alone?

And again (hi guys), this includes the usual caveats about challenging whether they have any funding at all, whether whatever has been left over might have been put into an investment vehicle of any sort beyond getting 0.01% in a bank account, whether they've been drawing off the interest and/or principal to keep the lights on or cover other costs, etc, etc, etc. This isn't intended to be a PHD dissertation on their funding, but a semi-stream of thought bit of napkin math while glancing at the publicly available information and trying to note where variables exist.

Short of PB collapsing in an embarrassing way and Wayne or someone else deciding to drop the whole story through a thinly veiled intermediary.

We can waffle and debate the particulars, but in general I think it's a safe assumption that they spent 'a gakload' on shipping alone, and would be shocked if it cost less than half that again to finish the job (if they could/were interested in more than just stringing us along for half a decade, etc, etc).

Forar - your shipping estimates are interesting, but depending on how the work is done, it can actually come out to be significantly less if you are buying the postage online and printing the labels yourself. And doing the sorting before the PO picks it up, too.

Just as a frame of reference, I get about a 9% discount when printing my own labels on eBay, and I am not a Power Seller, or anything like that. The discount was even more when I was. So, just sayin, the published rates ain't the be all and end all, if you're smart about it. Then again, this is Palladium we're talking about, where your average houseplant can outthink Kevin most days...

Yeah, I recall Dwarven Forge and Bones (I think) talking about getting discounts for massive bulk shipping.

But even shaving 10% off 'a gakload of money' is 90% of a gakload of money.

Unless they had some deal sorted out involving *insert sexual favor here*, I doubt they were getting enough of a discount to matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, 10-30 grand is a lot of money to the average person, but if getting the project finished costs substantial fractions of a million or more, it's more of a rounding error.

 Alpharius wrote:
Got a link to that?

Sounds like it might be one of the more...interesting things that KS has written in a long time!

It's in the old Bill Coffin rant, though I'm unable to find a link to the actual posting he made (think it's on RPGNET somewhere).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On shipping, if I recall correctly, the super-massive post/rant Kevin did a year or two back listed ROW shipping at $150K.

Found the quote you're talking about.

I badly wanted to include additional shipping fees in the Kickstarter. Something that almost everyone does today, but back then, we were strongly advised not to. We were told that nobody (back then) charged shipping and that if we charged a shipping fee in addition to the backer pledge levels, it would severely reduce the chances of a successful Kickstarter. This was the subject of many discussions. I finally acquiesced, but it would be something that would haunt us later, as shipping worldwide would be in the neighborhood of $150,000 all by itself. Just for Wave One!

Which is bull. Even back then, it wasn't that 'nobody charged for shipping', it was expected that domestic shipping would be included in the base tier (and then extra charged for international backers).

They also rescinded the original claim that international backers would only pay shipping once for a combined package, and charged multiple times for larger orders. I don't know how much it amounted to, likely only a drop in the bucket, but in retrospect I can only assume it was made to try to stem some of the hemorrhaging they were likely expecting at the time.

 Alpharius wrote:
Got a link to that?

Sounds like it might be one of the more...interesting things that KS has written in a long time!

Ask and ye shall receive:
https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?74137-What-s-up-with-Palladium-and-BTS&p=1445566#post1445566

Thank you Forar...

Let's not forget that they also have to pay taxes on those funds, and likely any funds made with interest. It would be sort of interesting if they put a bunch of funds in five year bonds, so as to maximize they're profits (more speculation) I mean how else does a company that had produced 2 RPG products this year with a staff of 3 (+1 or 2) and Scott Gibbons keep the lights on... Truthfully I'd like to know... It's damn amazing... Either no one is being paid, or the "crisis of treachery" was a double cross? Remember Kevin had said hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen and in the end he got a small five figures (or was it four?)...

And to the other stuff...
Bill Coffin:https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?74137-What-s-up-with-Palladium-and-BTS&p=1445566#post1445566
Josh Hilden:http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?12632-Palladium-Kevin-backstabs-Dead-Reign-authors
And Don't forget Kevin Siembieda:http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=97573

I don't' remember Bill saying that folks weren't paid or worked for free at Kevin's request, I think that is inaccurate.

WOAH! WOAH! HEY HEY NOW! WHAT'S WITH EVERYBODY WANTING TO HAVE PALLADIUM SEND ME THE GAMING EQUIVALENT OF POOP IN A BOX?

Besides, I'd rather get repeatedly kicked in the nards than have PB receive any money on my behalf. Especially given that you know Kevin would gouge the crap out of things on shipping to make sure he came out on top.

Re the shipping estimates, just look at how much PB charge for shipping, and tell me that PB have any frikkin clue about how to save money on shipping.

 Forar wrote:
Found the quote you're talking about.

I badly wanted to include additional shipping fees in the Kickstarter. Something that almost everyone does today, but back then, we were strongly advised not to. We were told that nobody (back then) charged shipping and that if we charged a shipping fee in addition to the backer pledge levels, it would severely reduce the chances of a successful Kickstarter. This was the subject of many discussions. I finally acquiesced, but it would be something that would haunt us later, as shipping worldwide would be in the neighborhood of $150,000 all by itself. Just for Wave One!

Which is bull. Even back then, it wasn't that 'nobody charged for shipping', it was expected that domestic shipping would be included in the base tier (and then extra charged for international backers).

They also rescinded the original claim that international backers would only pay shipping once for a combined package, and charged multiple times for larger orders. I don't know how much it amounted to, likely only a drop in the bucket, but in retrospect I can only assume it was made to try to stem some of the hemorrhaging they were likely expecting at the time.

Of course, like most things, Kevin is the prescient one. He's the one that saw the problem immediately, and it was the failure of the people around him that As is always the case. Like it was with parts count. Like it was with 98%. Like it has been for everything. Kevin's only mistake is trusting the people around him.

 Forar wrote:
Found the quote you're talking about.

I badly wanted to include additional shipping fees in the Kickstarter. Something that almost everyone does today, but back then, we were strongly advised not to. We were told that nobody (back then) charged shipping and that if we charged a shipping fee in addition to the backer pledge levels, it would severely reduce the chances of a successful Kickstarter. This was the subject of many discussions. I finally acquiesced, but it would be something that would haunt us later, as shipping worldwide would be in the neighborhood of $150,000 all by itself. Just for Wave One!

Which is bull. Even back then, it wasn't that 'nobody charged for shipping', it was expected that domestic shipping would be included in the base tier (and then extra charged for international backers).

They also rescinded the original claim that international backers would only pay shipping once for a combined package, and charged multiple times for larger orders. I don't know how much it amounted to, likely only a drop in the bucket, but in retrospect I can only assume it was made to try to stem some of the hemorrhaging they were likely expecting at the time.

I truly think Palladium got involved in this purely because of the money they could potentially make in getting it funded and lost sight of the nuts and bolts in what it will take to make it work. The trouble is that when you read gems like this from RRT Update 176, it makes me wonder if they truly did their Due Diligence getting involved in a Kickstarter:

Spoiler:

It was my friend Jolly Blackburn, creator of Knights of the Dinner Table, who first told me about Kickstarter and that I should look into it. A couple weeks later, out of the blue, Carmen Bellaire began ranting about the value of Kickstarter and that it was something Palladium needed to look into. This was before Robotech® RPG Tactics™ was even an idea.

Carmen was the first to restart the Kickstarter conversation, saying we should fund the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ project via Kickstarter. That it would be easy. Tom Roache concurred. We were hesitant. It sounded great, but we knew it had to be a lot more demanding and difficult than it sounded. And it had to be done right to be successful.

If we apply a reasonable person standard to the above quote, it would lead us to believe that Kevin and Company did their due diligence in what it would take to run the kickstarter from start to finish. Hoever, we know this to not be the case.

Spoiler:

Enter Ninja Division. At the time, Soda Pop Miniatures and Cipher Studios had done something like eight Kickstarters between them, and had the experience we lacked in all areas. The Ninjas said they could handle the Kickstarter 100%, from start to finish. From the graphics, writing and the video presentation, to the stretch goals and Q&A. This was a huge relief, as we knew nothing about doing a Kickstarter. We let the Ninjas run with it, sat back and watched in awe. Of course, we made some suggestions and did some editing, but this was Ninja Division’s show. We trusted their expertise and what needed to be done. And look as the result, wow. The Kickstarter was a tremendous success and there was much rejoicing.

Seawolf bone of contention #5,876: If Ninja Division was running it, and everything was ready to go, all of the ensuing drama not have occurred... In other words, everything was ready, and all that was needed was funding. It sounds highly likely that there was no communication between Palladium and Ninja Division with a major dose of no one really having an idea who is responsible for anything beyond the scope of work that either party contracted to.

Speaking of bone of contention #5,877:

Spoiler:

First, not knowing anything about Kickstarters, we did not realize the real job of managing a Kickstarter begins AFTER the Kickstarter is funded. We thought that when Ninja Division said it would handle the Kickstarter from start to finish, that they would be handling everything. Again, we didn’t know what “everything” entailed.

As it turned out, they meant “finish” as a successful funding. Again, not knowing exactly what’s involved and with miscommunication by both parties, Palladium did not realize it would be our responsibility to handle the thousands of emails and questions that would follow the successful funding of the Kickstarter. Remember, we were still figuring out and learning everything about Kickstarters, including establishing the BackerKit storefront to manage the pledges of our 5,000+ backers, among many other things. Consequently, something like six weeks went by without Palladium answering a single question or email on the Kickstarter page. It was only when one of the Ninjas reached out to Palladium, asking why were we ignoring the backers on the Kickstarter page, and the discussion that followed, that we at Palladium realized it was our job to manage the page. We jumped right on it, but by then, backers were frustrated and we had a thousand plus emails to answer, plus regular posts and updates to make. Like I said, it was crazy as that express train was rocketing down the tracks with more unexpected challenges and surprises to come.

How the deuce did either party not know what that meant? Did either party read the bloody contract? Apparently not. Again, if we apply a reasonable person standard in a contract environment if a term was vague or ambiguous you call the other party for clarification before signing your name to the document. Also, this illustrated the other glaring issue in 176 - Did Kevin presume he didn't have to interact with the fanbase? Its his company's name on the box, its his product to hype. You would think you want to have that interaction.

Spoiler:

Second, we discovered we were not “98% done” and ready for manufacturing. This was a huge surprise, the details and depths of which we did not come to fully understand till some months after we had missed our 2013 Fall Release. I’ve caught a lot of flack for saying we were 98% done, but that’s what we thought. All of us.

Our past experience was the old school method of making game pieces in which once you have your sculpts – in this case, the 3D renders – you make your mold and you start spitting out and packaging pieces. 98% of the 3D sculpts were done. The rules, done. The artwork, done. Final book layout easy, breezy and something that should be done in a matter of days; a no-brainer. Game card designs, mostly finished. When we launched and finished the Kickstarter, we truly thought we were 98% DONE. Here’s something you’ll laugh at, when we first estimated a November 2013 release, we actually thought we were being cautious. There was no doubt in our minds at Palladium that Robotech® RPG Tactics™ would ship that Fall. December at the latest. We spent money on ads saying as much.

Spoiler:

It turns out the type of manufacturing we’re doing is fairly new to the hobby game industry. There are serious conversion and incompatibility issues in converting the 3D models done by the sculptors to what needs to be done in China to make the molds and go into manufacturing. This is not just something Palladium and Ninja Division ran into, it’s true for EVERYONE using this type of manufacturing process. Only we didn’t know that at the time. Neither did Ninja Division, who were only starting to get the picture after the Kickstarter ended and they sent the first digital files over. (Or if they did, they didn’t realize the conversion process would be as arduous.) It would take Palladium months to grasp exactly what the situation was. Mainly because at that time, we weren’t directly involved in the conversations with the factory and the Manufacturing Broker. As the seemingly inexplicable delays went on, it seemed insane to us. How could someone not have made a conversion program for these incompatible files (3D sculpts versus what the manufacturer/factory needs)? However, we have since had this confirmed by the folks at Dust and several other game companies that this is, indeed, the case, and there is no way around it at the present time. Crazy, right?

Crazy is not doing your due diligence. If a reasonable person standard was applied here (I know I am applying it the wrong entity, silly me) then either Palladium or Ninja Division should have asked the manufacturer broker what rendering software do they use BEFORE turning over the renders. These errors should have been caught before being turned over to the manufacturer.

Lack of due diligence on Palladium's part is not an excuse for the lack of due diligence of the remaining parties. Palladium mismanaged this. Pure and simple. and for it to progress as long as it has, damages the IP further. Robotech RRT is tainted property at this point in time, purely because of the gak-fest its become. Even if they manage to get Wave 2 off, they still will be sitting on tainted property. The support is non-existent from Palladium, and will continue to be so as long as they continue dithering about.

Even if Wave 2 ships, the conversation will likely go like this:
"Hey I got my Wave 2 awards for Robotech RPG Tactics."
"Really? Cool! Want to play Star Wars Legion?"
"Lets!"

The opportunity to correct this was back when Wave 1 was received and prepped for shipping. Not almost three years later.

 Seawolf wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Got a link to that?

Sounds like it might be one of the more...interesting things that KS has written in a long time!

Ask and ye shall receive:
https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?74137-What-s-up-with-Palladium-and-BTS&p=1445566#post1445566

Thank you Seawolf!

Interesting stuff there...

Interesting as in: Oh God. Oh God, we're all going to die?

or interesting as in: Oh god, how the feth did this company survive for so long?

I finally figured out how they came up with the 98% done, BTW - from that update.

Kevin Sembedia wrote:
In 2012, my original plan was to only make game pieces to sell as an add-on to the existing role-playing game market. Research is 90% of everything in business, so we started to quietly talk with fans to find out whether they had any interest in Robotech® game pieces. They did.

So, 90% of their work was asking the fans if they wanted the game. The remaining 8% was what they had worked on for Wave 1.

 Seawolf wrote:
Interesting as in: Oh God. Oh God, we're all going to die?

or interesting as in: Oh god, how the feth did this company survive for so long?

The latter - though I'm sure many 'employees' of KS have thought the former (about the company) through the years.

It is hard to believe that PB books is still around.

Just how many books did they put out in 2016?

How many "Rifters"?

And the same YTD for 2017?

It can't be many at all...

Morgan Vening wrote:
WOAH! WOAH! HEY HEY NOW! WHAT'S WITH EVERYBODY WANTING TO HAVE PALLADIUM SEND ME THE GAMING EQUIVALENT OF POOP IN A BOX?
Besides, I'd rather get repeatedly kicked in the nards than have PB receive any money on my behalf. Especially given that you know Kevin would gouge the crap out of things on shipping to make sure he came out on top.

It is precisely the reason for getting this gratifying response that the proposal was made.
I do admit it is just toying with the thought.
It goes completely contrary to my need to ensure Palladium Books does not get any money in any way.
A Christmas package purchase could allow Kevin to operate for days on that.
I am glad our sentiments are aligned, maybe yours are a bit more dramatic and vivid but still good to see.

 Alpharius wrote:


The latter - though I'm sure many 'employees' of KS have thought the former (about the company) through the years.

It is hard to believe that PB books is still around.

Just how many books did they put out in 2016?

How many "Rifters"?

And the same YTD for 2017?

It can't be many at all...

http://palladium-store.com/1001/category/Just-Released.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Reign
https://www.acdd.com/the-rifter-76.html
https://www.acdd.com/nightbane-dark-designs.html

I selected ACD because its a decent sized game distributor that lists release dates on their products.

Looks like the tumblers, 2 rifters and Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans that just was released right before GenCon.
So it is now September and they officially have 2 (Originally called Bi-monthly) magazines and one official book out.
Nightbane is listed as Pre Order on ACD website and I trust the book has not been released.

The tumblers are no real work internally I am sure.. Just send in art work a certain size and everything else is done..
There is a dozen websites that do that from coffee mugs to T-shirts.

So only One real release this year in 9 months of 2017, but yet they promise each year that RTT will be released this year..
They added Scott to help out, so Kevin can do more work, but I think it will be more the same.

So only one actual RPG release on 2017, YTD?

Yikes.

But yeah, sure, no KS money is being used on anything not related to the Robotech project...

Though I'm sure that some simple mental gymnastics can get them to the 'but...but...we need to pay the bills in order to be able to keep working on the KS project!"

I have this niggling feeling that this thread serves no further purpose and is instead just sucking the air out of the rest of the Misc Sci-Fi Forum.

I mean, how much can we say, "Grrrr. Palladium! You suck!" before it just doesn't matter anymore?

Edit: On Topic. Still have 2 core boxes and extra Destroid boxes that I have not even opened.

You're...just figuring this out?

Palladium really is to blame, in every way, for what the discussion has become, and is, in terms of their KS campaign and how they've decided to run it.

 Alpharius wrote:
Though I'm sure that some simple mental gymnastics can get them to the 'but...but...we need to pay the bills in order to be able to keep working on the KS project!"

I suspect that is the exact thought process.
No gymnastics at all.
Paying overhead costs is part of expense toward the KS project in their eyes.

I keep coming pack to this fine rant by Kevin in August 2015:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rrpgt/robotech-rpg-tacticstm/posts/1335688

"Despite what some have suggested, I want you to know there has not been any misappropriation of the funds raised by the Kickstarter, nor any wrongdoing of any kind.
Not by me or anyone at Palladium Books. There is absolutely NO merit for such conjecture or inferences.
If there were ever any type of investigation, Palladium has accurate records, receipts, correspondences and documentation for every expense and transaction we’ve made regarding Robotech® RPG Tactics™.
I have not spent the money on a new car or boat, there is no new house, no purchase of stocks and bonds, no salary raise, no luxury vacation (heck, no vacation at all), no parties, or any misuse of Kickstarter money whatsoever.
We are all hardworking people dedicated to our fan base.

Furthermore, we have produced and shipped a substantial portion of the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ rewards (Wave One) around the world, and are actively working towards the production and delivery of the rest (Wave Two).

I don’t know what people think when they see a Kickstarter net 1.4 million dollars, but it’s not free money.
It’s not hitting the lotto.
And it sure as hell is not ours to just take and spend as we may please.
It is an obligation to thousands of people.
That money is designated to make the shared dream of a new, different Robotech® game line a reality, and it’s a responsibility we take very seriously.
The money has gone into making this shared dream of the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ game line.
We have poured our hearts and souls into this game." - Kevin Siembieda

It is funny how he lists where the money was NOT spent but to this day, we keep guessing where it IS spent like on shipping.

You can also review the Wave 2 renders and remember it was 2 years ago.

Side note here:After 2 years of no progress from that posting, I am wondering on the amount of "hearts and souls" on offer.
I think even the Devil could not be bothered to strike a deal for such a meager ration.