I've been a fan of Goblins for a long time, and I've talked about it to all my friends and Tabletop pals, but I've never got to actually show my support to the author (Which is awesome) and it's work (Which is even awesomer) hence when the cardgame kickstarter came around I've gave it my all and pledged at the highest amount I could, Not only did I payed 200 dollars for the game, I also had to include about 50 dollars for shipping overseas which is serious devotion (in my book anyway). I had a feeling that the kickstarter might crumble when I got the email from Richard James back in September but I've waited faithfully and I'm glad to finally have some kind of answer.
While I congratulate Thunt for his dedication and wanting to right the wrong I am fairly concerned about numerous issues that might show up during developement, some of them are benign, some other more alarming :
-I know Thunt is actually recovering from anxiety. I dont blame him, I am myself very anxious but I dont want him to become stressed and worked up if upholding his word gets in the way of his health and his productivty.
-What I dont know is if he's going to be continuing both his comic and his work on the cardgame at the same time. I dont mind him stopping one or another but I dont think it's a good idea to keep both running, especially concerning his health.
-While I respect Thunt as a DM and as a comic artist, he is no game designer. Which is fine too, I dont mind, but if the game is broken there's little to no use to publish it. Making sure there's nothing game breaking is going to take a lot of time. I'm sure everyone involved will be glad to help with the beta testing but still.
-http://www.drivethrucards.com/pub_podcard_cost.php those are the costs for the RPG Drivethrut card printing. Now maybe I didnt understood quite clearly what Thunt had to say on his blog post but I do believe it will cost a huge amount of money not only to print those out, but also to send them to the backer (As I said, I had to pay 50 extra dollars for shipping).
-Making a Cardgame from A to Z and shipping/mailing a product is something I think I can fairly assume Thunt never did (Could be wrong though) there might be hidden dangers ahead we're not even aware of, or technical dificulties we have yet to discover wich could turn the whole project into a living nightmare. Maybe we should ask for some advice from professionals. Because there's probably more to it than just that (There always is). What I mean is that companies, entire companies just like Evertide Games, manage to destroy themselves in the process. We might want to thread carefully.
What I mean to say is : before we get ahead of ourselves, I'd just like to be sure that what we're going to do is even remotely possible. Because I dont want Thunt to stress over something he couldnt accomplish, I dont want him to put himself through a nightmare, and I dont want my fellow Goblins readers and backers to be disapointed again.
Finally, after concerning myself for the well being of this community and the author I would just like to adress something that concerns myself.
I am aware that Thunt does not believe Richard James is a bad person and thus would like to avoid getting the law involved. However I would just like to remind you that people living in america and canada are free to press charges against the man, I for myself lives oversea and I cant. My voice cant be heard no matter how much I would like Richard James to answer for what he did. I know I'm not the only foreigner who backed the project, so others might be in the same predicament, leaving them with nothing to do but to watch from there, powerless. And unless someone is taking action, we wont be able to.
I would also like to highlight that while Kickstarter is indeed, not accountable for what the creators does with their money, their term of use stipulates that the creator must tell his backers what happened with it (As stated in article 4 of the terms of use)
Thank you for reading this lenghty post, I hope my english wasnt too painfull and long live Goblins !