MCG made it abundantly clear it was an expensive, premium product that's not accessible to everyone. This won't become the norm and while I would love the books in PDF for convenience, I understand the idea behind the game. I'll probably post about it after I run it, but if chargen is any indication of what's to come, I'm going to love it!

Speaking of chargen, my wife made a really cool Vancian (the most "wizardy" of the magical
Orders) character who's a little mad and whose very presence warps reality. Her home is a house-shaped geode, with crystal windows and light fixtures. An odd cat moved in one day and skulks about, reporting on events in the house. I'm going to have fun with this!

I don't think this will turn into a flood of $250 rpg books.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1055685I don't think this will turn into a flood of $250 rpg books.

As I mentioned, Monte said this was a one-off idea. Will they create another premium product? Dunno.

Quote from: JRT;1055269The Cube I think is going for MSRP of $250 (Kickstarter folks paid $197).

I bought it from an OLGS (Miniature Market) for... around $160, with shipping.  

You have to be -very- careful when backing TTRPGs on Kickstarter.  Unless you like the whole "patron" aspect of it all, you're almost certain to either be paying more or taking on more risk than you have to by waiting for the product to hit retail later.

Quote from: JRT;1055269I think the concern is not so much potential supplements, but that such a premium product, if successful, might bring more imitators and inflate the cost of gaming in general.

Likely unnecessary.  The fancy box, the cards, the hand, etc. etc. etc.  None of it is especially expensive brick-brack, but collectively the manufacturing costs do add up.  And then there's the quality control costs for the final product to consider.  Something damaged or missing in that "junk drawer" of a game (and the more components you have, the more likely that is)?  That's an extra cost for the company to replace.  I'm taking them at their word this is more a vanity project than anything else.  Even the supplements have cards and slipcases right?

What do you think his profit margin was on this gimmicky, over-produced game?  Seems like his time would've been easier spent churning out some new Cypher System game ("The Strange 2: Now It's Practical to Play!").  

Quote from: JRT;1055269The full rules are not available in PDF either.

I honestly suspect that'll come later.  It would be relatively easy money to sell PDFs, but this route supports retailers (including MCGames) in trying to offload all those physical items.  

And it was probably planned out like that all along.  Expect a "due to strong customer demand, we decided to change our minds and sell you all PDFs" statement in a year or less.  Plus, going this route, they can charge you -again- for the PDF versions of everything; the KS backers were never promised digital copies after all.

The game's neither gimmicky nor over-produced as it was made exactly as envisioned and part of that vision was the tactile nature of it. A lot of the bits are for convenience as well. If you feel it wasn't worth it, that's certainly an opinion you're entitled to. All of the things are worth it to me. I'm very impressed with it and the huge amount of options available to characters. And I love that the resin hand and Sooth cards are in-game items.

As far as PDFs go, nobody was promised them, yet every backer and preorder received a free PDF of The Key. To accuse MCG of going for a money grab is disingenuous until it's proven to be true. If they do release PDFs of the other three books, it's perfectly acceptable to charge for them, although I do feel backers should get them for free as it wasn't an option during the KS.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1055879The game's neither gimmicky nor over-produced as it was made exactly as envisioned and part of that vision was the tactile nature of it.

You do realize that it can still be gimmicky and overproduced even if that was by intent right?

Or do you -need- a necklace, circular (as opposed to square) cards, in setting "props and posters", bookmarks, and a resin hand to actually play the game?  Not "it makes things more immersive", but "is necessary for game play".  

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1055879As far as PDFs go, nobody was promised them, yet every backer and preorder received a free PDF of The Key. To accuse MCG of going for a money grab is disingenuous until it's proven to be true.

How can I accuse them of something they haven't done yet?  

I can and did -speculate- they will do it (and it would be good business sense if they did), but I can't accuse them.  

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1055879If they do release PDFs of the other three books, it's perfectly acceptable to charge for them,

I never said otherwise.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1055879although I do feel backers should get them for free as it wasn't an option during the KS.

Why?  You already said the box is worth it to you as is, so why are you entitled to more free stuff?  Meanwhile, MCG kept its end of the agreement it made with you (which specifically did -not- include any future free PDFs it might sell).