Dolmenwood's Kickstarter, already 7 months behind schedule, finally got an April update. Spoilers: they blamed Trump, used tariffs as an excuse to slow their roll for several more months, and called for political activism.

"Hello Everyone!

Regarding the general state of things given recent world economic news, we want this update to be as transparent as possible.

Tariff Update
As many of you are well aware there has been a seismic shift in international trade regarding tariffs and general price increases for goods.

If you have not seen our newsletter already let us reiterate that Exalted Funeral is committed to bringing you the best in independent gaming. That includes all of our past commitments and future endeavors. Here is the statement that was sent out:

Art in it's many forms has endured throughout time and has been a voice for those that suffer. Games are indeed a form of art and Exalted Funeral has and will continue to be a conduit for those games and individuals no matter how the landscape appears and changes.

EF has been committed to bringing the best in underground and original games to market. We are throughly pissed off with the ever-changing tariff situation and volatility in our economy but want our fans, family, and friends to know we are working towards bringing home our current obligations and finding solutions for future endeavors so we can continue to bring to the table the best in gaming. The outlook isn't rosy and the challenges are very real, but who said this was easy? Its not easy for anyone but our resolve is gonna stay.

In light of all this please use your voice to contact your local, state, and national leaders and let them know how you feel.

- Matt, Owner of Exalted Funeral

We as a team have been exploring solutions to these issues and want to let everyone know that the work is being done to keep the games coming. While some items are currently excluded from tariffs, other items we publish as a company and the partners we are working with are not. Our internal pipeline has been disrupted due to this and it is causing our deliverables and timelines to be shifted as well.  We are sincerely sorry for the delays.

Status of Stock
Due to two very large recent Exalted Funeral project fulfillments at all three of the warehouses we work with, we have had to be strategic about timing the stock arriving in order to manage the volume of orders and warehouse space. Therefore, we are still in the process of receiving stock from Europe and China. This stock will unfortunately now be subject to tariffs so we need to navigate how to deal with that.

Impact on Fulfillment Timeline
This will most certainly cause the fulfillment to be delayed by several months as we balance the increase cost and new and ever changing uncertain circumstances and processes with receiving these items.

I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, but we can definitely guarantee two things:

One, all of the Dolmenwood components are all already manufactured so fulfillment will absolutely still happen for all backers.

Two, we will NOT increase costs for these items for any backers.

We apologize for the delay. We truly love and appreciate all the support. Just know that we are always working, ALWAYS, to bring these titles home by getting these through the channels and into your hands as soon as we can. Please stay tuned for more info soon.

If you're in the US please reach out and let your representatives know how you feel.

Thank you,

-Cristin & Matt, EF Owners"

Greetings!

My friend, you certainly have my sympathies if you are a customer of this Dolmenwood.

Having said that, well, you know what I generally feel about smarmy, Liberal, Woke companies that like doing business with Commie China, and who oppose President Donald Trump, and MAGA.

Yes, that's right. It involves heavy boots, hammers, and if available, an absolute storm of NAPALM.

*Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

For the record, I did back this project because it appealed to me from the zines the source material came from.

The kickstarter version lacked any of the feel of the zines, the company being woke leftists and changing minstrel to bard pissed me off because one (likely White dude) complained.

I thought, well the pdf's are high quality, no pronouns I will grin and bear it that I mistakenly backed this.

Then this message arrived and I had to leave comments with my displeasure among others there. I said that tariffs are the new "supply chain issues, and everyone is using it as an excuse for delays now. This project was funded and making progress and created during the past administration. The March update said things were on their way and now this delay until who knows when."

I would be shocked if this arrives this year to backers.

I asked for a refund and was given notification that my refund had been approved for the full amount within 10min of my post which was within 15min of the update going up. I fully expected to have fight to get a refund like normal on kickstarter which is why I delayed and delayed asking but this bullshit update was my final straw.

I wonder if my post calling out their bullshit excuse of tariffs made them wanted the comment deleted since you cannot see comments from people who have cancelled their pledge so others would not ask for one or see through the lies.

Quote from: grimshwiz on April 19, 2025, 04:52:30 AMI asked for a refund and was given notification that my refund had been approved for the full amount within 10min of my post which was within 15min of the update going up.

What is the process of getting a refund for this project?  I'm reconsidering my purchase as well.

Quote from: Crusader X on April 19, 2025, 07:25:44 AM

Quote from: grimshwiz on April 19, 2025, 04:52:30 AMI asked for a refund and was given notification that my refund had been approved for the full amount within 10min of my post which was within 15min of the update going up.

What is the process of getting a refund for this project?  I'm reconsidering my purchase as well.

I just made that comment, asked for a refund in the kickstarter comments. They told me to email their support email and they refunded no questions asked, no money missing due to kickstarter fees or received pdf's already.

Quote from: Crusader X on April 19, 2025, 07:25:44 AM

Quote from: grimshwiz on April 19, 2025, 04:52:30 AMI asked for a refund and was given notification that my refund had been approved for the full amount within 10min of my post which was within 15min of the update going up.

What is the process of getting a refund for this project?  I'm reconsidering my purchase as well.

I just emailed support[at]exaltedfuneral[dot]com to request a refund with similar reasoning provided. I will let you know how it goes.

Quote from: SHARK on April 19, 2025, 04:11:29 AMGreetings!

My friend, you certainly have my sympathies if you are a customer of this Dolmenwood.

Having said that, well, you know what I generally feel about smarmy, Liberal, Woke companies that like doing business with Commie China, and who oppose President Donald Trump, and MAGA.

Yes, that's right. It involves heavy boots, hammers, and if available, an absolute storm of NAPALM.

*Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Guilty.

The wife really enjoys the "fantasy forest" aspect of fantasy RPGs with nature magic, and druid stuff. I like the folk horror vibe from the Wormskin material, so I pitched in, planning to running that for her and the kiddo.

The project delays themselves don't bother me as much as the fact that it looks like they slow-rolled Dolmenwood to fulfill other, smaller projects. And when it blew up in their face, rather than deal with the consequences honestly, they chose to go political and appear to be opportunistically delaying even more.

Unsat.

Quote from: Shteve on April 19, 2025, 09:05:39 AM

Quote from: Crusader X on April 19, 2025, 07:25:44 AM

Quote from: grimshwiz on April 19, 2025, 04:52:30 AMI asked for a refund and was given notification that my refund had been approved for the full amount within 10min of my post which was within 15min of the update going up.

What is the process of getting a refund for this project?  I'm reconsidering my purchase as well.

I just emailed support[at]exaltedfuneral[dot]com to request a refund with similar reasoning provided. I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you!

Quote from: Feratu on April 19, 2025, 02:24:25 PM

Quote from: SHARK on April 19, 2025, 04:11:29 AMGreetings!

My friend, you certainly have my sympathies if you are a customer of this Dolmenwood.

Having said that, well, you know what I generally feel about smarmy, Liberal, Woke companies that like doing business with Commie China, and who oppose President Donald Trump, and MAGA.

Yes, that's right. It involves heavy boots, hammers, and if available, an absolute storm of NAPALM.

*Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Guilty.

The wife really enjoys the "fantasy forest" aspect of fantasy RPGs with nature magic, and druid stuff. I like the folk horror vibe from the Wormskin material, so I pitched in, planning to running that for her and the kiddo.

The project delays themselves don't bother me as much as the fact that it looks like they slow-rolled Dolmenwood to fulfill other, smaller projects. And when it blew up in their face, rather than deal with the consequences honestly, they chose to go political and appear to be opportunistically delaying even more.

Unsat.

Greetings!

*Laughing* That's right, my friend! UNSAT!

I can also empathize with your wanting to cater to the wife and kids for enjoying the hippie forest thing. I know, brother. I have a few women players that absolutely love this kind of stuff, so yeah, definitely some understandable motivation there to make them happy.

It is so sad though, spending money, time and effort, on product like this, seeking to enjoy it and make it all work nice and cool--and then, along the way, you discover they are Woke cowards and scum. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, man, and I haven't bought any of this here. But, I have been in similar situations where I felt kind of deceived, and used, lets face it. Not a good feeling.

Nowadays, I don't care if I'm "Missing Out". I have zero patience for the Woke BS. If I get any idea they are Woke, fuck 'em, you know? I won't give them my money or support. I have a huge library of stuff, honestly, I can make up from scratch anything that I could desire, really, so my purchases tend to be very scrutinized and cautious nowadays. I'm very selective. A bit elitist, but also pragmatic. *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK on April 19, 2025, 05:54:25 PMA bit elitist, but also pragmatic.

I don't think that's elitist. It's being conscientous where your money ends up. I don't buy shit that has anything to do with Nestle because fuck em, they're evil.

I'm going through my Dolmenwood purchase because even though I don't like some of the changes I do feel the majority of the material is something I will use. But Exalted Funeral and Necrotic Gnome won't be getting any more of my money and I will be scrutinizing very closely OSE branded products in the future. I think it's just being an educated consumer. Too many people just want thing and they don't have any conception of what went into producing thing and where the proceeds of thing end up.

Be aware, that's the most responsible thing to do.

They aren't passing the collection plate around yet.

"Yet" doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I got an email from Gamefound a couple days back that makes me think they are going to get a lot of takers on that "Stable Pledge" guarantee.

Quote from: Thornhammer on Today at 11:55:59 AMThey aren't passing the collection plate around yet.

"Yet" doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I got an email from Gamefound a couple days back that makes me think they are going to get a lot of takers on that "Stable Pledge" guarantee.

That's the part that stays quiet, Thornhammer my friend - they don't have to pass a collection plate. Like many creators on Kickstarter, they appear to just Kickstart a new project and use at least some of those funds to wrap up older projects.

As a matter of fact, it looks like they're preparing to do it again: Their next upcoming Kickstarter project, "The Job" was announced on Friday (the same day they announced the indefinite Dolmenwood delay), and it launches on Wednesday 4/23.

I suspect that some of this project's funds will be used to move Dolmenwood along. We'll see which backers of Exalted Funeral projects are left standing when the music stops.

The Planet of the Apes AND TMNT RPGs are both delayed due to Chinese New Year and now the tariffs. It really sucks that they didn't just hurry up.

Quote from: Feratu on April 18, 2025, 11:45:33 PMDolmenwood's Kickstarter, already 7 months behind schedule, finally got an April update. Spoilers: they blamed Trump, used tariffs as an excuse to slow their roll for several more months, and called for political activism.

Yeah. I'm a backer. I had to re-read that post 3 times and then go through the comments to figure out what was really going on. I'm on the fence about asking for a refund, but I'm not backing any more projects from them.

Just got a copy of Shadowdark, so I can say goodbye to OSE as well.

 

Unless there is some sort of kickstarter exclusive offering, get the refund and, if you're still interested later, pick it up on the secondary market or at retail.