Quote from: Matt;880502So pigs will fly, hell will freeze, then Far West comes out, then Buckaroo Banzai. Okay then.

No, it's the heat death of the universe, then Buckaroo Banzai then Far West.

Seriously, the guy should really just put SOMETHING out.

He does! Smoke Screens and the RPG equivalent of VapourWare.

Oh but as noted elsewhere. He has time to work on Doctor Who RPG product as of 2015.

Quote from: Omega;880543Oh but as noted elsewhere. He has time to work on Doctor Who RPG product as of 2015.

I'm surprised anyone would actually consider hiring him.

On the one hand, he might be able to work to a deadline if an actual company is taking responsibility for chasing him up, and due to his failure to release anything he probably needs the money. Give him something non-critical to do which you could assign to someone else if he misses a hard deadline and it's a cheap, quick way to get some name recognition on your product.

On the other hand, who wants his name on their products at this point? He's pretty much destroyed what goodwill he has left.

I'm still waiting for my ICONS Team-Up hardcopy that I pre-ordered back around 2011.  I mean, not really, as it has no chance of ever appearing, but still.

Excuses aside, this is a matter of poor planning on Gareth-Michael Skarka's part: http://www.isfarwestoutyet.com/

In my opinion, the entire work should already be written before it's ever presented for public backing. This is precisely why I have waited to put ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG up on Kickstarter.

People need to learn how to run a proper Kickstarter. Don't run it like a hobby or a side project, treat it like a business. Set the expectation with backers out the gate by laying out risks and challenges. Have a back-up plan in case of disaster. Don't make empty promises. And never, ever ask for money for a product without a completed first draft that's been properly playtested.

Heres his RPGG bio as a designer. A list of excuses I assume for Far West.

QuoteA Partial List of Release Dates

December 2011
January 2012
March 2012 (Print and PDF)
March 2012 (PDF only)
April 2012 (PDF to be followed by Print)
May 2012 (PDF)
June 2012 (Print Map)
August 31, 2012 (PDF followed by Print in September 2012)
September 2012 (PDF)
November 2012 (Print - with PDF delivered before that)
Summer 2013 (Print and PDF)
End of Summer 2013 (Print and PDF)
End of Summer 2013 (PDF only)
Mid-November 2013 (PDF with delivery to printer the same day - "our actual, Honest-to-Seven-Hells, no-foolin delivery")
November 23 2013 (PDF with 2-week delay for printer)
November 27 2013 (PDF with 2-week delay for printer)
December 1 2013 (PDF and delivery to printer at same time)
January 2014
August 2014
Early-mid November 2014
By Thanksgiving 2014
Sometime in December 2014
Definitely December 17 2014, plus PDF preorders are opened on DTRPG
January 2015
By the end of May 2015
The first week of June 2015

The genre doesn't interest me so I didn't back the game and haven't been following but has he produced any actual text or anything to indicate that there even is/was a game to back? Seems like I could write an RPG in a couple of months if I really had to (not that it would be anything you'd want to play) so what's the rationale for producing nothing in 5 years? Was one provided?

Leave business acumen out of this - the man has sold Brooklyn Bridge twice, to the same people. That takes a lot of financial chutzpah.

Quote from: Matt;880606The genre doesn't interest me so I didn't back the game and haven't been following but has he produced any actual text or anything to indicate that there even is/was a game to back? Seems like I could write an RPG in a couple of months if I really had to (not that it would be anything you'd want to play) so what's the rationale for producing nothing in 5 years? Was one provided?

The backers (including me) have gotten a pdf containing chapters 1-8.  Here's how it's been dribbled out to us:

August 5, 2015 - chapters 1-8
Jun 2, 2015 - Chapter 7
January 9, 2015 - Chapter 6
January 16, 2014 - Chapters 1-5

Chapter 9 has the game system, god help us all.  10-12 are GM stuff and world stuff.

Quote from: jcfiala;880636The backers (including me) have gotten a pdf containing chapters 1-8.  Here's how it's been dribbled out to us:

August 5, 2015 - chapters 1-8
Jun 2, 2015 - Chapter 7
January 9, 2015 - Chapter 6
January 16, 2014 - Chapters 1-5

Chapter 9 has the game system, god help us all.  10-12 are GM stuff and world stuff.

I'm a backer. (See my user portrait? Exactly.) I must have missed that. Where can I go to DL mine?

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;880650I'm a backer. (See my user portrait? Exactly.) I must have missed that. Where can I go to DL mine?

As I said, it's the August 5th update.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Adamant/far-west-western-wuxia-mashup-adventure-game/posts/1315094 is the direct link.

Quote from: jcfiala;880636The backers (including me) have gotten a pdf containing chapters 1-8.  Here's how it's been dribbled out to us:

August 5, 2015 - chapters 1-8
Jun 2, 2015 - Chapter 7
January 9, 2015 - Chapter 6
January 16, 2014 - Chapters 1-5

Chapter 9 has the game system, god help us all.  10-12 are GM stuff and world stuff.

So half a year later and still nada? Just the story stuff?

Quote from: Omega;880810So half a year later and still nada? Just the story stuff?

That's right!  After six weeks of work, including a month he didn't have to work at his 'day job' in December, he hasn't been able to produce any more chapters for us.

I really think he's screwed the pooch, myself.  I used to think he was just really slow in getting things done, but by this point I think the high pressure of this project might kill him.  He keeps trying to make it perfect, and yet he knows deep down it isn't perfect, and so he just spends more and more time trying to work on it and not getting things done.

And in the meantime it's blocking any other work he might try to do - he can't finish Buckaroo Banzai (which at this point would probably provide a useful infusion of cash if he could get that done (although not via a kickstarter , he doesn't have the time to whip up quick 5th edition work (which again, is where the money is at the moment), and although I suspect he's doing a little work for other companies as a writer, he can't really sign up to do an entire book for company Y if he still hasn't been able to finish Far West.

Probably what's really best for him and the company is giving up, putting the manuscript aside, declaring bankruptcy if he has to, and moving on to other projects.  But I doubt he will.

(Disclosure: I'm a $10 (pdf) backer of the kickstarter, but it doesn't bother me if I don't end up getting a complete game at this point.)