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Old 05-07-2021, 04:41 PM   #11
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

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It seems to be shaping up at 32 or 36 pages. It's vague at the moment because I don't want to pin it down until I know.
A preliminary no-art layout is now 34 pages. We still need a few more things in the manuscript, like wizard spell options, and art. So I'm going to amend and say 36-40 pages. It'll be whatever it takes, though!
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Old 05-07-2021, 05:43 PM   #12
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

That KS give me idea.

I usually GM at a much higher point level with experienced players but I recently moved to a new city/country.
And september/october 2021 will probably be when actual face-to-face RPG start again after 2 years of COVID drought, so it may be a nice opportunity.

If you can use this book to create 62 cp characters, then 'level' them fast to 125 then again to 187 and finally to 250, ending with something close to a standard 250 cp starting character, it will be a nice way to showcase Gurps to a public more used to "those other games".
I have used DFRPG for demo games, but always one-shot with premade characters.

I may have to look at those initiations campaigns/boxes for D&D / Pathfinder and especially their French clones H&D or CO and write some articles about how to adapt those to DFRPG with DtG.
I haven't read these initiation games (I haven't played a D20 games in decades), but for the traffic on French forums, they seem to be quite popular, and basically take players by hand from lvl 1 to lvl 3,4 or 5 before pointing them to the full rulebooks.

Alternatively, writing a short scenario taking starting Norðlondr characters to 62 points then 125 and ending pointing them to the The Crypt of Krysuvik and furthers adventures.
Perhaps with a "video-game" beginning sequence where they start in jail/amnesiac/ship-wrecked/... and end up choosing a basic template ?
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Old 05-07-2021, 07:18 PM   #13
DaosusLeghki
 
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

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Originally Posted by Celjabba View Post
That KS give me idea.

I usually GM at a much higher point level with experienced players but I recently moved to a new city/country.
And september/october 2021 will probably be when actual face-to-face RPG start again after 2 years of COVID drought, so it may be a nice opportunity.

If you can use this book to create 62 cp characters, then 'level' them fast to 125 then again to 187 and finally to 250, ending with something close to a standard 250 cp starting character, it will be a nice way to showcase Gurps to a public more used to "those other games".
I have used DFRPG for demo games, but always one-shot with premade characters.

I may have to look at those initiations campaigns/boxes for D&D / Pathfinder and especially their French clones H&D or CO and write some articles about how to adapt those to DFRPG with DtG.
I haven't read these initiation games (I haven't played a D20 games in decades), but for the traffic on French forums, they seem to be quite popular, and basically take players by hand from lvl 1 to lvl 3,4 or 5 before pointing them to the full rulebooks.

Alternatively, writing a short scenario taking starting Norðlondr characters to 62 points then 125 and ending pointing them to the The Crypt of Krysuvik and furthers adventures.
Perhaps with a "video-game" beginning sequence where they start in jail/amnesiac/ship-wrecked/... and end up choosing a basic template ?

Better than that, there are 3 books of pre-made characters, some of which will be at 62 pts (assuming I understand Doug's plan). So you could literally hand someone a book, and say "pick one."
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Old 05-08-2021, 12:04 PM   #14
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

A Fine Night

Unlike playing the Pandemic boardgame (which is fun, as opposed to playing the pandemic home game, which is horrible), where "One Quiet Night" is a good card to play...Delvers to Grow had a very active night, and jumped up several thousand dollars. That means in the first 24 hours we crushed through 50% funding. This is outstanding.

In fact, based on a question from one of my Patreon supporters, the Delvers to Grow campaign is off to the best start of any of my Dungeon Fantasy RPG campaigns to date, with a few more backers and 25% more funding than any prior campaign. (The record-holder for me on Day 1 is my More Perilous Journeys campaign for TFT for funding, and my Character Collections campaign for backer counts).

But in any case: we ended the first 24 hours halfway there. Given we haven't yet begun to really hit the outreach stuff, that's not bad.

Attack of Opportunity

Speaking of outreach, my first podcast of something like five or six went live in both Podcast and Video format over the last few days.

Jeff Ball of RollMongers was a gracious and engaging host. He and I covered a lot of fun ground, and we'll talk again, I'm sure. It was that kind of rapport.
Click the link on the title for the video version, but for the audio version, go here.

The Pitch

Fully compatible with the professional template system in the Dungeon Fantasy RPG Adventurers book, Delvers to Grow lets you start much earlier in the hero’s journey, letting both players and GMs ease into the full breadth of capability that the professional delvers of the Dungeon Fantasy RPG bring to the table.

This new book supports play at levels from "barely competent" to "mighty-thewed hero" seamlessly. Zero to Hero or Epic Legend is all on you. Explore different challenges or use the modules to effortlessly assemble henchmen...or create a starting character to replace the dearly departed.
Forget all you've heard about making characters in GURPS. This gets you to the table about as fast as "roll 3d6 six times, pick a class and race, equipment, and start walking to the Keep on the Borderlands"

Please Pledge to Delvers to Grow
The stretch goals go by backer count, and as the goals get knocked down, the value of both physical and digital pledges goes up. The more backers in the Gaming Ballistic orbit, the more ambitious I can be with planned future projects like the Nordlond Bestiary and Mission X.

If you're new to the Dungeon Fantasy RPG, there are several (admittedly high-level) rewards that include the Boxed Set and a bunch of material with which to get started. Combined with Delvers to Grow, you can be rolling dice with friends in less than an hour after you convince them to try it out.
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Old 05-08-2021, 02:47 PM   #15
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I have pledged, and thrown in a bit extra for add-ons.

Are there rules for "multiclassing"- e.g., having a hero who is somewhat Fast and somewhat Smart?
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Old 05-08-2021, 09:02 PM   #16
Dalin
 
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Are there rules for "multiclassing"- e.g., having a hero who is somewhat Fast and somewhat Smart?

While awaiting an Official Answer, my unofficial surmise is that this sort of thing would be too advanced for this book. This book aims to make it dead simple to create a character who is on track to be a template-legal DFRPG character (albeit at a lower point value). My experience with new players has been that once they become comfortable with the array of abilities in DFRPG, they are quick to propose off-template options that appeal to them. This book is aimed at helping them get comfortable faster. And it maintains its value for experienced players because everyone needs to create characters quickly sometimes. As a mostly-GM, I will use this book primarily for NPC generation.
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Old 05-08-2021, 09:39 PM   #17
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Looking forward to the books! (I'm sure the Kickstarter will fund.)

It's nifty to see the Starter Package pledge that includes the boxed set. (I wonder how many of those SJG has in inventory.)

One curious point: No notice of this Kickstarter and product in the actual DFRPG forum??
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Old 05-08-2021, 10:10 PM   #18
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Delvers to Grow: Now LIVE on Kickstarter!

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Looking forward to the books! (I'm sure the Kickstarter will fund.)

It's nifty to see the Starter Package pledge that includes the boxed set. (I wonder how many of those SJG has in inventory.)

One curious point: No notice of this Kickstarter and product in the actual DFRPG forum??
I didn’t want to post the same thing in both places.
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Old 05-09-2021, 12:08 AM   #19
tbone
 
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I didn’t want to post the same thing in both places.
Understandable enough. But maybe add a single post to the DFRPG forum, sending readers over to the GURPS forum thread? It's explicitly a DFRPG news item, after all...

I ask because it'd be a shame if any DFRPG-only newcomers out there, who scan the DFRPG forum but don't play GURPS and don't look at its forum, miss the announcement.

(It's a moot point if there aren't actually any such DFRPG newcomers. I hope that's not the case!)
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Old 05-09-2021, 12:51 PM   #20
Kallatari
 
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This is a strategy that I wanted to pursue for my forthcoming Mission X RPG, but I saw an opportunity to do a test-drive and really bring some easy entry to the "hardest" part of Powered by GURPS to get newbies over: point-based character generation and the rules familiarity that it tends to encourage. By sticking with the nice genre-defined niches and providing well-crafted options, you can be playing in as little as five minutes (though it's frequently more like 10-20) from sitting down.

Long-time rules experts can do this sometimes without help. But perusing the newcomers section of (say) the GURPS Discord or some other forums perpetually finds folks who try and eat the whole GURPS Cow at once...and Delvers to Grow really helps this.
Along those lines, as much as I like the DFRPG (and I do love it), I've always wondered if the product would have brought more new players to GURPS if it took the "Pointless Slaying and Looting" system (from Pyramid #3/72) instead for character generation. In that system, you pick an archetype (e.g., strong, smart, tough), choose abilities for your ability slots, and choose wildcard skills for your skill slots. Then you "level up" and gain additional ability or skill slots. This system should let you make a character fairly quickly, and then you're off playing. Character creation would have become very D&D-like, which, for better or worse, seems to be the acceptable standard.

The main benefits of this character creation system is that it gets rid of the complication of points, enhancement, limitations and all the math of character creation (the only complication left is that major abilities take up two ability slots), and it has a streamlined list of traits you can take wrapped up into the packages called abilities (thus eliminating the decision paralysis at character creation due to all the options available in GURPS). For the DFRPG templates, they could have come with some ability slots and skill slots pre-defined and the remainder from a limited list of options. Only when they "level-up" do players get to access the full list of abilities.

They could also have added a "behind the curtain" chapter (or possibly online annex to not waste pages for those who don't care about it) for experienced GMs explaining how it was all built and how they can, if desired, incorporate regular GURPS into it.

Would that have addressed the "issues" non-GURPS players seem to have with GURPS?

Mind you, this is all speculation and wondering on my part. I have absolutely no clue if that would have sold better or not, and do not in any way claim to have knowledge of the target audience who would pay for it. I agree it would be just as legitimate to say it could have sold worse, as new players would still be scared by the "Powered By GURPS" logo, and old players would have been upset at its lack of flexibility with pre-made abilities rather than letting them build their own with advantages as per the raw GURPS (a key reason those who like GURPS like GURPS). But if the existing player pool is already limited and making GURPS barely sustainable, I wonder if would have been worth the risk just to test it out.
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