Today's the day. No, not George Osborne's budget plans for selling the United Kingdom to non-dom billionaires. Nor do I mean Greece's "hello, it's us again" to the EU negotiators. The red letter is because today Megara Entertainment are launching the Kickstarter campaign for an all-new Fabled Lands book.
There's a pie chart on the KS page showing exactly how Megara are promising to spend the money you give them: on a new cover by world-famous movie concept artist Kevin Jenkins, dazzling prose by the crown prince of 21st century gamebooks Paul Gresty, and maps and illustrations by our own Russ Nicholson. The entire campaign has been carefully planned by Richard S Hetley on behalf of Megara Entertainment, and Richard will be running it throughout.
More details to come, including a link to a free 127-section demo of the book. That's about, what, a sixth of the total? So dust off those 19-year-old character sheets now.
First, though, I wanted to share this lovely note from Mikaël Louys on his Facebook page. It really gives you a sense of the marvellous friends we have made as a result of the Fabled Lands, and of the boundless verve, joy and passion they bring to the project. Succeed or fail, it will have been worth the journey. But what am I saying - there is no try, right? So here we go on the next great Fabled Lands adventure!
You forgot to mention the Chinese market's free fall - like a plunge from the Spine of Harkun with no Mannekin to catch you. I can't think of a better time to escape into escapism. Count me in
ReplyDeleteHmm, remind me to buy a CSI 300 tracker in a month or two.
DeleteWow! At this rate you would be better investing in more Fabled Lands books!
DeleteI wish everyone involved every success with the rebirth of Fabled lands. FL7 and beyond. Im in!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been awaiting this day with serious anticipation, but also extremely nervously. I felt -- and this is extremely weird, I know! -- like a parent showing up to their kid's first big piano recital. So incredibly proud of y'all, but also so nervous for how defeated you'd feel if you guys somehow messed up on the big stage after all this preparation and pouring your hopes and dreams into something.
ReplyDeleteI received the e-mail 30 minutes ago saying that the Kickstarter was now live, and I kind of flinched a little as I clicked on the FL kickstarter page to go pledge... worried that I'd be the only one pledging.
And then I saw that you guys were already over your goal, within the **very first hour** of pledging. And it must have gotten extra dusty in here, because I got a little teary eyed.
Would that every artist and creator out there could see such an outpouring of regard and affection for their life's work, 20 years after you took a hiatus from it. Wow. I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, but I hope it feels a million times better than what I'm feel vicariously for you, two game creators I've never even met in my life. I hope you feel vindicated, appreciated, and generally on top of the world. I'm happy beyond words for you guys.
If I'm not mistaken, it is already done! The project is already funded! Great, great news, congratulations to the whole FL team! Be sure, I'll be one of the supporters... Italian gamers going to the south, too! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time coming! This is great news and I am very pleased to see the goal has already been met so quickly!
ReplyDeleteTazar, Kingfede, Joe - yeah, wow. I'm a little stunned. I was out in London for the launch, I got back just now to find we're already there. I'll wake up in a bit :-)
ReplyDeleteI just pledged my $49 and cannot wait to hold this thing in my hands. I'd love to see this thing just get massive, like $50K or so.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit feeling like Joe above. :) I can recall my bitter disappointment upon finding out that there is no Book 7 and later books. Especially after picking up rather worn out Plains of Howling Darkness from my local library and it grips me through the entire weekend literally.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, I pledged and feeling rather happy about that there are many other people who share the same memory of the Fabled Lands. :)
So it is pretty cool to see it working well. :)
Congratulations for all the team!
ReplyDeleteThis is the most anticipated KS for me.
So FL 7 is funded on the first day.....but Frankenstein Wars went right down to the wire!
ReplyDeleteKind of supports what you have been saying for a while, Dave, about the interest of Fabled Lands fans and where your own head (and heart) are.
But congratulations again. A new FL book and the Frankenstein Wars being funded are both exciting to look forward to.
I do wish the Frankenstein Wars campaign had done better, that's true, Jonathan. The Cubus guys have a lot of hard work to do now for just $8000, and it's vexing to think they could have raised $80,000 if they'd just done "Steampunk Zombies" instead. On the other hand, this is a well-known phenomenon so there's no point railing about it:
Deletehttp://www.nirandfar.com/2015/06/california-role-rule.html
All of that in no way detracts from my amazement, excitement, gratification and gratitude that FL is doing so well. It's pretty great if anything you do still has the power to touch people 20 years on. To have that *and* a successful FW campaign in one year is... indescribable.
Wow! I literally just went on Kickstarter to pledge and hope there was maybe 20 pledges already, only to see this. What a fantastic indictment of how much love there still is for the series. It's like a whole new dawn for FL. Can I get ahead of myself a little now and start to dream of book 8 and beyond...?
ReplyDeleteBig congrats to you Dave (and Jamie) for keeping the flame alive all this time!
Go ahead and indulge your dreams a bit, Mike. Jamie and I have certainly been talking about book 8 today.
DeleteFantastic Dave, you keep planning them and I'll keep buying them! You'll need to give up the day job soon at this rate!
DeletePaul Gresty will, at any rate.
DeleteThat's fantastic news, you've there for us!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hold the new boosk in my hand.
But, could you please add paypal option to the Kickstarter? That would help very much!
I'd love to help, Azradamus, but it's not my Kickstarter campaign. It's being run by Megara Entertainment. I'll mention your request to Richard S Hetley, who is running the campaign, but whether he can do anything about it depends on Kickstarter itself.
DeleteIn fact LMGTFY - yes, the problem is that the Kickstarter system doesn't accept PayPal, so there's nothing the individual project managers can do about it.
DeleteFurther research (= I asked Richard Hetley!) reveals that it's because Kickstarter needs to guarantee payment if the target is reached. If they allowed PayPal, it would be too easy for backers to change their minds when it came time to pay, potentially scuppering the project. So, sorry about that but it's out of Richard's hands.
DeleteDon't worry, though, because at some point after the campaign ends we will release a paperback version of the book which you should be able to buy using PayPal.
Okay, thank you very much, Dave for passing on my request to Megara Entertainment!
DeleteWhat a pitty, but okay. I'll wait for the paperback version to buy the new book!
After 10 years we waited for this one - I played the german versions of the books the first time in 1996 - I'll even survive these few months more. ;-)