Adding to the "To Be Read" Pile

I knew that Sir Terry Pratchett's novels were popular, but I underestimated just how popular they are.

As of 5:05 PM today.

This is kind of bonkers, but it also underscores the popularity of Discworld.

I never read any of Sir Terry's work, even though I was very much aware of it, because I've been a bit intimidated by it. I'm aware that there's a lot of puns and humor in the novels, and my concern was that I simply wouldn't get the humor in them. Kind of like watching Red Dwarf, I know there's humor there, but a lot of it simply flew over my head because it was so British that I didn't get the context.*

Or maybe trying to understand some of the Monty Python's Flying Circus social commentary, particularly with (then) current political and celebrity characters appearing as caricatures. To me, I simply had no grasp of the context at all, so it could have been humor surrounding Warren G. Harding and the Teapot Dome Scandal for all I knew. The Parrot Sketch? Sure, I got that one. The Ministry of Silly Walks? Yeah, because every country has a blasted bureaucracy. But a lot of Terry Gilliam's cartoons? Eh, not so much.**

But given Sir Terry's popularity, underscored by the support for the Discworld RPG, I think I might give the series a chance.

Yay, one more book (or is that set of books?) for the TBR pile.

*Before you ask, yes, I gave Red Dwarf a chance. My brother-in-law loved the show, which is how I was introduced to it.

**Although I did see a graphic of Edward Heath in a couple of them. I know him not because of The Beatles' Taxman song ("Uh oh, Mister Heath"), but because I attended a question and answer session with Mr. Heath when he was in Dayton for something or another back when I was in college. Let's just say that Mr. Heath does not suffer fools very well, and I'm glad I decided I wasn't going to ask him a question even though the opening was there.

Kind of a Busy Day in Crowdfunding Land

I guess Tuesdays are a good day to launch crowdfunding initiatives --in the same way that it used to be book and music release days*-- because two initiatives I'd been keeping an eye on dropped today.

The first, the Kickstarter campaign for Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG, launched at Midnight Eastern Time, and has already blown way past it's abnormally precise goal of $130,549:**

As of 12:41 PM, EST.

To say that Sir Terry's novels are popular is kind of an understatement. While this Kickstarter covers editions in English, German, Spanish, and Polish, the French edition is being handled by Arkhane Asylum.

For the curious, the Discworld Quickstart Guide PDF is presently available from Modiphius (both the US and UK websites) for the low low price of.... FREE. The link is from the Kickstarter that takes you to the UK store, but when I went there it asked if I wanted to move to the US store instead.

At this current rate, I'd imagine that Modiphius is going to break the $1 Million barrier by tomorrow.

***

Long before I became aware of the Discworld RPG, I knew that Atlas Games was going to put together a crowdfunding campaign for a reworked version of the Ars Magica 5th Edition rules. 

To which I can loudly say: THANK GOODNESS!!

The more I dug into the 5th Edition of Ars Magica, the more I felt that while the rules were good the presentation was lacking. I didn't mention it in my RPG From the Past entry, because I was still working my way through the system, but you could tell that the game was written with an eye toward people who had played previous editions of the game. As I tend to be a person who rails against that self-limiting design and story in MMOs (looking at you, Retail WoW), I'm sensitized to that weakness in other things. The layout could be better, the art was closing in on 20 years old and hadn't aged as well as older editions, and in general the system needed some good ol' TLC.***

So when I found out about a year ago that Atlas Games was planning on creating a "Definitive Edition" that basically presented the same rules in a better format, I was on board. 

Then Atlas Games announced that Ars Magica's crowdfunding would include an Open License; a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This would allow players and creators to legally share and publish their own additions and modifications to Ars Magica, allowing people the same sort of creative outlet that other games such as Pathfinder, D&D (for the moment), and FATE to have. 

The Ars Magica Definitive Edition launched at Noon Eastern today on BackerKit, seeking a goal of $15,000. While not having the sizeable fanbase that Sir Terry's works has, Atlas Games saw their crowdfunding effort shatter that goal in a grand total of 3 minutes:

As of 1:32 PM, EST.

The Definitive Edition is definitely aiming toward the fans of the game with an elaborate slipcase cover that holds the Core Rulebook, a Reference Guide, a Storyguide Screen, and a Poster Map of Mythic Europe. The physical edition isn't cheap at $150, but a digital only version of the core rulebook is $40, and a bit more practical if you're trying to save money. 

Yes, the rules are exactly the same as that found in the current 5th Edition of Ars Magica, but the layout has been reworked and all of the "extra" rules scattered across all the supplements have been incorporated into this version of the Core Rulebook. Throw in the new artwork and layout, and...

Well, here's hoping that the reorganized 5th Edition Rules explain the game better, because if you want to grow the game you have to get people involved and up to speed on all the details. 

As for me, taking the Mythic Europe setting and the Ars Magica rules and creating a rules-lite version using, say, FATE, would be absolutely awesome. (As I've gotten older, I prefer a more free-wheeling type of game. Can't you tell?)

*I was informed by my wife that music releases have moved from Tuesday to Friday close to a decade ago, and given that she works at Target she ought to know this sort of thing. I'm not that plugged into music release dates anymore, since I rarely buy music when it first comes out (and I'd rather support smaller or local artists).

**Aha! Found it! That value is a conversion to US Dollars from a backing goal of £100,000.

***Tender Lovin' Care.

EtA: Added in the source of the $130,549 goal.

EtA: Helps if I include the link to the Backerkit project for Ars Magica Definitive Edition!

Did You Ever Anticipate THIS, Sir Terry?

For those who are fans of Sir Terry Pratchett, Modiphius Entertainment is going to be bringing an RPG based on Discworld to Kickstarter in October:

From the Kickstarter page.

Here's a link to the announcement on Modiphius' website, and here's the email I received via screencaps:

Okay, here's hoping that this works, but I'm going to put the links for a sign up for Kickstarter updates here, and signing up for the Quickstart Preview here.