Thursday, August 25, 2011

Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?


With the obligatory channeling of Dean Martin behind me, I want to talk to y’all about a potential Kickstarter campaign for OVA. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, Kickstarter allows creators to raise money to fund their projects. Fans pledge varied amounts of money, with higher pledges netting them increasing rewards, benefits, and goodies. If the total amount of pledges reaches a number set by the creator, the project is funded. If it falls short, no one pays a dime. It’s a low-risk way to support projects you care about without worrying if it will actually happen or not.

What I’m curious about is what sort of incentives will actually interest you enough to pledge. I’ve included a list below of ideas I had as additional bonuses to the basic “preorder the book” option. Which fill you with excitement and a prurient desire to part yourself from your money? Which instill only a tepid response?

A ranked list isn't required, but whatever time you can spend detailing your interest would be greatly appreciated. I want to gauge which of these are wanted most, and how much you would be willing to pledge to attain a given reward.

Under each item I have included a description and additional points of inquiry for discussion.

Early Access to the PDF
Self explanatory. How much earlier than its release date would you expect to see it? What would the least amount of time be to feel you’re getting something?

Signed Copy of the Book
Would personalized inscriptions increase your interest in this?

Trading Cards
Cards featuring art from the game. May also include quick reference for character stats or an extremely simple mini-game.

Limited Edition Box
A box including the book, quick-start player books, character sheets, and a set of dice.

Art Prints
Frame-able prints of artwork from the game. What size would you want to see most? Or would you like to see it poster-sized?

Wall Scroll
Artwork from the game printed on a wall scroll just like the ones you see for commercial anime.

Character Figure
A painted mini sculpture of one of the OVA characters, similar to ones common for most anime. Which character would you most want to see given this treatment?

Personalized Character Pin-Up
An illustration of your OVA character as part of a custom-designed character sheet.

Lifetime Wise Turtle Subscription
Free access to all future Wise Turtle products. Includes PDF and print versions. FOREVAH.

So? What do you think?

6 comments:

  1. OMG. I totally want in on the Lifetime Wise Turtle Subscription FOREVAH. Oh, wait. I already have one! Yay!

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  2. Did anything ever come of this? My wife and I, and a bunch of our friends, would love to support a Kickstarter for OVA Revised.

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  3. The book will be Hardcover or Softcover? The Limited Edition Box's books will be signed too?

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  4. Early Access to the PDF -- This one is only "meh" for me -- I'm not competing to have it faster than anyone else, and I am patient. Patient like a starving wolverine waiting for a meal.

    Signed Copy of the Book -- Yes please! It would be a cool way to say thank you to people who pledged some money, and it would give me warm fuzzies, anyway. Just don't hurt your hand signing all them books. D:

    Trading Cards -- I have a weakness for cards. A quick reference for character stats would be nice. A mini-game isn't that appealing to me, though -- with a nice picture and a stat block on them, I can think of plenty of neat ways to use them. Actually, you could package them with little plastic (or sturdy cardstock/cardboard) stands and voila -- miniatures.

    Limited Edition Box -- What's that? A treasure chest full of loot? Yes, please.

    Art Prints/Wall Scroll -- Posters, wall scrolls, etc. are always cool.

    Character Figure -- All the characters are exceptionally well-designed, but I'm particularly fond of Ai's new look.

    Personalized Character Pin-Up -- Seems like an awful lot of work for you to just send to one person each. You could ask for character submissions and pick the ones you think fit well/are awesome/will be useful/randomly/whatever and make a little booklet of them as like an extended pre-made characters thing.

    Lifetime Wise Turtle Subscription -- Nah. I'm cool with continuing to shovel my money at you whenever you put out something new.

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  5. Oh hey, some other neat stuff might be:
    - Stickers (I'll never use them though; OCD will demand that I never take them off their sheet)
    - Buttons (you know, the kind you pin to stuff)
    - Bookmarks
    - Set of dice outside the boxed set, because you can never have too much dice.
    - A GM screen with art on the outside and cheat sheets on the inside.

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  6. I am very excited I cant wait to see how the system evolves since the print i bought ^_^

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