KickStarter Golem Arcana by Harebrained Schemes

[Zed]

Harebrained Scheme of Shadowrun Returns fame returns to KS next month:



I have no idea what that was.

What do you make of it, dice-wizards of the Gazebo?

Top comment on jewtube has a point, perhaps:

There has already been a tabletop-computer-crossover that tried something similar and failed horrible because of one simple fact: They tried to hide the rules from their players.

Do NOT do that, do not make the rulebook and all the sheets disappear, do not hide mechanics inside your source code. Tabletop gamers do want to now everything about their game. Always remember that or you project is doomed before it even started.

 

[pakoito]

Jordan Weisman, creator of Shadowrun, Battletech/MechWarrior, Crimson Skies, Mage Knight, HeroClix, and many more is back with a brand new game world and a new way to play tabletop games. Check it out!

Not sure if or The pencil looks retardo as fuck, tho.

 

[Sensuki]

Nevertheless, good idea to release a youtube vid like that before launching. Also a good idea to wait until after Shadowrun finishes to launch the campaign.

 

[Volrath]

You can take the jew out of Israel but you can't take the jew out of the jew.

 

[Excidium]

Looks p. dumb. A tabletop game where you play with a dildo so you don't need to reference the rules.

 

[Zetor]

I have no idea why this is better than just having a fully virtual board to begin with... well, other than selling miniatures. Are the rules really so complex that it's worth using some annoying intermediary device just to play the game?

 

[Morkar Left]

I can see where he's coming from but the joy of playing a tabletop game for me are houserules, additional rules, own campaign rules, creating your own miniatures, terrain etc. I don't think that's possible or easy to do when the data is digitalized.

The setting sounds for me a bit like Battletech Fantasy which would be nice.

EDIT: Could be funny if the tablet plays soundeffects when golems hit each other and the like :D

 

[Grunker]

at first i was like "blah blah ancient ones blah blah golems blah blah snore"

but then i was like "DIGITAL INTERFACT FOR MINIATURE GAMES AWW YEAAAAH SON"

I have no interest in the specific product at all (I have enough non-digitil nerd-hobbies to foster currently, and I'm fucking poor), but stuff like this - book keeping digitally for Pen & Paper and miniatures - have interested me since Microsoft Surface first showed what the future could hold.

Will be keeping an eye on it, but probably won't play/pledge.

 

[Excidium]

Looks like ass...You play with a dildo, what the fuck

Those hybrid tabletop games will only be cool when they look like that thing c3po plays with chewbacca.

The art is cool though.

 

[tuluse]

The dildo actually seems like a creative way to lower costs for this kind of "technology augmented" tabletop game. Selling in the US you can count a given group of people to average 1 owned smart device per person.

The biggest problem I have so far with this very vague pitch is that adding internet connected devices to a tabletop game is a sure fire way to make sure people are not actually playing the game. The only successful inclusion my group managed was a laptop which the GM had total control over to look things up.

 

[NotTale]

I have no idea why this is better than just having a fully virtual board to begin with... well, other than selling miniatures. Are the rules really so complex that it's worth using some annoying intermediary device just to play the game?

That's what I'm thinking. He should just go with the virtual board entirely. Then if people seem interested, he can create a miniature game afterwards.

Trying to combine the two is a half-step to those D&D on Surface demos, but we don't need the half-step.

 

[tuluse]

I could have swore I posted in this thread... oh there's one in the gazebo too. Well I'll cross post:

The dildo actually seems like a creative way to lower costs for this kind of "technology augmented" tabletop game. Selling in the US you can count a given group of people to average 1 owned smart device per person.

The biggest problem I have so far with this very vague pitch is that adding internet connected devices to a tabletop game is a sure fire way to make sure people are not actually playing the game. The only successful inclusion my group managed was a laptop which the GM had total control over to look things up.

 

[shihonage]

I was waiting for something like this. It might make me interested in physical boardgames, as it seems to be aimed at eliminating the menial chores that waste time, slow everything down, and should be offloaded to computers.

 

[mikaelis]

I want to play it and I even can buy iPad to touch it with my fallus...

But I have no friend to play with...

 

[m_s0]

I don't like the idea of everything - calculations etc - being done automatically for me. I dunno, some might find it less of a hassle, but the way I see it fiddling with a stylus just seems more annoying and needlessly convoluted than actually learning the rules and mechanics so that I can do that stuff quickly and on my own, without the need for gimmicks. So far it looks like a roundabout way of doing very simple things. As for the setting:

at first i was like "blah blah ancient ones blah blah golems blah blah snore"

^pretty much this

I guess the concept itself doesn't click with me at all.

 

[Wizfall]

I dislike the concept.
The games looks like Battletech tabletop that i used to play.
And i don't see the interest of playing Battletech with an electronics devise.
A deception, i was expecting for an interesting new IP, a sci fi/sapce opera/steampunk cRPG would hzve been great.
I hope that if the kickstart isn't successful HBS won't think it's because it's a new IP rather than the concept.
Too bad they already must have invested quite a bit of money onto it though.

 

[Gulnar]

It seems a lot like a steampunk-less warmachine, BUT the idea behind the tablet/dildo pen looks pretty cool. Like Shihonage said, it eliminates all the hassle that is needed to remember every single rule of both your army and the enemy one.

 

[Excidium]

Could make a system that is well designed and easy to reference and nobody would need to be touching the battle map with a dildo to resolve shit

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It would be cool for Battletech. With automatic tracking of stats of all battlemechs and combat animations.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I remember playing eye of judgement on the PS3, it's something similar to this (an interactive card/digital viewing game) and it was fun, but i'm not sure if there is a strong enough market for this to make it profitable.

 

[Branm]

I dislike the concept.
The games looks like Battletech tabletop that i used to play.
And i don't see the interest of playing Battletech with an electronics devise.
A deception, i was expecting for an interesting new IP, a sci fi/sapce opera/steampunk cRPG would hzve been great.
I hope that if the kickstart isn't successful HBS won't think it's because it's a new IP rather than the concept.
Too bad they already must have invested quite a bit of money onto it though.

This....was expecting a fuckign video game....wtf man...this looks so lame...and I guess we can forget about ever getting stuff like Stealth in Shdowrun....GG

 

[Stabwound]

This reminds me of those stupid board games that came with a DVD that you had to dick with to play that were popular(?) when the medium first became popular. This seems like a stupidly forced combination for the sake of trying to be innovative. Tabletop games aren't my thing, and neither are dildos or tablets, so what do I know, though?

 

[Infinitron]

It's on! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/golem-arcana

 

[AstroZombie]

$500k? WOAH! I think that's the highest goal I've ever seen for a tabletop game.

 

[Excidium]

$500k? WOAH! I think that's the highest goal I've ever seen for a tabletop game.

That's because tabletop games generally don't require a laser dildo and a tablet* to play.

*tablet not included