Pirates of Drinax Kickstarter?

[MongooseMatt]

Hello everybody!

Something that was rolling around in my head over the Christmas break...

At the bottom end of this year, we will be publishing a full cover, completely revised, hardback edition of the epic Pirates of Drinax campaign - truly a book for the ages!

Now, that is going to happen, no matter what. But it did occur to me that it might be fun if we ran a little Kickstarter alongside its release - not for the book itself, but for little knick-knacks and additions to improve the gaming experience in this campaign. I was thinking along the lines of;

Giant poster map of the Trojan Reach with completely new artwork.
Maybe a separate full colour book containing brand new artwork and relevant material drawn from Aslan.
Giant deck plans of the Harrier.
A slip case to put all of this stuff in, alongside the hardback.

It just seemed to me that if any book deserved a celebration, it was this one. We also have access to a local printers who can produce just about anything on a digital basis (they do a lot of work for Games Workshop, among others).

So, does this a) seem like something fun to do that you would like to be a part of and b) what kind of things would you like to see? The more outlandish/fun/useable, the better!

We'll gauge the responses and suggestions over the next couple of months or so, and see if this is a goer!

[phavoc]

I can't speak for lots of others, but here's my thoughts:

Poster - (yawn). I don't display my other sector posters, so this (for me) would be a non-issue, and not terribly practical. Now if you broke those down into separate 8x11 sub-sector color glossies, THAT would be practical. And it would be nice if they were of high-quality printing (font, color and paper) usable for player sessions. Not sure what the cost of laminating them would be (maybe even having a little off-set printing so you could punch holes in them to put them in a binder without taking out a system or three on the edge.

Full color book - GOOD artwork is always appreciated! I would think that this book would provide more NPC's, more backgrounds, more of everything to give additional flavor as well as information for referee's to craft more detailed campaigns. Done properly it would appeal to both players and collectors alike. But if you DO go down this path please, please, please spend the extra time to find the typo's, to commission GOOD artwork, and to ensure the information is accurate.

Deck Plans - When you say 'giant', are we talking poster? 11x17? What? Keep in mind that storing these plans means most people have to fold them over, and oversized things tend to not survive as well as standard 8x11. If you go with standard-sized paper you could, if the players or ref's like, simply lay them down and connect 4 or more sheets to give you deckplans. But like above, PLEASE do these in high quality, not like some of the more horrible ones that are, well, horrible from a graphical perspective.

Slip Case - That would actually be useful.

Do you have a price-point estimate yet?

[MongooseMatt]

Do you have a price-point estimate yet?

The book itself looks like it will be $49.99 (over 300 pages, full colour hardback), but that will decided later in the year.

As for everything else... that will be on a case-by-case basis, depending on how flashy it is!

[phavoc]

I was going to ask if this would be available in stores... but it's a Kickstarter, so the default answer is - no! Not unless you plan on publishing a few extra hundred copies and releasing them after the campaign is over, like Miller did with T5.

Uhh, speaking of <that>... are we gonna get an index?

[MongooseMatt]

The Pirates of Drinax _will_ be available in stores - a full printing run will be done anyway, regardless of whether this Kickstarter happens or not.

However, we just thought Drinax might deserve a little something special, and a Kickstarter might be a good way of doing it!

[CaptnBrazil]

For me, even though I've not played/refereed in far too long a time, a Kickstarter with those items would be of interest (I just can't help but get Traveller stuff in the hope that I'll restart playing).

As to the contents: be nice if the map and deck plans came rolled up. I actually have several poster-sized deck plans from other Kickstarters, and have an art tube for storage (I rotate them out of the 1 poster frame at work, which will hopefully double as a battle map so that the poster plastic on top keeps wear and tear down! And only 1 ship at a time - I can only be so geeky here ).

So I actually like the idea of this. I've only read good things about that campaign, and ancillary 'toys' are always good. Depending on the price I'd probably jump in.

[Wizard]

Sounds great, I will back it.

Not sure if it would be possible, but how about printing the giant poster map of the Trojan Reach on cloth material instead of paper. That way you can iron out any creases. Otherwise a laminated version in a rolled up tube would be great.

And some custom dice. You can never have enough dice .

[Spartan159]

I can see my wife watching me iron out the Trojan Reach, "Want any starch honey?"

[crazy_cat]

I'd like to see a PDF version of teh Trojan Reaches map, but with systems/details shown in black and colour on a white background - so it could be printed out large scale for use, and the GM and PCs could write notes on it and draw in new trade routes etc.

As an added benefit it aslo wouldn't kill printers and ink supplies quite so badly

[IanBruntlett]

Now, that is going to happen, no matter what. But it did occur to me that it might be fun if we ran a little Kickstarter alongside its release - not for the book itself, but for little knick-knacks and additions to improve the gaming experience in this campaign. I was thinking along the lines of;

Giant poster map of the Trojan Reach with completely new artwork.

Looking back at my AD&D 2e days, the most successful maps where those that started off big but ended up cut into A4 sized pages which went into one of two campaign ring binders. A big map is basically a white elephant to me.

Giant deck plans of the Harrier.

I am ambivalent about that.

Maybe a separate full colour book containing brand new artwork and relevant material drawn from Aslan.
A slip case to put all of this stuff in, alongside the hardback.

Not sure about this. I've already got Aslan so it might not be too useful to me.

OTOH, my copy of the Spinward Marches is battered and well-worn. If you had a book that fleshed out the sub-sectors in there, I would be very interested.

[JRoss]

I'd like to see a Referee Screen with a lace to take notes of reputation and all those other bits.

[Solomani Jim]

How about a set of limited edition specialty Traveller dice made a Pirates of Drinax theme?

[DickNervous]

Since I am currently running the PoD campaign here are the types of extras that I find myself looking for and would gladly back a Kickstarter to get....

Maps: Planetary, Starport, or City maps for key places in the campaign. Places such as the Floating Palace of Drinax and Theev would be great places to have maps for, even some generic starport maps would be nice. A map of Tamby Dour's pirate base would be cool too! Planetary maps for the more important systems wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Artwork: Nice artowrk of the main NPCs, locations, ect. would be awesome. Though to be honest this should be in the hard cover book.
System Index: A spiral bound notebook with a page for each of the "key worlds". On each page would be a data sheet of the world, maps, key information, and a section for the GM to take notes.
Ship Miniatures: Would be pretty awesome to have a mini of the Harrier and some of the other ships that detailed in the campaign.
Virtual Table Top Support: An official module for use on a virtual table top platform would be amazing! But then again, that might just be crazy talk.

Oh, and did I mention maps?

[denis]

Since I am currently running the PoD campaign here are the types of extras that I find myself looking for and would gladly back a Kickstarter to get....

Maps: Planetary, Starport, or City maps for key places in the campaign. Places such as the Floating Palace of Drinax and Theev would be great places to have maps for, even some generic starport maps would be nice. A map of Tamby Dour's pirate base would be cool too! Planetary maps for the more important systems wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Artwork: Nice artowrk of the main NPCs, locations, ect. would be awesome. Though to be honest this should be in the hard cover book.
System Index: A spiral bound notebook with a page for each of the "key worlds". On each page would be a data sheet of the world, maps, key information, and a section for the GM to take notes.
Ship Miniatures: Would be pretty awesome to have a mini of the Harrier and some of the other ships that detailed in the campaign.
Virtual Table Top Support: An official module for use on a virtual table top platform would be amazing! But then again, that might just be crazy talk.

Oh, and did I mention maps?

All excellent ideas! I'd jump in for those as well.

[Morningkiller]

Since I am currently running the PoD campaign here are the types of extras that I find myself looking for and would gladly back a Kickstarter to get....

Maps: Planetary, Starport, or City maps for key places in the campaign. Places such as the Floating Palace of Drinax and Theev would be great places to have maps for, even some generic starport maps would be nice. A map of Tamby Dour's pirate base would be cool too! Planetary maps for the more important systems wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Artwork: Nice artowrk of the main NPCs, locations, ect. would be awesome. Though to be honest this should be in the hard cover book.
System Index: A spiral bound notebook with a page for each of the "key worlds". On each page would be a data sheet of the world, maps, key information, and a section for the GM to take notes.
Ship Miniatures: Would be pretty awesome to have a mini of the Harrier and some of the other ships that detailed in the campaign.
Virtual Table Top Support: An official module for use on a virtual table top platform would be amazing! But then again, that might just be crazy talk.

Oh, and did I mention maps?

All excellent ideas! I'd jump in for those as well.

Interesting stuff alright. I think if there was an expansion of the side missions in the new book (or a separate pdf/book dedicated to side missions) that would be useful. A page per system with 4 or 5 (possibly linked) scenario outlines aimed at bringing each world to Drinax by diplomacy/murder/coup/threats/trade/shenanigans. The random side-missions on the oddball planets of the Reach were often the highlights of the campaign in my experience. More please!

[Putraack]

Since I am currently running the PoD campaign here are the types of extras that I find myself looking for and would gladly back a Kickstarter to get....

Maps: Planetary, Starport, or City maps for key places in the campaign. Places such as the Floating Palace of Drinax and Theev would be great places to have maps for, even some generic starport maps would be nice. A map of Tamby Dour's pirate base would be cool too! Planetary maps for the more important systems wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Artwork: Nice artowrk of the main NPCs, locations, ect. would be awesome. Though to be honest this should be in the hard cover book.
System Index: A spiral bound notebook with a page for each of the "key worlds". On each page would be a data sheet of the world, maps, key information, and a section for the GM to take notes.
Ship Miniatures: Would be pretty awesome to have a mini of the Harrier and some of the other ships that detailed in the campaign.
Virtual Table Top Support: An official module for use on a virtual table top platform would be amazing! But then again, that might just be crazy talk.

Oh, and did I mention maps?

All excellent ideas! I'd jump in for those as well.

Interesting stuff alright. I think if there was an expansion of the side missions in the new book (or a separate pdf/book dedicated to side missions) that would be useful. A page per system with 4 or 5 (possibly linked) scenario outlines aimed at bringing each world to Drinax by diplomacy/murder/coup/threats/trade/shenanigans. The random side-missions on the oddball planets of the Reach were often the highlights of the campaign in my experience. More please!

Yes, side missions, system index, and location maps!
In addition to the Floating Palace maps, more things to do there-- I was always wishing I had something to run there, but my imagination is weak at plotting.

[JRoss]

Compatible with Second Edition, please!

[MongooseMatt]

Okay, after a great deal of thought, it looks like we are going to scrap this idea - no Kickstarter for Drinax.

What we will do instead is a two volume hardback set, in slip case, likely with big poster map of the entire sector. A real deluxe edition of what is possibly the greatest Traveller campaign yet!

[IanBruntlett]

Okay, after a great deal of thought, it looks like we are going to scrap this idea - no Kickstarter for Drinax.

What we will do instead is a two volume hardback set, in slip case, likely with big poster map of the entire sector. A real deluxe edition of what is possibly the greatest Traveller campaign yet!

Roughly how much do you expect this will cost?

[MongooseMatt]

That is what we are looking at now - however, it will be less than the cost of two hardbacks separately.