Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter

[Seto Kaiba]

On 3/3/2018 at 9:47 AM, TheLoneWolf said:

I've worked on several pro bono cases and I'd be shocked if they found anyone willing to take on this case pro bono. This case simply doesn't meet any of the criteria used to justify pro bono work. Their best chance at anything lies with success of the GoFundMe. I'm curious to see if they're willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Eh, I dunno... I had lunch with a friend of mine who's a corporate lawyer for the company currently retaining my services as a tech specialist, and he seemed to think the backers had about a 50-50 chance of finding someone willing to take the case pro bono at least as a class action.  He suggested they try looking for a lawyer who's looking to run for a judicial position, since they'd jump at the chance for an easy one in the wins column on what's technically white collar crime.  I've known a few who've done pro bono work for pubicity's sake, but they're mostly notorious ambulance chasers who are friends of my grandmother's.

As most of the backers are out of state, yeah... the GoFundMe is probably their safer option, though he bet me that he AG gets to them first since there's now proof that Palladium lied in their responses to previous complaints filed with the AG.

 

22 hours ago, Sandman said:

What is the criteria used to justify pro bono work?

The ABA and the state bar associations have different criteria for recommended pro bono work, but AFAIK there's no hard and fast rules on tha front here in MI.

 

46 minutes ago, azrael said:

I see nothing that substantial that would qualify as fraud. I see oceans of incompetence though. 

You can get 'em on deceit/fraudulent misrepresentation pretty easily what with them having admitted their last three years of status updates (incl. responses to inquiries about the project funds) were all blatant lies.

[Einherjar]

There's something ironic about backers of a failed crowdsourcing project starting their own crowdsourcing project in order to get some semblance of closure for the whole experience.  Good luck I guess, especially with how the American legal system and government is these days.  I think an awkward, profanity laced video on social media might be easier, just like what other disgruntled fanboys do these days.

[kajnrig]

I didn't want to start a whole new thread just for this. Anyway, more Google-recc'ed articles:

Japanime announces three new Robotech board games worldwide

http://www.dicetowernews.com/japanime-to-distribute-3-new-robotech-board-games-worldwide/50746

[Dynaman]

The second two I don't remember but that first game I know I've heard of before this.  No idea where though.

[Lorindor]

Yeah, not completely new news. Two of those games I've heard about before, but the third one was new to me. There's also another company, SolarFlare Games, that are making Robotech card games (not CCG) - one for the Macross Saga (with a planned expansion), one for The Masters Saga and one for The New Generation. 

[GabrielV]

I was weak and bought some RPG stuff on sale.

Kinda interesting how all the books I got are first printings.  I know that most of the books originally had a "manga size" version, so these full sized books are technically second printings.  Still, it makes me think the books didn't sell well at all past the original release when these have print dates of 2008.

Flipping through the Macross book in particular makes me feel that not a single bit of fan input over 20 years was paid any attention to other than to do the exact opposite.  I suppose it's playable, but just like the original it looks like a lot of house rules are required to get it to function anything resembling emulative of the show.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit the format and the art didn't take me back to the 90s when I played Robotech every week with my friends.

I was pleasantly surprised at the Expeditionary Force Marines book.  I had no idea what it was going to be.  It made me grin ear to ear when I realized it was Sentinels (the era I played in the most).  I like Chuck Walton's mecha art, and I thought his redefinitions of the Sentinel destroids were pretty cool (even if heavily copied from the Alpha).  I haven't gone over the stats too much, but I can say that if this book had been branded in such a way that I'd known what it was, I probably would have been weak enough to pick it up a lot earlier.

Not interested in any of the RRT stuff.  I'd never assemble it, and I doubt I'd ever play it.  I'd like some little VFs, Tomahawks, and Defenders, but I just can't justify the clutter, especially when I have a WH40K set which I bought, half assembled, and then shoved off into a corner never to play.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 3/18/2018 at 8:08 PM, kajnrig said:

I didn't want to start a whole new thread just for this. Anyway, more Google-recc'ed articles:

Japanime announces three new Robotech board games worldwide

http://www.dicetowernews.com/japanime-to-distribute-3-new-robotech-board-games-worldwide/50746

Coming soon, to the "No, we don't know what we were thinking either" clearance shelf at your local game store!

Also... "Japanime"?  Really.  That's the best name they could come up with?

 

 

1 hour ago, GabrielV said:

Kinda interesting how all the books I got are first printings.  I know that most of the books originally had a "manga size" version, so these full sized books are technically second printings.  Still, it makes me think the books didn't sell well at all past the original release when these have print dates of 2008.

From what little I've seen Palladium's staff say on the subject of sales, the "manga size" hurt sales because the books were harder to prop open or search through and several and the Masters Saga sourcebook didn't sell particularly well in general... leading to a late reprint in full size only after it sold out of manga size inventory.

 

 

1 hour ago, GabrielV said:

Flipping through the Macross book in particular makes me feel that not a single bit of fan input over 20 years was paid any attention to other than to do the exact opposite.

It is a Palladium product, after all.

The only feedback Palladium seems to have honored was Harmony Gold's insistence that they use official spec this time.  That led to them copy-pasting from Macross sites for the Macross Saga book, accidentally resulting in the inclusion of a few things that the VF-1 didn't actually have in Robotech.

 

1 hour ago, GabrielV said:

I'd be lying if I didn't admit the format and the art didn't take me back to the 90s when I played Robotech every week with my friends.

That's a big part of Palladium's business problem... they haven't bothered to update their system or the layout of their products in over three decades.  It was acceptable in the 80's, but these days it looks like they're turning these books out on the office copy machine.

 

1 hour ago, GabrielV said:

I was pleasantly surprised at the Expeditionary Force Marines book.  I had no idea what it was going to be.  It made me grin ear to ear when I realized it was Sentinels (the era I played in the most).  I like Chuck Walton's mecha art, and I thought his redefinitions of the Sentinel destroids were pretty cool (even if heavily copied from the Alpha).  I haven't gone over the stats too much, but I can say that if this book had been branded in such a way that I'd known what it was, I probably would have been weak enough to pick it up a lot earlier.

... that might be the first positive review I've seen for the book, and I'm a regular at Palladium's own forums.

It's basically Robotech 2.1: in the General Vicinity of the Sentinels because they weren't allowed to actually touch on the events of the Sentinels arc proper by HG, who are taking the attitude that it's something that could get rewritten at any moment to accommodate a future title.  It got a better reception than the Genesis Pits book (a Make Your Own B-Movie Monster manual), but it still got torn into over not using the classic Sentinels art for legal reasons and using the Imai Files to pad things out.  (There was also a good deal of carping over the lack of mentions of colonization, as in the comics there had been some noise about building colony ships, but inconsistent dialog makes it sound like they were build and then immediately mothballed as useless.)

[kajnrig]

38 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Also... "Japanime"?  Really.  That's the best name they could come up with?

Hey man, you say that but I was immediately whisked back to the glorious mid- to late-90s and the years of reading Ranma 1/2 and learning how to laugh at boobs.