So, I would like to apologize to the fine folks over at Magpie Games. I am very sorry for the comments I have made previously regarding your company, on my old podcast, in blog posts, and I’m sure elsewhere.
Let me explain the circumstances that led to this.
Several years ago, Magpie Games launched a Kickstarter project for a second edition of their urban fantasy TTRPG, “Urban Shadows”. As I was a fan of the original edition, as well as urban fantasy games in general, I of course jumped in feet first to this Kickstarter, happily so. I was very supportive of this project, to say the least… not that there’s any proof of that anymore, but we’ll get there.
Anyway, time passed, and the project dragged on for years. Other Magpie projects came and went, while “Urban Shadows 2E” seemingly languished in the background, getting further and further behind. After a while, during the controversy regarding their “Avatar” TTRPG going to print while US2E wasn’t even finished writing, one of the main producers at Magpie stated that they would be putting all hands on deck to finish “Urban Shadows”. This quelled the upset fans for a while, at least.
More time passed.
After several months, with seemingly little forward movement on US2E, that same producer said they would be moving staff to assist with finishing the game soon, and it was at that time that frankly, I broke. In a comment on that update, I linked back to the previous update saying they were putting all hands on deck to finish the game, and asked why they were only now – several months later – moving staff to the team.
Note: This was a fair question, and I will still die on that hill.
Anyway, someone at Magpie decided that – although I never asked for them to do this – I of course wanted them to cancel my pledge for the project. This also had the side effect of erasing every one of my previous comments – positive and negative – from their Kickstarter project page. Funny how that happens.
So, anyone who knows me will know that I was more than a little offended by this. It was clear they booted me from the project to hide my final question, as it made them look like liars (it did, and it still would have, if they hadn’t have made it disappear), so I made it my personal mission to let people know what Magpie was all about, in every venue I had available to me.
I’m not apologizing for that, just so you know. Hiding my question, and every previous comment, was just scummy. But I would like to apologize for being upset about them cancelling my pledge, because regardless of their scummy actions, I really did want a copy of “Urban Shadows 2E”.
Fast forward to this winter, and suddenly I find I have to apologize to Magpie Games for that, too. Why?
It seems that many people who stayed in the Kickstarter project, and eventually received their copies of US2E, found their books falling apart, due to poor bindings. Now to be fair, Magpie has been replacing those books with new copies, hopefully ones that don’t fall apart as well. Hopefully.
But here’s the thing: After being so excited for “Urban Shadows 2E”, and waiting so long for Magpie Games to develop the game and deliver it to backers, if I had been allowed to remain a backer and had waited all that time only to receive a book that was falling apart, well… I would have fucking lost my damn shit! If Magpie thinks I was angry for being wrongly kicked from being a backer, and even-more-wrongly silenced on the comments, they could not imagine just how incandescent my rage would have been to receive such a delayed book, only for it to be defective.
Incandescent. Absolutely incandescent.
Anyway, all I can do now is feel bad for those folks that have received defective copies of “Urban Shadows 2E”, and of course thank Magpie for dropping me as a backer, so I didn’t have to risk getting one of those books.
Saved me a lot of woe, so thank you, Magpie!
As for everyone else in the audience, if you still wish to buy a copy of “Urban Shadows 2E”, be sure to keep a close eye on your book’s bindings. If it starts to fall apart through normal use, contact Magpie Games, and they should replace it for you. If they don’t, leave a comment, as I’d be more than happy to follow up on this story.
Take care of your customers, Magpie, and do better in the future.
