Knuckleduster: Gunfighters Ball auf Kickstarter

Der Kickstarter von Knukleduster Miniatures, Gunfighters Ball, ist auf Kickstarter und hat bereits sein Ziel erreicht, für jeden Fan des Wilden Westens sicher einen Blick wert.

Gunfighter’s Ball Wild West Miniatures Game

Gunfighter’s Ball is a Wild West tabletop miniatures game for 2-12 players featuring cutting-edge miniatures and terrain.

 

About

If you have ever held a Gunfighter’s Ball game miniature in your hands, you can attest to the stunning quality of these digitally-designed wild west miniatures. The Gunfighter’s Ball game system ties together these digitally-sculpted miniatures with extremely fun rules and matching terrain items worthy of the figures themselves.

Gunfighter’s Ball figures and terrain

THE MINIATURES

Gunfighter’s Ball miniatures are sculpted digitally by Forrest Harris and cast in razor-sharp lead-free tin pewter. Figures are considered 28mm in size, but match most modern 28s at about 30mm to eye level. Each figure comes on a slotta tab with an MDF 25mm diameter base. There are lots of figures already available and this campaign will add some amazing new products to the range.

A digital render, printed prototype, and painted figure.

THE GAME

Gunfighter’s Ball is a tabletop miniatures game that puts the focus squarely on combat. Each player controls one or two characters with a card-driven turn sequence, dice-rolling for hit results, and a very detailed wound chart which specifies where you are hit and how much damage you take (tracked by poker chips).

Short range skirmish

Subtle strategies are built into the game’s turn sequencing and hit modifiers, so the choices a player makes during a gunfight matter in the extreme. The Judge’s Guide includes rules for hand-to-hand fighting, fanning, called shots, dynamite, spooked animals, enraged grizzlies, and many other things that make the Gunfighter’s Ball West wild. Scenarios are provided so you can get started right away.

Mockup of rulebook cover

TERRAIN

Gunfighter’s Ball buildings are laser-cut MDF with cast detail parts (currently metal, but we have plans for resin-cast parts for future designs). They are very quick to assemble in comparison to buildings with laser-cut fiddly-bits. They are generously-scaled in order to accommodate not only our figures, but also many of today’s popular Victorian, Steampunk, and Western games with „28mm“ figures that tend toward 32mm.

The Deputy Level and above have a starter set that includes the Alamo Saloon, a roomy building with a stage, back foyer, and enough space for the Gunfighter’s Ball poker set (8 characters and 2 tables), the faro game, cancan dancers, and cowboys drinking at the bar. The stage even has slots just the right size for the Gunfighter’s Ball cancan dancers‘ slotta-tabs to fit into!

Alamo Saloon , exterior and interior

Also featured in the Deputy level and above is a bar, resin-cast with metal detail parts and modeled after the hardwood bars made by Brunswick company in the 1880s. It features exquisite detail, including filigree on the cash register and mustache rags hanging under the counter-top.

GAME ACCESSORIES

The game uses poker chips, cards, and 3 types of dice: D10s, D6s, and D3s. The Starter Set includes an accessory pack with six sets of plastic poker chips, a full set of dice, a deck of well-made coated blank playing cards for a flexible initiative system (repeated play has found this to be by far the fastest and most practical way to set up a game), and character cards with photos of painted figures and information like weaponry, ammo, and special abilities. This deck will include most of the figures from the first series (current faction packs), plus some extras not in the current factions.

NEW FACTION

The brand new, un-released Icon Faction is included in the Starter Set at the Deputy Level and above. This set of six figures includes many characters previewed on social media which customers have been clamoring for for some time (you clamorers know who you are!).

REWARDS

You can support the campaign by giving as little as $1. Those who pledge at the Rules Lawyer level or higher ($40) will receive our Kickstarter-exclusive figure, „The Drifter.“ He will only be available to Kickstarter backers (period). When it’s over, he’ll drift off into the sunset!

   

Take this opportunity to add some Gunfighter’s Ball figure sets and existing buildings to your pledge. If stretch goals are reached, those items will also become available as add-ons to those who haven’t pledged at the Deputy Level or higher. If you have requests for non-exclusive items to be added to the add-ons, send us a message or comment and we’ll look at adding them.

   

   

   

   

SHIPPING

Shipping will be charged at the conclusion of the Kickstarter within the Pledge Manager based on the weight of your rewards and add-ons. Shipping is NOT INCLUDED in the pledge levels.

PRODUCT NOTICES

All products are sold unpainted; assembly required. Figures are cast from lead-free tin pewter.

Choking Hazard: Small Parts; keep away from children under 3 years old or individuals who have a tendency to put inedible objects in their mouths.

Risks and challenges

Knuckleduster has been making game miniatures for almost 15 years. Our sculpting, 3-D printing, mold-making, and metal casting is done in-house. The owner, Forrest Harris, is also the sculptor and mold-maker, which gives us a huge advantage over startups who have to pay for sculpting and 3-D printing.

We’ve talked to supplies and gotten estimates for the design and printing of the rule book and game cards, as well as the 3D-printing and resin casting of some large components of terrain items that won’t fit on our printing machine (and Envisiontec Perfactory Hi-Res, a jewelry-grade printer revered in the game biz). The people supplying those estimates are veterans in the industry, but if they are significantly off the mark, it could cause delays.

Also, the use of outside vendors means we’re not totally in control of the timeline in the same way we are with products we make in-house. To control for the possibility of disastrously late fulfillment (for instance, if a supplier goes broke or has a catastrophic illness), we have backup suppliers as a last resort.

The amount of risk taken in this Kickstarter is relatively low. For instance, having been in the business of niche-marketing for many years, we know how this game fits into the market as a whole. We’re not using really expensive and financially-risky things like injection-molded plastic kits, which have been known to sink game startups from the sheer cost of the molds, and aren’t typically expected in wild west miniatures games.

Finally, we’re reducing risk by holding off charging shipping until the Pledge Manager phase when true shipping costs can be calculated. During interviews with people who have run campaigns, this has been a consistent piece of advice.

Our plan is to have everything completed by the Adepticon, our largest spring convention, however we’ve set our fulfillment goal for June, in time for the HMGS Historicon convention.

Die Kampagne hat das Ziel von 9.500 USD erreicht, steht aktuell bei 21.766 USD und läuft noch 9 Tage.

Quelle: Gunfighter’s Ball Wild West Miniatures Game auf Kickstarter