StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
One thing that I will say about games that are explicitly designed to be two player games is that a lot of them tend towards more experimental role playing concepts. This isn't a bad thing, it's just that you're less likely to find a two player game that is like, an adventurer killing orcs over the course of a four month campaign, and more likely to find a powerful meditation on grief over the course of a four hour session. Which is great if that's what you're looking for; I've enjoyed the hell out of that sort of thing, but it's not always what I'm craving when I want to play a tabletop game.
This ain't true of all two player games, and once you get into the 2+ territory you start getting more and more stuff that will work in more traditional RPG stylings. And of course there is adaptation work you can do if you want to turn a more traditional party based game into a two player game, it just will, you know, require work.
So, it being mentioned elsewhere has renewed my interest in star realms, but it got...larger. So is this like carcassone, in which there are a couple "GOTTA HAVE IT!" expansions and some other trash? Or is it mostly good? Does the big box kickstarter look good? (Lemme know if I shouldn't even mention it, I know not to link it.)
So, it being mentioned elsewhere has renewed my interest in star realms, but it got...larger. So is this like carcassone, in which there are a couple "GOTTA HAVE IT!" expansions and some other trash? Or is it mostly good? Does the big box kickstarter look good? (Lemme know if I shouldn't even mention it, I know not to link it.)
It's just more of the same. You could spent that money on another game. Imho ofcourse.
I played the app some and liked it, and my partner loved dominion (which I got reeeallly tired of) so it's a tempting option for something dominion like for 2 players that I like a bit better :P. Right now our main game is arboretum, which is still amazing at 2p but sometimes a bit brain burny.
I played the app some and liked it, and my partner loved dominion (which I got reeeallly tired of) so it's a tempting option for something dominion like for 2 players that I like a bit better :P. Right now our main game is arboretum, which is still amazing at 2p but sometimes a bit brain burny.
If you don't have it, the big box is a decent buy.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
So tonight the party finally put our escape from the drow into motion. The rogue did something we'll have to ask him about later and got a few flying demon things to attack as a distraction. Apparently he prepared this several days earlier.
While the guards and the lady in charge were fighting the demons, the thief opened the jail and everyone retrieved the equipment that had been recovered the previous evening (my bard using enchanted music to distract three guards without blowing her cover, so the rogue could sneak to the lady's room and raid the chest it ((most of it)) was in).
Meanwhile my bard was in the temple to lolth, having been assigned there as the only other drow woman present in the outpost. Once the demons attacked she went down to the mistress' quarters and grabbed the platinum, then went down one more to the head guardfella's place and stole his fancy bdsm mask. Then she went up and instead of joining the others, the rogue frantically beckoning to her from across the rope bridge, went the other way to where the battle was.
Once she was within 60 feet of the drow mistress, heat armor as a 3rd level spell on her scale mail. 3d8 damage. The lady senses where it came from and while yelling in pain points at my bard and shouts that she's a traitor. Still distracted by the demons though, that was her action. Bonus action heat armor. 3d8 damage. Cast dissonant whispers as a 3rd level. 5d6 damage, and both middle fingers high in the air as the drow mistress fails the save and runs off down the stairs opposite with a loud shriek.
Then my bard turned and booked it back north and across the rope bridge to join the impatient rogue and the others.
She may not be evil, but she's still a drow. Hate and spite comes incredibly easily to her and spending four days with these people filled her to the brim with both.
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Uuuuggghhhh. Why don't I have money for Warhammer? I wanna paint some little dudes and have them murder other little dudes but I really also can't imagine sinking so much money into a game.
Wizard thread, I just woke up from a dream, and I'm so angry.
Was walking through an office building with folks where I knew there was draculas, with some friends.
We notice something is moving up ahead and I volunteer to check it out first.
Oh hey it's Alex! We were looking for ya, wait, what's up man? He's dazed, oh he's a distraction! Drac'd in my neck as I walk over, by a hidden vampire!
I missed my dream rpg "dodge vampire" prompt, and everything, and got bit like a complete sucker.
Uuuuggghhhh. Why don't I have money for Warhammer? I wanna paint some little dudes and have them murder other little dudes but I really also can't imagine sinking so much money into a game.
You could build a more elite army.
Or find a skirmish wargame that is played in your area so you only need a handful of models.
The Beyond boxes look amazing and are a fantastic way to enter the game alongside the core Operation boxes.
Like, you buy a starter and an expansion box and you've got a 300pt army each to play with. That's super cool. And they're good too, nice mix of troops.
I'm going to put in a huge caveat about playing Infinity:
Playing any miniature game is miserable if you don't have a good scene for that miniature game in your area. So, if you find you have a good Infinity scene in your area great! Otherwise, pass.
(Also you should probably like the setting and aesthetic of any mini game you play.)
Edit: Though this conversation does remind me I got 7 Infinity miniatures for free the other day, I think they are all mooks though so not much of a force other than for doing basic demos in a game with an emphasis on rambos, after all.
Yeah you 100% want to have people you can count on to play with. That's either a decent number of friends who are likely to get invested and not just lose interest, or a good local scene of folks to play with (or both!)
I have only played a miniature game with a random person once ever.
It was Warhammer 40K, when I was at the height of actually being invested in my Tyranids army.
The guy talked shit the entire game and was generally very rules-lawery and irritating, but this didn't become apparently until we had started playing so I was hesitant to make a scene by just quitting on him and leaving. The first two turns were super rough, as I was playing a pretty heavy deep strike list and hadn't managed to roll any of my reserves in, and he kept making fun of said terrible rolls.
Then the third turn I rolled wonder dice and my entire reserve list came in just were I needed them and I steamrolled the entirely of his army that turn (and the assault phase of the next). He was speechless and quietly packed up and left after, looking very disgruntled. It took some damn lucky rolls to win me the game, but boy I was happy with that.
And after that I only ever wanted to play with my friends, even when we went to visit a GW store.
That also reminds me that the kickstarter for the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is going live today, and depending on the price point I may pick it up to try and sucker some friends into miniature wargaming as it seems very accessible.
Edit: I am very lucky that my local GW is full of amazingly welcoming folks and ran but a very chill guy.
Like, we had a new guy come in the other day, asking how to paint white, first time in the store, and he left with like three different pots of paints gifted from other store veterans so he could try out the paint techniques we discussed with him. Also the store is a 3 minute walk from my home.
That also reminds me that the kickstarter for the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is going live today, and depending on the price point I may pick it up to try and sucker some friends into miniature wargaming as it seems very accessible.
Edit: I am very lucky that my local GW is full of amazingly welcoming folks and ran but a very chill guy.
Like, we had a new guy come in the other day, asking how to paint white, first time in the store, and he left with like three different pots of paints gifted from other store veterans so he could try out the paint techniques we discussed with him. Also the store is a 3 minute walk from my home.
I knew several of the employees at that GW real well and they were all very chill friendly folks. But there were some very grumpy players who would come in there a lot, sadly.
I hear another store in my city was heaps better, player-wise (though this was a number of years ago when I still played 40K) but it was a pain to get to so I rarely went there.
The Song of Ice and Fire Miniature Game kickstarter is up.
$150, which is steep. But comes with 103 preassembled (but unpainted) miniatures.
More than I wanted it to cost, to be perfectly honest, was hoping for something a little smaller scale, as I want to use this to try and get non wargaming friends into miniature wargaming. Hm.
So Dark Eras 2 has been funded! And it's hit it's first stretch goal, meaning the Golden Age of Piracy, featuring Mage and Geist!
The next stretch goal is being voted on by backers and will either be King Arthur's Britannia (400-500 C.E.), Epic of Gilgamesh (2100s BCE), or Jazz Age/Roaring 20s. Honestly the Roaring 20s would be super interesting but both of the others are kinda awesome.
Like, imagine King Arthur's court with Mages and Hunters
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
It is bumming me out that Dark Eras 2 isn't flying up the charts the way the first one did. I wonder if it's bad timing, Kickstarter fatigue, people taking it out on OPP for White Wolf being shitheads, or what.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
It could just be people taking it out on OPP for OPP being shitheads.
So Pyre is out and while the gameplay bits aren't exactly going to blaze the world on fire the backdrops and vague lore is sure as hell going to be someones RPG setting at some point.
A. It was the product of watching the Blade and Underworld movies consecutively in a very short amount of time, so making the thing has been a very helpful sort of mental digestion process.
B. It's running on the bones of the previously mentioned eternal beta project. Which means those rules are actually getting to see the light of day, and they are good and I love them.
C. There was a lot of setting space in the thing to just dunk on White Wolf, which I'm always down for.
The Song of Ice and Fire Miniature Game kickstarter is up.
$150, which is steep. But comes with 103 preassembled (but unpainted) miniatures.
More than I wanted it to cost, to be perfectly honest, was hoping for something a little smaller scale, as I want to use this to try and get non wargaming friends into miniature wargaming. Hm.
It looks... interesting
On the one hand could be great
On the other hand, the miniature quality looks fantastic in the painted ones we've seen, but will they all come in that detail? From the Conan Kickstarter I say... no.
Are the rules any good? Well, they look alright. Bit of tactics in there, nice to see. But is there any kind of genuine tactical flair or challenge? Will it be remotely balanced?
Thing is, kickstarter sucks for miniatures games, because anyone that doesn't back (at quite a cost!) then can't actually buy anything to play for fucking aaaages. So you get a short burst of enthusiasm, but now you can't get anything more and your friends who didn't drop $150 plus shipping can't play so fuck it back to Infinity, Warmahordes, 40K etc etc etc. Kickstarted games never have any sticking power in the local group and will I want to play a few games then drop it? Probably not. Will I get bored of using the same two forces and such? Probably.
If the release schedule isn't shit hot, it'll die. If they don't create two more factions at least within a few months of the minis going out, it'll die. If they don't release new units within the same timescale, it'll die. This is a competitive time for wargames and there's a lot of baggage that comes with doing kickstarters that's just terrible for a new game. On the other hand it does look like it could be cool and the idea of a non-combat mini game where you use intruigue and such to have in-battle effects (like Catelyn Stark using her influence with the River Lords to restore lost units through reinforcements from the Tully ranks) is actually quite novel and cool. It really potentially ties into campaign play, as well, so having allies could be integrated into that system very nicely.
A. It was the product of watching the Blade and Underworld movies consecutively in a very short amount of time, so making the thing has been a very helpful sort of mental digestion process.
B. It's running on the bones of the previously mentioned eternal beta project. Which means those rules are actually getting to see the light of day, and they are good and I love them.
C. There was a lot of setting space in the thing to just dunk on White Wolf, which I'm always down for.
A. It was the product of watching the Blade and Underworld movies consecutively in a very short amount of time, so making the thing has been a very helpful sort of mental digestion process.
B. It's running on the bones of the previously mentioned eternal beta project. Which means those rules are actually getting to see the light of day, and they are good and I love them.
C. There was a lot of setting space in the thing to just dunk on White Wolf, which I'm always down for.
That sounds awesome.
I'm pretty happy with it!
It's also the first product I've put out that hit #1 on the "Most Popular Under $5" list on DriveThruRPG, so that's exciting.
It could just be people taking it out on OPP for OPP being shitheads.
Is this about Exalted or something?
Well that whole deal is a massive clusterfuck but anyway, you remember how it was years late and a massive fuck up?
Well the claim (repeat, claim) made from the devs is that they told Rich Thomas it would always take several years to get it all done, and that his original release date of six months was ludicrously unworkable. There's also accusations of not being paid properly, of really bad communication from above, nigh-on abusive treatment, artists and writers getting ripped off, etc etc etc. Like, I read a really looooong chat transcript with Morke and Holden where they basically tore into the guy really extensively, and with support from other people peripheral to that.
So I dunno. Could be bollocks. I'm pretty inclined to believe at least some of it is true, though. Massively, massively soured me on Onyx Path however. Like, I love Mage and DaveB is great, but at the same time, I really don't like what OPP seem to be doing and I don't really want to put my money into it. Part of it might be kickstarter fatigue, part of it might be that OPP has had quite a lot of bad press recently.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
It could just be people taking it out on OPP for OPP being shitheads.
Is this about Exalted or something?
Well that whole deal is a massive clusterfuck but anyway, you remember how it was years late and a massive fuck up?
Well the claim (repeat, claim) made from the devs is that they told Rich Thomas it would always take several years to get it all done, and that his original release date of six months was ludicrously unworkable. There's also accusations of not being paid properly, of really bad communication from above, nigh-on abusive treatment, artists and writers getting ripped off, etc etc etc. Like, I read a really looooong chat transcript with Morke and Holden where they basically tore into the guy really extensively, and with support from other people peripheral to that.
So I dunno. Could be bollocks. I'm pretty inclined to believe at least some of it is true, though. Massively, massively soured me on Onyx Path however. Like, I love Mage and DaveB is great, but at the same time, I really don't like what OPP seem to be doing and I don't really want to put my money into it. Part of it might be kickstarter fatigue, part of it might be that OPP has had quite a lot of bad press recently.
I wasn't around for the Exalted thing since the game was never my bag to begin with, but the three or four other projects I've backed have all either delivered on time or are communicating very clearly. It sucks that the one thing was a clusterfuck, particularly as it seemed to have so much expensive merch and other stuff attached, but I guess I'm not really clear on what "Onyx Path is doing" outside of that. Beast was controversial, and I thought it souned fucking dumb, but that seemed entirely down to the dude developing it, and he seems to have made the game he wanted to make. During this same span of time, Demon and the 2Es of Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Promethean have all come out and been pretty great products with engaged, active developers.
The timing also just confuses me since Dark Eras 1, Pugmire, and Scion all funded and have been fulfilled or are trundling along quite well in that same span of time.
Jacobkosh on
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Der Waffle MousBlame this on the misfortune of your birth.New Yark, New Yark.Registered Userregular
edited July 2017
generally I've seen the opinion among my acquaintances that followed Ex3 that Holden and Morke aren't particularly trustworthy people and a lot of exalted's problems are entirely on them but they're not wrong when they say some shady stuff was going on.
I think there's been a bit of drama around Changeling. The guy who did it left under a big cloud.
I dunno. I guess you experience the company in the way that you encounter them. For me that was Exalted, which was a massive fuck up. But why? And who is responsible? And who has been screwed over? We thought we knew, in the community, but it turns out that we might not. And to be fair when the ex-Devs say "hey, now we're not devs and not connected and don't work for them and never will again, just so it's clear, Rich Thompson fucked us, and fucked up the project, and has basically directed all the blame elsewhere." I can honestly say that I was never a fan of the man, so I may be biased. But at the same time yeah, it worries me. I don't want to put money into a company that might not actually be paying it's employees and freelancers and such properly.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
DE?AD I bought your new game but I ain't read it yet because my copy of Monsterhearts just showed up in the mail and I've been reading that
But I will soon, promise
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Posts
This ain't true of all two player games, and once you get into the 2+ territory you start getting more and more stuff that will work in more traditional RPG stylings. And of course there is adaptation work you can do if you want to turn a more traditional party based game into a two player game, it just will, you know, require work.
It's just more of the same. You could spent that money on another game. Imho ofcourse.
If you don't have it, the big box is a decent buy.
A world where cell phones make communication harder......
So tonight the party finally put our escape from the drow into motion. The rogue did something we'll have to ask him about later and got a few flying demon things to attack as a distraction. Apparently he prepared this several days earlier.
While the guards and the lady in charge were fighting the demons, the thief opened the jail and everyone retrieved the equipment that had been recovered the previous evening (my bard using enchanted music to distract three guards without blowing her cover, so the rogue could sneak to the lady's room and raid the chest it ((most of it)) was in).
Meanwhile my bard was in the temple to lolth, having been assigned there as the only other drow woman present in the outpost. Once the demons attacked she went down to the mistress' quarters and grabbed the platinum, then went down one more to the head guardfella's place and stole his fancy bdsm mask. Then she went up and instead of joining the others, the rogue frantically beckoning to her from across the rope bridge, went the other way to where the battle was.
Once she was within 60 feet of the drow mistress, heat armor as a 3rd level spell on her scale mail. 3d8 damage. The lady senses where it came from and while yelling in pain points at my bard and shouts that she's a traitor. Still distracted by the demons though, that was her action. Bonus action heat armor. 3d8 damage. Cast dissonant whispers as a 3rd level. 5d6 damage, and both middle fingers high in the air as the drow mistress fails the save and runs off down the stairs opposite with a loud shriek.
Then my bard turned and booked it back north and across the rope bridge to join the impatient rogue and the others.
She may not be evil, but she's still a drow. Hate and spite comes incredibly easily to her and spending four days with these people filled her to the brim with both.
Was walking through an office building with folks where I knew there was draculas, with some friends.
We notice something is moving up ahead and I volunteer to check it out first.
Oh hey it's Alex! We were looking for ya, wait, what's up man?
He's dazed, oh he's a distraction! Drac'd in my neck as I walk over, by a hidden vampire!
I missed my dream rpg "dodge vampire" prompt, and everything, and got bit like a complete sucker.
You could build a more elite army.
Or find a skirmish wargame that is played in your area so you only need a handful of models.
Like, you buy a starter and an expansion box and you've got a 300pt army each to play with. That's super cool. And they're good too, nice mix of troops.
Playing any miniature game is miserable if you don't have a good scene for that miniature game in your area. So, if you find you have a good Infinity scene in your area great! Otherwise, pass.
(Also you should probably like the setting and aesthetic of any mini game you play.)
Edit: Though this conversation does remind me I got 7 Infinity miniatures for free the other day, I think they are all mooks though so not much of a force other than for doing basic demos in a game with an emphasis on rambos, after all.
I would much prefer to get into a game with a couple freindos and just play for funsies.
It was Warhammer 40K, when I was at the height of actually being invested in my Tyranids army.
The guy talked shit the entire game and was generally very rules-lawery and irritating, but this didn't become apparently until we had started playing so I was hesitant to make a scene by just quitting on him and leaving. The first two turns were super rough, as I was playing a pretty heavy deep strike list and hadn't managed to roll any of my reserves in, and he kept making fun of said terrible rolls.
Then the third turn I rolled wonder dice and my entire reserve list came in just were I needed them and I steamrolled the entirely of his army that turn (and the assault phase of the next). He was speechless and quietly packed up and left after, looking very disgruntled. It took some damn lucky rolls to win me the game, but boy I was happy with that.
And after that I only ever wanted to play with my friends, even when we went to visit a GW store.
Edit: I am very lucky that my local GW is full of amazingly welcoming folks and ran but a very chill guy.
Like, we had a new guy come in the other day, asking how to paint white, first time in the store, and he left with like three different pots of paints gifted from other store veterans so he could try out the paint techniques we discussed with him. Also the store is a 3 minute walk from my home.
It won't, of course, but that'd be so cool
I knew several of the employees at that GW real well and they were all very chill friendly folks. But there were some very grumpy players who would come in there a lot, sadly.
I hear another store in my city was heaps better, player-wise (though this was a number of years ago when I still played 40K) but it was a pain to get to so I rarely went there.
$150, which is steep. But comes with 103 preassembled (but unpainted) miniatures.
More than I wanted it to cost, to be perfectly honest, was hoping for something a little smaller scale, as I want to use this to try and get non wargaming friends into miniature wargaming. Hm.
Well yeah, it's the most logical point for a starter set though, and you can bet it it sells well that they will roll out the other factions too.
The next stretch goal is being voted on by backers and will either be King Arthur's Britannia (400-500 C.E.), Epic of Gilgamesh (2100s BCE), or Jazz Age/Roaring 20s. Honestly the Roaring 20s would be super interesting but both of the others are kinda awesome.
Like, imagine King Arthur's court with Mages and Hunters
A. It was the product of watching the Blade and Underworld movies consecutively in a very short amount of time, so making the thing has been a very helpful sort of mental digestion process.
B. It's running on the bones of the previously mentioned eternal beta project. Which means those rules are actually getting to see the light of day, and they are good and I love them.
C. There was a lot of setting space in the thing to just dunk on White Wolf, which I'm always down for.
Is this about Exalted or something?
It looks... interesting
On the one hand could be great
On the other hand, the miniature quality looks fantastic in the painted ones we've seen, but will they all come in that detail? From the Conan Kickstarter I say... no.
Are the rules any good? Well, they look alright. Bit of tactics in there, nice to see. But is there any kind of genuine tactical flair or challenge? Will it be remotely balanced?
Thing is, kickstarter sucks for miniatures games, because anyone that doesn't back (at quite a cost!) then can't actually buy anything to play for fucking aaaages. So you get a short burst of enthusiasm, but now you can't get anything more and your friends who didn't drop $150 plus shipping can't play so fuck it back to Infinity, Warmahordes, 40K etc etc etc. Kickstarted games never have any sticking power in the local group and will I want to play a few games then drop it? Probably not. Will I get bored of using the same two forces and such? Probably.
If the release schedule isn't shit hot, it'll die. If they don't create two more factions at least within a few months of the minis going out, it'll die. If they don't release new units within the same timescale, it'll die. This is a competitive time for wargames and there's a lot of baggage that comes with doing kickstarters that's just terrible for a new game. On the other hand it does look like it could be cool and the idea of a non-combat mini game where you use intruigue and such to have in-battle effects (like Catelyn Stark using her influence with the River Lords to restore lost units through reinforcements from the Tully ranks) is actually quite novel and cool. It really potentially ties into campaign play, as well, so having allies could be integrated into that system very nicely.
That sounds awesome.
I'm pretty happy with it!
It's also the first product I've put out that hit #1 on the "Most Popular Under $5" list on DriveThruRPG, so that's exciting.
Well that whole deal is a massive clusterfuck but anyway, you remember how it was years late and a massive fuck up?
Well the claim (repeat, claim) made from the devs is that they told Rich Thomas it would always take several years to get it all done, and that his original release date of six months was ludicrously unworkable. There's also accusations of not being paid properly, of really bad communication from above, nigh-on abusive treatment, artists and writers getting ripped off, etc etc etc. Like, I read a really looooong chat transcript with Morke and Holden where they basically tore into the guy really extensively, and with support from other people peripheral to that.
So I dunno. Could be bollocks. I'm pretty inclined to believe at least some of it is true, though. Massively, massively soured me on Onyx Path however. Like, I love Mage and DaveB is great, but at the same time, I really don't like what OPP seem to be doing and I don't really want to put my money into it. Part of it might be kickstarter fatigue, part of it might be that OPP has had quite a lot of bad press recently.
I wasn't around for the Exalted thing since the game was never my bag to begin with, but the three or four other projects I've backed have all either delivered on time or are communicating very clearly. It sucks that the one thing was a clusterfuck, particularly as it seemed to have so much expensive merch and other stuff attached, but I guess I'm not really clear on what "Onyx Path is doing" outside of that. Beast was controversial, and I thought it souned fucking dumb, but that seemed entirely down to the dude developing it, and he seems to have made the game he wanted to make. During this same span of time, Demon and the 2Es of Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Promethean have all come out and been pretty great products with engaged, active developers.
The timing also just confuses me since Dark Eras 1, Pugmire, and Scion all funded and have been fulfilled or are trundling along quite well in that same span of time.
I dunno. I guess you experience the company in the way that you encounter them. For me that was Exalted, which was a massive fuck up. But why? And who is responsible? And who has been screwed over? We thought we knew, in the community, but it turns out that we might not. And to be fair when the ex-Devs say "hey, now we're not devs and not connected and don't work for them and never will again, just so it's clear, Rich Thompson fucked us, and fucked up the project, and has basically directed all the blame elsewhere." I can honestly say that I was never a fan of the man, so I may be biased. But at the same time yeah, it worries me. I don't want to put money into a company that might not actually be paying it's employees and freelancers and such properly.
But I will soon, promise
Duz dey gotz Orkz?