Group Buys

The title says it all really! I'm based in London/Surrey UK (TW postcode) and happy to lead or be part of a group buy for the Kickstarter. Fortunately the postage is much better than previous Kickstarters but still around twenty quid so there are some savings to be had.

Post here if interested, or if you want to set up a group buy elsewhere.

also on BGG: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1440371/uk-group-buy

Seeing as we have already devolved into silliness again, I'll keep a running total up the top here as well on BGG. A couple of ground rules: I promise to handle an unlimited number of copies for collection from either an Isleworth gamenight or to within the locale of Kew Gardens tube station. Beyond this I will handle up to seven postal addresses unless we get a hundred people or more onboard, in which case Andy will personally sail those boxes across the Atlantic on the back of a herd of friendly Dolphins while proudly waving both the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack as he goes.

Postal members:
1. Silverleaf x2 Copies
2. Moocifer
3. CRennie
4. Tarnop
5. Shadowruin
6. tmgergo
7. Palemoon x2 Copies

Collection members (unlimited):
Mezike
TehRochi (IBG)
Woodnoggin (Sheffield or LoB)
BlueHairedMeerkat (LoB)
Ameena (LoB)

Current potential collection hubs: Halifax (Tarnop), Chesterfield (Silverleaf), Sheffield (Silverleaf), Glasgow/Edinburgh (Shadowruin), Devon (Palemoon)

I love group buys!

btw Paul (or Craig), can you confirm what the weight of the game is likley to be in it's current form? Postage rates in the UK change when a package goes over 2Kg (roughly 4.4lbs) Granted, the weight will increase with stretch goals added but a good guideline to start with would help me with more accurate shipping quotes.

The weight should be under 2kg for the core game, but if all of the stretch goals are unlocked it will definitely go over.

Yes, I'm definitely up for saving on postage. ;) Not sure how many copies yet, will check with my group.

I am in for a single copy!

I want to fly to the UK and play a game of Spirit Island w/ Mezike, Silverleaf, and BlueHairedMeerkat. I also want Paul there so we can go drink beer together. The rest of you are, of course, welcome to join us in the beer drinking.

IN FACT, I offer you this crazy and possibly serious challenge. If you can get 100 people to buy Spirit Island as one huge group buy, I will fly to the UK and play Spirit Island with you.

All 100 at once? That's a big island.

As long as you don't choose the time when I'm in Texas for BGG.CON…

Akso, if I order 3 copies do I count as three people?

Are you planing on hiding in the giant box all of those games would have to be packed into? Do we have to call you 'Waldo' now?

That's practically all the population of the UK, right?

Only if you start talking to yourself.

edit: also, jealouses in your direction.

If it makes you any less jealous, it'll be my first con and first time in the States. Almost certainly my last time in the States too, as money is a thing.

Hmm, I wonder if that would work. Each spirit would naturally be working in a fairly limited area. Board layout would be a fun problem. I'm imagining something like a bingo caller announcing the fear cards and terrains.

It is a thing, and unfortunately such a small and pitiful thing at that.

I hope you have a totally awesome time

Also, I'm happy to be a collection hub if that helps. I'm in Chesterfield and my boyfriend works in Sheffield so we could cover those areas easily.

Wouldn't be a problem. You just need a really long banquet table and stack the map tiles in pairs in a long row, like the 4-player island, but 50 pairs instead of 2 pairs. Then, all 100 people play as Shadows Flicker Like Flame (with its flexible targeting), and mayhem ensues. It will be a very scary, disorganized island.

Nah, that's too boring. The coast line should like at least a little like a real coast line, with branching and bays and the like.

So, what you're saying is that you'd prefer to play on the floor.

Actually, I was just thinking that it would be interesting to have a single game with multiple islands and some (possibly costly) way for spirits to jump their presence from one island to the next.

I actually had a vision of a hall with branching tables. Of course the tables would need to be based on triangular patterns, to fit the basically rhombus shape of the boards, like these:

http://www.coordination-berlin.com/?p=1717&lang=en

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Actually, I was just thinking that it would be interesting to have a single game with multiple islands and some (possibly costly) way for spirits to jump their presence from one island to the next.
That sounds a little more practical. You wouldn't necessarily have to coordinate all the tables.

I am totally planning to have the best time ever.

I want to know how much shipping and handling will be if I just drive the hour and a half to gtg hq during business hours and pick it up. :)

I'd happily do that too, except it might take slightly longer than an hour and a half plus the upholstery would get all damp.

Same, except I can't drive and don't own a vehicle.

Just hang out for a few (~10) months after BGG Con. It'll take way less than that to walk to St. Louis; no driving necessary!

checks if there's any difficult terrain between Dallas and St Louis, like mountains or deserts or big lakes or anything - nope, fine

Well, that's do-able. ~665 miles, 9 days 3 hours of continuous walking. I don't need to sleep or rest, right? I can sleep when I get to St Louis - the >GTG guys won't even notice me bedding down in a box of Mr Chomps plushies, and I can sustain myself on leftover Taco Bell office lunches and sneaky sips of Christopher's Ardbeg, stolen after everyone's gone home for the night.

Yeah, I can do London on Board pick-up and free up the postage slot for someone more in need

I totally didn't "walk" the route via Google Maps.* Oh my goodness, I know I should be grateful for my BGG.CON trip, but my only regret is that I won't get to see anything more of the country than Dallas Fort Worth airport and a bit of Dallas. I continue to curse my lack of money.

* I totally did.

that requires you to go thru Arkansas. Trust me from experience, you do not want to go to Arkansas.

It's a price I'm willing to pay.

Woo, this whole thread has sprung up since I last logged on yesterday :D. I'm interested - it's been ages since the last >G Kickstarter so I've forgotten. What do I do, back the Kickstarter and add a note saying it needs to be sent to Mezike rather than me or something?

For group buys, typically one person makes a pledge with the total for all the people, and then you'd actually pay that person.

Yes, Craig has the right of it. I'll pay for everyone's pledges and then you can pay me for your share (around £34) after the KS has closed.

btw Craig and others on the GTG, I actually ment this as a serious question.

We don't offer local pickup. We're just not logistically set up for that.

KREGG WANTS ME TO STARVE TO DEATH

sad face. Ok. I understand

I mostly agree about Arkansas, but the Ozarks are rather pretty. Much of the rest of your trip would likely be through the plains, which are called that for a reason. (You are aware of the Annals of Improbable Research study from a decade or so ago demonstrating that "Kansas is Flatter Than a Pancake" right?)

If you were going to be here a month or two earlier than you really are, I'd endorse trying to go to what is often referred to as northern lower Michigan. The stretch between Traverse City and the Mackinac Bridge is some of the most beautiful country I've ever been privileged to witness, especially when the fall colors are in full swing. I've been to more of the country than many citizens of the US, so I think I come by that opinion honestly, although I am perhaps biased from having grown up farther south in Michigan. (The official forecasts for this year are peak colors the weekends of 10/10 and 17/10.)

I'm from a pretty hilly place so flat plains would be a novelty to me!

As I was "walking" on Google Maps I remember thinking, "Why is it so flat? Where are all the trees?" and then I realised I was in Kansas.

I would love love love to see anything new like that though. Shame it probably won't ever happen!

Okay Mezike, that sounds cool. If it's you doing all the pledges on behalf of all of us, though, how do we see new updates on the Kickstarter page? Don't they tend to be for pledgers only? Also we wouldn't get e-mails telling us when there is an update :(.

I will email/pm you within 24hrs of every backer only update - you won't miss a thing!

If you want to comment on the KS and get updates directly from it as well you can pledge one dollar to the project.  

Sure, except with currency exchange fees $1 ends up becoming £2 or £3! It's the magic money multiplier from your favourite high street bank. Fair point though!

You can always cancel your $1 pledge before the project ends, if you just want updates during the campaign itself.

It looks like GtG tends not to do backer-only updates.

That's true. I won't worry about missing anything, then :).

Yeah, backer-only updates are shady business, in my opinion. The only reason we'd do one if it had a link to something just for backers, but the information from updates should be from everyone!

We'll probably end up doing a backer-only update as part of the Sentinel Comics RPG Kickstarter, but that's about it. 

Okay, I'm in for two copies, if that's cool Mezike?

Also if you're reading, hi Chris. :)

We're up to fourteen members now with a couple of fence-sitters who have not yet committed to joining us (the mad fools!)

Not quite enough to get Andy over for a game then, but maybe adequate for a postcard picture so he can join us in spirit. Just a note for anyone still thinking about whether or not to join that I will close this group buy to new members next Wednesday (two days before the KS closes).

Come join us... we have jelly beans!

Just an update to say that this group buy has now closed to new members. Any latecomers who still want in will need to send me a personal message as I'll be away for a few days from tomorrow (and don't assume you're in unless I get back to you with a confirmation!)

Final tally is fifteen copies so I think we did alright as far as group buys go!

Resurrecting this thread just to point out that shipping has started (yay!) and international is going first this time (twice yay! Thank you GTG for not making us wait weeks and weeks longer any more!) and also that our package falls into the "D" name range so will hopefully be a relatively early one out the door (triple yay! this time for my parents and their early-alphabet-child-naming-policy).

I have some holiday coming up so hopeful this will arrive just in time for me to start sending them out before I go. I'll keep group buy members updated both here and on the BGG thread.

Did I say Yay by the way?

I'm trying to be patient, but that's extra difficult when your name begins with A and your game is being delivered to a D. ;)

Your parents were clearly keener than mine in their alphabetically-early-child-naming policy. I wonder if it's too late to change my name to something beginning with a zero?

Well, mine begins with an E so you're both better off than me in that regard ;). Also, yay! Spirit Island, yay! :D

We just need a Cidney or a  Bobby to join us and then we are almost a quarter of the way through the alphabet. Or a Bobert, a Booby, Billhelm, Bradford, Bimothy, etc. etc.

They were. My brother is an Adam.

I mean, you've got a C right here

For some reason I was sure that you had a silent "p" at the start of your name. And also a "g", "b", and "q". I guess this means I will need to reprint your address label now but my cartridge ran out of ink