Ever argue with your friends about whether or not the Amyr ever truly existed?
Did you spend several years living on the streets of a port town after finding your entire family killed on the road?
Yes? Then Name of the Wind playing card deck on Kickstarter, has everything you've secretly wanted. Gorgeous art work on the cards, casino level quality poker chips, art prints, art magnets, Rothfuss singing. Yeah, really.
I don't really know how they are getting away with how amazing this is, Patrick Rothfuss is having firsthand design control over things like the Amyr's burning tower image, and what all the characters look like. The suits are as follows: spade/Folly, club/Arliden's lute, hearts/Kilvin's lamps, diamond/talent pipes. The jokers are Elodin and Auri. Stancheon and Deoch share the king of hearts card. The poker chips have things like the burning tower of the Amyr, and Tehlu's wheel.
The whole thing is one giant love letter to the youthful mythos of the Kingkiller Chronicles. Go waste money.
Oh, and the whole shebang is now the highest funded deck of cards ever on Kickstarter, and if you have ever lurked on there you know that are no shortages of playing cards. They are actually running out of ideas as to what to make a push goal reward, at the time of this post they are close to making this a 200,000 dollar project.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
I would really prefer that he get his finger out on the third dang book.
Posted by DustinDopps (Member # 12640) on :
I agree, King. I keep seeing Rothfuss doing all of these great things, but in my heart of hearts I'm thinking "Stop with the charity stuff and write the conclusion!!!"
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I'm backing this Kickstarter. A deck for myself and a deck as a gift for a family member who enjoyed the first two books as much as I did.
Edit:
Also, I hope the success of this Kickstarter shows Rothfuss has enough a fanbase to support supplementary materials related to his series, so we'll see a potential push for other things along these lines. A pen-and-paper RPG set in this world could be fun.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I have absolutely no interest in a standard deck of cards with pretty backs, sadly.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
I could be mistaken but I thought the aces and face cards were specific to the books.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
They are, as well as the jokers and if the new push goal is met one of the rule cards will be replaced by a scathing curse upon whoever would dare steal a book from the University library.
There are also artwork magnets, prints, casino quality clay chips with Kingkiller Chronicles designs, dice with the wheel of Tehlu, and some very limited packages that will include the prototype iron jot. Not to mention that almost all of the upper pledges feature one of the "names" shirt from the official merchandise online store found here where you can find shirts and silver pipes for all occasions.
I know we can get a bit antsy when it comes to waiting for a new book, and considering that this is his first trilogy I am fascinated to see how he ends it. But that doesn't mean the man has to chain himself to his desk. As a matter of fact, the reason I ever heard of him at all is because he was doing something besides writing, he does free signings and readings because he wants to meet his fans and hear what they have to say, then he goes to parts of the country he's never been to because he wants to meet those fans too. He goes on Wil Wheaton's TableTop because it is fun, he writes blog posts and does google hang-outs of him and artists designing the cards for this Kickstarter that he was going to do anyway but makes them available for fans to watch it all come together. He is willing to embarrass himself in the course of the Kickstarter by making it a push goal that he will sing for all the internet to laugh at.
Because he likes us.
The man has deadlines, editors and not to mention a wife and rapidly growing child. It would be perfectly reasonable for him to not reach out to his fans, no one would blame him for taking his money and going home. But he takes the time to appreciate that people appreciate him, and unlike many authors I've read over and over I think he's actually a likable person. He does time intensive work so that he donate that money to Wordbuilders all the time, he poses for silly photos with fans and he even posted a picture of his kid wearing a gift he was given by a fan (a home knit beard, on a little boy called Oot.) It's a love-fest, not a transaction. The book will get here when it gets here, and if the time it took to write Wise Man's Fear is any indication, it will succinctly amazing. For now, enjoy the lulz and get a magnet of Patrick Rothfuss' Cthulhu-esque beard rising from the ocean and know that you are supporting charity.
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
I was very interested in this, until I found out it was just a regular deck of cards with a Name of the Wind theme. I'll throw in $11, but it will probably just sit on my shelf of gaming and literary swag.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
Niel Gaiman and Felicia Day are going to be lending their likenesses to the project. Go on over and find out which characters they are!
Have you not seen the page? All of the cards are custom designed. Every number, every heart and diamond and spade.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
Oh yeah, one of the long since achieved push goals is Pat's recipe for metheglin. I don't inebriate but I look forward to that day, I wonder if I can convince a micro-brewery to make it?
Also, The Tinker's Pack has been selling Rothfuss certified talent pipes in both sterling silver and silver plated for years, but with this Kickstarter you can pick one up for a hefty discount. There is now a shirt of Rothfuss' head rising from the sea, with his tentacle-beard destroying a Kickstarter logo. And they are now designing just what the not-a-dragon looks like, that is a thing now. How could a fan not be into this?
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
quote:Originally posted by Aros: Tom, Geraine,
Have you not seen the page? All of the cards are custom designed. Every number, every heart and diamond and spade.
And yet it is still nothing but a deck of playing cards. That I would never want to play with or even open.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
looks amazing.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Have you not seen the page? All of the cards are custom designed.
Yes? So?
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson:
quote:Have you not seen the page? All of the cards are custom designed.
Yes? So?
Perhaps we are misunderstanding what you meant by, "a standard deck of cards with pretty backs". Not that you should want them particularly, but I wanted to make sure that you knew the fronts were even cooler.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
At the end of the day, they're a bunch of tiny pictures on heavy cardstock. That will sit on a shelf.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
True enough. I am not trying to convince you, just trying to be clear.
Posted by Aros (Member # 4873) on :
And a computer is a bunch of tiny wires inside a hunk of plastic that will sit on a desk. So?
Posted by umberhulk (Member # 11788) on :
Yeah, but when you have a good computer you don't buy another one just because it looks pretty.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
There are only a few hours left of the Kickstarter. They are currently sitting on the precipice of 560,000 dollars with over 11,000 backers. This makes them the most funded deck of cards ever on KS (the prior record was 160,000) and only the ninety-seventh project to be funded over 500,000 in the history of KS.
Take a look and see all the push goals, they honestly started running out of ideas! Rothfuss is now a partner in Albino Dragon, the company making the project and they will able to the early work on a KS project for Wise Man's Fear. You'll have to scroll down a ways to see all the successful push goals, there were too many to leave at the top of the page.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
It's a shame. I'm planning a conference in July with Felicia Day as the keynote speaker. If the magnet would be ready in time, I'd definitely get it for her to sign, but oh well.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
This is not a part of the KS campaign, but this is still the best place to put this.
The Tinker's Packs now sells rings of bone and wood. They ran out of the copper rings quickly.
I can't quite pontificate on why I am so tempted to pay sixty-five dollars for a bone ring, but I am positive that the Kingkiller reference is not the overriding cool factor.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: It's a shame. I'm planning a conference in July with Felicia Day as the keynote speaker. If the magnet would be ready in time, I'd definitely get it for her to sign, but oh well.
How'd the conference go?
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
It went really well. Felicia gave a great talk (we recorded it and I'll see if I can get you a link) and was pretty much exactly as you would expect in person.
It actually leaves us with a problem. It's a tech conference and we brought Felicia in because last year we had Woz (also just the nicest guy and just like you expect him to be). We knew it wouldn't be possible to top him, so we went in a very different direction. But she knocked it out of the park, so now we need someone to compete against both of them.