SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1 KS dead

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 1]

off the back of the recent talk about Kickstarters Nightfall Games have announced that Daruma’s SLA kickstarter has failed.

This statement was issued tonight 22.06.18

As of 22/06/2018 Nightfall Games Ltd (NFG) have terminated the license agreement with Daruma Productions Ltd for use of SLA material. Going forward NFG will work in association with Word Forge Games (WFG) to look at how best to complete and fulfill the Kickstarter. Be advised that at this time the SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1 Kickstarter campaign has no available funds. As such, fulfillment will be as a result of further investment from NFG and WFG. Drauma Productions Ltd is the company that still owns the Kickstarter debt, and although we have tried to purchase that debt, it has not been possible.

 

Sad news for all still waiting on pledges, hopefully WFG will be in a position to help fulfil those and get the game out there to people. I have some of the Shivers and they’re a lovely bunch of minis, although I never planned on using them for the game, being a fan of the RPG I picked them up pre kickstarter.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 2]

This was followed by a statement from Daruma on their facepage

Time to come clean – we have a big issue with fulfilling the Kickstarter, and also with being able to move forward in any meaningful way. The Kickstarter update which went out this evening was not from Daruma. Please let me be very clear and specific on this – that was not a Daruma update, it was made illegally by Mark Rapson of Wordforge – he was already informed not to use the Kickstarter logins that he’d been given and claimed to not have them, clearly a lie (he has also, against Kickstarter regulations, changed the passwords). The Nightfall team are desparate to save the Kickstarter, which we fully understand but unfortunately Dave and Jared have resigned from Daruma and given the Kickstarter logins to Word Forge Games, that they have taken this step is understandable but also, unfortunately.. illegal in several ways – ways that they were fully informed of prior to taking this action.
As all other 3 Directors resigned from Daruma before i became fully aware of just how difficult the situation was – i am, currently, last man standing as they clearly knew more than I did and jumped ship first. As there are a great many other debts owed by Daruma i have a legal obligation to follow a certain path.. a path which i will be following with some no small degree of sadness and reluctance and could not, until this point even discuss. Unfortunately.. this means that the stock which Nightfall has had transferred to Wordforge doesn’t belong to them.. it still belongs to Daruma, even though i acknowledge Word Forge as a debt. And as such, any attempt to distribute or dispose of it will be illegal – as Daruma is about to commence down a path toward Liquidation.. we cannot and have not in any way shape or form agreed to a transfer of these goods, as Daruma doesn’t actually own them at this point. Please let me reiterate that, for very relevant legal reasons – the other Creditors are all fully entitled to a share of any and all remaining assets that Daruma possess, every single one of those Creditors has the very same legal claim to those goods that Mark Rapson and Wordforge has and this action is in no way a Daruma action nor has been sanctioned by Daruma.
It is also the case that although Mark is now a Director with Nightfall and has the SLA IP, the CS1 IP is derivitive and belonged to Daruma as well, and we have not agreed to transfer that IP under any circumstances, and indeed i’m not sure we could do so given the current circumstance.
It may well be that there was a way to perhaps move forward with this regardless, and i was attempting to explore this avenue recently, with little success I might add as Mark Rapsons offer was simply not one i could accept, legally. As it stands, Mark has attacked me directly, personally, acted illegally and has seized, with Nightfalls support, a load of goods that i keep explaining to them.. they cannot take and cannot legally dispose of. If any of you have experience of the liquidation process then you understand the difficult situation in which i find myself – and why i’m taking this extraordinary step in revealing that i have been in discussion with the liquidators before the are “officially” called in. I know how bad this news is, and this is an update that i really wish i never had to make.. but unfortunately Nightfalls new association with Word Forge Games and the illegal actions they are taking have forced my hand – if any other Creditors are reading this, this is not a Daruma sanctioned action and has been taken as the results of some illegal and very dodgy backroom dealing. I’m so sorry.. but i think that these actions have brought an end to any possibility of moving forward and i will be informing the liquidators of this first thing on Monday Morning.

[panzerkaput 33942xp 1]

This is very sad news for the backers and fans of the SLA Industries world. Whats even sadder is the kicking a screaming of all the parties involved and Daruma to update and fulfil the kickstarter with the £56,000 raised to produce and print a a book, written and illustrated by Nightfall Games, a handful of figures, some badges, tee shirts and bags. I do not think that there is any intent to deceive the backers by not posting updates about the progress of this, I think they have been very naive in there dealing with various companies, especially with the printing of the Hunters Sheets 2 book for SLA Industries RPG, not related to the CS1 skirmish game and I am not suggesting that Daruma used the kickstarter money to fund this book, where they basically got taken for a ride by a printer who didnt really exist and they lost a lot of money in this and having to reprint it with someone else.

The truth is no matter the fight starting to break out between all the parties involved, its the backers who really lose out and I am one of those backers.

I hope if Daruma do liquidator the company that the creditors contact the backers as Daruma is in debt to us too as backer, I do know thats the risk of kickstarters.

 

[warzanKeymaster 31125xp 5]

🙁

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 1]

To be honest @panzerkaput I didn’t back this one although my friend did. I had spent close to ten months waiting for Shivers and the reprinted rulebook to arrive. They eventually did after several emails. But it didn’t fill me with confidence. So despite being a fan of SLA I avoided this one.

@warzan lmao at that, it sums it up perfectly, I don’t think anyone is coming out of this smelling of roses, I do hope they manage to get it together to fulfill the pledges, the background and minis were great and with the launch of the Apocalyptic challenge the dystopian future of SLA Industries would actually have made a great project.

[torros 23816xp 1]

years and years ago  maybe 25 at QCon a load of gamers from Dublin brought up a very cheap homemade RPG called SLA which was fun to play Is/ was  this the same thing?

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 1]

yes Steve that was it, can’t remember who brought it up, my guess would be Eoin or Eric. This kickstarter was for a skirmish game based in that universe

[davehawes 7768xp 1]

It’s always sad when things go this way, it is a risk with KS, and part of the cost of high-risk innovation is sometimes things go bad. I do hope they manage to work something out that means those who have a love of this IP see it get salvaged, and ideally some kind of fulfilment for the backers, but I think that seems very challenging at this point.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6413xp 2]

I was a big fan of the SLA Industries RPG back way back. I knew some of the Nighfall Games team, and helped run a small SLAcon in Oxford.

It is a great IP that Dave Allsop created. He is a fantastic artist and creator of worlds. Sadly the game system left a bit to be desired, and has not aged well. It was clunky and not very user friendly and really needs an update.

I have seen the re-prints of the game at various cons and sadly because they had to work of a scanned copy of the original the great art is now very dark and not looking its best. I do wonder how they have managed to keep going with SLA RPG without a major re-design for a 2nd Edition.

That various Nightfall folks also appear to have been Daruma folks, and jumped ship before it sank is sad news. It rather taints Nightfall going forward.

Maybe one day someone will pick up the IP and run with it. I hope they do as I have fond memories if immersing myself in the dystopian playground that is Mort.

Sorry to hear peeps lost money on this failed KS.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6413xp 1]

Digging around on company listings it appears that Word Forge Ltd is linked to Prodos (who were involved in the iffy Predator KS iirc?).

 

https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/company/SC589969-nightfall-games-ltd

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 1]

The SLA edition that Daruma produced was beautiful, lovely quality throughout. Likewise the minis of the Shivers are great. I picked up metal and resin, because I’m a nerd and wanted to compare. I do hope the game survives, not sure what the connection between Prodos, Word Forge and Daruma is. It may be that both companies used Word Forge to cast minis for them, or it may be something more involved, I’m not going to speculate, but even printing the edition I got was a long drawn out affair. Time will tell if people are once again welcomed to the World Of Progress.

[panzerkaput 33942xp 0]

I back it @gerry, quite heavily too as I remembered and still have the role play game, signed copied of the first edition, and I love the world setting, the background and the fluff. So when this skirmish game, Cannibal Sector One, came out a put of me was awoken and I jumped in. I was involved in the playtesting of the skirmish game and actually it is a very nice and neat game, with a few faults or not quite the way I would of gone, but I did not write the rules.

The kickstarter, £55k, which is not a lot of money, was for a copy of the rules primary and the figures, which some were done, secondary. So after a year behind its release, the rule book, the rules, the illustrations and the fluff still was not done, no money to print it as the money raised had disappeared, the Nightfall Games guys, David Allsop and Jared Earle, who where directors and the mainly force behind the writing the fluff and layout of the rules, the rules mechanics were written by someone else, resigned, after bailing Daruma out of some debt. This was followed by Graham Wallace of Daruma, leaving Mark Wallace of Daruma to run things on his own. At this stage, in April, Mark Wallace tried to carry everything on his own and had been sinking his own money into keeping it alive and fulfilled, long before the others left, and now he is at this stage and yes he has been a little, okay a lot naive, but as it stands no one is coming out of this smelling of roses. Mark Rapton, Word Forge Games, ex Prodos, left them in April 2015, was helping with the distribution of Daruma’s SLA stock, after being messed around and strung by other distributors, as Mark could not handle all of this on his own, understandable, and now Word Forge games has received some of the stock in lieu of debt, whether it was legal or not, with an aim to get it the KS out to the backers, not only once he has found out what is feasible and does not cost him.

Personally this is a total shambles and this should not be played out in public like this, but thats why gamers do not make good businessmen, and I think this is dead in the water. This saddens me as the range of figures were and are wonderful, they have a small but increasing range, that were not cheap but were very nice, personal opinion here. I have most of what was released and besides a couple of resin issues the sculpts were clean. I really cannot see where this is going to go as the rules mechanics are owned by Daruma and are the moulds of the miniatures, the fluff and illustrations by Nightfall Games along with the import IP licence, the stock is in the hands of Word Forge Games and everything in the hands of the lawyers, what a flipping mess.

[panzerkaput 33942xp 0]

Sorry its Mark Rapson not Mark Rapton

 

[tankkommanderParticipant 6413xp 1]

Another update on the KS page…

As of 22/06/2018 Nightfall Games Ltd (NFG) have terminated the license agreement with Daruma Productions Ltd for use of SLA material. Going forward NFG will work in association with Word Forge Games (WFG) to look at how best to complete and fulfill the Kickstarter. Be advised that at this time the SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1 Kickstarter campaign has no available funds. As such, fulfillment will be as a result of further investment from NFG and WFG. Drauma Productions Ltd is the company that still owns the Kickstarter debt, and although we have tried to purchase that debt, it has not been possible.

That’s the formal statement… but what does that mean to you, the backer? Well simply put, things have not worked out as planned. The Kickstarter dream that Daruma Productions Ltd pushed for was not realised. Exactly how and what went wrong we really can’t say at this point, but we at Nightfall Games recognise that SLA Industries needs to come out on top… and the game needs to be in your hands. As such, Nightfall Games has revoked the license that allowed the SLA Industries world and setting to be used by Daruma Productions Ltd and has formed a new relationship with Word Forge Games. WFG have a huge amount of experience in producing miniatures and miniature games and are working alongside us to consolidate what already exists for SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, what is possible to finish off and what we can do get the game into your hands.

As you’ve probably seen on Facebook, work on the book, the main focus of the Kickstarter, has been ongoing in spite of setbacks. WFG has obtained the majority of the Daruma Productions Ltd SLA Industries stock (in lieu of payment for unpaid debt) and we are in a good place to resume the work on the Kickstarter once all of the legal crossed Ts and dotted Is have been dealt with.

WFG will be completing a stock take during the next 2 weeks and once we know exactly what there is, we will share with you all and explain our plans in further detail. We are also in discussions over certain assets, which we expect resolution of in the same period.

We know you have not been treated as you (or we) would like to have been and we know this situation is far from ideal (believe us when we say, we wish this had played out differently), but please bear with us while we work out the details and figure out how best to do right by all of you awesome people that supported the campaign. We shall keep you updated as much as we can going forward – expect frequent updates and lots of work by the Nightfall team.

Our heartfelt thanks, apologies and respect,

Nightfall Games

 

So, take a look at the names of the Directors of Nightfall and Daruma, then decide if the above seems a bit disingenuous.

https://www.gov.uk/company-director-disqualification for anyone who lost money on this KS and is wondering what action they might be able to take.

[bigfatfredParticipant 299xp 1]

I was with Mark Rapson last week.  He is fully aware that the KS must be fulfilled and he is trying  to work out how to do that.  He seems to have more integrity than the daruma directors, so we should wait and see.

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