Fluffle

This will be handled individually with no strict, official "protocol". So let's take this to PM. @Everyone else who's interested in this, send me a PM.

So today I sent an email to all our great backers! I couldn't use my gmail address, so don't be surprised. But the title reads "Black Isle Bastards Ingame Recognition". I will not use gmail again for a campaign for such as this. Gave me quite a headache... Anyway I hope as many backers of us as possible read the email and participate. This is tricky. Because we set the $10 bar for two reasons, not just one. First the $10 bar would help to reduce the numbers of backers eligible for this. So that we would get to 50 or below entries. But more importantly we wanted to prevent that people would only donate a very small amount just to be recognized ingame. Though I'd guess some people would do that even for $10 On the other hand, the campaign is over now. There are 55 backers eligible for backer recognition, and 11 people who donated less than 10$. I would say, yes, send in your submission, but no promises. There aren't any promises anyway I will say it again, Obsidian is free to alter or completely reject submissions for this.

I see. It's fine. Send me an email where the domain is your family name. That'll be fine

Everything between the " ... " counts. You make up the entire message in the records. It's your decision to include the words "name" and "loot". But just leaving them out with no alternative would make your message sound strange. But there are other ways to formulate your message of course.

Ingame Recognition for our backers, how it will work: The Black Isle Bastards keep records of their most curious victims. The victims might be especially wealthy, or just have an odd appearance or some special kind of loot or something else notably. This ingame recognition is about text only. It will not add any item other than probably a book/list with the records itself to the game. Prerequisite: You donated at least 10$ to our cause (if you donated less, you can still hand in your submission, but don't get your hopes up too high, sorry). The Black Isle Bastards badge does not count for this because it never had to do anything with our campaign. We are restricted to 50 records of victims. If more than 50 of our backers submit then Obsidian will choose the ones they like best. So, you can describe one of the victims of the Black Isle Bastards. The victim may be based on you but does not have to be. You can pick two of the following four categories: - description of robbed individual - specific lore friendly name of robbed individual - robbed individual's fate - taken possessions Please make ONE coherent record entry that describes a victim of the Black Isle Bastards. You don't make separate entries for 2 of the 4 categories, but rather ONE complete entry that contains information on 2 of the 4 categories. Your overall message must NOT exceed 80 characters. Also note: Obsidian is free to alter/change your submission as they see fit. There will be absolutely no guarantee that: 1.) Your submission will make it into the records 2.) Your submission will make it into the records unchanged The submissions should fit into the game. Therefore Obsidian is free to reject or alter them. Please send your submission to BlackIsleBastards@gmail.com with the SAME email-address with which you donated to our campaign (otherwise I will not accept it unless we find another way of identification). Also you are free to make teams with other backers. The Black Isle Bastards do not only rob individuals but also groups of people of course. So if you'd like to be in a group, that got robbed by the Black Isle Bastards, with another backer that is possible. The character limit will add up. And you can use the combined length of the character limit to describe your group (you are then not necessarily bound anymore to choosing two of the 4 categories above). This will require some additional administration effort for me, so I'd say if you're interested in making a group with someone, let us know in this thread, or message me per PM. Let me know, if anything has been left unclear. Cheers The deadline for handing in the submissions is: 10th July 23:59 PM (GMT+2)

I have triple-checked now. We actually do have exactly 66 backers (yes, myself included). Previously I had counted 67, but that was wrong. So I corrected the numbers on the opening post!

So guys, things will become serious "soon" This weekend I'll go through the threads and polls and collect our ideas. The general idea of this project still stands of course: We want Obsidian to work out the Black Isle Bastards, but we do provide some general, rough ideas for that. Business list for me: - collecting ideas and poll results - setting up the ingame recognition - handling the upgrade of the Deadfire Backer Badge if anyone would like that I will probably send an email to all backers to explain the last two points. Should I have missed/forgotten anything NOW is the time to remind me, please For the lottery I think it'd be best to wait. The lottery contains 2 digital game copies and 1 mouse pad. So we would have to wait until the release of the game. That's a long while. For everyone who participates in the lottery, please make sure you don't lose your email address with which you pledged on PayPal for this project. In the next weeks I will probably receive surveys to fill out for our item and the bastards. And maybe I'll even have mic chat with one of the designers. If there is anything important left to say concerning ideas for the bastards or the item that hasn't been said yet, then please do so NOW.

Yes, they have been closed for quite a while now. However, since the badge is completely independent from the donations, the badge itself is still available for purchase on the backer portal. So you can still get it. Mind you, the badge never had anything to do with the funding of the Black Isle Bastards.

Hi everyone, just dropping by quickly to tell you that I am very very busy in my private life (because of my studies). So I will manage this project on the weekends. But I may not be here every weekend. Just letting you know Love, Fluffe

That is the problem here. You can safely assume that they do NOT have the rights to use the Black Isle Logo. I would love if we could use that logo, especially for the sails of our ship, how awesome would that be? But I think it's a safe bet that we cannot use that logo. We could probably use the logo of our Black Isle Bastards badge if you guys like that.

So you're also not interested in the additional game copies? I'm just asking to make sure. Ah, yes. You can scratch me from the lottery altogether Me too please Guys, what are you doing? First of all if you would like me to scratch you from the lottery I need your name or your email address on my paypal list. You can send them to me via PM. If you would rather not do that I understand that, but then I cannot scratch you from the list. Secondly, this feels a bit awkward. We have that lottery and people start to not want it. It is okay, you may have your reasons. Still it feels a bit awkward to me. But of course I will respect your wishes if you provide me with the necessary information mentioned above.

As for my watcher badge, I asked Aarik if I could keep it and yes he said I could. I will keep it and treasure it as a reward for running this campaign. I will see it as a gift from you guys. Because I wouldn't have earned it by my donation alone And you guys can still upgrade your Deadfire Backer Badges if you'd like that and if you're eligible for it.

So you're also not interested in the additional game copies? I'm just asking to make sure. Well there is one basic ground rule: We do not pay for playing developers or designers. That is what Obsidian will do. But we could provide input in form of suggestions about: - races and classes of the members - the names of the members - lore of the pirate band - appearances of the pirates - probably also their equipment/loot - to a certain degree we might hand in suggestions about our ship - suggestions how the player can interact with the pirates The list may not be complete. There may be things that I simply haven't thought of. But this whole campaign here is based on the idea that we will leave the design to Obsidian anyway. Because they know how to tell a story and they know best how to fit a pirate band seamlessly into their game. So in the end they are the designers and they have the final say. But of course they will take our suggestions into consideration. So you should always feel free to make suggestions, post your ideas etc. But don't necessarily expect your ideas to make it into the game one by one. That may happen. It may not. Your ideas also may just serve as inspiration for other ideas. It is pretty vague. And also there are no guarantees. And that does concern me a bit. And I think I have made that clear to Aarik and my impression was that he has understood that. In the end we paid for something of which we don't know how exactly it is going to turn out. And such a purchase can only work with a lot of trust. And in the end based on Pillars of Eternity 1 I do trust Obsidian, that they can create a great, memorable pirate group for us.

So as I had announced I have upped our pledge a bit which then left us at $77.79 . And from that amount I bought 3 addons: 2 additional copies of Pillars 2 and... 1 Mousepad! Which all in all costs $77. So now we have $0.79 left and I will shamelessly keep that for myself These three addons will be put into a lottery and then given to 3 of our donators by chance. I myself will not participate in the lottery because I'm organizing it. There's one catch though: For the mouse pad I'm gonna need the winner's address of course. And for the extra digital copies I would like the winners to confirm getting the digital code from me within a certain time frame. I don't want to send out the digital codes and never hear from the winners whether they actually received it or not. So if they win the codes and I send them to them and they never confirm receiving them then I might give the codes to other donators. The lottery has NOT started yet. I'll let you know when the lottery starts.

Keep in mind the restrictions. Any item that can summon something has the natural restriction that this "something" has to have been implemented in the game already. So to say, let's imagine we wanted an obsidian figurine that could summon a badger. Obsidian would probably only do that if badgers were already part of the game. I'm pretty sure they would not design a new animal just for us. The same would probably apply to any item with any other spell effect. That spell effect would have to have been implemented already. On the matter of badgers themselves: they're awesome, I like them, but I must also say I like beavers even more. But beavers are almost always neglected in RPGs

All. It certainly does count for the stretch goal. But yeah the important point is that our campaign has been very inclusive and open from the very beginning. It's one point I'd like to elaborate a bit on. When we started this campaign, there were a few, hidden, not-so-nice innuendos that we were some rich, spoiled people, playing with our money, excluding others who couldn't afford it. And that basically we just wanted this campaign to show off our wealth to people with less money because we had nothing better to do with our time. Those were very subtle innuendos, but I want to make clear that I did understand them and their meaning. And I will not forget them. Some people did try to paint a rather very bad picture about us. And that is why at this point I am all the way more proud of what we have achieved. Because this entire campaign we have been very inclusive. We have not excluded anyone from our campaign. Everyone was free to input their ideas and opinions and their vote on our polls - independently from whether they had donated or not. And in the end everyone will profit from our contribution to the game. This campaign was open and inclusive and it was based on voluntary participation. It was there for the entire community. And some people could afford to spend A FORTUNE on it, and some people could afford to only spend $5 on it and they did. I am proud of our campaign. I am very happy and thankful for all of your contributions. But I will also not forget the people who made those ugly yet subtle innuendos about us mentioned above.

Hi there, if you buy the badge that is all you get: the badge itself. Nothing more. The badge is like a token of appreciation, that's all. I explained above the purpose behind the badge. So, don't worry, by not buying the badge you will not miss out on anything in the game.

And not to forget 3.) of course: 3.) Originally everything started with the "Obsidian Order of Eternity" back then for the crowd funding of "Pillars of Eternity 1". The idea was to raise additional money for Obsidian with a funny idea. People back then were able to buy a membership to the Order and then choose a custom forum title. It was for fun but also with the goal to raise additional money for Pillars of Eternity 1. So similarly, with buying the BIB badge you can show your extended, additional support to Obsidian.

So the deadline for the post fig campaign soon ends. I don't know if you'll still be able to get the BIB badge after that. So get it while you can! Yes I understand that point of view. And if you see it that way then you probably shouldn't buy it anyway. The badge actually symbolizes two things: 1.) Obsidian has given us, their community, an island for free for which we would have to pay $5000 otherwise. Granted, now that the island is for free, it will be a small one. But nevertheless it was a nice gesture of them, so the BIB badge is to thank Obsidian for their gift. 2.) The BIB badge signifies the membership of the Black Isle Bastards here on the forum. We had a crowdfunding campaign running here to fund a pirate group and many people contributed and helped. With this badge they can show to others that they belong to us if they so wish. But of course I have already been told reasons why people would rather not buy it and it's fine. Personally I don't see it as a purchase. I see it as a thank you to Obsidian. But that is for everyone themselves to decide.

You could still buy an add-on as slacker backer! DO IT! You know you want the gold badge!

I feel uncomfortable to disclose concrete numbers here. I would disclose my own amount to other donators, but in PM only, not here in public. If you are the donator who I think you are (in my paypal list) then my amount is almost twice yours. That should give you an idea Nevertheless your contribution has been very, very generous. Thank you very much

My Fig: $80 My BIB: $21 My total: $101 That would mean an upgrade from bronze to silver in my case. You're a perfect example of what Fluffle is afraid if, I think. That is, if his keeping the badge means that our donations can't count towards upgrading the forum badges, then you and people in that position get screwed out of a badge. I would never let it come to that If people are only allowed to upgrade their Deadfire Backer Badge if I abstain from the watcher badge, then I would give it up of course. For two reasons: 1.) I promised you beforehand that you would be able to upgrade your Deadfire Backer Badge if you were eligible for that. 2.) I got the watcher badge for our money, not just mine. In that way it is not even mine. But let's not argue about that. I will ask Aarik about it. Let's concentrate on the important stuff! That is our pirate group, the pirate ship, our item and the island.

The Deadfire Backer Badge is divided in levels: below $99 you get bronze below $500 you get silver (guessed by me) $500 or higher gives you the gold badge And then somewhere in the thousands you get the watcher badge. I have no idea what the amount required for that one is. In your case, you would not be able to upgrade your forum badge. Your private donation to the Fig campaign and your donation here on the BIBs combined must reach the next level of the badge. That's how it works. Then Aarik would manually assign the next level of the badge to you.

You may have misunderstood. You would be only able to upgrade your Deadfire Backer Badge by the amount of your donation to the Black Isle Bastards. You cannot in any case upgrade your own private tier from the Fig campaign by the amount of your donation here. That has never been possible and it was never intended to be. Edit: Oh or were you talking about those $11 dollars that are left over?

Haha, thank you guys. I would consider the badge a reward for my work, yes. However the badges are given for money and not for any kind of voluntary work. So I will ask Aarik just to be sure. Also keep in mind that I promised you that you could upgrade your own Deadfire Backer Badge according to your donation to the BIB. This would have to be done manually by Aarik. And in that case we would get more high level badges than we actually earned. Because my badge is now all your possible upgrades of the Deadfire Backer Badge combined. This is why I am going to ask Aarik if he's okay with it. I still want you to be able to upgrade your own badges, even though at the moment your contributions count towards my watcher badge.