CAV:SO where's the planes boss?

[Chrome]

I am curious as to why they are so gun shy about pushing their own game product and instead just relent to manufacture product for other game companies.

 

 

 

Innovate. Do what no one else is doing. Find your own way of doing what needs done.

To me, that's exactly how Reaper got where the are now. The vast majority of gaming companies do just what you mention in the first quote - they only push their own product. Way back when, Reaper found something that nobody else was doing (well maybe very few) and made an innovative product for Magic players. From there they saw something else that nobody else was doing and started making generic fantasy figures to please all of the role-players who couldn't find what they wanted from Ral Partha or TSR or whoever. And its paid off for them.

 

At times they've branched out and tried new products, some worked out, some didn't. And not just CAV and Warlord.

[TaleSpinner]

I think it is telling that they are planning a future for CAV when at ReaperCon there were Bones CAVs with interchangeable pieces on the play table. If they were really going to let it all die, they wouldn't have invested in the steel molds.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

I think there's a few things at play, one of them being that there's already a huge number of rules out there. It's easy to come up with a game, more difficult to make the rules consistent, the book presentable, get it to print, then distribution. Reaper struggles with two of the three. They've had several game ideas and can get things into the distribution chain. For whatever reason their games take forever to develop and they have been hit or miss with whomever they've contracted with for printing. I imagine that the line of reasoning is "if we're good at making figures and there's already a large number of people who can make and sell rules better than we can, why take capital and throw it at something we're not good at instead of making figures, which we are."

 

They are a risk averse group when it comes to stuff outside their core business of making miniatures. Though like Chrome stated, they have done a number of other ventures that didn't work out. They tried opening what amounted to a Reaper outlet in a shopping mall, had a 15mm fantasy line, and dicked around with a Wierd War II game that never went anywhere (though they claim it still progresses, but it's been over 6 or 7 years since the idea first popped up). There is a perception that sci-fi figures, big stompy robots especially, won't sell if there isn't an associated game for them. I don't necessarily agree with that, but it seems to be the general concensus for some reason. So they made CAV to go with the cool figures.

 

Once CAV2 finally got published (albeit in PDF only) there were some snags in the rule mechanisms, but it is a wholly salvagable game that could have done well. They missed a key opportunity though. When Battletech was in limbo in the period following FASA's downfall CAV2 was in what I call The Long Dark Night. The first version of the 2nd edition had been put out for open beta but then they decided to scrap that set and go a different direction with it. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as that set had been well accepted. Development muddled along for a while longer and by the time the new rules debuted as CAV2, Battletech had already been licensed and product rolling out. Then there were a lot of production snags that ground releases to a halt for some reason. I still really don't know what happened there. What made me mad was that you couldn't find anything online about CAV from Reaper without digging through their message boards or going to an obscure website (that I don't think is even up anymore). Chrome's Mil-Net website was a better CAV resource than Reaper itself. I'd have to dig through the various wargaming websites, but I don't think there was hardly more than "hey, we released a new version of CAV" on those sites.

 

At this point I wish they just let the rules die and rescale the figures to 6mm (for compatibility with other mecha games) and make them in Bones. I think that is the best bet for the continued existence of the figures and best chance for Reaper to increase their sales in that line.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

I think it is telling that they are planning a future for CAV when at ReaperCon there were Bones CAVs with interchangeable pieces on the play table. If they were really going to let it all die, they wouldn't have invested in the steel molds.

That also could have been just an aluminum test mold to gauge interest. I doubt they paid for a full on production mold.

[topcyde]

I remember dark heaven apocalypse. Unfortunately it was ahead if its time.

 

If they ever branch out into shooting they're own plastics in house, I would take a substantial paycut (easy to convince the wife, it being closer to her fam) to go back to the shop floor but I'd be there in a heart beat running a 5axis making molds or running an sls/sla machine. However they'd want them made. Hell I'd run the dang injector even though that's a really crappy job. Really crappy.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

They bought a plastic injection machine with the proceeds from the Kickstarter. Don't think they have mold making in house though.

[topcyde]

What? No careers tab on their website? Damn!

[kristof65]

I came to accept a long time ago that Reaper is a great miniatures company, but not so great a games company.

 

This isn't to say that they can't make great games, but for them, the games are side projects and they prefer to do them right, not just slap some rules together and call them done.

[topcyde]

That's it though. They do make great games. They just don't tell anybody bout them.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

They're great at coming up with games, getting them developed and to market in a timely manner...not so much.

[Chrome]

That's it though. They do make great games. They just don't tell anybody bout them.

 

See below - but you need to realize you're about 10 years late to the party.

 

They're great at coming up with games, getting them developed and to market in a timely manner...not so much.

 

That wasn't true in the early days though. They regularly delivered 2-4 minis every month during CAVs first two years of existence: 2001-2003. Those were the days! We had dozens of demo reps (although I know a lot of them were just gaming the system for free loot) and Reaper was pushing the game at both Origins and GenCon. FreeFall, Kai, and I did non-stop demos for 3 days at GenCon that first year and had a blast.

 

But then they had problems w/the guy who made the prototypes. First a small gap and then a big one where nothing came out between fall '03 and June '04. A week later Reaper announced that they had to do a pretty big price increase due to tin prices, and a week after that they announced CAV 2. Then the whole thing went off the tracks.

[topcyde]

 

That wasn't true in the early days though. They regularly delivered 2-4 minis every month during CAVs first two years of existence: 2001-2003. Those were the days! We had dozens of demo reps (although I know a lot of them were just gaming the system for free loot) and Reaper was pushing the game at both Origins and GenCon. FreeFall, Kai, and I did non-stop demos for 3 days at GenCon that first year and had a blast.

 

But then they had problems w/the guy who made the prototypes. First a small gap and then a big one where nothing came out between fall '03 and June '04. A week later Reaper announced that they had to do a pretty big price increase due to tin prices, and a week after that they announced CAV 2. Then the whole thing went off the tracks.

 

 

I know I'm new to this game line, the source of my curiosity. I don't mean to sound condescending but the truth of the matter is that that was all 10 years ago, long past time to get it back together.

[Froggy the Great]

CAV was a great great game, and a lot of us are still angry about how it fell apart.

 

If you've got some people nearby that will play it with you, by all means - CAV1 or CAV1.5 are still very good games.

[topcyde]

They just opened a FLGS in my little town but it's all GW/Citadel, and Privateer Press for minis. Anyone local is a no go. Going to teach my son and have fun that way, he likes the big robots more than the fantasy stuff (I play Warlord). I miss the stores in the tidewater area of Virginia, with the Wall of Reaper. Sit there for half an hour looking through blister packs till I find something that sparks the imagination. Closest reaper store now is an hour away, little expensive trip just to find my next unfinished project.

[Last Knight]

They just opened a FLGS in my little town but it's all GW/Citadel, and Privateer Press for minis. Anyone local is a no go. Going to teach my son and have fun that way, he likes the big robots more than the fantasy stuff (I play Warlord). I miss the stores in the tidewater area of Virginia, with the Wall of Reaper. Sit there for half an hour looking through blister packs till I find something that sparks the imagination. Closest reaper store now is an hour away, little expensive trip just to find my next unfinished project.

what.

 

Closest thing to a wall of Reaper (that I know of)is Tower of Game's two or three shelves of Reaper blisters... not horrible, but I'd love for a bigger selection, and a rack of MSPs.

 

Of what store do you speak? Enquiring minds want to know.