The Captain is Dead

Alert Card Variant
Original Kickstarter drew one card per player, not always 5. Seems to balance out player counts better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f816Q1pvbA4

https://youtu.be/f816Q1pvbA4?t=245

"Alert - We draw one of these cards for each player in the game"

Engineeering
Engineeering has 3 'e's, didn't you know?

Avatar Pawns
Q: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the solid plastic avatar pawns are not included in this kickstarter at all?: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2382134/captain-dead-avatar-pawn-set

I'm not seeing those listed on the gamecrafter website either, unless I"m just not seeing them? Seem a very different style that's available.

A: Avatar pawns are not included in this Kickstarter (or in Ep1/2 for purchase on TGC). I could be mistaken, but I believe that they were an Ep1 Kickstarter-only option. However, if you like those, you can get something similar from the TGC website: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts#keyword=avatar

If you wanted to use avatars for Ep3, you'd have to figure out some way to tell the different alien types apart (maybe paint stripes or insignia on them?). 

Complete Collection
Pledge: $110 - 3 Episode Bundle

Get all three episodes (the original game, Adrift, and Lockdown) shipped direct to your door. This is a limited edition bundle. When they are gone they are gone. Click here to learn more about Episode 1.

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Q: Which version of the base game does the highest pledge level ship with? The thinner square box or the thicker rectangular box?

A: the thicker rectangular box. The thinner square box is a thing of the past. 

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Q: Two more questions for you about the current version of the base game:
 * 1) Has the "engineeering" typo been corrected?
 * 2) Which version of the pawns does it have?

A: Yes, there are now only 2 Es in Engineering. And episode 1 has the plastic standee pawns with stickers. Plus episode 3 will include a full set of laser cut cardboard pawns. 

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Q: Is the (new) EP1 box big enough to hold the content from EP2 and EP3 as well?

A: Yep, it is. 

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Q: Are there any promos or exclusives from the previous campaigns we missed? If so any chance to get them

A: Nope, the only thing that was different with the first TCID KS campaign was that we allowed backers to choose between plastic standee sticker pawns (what comes in the game now) and avatar pawns. But now we only offer the plastic standee sticker pawns that you see on the campaign page. They are just generic pawns so they aren't exclusive or anything. It was just a preference. And now they are no longer available from the manufacturer. So what you see what is what you get this time around. :)

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Q: What is MSRP for the games

A: The MSRP is the same as what they're listed as.

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Q: can i shuffle everything and play each mission with every component?

A: no, that wouldn't work. Each mission is designed to use with it's own stuff. 

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Q: I have the Plastic standees, will there be any stickers to update these?

A: Episode 3 comes with new laser cut chipboard standees. So you can use those for Episode 3 as well as Episode 1 if you want. 

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Q: What makes the 3 game bundle limited edition? How is it any different than buying all three games separately?

A:

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Q: missed out on the 3 game pack. Only 100... Is that the only stock you had? Or are you planning on releasing more (as some KSs do with limited pledge levels like this).

A: 100 is the maximum number of 3-game episode bundles we're able to provide at this time. All I can tell you is that the reason for this is that there is big news ahead. :)

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Q: Big News?

A: please be sure you read our latest update at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegamecrafter/the-captain-is-dead-episode-3/posts/1687921 so you understand the goal of our campaign and get answers to some frequently asked questions. Thanks! 

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I don't know how many people know how TGC works, but they try to listen to their customers as much as possible. They have an idea system to find out what people want. I've created an idea for plastic stands for chipboard stand-ups (like what would come in Arkham Horror or King of Tokyo). Their idea system works in a way that if something gets into the top 10 it starts receiving priority for consideration. If anyone is interested in voting for it (and possibly getting them into Ep 3) here's the link: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/idea/4B9572A2-80E2-11E6-BF4E-88BEAFA9E57B/chipboard-stands

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Q: I was wondering if the (limited) episode 1-2-3 package contains all previous kickstarter specials ? (I somehow missed the previous kickstarters so I have no idea what this package includes and doesn't include)

A: Yep, the pledge level that includes all 3 episodes includes everything from the first Kickstarter campaign for The Captain Is Dead. 

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Q: Did ya'll think about including 3 additional character cards for the 3 new characters to be playable in the first game? It would be cool to get some extra play out of those characters in the first 2 episodes.

A: The characters special abilities are tailored to Episode 3 so they work best for that. For the cards, we didn't want people to have to do a bunch of reshuffling of cards as they moved from one version to the next. Super annoying. Yes, the new tracks lay over the old and so you'd end up knocking sticks off pretty easily. The slider clips are used instead and are awesome. They aren't cheap slider clips like a lot of games. Instead, they are high quality and fit snugly because they are engineered for 12pt card stock like ours. 

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Q: Why limit it to 100 copies?

A: The answers you've been given are all fine answers. And you say you read our update, which states exactly why we're not selling Episode 1 via this kickstarter. But let me restate it again: We are not selling Episode 1 as part of this Kickstarter because we don't want to take sales away from our new publisher. We are still selling it on our web site, as a compromise for those folks that really must have it. Just like we've compromised on selling a bigger box for people that really want it. Is it weird? Yes. All compromise is weird. But the reasons we're ok with doing it this way are that: a) not that many people will go that route, so it won't take sales from our new publisher, and b) it doesn't mess with our shipping logistics.

That's the best answer I can give you. 

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Q: Is the shipping EU friendly?

A: Yes. For the Kickstarter we are shipping hundreds of games on a pallet to Europe, and then paying someone in Europe to ship them out on our behalf (exactly as @vonDorffy said). Whereas, when you are buying direct from The Game Crafter we are shipping one game at a time, so it's way more expensive (exactly as @Steve said). 

Q: Why so expensive to ship from TGC website to EU?

A: Because we'd need to ship 100,000 packages to Europe per month to get better rates, and we only ship 1,000. We're not Amazon. We're a tiny company, as evidenced by the fact that the CEO (me) is replying to your questions at 2am on a Saturday. 

A: the reshipper in Europe charges us a setup fee for each unique product we ship to them. Bottom line is that once you pay for shipping to them, their setup fee, their handling fee, and then for the shipping from them to you it ends up being as expensive as regular shipping if every product is unique.

In addition, the whole shipping process takes about 2-3 months. We load it up on a pallet, we wait a week for the truck to come get it. Takes a week to be transferred to port. Sits at port for up to a month. Is on a boat for a week. Goes through customs for a couple of weeks. Sits on a dock for a week. Gets shipped to the reshipper over several days. The reshipper takes a week to inventory it and add stuff to their system. Then ships stuff out over a week or so. 

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Q: which pawns come with what...

A: The Episode 1 retail box comes with 30 sticker pawns (plastic pieces to which stickers are applied). There are 18 player characters and 12 basic aliens.

Episode 2 comes with no pawns (it uses those from Episode 1).

Episode 3 comes with 52 laser cut cardboard pawns: 21 characters (the 18 Ep1/2 characters + 3 new) and 31 aliens (the 12 Ep1/2 basic + 19 new).

If you have both Ep1 and Ep3, you'll end up with 2 sets of the 30 original Ep1/2 characters/aliens (1 x sticker pawn set and 1 x cardboard set), and only a cardboard set of the 22 new Ep3 characters/aliens.

If you prefer the sticker pawns over the cardboard, you can purchase a set (with sticker pawn versions of the new chars/aliens only) from the creator's website for additional cost/shipping. Then you would have a full set of 52 sticker pawns and the full set of 52 cardboard pawns. (You only need one set to play, so this is only if you would rather have a full set of sticker pawns, and just not use the cardboard)

The reasoning for the change to cardboard is A) sticker pawns don't seem to be available in bulk any more, and B) the original KS came with the option of either sticker pawns or avatar pawns (later printings included only the sticker pawns). This didn't matter with Ep2, since there weren't any extra pawns. For Ep3 however, the creators could not just provide extra sticker pawns for the new chars/aliens (since some people might end up with an odd mix of sticker and avatar pawns), and had to provide an entire set of all characters/aliens with Ep3 anyway.

Hopefully that makes more sense. 

Big News
The Captain is Dead - Episode 3 by The Game Crafter — Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegamecrafter/the-captain-is-dead-episode-3/posts/1687921

"we were approached by 4 different publishers who want to bring The Captain is Dead into their family. We were astonished and in awe to have all these industry luminaries courting us for our game. We get approached by retailers all over the world on a weekly basis asking about The Captain is Dead, but in print on demand there isn't enough margin to go into distribution or to sell to retail stores with the margins they would expect. We also have gamers all over the world wanting to buy it at their local game stores so they don't have to pay the enormous shipping costs and import duties. We decided that we should hear out all the publishers to see if they could help us solve these issues, and it turns out they can.

Nothing is final yet, so we cannot announce which publisher we will be going with, but we hope to be able to do that by the end of this campaign. However, here's what we can tell you:


 * We cannot guarantee that the current version of The Captain is Dead, and the version that comes out from the publisher will be compatible. Therefore, it was extremely important to us to do this Kickstarter to make sure that all of our existing fans who wanted to complete their series would be able to do so without having to re-buy episode 1.


 * The publisher might only publish episode 1, which would likely come out sometime next year, then wait and see if there is big enough demand to continue publishing other games. Therefore, if you want to play Episode 3 soon, this is your shortest, and only guaranteed path to get it.


 * We've already been working on Episode 4, and have plans to do at least 6. Episodes 4, 5, and 6 will be stand-alone games, and therefore won't matter whether they are compatible, because they won't be expansions.


 * In order to not hurt sales for a pending publisher, or bring a bunch of new people in with an Episode 1 that may or may not be compatible with the publisher version, we have decided to not sell Episode 1 as part of the Kickstarter, and to limit the 3 episode bundle to only 100 copies. This is a compromise, as we considered not offering episode 1 at all.


 * We realize this might make some of you wait and see what the publisher comes out with. We understand that, and can't fault you for wanting to do so. We want to see what they come out with too. That said, we don't want you to miss out on what we think is the best and most strategic experience with The Captain is Dead yet, which is Episode 3 - Lockdown. So if you want to wait, and pick it up when it comes out from the publisher great! If you want to back now, awesome! If you want to do both, woot!

We just want to get Episode 3 into the hands of as many people as we possibly can. We hope this bit of transparency helps to explain why we are offering the limited bundle and no stand-alone copies of Episode 1."

Gaming Bits Review
The Captain is Dead: Episode III – Lockdown Review | GAMING BITS - https://jlnelson73.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/the-captain-is-dead-episode-iii-lockdown-review/