I read this is now on Kickstarter. Dues to many complaints and controversies, I would stear clear of this.
Opinions?
What complaints and/or controversies?
Hasn’t that thing been ongoing since he died?
Tim Kask on the Gygax memorial fund
and many others.
Yep, with tens of thousands spent on legal fees ro unaccounted for. But this is a new Kickstarter.
I am kinda neutral on the whole thing, but others like Tim Kask have been very outspoken.
Myself, I dunno, but I am not gonna invest any of my money in this.
I had not heard of this, and I imagine many others, even D&D players, haven’t either. A link helps.
It looks like whoever is behind this is trying to fund a bronze memorial statue of Gary Gygax, to be placed in a park in his hometown of Lake Geneva, WI, which would be built as a statue of Gygax sitting at a gaming table, and the table itself would have a D&D-style gaming map engraved on it, with the idea that people could actually sit and play D&D at that table.
Give enough money, and your name is placed on a paving stone at the memorial, too.
It’s being run by a guy named Paul Stormberg, with the approval (apparently) of some of Gygax’s family – “some” is the key word, I suppose, because I know that there is some friction amongst his survivors. One of the supporters of this was Gygax’s late son Ernie, who was a vocal racist and transphobe in his final years, and the subject of some lawsuits as a result.
Some?! No, many lawsuits, threats and accusations of theft, etc. More like craptonnes.
I hope this finds its way to the thread where people make AI images of things said on the Dope.
Thanks, I fixed the typo.
Anyway, yeah, if this is being supported by the Gail side of the family (and, according to that Tim Kask post, there have been financial shenanigans going on around her and a Gary memorial for years), I’d have no interest in supporting it.
Yes, that is the info I got. My Magic 8 ball says “more lawsuits coming”.
I laughed that getting a statue of Gygax was a stretch goal. Shouldn’t that be the FIRST thing you aim to do before setting up concrete benches and tables and stuff?
“Over here is the Gary Gygax memorial plain concrete picnic table…”
I’m no big fan of the man, but that idea sounds sweet and suitable.
I agree, the idea sounds like an appropriate memorial.
To me, the devil is in the details.
As @Jophiel noted, the “base” goal of the project, as outlined in the Kickstarter preview, is just a stone picnic table and sidewalk, and that’s $150,000. To get the memorial to the point that there’s actually a statue of Gary Gygax at the table, they’re asking for $500,000; a fully-complete memorial (including the bronze D&D map on the table) is $925.000.
And, the project organizer says:
He then spends three paragraphs describing how important it is to get the right sculptor for this project, and that the right sculptor “does not come cheap but it will be absolutely amazing when complete!” – but he never actually names the sculptor, which suggests to me that he doesn’t actually have a sculptor lined up. If he had a sculptor, he’d be wise to name that person, and share links to some of their works, to demonstrate that they have an excellent artist on board, and to give donors confidence in the project.
To be fair, I have exactly zero XP spent in the Artist class, much less the Sculptor subclass, but nearly a million dollars and 2-3 years strikes me as an extraordinarily large amount of money and long period of time to create it.
The fact that the organizer is aligned with what appears to be the “untrustworthy asshole” wing of the Gygax family just adds to my skepticism. My gut tells me that, even if this isn’t a financial shell game from the start, the installed memorial will never get any further than that stone picnic table.
Yeah, sounds dodge as hell on the financials.
As an artist in bronze, you’d just make a maquette in clay and send it to the bronze foundry, you don’t need “half a dozen” assistants.
A bronze that size would still be pretty expensive just for the materials alone, though. Not half-a-mill expensive, though.
Well, as a commercial landscape estimator, an 8x12 concrete slab and stone table/benches shouldn’t be near $150k either.
If I were running this and not trying to scam anyone, the base goal would be for the statue, concrete pad and a cast stone table and benches. Make the natural granite option a stretch goal.
I’d be willing to kick in for a Gary Gygax memorial plain concrete picnic table. Especially if it was going someplace a bit shielded from the elements.
It would be relatively cheap and you could put up a bunch of them a bunch of places.
One would have to make them a lot cheaper than this Kickstarter is.
(FWIW, they are proposing a granite table, not concrete.)
I’m guessing between two and four $k. Plus permits, design, and installation.
Theoretically, you could offer mini-grants to city parks that want to install the tables anyway. Pay for an extra table in an existing project, or pay to replace a broken table. Get a nice memorial plaque.
I’m going to assume they already have permission to build in Library Park and don’t need to allocate money to real estate.
Concrete is relatively cheap compared to the other components. I’m looking at a quote right now for $16/sf for regular grey or $34/sf for colored. Throw excavation and aggregate base on that and call it another $8. Eyeballing the sketches that look to be an 8x12 pad (96sf) but let’s call it 120sf. That means that a colored concrete pad, excavation and aggregate should run you about five grand. Call it six grand including hauling the spoils and other incidentals.
Granite benches aren’t easy to casually price but I see a number of 48” length granite memorial benches in the $5 range. These will be closer to 72” but let’s call it $15k for each bench installed. We’re at $36,000 of a $150,000 project. That is not a $114,000 table. Polished granite countertop is $100-$200/sf installed. For a 4x6 surface, that’s $4,800 but this will be thicker so let’s call it $20k and another $10k for the legs. That’s still only $66,000 out of the $150k budget. Call it $70k after various permitting fees, etc.
Again, I’m just winging numbers at it but they’re not completely made up. If I received this $150k as a subcontractor quote from someone, I’d definitely be calling them and asking to see the math. And, again, spending that upfront for the table and saying “Maybe we’ll do a statue… after a bronze throne…” feels silly. Statue first with a more affordable table option then upgrade based on how much you bring in.
The KS makes it sound that way: