I have a very laissez-faire attitude when it comes to starting kicks and go-going indies. (Y'know, crowdfunding.) As long as it seems like a total rip-off isn't in progress, I'm okay with delays, even somewhat long delays.
Basically, I casually assume that people are going to mess things up. That's factored into my expectations.
As such, I haven't been paying attention to the Dwimmermount updates except to occasionally download my playtest materials. The other day, I actually read one of the updates and was...surprised.
The campaign originally ended on April 14, 2012, with a Dwimmermount release expected in August of the same year. The project became riddled with delays, James Maliszewski's father died, Maliszewski dropped off the face of the planet with all the backers' money (and without paying some of his freelance artists), contact was reestablished right around the time people started grumbling about legal action, and now the whole shebang is Autarch's show once they got the money and intellectual property rights.
(Incidentally, Maliszewski totally dropped off the planet; his last blog update is December 11, 2012, and he was one of the most prolific OSR bloggers around.)
Drama is inescapable, especially on the internet, where it gains its own gravity. And makes its own gravy.
Anyway, it just interested me to immerse myself back into the controversy, largely because I had been ignoring it. Interested parties can get a good summary on this Google+ post by Jeff Rients, or from the Dwimmermount Kickstarter updates. There's also the official Dwimmermount G+ community for one's perusal.
Hardcore parties can get this story, along with other sordid RPG Kickstarter details, from this series of posts at Tenkar's Tavern.
(And parties with entirely too much time can see the Seinfeld clip from where I got the post title. Specifically at 3:04.)
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