Frustration

I don't have time for a full on rant, just a mini one. (get it, a blog about minis, a mini rant....*sigh* I need coffee) So yesterday through an innocent question by a new player we (meaning those of us who hang out on Reaper's CAV forums) discover that there are currently two versions of the CAV2 rules circulating in distribution. One is the version distributed by PDF download and another being distributed via PDF on CD in starter boxes. There's been one significant difference identified with a couple faction abilities. So far it's the only known discrepancy. Hopefully that all there is. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, if there was some sort of announcement like "Hey, we're changing this, it's in the newest version of the rules, the old rule doesn't apply anymore." But they didn't.

Reaper has already made growing CAV popularity difficult by the fact that they took so long developing the second edition rules to bring CAV in line with their RAGE system. The game is considered dead in many circles, most importantly distributors. It's a shame too, the minis rock, the rules aren't perfect but the errata about to be published should fix the most glaring errors, and the RAGE concept is a good one. Now there's changes to verbage without telling the people who stuck with the game when everyone said it won't come back about the change, just packaged it up and shipped it out. I think what hurts most is that I've met the people at Reaper and they are good folks. It is disappointing to see this from them. I'd expect it from that British behemoth in the gaming industry, not Reaper.

So, where to go from here? I don't really want to ditch the game, I like it too much. But on the other hand I'm fairly agitated with Reaper. They took forever to publish the new rules. It's been almost a year and no printed book like they said there would be. It's been since last spring that they announced that there was a problem in their supply chain for creating new minis for the new models they introduced in CAV2. Yet everyone is all atwitter about Reich of the Dead, a new game they are currently developing. CAV2 used to take a back seat to Warlord. Now it's taking a back seat to both Warlord and Reich of the Dead. One of the things that always gets mentioned by the Reaper employees is that it's own by accountants and is run like a business not a hobby. I contend that Reaper is run by accountants with shiny object syndrome.