This began as a Kickstarter-Watch article, but it quickly changed into a more general post about Acquisitions Incorporated, so let’s roll with that. It’s known that I am a big fan of Dropout’s Dimension20, a series of D&D campaigns produced for streaming on their service. Although Dimension20 has been my favourite of these series for the past few years, there have been other RPG shows that I have also enjoyed in the past. The main two of these have been L.A. by Night and Acquisitions Incorporated.
In my teens I was really into the webcomics scene. I loved Penny Arcade, PVP, Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip, Sheldon, XKCD, and more. The first podcast I really enjoyed was the Blank Label Comics Podcast, hosted by Dave Kellett and Kris Straub. I have signed and sketched-in books from Straub and Kellett that I still really hold dear. I also loved the various animations and podcasts that Kris Straub went on to do with Scott Kurtz. I was overjoyed recently to find a trove of old Daily Affirmation recordings, and I’ve been listening back to them whilst painting, pausing occasionally following fits of the giggles. I loved that whole scene.
It should come as little surprise that when Penny Arcade started their partnership with Wizards of the Coast, I was all over it. Mike and Jerry (Gabe and Tycho) were in it, and hey, Kurtz was there, too. Wil Wheaton was also there, but although I really love Wheaton as an audiobook narrator (he does wonders in his reading of John Scalzi’s audiobooks), I did find him a bit out of place in AI.
The podcasts were good, but what I really loved were the stage shows. These were always the best content to come out of PAX for me. I’d await them eagerly after each session and I’d never be disappointed. Although I really loved the Chris Perkins sessions, my favourite one was actually the Mike Krahulik-run one that featured a PUBG-esque battle royale format. I think Chris Perkins was the best DM the group had, but I just had fun with this one, y’know?
They expanded out into the C Team series. I never really followed that religiously, but I enjoyed when I dipped in and out of, and I do intend to follow up and watch it all. It has Kris Straub in it after all, and I’m a massive fan of his work. He had a sci-fi adventure comic set aboard a spacefaring art museum, for goodness’ sake; how could I not like him?
It was also really cool to see the longstanding partnership that the Penny Arcade guys have had with Wizards of the Coast further celebrated in their own D&D supplement:
It’s a good book. In giving you rules to structure your adventuring party as a business, it brought something new, fresh, and different to the game, and I appreciate that. It also, much like AI itself, didn’t take itself too seriously.
I’m really excited at the prospect of more Acquisitions Incorporated heading my way. I’ve had a wee look at the Kickstarter campaign (linked, as usual, at the bottom of this post) and I was really impressed by the video:
The tone is spot-on. I really liked the roles that Mike and Jerry took on in it. I also liked the acknowledgement of AI being a pioneer of this format. I think that’s something that’s overlooked in the face of the current big beasts of the space, Critical Role and the fantastic Dimension20. I hope that this signals something of a revitalisation of Acquisitions Incorporated. I know from my love of PATV that the Penny Arcade folks can put together slick, good, well-produced shows when they want to.
The campaign itself is interesting. There’s a ton of pledge levels, some of which get a bit… extreme. I do noticed that they have one backer who has dropped $20K for the highest tier, and another who has pledged $15k for the second highest. That is an eye watering amount of money, but clearly there’s some real dedication.
I’m not really looking to break down the value of this, or say whether you should or should not back it. I just really wanted to talk about Acquisitions Incorporated for a bit.
You can click here to visit the project page over at Kickstarter.
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