I had the opportunity to have communications with the author via social media throughout the years (lots of good conversations) and in 2013 Lee Garvin ran a successful Kickstarter for the second of edition of Tales from the Floating Vagabond. Myself and others were excited for this because it offered an update on a game that was out of print and would also expand on the original content plus include various quality of life changes. We cannot forget the new art!
Though, the Kickstarter was wrought with problems and most of them involved Lee Garvin's declining health and other instabilities. The last Kickstarter update was posted in 2019 by Sandy Antunes because Lee Garvin passed away. I will re-post the update below:
"Hello all. I am not Lee (surprise!) My name is Sandy Antunes, and I have sad news about Lee as well as a closeout of this kickstarter. As many of you may have heard, Lee Garvin passed away on June 28th 2019, shortly after reporting chest pains. Lee was my friend since boy scouts, and he even gave me a thanks in first edition Vagabond. Ah, yes, I still remember [cue wavy flashback sequence] .[/end flashback sequence]/
Our story resumes a few weeks ago when his brother loaned me Lee's laptop (hence being able to send this note) and I think Lee would find it amusing that, to access his account via his generic ebay nameless brand not-working laptop, we had to rip the back off (because it wouldn't power up with it on) and we can only type while balancing it precariously on a cushion, all while hoping it remembered his stored passwords so we can access this site (it did!)-- oh, and we bribed 2 cyber students with some amazon gift cards to get their help getting in this far. Also, the laptop was handed to me anonymously at a steampunk event along with a bare hard drive ripped from what I presume was a landfill PC. I wish we could have added gymnastic-ing through a laser maze and a trenchcoat in Lee's honor... but I digress.
Lee died without money, with a lot of medical debt, and living with his dog Mal (in his car). So, pretty much how we all expect we'll go. Lee died still respected by his community of friends and fans and with the eternal hope that he would one day publish his long OOP TftFV as a new 2nd edition. Fortunately, part of what he left is his nearly complete 98-page draft (woo!), oodles of working files (yay!), and around 30GB of files we're still sorting through (#$?%-- mostly mp3s and RiffTrax in that 30DB, but hey, there's extra Vagabond stuff in there too, so we're slogging through it!)
His brother has graciously allowed me to take up editing and releasing Tales from the Floating Vagabond: 2nd edition: the postmortem edition, as a team effort, and it will happen! Better, I was able to download the backer info for this, so we can attempt to (at a minimum) get at least the completed eBook TftfV2 to you all. Many of Lee's collaborators and colleagues have already reached out to me to help in this, and I'll be setting up a collab site so we can make the best Vagabond possible. When it is done, you kickstarter backers will be first to know and received the first edition of the second edition... err, you know what I mean.
(Interlude, the legalese: this kickstarter will not be able to fulfill all its promises, especially the 'play a game with Lee' part, although we're still working out the metaphysics on that last bit so don't hold me to to it. I am not responsible for his estate and am generally irresponsible for most things but this will be a sincere best effort at releasing his legacy. This is a non-binding volunteer effort by his fanbase to complete TftfV2.)
His laptop is at 13% power and dropping so apologies if this message ends in mid--
Okay, just kidding about the power thing. Those cyber kids did good work. But, as we don't have actual access to Lee's email, I can't guarantee we can access Kickstarter past this update. So this may be the last official notice here. Having the backer info, though, I will email you folks that backed this when we have progress, a book, any convention appearances, and/or news of Zombie Lee rising from the dead (Garvin, not Christopher).
If you find the above insufficient (or are sufficiently bored) and wish to contact me and/or volunteer, try sandy at rpg dot net. Or try flying a small airplane through a revolving door-- I'm told that worked for one broke adventurer, and he ended up in a rather interesting bar as a result. Grab a chair, stranger, buy a drink from Spit, and sit a spell. Interesting things are bound to happen."
Reading that update was heartbreaking as I felt like I got to know Lee Garvin personally over the years and rereading was still saddening. Well, over the years I have touched base off and on with the people who picked up the project and a lot of the updates were the usual of we are working on it, waiting on art, etc. So, there was nothing exciting to discuss. This was until recently until I reached out to Sandy to check and good news was delivered to me! The response was as follows:
"Hello [Redacted]
We wrapped up playtesting and are implementing those last edits. Layout is done for the draft book, save for tweaks following the playtest edits. Art is done and in. There's a Discord for playtesters that we will open up to everyone upon release as a general Vagabond channel. [Redacted]
[Redacted]
Editor and designer Kira Woodmansee will be at GenCon, though not in a Vagabond capacity; we hope to run games at GenCon 2024. We're pushing towards the finish!I will raise the mugs & coasters idea but since we're doing the book for free as volunteers, unfortunately it's not part of the plan. We're thinking of 'print at cost' for print copies, though at least one publisher has said they might be able to fulfill them in return for rights to sell print copies. For now, the firm promise is 'the PDF of the book, large and fully in color and very very funny'.
Sandy
Sand at rpg dot net, freelance"
So, we all should be seeing a product soon. Do I know what soon is? No. Though, the people with their hands in the pie appear to be positive before Gen Con 2024.
This is all the information I have for now and I am sorry about the quick history lesson though context for this update was important.
