Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New Website & Blog Live

Finally the pieces start to come together. The new website is up (not much on the front page to look at yet) and the blog is located on the second tab at the top of the page.

So updates all around:

Working on the Sneak Peak trailer for the first season of the Classic Realms channel at YouTube. Topics to be covered will include unboxings, play throughs and D.I.Y videos aimed at players just coming into the boardgame/wargame hobby.

I have decided to spin the wargame section of the Classic Realms journal off into its own standalone entitled Counter Strike-The Wargame Journal due to the amount of research material I have accumulated and material I'm developing myself needing a play test area.

Darkness over Dunwich has been on the back burner as I waited for any announcements from GenCon but that was a quiet scene this year. Seems like all that came out of GenCon this year was Star Wars-Star Wars-Star Wars...yeah, getting a little tired of that old shoe.

Luckily GMT has been on the ball and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my annual 'big game haul' which includes Red Winter and Labyrinth-The War on Terror this year. I had hoped for some of the P500 Combat Commander: Europe expansions would have made it but I guess that will have to wait.

So, check out the new digs:

http://www.classicrealmsofadventure.com/index.html

http://www.classicrealmsofadventure.com/classic-realms.html

More later...

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Updates and Changes and the OSR

I believe my willing suspension of disbelief has finally found the wall. That leaves one with two choices. Keep banging your head on the wall or climb over it.

I think I'm bloody enough. Time for plan two.

As some might have noticed the Eternal Keep has been put on hiatus. There is a lot of dead wood to clean out and a change in direction.

The OSR debate I'm certain will rage on just as the '4e is the best game EVR and all that old crap sux' will still spew from 4e fanboys.

But 4 years ago when I had to make a choice between money and fun I chose fun. Now, I have never hid the fact that I am in this for business purposes and spent 3 years developing a project which will likely never see the light of day. I will be converting some things and finishing some articles on the subject but I believe to pursue this further is just more beating my head on a brick wall.

Now, of course, everyone will be quick to remind me that there is no money in this and how it's just for fun. Well. when you call crashing PayPal servers 'no money in it' I want that kind of 'no money'.

But ultimately you are right. The industry is collapsing in on itself and the only thing left will be people who expect everyone to work for free so they can cherry pick parts from different projects for their own table.

I didn't enter this to get rich. I got involved to have some fun and make some money at something I enjoy.

This is no longer the case. I have found that I'm allowed to have my own opinion as long as it is the same as everyone else.

Well...fuck that...

For the last six months I have been finding people who actually enjoy gaming, have no restrictions on opinions and generally tend to be civil toward one another.

So, while everyone sits around arguing about whether something is dead or not, when they can't even define what 'it' is I'm going to get back on track-have some fun, make some money.

I must say, it has been a crazy ride, but enough is enough. More play time less fight time.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Ghosts of the OSR

Yes, the OSR is dead. I called that back in January when I was informed I was 'over reacting' to news that has been coming in a steady stream ever since. Remember...the guy everybody pissed on when he said 'hey, this is gonna screw everything up'...yeah...me...that guy.

First, there never WAS an OSR. A lot of people claimed it existed. One person even defined what IT was:

OSR Manifesto

"On the excellent Maximum Rock and Roleplay blog, Chad Thorson has given the OSR community a brilliant "OSR" logo.



Here is the logo cleaned up in high resolution format. As a community perhaps we could establish a manifesto that adjudicates the use of this logo.

You may freely use the OSR logo on your product given the following criteria:

The product is compatible with the original white box (or wood-grain box) edition of the worlds first and most famous fantasy RPG.

That's it.


I would go so far as to say Blue Box through 1st edition are in most ways an extension, and generally compatible with the original edition. Even 2nd and 3rd edition at least payed homage to the original. So the definition is fairly flexible.

As long as you hold to this criteria you can use this logo on your OSR product. What do you think?

http://originaleditionfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/03/osr-manifesto.html"


(Note the true creator of the logo and not a plagiarist who shall remain unnamed.)

Wow...that's not what the OSR is to me at all...how about you?

That's when I saw the following and realized the difference.

This has graced many pages in this community and comes the closest to actual depicting what OSR might stand for:

"To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It [is] about going back to the roots of our hobby and see what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time."

Rob Conley - Bat In The Attic


I began to mark this as the OSS-Old School Style.

What is old school? Think for a second about this. A 21 year old persons' car breaks down and they pull off to the shoulder cursing loudly. They break out their cell phone and start crying into it.

New School

Now it's 30 years earlier. The car breaks down. You are in the middle of nowhere. You pop the hood, get your tools out of the trunk and start fixing the blown radiator hose. If you can't fix it it's a long walk.

Old School.

We live in the pre-chewed food era, when people have to be told what to buy or they are confused. Look at what brand confusion did for the 800 lb beast...4e or Essentials. Yeah, that worked out real well.

So well that they ARE MAKING ANOTHER ONE.

So what OSR was I talking about? The one that gave gaming back to the gamers. The one that acted as an umbrella to shade one from the glare of glossy page over bloated rule sets.

OSRIC
Swords & Wizardry
Labyrinth Lord

And many many more. The guys who had your back when the company who had control of your game turned theirs to you and ignored you.

The Publishers of systems both free and commercial that let you once again sit around a table and play a game with friends without breaking the bank buying 'collector' items or games that just weren't hitting the spot.

Think I'm the only one saying this?

http://swordsandwizardry.blogspot.com/2012/08/d-and-retro-clones-big-reboot-arrives.html

NOW somebody gets it.

Who wants to buy an old 'clone' when you can get the REAL game? Right? And how long before they decide it is not in their corporate interest to continue selling the REAL game? Just as soon as the last of the competition closes up shop.

We had grown beyond the reach of the tentacled abomination that had tried to drag us down. We had our own show. Our own writers, artists, publishers and now the final bullet to the back of the head of the 'OSR' will be delivered by a digital gun, controlled by the company who started the problem in the first place.

The community is divided and deluded. They are not going to republish everything in book form. They have already said that. And they have already taken the pdf route and decided that doesn't work either, so what hoops do you have to jump through before you sit up nicely for your treat?

Good doggies...

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Summer Heat & Gaming Madness

Ok…first off I’m posting this update in three places so if you see the title more than once or go ‘wait a minute-I just read this’ you’ll know why.

Wow, long time no post…but that doesn’t mean I haven’t worn all the markings off my keyboard…again…

First, all the projects are cooking so I’m back to 20 hour days again. It has been a wild summer so far, re-entering the wargame scene with a vengeance (and a battle cry) and sorting out all the custom content for the Arkham Horror boardgame that is floating around the interwebs…and a word of warning-back up your backups and then make a back up of that back up…seriously…this Megaupload fiasco (which is BS like most nonsense these days-invalid search warrants, whole thing gets tossed anyway, never even slowed down the pirates and the communities that use file hosting legitimately have to suffer…f*** heads…) has managed to eat up the time I had slotted for getting the first major articles for Darkness over Dunwich finished. Now I have to stop what I’m doing and get re-focused on things that make your skin crawl after sweeping through the history of wargaming (wow...lots to catch up on).

And, speaking of wargaming, GMT games recent release of Red Winter is getting high marks. I brushed it off as a minor title to start with but after further study I must say they seem to have hit the target (pun? No pun?...whatever) with this one.

I am trying to bring my A-game with these first two outings of the journals. I have plenty of material…almost too much…it’s just getting everything right that drags things down. These are not intended as one-shot publications. As I believe I have mentioned I’m trying to do (for now) 3 of each a year on an alternating schedule. That leaves plenty of time for those ‘oh s***’ moments that are inevitable.

Still exploring Kickstarter for these projects but not quite decided yet. And then there is that pesky website to finish.

Anyway, I hope your gaming is going well this hot and messed up summer and look forward to fall when maybe everyone can take a minute and relax and just enjoy the simple entertainment that gaming is at its best.

More soon…

Saturday, June 2, 2012

The End Is The Beginning

Ok...I have typed a dozen drafts of this post over the last days and I delete them or just limbo them in draft hell.

This whole D&D fiasco has grown so old and I'm burned out as it is and swore I was taking a break but I always feel compelled to sit back down and get back to it.

Like this post:

http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/marletts-musings-dnd-next-laments



Not only is the material presented as fact so wrong that I will not spend the hours it would take to shoot them all down WITH FACTS but I'm to the point of not caring anymore.

I have watched a community go from a healthy happy group of gamers of all ages into a rage war over editions and the complete ignorance of the actual demographics behind gaming and the changing market place.

There are more people playing rpgs than have played in many years, the numbers are out there. Yet all I read is how we are losing players to these other activities which have existed (for the most part) for some time now. If they were going to kill off tabletop I wouldn't be typing this.

The 'aging population' bit is also one of the major fallacies that drives me insane. Yes, young people are turning away from INDUSTRY gaming but they are tabletop gaming nonetheless.

I have read and logged over 10,000 blogs over the last 2 years on the subject of Non-Industry gaming. That would include the OSR, OSS,etc and I'm not even including the resurgence in wargaming and miniatures collecting.

Without big numbers to show off to shareholders the Industry leaders wring their hands and proclaim the end is nigh.

Thank God.

I hope they are right. I hope the Industry collapses, I hope the masses go away. I hope that we recognize once again that not all role playing games are supposed to be for children. That TRPGs are not dog food or paper towels to be turned out on an assembly line and tuned to the ultimate blandness to reach the largest target market.

I pray every night that the world just forgets about us. That D&D is finally put to rest as a commercial product and that new games rise to take its place. That D&D becomes the cornerstone in the foundation of a greater gaming period than gaming has ever known.

My hope is that people continue to be excited by learning that the key to great gaming doesn't lie in a book of rules but within us, from the primal need to be story tellers to the ability to act out plays of imagination on a stage that is as large as our dreams with players from around the world and, one day, from other worlds (can you imagine playing in a session with players on the ISS, the Moon and even Mars?).

I know...I know...

But one can still dream...

Saturday, May 26, 2012

A Good Video, Interesting Observation On MMO vs Tabletop And A Proper Attitude In Gaming

I have typed several of these posts and deleted them because I just don't see a positive outcome to any of them.

But this guy makes some good points and ultimately a proper attitude to have as a gamer (no it's not HATER based).

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GMeYPvJaMI

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Success is where AD&D went all wrong

There's been a lot of discussion over the last year about turning points in the hobby and before history is allowed to warp what little reality is left in the subject, fwiw, here is a personal story.

Giants didn't kill AD&D. The rules didn't kill AD&D.

Success is what killed AD&D.

A company suddenly rife with success and capital coupled with coming onto the mainstream grid undermined the hobby causing knee-jerk reactions to everything from PR to R&D.

Satanic Panic played a large part in this to varying degrees at the time depending on where you lived. In the south forget about being banned as a game club in school. People were burning s*** in peoples yards who played or sold the game, scaring children and parents alike with their rhetoric of 'D&D is Satanism' remarks being printed in everything down to local newspapers. The Tom Hanks film became mandatory viewing in local schools where I lived.

The PR solutions, turning the concept into a Saturday morning children's program, lowering the age range on the actual product and pitching the game as a children's toy, etc and creating self-perpetuating product lines that gobbled money like a piranha on a fat water buffalo killed AD&D.

Even though the Red Box lays claim to the best selling single game product in the hobby it was AD&D, not D&D, that topped the sales charts, brought in people by the millions and created the legacy we know today as the D&D super brand.

And Dragonlance was the arrow in the heart of the gaming beast, now barely stirring in the water as more and more entered the feeding frenzy, causing the same type of overwhelming glut that occurred during the heyday of 3.0.

Past Basic and Expert most went on to play AD&D. That is where the estimated 25 million players came from that formed the base of the industry, now seen as a profitable commodity like toilet paper or dog food.

I understand that a lot of those vocal on the subject started with the Red Box and still connect with it to this day. But I also notice the ages of those who talk about it were 9, 10, 11 years old. You came at it from the perspective of the children that I mentioned earlier who had become part of the hobby in the early '80s. The age group who never seem represented are the young adults who started as teenagers with AD&D and were responsible for fueling the hobby with their own money from crappy jobs and later the same ones who would start companies and open stores and pay dearly for decisions made by major figures in the hobby at the time.

If you scrape at the paint a little too much you find the truth beneath the surface. Remember, truth is not fact but truth can lead one to the facts. And the white wash has been almost complete about that time period from 1977-1983.

Look at the marketing strategy at WotC even today. First a mock 'Red Box', then the reprint of the core AD&D books. Not the Original edition, nor B/X nor BECMI (or even Holmes which would be a great one shot money maker) but the hardest, largest core product to reproduce from the time period. Only one group know the true sales numbers from the brand and they have been slowly acting on those numbers.

Now, this is not to say that these other editions wouldn't see a reprint at some point, but marketing is based on numbers and AD&D was the 800lb gorilla of its time and even today remains the center of fiery discussions from both ends. Original edition players saw it as rules bloat and new school gamers see it as a jumbled mess that they use to point out everything that was wrong with gaming of the period and the thought of not only the reprints but bringing back parts of that system in 5e makes them want to puke.

I honestly don't see what WotC hopes to achieve with this FrankenGame approach. They have managed to alienate the very players they hoped to get back while turning current players against them. It is truly a no-win situation no matter what they do and I keep waiting for someone to stand up and say 'April Fools!' and then lay out the real strategy for bringing D&D back to the spotlight.

But I'm afraid this is a nightmare that we can't wake up from and soon another bloody mess will be pushed onto the stage with cattle prods to dance for people who throw things at it.

If you going to build off nostalgia then do so and show respect for that history. If you are going to build new then leave the past behind, rename the product and move on. Otherwise we get to watch the whole cycle repeat itself like a gaming version of the film Groundhog's Day.

EDIT: Sorry for the typo mess. It's been a bit hectic.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thoughts On Carcosa

Just had to share this because I think this sums up D&D as my group played it back in the early 80's

"Carcosa is Thundarr the Barbarian reimagined by Lovecraft, Moorcock, and R.E. Howard, drawn by the 1970s staff of Heavy Metal, and put to motion by Ralph Bakshi."


-Gaming All Over The Place: Carcosa: Initial Thoughts

http://gamingallover.blogspot.com/2011/12/carcosa-initial-thoughts.html

At least all the source quotes are right :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

S*** On My Mind

Or what is left of it...

First, glad to see that 'people who Goggle might actually listen to' have started bitchin' about being forced into G+.

Second, I have solved the dilemma of the new D&D and am now ready to unveil the master plan where Pinky and I will...oh...wrong...anyway...

Say Hello To:

DUNGEONS & DIMWITS 50XT

Complete with 4 exciting new classes:

Robot
Stoopid Guy
Hot Chick
Hobit

The entire game must be made up on the spot. If someone doesn't finally say 'Are you just pulling this out of your ass or what' then you are doing it wrong.

All weapons do 1 point of damage except crossbows and you have to ricochet the bolt off a wall to do 3 points of damage.

All spells require a success roll of a natural 20 to work or they fail and a roll is made on the fail chart for the bad result, like getting turned into a chicken.

At least part of the rules must be in a foreign language that no one speaks so as to give it a true 'old skool' feel and something for fanboys to argue over on forums.

Monsters Will Include:

Tree Stump-Special Attack: Stumble

Bumble Bees-Special Attack: Stings like a mutha

Drunken Dwarf-Special Attack: Urine

Broken Beer Bottle:See Drunken Dwarf

And last but not least, Abominable Joesky, the Barbarian (watch out for that loin cloth-Save vs Death if you get within smelling range)

That's about my 15% for now, but we will be play testing this at the Shady Hills Rest Home at some point so stay tuned for exciting updates to the One Game!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Things I Be Mad Hatin'-Part 1

OH F***! NOW I SEE!

Here was my 'feedback' to Google upon attempting to create a post on their new Blogger interface which I will kindly call ASS:

This interface is awful. Now I understand why so many people have been complaining.

If you are really trying to run off all of your user base you are on the right track.

I give this a 0/10 and if I'm going to be forced to learn a new interface I will just go get a website and start coding my own pages again.

If this is about making all users into Google+ users I would like to be told so at this point. I have no interest in G+. If I wanted to be on a social network I would be on Facebook with 850 million other users. Blogging IS my social network.

I am now reverting back to the old interface. I hope you will continue to offer it as an option.


Contact them and register a complaint about the endless interface changes. Things suck bad enough already but I swear I am not going to try to sort out that PUKE just to make a post.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

More Of This Please - In God We Trust




(From The Website - http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2012/04/Environmental-collapse-and-exploding-heads-IN-GOD-WE-TRUST-trailer )

"In God We Trust" serves as a demonstration piece designed to attract the attention of Film Studios and potential investors utilising a "Look what we have created with no resources, imagine what we could do with a reasonable budget" approach.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ok, I can't even post anymore

Hey all...apologies for not keeping this place lit up but with so much going on right now (please get here soon Mr. power supply...puhleeeeez) it's been a rough start to the year.

My biggest problem with posting is that I can't seem to type anything that isn't going to start a fight. I'm sick of the whole environment surrounding RPGs right now. The blogs really reflect the powered down nature of what is going on and it has gotten to the point where I'm reading less and less blog posts. I'm not saying there hasn't been some excellent postings over the last three months but it certainly isn't what it was this time a year ago.

It's like the life has been sucked out of the whole scene. Between departures of heavy weights, Google + and 800lb (vaporware) guerrillas it just seems kind of vacant.

I remember last year it being almost overwhelming the amount of material coming out. Now...well...kinda quiet...

So here is hoping all are well in their endeavors wherever they may be and that the fire soon returns to this corner of the world we call home...

Monday, April 2, 2012

Using Available Resources To Build A Game

I was reading a series of posts before all hell broke loose with my computers recently that postulated gaming with only certain resources. The AD&D Unearthed Arcana / Fiend Folio I thought was one of the better ideas I had run across lately and got me to thinking about what other 'mash ups' for want of a better word were possible with all the material out there.

So I pose this little mental gaming challenge:

Using only freely available material (OGC, Public Domain, etc) what items would you combine from any source to create a game.

(Extra points for how outrageous the combos are-Ninjas fighting Dinosaurs...high marks!)

Frankengame-It's not just for the big boys anymore :)

Post your weirdest in the comments! :)

(Here's the link about the unholy fusion I mention above: http://the-city-of-iron.blogspot.com/2012/03/fiend-folio-monsters-deities-unearthed.html)

Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Two Opposing Forces In D&D And Their Origins

Reading The Hickman Revolution and the Frustrated Novelist over at Monsters and Manuals got me to thinking about that dark time in the 80's when it was like someone had just switched off the light.

Speaking from being there when the double punch was delivered-Dragonlance and the Satanic Panic - it literally wiped me out...as a player, DM and shop owner.

Those who joined the hobby around that time are the direct ancestors to the modern gamer.

Folks get mad at me for saying so but it seems to be the best descriptions of both camps:

Old Schoolers bought things as inspiration, to be ripped apart and used piecemeal with individual additions and ideas.

New Schoolers are like baby birds who have to have their food chewed for them and deposited in their beaks. I suggested once to a 4e fan, mad about some rule that WotC had recently released in a book, and said 'why don't you just change the rule or not use it'...the response...'If I wanted to write my own f****** rules I wouldn't have bought the book'...and that's a quote.

Thank God I never looked for the 'perfect' game...I would have missed a lot of great gaming.

It is said that the early modules for D&D are the bane of gaming history because these items usually meant for tournament play were looked upon as the only proper way to play D&D...with TPK and Killer DMs around every corner.

But I say it was Dragonlance, the pre-generated characters riding the railroad, that brought us to where we are today, the end of the industry and the birth of the OSR.

Every subject that separates players today goes back to these fundamentally opposed philosophies.

The 'homebrewer' vs. the 'RAW'.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Updates For The CRoA Network

Ok, getting close to being back to square one.

Classic Realms of Adventure - The domain name should be resolving properly again:

I will be back posting there as soon as I finish a few more technical details.


The Eternal Keep
- Is back up and running with a fair amount of linkage back in place. There are problems I know with some blogs that have been turned into ad platforms that will be deleted but I concentrated on getting out the dupes today to maximize the widget content in each widget. The next list will add 5 or 6 more widgets and I will start work on that this weekend. I might as well warn everyone ahead of time that I will be monetizing the blog in the near future. My wish is to put up a PayPal donate button and keep ads to a minimum, but the Keep is even more work now that things have to be broken up but the upside is with the next update it will have 3 times as many blogs to choose from with all the recent updaters easy to scroll through and the ability to show all the blogs in any given widget with just a click of a mouse for older posts.

CRoA: the ezine - I will start working on compiling the first issue of the ezine Classic Realms of Adventure once all the dust settles.

Darkness Over Dunwich - This blog needs updated but I was trying to wait to get through a play test of my alternate rules set for Elder Sign. I have notes for a 2 player head to head version of the game and also notes on integrating items from the Arkham Horror board game for use with ES. I'm also working on notes for an introduction book to the Arkham board game detailing getting started with the base set and adding expansions and their impact on play. I have considered starting a second ezine to join CRoA covering the HP Lovecraft inspired material I'm working on and then compiling the issues into a book down the road.

Forsaken Souls / Fiends & Fireballs (MX83) are being split into 2 separate projects. I was working on the idea of a Basic into Advanced type system, but the things I want to achieve with them are two completely different things. So I will let each follow its own path and find its own audience.

That's it for now. Next up: New videos on the Tumblr account..

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Damnit! Robin Has Done It Again

I hold him directly responsible for bringing me back to the game with Microlite 20. Haven't you done enough?!

But nooooooooo...now he has done something no other human being has ever been able to do in all my years of gaming-Robin Stacey has opened my eyes to what is great about D&D.

No, not the game, the edition...you know...5 boxes or one Cyclopedia.

I started with AD&D1e and I guess there is that something special about your first.

But I have read the D&D accolades, heard them shouted down from mountains high and still couldn't understand why in the hell would anyone want to play race as class?...36 levels? Jesus...

The list could go on...and it was a pure accident... I guess following his recent series on what the various editions have gotten right in the world of D&D (I think he may have a better understanding of the entire line than anyone I have encountered) is what got me to do a bit of paleo-blogging and read his '7 days' series:

http://greywulf.net/tag/cyclopedia/

A literal lightning bolt. I was in shock. It actually finally made sense to me. After digging through the Holmes edition (my first rpg purchase ever) all those many years ago and how I jumped ship with the meeting of my first AD&D DM.

Now I have to dig through boxes and boxes looking for all the bits and pieces I have collected and actually f****** read the damn thing!

Thanks! Thanks a lot you 18th level Stealer of Time!...I curse thee Robin Stacey!...

My reading pile is now stacked higher than my head where I sit typing this from the floor up...

Oh,thanks, I guess...damnit!...why! Why did it have to click now?!

(PLEASE NOTE: No disrespect intended to any of the fine writers whose blogs I have read with (evidently) closed eyes...until now...DAMNIT!...Now more reading...)

:)

Friday, March 9, 2012

I Tried-I Really Tried (Or The Saga Of WORDPRE$$ AND OTHER PAINS)

So yeah, I have returned to the Blogger world. After feeling like I was playing a slot machine I am abandoning the WORDPRE$$ experiment.

I haven't felt so nickel and dimed to death in my entire life. After wasting hours trying accomplish the simplest of tasks and finally learning those features were only available in the 'PRO' version I have decided to return to Blogger and bring four blogs back up to speed.

I will continue to incorporate the Tumblr acct into things but the four primary sites will now be:

The Eternal Keep

ADD Grognard

Darkness Over Dunwich

Classic Realms Of Adventure

They will all be receiving an overhaul of sorts, some major some minor, but I want to get back to work and that isn't possible trying to swim through the liquid concrete of WordPre$$.

To overcome the Eternal Keep problem of widget limitations I plan on consolidating all the news aggregators into specialized lists on the blog and adding more widgets as required.

ADD Grognard will stand as it has for thoughts and ruminations.

CRoA will now reflect its new job of covering projects like the resurrected journal form of CRoA, Fiends & Fireballs (The name for the MX83 project I have been compiling) and others as time permits me to work on them.

And last but not least the Darkness Over Dunwich blog will pick back up with the completion of my rules re-write of Elder Signs and the material I'm working up on Arkham Horror.

I have to admit, I don't see what people get out of the confusing mess that is WordPress. I wondered why it seemed like everyone who moved over just seemed to disappear and now I know why.

For what it's worth, I'm back....let's get to work...

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Video Game Sales Down - Tabletop Games Up

Well, I had a completely different post in mind for today but after seeing some good news for a change I decided to pass it along.

Confirming what I have posted about apparent sales in the tabletop market in general and the word out of GenCon last year the numbers are out and rather staggering.

First:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/22214.html

This should come as no surprise, but this should:

Video games sales down, hobby games up in 2011

"In a move that may reflect the shifting United States economy, video games sales plummeted 38% and hobby games sales are up 25%."

(Read More)

http://www.examiner.com/rpg-in-national/video-games-sales-down-hobby-games-up-2011


So, I feel pretty good that what appeared to be happening last year was sustainable, that Pathfinder continues to grow (and they deserve it - watch the videos at YouTube from GenCon for what else to expect this year from Paizo-that Bestiary Box is MINE) and for all the naysayers who say we are just a tiny speck of gaming goo and that everyone quit table top to play video games I get to proudly stand and say:

STFU

(Coming Next Time - The Consolidation Update - The Future of the Eternal Keep - CRoA Update - More)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

RESET

RESET BUTTON POWER ON

TIMELINE RESET DESCRIPTION IS AS FOLLOWS:

2000 - Wizards of the Coast release D&D 3.0 and the SRD under the newly created Open Game License. Tabletop Role-Playing Games are saved by this initiative.

2008 - WotC ceases production of D&D to focus on their primary product line Magic: The Gathering.

Smaller companies, led by a bold start up-Paizo, begin to produce role-playing games that go back to the roots of the hobby using the Open Game Content from the SRD and newly created OGC sources.

2010 – The rpg ‘industry’ finally succumbs to the growth of the ‘hobby business’. With the rise of the internet and its many tools, game production takes on a whole new meaning. It is now possible to design and produce gaming materials and distribute them on a completely different scale. With the advent of Print on Demand (PoD) and digital publishing through the PDF format gaming experiences a renaissance and player numbers and sales continue to increase, a trend started in 2004.

2011 - The game market coalesces around the Open Game concept. Many declare it to be a new Golden Age of gaming, a network of players and publishers world wide, creating and sharing games of all genres while exploring the outer boundaries of the Old School Style along with the new mechanics being created on almost a daily basis. A successful GenCon finds most vendors in good spirits as sales continue to increase.

2012 – The End of the Beginning. New technologies have allowed players and publishers greater freedom to create and play than ever before. With the growing use of VTT, Social Networking sites, and A/V hardware/software and more traditional digital methods like PBeM and forum more games than ever are being played by a growing group of diversified gamers. The hobby is seen to have come full circle but now that circle goes, not around a city, but the entire planet. And with hand held mobile devices increasing in popularity and software rising to meet the challenge games can now be played by anyone, anywhere at anytime.

The Revolution is complete.

Now, all you have to do is press the button to complete this timeline reset. This may be accomplished by verbal authorization in the comments section below.

ENGAGE RESET NOW?

(WARNING: TIMELINE RESET MAY CAUSE SLIGHT NAUSEA AS TIMELINE SHIFTS AND HAPPINESS INCREASES)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

New Post

Ya know, I keep trying to post something and by the third line I'm dropping so many f-bombs I would have to change the settings on the blog to mature.

The more I look at it the less I understand.

Now keep in mind, I'm not talking about 4e fanboys or 'whatever' gamers (they play whatever is new).

No, I'm thinking about all the posts I have read over the last 2 years that has not let up on how:

(A) Nobody cares what WotC does next.

(B) WotC...who?

(C) "It'll be a cold day in hell..."

(D) "D&D...are they still doing that?"

You get the idea...and don't act like you don't recognize some of those...I have a LOT more...

I think the guys summed it up best:

Steve: Ahhhhh!

Zack: Calm down, Steve. Gygax and Arneson are both dead. They can't hurt you anymore.

Steve: People cried about them dying, but when Gygax went what we really lost was a final authority on all rules arguments. And even though the number I had for Gygax was probably no longer in service, I always had that reassuring feeling like if I was really in a jam and my characters were insisting they wanted to grapple someone I could call up Gary and ask him how to resolve it.

Zack: He's gone now, Steve, but his spirit lives on in the exciting new 4th Edition of- I can't even type that out. Does anyone play that?

Steve: It's pretty fun.

Steve: For stupid babies.

Zack: I would imagine Gygax had his detractors back in the day.

Steve: Gygax didn't have 50 writers and 100 artists and color printing. He just went out there and said, hey, here's how you subdue a dragon and sell it as a slave. Here's what a robot is doing in a fantasy game. Deal with it. I made it up, deal with it.

Zack: And now a committee has designed everything.

Steve: The stupid baby committee.


http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/steve-old-gygax.php?page=11

So I wonder...where does that leave us now...a game that turns out like Republicare? (You get to call it Obamacare when you pass the version he wrote, not the one the Republicans agreed to vote yes for).

Just think, if the game sucks you get to blame yourself...pretty slick maneuver isn't it?

Player #1 - Man, this D&D 5e blows...

Player #2 - Well, you designed it.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Well, I guess we have been told-(WARNING: LANGUAGE)-Continued

I have started a new post here continuing the discussion started at:

Well, I guess we have been told-(WARNING: LANGUAGE)

I begin with the latest comment and response:

KenwolfJan 29, 2012 04:56 PM

if you was to ask the question what osr means to you, i bet you would get a lot of different answers to that question. some people it means old school rules, some people say it means games made from the srd and ogl. some say it is all about the feel of the game. some say it is just retro clone games based on everything up to 1st edition.

you are the first person i have ever heard say that pathfinder i part of the osr. most people would say that pathfinder is just 3.75 of D&D im not bad mouthing it, if that's your thing good for you. but you are the first i have heard call pathfinder osr.

i guess i am not an osr gamer in your definition of it cause i play AD&D 2nd edition with a generous helping of 1st edition mixed in with it. i would consider me an older school gamer, but not so far as to od&d or basic.

i have been reading a lot of blogs talk about how excited they are about these developments. is that so bad really ? i have absolutely no love for wizards of the cost, but you can't blame them for destroying the osr or old school gaming. if just 2 announcements from wizards of the cost can have that bad of an effect on the community then it deserves to die.

it isn't the announcement from wizards that is driving the osr or old school gaming apart. it is people that say if you buy the new reprints then your not part of this community that are. or if you like 5E then you are a sell out. don't you think having someone tell you that would cause an argument just because you wanted to buy a gaming book ?

as for the posts that you mention. i think that's bull shit. i agree with you on that people that say we should buy them just because should kiss some ass. i have stated at a forum that i post on a bunch that i think they are over priced, and that i wouldn't buy them cause i already own a copy of them and if i wanted more i can get originals a lot cheaper on e-bay and if i wanted to put money to the charity fund for the statue i would just send them the money to begin with.

now i am gonna use your own words against you. "God forbid a company actually make a game the fans want and actually like." you just said that, so why are you so mad about it when people like wizards of the cost for doing something that they wanted them to do ??

maybe you need to read that statement that you just said and ask your self "why am i so mad about people liking a game that is produced by wizards of the cost."

i am here because i like reading blogs about the older editions of games and the stories that people have of playing those games when younger.


I replied with the following:

Ok, first, I concur with Justin Alexander when it comes to defining the stages of D&D. Yes, AD&D2e is old school. So is 3.x. His reasoning was all the editions had been different up through 3. But a fighter was still a fighter. You could recognize a fighter. When 4e hit it was a new ballgame. Justin play-tested both 3 and 4 and was excited about 4e to start with, but soon he saw where things were going, turned in his notes and has been hated by the Wizards fans ever since. But D&D is not OSR. Older D&D would be considered Retro Gaming. The OSR started in the 21st century.

Now, I'm not the first person to have a problem with Wizards. They have been sinking for 12 years. I agree with the majority of people who feel betrayed and ripped off by them.

Their track record is crap man, and they are promising a game that can't be made and certainly can't be played the way they describe. I'm a game designer. My first full RPG would have come out this year. Now I have to reconsider what I'm doing. I know they are blowin' smoke but every time they say they have a winner, well, if you think they have made a smart business move in 12 years I would like to see it. Man, they lost 22.5 million players...out of 24 million...that is awful.

Think about this for a second: You have a big box in a room sitting on a table, on the side a big bright D&D logo, a crank handle and a slot marked 'money comes out here' and you don't even know how to turn the crank.That's WotC.

Too little too late is my own view on these latest tactics. Go read what the 4e hardcore are posting. They hate us (people who aren't hardcore 4e fans) worse than ever. They blame US for the death of 4e. Is that rational?

I have my reasons for not liking Wizards and even TSR. When the 'industry' took off in the mid 80s I had opened a shop. My ads ran in Dragon magazine. I was on top of the world. 3 years of my life and every penny I could scrape together in the worst economy the country had seen since the Great Depression.

And TSR and the 'industry' sold us up the river. When the Satanic Panic started they backed down instead of telling those psychos to go to hell they screwed everything up trying to appease them. It was all about the money then. I lost everything, including my love for the game. It would be 7+ years before I would even look at a game again. I tried to get with AD&D2e, spent a small fortune on Dark Sun and all the bells & whistles just to have no one want to play. I quit gaming again.

It would be almost 10 years before I would try again. It just didn't work out. And the war was raging over 3.0.

Wizards being bought out by Hasbro was probably the final nail in the coffin.

And if you read that quote up their at the top of the page on the right by Rob Conley that is what the OSR means to me.

Before the industry TRPGs were a 'hobby business'...games made by gamers for gamers. Look at all the famous people involved in gaming from 1973-89. They were gamers. I respect Erik Mona for being forthright about his gaming background. He gave a great keynote speech in 2009 (I have the link if you would like to watch it out at YouTube-be warned...it is over an hour long. Excellent speech though). The GenCon 2011 video of Erik and Lisa is also excellent.

And here's something too when it comes to Wizards vs. Paizo. You may have heard how Wizards has been having gaming items taken off the market due to copyright infringement. Most of that has been BS. But the OSR can't front the lawyers like the big boys have so they have no choice but to pull their product, even if the charge was bogus (which it was).

Paizo's own Sean K. Reynolds announced that fans and professionals alike were free to develop new material for the new Beginners Box (which is excellent btw) and even sell it because they were not going to be developing for it. I just like the way they are straight forward about stuff like that.

And I didn't say Paizo was OSR. They use the same SRD we all do who develop games under the OGL (Open Game License) and Pathfinder fans and OSR fans tend to get along. They seem to have a mutual respect for each other.

If people want to take the chance that a company that has failed the fans every single time they have released a new edition of D&D then that's their business. But don't shout down those who don't believe them anymore.

The OSR hobby business can't wait around for people to figure out what is going on here. They are small companies. They won't last without sales. If people are saving money for whatever it is that they think Wizards is going to deliver on they won't be spending money on the 'hobby business', which will kill the last place that many of us feel at home. As a publisher and a game fan it truly saddens me. I haven't enjoyed gaming like this in years. Now it's ruined. All anyone wants to blog about is WotC. I don't care about them or any announcements they make now or in the future.

Now I have to decide what I am going to do.

(end reply)

A Poll For OSR Publishers

Having read as much as I can stomach each day of this 'shock and awe' tactic being used I was wondering what the creative members of the community have to say about this.

Now, it doesn't matter whether you are a fan publisher or a professional publisher (basically do you give your creations away for free or sell them).

If you don't want to speak I understand. But I haven't really seen much one way or the other about how publishers feel about reprint news and new edition news.

Be civil (unlike other blogs which have begun to look like fan boy forums) and state your piece.

So the question is: How do you see this affecting your own future publishing efforts?

No piddly poll thingy to the right...just post to the comments...

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Well, I guess we have been told-(WARNING: LANGUAGE)

What a nice way to wake up Saturday morning:

"Seriously the grognards (lower case g) need to f****** get over themselves and stop b******* and seeing conspiracies where there are none."

-Timothy Brannan

http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/01/ad-regarding-reprints.html

So, what have we learned here.

First, the use of the term 'grognard' as a derogatory remark is pure 4e fan boy / Wizards-style BS. When I see the word it has always been a sign of respect, the oldest of the old school. Second, when someone tells you to 'get over' yourself, yet another typical statement from this group of gamers.

So what does this mean? Seems we have had some 4e fan boys hangin' out in the OSR back waters. Anyone else want to raise your hand while we are at it?

It would seem you have a right to play and say whatever you want, Tim. But it seems the rest of us are not entitled to free speech. Nice going...Hitler.

And Jason, this is not about 4e. This is not about a game system.

This is about years of an industry who finally find themselves backed into a corner that they constructed themselves and now need a way out.

This is about not giving another nickel to an organization who taught a whole new group of gamers to hate everything that came before 4e because it was, and I quote "A bunch of old neck beard grognards playing old broken games" and how they need to "get on board and support the latest edition to show their loyalty to the game"...does that sound a little familiar this morning?

That's 4e fan boy talk.

This is about an industry that has used bully boy tactics and strong armed retailers into doing whatever they are told to do upon threat of pulling their wares from the shop and then turning their backs on store owners when the chips were down. It was going on in the 80's and is still going on today.

Well folks, I could lay out the f-bombs and turn this into a real war, but that's what WotC was hoping for and as I also predicted this noise would eat up all the signal about gaming. 2 for 2 so far.

I have typed and deleted many lines this week but I think it is just time to wash our hands clean, devote our resources to gaming and forget these people existed. You know who they are. Just read their posts.

All I ask is that everyone take a moment and think about this today: The people who have provided us with materials to play the games we love while the industry turned their back on us.

Tim, I have to say...I am disappointed by your actions. Not that you want to play 1e with your kids. No, it's more about the attitude you have developed lately towards your fellow gamers. It's about the use of abusive language...and you're a teacher...with kids...is that what you are teaching them?

I hope everyone finds a seat today at a table of their choice and enjoys some gaming goodness.

20's

Friday, January 27, 2012

GLOBAL UPDATE - OR DAMN I'M GLAD I BOUGHT ARKHAM HORROR

Just a bit for those who might care.

It would seem this is going to go down as the most insane January in my memory. I look forward to that deepening of winter and slowing of the schedule that comes after the holidays. A time to reflect and to look forward to the year ahead.

Now if it would just drop below 70 degrees and the tornadoes would stop we might get back to winter.

Anyway.

The Eternal Keep has been gaining some meat again as I find time to squeeze in some updates. I decided that since the original problem may have been caused by the size of the widget I was using I decided to start with blogs that had been waiting to get on the list and then start working on the loyalty list.

For almost 3 years I have been maintaining the Keep and only ask for one thing in return-a link back to the Keep. I never noticed till today how many blogs never did that. So I'm checking blogs to see who had it linked and they are being reloaded now.

Also, email will be changing soon. This whole mess with Google and their desire to run off every user they have amazes me but humans will be humans. So I will be re-locating everything in time. I'm consolidating all my mail to one location and have already opened accounts with Tumblr and Wordpress. I have had blogs with Tumblr before and they would be a perfect fit if it wasn't for a few things lacking that I really want on a blog...namely an integrated commenting system. But I can cut code into other blogs to show a feed so I am working on that.

I purchased the domain

http://www.classicrealmsofadventure.com/

and am currently using it as the front end to that blog, but will re-direct it when the change over has been completed.

All in all a pain in the ass for the foreseeable future.

On the gaming front, yeah, thank GOD for Arkham Horror. Seems that is the only game related thing bringing a smile to my face right now. As predicted it seems that all anyone wants to post about is the one topic I'm not interested in. Sad. I really did completely misjudge this whole thing.Plus people want to crawl up my ass about what my problem is with the situation. I just hope they enjoy that 'game that is completely impossible to make' cause there may not be much to return to after they figure out what has transpired.

I will say only one other thing about that-all I have heard for years is the following:

"Oh no, I just spent all that money on 3.0 and now 3.5 is here-Oh no I just spent all that money on 3.5 now 4.0 is here-oh no..."

Same company guys...same company...nothing has changed...you want to believe it has, but if you crap in one hand and wish in the other...

As it stands I think I will throw my lot in fully with the majority, maybe for the first time in my life, and designate 3.x in all its many guises as my 'go to' for play and design. I have truly enjoyed getting to know fans of that ragged beast and have never ceased to be amazed at what all it is capable of. It may be the closest thing to a true Universal system that I have every enjoyed (sorry Steve, GURPS just doesn't do it).

Oh well, I'm grateful for all the good games, rpg and boardgame, that we have...at least old Howard P. can still get me started. :)

For those who stick it out your company is greatly appreciated and I hope to post a bit more upbeat soon. Good things are all around. I just need to get about 20 things off my back right now.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

This might explain some of our Blogger problems

https://www.google.com/policies/#utm_source=googlehp&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=en-us-hpp_pp

And I would look over those new Privacy Policies and TOS...not so certain I want them any further in my business...

Monday, January 23, 2012

Crossroads

The year isn't even a month old yet and already chaos seems to haven taken root. Screw the Mayans, we'll burn this puppy ourselves.

Something that a lot of people don't know about me is that my background is sales and marketing. My first business was a game store that not only went belly up but belly flopped so as to create a massive wave of debt that I paid off by way of a crappy job afterwards.

Now, I was young and inexperienced but not without council and guidance. This was the mid-'80s, just when the gaming industry took over. This was when my problem began.

Satanic panic had set in and the economy was crap. Instead of pulling for the retailers who were the backbone of the business at that time and standing up for the company TSR basically fed us to the lions.

So my problem began long before Wizards was even dreamed of.

But I know BS when I smell it.

I do not like the company. I do not trust the company. I can tell you the next 10 moves to make to break Paizo's back and destroy the OSR in one fell swoop. And it seems the OSR is already falling for it.

Somehow people have confused the OSR with D&D. Whatever those initials stand for D&D is not part of the OSR. For all practical purposes the OSR began with OSRIC. OSR is about NOW. Otherwise you are talking about 'classic' or 'retro' gaming. Big difference.

The division that WotC keeps causing with each new announcement will continue. Then everyone will go out and buy their crap again infusing enough money into the dept. to keep it running.

Anyone in their right mind can read what is being said about 5e and know that it is impossible. Come on, just look at one example-skills and feats - just this alone divides more fans than just about anything.

Without them you lose the new school player and with them you lose the old school player.

Old schoolers want to role-play. New schoolers want to build a tank and drive it through a dungeon.

This list could go on but I just wish people could see what is going on just as it has in the past and just say no this time. It might be different if we didn't have the vibrant scene that is gaming in some cases 24 hours a day, but we have what we need. And if we don't by tomorrow morning someone will have wrote it.

My own project sits at a crossroads. I am very frugal with resources but finding myself short of labor and behind schedule has placed me in the position of having to decide whether I proceed further. I know there must be others who are in the same corner and the folks who have made this a going concern have to have a case of nerves as well.

Top that with a rapidly changing tech situation (that I think has taken out Eternal Keep, but I'm still hoping) that is causing nightmares for everyone involved and I don't see there being an OSR at the end of the year.

Which is what they want. The re-print will give them the cash boost to get through (do you really think they aren't going to be holding back cases of DMGs to auction on eBay after the LTD ED runs out? $150 a pop most likely) and then the initial sales and reviews will drive the final nail in the coffin.

I notice how no one has mentioned how this game has already been in secret play tests and everyone I have read about in those play tests are 4e people. And they like it. Which means old schoolers will not.

The news on the Eternal Keep isn't good. Being unable to save the changes to the blog list means it slowly falls into decay as blogs fade away and no new ones get entered. Not to mention the amount of work involved in trying to save it just to possibly have the same tech problem again.

Yes, my position on this is extreme. I have a background in the business end of it and it didn't go well. Now, once again, I have put 3 years into development just to wake up to a lukewarm market that spent all of it's party money on that pretty dress in the window and then never got to go to the ball.

The future is unclear and I don't plan on spending this year working 20 hour days on something that there, in all likelihood, won't be a market for when it's ready.

But the real dilemma is in supporting the community. The Eternal Keep is not the only other blog I maintain. And I don't ask for money and I don't even run ads. I have done it to repay a community that has helped me as I found my way back into something I thought I would never see again. I was having a great time, tech problems and all, until I watched everyone start running after WotC like a dog after a fresh bone. That was disturbing.

If you want to get pissed at me I suppose you can. You have a right to your opinion.

But then so do I and I choose not to be a party to it.

When Alexis at Tao of D&D starts making more sense about this than anyone else I get a little freaked out.


I'm not saying everyone has went down that road. But over 75% of what I have read support WotC in these endeavors to one degree or another.

I just hope everyone thinks this through. If you really think this supports the OSR then I would ask that you spend $2 with OSR publishers for every $1 you spend on the reprints. THAT would be good for the OSR.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

UPDATE

So it would seem that Google/Blogger are up to their tricks again. As bad as I hate Wordpress I am about 3 seconds from pulling the plug on this whole show. My Gmail is screwed up, I can't edit any blog and the Eternal Keep is set to private while I try to figure out what is going on (it won't let me edit the blog feed list and save it so I can neither add nor subtract blogs-and yes, I have upgraded everything - including software I didn't want to upgrade - and it still hangs on the 'save' function.

So I guess everything goes on hiatus till I finish house projects up. I expected a slowdown, I didn't expect for it to go to hell all at once.

More when I know something...

Friday, January 20, 2012

OK...AN END TO FREE PUBLICITY

So it would seem the world has went Wizards crazy over the last few weeks and I am personally tired of looking at their f****** name EVERY TIME I look at the Eternal Keep.

I became involved in the OSR because it seemed to be a home for people who were trying to carry on the spirit of gaming from it's origins.

But the last few weeks have really made me question what this is all about. I have promoted, freely and without charge, the work of those involved in the OSR in many ways and places. I have spent a great deal of personal time maintaining and adding those who have come along over the last year to my blogs and in my posts.

But now it just seems like I have been sitting in a lobby full of people just waiting for Wizards to hack up a fresh hairball.

What happened to the 'old school'? What happened to common sense?

This whole reprint issue is insane. Buy a damned DMG off Amazon for $10-15 and send a donation to the Gary fund.

As for myself this is where the Wizards train ends.

At this point I am a supporter of Pathfinder and will begin to adjust things to highlight a company that encourages me to develop and even sell material for the new Beginners Box.

Microlite is what brought me back and 3.x/OGL/OGC is really the only reason I'm in the RPG side at all.

It has been an interesting ride, but so many people have left the blog community this last year and now it seems that all I'm going to hear until GenCon 2013 is WotC WotC WotC then I think I need to rethink what I'm doing here.

Expect changes and as always may all your rolls be 20's...

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

STOP SOPA-STOP CORPORATE CENSORSHIP-PRESERVE FREE SPEECH

Today the internet speaks out against corporate and government censorship.

Do not be fooled by the rhetoric of these corporate and political groups. They are not trying to stop piracy. They are trying to stop people who speak out against oppression and upload video showing both international and domestic acts of violence against unarmed civilian populations who have no other voice than the internet.

They seek to stop the rise of freedom provided by the internet to produce our own music and films, books and games. They want to set the clock back to when an artist had to sell the fruits of their labors outright and seek copyright extensions to maintain control of this material long after the artist had left this world.

We all have family members who died to stop the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 20th century.

Now it's our turn to stop Fascism in the 21st century.

Let your voice be heard and be united this day and may those who go that extra yard to protect us from tyranny be free from harm and find shelter from retribution for their actions.

Rise.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

OK Guys...Enough With The 5e

No, seriously...it is doing just exactly what the press release was designed to do...distract us...I'm sick of looking at post after post about f****** 5e on OSR blogs.

I understand mentioning it once...or every 6 months...maybe...but every damned DAY.

Come on...remember...real D&D...remember...old school...not more WotC BS...

(/rant)

Friday, January 13, 2012

DAMN THEE 5E

So, let me see if I understand every thing clearly and please correct me if I miss something here.

Wasbro release D&D 3.0 and piss everybody off but people buy it anyhow.

Then they turn around in short order and release 3.5 and piss everybody off but people buy it anyhow.

Then they abandon everyone in mid-stride, produce a series of marketing strategies that start the biggest edition war in history, because as portrayed in the commercials (which can be viewed at YouTube)everything before 4e is 'broken, stupid and silly', creating a small but rabid fanbase that hate every thing that came before 4e and then hate 4e when they release 4.5 (sorry, not buying the name thing...it's 4.5). Released and bought...again.

Now it's 'can't we all just get along' time because they screwed up so bad (Hint-in business NEVER piss off your long term customer) and here we go again.

They pull the Monte/5e announcement at GenCon (it was already all over the floor that at 9:30 (Saturday?) morning they were going to announce) and the big announcement is pulled because somebody realizes they are about to shoot them self in the foot by having stacks of books they will never sell. So they wait till after Christmas, BS'ing the whole time about the 'bright 4e future' while they are play testing with a group of yes-people (haven't found an old schooler yet invited to the NDA fests) and, because they aren't moving jack squat in the way of product, decide to throw a monkey wrench into the whole affair by announcing a game nearly 2 years early that, if the general gaming public is lucky, will get to pick the color of the new logo for their 'involvement' in the design of the game.

Seriously...I'm reading reactions across the web...PLEASE tell me you not going to fall for this crap...again. PLEASE.

I'm going to ask a favor from the gaming community over the months ahead. Instead of going through this whole thing again buy a system from someone who cares. Buy mine, buy any other system. Hell, buy Pathfinder...the box set is an excellent piece of gaming gear and I haven't said that about a commercial system in a long time. Support the work of those out here who will lose business because they have tossed the pie in the sky again and now everyone is waiting...for whatever they come up with this time to hang the D&D logo on.

There is one thing that must be accepted. This is not a hippy love fest. They created a splinter market that they should have stuck with and worked with the gamers who were buying the game and paying for the online services. But they just weren't moving enough units...not driving enough people into stores to buy their game. There is no way they are going to get the 4e fans and the fans of the older editions to all come back...not even half...which just sounds like more of the same old spiel.

There are a lot of really talented people out here doing excellent work. From those who toil over their pet projects and give them away for free to those who have made it a going concern. Look at the releases over the past year and the quality of the product.Don't be fooled by yet another corporate ploy that is all smoke and mirrors.

Just think about it. That's all I'm saying.

Thanks for taking time to read this. I won't speak of it further here.

20's

Monday, January 9, 2012

Let's tell them what we reeaaaly want...STOP!

DON'T MAKE ANOTHER DUNGEONS & DRAGONS EDITION.

This is something I commented on the other day but will be going into detail more now that the moment has arrived.

BOYCOTT D&D UNTIL WOTC/HASBRO RELEASE THE FRANCHISE.

Many things have been discussed out here including the community buying the franchise out right. That may sound impossible, but we have to get off the roller coaster at some point.

I've already started the year by boycotting any further product they produce for the franchise and will soon start a campaign to also boycott FLGS that sell it. Paizo has said they would like a greater store presence but with WotC's draconian tactics (look at the riff from Dungeon's Mastering and their run in with WotC over when Encounters should be ran in-store...really...threaten the store owners with pulling their programs if they don't do what WotC tells them to do? Really? )you can understand why that might have been a problem up until now.

There will be a lot of discussion about this I'm certain but the last thing D&D needs now is another splintering and that is what they will get.

They said it...let your voice be heard...vote NO to D&D5e.