Hey all!
First off, been out of the loop a bit. Was on vacation all week. Great time.
Here are some random updates.
1. Dwimmermount. Looks like it is getting published afterall. This is a good thing and I give Tavis and Autarch kudos for pulling this one out of the abyss. Looks like James though has shut down shop over on his G+ plage. https://profiles.google.com/jmalisze/about. No idea yet what that might mean for Grognardia.
2. Swords & Wizardry. Tenkar is hosting a Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/03/the-s-w-appreciation-day-line-up-hits.html
It is set for April 17. That is also "O" day.
3. A to Z blogfest. Tomorrow starts the A to Z blogfest. I am so not ready for it! I am doing Demons and know what I am going to post each day, just nothing is written yet.
4. Petty Gods is also back from the dead thanks to Greg Gorgonmilk. He has really taken the ball and ran with this one! http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/
5. Witch Awareness Month. I am going to participate in this one as well. Just not sure what I am going to do yet. http://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/
6. Majus draft available now. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1895361773/majus-a-magic-noir-pacesetter-game Doesn't matter that the KS is not done yet or even how much you put into it. Get your draft now.
You all probably know all of these anyway.
Anyway great to be back.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Damn You Goblinoid Games!!
Dear Goblinnoid Games.
Please stop making games I want to buy. I am going broke.
Between buying copies of Labyrinth Lord from people I am trying to get into Old School Gaming and you picking up the old Pacesetter games you have gone and done this to me:
Majus Kickstarter
And it is compatible with Rotworld, Time Master and other Pacesetter games **coughChillcough**
My wife is tired of seeing "Kickstarter" on the credit card bill too.
Looks like I am going to have to buy this one anyway! ;)
Speaking of Kickstarters, have you seen the one for Veronica Mars?
I never watched the show when it was on and I feel I missed out on something. But anyway they want to make a movie sequel to the show and took to Kickstarter to do it. The results were 100% funding in a few hours and it continues to climb. Check it out.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project
Between buying copies of Labyrinth Lord from people I am trying to get into Old School Gaming and you picking up the old Pacesetter games you have gone and done this to me:
Majus Kickstarter
And it is compatible with Rotworld, Time Master and other Pacesetter games **coughChillcough**
My wife is tired of seeing "Kickstarter" on the credit card bill too.
Looks like I am going to have to buy this one anyway! ;)
Speaking of Kickstarters, have you seen the one for Veronica Mars?
I never watched the show when it was on and I feel I missed out on something. But anyway they want to make a movie sequel to the show and took to Kickstarter to do it. The results were 100% funding in a few hours and it continues to climb. Check it out.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project
Thursday, March 28, 2013
TBBYANR: RPG blogs
A couple of RPG focused blogs today!
Cross Planes
"Or how I learned to stop worrying and love D&D"
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/
I gotta admit I love the alt-title. It is something I have said in the past myself in connection with getting out of the Edition War mindset. Cross Planes/Mark Craddock is also very much a non-participant in the Edition Wars. He talks about D&D Next (and he was the first place where I found out the new packet was out). He is also into Dragon Age and I'll admit that reading over his site today has made we want to check out the RPG or computer game again. So much so I did this even:
What Dragon Age: Origins Character Are You?
Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime
Well was there ever a doubt?
He also did a couple of witch builds for D&D Next a Maiden and Mother. Don't know if he did a Crone at all. What I like about this blog is Mark covers a lot of topics and games. Single purpose blogs are great, and if I want to do a deep dive into a system that is what I need. But I also enjoy the daily reading of the general purpose blog (like this one and my own) to get a variety of topics. Plus he playing his games with his two daughters, how awesome is that?
Silver Divinity
http://silverdivinityrpg.blogspot.com/
I actually found this one from my Monstrous Monday Blogfest a while back and again on the Blog Blitz. One of my favorite monsters from the MM Blogfest was his Zombie Cow.
The author of this blog, John, is working on a game project "Silver Divinity" and the blog is his proving ground/sounding board/beta tester.
So far the game itself sounds very cool. It feels like a Steampunk meets Spelljammer sort of thing if I am reading it all right. If so then that is cool. The stats for the races look like d20/OGL so that makes that easier to understand. The blog is only 7 months old and he is still posting ideas to flesh out. So I expect to see some more interesting things in the future.
In the meantime stop on by and see what he has done so far.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
Cross Planes
"Or how I learned to stop worrying and love D&D"
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/
I gotta admit I love the alt-title. It is something I have said in the past myself in connection with getting out of the Edition War mindset. Cross Planes/Mark Craddock is also very much a non-participant in the Edition Wars. He talks about D&D Next (and he was the first place where I found out the new packet was out). He is also into Dragon Age and I'll admit that reading over his site today has made we want to check out the RPG or computer game again. So much so I did this even:
What Dragon Age: Origins Character Are You?Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime
Well was there ever a doubt?
He also did a couple of witch builds for D&D Next a Maiden and Mother. Don't know if he did a Crone at all. What I like about this blog is Mark covers a lot of topics and games. Single purpose blogs are great, and if I want to do a deep dive into a system that is what I need. But I also enjoy the daily reading of the general purpose blog (like this one and my own) to get a variety of topics. Plus he playing his games with his two daughters, how awesome is that?
Silver Divinity
http://silverdivinityrpg.blogspot.com/
I actually found this one from my Monstrous Monday Blogfest a while back and again on the Blog Blitz. One of my favorite monsters from the MM Blogfest was his Zombie Cow.
The author of this blog, John, is working on a game project "Silver Divinity" and the blog is his proving ground/sounding board/beta tester.
So far the game itself sounds very cool. It feels like a Steampunk meets Spelljammer sort of thing if I am reading it all right. If so then that is cool. The stats for the races look like d20/OGL so that makes that easier to understand. The blog is only 7 months old and he is still posting ideas to flesh out. So I expect to see some more interesting things in the future.
In the meantime stop on by and see what he has done so far.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Blogging Contract
Blogging is not writing. Not really. Sure there are a lot of similarities but there are plenty of subtle differences.
When writing an RPG book I have an audience in mind. That is a nebulous audience that I may or may not interact with. I don't know who bought every copy of The Witch or Ghosts of Albion or Buffy.
I do have the chance to get to know each and every reader here via the comments section. I post, you comment, I reply. There is a social contact at work here.. You are not expected to reply, but I write my posts hoping that people will.
Implicit in that is one of control. I try to keep my posts interesting to my known audience. This is one of the reasons I have different blogs. I control what I post. You control what you reply with, but ...I also control your reply. See I can delete any reply I don't like. But I don't. There are few good reasons for that.
I don't because it is dishonest. Having people disagree with me is a great way for me to learn something new. I have lost track of all the things I have looked into because some one said "no. you are wrong."
I don't because it violates the social contract we have. You put yourself out there, those were your thoughts. I may not agree with it, but that doesn't give me the right to shut it down.
I also don't, and lets be honest here, controversy and conflict means more hits, more audience and hopefully more people reading my stuff. Not fake controversy, people can see that a mile away, but real and honest.
A natural extension of that is I will also not delete old posts. I don't see the point. You may want to go back a read something I posted in 2010. Great! I will leave it there. Even if it something I don't agree with, like or otherwise grok anymore.
I have been seeing too many cases of people taking down posts, editing posts to put themselves in better light. Sorry folks, between Archive.org and Google cache people can find anything that was posted given time, so don't try to change history.
I'll remove a post of your own if you ask me to. I'll delete multiple posts if looks like you were fixing a typo or something. I'll delete spam.
That's my contract with you.
Your contract with me is not post anything to make be doubt this choice! ;)
When writing an RPG book I have an audience in mind. That is a nebulous audience that I may or may not interact with. I don't know who bought every copy of The Witch or Ghosts of Albion or Buffy.
I do have the chance to get to know each and every reader here via the comments section. I post, you comment, I reply. There is a social contact at work here.. You are not expected to reply, but I write my posts hoping that people will.
Implicit in that is one of control. I try to keep my posts interesting to my known audience. This is one of the reasons I have different blogs. I control what I post. You control what you reply with, but ...I also control your reply. See I can delete any reply I don't like. But I don't. There are few good reasons for that.
I don't because it is dishonest. Having people disagree with me is a great way for me to learn something new. I have lost track of all the things I have looked into because some one said "no. you are wrong."
I don't because it violates the social contract we have. You put yourself out there, those were your thoughts. I may not agree with it, but that doesn't give me the right to shut it down.
I also don't, and lets be honest here, controversy and conflict means more hits, more audience and hopefully more people reading my stuff. Not fake controversy, people can see that a mile away, but real and honest.
A natural extension of that is I will also not delete old posts. I don't see the point. You may want to go back a read something I posted in 2010. Great! I will leave it there. Even if it something I don't agree with, like or otherwise grok anymore.
I have been seeing too many cases of people taking down posts, editing posts to put themselves in better light. Sorry folks, between Archive.org and Google cache people can find anything that was posted given time, so don't try to change history.
I'll remove a post of your own if you ask me to. I'll delete multiple posts if looks like you were fixing a typo or something. I'll delete spam.
That's my contract with you.
Your contract with me is not post anything to make be doubt this choice! ;)
White Dwarf Wednesday #58
Ian Livingstone talks about how RuneQuest once again beat out AD&D for Best RPG at Games Day. Under the new deal with Avon Hill RuneQuest will now cost £40 up from £30! Which is today's money is about $15 extra ($45 to $60), no idea what the value of that was in 1984 England, but I am sure it was a lot.
A couple of pages on traps. After a DM with a couple of volumes of Grimtooth's traps I got used to checking for traps as I walked more or less. So today traps don't interest me much.
Open Box has some interesting games. Lands of Adventure is first. I have never heard of it and Richard Clyne only gives it a 5/10. Though up next is the classic Middle Earth Roleplaying from ICE. They were such attractive books and I really lament not getting the game when it was new. MERP gets 9/10 and Bree and the Barrow Downs (which I wanted FOREVER) gets a 7/10 from Jon Sutherland. One day I need to spend some quality time with MERP. The Q Manual for James Bond gets a 9/10. Also an old favorite is the FASA Star Trek. Russel Clark loves it and gives it a 9/10.
Part 3 of the Ninja article is next. It deals with martial arts and the quasi-mystical ninja powers. I have seen better treatments but I have seen worse too.
Graeme Davis is next with an article I remember well when I got a copy of this back in college. Beyond the Final Frontier deals with death in the games and how it might not be the last go. The death myths of different cultures are presented it is a cool read.
Some significant typing is needed for the next article if you want to use the BASIC program to Grow Your Own Planets. This is the first time I have seen program designed specifically for the IBM PC using MS Basic (as opposed to Z80 Basic) in WD.
Some ads. We come up next to a supers adventure for Golden Heroes and Champions. Looks fun and simple enough. I bet it would work fine for Icons, BASH! or M&M.
Not to be forgotten we have an AD&D mini adventure too with a couple of new monsters to boot.
Credit is detailed in Traveller.
"Colour" is the theme in Tabletop Heroes for mini painting.
RuneRites has a couple of really short scenarios. should work with about any game.
Treasure Chest details some old spells and gives them new twists.
Letters concerns itself with questions on what purpose does Tabletop Heroes serve. Oh just you wait!
News details the new games coming up and licenses seem to rule the day; Indiana Jones, Star Trek, 2010, Conan, Star Fleet Battles and so on.
At this point White Dwarf is up to 56 pages and still 85p. Most of the new space is used by ads though.
Serviceable issue, made better by the use of the fine cover art.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
TBBYANR: Author Friends
The next two blogs belong to two people I consider friends. Both were huge help to me when I was working on Ghosts of Albion.
Bobert the Hoosier expatriate
http://bbovenguy.livejournal.com/
Robert Black is someone I have known for more than 10 years. We were both deeply involved involved in Willow & Tara fandom over at the Kitten Board. It was in my discussions with him that helped me formulate a lot of the ideas I had for the Dragon and the Phoenix and Season of the Witch. Bob also came up with the original idea for the Sisters of Paradox. Tara's father Robert in Season of the Witch is named after him. So I owe the guy a debt of gratitude for all the work we did back on the Kitten.
Bob is a YA author. Something he learned well as a writer on the classic "You Can't Do That on Television" back on Nick. He is the only writer of that show to have dumped green slime on Alanis Morissette.
Dave Chapman's Autocratik
http://autocratik.blogspot.com/
Dave Chapman was working on Conspiracy X 2.0 the same time I was working on Ghosts of Albion. I used to comment that only Eden hires a guy from Chicago to write a game about Victorian England and an Brit to write an American Conspiracy game. We helped each other out a lot and then he had come in and do some playtests on Doctor Who.
Dave talks about a number of topics, but mostly related to games he likes.
I say pop on over and check them both out. If you like what you read there pick up one of their books and tell them I sent you.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
Bobert the Hoosier expatriate
http://bbovenguy.livejournal.com/
Robert Black is someone I have known for more than 10 years. We were both deeply involved involved in Willow & Tara fandom over at the Kitten Board. It was in my discussions with him that helped me formulate a lot of the ideas I had for the Dragon and the Phoenix and Season of the Witch. Bob also came up with the original idea for the Sisters of Paradox. Tara's father Robert in Season of the Witch is named after him. So I owe the guy a debt of gratitude for all the work we did back on the Kitten.
Bob is a YA author. Something he learned well as a writer on the classic "You Can't Do That on Television" back on Nick. He is the only writer of that show to have dumped green slime on Alanis Morissette.
Dave Chapman's Autocratik
http://autocratik.blogspot.com/
Dave Chapman was working on Conspiracy X 2.0 the same time I was working on Ghosts of Albion. I used to comment that only Eden hires a guy from Chicago to write a game about Victorian England and an Brit to write an American Conspiracy game. We helped each other out a lot and then he had come in and do some playtests on Doctor Who.
Dave talks about a number of topics, but mostly related to games he likes.
I say pop on over and check them both out. If you like what you read there pick up one of their books and tell them I sent you.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
Monday, March 25, 2013
TBBYANR: Aggregate Cognizance
You might recall some posts I have made about the horrible vampire game by Mykal Lakim.
Well a lot of what I know about it all I owe to Wil Hutton and his blog Aggregate Cognizance.
Well he is known for a lot more than being a constant thorn in Paul Cape's side. He has some cool stuff on his site too. So that makes Aggregate Cognizance today's Best Blog You are Not Reading.
Aggregate Cognizance
http://rivetgeek.blogspot.com
Obviously there is the whole Dark Phoenix Publishing/Mykal Lakim/Paul Cape drama to read and I would be lying if I said I didn't find it all fascinating. HE also has quite a bit of FATE going on his site and he is quite the Tribe 8 fan as well.
I have to admit that his Search Alphabet Soup made me run to my own search keywords to see what people were using to get to me that was worthy of sharing.
The writing is clear and honestly I think with some time this could be one of those cool blogs to read that posts on a bunch of topics but has a central core. When I pick up FATE again this summer I am going to make a bee-line to this blog and try somethings out.
So come for the FATE but stay for the vampire. Especially vampires.
If you are into Tribe 8 then he does have another blog dedicated to that, Dreams of Flesh and Spirit.
Tribe 8 was always one of those games I wanted to try, but never did. Of course given my juvenile brain I always think of tribade and might not get out of one session without pissing off someone.
Anyway. Go over to his blog(s). It's good stuff.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
Well a lot of what I know about it all I owe to Wil Hutton and his blog Aggregate Cognizance.
Well he is known for a lot more than being a constant thorn in Paul Cape's side. He has some cool stuff on his site too. So that makes Aggregate Cognizance today's Best Blog You are Not Reading.
Aggregate Cognizance
http://rivetgeek.blogspot.com
Obviously there is the whole Dark Phoenix Publishing/Mykal Lakim/Paul Cape drama to read and I would be lying if I said I didn't find it all fascinating. HE also has quite a bit of FATE going on his site and he is quite the Tribe 8 fan as well.
I have to admit that his Search Alphabet Soup made me run to my own search keywords to see what people were using to get to me that was worthy of sharing.
The writing is clear and honestly I think with some time this could be one of those cool blogs to read that posts on a bunch of topics but has a central core. When I pick up FATE again this summer I am going to make a bee-line to this blog and try somethings out.
So come for the FATE but stay for the vampire. Especially vampires.
If you are into Tribe 8 then he does have another blog dedicated to that, Dreams of Flesh and Spirit.
Tribe 8 was always one of those games I wanted to try, but never did. Of course given my juvenile brain I always think of tribade and might not get out of one session without pissing off someone.
Anyway. Go over to his blog(s). It's good stuff.
This week I am running my irregular feature "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" every day. If you can instead of replying here, go to the blogs I am featuring and reply there. I think the owners would like that.
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