Why Plagiarism is a problem

So I wasn't going to go on (and on) about this, but I had a number things happen this morning that made me rethink it.  For starters I read this posting in my feed today about how plagiarism is a huge issue in the novel writing business.
http://authortammydenningsmaggy.com/2013/06/28/authors-stealing-from-authors-who-can-you-trust/

Then there was an unrelated Facebook posting about reporting plagiarism and piracy when you see it (I am not at liberty to link that though).

And this one has been sitting in my drafts now for a bit.
http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2013/01/plagiarism-in-ya-community-my-own.html

Then to top it all off I got a renewal notice today at work that my subscription to Turnitin was updated.

One thing we should do though is talk about what plagiarism is and what it means to the gaming community.
Look, there is no why to gloss this over, plagiarism is theft. It is the theft of ideas, or expressions or words and it still theft even if you can't touch it or feel it. It is intellectually dishonest and frankly arrogant.  
Turnitin actually has a nice infographic on the various types of plagiarism and how prominent they are in academics (the data they have).   http://www.turnitin.com/assets/en_us/media/plagiarism_spectrum.php.

The types of abuse we see most often are of the CTRL-C and Mashup variety (and I can think of a few cases of the 404 Error type).

We have had our share in the RPG world of late. So for the Tracey Alley types she used something and then tried to pass it off as her own.  If you are smart you there two things going on here. There is the willful use of someone else's ideas AND the arrogant presumption that it was ok to do so because no one was watching.   Somewhere below that is the Mykal Lakim types that try to pass of someone else's work as their own and then stubbornly and arrogantly defends their rights to do so. Where you might argue that in the first case she "forgot" (which I don't buy) where the map and names came from, in the second there is art and text lifted right out of other peoples work.  The Jim Shipmans of the world might be the worse, taking the material from multitudes of others and passing it off not only as his own, but selling it as his own against the repeated requests of the IP owners.

Now bringing these to light is never a good thing really. It causes animosity and even ends up putting money in the pockets of the people selling stolen goods.  Hell I have to admit I have wanted to shell out the bucks for a copy of Lakim's Vampire book just to see how bad it really is.  But I am loathe to give him any money.

The accusations of being an "internet bully" also come up.  To that I say, what else do we have? Getting the word out is the only recourse a fan has. If the above linked authors (and more I know personally) are to be believed they are very appreciative of the negative attention thrown on the thief.   Plus I have purchased books from authors and game designers because their material had been stolen as a show of support.  I have this blog and a little bit of cash to throw at the problem.

But people around here will say, but what about the OSR? Haven't they based their entire existence on plagiarism of one level or another? Well I do believe in Intellectual Property (and Intellectual Capital) but I also believe in community.  The OSR as a whole is a community using a set rules release specifically for the purposes of sharing and publishing your own materials based on it. This isn't a contradiction. Now I do feel that some products out there are a little too close to the source material. I also feel we simply do not need another retroclone to play the exact same game we have been playing for years.  But I also know market realities.  I could have released my Witch book for example using a proprietary game system and my sales would have been about 5% of what they were.  The OGL does the heavy lifting it also brings in an audience.

Sometimes I feel this is often more Quixotic than some of my other crusades or activism. And I am atheist that grew up in the bible belt, so you would think I'd know a hopeless cause when I see one.

I don't know. What are your thoughts?
Do I have a point or should I just go back to my windmills?

Review: Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts

Finally picked up Dyson's Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts.

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts (MT&DP) is an Old-school reference for all things Magic-user.
The book is designed with what I call "Basic Era" in mind, so the rules from right around 1979-1981 where "elf" is a class, not just a race. Overtly it is designed for Labyrinth Lord.  That being said it is still compatible in spirit to 99% of all the OSR and books from that time.

The book itself is 6"x9", black and white interior and 161 pages.  So for a "Class" book there is a lot here.  There are 5 Chapters covering Classes, Spells, Magic Items, Monsters and a section on using this book with the "Advanced Era" books (and their clones), along with an Introduction and OGL page.

The introduction covers the basics.  What this books, what it is for and it's very, very open OGL declaration.

Chapter 1 is the heart of this book really.  It details 13 Magic using classes. The two two core classes, Cleric and Magic-User (Wizard) and 11 new classes.
From the product page:

• Cleric (warrior-priests)
• Wizard (classic magic-users with 10 levels of spells)
• Elven Swordmage (elves from the core rules – arcane warriors)
• Elven Warder (wilderness elves, guardians of their kin)
• Enchanter (artists, con-men, and masters of… duh… enchantments)
• Fleshcrafter (twisted magic-users that work with flesh)
• Healer (compassionate and tough hearth-healers)
• Inquisitor (ecclesiastic investigators and master intimidators)
• Merchant Prince (elite merchants with spellcasting support)
• Necromancer (you know exactly what these guys do)
• Pact-Bound (magic-users who sell their souls for power)
• Theurge (divine casters who learn from liturgical texts)
• Unseen (thieves with an innate knack for magic)

Clerics are as you know them, but Magic-Users are now Wizards (since everyone here is a magic user) and they get 10 levels of spells.  The "Elven" classes replace the "Elf" class in the book.  The others are as they are described, but there is more (much more) to them than re-skinned Magic-Users (not that there is anything wrong with wrong that).  The classes are re-cast with many new spells, some powers (but nothing out of whack with Basic Era) and often different hit-dice and altered saving throws.
Nearly a third of the book is made up in these new classes.

Chapter 2 covers all the spells.  Spells are listed alphabetically with class and level for each spell noted (like newer 3.x Era products).   There are a lot of spells here too.  Many have been seen in other products, but some are new. In any case they are a welcome addition.
This section makes up slight more than a third of the book.

The last three chapters take up the last third or so of the book.
Chapter 3 covers Magic items. There are 28 new magic items with these spellcasters in mind.
Chapter 4 covers some magical creatures.  These are monsters listed in many of the new spells for summoning.  There are not a lot, but needed.
Chapter 5 is the Advanced Edition conversion materials. It covers HD changes, racial limits and multi-class options.

So what are my thoughts.  Well you get a lot of material in 160+ pages to be honest.  At 10 bucks it is a good price.  For me it is worth it for the classes.  Sure we have seen variations of these over the years, but it is here all in one place and they all work well together.  The spells are good.  At first I balked at 10th level spells, but really they are for the most part other people's 9th level spells, so they work for me.

The magic items are nice, but for me the value is in the classes and the spells.

Who should buy this?  If you play old-school games and enjoy playing different sorts of Magic-Users then this is a must have book.  If you are looking to expand your class offerings or even add a few new spells then  this is also a good choice. Personally I think it is a great book and I am glad I picked it up.

Does it Play Nice with The Witch?
Honestly I debated doing this section since it is tacky really to use a review to pimp your own product.  But in this case I decided to do it for the simple reason that people who liked my book will find things to like in this book as well.  MT&DP works great with the Witch.  The obvious and easy cross-over are the spells.  Spells from one book can be used EASILY with the other.   So easy I would consider even putting up a list of the Witch book spells with the spell levels of the various classes.
There is some of that now for the Wizard and the Cleric, but the rest of the classes too.  In terms of classes the Pact Bound is closest in theme to the witch, so what is true for one is true for the other.
In fact you could take the Pact Bound and turn it into a Witch Tradition, say the Pact Bound Tradition.   The Pact Bound's "Twisted Gift" becomes the The Witch's "Occult Power".

I like that Dyson did more or less the same thing with the Wizard that I did in my book.  No surprises at all, it seems like the logical progression.

So I will say this. If you liked and use my book in your games, then this is a great book to have.  There is a enough overlap to make them complementary but not so much that you think you are buying the same materials twice.

Of course if you are reading this because you own MT&DP and don't yet have the Witch, then it would be a 5 bucks well spent!

White Dwarf Wed...ah damn!

I forgot today is Wednesday.  I have been rushing around all day thinking it was Thursday.
My next term starts on Monday and I still have three more tests to write.

Maybe later tonight.

Cheeses from Around the World

Over at Rather Gamey Ark has collected a list of over 300 art, rpg, old-school and geekery blogs.

http://rathergamey.blogspot.com/2013/06/breathing-blogs.html

Stop by and see his impressive list!

Magic for Savage Worlds

Hey all!

What do you  all say is the best magic supplement, or supplement that features as lot of magic, for Savage Worlds?

I am doing some research and not quite sure where to start yet.

Review: Crypts & Things

Crypts & Things is one of those games that has been sitting in my "to be read" pile forever.  It is an Old School game built off of Swords & Wizardry.  Some of the material is familiar to anyone that has played S&W or any of the various D&D/Retro-clone games.  Where C&T differs is in scope (what the characters can eventually do vs what the creatures can already do) and tone.  C&T is very much "Conan vs. The Horrors".  It tries to go after the same ethos as say Dungeon Crawl Classics or Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  I think though it succeeds where those two games fail with me because it still assumes that the characters, rough cut as they are, are still something of a hero.

The game begins with the same basic info on Abilities found in all old-school games.  We get to classes.  Here there are some changes.  The Barbarian is a core class for example.  The Magic-User and Cleric are now rolled into a Magician, which is not a bad change really.  They are stronger than their OSR counterparts (d6 HD vs the more common d4).  The Magician also can channel White, Grey or black magic; so effectively 3 classes. The other classes are Fighter and Thief.  If you don't like Clerics (as a seperate class), well this is your game.

Hit points are also handled differently in C&T. It is less health and more a measure of health, will, and determination to live. Honestly it is the same as a house rule I used to use back in the day.

There is a completely old-school Random Life Events table (which, like most everything in this book, can be used with other games).There are a few pages on equipment, on styles of play and about 20 pages of spells.
Additionally there is a minimalist Sanity mechanic that I thinks works rather well.  I am a huge critic of sanity mechanics in RPGs and I feel that most never get it right, especially in a heroics-based rpg.  While there is a lot of room for interpretation in these rules, the gist of the rules are good.  I can certainly say I don't hate this mechanic.

The rest of the book (about 3/5 ths) is devoted to the game master or Crypt Keeper. This includes a little bit about the assumed game world, a pastiche of Howard, Lovecraft, Smith, Moorcock and other Appendix N luminaries.  Normally I scoff at this, but here it works rather well.  More to point it can also be ignored or added as needed since it doesn't take up a lot of space.
Next we have Treasure. Like many games of this sort there is not a lot of magic items.  Indeed there are only 20 total; designed to be rare and special.
After that is the monster listings.  This is what really sets this game above and beyond it's peers.  There are plenty of monsters here both new and old.  There is also a monster creation section.
We end the main book with a sample adventure.
13 Appendices follow that would work for any game and finally a great looking character sheet.

What is Crypts & Things good for?
It is a great addition to any S&W game for starters.  Get it for the monsters alone, or the revised Magician or Barbarian.  There is something here new for you.
It is a great addition to any OSR game for a grittier, "us against the darkness" sort of game.
In terms of horror, it is the subtle creeping horror.  It is somewhere between Ravenloft (minus the camp and cliches) and Call of Cthulhu.  Though unlike those games which has the implication of "looking for trouble" in C&T trouble comes for you.

Honestly almost everything you need to know about C&T is on that cover.  A magician and barbarian fighting snake-like lizard men.

Imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery but ...

Not when you are imitating me on Wikipedia.
But it is funny.

So I was looking up some Scooby Doo episodes (I have kids, I am allowed) and I discovered that much of the "information" on the Hex Girls actually came from my blog here.

 I'd go in and change it, but frankly I am too busy and find I don't honestly care.   In truth I find it a bit amusing and I am kind of curious to see if anyone else catches it.

Thorn is as confused as I am.

Yeah, yeah I am obsessed with a band that doesn't exist and are secondary characters in a cartoon.

Well at least these guys get me. ;)