The newest PDF in my foray into RPG publishing is my attempt to scratch the itch that no other tables related to merchants and caravans have done. This volume is Caravans & Trade, PWYW, suggested price $2.00.
I have collected several articles from my site and distilled them down to the most relevant information. This reflects a lot of thought on the topic over several years. Additional information is also included that never appeared on my blog. Further, I have improved the original tables and added many new tables.
You can see the progression of my reflections on the topic. It is more of a things to keep in mind, with a few tables mixed in.
I realized, as I’m nearly ready to post my third PDF on OBS, that I never published an article here on the blog about my second PDF.
I shared my second PDF, Library Generation Tables at the end of September, 2018. This PDF is all new information, never before appearing on the blog. I have tables to help populate a library with various rooms, book storage units, types of books, and their materials. I also have some new magic items and a new dragon, the Tome Dragon. It is $1.00 and has been downloaded over 30 times.
My first PDF, Locks, Vaults, and Hiding Places, is discussed here. I posted it to OBS at the end of August, 2018. It is PWYW, and has been downloaded over 300 times.
I prefer to focus on the positive, and have put all my support behind The Dreams In Gary’s Basement. A movie that exists and now has a Kickstarter for editing. It funded in 12 hours and is now on to stretch goals for extras that are full interviews instead of being chopped up in the documentary.
Keep reading if you want to know more about The Great Kingdom mess.
Investigation
The lawsuit was settled out of court and all court orders lifted as you can see here.
I sent this email on June 30:
From: Larry Hamilton via Kickstarter
Subject: New message about The Great Kingdom
Date: June 30, 2018 at 5:31:35 PM EDT
Will an update be forthcoming? It’s been two months since the case was settled. What does this mean for backers?
I received this reply on July 30:
On Monday, July 30, 2018, 10:36:20 AM EDT, TheMostEpicGame wrote:
hi larry –
thanks for reaching out. we are still working things out with kickstarter to gain access to our kickstarter page in order to make announcements. we’re excited about moving forward, so stay tuned.
andrew pascal
Out of Sight
I was reminded of this whole mess and dug in after I drafted my post announcing the Kickstarter to wrap up The Dream In Gary’s Basement. I sent an email to both the filmmakers and Kickstarter.
I sent this email on October 14:
On Oct 14, 2018, at 6:21 PM, Larry Hamilton wrote:
Andrew, Et. Al,
It is now over two months since your reply. You replied to my email instead of my Kickstarter message so I lost track of it.
I am working on a follow up article on my blog, Follow Me, And Die! and lack of communication is darkening my opinion of the whole thing.
If you can respond to my email from July, perhaps you can respond to this one from October.
I won’t starve over $50, but I’d rather have a movie than my money.
All of us want to know what is going on.
Larry Hamilton
I received a reply two hours later. (An encouraging sign.)
On Sunday, October 14, 2018, 10:35:18 PM EDT, TheMostEpicGame wrote:
hi larry –
we appreciate you reaching out. however, we are still under some tight restrictions, though that should be ending soon [emphasis mine. what is this?] and we will have an announcement on the kickstarter page (we’re hoping by the november). we will let everyone know what the status is and what our plans are to move forward. can’t say too much more than that, but know that we’re excited.
for now, and i know it sounds like a broken record, but thanks for being patient.
andrew
Waiting & Wondering
So there is still some sort of restrictions, that we have no idea what they are. Is it just the Kickstarter process to re-enable a Kickstarter that has been frozen for years? We have no way of knowing without someone in the know making it public.
Frustration
In my frustration over this whole thing, I sent a message to Kickstarter about this before I sent the email to Andrew & company. I must say the Kickstarter method of attempting to contact them is designed to prevent all but the most determined from getting through.
What can you tell me about the status of this Kickstarter?
Is Kickstarter holding onto this money?
Have they released it to the creators?
If Kickstarter has the money, when can we expect to get it back?
If Kickstarter released the money, why is the Kickstarter page still suspended?
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Lawrence M. Hamilton, Jr.
Reply from Kickstarter
I was surprised to have a reply from Kickstarter the next day. From what I have read about others attempting to get answers out of Kickstarter, this was fast.
Kisktarter’s Reply
On Monday, October 15, 2018, 5:59:58 PM EDT, Support <support@kickstarter.com> wrote:
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request has been updated. You can add a comment by replying to this email.
Support (Kickstarter)Oct 15, 5:59 PM EDTHi Larry,
Thanks for reaching out, and for being part of this community. We appreciate your interest, but it’s our policy not to comment on any actions taken by our Integrity team. Apologies for any inconvenience this causes.
If you have any questions about the status of the project, you’ll want to contact the project creator. To do so, make sure you’re logged into your account used to pledge, visit the project page, and click on the creator’s profile image. This will open up their bio page where you can then click the blue “Contact me” button.
Best, Raúl
Still Waiting
I know some things take time, but not being a lawyer, or having any hint of what is going on just adds to frustration. I’m sure they spend a lot of time fielding emails like mine. At some point we’ll have answers and be able to define “soon.”
The Other One
The first documentary to fund on Kickstarter, Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary, is still viewable online. There is no update since 2016. However, the comments are active asking for an update, as they can tell that the creators have logged on. If you look, Andrew Pascal, who signed the email answers to me, has his name in the URL of the first Kickstarter under Westpaw Films. He launched the second film effort, for whatever reason.
The same is true of their Facebook page, no activity since 2016.
Does the silence mean that they are trying to combine their efforts and are working with Kickstarter to merge? I doubt Kickstarter would do that.
More likely they have some sort of agreement when they settled to either pool resources and work together on one film, or one will fold and refund all backers, or one will wait for the other to complete and release their film first. I think the first two options are most likely.
Until they tell us what’s going on, hurry up and wait. . . .
In the meantime, if you want to back a D&D documentary that has a rough cut and is raising funds for final editing and production, see yesterday’s article. NOTE: It hit the funding goal of $25,000 in the first 12 hours and has reached the second stretch goal. As one stretch goal is met, a new one is revealed.
Backers of the Patreon just got a link to the trailer, and it is awesome! Unfortunately, we were asked not to share it, so I can’t let you see it yet. See below, if you want to see it!
Footage will be shown followed by a Q&A at Gamehole Con in a couple of weeks. I’ve been a fan ever since I saw the footage shared at Gary Con 8. Due to football schedules, both Gamehole Con and UCon are often the same weekend. I decided to support UCon, since it is here in Michigan, before news of this announcement. [UCon has a Tekumel track that brings in people worldwide.]
Kickstarter
Pat has decided to launch a Kickstarter to put even more polish on the post production. There is a rough cut, and in a phone call, Pat filled me in a bit. The Kickstarter is focused on getting the film finished and no sidetracking add ons. The team on this has a lot of skill redundancy to help cover any eventuality, so if the primary person for a task can’t follow through, there is someone else on the team with that skill. They have a rough cut and the Kickstarter is to pay for editing and production costs.
This is a film of great passion undertaken by a small crew, with Pat guiding the process. It is here with far less buzz and drama than two planned movies by competing Kickstarters that settled their lawsuit, but have yet to communicate to their backers what is going on. I knew this would be the case, and I told Pat that I would do all I can to promote his film.
I’ve been an enthusiastic backer of his Patreon since it launched. Pat has paused pledges on months there was nothing new to show because he didn’t feel right taking our money. I don’t know about the others, but I told him, to take it anyway. I gladly backed the Kickstarter when it launched, even though he told me I’ve backed the Patreon at a level I’ll get the movie.
[EDIT: It funded in 12 hours and is now on to stretch goals for extras that are full interviews instead of being chopped up in the documentary.]
Images From The Trailer
Title card. Screen capture from trailer for The Dreams In Gary’s Basement. The Gygax home when D&D began. Screen capture from trailer for The Dreams In Gary’s Basement.Elastolin figures and dice. Screen capture from trailer for The Dreams In Gary’s Basement.TSR Sales Graphics. Screen capture from trailer for The Dreams In Gary’s Basement.
Yesterday, it was all over the RPG Twitter feeds of those involved that there will be a new spin on watching others play D&D, DnD Sports[EDIT: Name changed to RPG Sports]. While this might come as a surprise about this new thing, it all ties in with current trends in online RPGs.
Why The Unexpected Should Not Surprise Us
A few months ago, the CEO of Hasbro, parent company of WOTC, the current makers of D&D, mentioned the rise of watching others play D&D online. Most figured it was Magic: The Gathering (MtG) card game that was getting the eSports treatment. Few expected it to be D&D. While D&D appears to have entered this new arena first, MtG will most likely follow soon. The CEO announced more crossovers of ideas, such as settings from MtG to D&D. That happened with the upcoming Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.
Many video games are inspired by D&D and other RPGs, which led to competitive play of video games. This first foray into competitive D&D/RPGs is capitalizing on the abundance of well-watched online shows. It’s under the WOTC/D&D banner, so it is WOTC’s attempt to bring more of the audience who watch others play D&D to watch them do it competitively. [EDIT: DNDBeyond and Encounter Roleplay organized it.] There’s obviously money involved since Critical Role took their show and made a whole business out of it, in L.A. of all places. By that, I mean, California isn’t a cheap place to live, let alone run a business.
Competitive play isn’t new as their have been D&D and other RPG tournament modules, like the much maligned Tomb of Horrors [Affiliate Link], from back in the day. Few, if any, early RPG tournaments were recorded via audio or video, so we may have no record of how those went beyond written accounts. Also, tournament modules had a role playing aspect, and unlike the RPG Sports, was not directly player verses player.
Original RPG tournaments were teams of players going through the same module and competing to complete the core adventure, and as many side tasks as possible in the shortest amount of time, with the fewest character deaths.
A Different Light
RPG Sports is kicking off November 1st and is a combat elimination, basically gladiatorial combat in a dungeon setting. It will use the 5th edition rules and there will be rules of tournament play that have been play tested. According to this article, there will be four teams of four players that will pick from 16 pre-generated characters. The rules for tournament play will be released once play testing is complete.
Encounter Roleplay is a group of players that have been on Twitch for years and have been teamed up with DnDBeyond to make this happen.
Encounter Roleplay was started by DM Will Jones. Fellow DM & player, Sydney Shields is the Community Manager for RPGSports. Fellow player, Mytia Zimmer will be a caster for the first ever tournament on RPGSports.
It will use Roll20 for the Virtual Table Top (VTT). This may explain why the sudden change in Roll20 handing their subReddit over to non-employees to moderate after their customer relations nightmare a few weeks ago.
For more information and the November Schedule of games, see RPG Sports.
My Thoughts
While I find some of these shows entertaining to watch, and have friends who are a big part of it, I can’t watch regularly for a few reasons. First, I don’t get it. I know they’re really playing and having fun, it just isn’t as fun for me to watch, I’d rather play. Second, it’s a huge time sink and I’ve got too many things on my plate already.
However, no matter what you think of watching online play, the huge popularity of it has led to a great lifting of the stigma those in my generation endured. Grognards who don’t like it should keep their grumbling under their breath and be happy that those who love RPGs can make a living at it. While I’m not sure combat is the best way to do this, I haven’t seen the tournament rules as they haven’t been made public yet.
Much of this is a generational thing. And with all hobbies, there are those who would rather watch others have their fun than do it themselves. For many, this is also their gateway into RPGs. Converting more of them to customers is the smart thing for WoTC and any other RPG publisher to do. WoTC just had the best financial results for D&D ever, they want to continue that trend for as long as possible. Following the masses in this new market potential is only reasonable.
I expect in years to come, we will see D&D experienced in ways we don’t expect. That or the technology to experience it in ways that are currently science fiction will become reality.
I also expect that this is a strategy to ensure the longevity of 5e as they currently have the rules “right” as far as buy in and regaining their market share lost to Paizo. This will also hamper Paizo’s efforts to make a big splash with their second edition, now in the works. While the audience for RPGs is huge compared to ever before, it won’t enlarge the share of the pie for other companies if nearly all eyes are on D&D. For many newer fans of D&D, RPGs and D&D are the same thing.
For this reason, gaming grognards should not complain. At some point tastes will change and gamers will want something else. Be open and accepting of that and welcome them. I have seen many younger gamers wanting lighter rules and checking out the styles of play loved by the OSR. I don’t have hard numbers on that, but I’ve ran old games for people in their 20’s and they had a blast.
As with everything in life, just wait, things will change.
Jeff Rients shared a list of 20 questions to help DMs flesh out their campaign settings. I’ve used it for planning, but haven’t posted it online. Here is a player friendly, AKA no spoilers for my players, list.
What is the deal with my cleric’s religion? It is rare to worship specific deities. Most worship generalized Powers and Great Ones. The powers of light honor life and oppose undeath. The powers of dark offer their followers eternal life in undeath. This is the central struggle in the campaign world.
Where can we go to buy standard equipment? Most towns near the frontier/border or known adventure locations, will have the usual weapons, armor, and other adventuring supplies.
Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? That will be an adventure in itself. It will depend entirely on what the monster is and how far you are from a smith willing to do the job. You may have a long wait for them to get to your spot on their work log, in addition to requiring a large payment.
Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? The first true archmage since the long ago collapsed of the Dulmar Empire is Urman the Great. He lives on Ogre Island, and any adventurers who have never faced more than one ogre at a time should probably heed warnings not to go there. Urman is interested in one the ruing of one of the great cities of the ancient Dulmar Empire, now infested with ogres. I have created an adventure that I ran at Marmalade Dog a few years ago to help me flesh out this area. I plan to publish it in the future.
Who is the greatest warrior in the land? Many lay claim to that title, very few close to reality. The wisest don’t claim such an honor to avoid having to kill or injure another fool. Different towns and cities often have a champion or town bully.
Who is the richest person in the land? Probably a king of one of the kingdoms, perhaps even one of the claimants to the title of Emperor of the Dulmar Empire in The Fractured Kingdoms, near its ancient capital.
Where can we go to get some magical healing? There are clerics and shrines where cure light wounds is available for a donation. Alchemists have concocted their version of a healing potion. It is like a super energy drink. It heals like a healing potion, but in a few minutes after drinking it, you fall exhausted. It is best taken after a fight, or before a close fought fight is over.
Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath? The more severe an affliction, the more likely travel to the interior is required at one of the temples in a city. Some large towns might be blessed with a powerful enough cleric, or a druid might inhabit a grove near the players. You may come upon a group of pilgrim monks, Followers of The Way, who travel between holy sites and shrines giving honor and repairing them. They also erect new sites, as wonders never cease. They are welcoming to all and are sworn to serve and protect travelers. Some healing and often other aid is available from them
Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells? While Urman the Great has trained many of the powerful wizards of today, efforts to establish a guild similar to ancient times have not yet been successful.
Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC? Alchemists tend to be in cities and larger towns, and perhaps may travel to set up shop near known adventure locations.
Where can I hire mercenaries? Many towns along trade routes have mercenaries who look for work before the merchants do the return trip, or don’t want another long journey.
Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law? Cities towards the more civilized and stable areas tend to frown on open display of weapons and disruptive magics. The Fractured Kingdoms have a confusing set of laws, one or more of them have some sort of law to ban something.
Which way to the nearest tavern? Even most small villages have at least a small tavern for farmers and laborers to gather.
What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous? Undead, bandits, humanoids, and giants have caused troubles around Farthorpe after the earthquake. There has been one unreliable person talk of a two-headed giant.
Are there any wars brewing I could go fight? The far off Fractured Kingdoms are always fighting for dominance and undisputed right as the true Emperor of The Dulmar Empire. There is a proverb about those adventurous or foolhardy enough to sign up: Go a fighting in the Fractured Kingdoms and your mother will soon be a weeping o’er your grave.
How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes? It is rumored that the orc tribes and their ilk do such things with some of their prisoners. However, there is no reward but living til the next match.
Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight? Those who serve the dark powers and seek to evade death through undeath are always looking for new recruits. The party has discovered an ancient cult that follows/worships The Necromancer, whose tomb they discovered and sealed. He’s not completely dead. They managed to spoil the plans of one who calls himself, The Son of The Necromancer, and has a flying carpet the party really wants.
What is there to eat around here? Ogre bites refer to large meat pies that can fill those around a table.
Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for? Lots of legends and rumors. The player characters hold a letter/map indicating that there is a treasure beyond bearing. They think it might be in the area near the starting town.
Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure? That’s a very good question. There are lots of rumors of dragons in the mountains to the north.
When something of note occurs in the OSR, good or bad, someone seems to make one of these question things that many in the OSR rise to the challenge and answer.
My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark: Rulings Not Rules
Best OSR module/supplement: Richard LeBlanc’s d30 Sandbox Companion [Affiliate Link]
My favorite house rule (by someone else): Shields shall be splintered, I believe it was this article on Trollsmyth that brought this to popularity.
How I found out about the OSR: It was around the time I read that Gary Gygax had died. Either a short while before or immediately after. I found this group of bloggers going on about the kind of games I played. Especially B/X which we always thought was “for babies” because Holmes Blue Box Basic said we needed AD&D when it was released. The OSR showed me that there was some cool stuff in there. [The more I worked on answering these questions, I’m pretty sure I was reading the OSR blogs about 2007, Gary Gygax died in March, 2008.]
My favorite OSR online resource/toy: DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link] with all the free and low cost game aids.
Best place to talk to other OSR gamers: G+ was the main place. There is still a bit after the whole ruse to MeWe. There is a tiny bit on Facebook. I find a lot among a few on Twitter. The G+ shake up has left the best place up in the air a bit, but right now, it looks like MeWe.
Other places I might be found hanging out talking games: Patreon: Patrons get a vote on the PDF I release the following month. Podcast: Episodes Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Twitter YouTube Instagram Facebook MeWe Reddit Contributor to Multiverse by the new TSR.
My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough: I love seeing how my players interact with my world and see some aspect or focus on something and make it important. I love seeing how their actions have repercussions. I also love watching them burn it all down. Just being surprised by how players do things I could never anticipate is a big part of my fun as GM.
My favorite non-OSR RPG: Looking at my gameshelf, the only non-OSR game is D&D 5e, which I’ve only played a few times. I want to run it for new players and get a better feel for it, since most new players will encounter it first.
Why I like OSR stuff: I never got into modules back in the day. We couldn’t afford them, and only ran the ones that others bought. I also find that it takes me too much effort to figure out a module. The amount of effort I put into it gets better results if I make my own adventures and world. Plus there are so many cool OSR things that help me create adventures and locations if I need ideas.
Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet: Hexcrawls and Sandboxes. Both are styles of play that go together, but can be used indepenently. A sandbox is a way for a GM to design their campaign in a quick and easy way that allows the players to go anywhere and do anything. The world building is bottom up, that is it starts with a town and a few nearby adventures, and as the players interact with the world, it grows to meet them. Hexcrawls are ways that players explore the game world and figure out where things are.
If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be: Jeff’s Gameblog by Jeff Rients.
A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is: Library Generation Tables – Tables to help generate a library and aspects of its collection. I also made a card game that was a big hit at Gary Con X and I hope to Kickstart in 2019.
I’m currently running/playing: Last week we just finished playing in a 4-1/2 year 221 session AD&D campaign on Roll20. We’re taking a break. I play in a Sunday AD&D campaign on Roll20. My in person and Roll20 AD&D games are on hiatus.
I don’t care whether you use ascending or descending AC because: It’s a game and should be all about having fun!
Matt Finch interviewed Jason Hardy, the product director, for MeWe on YouTube. I missed the start of the live stream, so I had to play catch up. This followed the panel discussion about what now for the OSR after the announced end of G+ in ten months. Full disclosure, I was one of the panelists.
I think it is helpful to look at both videos and consider what they mentioned.
I saw a couple of comments that the panel discussion sounded like an ad for MeWe. I don’t think so, as we pointed out all our concerns about it and what we knew would be changed. All of the questions raised helped inform the questions Matt asked during the interview.
The Panel
On the panel, we identified 3 types of users:
Content creators, such as bloggers, You tubers, and publishers who want people to know about what they just did.
Content consumers who want to read, watch, and obtain what content creators have to offer.
Some use G+ combined with Hangouts to actually run RPGs. This is the crowd who wants a built in dice roller.
I use Roll20 for online gaming. We started using hangouts until Google changed things, and we switched to Discord. I think Discord is ideal for this, and can do what users want without having to use Roll20 or other VTT. However, many don’t want to use Discord, and also refuse to use Facebook.
One panelist pointed out that Facebook can be made to do all the things G+ does, but not as smoothly, and has drawbacks that don’t exist on G+.
+Ben Milton of Questing Beast, pointed out that Reddit can do a lot of what G+ does, and made his argument for why it is a valid option.
+E.T. Smith, creator of the G+ RPG Escape Rocket community was on the panel and like most of us, surprised at how MeWe quickly became the platform of choice. He expected a more reasoned approach with more time spent identifying choices and evaluating them. (E.T. also has a blog, TrollBones.)
+Brendan S another panelist pointed out that the younger demographic is focused on video and what Discord and Twitch can do with video needs to be considered. Both Discord and Twitch can be made to do the basic functions of G+, but no one thinks to use them that way. I have not even thought of Twitch being an option until this was mentioned.
So far, I have not had time to look into Twitch as an option. Discord can sort of do it, but the flow of constant chat on a busy channel on a server is a fire hose. Too much information. This is very similar to what one first encounters on MeWe. I don’t think MeWe was designed with the idea people would be in so many communities. Thankfully, there is one location to turn off all chat from popping up, so your screen doesn’t fill up. Every group on MeWe has a chat option. When you join a group, you can disable that on group by group basis, or use the global option.
The Interview
While MeWe has had early adoption, the panel was cautious. My big concern is that content on MeWe will not be discoverable by a public search. The upcoming feature of pages will only be visible to those with a MeWe account who are signed in. It did sound to me from tonight’s interview that phase two of pages may be public.
Pages will be here before the end of the year and will be a place for one’s followers to see things. It is basically like a personal group without all the options of a group. Pages will cost $2.99 a month. This is a small amount, I’d like to see what a page is before putting too much into it.
Concerns about the business model are answered by micro transactions. Some features, like emoji packs are a buy once and done. Many asked about a dark theme, and it will be released soon for 99 cents. All the emoji packs at 99 cents. They have a Secret Chat feature that is free for the first 30 days, but it doesn’t tell you up front how much it is. I had to use Google to find the answer and found it on this tweet from MeWe that is it 99 cents a month or $5.99 a year. Another tweet from MeWe indicates that only the person initiating the chat needs to pay for it. It is fully encrypted end to end and MeWe can’t decrypt it.
Currently, the MeWe store is only in the app, but is slated to come to the website in the future. I didn’t catch a time frame on that.
Right now, there are two ways for sharing/viewing information the timeline and groups. Unlike Facebook, all followers see all of your posts. Each individual controls how they see information, either chronologically, or by latest post, so an old post with a new comment could rise to the top.
Groups allow one pinned post.
The answer to circles is in a future iteration of the site you will be able to group contacts and use a different profile picture for each. At one point it was mentioned that users could have multiple profiles, I’m not clear how that will work.
The answer to collections is hashtags. Their functionality is built around hashtags and that is the current way to do it. It was mentioned that perhaps group owners might get the ability to control the hashtags used in their groups. In a separate group chat on Mewe, one group was discussing what hashtags they would use, and one posted indicated that he verified that one can search on more than one hashtag at a time and that each is highlighted when found.
In addition to MeWe’s base features being free, Jason pointed out that for non profits and educational groups, MeWe Pro is free. Someone asked about organizations fighting against human trafficking that elicited this answer.
Takeaways
PROS
MeWe has most of the features of G+ we all love.
Some of the features we want are in the works.
The large number of early adopters got MeWe’s attention and they are interested in trying to understand and meet our needs.
Hashtags are key to emulating Collections from G+.
CONS
People not on MeWe can’t find the information they might be seeking.
There is no asymetric following. If you are not connected with someone on MeWe, you can’t read their stuff, unless they elect to pay for a page when it becomes available.
Those who paint the OSR with a broad brush will point to MeWe’s allowance of various types of groups and speech as a sign that the OSR people using it identify with those fringe elements. Which is like saying anyone who uses Facebook is a flat-earther or anti-vaxxer.
My thoughts
My work flow will have to consider MeWe like any other site that I share a blog post or link to my latest PDF. I need to make my blog the center of attention and activity for my online efforts.
Prior to the G+ closure announcement, I had identified the need to post more on my blog. It was not as clear cut as it is now. As I mentioned at the end of Wednesday’s panel, I plan to re-work my blog roll and move it from the sidebar to a page of its own. There is a spreadsheet going around that encourages bloggers to add their blog to it. I plan to use that to add to my blog roll. I had plans to revise it as there are several new blogs I have enjoyed and need to read them regularly.
Alex Schroder announced on G+ that he is looking into reviving the Old School RPG Planet agregator. That prompted me to add blog/RSS aggregator to my own blog. I want to have the name of the blog and title of the current article. I also need to settle on on RSS reader. I had one I really liked, until Google, Yahoo, and other major web sites dropped support for RSS. (They did that because there was no way to monetize it.)
While MeWe has the momentum and numbers behind it, I will keep an open mind. I will look at Mastodon and some of the others. I’m not sure they solve the discoverability issue. I know Mastodon only supports 500 word posts, which is far short of the long form G+ and MeWe allow.
Facebook is not an option I am taking seriously. I don’t like its interface and can’t find stuff after it’s posted. If there is a way to find a post from last year, it isn’t obvious. I suppose a google search is in order for that.
MeWe has us scratching our heads about how to do things, and some have asked for someone to do a how to video. I’ve already got a lot on my plate, so not sure I can fit that in any time soon. I was planning to address the whole Roll20 public relations fiasco this week, and that got knocked off the table with the G+ announcement. When I saw the flood going to MeWe, I knew I had to jump in and figure it out. I may have been the first or only blogger to lay out what I did in Tuesday’s blog article. I’d be interested in knowing about others.
Finally, contrary to information I read about the name, and shared in Tuesday’s article, MeWe is pronounced “Mee-Wee”. I hate that name.
With the announcement of the final stages of life support for G+, many users among the OSR have searched for a replacement. Mewe appears to be the front runner. I was calling it mee wee, until someone pointed out it is the Old English spelling of mew. One of the meanings, probably the one intended by the creators, is a place used as a hideout, refuge, or redoubt. Since they display it on their site as MeWe, I did not make the connection to the word mewe, and when it was pointed out, realized I knew this. (facepalm) [EDIT: Unfortunately, it is Mee Wee….]
Mewe silos groups and users so you can only see what others you are connected to have posted. Some have argued that the presence of one side or the other of the political spectrum is unacceptable. However, one can only see these groups and what they say, if one joins them. Mewe’s CEO is a Libertatian and their site policy prohibits hate speech. So while one may disagree with the politics on this site, those advocating violence are banned. Contract this with Minds that apparently is more skewed to one end of the political spectrum and allows all forms of speech, including hate speech. (I have not had time to look that up yet, but the dearth of those migrating to Minds is telling.)
Before I delve into why Mewe is the current best choice for a replacement to G+, let’s touch on why other options are not a good fit.
Blogroll – I plan to reorganize my blogroll and make it a page on my blog rather than a sidebar. This is only useful for blogs. Blogs are only as good at sharing information if you can find them. Blogs are where the OSR originated and were the strength of the OSR. When G+ came on the scene, it had features that made it easy to create communities around specific games, yet we could all be connected by a common love of all RPGs.
RSS is a feature that made tracking multiple blogs easy to do. When Google, Yahoo, and most other companies dropped built in support for RSS, it hurt. this made G+ even more attractive. While RSS is still available, it is still limited to a handful of blogs one follows, and makes it easy to miss out on something new, unless the blogs you follow happen to mention it.
Facebook is not good for finding content. While you might find a group, the ability to search posts is lacking. Shared files and pinned posts can sometimes in my experience, be difficult to locate. Facebook is also not popular for some as they flat out refuse to use it and have always done so. I am on Facebook to connect with those I wouldn’t otherwise connect with. However, I don’t like the functionality of the interface. I want to be able to find things when I want them. At one point G+ had a really good search feature that was throttled.
Forums & wikis while you can find stuff, you don’t have the community aspect and can’t block someone so you don’t have to interact with them. While some are excellent, some are not so nice. BBSes fall into this category.
Discord is a great option for audio for use with your virtual table top of choice. The chat feature is great in game. It also has a video component, but I have not used it. The problem is that chat is so voluminous, it is like drinking from a fire hose, and this rapid fire option makes it massively impractical for people in other time zones to participate, especially if they are on the other side of the world. The slower pace of conversations on G+ allows latecomers to catch up and even get involved.
Twitter has a limited character count and while some manage long chain posts, it is not sustainable. Many also complain about the cesspool I find that you can block what you don’t want to see, and one can easily curate a personal group that is positive and uplifting. Still it is not a platform that entices new people. It took me a couple years to buy in to Twitter.
Reddit has been called a dumpster fire by some. The down voting or massive up voting easily hides good content from view. Reddit seems more geared towards asking a question if you want answers, or sharing how you did something. In my experience, it is not conducive to constructive discussions. I’m not sure what ability to block people there are.
Diaspora and Pluspora which is built using Diaspora are a clone of G+, but not many have gone there. Some have said that the functionality and stability is not there.
Mastodon is another G+ alternative that many have advocated in the last couple of years. Some say it is great. It has some benefits, but has not captured the attention of the majority.
Stan Shinn posted on G+ that with his experience managing large software projects, he was interested in what others wanted in a replacement for G+. More of an exploratory post. I and many other gave their input on what they’d like to see in a G+ replacement. Basically, we want the good parts of G+, including those things G+ took away from it or broke the functionality they once had. This is what all G+ users want, whether they are in the RPG crowd or not. Stan indicated it would not be a from scratch endeavor, but use an existing package. Mention of a Kickstarter to fund it and whether or not it is for profit or non profit are up in the air. There would be a need for programmers, admins to handle the site, and a lawyer to handle all the legal stuff.
The biggest reason Mewe is the front runner at the moment, is the sheer number of G+ users who signed up for me in the past two days. That momentum got the attention of the EVP Product Director.
To me, Mewe is laid out on the screen like Facebook, but the posting and group options remind me of G+. The chat option available to each group reminds me of Discord. Mewe requires each person to be connected like with Facebook, unlike G+ where you can follow someone without them also following you. You can’t see a group’s description until you join it. Some don’t like that. Mewe also has strong blocking functionality, so if a user is banned from a group or you block someone, they can’t see your stuff.
Mewe is free for general use. Up to 8 GB of space is available for images and other files. You can easily see how much space you have used. I recommend hosting images elsewhere and linking them to Mewe if you are an artist. The fees for more than 8 GB seem in line with other services with free disk space at general levels.
Today, Jason Hardy, the EVP Product Director of Mewe jumped into the group chat of The Great G+ RPG Exodus group to find out why so many new users appear. That group has about 500 members at the time. Jason was gracious and forthcoming about many of the concerns and features we had in G+ that we’d like to see.
The end result is that we learned upcoming features that are in the works independent of the G+ announcement yesterday. The following was copied from what a user shared to their page from what was mentioned in chat c. 2:30 PM EDT today.
Pages appear to be coming soon
Public posting will be around in November-ish
Video chat will be Q1/Q2 of 2019
In the chat we also noted some nice to haves that may or may not have been added to their roadmap:
Attribution on shares
Grouping of contacts aka “Circles”
They’re looking into chat based dice rolling (Jason didn’t know what a dice roller was and asked for examples.)
My biggest concern about ensuring this doesn’t become a place information goes to die is answered by Pages and Public posting. Right now, all posts are private. If others can’t see what your group is about and a sample of what goes on their, why would they want to join?
Another concern is the paucity of non-male games. We want all who enjoy games to feel welcome. It is on us men to do a better job of ensuring women feel comfortable. Some of our brothers at the table require additional coaching on manners and socially acceptable behavior, even if it is online.
I posted a question asking for comment on why users there don’t want to use FB as a G+ replacement. Here are some of the replies:
FB is a horrible platform that exploits users
Facebook are extremely careless with their user data and do their best to make money by selling information on their users, which is seldom in the interests of their users.
Facebook works in an unknown way. What ends up in your timeline is decided by calculations no one understands that have tons of negative effects: you miss stuff, some opinions are under-represented, other are over-represented, post that make you react quickly are favoured over posts that require reading and understanding…
It’s simple, FB I use for people I actually know – friends and family. There’s no way to segregate interests from the stream of content my friends and family generate, and they surely don’t want to see my gaming BS.
There’s too much hate and drama on both Facebook and Twitter. Whenever my wife or family members are on FB, they constantly bitch about someone or other. It is a volatile and toxic place. Plus, I don’t want to be bothered by people who don’t share my interests. Here I can select what and who I’m surrounded by. Politics, religious views, and hate speech have no place in my hobbies.
Yeah— on Facebook, you get contact requests from people you know but don’t necessarily want to hang out with, and it would be rude to deny that you know them. There’s no such expectation on any other social network.
Matt Finch posted on G+ and Facebook that he is coordinating a panel discussion on YouTube to discuss the future of the OSR without G+. Some have hoped it means a return to the glory days of blogging before G+. I’m not sure that will happen. I rushed this article a bit as I wanted it out there for consideration before this panel occurs. These are my quick observations and if Mewe comes through with the plans their EVP Product Director shared, then my main concerns regarding functionality will be resolved.
Today’s podcast, Saturday Scrawl #3 is about stretching one’s creativity and diving in and expressing yourself as a GM, Player, and person.
I’ve always had a desire to sketch and draw well, but never the patience to hone that skill, as results were too slow for my level of patience.
However, I know I have a sliver of talent, and rather than regret never sticking with the practice, I am going to sketch everyday. At the end of September, I decided that I would do Inktober. Inktober is a month long challenge in October. It was started by an artist in 2014 as a way to improve his inking skills. I have always enjoyed the random art that has popped up in my social media over the years, and this year, I decided to jump in.
After just 6 days, I am seeing improvement in some things. I am posting each picture to social media. There are prompts. I am using the official prompts, but filtering them through an RPG lens. One day, I had an idea I knew I didn’t have the technical skill to execute, so I did a quick cursive poem. I was rushed that day, so I will make time later to do the poem with calligraphy. (Calligraphy is an acceptable form of inking for Inktober.)
I don’t like how rushed things are at work, but no matter how busy things are, I am sticking to doing the ink drawing each day.
Today, while out running errands, I picked up a 5.5″ x 8.5″ 80 page spiral bound sketchbook, and some art pencils. I will do one sketch a day, or little doodles to fill a page every day. I finished my first pencil sketch a bit ago. I used a B2 pencil, and I am hooked on that pencil for drawing. There is nothing wrong with a number 2, but the B2 responds to pressure better. At least for me, it did. I haven’t figured out how to make a number 2 over all these years do what the B2 let me do. If like me, you struggle to get a standard pencil to do the shading you want, try a B2.
Next I stopped by the craft store and picked up new nibs for my Speedball pen, and some ink. My old nibs are corroded and not working very well.
I really liked how my first sketch turned out, and posted on my other social media. I was even inspired to type up some quick text for an adventure hook.
Creative Itch
Ever since my card game idea was well received, I have felt the itch to create more. Creating my first PDFs and entering the realm of online publishing has only stoked the fires of my creativity. I find I consume less media for entertainment, and more for helping me produce content. With these fires of creativity, I feel like I have so much more to let out, thus the need to draw. [Ideally, I will get good enough to illustrate portions of my own PDFs.]
I encourage you to engage your creativity and find an outlet for it. As long as it causes no one harm, go for it.
The Night Gate
The night gate is a solitary stone arch at the end of a stone-lined path off the old north road. Legend has it that the gate leads to other locations, dimensions, or worlds depending on the time of night and the phase of the moon. The moonlight is said to trigger the magic of the gate.
Those who have tried to harvest the stones along the path or the gate itself are said to befall misfortune before they can even move a single stone the slightest bit. It is not unheard of for people to drop dead while doing hard labor, or unusual for wild animals to attack people in the wilds. All the talk of monsters is only hearsay as it is said that no one has lived to tell the tale of these creatures.
