Monthly Archives: July 2019

RPGs

The Importance Of Feedback To Creators

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I’m sure I’ve written about this before on my blog, Twitter, and elsewhere. I’m not going to go dig up those links, as there’s not a lot to what I have to say about it.

Feedback is very helpful for those of us creating RPG materials. So like it or not, please let me know in a constructive way.

  • If it’s crap, can it be salvaged?
  • If it’s great, what is great about it?
  • Did I spend too much time in one area and not enough in another.
  • Did I leave out something that really makes sense to be there?

To me, silence means it’s perfect, which I find hard to believe. All creators feel self-doubt to some degree. I always have a nagging feeling I’m not good enough or do a good enough job.

However, I’m not looking for a pat on the back or false platitudes or building up my ego. In some ways the downloads says one thing and the money towards PWYW titles on DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link] says it more strongly. Still I think I only have one review on one product. Part of that may be that publishers on DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link] can’t leave reviews. (I think some bad actors gave bad reviews to punish competitors.)

Over on Twitter I started a hashtag, #IYLSSS (If You Like Something Say Something) as a way to support small creators. Related tags are ResponsibleFandom and #SupportSmallCreators. I’ve not done much myself with those hashtags for awhile, and I should be better. Especially as a small creator myself.

The idea is if you like something tell the creator AND tell OTHERS! Word of mouth is the best advertising. Likes are great, but sharing and re-tweets actually help others know about something.

Here’s a Sample List of Ideas:

  • Tell others about the Kickstarter you backed, and talk about the final product when it arrives. In person and on blogs and social media.
  • Do a review on your blog or on the creator’s website or DriveThruRPG product page, and then share it across all your social media.
  • If you have a YouTube and/or Twitch channel, talk about it there.
  • If you have a podcast, talk about it there.

Even if your social media only has a few followers, maybe someone who follows you has a lot of followers. If they share your mention then all of their followers see it. I have just over 1,000 followers on Twitter, but since I had around 100, I’ve had those with thousands of followers follow me. I don’t mention those people directly without their consent if I’m pitching my own stuff or the stuff of others. But when I like something they are doing, I mention them and they often like or re-tweet/share it.

I’m almost 55 years old, and if I can figure out this social media stuff, then anyone can. If you’re not a creator, then you are a consumer and your words of support are often more valuable than your single purchase. I’m not asking people to plug my stuff because they like me, but because they like what I’ve made. I’m not asking for just me, but for any small creator who does something you like or think is cool.

While I’m under know illusions of being able to make a living creating games and game materials, I believe it is possible to break even. I have over a decade before I anticipate retirement, so while I have the income to subsidize my hobby and creative efforts, I will take advantage of it. My hope is that I can make enough to continue that creative effort in my retirement years for a few decades. This creative outlet brings me satisfaction in spite of the frustrations of layout and design.

Others are so much more creative and prolific than I am and I’m surprised they aren’t able to make a living at this hobby.

I hope you will always support the small creators with your likes and shares, posts, reviews, podcasts, live streams, and videos.

RPGs

Isometric Gaming Paper – Quick Review

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I backed the 2017 Kickstarter for Isometric Gaming Paper. I’ve had mine for a nearly two years, and am finally posting a review, lost in my drafts folder.

I reviewed the original Gaming Paper here.

The video with the Kickstarter does a great job of showing how you can use isometric paper for your maps. I got two rolls of isometric paper, and two rolls of hex paper, one on regular white paper,and the other on blue. I also got a package of 100 sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch isometric Gaming Paper.

Just like my review of the original, the same holds true for this stuff.

It’s a great Michigan company, so it’s a way to support a local/regional company for gamers in and around Michigan.

If you need an inexpensive battle map, or just want to do wall sized doodle or mapping, this is for you. It has a bit of reusability, and can roll up or fold up to use an old map in the future.

If you’re looking for a water safe medium that can take a bit of standing liquid for a few minutes, a plastic or vinyl mat is more durable, but gaming paper can handle a small amount of moisture or a quick clean up.

If you’re looking for something that won’t matter if you use permanent marker on it, this is a cheaper and therefore less stress inducing option.

I’m not a big one for elaborate battle maps and don’t play in person often, so I’ve got many year’s worth of maps for live gaming at the ready.

RPGs

Musings On Magic

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I had three different ideas related to magic come to me today.

  • What are the effects of light emitting spells on infravision?
  • Cursed item idea.
  • Luck Blade Idea.

Light Emitting Spells and Infravision

Fireball, lightning bolt, light, shocking grasp are all light emitting. 

What is the effect of using them in the dark?

Infravison, ultravision, and normal vision would all be seeing spots if in a certain range and not killed. Even the caster would be affected.

At least the next round possibly -2 to -4 to hit. Casting spells might not go where you want.  You might accidentally heal an opponent in the fight, or wound an ally.

I think we’re used to light spells, lanterns, torches, candles, and campfires spoiling infravision, but I don’t recall ever having a DM rule that casting lightning bolt, fireball, or other light emitting spell does anything to vision.

Similarly, a lightning bolt should produce a thunderclap. How loud will this be underground or indoors where the sound wave is bounded? Will it cause a ringing or other issue with hearing? Will it give a penalty to hear noise?

Cursed Item

My idea for a cursed item can be anything, a book, scroll, ring, weapon, or other mundane item. If the person suffering under the curse can’t get remove curse, their only recourse is to give it to someone who willingly accepts it —as long as they do not know it is cursed. One might suspect it is cursed, but only if they know it is cursed can they avoid taking on the curse.

If the cursed person gives it to someone who knows it is cursed, their only recourse is remove curse or other magical means.

Luck Blade

A luck blade is a +1 weapon with one to three wishes. What if a luck blade were also an intelligent sword, but it had no more wishes? I see a couple of possibilities:

The blade long ago granted it’s last wish and is now “merely” a +1 blade, but it longs for the glory days of having such power within. It might be boastful, needy, cowardly, smug, or helpful. It might have vague, unreliable memories of the past locations of ancient rings of wishes, genie lamps, scrolls, etc. The locations are so ancient that they now lie in buried ruins, sunken cities, or someone in the more recent past has already found and removed the item(s). The removed items might have had their wishes used.

Another way to handle this is that while intelligent and no longer having any wishes to grant, the sword still thinks it has wishes. Somehow the “counter” of how many wishes it has is broken, and it will say it has 1d6 wishes available, and never less than one.

Perhaps it secretly knows this but strings along it’s bearer hinting about the possibility of granting wishes if the bearer completes a great deed. Once completed, the great deed’s achievement is somehow flawed, or they say the wish will bear fruit once the time is ripe. Anything to avoid admitting they don’t have any wishes left.

Maybe there is a way to truly restore its ability to grant wishes by performing some great deed, but the sword and bearer have to work together to figure out what that is.

You can listen to the companion podcast here.

RPGs

Ten Years of RPG Blogging

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Today marks ten years since I posted the first article on my blog on July 18, 2009: Why Follow Me, And Die!

That was a terse few sentences that only gave the barest of details of the origins of Follow Me, And Die! {You can get the long version here.] It was followed by lots of posts with stories from back in the day and my own ideas about generating ideas and preparing to run games. I later touched on some of the sessions of play when I finally introduced my sons to AD&D.

Since that time I have interacted with a lot of other RPG bloggers and gamers online. Eventually, G+ became the main place to interact and the blog content went down. Occasionally, I would make a blog post out of a comment that was just too long. Many ideas for blog posts were generated from the fertile soil of G+.

G+ faded away with a bit of a return to blogs, and I’m blogging much more regularly, close to once a week.

In 2014, I think it was I posted every day until mid-September when I ran out of things to write about. Over the years I’ve had times I barely looked at the blog.

I started attending cons regularly and met other bloggers and gamers that I knew from online. I attended Gary Con 8 where I met Satine Phoenix, who created my current social media avatar which debuted January 19, 2017. Satine was kind enough to fix my blog header to look better with her art. I have an image on a black background and another on a white background that rotate. [You can get a black shirt with that image here.] A couple months later, I added another blog header in rotation by Del Teigeler. I also use that as the header for my Twitter account.

I started a YouTube channel and am not posting as frequently as I’d like, but I just reached 400 subscribers the other day.

Over on Twitter I passed 1,000 followers.

Last month I wrote this post about the first anniversary of my podcast.

Last August, I started publishing PDFs over on DriveThruRPG and in September I launched my Patreon. Before July is over, I will publish my 12th monthly PDF.

I also am working on a Kickstarter for a card game of all things. If you’d like to get an email when it launches, you can sign up here.

I’ve been gaming for 42 years and on August 24th I get to run a game and play in other games at Gary Gygax’s old house where D&D was written for an Extra Life fundraiser. It is hosted by John Gilbert, with Bill Allan, Fenway Jones, Jason O’Brien, Alex Gygax, Grant Ellis, GM Travis, and me. I am so excited for this opportunity for my first streaming game as player and GM! I hope that we raise a lot in addition to having a great time.

Ten years is a blink of an eye. I’ll be in my mid-fifties in a couple months, and ten years is nothing. I hope to keep playing for decades to come, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the world and gaming changes as I watch my grandchildren grow.

I want to thank everyone who has been part of this wild ride and I look forward to more chats, conversations, and games.

You can listen to the companion podcast here.

Rant, RPGs

No More Nerds – A Rant

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A recent article on The Guardian has the terrible title: No more nerds: how Dungeons & Dragons finally became cool.

This struck a nerve with a lot of people. My own opinion is that the title of this article sucks.

“No more nerds: how Dungeons & Dragons finally became cool“

Joshua Kubli over on MeWe is on point: [Emphasis added.]

“We will have made progress when “finally became cool” is instead written as “people finally realized how cool it was all along.“

The article itself seems to be OK, but that title is a “kick ’em for being nerds and take their stuff away” click bait.

I then went on a rant about this over on Twitter. I even looked up their process for submitting a complaint, but being a member of an interest group isn’t in their editorial code for them to even consider it. I pointed out that every category listed in their discrimination clause includes nerds.

Titles like this are a backhanded ad hominem that has no place in civilized conversation.

We need to do better and all nerds, geeks, dorks, and so forth need to complain about such things. Yes, things have gotten better culturally since 1978, but we don’t have to take it.

The post Revenge of The Nerds world should be better. We’re all nerds in our own way.

The nonsense I endured was nothing compared to racism, religionism, appearanceism, ableism, orientationism, & the like.

Everyone is welcome at my game, my table who is there to play the game & show respect & common courtesy to each other.

The only reason to exclude someone from your game is if they are an unrepentant jerk who has had intervention to explain the errors of their ways.

I did a podcast episode about this here.