RPGs

MEWE – Replacement for G+?

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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.

You can find me on Mewe here.

Update: [October 10, 2018] The founder of Mewe answered some questions about the direction of Mewe on a G+ thread here.

Update: [October 10, 2018] Matt Finch hosted a Panel talking about the OSR response to the G+ shutdown announcement. I was one of the panelists.

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RPGs

Stretching Creativity

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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.

The Night Gate
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End of a Campaign

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Over the years, I have written about the Wednesday night AD&D game on Roll20. This past Wednesday, after 4.5 years, 1 year to the day in game time, and 221 Sessions we finally faced the big bad and won.

I shared some of my thoughts about this on the podcast here.

I find it only fitting to mention the ending here on the blog.

We started in mid-March, 2014, and ended Wednesday, October 3, 2018.

My first character of the campaign, Thorfus Ironhand, a dwarf who made it to 8th level fighter. He was on his way to 9th level when he died. Roll20 had terrible rolls for most of his HP after 1st level. He rolled several 1’s and 2’s. He ended up with 33 HP at 8th level.

My Ranger, Rallion of the Wode, who replaced him reached 7th level and 42 HP.

There were hundreds of named NPCs, dozens of businesses, ships, cities, towns, villages, and tribes. Custom pantheons and more.

My personal Roll20 hours are now at 1700.

The campaign is called Graveyard of Empires.

I’m the only player to attend every session. One of the other session one players attended and ran the character of an absent player, who unfortunately, had to work and missed the last session. 

Our only breaks from the every Wednesday schedule are when the DM took vacation, Also this past Spring, when I attended Gary Con X. The other players agreed to skip a week so I didn’t have to miss. Their generosity is the only reason I was able to attend every session.

None of the original session 1 characters survived to the end through play. While some session 1 characters may still live, they are now NPCs as the players who created them left.

We had one player from session 1 join for a few sessions as a new character.

Another session 1 player rejoined twice and created new characters each time, but soon dropped out. He was the youngest player. (I was the oldest player.)

This was the longest campaign I’ve played in outside of my brother’s 30+ year AD&D campaign that is ongoing today. I have advanced few characters to the levels of the two characters in this campaign. I’ve played lots of fighters over the years, most were human. I don’t recall ever playing a ranger before, and that is because of the difficulty of rolling the required stats. 

Now that it is over, I am looking forward to having Wednesday evenings free for a while. 

My understanding from something the DM mentioned more than once, was that we would be ending the campaign whether we one or lost. Once the final battle was over, and we won, he mentioned continuing. I mentioned that I may be up to volume two, but only 3 hours a session, and no later than 11:00 PM. I need time to unwind after each session so I can get to sleep. Work can be a dreary thing without adding sleep deprived to it. Perhaps bi-weekly, instead of every week. I’m undecided on the frequency.  

AUTOMATA RUN AMOK BY JOHN CARLSON – A module on OBS about our first adventure, illustrated by Luka Rejec of Wizard, Thief, Fighter. I did a mini-review of it on my blog, see below. Check out John’s blog, Dwarven Automata. John also contributed to The Black Isle.

John is working on the next adventure we undertook, and I very much look forward to it and more. We all encouraged John to do a setting guide. He has an interesting concept and I’m sure others will enjoy exploring that world. 

Mini Review – Automata Run Amok by John Carlson

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Hidden Hands of the Horla – Mini Review

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+R. J. Thompson of Gamers & Grognards has launched a new company, Apendix N Entertainment, and its first product, T1 Hidden Hand of the Horla [Affiliate Link], is now on OBS as PWYW. You can find it at either DriveThruRPG or RPGNow [both Affiliate Links].

I received a pre-release copy, and within a couple of days of that I received the final copy. I spotted one typo in the pre-release copy that was corrected in the final release.

Hidden Hand of the Horla [Affiliate Link] is the beachhead product waiting for Ryan’s take on the original roleplaying game, Gateway To Adventure. The cover is familiar to many who follow +Dyson Logos’ maps, a giant hand that is a set of towers. Ryan uses this map to full effect in the few pages of this module for levels 1-3.

One paragraph briefly touching on the old school style of play, one paragraph of player background, and three paragraphs for the referee.  There are tables that define certain conditions of the adventure so it will not be identical. For example, the intended foes in the module can find one of the items before the players and use it against them.  There is a rumor table to help the GM determine a random rumor that each PC knows about the place. And a well planned random monster tables that indicates which potential creatures represent a creature from a specific room.

Only five pages are needed to describe this small dungeon, with stats for a few creatures in the text.

The either total creature types are listed in the three page bestiary. A new creature is introduced that will require players to use their wits to best it, or avoid having to best it. For those used to rolling dice or otherwise unaccustomed to the old school style of play, it has the potential for a TPK. Players that use their heads and are team players should do well.

There are two pages of spells. Two of them new spells. The Hand Tower was built by a wizard specializing in hand spells. 

True to the name of the company, there is a one page Appendix N, that includes inspirational writing, film, television, and music. 

Following the OGL is a page with the hand tower, a page with a player handout, and a page with the map of the interior.

What I Liked

This is a great to the point adventure. It is simple, but with enough to the point details to help the GM run this. As a low level adventure, it could easily be modified for those who like DCC and 0 level funnels, or be powered up to handle more players or fewer players of higher level. Best of all it is designed to be reused, so is ideal for an initial adventure that is a location that can serve as the first adventure in a new campaign. The goatmen that Ryan included from his home campaign are one hit die creatures so you could easily re-skin them for the main one hit die creatures in your own campaign, if you didn’t want to introduce goatmen. There are also simple ideas for modularity of design that are easy to adapt to on the fly adventures you may run in your own campaign, or that other publishers would like to see.

He also has an idea for books that I’m going to steal for use in a future update to my own PDF on Libraries.

What I’d Like To See

This is a challenge to find something that is missing. I liked it and could see myself running it, and would like to play it if I didn’t know the secrets. I read this a couple days ago and I’m still not finding anything that seems lacking. While it may seem trite, the only thing I can think of that I want is more modules like this. I look forward to the release of his take on the original RPG. 

The only thing I see is that the OGL takes a bit more than a full page and goes onto the page with the hand image. A font small enough to get the OGL on one page is fine with me. this is very minor and can easily be trimmed off, or covered, if printed, but might detract from player experience if you show them the map from an electronic device. I only mention this as it is in the version now live on OBS as I write this.

Full Disclosure

Ryan and I are friends. We met at UCon a few years ago after I reviewed another publication of his. As a friend, I wish there was something that jumped out at me that needed work. I hope I didn’t gloss over anything that others will point out as problematic, or needing more polish.

Pay What You Want doesn’t do this module justice. You should at least pay something in the realm of a dollar or more for this. 

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Musings on Bags of Holding

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Today on the podcast, I recorded my second Saturday Scrawl about encumbrance.

This got me to thinking about bags of holding and of course their counterpart, bags of devouring.

Here’s a sneaky way to handle bags of devouring. It is devious and players will hate you for it. 

This is not like the normal bag of devouring from the 1e DMG on pages 137-138, but something different.

Whether it is a mimic like creature or some other creature or a magical object is up to the DM. This is a Dormant Bag of Devouring. This bag functions as a normal bag of holding until a set condition occurs. The DM must determine this condition when the item is placed as potential treasure. 

Creature

If the bag is a creature of some kind, the DM must determine where does the treasure go? It can be a pocket dimension, another plane, or a specific location on the planet. This opens up the possibility of having it disgorge all the treasure it has ever eaten, leading to hilarity as the Scrooge McDuck vaultful of coins fills the location where it was slain. 

Detemine the age of the bag to determine the volume of its lifetime of meals.

1d6 NOTE: The below is in addition to treasure the party puts in it.

  1. New/Baby only the contents of a volume equal to the size of the treasure in which it is found.
  2. Juvenile volume is 5 times the treasure in which it is found.
  3. Young adult volume is 10 times the treasure in which it is found.
  4. Adult volume is 15 times of original treasure.
  5. Mature volume is 20 times of original treasure.
  6. Ancient volume is 25 times original treasure.

Treasure may be in coins, gems, ingots, and other things capable of fitting into its opening (mouth). Damage from falling coins will be 1d6 per 100 coins or gems, and 1d8 per falling ingot. Characters may use their best saving throw to attempt to dodge the falling loot, or attempt to “float” or “climb” to stay above the torrent. If this happens in a small room, it will soon be filled and pour out into all openings and could potentially overflow a small dungeon, sink a ship, topple a tower, etc. Wooden structures must make a saving throw to resist bursting and collapsing.

The best hope is to be in a huge cavern or in the open air when this occurs.

Magic Item

If a magic item, this is a crafty device developed by mages in need of cash. These bags of holding will empty their contents into a space
designated at the time of their creation that is capable of holding it all safely. This will be a room of sturdy stone construction with a heavy door. Often the access door is hidden by illusion or craftsmanship, and is always wizard locked at the current level of the owner.

These devices are often given as rewards to adventuring parties that help the wizard achieve their goals. Successful adventurers are more likely to find treasure.

There will be some sort of alert, so the mage knows to empty the room. Perhaps a magic mouth or other spell. 

If a quick thinking party caster can cast knock BEFORE it finishes consuming its contents, it will shred the bag and open a portal to the treasure vault. This portal will endure for 1 turn. If there is no knock available for the access door, and they can’t find the access door, they are trapped without some other means of egress, such as teleport. 

If the vault is filled, roll percentile dice for the amount of treasure that spills out before the portal closes.

Instead of knock, if hold portal is cast, the mouth of the bag is opened to the standard dimensions of a door and the party has the duration of that spell to attempt to recover their treasure and avoid being trapped as in the example using knock. In this case, the bag will fall harmlessly to the ground, waiting for its next use. If the entire party is in the treasure vault, they bag will lie there until found by another. If some of the party remains they can attempt to fill the bag until it is triggered to consume and cast one of the spells effective to shred or open it.

There may be other spells that allow the players to subvert the intended use of the bag as determined by the DM.

NOTE: The creator of the bag, or their heir, descendant, or successor will often know that something is amiss and will seek to prevent the party from making off with the treasure. It may be possible for them to see the party, as with a crystal ball, spell, or other device and be able to track them.

Triggers

A dormant bag may be triggered to consume its contents by many things. The trigger can be activated by a specific spell near it, a set interval of time, when a specific type of creature is near, or in a specific place. The DM must determine the trigger for each bag before placing it in a treasure.

Examples of spells might be fireball. This would be bad for the party if they cast fireball in a room with the treasure where it is found, as it will attempt to consume the treasure. This is an atypical function of the bag. In this case it will open its mouth wide to grab a pile of treasure it is in, or to inhale all the valuables that are party of the treasure. NOTE: IF the party bests the creature who owns the treasure, the items on their person are not considered part of that loot.

A set interval of time could be once a year, or a certain amount of time after it is filled to maximum capacity, or a certain time of day.

A specific place and time might be to consume all the treasure of a dragon’s hoard if the party has the bag with them when they defeat the dragon, or if the bag is party of the dragon’s hoard. 

The available triggers to choose from are only limited by the DM’s imagination.

Consuming The Treasure

Once the delayed bag is triggered, those who posses it will hear an omm nom nom, sound like Cookie Monster going nuts with a plate of cookies. However, it is only the om nom sound, followed by a large burp when completed. If the party is in a loud environment like walking through the streets during festival, in a rowdy tavern, in the midst of combat, roll to see if they notice the om nom sound. The burp will be a hearty one and if they miss the om nom sound will think a member of the party is responsible for the noise. 

If the party cannot hear because of a silence spell, or some other cause of deafness, they will miss these audible clues.

Just like a bag of holding, the weight is the same and they will not discover it is empty until they go to draw something from it.

Finding The Loot

You should allow some chance for the party to find the loot. A wish, for example will give them the name and address of a wizard who crafts such a bag, or the location the loot has gone if it is a creature. Scrying by spell or device may be effective, unless the mage who crafted a bag has means in place to prevent it. A creature type bag will have its treasure location susceptible to scrying, should the party posses or find such means.

Scrying is only effective within a limited amount of time. It might be one day or week per level of the spellcaster doing the scrying. Make it an amount of time that is within the realm of possibility for the party to find it, if they choose to do so. If they don’t realize that scrying is a possibility within the time limit, that is fine, not everything should be automatic. A wish of course, will trump all, if it is worded properly to prevent unintended consequences.

Special Cases

Mages who plan the design of their bags carefully will have in place safeguards that prevent cursed items from being put in the bag.

Artifacts and certain other powerful magics cannot be placed in these bags due to the nature of their power and magic. Powerful items include any item with a wish, like a luckblade, deck of many things, intelligent items like swords, and items that contain the soul or essence of another creature whether mortal or otherwise. The DM should consider what items are powerful enough to withstand being placed in the bag.

When an item that is cursed or too powerful is placed in the bag, it will not even enter the bag, like it is repelled by a magnet. This repulsion does not propel the item with any great force. It merely prevents placing it in the bag. This effect will hold true if a crafted bag is held open by means of hold portal or similar.

Additionally, items that act as a beacon to overcome scrying cannot be placed in a bag. This is of course optional.

Plot Hook: There may be a certain legendary item, or other item, that the mage wants and they may bargain, cajole, or geas a part to find some component needed to complete a bag that will accept the artifact. Then the bag is given to the party with directions to the artifact.

If you have lots of these bags in your game, you may want only some of them to prevent the creator from getting these items.

If you only have one of these bags in your game you will want to consider special cases. 

Any other special case you can think of may be used.

There could even be a legendary item that is an artifact with all the risks and rewards of same, that is capable of receiving other artifacts and powerful items, perhaps it will transfer the curse on a cursed item to another object such as a coin or other magic item, or even a person. Such as the person who puts the cursed item in the bag.

Other Uses

A variation of this bag is carried by tax collectors to ensure that their collected revenue ends up in government coffers.

A master of a thieves guild might commission such a bag so that operatives can’t cheat the guild out of what is owed.

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Note Taking

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I type a lot of my notes directly into various documents. I start with a text file, I use NoteTab. I’ve used it since mid-1997, and have been on the beta test team for most of that time.

When I’m away from my computer, and need to make a note of something, I use Evernote on my cell phone. When I get back to my computer, I can log into Evernote and copy and past my notes to the appropriate document. Usually the notes are anything from a grocery list to ideas for a scenario for a game, or an idea for a blog article.

However, I also make notes on all kinds of paper. I use the backs of scrap paper, note cards, writing pads of various sizes, lined, unlined, graph paper, etc.

Since I work from home and my home office is in the same room as my personal office/computer room, I have collected notes for different things on different scraps of paper. Ideas cross my mind at the oddest times, and I grab the nearest piece of paper that is OK for that note, and write it down.

Over time, this can lead to a lot of random notes. I then have to transfer them to my computer. If I have multiple notes for different topics on the same paper, I check off which ones I have dealt with, then chuck the whole thing once they’re all addressed. Sometimes it might be a list of reminders. If I think of something important while in the middle of something else, I have to write it down, or I forget about it.

I think this just shows how my thoughts never stop. 

This non-stop flurry of activity is hard to tame if I’m not actively cultivating it. This morning, I overslept and my whole day was colored by it. I managed to have all of my poor interactions with other people over the past 25+ years come into my recollection in rapid succession. I managed to get myself out of that downward spiral of negative self talk by focusing on work until I woke up enough to forget about it until I wrapped up this blog post.

Bullet Journal

It is this crazy and chaotic style of making notes that can be tamed by a more organized method. Whether it is just a notebook/journal one enters their ideas, or a more organized approach, like a Bullet Journal.

A year ago, I posted on my personal Facebook page how adhering to my bullet journal (BuJo) helped me crank through on cleaning up odd scraps of paper and organizing things for work on personal.

I got away from my BuJo for work and personal stuff, and it has been a challenge getting back into it. The chaotic nature of my day job can take me down a totally unexpected rabbit hole that consumes one or more days, and then I’m lost as to what I was working on of the multiple projects I seem to always have. 

The last few weeks I have had great focus on getting projects done, and putting miscellaneous scraps of work notes into either my BuJo or the appropriate computer note keeping files. As the senior tech on the team, I’m always getting interrupted to help the others with their issues. The BuJo concept really does help me. The reminders in Outlook, and various notes in various text files and documents have their place, but I can’t wrap my mind around all the pieces. With a BuJo, I can make a spread that holds my focus and speaks to me about what I must do and how far along things are.

I intend to use this focus to wrap up loose ends before busy season starts in December. My day job is supporting accounting and payroll software and we get slammed with every client calling multiple times to get help with procedures they only do once a year. Triple the normal call volume leaves little time and energy for anything else. 

My goal with this year end, is to have work wrapped up and the stress managed, so that it doesn’t suck away all of my energy and enthusiasm for creating content and running games. I’m also working ahead on my planned monthly PWYW PDF releases on OBS so if I don’t do so well on maintaining my energy, I can still put out the planned PDFs. 

I’m working on a BuJo video idea that I started over 6 months ago. I’ve got to tighten the focus and the script and plan the shots. I’m trying to figure out how to fit it in and get my other planned RPG projects done. My submission of games to run at Gary Con needs to get done. Also I need to flesh out my game ideas that I’ll be running at UCon in November. And Marmalade Dog is, and if GMs submit games before December 31st, they get free admission for each day that they run a game. It’s all doable, I just need to focus and implement and adhere to my BuJo strategy. Breaking down the complex into doable pieces. 

Here’s a companion podcast.

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First Experience with Self Publishing

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My first experience with self publishing was as a proof reader, and crafter of the table of contents for The FRONT [Affiliate Link], by +Mark Hunt. 

Google Docs vs MS Word

What I found is that collaborating on a manuscript has certain pitfalls. Google Docs does not handle Word documents well. You can read them, but it messes up the page count. If you convert it back to a Word Doc, it easily doubles the page count due to how it mangles formatting.

There is supposed to be a way to edit Word Docs in Google Drive, without even having Word, but I am not getting it to work. I found this after Mark and I gave up and I just edited the Word Doc and sent it back to him. Google Docs has change tracking and comments, so it is good for the basics. 

From my experience, Google Docs can be used for the collaboration process to get the text right, then worry about the formatting. If Google Docs can handle linked TOC’s and save them to PDF, then it would be a great tool.

If that doesn’t work, then all parties collaborating on a document would need the same tools. For example, MS Office, or the free Libre Office. A way to avoid sending a file back and forth across Google Drive would speed things up noticeably. Preferably a way to avoid using money to buy a solution. Small self-publishers don’t make a lot of money, especially not until they get started and have enough success to buy potentially better tools.

If you are working on your own, and do it all, and can edit/proofread your own work and do it right, then you can get by without a need for collaborative tools. Maybe there is no free and simple way to do this. Perhaps it takes total isolation of the file in the hands of one person at a time. The main requirement being all involved have the same software to get the same results. However, this means that if one person sees an issue, they can’t fix it in real time and have the other(s) inherit that change.

I am curious about how others have approached this and what their experience has been with the tools used for collaboration on RPG products.

Text First Then Layout

My take is to get the text edited and right and then worry about formatting. This is the standard way to do it anyway. Think old school. One didn’t start laying out type on a printing press to write their document. They wrote and edited the document, then figured out the layout. That is why many prefer a plain text editor for getting the text right, and then worry about formatting and layout.

  A template geared towards automatic formatting of page size, font size and spacing, etc. can minimize the need to getting too fiddly with formatting in a word processor. For a more polished look, something like the free and open source Scribus for layout; or the costly version of various Adobe products can give a sharper more varied layout. PDF’s can be generated by more free software than in the past, and it can even have cross linked TOC’s and indexes. NOTE: I used Page+ by Serif for my first PDF on OBS.

Otherwise, you need the author, an editor, and a layout person. Often a layout person can be a good editor/proofreader, but that should not be assumed, as they are different jobs. A proofreader is focused on looking for typos and other obvious issues, while an editor is that plus making sure it all ties together. A layout person makes sure the visual presentation is appealing and improves the readability. Layout people charge a lot more for proofreading and editing. 

Rarer still is someone who can do their own art for a project, most use either stock images that are public domain or low cost, or custom art bought to order for a given project. One must be aware of copyright on images. If you buy art, usually, you only by the right to use it for a particular purpose or amount of time. I recently found Pixabay for public domain images. One also needs to ensure that the fonts they use are free for business use. Lots of licensing out there to keep in mind.

Getting It Out There

Then, there is one of the various publishers that offer PDF’s or POD, or both. If selling one from your own website, you can easily sell the PDF’s, or make them free. For physical product, you either need a POD service, or make arrangements with a printer that can provide the final product desired.

OBS via RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, and DM’s Guild make it easy to do PDFs and POD on a custom platform for RPGs. Lulu supports both PDFs and POD, but many choose to do PDFs on OBS and POD on Lulu for greater profit. I find that Lulu tends to do a better job of packaging so your POD orders don’t rattle in the box. OBS (and Amazon) leave a lot to be desired to prevent books from sliding around in the shipping box. The marketing, emailing, and statistics available on OBS, plus the ready made niche audience, makes it the best choice for one-stop service.

What I Know Now

Now that I am a publisher on OBS and have my first PDF available, I have seen all the tools that OBS makes available. Without a lot of effort and success, it is hard to get away from OBS. There are many that use both OBS and direct sales from their website. As a one man outfit, I like the utility of OBS. It is one large project I don’t have to undertake and maintain to duplicate on my website. I definitely lets the small publisher get a lot of value for the percentage taken by OBS. Otherwise, the number of eyes that might stumble on your offerings is a lot smaller. If you are a one person publisher looking to get started, OBS makes it easy to get a slice of your niche in a small niche. The present prominence and success of D&D makes now an even more opportune time to ride this wave. How much longer can it last?

[NOTE: I started this article back in 2016 after my experiences helping with the TOC. I reviewed my back list of drafts over Labor Day weekend, 2018 and completed a few of them.]

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Shadows Over Driftchapel – A New Adventure Kit Kickstarter by Absolute Tabletop

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I backed two Kickstarters from Absolute Tabletop,  Adventure Kit: Oath of the Frozen King, and A Dead Man’s Guide to Dragongrin: 5E Campaign Setting Guide. Because I liked their adventure kit concept, see my review here, I backed the Dragongrin Kickstarter, as it holds more tools.

The Adventure Kit concept is something a GM can build on their own, to help them build adventures in their world. If you don’t want to build your own custom tables, you can get an Adventure Kit and use it to get you on your way creating adventures for your players.

Their new Kickstarter is Adventure Kit: Shadows Over Driftchapel, a setting inspired by the Victorian era. It’s a gaslamp, and perhaps steampunk type setting. The book is done, along with editing and layout. The Kickstarter is to fund more art and printing.

A 5e setting with the Adventure Kit model, something that should appeal to the OSR.

Here’s the blurb leading from the Press Release:

A vast and loathsome shadow approaches – coming Tuesday, September 4 from Absolute Tabletop…

Introducing the upcoming Kickstarter for our second volume of ENnie-nominated Adventure Kits™ – Shadows Over Driftchapel. 

Shadows Over Driftchapel is a fantasy horror adventure set in Gloam, our Victorian/Colonial-inspired world brimming with eldritch horrors, flickering gaslight, and destructive black powder. This versatile adventure-building resource contains everything you’ve come to love about Adventure Kits: modular locations and encounters, intriguing NPCs and fulfilling plotlines, encounter and scene generators ready for on-the-fly-use – plus a few extra stretch goals, if you’ll help us fund beyond our mark!

Hither comes the Gloam – on Tuesday, September 4, the Kickstarter begins, and the monstrosities and madness of Driftchapel will be thrust upon you… 

Follow us on Kickstarter to get real-time updates, and be one of the first to help fund our next Adventure Kit, Shadows Over Driftchapel! https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/absolutetabletop

Here is the link to the companion YouTube video: https://youtu.be/8sdqOj6Sx-Y

Here is the link to the companion Podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/follow-me-and-die/episodes/Follow-Me–And-Die—-Episode-24—Dragongrin-Kickstarter-from-Absolute-Tabletop-e257on

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Mini Review – Low Fantasy Gaming

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[This has been sitting in my drafts forever, and I updated it a while ago to mention newer products. Rather than leave this hidden in my drafts, I thought I’d let it see the light of day.]

Low Fantasy Gaming (LFG) is a free OSR Clone that takes a bit of the original RPG and adds in various tweaks to game mechanics with advantage/disadvantage, skills, exploits (feats?), etc. and limits the availability of magic.

It focuses on humans as the only player race, but has options for other races. Each class is a sort of template for a general idea that has the ability to tweak it to the player’s preference. Some things are left open for new levels to work out between the player and the GM, inviting looking at other RPG’s for ideas. This section acknowledges that this part of the rules is in a perpetual play test state.

There is both a table of contents and an index, but neither is hyperlinked. Still nice to have the basic features in a free product. If the rules are ever for sale, I suggest links in contents and index.

In the credits, several of the artists’ websites are linked. I like that, in case I ever manage to have a project that needs art. It also helps the artist by letting others see their other work.

It is the type of ruleset that is in some ways a setting, but there is no defined setting. One can easily take Robert E. Howard’s map of Hyperboria and place their campaign in it, or develop their own campaign world from scratch.

There are magic user characters, but their access to and use of magic is limited.

Levels are capped at 12th level. Each class gets some sort of base and followers at the appropriate level.

Overall, this gives one an interesting combination of mechanics and options. If you want a simple set of rules, or like collecting free RPGs, check it out. At 188 pages, roughly 80 pages are for players, and the rest for the GM.

As I look at the draft of this post I started in 2016, I am reminded of Knave [Affiliate Link], the new rules light RPG from Ben Milton, creator of Maze Rats [Affiliate Link]. The older I get, the less patience I have for fiddling with and arguing over rules. Let the GM make a ruling so we can get on with the game.

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Mini-Review Sammi-Zowa Versus the Dueling Dragons

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by Ernest Gary Gygax Jr., Nerissa Monte, Simon Todd – illustrator

While geared as a children’s book, adults – especially gamers will enjoy the story. A short 77 pages with larger well-spaced text and plenty of illustrations make this a quick read.

The children of Gary Gygax have shared how much of a story teller he was, and he got that from his own father.

Ernie carries on the tradition with a story originally developed for his own grandchildren.

There is a co-writer, Nerissa Montie, not knowing her style or exact role, I am not sure of her hand in this.

The illustrations by Simon Todd are excellent and really help set the mood.

With a Japanese based setting, magic, and dragons it is a fun and interesting adventure.

While perhaps too long for toddler and pre-K, it is a good bedtime story, 
or an anytime story,  for ages 5 and up.

It makes for a good scenario for an introductory adventure to introduce children to RPG’s.

With a little tweaking, it is an interesting scenario for adults too.

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Ramblings of an Old Gamer