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RPGs

Collaborative Sandbox Design

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I am a participant in the Tenkar’s Landing Crowdsourced Sandbox Setting. It is an interesting concept and it is cool to see all the ideas and how people consult their neighbors to sync up features like rivers and roads and adjust maps to flow with the ideas of others.

I picked a swamp hex. In my campaign I don’t have players running around near a swamp, so my ideas are limited in application to my game. However, other’s hexes have ideas and terrain more in line with where my players are running around, so I can glean ideas.

I see this growing and becoming a very thick book, even a series of modules.

I can’t wait to see how it all plays out and fits together.

RPGs

Original Modules

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I wonder why WotC hasn’t released more of it’s original modules to PDF via D & D Classics?

The answer is most likely the bean counters and management at the VP and higher level have revenue targets that must be met and the percentage of expenses to revenue must be low so that profits are higher. They probably also have a “lean business model”. This means doing more with less and teams are made as small as possible to get the work done. Of course, that is just a guess based on my experience working for a publicly traded company in an unrelated industry.

Of course, from my perspective in the trenches, the bean counters often count the wrong beans.

So, I get it, WotC, now a part of Hasbro, is a publicly traded company and the stockholder’s expect lots of dividends for their investment. I have often wondered why the boards of publicly traded companies don’t further increase their profits by paying their presidents and CEOs less? I am sure that market forces have an influence on this, but why does anyone need more than a million dollars a year in salary, stock options, and benefits?

The problem for the fans who want these out of print items, who can’t afford the gouging on eBay, so they can’t get things they want. A good example is Chainmail and the original LBBs for OD&D. Yes, I know you can get the basic D&D rules, which I have, but it is not the same as having the originals. Also the Player’s Handbook is not available in PDF for 1st Edition AD&D, like the other rule books. It was before WotC’s meltdown a few years ago over a handful of people sharing their PDFs with others. I don’t recall if Chainmail and OD&D were available or not. I spent a lot getting PDFs to rebuild my manuals lost to the great water leak incident before I managed to get hard copies of them all.

It would be very helpful to have the Player’s Handbook available in PDF for those wishing to conduct 1st edition games online, so their players could buy it, thankfully, OSRIC helps with that. The Monster Manual (MMI) is another I don’t see available now, this would only be needed by DMs, but again OSRIC helps.

For any of the old manuals, modules, etc. that were once in PDF, it is not that hard to make them available for sale again. Unless there is some technical aspect about the watermarking process that DriveThru RPG, RPGNow, and D&D Classics that require re-working the PDFs. I know that the Player’s Handbook is not as high a quality of the other manuals that were re-released. Yes, a cleaner scan, etc. would be nice, but I would pay WotC for a legible and usable scan before I would spend tons of money on eBay for something I would be reluctant to use at the table.

Yes, I could scan an expensive hard copy and make my own PDF, but I would have to use a flat bed scanner for one sheet at a time, and based on what my company charges customers for my time (I only wish I made $150/hour), it would be very expensive. Plus, I could do a lot of game prep in that amount of time.

Since WotC turned to members of the OSR for help with D&D Next, it only makes sense to me that WotC turn to fans with skills. I am sure there are D&D players with technical skills that would trade their time for a hard copy of the original rules or at least a free copy of the PDFs they helped create. This would minimize the expense in time for WotC that only requires putting the PDFs on D&D Classics. Granted, they wouldn’t make millions of dollars, but they would make more than enough to cover the salary of the person(s) who coordinate getting PDFs of old resources on D&D Classics.

Problem Solved! I don’t have the skills or the equipment to make decent PDFs, but I am sure there are lots of others out there who do. In the world of publicly traded companies, having a solution for a problem or complaint that you bring, is a big step in getting action.

I don’t know anyone at WotC or personally know anyone who knows anyone at WotC. I’m just a 36+ year player and lover of the game who would like to buy copies of the modules and other things I didn’t have the money to buy when I was in high school.

Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

RPGs

Newly Discovered Deepest Known Cave In Continental USA

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This is very interesting and got me to thinking about, what else, RPGs!

I did some spelunking back in high school. Our band directory had an interest in geology and taught a high school class on geology for several years and took students to a couple of caves. This was in Missouri, the cave state, and we drove from the eastern suburbs of Kansas City to the caves west of St. Louis, in Meramec State Park, not to be confused with the commercial Meramec Caverns. There was one cave we couldn’t enter at that time of year due to an endangered bat species that was in hibernation the part of the year we were there. The one cave we were able to enter had a very cold stream coming out and got narrow and low very quick. We had to go sideways where we could stand and had to crawl on our stomachs in other parts.

It was a hot spring day and the water was like ice. One could easily get hypothermia even in summer.

In college and a few year after, I went on several canoe trips on some of the rivers in south-central Missouri, like the Meramec and the Current, and those can be very cool, but feel great on a hot sunny summer day!

The Current River is well named. There are places where it is only about 3 feet deep and if you lay down, or were to fall or be knocked over, you can get swept quite a bit down river, 30 to 40 feet or more, until you get your bearings and can plant your feet. Even if you keep to your feet, you can’t run without the danger of falling. This was while in sneakers and shorts. Someone in armor and weighed down with a pack would have their stance shifted to compensate and could very easily get knocked over. Just something to think about. Deeper than three feet in a swift river would be even more challenging. Where there are relatively sharp bends in the river with a limestone cliff, the river will dig down and create a deep area. Such places are good to jump off the cliff. CAUTION: I knew a guy who dove head first into one of these places headfirst and died because he came down in shallow water and broke his neck. Always make sure of the depth of the water before jumping off a cliff.

I have also taken tours of some smaller commercial caves and they have very interesting rock formations, very slick stone, made slick as ice with water.

I also recall stories a few years ago about a cave with a secret location in Mexico that has giant crystals. The pictures were cool. I will leave it to the reader to do a google search to see what I mean.

Deepest Known Cave in continental USA.

Subtle entrance to Tears of The Turtle cave [Broken Link:https://www.flickr.com/photos/elliot_stahl/7736961804/in/photostream/]. This type of entrance would be very hard to miss. This is a neat album with more than one cave and gives some ideas about how caves look.

Double Date cave Entrance [Broken Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/elliot_stahl/7737173918/in/photostream/] – This looks like a mine to me. This could confuse characters without a mining background to think they found a mine. Dwarves or gnomes would know better.

One also has to be careful in caves. I recall the movie I saw as a kid and found it via Google. Ace in the Hole AKA The Big Carnival with Kirk Douglas, based on a true story.

RPGs

Alliteration Through The Monster Manual, A to Z.

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I play in a Roll20/Google Hangout AD&D first edition game. We recently started back and forth strings of alliteration in our online comments about write ups of our sessions, etc. I took it much farther than the others.

One player posted a link to a poster of a blind monk on a blind beholder, to which I posted: “Blessed Battling Blind Beholders, Batman! ;)” To which I must now add, “Robin retorted, rhetorically.”

I have the bug bad. So bad, in fact, that I am going to inflict it on the internet at large. I’m sorry, but not that sorry. 😉

So while in the shower the other day I had the idea to do alliterative phrases for an A to Z listing from the Monster Manual. This was initiated as I was reflecting on my post on what the OSR stands for.

Without further ado, here is the list and a couple extra at the end. Yes, I know I have two for B. B for bonus! Hmm…. This just may be my list for next years A to Z challenge….

  1. Angry ankhegs attacking artichoke agriculturalists assiduously.
  2. Bespectacled bald baby basilisks bouncing beautifully.
  3. Barbaric bugbears beheading bullywugs.
  4. Caterwauling catoblepas callously casting cats.
  5. Devilish druidic dervishes dancing defiantly.
  6. Eager ettins eradicate elves enthusiastically.
  7. Fancy famished frogs feasting furiously.
  8. Giant gorgons gobbling goblins greedily.
  9. Hungry harpies harpooning harried hippos. (Get where I got this one?)
  10. Inquisitive imps investigating intrigue.
  11. Jacked-up jackalwere jousting jauntily.
  12. Killer kobolds kissing ki-rin.
  13. Lazy lycanthropes lounging longingly.
  14. Manic misanthropic minotaurs minting mounted miniatures.
  15. Naughty nymphs nuzzling Norman. (Who wishes they were Norman?)
  16. Obtuse owlbears overbearing orcs.
  17. Perspicacious pixies painting pegasi.
  18. Quick quassits quietly questing.
  19. Raging rocs routing rangers.
  20. Silent skeletons slink surreptitiously.
  21. Tough trolls trick troglodytes treacherously.
  22. Uniformed umber hulks undulating under ungainly untied unicorn umbilicus.
  23. Violent vapid violet vampires vamping.
  24. Weird wraiths wriggling wildly.
  25. Xylophoning xorn.
  26. Yellow yeti yelling, yet yearning.
  27. Zombie zoning.

And the two bonus phrases:

  • Master’s multitudinous machinating minions menace marooned mercenaries manning mantlets meekly, masticating meat.
  • All alliteration alludes allegorical alternative alertness, allegedly.

And another….

Flying flaming flamingos fleetly fling flagons flung flatly.

My plea:

Help harried honest human halt horrendous haphazard haranguing.

This is terrible, the tune to “R-O-C-K in the USA” came into my head with the words, “Alliterate in the OSR”.

Will this post never end? Will the puns and assault on the unwary link clickers continue???? …. Tune in next week, same OSR time, same OSR channel.

RPGs

What is the OSR?

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Three little letters seem to cause such a fuss. Here is a list that I will add to as my brain spits out new words and phrases to fit the acronym. When I get enough for a table or two, I will post a new article. (Be afraid, be very afraid.)

I invite others to submit their O.S.R. words, please submit them in the comments, in three word groups in order as seen in my examples below. NOTE: It doesn’t have to relate to RPGs, or at least not in an obvious way.

Obstinate Stinky Referees

Old Senile Roleplayers

One Shot Roleplaying

One Save Rule/Roll

Only Singing Roleplaying

Odiferous Slimy Raconteurs

Ornery Statistics Regulators (My personal favorite so far.)

Original System Resolutely

Obtuse System Rules

Obtuse Seething Revolutionary

Obverse Signage Regulations

Onomatopoeia Serving Rhetoric

Oranges Simmering Resolutely

Obtuse Seething Ridiculousness (A recent Kickstarter comes to mind, in addition to many other efforts to define three letters.)

Overpaid Senior Regulators

Ostracons Scoured Regularly

Ostrogoths Serving Romans

Ovulating Soothsayers Ruminating

Oscillating Sonorous Regurgitation

Ossified Spider Riders

Order Shiny Rings

Orthodontists Skewering Rodents

Overt Slimy Renters

Oysters Salaciously Rotated

Ossuaries Shattered Regretfully

RPGs

Kickstarters For RPGs and Related Items

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Kickstarter has been very popular for both complete RPG games, i.e. new ones, to new editions, to reprints.

I have participated in a few Kickstarters and have not had the funds to join in on all the ones that I’d like.

The Metamorphosis Alpha Kickstarter was one I was interested in, but it was more nostalgia than a resource for play, as I don’t have a group to do MA with, so I passed. Also because the complete book was at like the $80 level. In hindsight, I wish I had joined in on that one. I GM’d for MA back in the day. My manual was one lost in the water damage incident.

I bought some challenge coins from the Schlock Mercenary Challenge Coin Kickstarter. I like the one from the Polish proverb, “Not my circus, not my monkey.”, that is, “It’s not my problem.”

Projects I have backed:

Adventure Conqueror King – Funded. I have the softcover. I like it as a tool. I did not have the funds to support the other Autauch projects.

Hero Forge – Customizeable 3-D Tabletop Miniatures – Funded – Close to on schedule. Currently in beta. (I have beta access and need to make time to try it out.)

Schlock Mercenary Challenge Coins – Funded. Delivered coins on time. Still waiting on document about the history of challenge coins.

Judges Guild City of the Invincible Overlord – Funded – Close to on schedule. Some minor setbacks due to health and family but will be out a month later than initial projections.

The Great Kingdom – Film about the early days of D&D/TSR. -Funded. On hold due to lawsuit.

I believe I pledged to one or two others that did not meet their funding goal, but Kickstarter does not keep track of those, so I can’t identify them.

I have seen some that were obviously so poor that people were just looking for a quick way to make a lot of money. I have seen some that had a good idea and it was poorly executed or poorly planned so that when there was either mild to overwhelming success, the creators were not near the level of readiness they should have been.

Just the last few days, a Kickstarter for an RPG “sandbox” setting was reviewed at Tenkar’s Tavern (Since edited with more colorful graphics than the images from the Kickstarter, after a lawsuit was threatened.) and the creators whined about his critique instead of taking it for what it was and moving on and improving their product. It got very bizarre as someone at this project threatened a lawsuit and made all kinds of other ridiculous statements on the blog. They later deleted all those statements.

I was curious and went to that Kickstarter page and watched the introductory video that is supposed to be the elevator pitch. I was left scratching my head. I had to read more and dig into other things to figure out what it was. It mentioned four “core” books and 25 modules for this “setting”. Why does a setting need four “core” books if it is compatible with Pathfinder or OSRIC? They had a grandiose and interesting goal to have every business and building in every city, town, and village stated out for ease of play. Basically, a ready made campaign world where the DM had to do little more than run it or generate random encounters. At least, that is the way it came across to me. I think they should have spent more time in explaining what this RPG supplement is and why I would want it. Additionally, they need to polish the look of the product more. If they want to hit their timelines, if they had been funded, they should have had things much closer to a ready to go state. They have a map that looks like an old DOS game map, and the way they describe the modules is that it is a railroad for pre-generated characters, instead of something I can bring my own character into it.

After the storm they caused by their thin-skinned reaction to criticism, it was pointed out that they were using named creatures from WoTC that were not part of the OGL. I suspect they got a take down notice from WoTC and cancelled their Kickstarter. Rather than taking the blame for their own poor execution, they blamed the reviewer and those who agreed with the assessment of the reviewer.

From what I have read from those who have done successful Kickstarters, the main thing is a laser like focus on the goal and to have a near ready product, if it is a book, module, or manual, that only needs final editing and proofing, and layout if art for the project is contingent on funding. Other projects that require programming or a physical product need to have details of when it will be done, how it will ship, and above all, proper accounting for all aspects, including shipping/delivery, and taxes.

I think Kickstarter serves a useful purpose for getting the word out when venture capitalists are nowhere to be found. However, it requires the producer to actually have something, and deliver it on time or communicate delays early and often. Too many have under budgeted and lost a great deal of money when it comes to shipping, etc. If you don’t have the ability to stick with a project and see it through to completion, Kickstarter is not for you.

 

 

 

RPGs

GenCon 2014 Cosplay

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I took pictures of the cosplayers and boot people that caught my eye. Far from all of them. I left before the parade and costume contest. Many were so well done it looked like they went home after last GenCon and set to work.

There were very few slave Leias. 🙁 Some were obvious comic book or manga/anime style characters, I just don’t know anything about those characters.

This knight has a cool outfit, not sure what video game or comic it is from. Catwoman had a well done costume.

Catwoman and a Knight
Catwoman and a Knight

Very well done Ghostbuster costume.

Ghostbuster
Ghostbuster

The line to the vendor room started a couple hours early. I found a bench against the wall so I could be comfortable.

Not Cosplayers but the line for the vendors
Not Cosplayers but the line for the vendors

Batman
Batman

Boba Fett
Boba Fett

Girl with a sword
Girl with a sword

This was one of two guys around a model cannon for a company selling a battle game. I didn’t catch the name.

Guy with a Prussian Helmet
Guy with a Prussian Helmet

This young woman was attracting attention to a game product. I didn’t catch its name.

Booth babe with red eyes
Booth babe with red eyes

This young woman’s contacts made her eyes look very red. Unfortunately, my cellphone camera did not do them justice. 🙁

Closeup Red Eyes
Closeup Red Eyes

I remember when this came out in 1983, Dragon’s Lair – the first arcade game on laser disc.

Video Game Character
Video Game Character

Have you ever seen a Storm Trooper in a Kilt?

Braveheart Stormtrooper
Braveheart Stormtrooper

I thought this was a cool idea and well executed.

DM Cosplay
DM Cosplay

RPGs

Ancient Greek Tomb – Alexander The Great’s Mother?

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An interesting find was in the news at the end of September, 2014. An ancient and well preserved Greek tomb was found that dates to the time of Alexander the Great and some suspect it might be that of his mother.

This applies to this blog because of the pictures and sketches and how they illustrate such things for extrapolation into game play. One gets a sense for how a 2,400 year old tomb would really look, and the condition of its contents. Of course, magic and technology in the game world can change that.

One article here with a picture of sphinxes guarding the entrance, the caryatid columns and a sketch of the layout of the tomb in 3-D.

 

Tomb Entrance
Tomb Entrance

Tomb Sketch - 2 Chambers
Tomb Sketch – 2 Chambers

Another article on Yahoo, here, with a video and a the same sketch as above but showing the third chamber.

I grabbed a screenshot of it below.

 

Tomb Sketch - 3 Chambers
Tomb Sketch – 3 Chambers

RPGs

Tenkar’s Landing – OSR Crowdsourced Island

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I took the plunge and signed up for a hex in the Tenkar’s Landing Crowdsourced Island. There is a G+ community for the endeavor.

It will be interesting to see how this all comes together.

So far, it is decided to use 6 mile hexes, any flavor of the Swords & Wizardry Rules, but keeping it light on the “crunch” for easier use by any rules set.

Erik has given the general background of the island and will provide some other information.

One person has already done a map of their hex with fishing villages.

There are still several hexes left.

I claimed a swamp hex, so it will be interesting how the whole thing meshes with the rest of the island and map.

RPGs

What is the OSR?

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The perfect answer from Greyhawk Grognard, it even has a d20 table! He does mention that it could easily be a d100 table. It should at least be a d30 table so I can use the d30 I bought at GenCon.

Now everyone should be happy, or not, probably not for some that just can’t let it go. Sounds like a younger me who just couldn’t let go of a fine point of distinction lost on the majority of the world. Get over it, IT’S A GAME! If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong!