RPG Blogs

To get some appropriate armies for my setting I’m working on for an upcoming campaign, I’m thinking of checking out Classic Toy Soldiers, a website that sells 25mm plastic soldiers, from fantasy to historical armies to the modern day.

Here are a couple of sets that caught my eye as far as populating my armies quickly:

Ancient Armies (Check out the Britons and the Hittites!)

Medieval (Vikings and Saxons and Saracens, oh my!)

For games like Colonial Gothic, there are also some pretty awesome sets:

Washington’s troops & Redcoats (I have no idea why there are Confederate soldiers included)

The pricing seems reasonable--has anyone had any experiences with them? What do you think?

In the dealers' rooms at game conventions, giant vinyl mats are a common sight. And those vast 48" by 60" (or larger) maps are a hell of a temptation. It only takes one session coming to a complete halt while you redraw the map on a 24"-square mat before the average GM starts seriously considering something that covers the whole playing surface--and that encompasses the entirety of the dungeon.

But it's a rare GM who uses the whole mat to depict a single, vast room, partly because, once an encounter commences, the players are loathe to move beyond the confines of the immediate threat. Years of storming through dungeons like army ants has reinforced the notion that you never, ever leave any monsters behind to harass your spellcasters or finish off your wounded. And, by the same token, GMs have been trained by conventional adventure design (and the limitations of an 8.5" x 11" sheet of graph paper) that you need a certain number of size-appropriate rooms in which to stage a certain number of level-appropriate encounters, or you're just wasting the space.

But it's a real pity to let all that real estate get broken out into smaller lots--particularly when there are monsters right there in the rules that would love to have a little more room to maneuver.

For example, dragons. Dragons fare better in combat when they have the ability to fly, but their maneuverabiliity usually prevents them from logging much flight time in the standard-sized room. Create enough airspace, however--and throw in a few high perches where the dragon can avoid attacks of opportunity while it casts healing spells--and the dragon has a tactical advantage. The players must rely mainly on ranged weapons or readied attacks, while the dragon can deliver it's breath weapon attacks from a comfortable distance.

Archers, likewise, benefit from longer ranges--even more so when they have melée troops acting as picketers to bog down the players. Add in, again, high vantage points from which the archers can fire--towers, battlements, trees--and the archers can ignore a lot of cover bonuses. Spellcasters? Rock-hurling giants? Same story.

Where large rooms fail, though, is in incentivizing players to do some maneuvering of their own. Sure, you can put some cover in the previously-mentioned scenarios to encourage the PCs not to just stand there in the open--but all that really does is convince them to move somewhere else before "holing up." And it really defeats the purpose of having a large encounter area if there's so much available cover that the enemy can never draw line of sight, or pull off a decent flyby.

The GM can mitigate these limitations somewhat by tweaking a couple of elements of the encounter--specifically Time and Distance.

Time
Most adventures are laid out in a chronologically linear fashion by necessity; if there's too much going on all at once, the players feel like they can't slow down--or that, if they're forced to retreat for any reason, they've effectively lost.

But, single encounters can be designed to include concurrent events, each of which require interaction from the PCs. The evil duke is murdering the king while the evil high priest is sacrificing the king's daughters--all while the evil sorcerer has lost control of his summoned demon and it's about to go on a rampage.

Situations like these motivate players to split their forces, and though players generally regard that as a tactical blunder, they'll do it if they think there's action to be had somewhere else on the map, or if they feel their particular skills are needed somewhere else, or if they feel they just don't have any other choice.

Time constraints play into their reasoning. Tell the players that an enemy spellcaster is halfway through a minute-long casting time, and, odds are, one player will take it upon himself to charge the guy. Tell them an ally is bleeding out, and unlikely to stabilize, and the healer will do everything in his power to go rescue him. Or, he'll: Just point out that their arch-enemy is on the other end of the field, and at least one player will ignore nearby threats to go "kill that bastard for sure this time!"

Distance
The thing that so many GMs forget--and their players thus take forgranted--is that encounters don't always take place one move away from the enemy.

Archers and dragons, as previously mentioned, vastly benefit from having the PCs out of arm's reach for a round or two. Likewise spellcasters, who can use the time to cast a buff or two--or employ their long-range spells.

Invisible opponents also benefit from distance: More maneuvering space means more squares for the PCs to choose from when guessing where their foes are.

And, with a large map, distance is easy to tweak. Instead of placing those archers every 60 feet, put all of them behind a barbican 400 feet away. That's five rounds of arrows raining down on the PCs--and five rounds of tactical decisions for the players to make (particularly if the only available cover is only large enough to protect one Medium-sized creature at a time).

So, the next time you're trying to plan out your next game session, get out that awesome mega-map that you haven't been able to find a use for, and once agaon consider using it.

Or, better yet, all of it.

Interviews

• John Joseph Adams interviews Adam-Troy Castro.
  
• Jeremy L.C. Jones interviews Angela Slatter.
  
• Cheryl Morgan interviews China Mieville and Lauren Beukes (video).
• Helen Lowe interviews Cheryl Morgan.
• Suvudu videos of Brent Weeks.
• Angela Slatter interviews Marianne de Pierres and Gio Clairval.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Jennifer Ouellette.
• Falcata Times interviews Mike Shevdon.
  

Advice/Articles

• Darin Bradley Provides an Audio-Visual Tour of Noise.
• Jeff VanderMeer on Teaching the Next Generation of SF/F Greats: "Shared Worlds".
• Eric Schaller on Spec Tech: Monsters.
• Cory Doctorow on Proprietary Interest.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Fear Itself.
• Mike Brotherton on The Importance of Science: Ten Reasons.
• Rachelle Gardner on Author Headshots.
• Juliette Wade on Washing Clothes across cultures.
  

News

• Neil Gaiman Sandman Comic in "Early Stages of Being Developed" for TV.

Weird Tales #356/Summer 2010

This was a fun podcast episode, with a great guest. This week, we discussed:

-All sorts of stuff, in an interview with our special guest writer/editor/hobby superwoman Jess Hartley;

-A review and discussion of the new sword-and-sorcery Shadow, Sword, & Spell RPG, from Rogue Games

-GM Screens: Benevolent Game Master’s Aid, or Instrument Oppressive Fascism? (OK, perhaps we didn’t couch it in those terms, but you get the idea).

Download it now, and give yourself gaming sustenance in the days to come.

Readers of this site know I'm absolutely crazy about random generation, tables, and charts in role playing games--I love 'em, and think they're tremendous fun. Today, I have an interview with Hannah Lipsky of Chaotic Shiny Productions, someone who knows as much about random generation programs for RPGs as anyone out there. Hannah is here to talk about her awesome new Kingdom Builder II program pack, her other available generators, Chaotic Shiny's other projects, and a bit about being a small-press gaming company.

Best of all, as a thank-you to RPG Blog 2 readers, the first twenty people to use the code "RPGB2ROCKS" at the Chaotic Shiny store this month receive 25% off any purchase! Act fast, because those twenty uses will go quick! How awesome is that? Now, on to the interview!

Chaotic Shiny has one of the largest collections of RPG generator tools I've seen. How did you get involved in writing these sorts of programs?

I started freeform play-by-post roleplaying way back on AvidGamers. I noticed that a lot of sites there had similar names, so I made a couple site name generators as a joke. Not long after, I realized I was playing a lot of similar characters, so I made a character generator as a way to help stretch my creativity.

A while later, I was running a tri-stat dX game and having a lot of trouble coming up with taverns on the fly. The tavern generator was the first really detailed generator I made, and the first one specifically for use in tabletop RPGs.

After that I made a generator whenever I thought I'd need something original on the fly during a game, and then I started making generators off other people's suggestions, or just because I had a cool idea.

What can you tell us about your upcoming generator, Kingdom Builder II?

It combines some of the existing generators on Chaotic Shiny, like the Law and Fashion gens, with some totally new generators. The Events gen comes up with things like "A new species of minotaur has been sighted near a southern forest, and there have been severe thunderstorms. A popular scion may be involved." The Conspirator gen gives you interesting people to build hooks from. And of course there's the visual Flag gen, which makes pictures of flags - you can even use your own image as the charge.

It's based on suggestions about the original Kingdom Builder pack, which is my most popular product to date. You can use the two together to create a fully fleshed-out kingdom brimming with plot hooks, or use any of the generators on their own whenever you need them.

How often do random charts, generators, and tables factor into your own games?

I used to use my generators during my games all the time. Recently I've been trying to run with just a notebook and pencil, no laptop in sight. It's a bit of a relief to run with just what's on the table in front of me, but it does mean that if I want to use my generators, I have to plan ahead.

You've also been working on some things with Chaotic Shiny Productions, both some generators and books like Martial Flavor, a 4e sourcebook regarding martial cultures. What are you currently working on?

The next book we have coming out is Arcane Flavor, the sequel to Martial Flavor. It has five unique cultures that each put their own twist on magic - from the half-fey city of Cailleath to the shadows where the Ternion stalk their prey, and the ringing peaks of Valok where evil bards reign supreme.

I'm very happy with the cool stuff I've come up with for the book, and the art by Rachel is absolutely gorgeous. She takes my artistic direction of, "I dunno, tall buildings and fire and stuff - and try to have fewer women this time; people complained" and comes up with digital paintings that are exactly what I envisioned, only better.

As a small press company, how do you compete with larger concerns that can perhaps afford more helping hands, art direction, or have more resources?

I don't. I do this because I love it. If I can break even or even make a profit, that's awesome. I certainly can't pay myself a living wage doing this, but that's why it's not my day job. Not to say I'm not serious about the business side of things - I am. But I know I'm not going to be the next Paizo, and I'm okay with that.

What's been the biggest lesson you've learned on the publishing side of things so far?

Never announce deadlines. Real life comes up, both for me and other people, and there's nothing worse than having to nag a friend who's already stressed out just so you can make a deadline you ignorantly set six months ago. Now I have general times when I shoot for releases, but I never make a specific date public. That way, when my internet goes down for a week or I'm invited on a spur of the moment camping trip, I don't need to apologize to my fans.

What sort of continuing impact do you see the digital revolution having on smaller gaming publishers, and, indeed, RPG publishers as a whole?

I wouldn't be able to publish at all if it weren't for the online market. It's made it possible for small press to exist, by drastically cutting down costs and making it easier to get the word out. As for larger publishers, that really depends on how they react to it. I think there's a lot of cool things that can happen if big publishers go with the new technology instead of trying to resist it.

What can we look for for the rest of this year and going into 2011?

I'm going to keep coming out with free generators on Chaotic Shiny, of course. I aim for two a month, though real life has been getting in the way a lot more frequently now that I have a full time job.

There will be more generator packs from Chaotic Shiny Productions, though I'm not sure yet what the next one will be. I'll be coming out with Arcane Cultures, taking the cultures from Arcane Flavor and releasing them in a (most likely) systemless form.

I'll keep coming out with cool free stuff like Tavern Tables, the Damager and 10 Fantasy Coins. Free products let me play around with new ideas without the pressure of making something that will sell, so they're a lot of fun to work on.

I'm working on some cool collaborative projects with some other people, though I can't say too much about them yet. Suffice to say that they are very shiny indeed.

Again, thanks to Hannah Lipsky for a great Q&A and a great special for the readers. Remember, the code for 25% off at the Chaotic Shiny store is "RPGB2ROCKS"! Hannah rocks, too--make sure to let her know!

In today's show we compare convention games to home games and give some great tips for running especially convention games.

Some of the games brought up in the discussion include Universalis, Burning Wheel, Blood Bowl, and All for One: Regime Diabolique.

We also share a bit about RinCon over Columbus Day weekend in Tucson, Arizona.  You must join us!

One of the highlights of my visit at last weekend’s Toronto Fan Expo was the one hour panel I had the honour to share with RPG legends Ed Greenwood and Robin D. Laws.  I bumped into Robin about 30 minutes before the talk and we checked the room assigned to us.  It contained about 100 chairs but neither Robin nor I expected much of a turnout.

…that was us seriously underestimating the attraction of Ed, his stories and the general interest of people for tabletop RPGs.  We ended up speaking to packed room of 100+ people. I was impressed!

I wasn’t too sure how things would go but Robin took the lead and proposed that we each introduce ourselves and shared something we had recently learned as a Game Master, given that even the most legendary GMs learned new things.

Thankfully, Robin asked me to go after him but before Ed…

“Hi, ummm, I’m, like, this RPG blogger with a French name you probably didn’t get and, umm, I write stuff and I was a DM for a real long time”

I may be exaggerating a bit here. It got better from there.

New lessons for old warriors

Robin started talking about how he learned that failure in RPGs had to be re-evaluated…

Chatty (Silently): Oh crap, he’s going to say what I was going to say… quick make his head explode with your Scanners powers!

Robin basically outlined that classic, meaningless RPG failures (TPKs, Dead ends, failed spot checks) should not tarnish the players expectations/ time investement in the game. Modern RPGs tend to emulate heroic genres and the GM should make sure that failures fit the kind seen in movies where the heroes get up, dusts themselves up and pick up where they left off.

Chatty (still silently): Phew…He can live, I can add more to what he just said.

I followed about my experiences with Mouseguard and how failures should rather be used as opportunities to make things more interesting, more complicated for players instead of closing doors.

Ed then shamelessly plugged Robin’s new book “Hamlet’s Hit Points”. He said that after making stuff up on the spot for so many years in his games, he was surprised to see that you could still plan emotional rises and falls in your games pretty much like studio creatives and executives do.

Ed: I met these 3 foot tall guys with cigars telling the writers: “No, the hero can’t start caressing the girl until scene 3, that’s when the audience will be hooked!”

I’m paraphrasing here people, I take no responsibility about nor will I even try to quote Ed on anything… ever.

Still, I think I’m going to have a look at that new book.

Robin: How dare you plug my newly published book, available at all fine locations where RPG books can be found!

Q&A about ‘That Guy”

We then started taking questions and it became obvious that Robin and Ed had fielded a tons of those before.  What surprised me was that many, many of them were about GMs asking how to make players conform to some ideal they had internalized.  Here’s a few I remember.

Question: How do I make this one player come out of his shell and start roleplaying?

Answer: He already roleplays by being there. Maybe he’ll come out of his shell but don’t stay stuck on a narrow definition of roleplaying.  Players evolve but not necessarily where or how the GM expects.

Question: I have this guy who always have these crazy plans he wants to trigger at the end of combat, how do I rein him in?

Robin: There we are people, we have the question about “that guy!”

Answer: If you truly are at the end of a session, tell him to keep it in and that he can do it at the next session.  If the player wants to do some crazy stuff like shooting a bazooka in a small room (true example from the room), just let him, at least once in a while, and have all the other PCs surf the explosion wave to safety.  If it’s cool, make room for it.

Question: How do I convince a player to stop always playing the same kinds of character?

Answer: You don’t. You figure out a way to let them play one.

Ed: I like Cat Ninja Bard girls!

This exchange brought the philosophy all 3 of us shares to the forefront: Focus on delivering to players what they want, don’t force your perception of what is proper to them.  Make it work so your motivations and theirs match but be the flexible one.

Question: How do you handle large groups in D&D?

Answers: Play older editions. Impose discipline and skip turns when not applied. Foster a new DM and split group in two, possibly playing in a shared world with PCs switching games.

Question: How do I make my players care about My NPCs/My Stories/My World

Answers: Make them care by creating relationships with NPCs, by being directly involved in the stories and by making them small owners of the world (keeps, inns, etc). Have them make difficult choices about them Foster world creation from the get go by having pre-campaign sessions where players create new NPCs and places and create ties between them and the elements they created.

Great stuff really.

Is the Hobby dying? Ask the kids…

Robin mentions on his journal that the fears of having the hobby die out to video games seem to be unfounded.  Most of the room was filled with 20-somethings that seemed to be genuinely excited about D&D! I’ll take this anecdotal evidence and use it generously from now on!

All in all, I had a great time.  I loved listening to Ed and Robin share their wisdom and I think I held my own and made a few interesting points myself.  I also want to catch more of Ed telling stories, they guy is an awesome font of non-PC, R-Rated stories!  I wanna hear more!

Looking forward to doing it again as I was re-invited for 2011.

I fell a couple of days behind schedule, adventure fans, but here for your listening pleasure is the monumental, historic 100th episode of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, presenting “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 5,” played on August 14, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: I call for your initiative roll myself on the occasion of this 100th episode.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory (referring listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign), giving a more extensive summary of “Well Met in Markathesh” and parts 1–4 of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
• The Weather Report: The explorers emerge victorious from their clash with the Shadowgate guardians.
• The Prop Shop: I briefly report on my use of DM Toolkit, an iPad/iPhone app by Brad Talton for Level 99 Games, to run this adventure. Brad has also graciously provided me with three coupons for free copies of DM Toolkit, which I will passed on to the first three listeners who requested them. For those of you who prefer lower-tech solutions, my Noble Knight pick of the episode is the GameMastery Combat Pad Initiative Tracker by Paizo.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features the following theme and background music, used by permission of the copyright holders:
• “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics
• “Firewalker” by Medwyn Goodall, from the album Tribal Nation, ©2005 MG Music
• “Spirit of the Rainbow Serpent” by Terry Oldfield, from the album Australia: Twilight of the Dreamtime, ©1994 by New World Music

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 5,” and that you’ll join us when the campaign continues in “The Nameless City, Part 1″!

I forgot to mention this in the audio, but if you shop at DriveThruRPG between now and September 10 (my brother’s birthday), enter the coupon code DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast to receive a 20% discount on all products from the following publishers:

• A Terrible Idea
• Aethereal Forge
• Bailey Records, including:
• Amazing Universe: The Superheroic Music EP
• Pulp City: The Soundtrack, Part 1
• Chronicles of Ramlar Official Soundtrack, Part 1
• Crucifiction Games
• Dream Pod 9
• Fantasy Games Unlimited, including classic Villains & Vigilantes rules and adventures
• Final Redoubt Press, including the Echoes of Heaven multi-system module series
• Gold Rush Games, including the San Angelo: City of Heroes sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds
• Goodman Games, a fantastic publisher of 3.5e and 4e supplements and adventures, including:
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Level Up magazine
• The Critter Cache series
• GM Gems and PC Pearls
• And much more!
• Highmoon Games, including:
• Domains of Adventure systemless location descriptions
• Heroic Moments adventures for 4C
• No Other Gods, an adventure for Testament
• One Bad Egg‘s back catalog
• Morbid Games
• OtherWorld Creations, including Murder of Crows and other adventures for Call of Cthulhu
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games, including Colonial Gothic
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo, including Gamescapes Story Maps
• Tricky Owlbear
• Vigilance Press, including the Wargames series for Mutants & Masterminds

Don’t miss out on this great offer!

Interviews

• Redstone Science Fiction interviews Mary Robinette Kowal.
• Angela Slatter interviews Kyla Ward, Jonathan Strahan, and Brendan Fredericks.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Laura Resnick.
• Tor/Forge interviews Lena Meydan.
  

Advice/Articles

• Darin Bradley on Salvage, the Switch to Digital, and Book PR.
• Howard Andrew Jones on After the Book Deal.
• Janice Hardy on Re-Write Wednesday Golden Oldie: Get Over Overstating.
• Eric Rosenfield on The Ebook Reader Landscape Changes Again, Translation Dictionaries Are Buried Lede.
• N.K. Jemisin on How to — possibly — torpedo one’s own career in epic fantasy.
• Kaaron Warren on The Genesis of Slights.
• Pimp My Novel on The Blockbuster Phenomenon.
  

News

• New issue of Ideomancer.

Clarkesworld #48

Well, this would sum up what my players usually do in a single round.



God bless India.

Link

We went to the Indiana State Fair a few weeks back, and while in the Commercial Building (roofing companies, cookware, and gimmicky products as far as the eye can see), my wife was accosted by quite possibly the pushiest mattress salesman in existence. Fortunately, my daughter ran away (bless her heart), and my wife had an excuse to flee.

This guy pushed all the wrong buttons. He was overbearing, didn’t give you space to breathe, and didn’t seem as concerned with what you wanted as with what he was selling. I disliked him almost instantly, and wouldn’t have bought a mattress from him if the alternative was purchasing a urine-soaked cot from an affable hobo.

I started to think about how this sort of “hard sell” online can turn me off of a RPG product almost as instantly. It’s great to love your product or be a super fan of a product, but when you’re recommending it blindly, regardless of what I really want, how am I supposed to trust you?

Similarly, if you’re a publisher, there’s a time to be proud of your product, and a time to listen to what I want (yes, you can do both). Listening before talking up your product can help you highlight what I’m after, and possibly save us both some time if it turns out not to be what I want.

And if your product isn’t for me and I politely communicate that fact, don’t turn into a jackass. If you’re polite and pleasant, I just may have a friend or friends that the product will work for.

It’s no coincidence that many of the RPG publishers whose work I enjoy and admire don’t come off as hucksters, spin-men, or shills. You want a sale, give me room to breathe, time to ask questions, and keep an ear open for what I’m looking for.

Interviews

• Suvudu On Air interviews Charles Yu.
• Angela Slatter interviews Ben Payne and Sean Wallace.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Harry Connolly.
  

Advice/Articles

• Nancy Fulda on Death as a Plot Device.
• Jason S. Ridler on Escape, Resonance, and Recovery: Traversing the Values of Fantasy.
• Brit Mandelo on Queering SFF: Where’s the Polyamory?
• Brandon Sanderson on It's Here!
• Robert Freeman Wexler On Robot Workers.
• Rachelle Gardner on To Endorse or Not to Endorse.
• Nicola Morgan on Editing for Toughies.
• Jason Sanford on Guess what? A reprint is a "new story" if you haven't read it!

Andromeda Spaceways #46

Yesterday was the first part of our interview with Frog God Games, the new publishers of Swords & Wizardry (and Pathfinder products, to boot). Today, in Part 2, we cover a bit about writing for 4th edition D&D, a bit more on Swords & Wizardry, support for Pathfinder, and plans for the future. Thanks again to Bill Webb, Greg Vaughan, and Matt Finch for all participating!

Going back to Necromancer Games for a minute, because I think folks (including myself) are curious: A lot of people were expecting to see some more releases from Necromancer in support of D&D 4th Edition. What happened there, and why the change in supported systems?

(Bill) I could not write 4e. I assume it’s a fine game, but its not the same game that I play. Frankly its rules confused me and made me want to play and MMO or Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The legal issues w/ 4e were uncomfortable; but I don’t really understand any of that stuff; Clark does. Suffice to say I will not produce 4e, and Clark is on an indefinite hiatus from the game.

(Greg) There was originally talk of me converting Tsar to 4e. While I respect 4e as a game, I simply did not believe it was viable to still be able to capture the heart and intent of what I had written in that framework. I know that sounds weird, but I have written 4e and I have written 3.5 and Pathfinder. I wouldn’t have been able to pull off a translation that did it justice. That said, translating backward through editions is certainly a possibility…

Call it the OSR, Old School Renaissance, DIY Grognards, Neoclassical Gaming, etc.—there’s a big community out there, providing a pretty wide range of homegrown support for classic and classically-inspired editions and iterations of the game. Where do you see Frog God fitting into that?

(Bill) Well, I am one of those guys, just not a big poster on the message boards themselves. I play S&W because my old white box set is falling apart and I wanted to teach my kids to play the same game I learned (my 8 year old is a formidable gamer). I have hosted a Wilderlands campaign since 1978 (maybe 1977—brain is failing me. I never really bought into the “upgrades”. I have played 2/2.5/3/3.5/Pathfinder, and they rock; they are still “the game”, but I like a simpler open format that is OD&D, and I have always come back to it. I was actually awarded the “Golden Grognard” award at the ENnies one year, so “these are my people,” as my wife is fond of saying. (Yes, I know that for the S&W players, the ENnies aren’t exactly the hallmark of old school, but hey, it’s a nice award).

Most importantly, let us know what you want us to do and what we are doing that makes you happy, sad or mad. My email is public knowledge, and I am the guy who takes complaints. I can be found at bill@talesofthefroggod.com or at necromancergames@yahoo.com. I NEVER mind folks giving us feedback; good or bad. That is my job (and why I get $5/hour and why everyone else gets $4—not kidding by much either). We are keeping our forums at http://necromancergames.yuku.com/ , but that may change in time. Matt’s S&W forums will stay open too at http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/forum/ .

(Greg) Wait, we get paid hourly?

If it helps people to understand what I’m targeting, I want to be the Judges Guild of 2010. By bringing higher production quality to the market, we hope to attract more people to the game. By letting Matt write, and not produce and edit, we hope to get more of his (brilliant) stuff out there.

We want to widen the audience, bring more folks back to the game, and produce cool stuff to help that happen. Pathfinder is a great game too—and lots of folks play that. We also want to support that audience and keep people rolling dice instead of clicking mouse buttons. We like to produce fan-written material, and most importantly, modules. I think the term module has been lost to the game in many cases. A module is something that is “modular” and fits in where a DM wants it to fit in. we don’t want to “tie you in” to canon like FR did. I want the community to take or leave our stuff in whole or pieces and make it work for the way/setting in which they play.

That’s part of the reason I never “cashed in” on a Necromancer World setting like about 100 other publishers did. You have your setting, I want to make stuff for you to use in YOUR setting. JG was different for me; I wanted to do that so I could use it. That and the fact that Wilderlands is about as cool a product as I have ever seen.

Frog God will make books to support tabletop roleplaying games, period. I sincerely hope that all the DIY guys will keep doing the same. I also hope that I can help some of these guys get to press. I have to say, there are market realities. Artists, cartographers and printers don’t work for free—so some folks will like or hate prices as they see fit.

(Matt) Okay, let’s use loaded terms like “OSR” and see if we can make Tim Kask mad again. I’m sooooooooooo not touching that one with a ten foot pole. Does FGG “fit in” with the current model of the traditional OSR publishers? No. Clearly. FGG uses a “sales model” that’s quite different and based on how to work in a larger market. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it’s neutral. I don’t think marketing models affect gaming one way or the other – it’s the quality of what’s produced.

Bottom line: This will bring more players to the table, and more modules to the table, whether the company itself fits the normal profile or not.

Your company is supporting two OGL games in Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder that are quite different. How does your philosophy or strategy change (if at all) when writing for one vs. the other?

(Bill) First off, those modules are going to appear for both systems, but the different games mean that the conversion process, whether it’s from PF to S&W or from an S&W module to a PF one, is not a matter of cutting and pasting – the games are very different in the way they are played, and that means a lot of in-depth conversion to align a converted module to match the rules it’s intended for. Chuck and Greg play Pathfinder, Matt and I play S&W. Robert, Rick etc. play 3.5. None of us plays 4.0. We all support both games as a venue for folks to play the game as it was intended. Pathfinder is very complex and rules heavy—some folks love that. S&W is very freeform, and some folks love that. Personally, I have experimented with higher complexity (I ran a game using Balboa Games systems for 2 years), but I keep returning to simple d20/d6 rules. I like being a player in Pathfinder Games but I don’t know how Greg DMs it—its very confusing to this old frog.

My production philosophy is “high quality rules all.” That means content, art and maps. Some folks may not like that, but I will only produce what I consider to be professional looking, quality content stuff. No filler. That is a personal issue for me.

Obviously, not everyone has the same aesthetics. Some people like non-gridded maps like the one in Supplement 2. Some of us prefer the blue maps from B1. I happen to like darker colors (easier to see while gaming) and a more Judges Guild style. I’m willing to spend money to get that style done well.

Most of our profit goes into the next set of art and maps and printing. I guess we will make a bunch on our final book, when that day comes.

Our game philosophy is “old school,” and when I say that I don’t mean with all the theory and brouhaha that’s become attached to that phrase. At Necro, we called it 1e feel. Matt always says it best—“Imagine the Hell out of it” is the motto.

(Matt) Yep. Imagine the Hell out of everything.

(Greg) As a writer of adventures all the way back to 1e (yeah, I know, not 0e, but that was even before my time), I have found that many of the adventure concepts translate extremely well across the systems. In my opinion, 4e was the first D&D system to break with that in that the adventures by necessity began to take very different forms in format and play style. My first published adventure in Dungeon was a 3.5 update of an Expert rules adventure I had written for the Isle of Dread. I understand that the rules are significantly different and can be invasive, but the story still stands and works, which is what I think and adventure is all about: the shared story of its participants painted on the primer of the writer.

Let’s talk Pathfinder-specific for a minute. What products will you be looking at doing in support of Pathfinder?

(Bill) Everything (probably) except rulebooks will be done in both formats—to be clear, NOT dual statted; but as separate books. Slumbering Tsar may or may not be done for S&W because its huge (500k words) and I am not sure Matt and I will have time to convert it soon.

What else is in the pipeline for Frog God Games?

(Bill) Right now about 40 books, with more on the way. Most books will be short (24-32 pages). Our website details what is for sale now or soon. The most exciting are the Complete Rulebook and the Slumbering Tsar hardcover (really 14 modules in a huge book). We will be producing a few other DM utilities for use in both systems, but our real focus will be on One Night Stands and Saturday Night Specials. This is where I am looking for 12k word submissions for writers. I’ll have a guy handle the Pathfinder stats. It’s a great way to have folks get published and for a broad audience to get their work. Share cool stuff around as much as possible is the goal. Matt and I will also be writing for this line. What these are is (from our site):

“Remember when the world was a sandbox and you just inserted modules into your campaign whenever and wherever you wanted to? Remember when companies like Judges Guild and TSR produced short stand alone modules, not tied to any setting or campaign? Remember when the cost 5 bucks (ok we can’t do print books for 5 bucks anymore, but we can do that for the pdfs)? Remember when you directed the action independent of what the “world” rules said was there? We do, and in response we decided to fill the gap with our One Night Stands and Saturday Night Specials series.

These modules are designed to be played over the course of 1-2 nights. Each is a sandbox style short adventure (One Night Stands) or a short dungeon crawl (Saturday Night Specials). Frog God Games knows that in this day and age, sometimes a DM just needs a short trek to take his players on, or to fill those regular gaps and interludes in his campaign. Sometimes its just fun to enter a dungeon and kill things for a night! Old school feel is the trademark of these product lines. Look for easy deaths and tough puzzles. Frog God Games is not made for rookie players.

These series are designed as stand alone modules and are typically between 24 and 32 pages. We have designed just one piece of cover art for each series in order to keep the price point low (though the cover art is rockin’, and the interiors and maps are all of usual Frog God Games quality!). All of these books will be released in both Pathfinder and Swords and Wizardry format.”

We will also be doing some sandboxy min-campaigns, and a very cool temple based series called Splinters of Faith—10 modules with adventures revolving around different aligned religions and temples. Very deadly and very fun.

This really is what is currently written, and art is in process. Lots more as soon as I figure out what we are doing next.

(Greg) I don’t know; Bill passed Creative Director duties on to me and Matt so he could run the company, and I haven’t been allowed to get up from my keyboard to look around since.

Courtesy of theRPGsite, it sounds like the Dragon Warriors RPG has reached the end of the line. Apparently, the company holding the rights to Dragon Warriors wanted an increase in royalties somewhere in line of 1250%. Needless to say, Magnum Opus Press has announced that In From The Cold will be the last DW supplement from them.

Sad news, but if Dragon Warriors could survive as long of a hiatus as it had before, I'm sure it can survive this one. Sorry to all the Dragon Warriors fans out there, and to the folks and fans of Magnum Opus Press. It's an ugly side of our hobby to see.

Interviews

• Peter Orullian interviews Daniel Abraham.
• The Outer Alliance interviews Karen Romanko.
• Hour of the Wolf interviews Sybil's Garage (podcast).
• Jeff VanderMeer interviews Rose Fox.
• Betsy Mitchell interviews Harry Connolly.
• Angela Slatter interviews Jeffrey Ford and Alisa Krasnostein.
• Cory Doctorow on Doctorow's First Law.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Mark Van Name.
  

Advice/Articles

• Darin Bradley on Noise, the Apocalypse, and You.
• Ryan Britt on I Can Has Ray Gunz! Cat-People in Science Fiction.
• Matthew David Surridge on Worlds Within Worlds: The First Heroic Fantasy (Part I).
• Mike Brotherton on Where is the Science Fiction Writer’s Promised Land?
• Rachelle Gardner on Writing Online Book Reviews.
• Richard Dansky on Heresy! Blasphemy! Rah Rah Rah!
• Alma Alexander on 10 Authorial Confessions.
• Stroppy Author on How to read a publishing contract (20).
  

News

• Indigenousfuturisms Writing Contest $1000 Prize.
• How the Washington Shakespeare Company came to offer Shakespeare in Klingon.
• Black Library announces Hammer and Bolter.
• Crossed Genres Year One – Half off through Saturday! ($2.50 PDF, $5 print!).

Bull Spec #2

Today and tomorrow, we'll be featuring a Q&A with Frog God Games, the new publishers of Swords & Wizardry (and they of the late most recent online hobby dust-up). I asked them about their associations with Necromancer Games, their plans for Swords & Wizardry, their attitude towards the OSR, and much more.

Editor/Developer Bill Webb, Writer Greg Vaughan, and S&W creator Matt Finch took turns answering my questions. Enjoy, and we'll be back with Part 2 tomorrow.

First off, thank you for agreeing to this Q&A. Frog God is a spinoff of Necromancer Games, right? Why the change in names, and what’s the history there?

(Bill) FGG was created to separate my interests in Necromancer Games (owned jointly with Clark). Greg Vaughan and I started the company in May. Clark and I talked, and since he no longer has the time to devote to this, we agreed that I should start a new corporation to ensure intellectual property and finances were separate. No hostility or anything, it was for purely legal reasons. Since he was Orcus, and I have always been “froggie”, the name made sense.

(Greg) Bill told me I wasn’t cool enough to get into Necromancer. Just kidding. Actually, FGG came as a total surprise to me, one of Bill’s sudden bouts of genius. He and I and Paizo and everyone have been talking for years about how to get the Slumbering Tsar mega-adventure into publication. I wrote it six years ago for Necromancer, but it was slated to release right when the 4e crash occurred. It sat for years waiting a way to reach press, and then Bill had the idea to start FGG and release it as a serial. With the proceeds from it, it enabled us to look at more options for publication of some other unreleased materials and even new materials. And that’s how we got to where we are today with S&W.

What do you think Frog God Games will “bring to the table” in terms of product? Where are your strengths as a publishing concern? What can you “do” for products such as Swords & Wizardry, which is already available in another edition?

(Bill) Old school feel modules. We specialize in adventures. We do them well. I was the creative director at Necro; so if folks liked Necro they should like us. We may do other stuff like DM utilities (see Mother of All Encounter Tables by Necro etc.), but we do modules as a preference; just like Necro did. Our strengths are that we are, and continue to be guys who have always listened to our audience, involved fans in writing projects, and helped people publish their own “magnum opus”.

From the Pathfinder perspective, the objective remains very similar to what we were doing with Necro Games. It’s to provide solid adventures and resources with an old-school feel.

From the Swords & Wizardry perspective, it’s obviously different. Swords & Wizardry is already about as old-school as you can possibly get. It’s a project that has been built up over the last couple of years by a large and creative base of writers and artists at the various messageboards dedicated to preserving the rules, the feel, and the playing-style of out-of-print D&D editions.

What we bring to the table for Swords & Wizardry is a larger slate of products, not a change in the way they are being done. We help pull together the authors, the layout art, the illustrations, and all the various resources Matt needs, and that means he has more time to write and to oversee the titles we’re producing for S&W.

The other big benefit we bring to Swords & Wizardry is a larger market, and the benefit we bring to that larger market is Swords & Wizardry. It’s probably not news to any of the old-schoolers out there that the old school message boards, in particular, can be scary places for newcomers who aren’t completely familiar with the older material. There are a lot of people out there interested in playing 0e who don’t frequent the old school message boards and can’t afford an expensive boxed set that’s now a collector’s item. Swords & Wizardry will get people playing 0e. In fact, it’s a good introduction to 1e as well. There’s going to be a lot of overlap across a lot of games, but S&W is a very strong focal point to get that moving.

In terms of our internal structure, we also have a stable of artists that have stuck by me personally for many years. Rick Sardinha is perhaps the finest cover artist in the industry. His awards (including several GenCon best of Shows) are numerous. His maps rock too. Rowena Aitken is nothing short of spectacular.

(Greg) Adventures, adventures, adventures, and some stuff to help DMs with their adventures. We’re not looking at devising new rules systems here, we just want people to be able to make the most out of the ones they have whether that be S&W or Pathfinder.

(Matt) From my standpoint, Frog God is going to make it a lot easier for me to keep doing what I do, which is to write. Swords & Wizardry has always depended on volunteers to fill in the gaps where I can’t do something at top level; Verhaden and Jim Kramer have stepped in to help with layout, Marv Brieg helped adapt my highly-supplement-based 0e game into a WhiteBox version, many artists have contributed phenomenal art to the rulebooks, the modules, and Knockspell Magazine. But there are difficulties in organizing volunteers – not everyone has free time available right when it’s needed, and also I’m not very good at getting out there and asking for help, to tell the truth – I hate asking for favors, even when there’s a whole messageboard full of people offering to help. It’s just a thing about me. Maybe it’s the anxiety/bipolar disorder, I don’t know. But I find that difficult. The team at Frog God makes it easier for me to hand off the more difficult parts of a project to people who are good at handling those parts. I am definitely not saying anything negative about the volunteers, here – it’s the volunteers who built this game – but in order to pull it forward into a larger size/scale, which is what we’ve always wanted to achieve, it helps to have a team “on tap,” if that makes sense.

Projects from the player base, whether they are one-person productions or a collaborative effort like the monster book, are still, ultimately, the guts of S&W. When people on the boards want me to help organize that sort of collaboration, I am all for it. Working with FGG is more like a new layer that creates an underpinning for the activity – this material is targeted at bringing new players into the fold, and for those players who aren’t into internet messageboards, it gives them support resources that are easier to find. Because Bill has the high profile that will raise the visibility of S&W. Hopefully there’s a feedback loop that benefits the messageboards, the fan community, and even any DIY gamers out there who happen to hate the internet. It’s a broadening of scope on all fronts.

Let’s talk some more about the “Complete Edition” of Swords & Wizardry, which is what you are working on publishing. What’s in it—rather, what makes it a “Complete Edition”?

(Matt) The heart of the Complete Rules is the inclusion of the full set of 0e character classes (with one exception – the illusionist from the Strategic Review isn’t in there). To emphasize the “make the game your own” side of things, we added two more alternative ways to order the melee round; one of these is the Holmes Blue Book system, and the other is based on, but isn’t identical to, the optional system included in Supplement 3 of 0e. There are a few other additions from the later supplements; ability scores have slightly more effect for high scores than they do in the Core Rules – basically as in Supplement 1.

It should be emphasized – this is not intended to supersede the Core Rules. It’s an alternative or a resource, depending on how you want to use it. Swords & Wizardry now has what I think are the three main iterations of 0e. There is the WhiteBox, published by Brave Halfling, which covers the game when it’s played with the extremely low power levels – hit dice are all d6, spells go up to level 6 only, monsters inflict a standard 1d6 damage (except ogres and a couple of other exceptions). The Core Rules are the middle ground, representing the step upward to the Supplement 1 power levels where there are variable hit dice, variable damage, and higher spell levels. The Complete Rules represent the game as played not only with the Supplement 1 power levels, but with several character classes.

Each of these three approaches to 0e has a very distinct and characteristic feel. Of the three of them, the Complete Rules may actually represent the greatest shock to players who are expecting 1e out of this, because so much is familiar on the surface, but there are weird, wonky undercurrents below that surface appearance.

Are you still working with Clark Peterson (from Necromancer Games) in any capacity on your new projects? I know he had earlier raised some concerns about the legality of one of the retro-clones titles (OSRIC). Obviously you wouldn’t be supporting a product (Swords & Wizardry) you felt was illegal; is this just a difference of opinion?

(Bill) Nope—Clark is not involved not on anything FGG. I have no opinion on the legality of any other OSR system, but I had S&W vetted through my lawyer, and he agreed that it was compliant. That is one reason we will not have an illusionist (from Strategic Review) in our rulebook.

(Greg) I still want to meet Clark, but Bill tells me I have to become a fourth order frogzletyte before I can. I’m still just a junior tadpole (sigh).

OK, I have to ask, otherwise someone will bring it up: there was a bit of a flap the other day about the quote on the “About Us” part of the website that seemed to be read, well, dismissive of DIY efforts on lulu.com and places of that sort. Bad copy?

(Bill) I am a “not so careful guy” when it comes to this stuff. I think I write better adventures than I do ad copy, yes. That’s why Clark always did the web postings and I did creative. Oh, and I took the quote off. But anyone who lived through d20 knew what I meant I think. I am a straight talker and not what one could term…well, PC.

The quote (may it rest in peace) was not related in any way to DIY folks—the target was a couple of larger guys who I think make junk and charge a bundle for it. I personally, and FGG and Necro before it, have and always will support DIY publishers.

It’s worth mentioning that I’m one of the fanboy buyers from Brave Halfling, NOD, Fight On! and some others who are well known publishers in the old school.

From the very beginning of this, Matt and I have been kicking around different ways to support the various old school conventions and also the guys who run out-of-print games at the bigger modern conventions. We’re definitely making a commitment to sponsor NTRPGCon already, since it’s in driving distance of Matt’s house, and he can bring stuff there. GaryCon is a bit more difficult to get to, so that’s definitely one of the areas where we’re accepting suggestions.

About the flap over my comment: I am the first to admit I am wrong and make amends. I pissed a few folks off because they did not understand the context of what I was saying, and I apologize. That being said, it’s over now and if they still are mad, so be it. Our products will speak for themselves.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we tackle D&D 4e, support for Pathfinder, future plans for Frog God, and more!

Greg Christopher is looking for some feedback on the free Public Beta of his Synapse RPG. If you want to check it out and possibly provide some constructive criticism on his hard work, it could be a fun project. Here's a brief quote from a post he made:

The game is a completely open-ended universal system with strong emphasis on character depth and personality. The primary elements of a character are seven mental attributes, including the namesake Synapse. In addition to these, your character chooses from 21 talents to customize precisely what their brain is good (and bad) at. This brain is then placed in a physical body. Build a race using a point-buy system from nearly a hundred biological characteristics; ranging from mandibles to turtle shells to wings to echolocation. This is followed by a similar system for culture where you define the society from which your character springs. Build any culture from Ancient Egypt to the Galactic Empire. Your character is the given life experiences using another point-buy system, where you make choices about your education, siblings, parentage, and more. All of these systems feed into a personality model to build a unique personality from 22 different motivation values. You define what exactly drives your character in their daily life. Choose from six morality models that go far beyond good and evil. On top of this, you build a network of NPCs which your character has met over the years. These NPCs integrate you into the social fabric of the game world, providing resources, contacts, allies, and more. Finally, choose from a long list of skills for any setting you need and buy your starting equipment (or property, if you are rich enough). As you can see, this game generates characters of stunning complexity.

It's an interesting tact, breaking out mental facilities as Synapse needs to do, and definitely sounds like something different. Check it out and let him know what you think.

The Le Games has generously given D20 Source permission to continue hosting this week’s PDF giveaway until the end of the month. You have until Tuesday to download these three expansions for D&D 3.5:

• Treasures of Malevolent Might
• Pimp My Paladin
• 17 Archer Feats

If you’re still hungry for D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder content, D20 Source has the full content of 17 Relics, originally published by The Le Games and written by Jonathan Drain.

The Le Games has generously given D20 Source permission to continue hosting this week’s PDF giveaway until the end of the month. You have until Tuesday to download these three expansions for D&D 3.5: Treasures of Malevolent Might Pimp My Paladin 17 Archer Feats If you’re still hungry for D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder content, D20 [...]

RPGnet: The occasional good thread pops up at RPGNet, but I hate sifting through the Exalted threads and pages of stuff that I just don’t care about. Big Purple's still a good resource at times, but the signal/noise ratio isn’t great.

The RPG Site: I still love the Mos Eisley of RPG forums, especially because of some of the friendships I’ve made there, but honestly, the quality of conversation there lately has not been great overall. Maybe it’ll pick up soon—it seems to go in peaks and troughs.

The RPG Haven: I enjoy visiting The Haven and enjoy some truly great discussion there, but I still don’t think the board has hit critical mass in terms of membership. It’s a smaller, quieter board, which is nice, but sometimes I wish there were a few more folks over there.

Citizens of the Imperium: Honestly, I haven’t been getting that much out of that site lately, and consequently haven't visited in a while. I still love Traveller, but few discussions over there I feel like putting my two cents in over.

I lurk like crazy at the ODD74 board, Story Games, and several others, but really don’t have the time to post that often. I check out ENWorld infrequently, but it seems like the same 3 conversations are running in perpetual syndication.

Do you hang out on any RPG message boards? Do you hang out on more or fewer than you did a few years ago? Any you would recommend for an eclectic mix of gaming discussion that I just can’t live without?