Why are the works that purport to be "publishing enablers" all written, laid out, and presented as if they were games in and of themselves?
If the idea is to present a game, fair enough. If the idea is to allow third party products of a specific flavor, shouldn't they be made up of lists and "how-to" guides?
If the idea is to present a game, fair enough. If the idea is to allow third party products of a specific flavor, shouldn't they be made up of lists and "how-to" guides?
Uh, what?
ReplyDeleteI think I caught a bit of James' headcold over the intrawebs, because my head is in a bit of a fog today, but I'm not understanding your point. What sort of "lists and 'how-to' guides" would you expect?
I assumed the point of making these "publishing enablers" games was so that you could reference them instead of the actual games they were standing in for. A sort of legal palimpsist, if you will, that allows you to publish for an out-of-print game by publishing for an in-print game that obliquely refers to the out-of-print one. If you simply published a how-to guide, you wouldn't have the legal cover teh palimpsist supposedly conveys.
At least, that's the way I understand it.
- Brian
I assumed the point of making these "publishing enablers" games was so that you could reference them instead of the actual games they were standing in for. A sort of legal palimpsist, if you will, that allows you to publish for an out-of-print game by publishing for an in-print game that obliquely refers to the out-of-print one.
ReplyDeleteBut is that necessary? OSRIC's page already clearly states:
"# It is intended for publishers
# It is an open gaming platform
# It aims to recreate 1e within the OGL"
Am I missing something that requires so much detail, rather than a "cheat sheet" of references and a notation format guide to producing "1E" publications?
One reason might be that even though they are written for publishers (who probably already have the game rules that they are mimicking) the people that will be playing your published module will need a rule set to go by. Not everyone has excess to the original game books, nor do they want to have to compete on E-bay to get old used copies of them.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just download, or buy, the mimic product and skip the hassle