Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

People of Pembrooktonshire wraparound cover (by Laura Jalo). It, No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides, and Green Devil Face #3 go to press tomorrow (well, GDF will still be hand-assembled). I should know more tomorrow about how long that will take to complete.

When the printers have completed their job, the big package (including more copies of Death Frost Doom) goes off to Noble Knight, and the review copies will be mailed that same day. The day that everything arrives and goes on sale at Noble Knight, I will also put everything up for sale on my site.

6 days after the print versions go on sale, the PDF of GDF #3 will go on sale at Your Games Now and RPGNow. The day after that (these places discourage "spamming" them with too many new releases at once), No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides and People of Pembrooktonshire go on sale as PDFs at those same places.

... and phase three, PROFIT!

Right guys?

Right?

NDiD is 40 pages, including maps and handouts, with a glossy cover with some COLOR and lots of art! PoP is the optional modular accessory to NDiD, 36 pages with a glossy cover and not so much art. Green Devil Face #3 will be a bit shorter than last issue.

More info on these releases coming soon (read: I haven't started writing the preview blurbs).

Another GDF Review

Here.

I hope Auld Skool Review manages to be a quality review site. We need them. If it manages that, I hope it gets the readership and publisher support to motivate Howarth to keep going.

It should have submission guidelines and contact information right there in the "About Me" area, and once a few reviews have been posted, an alphabetical list of reviews should be in the sidebar, linked of course to the reviews themselves.

Green Devil Face Review

Here.

So Who Are the Essential Critics?

Who do you read to get an impression on new RPG products?

More than half the people that got complimentary copies of Death Frost Doom haven't so much as acknowledged receiving it, let alone said anything about it publicly.

That's hardly a crime (and that's almost my default mode when receiving unsolicited things), but it's not something that keeps them on my mailing list.

So who should be on it?

The 137

I just finished the 137 character writeups for People of Pembrooktonshire. Now that goes down to the Proofreading and Quality Control Department here at LotFP Corporate Headquarters (aka "18 inches to my right where Maria will sit on the couch and take the red pen to it and question everything about it") while I do the introductory pages.

This is going to be a 36 page companion book to the No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides adventure module. They will be released simultaneously.

Still waiting on the cover art but I hope to go to press with both of them on Monday. 250 print run on each. Cross fingers.

LotFP Stuff Reviewed

"Its genre is like a crazy mix of Tolkien, heavy metal, Lovecraft and three doses of sword & sorcery; I’m completely in love, and want a whole campaign book of this stuff."

Here.

What the OSR Needs

It's been an interesting almost-couple-of-weeks as a businessman. I've shifted 72 copies of Death Frost Doom so far, and I'm up to 81 of Green Devil Face #1 (91 total if counting FFV sales) and 89 of GDF #2.

Modest numbers certainly but not chirping crickets, so I'm happy for now.

While the OSR has been taking some lumps in many quarters this past week or two (including the "Has Old School Stopped Beating Its Wife?" thread on RPG.net), the most interesting criticism has come from within.

Ignoring those that believe for-profit publishing is somehow against the old-school ethos, there is one criticism that I think is dead on, and should be addressed:

Our community is very insular and very productive and creative, but honest criticism is not happening.

At least, it's not being spoken aloud.

Grognardia posted a review of Death Frost Doom that I was of course very happy to see. But I also sent both issues of Green Devil Face that way, and FFV before it. I take that as criticism, of at least the "not interested enough to comment" level if not "total and complete crap." That's fine. But who else knows that?

Grognardia's reviews are rather positive as a general rule, with the negative stuff being left unspoken. Being everyone's personal publicist isn't exactly his job description and he's got a lot on his plate, so you can hardly blame him if he only deals with the creme of the crop as he sees it. And I only single out Grognardia because Maliszewski is "The Pope" (people really call him that!), but that situation is repeated over and over across the blogs (who has said even so much as "I bought this new module by Carl and boy was it crap!"), and we have a serious problem.

Nobody is critical. There are many valid reasons for it, but nonetheless it is true and we are all the poorer for it.

And the commentary that this scene looks like a great big circle jerk does seem to have some truth to it.

The best review I have seen of new material is this one here. No, it's not a complete review, but as a counter-balance to the review it responds to, it is perfect. It is critical without being insulting, and gives the potential buyer a far more balanced review of its contents, and feedback that the producers can use to improve their next products.

We need to get reviews in front of people that aren't in our little circle (there should be a large bank of OSR materials reviewed at RPG.net, for example, not to mention putting those reviews with the products on places like RPGNow and Noble Knight), but those reviews aren't going to be at all credible if the reviews all seem like Tom is simply stroking Jerry in public.

But what to do? Pursuing this is going to mean drama and hurt feelings. Whoever bothers to do this has to have a thick skin, and probably should have no publishing aspirations of their own ("revenge" reviews are an ugly thing, especially when well-composed, and even fans of a particular product or author will engage in this behavior). It'll be a lot of work to do for not so much reward.

But I bet anyone who makes a serious attempt at this will get plenty of free stuff, and be doing more of a legitimate service to the OSR than any cheerleader ever could.

Ropecon Day 2

First session was Fane of the Poisoned Prophecies. For some reason this didn't click. I think I castrated the adventure by making it a convention game dungeon crawl by starting right at the main temple. I was warned by the author that this was an odd choice for a convention adventure... but I didn't see exactly how this was going to fit into my campaign and if I buy something I'd like to actually game with it. ahhh well. And just my luck, a fellow Finnish RPG blogger decides this is the session he's going to play, so that blog post should be interesting.

Next up was Cairn of the Skeleton King. This thing KICKS ASS. I mean, KICKS ASS. Starts with a rumble, then has a bunch of fiddly shit that the players can blow themselves up with, has the Random Fireshooting Oil Room of Doom (the look on players' faces...) Good stuff. It's much better playing than it reads, although I still think it could be very well tightened up in two important ways: layout and summary descriptions. One is just personal preference, but the other one is important for giving the basic description up front. Some of those rooms have a lot of stuff to keep track of. I must remember this lesson for my future offerings as well.

Last up was the midnight session of Slave Pits of the Undercity. This is a nasty, nasty, NASTY adventure. First off, only 5 of the 6 signed-up people showed up for the midnight start, and they chose their characters from the pre-gen list... and they tended to choose from the back of the roster, not the front. The high level cleric? Not chosen. The magic-user? Nope, the spell-caster was the illusionist. And they got CRUNCHED in the first room with the ghouls and ghasts. The illusionist ran, everyone else was paralyzed.

... until another (un-signed-up) person came around at just that moment and wanted to play. Someone passed him the remaining unchosen characters and I just said "PLAY THE CLERIC. TRUST ME." Dude automatically turns ghouls, you know?

A couple encounters later, they are in the stables, make short work of the scrubs there, and encounter the doppleganger... in the guise of an escaping slave. "Where are the slaves? Where are the slaver leaders?" Hell, this guy didn't know. So I gave a bunch of bogus directions off the top of my head (without looking at the maps). The party fell for it. They ended up going straight to level two into one of those aspis dens with a bunch of giant ants. That was the beginning of the end, because that combat clobbered them, and they ran from everything else... the game lasted about four hours total, no further casualties, but four of the six people were in single-digit hit points and everyone was out of healing spells. And were tired from two days of gaming. Decided that maybe someone else could take on the slavers. :P

So... 2 days, 6 sessions with 5, 8, 14, 6, 6, and 6 players in each, plus I started getting recognized ("Aren't you the guy with the IV in his name?") by random people, about 65€ in sales from people just at my table (about half of that unsolicited, even!)... and I'm going back today. The GM Prizes are the main reason, but actually talking to some of the industry contacts I haven't had the time to talk to (Joseph Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press/Your Games Now is here among others) is another priority, if they're still hanging out.

Sunday's a down day at the con, as I found out last year. Many people show up Friday and either don't sleep at all until the end of the thing, or catch a few hours sleeping for a few hours in their car, or on the floor in random places in the convention hall (the doors have signs saying DON'T SLEEP HERE so they're not blocked), even saw someone camping outside under a tree, and there are probably more of those that aren't doing so in the parking lot.

Lessons for next year: No AD&D. Will use Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry for all rules.

Flesh out everything. Even if adventures have pre-gens doesn't mean those pre-gens are ready to play (Tomb of Horrors, I'm looking at you!). Slave Pits and the Fane of the Poisoned Prophecies were the best for quality pre-gens, actually, with all modifiers and memorized spells already right there.

Don't try 4 hours standard convention slots. Didn't finish a single adventure attempted in that timeframe, which is no surprise, but trying a variety of things isn't as good an idea as it sounds when you keep stopping things at interesting points. Next year, two 7 hour slots each day and we'll finish some adventures.

Unless I just get a vendor table for all my wonderful things I'll have out by then. :P

Talk to you all later. :)

Old School vs. New School Game Design and What Separates RPGs from Other Entertainment Forms

The frickin dog woke me up so after gaming 14 hours yesterday, I only got four hours sleep as I prepare to game for 14 more hours today.

And for some reason, this is what I think of while stewing around the house. It was inspired by the comments of Grognardia. (I wish Maliszewski would lower the hammer on the retards that flood that place... there's a difference between "being open for debate," or even "allows dissent," and "letting people smear shit all over the walls.")

I was thinking about Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, video games, and how they relate to the RPG experience.

The thing about modern game design is that it seems to want to deliver a pre-packaged entertainment experience. "This is what the game is about, this is how we support that game experience we want to deliver." Targeted and neat and tidy.

But that isn't what role-playing games are about. That's what movies are about. That's what books are about. Plays. TV shows. Video games. The entertainment is made by other people and you experience it. RPGs shouldn't even be in conflict with these things, or try to emulate any of them, because it's a bottom-up experience, not a top-down.

In role-playing, as soon as you even ask, "What is this game about?" (on a system level; it's certainly valid on a scenario or perhaps even a campaign level) you've already failed.

Ropecon: Day 1

It was the best of times, it was the most chaotic of times. Nibbling off bits more than I could chew.

Spires of Iron and Crystal: 5 players. Started late because it was right at the beginning of the con.

Sanctum of the Stone Giant Lord: 8 players. 4 hours isn't nearly enough, what with getting characters ready (despite good pregens) and my gastrointestinal issues halfway through. High level combat is insane.

Tomb of Horrors midnight game: 14 players (!), which was a problem because I'd forgotten that the pregens given in the back are not ready to play, and we had a lot of newbies. It's good for a rush and to know people are interested and plan to give a large group one hell of a classic dungeon, but managing that large a group is near impossible for a con game where you don't know who the hell is showing up! A few of the people I think got a bit fed up, and then once play started, since it's not an action-adventure module, it became easy for certain people to be the ones actually playing more. There were I think 7 left by the time 5:30am rolled around.

Funniest thing was the one real survivor who came out far ahead... he just sat next to me and listened for 6 friggin hours, not really actually doing anything. Near the beginning of the game he passes me a note, "I'm going to cast invisibility and follow everyone else about 20' back." Near the end when the party was splitting into groups of 2-3 and dying alone in pits, here's this guy following along, invisible, looting their bodies and then leaving. heh.

In 9 hours I start another 14 hours of gaming, but I have changed the signup sheets to say 6 players maximum per session.

I didn't get to do my "See these dice? I got them in 1981... before you were born!" trick for my players. Well, I did do it, but then the one guy (another American!) pulled out his dice that were bought in 1976 and told us stories about how his first D&D set had chits. But the reason he was in Helsinki to begin with was to game with me (he was there for all three sessions and was very helpful getting the large groups set up), so how pissy could I be? :D