Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in owen_stephens' LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
4:17 pm	Random RPG Thoughts In addition to the various projects I am working on for others, and the novels I am getting serious on, I also find myself moving from time to time into work on things no one else is asking about. Mostly, on tiny little RPG ideas that don’t even have a cohesive home yet. One of those rises to the top any time I begin thinking about running any campaign set in a largely-failed modern (or, really, post-modern) urban sprawl. A game where where you can go, and where you are comfortable, can be as important as who you know and what you can do. The idea itself is Apparent Identity. Apparent Identity works like this: when you create your character, you define an apparent identity. This is how other people most easily perceive you, based on your bearing, accent, attitude, hygiene, speech – things that send out messages that may (or may not) conflict with your surroundings or garb. When using skills to gain access to an area, bluff, negotiate payments, threaten, it is your Apparent Identity that forms the basis. If you are playing a tough cop, but your Apparent Identity is a teen-ager, you’ll do fine as a narc in High School, but poorly when threatening to call down sniper fire on a drug dealer. The closer to your Apparent Identity you are (saying you’re a student paper editor in Freshman college is much closer to Teen Ager than it is to Cop), the easier social interactions are. The truth can of course be augmented by the situation (a badge, or filthy clothes, or a laser dot visible on someone’s chest), but the -base- of the difficulty of social skills is built from the perception, not the reality. What I can’t decide is if this makes it more likely Dan Aykroyd convinces Jamie Lee Curtis to help him in Trading Places, or less... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
6:14 pm	Job Changes Mostly this post is only for people who care about the day-to-day lives of my wife Lj and myself. I know that's far from everyone, but this is the easiest way to connect with some friends in different states and countries. As of today Lj (my wife) has gotten a promotion at the bank job we've both been at for a year-and-half. She has been elevated to a salaried managment postion, with an immediate raise and two more built-in raises over the next 180 days. She entered the pre-management training track a little less than 90 days ago, and to the best of our knowledge this is the fastest anyone has ever gone from advisor to coach. She now manages a team of people doing her old job. I am leaving that self-same job this week, with Friday my final day. I actually gave notice more than two weeks ago, but my boss (and her boss) asked me to stay one more week, and I have. (They used the word beg, though it was not that serious.) But after that I have too much writing I want to get done in the next 3 months to keep pussyfooting around with career options. Lj and I have arranged new den space and a new desk, and that'll all be set up shortly after my last day at the office job. I'll be posting about and tracking those projects online starting July 8. I couldn't be prouder of Lj, who worked very, very hard to reach this goal. When she told people at work she wanted to be a full coach by Christmas, many of them thought she was jumping the gun. It turns out she was just underestimating herself. She's earned this, and I can't say how pleased I am our company has come to value her ability rather than get stuck on her relative lack of tenure. Lj doesn't read her own blog much these days, but any messages of well-wishing can be commented here in mine. :D (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
4:33 pm	beginning "The List" Okay, GenCon is not that far away. Time to start my gamer-geek "buy" list. Inevitably there will be extremely cool things I’ll miss, some I should have known about but won’t, and a few I’ll discover as rare gems in a sea of cheap D&D knock-offs. But I have learned it helps to have a budget in mind, and to do that I need to have a few items in mind. And that process starts nowish. So far I know I’ll want the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, and Champions 6th edition. I always buy some cheap figures (mostly pre-panted commons for dead miniatures games nowadays – often at $0.15 or less each), but unless I magically find more storage space before mid-August I’ll be toning that category down by a bag or two. Other than that, nothing is set on my list. What are you all looking forward to at the Best Four Days in Gaming? Edit: Also, what older items are you hoping to pick up cheap here, that you can't find at all (or at least not at a reasonable price) elsewhere? What would you buy if you saw it cheaper here than at your LFGS? For example, I nearly bough cheap Crimson Skies clicky-base figures two years ago. If I see them again, at a low enough price, I'll pick them up this time. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
7:52 pm	Son of Top Ten Thursday Even as some of the principles involved say they may not do Batman 3, a lot of media and fans seemed convinced another Dark Knight movie is a lock because of how much the first two made. But money *isn't* always the final word on sequels, which brings us to: Top Ten Blockbuster Sequels That Weren't. (Yet, Anyway) 10. TITANIC II: BRITANNIC Okay, the ship sinks and most of the main cast dies. But the Titanic did have a sister ship that sank during WWI, and Rose *was* shown to have been quite the adventuress after surviving the Titanic's loss. And Titanic, the movie, made a gigantic amount of money. You really could do a sequel, but no one has. 9. The Unbelievables What threat can bring down the Incredibles, the ultimate animated super-family? Looks like we'll never know, but I vote for a family of villains with similar ties to the trials of real life, with a many-on-many finale. 8. ID5 Well an Independence Day sequel would have to call itself something, and Groundhog's Day is taken. But Will Smith has proven he'll star in nearly anything speculative fiction-y, and ID4 made cash hand-over-fist. Why not tell the story of the next wave of saucer-slinging aliens? 7. Eathling: The Terrestrial Oh come on, who hasn't wondered why ET never came to visit his adult friend Elliott a ride back into space? 6. Losing Nemo Young fish grows up, moves to college. 5. Forrest Gump 2: Forrest Gumper Well, the original BOOK has a sequel... 4. The Seventh Sense What, you think M. Night and Bruce aren't up for another round? But this time, there's a ghost who sees people. Or... something. It doesn't matter what you *think* the movie is about, since it will end with a twist. 3. Easter Did you know The Passion of the Christ had a total US gross of more than $370 million? And it's not as if the source material stops when the main character dies. 2. The Day After The Day After Tomorrow  Let's face it, a lack of a GOOD storyline didn't stop them the first time. 1. Highlander II: The Prize I know, it seems obvious you can't make a sequel to a movie with the tagline "There can be only one." But it made a lot of money, and I suppose a clever film-maker could do a sequel of some kind. You'd want to avoid just trying to tell the same story over, rebooting the immortals or trying to explain where they come from. But if you focused on what The Prize meant, and why it was important someone like the Kurgen didn't get it, you could make a kick-ass movie. But alas, no one has tried. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
12:47 pm	Tidepool Reviews #2: Mutant Chronicles Tidepool Reviews are my look at things that are definitely to the side of mainstream. As a fan of the odd, especially including bad, baaaad movies, I want to share my thoughts as a fan and a gamer for those who are interested. And all Tidepool Reviews include SPOILERS, since I doubt any of the material I am going to review will be special enough (or new enough) to worry about "ruining" it for anyone.. Mutant Chronicles I don't intend to make Tidepool Reviews about movies based on games, but so far I'm 2-for-2 on that score. This may be because I am fascinated with any movie to television that started life as an game, especially RPG adaptations. Of course Mutant Chronicles has also been used for miniature games, card games, board games, novels and comics, so it's not as if this is the first adaptation of the material, but movies are a special case in many ways. They take more time and money that comics, and a lot fewer rpgs make it to any kind of moving-picture adaptation, so I feel driven to watch those that do even when I am convinced they are going to be total drek.   ( Read more... ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
3:52 pm	The Ubiquitious RPG Design Ponderings As I watch some very talented people work on D&D 4e and the Pathfinder RPG, I notice two broad camps developing. (In fact I am sure there are way more than two camps, but I have noticed two in particular, and as they are the ones relevant to my current thoughts I want to lay them out. So if you don’t sound like you are in either of these two groups I’m not claiming you don’t exist, just that you are a data point that fell outside this thought experiment’s parameters.) Group One dislike it when a game is too shallow, by which I mean when it focuses on only one element of interactions. This group seems to dislike 4e because it has no real rules for professions, crafts, and other talents not directly relating to adventuring. Group Two dislike it when they are asked to choose between being as combat-effective as possible, and having some non-adventuring abilities. If the choice to know how good a flute-player you are reduces the options you have available to Tumble, this group is unhappy. They love 4e, because there is no option to be anything less than kick-ass in favor of being mechanically defined in non-adventure areas. ( Read more... ) It’s a raw and unfinished idea, but one I expect to see get more brain-time as I work on both playing in other designer’s RPGs, and working on my own projects. If nothing else, I should look around and see who has already done this and in what games, as I know anything I think of someone has already tried at least once. (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
3:45 pm	On Same-Sex Marriage Having spoken on this before, I feel moved to make my current opinions clear again today. I know I’m far from the front lines on this issue, but sometimes being quiet feels, like cowardice, and that’s something I very much want to avoid. I believe gay couples already have the right to be married, and the right for that marriage to be acknowledged by government and society. I believe these rights will be recognized and codified by my country within my lifetime, if not within the next decade. The right exists independent of our seeing it, and most of our laws are wrong on this issue. It’s hard to separate religion and marriage, which is unfortunate because we want to separate church and state. Marriage is traditionally a religious pact, which makes it easy for religious debates to become mainstream in what is, or should be, a legal and social discussion. I do know the question is not all about religion for everyone on both sides. I do understand, at least on one level, a non-religious argument against same-sex marriage. There is a traditional conservative philosophy that does not want to change those social arrangements that have proven successful over thousands of years. In other words, since societies mostly do it this way, and mostly have survived, we should not change it. And I am curmudgeon enough to see value in such arguments. They boil down to "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." However, I feel this rule is broken. Societies have, by and large, been biased against same-sex relationships, and thus it’s only natural they would have forbidden marriages between same-sex couples. I am not sociologist enough to look for the percentages or exceptions (Spartans obviously had no problem with same-sex relationships, but still married as opposite-sex couples), but I feel comfortable in saying a link may exist between anti-homosexual attitudes, and societies that did not accept the idea of same-sex marriages. However, as a culture we have decides, I believe rightly and righteously so, that being attracted to a same-sex partner, or being in a same-sex relationship, is not grounds for discrimination. Having taken that important step, I have not seen and do not see any acceptable reason for forbidden same-sex marriage. Besides, the economic shot in the arm for hundreds of thousands of marriages would be helpful right about now. There are pitfalls, and we must avoid them. I don’t think any priest should ever be punished for refusing to perform a marriage ceremony his religion does not condone. I personally think we need to give sole proprietorships more leeway in how they handle hiring and firing, and this would definitely be a potential hot button in that debate. Once this social barrier falls, polygamy must be taken up as a whole new argument. But those are details, not justifications to prevent equality. I believe the best route to arrive at equality will be through some sort of civil union law, which isn’t fair but is a step closer to fair. I personally believe that if we raise a generation under laws where two men can be "civil unioned" and be married in all but name, that generation will be inclined to add the correct name as well, eventually. Also, let’s all, everyone on all sides, remember to be kind to each other. Yes, this is a divisive issue, and yes people are going to take it personally. But try to remember that when you feel the other side is trying to hurt you and ruin society and do evil, that most of them honestly think they are doing the right thing, even for you. Most people are not out to cause harm, even when they do so. Loving them and trying to rationally debate and work with them will achieve more than screaming at them. I know some very smart, loving, experienced, and considerate people who are on the wrong side of this. I'm still working on them, and since I keep my voice calm they're still listening. This is all just my opinion, but firmly held in my heart. And every time it seems needful, I'll put it out in public again. (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
10:40 pm	Top Ten Thursday! Top Ten Ways to Open NuStar Trek 2 10.> "Yes, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Jones. Ambassador Spock has arranged for the two of you to have exclusive rights to these Vulcan shipping needs, as long as you agree to the following forbidden export terms..." 9.> The Enterprise is seen leaving the signing of the "Cestus II Peace Accords" 8.> An elderly Spock, with a goatee, flies Nero’s mining ship into orbit around earth. Elderly Spock’s voice can be heard on an broadcast. "Hail, Emperor. Now, about your terms of abdication..." 7.> The dedication ceremony of the Federation’s new Humpback Whale Preservation Center. 6.> Q pops into the bridge of the Enterprise. Looking around, he begins to laugh uproariously, then disappears. 5.> A small Star Fleet armada launches a torpedo (two warp engines bolted together) down the maw of an enormous starship that itself looks like a wind sock covered in concrete, which then blows up. 4.> NuSpock and NuKirk are flying together in a shuttle, in pinstripe suits. They arrive at the Enterprise and change, and there is no further explanation 3.> NuSpock finishes packing up the research station in front of the Guardian of forever. Uhura comes up behind him and says it’s a shame they’ll never be back. NuSpock says, slowly, "No. It is not." They beam off world. 2.> The Enterprise and a Klingon D-7 cruiser fligh side-by side, keeping pace with each other. Both show some sign of battle-damage, but neither is shooting. (Any movie they’re likely to do after this opening I want to see.) 1.> "Hello, Mr. Singh. Here are some thing you may have missed." (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
12:18 pm	All Hail Mom! I started rpg gaming young. Less than 11 years old, and not too long after rpg gaming was an option. I was so young, in fact, it was hard to find anyone to play with. So my mother put some ads up at the local rec center, and some other kids about my age showed up. Some older people did too, and for a little while they ran games and the younger kids and I played in them. But we were kids, and annoying, and the older kids soon went off on their own. So my mother gamely read the rules, and once a week (on Sunday) for more than a year she was dungeon mistress to a gaggle of young children. And when we stumped her, she gave everyone a quarter to go buy themselves a soda while she though of something new for us to do, often stolen from classic mythology. And as soon as she could, she passed it off to someone just a -little- older than us, who was thrilled to have a regular group. My mother is not a gamer. She has no particular interest in rpgs. But she ran my first ongoing campaign experience, just to make a bunch of children happy. She is, however, a geek empress. She’s away from home just now, to see a Space Shuttle launch. Thanks for helping me set a big chunk of my life path, Mom, and happy You Day! (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 1st, 2009
1:45 am	Tidepool Reviews #1 Tidepool Reviews are my look at things that are definitely to the side of mainstream, in little pools of rising geek tides and exposed to the elements like low budgets, bad ideas or weird execution. As a fan of the odd, especially including bad, baaad movies, I want to share my thoughts as a fan and a gamer for those who are interested. Dead Space: Downfall. This is an anime, released on DVD, that is a tie-in and prequel to the Dead Space computer game. As marketing tie-ins go, I think a 1-shot movie targeting fans of movies of the genre you hope also want to buy your game is a great way to get your audience to pay you for an hour-long ad. The movie itself is well done for what it is, and what it is can best be summed up as Splatterpunk Horror in Space. It’s gory, needlessly melodramatic (using spittle as a sign of madness, for example), stilted in pacing, and could definitely use a second pass it clearly doesn’t have time for or care about. But if an animated movie about religious fanatics in space, mysterious alien artifacts, lightsaber-chainsaws,  cardboard security personal and mutating zombie-things sounds like fun to you, this is probably worth the $5 it cost me to buy it in the bargain bin. It made me think of Evil Dead meets Aliens, though that isn’t a wholly accurate description. If on the other hand you get attached to characters, want your stories to have resolutions, or are excited just because Bruce Boxleitner took a day off to voice one character, skip it. As a game resource, the movie has both some very interesting ideas, and some wel-done visuals. It’s not great cinema by a long shot, but that can be a bonus for game sources. The material is less likely to be things your players have memorized, and the development is weak enough to leave a GM plenty of room to take things in new directions. Not only does it include lots of elements you could borrow for any space horror game (including visual designs and background ideas and scenes of security cameras and sound effects a media-savvy GM could play directly for his tabletop rpg game), but unsurprisingly it plays out very mich like an rpg scenario. An enterprising GM could actually play the first 45 minutes of the movie to a group, then hit pause and have them make characters who happen to be on board the starship depicted. If the GM decides to stay true to the source material, that would be a 1-shot game, but I’ve run ongoing campaigns with less of a plot than Zombie Hunters in Space. There is an image gallery on the DVD as well, with concept art, corridor shots, and character designs, all of which is very fungible. As a $5 impulse buy, with no expectations, I’d say I got my money’s worth. At $10, I’d have my doubts. At $20, I’d feel ripped off. If I had recorded it off Sci-Fi, I’d be downright pleased, though the language would have been edited. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
5:45 pm	Out of Touch Heya folks. I picked up an annoying malware/virus thing earlier this week. With some expert advice I believe I have it on the run, but it's difficult to get online (and mostly I am disconnected from the internet until it's done), and I'm not sending any emails until I am convinced my system is clean. I already have a big backlog of email waiting for me, so if you sent me something don't expect a reply until Wednesday. If it's urgent, give me a call. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
11:45 am	Best Four Days   My lovely wife and I have now made firm plans to attend Gen Con. As yet I don’t have anything like as schedule, but I definitely plan to make time to visit with friends I don’t get to see anywhere else. To the best of my knowledge nothing I’ve working on will be released anytime near the show, so I probably won’t be doing any panels or helping out any publishers, though if a publisher or panel head wanted my help I’d certainly be open to the idea.   Anyone else definitely going? Lemme know who I should be looking for!   The Secret Meeting went as well as I could possibly hope, and as a result I am now working on a ground-up rpg. It’s at the earliest stages right now, but it’s also going to have to move forward pretty quickly. When I get around to play-testing, this is where I will be looking for interested parties. Now, the next order of business is to switch to a schedule geared towards writing, which is to be accomplished this week if possible.   (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 30th, 2009
12:02 pm	Wow That’s a Lot of Books The real fun as an OA juror starts with the boxes. There are always more than one (three so far this year), and they always look like they’ve been used as props in a John Woo gunfight. I don’t know what happens to these poor boxes on their way to me (I suspect cake is not involved), but it always takes a toll. Thankfully, the contents are always in much better shape. Covers are often scuffed, but for a thousand dollars of new rpg releases, making me a kid in a candy shop for at least one more day of my life, I can overlook scuffed covers. In all the years I have been a juror nothing has ever arrived seriously damaged, which I think speaks very well of the GAMA staff dealing with these things. There are also always stragglers – things that don’t arrive with the main shipment. For the first time this year, a game company contacted me directly to confirm my shipping address, so I know there are at least a few more things coming. I am never aware of any prejudice against things just because they come late, but I do have to say the earlier an item arrives the more time it has with me. My relationship with rpgs is often complex, and can take time to ferment. Once I am into the boxes, my first impressions begin. Every item is lovingly removed, cleaned of packing peanuts, flipped through for a few seconds, then placed next to my devoted reading area. (This year that area is one corner of a sofa ion our great room, which I suspect means I’ll be reading these as the wife watches tv I don’t care about. This should work, as long as I continue to not care about those programs. Otherwise, I’ll have to move the whole process back into my game cave.) A normally get three stacks – standard-sized rpg books, smaller rpgs books, and things that don’t stack well. As I flip through each in turn and fit it into the growing mountain of adventure goodness, I always look for trends, mistakes, and stand-outs. The trends don’t have much to do with the quality of the rpgs and is mostly for my own edification, though if there are five books about witch-hunters in pilgrim hats they may all suffer slightly. Originality is a plus for me, and even if I know the development process means those five books were bound to be thought of, written, and developed independently it’s just not as impressive as a single book on a new and cool subject. That’s not a major strike, it just isn’t much of a selling point to me. There don’t seem to be any major thematic trends in the material I got this year, though there are far fewer small and shorter rpgs this year than the past few, and more books from connected lines of products. Mistakes fall into two broad categories: things that were supposed to go to a different jury, and things that aren’t eligible for any OA for some reason. The first class of mistake is very rare, and normally understandable (if you have a book that is a supplement to a about a card game or miniatures game that also had an rpg with the same name, be very clear where you are submitting it when you ship it to the OAs). The second category tends to be more controversial, though sometimes things are sent in that weren’t published in the correct timeframe. This is slightly more common, but still unusual. Nothing leapt out at me as clearly a mistake this year. Standouts are things that hit me as a cut above for whatever reason, and they can be the most exciting part of this process. Often they are books that look neat, which I had no idea existed. I try to keep up on the rpg field throughout the year, not only as a potential OA juror but also as a professional and interested hobbyist. I’ll recognize 90% of what is sent to me, at least in terms of publisher and property, and often see I’d have little interest in the things I’ve never heard of before. But every year there is at least one or two books I’d have been delighted to buy myself but had no idea existed. These books always go right to the top of my review pile, both because I am excited to see them and because they require additional time for me to familiarize myself with. After that, it’s time to start scheduling reading and playing time. Reading all the books takes a huge amount of time by itself, and normally precludes playing even a large fraction, though I do what I can. When I was on the boardgame jury I managed to play every single boardgame submitted, but they take less time to read, prepare and run than rpgs, and I got fewer of them than I do rpg books. Even so, there are going to be things I decide need at least a quick run, and I need to start thinking about when to do that sooner rather than later. Next time, I’ll talk about taking notes, having discussions, full disclosure, and being called a shill. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
12:14 pm	Origin Awards: Crisp Apples vs. Bright Oranges As readers of my blog may already be aware, I have been a juror for the Origins Awards several times over the past few years. For obvious reasons, I am mostly on the RPG jurries, but I’ve done a stint on boardgames as well. I know a lot of people feel the OAs are hopelessly broken, and I certainly sympathize with many of the issues leading to that conclusion. But the OAs have always had a special place in my heart. Long before I did a single bit of professional writing, I used to long to go to the Origins Convention, just so I could vote for the best orc with scythe, PBM, or Talisman expansion. I’ve never made it to the Convention and it’s sadly not a likely expense just now, though I still hope someday I’ll be invited as a guest (or a company will decide to pay my way). But for a while now, I have been part of the process, which has been very rewarding for me. First, I get to give back to the OAs in terms of time and effort (continuing a process I first began by helping Charles Ryan affix mailing labels to AAGAD newsletters). Second, I get exposed to a LOT of cool new game material! I’ve spoken about the OAs in my blog before, but always very guardedly or after the Jury has done its job. This year I’m going to talk a bit more about the process itself, as I go through it. It’s always a tough job to compare a $2 .pdf file with a game about begin one ant in a hive vs. a 1,480pg hardback describing a continent in detail but requiring a 3-year loan to afford. In other words, the OAs are almost never about apples-to-apples comparisons, and sometimes, I feel it’s more apples-to-motor oil. I have developed a thought process over the years, and this time I’m going to share it. But that calls for ground rules. No one submits to the OAs looking to have an armchair critic drag them into public ridicule, and I don’t want to do anything to make the awards unpopular or unpleasant for any involved. Also, I have an obligation to the Jury itself, which may be unwritten but is no less real for that. Therefore, I need to make sure I restrict myself to my process rather than discussing the games themselves. As a result, I won’t be discussing any particular specific game, not even under cute code-names, until the Jury’s list is announced. What I will be talking about are the processes, any musings I have about trends in games as a whole, and broad issues that crop up from time to time and my thoughts on them. That may not make for as juicy a series of blog entries, but it’s what I feel ethically free to discuss. My primary goals are twofold – show people what being on the Jury is actually like, and have a framework against which my personal musings about the industry as a whole are framed. So, how does this all start? Well, I became a member of the AAGAD (Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design) as soon as I qualified. That group is responsible (under rules that change with surprising regularity, though they’ve been fairly constant the past 3 years) for handling the OAs, and at least at one time had a fairly active mailing list. A few years ago there was a shortage of jury members, and a call went out for anyone interested to volunteer. I did, and have been asked to be on a jury almost every year since. Once I get the invite in a given year and accept, the question of getting me the material the review needs to be handled. The mechanics of it are fairly boring – publishers send products for review to GAMA, and one of GAMA’s very efficient workers sends a big box of rpg goodness to me. This year I already have the tracking numbers for the shipment headed my way, which means so far the process is going very smoothly. There is a question behind the pure shipping issues however, which is if publishers should be required to send materials, and if so are they required to send hard-copies or can they (for materials that allow for such conversions) send e-copies. Obviously if a product is only available as a .pdf that’s not an issue, but many publishers prefer avoiding the cost of mailing half a dozen print books if they can help it, and many people feel refusing to do so should not disqualify you from being considered. After all, the OAs are for the best in gaming right, not just the best the publisher decided to send? I don’t have a problem with receiving .pdf files, but I do admit it works against big books in my mind. While exceptions exist, I find few pdfs sent to the OAs take advantage of any pdf functions (tabs, searchability), and those which are not primarily designed to be sold as pdfs are both less likely to use such utility, and generally not laid out in a way that makes .pdf reading easy. Above that however, one of the things I look for in an OA-worthy game is value. If you have a .pdf game that uses the format to its advantage and is priced in a range that doesn’t make me cringe, it’s value can easily compare with a $65 book with full color and quality paper. But if you send me that $65 book as a .pdf, it’s much harder for me to judge the true value of the product as you intend players to see it. I do think it’s unrealistic to ask the jury to review games which no copies have been submitted for. We do our best to be aware of all the games in our category, but there is actually a lot of material out there. While we can hunt down and review 1 or 2 games that got missed somehow (and we have), we can’t take time or money to review 20 games we don’t get submissions for. I consider this an acceptable, if unfortunate, limitation of the awards. If anyone ever wants to set up a huge grant so a group of use can review every rpg product in a set language I’ll be happy to be part of that process, but until then I think depending on publishers to participate is a reasonable filter. Once my big box arrives, I’ll talk about my favorite part of the juror process: first impressions. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
11:59 am	Top Ten Thursday Top Ten Signs A Friend Has Starting Playing World of Warcraft. 10. He sounds like a fantasy football player, but all the stats he talks about are dps, if, vc, and similar meaningless acronyms. 9. He's enthused he managed to get a "port to shat," last night, and doesn't understand why that sounds like a scatological winery. 8. He tells you a long, rambling joke about a trilogy of movies ending with one titled "Hey, The King is Back." 7. Any time he tried to use any device, he hold it shoulder-height at arms length. 6. When ogling women, he talks about the "hot toons." 5. He starts making to-do lists, and always holds them in the upper-right hand edge of his field of vision. 3. When you give him a cup of coffee, he sits on the floor and drinks it in 20 seconds. 2. Instead of asking if you want to go see a movie, he sends you an "invitation to group for a cinema run." 1. You never see them again. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
12:10 pm	You don't have to go play at home... ...but you can't play here. I am a fan of Goodman Games. Even when they don't do things the way I would, they always do things in a way I find useful. Since they have announced a last call for 3.5, and asked it be spread far and wide, here it is in case anyone reads my blog but not any of the two-dozen other places this is going to show up :D Last Call for 3.5! On December 31, Goodman Games will stop selling its 3.5 products. This is the last call. Visit our online store to purchase what is left of our 3.5 product at 50% off. You can find the online store at http://www.goodman-games.com/store.html For the rest of December, you can also visit our PDF store to purchase 3.5 PDF e-books at $2 each. Remember – after December 31, they’re gone forever! You can find the PDF store at http://goodmangames.rpgnow.com/ Last call! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
7:02 pm	Can You Stop the Midnight Harvest? Well, my very first Call of Cthulhu adventure, Midnight Harvest, is now on sale and you can get the pdf here here. If you prefer print that's going to be an option too. The adventure is set in modern times, but can be retro-fit for retro-settings, with sidebars to help. It's geared for Hallowqeen (the timing is no accident), but obviously you can play it anytime. The toughest part of writing this (well -- aside from dealing with kidney stones, other deadlines and flu symptoms serious enough that some family members went to the hospital) was finding my "Cthulhu Pacing." My previous adventures have all been for some form of d20, be it D&D, Star Wars or one of the many d20 settings I've been involved with. The needs for d20 adventure writing are different than the needs for CoC, and I was aware of that. What I wasn't sure of was how to find those needs and focus on them. The Super Genius guys were a big help, and were very involved in the process, for which I am grateful. One of things I found interesting was that my weaker grasp of BRPS mechanics wasn't a real problem. I have always been a quick study for rpgs, and I have certainly played CoC before, but I have no sense that I am a master of the game's rules. For d20 games, I need to be very comfortable with the mechanics before I can feel creative. For this, I felt more like I was outlining an odd horror theme park, with rules thrown in whenever they seemed called for. Now I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it was certainly a different thing. In the end I am very pleased with the end result, though I credit Stan! And Hyrum with much of that goodness. I also learned some interesting things about adventure design in general. I had to work outside my normal comfort zone, and that produced some interesting results. While I am stepping back from adventure design for a bit, I do see a good chance I'll tackle more CoC sometime in the future. I even have an idea for next Halloweeen... If CoC or modern horror are your cups of tea, I think you will enjoy the Midnight Harvest. I know I have. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
10:37 pm	Et la Well, the kidney stones are past and done, and I'd say I am 90% recovered from them. It is -really- amazing how long it hurts after they are gone, and how easily I tire for weeks after the passing. The stones were so bad I had to accept an offer to back out of a project. I hated to do it, but with surgery a real possibility, and the editor offering a no-hard-feelings option, I felt it was the right thing to do. Everything else I currently had officially on my plate is turned in. While I was fighting flu and kidney stones at once I wasn't taking on any new projects, and as a result I have hit a place where nothing is agreed to. In short, for the first time in 8 years I don't have any deadlines set right now. I have lots of options, but nothing on schedule. Now, that's not to say I'm not doing anything. I have spec projects I haven't had time to look at in months, and things companies are asking if I am interested in. Just nothing under verbal or written contract. I planned for this, and I'm okay with it somewhat to my surprise. I can make ends meet without the freelance, and it might be nice to have a relaxed holiday season for once. Things at my bank job have taken a turn for the more lucrative, so I can wait on further writing until something comes along I really want to do, be it for myself or with another company. I have lots of things I want to consider, from fiction options to a revised d20 Modern to my takes on 4e products. If something that interests me from a game company comes along I'll hop on it, but I'm not looking for that currently. I've done some prestige projects this year, and a few things just to branch out, and I can pay my bills without anything else I don't want. (Though it'll help a LOT if I actually get paid for the things I have already written). But I have also had a very rough 6 months, and I want to get my bearings before I take on another load. It's time to decide where I want to be eight years from -now-, and take the steps needed to get there. I have a mentor recommending I try comic scripts, and another wanting to see me actually finish any of the many novel starts I have sitting around. I know I'll do -some- game writing, because I love it so much, but that may well not be my focus over the next year. When New Years Resolution time comes, I want to have seriously considered my plans, and this is a good time to start, If you've been in touch with me and not heard back, it's a good time to give me a reminder poke. I'm neither in pain nor on painkillers now, so I am more likely to respond in a timely manner. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
8:53 pm	No Surgery The good news is, there's no sign my kidney stones will require surgery. The bad news is, I get to feel like a mule is kicking me in the baclk for a couple of weeks. If I seem woozey and out of it for the next fortnight, it's only because I am. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
1:38 am	Health Update The kidney stones are still with me, and are the worst I have ever had. My case got kicked up to a specialist, who I see Thursday. The combination of pain and painkiller is making everything very difficult. Thanks for the kind wishes from everyone. More news as it happens. (7 Comments |Comment on this)