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Saturday, December 17th, 2005
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4:02 pm - The Year in Review: 2005
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| Thursday, December 15th, 2005
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12:46 am - A Brief King Kong Review
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[Kirk Outfit]
[Emotes]
KOOOOOONNNGGGGGGGG!!!
[/Emotes]
[/Kirk Outfit]
EDIT: This post now comes with a free, bonus game. Guess how many types of nerdity I displayed in one post!
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(15 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, November 12th, 2005
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12:01 pm - The Robot Chicken RPG Is On Its Way!
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| Thursday, November 10th, 2005
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3:09 pm - Busy!
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I got into work today at 9 AM.
At 3:09 PM, I finally have a chance to sit down and check my email.
Such is the current state of my work life.
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, October 20th, 2005
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5:01 pm - Offline
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Just an FYI for anyone who needs to get in touch: as WotC moves to a new building, I won't have 'net access until Monday.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, October 17th, 2005
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12:02 pm
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| Sunday, October 16th, 2005
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3:58 pm
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| Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
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5:38 pm
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| Sunday, October 9th, 2005
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9:42 pm - RPGs Defined
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| Monday, October 3rd, 2005
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2:47 pm - Real Life Imitates Gaming
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| Wednesday, September 7th, 2005
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10:14 am - Happy Birthday ![[info]](http://web.archive.org/web/20051220021453im_/http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) memento_mori
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The Memento Mori Army salutes the birthday of its leader. In celebration, we will create another three notebooks full of Rolemaster critical hit tables.
Excelsior, suckah!
EDIT: For the curious, the Memento Mori Army consists of robots. Robots built with tombstones.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, September 4th, 2005
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1:46 pm - Two Things I Learned This Week
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1. It's crazy to look at the differences between how things played out in NYC in '01 and New Orleans this year. The message seems to be, "In the face of a natural disaster the government may take active steps to make the situation worse for you." It's sad to see one of the US's worst traits, its inherent hatred of the weak (and that's not something reserved for the right or left), come to the fore.
2. Sarah Vowell is the ultimate nrrd babe. She did a reading last night along with David Eggers and a few others at Bumbershoot. I am in LOVE. No mortal woman can measure up!
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
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2:16 pm - The Wiki Issue
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I just wanted to drop a general note about the idea of an open game content wiki/central storage site. I'm really busy at work, and also actively carving more free time from my schedule. I also think this idea requires a lot of thought to do it right. So, I'm reading comments, thinking, planning, and putting together some ideas. Don't expect any rapid, sudden moves out of me, but planning is taking place.
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
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3:32 pm - An Open RPG Content Wiki
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For some time I've had the idea of a massive wiki containing every scrap of open gaming content I can find. If we start with everything I've written, rip out the open content, and categorize it, that'd be a good start.
From there, we'd need either helpful/forward thinking publishers to give us their open content in digital form, or we could scan/rip the text from books. Ideally, if this project was distributed over enough people, it wouldn't be much work. You could build teams for different publishers, with sub-teams to cover different lines or time periods.
The real trick would be paying attention to open content declarations. A lot of publishers are afraid of their fans and the power that this would give gamers. In some cases, a team would have to build text skeletons so that crippleware either has a context or makes sense.
(You could be nice and, if a publisher complains about the project, push it to the back of the queue. Alternatively, you could slip them to the front of the queue just to make a point.)
I think it would make sense to provide the data in two forms: a PDF, and a wiki. If there was some easy way to allow a ready to collect articles, bind them into a single file, and download them, that'd be great. I'm a few years behind on what's out there, so I'm a little foggy on the technical side.
The wiki would be for user-driven development. You could even extend the team function to include a sort of project management group. The manager would cull the best comments, variants, and other changes from the wikis in monthly revisions and updates. The community could even drive towards a set of standards that each manager would apply to the material he cares for (example: a feat is designed as falling with power range Y; a 7th-level spell can have the following set of basic parameters; a spell that turns you to stone has to be at least 6th level; etc). (The really interesting thing would be watching competing ethos spring up - I'm sure the project would fork multiple times before a front runner improves.) (Also, note that the real value of the OGL isn't necessarily in improving a specific RPG rule, but in providing standards for the body of rules as a whole.) (Also, I used too many parens in this paragraph.)
I think this would be a very useful, cool project for the community. As I said at my Iron Heroes seminar, the publishers don't get open source. If the fans want a real open community to grow around the OGL, they need to do it themselves.
Who wants to start it? Would anyone step up and do it? I think it's something that should've happened four years ago.
(The big challenge to this project would be finding a Ron Edwards like figure to lead it. You'd need someone who is above the petty jealousies and fears of the RPG "industry" to get it rolling. The first time this project caves to a company, rather than forcing the company to accept its mission, it will be mortally wounded.)
current mood:  thoughtful
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(54 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
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7:33 am - Pen and Paper Awards
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| Sunday, August 21st, 2005
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5:00 pm - GenCon Wrap Up
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Another GenCon has come and gone, and the game industry is another year older. I tend to think of GenCon as the hobby game industry's new year point. We get to see the games that are coming out, take a peek into the current state of the business and art, and take stock with where things are, where they've been, and where they're going.
( This way to industry wonkery... )
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(23 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 19th, 2005
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8:32 pm - GenCon Update
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GenCon has been great so far. It's been wonderful meeting so many people in peron for the first time. I sat next to yeloson at dinner and had no idea who he was on LJ (I never made the connection with his Forge user name) until after we ate. The entire con is an enormous gathering of our tribe. I still need to catch up with lots of people and buy a bunch of games.
I'm apparently going to appear in some sort of music video and receive perhaps the coolest gaming-themed t-shirt ever made. If the noise I'm hearing is accurate, Iron Heroes is heading for a second printing. It's fantastic meeting people and hearing that they're excited about IH, or that this journal makes them think of RPGs in a way they might not have considered before. Things have gone very well.
I'm in a bit early tonight to rest before heading out for a few drinks or some gaming. I'm not exactly sure which way to go...
Anyway, I'll be at the White Wolf booth tomorrow and Sunday from 11 AM to 1 PM. Don't be afraid to stop by and say hi.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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1:23 am - GenCon
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There's a thunderstorm rolling into Indy right now. I watched it approach as I walked back to the hotel. Now it's pouring out.
That this is the highlight of my day reveals that, since I'm no longer a freelancer, GenCon is so relaxing that I might melt into a pile of jelly.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
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5:47 pm - GenCon Bound
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I'm off to GenCon. If possible, I'll post details of the trip and anything interesting I see as they happen. My workload is relatively light. I'm at the booth from 11 to noon, then running Iron Heroes demos from noon to 1. I have a seminar to run on Thursday from 2 to 4. Otherwise, I'll probably wander the convention floor or, once that gets boring, find a nice quiet place to work.
Don't be afraid to stop by and say hi.
EDIT: I'll also be at the Diana Jones award party on Wednesday. Other than that, I'm making up my schedule as I go.
current music: "Quiet" - The Beta Band
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, August 13th, 2005
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8:40 pm - Stross's Law Revisited
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So I named my little theory from my last post after Charlie Stross, and how else should come by and comment but the man himself? Not only that, but he disagrees with me. The temerity!
As I mentioned earlier, I owe everyone a more detailed examination of the concept. The general reaction seems to be, "Yes, this is obvious Mearls. Don't overwrite." Charlie points out that two paragraphs is a needless constraint - why limit the complexity that an RPG game element can achieve?
I'm going to try to answer these questions and thoughts in this post. I'm also somewhat sunburned (both arms, face, and... left knee?) from sitting outside all day. I also had a Slush Puppy for the first time in about 24 years. Forgive me if this rambles!
I originally wanted to draw charts to help explain what follows, but I'm not really sure how to do that with this Windows machine I'm stuck with. I tried using Excel, but I didn't see an export function.
The basic premise behind my thinking is that D&D; (and many other, but not all, RPGs) remains a viable hobby because it offers DMs a creative outlet. Most DMs use their own campaign settings, write their own adventures, and even write their own game rules. In many ways, publishers are irrelevent to the play experience after a gamer buys a core rulebook. I think this is why RPGs are still a viable hobby despite other, emerging forms of entertainment. The best crafted computer game or MMORPG can't compete with us when it comes to keeping our *DMs* happy. As long as there are DMs who want to run campaigns, D&D; will live on.
(As an aside, this line of thinking is why I think the low price of playing D&D; is a strength, not a weakness. Many in the industry lament that you can play RPGs for free - you don't have to buy a rulebook if the DM has one. That's a feature, not a bug - those freeloaders are filling seats around gaming tables across the world. Without them, our DMs don't have players to entertain.)
With this in mind, my theory rests on a simple supposition. There is a tipping point beyond which information about a game setting element (monster, prestige class, etc.) causes that setting element to lose value in the eyes of the typical DM.
Picture in your mind a graph that rises sharply at the left end, then drops suddenly at some point. The X axis is the amount of information presented on something. The Y axis is the DM's interest. At that tipping point, the density of information is such that the DM's creativity is trampled or written over by the game element. In order to use it in his campaign setting, he has to change something in it. As we present more and more information, chances are good that he has to replace even more of it. The utility this element offers decreases once we pass the tipping point.
Thus, Stross's Law. If this is true, we're shooting ourselves in the foot once we venture beyond broad strokes and general ideas. Again, go back and look at many classic D&D; game elements in their original forms. There's little detail, but a lot of flavor, and one or more strong, vivid concepts that brings the monster to life.
I don't think that this idea applies to all RPGs, but I think it's in play for any game that encourages its DMs/GMs to create their own settings. I wonder, though, how it might interact with settings and adventures.
I also believe that there is a segment of the audience that wants of details. I think that the less someone plays an RPG and the more they collect/read books in the game line, the more likely they are to want details. I don't think this group is more than a small part of the RPG fanbase. However, I think they do tend to participate in online fora (and debate setting/game minutia) far more often than other types of gamers.
EDIT: There are some pseudo-exceptions to this rule. You might use two paragraphs to describe Waterdeep's fundamental character, but it's obviously crazy to think that you could cover all the important locations within Waterdeep in those two paragraphs. But I think the spirit of the thing remains intact - you can quickly reach a point in mapping and describing a D&D; city where your work runs counter to what the DM needs. If the DM needs to change something, your work is getting in his way. At that point, you have to wonder if he's better off just making up everything himself.
EDIT 2: Game mechanics are an obvious exception. The two paragraph limit I propose is related to story material. It wouldn't include a monster's stats, or rules for its breath weapon.
current music: "Rhythm-A-Ning" - Thelonious Monk
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(35 comments | comment on this)
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