World of Fools
Even though I have sometimes participated in the antics, I really hate April Fools day. It's the sort of day when I should disconnect from everything and just crawl in to a closet, refusing to come out until 12:01am. I almost accomplished that today - went with the family to the beach - but I still managed to get online for an hour or so and experience the misery that is April Fools.
I don't really mind companies that participate in the April Fools antics so long as it doesn't directly interfere with customers or business practices. Just because Google decided to make an 8-bit version of Google Maps I still have access to the traditional system; I'm not forced to accept the goofy material made for this certain day because it's being rammed down my throat with no alternative. This situation is particularly annoying in cases of websites that decide to change their entire layout, and have made their websites unusable in the process. Last year several websites went the 8-bit route, and WotC themselves even cannibalized their home page in black and white once. Sites that I needed or depended on in one way or another were suddenly rendered useless just because someone at the company wanted to be cute and overhaul the template.
But the purpose of this post is not because of that (mainly because I've managed to avoid all that this year), but critical of Wizards of the Coast.
You see, in addition to April 1st being April Fools it is also the start of WotC's new submission window. The floodgates are open once again, and anyone and everyone can submit material in the hopes that they get published.
... But what to write about? Prior to April 1st, there was little indication of the sort of things they were expecting this cycle. Then, on April 1st, this article was posted.
I have two major problems with this article:
1) If read in its entirety, it's fairly obvious that it is a joke. But this bothered me:
D&D Gamma World: Our limited D&D Gamma World® product line made a big radioactive splash last year, and the game is 4th Edition compatible. We think our subscribers are ready for more D&D Gamma World support.
First of all, I admit it: I've been the one that has pretty much offered Gamma World content every time there was a submission window. I've ahd at least three different people tell me "Sorry, but no" in response to a submission email. This year I promised myself I would not do such a thing; if WotC doesn't want to pursue it, I won't either. So, quite honestly, the above statement almost felt like it was directed personally at me.
Secondly, if you take it to be an April Fools you can only assume that what they really mean is the opposite of what they're saying. Now it's one thing to not support a product any more, but to turn around and effectively suggest you really mean "Gamma World? Screw that!" is a stab at the game itself. Gamma World isn't just the forgotten child... it's the bastard one that nobody wants to acknowledge exists.
Gamma World does have an audience, and still has lots of people actively playing it. I don't know what brought on this attitude towards the game by its creators, but it's unwarranted. I accepted the "no more Gamma World content" statement at DDXP, but don't sandblast salt in to the open wound. If you want it dead, let it die peacefully.
2) So the submission window is now open... and the only guidance we have as to what materials they would like to see is a document that is - by design - a joke.You were open to make submissions, but you had absolutely no idea what they did or did not want; if you were excited to submit some ideas, like I was, you had no means to gauge whether they would be even remotely interested in them.
Only today, April 2nd, did they posted what they really want or don't want.
I sent a submission in already; I'd been thinking about it for a few days, typed it all up, and sent it early this morning before going about my day. I was going based on the information that I had, which was none. And this time I technically did not offer Gamma World content, but I did slightly rail on them for the reason I mention in #1 above.
Now I wish I could take that submission email back. Because, exactly 24 hours after the submission window opened, I am now told that what I sent is not what they want. I submitted options that they now explicitly state they are not interested in through the article posted today (April 2nd); had I known that when the submission window opened I would not have bothered, and now I look like an idiot for offering content they publicly stated they're not interested in.
So I'm kind of bothered, disillusioned and demoralized... I can't take what I sent back, so now I wait for the inevitable "God no, we don't want that. Ever!" email to come back from whomever's reading these things. I could have submitted other ideas, sure... But it may take a few days before my aggravation and anger subsides. And even so, if I send yet another email to them with "ignore my last one, this one is for real!" content, it feels like I'm spamming them. At this point I probably won't submit anything more this cycle, and I can only pray that the submissions I have sent in aren't laughed at for too long.
If anyone at WotC is reading this, let me offer some suggestions:
- If you're going to offer suggestions on what you want or don't want, do it BEFORE April 1st. Not 24 hours after the window opens, because in those 24 hours people will submit things while being unaware of your expectations.
- Do not mock the submission content on April 1st without setting a foundation of what you want or don't want before then. In the absence of valid information, do not cloud the waters with invalid info.
- Change the start of your submission window to a day that's NOT April 1st.
A Hero’s Journey
A Hero's Journey
So I've sent The Heart of Fire to a few people who volunteered to edit it; I haven't heard from them in a few days, so either I've stupified them with my awesome writing or my writing is soi abysmal that I compelled them to jump off a bridge. You can never tell with these sort of things...
In the meantime, inspired by Thick Skull Adventure's upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure "Attack of the Frawgs!" (which I help edit), I had an idea for a level 0 mini-adventure. I would have written it for the DCC ruleset, but all I have for now are the "beta" rules. I could have waited, I know... But I'm impatient. Once I get an idea in my head I need to get it done and out there.
So I decided to create the module using the level 0 rules for D&D 4E that were documented by the "A Hero's First Steps: Rules for Level 0 Characters" article by Philippe-Antoine Menard (a.k.a. @ChattyDM) that was published in Dragon magazine #403 (DDI subscription required). Here is the intro, in all its vague glory:
For years you have followed in the footsteps of your master, watching his every move and learning through observation and study. You longed for the day when you might actually be able to follow in his footsteps and become an adventurer yourself, basking in the fame and glory that comes with such an honor.
One day, during what should have been a normal expedition for your master and the other members of his group, everything changes. You suddenly find yourselves alone, the only hope for a city in desperate need of salvation, and you must put what you have observed in to practice. Can you step up and become the hero you were destined to be?
It's very short - less than 20 pages - and really only has a couple of encounters. I designed it with roleplaying in mind, where the players can really get in to character when their simple level 0 characters are thrust in to danger and must deal with forces beyond their understanding.
The hardest part of this module was coming up with names... The city had three different names - an online random name generator seriously suggested the name "Cloverclover" - until I settled on the name Feldspar. It's a strange name I know, but I'm sure someone can come up with a good reason for it to be called that? And I also had to find a name for a pirate ship, and even though the online "pirate ship name generator" are far from appropriate, it did help me come up with the ship name as The Red Barnacle.
Anyway, you can purchase the mini-adventure A Hero's Journey for the low price of $1.99 at Drive Thru RPG!
Map Pack M3: Crypt Entrance
While I was creating the adventure, I ended up creating a tactical map that I really liked: the entrance to an underground crypt. So I decided to make that in to a high resolution image (200 DPI) and release it as a map pack. This new map pack, brilliantly titled M3: Crypt Entrance (I suck at names... sue me) is also available at Drive Thru RPG.
Once I feel comfortable about The Heart of Fire - which will hopefully be soon - that will be released.
The Heart of Fire
It's been two weeks since a post, so I figured I'd post something.
Yesterday I finished my editing pass on my upcoming Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition mega-adventure The Heart of Fire. I use the term "mega-adventure" loosely; it's 130 pages, which makes it larger than most adventures... but it's not as big as Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (222 pages) or Return to the Tomb of Horrors (which is well over 200 pages if you count illustrations, maps and monsters). And I don't know how big Madness at Gardmore Abbey is, but by all accounts it's a big one too.
I mention those for a reason... Unlike my past endeavors, this is not a linear dungeon. There are two different entrances, each with a whole set of rooms, and players can take multiple paths through these areas to reach the final boss. They can hack and slash approach or try a more subtle tactic; it's up to them. In a full session, I don't expect a party to go through every room in the adventure, but it does give them the option to go exploring and investigate several different quests and subplots.
I've posted some teasers on Twitter, such as the map of the Isle of Pyrias (by J.D. Harvill from Cartographer's Guild) and the ground floor of the Temple of Blackfire. There are also some other pics on my DeviantArt page.
This week I am going to find editors for it; as you can imagine, it's kind of hard to find editors willing to plod through a 130 page document for free (NOTE: If you're willing to volunteer, please let me kn0w), but once that is done I will be releasing it digitally through Drive Thru RPG as well as submitting it to the ENnies (hey, might as well, right?).
Once that is done, I am going to attempt something: a Kickstarter for the print release. You see, there isn't a better feeling of accomplishment than to hold a physical copy of your own creation in your hands. So I'd like to try and run a very low budget Kickstarter - probably a couple of grand at most - to cover printing copies and other expenses (commissioning an artist to do the cover, getting my own ISBN number, listing on major sales venues, possible advertising, etc.) and see if t works. And if it goes really well, perhaps it could help fund future products like The Coming Dark.
So if all goes well, The Heart of Fire will be published by the end of this month, and the Kickstarter will follow shortly thereafter. We'll see how things go.
In the meantime, I have started to work on my next project: a significantly smaller adventure for a party of 0th level characters, using the guidelines published in "A Hero's First Steps" by Philippe-Antoine Menard (a.k.a. @ChattyDM on Twitter). If it goes well, I may also port the encounter over to Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics system if those rules become available soon.
Finally, I have one big article/blog post I'm working on, but it's complicated and it... well... needs to be approved by higher authorities. 😉
Compass Rose
A few days ago, on a whim, I decided to try and create a custom compass rose for my maps. I have a few available in the clip art I yanked from Campaign Cartographer 3, but I still wanted to have one of my own.
Also, it was sort of a challenge to myself. I repeat over and over again that I can't draw, and do all my maps solely through the creative manipulation of existing art. When it comes to create an object from scratch, freehand if you will, I cave.
So while I was in the process of putting stuff on my new DeviantArt page, I went exploring and found this tutorial that describes the basics on how to make a neat little compass rose. I figured I'd give it a go.
The result is the image you see to the right, which I am now making available to anyone who wants to use it.
The worse part of the whole thing that, unbeknownst to me, Cartographer's Guild was having a "mini" challenge that was exactly this: create a compass rose. I decided to create mine on the very last day of the contest, a mere three hours after the contest closed and all submissions were locked. Since that dismayed me a little, I'm giving it away for free instead.
There are two files provided below: one is the flattened, raster image and the native vector PNG created in Adobe Fireworks CS5. You would think that the raster image would be a thousand times larger than the vector one, but for some reason the vector one is a behemoth at about 1Mb in size compared to the 250K raster file (don't ask me why). Both image have a transparent background.
In any event, if you use these things anywhere or have any suggestions I'd love to hear about it.
Here ya go!
Download: Original Adobe Fireworks CS5 vector file (approx. 1Mb)
Download: "Flattened" raster PNG file (approx 254K):
Disorganized Play
Image courtesy of Wizards of the Coast
Today I went by my "friendly local gaming store" to see if they'd received the materials for the upcoming D&D Encounters and D&D Lair Assault seasons. They didn't, but that's not the reason for this post.
The owner of the store told me that Wizards of the Coast is apparently cracking down on stores. Apparently there's a problem with people sanctioning events and not actually running them, and since the creation of the materials actually costs them money with no direct return they need to somehow control it better. the owner of the store said that they will be required to sanction events and have people actually sign up and play, or else future materials might not come and the store's standing in the grand scheme of things might suffer.
Think about that for a second... If you don't get players, you don't get future materials. If you don't get materials, how are you supposed to get players? It's a textbook example of a catch-22.
I don't know how it is in the rest of the country, but Miami is not a hot bed of gaming aficionados. Sure there are a few D&D games going on at the store on Wednesday and Thursday, but these are small close knit groups that have known each other for quite a long time. A newcomer - like myself, at one point - has a hard time joining these games. In addition, these groups decided they didn't want to play Encounters or Lair Assault for whatever reason... So what does someone do to participate?
I remember a long time ago when I volunteered to DM a game of Lair Assault at the store; I sat there all day and had only two players show up. We couldn't run it with so few people, so the entire day was a wash.
One of the big problems is that, according to Wizards of the Coast anyway, D&D Encounters *must* happen on Wednesdays. There's no way around it; the date is such a requirement that, last I checked, you can't even try to schedule the event on any other day of the week through the Wizards Event Reporter or the WPN website. Wednesday, quite frankly, is a terrible day to do anything... Those of us that don't have 9-5 jobs most likely have school that day and the next. As a parent I would have a hard time letting my son spend four hours or more at a game store in the middle of the week.
And now Wizards is seemingly threatening stores: I don't care how you do it, but get some players playing or else we won't send you the good stuff.
I thought about this a bit, and have a few suggestions:
- Allow the sanctioning of any event: I think this can be done already, but WPN doesn't talk about it much. They continue to push the products they publish, and just don't have a framework for anyone who decides to play their own campaign. If WPN encouraged this sort of play with some sort of reward, players may participate more without being restricted to either the Encounters season or the Lair Assault Of the Month.
- Allow the availability of Encounters and Lair Assault materials to anyone, even at a price if necessary: If I want to start running Lair Assault, I have to prepare for it: register as a WPN Event Coordinator, wait for WotC to call the store and verify information, get approved, sanction the Lair Assault event, wait for the materials, and then run it at the store. That took me upwards of several weeks, which is not practical for a spur of the moment game I may want to run (like if I just showed up at the store). There is no framework for someone who wants to play it whenever, wherever. I would be willing to even buy the Lair Assault set from Wizards themselves (instead of paying $100+ for it on eBay).
- Allow anyone to be an "independent" event coordinator: Right now it's not possible to register as an event coordinator without being associated with a store, so if I am registered in store "A" it's not possible for me to report events in store "B". Let people who want to run your games do so, and give them the support they need without tying them to a store.
- Allow events to be run on any day: I have yet to hear a valid reason as to why Encounters must be on Wednesday. Magic the Gathering has "Friday Night Magic", which is a prime date and probably one of the reasons MtG is so hot. At my FLGS, they get 100+ people on each Friday easily. If I was able to run Encounters on Saturday without WPN calling me a heretic, I would; for now I have to report the Saturday players on Wednesday's entry - which appears as "Delinquent" in the Wizards Event Reporter until I d0 - and that just doesn't feel right.
- Let the store, not the event coordinator, get the materials: Right now Encounters and Lair Assault materials get sent to an individual on behalf of the store. If that person goes in to the store, picks up the materials and disappears, the store no longer has the tools needed to run the session even if someone volunteers. I've lost count as to how many times I've walked in there willing to run a session but not having the tools to do so. If the stores themselves can get the materials, they can hand them off to anyone that walks in the store ready to DM.
- Do not threaten to cut off your customer: Telling a store that you will not send them materials if they don't have the customer base is a really bad idea; they need the materials in order to get the customer base in the first place. If trust is an issue, have the store or the event coordinator pay for the materials until the store has sufficient players to merit getting them for free. Do not tell them you won't give them materials; the more you do that, the less they'll actually be able to do what you want them to.
In the meantime, I'm hoping the next season's materials come soon... But I admit I will probably not run it at the store myself. It's virtally impossible on Wednesday, and on Saturday it's hard to fill seats (especially with the 800lb gorilla that is Magic the Gathering taking up most of the play area).
About the Author
Software developer and game designer in Miami, Florida. Currently working on content for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Pathfinder, 13th Age and other systems.
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