Finally got my signed 4th Edition free books for winning that freelancer competition!
Never mind I was supposed to get them BEFORE the official release...

Still!

BOOKS!

1. The GSL rebellion seems to be going full swing, but like the corporations in Star Wars I think I'll let this go on for a little while before I pin my flag to either side. AFAIK the copyright laws regarding systems are the same over here as they are in the US as I've seen similar 'compatible' products sold over here.

2. Someone should SO 'Osric' Cyberpunk 2020 given that CP3.0 was so bloody awful.

HERE over on apresvie

I am seriously hacked off now by the delay in clarifying the GSL and the problems surrounding it and now I'm off for a few days to the South of France to visit my dad so will likely be away and off proper net contact when something does surface.

X-Posted to apresvie

Wizards of the Coast is pleased to announce that third-party publishers will be allowed to publish products compatible with the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game system under the new Dungeons & Dragons 4E Game System License (D&D 4E GSL). This royalty-free license will replace the former d20 System Trademark License (STL), and will have a System Reference Document (SRD) available for referencing permissible content.

The D&D 4E GSL will allow third-party publishers to create roleplaying game products in fantasy settings with the D&D 4th Edition rules, and publishers who register with WotC will be granted the right to use a version of the D&D logo that denotes the product as compatible with the D&D 4th Edition Roleplaying Game, in accordance with WotC’s terms and conditions. The effective start date for sales of D&D 4E GSL publications will be October 1, 2008.

The license associated SRD will be available on June 6, 2008, at no cost. A small group of publishers received advanced notice and will receive these documents prior to June 6, at no cost, in order to prepare for publication of compatible materials by the effective start date. If you haven’t already been contacted by WotC, you will be able to access the documents on the Wizards website beginning on June 6, 2008.

Wizards is also working on the details of a second royalty-free license, the d20 Game System License (d20 GSL). This license will allow third-party publishers to create roleplaying game products in non-fantasy settings with the 4E rules. The exact details for the d20 GSL will be released as they become available.

************

This seems slightly woolly to me since 'Fantasy Setting' is a rather subjective term, would Iron Kingdoms be a fantasy setting? What about Bas Lag? Some people consider Star Wars to be fantasy. Plus this doesn't tell us that much about the constrictions of the new licence but I'd hazard a guess and say it's going to be about as restrictive as the old D20 license, so you may not be able to do complete settings with character creation etc in them. This may be a bit of a mistake as the leeway with the old OGL lead to efforts like True20 and Mutants & Masterminds that pushed things forward a bit. Still, we'll see, I'm sure I can knock something up whatever the restrictions.

One thing that RPGs don't replicate very well is the 'clash of blades' or the back and forth of a good cinematic kung-fu fight, or a TV gunfight for that matter.

In all the above you see a back and forth, a flurry of parrying, holds, entanglements or flying bullets smashing into everything before, finally, someone gets the advantage and there's a hit or it's all over.

I've been trying to think of ways to replicate this for a while now. Cloak of Steel has it with the marginal failure/success mechanic in it and other times while tinkering with ideas I've tried to replicate it but it just doesn't quite mesh right for some reason.

One way it might work would be in allowing people to 'carry over' their accumulated successes in a dicepool game.

For example (Xpress)...

Kung Fu Master Hung Lo is facing off against a demonic opponent armed with a giant club. He knows the Dim Mak Poison Hand Touch of Death but it is a difficult maneuvre to pull off, especially against such a gigantic opponent.

Turn 1 - Hung Lo has initiative being smaller and faster and describes his action as a flurry of blows designed to distract and enrage the demon.

Hung Lo has a Dex of 4 and Kung Fu/Internal/Dim Mak 4, he rolls 4 dice with a target of 3-6 getting 3 successes total.
Demon has a Dex of 2 and Melee/Club 3 he rolls 2 dice with a target of 3-6 and gets 1 success total.

Hung Lo decides not to apply the remaining 2 successes to damage, but keeps them back to aid his attack.

The Demon counterattacks and scores 3 successes.
Hung Lo describes his counter as leaping atop the club as it smashes down and running up it, he scores 4 successes and adds that 1 extra to his pool for a total of 3 dice stored up.

Turn 2
Hung Lo launches the Dim Mak Poison Hand Touch of Death with his saved up dice as a bonus.
Because of his specialisations and the extra dice he is now rolling 8 dice and only needing 2-6. He scores a massive 11 successes.
The Demon feebly attempts to counter and gets 1 success, reducing Hung Lo's successes to 10.
Hung Lo elects to use this as his strike and with 10 successes equal to double the demon's consitution doubled the Dim Mak takes effect. The demon will not die instantly, but within the day from a blockage to its chi flow.

Hung Lo backflips back and says something smug.


Of course, fights need not be as straightforward as this, two equally matched kung fu masters may play 'tug of war' over a dicepool with the one with the advantage spending from their pool to reduce attacks from their opposite to nothing.

EG: Hung Lo is fighting his courtesan nemesis Wang Suk, he currently has the advantage and has saved up a pool of three dice he intends to use in a devastating attack on her when the dice betray him. Suddenly she has hit him despite his defences with at attack of 3 successes. He spends his pool to negate her attack with a desperate block and, again, they're back on an even keel...

Skill Contests
--------------
Against a Static Target
-----------------------
Add your Skill Ranks + Attribute Bonus to 10. If it is above the difficulty, you succeed. If it is below, you don't. Tough. If you take twice as long acting out what you're doing you can add 20 to try and succeed instead.
Against another Player
----------------------
Add your Skill Ranks + Attribute Bonus together and compare your total to your opponents. Take the lower number away from the higher number. This is how many times the 'underdog' must beat the one with the higher total at a game of 'knuckles' or 'slaps' in order to win, but they must not lose once! The person with the higher number goes first.

Combat
------
As 'against another player' above, but based on modified attacks score + Armour. The person with the higher number gets that many tries first without the other person getting a go.
Every hit does damage based on the average (rounded up) damage of the attack.

http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/tta/index.html

I'm so there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4724246.stm

You'll have to read through the irrelevent parts about childbirth...

Still not voting for him though :P

"Motown thirsts, Motown drinks. Drink sweet mother!"

Amtrak Wars would have made a good game...

*goes back to writing about Detroit*

Religion in fantasy worlds eh? What's the deal with that?

In fantasy worlds you generally don't have the fun of the question 'What if?' when it comes to gods. They're right there, walking down the street, inconveniencing people with plagues of frogs and generally acting like... well... player characters would if they had that much power - or like Discworld Gods with slightly more decorum and a lot more self importance.

There's no difficult questions, demons are real, gods interfere in people's lives, devotion gets you magic and so on.

On the flipside most SF games completely ignore the whole thing entirely save for primitive tribes worshipping idols that just happen to be Hyperspace Q-Modulator crystals or something.

Doesn't that strike anyone else as a pity, or odd (from a story point of view?).

In the fantasy games you don't have the question 'Are there gods' its not a matter of faith, its a matter of choice. Which god do you want to piss off the least, which offers the best benefits. It's more like competing brands in a supermarket and acts of faith are not required.

In the SF games you don't, generally, have people acting through religious motivation and yet SF is usually the 'now' projected forward. Oh, there are exceptions of course, SF covers a very broad base, but you don't see that much of it considering.

One of the better ideas I think I've come up with in gaming was the Royomuertivan society in Cloak of Steel. An atheistic society, a breakaway group, entirely invested in the here and now (The world has no proof of gods) and relentlessly rational and decadant. They pursue a life of luxury and immortality through Necromancy, a magical science that most others regard as evil and corrupting but which the Muertivans regard as a good use of dead bodies and a good supply of uncomplaining servants. Their ancestor spirits are bound into skulls and stored in a great 'chamber of ancestors' where they discuss and formulate policy for the kingdom. A land ruled by and supported by its dead - very practical given the gameworld.

I find that whole idea fascinating, breaking taboos in fiction and examining viewpoints, playing with them. Just wish I could use the same idea somewhere else or make CoS more popular.

http://www.ukroleplayers.com/

Needs more members, who post. You LARP lot could probably promote on it and, if it can get more people, it might make a good hook up spot.

I am involved in a potentially lucrative project that will combine some CCG/NCCG card game elements with 'proper' roleplaying.
The setting is a sort of urban, fantasy Dyson Sphere (unrelated to previous DungeonPunk posts) but that's irrelevent at this stage.
What I will need, within about a month most likely, are playtesters.

Playtesters will need access to themselves and at least one other person.
They will need access to a printer.
They must be willing to take notes and make suggestions.
They should have some prior knowledge of RPGs and/or cardgames at this stage.
If they have access to someone who is just a CCG player or who hasn't played RPGs but is willing to give this a go, that would be great.

The game will have two (possibly three) modes of play.
1. Standard Adventure Game.
2. Duelling.
3. Solitaire Adventure.

Only the first two will need testing at this stage and the final setting won't be being tested, just the mechanics.

Volunteers?

Didn't sell quite as much as I wanted to but much of my excess stock is now 'in stores'. Which was nice.
What's killing me at the moment are teething troubles with Lightningsource, particularly that one of my books didn't arrive in time.
I did make some good contacts, wheedle out some potential future work and hear a great deal of stories about *certain gaming personalities* that made me smile. There's also some potential there for some future work, not high paying to start, but another string to my bow anyway.

I was also wheedled by assorted people to rejoin The Camarilla using various tactics from outright guilt tripping, to all sorts of other things.

I don't think it is likely to happen.
1. By and large I can't stand the new games and can't see a hook for myself in a LARP situation in any of them. I particularly hate the new Mage which was my great love in the old WOD. I just can't see a way to enjoy the new games especially when I see them being played the same old ways by many of the same old people who haven't learned a thing.
2. While many of the asshole squad seem to have left White Wolf I am sure much of the LARP soc is still run by its own asshole squad. Life is too short to have to deal on a daily basis with these fuckmonkeys.
3. I'm only really happy in gaming when I'm GMing. I don't see it being easy to get back into that right away and I wouldn't WANT to GM half this stuff ATM.
4. I can't afford to travel to games at the moment. If I could I would be travelling to Neverwhere or Star Wars or Legend of the Five Rings games anyway.
5. A lot of people who promised to stay in touch and who I thought of as good friends haven't. Fool me once...

I could only really see myself rejoining in support of tabletop organised play for things such as Exalted, Aberrant and so on. Even then I'm sure The Camarilla would find a way to fuck that up and with an imminent Exalted 2nd Edition and with Aberrant resigned to the unsupported lines I'm not filled with confidence.

By all means keep trying to convince me, just know its a hard sell.

This year wasn't quite as good as last year I don't think, this was mainly due to unexpected costs in real life more than directly business related problems. Bailing out our main account a couple of times ate into my profits, as has needing to get a new computer monitor and assorted other costs.

Added to that at the end of this year the problems with Lightningsource. I don't have any massive complaints about their service but the problem is the setup and revision costs. This amounts to £50-£70 per title and, while their individual book costs are lower than my US provider - Lulu - and they offer other services they also have revision costs. My problem being that the problems encountered have been at their end, asking revisions of me and then using that as the excuse to charge me again. This isn't good. If I'm paying setup and revision fees I expect the person on the other end to do the work for me. This could be shrinking the PDF to fit the page better when printing or whatever else. Lulu has a higher per-unit cost, but no setup fee and doesn't seem to have run into the same problems LS has. LS also doesn't print in US Letter Format, which also very much inconveniences me.

I am going to talk with the LS guys a little more about serving me and our market, but based on this experience and the extra amount of hassle involved I may have to stick with Lulu via RPGnow. What I really need is a POD cardgame printer but Ken Whitman of Rapidpod is the only one to offer this service and has an awful reputation as a businessman and doesn't seem to have moved forward with it yet.

Anyway, this coming year is my third year full time doing this, it is also the year when (fate willing, _ANGUS_) a lot of the work I have done for Cubicle7 will be coming out. Of the work I have done I feel that my work on SLA, Frankenstein Factory and Junk Babies has been the most professional, most evocative and, generally, all-round best. Cannibal Sector One most especially I regard as the best thing I have yet written and it would make me exceedingly happy if it got some critical acclaim and (hopefully) another Origins. That could only help my career.

So, I have good stuff finally being published, which is good, but I need to make more money and pack more punch this coming year. This means two things...

1. Doing more freelance work.
2. Selling more 'commercial' product.

I've got the leads on number 1, that need pursuing.
Number 2 I need to work on.

What this means though is that some of my projects will have to go on the back burner.

Next year's lineup will see less experimental and personal products and more ones that I already have the art for or that need minimal investment on my part.

You can expect to see, in approximate order...

1. '45 - Rockabilly post apocalypse - Because the artwork is all on order or done.
2. Mythic Britain - British Adventure Seeds - Taking folklore, myth, legend and so on from around Britain and turning it into adventure seeds and ideas for games.
3. 100 Fantasy Kingdoms.
4. 100 Planets
5. 100 Dark Places

These replace or displace my old release schedule as they are all things that are either prepped or I think can do well. I hope to have these done within the first 6 months of next year as preliminary work is already done on most of them.

The second six months can be a touch more indulgent and I hope to produce...

1. Urban Faerie 2nd Edition
2. Red Sands: Barsoom
3. All These Worlds: Not as we Know it
4. All These Worlds: Strange Territory
5. All These Worlds: Indistinguishable From Magic

All subject to the amount of freelancing and other things going on of course.

For now, I'm tired and I need a rest and recharge, there are other aspects to my 'plan' for the coming year, we'll see how they go.

You enter a 10' x 10' room, an orc is guarding a chest...

Over on RPGnet, in a slanging thread about the shitness of Atlantis as part of the nMage canon, Amado just accused oWOD Changeling of being Eurocentric.

Of all the things the WOD can be accused of being Eurocentric isn't one of them.

American culture is very different to European culture in a great many ways, even British culture to which it arguably has the greatest relation.

Changeling (as written) wasn't very European at all, it was (and I know this will upset the 'Ling fans on my friends list) a relatively Disneyfied version of the old fairy tales - at least as presented.

The original proposal, Faerie I think it was, was going to have a European setting and looked much better.

Apparently asking, the mainly US audience, to play in settings outside the US (Unless cod-historical) was largely too much to ask, but given the clangers dropped in most WoD non-US books maybe thats not a bad thing.

Wish Changeling HAD been more Eurocentric TBH.