Sleestak Sunday

Wow, this is a bad ass version of a sleestak brought to you from Creature Spot.  This one looks like a cross between piranha and bi-pedal reptile.

 Then the a few version of sleestak armed with weapons.  Great work. 

I'm spending the day trying to reorganize the office.  It's a practice in futility, but I might actually get a clean spot. 

Free RPG Day Score & More

Is that a beautiful picture or what?  So I hit two stores today for Free RPG Day.  First was Gold Star Anime.  I got there before they opened.  For Free RPG Day I get a self set, small allowance to blow on gaming stuff while I collect the free stuff.  At Gold Star I picked up a copy of Dungeons of Dread.  I've been wanting to get this since its release.  S1 is the dungeon I grew up on.  Then I got a pay of over sized d20s and a pack of Gamemastery, Chase Cards.  Mine has a different front.  I like these decks.  They are very well done and sometimes I bring them out just to work them in.  After purchasing them I got to pick from pretty much everything.  I got a copy of Cosmic Patrol Quick Start, Reap the Whirlwind, XCrawl Dungeon Crawl Classics, Pathfinder's We Be Goblins, and my two favorite, Hall of Bones by Frog God Games and the winner of the day, James Raggi's Better Than Any Man.

I haven't scored that much in several Free RPG Days.  The owner asked me to run an adventure, but time is not something I had this day.  Although I may schedule to run something there in the future.  On to Erie, Book Galore awaited me and more RPG Day trinkets to be had.

 I had a dual purpose on going to Book Galore today.  I've been tinkering about getting back into comic books, but as someone who hasn't bought one since 1979 the selection is overwhelming.  So many different one and so many different story lines for a superhero.  I remember Fantastic Four had two different comic types.  I never understood why, but I like the art better in the one story line, but liked the story better in the other.  Then of course Thing had his Marvel Two-In-Ones.  Thing was my favorite.  I always thought he got a raw deal a lot of times.

So I go in there and gamer guy is not there.  My good mojo continued.  I spoke to the one guy who seemed to know his comics well and I asked him about the New 52.  I was interested in seeing what it was all about.  Batman's story interested me so I ended up getting Batman, The Court of the Owls Vol. 1 and a copy of Batman, Zero Year.  Super psyched to read them.  The other thing I picked up was Pazio's Giant's Revisited.  They have a bunch of these books and I haven't been disappointed with them yet.  Plus I got it for 40% off.  I got to select three Free RPG Day items.  Alas, no dice.  Crap.  There I picked up C&C's A Pot of Broken Bones, T&T's Preview Pack and a second copy of Hall of Bones.  Rob was at Origins today and I wasn't sure if he'd have time to pick up a copy. 

My day continued on.  I picked up three micro notebooks I plan to use to write down ideas I have during the day and can never remember them when I get home.  I always used to do this when I wrote fiction, but for some reason I stopped.  I picked up a Piccadilly notebook because they are great and I got it for a good price.  And lastly at the bookstore I also got a free issue of a Superman comic at the check out. 

I came home, got a pizza and felt the weight of all the bags of great stuff I had as I brought them into the house.  Spread them out on a table, took a picture then wrote this blog.  Now I'm going to go read it.  I've got my gamer buzz going. 

Free RPG Day and a Flashback

 

Free RPG Day is tomorrow.  With Origins and 3E going on I think it's getting overshadowed by these big boys.  I will always have an appreciation for this day because it was one of the events that directly affected me into exploring my old games again.  It looks like two of our local stores are participating.  The one store mainly sells MtG cards and  tons of weird anime shit, but they've got dice and host all kind of games.  Then the regular store I go to is participating again.  That's the store I have problems with.  I'll repost what happen two years ago. 

I'll only be allowed to select one item from the one store because I'm not a member.  *shrug*  I rarely go there much.  Too much of a battle.  So I'm thinking I'll probably be able to get one item from each.  My first choice is Hall of Bones from Frog God Games.  Second choice is I'll pick up Better Than Any Man from LotFP.  I think I have two copies of We Be Goblins!  They've been giving that one out for a couple of years I think.  Of course what I would really love to score the d6 Free RPG Day commemorative die.  And I'm always curious about the Tunnels and Trolls offering. 

If you can only get one thing tomorrow which one would it be?

and now you hear the harp music accompanied by the scene going all wiggly and fading out as we go back in time two years ago for RPG Day when I encounter the gaming guy.  And I don't remember what was going on with the blogs at the time.  Must have been some nonsense firestorm.

So here it is Free RPG Day, I was not feeling all that enthusiastic about it to begin with, but damn it I wasn't going to miss it.  I wanted to get my commemorative d6.  And who knows I might actually meet a cool gamer or two.  So into the game store I go (I won't mention the name because I am not going to be too nice here in a few) and at the counter is the gaming guy.  This store is mainly a book store, but it has a decent gaming section and he is in charge of it.  This gaming guy is about as irritating as they come.  He's one of those I have an opinion on everything especially about the things I don't know about.  If you've been to the moon, he's been there twice.

He's talking to two other gamers.  "Goodman Games DCC is crap.  He's trying to be all 'old school'"  He did that little finger quote thing when he said old school.  "The OSR is such lame shit."

Ya know, I try to be a nice guy.  I really do, but sometimes things just don't work out.  So I ask gamer guy, "Have you ever played any of the old school games or the clones?"

Without a beat "No.  Don't see the point.  If they were any good WotC would still be publishing them."

Now there are so many things wrong with that statement I stood there for a second hoping he would laugh or give me the gotcha sign or something.  Nope.  Dead serious.  Now, like this recent fray on the blogs, I knew speaking with gamer guy would be like going into a deep mineshaft without a lantern.  No chance of changing his mind.  So instead I addressed the two gamers.

"If you guys are interested at all in playing some old school style gaming you can download the rules for free.  *gave them S&W, LL, and Osric were the ones I could remember*  There is a game just south of here we play twice a month, your welcome to join in any time you feel like it.  It's a great time.  If you don't like it it won't cost ya a thing."  Also gave them my email if they had any questions.

The two guys were interested, gave them some gaming blogs to read.  I am not sure if that was the best thing considering the rants of late.  The gamer guy actually tried to grab the paper I gave them.  WTF  Luckily the goof has the dexterity of a dog turd and nearly fell down.  The two other guys laughed at him and left.  Said they would give it a look.

So now I am alone with gamer guy.  He's pissed and I still didn't get to pick any of my free stuff yet.  This was going to go well.  I am thinking, I'm going to get arrested today.  And to tell you the truth, I was in a mood where I was okay with that. 

Fast forward ten minutes after looking at some other gaming stuff.  I ended up buying Pazio's Misfit Monsters.  They always do a great job.  Luckily for me and my arrest record gamer guy's shift was over and the owner lady took over.  I didn't say anything about what happened to the owner because the gamer guy is her nephew.  I ended up getting the Dragon Age quick start and Goodman Games DCC.  What I failed to get. and one of the main things I wanted was a commemorative d6 for this year's Free RPG day.  I'd gotten one for the past four years. 

Sales Donation

Reposting this one today.  Two more days to grab some gaming PDFs and help out Con Tessa.  Or donate directly what ever works best for you.  

+Stacy Dellorfano is working her butt off to get +ConTessa going.  I'd like to help her out because when I see people put so much effort into something and when that something is pretty cool, I'd like to see them succeed.  She's asking for donations to get it going.  I've added the donation link to the right side so please donate.

Here's the deal on my side, I want to donate to it.  Here's how I want to do it.  Any sales on RPGNow I make until Sunday I will donate towards Stacy's cause.  I'm already donating what I've made through last weekend so I have a small amount to donate, but would love to donate more.  Buy any GM Games product on RPGNow and all the money goes to +ConTessa.


Or donate directly. 

Manor #4 Progress

It seems like zines are popping out everywhere these days.  Look what you started Christian.  So far Dungeon Crawl #2 has come out.  +Wayne Rossi is looking for submissions so get them in there before June 30th.  I just recently posted about 6 Iron Spikes & a Hammer being released.  I believe this is +john yorio 's first attempt and I'm looking forward to a copy.  And recently announced was Copper Droppings, I believe it is headed by +Michael Garcia and +Erik Tenkar.  Michael recently revealed the header.  It looks fantastic.

With all these new zines popping out I need to get #4 on the road.  I have been working on it a lot lately.  Like last issue I ran into a problem where the idea I had was too ambitious and needed to be tailored down.  Now that I've done that I think it serves the adventure better.  I should have all the text completed by this weekend.  Just need to finish the last section of the adventure.  Stat NPCs.  Then do my own read through before I hand it off to my proof readers. 

This was the original village map I had.  Twenty buildings, geographical locations.  And way too big for the space I have in a zine.  I like the map and will probably use it in a future project. 

This is what the current map looks like.  The Hamlet of Low Ridge is where the adventure begins.  There are two other locales that are included and needed details so space was precious.  As you can see the number of buildings was reduced from 20 to 7 which helped save space and made the adventure tighter. In the zine this map will be in b&w. 

The section Beneath the Manor, a mini monster manual is pretty much done.  Just need to do a read through and make sure all the stats jive.  The art is incredible.

I'm hoping to get more work done tonight.  Lairs need to be laired and monsters need to be monstered.  

Zine Alert!

+john yorio has completed his first issue of 6 Iron Spikes & a Hammer.  Look at the stash.  Wonderful.  I'm very excited to see what John has come up with.  If you feel like ordering a copy of 6 Iron Spike & a Hammer then click the link, its only $2!  I wish John the best of luck with his zine and hope he can sell a truckload. 

Self-Censorship

Note: Just read through this and it is a bit of a ramble.

Censorship.  A mild topic for an early morning wouldn't you say?  I'm focused on self-censorship, what you think should stay in and what should stay out because of content, not necessarily quality reasons.  Maybe its sexual content, a graphic description or something that maybe just didn't jive with the vibe of the project.  Example, B2 is a straight forward adventure, here are the good guys.  Here are the monsters.  Just a fun romp of hacking and hauling.  If someone would have written in a rape room or explicit sacrificial scene it wouldn't have matched the tone of the adventure.

I have a long background of working with others, especially children.  Because of this work I censored myself a lot during the early years of my game writing.  I kept my writing light, fun with a touch of sarcasm.  Okay, maybe more than a touch.  For the past few years I've been working more with adults and that automatic self-censorship is fading.  If you've downloaded Faces Without Screams you'll find it more graphic and kid unfriendly.  It's not something I choose to do before hand, it's brutality fit the tone of the work I wanted to write. 

I don't like things that are weird just to be weird, or gross to be gross, or sexualized just to add an edge.  When I read these kind of things I get bored.  There is enough room in RPG writing to explore all these subjects without needing to reach for them.  Connected to this thought is people who try to censor others.  More often than not when this happens, those who wish to censor something end up driving more attention towards the product.  I remember back when the 2 Live Crew got all their attention because of the explicitness of their lyrics and cover.  It was a shit CD, but because other censor wishing people wanted to ban it, the CD blew up.

Quality sorts out what should be on the shelves more than the content.  While I can't stomach a lot of mutilation, rape, or any violence against children I would never tell anyone else they couldn't.  If the details fit the context of the adventure and well done its a lot easier to take.  When its written just to be shocking the quality often sucks and uninteresting.  That is, unless someone gets self righteous and thinks it should be banned from the land.

I'm thinking of this because of the writing session Rob and I had yesterday.  We are working on a sandbox setting for LotFP.  It's set in England and I thought of having an incarnation of Jack the Ripper show up centuries before he gets big.  Jack the First, I call him, is a traveler, he targets women, drugs them with a sleeping potion then slips on his cock blade to murder them in the act of sex.  While not the most imaginative or gruesome it was graphic enough to make me hesitate.  That self-censoring kicking in.  Years earlier I wouldn't have written it.  But even today I bounced the idea off of Rob and asked if he thought it was too much.  (I'm also aware of the nature of many LotFP adventures and know that my encounter is well within its bounds.  I wouldn't write the same entry for a product for Goodman Games or Brave Halfling Publishing.)  Rob thought it was an interesting idea so I kept it in.  Whether it is written well enough to stay in when we start editing is another matter. 

I'm not really sure how to end this entry.  It feels like I should have some sort of summation, but I don't.  I guess I'll end it with a question.  Are there boundaries you won't cross in your writing? 

RPG Writing Session

Let's step in the Wayback Machine...

...come on in there is plenty of room. 

We button a few buttons, lever some levers and whoosh we head back to 2003.  Ten years.  +Rob Conley and I are sitting in our local library writing.  Rob wanted to get more fiction savvy and I needed to knock off the rust off my prose.  There we were, before blogs, before iphone, tablets, and I could still go to Borders cafe and get a javanilla.  Man, I miss those. Neither of us were blogging.  I hated the word blog.  Back then it was the noise a wet fart made.  OSR?  Retro clones?  I think 3.5 just came out.  Not sure. 

We're sitting in the library.  Talking about what kind of stuff we would like to write.  RPGs always comes up.  What we could write?  How we would get it out there?  Neither of us had much of an idea.  I was writing more fiction than anything at the time.  Stories lingered half written on floppy discs.  Rob was more involved in the forums.  I wouldn't go on them.  Didn't like the noise.

Okay back into the Wayback Machine...

...back home.  Back to today.

Oh look, there is Rob and there I am.  Sitting in the same seats at the library.  This time Rob is surrounded by technology.  He's got a tablet, laptop, external harddrives and I think he has a bionic beard.  I'm sitting there with a notebook and pencil.  Ten years later we are working on a gaming project.  We've got several under our belt now.  Rob asked for a bit of assistance and I'm always glad to help. This time instead of talk about how we can do RPG projects we are talking which ones we want to do.

It took us a while, but we did some things we talked about ten years ago.  We got our gaming ideas out there.  We continue to have more ideas.  We've did what we set out to do 10 years ago.  Tonight we're sitting there and bounce ideas off one another.  "I need a name for a witch hunter."  "Do you think a cock blade is too much?"  "What spell system is being used?"  I really enjoy the process. 

Here's to the next ten.  My guess is I'll still only have a pencil and notebook. 

Project Idea...Sending Up an OSR Flare

As if I didn't have enough to do. 

I've been thinking about this idea for a while.  I want to do a magazine of gaming, short stories.  Yeah I know, fiction doesn't do all that well in the OSR, but I'm too damn stubborn not to do it.  I won't go into any details because I have none.  Why do I want to do this?  'Cause I like to read.  I think it might be interesting to collect a bunch of gaming stories from folks I know.

Let me know what you think.  And really let me know if you'd be interested in contributing.  

Where most of us will probably read it.

Pay What You Want for Knowledge Illuminates

Last night I added Knowledge Illuminates to the Pay What You Want list of of OSR items.  After the responses to yesterday's Friday's Question and reading what others, more proactive than myself, have said.  After a little consideration and kick ass pizza and an episode of Ghost Adventures (I really do like the show, they crack me up) I decided to go for it. 

I'm a fan of options.  For a buyer this is one of the biggest options you can have.  As I mentioned in the previous post, as a buyer I'm not all that fond of picking a price.  Never have been.  I know others have said get it for free then plop in the money.  It may take some effort, but I'll get there.  The interesting thing is that of all the OSR products on the list of PWYW, I already bought all, but two of them. 

Random Thoughts (some are obvious)

• Of course this won't work for print versions.  No way could I do this for print versions.  I'd end up paying others to read my stuff.  Had to do that for college.  Didn't like it all that much the first time around.  But I think this is a no brainer.
•  I think a suggested price would be helpful.  Although I haven't seen how I can do this.  When Knowledge Illuminates comes up in a listing of products its old price is there, but when you click on the product page it just has the PWYW box.  It would be great to have an area just to put a suggested price.
• For GM Games I don't see doing this for new products.  I will probably wait a few months before offering it PWYW.  But, there are ideas that I would develop just for PWYW.
• It makes bookkeeping a nightmare.  lol
• RPGNow for some reason did not put the PWYW option in the price section.  I had to get on Google+ and but Tenkar where to find it.  You'll need to go into Update Product Files.  This is where you usually select that its a PDF file.  If you want PWYW you'll need to select it in the drop down menu.
• I read someone mention they hope that free stuff doesn't go to PWYW.  I know I won't be doing that.  I'll continue to put out weird freebie stuff once in a while. 

 I thought about doing a perceived  value story here, but I won't.  It bored me when I wrote it.  Short version, Ivy and I ran a business for over five years and there is a lot to be said about perceived value of something.  Lowering the price does not necessarily make it sell better.  Not at all. 

Here's a little glimpse of what has gone on since I placed Knowledge Illuminates in the PWYW category.  It hasn't been 24 hours yet, but with the speedy Erik Tenkar he already reported the change.  I've translated all the money into US dollars.

I've sold a total of 17 copies since late last night.
12 got a free copy.
1 person paid .78 cents
1 person paid $1
1 person paid $1.90
1 person paid $2
1 person paid $10

This seems about average from what I've heard from others.  The other thing to consider is KI has been out for a while and most of the people who were going to get a copy has got it.  Nearly 33% of the customers threw some change into the tin cup.  One generous person laid down a tenner.

As a publisher it comes down to what you want out of your product.  Is this a viable option for you and your product?  I'm going to see how it goes.   I just checked and 3 people have KI in the shopping cart and 34 have it in their wishlist.  This has been a fairly steady pair of numbers.  With this option will it persuade them to choose KI?  I don't know, but its kinda cool to see how it will work.

Friday Question: Set Your Own Price

RPGNow has implemented a payment option where the buyer can pay what he or she wants.  I always like having options, but not sure if I like it.  For me as the buyer, I like to know how much to pay.  I hate haggling.  Put a price on it and I'll decide.  But....I'm very curious how this will work and on the verge of liking it.

So my question to you is, do you like the set your own price option?  Why you like or why you don't.

Tenkar already listed a bunch of fantastic products that are using this pricing option. 

Review: Gnomes of Levnec

 

First the the info, Gnomes of Levnec sprouted from the twisted mind of Zzarchov Kowolski, proprietor of the Unofficial Games blog.  It is available on PDF format on RPGNow for the weird price of $2.91.  And on a recent blog, he reported he has physical copies ready to mail. It's a 16 page adventure.  I'd even call it a mini setting.

First impressions...this is a adventure is disturbing and hilarious.  I got a lot of entertainment  reading it.  It doesn't matter if you like gnomes or don't like them you will love this adventure.  Zzarchov takes the Travelosity pitch men and terrorizes them.  I loved it. 

Here's the gist.  Gnomes are magic.  If you eat one, you get the magic.  Big magic.  Gnomes taste good with bacon.  Gnomes don't like to be eaten.  There is even a recipe on how to prepare Gnomes and a fantastic pictorial to assist in telling the difference between a delicious Gnome or one that's rotten.

The adventure is set up sandbox style.  Or at least that's how I interpret it.  A series of detailed locations.  The plot runs through each location and its up to your massive GM creative intellect to weave your players into this horribly fun adventure.  There is a lot of meat to work with.  I like it when adventure are set up like this, its non-linear and the players can explore as the wish. 

This adventure is worth the price just to read and will make a fun night of adventure.  The prep time is minimal other than a good read through.  Zzarchov's warped sense of humor shines through in this adventure.  I highly recommend Gnomes of Levnec to all you twisted folks.  And to the straight ones, its okay to get a little twisted, just make sure your gnome is ripe. 

Sleestak Sunday with New/Old Gaming Books

It's got a sleetsak in it so it makes the grade.  Kinda creepy cool.

My last day of vacation is ticking away and while I wish I was independently wealthy and could afford to continue on with life of luxury, but I'm not so I won't.  Back to work for me tomorrow. 

Yesterday I wrote about gaming profits.  Wanna see where they went?

The original Monster Book by Matt Finch that inspired the back breaking tome Monstrosities.  This is one of my top monster books.  So simple, minimal art easy to use.  I bought in PDF format when it came out a while back and I've been wanting to get a print version since. 

The same thing happened with Goods and Gear: The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide, bought in PDF, really liked it and have wanted in print. 

With some of the profits from GM Games I was finally able to grab them from Lulu.  Shipped out fast, got them in great shape.  I'm compiling another list to grab, but I've got to finish Manor #4 before I get too spendy.

GM Games May '13 Sale Report

Not much moving and shaking over here last month.  On the 28th thru the 31st I had a 50% sale at RPGNow that scored a few sales.  I'm still working on the 4th issue of the Manor.  Ran into a snag.  I had to reel the issue back a bit.  It was getting larger and larger.  While I want it to be the biggest issue yet, I need to be able to get my stapler through the pages.  I've got it retooled now and I think I should finish it in June.

On to the sales. 

Knowledge Illuminates
Print: 1
RPGNow: 12
Lulu: 1
May '13 Sales: 14
Total Sales: 326

The Manor #1
Print: 0
RPGNow: 7
Lulu: 1
May '13 Sales: 8
Total Sales: 259

The Manor #2
Print: 0
RPGNow: 5
Lulu: 1
May '13 Sales: 6
Total Sales: 178

The Manor #3
Print: 0
RPGNow: 6
Lulu: 1
May '13 Sales: 7
Total Sales: 81

Cave of Seiluja
May '13 Downloads: 20
Total Downlaods: 302

Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams
May '13 Downloads: 37
Total Downloads: 507

So last month I sold 35 units for an especially quiet month.  I was really hoping to finish issue #4, but I guess that's what June is for.  Everything I made and then some went back into buying cool gaming books.  There is so much good stuff out there I need to make more stuff so I can afford to get them. 

That's all the is going on over in these hills.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek behind the sheer curtain at GM Games.  If you have any question please just comment or find me on Google+.

Now I am off to the bookstore to buy an expensive coffee drink and continue my work on issue #4.