18FEB12 OGL Rant

So, while the D20 OGL SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srdarchive) this led to:

"When it was published in 2000 along with the 3rd edition of the rules, the OGL sparked unprecedented growth in the RPG industry. The OGL made it so easy to use the rules conventions of D&D like hit points, spells and monsters that hundreds of products - the official signifier of D&D-compatible materials created using the OGL - emblazoned on them made their way to game store shelves."
-Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9292-The-Ghosts-of-D-D-Past.2)

Why did WotC not do the same with D20 4.0?  After all, they are suffering right now, and I am believing its a result of ending the continued use of an OGL SRD with the newest editions!

The OSR is on the rise, along with other digital media creating a paradigm shift in the world of traditional gaming:

"Changes in how people buy RPGs and the freedom of the OGL combined to make the Old School Renaissance grow across the internet. The rise of digital distribution of PDFs through marketplaces like DriveThruRPG.com have allowed designers to make money selling their work with less overhead. The costs of printing books has also decreased, especially print-on-demand services that allow smaller print runs, so it's easier than ever for amateur designers to publish something gamers can bring to the table and use with any of D&D's older editions or retro-clones."
-Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present.3)

Right now the world of games is going through a paradigm shift.  Board games are still going strong in many respects, but also deal with similar limitations.  What we all enjoy though is an increase in development budget, but we pay for it.  Fantasy Flight Games makes beautiful board games with high quality laminated cardboard components and beautifully sculpted plastic pieces that used to only be the realm of pewter.  However, its around $70 to $150 for these games as opposed to the $20 to $50 the same game concept years ago used to cost (part of that is indeed inflation).  RPGs however, are contracting sharply.

Steve Jackson Games publishes most GURPS supplements electronically, and spends the majority of the printing budget on the biggest cash cow of the company, Munchkin (I enjoy Munchkin myself...).  Other game companies are starting to publish more and more through DriveThru RPG and RPG Now.  Holdouts like WotC are suffering (that 4th Ed. wasn't so well received...).

As a result, we've seen the OSR take the OGL and thrive online.  Be it free rules, or low cost .pdf and print on demand, indie development seems to be rising.  Sales wise its harder to track...  Number of downloads would be an interesting figure to find out between the biggest names I've seen from OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry, and Basic Fantasy; along with sales of Labyrinth Lords and others.

Frankly, I think we need to embrace the OSR.  Where D&D 3.0, 3.5, 3.75, and 4.0 to varying degrees seemed to have failed is competing with computers.  Where the OSR takes 3.5 and strips the SRD down to the basics, and gives the GM a lot of story telling and rules adjudication power, it seems to thrive.  Volumes of rules, be it the many GURPS books I've enjoyed over the years, or some of the 3.5 books a friend gave me, only serve to slow down games.  Most of the gruntwork is best done by a computer, and then you wonder why you want to sit at the dinner table with a group of friends (unless you have a good GM who will throw the rules out some of the time anyway, which frankly is how the rules recommend being played anyway...).

That, and I'm a sucker for anything of quality to come out of Open Source.  I have little money to spend and waste on games anymore.  If the rules are free, I'll take em and use them when I feel like dungeon delving.  I'll use my "Descent: Journeys into the Darkness" game board and figures with BFRPG or Microlite 20...  Why the hell not?  To top it off, I like to draw pictures and get my art out there.

So, anyone in the OSR development world working a real job and designing games on the weekend is more than welcome to bug me about drawing up some creature sometime.  So long as the deadline is flexible...  I'll embrace OSR and OGL and use my FOSS image editing software (www.gimp.org and www.inkscape.org) and have some fun with you, for free.

04FEB12 Update!

Well, I've certainly been finding myself a bit more involved in working with folks in the OGL game writing crowd.  At least on the 'starter' side, by signing up for the various forums and seeing what I can do to put myself to work using my peculiar talent for drawing.

I posted more wargame/RPG map making resources on Deviant Art, do check out the Free Resource page up at the top!  With the new Blogger format, I'm able to post more pages behind the blog (or in front).  I'll link into Deviant Art, and see about find some other reputable file cabinet sites that will host files in the various image formats needed for editing.  Recommendations are welcome...

Legion of Myth Game Reviews...

The Guild Legion of Myth has a fairly new format for reviewing tabletop, board, and pen and paper RPG's...

So far I've written several reviews, beginning with my favorite board game, Ogre/GEV.

I'm fortunate that it doesn't matter when the game was published, and in fact most of what we all seem to enjoy is currently out of print at the present time!  Its a wonderful community over there as they embrace all forms of games with a focus on PC MMORPG's with Star Wars: The Old Republic being the current active guild.  At the moment due to computer limitations, I'm now focusing all my efforts in the realm of either older computer games or table top gaming.  Can't say its a bad thing.

Other game games that I've reviewed to date are:

Don Quixote (board)

Stars Without Number (RPG)

GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars (GURPS 4E RPG Sourcebook)

I have several other RPG rules sets and sourcebooks I'll knock out this year as well.  I have the Mongoose Traveller RPG rules which I think I wrote about once before, and the "Hammers Slammers" Sourcebook!  I've also had the opportunity to get a couple play sessions of the WotC D20 Star Wars RPG (Revised Core Rules) with a friend recently.  That one might lead to some interesting cartoons...

Boardgame wise, I'm hoping to get a good meaningful play session of Conan in sometime.  We'll see if that happens...  I certainly don't want it to collect any more dust!

16JAN12, I missed 2011!

Yes folks, I completely failed to provide any viable game updates in the year 2011 despite a great year that it was!  I'm sorry folks...

...so I'll give some brief points, and do better in 2012!

-I played some board games with a local group.  It was certainly fantastic!  I even got to play a go of Ogre in the Advanced Scenario as a Mk V against a gamer who played the first edition of the game!

-I signed up on Consim World.  Just another social network focused on games...  Not much to report there...

So, on to 2012.

11OCT10 My small contribution to Gaming!

Irregular Magazine has accepted and published two of my illustrations in their Autumn 2010 issue with the theme "Magic"! So here is my small contribution to the traditional miniature wargaming and role playing game community!

You can download Irregular Magazine every quarter at http://www.irregularmagazine.com/!

I first discovered this wonderful publication on Facebook, and have since gone back every quarter as it contains the content I made this blog about (for the most part), traditional table top gaming! It covers miniatures, board games, and RPG's of all genre and eras; from historical ancients and fantasy, to the furthest reaches of the future!

28AUG10 N-scale/10mm vehicle discussion

I've recently discovered that N-scale works great for the 10mm wargamer in some respects, and vice versa; depending on the company making the product! However, I obtained these N-scale 1:160th scale vehicles due to my wife and father in law being into N-scale layouts (which also make good wargame tables... or wargames tables make good places to set up N-scale layouts... Good justification to the wife for setting up a 10mm armor collection and playing surfaces!). Besides, thats been a dichotomy between two hobbies for decades. I'm behind the times in learning these little tricks! For more on scale, check out the Wikipedia article about wargaming and hobby scales! I know I've got to put a bookmark there myself...

First off, lets knock out vehicles that are okay for wargaming, but really, really, really would piss off the most precise type A personality realism N-scale hobbyist! Noble Miniatures makes some N-scale "Trackside Treasures" vehicles of which my wife purchased me the WWII US Jeeps (TT-2101) and 1940's Studabaker 2 1/2 Ton Trucks (TT-2117).




What I like about these, is that they are durable enough that I can probably transport them and play games with them without concern about anything breaking. For the N-scale model railroader, the molding will drive you insane! I had a mold mark 1/16 of an inch halfway up the canvas cover on the back of the deuce and a half i assembled! However, for the wargamer, this is a minor problem. We like realism and quality molds too, but its not as critical to wargaming as it is to realistic model railroading. Both of these vehicles took me only a few minutes to clean up and assemble with some CA glue. Do be aware, they do contain lead. Don't let your kids play with them like toys, and take precautions you always take with lead (though I'm sure the EPA will ban these figures someday...). You'll best find these kits at your local model retailer as if you go to the manufacturers website, its not entirely user friendly and geared toward the dealer and not the modeler... Not a bad thing as its intended to give your local dealer your business!

Finally, we come to the masterpiece. I doubt there is a more experienced company producing high quality kits and accessories for both wargamers and model railroaders than GHQ! While I know them best for their Microarmor, I was pleasantly surprised when I ran across their M1A2 kit (GHQ Stock # 58003) at my father in laws favorite train store in Omaha NE. I've known about the kit, just didn't see it until I was there. My jaw just about hit the floor, and I had to buy two kits... and a flat car... and some chain... And I had the intention of mounting them to said flat car for my wife's train. Until I assembled one!

Now I think I'll need to get a few more... At least to start an Armor Company, and get some Bradley IFV's and Modern US Infantry to go with them! Then I'll make a flat car load...

The stainless steel photo etched racks were intimidating to me at first, mainly because I've got very limited experience with photo etched parts (see my Stryker article for my first experiences!). However, for as small as they were, they went together VERY WELL, and were indeed pre-scored at the fold points where required for ease of construction. The casting on the turret was darn near perfect and required little clean-up. I had no problem finding the small holes for the photo etched parts to be glued to!

I'll take the GHQ vehicles on and off the wargames table any day! The detail they can pack into that small package, and the fact that the PE parts are stainless, makes it both highly realistic and durable for the wargamer. Obviously, the most type-A realism model railroader would be exceedingly happy with the minimal work they will have to put into super detailing these tanks for their railroad!

Here are all of the vehicles for a good realistic size comparison. Each square of the cutting mat is 1/2".

Not bad, obviously the Abrams dwarfs them both! I remember my days as a 'crunchy' as the tankers would call anyone not in an Abrams! Anytime I was out in the field at Ft. Riley or the National Training Center and heard the sound of an Abrams approach, I'd wake from a dead slumber and ensure that they weren't coming at my humvee without noticing I was there!

28AUG10 My Tabletop Wargaming Surface!

My standard surface is set by this construction. I now plan to construct my surfaces using 1/4” plywood, and 2”x2” lumber. Currently, the sheets I used were 2' x 4' project sheets. I cut my 2”x2”s to provide a nice frame with two supports in the middle. Currently, my entire surface can be 4'x4'. Very soon however, I intend to build two more with the same terrain and have a 4'x8' surface.


Pictured here is the completed surfaces prior to any paint application. I've used an 'orange peel' texture spray available at my local hardware store (in my area its a Sentry Hardware, the Fairbanks location is where I work upstairs in Frontier Outfitters at the gun counter part time... So, I get a good deal!).

My intention is to turn the surface into a winter landscape, perhaps a nice tundra! Why not! I live in Alaska, and am surrounded by inspiration for such terrain nine months out of the year! Winter warfare is definitely more modern (with a few notable exceptions, however those exceptions exemplify the concept of Winter Camp when you look at the climate casualties... Why do you think George Washington got such a drop on the Hessian camp!).