Where's Part 2?

My program crashed and my post has been consigned to the electroic ether.  That's one hour I soent gone to waste.  I like to think it was insightful.  Now I really don't care to repeat the effort this evening.

It will likely be another day or two...

M

From 2011 to 2012 - Part 2

Ok, let's try this again...

Why does a new edition of D&D matter?

Well, the answer comes down to brand and brand recognition.  You see, when 4th Edition first came out, the game did pretty well.  It was the way the new game that was designed that caused sales to dry up quickly.  How they tried to address the problem with the Essentials line only served to frustrate and divde the existing 4th Edition customer/fan base.

Of course, a big thron in WOTC's side was it's previous edition which resulted in a very successful 'spinoff'.  Pathfinder gained may of the fans/customers who left D&D behind as the the 'new' D&D proved to be largely incompatible to its predecessors.  It wasn't an incorrect decision and, if the Pathfinder RPG had never been created, it could have worked.  However, the OGL gave rise to many other alternatives as well.  All of these, along with Pathfinder, have served to erode D&D's marktet share and Pathfinder now owns the larger market share in what happens to be a dwindling market.

Regardless of this, D&D is still the most recognizable brand when it comes to roleplaying games and generally the only one known to the uninitiated.  The decline of D&D is also a symptom of what has been happening with the hobby and not only due to the poor reception of 4th Edition.  Reasons for this are many and among these, Video Games and Computers are surely a factor.  For this reason, it is perhaps more important that D&D carries on, if only to act as a banner for potential new gamers to flock to.

For the rest of us, there are other reasons why a new edition matters.  While there are some of us involved in the hobby that don't care much beyond 2nd edition (if even that), we have been blessed with the OGL which gave rise to the style of games we might prefer.  Some of us are also comfortable with borrowing ideas and concepts from other systems.  There are even some that have borrowed from 4th Edition.  A new edition with perhaps a few new twists is not necessarily unwelcome, even if we won't play that game itself.  Like or not, it will be something that gamers will be taking a look at.  Besides, with a new edition being readied, things are certainly different this time around, and WOTC can ill afford to 'screw it up' though.  4th Edition strayed away from previous editions considerably and with OGL games flourishing, WOTC can ill afford to do he same with 5th Edition. 

D&D is a trendsetter for our hobby -- At best, success could mean a bit of growth in our hobby which hasn't been seen for a few years.

To be continued in Part 3...

M

From 2011 to 2012 - Part 1

I had been meaning to get to this for a few days now and we find ourselves on the 12th day of the new year. The past few weeks since around mid-November has been a period of reflection as I considered successes, failures, and whIch routes took me there.

Despite the regular periods of silence from me the past 18 months or so, one thing I have always done is to keep myself informed of what's been happening in our hobby and the industry. Of course, the latest buzz is the announcement of 5th edition D&D. The thing that amazes me but doesn't completely surprise me is the responses from the gaming community. There are a lot of sentiments like "I have all the D&D I need and it's called X" or "D&D hasn't really existed since Y edition" or "D&D? Oh, you mean Pathfinder...". There are other sentiments where people are hoping the WOTC will simply recreate what they feel is classic D&D (for them) if not simply reprint and repackage older iterations of the game.

Here is my thought. In whatever form it takes, the hobby needs this to happen. Even if none of us ever play it, it DOES matter.

My time is up for now... More to follow when time permits.

M
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Cleaning & Sorting

Well, this weekend has been a bit relaxing and probably the last one till sometime in the New Year since the countdown to the holidays have begun!  Since my last blog entry, I had begun a general cleanup and sorting of various files on my computer.  I had, for instance, a variety of files scattered across my hardrive and numerous emails concerning Victorious as well as an assortment of other files for other projects that have graced my desktop.  After some sorting and purging, I spent a bit of time talking and cleaning up the Brave Halfling forums along with John Adams.  BHP has underwent a few changes the past couple of years and various sections were just not relevent anymore.  Actually the forums who is a very small community hasn't seen much activity of late and between blogging, tweeting, not much attention has been given to it.  Hopefully we'll turn this around in the next couple of months.  BHP is a bit tied down with the Delving Deeper release but seeing that it's just around the corner, plans are in motion for 2012.

I also have plans for the AC lineup in the months ahead and while I won't go into much detail yet, I will say that they include various issue of the Ballista I had mentioned months ago as well as a few digest adventure releases.  I'll be securing a more finalized plan of action once I've discussed details with a couple of authors who had submitted material to AC and BHP in the past.  The AC website has been ignored for months now and since I created the domain a couple of years ago, I don't think I've updated it more than a couple of times since the beginning of AC.  I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet bit I am considering rolling the blog up with the site.  We'll see but I expect I'll sort it out over the holidays.

Between cleaning up the files on my desktop, I had also noticed a variety of posts of peoples blog about publishing and professional vs hobbiest considerations.  I will weigh in a bit on this later in the week but in some cases, I find myself disagreeing with some of the sentiments being shared.  There are some very good points being made though so it has been interesting reading.  More later...

M

Changes...

I know that the past few months have been relatively quiet and my last 'real' update was around four months ago.  Best possible laid plans can often suffer changes resulting from unforseen complications.  In certain instances, choices had to be made.

First of all, it is with regret that I announce the Arcana Creations and Brave Halfling Publishing will not be publishing Mike Stewart's "Victorious RPG". Since July, a fair bit of work had been accomplished on the project but it had also gone through a variety of changes.  With some of these changes though, the vision of Publisher was no longer the same as Writer and while we all had the best intentions for the game, a mutual decision was made to dissolve the publishing agreement.  I wish Michael all the best.

Secondly, while the Pathfinder conversions I had assigned are moving forward, the person I had working on C&C conversions has pulled from the project.

Where does all this leave us?

Well, the Ballista was put on hold earlier this year and the increased demands of Victorious the past couple months left the project completely unattended.  This is one project I am anxious to sink my teeth back into and I have already begun to review some of this material.  Besides that, at least one of the ealier modules we released needs to be reprinted and a few changes will need to see this and other modules back to layout.  Since I have lost the additional support I initially had to assist with some of the C&C material, I will be tackling that bit of work myself once the Ballista is back on track.

It's been quite some time since I have made a release and the end of the year is fast approaching but it's not too late to see at least one release by then.

M

Recent Fantasy Doubleshot

I finished running a two part fantasy story arc this weekend -- the first part of which was done a couple of weeks ago. I ran it for a group I am normally a player in.  It was fun and was not connected to any existing campaign I ran but I ran the story around a basic premise: X-Files meets Fantasy.  A very medieval setting... low magic... a demon conspiracy as opposed to the show's alien one.  I kept it relevatively 'free-form' and allowed the characters to follow whatever avenues they saw fit to pursue while being mindful of what the various factions were doing in the background. Of course this led to multiple threads and even I was starting to have some difficulties in sorting everything from one session to the next. A special thanks goes to Todd Pote for acting as a soundboard as I was planning the second part.

The session ended with a partial victory -- the party (members of the guard tasked with this investigation) lived where as other player characters ended up killed / murdered in the pursuit of other agendas.  The villian of the story (my equivalent of the 'smoking man') got what he was seeking with the player characters none the wiser for it. One threat was eliminated but a crucial piece of the puzzle was snatched away.

The players has fun ... the were able to excercise their roleplaying talents and I was able to share my story where they did not feel constricted in what they could or couldn't do and where they could go.

Now that I've been able to give myself a bit of creative fun -- I need to get back to work.

M

Long Delayed Updates

Well, it's been a while but Arcana Creations has NOT remained idle. Arcana Creations has always been largely a one-man operation but earlier this year I realized that I couldn't afford to continue working in this manner. Ironically, I've argued that I also couldn't afford to expand. A bit of an impass I suppose but I figured that certain projects couldn't advance without the 'man power' to keep the ball rolling -- a ball which has been rolling very slowly up to now.  One of the things I have been doing is looking at ways to bring more people in with the goal to better allocate the work load so that things could get rolling again. With that in mind, I have spoken to a few people, made a few arrangments, and started bringing in the reinforcements.

I have someone who is going to be doing some work on the next C&C module release ... the majority of the work is already done for this project as it is actually a conversion of an adventure to the system.  Once the technical conversion is done, I will need to worry about the layout and then we can rapidly release it thereafter. There is no firm ETA on this and, this person has asked to remain annonymous to see how the first project works out. If this trial run works, and I hope it does, this annonymous person will officially become part of the Arcana Creations / Brave Halfling Publishing family.

Speaking of conversions, I have another person I am in discussions with to convert existing material Arcana Creations has put out to Pathfinder.  Now, I've never been big on Pathfinder but a lot of people are. It's a solid system and there have been recent rumblings that Pathfinder is now outselling the Dungeons & Dragons brand. I have friends who do run Pathfinder that have expressed at how much they would love to see something like 'A Trick on the Tain' for Pathfinder. The same could be said about 'The Secret of Ronan Skerry'. I would be a fool to ignore this and the fact of the matter is, these conversions could outsell the original C&C versions of the adventures. Much like the previous project, aside from the conversion, I'll need to concern myself with layout only.

So, right there -- two people doing some work for Arcana Creations. However these aren't  what people have been waiting for. One large project has been a bit like a millstone around my neck. That is Victorious and aside from Mike Stewart (the writer), no one is more anxious to get this project out. However, there have been a few issues and unforeseen challenges in meeting some of the goals I initially set out. Aside from everybody having real life issues to sort out, the project got off to a rough start when it came to a bunch of the art we had for the project -- one of the principal artists pulled out and took all his art and design concepts with him. The other principal artist we had was happy to offer to step up but sometimes things don't always go according to plan. Art concerns isn't the only problem we had but it was one that hasn't been resolved. This necessitated certain changes on my approach with the project. Towards that end, I have decided to tackle a few issues head on. I have a new artist who is doing a couple of 'trial pieces' for the long delayed Quickstart (which was one of the things we were awaiting art for). Should all concerned parties be happy with these pieces, we will continue to use him for the rest (and as it turns out, the majority) of the work on the QS and the corulebook. Being a large project, I have arranged to get some back up to layout out the rulebook itself. Different people will the laying out different chapters based on a template I create and my direction as project manager. All in all, three people will be handling at finishing up the layout and all that stuff will be happening within the next couple of months. The longest delays will be the art of course but, what can you do? The point is that the project is moving once more and it might mean a 'staff artist' for Arcana Creations.

Finally there is the Ballista. Not forgotten though a big delayed due to concerns with Victorious and other projects, it is almost complete. The main delay has been with one article which I am finishing up. However, now that my immediate concerns with Victorious has been resolved, at least for now, I can focus on releasing issue one "guilt free". I know that BHP is doing a bit of reorganizing with John's move but once that process is done in the next week or two, I expect issue one will finally be released and available. Issue 1 is *still* the Sping issue and I do have some material for issue 2, our Summer issue as I get Ballista back on track.

Well, I hope this answers a few questions and I thank all of you that have been holding on and following our progress. Till next time!

M