Thanksgiving Wishes

To all my American friends and readers to the south of the Canadian border, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Next post from "Under Siege" will likely be towards the end of the weekend if not Monday evening depending on how the next few days progress.  It's looking pretty busy but I'll try to squeeze one in earlier if possible.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

M

Funny Story...

Well news has gotten out about a new magazine on the horizon: Gygax Magazine and from what I gather, it could be an impressive piece of work should everyone work out and go well for them. For those not yet in the know... the magazine is being put out by TSR (a new company which bought the old trademark that had abandoned with include Ernie and Luke Gygax among others).

For those who have read my thoughts on Kobold Quarterly recently, it looks like this magazine is going to provide more of the type of material that I would have wanted to see.  A focus on many games -- both new and old of various genres and with a list of people collaborating which sounds promising.

This was originally posted on facebook by Tim Kask:

Here's a snippet from our ad prospectus.....so now you all the official word there is at this time.

Gygax is a gaming magazine for new and old players alike.

We are looking forward to the games of tomorrow and today, while preserving the traditions and history that got us where we are now.

Our articles and features cover current independent and major publisher games such as Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, The One Ring, Shadowrun, Godlike, Labyrinth Lord, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Warhammer 40k Roleplay, Traveller, and others, as well as classic out-of-print games with a modern following, like AD&D, Top Secret, and Gamma World.

Our features include comics by Phil Foglio (What’s New With Phil and Dixie), Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage), and Rich Burlew (Order of the Stick). Contributors include Jim Ward, Cory Doctorow, James Carpio, Ethan Gilsdorf, Dennis Sustare, and many more.

Publishing quarterly in print as well as PDF and iPad editions, we hope each issue of Gygax will be an anticipated and treasured addition to any gamer’s library.

Very interesting and I wish the magazine all the best.  I signed up to be notified of the first issue's release HERE and those of you interested can do the same.

Of course, what makes this announcement bitter-sweet is a series of dialogues I began with a few people a few weeks ago.  This was before the announcement that Kobold Quarterly was shutting down -- which is very interesting timing given the announcement of Gygax Magazine.  It was also a few weeks before I even wrote about Kobold Quarterly and, part of the reason I was looking at KQ was because of some of the ideas I had brewing in my head.  It's been at least a year since Fight On! had a new volume released and there seemed to be a good lack of a solid and regular publication focusing on the things I, and many other gamers, love.  For long time readers of the blog, this is not the first time I considered putting out a regular periodical either.  A couple of years ago, I had begun work on a journal but set it aside to work on other things.  As time went on, those plans got completely revamped but it was a series of little things that got me thinking about the importance of giving smaller games and systems and a segment of the gaming community another voice.  Ideas just grew from there since, it's hard to kill a good idea.

Up to this past weekend, I had figured out the finances of what was needed to put out a digital and print magazine for the first year, meaning four quarterly issues.  The format of the magazine was becoming finalized with some thoughts to go about using a crowd-funding platform like Kickstarter to raise funds and see interest..  I was looking at taking Arcana Creations in a slightly different and more focused direction since I believe that sometimes, it's just better to focus on the one thing in order to do it very well.  Of course this would have been after I wrapped up a couple of projects and the first issue of this 'unnamed' magazine would have been Summer 2013.

Then I get an email suggesting I check out a link this morning for Gygax Magazine and what little news there was trickled through to me (I was at work) during the course of the day.

C'est la vie.  Arcana Creations will turn it's focus to something slightly different and we'll see current projects through and embark on a different route altogether.  ;)

Now, with Gygax Magazine, I certainly have my 'wishlist' of things I would really like to see.  It's something I see I might like contributing to though so who knows ... wishes and dreams do sometimes come true.  Maybe I'll finally have a magazine I'll be happy and exited to subscribe to and read once again!

M

Weekend R&R: Dungeoncraft

Several months ago, I kicked off my (mostly) weekly series of the 'Weekend R&R' posts -- my Retrospectives & Reviews of various gaming books and things.  The first post was "Cityworks" which was part of the Legends & Lairs series of d20 books publishing by Fantasy Flight Games in the d20 boom.  You can check it out HERE.  I've always had a soft spot for these particular books over most other d20 books by various third party publishers for a few reasons.  I find that they are practical and, despite some of the invariable crunch you'll find, it seems to be less about mechanics and more about crafting one's campaign.  It also helped that I got all these books for a steal when the publisher decided to clear their stock!  :)

It should be no surprise that a book titled "Dungeoncraft" deals with dungeon oriented campaigns and, as with other books in the series, it follows a similar format from book to book.  The first chapter deals with characters -- how your various classes / archetypes can play out in the dungeon environment, new prestige classes suited to this environment, and of course some new feats as well.  There is material written on equipment, both new and old as well as their uses and some further considerations of being in a dungeon-type environment for extended periods of time.  All this material takes up 37 pages.

The second chapter is simply entitled 'Magic' and offers new spells and items which are, once again, suited to the book's theme.  Pretty standard fare.

The third chapter is more interesting and is entitled 'Dangers'.  A few pages are devoted to what are termed Environmental Hazards -- explanations and samples are given.  Guidelines are also given to create your own but just the samples alone will be of cruel inspiration to the enterprising GM.  You have some new monsters but, more interestingly, is a section dealing with wandering monsters and encounters with some simple system alternatives to give variety to the standard 1 on a d6 check or the like.

The fourth chapter is where some of the fun begins for someone who wants a system to help them design something.  A simple but robust system is provided if someone wants to basically roll a dungeon up but there is advice given as well.  The system is also modular enough to use only parts if one chose to or they could ignore that completely and consult the chapter for some of the detailing and stocking.  There is a nice section on Monsters which examines reasons for them to be there and provides helpful tips to being more cohesion to the placement of these denizens as well as the social geography of your complex.  This chapters also has some ready to use monster tables and rules for monster morale, and a section on traps.  This chapter draws to a close by offering several dungeon templates as well as a section dealing with dungeon-themed campaigns.  Chapter 4 is the gem of this book and is 75 pages.

The final chapter takes what was touched upon in Chapters 3 and 4 to craft 'Encounters' -- unusual rooms / areas / challenges which are ready to be taken right from the book and dropped into your campaign.  The appendix which follows are a handful of tables which is then followed by a basic index.

The book is 172 pages in all and a decently considered and written book.  There have been several others of course, including one by WOTC but I prefer this one above other d20 publications on this subject.  Actually I do prefer it to the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide from 1st Edition but they are both very different when you consider their respective contents.  I prefer to think as them complementing each other.

The book is, not surprisingly, out-of-print but if you were to try and track a copy down, it wouldn't be that hard or expensive.  At Noble Knight Games, there are a couple of used copies for about $10 (NM) which is a good price for the book.  If that's too rich for you, a PDF copy on RPGNow! is half that and can be yours for a mere $5.

M

Painted Goblins

Around 6 weeks ago, I began painting miniatures in earnest.  I don't always have the time but after trying my hand at it, I realized how much I was enjoying it.

I had showcased some Goblins and Orcs and posted a variety of pics of what I titled 'Phase One'.  You can go back and check it out HERE.

Well it took me longer to get the work on these than I thought it would but I suppose that's my own fault.  In the past 4 weeks, I've been busy -- both with work and appointments as well as a chance to catch a concert, a couple of movie premieres, and even some gaming here and there.  I also stopped the work on this batch of miniatures to customize one other for a character belonging to another player.  However, I did manage to get an uninterrupted day yesterday where I did some writing, product planning, and paint me some goblins on and off during the course of the day.  Please forgive the quality of the pics in today's post... lighting was just not the best this morning so some of the colors and effect may not come through as well as I would have liked.

The armor basecoat and shading was done about mid-October and I used Citadel's 'Ironbreaker' for the base and some 'Argrax Earthshade' for the wash.  It was during this initial basecoat that I also realized I might run into some problems.

I realized that a some of the models (pretty much the spearmen) weren't as well defined in the back.  Now this could be one of two reasons.  All the the spearmen are hunched over with their spears so it could be that the detail for these were just not as well defined, or more likely, not a pronounced.  Now these goblins represent the first batch that I've worked on so it is entirely possible that I was a bit too heavy on the black primer I used.  I'm surprised a bit by this because if this is what happened, the other 8 goblins ... and 10 orcs on top of that don't have the same issue.  These were all primed at the very same time and the goblins were still on the sprue.

That said, it's amazing what one can do to correct this by just painting what's needed.  The other advantage here is that, being goblins, I figured some of the details could be a bit 'ragtag' which made things all the easier.

I used a 'Death World Forest' green for the skin, 'Mephiston Red' for some of the cloth, 'Rhinox Hide' for Bows, Quiver and strap, and spear.

I also made liberal use of the 'Steel Legion Drab' which is used for the arrow shafts in the quiver as well as the straps/wraps for bracers and shin guards.  I also used the same color for more 'cloth' which I also shaded with the 'Argrax Earthshade' I used earlier.  Finally, the Mechanicus Standard Grey was used for the fletching for the arrows, gloves/hands, and I used them for the feet as well.  The same wash was used on the feet in particular to 'dirty them up'.

Are the goblins perfect?  No... I really didn't relish the thought of doing much in term of high detail work and even with some of the very fine detail brushes I picked up wasn't enough to give me the incentive to work more details on the face ... notably the eyes and mouth.  The goblins, being smaller than other figures were really a pain in the ass to do at times.  I used some shade (a wash) as well so that the face details would stand out a tad.

Being my first set of miniatures, aside from the robed figure I did for a fellow gamer, I am relatively pleased with my efforts.  The next batch of minis -- the orcs this time, have had their primary base coat applied this morning using a gun.  It was quite a time saver and given that they wore a lot of armor, I chose to use this as my starting base instead of a green for the skin.  They are also fairly bigger than those blasted goblins so I think painting them will be a treat!  However, given the smaller size of the goblins and the interesting shading and highlights I practiced on the robed figure, it gave me plenty of practice to build upon when I start the details of these orcs in earnest.

M

Dead Kobolds

Well, little did I know how the weird timing of last week's 'Weekend R&R' when I considered the Kobold Quarterly publication that I was doing so in it's final moments.  Wolfgang Baur announced yesterday that the magazine was being discontinued and issue 23 was the final issue.  You can reade the original announcement HERE.  Other publishing projects are still moving ahead and I'm certain Open Design will continue to thrive on that front.  I believe that the focus on some of these other projects may have been a factor in the magazine shutting down.

It lasted over 5 years which was a good run and, aside from issues of content -- or rather not the sort of content that would please everyone in the gaming community, why did this happen?

Well, one of the longest running gaming magazines was Dragon magazine (of course) and it was hugely successful for a few reasons.  First and foremost, for a couple of decades, it didn't have to compete with something called 'the Internet'.  I remember being a much younger gamer, relatively new to the hobby and Dragon magazine was *the* place to go to for my gaming news.  Of course, my gaming largely consisted of what TSR but I love the fact that new products would be talked about and the neat ads for various products was a great way to spread the news back in the day.  That didn't mean I wasn't aware of non-TSR products since I did see some when I went to pick up a new book or module.  Plus there was still word of mouth from other friends interested in gaming.  Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, and MERP were all introduced to me from a friend.  Now, my main source of news is the 'net and not from company websites either.  Gaming blogs, gaming forums, as well as other forms of social media keep me in the loop.  Frankly, it's nice to have interesting news and articles as accessible as things have become and I wouldn't want to give any of that up.  Also, because of the 'net, there is also so much high quality material that is being shared online which invariably has the possibility of reaching a much larger audience.

The other factor why Dragon magazine worked so well is that it was pretty much considered 'official'.  It's a weird thing and, despite the explosion of published materials with the creation of the OGL with 3rd Edition, people today are still hung up on what is 'canon' and what is not.  I remember, not too long ago, the views of a surprising amount of people who are fans of Castles & Crusades not caring overly much for 3rd party material for the game if only because they didn't consider it 'official'.  This wasn't a reflection of quality or lack there-of, just the lack of the TLG logo though the nature of the material was also a factor.  Adventures and gaming scenarios for instance were acceptable but other types of rulebook and supplements seemed to be 'less popular'.  I admit that I was guilty of that mentality myself when it game to TSR and D&D related products when I saw things like the Role Aids line.  When they first were released, I kind of sneered at some of the stuff.  A mistake I corrected years later when I tracked down a bunch of it.  I know some people had little respect for Judge's Guild for the simple fact that it wasn't TSR and I think the general consensus of that view has (thankfully) changed.  Dragon magazine on the other hand, was produced by TSR and people had no problems in using this material for their games.  By the time that Paizo took it over, it also inherited a loyal fan base that went along with it.

The problem is that times have changed.  Many a gamer will look on the internet if they want to find out something of interest.  This will range from reviews and previews to general news.  Sure, not everyone gets their news this way but enough do.

Aside from that, any magazine who want to reach a wider audience can't ignore the fact that, since the OGL happened, there are now even more games and systems available -- flavors for just about everybody as well as all other systems which are not d20 based but equally accessible.  Today's gamer is more discerning and technically have more choice than what was ever available before.  Of course, you also have the gamer that prefers a certain classic or 'vintage' rule set and the same OGL has made it possible to release rules that capture the spirit, nature, and system once available in print some 30 years ago.

The fact that even WOTC has reprinted or are in the process of reprinting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Edition material once again.  Just further illustrates the need and desire for choice and a publication to be more representative of tastes and interests while remaining a viable and distinct option that what is available online.

This situation just isn't simple considering all the other challenges that a regular periodical has to overcome.  A new edition of Dungeons & Dragons can't help matters either.  It's a tough nut to crack and a magazine of significant page count and color is not cheap to produce.  Factor in costs for art and content, a regular schedule, while worrying about additional revenue from advertising and keeping such a product afloat becomes a monumental task.

Given the situation and times and the other projects Open Design and putting together, the decision shut down the magazine will certainly help bolster the other projects and is probably the right decision.

Best of luck with all those other projects -- I will be keeping an eye on them.


M