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new york should be rosemary's baby OBVIOUSLY
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Apr 11, 2018 18:19
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| # ? May 24, 2024 21:33 |
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"D&D developed like a religion" is the (never explicitly stated) thesis that I took away from his essay about Dungeons & Dragons. You can't point to any particular book, or group, or scene, or convention, or playstyle and say "This is D&D." It was a far-flung community of people having different experiences, bringing different assumptions to the table, and interpreting different sets of texts in different ways. A kid buying the Red Box and playing with his friends is going to develop a very different idea of D&D from somebody who was already an avid wargamer, convention-goer, and zine-reader when OD&D was released.
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Apr 11, 2018 18:24
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Ewen Cluney posted:Ron Edwards is working on a seminar thing he calls "Finding D&D," where he basically makes the case for D&D culture being a religion of sorts. I'm still watching and digesting it, but it's really interesting. As somebody who was discovering RPGs during the eighties, I remember there was a degree of... discovery and interpretation. Games like AD&D, Traveller, anything Palladium did, none of these were particularly clear about how you played them. Adventures helped where you could find them, but none of those were clear texts. D&D (red box) was probably the most codified and clear game I encountered early on, but I don't feel like it was until GURPS that I ran into a particularly consistent and well-formed RPG. I ran across Fantasy Wargaming - The Highest Level of All at a library and presumed it was some supplementary text for AD&D on account of how little sense it made to me on its own. I had no conventions or clubs to go to for a good number of years, so how we were supposed to play really was something you had to cobble together. It wasn't until I started attending university clubs as a high schooler and playing with older players that I started to really understand what it was like to play and organize a campaign and the like instead of just the weird experiments I'd done with friends as kids.
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Apr 11, 2018 19:00
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Not gonna lie, I like when people say "I don't get it, where's the grog" because it has some potential to turn into a conversation that, while it may not necessarily change someone's mind, often turns out to be educational to me somehow.
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Apr 11, 2018 20:49
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Ewen Cluney posted:Also I like how he said that when he first started publishing in 2000, stores would ask him why it wasn't d20. Two years later, they had so much unsold product that they would ask, "It's not d20, is it?" And it's so obvious to everyone that nobody's going to touch that poo poo. People weren't going to touch it five years ago, they're sure as poo poo not going to touch it now. Just knock everything down to a buck a pop for a month or two, then just get rid of it. It's not going to make you a profit, but it's not like that poo poo is ever going make a profit at this point anyway.
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Apr 11, 2018 21:10
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I made a decent chunk of change off of my d20 collection by just doing the research on price. And I sold everything - everything. Even poo poo I thought was utterly unsalable, like Mongoose class pamphlets. It's just a matter of knowing its actual worth. Four figures in my pocket was worth way more than than two or three shelves of untouched books.
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Apr 11, 2018 21:17
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So what it's a documentary about another indie developer whining that the unwashed masses like dnd instead of his artful heartbreaker? Because there's ton of those already.
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Apr 11, 2018 21:32
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Evil Mastermind posted:I've said before that there's two local-ish game stores that still have shelves of d20 product they're never going to sell because they won't reduce the price on any of it.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:09
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It's doubly dumb, because selling off obsolete crap for deep discounts lets you take the difference in sale and purchase prices as a tax write-off. I'm not sure a game store exists that's actually run like a business, and not as a hobby.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:21
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Splicer posted:The best part about stories like this is shelf space isn't free. A shelf full of bullshit is a shelf full of lost sales of whatever else you could have put up there. An appreciable part of their monthly rent is going toward storing unsorted recycling. But this store also carries zero current indie games. No stand-alone indies, nothing Powered by the Apocalypse, not even a loving Fate Core book. Nothing. I think the closest they have is LotFP.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:23
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Evil Mastermind posted:One of these stores has a loving ton of old out-of-print RPGs and board games, all still being sold for original list price. Which is both good and bad. Yo tell them to hit me up with some 4e book prices.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:24
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Evil Mastermind posted:One of these stores has a loving ton of old out-of-print RPGs and board games, all still being sold for original list price.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:28
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Splicer posted:Do they have a website and do they do international shipping? I think you already know the answer to this.
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Apr 11, 2018 22:47
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Yeah, it's a small independently owned store. Citadel Games in Connecticut. They don't even have an actual web site.
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Apr 11, 2018 23:09
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Plutonis posted:So what it's a documentary about another indie developer whining that the unwashed masses like dnd instead of his artful heartbreaker? Because there's ton of those already. Nah, Ron Edwards genuinely likes D&D, although he dislikes some of the ways people play it. It's Vampire that he reserves his hatred for.
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Apr 12, 2018 00:13
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Thuryl posted:Nah, Ron Edwards genuinely likes D&D, although he dislikes some of the ways people play it. It's Vampire that he reserves his hatred for. I found it interesting how at least as he experienced it, the publication of D&D was really random and scattershot. The original woodgrain box version only had a print run of 1,000 copies, and people who didn't have it were trying to cobble together what they could from a mixture of Basic, oral tradition, photocopies, Judges Guild products, etc., then the AD&D Monster Manual came out (which showed several important differences from Basic), then the "white box" reprint of OD&D. D&D isn't a game but a collection of around 9 or so games that hit a lot of the same tropes to varying degrees (and that's just the RPGs, which leaves out the D&D board games, video games, wood burning kit, etc.) and the related informal traditions around them. Post-Gygax TSR and then WotC both tried to tap into the culture and position their publications as authoritative, and the d20 license was in part a component of that marketing push. He's highly critical of AD&D2e and Vampire for basically the same reason, that they promoted "story" in RPGs in a way where players participate passively rather than as authors.
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Apr 12, 2018 02:28
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grassy gnoll posted:It's doubly dumb, because selling off obsolete crap for deep discounts lets you take the difference in sale and purchase prices as a tax write-off. Not really. That would not be a capital asset so it's not like you would counted against the original purchase price. So, it would only matter if they got it that year. Taxes work on a cash basis, not a accrual basis. It's still better to sell then to have poo poo lying around, that's true. But you can't take it as a tax write-off because it's not a capital asset, it's just merchandise. Thinking about it even further, you would just be marking at a sales and the purchases would have already been accounted for years ago so it's not like you would really see any benefit from it from a tax perspective. Still better to get the money, but selling old crap doesn't get you a tax benefit. If it was stocks or bonds or Capital asset then we can start talking about that. An argument could even be made for like an original copy of D&D signed by Gary gygax, but just old merchandise doesn't count. I mean, I am new to working on smaller businesses and individuals. I've only done one busy season that's about to end. Most of my experience is more with hedge funds and mutual funds were such things don't really come up often.
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Apr 12, 2018 04:23
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I have a silly question probably I've been sort of skimming some of the threads at work and I'd like to participate in one, and I saw a new CYOA thread that interests me (the Dungeon Keeper one). Do I need to know any systems or anything for a thread like that or is it basically all just improv stuff?
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Apr 12, 2018 14:30
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Ewen Cluney posted:The videos are critical of some aspects of the culture around D&D, but he's definitely a fan of D&D itself, and was very complimentary to some of its offshoots. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Apr 12, 2018 14:41
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IcePhoenix posted:I have a silly question probably Looks like you won't need to know anything in particular!
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Apr 12, 2018 14:42
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Thuryl posted:Nah, Ron Edwards genuinely likes D&D, although he dislikes some of the ways people play it. It's Vampire that he reserves his hatred for. Very well. Carry on then.
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Apr 12, 2018 14:49
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IcePhoenix posted:I have a silly question probably Even I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing. COYA vary on the improv level, but even those that start backed by rules tend to move well past them quickly. Come make bad choices with everyone else!
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Apr 12, 2018 14:53
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Grey Hunter posted:Even I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing. I'm running a Scion 2 one over here. We just finished character creation. We're using the rules in the book at the moment apart from where they don't make any sense (maybe take another swing at 'em, onyx path. There's- what's aim, exactly?) but I have a feeling that might change as stuff starts getting 
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Apr 12, 2018 14:57
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especially if it's a CYOA, I feel like you won't need rules because everything should be done in service of whatever makes for the more interesting story, and at junctions where you honestly want to leave it up to chance, you can flip a coin or roll a d10 or something. EDIT: this is different from a play-by-post, where presumably people want to directly engage with mechanics for its own sake, and also because the characters are specifically and individually controlled, rather than controlled by the Posting Collective. gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Apr 12, 2018 15:36
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Evil Mastermind posted:One of these stores has a loving ton of old out-of-print RPGs and board games, all still being sold for original list price. Which is both good and bad. How many FLGS stock indie RPGs? My store carries many mainstream RPGs and will order any RPG I ask, but doesn't really stock many indie games outside of 13th age and NBA. Most RPGs sit on the shelf for months outside of 5E.
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Apr 12, 2018 15:44
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gradenko_2000 posted:especially if it's a CYOA, I feel like you won't need rules because everything should be done in service of whatever makes for the more interesting story, and at junctions where you honestly want to leave it up to chance, you can flip a coin or roll a d10 or something. I'm thinking d100 in the odd times I need to roll. But yeah, they should be story first "rules" second.
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Apr 12, 2018 15:47
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Grey Hunter posted:Even I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing. The first bad choice (submitting my character) is complete! Looking forward to it, I always love dungeon keeper style games.
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Apr 12, 2018 15:55
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Sion posted:I'm running a Scion 2 one over here. Please give that feedback on the OP forums. It's what Neall reads, and keeps an obvious record of issues raised.
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Apr 12, 2018 15:59
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LeSquide posted:Please give that feedback on the OP forums. It's what Neall reads, and keeps an obvious record of issues raised. I am pretty sure it got picked up on. Do you know if there's going to be a second version of the text only for Origin and Hero?
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Apr 12, 2018 16:47
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Covok posted:Not really. That would not be a capital asset so it's not like you would counted against the original purchase price. So, it would only matter if they got it that year. Taxes work on a cash basis, not a accrual basis. It's still better to sell then to have poo poo lying around, that's true. But you can't take it as a tax write-off because it's not a capital asset, it's just merchandise. They're also paying property taxes on that dead inventory. Selling that crap will stop the bleeding.
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Apr 12, 2018 16:56
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grassy gnoll posted:It's doubly dumb, because selling off obsolete crap for deep discounts lets you take the difference in sale and purchase prices as a tax write-off. There was a local game store owner that didn't reduce the price on back stock, and even after the store closed he'd show up at local cons with the same old stock in booths. And he had a lot of stuff he hadn't been able to sell, like a bunch of copies of Battlefleet Gothic that was a required purchase as a GW retailer, or a stack of World of Synnibarr he'd gotten somewhere and tried to push on folks. I don't know if he made just enough money doing that at cons, or if he was just stubborn, but I think eventually he ended up getting this stock bought by another local store before moving elsewhere. Was always a bit surreal to see the same half-dozen copies of the Batman Role-Playing Game floating around the area, dreaming of a better home.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:09
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alg posted:How many FLGS stock indie RPGs? My store carries many mainstream RPGs and will order any RPG I ask, but doesn't really stock many indie games outside of 13th age and NBA. Most RPGs sit on the shelf for months outside of 5E. Modern Myths in Massachusetts is very heavily invested in indie RPGs, to the point where I think they have more indie stuff than D&D. Unfortunately, they're two hours away from me.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:There was a local game store owner that didn't reduce the price on back stock, and even after the store closed he'd show up at local cons with the same old stock in booths. And he had a lot of stuff he hadn't been able to sell, like a bunch of copies of Battlefleet Gothic that was a required purchase as a GW retailer, or a stack of World of Synnibarr he'd gotten somewhere and tried to push on folks. I don't know if he made just enough money doing that at cons, or if he was just stubborn, but I think eventually he ended up getting this stock bought by another local store before moving elsewhere.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:17
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The local dead stock FLGS saddened me a few years ago. I would have bougt a lot of their AD&D 2e campaign books for toilet reading, but they were still cover price. I can find a lot of the same stuff at Half Price Books for much less.
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Apr 12, 2018 17:33
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mllaneza posted:They're also paying property taxes on that dead inventory. Selling that crap will stop the bleeding. No...? They're cost of maintaining inventory, but there's no property taxes unless they have a warehouse or something that they are not going to have any more after selling it.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:10
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And they own that warehouse, rather than renting it, which I think is extremely unlikely.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:12
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Subjunctive posted:And they own that warehouse, rather than renting it, which I think is extremely unlikely. If anything, the expense of the rent is a tax write-off as it would count against their business income.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:16
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FMguru posted:The inability to understand the Sunk Cost Fallacy undoes a lot of small businesses. e: ARB and EM do you mind if I cross-post your posts to the BWM thread? Splicer fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Apr 12, 2018 18:30
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Go ahead.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:15
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| # ? May 24, 2024 21:33 |
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Covok posted:No...? They're cost of maintaining inventory, but there's no property taxes unless they have a warehouse or something that they are not going to have any more after selling it. It depends on the state; although I am technically wrong (the worst kind of wrong) because I was assuming San Francisco's Business Personal Property tax included inventory.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:49
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