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GimpInBlack posted:What's the next level beyond "mask off?" Because god drat that is some Myfarog level poo poo. The guy they had writing Star Frontiers is the one that was already proven to be an enthusiastic neo nazi based on compiled social media posts full of vile racism a few months ago. It’s what got all his self-published books taken off DriveThru RPG at that time. This is just confirmation it leaked into the only RPG nuTSR has made any inroads into actually publishing. Then again… I wonder if all the open nazi stuff in the book played any factor in the way nuTSR insisted the book was done and a whole print run sold out before it even went on sale? Not in like the “everyone loved it and it sold out” sense. I mean like maybe they faked the print run specifically because they’re under some agreement to print books but they realized they could never actually sell the stock once any details of the book were online?
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Jul 21, 2022 06:03
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| # ? May 25, 2024 05:00 |
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Hey everyone, I know this chat ended a few pages back so if this is a derail feel free to ignore but I did want to chip in my 2p and share my extremely anecdotal paid gming experience. I've been doing it for about a month and it's actually been going pretty well, I do use the site above and I probably do something pretty different than the vast majority of the site. I run exclusively PBTA stuff (currently MASKS and MonsterHearts 2e) and It's been a blast. Some of the stuff I've seen brought up here I find interesting so I'll try and explain what I've seen but it's obviously not universal. For some background on me, I love playing many different tabletop games, have way too much free time and love meeting new people. So for a very very long time I would play and gm with strangers found online just to help fill my time because I live in a very lovely small town and most of my friends live in the opposite timezone as me or on the other side of this accursed country. The thing that stands out the most is that my players all seem very enthusiastic and focused on the game. I'd probably say this is either due to having a stake in the game (their cash) or my amazing and perfect pacing as a gm, either one makes sense. Most of my players are Women or Nonbinary and the vast majority are lgbtqa+ of some description. I saw people saying that the transactional nature of the game may change the relationship between the gm and the players and I could certainty believe that. I think for the full time GM's who really want to make this thing work they probably maintain a fairly healthy distance between their players and them but I'm pretty openly friendly with my players, I talk to them outside of the game because they are all very nice and cool people with varied interests and cool stories to tell. As you might expect I do all the boring GM advice stuff that you'd do for a free game, I talk at length about lines and veils and about comfort. I emphasise the x card and ask if people are feeling okay after particularly tense scenes. I go out of my way to emphasise player autonomy in the direction of the game but also, I run PBTA so it comes with the territory. I suppose the best way to sum up what I do is that I am an entertainer and an improv actor but really what doing this reminds me most of is my main passion and previous career, pro wrestling. I ask what kind of story people want, I schedule a time and a flavour and then I judge their reactions to stuff to try and make a good story, I tie all the loose stuff together. I think pro wrestling is a pretty solid example because it is also often compared with stuff like sex work or stripping, you're being paid for your time in order to entertain people in a very personal way and there's not much way to get away from the fact that tabletop rpg's especially are about social dynamics and people at their core. I did also have to kick a problem player the other day but it was much easier when my other paying customers shared my concerns and so it was like I was doing them a favour really when it also inherently benefited me. anyway, apologies for the big anecdotal ramble but I hope it was useful to someone/anyone. I do think people are perfectly valid to be mistrustful/sceptical of paid gm's though but I would also suggest if you have an interest in any magpie games to check out their paid gm program because it is very very good from the time I played in one.
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Jul 21, 2022 07:42
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 (taken from here: https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/13057853.html )
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Jul 21, 2022 07:46
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Oriental Adventures is not something I would've expected to make Top 3. I wonder what drove that.
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Jul 21, 2022 07:53
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Weebs.
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Jul 21, 2022 07:55
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gradenko_2000 posted:Oriental Adventures is not something I would've expected to make Top 3. I wonder what drove that. Gary Gygax’s name on the cover when that still meant a lot.
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Jul 21, 2022 07:58
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Are they counting Rokugan content?
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Jul 21, 2022 08:45
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Nessus posted:Are they counting Rokugan content? Ends at '99 before the 3e version (and WotC purchasing LUG).
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Jul 21, 2022 08:48
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Arivia posted:Gary Gygax’s name on the cover when that still meant a lot. That and it was one of the orange hardcovers, and dropped before that had been devalued. In 1985 a new hardcover rulebook for AD&D felt like a big deal still, after Unearthed Arcana, the two Survival Guides, etc., less so. "Karameikos" is misleading. Mystara's heyday was back when Basic was still supported as a separate thing from AD&D, so using a 1994 product as the first core setting release for it misses the peak.
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Jul 21, 2022 09:50
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Something is up with Goblinoid Games: https://twitter.com/magic_myconid/status/1549563885249773570 Speculation is that they are shutting down and given that Old School Essentials has largely eaten Labyrinth Lord's lunch, that would not surprise me.
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Jul 21, 2022 10:14
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Terrible Opinions posted:No judgement on people who do, but I find the idea of playing a TTRPG with someone I'm not already friends with super uncomfortable and weird. I play with friends and random people that I eventually become friends with. It's not really that bad playing with strangers imo, although I am an extrovert.
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Jul 21, 2022 10:44
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Warthur posted:Something is up with Goblinoid Games: dang, Goblinoid Games was one of the things that got me started on TRPGs. Hope it's not anything particularly bad
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Jul 21, 2022 10:51
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ItohRespectArmy posted:Hey everyone, I know this chat ended a few pages back so if this is a derail feel free to ignore but I did want to chip in my 2p and share my extremely anecdotal paid gming experience. I'm very interested in the topic, so that was great, thanks! What do you do to actually find players? How many games a week do you run? How do you price stuff?
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Jul 21, 2022 11:10
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gradenko_2000 posted:Oriental Adventures is not something I would've expected to make Top 3. I wonder what drove that. Heavy advertising I'd imagine. I don't remember seeing forgotten realms, but all the other top 5 settings had extensive ads in comic books back in the day. Hell, I bet forgotten realms even did too, but it's just way more generic so doesn't stick out in my head like the vampire with a damsel or the samurai fighting a minotaur in a foggy valley.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:28
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Coolness Averted posted:Heavy advertising I'd imagine. I don't remember seeing forgotten realms, but all the other top 5 settings had extensive ads in comic books back in the day. Hell, I bet forgotten realms even did too, but it's just way more generic so doesn't stick out in my head like the vampire with a damsel or the samurai fighting a minotaur in a foggy valley. I know the forgotten realms did for sure because my first exposure to it was an ad for 1989’s Forgotten Realms Adventures in one of my dad’s comic books.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:32
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gradenko_2000 posted:Oriental Adventures is not something I would've expected to make Top 3. I wonder what drove that. Just based on that chart, it was one of the first one and one of the few options available if you wanted something a little less generic D&D.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:40
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Ominous Jazz posted:I thought it was a robbery thing, where if you're mask off you're no longer letting anyone who can possibly identify you live. I've never seen it used that way in contemporary online circles, where "mask off" is all about revealing your previously hidden ugly ideas and/or intentions (often by accident.) Like Battlemaster said, it's usage is influenced by Hervey Cleckley's book Mask of Sanity, and this usage was apparently popularized by the rapper Future in a 2017 song of the same name.
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Jul 21, 2022 13:33
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please just move on from the mask thing
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Jul 21, 2022 13:35
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ItohRespectArmy posted:Hey everyone, I know this chat ended a few pages back so if this is a derail feel free to ignore but I did want to chip in my 2p and share my extremely anecdotal paid gming experience. Good post, yeah, it's one of the things that has me wanting to get into it on a paid basis- just a more engaged group of players who are here for it.
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Jul 21, 2022 13:39
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"Percocet , Molly , Percocet" - Philosopher King Nayvadius
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Jul 21, 2022 13:40
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Megazver posted:please just move on from the mask thing
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Jul 21, 2022 14:08
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Warthur posted:That and it was one of the orange hardcovers, and dropped before that had been devalued. In 1985 a new hardcover rulebook for AD&D felt like a big deal still, after Unearthed Arcana, the two Survival Guides, etc., less so. Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that the settings that topped 200k units sold were the ones that had hardcovers on the market during 1e's heyday or 2e's launch window.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:13
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Coolness Averted posted:Heavy advertising I'd imagine. I don't remember seeing forgotten realms, but all the other top 5 settings had extensive ads in comic books back in the day. Hell, I bet forgotten realms even did too, but it's just way more generic so doesn't stick out in my head like the vampire with a damsel or the samurai fighting a minotaur in a foggy valley. Also, the mid-80s was huge for ninjas and martial arts in popular media.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:20
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Warthur posted:"Karameikos" is misleading. Mystara's heyday was back when Basic was still supported as a separate thing from AD&D, so using a 1994 product as the first core setting release for it misses the peak. gradenko_2000 posted:dang, Goblinoid Games was one of the things that got me started on TRPGs. Hope it's not anything particularly bad
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Jul 21, 2022 15:15
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Little infographic teaser for the Dungeons & Dragons movie is at the San Diego Comic Con: https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1549943580592025600
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Jul 21, 2022 15:27
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That's an incredibly Québécois name.
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Jul 21, 2022 15:38
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Dexo posted:"Percocet , Molly , Percocet" - Philosopher King Nayvadius Love this post.
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Jul 21, 2022 15:38
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gradenko_2000 posted:Oriental Adventures is not something I would've expected to make Top 3. I wonder what drove that. It was the 80s, everyone wanted to play a ninja.
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Jul 21, 2022 15:57
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ItohRespectArmy posted:I think pro wrestling is a pretty solid example because it is also often compared with stuff like sex work or stripping, you're being paid for your time in order to entertain people in a very personal way and there's not much way to get away from the fact that tabletop rpg's especially are about social dynamics and people at their core. given how many times i've compared (my ideal of) GMing to heel wrestlers it's pretty cool to hear this from someone who actually worked in that sector  thank you for sharing!
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Jul 21, 2022 15:57
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Halloween Jack posted:I think Mutant Future is underrated--probably one of the first OSR games that dared to really overhaul its source material. And they did some fun stuff with the Pacesetter properties they bought.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:08
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gtrmp posted:Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that the settings that topped 200k units sold were the ones that had hardcovers on the market during 1e's heyday or 2e's launch window. Once you account for that, Birthright, Planescape, Spelljammer, and Al-Qadim don't seem to have done too shabbily, given that they only had one core release each (and Birthright's one was close to the end of the era covered, Spelljammer's dropped out of sight before the mid-1990s so far as I can tell...).
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Jul 21, 2022 17:12
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FMguru posted:
This helps explain why I got those Spelljammer and Red Steel boxes for 5$ each at KB Toy Stores as a kid. Red Steel even had an audio CD.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:29
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Warthur posted:If they are wrapping up I hope their games get good homes. Necrotic Gnome were talking about doing a Gamma World-alike for the next tranche of Old School Essential releases so perhaps that's a natural home for Mutant Future (or at least the ideas it brought to the table). It'd be nice if Pacesetter stuff went somewhere too - it's not like they represent any form of cutting edge or fashionable form of game design but it's an interesting chapter of history which deserves to be made easily available to look back at, and to my understanding wasn't particularly chud-ish for its era.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:30
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Late TSR getting into setting books as a business model is what killed them, I think. They ended up having to publish a lot of poo poo that just didn't sell like it needed to. There's a reason I think the current ownership is focused on being more directed at what they publish. Birthright's interesting, and in a lot of ways unique in just the way play is expected to go, but it dovetailed with the piece of D&D that was kind of neglected and rarely used- domain-level play. I think it's kind of inevitable that it and its products would've mostly failed(though it'd work great for a computer game, and they did try that). It kinda reminds me of today's Traveller Mercenary trio, which has a ton of material for large scale combat that i've never heard any Traveller group ever use. I wonder how Mass Combat supplements for RPGs really sell/sold. Panzeh fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 17:46
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I got the Karameikos and Glantri box sets from KB for like $5 a piece. They’re legit really good setting material too, just released in a ridiculously oversaturated market.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:50
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LaSquida posted:This helps explain why I got those Spelljammer and Red Steel boxes for 5$ each at KB Toy Stores as a kid. Holy poo poo, I could write a book on 'stuff I found at KB toys over the last 30 years'. From what I gather, their policy is to never send stuff that won't sell back to the warehouse, but rather to put in on the back shelf and mark it down repeatedly. I once bought two BOXES of Steve Jackson's Battlecards there for $10 each.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:52
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My favorite example of TSR overproduction was a series of linked adventure modules for the Maztica setting, where you would have products that TSR paid full price to write, edit, layout, art design, print, market, ship, warehouse, and account for, but were only bought by 1) DMs (not players) who 2) bought pre-pack adventure modules, who 3) played in the Forgotten Realms and, more specifically, 4) played in the Maztica sub-region of FR, and who had 5) already played through the first module and wanted to continue on to the second. Someone who didn't meet ALL FIVE of those requirements would not pick or even look for more than a few seconds at the product. Spending all that money to make something that literally 98% of your target audience had zero use for or even the ability to use. Multiple that times a dozen products every month, month after month, year after year, and it's easy to see how TSR drove itself into the ground.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:53
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The self-competition with all the different settings was super bad for TSR. You can only get so many sales of people buying something because it looks like an interesting thing to read. If it isn't applicable to the actual games people are playing, people who want something they can use are not going to buy it. The more specific and/or "weird" the setting is the less you can incorporate it into what you are already interested in. Someone playing Forgotten Realms could maybe fit Al-Qadim in if they travel far from the Sword Coast or Cormyr but good luck using Dark Sun or Planescape content without heavy alteration if you aren't already playing that setting. I think it was awesome that they were so experimental but it didn't do their sales any favors.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:54
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As far as I can tell, the double money fountains of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels meant that TSR spent the 90s trying to create another broadly popular fantasy world that they could use to sell novels and trading cards and computer games and wall calendars. Whether they made any sense as gaming settings or as gaming products wasn't something they cared that much about - they were all about trying to get lightning to strike a third time, which is why they kept cranking out new world settings.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:58
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Coolness Averted posted:Heavy advertising I'd imagine. I don't remember seeing forgotten realms, but all the other top 5 settings had extensive ads in comic books back in the day. Hell, I bet forgotten realms even did too, but it's just way more generic so doesn't stick out in my head like the vampire with a damsel or the samurai fighting a minotaur in a foggy valley. Forgotten Realms even had its own comic for a bit there (Dragonlance too). Cessna posted:It was the 80s, everyone wanted to play a ninja. Yeah, I wonder if that chart is a little misleading about OA's success as a setting--how many people bought and used that book because they wanted to set adventures in Kara Tur versus how many people bought and used that book because they wanted to include ninjas and kung-fu in whatever other setting they were using.
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