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That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

New mechanical widgets and toys tend to drive better sales.

EDIT: This doesn't just mean things like new player powers or classes or whatever, and not even items, but also new ways of looking at old mechanics. Innovative traps that give life to an old trap-building system can make an adventure module very popular.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Apr 24, 2013

# ¿ Apr 24, 2013 08:44

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:56

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Triple-Kan posted:

50 Foot Ant is known as a Teller of Tales, so you can take whatever he says with a grain of salt.

Maybe, but with the way RPG illustrators are it's not that unbelievable a story.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 06:17

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

He also did some work that went into the Rolemaster Companions of the 80's, which were kind enough to individually attribute each section on the credits page.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Iron Heroes was Mike Mearls. It was published under Monte Cook's Malhavoc brand, which may be where there confusion comes from.

Well, that and also this is the logo:

That whole "presents" thing has been a pretty big boost to what a lot of people imagine is Monte's prolific writing.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 13:34

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

MalcolmSheppard posted:

Generally when you work for a company full time, it means that every product under your purview passes over your desk. He was the editor in charge of Hero and RM from the late 80s to the early 90s (http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory8.phtml), so he worked on pretty much everything released from that company, not just what you might turn up with some Googling. (And now I miss the old pen-paper.net, which wasn't too bad about recording creator credits.) I seriously doubt he has no more than 15 TSR credits (RPGnet's listings are incomplete, and list maybe 18, not including a few dozen Dragon Magazine articles).

I'm sure there's more to it than the credits pages and my collection is incomplete, but the earliest credit for him in Rolemaster that I can find is 1989. His first regular ICE Staff credit is in 1991, his last credit in any Rolemaster book is 1994 as RM2 came to a close. So he was an author/developer/editor on a few RM books around 1989-1990, then became the line editor as RM2 wound down with its last ~10 books.

quote:

The rest of this sounds like "Surely nothing notable was done in the field before the existence of web forums!" Okay, I get that you don't like the way he designs games, but he was an extremely experienced writer, editor and designer before he was involved in D&D, and didn't get momentum to do his own thing purely out of a sense of entitlement.

I don't think that's really what this is about. It's more of an eyeroll at the whole situation than some kind of resentment.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Oct 10, 2013

# ¿ Oct 10, 2013 08:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I think the greater part of RPG authors are chill enough. The knobs just stand out because they can be the most memorably unpleasant and hilarious. It's a pretty small community, especially online, so when someone's loud enough to make sure everyone knows they're a "straight-talker" or "rough and tumble frontiersman" they get heard much better than in larger communities.

Kai Tave posted:

He also did Scroll of the Monk for Exalted 2E which most Exalted fans and even other Exalted writers seem to hold in low regard but I guess they can't all be winners.

Nope!

Jack's great crime against Exalted were the Merits & Flaws and half-blood rules in Scroll of Heroes. These were in many ways worse than the excrescence in Monk!

Some poking was had over slipping in some entirely 1E-based stuff. No one really cared that much as it was probably an honest mistake and one of the least horrible things about his chapters, but Jon Chung made it A Thing for some reason and just would not stop hounding Norris about it. Jack basically threw down his gloves and went full-blown "the work I do for you people", going so far as to show up on the White Wolf boards just to get huffy with the more modest complaints there. It was mostly just Jon Chung after him, but Jack started snapping at everybody almost right out of the gate. Then he went into hermitage for a month or two, reemerging to poo poo out the most passive-aggressive, whiny two-part blog post about how put-upon the creative type is in RPGs and how hard it is to find a reason to go on subjecting yourself to the criticisms of fans.

When he was blowing up on the WW boards he accused me of following him from RPGnet to hound him because of course.

He also probably wrote the time travel and demon armies/reproduction stuff in Compass: Malfeas. Norris seems to have turned in some workmanlike product for Compass: South, because that book is universally bland but serviceable as far as "catch, tag, catalog and maybe expand a weensy bit on what 1E did." RPGnet also lists him for Scroll of Kings but he's not credited in the book and it's fairly well-known who did the Bad Thing in there.

Regardless of his past, Jack Norris seems to have gotten a pretty good handle on himself since then. He's grown up enough to be unremarkably pleasant, meandering half-defenses of employed douche bags aside. Maybe he's trying to take Skarka along for the ride in hopes he will grow up, too?

Gasperkun posted:

I think someone mentioned Jenna Moran already, but if not, she's someone I would include in the list of people who are professional and helpful.

Jenna Moran is pretty professional in public, whimsical at times, but after getting to know her privately I can't help comparing her favorably to Mr. Rogers. She isn't good people, she's best people.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 11:37

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Halloween Jack posted:

Do you have a link to that?

If you really want to go dumpster-diving, Sage's first post is 364 in this thread. It's not as vitriolic as one might expect, but it's kind of off-putting just how confounded a lot of these people are about how to handle a game that doesn't run exactly like the ones they like, and how angry that makes some of them. Sage ends up answering a bunch of really dumb questions. My favorite part is somewhere around page 10 Pundit declares such-and-such idiot thought about Dungeon World's Storygame-iness, then later near the end of the thread posts some giant pretentious wall-of-text about DW's pretentiousness, but that having finally read the game he must admit that it is indeed a Scotsman.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Nov 21, 2013

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 15:40

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Just because I think it might be unclear, I want to reiterate that I'm pretty sure Jack didn't have anything to do with Scroll of the Monk. It's not that I think he worked on both and Heroes was the worse of the two (though I do think the latter). I would agree that since it was also early in the line Monk's horribleness had a bigger impact than it otherwise might have had.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

FATE is a lot harder to break, mind, but it isn't exactly design chops I'd put any faith in.

On the one hand, I can sympathize a lot with his situation. They needed a warm body with typing appendages and he had prior experience with Exalted, apparently. On the other hand, what he wrote was so bad. Just, oh my god.

I wouldn't say Tianxia is, well, bad, but I can't really say that your lack of faith is ill-considered. There are more than a few false choices and traps in the martial arts techniques, where one technique is just a loving better version of another technique. It wasn't enough to collapse the game or anything, but if I had gone through getting the game I probably would've taken a hammer to the martial arts. Which I guess actually is pretty terrible for a game about kung fu so whatever. On the other hand, he appeared to be taking feedback on the issue. So maybe it got better?

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 16:07

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Kai Tave posted:

Then it's entirely possible I got those two "Scroll of" books confused. I knew he'd written for one of them and his work was considered rather poor quality. I think Stephen Lea Sheppard actually copped a probation on RPGnet for talking some smack about Jack over it out in the open where everyone could see.

Lea and Rand Brittain both sniped at Jack over Heroes when he rolled into a thread to brag about being a dependable "oh poo poo our book isn't done we need a last-minute guy to fill in and make everything great." He specifically mentioned being able to quickly get a handle on the material. Lea and Rand got probated for a week, and Rand resigned as moderator.

quote:

As far as Tianxia goes, he and his design partner already beat out several other RPG Kickstarters by having an actual game 99% ready to go and available to backers. I agree that it's got its rough spots but its also got plenty of potential, so at this point it's down to how well they refine the beta before the official release. I can't say I feel like my $15 is going to waste there.

Yeah. My only really significant complaint was Skarka, and, welp. For those who don't give as much of a poo poo about that, it's a pretty great Kickstarter through-and-through.

EDIT: The art in particular looks really great.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Nov 21, 2013

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 16:21

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Yeah, he seems pretty successful by RPG standards. He's just never been one of the guiding stars. I'm not sure if he resents how much more successful others have been, or if what looks like that is just typical sniping borne of being an rear end in a top hat (not that it makes much practical difference).

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 22:31

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

JDCorley posted:

The Adamant app pricing theory was "hey, almost exactly nobody buys a supplement 2 years after it's out anyway, why not make it available cheap and see if people will pick up whole lines of less expensive stuff based on a big, normally-priced central book". Answer: Yes, there are such "line collectors" who spring up at a lower price point but they are pretty rare.

Really? I seem to recall it was mostly him going "Oh, yeah? Well I happen to have a massive catalog of RPGs to sell :smuggo:

so we'll see what that's like" in the middle of a conversation about how much PDFs are worth.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 03:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I've always been put off by describing the White Wolf Exalted forum as "echo-chambery." It's friendlier to the writers than it could otherwise be, but there's still a pretty constant stream of criticism. I think it mostly has to do with high-profile criticism, aka really loud assholes, being shut down. It's a far cry from Pundit's Own.

That bullshit with the social Charm previews didn't help disabuse anyone, though. :sigh:

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 16:32

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

BryanChavez posted:

There's very little actual criticism on the White Wolf forums, though. There's just dozens of people with their own pet issue, who are more than willing to turn any topic even tangentially related to that issue into the hill they're willing to die on.

We are all the echo chamber?

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 16:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I think�or hope�that the Exalted forum is the way it is mostly as a reaction to how absolutely loving awful it was not that long ago. That's probably not it. :smith:

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 17:00

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

While "maybe we'll pay you, I guess" is unconscionable, I don't think RPGs as an industry can sustain actual fair pay. Not before ameliorating the larger problem of stagnant wages and rising costs for the whole economy.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2013 22:20

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

That's probably why GMS is so upset by the whole "pay people when they deliver, not when the product is complete". He never completes anything, so he never has to pay anyone!

I made that joke in grognards.txt like an hour ago; get your own material!

Covok posted:

I'm only asking because this is such a clear cut case of trademark violation that I'm surprised they would have gone ahead with such actions.

Their qualifications appear to be that they really like the HeroQuest boardgame. While I feel the same, I don't agree that this constitutes a business plan.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 07:07

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

JackMann posted:

Out of curiosity, where's he venting his spleen? I don't see anything in his Google+ feed.

Cam Banks reshared Hicks' article and GMS came a-shitposting in the comments.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 07:10

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Kai Tave posted:

I don't know that GMS has a habit of bilking freelancers, mainly the person GMS seems to gently caress over more than anyone is himself. Well, that and his Kickstarter backers.

I don't know about bilking, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's taken umbrage at this particular article because it's criticizing something he's been serially loving up lately with all his publishing problems.

quote:

Honestly I think he's pissed at Fred Hicks because Fred A). doesn't hold gamers in contempt the way GMS does and B). is actually successful and capable of delivering on a Kickstarter without endless delays and excuses.

When I went searching for the latest shitshow I ran across some G+ back-and-forth from 2011 where Hicks and Skarka were being friendly with each other. It was weird.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 07:16

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

This whole thing put me in mind of tipping culture and Europeans. It made me wonder if there's a similar difference in how contracts are handled and what kind of contracts are standard in European RPG circles. Does anyone know if European RPG industry culture is better at this, or the same, or somehow even more hobbyist seat-of-the-pants?

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 10:06

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Also, they're charging $50 for 100-page codices. They seem to give zero fucks about attracting new blood at this point.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 02:22

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I originally played 40k in the mid-90s, when you resolved things model-by-model, terminators had armor saves of 3+ on 2d6, and vehicle armor penetration was resolved with the full range of dice used to play D&D (even the d20). When some friends got into 5th edition, I tried out the starter set and was overjoyed by the special rules you could fit on a single sheet of paper, the baseline-seeming competence of space marines compared to the up-close toughness of the orks, and especially the squad-based resolution.

Then some of us bought armies other than space marines, while one of the guys got into Blood Angels when their codex came out. :sigh:

What a cluster gently caress. I got into Imperial Guard. :suicide:

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 15:44

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I've certainly seen enough similar threads to not give GW the ten-count yet. But! But this thing with the codices seems really different. It's just absolutely incredible to see any non-special edition game book priced at $0.50 per page.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2014 11:07

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Zereth posted:

Why do succubi always gotta be tricking people into loving? I'd think if they want to gently caress they could just go "hey"

"hey you wanna gently caress"

And have pretty good success.

Because important people (PCs and NPCs the author/GM likes) are beep boop rational actors who never get side-tracked by normal human concerns like libido or lassitude. So you have to magic your gently caress games into existence. And then most "tricky succubus" powers end up being less tricky and more just mind rays. It's a hilarious cycle of stupid that shows up nearly every time someone writes seduction-type rules significantly distinct from the base resolution system they're being slotted into.

Hyper-cynicism combo! :krad:

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 08:24

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Pope Guilty posted:

I obviously don't hang around TG enough, what's a whizzard?

http://gunshowcomic.com/471 mildly :nws:

# ¿ Jul 27, 2014 04:57

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Was that "terrorist" thing in Germain's profile added after this started? She's had plenty of good reasons to say something like that.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 03:11

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Tatum Girlparts posted:

All I can imagine thanks to this nonsense is that the 'one full of intelligent crows' is full of those minstrel show crows from Dumbo.

Don't worry, though, the author knows some black people.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 06:22

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

It's important to remember that terms like erasure aren't really from Tumblr, they're just frequently abused by it. It's easy to do a quick filtering test for otherkin obesity+ diaperfur erasure because come on, just think about the context. "I am a Native and angry about my culture's representation" is just fundamentally different from "my soul is a werewolf and I'm angry because Walmart fired me for barking at the meat freezer instead of stocking shelves."

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 16:17

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

FMguru posted:

Gareth has a hierarchy of outrage, and at the very top of that pyramid is Mere Fans Talking poo poo To Game Designers. Skarka will take up cudgels against any fan or fans who dare to treat Game Designers with anything other than perfect deference and overweening gratitude. It trumps all other considerations for him, which is why him announcing his unwillingness to keep supporting and defending James "The Grim Raper" Desborough against his critics was such a shock

Though only after Des threw in with GamerGate, and still with qualification that amounted to "but I was right about everything else."

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 03:39

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Cam Banks seems to keep trying to be his friend, no matter how outright abusive Skarka gets with him.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2015 04:14

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

I really liked Indianapolis the couple of times I went, but, well, I'm from loving Topeka.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 04:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

We can ~~dream unrealistically~~hope that they'd leave over it being passed, even if it's struck down later.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 14:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

So apparently GMS is blocked by @Gen_Con, and he's revving up his ~~one-man Outrage Brigade~~reasonable personal standards over how the giant multimillion dollar convention didn't immediately announce a new venue for five years from now.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 09:15

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

jivjov posted:

As far as GMS goes, his tweets about GenCon were actually semi reasonable.

Mostly, yeah, but then they said "talking about what we're doing" instead of, I don't know, teleporting away the moment freedom died, so now they're "walking back" because I guess not finding a solution (or, at least, not announcing) immediately makes you a freedom punk.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Mar 27, 2015

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 14:11

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

quote:

I'm glad a d20 expert is back into the mix. Not only to avoid the excesses of 4e design, but just as importantly of 3e's. Being intimately familiar with the mistakes of the past two generations of D&D is a terrific thing in a hire for 5e.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 13:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

I wonder how this is going to affect the 3.x heartbreaker he kickstarted last year.

Apparently the move to Washington means the game will be delayed.

There's also a pretty hilarious looking preliminary sketch of a "corrupted unicorn" in that update.

quote:

you'll be happy to know that magic items are mostly going to have cosmetic or utilitarian effects (like a cloak that lets you Feather Fall) instead of boring plusses. I'll need to have a careful look at the stats math during and after the playtest, but I definitely do not want a situation where your character is ineffective if you don't have the "default" magic items that just give boring plusses.

loving seriously. See ya later, Pathfinder!

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 14:39 on May 5, 2015

# ¿ May 5, 2015 14:36

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

After the way he designed and acted on Pathfinder, which remained one of the most popular games in the industry, it's so unsurprising I can't muster more than my constant low-level annoyance at the entire hobby.

Maybe he'll use this game as another opportunity to poo poo on people who want guns in their fantasy mishmash?

# ¿ May 5, 2015 14:50

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

He was lead rules guy for Pathfinder, and he's not good at rules. This wouldn't be much of a remarkable crime in the RPG industry�even if he was in charge of developing one of its most popular properties�except he was also a big rear end about it. He got into flame wars with fans on the forum over how he put a bunch of gun stuff in the game, but he made it just absolutely suck all the balls. He was the kind of guy who seriously busted out ~verisimilitude~ when he shat on fighters, and "Well, it's fantasy!" when fellating wizards.

Even in the context of "D&D3 with the serial numbers filed off" his rules could be pretty bad.

Help me out here, fellow bitter goons: Was it him or someone else who tied a computer mouse to their hand and hosed around with it for an afternoon to determine how chained weapons rules should work?

# ¿ May 5, 2015 15:14

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Piell posted:

SKR is basically a complete moron when it comes to game design. The only thing you need to know is that he wrote this, where he claimed that Toughness (the 3.5 version, that gave 3 HP) was a stronger feat than Natural Spell.

Holy poo poo.

code:

Feat                  Pts
Animal Affinity       9
Craft Wand            10
Diehard               7
Exotic Weapon Prof    9
Improved Initiative   8
Improved Trip         8
Maximize Spell        5
Mobility              8
Precise Shot          10
Still Spell           5
Toughness (3hp)       6
Toughness (5hp)       10
Weapon Finesse        9
Weapon Focus          10

How does he not see what he's doing?

quote:

No, that was Jason Bulmahn, who is also dumb

Ah yes, thanks.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 15:38

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

Because it's 3.Path heartbreaker thinkin'. If there's a problem with a mechanic, you don't back up and fix the core problem, you bolt another mechanic onto it. Then when that one doesn't work, you don't go back and see why, you bolt another mechanic onto that one, and so on and so on.

I mean, he starts with the right observation ("there are a lot of useless feats"), but instead of backing up and fixing the core problem (get rid of the feats) he bolts another system onto it and just ends up making it worse.

Sure, but I mean, goddamn, +2 to Animal Handling, +5hp and creating wands that cast fireball 25 times all being valued the same is just so loving in-your-face.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 15:51

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

paradoxGentleman posted:

Yeah, I feel your pain. Every time goons start gnashing their teeth at someone, I need to look like a chump and ask why do we hate this particular guy.

It's us. We're the grogs. Don't listen to us.

# ¿ May 6, 2015 22:31

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:56

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Pope Guilty posted:

I will admit to being out of touch with D&D, but are you saying Wizards only puts out 4 D&D books a year? Is Onyx Path, which is literally three people managing a swarm of freelancers and selling entirely online, outproducing WotC?

I think they meant like the yearly allotment of "Player Option: A Bunch More Psionics Pt 2" or whatever, as opposed to, say, "Actually a Pretty Good Dark Sun Campaign Guide, but with only like two mechanics widgets in it that typically drive player sales."

# ¿ May 7, 2015 01:55

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