Best of the Web - LotFP and James Raggi

Travis Miller at Grumpy Wizard had an interesting post called The Best Thing LotFP did for RPG's. In the post he talks about how James Raggi of Lamentations of the Flame Princess fame changed things. I'll let Travis tell why:

He pays an advance and then a share of the profit to the designer. The designer retains copyright for the product and may choose to end the license when the term of service is over. This last bit is very significant and almost no other publisher offers that.

Most importantly he assumes almost all of the risk involved in the product. He pays for art, layout, editing, printing and shipment to the distributor. All of that before the first book is sold. If you haven’t seen LotFPs books, they are some of the highest production quality in the business. 

In short he does what most publishers do but gives the creator a lot more in return.

Why? Wouldn't it be far more profitable to profiteer off the writers? In Raggi's words:

So anyway, this has good and bad effects. Good, because after years of running my metal zine and talking to musicians who didn't have the rights to their own work and were making pretty much no money while their record label was, when I got into RPGs I wasn't going to do the same thing. Even if that means certain titles going bye-bye because their creators weren't sticking around.

So he saw how it sucked and had integrity to not pull that same shit on others even when he was small time and could easily justify it as the way the system worked. Raggi gets a lot of grief online because of the shock aesthetic of LotFP artwork, and because he took a goofy picture with Jordan Peterson, and because he mostly sided with his most successful writer who was unpleasant online and accused of horrible things by his girlfriend. 

I've always been a bit neutral towards Raggi, but now looking at the way he does business when he didn't have to, without bragging about it as far as I can tell, makes me like the guy. I wish him success and hope LotFP survives.

Best of the Web - Furca, Design Layout, and Religion

Phil Viverito has a post on Furca called The Hobos Have Them... The title wasn't particularly interesting but I clicked through anyway because Phil writes good stuff. I was surprised and amazed. I've read a lot of history and yet never came across such wonderful usable detail into a piece of equipment. The Roman Furca should have been part of everyones campaign long ago.  

Brian C. Rideout at the Blog Welcome to the Deathtrap has a post called Designing Layout and Information in Adventures. I think we need more of this type of thing, including designing for PDF (which seems to have been skipped but is all over the place and has certain different requirements). The game world is filled with awful design (some of it self-congratulating itself on how great and useful the design is) and bad design can cause folks to hate a great book or great game.

Great Job! at boxfullofboxes has a post called Those Faiths Which Bind -- A Religion generator. The generator is a great start giving an overview of a religion. It goes nicely with a few other boxfullofboxes generators. 

Create some religious myths and the Holy Books using So what do we do 'till the stars are right? and Step on a crack and you'll break an Elf's back! -- A superstition and myth generator and Hey, what's with this weird book? (with a wee bit of judicating unfit results).

Generate some holidays & game and food enjoyed at those festivals with A Red Letter Day - a holiday & festival generator, Oh, What Games they Play - a Contest and Diversion generator. and with a slight bit of effort the Yeah, but what do they eat? - A Local Cuisine Generator.

I think Religion and Cults (or lack thereof) are one of the primary ways to define a campaign area and I'm surprised I haven't seen more of this sort of thing.

Best of the Web - GLOG Domain play

Reading through the Manse still and I found an older post called Small GLOG Critique + 20 GLOG 'A' Templates in which Cacklecharm discusses adding a 5th level to GLOG play. This E level template would be for domain play. The idea is a good one and goes along with my own thinking actually. I find 4 levels too limiting and was thinking of 6 levels (keeping the 4 template per class though) to force some kind of multi classing. 

I was was also thinking some classes should have pre-requisites. So as you get into higher levels of play those become options. That is where Noble class could come in, you don't start as a noble but might be knighted during play, or High Priest (must have 4 Priest templates to qualify). The way I understand the GLOG you get 4 templates and then can continue play up until 10th level, you just don't get any more templates, so this would be setting you up with something different as you enter that template free late game. I was thinking these late game templates would have things like Followers (you take cultists, crew, or many goblins as a second character you control) as well as a few negatives (gotta pay money fight off schisms in your church, or duplicitous nobles, I'm not really sure about the negatives yet). The templates could also be full of much more role playing type skills (such as the Get out of Jail Free card that comes with nobility). Also these late game templates could be 2 templates or 3 templates instead of the usual 4 since you already had to earn your way.

Best of the Web - The Goblin Law of Gaming

Anyone that reads my blog probably already knows about the GLOG but I'm gonna mention it anyway because the GLOGsphere has been consistently some of the most creative content.

I have conflicting feelings about the GLOG (Goblin Law of Gaming) by Arnold K at Goblin Punch.  Conflicted because I love the way the magic works. I love the way multi-classing works. I love the way a lot of it works but the core skill system just didn't sit well with me. But I love DIY games and GLOG is as easy as any other game to swap out components like that.

I'm not alone, for some time the GLOG was one of the most vibrant bits of online RPG activity as people created a metric shit-ton of classes (here and here).  It is a lot like the Black Hack except things are shared for free, which creates more of a sense of community. It's like a big buffet of great ideas that you can pick and choose from and then tweak as needed. 

DIY & Dragons has a post detailing Who is the GLOGosphere? that gives some history on who and what has been writing what.

The whole thing is designed for low levels and to be compatible with most OSR compatible games. Arnold K has even written a scenario Lair of the Lamb: Final specifically for GLOG (which includes some rules) which made Bryce Lynch's Best list at Ten Foot Pole.

Wizard Background

Wizard Background

Wizards must join a chantry or School of Wizardry in order to learn their craft. Typically the wizarding chantry's only allow students they have scouted out. Such students are pulled from a small range of occupations. A Wizard could pull out and go Adventuring at any point, or they can continue to add up the years, it is up to the player.

1d6	Before Being a Student
01-02	Astronomer
03-04	Herbalist
05	Hypnotist
06	Other  (Noble, Barbarian, anyone with very high INT)

Once in a Wizarding school or chantry there really isn't much variety. Most Apprentices face years of chores and verbal abuse with little study indirectly linked to Wizardry. Every year the Apprentice Wizard should roll on the Apprentice Advancement Table to see what happened that year.

1d6	Apprentice Advancement Table
01-03	No change, chores, chores, chores
03-04	Mishap, roll on Mishap Table
05	Doing well, roll on Journeyman Advancement Table next year

Once advanced to Journeyman level the future wizard learns cantrips to help with the chores and starts to study magic in earnest. Every year the Journeyman Wizard should roll on the Journeyman Advancement Table to see what happened that year.

1d6	Journeyman Advancement Table
01-02	No change, study, study, study.
03-05	Mishap, roll on Mishap Table
06	Leave the school to become an Adventurer.

1d6	Mishap Table
01	Wizard was injured in a Wizard duel between students and takes a year to recover. Roll on the same Advancement Table as last year.
02	Zealot clerics burned down the School. Classes continue in alternate location. Half the students flee. Roll on the same Advancement Table as last year.
03-04	Wizarding mishap causes one of the teachers to be pulled into the void by a deamon. Half the students flee. Roll on the same Advancement Table as last year.
05-06	Wizard war with another school ends with victory. No change in table but +5 on the next advancement roll.