Is the OGL Debacle D&D Red Pill Moment?

I didn't get too excited when I heard about the release of One D&D, I'm not really a D&D player having moved over to the OSR years ago.

However, the handful of times I played 5th Edition, I found it was increasingly difficult to play without having a DnD Beyond account.  The shift to digital sessions and VTTs during lockdown was a gift from the Gods for WotC.  A whole new breed of player was introduced to TTRPGs without the Tabletop and this online thing just felt right to them.

Now that lockdowns have been lifted, IRL play has returned but for a growing segment of DnD players they have stayed online safe within the technology bubble and IP that WotC owns.  The revelation that they intend to milk this captive audience for every red cent they can should come as no surprise.

As Gary Gygax famously said,

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules."

Subscribing to a system with little option for homebrew and games being run by ChatGPT style bot DMs very much sounds like the plot of The Matrix.

My fervent hope is that, like Neo, this new breed of player throws off its bonds of slavery takes the red pill and finds out that other TTRPGs offer a much more interesting, diverse, challenging and satisfying experience.  

Sir Ian Livingston

The 2022 New Years honours list had a surprise in store for Gamers, with the legendary founder of Games Workshop, Ian Livingstone, getting a knighthood.

Arise Sir Ian Livingstone CBE

Sir Ian became a Knight Bachelor, the most ancient sort of British knight who can trace their history back to the 13th-century reign of King Henry III.

He is a giant of the UK Games Industry (and I would argue the global one as well), being responsible for founding the behemoth Games Worshop which alledgedly is more profitable than Google.  Growing up in the 80s they dominated the boardgaming scene with epic titles like Space Hulk and Heroquest.

My Particular passion is for the bookcase boardgames released during this early period, but his influence on me includes his work as a writer of Fighting Fantasy Books, the early licensing and import of Dungeons & Dragons into the UK alongside publishing UK versions of games such as Paranoia, Runequest and Stormbringer.  

The founding of miniatures company Citadel rocked the little lead men idustry at the time and they were soon dominating the shelves with their excellent sculpts in never before seen detail.  

In later life Sir Ian got involved in Computer Games with Domark which was bought by Eidos and he was instrumental in securing the licenses to Tomb Raider and Hitman. He ended up contributing to the Tomb Raider Anniversary game.

I don't think there is another man who has made such a big impact, and continues to play a role in the UK games Industry and it is such a pleasure to listen to him speak at events like Dragonmeet which he regularly attends as a guest of honour.

Dungeonmorph Dice gets an Ennies Nomination

The 2015 Ennie Award Nominees are out and I don't normally get excited about these sorts of things as Gen Con is so far away and I'm unlikely to get the chance to go myself.  However, this year is different and I will be rooting for Inkwell Ideas Dungeonmorph Explorers Dice in the "Best Aid / Accessory" category.

What sets Dungeonmorph Dice apart from the other products in the category is one word... 

Community.

This nomination is more than just a reward for Joe, it's a reward for all the geomorphing contributors that have been part of our odd little cartographic community for the past 4 or 5 years. 

I know how difficult it is to come up with unique cartography and, through my involvement with the Dungeonmorphs 2 Kickstarter, how much work goes into making this idea into a real product.  The hours pouring over designs, selecting the best ones and making subtle changes here and there, not to mention the wrangling of manufacturers and shipping out orders. 


Congratulations to all the mappers out there that made this possible and lets spread the word and turn this nomination into something bigger.

Outrider: My First Print On Demand Experience

I've been buying PDFs from the likes of RPGNow / DriveThruRPG and printing them at home for a few years now, but recently I took the plunge and decided to order my first Print on Demand (PoD) product.  Being based in the UK, I've always been reticent to use the PoD option as the costs have been quite high to have things printed in the US and shipped to the UK, but a couple of things made made me take the plunge.

• I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of OBS, Steve Wieck, via his blog OneBlogShelf, which re-energised my passion for making games.  I've had a few ideas for card games in the past and so this was a great opportunity to try out the PoD option particularly with respect to cards.
•  Another advantage of OBS was that I could convert some of the proceeds from my own product sales into credit with which to purchase the PoD copy of the Outrider cards
• Following the recent launch of DriveThruCards, a One Book Shelf (OBS) site which specialises in printing card games, I discovered Outrider, an auto duelling tabletop game by Dice Fest Games which featutures an innovative movement/manoeuvre mechanism using cards.  I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic road racing games and sook took advantage of the Launch Discount and got the whole PDF + POD Cards for £17.04 including delivery.

What Makes Playing Cards so Special?

I've made my own cards in the past for things like my DM's Decision Deck and My Item Cards and whilst I'm really happy with the results from my own prints there are a few things unique to playing card printing which are pretty insurmountable for the Print-at-Home (PaH) user.

Double Sided Printing - The major advantage of PoD over PaH is that you get access to commercial grade print technology Yes with a little lot of trial and error you can get pretty good results, but you will never match commercial printers which use registration marks for alignment.

Print / Paper Quality - Home printers have come on in leaps and bounds but there is no escaping that with every incremental increase in quality you have an exponential increase in cost.  High grade papers are really pricey and tend to drink ink like a vampires drink blood.  If you want a photo quality result you have to suffer that slightly tacky feel which as you can imagine does not make for good playing cards.  Casino's are very particular about their casino quality cardstock which has a very high opacity preventing stopping people seeing the card values through the substrate.

Cutting - Several cards are usually printed on a single sheet and unlike books are not bound together before guillotining.  I've had some great results at home, but inevitably you do end up with cards either not having precisely the same dimensions or being gaffed in some way.

What You Get

The Outrider download consists of 8 files; the rules, a scenario booklet, a series of optional Terrain Tiles and 5 files of cards, counters and dashboards.  The printed cards which will be delivered to you from the printer consist of:

• 18 x Manouevre cards.
• 8 x Vehicle cards (double sided 16 vehicles in total).
• 8 x Dashboards (double sided 1 for each vehicle).
• 15 x Counter cards (require cutting up before use).
• 3 x Range Cards (double sided single/double fire lanes).
• 1 x Turn Order/Control Loss Reference Card.
• 1 x Lucky/Second Wind car.

A sample of the 54 different cards contained in the deck

I would have preferred to have multiple sets of the manoeuvre cards included in the PoD element rather than the included tokens.  Personally, I find thicker cardstock counters are easier to pick up during play and would have been happy to do a little bit of DIY before being able to play.  Similarly the included Dashboards and Vehicle cards are double sided meaning that you can only play one of each style of vehicle unless you print your own duplicates.  At the end of the day you have all the files necessary in the PDF element so it's not too much of a hassle to print additional cards.

From the point of order it took about 12 days for my order to arrive, which is pretty good considering that it has to be processed, printed and delivered to the UK.  I suspect that if a UK printer/distributer  could be sourced this time lag would be greatly reduced.

A really nice poker style plastic card box was supplied for free (sadly, mine had a little crack in the lid)

The cards come cellophane wrapped, with a nice plastic poker style protective case.  Print quality is superb with a nice glossy finish.  Although the cardstock used was nice enough, it is slightly thinner in weight to regular playing cards.  This may become an issue in the future as I'm not confidentt it will stand up to normal gaming wear and tear from a bunch of hamfisted boardgamers.

How did the costs stack up

As I mentioned before, the discounted price for the PDF and POD Cards was £17.04 (which includes USPS First Class postage to the UK at £6.73) which compares favourably with say a Fantasy Flight Silverline game such as Bruno Faidutti's Citadels.  The cost of postage from the US to the UK is a significant proportion of the price (almost 40%).  This is of course largely out of the hands of either the printer or OBS and is the one issue which needs to be overcome if PoD as a concept will become generally accepted.

Final Thoughts

For me although the cost was comparable to a mass printed card game, the quality of the cardstock was a little dissapointing.  I also hope that the guys at OBS can source some UK based printing companies to add to their cadre of US ones.  This would certainly go a long way to making me choose PoD as a viable alternative to just buying from one of the big games manufacturers.  At the moment it's a bit of a 50/50 choice, which will most likely be decided by how much I lust after a particular game or not.

I have yet to actually play the game, so stay tuned for a follow up review.

Goblin Aid - Raising Money for Kevin "Goblin Master" Adams

On March 20th, Miniature sculptor extraordinaire Kevin "Goblinmaster" Adams was brutally attacked in his own home by a couple of scumbags.  Thankfully, Kev survived the attack but suffered some pretty serious injuries.

The gaming community has rallied to support Kev in his time of need and, thanks to Ian Brumby (Fenris Games) and John Atter (Frothers Unite), The charity facebook page Goblin Aid was launched.  Unfortunately I passed on Salute this year, but Wargames Foundry were selling a "snorklings" blister of 6 miniatures including a self portrait mini of Kev.

Dear Tony Blair... has an excellent update post showing all the "greens" which have been donated by sculptors the world over to be cast into a series of boxed sets to raise money for Kev.

Thanks also to James "Grim" Desborough of Postmortem Studios for passing on the news.

All I want from 5e is...

This is what happens when you type
"D&D 5e" into Google Images

The blogosphere is abuzz with the announcement that WotC are going ahead with development of the next iteration of Dungeons and Dragons.  Rather than fuel the fires of the edition wars, which would be pointless as I don't play 4e and I don't play Pathfinder either, I thought I'd just throw up a list of what I would like to see in 5e and what would make me as an old skool gamer fast approaching 40 part with cold hard cash for what is essentially a new version of an old game.


1.  Simple Rules to Start With - The concept of a basic game which as you level up gets increasingly complex makes good sense both from a new player/DM perspective and from a sales perspective.  Everyone needs the basic rules to begin with but not everyone needs the Expert/Immortal rules right from the get go (notice how I didn't use those new fangled Heroic/Paragon/Epic Tier names, that's because it's a conceit and it sucks, what's wrong with calling something "an adventure for 5-6 characters of levels 10-15" anyway!!).

Face it, it takes years to become a good DM, there are no short-cuts or training courses you can go on.  We've all put the years in to a greater or lesser degree and the focus of any pen and paper based game should be on DM arbitration.  Too many rules to begin with overloads the casual or newbie DM and makes the game drag for players.  If you want to entice more younger gamers into D&D to replenish the ranks of the old and bold then this is a must.

2.  D&D needs to be cross platform - There are 2 major consoles (3 if you consider the Wii which actually outsells both of the other 2) which are more than upto the task of running an MMORPG / VTT game.  There's also the traditional Mac and PC platforms, which even if you can't put together a full 3D HD Wizzy MMORPG such as WoW, it shouldn't be too difficult to put together an HTML 5 web app which will run on almost anything from the lowliest console to the latest spec kit.  Hire an expert company like Zynga or their competitors to do the dev, they do it day in, day out.

Let's face it the world has moved on even from the 4e release only a handful of years ago.  There are potentially more iPod/iPhone/iPad and Android users in the world than there are console gamers or any other platform specific community and it's getting bigger every day.  A character builder is something that can  feasibly be built for next to nothing and can even be given away as a free mobile app to entice new and old players alike.


Want to support the Organised Play / D&D Experiences / Living 5e communities, fine, let authorised DMs add XP and other adventure rewards online.  These can then be reflected on your character app almost instantly.  Couple it with a web based VTT as above for which you charge players as an in-app purchase to go on adventures and you've got a new funding model for a digital age (this should keep HASBRO happy).

Ultimately choice of OS should not be a barrier to enjoying a D&D online experience.

3.  Miniatures with RFID/Bluetooth - The recent Wii hit game Skylanders has pushed technology that little bit further with their RFID enabled miniatures, do the same for D&D miniatures.  No collectibility, just offer them for sale.

4.  No Subscriptions Please (were British) - I know that PC and console gamers are going to object to this, but I'm afraid that the subscription model of charging for gaming is a bit of a dead dog.  It works in an MMORPG sense as you tend to collaborate online with people you don't know, but in a sit around the table VTT sense I'm not sure it will work as I'm sure nobody wants to tell one of the Players to get their VISA card out or they can't join in.

I don't think I'd be able to convince "Her Indoors" that a subscription for a game I may only play once a week is value for money, but I also don't want, and can't afford, to invest the sort of time one needs to in an MMORPG style game in order to recoup my cash investment.

Ultimately, if the likes of major newspapers like The Times or the WSJ  can't get paywalls to work for them, I can't see how WotC can get it to work for D&D.

5.  Print Pubs with Online Extras - This is already happening in the indie scene as more and more publishers supplement purchases of the dead tree version of their games with a free PDF version.  We're not stupid, we know that you sent the book to the printer as a PDF, don't try to rip us off with overpriced e-books.  Whilst you're at it, give us some promo codes for extras which are only available if you buy the dead tree adventure modules (that are allegedly hard to sell).  Look at the sterling work being done by Worlds of Wonder with their bordgame promo codes.

If a tenth of this ends up appearing in the final release edition of 5e, I may be enticed back, maybe...

Stop SOPA, SAVE The Internet

Today is American Censorship Day and although I am not an American Citizen I feel very strongly against this poorly drafted bill which has the potential to do more harm than good.

Here in the UK we've already failed at preventing bad internet legislation from being passed in the form of the anti-democratic whitewash that saw the introduction of the Digital Economy Act (DEA). This law sought to create a situation where ISPs were responsible for actioning take down requests and for providing copyright owners with infringing customers account details without a judges court order or legal test to determine whether the content in question actually infringed anything.

Truth be told the mechanics of the enforcement of this bill are in such a state of dissarray that no-one knows how to implement this new law. This has recently led to the issuing of legal demands by copyright owners to ISPs to block traffic to certain domains. The impact of course is that every domain everywhere is subject to the same potential action. If you give government the tools in law, sooner or later they'll use them. The SOPA is similarly well intentioned but poorly drafted and dangerous legislation and I urge you to contact your congressman/woman.

You may well ask WTF has this got to do with RPGs?

Well, just from a blogging perspective this means that you could be censored for a whole range of posts where your original content draws on themes from movies, characters, locations or even ideas or even sharing that link to a funny fan generated karaoke video. If the owner of the copyright deems that you've crossed the line, at best you'll be staring a DMCA Takedown Notice in the face with no recourse to "fair use" or "safe harbour" and at worst you could be facing a legal challenge and potentially a punitive fine.

As a roleplayer I'm concerned that this legislation will ultimately damage our hobby and as a member of a democracy I am against the corruption of democracy by the money and power of "big business" for its own agenda against the will of the people.  If you're like me and feel that we are on the brink of a cyberpunk dystopian future, act now before its too late.  And here's a message from your Vice President Joe Biden.

Thanks for listening.   

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

...You're only a fay say day away   


As you are by now aware I have started a little publishing venture, and proof reading has kept me away from blogging.  Today, was the first time I have had to publish an errata notice and this got me thinking.

I don't know of any other publishing genre which has so many errata which slip through the net.  Fiction certainly doesn't, magazines and newspapers print retractions, but that's a content matter and not typos or other cockups.   Do we the buyers seem to accept these errata more readily because we see ourselves as RPG fans first and consumers second?  Do we appreciate the publisher's hard work that goes into even the smallest $1 PDF download, rather than wail on their poor proofreading skills?  I'd like to think we're a better kind of people and we know how much love goes into the games we buy.

BTW if you've bought RGP001 - ITEM CARDS Set 1: Adventurer's Gear the errata have been corrected and you can download them in the FREE Item Card Sampler.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

Angry Birds the RPG?

May will see the release of Mattel's Angry Bird's the Boardgame which I'm sure will be a huge hit and a guaranteed money spinner for the company.  This is the first translation of an iOS app to a Boardgame rather than the other way round.  I'm sure that the suits at Hasbro are watching this space closely and having all sorts of covert app to game discussions. 

Of course the knock on question for our little niche interest group is "When will we see an official D&D product on iOS (or android, i'm not platformist)?".

Apps are the hot ticket in gaming right now, heck even Nintendo are scared that their next gen DS will lose market share to the iPod / iPhone / iPad / Android devices before it hits the streets.  Surely WotC should be concentrating on how to make D&D products work on these new devices and more importantly make oodles of cash!!

Where's the gateway game for the tweenies?

A few new members have joined my regular game group over the past year and very few of them are younger than thirty, which got me thinking are roleplayers an ageing breed, are there young players out there? Casting my mind back to my impressionable youth I remember the gateway games which drew me into this amazing hobby, the Fighting Fantasy gamebook, the primitive computer text adventure games.  Which then set me wondering what is today's gateway game?

The console game world is littered with fantasy and sci-fi adventure games and first person shooters where the action is visceral and immersive.  With literacy levels dropping throughout the first world are kids really going to want to get into a hobby where it requires effort to read and to visualize for themselves?

I've dabbled in the CCG world with games such as Magic, but they always left me feeling a little bewildered and frustrated as excercises in strategy and lack any opportunity for imagination or storytelling.

The gamebook is still there but has expanded into newer titles such as the popular "Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny series" or the classic Choose Your Own Adventure Series which is available as an app or an ebook (depending on your taste in tech).  The big difference now is that you'll never bump into a copy of D&D (or in my case T&T) by browsing the shelves of the app store.

There are lots of big box adventure boardgames such as DOOM, Descent, Talisman, Runebound, World of Warcraft and now the Ravenloft Boardgame.  But are these gateway games to RPGs or Boardgames?

Warhammer is still alive and kicking, but with the Rogue Trader and WHFRPS being being sold off to other publishers do the kids ever get exposed to these titles when they walk into their local Games Workshop store?

The future is pretty uncertain for RPGs (I doubt we will ever have an influx of youth again like we did in the 70s and 80s) unless technology changes our hobby into something that young people want to consume.