Ennies: The Underdog
09 Ennie Nominee
The Ennies open up for voting today, and as many of you know, this blog was nominated for the Best Website category. I must say I am pretty flattered to be nominated because it puts my creation next to websites created by a couple of my favorite game designers: Wolfgang Baur (Kobold Quarterly) and Monte Cook (Dungeon-a-Day). Not to mention the big dog blog Critical-hits and the campaign wiki Obsidian Portal.
So after looking at the list of competitors in the category, I think it is safe to say I’m the underdog. Which is totally awesome because I feel like I have nothing to lose; in my mind I have already won by securing the nomination. Not only that, but it is a win for the RPG Bloggers Network, which has secured two of the five nominations this year. Hopefully this leads to a blog specific category next year, or not, if we can truly play with the big dogs. It’s open for debate.
That being said, I do ask my readers to support the Labs by taking a moment of their time and voting for this blog at the Ennies Awards site. The only thing better than being nominated would be having the underdog win, causing a major upset. I think we all love to see the small guy win sometimes (just this time it happens to be me!).
If you’re looking for a reason to vote for the Labs, I have several “selling points.” I think the biggest strength of this blog is that I’m not ad-supported, mono-gamist, or commercial in any fashion. I do promote products I like, but I don’t feel like I come away feeling like a propaganda machine for some corporation. I like to think I give everything a fair shake. So get your ass over to the Ennies site and make sure to vote.
Listening to: R0llins Band - Come in and Burn - Neon
Nevermet Press has Launched!
Nevermet Press
If you have been paying attention to The Core Mechanic anytime in the last month you know that Jonathan (TCM’s blogger) has effectively closed shop to focus on a new publishing initiative called Nevermet Press. If you have been playing close attention, you will also know that I am a co-founder along with Jonathan, which explains any silence this blog has experienced in the last months.
What is Nevermet Press?
Nevermet Press. or NMP, is a new RPG publisher that takes a couple of innovative approaches to the way we develop game content.
First, we offer a profit sharing program for our content developers instead of the typical one time payment to comission work. This allows us to contract with freelancers (mostly recruited from the RPG blogosphere) to get content developed without substantial, way-of-life-ending overhead while offering an incentive for freelancers to develop the best material they can.
Second, we develop the core product to be system independent and then invite participating bloggers (or even general websites) to develop system-specific components for the core product. This allows us to more closely connect with the online community which is saturated with a lot of untapped talent. This mutually beneficial arrangement should allow for many cross-marketing opportunities while also developing the skill and talent of community members. Not to mention possibly providing stats for our excellent content for use with both the popular and nice roleplayng systems.
Daily Content
We are publishing one or more articles every week day on the NMP blog that can be incorporated into your tabletop game immediately. Each element will be accompanied by a list of links that will direct users to the extended NMP community sites that have developed and are hosting the system specific content. We are currently producing two-week publication cycles that focus on a villain with supporting elements such as encounters, organizations, equipment & magical items, genre adaptations (so you can use the material in your favorite horror or sci-fi games), and even original fiction.
Come check us out and if you have any suggestions or would like to discuss our content, start up a thread on the NMP forums. Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite social network (see our website for an extensive list).
Listening to: Spineshank – The Height of Callousness – New Disease
gamingNevermet Pressrpgroleplayingpublisher
RPG Carnival: Steampunk & Klokwerks
Steamnocchio by Fabricio Moraes, CGS Image Master Award winner
- Adventures/Hooks
- Characters
- Classes/Abilities/Powers
- Costuming/Fashion
- Encounters
- Equipment
- Feats
- Game Props
- Locations
- Media Resources
- Monsters
- Opinion Essays
- Skill Challenges
- Societies
- Theory & Design
- Worldbuilding/Setting
I hope to see some great contributions to this month’s RPG Blog Carnival. Contributors, please be sure to leave a comment with a link back to your posts in case trackbacks do not register. I’ll post a round-up of all the contributing articles within the first week of July.
Listening to: Vernian Process – Steam Age Symphony – Ironworks
gamingSteampunkrpgroleplayingRPG Carnival
Portrait of a Villain: Mad Archwizard
Mad Archwizard ill. by Crystal Frasier
The Mad Archwizard (aka the Insane Sorcerer) is probably one of fantasy roleplaying games’ most used villain archetype. 90% of the world’s dungeons have been excavated and populated by these nefarious personalities. Many have turned to the cold embrace of undeath to continue their magical studies, picking up the Lich template. Just as many (if not more) become victims of their success as some rare magic they have just discovered ends their mad obsession with obtaining arcane lore. The trick is spinning the cliché into something new and original.
Once again, I would like to thank Crystal Frasier for providing the fantastic illustration accompanying this article. Look for her work in an upcoming issue of Kobold Quarterly (I hope I can say that!).
Xephero Valderann
All I seek are exceptional apprentices to whom I can instill my great knowledge. I invite all seekers of arcane lore to my school, the Arcane Academy, where I unlock their potential with the Art to become great wizards. I am the 10th headmaster of a long line of powerful wizards. All one must do to enroll in my academy is to sign this application…
Background
The Arcane Academy has been around for around five hundred years and has a tradition of changing headmasters every fifty years. Xephero is the tenth such headmaster, who has all had a reputation for being loony, but commanding a large measure of loyalty from his students. In fact, no student to date has ever spoken about their time at the academy, merely stating that if one wants to know more they should apply with the headmaster.
The truth of the matter is that Xephero is actually the founding headmaster and is over five hundred years old. Xephero has gone by many names, but he often reverts back to his original given name which he claims currently. Xephero created the Academy because during his obsessive search for arcane power, he became cursed by the patron deity of magic.
Xephero had reached what he considered the pinnacle of mortal achievement in the studies of Arcane Lore. Not one spell, ritual, or tome had escaped his research. So he prepared an ancient ritual for communing with the gods, thinking to impress the deity of magic.
During his commune the deity of magic, Xephero demanded to be shown the divine secret of magic, thus ensuring his ascension to godhood. The god of magic was enraged at Xephero’s hubris and placed a curse upon him:
You shall truly be known as the greatest wizardly instructor of the Art, for you shall be compelled to instill your vast knowledge upon any apprentice who seeks it. You shall never be able to expand your precious knowledge, only share what you have learned thus far. This shall be your fate until the Prodigy surpasses your achievements in the Art.
Motivations & Goals
Xephero is under divine geas to teach anyone who wishes to learn from him, but he makes an effort to seek out the most talented apprentices in the land to enroll in his Academy. By doing so, he hopes to discover the prodigy destined to surpass him. Every generation, he chooses his most promising student to become the next headmaster. Then during a secret ritual, he traps the soul of the student in a crystal and possesses the student’s body, thus preventing anyone from surpassing his achievements.
When a student signs the application for enrollment, she is magically bound to defend Xephero from all threats while attending the Academy as well as being sworn to secrecy about anything she learns or hears within its walls. With the magical contracts, Xephero hopes to ensure his continued existence free from external peril.
The life of a student of the Academy is harsh and full of work. Xephero pushes the students to their limits and his motivation is twofold. One, since he can no longer expand his arcane knowledge, he uses the students’ discoveries to increase his powers, though he has been unsuccessful at reproducing any student discoveries. Two, he actually tries to make the students’ life as miserable as possible so they will quit and leave the Academy, keeping him from having to share his knowledge.
His previous research indicates that there may be an ancient artifact powerful enough to sever the geas the god of magic placed upon him. However, since he is forever busy instructing apprentices, he is unable to look for it. He has sent several groups of adventurers to retrieve it, but none have ever found it. The years have not been kind, and Xephero becomes more fanatic every year the artifact goes unfound
Organization
The Arcane Academy is home for anywhere from ten to twenty students at any time. The turnover rate is quite high, as not many students have the determination to subject themselves to the rigors that Xephero puts them through.
Because of the contract, they are all required to defend Xephero to the death should any aggressors attack the mad Archwizard. They are all wizards ranging from level 1 to 25. Also, the contract swears them to secrecy, even after quitting the school, which leaves much mystery to anyone requiring knowledge of the interior or inner workings of the Academy.
The only way to free the students from being bound by the contracts is to find them and dissolve them with acid. Once the contracts are dissolved, students will be governed by their own free will, which could mean they might defend Xephero out of self interest.
Hooks
The mother of an apprentice of the Academy, a noblewoman who serves as a priestess of the goddess of healing, has been receiving visions about her son. In her vision, her son has been imprisoned in a cage of glass. All of her correspondence goes unanswered from the Academy, and she fears the worst.
A power artifact is rumored to be held by an elder black dragon in the swamps to the south. A band of worthy heroes are being sought to recover the Quill of Fate before the dragon discovers its fate and uses it. The ancient relic is supposedly capable of rewriting one’s fate should he know what his destiny truly is. The Arcane Academy is willing to store and protect the artifact.
The player characters are in need of a rare ritual to cure a deadly disease. They have heard the Arcane Academy houses much lore and may have the ritual in question, but the headmaster requires enrollment.
Check out some other villains hiding out on the web this week:
The Core Mechanic’s Morgan Le Fay
Listening to: Machine Head – The Burning Red – Nothing Left
gamingD&DrpgroleplayingvillainsNevermet Press
Untapped Potential of Technology
Interactive Game Table
Yesterday I posted an article for this month’s RPG blog carnival, The Future of Roleplaying, and I mentioned that I had more to say on the integration of technology and roleplaying games. I think there has been some great ideas emerge in the last five or six years about taking advantage of technology to improve gameplay at the table (real or virtual).
Some of these ideas have produced fantastic software while other ideas have failed miserably. I am going to talk about how some technologies could (or should) be implemented to extend the resources for roleplaying games as well as some tactics game publishers could use to help combat piracy (or at least turn the tables).
Maximizing PDF Potential
The PDF is a venerable technology whose execution hasn’t changed much over the years. However, Adobe has been sneaking in support for some really cool media types since about Adobe Acrobat 7 (currently at version 9).
Acrobat now handles Flash content natively, which is awesome. Besides Flash, you can also embed audio and 3D into PDFs. Acrobat markets this fusion of technologies as PDF Portfolios. Imagine reading the core book for a new system and being able to watch a video of actual gameplay, or having an animation play that visualizes miniature tactics. Better yet, make it interactive and allow readers to test the tactics by moving virtual game pieces on a battlemat.
The potential of the PDF has yet to be fully harnessed. I think this is because the PDF is merely considered as the digital mirror of its analog counterpart, the printed book. Thinking within the confines of print limits the possibilities that can be achieved with a PDF. Of course, adding an animated panel of each race would significantly increase product costs, but it would be revolutionary.
Deploying Digital Tools
I think Wizards critically fumbled DDI, right from the very concept. Imagine a platform that would allow a gamer to use your suite of tools offline, without a browser, and dynamically update when connected to the internet. That technology is already available with Adobe AIR.
Formerly call Adobe Apollo, AIR allows developers to create rich internet applications that run outside of a browser and on multiple platforms. Similar things can be accomplished using other enterprise level development platforms like Microsoft .NET or Java.
Of course, this method doesn’t really jive with the whole subscription model, which I am not overly fond of anyways. However, it could work with an ala carte sales model, where you purchase the components (or upgrades) separately.
Integrating Technology at the Table
Shane Deseranno, a Microsoft software developer currently working with the Zune, has built an amazing interactive gaming table. The table utilizes a Wiimote, IR pens, a projector, and a mirror to create a game table that allows players to physically interact with RP Tools’ MapTool.
This is probably the epitome of my vision of the integration of technology and roleplaying games. The Wiimote can be configured to run a PC using Bluetooth and has the ability to track four separate IR points. This allows the players to move the virtual game pieces on the virtual table top which is projected onto the surface of the table (from below). This table is awesome and Shane has been kind enough to show you how he built it (there is also video of the table in action):
Pirates or Privateers?
Recently, Wizards of the Coast yanked all their PDFs from the market and pointed their fingers at piracy as the cause for their impetuous actions. I think most people with cognitive skills can agree that while piracy is wrong, it doesn’t have the impact on sales that company executives seem to believe it has. Ninety percent of those downloading the contraband would have never bought the product in the first place.
Using a technology like air, publishers have the capability to stream secured content from servers, which require the user to be logged in. Content would be determined by the user’s subscriptions and purchases and would be volatile and encrypted. This could be a huge determent for piracy.
I have also been thinking about methods to turn pirates into an asset, thus taking a privateer designation. If a company can truly track the amount of illegal downloads of their product, as Wizards of the Coast has claimed, then perhaps you could use that as a marketing bullet point.
I think it would be interesting to provide advertisement space within the confines of the PDF. You could use the piracy circulation numbers when pitching ad space to potential advertisers. “Our e-books are downloaded by two hundred thousand users” could be a powerful sales fact. Sure, the ads could be stripped by energetic pirates, but if you turn the ads into a feature by utilizing Flash (interactive video/games) then it might even increase PDF sales (and illegal downloads).
Then who cares if it was illegally downloaded, you just made more off of advertising than you would ever have done if every single pirated copy had been purchased (assuming you price reasonably). Hell, you could just give the damned things away for free, which would make everybody happy!
However, there is no fool proof protection against piracy. The best actions a publisher can take are encouraging and satisfying legitimate customers by providing the material they want in the formats they desire. Turn potential pirate into loyal patrons by creating the best damned product you can.
What technologies are you waiting for? Can you think of any effective methods of turning pirates into assets? If you have answers to these questions or general comments about what I have mentioned, be sure to post your comment.
Other Technology Focused Articles:
