The Cottage is Changing For Me

 I was doing my mid-month sales check the other day and noticed no major changes. The money brought in was what was expected between new releases, with a nice emphasis on older works by myself and Peryton, which always means having made them just that much more meaningful. That is on top of making profit from them. Then I went outside to do some yard work and lumberjacking, I BOUGHT A CHAINSAW. Coming back inside to catch up on my blogging, hey it's my journal I checked my blog views for the last few weeks. I was floored. It was almost eight times greater than it normally is. While I usually get about one to two thousand hits, I was sitting there looking at nine thousand, almost ten, hits. AND boy was I disappointed.

Back in my small little world of a couple thousand hits, I had worked out a metric that seemed to work for the seventeen years this blog has been going on. Every eight hundred hits, I would sell between two to six products. That is excluding the sales spikes that come with new releases. Here I was looking at eight thousand hits over two days and couple thousand following over the rest of that week. Sales had remained normal so to say that I was underwhelmed would be an understatement. Despite increased coverage, I was still selling my usual products, not the new sexier products to people that are most likely digging up my work and then the more obscure stuff from 2000-2009 in support of products made in the 70s and 80s.

I have been living a much more professional RPG writer life than I ever have. Dealing with other designers and business managers. Heck folks, PeryPubbers has this new line of Monsters! Monsters! products by a T&T new-but-true-blood. I am wheeling and dealing with folks in the BX/OSR movement meaning more developments there soon. Getting contributing authors and artists is easier than ever. Likewise the Flying Buffalo Brand is being bought by some big business name meaning there will be some action going on there in a few months to a year. So with the disappointing indicator that more does not mean more, at least immediately, I started looking deeper into things.

While I figure that the OSR exposure is a more of a social endeavor because of incapability between my 2d6 system and their d20 matrix, I would've thought that the game collectors among them would've picked up something. But that is because I disbelieve as many of them claiming to be broke and often not having two nickels to rub together. I mean dudes, the tabletop RPG hobby is a small print industry. Meanwhile FBI, that's Flying Buffalo Incorporated and I have a few works involving the company, was bought out by what is essentially asset managers of the RPG field. It's pretty clear the new company is about selling back inventory and paying portions to the people holding interests in boxes of merchandise moldering somewhere-- like when slum lords get "bought out" by a group of slum lords really to be incorporated into their collective residual income scheme but removed from the day-to-day management of that property. That situation is not meant to expand market but to improve capital from existing hard property. So in short, if you're not caught up in the marketing of Strahd the D&D vampire, now available for the fourth time since the 80s, there is not a lot of money going around.

Maybe next month I'll see some boost in sales, but I am not counting on it. Perhaps I'll branch out into products that seem to be expanding, like 5th Edition or the OSR badly named title of the week or Chaosium-compatible horror works. Probably not. This is a hobby to me. I like my particular game systems.

Every Time at a Table: Aug 15th, ' 21.

 So we concluded the first campaign of Flash Gordon and the Sphere of Doom (FSOD) a couple of weeks ago. Our Flash Gordon (JerryTel) stormed out of the game because none of our group's Social Democrats or Liberals liked Donald Trump as president let alone would support his bid for being Dictator for Life, so we worked on the story that we had with the players that we had. Zarkov saved Sky City for Vultan. Ming meanwhile kidnapped Balin to score points with his usual enemies the Lion People, by presenting her to her betrothed Thunn the Lion-Manly Man.

From there, my group(s) has been busy playtesting the projected named T&T: Pulp Adventurer by Mark Hunt. Well there has been hi-jinks in Antartica, between investigators from Miskatonic University and some Occultists from Mussolini's Italy. Let's just call it the Fishing Boats of Atlantis. We have figured out about six hundred hidden weapons and a couple of insights into the psychic sphere that might or might not be delved into during the course of play. Of course the ten foot tall penguins added a whole lot to the climax last night. We partied on for like five hours after the game.

Thessaly, of Monsters! Monsters! workings, has promised us a 70s exploitation flick take on an adventure scenario. After this, I think it's time that the game gets released. I know Mister Hunt doesn't agree, but hey, we're PerryPubbers not a Swiss Bank account.

The First Book of Cha'alt

It was actually because of a misplaced bookmark. If you're like me, you're usually reading four to six books at the same time. I keep mine on my bedside table and read through a work for a few minutes before shutting off the lights and going to sleep. Each evening tends to be a different book-- my "scholar's mistress" to use a term coined by Fritz Leiber, so to speak. That is until one clicks and I read for a couple of hours everyday until finally finishing it. Well, for the past week, I've been reading Venger Satanis's Cha'alt. I started re-reading a part which seemed familiar but much more interesting than my first read through. To be fair to Darrick Dishaw, he tells you in his introduction the game script can be Vietnam to the gamer/reader.

Not to be too in the weeds in this review, but, the physical book is well crafted. Fairly solid binding and thick glossy pages, I am reminded of the days when books were tying to look new for at least fifty years. But with paper production being what it is these days only time will tell. It will hold up as well as anybody's High School Yearbook at least.


So the world of Cha'alt is one of those D&D worlds where science fiction and fantasy blend together, to give the reader a trip into sphere fantasy without changing the D20 dynamics. I always get excited by these takes that hearken back to the days of weird fantasy. Anyway, the planet was held under sway by entities known as the Old Ones, easily translated in Lovecraftian creatures, but one step removed because of D&D, you know. Then standard D&D species were able to take over and there was some high magical times where everyone tried to be what Gygax fans consider to be Tolkien-based, but then an apocalypse happened. Maybe there was more than one, who knows? What is left is world that resembles Arrakis and  Australia, as seen in the Road Warrior movies, and the Arduin Adventure.

The material divides the world up into areas and goes into a few details about each before getting into scenarios. Inside the scenarios, the author gets into a collection of encounters that can be NPCs or monsters or traps or interesting locales. All the scenarios are leading towards the massive dungeon that is the Black Pyramid. I forget how many rooms the meat of the book is, it kind of becomes room after room as one reads it.

As this is like the fourth work that I have read by Dishaw, I am impressed with his sense of craftsmanship. As an Adventure Gamer, the man is something like an architect that is his own lumberjack and then the carpenter. His writing goes through some lengths not just be a group of charts and lists, but masterfully using charts and lists that the random GM can pick up and within a day or two run their own sessions using the book.

Much of this book is analogy of internet culture from ten years ago, veiled through the devices of the Chase and the Crawl of what most OGL fans love these days. The weak points are a collection of topical humor done a bit too superficially. This is not always the case, but when the creator-GM is wanting to lecture a bit of style doesn't hurt. The guy who can make an adventure with PC's trekking through the inwards of a warped sandworm, can do better than a single paragraph harping on about feminism with an NPC that is his feminist nightmare given a "I hate men" motif. The strong point is that there is so much material to work with. I was impressed with the bandit bands out in the wastes who after a second reading were funnier than I had thought earlier.

Overall, because of craft put into the work, I rate it a King Kong on the Godzilla to the Smurf scale of my ratings. The skill put into the book elevates the themes it puts together.

Scandals In the Cottage

' the Hell is wrong with TSR people?
So like some guys bought the TSR company name because the other guys that bought it earlier didn't refile. Meanwhile, the newer guys, the Nu-Nu, don't have any control of the brands that have been produced using the TSR logo over the last few years. Star Frontiers is held by WOTC and given away with the logo attached because of authorship issues, while they sell the scenarios because the authors are known. Gangbusters ownership was sold a couple of years ago and is thriving using the BX model of its original rules. Top Secret has been produced by the older new guys, let's call them the NuToo, with its original TSR guy involved still. And we all know that they ain't touching Dungeon & Dragons.
So instead of starting with some NuNu products, possibly sneaking in some supplements of their own to the brands mentioned above to make some cash, they offer selling seats for sessions at a table with "legendary GMs." Then they start telling the TSR Fan Club to take down the TSR logo or else. Really? I bet they're planning on trying to shake down the creative people behind the named products for licensing fees next.
I suppose, I will be buying TSR next because whatever these dudes paid for the title, it's now not worth a Canadian dollar. Even Luke Gygax is distancing himself from the Nu Nu while his brother, Ernie, is either involved in the strategy above or is too timid to speak up and try to steer his new ship away from the shoals. I suppose they could sell seats to a duel, a death match even, between the Gygax Brothers to bolster their funds. To paraphrase a friend, how can a "company" shoot itself in the foot before they even try to produce a product?

Ken St. Andre won't fight racism, or not.
I am not sure what he was thinking, but apparently Ken got annoyed when someone on Twitter called on everybody to fight against racism after the murders to two people who were practicing Muslims in Canada. I didn't know about this until I read Scott Malthouse's blog post casting aside all Tunnels & Trolls because of its authors actions. I really don't know what to say here, but you know that I just have to.
It is a personal drama for me. These are two friends here.
I haven't been happy with Ken, one of the best game writers in the world, since he agreed with my assessment of the debacle that was Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls but wouldn't speak up or else the folks at Flying Buffalo wouldn't cut him in on the money they had garnered using his name. Then he tried to sell me some notes of his like he was a superstar and I was struck fanboy too bedazzled to not give him more money. But he's not racist and has been on the social change side of things since at least when he released Monsters! Monsters!. He'd even was the one to remove the Yassa-Massa (Charm Person) spell name from the rules system when he published the 7th edition because he believed, and I quote, "This sort of humor is wrong."
Heck, the man has been working with Mark Hunt and myself on Hunt's Gangbusters: BX material before all this happened. One scenario in particular, PCs get to disrupt a KKK rally and exposing its members publicly in the town that they try terrorize. 
Werdna, my nickname for Scott, got a lot of blow back for his stand. Mostly idiot froggies, that already got upset when his Perilous Lands featured a black person on the cover of the book. Still it wasn't fun to see him get derided for taking a stand on his own beliefs by folks just wanting to turn the whole into a Mexican soap opera while eating the soup their mother brought to the basement for them.
How do I feel? I already have been fighting against racism since the 80s so I am good there. I won't disavow St Andre because anybody who knows him knows he isn't a racist and really believes in peoples freedoms in their own lives. These two things should not contradict each other. Sadly, it is though when others live in a world where everything is a sales pitch disguised as ideology.
As I have T&T-compatible products out there, I can always say "Meh. I sell a game not the man." The folks at FBI have been trying to remove Ken St Andre for years any way. But I won't. To quote Malthouse, "it's his creation and has his DNA all over it."

We've Gone and Done It Now, "Desperately Seeking Plumb Gorgeous"

 We've gone and done it. Thess and I have gone and shown our age. If the title does not ring your 1980s hype nostalgia bell, then you're too young to be reading this blog. Regardless of age, if you recognize the allusion, you'll probably get a kick out of this Monsters! Monsters! scenario. 

Of the works that the author is producing through my little cottage, I like this one the best. It's premise is horrible in today's culture where everyone has to be a prudish eleven year-old to be acceptable on both sides roleplaying political aisle. The Player-Characters, who happen to be wrong side of the Monster/Dickish Hero line, are tasked with basically kidnapping Snow White from her guardian dwarves. Along the way the whimsical land around them will be sure to remind them just how little the world thinks of monsters. And then there is the whole growth and development thing going on, which made me feel guilty. I felt like I was watching a Winona Ryder movie without Gary Oldman in it.

If you're a Delver, that's a T&T fan, you'll find the work refreshing. 

Illustration by Teresa Guido 2021

Escape From Skullcano Island

 

One of my purchases at North Texas RPG Con was Escape from Skullcano Island written by Levi Combs. I happen to stumble across the Planet X Games' booth while he was tending shop. I think the booth monkeys were out having a cigarette or something another. While the author and I were busy talking, I saw the two-headed King Kong and knew which book I was buying from the table immediately.

Me not being a straight-up D&D-hed, you'll have to bear with any inaccuracies I get in the background here. This source book is "Rated 5E" and it is meant for "Tier 3-4" PCs, which I think would be 9th to 11th levels in T&T, assuming there are five tiers to D&D's current scope of Adventure metrics. The book goes from discussing the concepts around the material and then dives into a couple adventure hooks that should be used as prologues to the upcoming campaign. 

Then the "Kaiju" that inhabit the island are discussed. These are basically monsters that populate the Godzilla and Gamera movies from the 50s and 60s through our own current post-plague movie theaters. King Kong is a newcomer to this genre, only meeting Godzilla in the late 70s, but a two-headed 80 meter tall ape, makes you wonder, where has it been until now. Each of these creatures are discussed in depth, including their possible origins and their "cults." These cults being the humans, maybe humanoids, that see the beasts as deities or at least expressions of the universal truths that shape their reality. It goes from cyclops lizards, to crabs the size of small towns, to gigantic spiders, to of course the two-headed gargantuan gorilla promised on the cover.

Meanwhile, the reader is introduced to the Doomsayers a cult, with human/humanoid members, that are using the Kaiju and the island of Skullcano itself as a doomsday device. The information gets more detailed as the campaign begins to form from there. The last parts of books had me turning pages back and forth with intense interest for a few hours. Levi as a dungeon designer trusts the GM reading things to garner the tones of the tales that he has crafted, it really made the read fun.

Overall, I am impressed with the work. At first, I would rate it a "Bigfoot"  on my Smurf to Godzilla scale of things. Despite my own rating system, I am just not a big monsters, nor a big robot, guy. But the quality of the book in front of me, complete with some absolutely great art and fine production, Skullcano gets a Godzilla. A perfect Adventure Gamer experience waiting to be had.

On the Road Again: North Texas Con 2021

 I took the week off work because I received my second vaccination and knew I'd be suffering too much to play at being a working body. Pretty much laying still where ever I was from Monday AM until Wednesday AM, I was done with it. The sweating, the heart palpitations, complete with slightly more than usual nearsightedness had worn down enough, to where I could do a road trip to check out North Texas RPG Con. I had planned on going on Friday night, but I was really tired of being cooped up at home. So I left the house too early and moved some money around via my interwebby phone and made the drive from NWA (mountaintop Arkansas) to the DFW, as in the airport that is its own city.

The drive itself was easy, from I-49 to SH 121, I had about a dozen stop lights and one stop sign for the whole trip. Oklahoma has strict "Get the hell over already laws" when it comes to lane closures, so even the traffic jams were quicker than most. In my new-ish VW Golf it was 3/4 tank of gas. I reached the Westin around 2pm, was able to grab a room throughout Sat PM with no problem. If it had been full there were four other hotels, well one motel, within walking distance. The beer store was within 150 meters from the front door, but there were no rooms with hot tubs and the rooftop pool was not open. I mean, I was recovering yet again from the Bat-Flu sideshow-- I don't need such Spartan conditions, but alas I struggled through.

SO when the bar opened, I met a couple ppl straight off the bat. One of whom Dimitri Del Castillo, "Dimitri" from here on, had flown in from LA and we became fast friends. He steered me towards one of the pre-con sessions. Something called Crouching Hamster: Lost In Translation written by Chris Clark (the guy who wrote Inner City back in the day). I had a fun time doing nonsensical Ninja Kung-Fu action complete with bad dubbing and the rules written on a Chinese restaurant menu. I started writing a Red Bat campaign in my head based off of our antics.

The next morning I got to play Carl Kolshack in Jerold Stratton's homage to the show using a Dare Devil scenario. I was doing the best that I could, but the fellow that was playing Kolshack's editor, Tony Vincenzo, was too spot on. I really felt like that I had been in the show.

Break time at Dare Devil

 

On purpose, I didn't plan anything for Friday. Instead I hanged around the bar. Dimitri would show up that evening and I would corrupt him into being a drunken conventioneer. We'd party throughout the night with a lot of names I should remember, but you know. Had a late night chat with Mark Hunt of Gangbusters and Tall Tales fame.

Though hungover on Saturday, I was able to make it to Merle Rasmussen's table for his Top Secret/New World Order scenario "Operation Sasquatch". For as bad of shape as I was in, I was the only show, but boy was it fun talking to him and his wife, Jackie(?), for over an hour. It was actually more fun than me trying to ham it up for a four hour session AND I could get some more sleep.

Saturday evening, Mark Hunt would oblige me by running "Welcome to Rock Junction" for Ganbusters. The night before I had drunkenly begged his to run one more session as I had missed the one he did on Friday. He, like Peryton did a year and a half before, subverted my expectations with quite a new take on the gangster subgenre of the criminal underworld. You'll have to wait for the scenario to go on sale, no spoilers. But sheesh guys and gals...

This picture is about the thing on the guy's shoulder.

After the game, Hunt and I had a stop at the bar, where I closed out my tab early. He doesn't drink, so I actually tried to go to get some more rest. AND then I remembered the Midnight Auction. It was quite occassion, if a little sparse on decent stuff to bid on. I did score a VHS copy of two episodes of Wonder Woman, the Linda Carter ones. But for all the theatrics going on, I asked Dimitri, whom of course would appear, like an avatar of Nyarlathotep in a Delta Green narrative, to settle my purchases and went to bed then

 Overall, for all the star power at the con, I was impressed for the lack of pretension.  Folks were busy being at a tabletop roleplaying convention rather than glad handing. Folks that were plying their wares were busy selling rather than trying to recruit fans. Other attendees would start up conversations with me about the mundane details of their current lives, as well as whatever was their last championship in Adventure Gaming. I met a couple of different people that are big time gamers from the state of Arkansas where I currently reside.

Sunday I was on the road by 8am. Before I got into the car though, that I finally got a plane passing overhead. I had been trying for that picture since Wednesday.