My view on the DM's Guild, Cypher System Creator, and Cortex Plus

First off WoTC's DM's Guild is no longer alone. Margaret Weis Productions has announced Cortex Plus a similar program with OBS for the Cortex engine that underlies all their games. However it doesn't give access to any their settings which makes sense as most of them are licensed.

However a lot people including +Erik Tenkar are very skeptical about the royalties the publisher are charging to be part of these program. Royalties that are on TOP of the ones that you pay to OBS to use their webistes (RPGNow, and DriveThruRPG) to release your products.

My view is that these publishing programs are a tool. I welcome them because they expand the options I have for publishing the stuff I am interested in and more important give me new alternative to ADVERTISING material of my own original creation.

Until the introduction of the DM's Guild we had these basic alternatives when it comes to RPG IP.

• Nobody but the original company got to use it.
• The original company setup a specific license to a third party and treated as a standard business relationship.
• The company released some or all of their IP under a open content license.

Now we have a fourth, you can publish what you want as long as it means that some loose community guidelines are followed, that is appears in a specific store, and that we pay a specific royalty .

So far in all programs (Cortex, Cyper, 5e) the writer not the original publisher owns any original IP in the contributed work. But in all three programs the writer agree to share his work to anybody else in the program. But anybody using the writer's material won't have permission to use it OUTSIDE of the publishing program.

My feeling about the general idea is this. For all my works (Majestic Wilderlands, Hexcrawl formatted setting). None of this does anything for me. The fact that the 5e got a SRD under the OGL was a far more interest than the DM's Guild. If Cyper and Cortex had SRD under the OGL I would be looking at them as well. But they don't so they are of zero interest when it comes to content that I create.

But in the case of the DM's Guild I do have some ideas specific to Greyhawk.  A setting I have some personal attachment as it was the first published setting I ever used. I have some material that I could publish 'as is' if and when that ever get added to the DM's GUild. So it would be of benefit to me and I would get some cash. And in this specific instance, so what they charge 20%. The alternative is what? Yup there is no alternative as Wizards is never going to enter in to a business relationship with me for a license. If Cortex and Cypher had any setting that inspired me under their respective program then I would consider publishing using that program. But only if it can't be published a different way.

Another reason would be to take advantage of the visibility of the DM's Guild as a form of advertising. I am considering taking a section of the Forgotten Realms and make a hexcrawl formatted setting for it. The product would have in the back an ad for Blackmarsh and the other stuff I publish independently. In that case again so what the publisher is charging me 20% on top of OBS' royalty?

In the end the various publishing program are another option, another tool for the independent guy to use to get his stuff out there and make some money off it.

Also remember it took a few years to finally see how the OGL shook out after the initial hype. It an important part of our hobby today but is just that; an important part. It not THE hobby, and it doesn't define the hobby, just an important part that continues to have an impact (like the OSR).

Done with the City-State of the Invincible Overlord Map

After Scourge of the Demon Wolf my product release fell to nil. It isn't that I lost interest but I took on some mapping projects. Since I do this all out of my hobby time something had to give and that was the release of my own stuff. But I think you will see it was time well spent because one of the maps I was working on was the City-State of The Invincible Overlord itself!

For those who backed the Judges Guild City State kickstarter. I uploaded the first draft of the CSIO map. I am asking people there to proof it and upload their comments to a shared Google Drive folder.

It took a better part of a year working in my spare time to complete this. Bob Senior packed a lot of detail into the map.

The differences from the original are.

• It is in color!
• I added footpath and other detail made possible by having a color map.
• Kept to the original otherwise.
• Because of the scale and shape (24" by 36") I added some details to the north edge of the map. I took it from the five mile hex from the back of Wilderlands of High Fantasy. This led to the discovery of some minor details that could be added to the original the most important of which are some streams that run into the Conqueror's River.
• Unlike when I proofed the Necromancer version, I had access to the No-Name City Blueprint during this. So I was able to resolve some confusing details from the original particularly in where various doors goes. No-name is not 100% the same there some obvious changes on the 1977 version over the No-name print.

For those of you without access to the kickstarter here are two preview images. One within the City and one outside showing the detail at full scale.

Enjoy!

Unveiling the new Game Room

So I finally got everything moved in and put away. Also found a kick butt table at Salvation Army to replace what I used in the past. The nice thing about it is that it has two center legs so it is rock solid.

A picture from the door as you walk in.

From over the couch also showing the result of the "accident" in the window.

Finally a close up of the game library.

Labeled

Tabletop Library a new on-line game store.

A new on-line game store came on-line today, Tabletop Library.

They explain what they are about here.

My thoughts on the matter.

First off One Bookshelf or OBS is the leading on-line seller of on-line RPG products both digital and print on demand. They run the RPGNow and DrivethruRPG websites They also offer cards, cardstock, and small poster printer to allow products like paper models, and card games to be sold as well. OBS is the 900-lb gorilla they are competing with. Since they are focusing on OGL products and the OSR, you have to keep Lulu in mind as well as that is a major source of many OSR publishers sales.

Tabletop Library is offering a 75% non-exclusive royalty rate for digital PDFs compared to OBS' 65%. For physical products they are offering a 65% royalty rate. Unfortunately they are not clear on what that entails but looking at the FAQ I would have to say it appears they are offering to warehouse and ship any physical product you ship to them.

Tabletop Library appears not to have a print on demand service yet. However they are talking about kickstarter fulfillment although there are no on-line details yet.

The website looks great and is very clean and easy to navigate I view this as a good start similar to what attracted me to Google over Yahoo. I also setup an account and that was pretty easy. The publishing interface looks pretty clean and easy to you. They are explicit about current bugs and limitation and clearly state what you have to do now to properly post a product. I didn't have to go fishing for instructions. Definitely get a A+ in terms of how their website functions.

I do think they are making a bigger deal of competing with the DM Guild than they ought too. RPGNow/Drivethru supports traditional 5e OGL as well as stuff published through the DM Guild. What the DM's Guild gets for the 50% royality is to play with Wizard's IP. If your project doesn't rely on WoTC IP then don't publish through the DM Guild, just publish as a normal publisher on RPGNow. Personally I am not interested in publishing for Forgotten Realms so the DM's Guild holds little interest for me. However if they add Greyhawk to the list of allowed IP then yeah I have some ideas that I would publish for the DM's Guild.

I think in the long run Tabletop Library is going to need to offer print on demand. Hopefully their current setup will get the volume needed to get one of the various PoD providers to give them a decent deal.

My conclusion is that OBS can use the competition. With a focus on warehousing and kickstarter fulfillment they have a shot at carving out a niche as a foundation to take on OBS as long as they expand to offer OBS' range of services. Tabletop Library web site looks good so far and if they successfully maintain the minimalist interface that will help them a lot.

Staff of Absorption for the Majestic Wilderlands/Realms

For my lunch hour at work, I pull up my laptop and work a little bit on my roleplaying game based on a combination of my Majestic Wilderlands rules and Swords and Wizardry. The idea is that is the sum of how Swords and Wizardry worked in my campaign since 2009.

One difference is how the Staff of Absorption works.

In Scourge of the Demon Wolf and Blackmarsh I introduced the idea of Viz. Magic concentrated in a physical form. Here are the rules for Viz. Note that 1d = 1 sp or 1 gp depending on how expensive you want magic to be in terms of your setting's coinage. I use 1d = 1 sp for my campaign.

Viz
Viz is a magical substance that takes many forms.  It could be a flask of pure spring water, a newly bloomed flower, or an iridescent rock.  What all these items have in common is they are infused with pure magic.  Viz can be used in the casting of spells or the creation of magic items.

Viz allows a magic user to cast spells without losing it from memory.  The viz is consumed in the process.  One viz for a first level spell, two viz for a second level spell, three for a 3rd level spell and so on.  One viz is worth 100d towards the creation of a magic item.  The referee can use viz as treasure usable towards the creation of a magic item in place of giving out more gold pieces.

The staff still absorbs spells but instead of charging up spell levels that you can use later to cast memorized spells it now turns the absorbed spell into viz. Like the original the staff will only absorb up to a 100 spell level. Once you use all the viz that it created it become inert.

Staff of Absorption
Duration: See below
Effect: This staff absorbs up to 100 levels of spells directed at the holder before its ceases absorption permanently. Each spell level absorbed creates 1 viz stored in the staff. The viz can be drawn from the staff and used normally. The wielder can expend a number of viz equal to the level of a memorized spell to cast it without losing it from memory. In addition the wielder can use 1 viz in place of 100d worth of ritual or spell components. A fully charged Staff of Absorption will allow the wielder to create a magic item costing 10,000d. This doesn’t affect creation time which is still at 100d per day per enchanter.
Costs
Creation: 8,000d; Sale: 16,000d.

The creation costs and sales cost work with my rules for creating magic items.

New Judges Guild Kickstarter

Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games has long supported the Bledsaws and Judges Guild. Their latest effort is to bring back some of Judges Guild's classic adventures in their original form: Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, Citadel of Fire, Dark Tower, and Tegel Manor. However to complete the project they need funds for the final layout and printing and started a kickstarter here.

Judges Guild was the company that pioneered the idea of the adventure module which ultimately convinced Gary Gygax and TSR to get in on the action with their own adventures.

Tegel Manor
A huge sprawling haunted house with a dungeon underneath. It is effectively a megadungeon that will dominate the campaign for many sessions. It is my opinion that this is one of the few example we have of megadungeon from back the in the day in the form that it's creator used.

One thing that will be off-putting to modern gamers is how sparse the description are. To use this effectively you have to combine the text with the descriptions on the map and winging the rest with your own imagination. I personally ran this as part of a campaign at Gold Star Anime and can attest that the result can be fun and unique.

Citadel of Fire
This is my personal favorite of the bunch. It is the tower of an evil wizard with a dungeon underneath which is effectively an evil town.

Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
A bandit citadel built  next a cliff which has a dungeon embedded in it. I liked Citadel of Fire better but when I dug into this as a result of writing a d20 version for Goodman Games I found that a lot can be done with it. Badabaskor used to be the center of worship of an evil god but the brigands pushed the evil priesthood into the dungeon. Now the two faction are at war with each other. I will say that is a long time for a bunch of folks to live off of Create Food and Drink.

Dark Tower
This won't quite dominate the campaign like Tegel Manor, unless you run it using GURPS, but this is a big big dungeon. This is consider one of Jenell Jaquay's best work and it delivers on all fronts. Two opposing towers, one dominated by Set and the other by Mitra, are buried and a dungeon was dug out around them.

Judges Guild Journal
If you go for the deluxe oversized book, you will get five issues of the Judges Guild Journal. The way Judges Guild worked was that it was a subscription service. You paid your fee and then get several installments. Each installment was a product, like Tegel Manor, or part of a product, City-State took several installments to release, Accompanying each installment was the latest issues of the Judges Guild Journal which was printed like a newspaper on newprint. This book collects together the first five along with the four modules mentioned above.

From what everybody told me, the OCR scanning has been done and edited and rough layouts have been completed. So pretty much what needed are the funds to do the final layout, art, and actual printing. Where kickstarters usually run into trouble is their stretch goals get out of hand or are unrelated to the purpose of the kickstarter. The ones for this are all about making a nicer printing or repurposing some of the art and work for the project. This makes it look like a solid kickstarter in my book.

A bad accident in the new gaming room.

Due to foundation issues, I had to tear down my two garages with an apartment on top. The apartment where I had my gaming setup and ran tabletop games. In it's place Kelly Anne and I built a workshop.

This is the corner where the gaming table will be going. The shelves will have all my books, miniatures, and other games. I took this just they were finishing painting the ceiling hence the black paper on the floor.

It was completed last week and I been moving stuff out of storage in and getting it sorted. Then the accident occurred.