My Path Forward as a FLGS Store Owner, a Blogger, and a Fan Post-WotC Apology

I've taken some time as a store owner, a blogger, and a fan to really look hard at what WotC has done to the rest of the industry in the past month and I've reached a decision on how I plan to go forward this year.

As a store owner, I've restocked Savage Worlds, Deadlands, Savage Pathfinder, Savage Rifts, Numenera, The Cypher System, GURPS, Complete Champions, Call of Cthulhu 7E, Fallout 2d20, RuneQuest, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Transformers RPG, Starfinder, Pathfinder 2E, Modern AGE, Scion 2E, and Vampire: the Masquerade. Sales have been stronger than  expected and I'm glad. I won't lie, I still stock the full line of DnD 5E but I am only giving it about 10% of the face-out space it occupied before this whole fiasco. I am not telling anyone to abandon 5E, but if someone asks me about the OGL situation I will answer them with my personal opinion while emphasizing that is all it is a personal opinion. 5E is a very good game and you should play what you like. I hope the right people are put in charge of WotC and I hope they stick to the plans they announced last week, but we'll see.

As a blogger I'm going to switch over to Savage Worlds and The Cypher System for the time being. Maybe adopt some "Old School" ideas for both. I've published for both of them before so maybe I'll do that again. Either way, I'm taking a break from the OGL and DnD. I mean how many "skill systems" or "thief classes" can I keep coming up with? Most of its been covered at least as well as I have.

As a fan, I don't want to say I'll never try One DnD or I'll never run DnD again, but I was bored with it and this just gives me an excuse to move on. I'm in a Curse of Strahd campaign and another of our DMs is planning a City of Brass campaign so I'm sure we'll be playing it. We like 5E and will always have it to use if One DnD isn't our jam. I'm sure at some point I will miss it and maybe I'll go back? At the same time, I think Shadow of the Demon Lord is a better game overall and maybe I'll just use it for dungeon fantasy since I like horror in all of the games I run and really love the "Old World" Warhammer vibe it has.

I am very interested in Kobold Press' Black Flag and will playtest it. In my opinion, Kobold and other 3rd party 5E publishers have been doing the coolest stuff for the last couple of years. Their monster books are used by all of the DMs in our group. I hope what they do is just as cool.

I don't think WotC will miss me as a fan or a blogger and they are a large part of my professional life so they will continue to deal with me. At the same time, I rarely deal with anyone at WotC and have great reps at several distributors that make my life easy. I would like Hasbro and WotC to learn from this situation but I doubt they will. Lets be honest, if the new DnD movie is a hit and the playtest numbers for 1DnD aren't too low they will eventually segment their section of the industry, a substantial segment, behind some pay wall. Its inevitable in my opinion.

I will add that I really enjoyed the most recent trailer for the new DnD film and will probably see it within the first 2 weeks of release. I hope it's fun because DnD is fun. Maybe if DnD is successful we will get a Deadlands movie! Right? I can't be the own one who wants it, right? Right?

My Response to WotC's Announcement on the OGL 2.0

I love Dungeons and Dragons. I love playing it, running it, and introducing it to people. I am grateful for the people it has introduced me to, of the barriers it shatters, and of the memories it has made for me.

But I'm tired of Wizards of the Coast. I'm tired of Hasbro.

I'm sure most of you know Wizards of the Coast responded. Finally.

You can read it here.

Things that piss me off because it show their contempt for us:

"However, it’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a 1".

Other choice passages:

"First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products."

Like the Hadozee in Spelljammer?

"And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose."

And yet when it was launched for 3E you included White Wolf, Atlas Games, Green Ronin, Necromancer Game, and Mongoose Games. The OGL has always been for the industry. How can it hurt DnD to be used in a video game? How? Yeah, I'm sure it really sucks that it was used in one of the most beloved CRPGs ever made.

"Driving these goals were two simple principles: (1) Our job is to be good stewards of the game, and (2) the OGL exists for the benefit of the fans. Nothing about those principles has wavered for a second. "

You are "stewards"? That is why you wanted to steal people's work? DnD was united even those that didn't like you used DnD's "language" to keep playing and ou don't know what a "principle" looks like?

"In addition to language allowing us to address discriminatory and hateful conduct and clarifying what types of products the OGL covers, our drafts included royalty language designed to apply to large corporations attempting to use OGL content. It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community."

Sure. "Corporations". If someone had a $1 million Kickstarter your proposed cut was $50k. Is that even worth your accountant's time? "Large corporations"? Is there anyone anywhere involved with the OGL and RPG industry bigger than Hasbro? No.

"Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected. "

We can't ever trust you again unless you add "irrevocable" to the OGL 1.0a. Otherwise it's all a hard pass. Buh-bye.

"What it will not contain is any royalty structure. It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds"

The fuck it didn't. You guys are the poster child for "greed is good". We weren't afraid, we were pissed off because we SEE you.

"As we continue to invest in the game that we love and move forward with partnerships in film, television, and digital games, that risk is simply too great to ignore."

The "game" doesn't matter to you. You see it as a "lifestyle brand" now. You want to sell lunch boxes, underwear, toothbrushes...the game is barely on your radar. The only "risk" is you. 

"Second, you’re going to hear people say that they won, and we lost because making your voices heard forced us to change our plans. Those people will only be half right. They won—and so did we."

Wow. You don't have any idea how hollow you sound do you? This isn't a cartoon or comic or film you make to sell toys this is a game that helps us make friends, meet our soulmates, make lasting memories with, helps us fight our mental illness', and helps us deal with any number of physical, mental, or emotional challenges we face on a daily basis. No one won here. We didn't. And you sure as Hell fucking didn't. But we stood up to you. We beat you but it's hollow because you showed us how much you despise everyone of us. You despise your customers, fans, and even your staff. You put this on people that are new to your company and are having deal with your greed and fallout you created.

"Our plan was always to solicit the input of our community before any update to the OGL; the drafts you’ve seen were attempting to do just that. We want to always delight fans and create experiences together that everyone loves. We realize we did not do that this time and we are sorry for that. Our goal was to get exactly the type of feedback on which provisions worked and which did not–which we ultimately got from you. Any change this major could only have been done well if we were willing to take that feedback, no matter how it was provided–so we are."

You are fucking liars. You were planning on dumping this yesterday and having the holiday weekend to dodge any heat. You are so fucking clueless that you had no idea that your customers have some backbone. You didn't leak this. You didn't even know how to respond so you had to cancel the original announcement and you are still hiding behind the holiday weekend. This isn't going away. We aren't going away. You created competitors that understand this industry better than you. You empowered the last publisher to challenge one of your mistakes, again over the OGL, and then gave a slew of others to join in taking your down again. The damage is done. We are moving on and good riddance to you. We will never trust you again.

The OGL 1.1 from My Perspective as a FLGS Owner

First, we don't know if the leak of the proposed OGL 1.1 is actually real and until we all see it everything here is pure conjecture. However, I really think this the path Wizards of the Coast will pursue.

The main reason I'm processing it is that I have products both on the DMs Guild and on OneBookShelf using the OGL 1.0a for OSR products.

While the money I make helps me with Kickstarters and action figures I'm not going to create a headache for myself in any way. This is a hobby at best and not my livelihood, thankfully.

Second, I've dealt with Wizards of the Coast for close to twenty-five years as a vendor. I own two comic and game stores and I sell a lot of their products. Hasbro has spent the last five years or so trying to find their customers floors and ceilings. I've noticed the Magic: The Gathering team doing this in the last three years and I think they are now turning their attention to Dungeons and Dragons. 

The CEO of Wizards of the Coast was promoted to CEO of Hasbro earlier this year due to the unexpected death of the previous CEO and we also learned that WotC was responsible for 70% of their profit in 2021. Think about that for a minute, Magic and DnD made them more money than Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, My Little Pony, etc.

Hasbro was ecstatic with the millions of people DnD has brought in and its growth is important to them. Sadly, they don't realize that Critical Role did more for DnD than anything WotC did. They have projected that they can double their profits by 2025 from $1 billion to $2 billion, however Hasbro's earning report fell short of their goal which caused some concerns amongst their stockholders. Another complication occurred when they announced a Magic release that cost $1000 for four boosters packs and were only available through direct order from WotC, these cards are not playable in tournaments or organized play which led to Bank of America down grading Hasbro's stocks because they believed that WotC was trying to "kill Magic: the Gathering". 

WotC then had a "fireside" chat where they claimed everything was fine, that yes, some customers were "price sensitive" but everything was great. Additionally, they mentioned that 20% of DnD's fanbase are Dungeon Masters who account for 80% of their sales. They want to better monetized the other 80% of DnD's base. For December's Dragonlance release you could order a version direct from WotC and got access to it on DnD Beyond two weeks early. This echoes what they have done with HasbroPulse for toys and print on demand sets for Magic: the Gathering. 

The unusual part is that WotC used to be a distributor but converted that infrastructure to only fulfilling product to Amazon, Target, and Walmart about five years ago. I foresee, as demand grows for DnD fulfillment, that this will be a customer service challenge for them because a few of those Magic direct to consumer products are months late for fulfillment. They keep releasing several of those print on demand products every month and last year around 70 were released. Those sales are full profit for WotCs as there is no middle-man in that chain of sales while it also trains their customers to be fulfilled by them not a local store or an online retailer. It's ironic because part of Pathfinder 1E's success was their implementation of subscription services too so obviously, WotC was watching.

If this leak is real I think WotC has decided to gain more of that 80% of DnD's player money by trying to get royalties from publishers who use the OGL rather than make cool and interesting projects. They have data from 3E and 4E that told them multiple releases each month was competing with themselves so maybe this is their "killer app"? 

Royalties are an easy money grab and doesn't really affect most DnD players (who know little about what is going on by WotC). I also think that they might be content with the DMs Guild for 5E material but want to own any marketplace they develop for One DnD or "6E". I have a feeling that a benefit of using the OGL 1.1 could gain access to your material being available on DnD Beyond, which is huge for some publishers.

Hasbro wants to protect its IP and make sure that if something is cool they get access to it via the new OGL. We won't see another Pathfinder 1E or Critical Role without them getting some of that money.

At the end of the day Hasbro is a corporation with stockholders and it is their job to make those people as much money as possible and that is what they are going to do.

I'm uncertain how to proceed as a publisher but I'm currently thinking about altering all of my products to exist without the OGL and contact the publishers of the games they support to see if this is acceptable and if not, I'll pull them down until another solution presents itself.

I'm really torn about what is happening and the development of 1DnD. I think WotC is picking a fight with our whole industry but I don't think most DnD players are going to know about it. Yes, social media is prevalent but if you aren't looking for this kind of thing does it cross your radar?

State of the Planes: Pushing Myself

One of the things I enjoy most is making Monsters for RPGs. If you've read this blog you probably know that. I like adapting outside properties and creating things whole-cloth, but I struggle with two things: One, Monsters don't get a ton of views these days and I get it, as much as I love making them there are already a lot of antagonists for most RPGs, especially for DnD and the OSR; Two, I think I've retreated to making Monsters so I don't have to actually write down my ideas, be they new mechanics, response to stuff I've read elsewhere, sessions reports, etc.. Its become a kind of crutch a way to keep the blog going but with the barest minimum effort.

I've decided I'm going to push myself to write more, to convey my creations beyond the Monsters you find here, things I've realized I've actively been avoiding. It's weird to realize that I've been hiding behind Monsters to some degree for awhile and that I need to attempt to stop doing that. 

I want to challenge myself and this post is mainly about calling myself out and pushing myself creatively in ways I used to do on this blog.  I've been playing it safe and I want to do more than that. 

Dungeon Mastering 101: Its okay to not be okay

I have always dealt with Gaming ADD and as the primary Game Master for most of my groups it really bothers me. Between November of 2021 and about May of 2022 it was my turn to be DM for our Friday group and I ran 3 or 4 different games because I just couldn't stay focused. On top of that, I ran a game off of the rails because I decided that the direction the players took in sessions 1 & 2 were wrong and I railroaded them on a different path. After that 2nd session ended I knew I had just f#cked up. Hard.

Most of my inspiration as a Game Master has come from action movies and comic books. I like high action with explosive results that focus on the players and their characters. I want the players and their characters to be the stars of the show. But somewhere in the last few years, I started focusing on "challenging" the players and in all honesty started trying to kill their characters. I worried about Encounters Per Day and Challenge Ratings and The Math Behind The Game, things I'd never focused on before. If you grok those things or love things that is awesome, I just lack the brainpower to figure it out, I just don't find it fun, and it was contributing to my lack of focus in its own way to the games I was trying to run.

As I handed my time off to another DM in our group I honestly felt defeated. In the past I had run one 5E game from level 1 to level 20 and a second from level 5 to level 15 and I felt like I'd never have that experience again. 

It was then I decided that I would just start running a game and only focus on the first adventure. No promises beyond that. I also took a smaller number of players from our Friday Group to help make things more manageable. I love our Friday group. All of the players are amongst my best friends and having them has helped  me through some truly dark times in my life in the last several years. Unfortunately, there are eight of us and sometimes that is a lot. So I just saw who could make the other night and kept a cap on 5 of us.

I've been playing and running 5E for over 10 years now and it's a great game but I'm bored of running it. I have always loved Deadlands and while I had disliked Savage Worlds for not having Hit Points in the past, I have found that no longer bothers me. That first adventure took about 5 sessions, about 2 sessions per month and it felt SO good. We had very little combat in those sessions and that adventure's success reinvigorated my interest in running games. However, while I kept notes about future plots I still focused on this one adventure here and now. When I finished that first adventure I took a week to see if I had another adventure in me and I did. So we started the 2nd adventure next.

We are approaching the finale of the second adventure soon. After that we will break for the Holidays and I'll see if I had have another adventure I want to run.

For the finale I'm really focusing on the player's goals and their accomplishments. There are things I'd like to emphasize and throw at them but those haven't been priorities to their characters and so they stay in the toolkit, possibly for the future. 

I'm a lot happier as a GM again.

Yes, I had reached a point where I just wasn't sure if I could be a GM any longer and it really hurt my soul. I take pride in being a DM and I've always felt like I was a pretty good one and these little victories means an awful lot to me.

DMing is hard just from creative, organization, and logistics issues and its even harder as an adult running a company with a wife, kids, and grandkids. Not that being a player is easy for the same reasons. I'm really blessed that my group meets mostly once a week and that I've been able to eke out another session about three times per month with all of it in person.

If you are having a tough time as a DM you are not alone and while Critical Role has given us millions of new DnD players it has also asked many of us to be compared to Matt Mercer and most of us just aren't him.

And that is okay. 

If you are primarily a player feedback to your DM is essential and please keep in mind that there are things about the game that require a lot of time to work out and that means your GM is taking that time from something else in your life. And don't forget to let them know that you are appreciate them or that you are having fun.

My solution to all of this was just to break it down into smaller chunks and be honest with myself about my own shortcomings. That is never easy and it took time to have the courage to do it.

One last thing, sometime no gaming is better than bad gaming. I'm blessed in that I haven't had that issue in close to a decade, but sometimes you need a break and that is okay too.

Turning 10

Ten years ago today I launched this blog. Man, ten years. I was 39, might have weighed less, might have had more hair and hadn't started playing RPGs with any of my current group, people who have become my best friends.

It's funny how life works. I always wanted my gaming group to be my best friends and when I let that expectation go I finally found it. Isn't that always the way?

That also means I've been playing a version of DnD 5E for ten years. I keep wondering if the 50th Anniversary version will have a public playtest? Sure hope so.

I know I post less than I used to but I don't think I can imagine my life without this blog. While I'm taking a break from the OSR I'll be supporting 5E and I might work out some ideas I've had for a Percentile system, something I've been working on for, well, decades. It takes most of its inspiration from R. Talsorian's Castle Falkenstein and Chaosium's Basic Role Playing. Its hard to have better DNA than those two systems.

If you are reading this and thinking, "I wish I could make a blog", then DO IT! If I can do it then anyone can. Our hobby is better with more voices and it would be better with your voice too.

Oh, I also just surpassed 2.5 million views. Can you believe that? I can't and I've done it, which means anyone can do it.

Thanks for reading this and I hope we have at least ten more years together.

OSR: Big Fish, Small Ponds, & Big Brother

I've been thinking of taking a break from the OSR for a while and this week confirmed for me that I need too.

First, let me say there are ton of great people in the OSR and I'd say 99% of them are awesome, but as always its that last 1%.

I have encountered Right-Wing jerks in the OSR so I know they are out there. I've met them and I avoid them.

Earlier this week I was browsing an OSR group and saw a cool Post about a person's campaign that was full of gonzo multi-genre goodness. My highest complement to that Poster is that it made me want to play in their game.

Then I looked at the Comments and the first one pointed out how the author of a supplement briefly mentioned in the Post was problematic in their political views. It had screen grabs of said author's posts. Yes. Posts. Plural. The Poster had taken more than one screen grab of this person's Posts.

Where do you find the time to do that?

Isn't that problematic?

I've been online for a long, long time and I've never taken a screen grab for that reason.

It made me feel even worse about the surveillance state that is the U.S.A in the 21st Century. Other nerds, geeks, gamers, whoever are keeping tabs on people in their circles. To vet them, I guess?

And worse, to me, this author's views needed to be addressed immediately, no matter how lightly this Post intersected with the problematic author, so that everyone could be warned. 

"Before you give this person money know that they believe X!"

Are you really enjoying Role Playing, DnD, and the OSR if you have to keep files of other people in the OSR with proof of their beliefs?

Stupidly, I continued to browse that Group and the next Post asked what people were doing for activism within the OSR. Look, this century has been pretty shitty overall and we need activism, I know that in my bones and in my real life and in my day job I'm involved in activism. We support LGBTQ+ charities, we support Mental Health charities, and  I know Americans of Color don't have my Privilege and I try to use it to help them and I believe in it.

But sometimes I just want to escape to the OSR and it made me feel like Big Brother DM is watching. Always, watching.

The truth is I just need a break from the OSR, but I think one of the problems the OSR has is much more about money and livelihood and a lot less about having the wrong views. The people recording your actions in the OSR have learned they can make or break a creator/publisher and they might just enjoy using that knowledge.

It seems whenever we get a Big Fish in the Small Pond that is the OSR there is a storm and often that person gets cancelled. With screen grabs. 

But my perspective on the Small Pond that is the OSR is that it has a lot of money flowing into it. A. Lot. Enough to make the 5E designers draw upon it.

I'm a vanity publisher and I make enough a month to keep me in a couple of Kickstarters and some action figures from products I made years ago. I'm a very, very, very Small Fish and I have supplements that are Gold on DriveThruRPG. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much money some of the luminaries of the OSR must have made over the years. And part of me wonders if that isn't reason that the Small Pond goes after the Big Fish? 

I guess my point is that surveilling the members of the OSR even in the name of inclusion and progress could make you as much of a dick as a Right-Wing dick. And maybe that surveillance gives some members of the Small Pond an edge in controlling who succeeds and who fails at selling products online?

To me being a dick is a lot like porn (no pun intended), you know one when you see one and where you are on the Left and the Right doesn't matter. You are just a dick.

5E: Third Party Products for D&D 5th Edition

For most of my time playing DnD 5E we avoided 3rd party stuff. Some of that early stuff wasn't very well balanced and once DnD Beyond launched it was super convenient to use it and not worry about 3rd Party stuff. However, as we played through one Campaign after another we started seeing some of the warts of DnD 5E, especially the Monster Manual and its "Challenge Rating" system. One of our Dungeon Masters found that Kobold Press' Tome of Beasts were far more challenging than anything in the Monster Manual and, in my opinion, understands CR far better than I do.

This year will be my 30th Anniversary as a Dungeon Master and for most of that time I didn't worry about Encounter design or CR and I just used what I though would be good for the Story. Our Friday group is usually 7 or 8 Players and most of them are really good at 5E. Its hard to challenge them and the more I tried to embrace Encounter design and CR the less fun it got for me as a DM.

I've decided that in this Hyperborea campaign I'm going to allow 3rd Party Player options and I'm going to run combats like I used but with a better understanding of how to approach it with double the Party size and exceptional Player skill.

We'll see how it goes. I hope I'll make fun and dynamic fights but I might have to revert back to using mechanically planned Encounters. My players will let me know pretty quick how that will work and I'm looking forward to that.

In fact, I'm preparing to use some rules I've stumbled upon online to spice things up. The one House Rule I'm looking at right now is that when you gain an Ability Score Increase you gain +1 to an Ability Score and a Feat. I realize that I am giving more levers to my highly skilled Players but I also think I'm going to help them round their Character's out. Again we'll see.

The 3rd Party product I'm currently looking at is Velda's Spire of Secrets which has an interesting Necromancer class as an option for one of my players. 

Actually, it has a lot of interesting Classes, Sub-Classes, Feats, and other cool rules. I intend to review in the coming days. 

You can Preorder Velda's Spire of Secrets here.

The OSR & 5E

This blog doesn't exist without the OSR because it was Grognardia and Basic Fantasy that led me to better understand DnD Editions prior to 3.X and begin to write about them. As luck would have it, I started playtesting DnD Next within several weeks of my first post and many of those early posts were bout those Campaigns I was running.

In April this blog turns 10 years old and that means I've been playing an iteration of 5E, in one form or another, for 10 years. That is a pretty good run in my opinion.

One of the early draws for me to 5E was how the design team looked at the OSR for some of its inspiration and I still appreciate that. While the team learned a lot about Class Balance in 4E they used terminology from older Editions to disguise much of those innovations which were brought forward to 5E. However, some of the products Wizards of the Coast has released in the last few years hasn't interested me as a Dungeon Master or Player very much and I'm okay with that. I'm a DnD player with 30 years experience and WotC has millions of new or returning player to engage and their goals shouldn't always line up with the products I desire. On top of that, playing a rules set for so long got a bit boring which pushed me to explore OSR games like Hyperborea, Barbaric!, and Stars Without Number.

However, I kept noticing that there were elements of 5E I wanted to import into those games because I think those innovations were excellent rules additions. On top of that, taking some time away from 5E reminded me that it is the version of DnD closest to my ideal/ rules set, it has DnD Beyond, and my group really loves it.

In the past when I'd toyed with running an OSR game I kept coming back to the conclusion that the system mattered far less than the fun we had at the table with out shenanigans and my detour running the previously mentioned games simply reinforced that. 

I'll never lose my love for the OSR because it is rooted squarely in my love for DnD but for me 5E and the OSR don't have to be mutually exclusive, nor crossover as O5R, and I don't need to buy every 5E product WotC makes. I'm not WotC's core audiences in my opinion because I know squarely what I want from DnD and am willing to ignore products that don't fit that mold and use DnD Classics to acquire older products that do work for me. 

WotC needs to engage customers who aren't experienced enough to fully understand what DnD is to them and there are millions of those players to appeal to. No matter what WotC does in the future I have plenty of material for 5E to get me through years and years of Campaigns without ever making a dent in the OSR and when those two are combined I don't have enough hours in a day to consume all of those products.

2021: The Year in Review

2021 was better than 2020 overall but once we hit October it sure has flown by. My family has been blessed and we have shelter, food, creature comforts, and are in good financial shape. I'm very thankful for all of that.

I was able to play online with two friends that I don't get to see very often but my crazy schedule kept us playing roughly once a month and I kept changing the game which included CEPHEUS engine, 5E, a Western RPG game based on Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a Star Wars game using a RuneQuest 6/Mythras hack.

I played in a DnD 5E Descent to Avernus game which was really great and after my Sun Cleric died in the first session I managed to keep my Divine Soul Sorcerer, Clete, alive through the rest of the game. It was an amazing game and I am lucky to have a group with multiple talented Game Masters.

I've been running a playtest of Shadows of the Weird Wizard and we are enjoying that, although Numenera has been calling to me with its siren song.

I find that I am more interested in testing mechanics than running a campaign and I'm really trying to fix that, to move on from it. Its always been a problem and I'm sure it is connected to my Anxiety, I think my previous medication helped with it a great deal more than my current one. I'm trying to figure out how to work on it because the moment I choose a game to run, which is harder than it should be, I immediately start noticing other games I'd like to try out and instead of focusing on the campaign I keep brainstorming ways to change to another system for the campaign. Its stressful and I'm just trying to look at the problem and work on it. Our group is taking a break at Christmas and New Year's so I'm hoping to use that time to just push through it.

I did run "one-shots" of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Hyperborea (2nd edition). I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures Death, Frost, Doom for LotFP and Rats in the Walls for Hyperborea.

In the last several years I've used modules almost exclusively and its something else I'm looking at. Until 5E I always ran adventures of my own design and I'm trying to get back to that. 

As a GM I find myself looking at fights differently than I used too and I think its mostly because of modern DnD and its "adventuring day". Since 5E is designed for multiple encounters and certain classes have a mix of short rests vs long rests I've found myself getting frustrated with X number of fights per day. I might be a fossil but I prefer meaningful fights with real stakes against Big Bads but I don't know if I can make that work with the 5E math, especially when I'm designing encounters to just drain resources. I think this is one of the reasons I daydream about running an OSR game because, in my head,  D&D editions before 3.X didn't have this requirement. Understand, this could just be me thinking the grass is greener the other side  of editions prior to 3.X

We will see what next year brings.

Cryptid Con

As a kid, the TV show In Search Of led me do further reading about cryptids, forteana, and high strangeness and I've been able to share that interest with my family. Yesterday and today we spent at the 4th Cryptid Con in Lexington, KY (little over an hour away from Boone County KY where I live) and it was just a total blast.

I've been to plenty of gaming conventions and I've worked plenty of comic conventions and there is nothing quite like Cryptid Con in my opinion. From my experiences, the comic and gaming industries are filled with large egos and plenty of drama and there has been none of that at any of the Cryptid Cons I've attended.

Even people with TV shows like Ghost Adventures and Finding Bigfoot are not only very easily accessible but really cool to talk to. You aren't going to be in long lines to have them charge you for an autograph and get a pic with your phone you are going to stand right next to them and talk to them or run into them in a restaurant or a hallway and they seem to be having as much fun as I am. I realize cryptids are a niche within a niche, but in 2021 its really cool to have nothing but positive experiences with like-minded, kind people.

One of the things that I feel makes this community so cool is that its predicated on listening to other people's experiences--yes, it might be a ghost, a snallygaster, or an alien but even the biggest names at the show have to listen to other stories for their job. And I think the world could use a lot more of that. Someone to listen to you and someone to say, "I get you, I might not have had your experience, but I get you and you are not alone."

How cool is that? I watched people from every walk of life hang out and create memories with each other instead of finding ways to divide themselves further. It was cool. Really cool. Heck, the Cryptid Con in 2018 was where I met the extradordinary Eric Bloat of Bloat Games. We missed him this year, but may next year y'know?

I realized years ago that what works for me isn't by any means universal. I sell comics books and DnD for a living. My wife, my kids, and I are always together (we home school). And when it comes to the paranormal and fortean I'm big kook. I hope that all of you find something that...heals you the way Cryptid Con me. This life is short and these times are strange and its good to know you fit somewhere.

Be good to each other!

Running Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcery of Hyperborea

I have a great circle of people to role play with, amazing people, and even better friends. We mostly play DnD 5E which I love, but I've been playing it for a while and sometimes I yearn for running something from the OSR. At the moment we are in the middle of running Avernus so there isn't much room on the schedule to run a one or two-shot. Then it occurred to me that since I run a game store and I could run a demo, so yesterday that is what I did. I only had two players but that actually worked out really well. I used the ASnSH Rogue's Gallery II pdf for pre-generated 1st level characters and after about 30 minutes we were off and running.

I ran the Rats in the Walls adventure which is excellent. One of my players is from the regular RPG group and the other was someone I hadn't met before. We all had a blast and finished the session within three hours. ASnSH is a superb game and heaping with flavor. I truly loved it and so did the players.

I asked about making this a regular thing but it wasn't in the cards and I fully understand that. Afterwards as I contemplated the session and the system something occurred to me, we could have had just as much fun with DnD 5E, Swords and Wizardry, Against the Darkmaster, or Champions 4E. The system didn't really affect how well written and playtested Rats in the Walls was and the flourishes I added didn't rely on the system either.

I've always been a system guy, even when I only had one RPG that I owned or played I have constantly been looking at another game. It has short-circuited way too many campaigns to count and has honestly caused me quite a bit of grief.

I'm not going to say I won't fall for this trap again, apparently, I'm a slow learner sometimes. But I'm going to try to remember that the trap is sitting there waiting for me.

A Milestone

I began Cross Planes in April 2012 and my output has varied from multiple times daily to less than once a month but at some point in the last couple of months I hit 2 million views and I'm pretty excited about it. I don't really know how many views other blogs get and I generally assume my blog isn't anywhere close to being as popular as The Others Side Blog, Grognardia, or Jeff's Game Blog so they might have 10 million views as far as I know.

Either way, I'm pretty darn excited and felt I had to share. Maybe we'll hit 3 million views by 2026?

Thanks for reading, I know in the last few years my output has been far less than the first few years and I'm trying to find a better schedule but we'll see what the world does and what my Anxiety does.

State of the Planes March 2021

I'm sure like many of you the past year has been...challenging....at best. Last fall I dove headfirst into action figures and DnD, the OSR, and RPGs took a back seat to that new hobby which is where my passion has been directed since then.

I don't want Cross Planes to go away but I don't know if I can go back to anything close to a post every day. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I just am not sure that I have the time to do it.

I have worked at Comic Book World since November 1999 and it has always been the plan that my wife and I would purchase the store from her parents one day. Her parents retired in November and a busy job got busier and since there aren't any in-person Pop Culture Conventions, those people lucky enough to have jobs are spending it locally, so we are busier than ever (and I'm not complaining). On top of that Collectibles have EXPLODED, I was hired during the firs Pokemon boom and at one point my job involved going to Wizard of the Coast's website and ordering Pokemon TCG boosters directly from them for 8 hours a day on a dial up and these days about 1/4 of my day involves finding Pokemon TCG boosters again. I don't know how long it will last but I'm going to enjoy the ride.

The blog isn't going away but it's obvious that what I've had to say on here is different now and I'm trying to figure that out.

I'll be seeing you.

Anxiety & Dragons

If you've been around here long enough you've seen me write about my mental illness--I have General Anxiety Disorder--which means, essentially, my fight or flight goes off a fair bit more than usual and doesn't always need a reason. I've been taking medicine for over 20 years and it makes things a lot better and I'm one of the lucky ones.

My gaming group from 1991 to about 2006 was fairly stable and had up to 11 players at any given time. We were all fairly young and there was a lot of drama--almost constant drama--all of the time. If I'm honest with myself I created the majority of the drama because my mental illness was not being treated nor had it been diagnosed. For various reasons my self-esteem was intertwined with being the group's Game Master and also its "leader"--more like a "group mom" really. As my Anxiety increased my decisions became worse and the drama got worse as well. It was a dark time in my life as I took something I loved and was supposed to be fun and twisted it up.

Things got better after 2006, for a variety of reasons, but much of it has to do with the medicine I was on as it was very, very effective. Not all meds are created equal and everyone is very different in how they interact. 

I have always had Gamer ADD but after starting this medicine it mostly disappeared which allowed me to start this blog and eventually run several long-term campaigns including at levels 1 to 20 DnD 5E one.

Almost two years ago that medicine stopped working--the truth is it worked for about 12 years which is a remarkable amount of time--and while the new medicine is pretty good it doesn't handle the Gamer ADD as well and some of the old feelings have bubbled up.

At my worst, I was both obsessive and paranoid and my fight response was far more dominant than my flight response so I was a raging bitch sometimes. Thankfully, a combination of coping mechanisms and experience let me see the behavior as it starts to bubble up again but it doesn't remove the emotions.

The emotions are recurring because we've just finished an excellent 5E campaign after almost 2 years and I just assumed that I would run next. However, I didn't share my assumption with anyone and another DM did communicate their desire to run. This DM is a great friend and a great DM but a part of me feels hurt because I wasn't asked to run. Obviously, this is an immature response fueled by my mental illness and there is absolutely no real issue here. My group is filled with wonderful and kind people and we have a great time together.

This situation is compounded by the fact that I'm starting a Roll20 5E game and some of the players don't know if they can commit yet but sadly my anxiety tells me that I'm not a good DM and they just don't want to play in my game because they don't like me. Again, these are wonderful and good people involved and there isn't anything sinister about any of their situations.

I'm writing about this because I try to be very open with my mental illness and I'm just letting people know it's okay to talk about it and realize that you can beat it. I've felt fragile and been really low before, to the point that I considered suicide and I just want everyone to know that you are important, you are stronger than your illness, and the world is a better place with you in it. Don't kill yourself, there are good people out there for you, you can be diagnosed, you can be treated, and you are not the exception to recovery. 

My situation probably isn't unique and the best thing I think I can do is to enjoy the new campaign as a player and just be flexible with people's schedules for my Roll20 game.

The Plague Year

For me, it's become harder to focus on RPG material with so many terrible things occurring within the world, and obviously, the COVID-19 global pandemic was front and center for last year. I've always tried (and failed sometimes) to keep world events, especially politics from this space and I've become so disillusioned this year that I didn't know if I could do that so I took some time away.

As I've written before I have General Anxiety Disorder but I have a good support circle including my GP so I weathered that storm better than I expected.

Our group is still playing and we are starting our final adventure in our Saltmarsh campaign. I'm enjoying being a player and honestly can't wait to get together each week. My monk died and I'm now playing a 16 the level Human Fighter Battle Master. I like the Battle Master but unless you are taking short rests fairly regularly it's a bit underpowered.

I haven't worked on any new products even though I have a couple of ideas, mostly because my wife's parents retired this year and we are in the process of buying their comic and game stores from them. I'm busier than ever and we are always brainstorming new ways to connect with customers.

I need to thank Wizards of the Coast for its Magic: the Gathering products that helped keep us afloat this year, especially some free products that made a huge difference for us. Sadly, I'm not sure they are on the right course for M:tG and I hope I'm proven wrong about that this year.

I got to play DnD 5E, Tiny D6, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Vampire: the Masquerade 5E, and playtested the Fallout 2d20 RPG from Modiphius.

I'm contemplating a couple of games to run online but we'll see what happens.

My intention is to give the blog more attention and I hope I am able to do that.

Cross Planes on Facebook

I've been wanting to set up a FB page for quite awhile and I don't know why I didn't or what motivated me to finally do it.

If you get a chance stop by and Like the page for me.

My intention is to post quick thoughts and information about posts I'm working on. 

I'm currently working up pregens for a Dark Trails game I'm running on Roll20.

I get to take the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules out for a spin with gunslingers and luchador!

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 13: Rest

        

 

Rest. When I was younger we would roleplay for hours and hours and hours. Whole weekends. Whole vacations.

However, around 2009 I took a break from roleplaying, a king of sabbatical. When I came back we would lay for 2-3 hours because we were playing at my store after hours and when the Magic: the Gathering tournament ended we wrapped up as well.

I really prefer 2-3 hour session and I don't think I could ever go back. Sometimes I wonder if some of the drama we had in those early days was because we were hanging out for 8-48 hours?

I find 2-3 hour sessions restful, they recharge my batteries after a long day, and it has allowed me to play in multiple game each week.

#RPGaDAY 2020 Day 12: Message

       

 

For me Role Playing has several straight-forward messages: 

No gaming is better than bad gaming. Once you learn this you are golden. 

As a Game Master don't afraid to say "yes" and at the same time don't be afraid to say "no". If its cool roll with it, if you are unsure then table until you can think about it and talk it over with the player/group.

Just because I play DnD and you play DnD doesn't mean we should be friends or at the same table. 

If everyone at your table is comfortable then roll with it, don't compare your game or your skills to anyone else.

Communication, honest communication is essential to a successful group.

#RPGaDAY Day 9: Light

    

 

I'd like to use this post to remind people of Swords and Wizardry Light from Frog God Games by Tenkar and Matt Finch. 

All the game you need in four pages. It doesn't get much cooler than that.