Print on Demand? Dead or in Hiatus?

I’m getting old. I just cannot read through an electronic document containing a rule system and garner an understanding of it. My brain must be hard wired. I need a book in my hand I can read and then flip back and forth to re-read a section. All very possible with soft copy rule systems and I have no issue with them.

I want the physical book in front of me. Worse yet, I am not happy with a bunch of printed pages unbound. I truly want the book format, soft or hard cover. Perhaps my psyche was imprinted when only bound texts were available.

I was ecstatic about the rise of the self publishing industry. So much new material was available for fogy’s like me or in electronic format for the people who preferred that mechanism. Somewhere along the line, the self publish industry burned a few bridges. Apparently quite a few. I cannot comment on the situation but when the bulk of the rpg community choose not to utilize those services, I have to believe there is a valid reason.

Is self-publication a dead end? Or are the few players in the industry too onerous to work with currently? I find it a sad state of affairs. I cannot stand reading the pdf’s but there is no alternative for many quality publications. I will not buy them because I won’t read them. Not fully.

The RPG Player’s Bill of Rights

1. You have the right to choose to get up from the table and leave.

Unless your country allows people to be strapped into seats and forced to play games, #1 is the only right you have. If you are unfortunate enough to be subjected to strap-down laws, I can only sympathize. Best of luck.

Favorite Settings and affiliated things

Randall, my home town boy asked what my favorite setting was. Choosing one over the other is nearly impossible because the GM, players, and plot play significant roles. Most enjoyed game is much easier to determine but far from easy.

The background genre, world, history, and other factors determine a setting. The players in the group, the plot, and the GM interaction truly bring it to life. Rule systems also play a significant role. I struggle to separate them but since he asked about settings, not game experiences, I shall do my best.

Let me start with a couple published systems I didn’t like much from the ’90s: DragonLance and Greyhawk. Dragonlance is obvious. As published, the materials essentially shoved you down a road you could never deviate from. As a setting, in the novels, I liked it. As a playable system, it was a complete failure.

Greyhawk was the complete opposite — very disjointed and open. Not bad but just not cohesive when I look at it as a setting. Far too many authors spread it out in a fashion that made it rather useless. So many cooks broke the world apart with too many differing viewpoints. Perhaps a great DM could have brought it together but as published it was far too chaotic for my taste.

Both also suffered from being “well known”. Part of the RPG experience from my perspective is the unknown. I personally want to see something new and explore it. Even in a familiar system, I want the curve balls and personal touches a DM can provide when generating their own world.

I was and continue to be jaded against anyone picking up a module and attempting to run them. Historically, the results are just bad play, bad interaction and zero setting. I’ve failed on that front many times so I choose not to take the approach again. Can it be done? Sure. By most people? Not a chance in putting out the Styx with a bubble machine.

My favorites are original settings, no matter the genre or system. The DM’s that spend the time to create them have a very comprehensive knowledge of the setting. They can adapt and expand on a moment’s notice. That makes the game. Why? Immersion. If you need to reference a book to tell me something about where I’m at, you just failed.

Personal favorites as a player:

Modern settings. It takes the power out of the GM’s hands and puts it in mine as a player. Even if they want to confine me, I have the ability to choose not to be confined. They require a very open GM to run by their very nature.

Original Fantasy Worlds: I love new takes on genres. Too hook me, you have to open the game up so I can get a feel for the world by exploring and taking missteps. If the plot confines me, I start to get bored and rub against it. I want to player a persona, not a robot.

I hate being railroaded. Even if it is limited. If I can detect it, I start to rebel even if it isn’t necessary. I dislike playing with any game master who cannot adapt and play on their feet with little preparation. The idea that we all have to do X, to continue drives me nuts.

Favorite Settings as a GM:

None. I run off the players. They depict the setting for me by acting. I have to respond and work within their goals and desires. The best sessions I’ve run have never been planned. The worst have always been based on planning.

You get what you put into it. For some, that’s planning, for me, its thinking right now. As the player’s challenge me, I consider, adapt and challenge them in response to what they want to do.

Purity or Density

There is a famous quote in software engineering or perhaps engineering in general, the gist of it being “the design is complete when nothing can be removed”.    The point is elegance from simplicity and purity.  No diversions from the focus of the effort.  I cannot find the original source tonight but it matters little.

For the record, apparently it is Antoine de Saint Exupéry who is credited as saying, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ” -KO

Deviation from the core of a system exposes the writer’s passion.  I feel the wanton need to deviate into topics that are not centric to a rule system.  Yet they are interesting to me and relevant to the genre. Looking through many rule systems, I see that many others have wandered down the same path.

When is it appropriate to sanction these departures?   How far do you allow them to progress?   If the deviation leads to an entry that hooks a novice, is it is truly bad?  Puirty provides elegance and the capability of those capable to expand it into many frontiers.

But… Recall that first system you held in your hands.   Likely, it was rules heavy and relayed something about nearly everything on how to play the game.   Just as likely, you tossed aside nearly everything ephemeral to the core of the system because it was impssible to remember or manage.  Still, fun was had by everyone in that first session.

I love light rule systems these days but I’ve had years to progress to that point.   I can tweak it to fit my needs in a matter of minutes and the experienced group I get a rare chance to play with can do the same.   The running of the system might hook someone but if they pick up the “book” is it enough to hook them?

— Ramblings of Mark –