Farewell to Comments

 “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

— Epictetus

Frequent readers know I’ve often wondered whether it’s worth my time and effort to continue posting at Hobby Games Recce. I have far too many stressors in my life, along with personal demons, constantly urging me to give it up. I’m a stubborn old curmudgeon, so I’ve held on this long...and probably will for a little while longer, at least. Positive interactions with readers always give me a sense of fulfillment, that this is all worth it, even in little ways. Most of those engagements occur in my online social media presences — Bluesky and the Mastodon instance Dicecamp — and only occasionally in the blog’s actual comments section. I still cherish the infrequent comment here, but lately most finding their way into my comment moderation interface are spam. Initially they were blatant spam, but now they’re more cleverly disguised as vague if incorrect references to old posts with some link to a site they’re promoting. We get enough spam in our e-mails and web surfing...I don’t want to allow it here...even if it means diverting authentic comments elsewhere.

Turn Up the Positive Feedback

 “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”

– Mark Twain

Everyone loves positive feedback. It validates us, says someone out there appreciates us, even if only in some very small, almost-anonymous way in the seemingly infinite cacophony of the internet. The Internet Age has conditioned us to crave it and has made a business of our need for positive reinforcement. Likes. Shares. Comments. Views. Texting. Instant Messaging. Reviews. Emojis. Humans have an urge to share things they like among their friends, a hobby community, even complete strangers. We find positive comments about these things not only uplift us but help connect us to like-minded people, give us a feeling we belong to a community. Positive feedback encourages us to interact and share more. Creative people often find positive feedback helps fuel their work, or at least their enthusiasm for it. Unfortunately in this Internet Age the negative feedback we get can easily overwhelm the positive...and can send us into unproductive downward spirals. It seems more people would rather kick down our sandcastle than help build it. It’s easier to destroy; creation requires a lot of time and effort, plus a good deal of the creator’s spirit (a natural vulnerability). Some folks find some twisted satisfaction in online destruction...trolls who, for whatever reason, seek to speak poorly of others, degrade their accomplishments, twist their words, pick a fight, and otherwise remind us of humanity’s darker side. We need to be more positive, build up those who need uplifting, praise the good things that have affected our lives, and offer thanks to those who improve our lives, even in small ways.

Online Game Shopping during Covid

In an earlier post I noted my inability/unwillingness to migrate my gaming from the in-person tabletop to the electronic platforms the internet offers during the covid-19 pandemic. Yet the internet has made surviving the pandemic possible...and even bearable. My wife could work from home. My son could attend “virtual learning” at school remotely for a year. And I could continue indulging in game purchases when it didn’t feel safe to make my occasional pilgrimages to area game stores and conventions. Though my gaming didn’t leave the house (with a few exceptions at the local history museum), purchases kept me engaged with reading and learning rules, crafting miniatures and terrain, and playing games solitaire and with family members. Despite a seemingly impersonal online shopping experience (compared to in-person shopping), I discovered some excellent online retailers who brought game-related diversions right to my doorstep.

The Inspiration of Books

 “Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.”

– Carl Sagan

Over the years I’ve found inspiration in many places – films, television, music, historical sites, museums – but perhaps nowhere more than in books. They have fueled my endeavors in writing, game playing, and game design, explorations of various historical periods, and, of course, further reading across numerous subjects and genres that engaged my imagination. They have helped expand my horizons through non-fiction, escape this world and explore others through fiction, and play within the realms of roleplaying games. I have always been surrounded by books. No doubt I inherited these tendencies in part from a family that encourages learning (including several who were teachers) and respects the value of books. Books have helped enrich my life and, I’d hope, encouraged me to help enrich the live of others in some small way.

Nothing Stays the Same

 “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte

Last year around this time I celebrated my 10th anniversary blogging at Hobby Games Recce. I reflected on many elements of my adventure gaming life that had changed. This year, as I mark 11 years blogging here, I wanted to take a broad look at how some elements in the gaming world have changed over more than a decade, particularly things that have disappeared from my gaming scene. I’m not doing a comprehensive review – I don’t have time to skim over more than 400 blog entries – but I’m going for general impressions on a few key observations. In doing so I’m reminded how fleeting anything really is. Games, companies, websites, hobby stores, even online communities come and go. Their popularity and our immense enjoyment of them do not guarantee they’ll always be here for us. We must appreciate what we have in the moment.

Making New Discoveries

 “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”

– Aristotle

I sometimes joke about my “gaming radar” when I discover new products that engage my interest in some aspect of the greater adventure gaming hobby. We each have different strategies for staying on top of gaming news, discovering new releases, evaluating possible purchases, and generally finding new inspirations that fuel our engagement with the hobby (including books and music in particular). Like reconnaissance technologies over the years our means of finding gaming news has changed, become seemingly more efficient, and flooded us with more information to analyze and distill into some effective form. Intelligence-gathering technology evolved from rudimentary radar and sonar to such marvels as satellites, GPS tracking, and lidar. Gamers once relied on magazines and limited personal contacts to gain new information about developments in the hobby; today the internet exposes us to an oft-overwhelming torrent of sources about countless developments in gaming.

The Blog Annual

Among the host of blogs I regularly read several stand out as frequently delivering original gaming content worthy of future reference. I often find myself wishing the outstanding, really useful blog entries might coalesce into a PDF game supplement allowing for further refinement, better graphic presentation, and ultimately easier, more “permanent” reference.

Collecting the best articles from periodicals has long been a practice in the publishing industry. Sometimes they served as a “best of” review of the past year’s material; other times they compiled articles on a similar theme to appeal to a particular audience. Certainly longtime gamers recall the Best of Dragon Magazine compilations. I myself am guilty of a Best of the Star Wars Adventure Journal collection during my time editing that periodical at West End Games. “Best of” editions for print magazines often made more sense for those casually interested in a publication than regular readers who religiously kept all their back issues; but they still served to highlight the most outstanding material among all the articles that made it through to acceptance, revision, and publication.

Although blogs don’t often share the same editorial standards as the stodgy old professional publishing field, some -- culled from the seemingly infinite masses on the blogosphere -- reflect an extraordinary degree of creativity, originality, and refinement. Few of these collect useful blog entries in themed PDFs for download and future reference. A PDF publication downloaded to a computer, laptop, or pad device is still a more accessible reference (whether printed or electronic) than searching numerous blogs for something within a specific and prolific blog, especially when much of the fluid internet can change, disappear, or otherwise mutate into other forms without any warning, sending an entry or even an entire blog into etheric oblivion.

Sometimes blogs include a button allowing readers to print or create a PDF of an entry. Although this provides an option for saving relevant game material one post at a time, it puts the editorial responsibility and power in the hands of the reader. PDFs generated in this way offer haphazard and rarely professional-looking layout and save only single articles for which readers must find some means of categorizing and organizing on their computers or print binders.

Not every quality, inspiring gaming blog contains material worth compiling into a PDF “best of” collection. In some cases blogs offer news with fleeting interest and little nostalgic or reference value. Others, such as Hobby Games Recce, provide more commentary than practical game source material. Blogs frequently focusing on game design elements -- such as Doug Anderson’s inspiring Blue Boxer Rebellion, Daniel Solis’ eponymous blog, or my own Game Design Journal -- use the websites for presentation and discussion of game concepts for future publication as gaming products in other venues and thus rarely lend themselves to compilations of the best gaming source material.

Certainly some bloggers already compile relevant game material in PDFs available at their websites or use their blog sites to host links to other, related works -- Hack & Slash’s comprehensive offerings of “Old School Resources” and Dungeon of Signs come to mind (though the prolific creator Dyson Logos collected many of his maps and scenarios in a print-only offering yet to see PDF publication) -- but the percentage of bloggers creating interesting material and collecting it in more easily referenced PDFs remains low.

A PDF compilation of high-quality blog entries can not only provide readers with a somewhat permanent collection of useful gaming material but encourage bloggers to evaluate the past year’s work, gathering and revising it for what some might consider a more refined form of publication with a greater degree of permanence and usefulness. (And while I’d love to publish a “best of” annual from across the wide expanse of the gaming blogosphere, the task remains beyond my limited scope of blog-reading and covers a disparate range of topics, even within the realm of adventure gaming.) Websites offering PDF freebies -- especially gaming-themed sites -- can use these downloads to generate interest in the blog, promote the site by generating newsworthy releases, and garner more followers.

Here’s my very short list of blogs from which I’d like to see “best of” compilations in PDF. Most offer source material in the “old-school renaissance” or “retro-clone” category, games emulating the experience of early Dungeons & Dragons. Given my limited blog reading and the exponential growth of blogs in just the adventure gaming field, I could probably find more if I set my heart to it. These represent only a few of the really quality gaming blogs that might benefit from producing a PDF annual:

The Riders of Lohan: This campaign blog for an online Basic/Expert D&D game offers some clever ideas to port into similar games, from locations and magic items to secret organizations, in-game maps, and useful character enhancement tables. Since these really useful source bits remain intermingled with game reports and other practical gameplay logistics on the blog, it might benefit from an annual, edited PDF compilation.

The Dungeon Dozen: Several times a week this blog offers a random table based on the much-neglected d12. Readers can find tables for almost any occasion, from stocking dungeon levels to providing original background motivation for different character classes. Although the site offers a few PDFs of adventures or locations with the same humorous and often gonzo feel (such as Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy…), I’d love to see a collection of the best tables, especially along certain themes, such as those related to characters and non-player characters, ones to inspire settings and campaigns, and encounter-related tables.

Dyson’s Dodecahedron: I’ve mentioned Dyson Logos before…his blog serves as a platform to present his prolific, old-school-style, hand-drawn maps, often with short backgrounds to inspire the stocking of said maps or, in some cases, completely furnished dungeons. He recently compiled several maps and adventures into a print publication, Dyson’s Delves (available in soft- and hard-cover). I’m guilty of saving his maps to my computer for future inspiration and of copying/pasting some of his inspired dungeon-delving adventures into document files for future reference. I wouldn’t expect him to offer too many finished pieces as free PDF downloads, but I’d love to see Dyson’s Delves and future compilations for sale in handy PDF format.

In drafting this blog entry I realize I’ve opined on aspects of this subject before -- in last year’s “The Vast Internet Versus Edited Periodicals” entry -- but my yearning for the soon-to-be-extinct ways of doing things before the internet usurped print publication persists.

Developments in RPGs, August 2012

Or “That’s What I’m Doing Wrong….”

August brings GenCon, the largest gaming convention in America and arguably the largest focused primarily on roleplaying games. GenCon always incites a flurry of activity -- shared in our optimistically frightening Internet Age with millions worldwide from a host of correspondents both professional and amateur (though no less enthusiastic) across numerous electronic venues -- from official press releases about new games, news of awards, web correspondent podcasts, and reports from game industry luminaries to personal con-goer reports, seminar recordings of varying quality, and an avalanche of photos from the convention.

I haven’t been to GenCon for years, though I suppose I’d now find the experience quite overwhelming in my advancing middle age. While I’d like to think I’d enjoy returning there, I’m having fun casually keeping up with the most notable developments thanks to various web reports primarily gleaned through my Google+ circles, which understandably have a number of game industry professionals and other game enthusiasts in them. GenCon or otherwise, August seems the month -- in the waning days of summer before kids return to school -- when the adventure gaming industry makes the big announcements.

Three major developments in roleplaying games made their debut in August bolstered by buzz generated at GenCon: the next phase in the D&DNext playtest; news of a third iteration of a Star Wars roleplaying game in the hands of yet a third company; and the beginning of a Kickstarter campaign for Numenera, a revolutionary roleplaying game by the legendary Monte Cook.

All three projects have interesting aspects about them that tap into online gamer communities, and a few make me ponder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” They’re worth examining for valuable bits of self-edification, both in what they do quite well and where I feel they don’t quite hit the mark.

D&DNext

Wizards of the Coast seems to have embraced the Internet Age’s global electronic community in its design philosophy for the next iteration of Dungeons & Dragons. Within the bounds of its own design parameters and creative team the company has harnessed the power of its consumer base (arguably the most numerous, loyal, and vocal of all gamer fans) to preview elements of the system, playtest them, and provide feedback. It’s not quite a true collaborative effort, but one that helps make fans feel special, as if they’re working with and truly contributing to the next version of the beloved, oldest, and most popular roleplaying game brand.

The major announcement at GenCon heralded the next phase of the D&DNext playtest and a continued symbiotic relationship with the game’s fans; but it also revealed two interesting bits of news to further reinforce the game’s development and release. Apparently the next iteration of the game is scheduled for release in 2014, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of its original publication. This also gives Wizards of the Coast, its designers, and the fans two years to collaboratively develop and later market what one hopes is a signature product to reunite a gamer population fractured by multiple editions and breathe life (and economic viability) into the D&D brand. Aiding this is the company’s decision to release the D&D backlist in electronic format next year. I’m not quite sure whether this includes only 4th edition material or books from previous editions, but it’s a solid support move further bolstering its efforts at expanding the online D&D community.

One cannot ignore other factors that might drive Wizards of the Coast to revise D&D and do so by reconnecting with the brand’s numerous fans. Parent company Hasbro has corporate demands that always seem to threaten D&D and Wizards of the Coast’s survival itself, as evidenced by the abominable annual tradition of holiday layoffs. The company and the flagship roleplaying game brand also face stiff competition from Paizo’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, which attracted droves of former D&D enthusiasts unhappy with the game’s previous edition and, some claim, have exceeded D&D’s sales and popularity in recent months. The fractured gamer community has also realized the value of old school renaissance games emulating beloved aspects of D&D editions long past (often free) with strong online followings, further drawing from gamers who might otherwise buy into and continue playing D&DNext.

Star Wars RPG

In August 2011 Fantasy Flight Games announced it had acquired the rights from Lucasfilm to license Star Wars-themed miniatures, card, and roleplaying games. At GenCon 2012 it released the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game, a starfighter dogfight game reminiscent of but obviously not quite the same as the World War I and World War II Wings of War aerial combat game the company used to distribute in America for the Italian company Ares Games, designer of the original game and its updated reboot, Wings of Glory. Also at GenCon 2012 it released its entry in the long, storied history of Star Wars roleplaying games, the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Roleplaying Game Beta. It’s intended as the first of three Star Wars-themed roleplaying games covering the “classic” era trilogy. While the first release would cover the “fringes of society, the scum and villainy of the galaxy, and the explorers and colonists of the Outer Rim,” subsequent core books would cover the Rebel struggle against the Empire (Age of Rebellion) and finally “figures of legend: the last surviving Force users in the galaxy” (Force and Destiny).

Like Wizards of the Coast’s strategy with D&DNext, Fantasy Flight seeks to harness the power of fans in developing the game, both those who want to roleplay in the Star Wars universe and those familiar with the similar system in the company’s Dark Heresy roleplaying game set in Games Workshop’s popular Warhammer 40,000 universe. The Edge of the Empire Beta rules consist of a 224-page softcover stripped of most of the artwork and background material (according to the Fantasy Flight website for the game). It also includes stickers to put on dice for the “special dice” required to play the game (much like Dark Heresy). Unlike Wizards of the Coast -- which offers its D&DNext playtest documents for free with a lengthy sign-up and non-disclosure process -- Fantasy Flight charges $29.95 for the beta version of its Star Wars roleplaying game, available at GenCon, through its website, and at select retailers. While one might assume this sum ostensibly covers the cost of printing, it no doubt helps fund further development of the game and provides licensing revenue to Lucasfilm. Already one can find some grumbling on the internet about paying for the privilege to playtest someone else’s game.

Full Disclosure: Frequent readers and those familiar with my notorious reputation know I worked on West End Games’ D6 System Star Wars Roleplaying Game ages ago, and even did some writing for Wizards of the Coast’s version, too. I have a long history of playing D6 System games and generally advocating for easy-to-learn mechanics that quickly involve players -- whether longtime gamers or casual fans of the setting -- in the action of a beloved genre. If I had to sum up general approaches to Star Wars roleplaying games, I supposed it might boil down to this:

West End tried to appeal to Star Wars fans using accessible six-sided dice and linking all rules to a basic dice-pool game mechanic I can still teach complete newcomers within 15 minutes.

Wizards of the Coast seemed to port the Star Wars galaxy into the Dungeons & Dragons mechanics of the time (3rd edition D&D) to attract the established D&D audience instead of drawing in new, non-gamers who loved Star Wars.

Fantasy Flight Games seems to be adapting the Star Wars galaxy to its own system used in Dark Heresy complete with special dice (in my mind alienating casual Star Wars fans seeking to try roleplaying games); and getting playtesting advice while still making money on the print playtest edition…then getting players to buy the full edition when released.

Only time will tell how the gaming and Star Wars fan communities will view these developments -- particularly the use of specialized dice and pay-to-playtest materials -- but my experience leads me to believe that Star Wars fans and gamers would pay any amount for the right product. As always, the Star Wars license remains a license to print money.

Monte Cook’s Numenera

While I’m not terribly interested in D&DNext beyond casual professional interest, and I follow any Star Wars roleplaying development as a matter of course, Monte Cook’s Numenera roleplaying game has captivated my attention on several levels like few other roleplaying games ever have. (Technically this isn’t a GenCon development, but one announced shortly beforehand in a move of public relations brilliance.)

The science fantasy game is set one billion years and eight great civilizations in earth’s future. The game’s several websites have already showcased some of the amazing full-color concept art that captures the setting’s tone. Cook’s concise yet vivid introductory pitch sums it up best:

Humanity lives amid the remnants of eight great civilizations that have risen and fallen on Earth. These are the people of the Ninth World. This new world is filled with remnants of all the former worlds: bits of nanotechnology, the dataweb threaded among still-orbiting satellites,  bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices. These remnants have become known as the numenera.

Player characters explore this world of mystery and danger to find these leftover artifacts of the past, not to dwell upon the old ways, but to help forge their new destinies, utilizing the so-called “magic” of the past to create a promising future.

The setting itself seems enticing enough, especially in the hands of someone as imaginative and talented as Cook; but from what he’s already revealed about the system at his website, the game will incorporate some innovative system concepts.

Characters can fall into three “types” roughly corresponding to fighters, wizards, and rogues, though their names reflect the far future society they inhabit. Character creation follows a simple process of choosing a descriptor and focus to add to the type  to outline a concept -- such as “I am a tough glaive who controls beasts” (Cook’s example, with “glaive” the fighter type) -- with later game ramifications. Subsequent blog posts have outlined original ideas for using experience points and numerical stats tied to the text descriptors.

Although he isn’t taking the same online community-based approach to playtesting as Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight are with their games, he’s captivating potential and current backers to the game’s Kickstarter campaign with frequent glimpses into his design process and the game mechanics under development across Cook’s broad spectrum of online venues: his blog, the game’s website, and the Kickstarter page. The response to the Numenera Kickstarter campaign has been phenomenal, easily reaching the $20,000 funding goal and hitting double within 20 hours; as of this writing on August 21, reaching well beyond $120,000! Cook has offered numerous opportunities to buy into the game, the most notable being “The Real Deal” which for $60 includes the hardcover, full-color rulebook, plus a host of PDF resources including three adventures (for a total of 96 pages), Player’s Guide, a Ninth World Bestiary (also 96 pages), and a PDF of the rulebook for electronic reference. The Kickstarter campaign “stretch goals” also include altruistic goals that put copies of the rulebook in the hands of libraries across the country and soldiers serving overseas.

I’ll freely admit I’m jealous of Monte Cook: his prolific output, his innovative imagination, his long career in the adventure gaming industry, his massive hordes of loyal fans, and his thoughtful insight on many issues (and not just game-related, either, as evidenced by his positive A+ campaign for August). Numenera promises not only to be both a fantastic roleplaying game and world, but also to offer an amazing game design journey in the year Cook spends developing it and sharing the experience with his fans.

Publication Consistency & Style Sheets

(Or Schweig Puts on His Stodgy Editor’s Hat)

Those who’ve worked with me as an editor way back during my time running West End Games’ Official Star Wars Adventure Journal and working on the Star Wars roleplaying game line know I’m a stickler for editorial detail. For many regular contributors (and those I hoped to cultivate to become regular contributors and later authors on roleplaying game supplements) I did not view my editor’s duties as simply correcting their work, but helping them improve their writing to more closely reflect what West End and ultimately Lucasfilm expected.

I’m not a huge fan of reality TV shows, especially those with lots of screaming; but if I’ve learned one thing from my few viewings of reality shows featuring the frequently cursing celebrity British chef Gordon Ramsay it’s that consistency counts…and in many cases it seems paramount to providing quality service at least in the restaurant setting if not in many other professions.

Consistency at all levels, both in content and style from the publishing perspective, helps ensure quality product time and again. It meets the general expectations of the broad readership and helps clearly communicate ideas in the common “code” of a consistent language, style, and grammar.

Look at writings from America’s earliest days and you’ll find “literate” people writing with inconsistent spelling and usage, mostly reflecting the phonetic spoken language than a written one, what today we’d see as a near-unintelligible mess. For instance, that last sentence might look like this:
    

Luk at ritns from Merkas erlyst daze and yul find peepl ritn w. nconsistant speling and usag mostlee flectn the fonetyk spokn langwage then a rittn 1.
 

They weren’t even consistent within the same document with the same words. It was a kind of a make-it-up-as-you-go process that didn’t always clearly impart the intended message to readers. This is why we have grammar and style within a language; it helps make sure everyone, writers and readers, use the same “code book” of language so we all understand our communication.

Code Book/Style Guide

I learned an awful lot about writing and publishing during three years at my first job out of college: reporting and later editing for The Ridgefield Press, the venerable, weekly newspaper in my hometown of Ridgefield, CT. Not that my four years at an extremely nice liberal arts college in central New York state for a degree in creative writing didn’t help; but the Press gave me a crash course in the practicalities of writing and publishing, with many hard-learned lessons that still influence me today.

The indomitable Executive Editor Jack Sanders -- who still serves as editorial sensei for the Press and its sibling newspapers under the banner of Hersam Acorn Newspapers -- whipped his reporters into shape with constant critiques, reminders, even entire issues of the newspaper “redlined” in red marker noting comments, questions, and errors (all in a style sometimes reminiscent of Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Brigadier General Frank Savage in Twelve O'Clock High). He continually demanded editorial excellence of everyone, from fledgling reporters to seasoned editors.

Upon embarking on the rocky road of reporting for the Ridgefield Press and its associated newspapers, each reporter received a loose-leaf binder containing the Acorn Press style guide. I still have my copy, cherished on the shelf with a host of other, more infamous style manuals and quite possibly more worn with love, devotion, and frequent re-reading than any others (though Strunk & White’s Elements of Style comes in a close second). Although it’s focused on writing for a hometown weekly newspaper in the early 1990s, much of its content remains relevant today, even if only in examining the minutia of style and grammar concerns current writers should still address. It taught me that, no matter how much a publication or publisher claimed it adhered to the conventions of one “official” style guide or another, each one has so many exceptions that it really needs its own to best communicate its specialized expectations to authors.

The Acorn Press style guide and my practical education at The Ridgefield Press led me to write a comprehensive style guide at my next job as editor of The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal at West End Games, a quarterly publication supporting the company’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game with original game-related fiction and source material. I was hired to start the publication from scratch, using established game authors, cultivating new “up-and-coming” writers, and courting best-selling name authors. At the time, West End’s editorial department had, at best, a sketchy style policy based on submission guidelines and a few pages of notes. I have an extremely vague pseudo-memory (or was it a dream?) that some kind of hodge-podge Star Wars Roleplaying Game writers guidelines existed before, most likely as a dot-matrix-printed, faint photocopy of miscellaneous things we expected writers to understand. If it existed, it was hardly comprehensive and didn’t reflect the seriousness with which the editorial staff and Lucasfilm’s approvals personnel viewed material in editing.

In editing a periodical that required contributions from numerous authors, I needed a more standardized, comprehensive guide to what we expected substantively in terms of content and approach as well as in grammar and style. I viewed a Star Wars RPG and Adventure Journal style guide as a manual covering all aspects of publishing such material through West End Games. In consultation with the Star Wars line editor at the time as well as production management, we made sure it included a wide array of useful information, much of which was influence by what was covered in my revered Acorn Press style guide:
    

• An outline of the submission process, including contracts and assignments of copyright, what we expected of writers as professionals, information about payments, and writing diagram and illustration suggestions.
   
• A guide to what authors should and shouldn’t do in the Star Wars universe at the time, with notes on working within existing continuity.

• Guidelines on writing adventures, source material, and game-related fiction (the “game-related” designation an essential part to avoid infringing on other Lucasfilm licensees’ rights to publish fiction).
   
• Style and grammar guidelines on punctuation, capitalization, italics and bold, and other miscellanea as reflected in West End publications.

• A master reference spelling list noting many proper names from the Star Wars universe.
   
• Style definitions addressing individual issues, from common grammar problems to Star Wars-specific matters (similar to sections in Strunk & White’s Elements of Style).

• A master stat format guide for almost every form of stat used in the game, in both long and short forms.

Version 2.0, August 1994 of the Star Wars Style Guide I drafted was almost 60 pages long. Every author who had a project accepted for development got a copy, and some were sent to prospective authors. I’m sure some fellow editors thought the effort was a waste of time, paper, and postage, but it established a common foundation on which everyone could work. (I find it ironic that some who play and write game rules don’t necessarily like following other rules, like those for using style and grammar in a publication.) It also served as a “rulebook” of sorts to help ensure what came in from authors was closer to what we (and Lucasfilm) expected in terms of content and quality, making editor’s jobs slightly easier so they could focus on other important issues.

In paging through my lone surviving copy of the style guide, I’m struck by some of the more interesting tidbits we included, some tailored to game writing, others to the Star Wars universe:
     

• A laborious but informative step-by-step walkthrough of the submission procedure, from the proposal (with all the required forms), review, first and final drafts, and payment, with notes on when to expect to hear from editors at each stage.
   
• Tips for writing in the Star Wars universe like “minimize real-world references,” “no superlatives or absolutes” (like “all customs inspectors in the galaxy will do this”), and “use the major players sparingly.”
   
• “Avoid the future tense” in writing adventures (something I still notice in some scenarios today).
   
• “A blaster has a ‘sight,’ not a ‘site.’”
   
• “In Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game we have gamemaster characters, not NPCs or non-player characters.”
   
• “Wookiee is spelled with two E’s at the end” (thanks to this I still do a double-take writing “cookie” with only one E).

Bear in mind the document was customized for both the Star Wars license and roleplaying game materials; however, it represents a comprehensive guide to writing in the gaming profession, from editorial expectations to basic writer information, all with an eye to producing quality product. Some folks might balk at all these rules, suggestions, and details, but they offered a pretty comprehensive idea of the expectations West End editors and Lucasfilm approvals personnel had for writers. Following the style guide helped editors prepare manuscripts for approval and publication; those who made life easier for editors were more apt to get future work.

Lack of Style in the Internet Age

I’m sometimes discouraged by the lack of attention to consistency in style and grammar today, whether in personal communication, official correspondence, or published material (particularly internet content).

I’ve had a few day jobs in the publishing field since leaving West End Games after it declared bankruptcy in 1998, and most of them had their own versions of style guides -- some formal, some sketchy -- for their publications.

In my years in the publishing field I’ve referenced the monumental Chicago Manual of Style and AP Stylebook; many editors used them more as general suggestions than rules, and then almost arbitrarily so (driving many writers and editors somewhat insane). I recall one senior editor, when asked to clarify a style issue after consulting an established guide, simply shrugged his shoulders and uttered the non-committal “It’s just a judgment call.”

These days it doesn’t seem to matter. Style guides, from longstanding cornerstones of the publishing industry to customized rules for individual publishers, have become dinosaurs in this ever-changing Internet Age where people e-mail, text, blog, and otherwise communicate using the written word so casually that anagrams like OMG and AFAIK, once occasional code, now seem like acceptable grammatical concepts. The internet has blurred the line between professional writing and casual communication; perhaps the English language is rebounding back toward the days when everyone spelled words the way they liked without regard to whether they’re understood.

Okay, time to take off my stodgy old editor’s hat and rejoin the rest of the 21st Century….

Game Company Communication Then & Now

Technology constantly marches forward at a seeming exponential rate. New developments change how people carry on with everyday activities, as I’ve noticed in my professional life as a writer, editor, and game developer. I look back when I first started more than 20 years ago and see how I conduct business today; let’s face it, I started in publishing when “cut and paste” meant exactly that. I remain amazed at the changes the Internet Age has wrought in how game companies and customers share information.

Internet connectivity for individuals, corporations, and institutions today seems ubiquitous (though many in our society’s less-prosperous levels still don’t have regular access…); one cannot imagine a company without access to the internet and all the communication tools it offers.

I’ve seen these technological developments affect various aspects of my own life at different stages, from an editor at a game publishing company to a freelancer and sole proprietor of a small game studio advancing my own projects. I think some of the more pronounced differences come from examining my work on staff as a roleplaying game editor with the late, lamented West End Games from 1993 to the company’s bankruptcy filing in 1998.

Author/Artist Communications

Then: During my time at West End editors communicated with authors and artists by mail and phone. As editor of The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal, I perhaps had more traffic with authors and artists than most other editors at the company, with a host of contracts, critique letters, and other formalities for each of the magazine’s quarterly issues. Letters and contracts were printed and copied before going in the post, and authors and artists signed and returned official paperwork (voluminous thanks to the company’s licensing arrangements with Lucasfilm), which we countersigned and returned one reference copy (and some went to Lucasfilm for counter-signing). Long-distance phone calls covered basic revisions and last-minute logistics. Toward the later 1990s West End had some e-mail capability shared on one account by all the editors…meaning that everyone read everyone else’s business and, given everyone’s creative egos, passed judgment and shared their opinions, welcome or otherwise. When I finally and reluctantly entered the Internet Age on my own, I conducted a good deal of e-mail correspondence using my own computer and my personal e-mail account…this in the company’s last six months of viable existence.

Now: Most of these communications logistics -- even contracts -- go over the internet in the form of e-mails and attachments. Necessary “phone” conversations can occur over Skype or Google+ Hangouts for free. Editors can view work by potential authors and artists on their web and social networking pages without having to solicit printed game-writing and artwork samples (or lug them back from convention meetings). Without the delay in waiting for snail-mail, business occurs far more rapidly, with game company staff able to make informed decisions after some web surfing for information about potential writers and artists. Communication with contributors occurs more swiftly yet as clearly as a written letter.

Advertising

Then: West End Games had several print venues available for advertising, primarily gaming magazines. Paid advertising often remained expensive and thus a constantly debated strategy. While the company welcomed positive reviews, it remained reluctant to send out comp copies and actively cultivate reviews after getting burned by a critic who was sent a preliminary manuscript lacking artwork and yet reviewed it as the finished product. The company also pursued advertising opportunities through its distributors and at conventions, traditional options available even today, though reaching only a sliver of the overall gamer population. West End didn’t do many bulk mailings while I was there -- a catalog or two and several issues of Infiniverse (see below) -- but I recall seeing Ron, loyal assistant to the owner, hunched over piles of folded, stapled newsletters, mailing stickers everywhere, consulting the bulk mailing binder like a baffled sage trying to decipher some ancient, impenetrable manuscript.

Now: The internet offers a host of tools for more effectively communicating with customers, from company websites and social networking sites to forum posts, e-mails broadcast to lists, and press release “blasters.” These venues also offer the means for swift feedback from consumers and fast, two-way communication with individuals to better foster a relationship between companies and fans. Websites display “catalogs” for current game lines (whether or not they’re actually sold through the site) the company can easily update, promote, and support with supplemental gaming material.

Supplemental Material

Then: To its credit, West End Games in its heyday had some innovative ideas beyond those in published rulebooks and supplements. The company tried several ways of disseminating supplemental materials to fans. The evolving campaign setting of TORG comes to mind, with different realities invading earth and battling for control of various regions, plans which player groups tried to foil by running published adventures. Each scenario had a form gamemasters could snail-mail back to West End to report their group’s accomplishments, material editors tabulated and used to change the campaign landscape in future products and updates, particularly the periodic Infiniverse newsletter. (For this purpose a huge world map dominated one wall in the office, marked with pins and stickers to delineate the back-and-forth progress of the invasion.) It was an innovative approach to TORG’s inherently changing setting, one hindered by the realities of snail-mail communication. The company also included updates in published product; for instance, many Star Wars roleplaying gamers got their four-page, folded “rules upgrades” for first edition as an insert in early shrink-wrapped adventures. In 1997 we created a full-color, quick-start Star Wars Roleplaying Game flyer (Mos Eisley Shoot-Out), complete with map, counters, and scenarios, to distribute to potential new players at conventions and other venues, but its distribution channels were so limited that few made it into the hands of potential customers (I still have a small pile of them somewhere…).

Now: This material often falls under the “free downloads” category. Rather than sending a postcard requesting more information or a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a newsletter or free scenario, fans simply log on and download free resources from the game company website. Companies can easily upload and announce new errata, free adventures, quick-start rules, and other promotional materials, adding value to fans’ existing games and making a show of good will toward consumers. It’s heartbreaking for me to comprehend how much more different and vibrant the evolving TORG campaign world might have been in the Internet Age, how much better the successful Star Wars Roleplaying Game line might have been supported through an avid fan base, or how on-staff and player supplemental material might have enhanced other licensed and non-licensed game lines.

Many speculated West End’s demise came about through its absence of any internet presence when the web landscape was just emerging. No doubt the lack of information technology savvy -- a single e-mail account and no company web site -- hobbled West End in its desperate, final efforts to stay afloat, but it might only have helped if they were already firmly in place. Other forces, perhaps the same elements that deemed e-mail and internet too expensive and time consuming, pushed the situation beyond the brink of financial viability. I sometimes contemplate what West End’s presence might have looked like had it enthusiastically entered the Internet Age at an earlier point; whether or not it might have saved the company, the imagined internet presence of West End Games -- complete with free download resources and scenarios, press releases, art and editorial previews of upcoming products, and a greater rapport with fans -- remains a faded dream of what might have been.

Exponential Game Growth (Part I)

The emergence of the “Internet Age” has brought about explosive growth in all fields of gaming, even those like roleplaying and board games that have traditionally been published as analog games with physical rulebooks and game components. Today the choices available to gamers seem infinite compared with those available way back in the “Dawn of Roleplaying” (otherwise known as “The Early Eighties”).
   
I’m starting to read R.C. Bell’s Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (1969) -- one of a few choice gaming-oriented birthday goodies I recently received -- and it helps illustrate the vast number of games that have existed across time and world cultures. Unlike today’s games, these primarily consist of non-proprietary diversions many people in a society would have played with some degree of familiarity in their rare moments of leisure time. While many were produced and sold or given as choice gifts, some simply required a board drawn on sand or some other surface, a handful of pieces, and some randomizing element (the latter two scrounged and crafted from readily available materials). Only in the 19th and 20th centuries did games become the purview of professional enterprises producing and selling them to a broader market (usually a growing middle class with more leisure time and some disposable income for entertainment). R.C. Bell’s comprehensive catalog of games and rules -- as well as other works, like Medieval Games by Salaamallah the Corpulent, a.k.a. Jeffrey A. DeLuca (1995) -- pales in comparison to the specialty games available today, particularly roleplaying games and high-end board games.
    
When I first started immersing myself in gaming back in the “Dawn of Roleplaying” game-industry giant TSR produced a slick catalog that found its way into every boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons, a 16-page, full-color flyer entitled “Gateway to Adventure: 1981 TSR Hobbies, Inc.” The glossy pages provided images and descriptions of every available product at the time, everything from the “basic” D&D materials to the core Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks and all the then-current modules, plus other roleplaying and board games (remember Dungeon!, Snit’s Revenge! and Divine Right?). I wish I could find my copy, though I fear it was thrown out long ago; it’s the kind of gaming ephemera that reminds us of the hobby’s roots (like early copies of Dragon Magazine and their period advertisements). I will confess there was a part of my naïve, youthful self that hoped to someday collect all the D&D materials in the catalog.
     
Even back then a vast horde of roleplaying games crowded the market: TSR had D&D and AD&D, plus Top Secret, Boot Hill, and Gamma World; Judges Guild produced a plethora of supplements and modules compatible with D&D; Traveller dominated the science fiction roleplaying game genre; Aftermath! and Bushido from Fantasy Games Unlimited covered more genre-specific game settings; Metagaming’s The Fantasy Trip established the groundwork for GURPS; and I’m probably forgetting and inadvertently omitting several seminal works available at the time. The ranks of professionally published games would only grow exponentially.
   
In 1991 Lawrence Schick wrote Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games, an ambitious book cataloging all the roleplaying games, supplements, and scenarios available at the time, along with detailed bibliographical information, general commentary on most game lines, and short essays from notable game designers offering background on their contributions to the field. Amazingly it’s still offered through Amazon.com (new) and other online venues (used). Even in the early 1990s the vast catalog of existing roleplaying games could somehow fit into a 448-page printed tome.
     
Many factors aided the roleplaying game market’s explosive growth: an overall acceptance of roleplaying games after the stigma of the early 1980s; popular media producing more television shows, movies, and novels in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror (vampire) genres; an increase in publishing companies; and successes in related gaming fields, most notably the card game Magic: The Gathering. Before long roleplaying games appeared not only in specialty hobby stores but large chain bookstores and even general retail outlets. By the early 21st century, some of those early “D&D geeks” had good jobs in the technology sector, empowering them with larger disposable incomes to spend on their gaming hobby. Driven by business concerns, game companies more aggressively designed and published games to satisfy the growing market; in the latter years of the 20th century this exponential growth occurred primarily in the roleplaying game field, while in the early years of the 21st century this escalation has also spread to high-end board games (a term I’ll use to cover any board game with high-quality components often retailing above the $20 mark, including Euro- or German-style games, “battle games” with nice boards, cards, and pieces, designer games, and family strategy games).
    
When I worked as an editor, game designer, and editorial director at West End Games in the mid-90s, the company maintained an aggressive publication schedule of two or three Star Wars roleplaying game books per month, impressive not simply for the volume of material produced but for having to navigate the Byzantine labyrinth of the approvals process from Star Wars licensor Lucasfilm. These products shared the schedule with other items supporting the company’s other game lines. It fed a growing demand for Star Wars material at a point between a time when the license was considered “dead” and the release of new films.
     
The emergence of the Internet Age fostered a generation of gamers capable of employing new technologies like desktop publishing, graphic design programs, PDF files, and even program coding to share their creativity in the gaming field without the requirement of a publishing house to produce their ideas. Professional game publishers still exist, but they’re working to adapt to new technology; sure, they still produce books and high-quality board games, but they also port these materials to electronic formats, from PDF e-books to smart phone applications and online gaming sites. The Internet Age also provides a place where gamers can mingle and interact more easily than before. Where early gamers used to meet at the local hobby store and regional or national convention, they now congregate constantly online.
     
I’ll explore more about how the internet has affected game growth in an upcoming post; particularly how technology has empowered gamers and broadened the interaction among the gaming community.
   

(I regret this missive is little more than my own casual musings on the subject; it is in no way intended as a comprehensive or academic essay on the subject, though in time, I’m sure, we will see that in a retrospective analysis of our times.)