Friday, October 23, 2009
Back from the dead.
Perhaps it's time to resurrect this. Funny it's my blog, yet Curtis was the only one to submit to it.
The original intention was to have a weekly blog submitted by myself or another geeky individual.
It failed.
Something about working 60 plus hours a week, plus running two games (once a month, and twice a month respectively) set it up to fail. Honestly couldn't ask anybody else to contribute when I myself wasn't doing any more. So it failed. A handful of good blogs by a compatriot and then it lays quiet in the dust.
We'll see if I can't start it up again.
It's been 2 years. Let's see if a weekly blog here can happen.
I think it can.
I think we'll start with the current state of gaming.
For a long time there were many, many game systems. Rolemaster, Dungeons & Dragons, Palladium, Whitewolf, the list travels on.
Then came d20 and the OGL. What is this you ask? Well it's a set of game mechanics. Rules if you will. These mechanics were opened up so anybody could use them. Publish materials for them, adventures, settings, new mechanics to add to them. It was a golden time. It was time when anybody with access to desktop publishing software could have a go.
A lot of shit was published.
A lot.
In fact it got so bad at one point there was a small crash in the gaming market.
Then they (Wizards of the Coast) updated the rules to 3.5 (these rules were the rules for Dungeons & Dragons, if you were curious) and things began rolling along again. Then they (Wizards) stopped renewing licenses for several lines of products. First Ravenloft. Then Dragonlance. Code Monkey publishing (a software company) and the magazines Dragon and Dungeons. They disappeared. In 2007, they (that is Wizards) announced (what I had been expecting) 4th edition D&D.
There was some gnashing, there was some name calling. All in all it was what it was. Sword & Sorcery Studio, the publishers of Ravenloft disappeared. Margariet Weiss Studio, the publisher of Dragonlance focused on the licenses for Serenity, Battle Star Galatica and now Supernatural using their own system. Code Monkey... actually, I’m not sure what happened to them. Paizo, the publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazine started their own adventure and world line, recently published an update to the 3rd edition rules (tweaking some things and renaming it Pathfinder) and is enjoying some success. Wizards are churning out books for 4th edition now. Several publishers have jumped on with 4th (Goodman Games for instance) others have all but disappeared; still others are having a go at publishing for both.
So where does that leave gaming?
Well, many systems have always existed, even during the golden age of d20, but now it's fully fractured again. Open gaming (which deserves it's own blog) is still alive, but not like it was. It's sort of reached its middle age. This is unfortunate. There are games to be played however, and its worth your time, if you feel inclined, to try them.
That’s what the purpose of this blog is for. To discuss new games, and old games.
The original intention was to have a weekly blog submitted by myself or another geeky individual.
It failed.
Something about working 60 plus hours a week, plus running two games (once a month, and twice a month respectively) set it up to fail. Honestly couldn't ask anybody else to contribute when I myself wasn't doing any more. So it failed. A handful of good blogs by a compatriot and then it lays quiet in the dust.
We'll see if I can't start it up again.
It's been 2 years. Let's see if a weekly blog here can happen.
I think it can.
I think we'll start with the current state of gaming.
For a long time there were many, many game systems. Rolemaster, Dungeons & Dragons, Palladium, Whitewolf, the list travels on.
Then came d20 and the OGL. What is this you ask? Well it's a set of game mechanics. Rules if you will. These mechanics were opened up so anybody could use them. Publish materials for them, adventures, settings, new mechanics to add to them. It was a golden time. It was time when anybody with access to desktop publishing software could have a go.
A lot of shit was published.
A lot.
In fact it got so bad at one point there was a small crash in the gaming market.
Then they (Wizards of the Coast) updated the rules to 3.5 (these rules were the rules for Dungeons & Dragons, if you were curious) and things began rolling along again. Then they (Wizards) stopped renewing licenses for several lines of products. First Ravenloft. Then Dragonlance. Code Monkey publishing (a software company) and the magazines Dragon and Dungeons. They disappeared. In 2007, they (that is Wizards) announced (what I had been expecting) 4th edition D&D.
There was some gnashing, there was some name calling. All in all it was what it was. Sword & Sorcery Studio, the publishers of Ravenloft disappeared. Margariet Weiss Studio, the publisher of Dragonlance focused on the licenses for Serenity, Battle Star Galatica and now Supernatural using their own system. Code Monkey... actually, I’m not sure what happened to them. Paizo, the publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazine started their own adventure and world line, recently published an update to the 3rd edition rules (tweaking some things and renaming it Pathfinder) and is enjoying some success. Wizards are churning out books for 4th edition now. Several publishers have jumped on with 4th (Goodman Games for instance) others have all but disappeared; still others are having a go at publishing for both.
So where does that leave gaming?
Well, many systems have always existed, even during the golden age of d20, but now it's fully fractured again. Open gaming (which deserves it's own blog) is still alive, but not like it was. It's sort of reached its middle age. This is unfortunate. There are games to be played however, and its worth your time, if you feel inclined, to try them.
That’s what the purpose of this blog is for. To discuss new games, and old games.
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