News Digest: Controversy Abounds! New Vampire Edition Details, Green Ronin's Talent Search, 7th Sea

Hello everyone! Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! And this week is all about controversy. Vampire: The Masquerade 5^th Edition release information (with a controversial hiring), Green Ronin is looking for female writers for Lost Citadel, International Tabletop Day may not be able to meet demand for promotional items, and more! Even this week’s Kickstarters are loaded with controversy!

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Okay, this is a very simple story with a very complicated background. I’m going to tell the story first this time and, if you’re not sure what’s going on, I’ll explain more in the next paragraph. White Wolf Publishing announced details about the new edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. This new fifth edition of the game will come out in early 2018 and, according to ICv2, “continue the metagame that was shaped in 2004”. This would be the sourcebook Gehenna which presented several options for the “end of the world” of the World of Darkness and the tie-in novel Gehenna: The Final Night be Ari Marmell. If these events will be rolled into the new edition in an “After the End” manner, it’s not yet known. This project began in controversy after White Wolf announced hiring Zak Smith (aka Zak Sabbath or Zak S) back in February, a man who has been accused of harassing behavior, to work on a video game. WW's response can be found here.

So some of you may be wondering where Onyx Path is in all this. They’re still around, but they’re not involved with this new edition of the game. They are, however, still creating new material for World of Darkness. But not for the new edition. Onyx Path still holds the license for the Chronicles of Darkness (which is the official name of what was called the New World of Darkness titles: Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, etc.) and they hold the license for the 20^th Anniversary editions of all the World of Darkness (the official name for Old World of Darkness titles: Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, etc.). So Onyx Path is still publishing new material for both of these lines, but are NOT publishing material for the new 5^th Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade.

So White Wolf was purchased by CCP Games (makers of the Eve Online franchise) who only wanted the IP rights to make a World of Darkness MMO. After many years of development, the title was finally canceled in 2014 and White Wolf plus all its assets were sold to Paradox Interactive in 2015. Late last year, Paradox Interactive spun White Wolf Publishing into its own (but fully owned) company in anticipation of publishing a new edition. At this time, the licensing deals were restructured and, when the dust settled, the licenses for Chronicles of Darkness and the 20^th Anniversary versions of the original World of Darkness games were with Onyx Path and the live-action Mind’s Eye Theater remained with By Night Studios. So this is how White Wolf is coming out with a new edition at a time when Onyx Path is running a Kickstarter for a World of Darkness themed card game.

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Green Ronin launched a talent search for contributors to The Lost Citadel roleplaying game, based on the fiction anthology and world developed by Jaym Gates, C.A. Suleiman, and Ari Marmell about a fantasy world in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. There is a catch, as they’re specifically accepting proposals from women. From the announcement:

In the lead-up to June’s Kickstarter for the LCRPG, we are going to be running a talent search for women who are interested in coming to work on the project. If you identify as female and dark fantasy is your jam, we want to see what you can bring to the table! Not to worry, fellas, we have some other opportunities for you coming up later in the year, as well, but this talent search is just for the ladies.

A statement was issued to further clarify that the talent search was also open to those who identify as non-binary gender. The announcement from Green Ronin General Manager Nicole Lindroos comes following a post from Green Ronin President Chris Pramas [EDIT: This post was from Green Ronin General Manager Nicole Lindroos, not Chris Pramas as original posted] speaking about his [EDIT: her] experience on a panel at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, noting the gender discrepancy of those in the industry and those looking to break in, noting both how far the industry has come and how far it still has to go.

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7^th Sea promised a platform for user-created content during their wildly successful Kickstarter last year, and now they’ve delivered as Explorer’s Society is live. The online store allows users to create and sell content for the 7^th Sea 2^nd Edition game, including adventures, NPCs, homebrew rules, or more. There is a content guideline that acts as a license for use of the Intellectual Property, laying out exactly what you can and cannot use from published materials and in what way you’re allowed to use them (this is similar to the license for the DM’s Guild). In the week since launch, there’s already two dozen products available for purchase ranging in cost from free to Pay-What-You-Want to a set price of $3.99 for some of the adventures.

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International Tabletop Day has run into a minor issue: The event is so big that they can’t keep up with demand! This is the first year that all promotional items have been released a la carte rather than as a single one-size-fits-all pack. Personally, I preferred the old way, but that’s because I live in a rural area so my local event always had more promotional items than attendees. However, retailers in more populated areas could customize their orders in order to make sure they could meet demand based on previous events. And this year, the demand was higher than ever – so much so that not everyone will be getting their products. Quoted in ICv2, Producer Ivan Van Norman said “We opened up the print sizes significantly as well with publishers, but didn’t know what to expect with the new system. After collecting all the pre-orders we can tell you that you meet and beat the expectations out of the park. Despite opening up numbers significantly, we are at 85-95% fill rate to pre-orders for almost all items for International Tabletop Day.” The only odd one out was the promotional card from Cryptozoic’s Master of Orion, which only had enough product to fill 16% of the orders and cannot be reprinted in time for the event. International Tabletop Day is on Saturday, April 29 and the official website has a locator to find the event closest to you.

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Even the Kickstarters this week haven’t managed to evade controversy this week! Alternity is now on Kickstarter bringing a world of science fiction adventure. Technically speaking, however, this is not a new edition of the original Alternity game. Instead, this game takes the abandoned trademarks from the original Alternity and creates an entire new rules system inspired by the original. Some on social media criticized Sasquatch games for using the abandoned trademarks rather than creating an original property. My response: Yeah, how dare this Richard Baker and Bill Slavicsek rip off the hard work of the original Alternity creators, Richard Baker and Bill Slavicsek! And can you believe they’re letting George RR Martin write the next Song of Ice and Fire novel? But more seriously, this new game captures everything from the original Alternity with the original creators involved as they update and streamline the game system bringing in the knowledge of twenty years of advancement in the industry since the original. You can get the core rulebook in PDF for $25, a print version for $40, or a bundle of all content including stretch goals in PDF for $45 or adding on a print copy of the core rulebook for $65. This project is about halfway to its funding goal, but has until Thursday, May 4 to reach its $35,000 goal.

Now for some controversial nepotism! EN Publishing, the game design and publishing arm of EN World, is creating a book of brand new classes for the 5^th Edition of “the world’s most popular roleplaying game”. Alchemist, Cardcaster, Diabolist, Feywalker, Morph, Noble, and Occultist are each detailed with multiple subclass builds (see the links for previews). In addition, the book includes new subclasses and build options for the core classes and much more. You can get the PDF version immediately at the end of the Kickstarter for a £10 (about US$13) pledge, or a print copy for £17 (about US$21) for a print copy as soon as it’s printed. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Friday, May 5.

Underworld Races & Classes gives you even more options for your 5^th Edition or Pathfinder games from Adventure a Week Games. What’s the controversy with promoting this one? While I’m not directly involved with this project, I am currently working with AAW Games on another project they haven’t announced yet. That said, this book is a collection of new races, classes, spells, and items all themed around the things that dwell beneath the surface of the world, thriving in the darkness. The PDF is available for $25 for your choice of edition or $45 for both with hardcover versions available for $55 or $105 for both. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Friday, April 28.

That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve been ranting about the Pepsi controversy (there’s no reason not to bring back Crystal Pepsi permanently!), or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.

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[Abstruse]

You know, for all of you screaming discrimination at Green Ronin, there's an easy solution:

Report them.

If you think what they're doing is illegal, report them. If they're breaking the law, they'll be fined.

Also, please record the call you make. I want to hear it.

Dudebro: Yeah, I wanna report SEXIST hiring practices!

EEOC: That's horrible! What is the issue?

Dudebro: This game company is only hiring WOMEN in their talent search contest for female authors! Hello? Hello??

 

[Nylanfs]

The best part of these type of posts (either here or on FB) is it give me more people to ignore and shun.

 

[Jester David]

I don't see a correlation of sexism between the number of "vanity publishers" that exist throughout the industry, including Green Ronin in it's early days. I've been raised and continue to raise my family that we are all equal, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion. Is sexism obliterated? No. But we have much progress since the early 70's, when I was born. GR has the right to make whatever decision they like, and I am free to disagree with it.

Asking if adventure or game design require a penis doesn't even apply to my objection and is fallacy in relation to my objection. Here is my question for you? What if they opened this up to everyone and a man got the job? Would it be because GR is sexist or that the best story happened to be from a male writer?

To me, a better solution for this talent search, would be to seek out amateur writers and give someone their "big break".

You mention to me that later in the year "if your idea is good enough it will be accepted". Why is that okay later but not now? Equality is equality, it doesn't come with an asterisk. I applaud making sure to include women authors, but I don't agree with excluding male authors. If I won a contest with only male authors, I would always wonder what women authors were better than me. It would taint the win for me, because it's, to me, an unsettling and counter-productive decision.

As for my uncertainty, I think it's a poor idea, I'm disappointed in the idea and it doesn't represent my idea of equality. It makes me rethink the project, as a consumer. I'm sure some are attracted to the project because of it, and some, like myself, are put off by it. That's consequence of any decision a publisher makes. I support their right to the decision, yet it will affect how I look at their future products. I won't know if GR picked the best idea, their decision casts doubt on that, since 50% of their talent pool has been excluded.

It's obvious we are both passionate about this issue. I respect your opinion, I simply disagree with you. That's okay and I appreciate the discourse.

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Right now there are systemic issues in place. Things are NOT equal, and they don't become more equal by pretending things are fair, by ignoring barriers that are in place.
The hard fact is, opening the contest to everyone just isn't giving everyone an equal chance.

I don't like the idea of excluding anyone, and think everyone should be judged on their work alone. But that's not the world we live in. People aren't starting in the same place and haven't been given the same opportunity. By limiting the contest it's going to encourage authors that wouldn't otherwise have thought to contribute. And it's also gaining more attention, gaining more attention for the talent show.

 

[discoDM]

I would like to award Jester David all the XP.

 

[Sunsword]

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The hard fact is, opening the contest to everyone just isn't giving everyone an equal chance.

I support your right to you opinion, but I vehemently disagree with it and I think it us regressive and not progressive.

 

[Jester David]

I support your right to you opinion, but I vehemently disagree with it and I think it us regressive and not progressive.

I'm not asking you to like it. I don't much like it. I'm pretty sure the women participating don't much like it either. The question is whether or not it's necessary. It's basically a spin on affirmative action, which was a policy in the US as far back as 50 years ago.

The issue of equity and women representation is a big issue in STEM jobs at the moment. Gaming is running parallel to this for reasons, likely the overlap between tabletop and video games. Women disproportionately do not get computer science degrees. And one of the reasons why is the lack of women spokespersons advocating math, sciences, and computers. Because women don't hold the jobs and positions fewer women apply in the future.
It's a vicious cycle. Without deliberate action nothing changes.
There are fewer women in gaming. Why? Because games are designed by men for men. Why? Because there are fewer women designers. Why? Because there are fewer women in gaming.

Not having representation in the industry sucks. Diversity is a good thing. Everyone should be able to play games and enjoy themselves. I loved D&D and tabletop gaming and want the industry to thrive and for everyone to have a place at the table.
Excluding people sucks. Even if it's a well represented group like white males.
It really comes down to what sucks the least: not having diversity or purposely excluding a group of people.

Now, to me, the tipping factor is that women are already excluded. By being under represented they're already unintentionally excluded. It's implicit exclusion. So explicitly excluding an already advantaged and well represented group is the lesser of the two evils. I'm not going to come out here and say it's a good thing. That I like it or want it to happen. But I hate it less. I condone it.
It's some "ends justify the means" BS.

 

[redrick]

I'm all for Green Ronin holding a talent search specifically seeking out talented women writers. I understand that targeted messages of support and interest towards women and minorities can rub some people the wrong way, but I really do think it is an essential part of helping to make our hobby more inclusive and bring as many kinds of people as possible to our gaming tables. Yay.

 

[jerry247]

This controversy is not about the new edition. It was related to the video-game "Vampire The Masquerade: We Eat Blood" released on Steam and mobile plataforms. The article gives the impression that Zak Smith (or Zak Sabbath) was hired for work into the tabletop game, which, as far as I know, holds no evidence.

and the quote:

a man who has been accused of serial harassment of LGBT game designers and community members and those promoting feminism and equality.

seems like it the opposite of what he is actually doing. changing it to:

a man who has been accused of serial harassment of _ game designers and community members and those demoting feminism and equality of LGBT.

would be more correct.

 

[Xethreau]

I congratulate Green Ronin for their call for female authors. It is interesting to me that all-female environments allow women to grow and express themselves in a way that "equal" environments of mixed sexes do not. I know that sexism still exists because my family is full of strong women, and too many women in the outside world clearly have not had a chance to grow into their power.

I think that this will be a clear plot of ground on which to cultivate the female RPG voice. Let us remember that a woman wrote The Tale of Genji.

 

[Mavkatzer]

I applaud Green Ronin and all members of the RPG community who take action like this to make the world a better place.

I would also like to thank Morrus, Jester David , and all other forum members who have the patience to articulate why these steps are beneficial and even necessary.

Every year, because of efforts like yours, my favorite hobby becomes one I am more and more proud of.