Recent content by Some Dude

-Lawsuits against Mayfair/Role Aids. Continued legal dickery which eventually resulted in Mayfair selling the line to TSR, who promptly buried it. -The OGL, as I previously stated. -Removing Cthulhu from Deities & Demigods, despite being told they could use it as long as they gave credit...

From the lawsuits of the '80s to the OGL, D&D has been actively hostile towards other games for decades. "Trickle-down gameonomics" may or may not be a thing. I'd need to see some numbers, honestly. Even if it did turn out to be true, it'd have to be an awful lot of gamers to offset the bad...

I get the academic distinction, but the fact remains: When D&D sneezes, the hobby catches cold. That's why I used the term de facto.

As someone who thinks D&D being the de facto face of the hobby is a bad thing, I was really hoping the OGL would disappear. And take D&D's dominance with it. The architects of the OGL have admitted that it was designed to curtail interest in non-D&D rulesets. And it's led to everyone trying to...

This is kind of the problem with "apolitical" spaces in the hobby. Even if you don't see this as a battle, the other side does. They won't stop, they won't cede ground. Far right people are actively trying to change perceptions and shift the Overton window. In RPGs and every other space they...

I've only backed 20 or so crowdfunded RPG/boardgame projects. The only one I've been disappointed in was the latest Talislanta KS. The game is fine, but there were too many typos IMO (including on the maps), and the quality of the materials was mostly subpar. I understand this was a difficult...

Like a lot of things, It's a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, you want enough of a history there that anyone searching that person's name is gonna find the bad stuff. But after a certain point, yeah, you let 'em fade into obscurity.

Patchouli dice incoming

I ultimately canceled my pledge largely based on the rules being rewritten or re-designed. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with SJG doing so, but my own reasons for buying would have been purely nostalgic, so I was hoping for a straight reprint. I wish them luck with it, though.

I really enjoyed hearing from one of the old guard who hadn't crossed over to the dark side. Sleep well, Mr. Kask. You brought me much happiness over the years.

This. Marcia B. of the Traverse Fantasy blog really did her homework. It's the first link in the OP. Not much I can really add to that. On the matter of Noora's Intruders RPG, it was brought to my attention (and I verified) that a dozen pages of tables from that game were lifted verbatim from...

Looks like Unconquered, along with Intruders, both from Monkey's Paw Games (and both containing plagiarized material) have been taken down.

Two years ago, blogger Marcia B. wrote a post alleging that OSR creator Noora Rose had plagiarized from several indie creators for her game, Unconquered. She included many citations and examples, and it did indeed appear as though material from Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grasslands, Leo Hunt's...

I concede that I forgot about the Monster Rating, that's clearly T&T-derived. It's also quite similar mechanically to classic T&T. The new "Saving Rolls," not so much. They still feel like a whole new mechanic with the old name slapped on. Which is pretty much how this new edition feels on the...

I will probably back this one, despite having a fair bit of the older material. I've seen chatter that it's going to be "modernized," though. Streamlined, or something. Been a while since I looked, but I do not remember this one being at all crunchy lol.