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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Treebore" data-source="post: 3337235" data-attributes="member: 10177">Now here are my answers to questions on the Forge. 1. How long have you been roleplaying? Have you ever stopped roleplaying altogether for any significant period of time? If so, why?I have been playing since May of 1985. The longest break I ever took from gaming was 8 months, due to simple burn out and wanting to focus on other things.2. What keeps you coming back to the roleplaying hobby?The fun, the creativity, and that I usually like people who like RPG's more often than people in other "groupings".3. Using your best guess, what roleplaying game have you played the most? What about that game has kept your interest over the years? Are you still playing that game?No guess to it. D&D, every edition. Plus now C&C, which I consider to be an "alternate 3E" that I like much better. Why has it kept my interest? My favorite genre in which anything can happen, so the ideas are endless. I still play the C&C version of it.4. What do you think of White Wolf's decision to reboot the World of Darkness?I don't know. I only followed White Wolf because of Engel and their affiliation with Arthaus and Necromancer Games.5. How do you feel about Mongoose Publishing's habit of rewriting and relaunching old games (Paranoia, Rune Quest and so on)?I feel it is a great thing. Paranoia will always have a special place in the sick and twisted part of my heart. Runequest I am not so hot on. I am excited about Lahkmar and I do like their incarnation of Glorantha. Other than that I am really not into any of the other stuff Mongoose does. I may pick up the Conan and Slaine stuff someday, but I am in no hurry to do so right now.But I am glad they are doing it, keeping the old stuff updated and in the RPG public eye, even if just a corner of it.6. Many creator owned (Indy) game designers have a hard time affording anything but a bit of art. Part of your requirement is to judge a games presentation. This seems to limit the ability of many Indy designers to compete on a level scale with large game companies. Do you feel it's fair to judge a game on it's presentation?Yes. But presentation is more an issue of clear layout that makes for easy reading and finding key rules quickly than art or being full color.7. Many creator owned game designers have a difficult time being able to afford the cost of giving away free books to enter a competition like the Ennies. They aren't able to use the same markets of scale to justify the cost. Giving away PDF's can potentially bite into the profits of a small creators book sales, if those PDF's aren't guarded with care. If a creator owned game were supplied to you as a neatly arrayed text only file how would you judge it? Do you think that's not a good question, because someone should feel safe putting their potential profits in your hands, or do you think that eating the costs of free books is part of the game for entering the Ennies?Speaking from the perspective of a small business owner, if you want to compete with the big guys your going to have to sink money into it. Otherwise you don't grow your market. Then you will crash and burn sooner or later, and no one will notice.8. What do you think should factor higher when judging a game; randomization (or lack of randomization) mechanics, setting, presentation and art, theme, addressing specific styles of play, or a grabby situation?I think Mechanics and Presentation are the biggest factors. As for personal use those are the only factors I am concerned about. If it is also a good setting idea, well executed, great. Art is nice. Qin blew me away when I first looked through it at GenCon. Its the first product that I almost bought just because of how awesome the art is. I didn't buy it though. I successfully resisted because I wanted, and want, to wait until I find out how the mechanics are and how well the material is written. If I like what I see and/or hear, I'll buy it.But if I am a judge I am hoping that the products we are given to review are so awesome that we will have to use such factors to whittle the list down to 5 for each category. However, when I am whittling down my list the Mechanics and Presentation are going to be my key criteria. Only if there are two or more products too close to call will I start to use other criteria to decide.Unfortunately, in a competitive environment like this, such decision may have to come down to such criteria. Assuming there is a lot of top notch competition submitted, which I hope will be the case.Is that fair to small budget Indies? No. As I understand the ENnies, that is how I will have to judge it. If the Mechanics and Presentation are very well done, it will have a good chance to get nominated by me, though. It would definitely have to be exceptional.</blockquote>

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