And the rest is silence.

[Michael Morris]

Twelve persons committed to reviewing the Player's Guide a month ago. To the last, I have been betrayed and lied to, for nothing was written. So I then resorted to a poll. 12 votes only. Hardly what I had imagined. I would have prefered a hundred cries of "this thing sucks" to 12 votes. Apathy is a horrible thing.

It's as if I worked 2 years for no reason at all. I don't like that feeling.

When a setting fails to garner sufficient support for the effort put into them, they die. No matter how well, or poorly, they are done, they die. While there might be six people interested in Dusk, and I do thank them for their kind words and morale support, I am sorry to say that isn't enough. I've had recent offers for help, that is true, but I've seen around a hundred offers to help, and only two - Julien Michel and Nicholas Meyer - turned out anything at all.

So the rest is silence. There is still enough material on the Dusk site to be enjoyed, and there is no reason to take it down - but without the DM's half of the book the setting is hardly functional. I say now without doubt that the DM's half will not be written. Unless something drastic occurs to change my mind (like someone going to the effort to write up a 30 page supplement or the like) the setting site will remain as is until Russ decides to take it down.

I shall move on to other projects. I need a holiday, and a rather long one at that. I don't think I'll be seen much in the forumns for the next few months, maybe even longer.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Michael,

I have nothing but sympathy.

I've gone through the same thing, my only consoling suggestion is to do exactly what you already are doing, which is to take some time off. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe you won't, but make it your descision.

Good luck.

 

[Axiomatic Unicorn]

Michael,

If you worked for two years so that you could have a lot of people accept and endorse your efforts, I am afraid you may have made a mistake.

I have my own campaign setting that I have been working on for over 12 years now. It is a labor of love, and I have spent time developing details that will never see a single game session. To me it is the perfect setting. But I have no thought that anyone else would be interested in it.

But why would I be interested in your world, if I already have my own?

I looked at some parts, and it looks like you have done a good job. Nice work.

Unfortunately, the next thing I have to say is : So what?

There are lots of game worlds out there. The best setting in the world, at this point, would be nothing more than "just another setting"

Look at this poll on Monte's site:
http://pub58.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm16.showMessage?topicID=37.topic

He offered up his own world as a source book and got a whole 37 votes in favor. You world generated almost a full third as much interest as the guy who wrote the DMG. That seems like something to be proud of.

My point being, people don't care about web-based campaign settings. There are so many old standards out there to choose from. A few new settings have been published after the advent of 3E, but they have big names backing them.

I certainly don't get the idea that enough people are actually playing on Kalamar or Scarred Lands to support those settings. Many are for certain, but the bulk of the people supporting those worlds are doing so like I am, buy the products to steal the cruchy bits and occasional plot twist for the game world they actually play in.

Sorry if I sound unsymapthetic. I do think you did a good job.

I would encourage you to re-consider your choice to abandon the project. If your goal was to make a world that would be widely accepted, I think you set yourself up to fail. And your choice now is good.

If you were making a world because you enjoy the creative process and defining a world for your own games that works the way you think it should, then please forge ahead. Enjoy the process and let the fun of building be both the means and the end. If two other people out there use your world, bonus. But it you do keep working, be prepared for apathy. It is not reasonable to expect anything else.

 

[Piratecat]

Well spoken, Axiomatic Unicorn. I've always thought of writing up a campaign world as being similar to writing a story hour: you might as well do it only for yourself, because most people aren't going to give a damn no matter how good it is. If other people then decide it's fun, all the better.

Michael, regardless, I'm really sorry; I can imagine how frustrated you must feel. Please take a week or so, and then email Morrus or myself about what you'd prefer to do with the Dusk forums. We'd be honored to keep them up if you want them to stay active.

All my best -

 

[Talaysen]

Michael -

Speaking as one of the editors to whom you sent a review copy...the Dusk player's guide was passed along to one of my staff reviewers, but she has not yet submitted a review. Even if she had, I couldn't have posted it, because RPG Action's admin system is STILL down. I've been told over and over that we'll be able to post reviews "by the end of the week" - and then the end of the week has come and gone, and another week has passed, and another.

You're not the only one who's ticked off at me right now, but please understand that this is beyond my control. If I could post reviews, I would. If I had a review of the Dusk player's guide to post, and could post it, I would. There WILL be a review sooner or later; we just have a bunch of stuff to deal with first.

My apologies to anyone else who feels somehow slighted by all this. It's nothing, absolutely NOTHING personal. We just have some problems to resolve. We are still working on them. Really.

 

[Chronosome]

IMHO.

I love what you've done with DUSK, Michael, I'm
just not really into changing campaigns right now.
(Running a homebrew and loving it.)

If this is about recognition of your talent, believe me...
it's recognized. If it's something you love doing, please
don't give it up because of any phantom fears of being not-so-
good. If it's just not worth the effort, so be it...

Write on, you writer...and know your material will be missed.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I've read much of your Dusk material, and found it very good indeed! I love to read campaign-settings, if only to get ideas for my own. Please, keep up the good work!

 

[Michael Morris]

If you were making a world because you enjoy the creative process and defining a world for your own games that works the way you think it should, then please forge ahead. Enjoy the process and let the fun of building be both the means and the end. If two other people out there use your world, bonus. But it you do keep working, be prepared for apathy. It is not reasonable to expect anything else.

If it is not reasonable to expect anything else than I fear that much that is regarded great literature should have never been written. But you are right in that I have taken the wrong tact and worked for the wrong reasons.

Dusk launched in August 1996 to become a networld. That is what I looked forward to when I brought the setting online, and that has never come to be although I will admit that many folks have consulted with me on this or that aspect of the setting. There are some materials of the setting written or at least heavily influenced by others. While Dusk was largely my creation, it has never been wholly my creation - and in favor of this latter option I'm going to move on.

Should the forumns be taken down? No, I don't think so. They at least should remain as a channel by which the once in a blue moon question gets asked. I will answer.

As to other projects, I have two I'm pondering. One is a completely new world, but unlike any you'll see online or in print. A long time ago I wrote a novel set in the Forgotten Realms - and I've always found it odd that my one novel was outside my own setting. Obviously I can't publish a Realms novel, so it must be rewritten. Along the way I have decided to build a new stage upon which to set this story that is very dear to my heart and complete it.

I should say that if a setting's creator calls it "Yet Another Generic Fantasy Setting," as I have once called Dusk, then time has come for it to be set aside.

I feel like a stair builder who, having gotten near to the end of his grand project, has found that he placed some foundational beams horibbly out of place. There is no cure but to destroy the flight and build anew from the experience.

These last two weeks I have been doing just this in my head - drafting out the plans of a stronger structure upon which I can avoid the mistakes of old.

And I have stories to tell, mind you, stories that will become novels to endear this land to the hearts of others on their own terms so that this place will be more than the sum of its parts. This, more than any other reason, is why the Realms thrive. Monte Cook pointed this out himself - the Realms has many, many stories within it, but it also avoids the problem of the grand quest that plagues Dragonlance or would plague any campaign based on The Lord of the Rings - the great deed having been done to save the world, what more need is there of heroes? Not so in the Realms, so it thrives. So too do its novels, for they are the key - not campaign sourcebooks.

For two weeks have I worked on this and found it a happier time than all the two years spent on the third edition of Dusk. So do not mourn for me, and do not pity me either. Nor is Dusk fated to be wholly dead. Some of her characters will return in different guises.

As far as marketability is concerned - I do care about this because I want as many folk as possible to be entertained by my stories. Such is my nature. And when the time comes I shall, if necessary, fund its publication myself.

I say only this. This world is not medieval. Nor is it something downright weird like techno-fantasy. I say only that it will be wonderful. A world of stories, heroes and legends first - a "campaign setting" second.

As to the second project - on this I shall speak more free. Throughout the history of Dusk I've dropped in hints and the likes on how to improve one's roleplay. My second project, and the one that will give rise to my next published product, deals solely will roleplaying itself. I intend to take what I have learned from theatre and adapt it for the use of gamers - particularly those interested in improving their ability to portray their characters and make them seem alive. The working title is "A Roleplayer's Handbook." I intend to contact Russ to see if Natural d20 is interested when I have a first draft. It will probably not be a long book - I don't expect more than 30 pages - but I hope that it will prove useful, at least more useful than the much maligned Hero Builder's Guidebook.

Well that is all for now. As I've said before, I only see a computer now once ever one or two weeks. That said, I will reply in due time.

 

[Axiomatic Unicorn]

If it is not reasonable to expect anything else than I fear that much that is regarded great literature should have never been written. But you are right in that I have taken the wrong tact and worked for the wrong reasons.

I am sorry, but I greatly disagree. I believe that the vast majority of great literature was not written because the author wasa striving for the approval of the masses, but because the author was personally devoted to the work.

And if you are going to even bring up "great literature" in the discussion of your own work, you are simply begging to be flamed.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...And if you are going to even bring up "great literature" in the discussion of your own work, you are simply begging to be flamed.

I was about to point that out as well. Humbleness will take you further than self-aggrandizment (unless it is the mid 1980's and your name is David Lee Roth)