jmucchiello said:
Well, I've never said anything because who am I (as author of
Joe's Book of Enchantment) to tell someone that a particular book title isn't a good idea.
But Since you ask, RULEZ is just do W4R3Z D00D!-ish to me.
Hi Joe!
OK OK. Points taken (and from at least two people whose posts I'm familiar with and whose opinions I trust.) . Guess we are shopping for a new name.
I *DO* know that I spend way too much time with that particular (31337 9009z) crowd ... (which is silly for a guy coming up on forty, but I AM in compsec, so "know your enemy" is a good excuse...).
So what's in a name? It should be:
- memorable
- brief
- non-generic
- descriptive of the product
- not offensive
TO SUMMARIZE THE PRODUCT
A reference guide for players in a fantasy role playing campaign where the game master wants the game to go beyond hack and slash and incorporate elements of a society including ownership of real property, social status, social position, and traditional social structures.
The focus is to make implementing this system very easy for the GM (minimal workload) by allowing him to assign these features to the player and have the player be responsible for reading the book and understanding what his character can do by virtue of having these features.
The overall system consists of three elements. Attributes, Holdfasts, and Social Templates.
Attributes. Attributes are simple metrics which describe the character's place in society. They include Fame, Notoriety, and Iinfluence.
Holdfasts. Holdfasts are things that the characters can own that have social meaning - everything from a cottage to a kingdom; a shop to a multi-national guild; and a shrine to a major religion. They are presented as simple, discrete statsblocks (just like spells) so that the GM can say, "one of your holdings is now a 'town'" and the player can look up "Town" in the rulebook and see exactly what a town is; and the rights, privileges, and revenues the town grants him.
Social Templates. Social Templates indicate position in society and can be both positive and negative. They include such things as "Stranger", "Fool", "Guildsman", "Priest", "Earl", "Judge", "Magister", "King", and "Emperor". Once again, the focus here is on making this *very* easy for the GM. Each template is presented as a statsblocks so that the GM can say, "you are now considered a 'Baron'" and the player can look up "Baron" in the rulebook and see exactly what a baron is; and the rights, privileges, and POSSIBLE ACTIONS that being a baron grants him.
Character Classes. There are also nineteen character classes that implement and integrate all of these concepts but still are 100% playable and balanced to be played in a traditional D&D type game. The classes gain social templates and holdfasts as they advance, along with their fighting and/or spellcasting abilities. There are also suggestions for giving out the templates and holdfasts to core D&D classes.
Spells. Finally, we added about eighty spells (including a substantial number of realm-type spells for working within the system.
END SUMMARY
"Tapestry" actually is a bit intriguing, but not descriptive enough.
I had though about things like "Roleplaying Handbook", "Core Rules for Roleplaying", etc, but the D20 folks at Hasbro frown on that sort of thing now.
One of my playtesting groups started calling the volume "the Earth Rules" so we had stuck with "Earth Rulez!" as a working title.
Any other ideas? I *am* serious about compensation for any title we end up using ...
As for putting message boards and more news on the website for our "customers", (quoteunquote because the notion of customers for a company with no published product is silly) I don't think it's time yet. I can imagine the discussions:
GUY #1: Wow, that marketing literature sure sounds great!
GUY #2: Yeah, sure hope its not vaporware.
GUY #1: Yeah, me too.
FAUST: It isn't vaporware.
GUY #1: Good.
[REPEAT ABOVE DISCUSSION SEVERAL TIMES PER WEEK UNTIL I GO CRAZY]
No, sometime before publication we'll have such features, but not yet. I thank you for the comments, though.
As I said before, there is a very real tradeoff right now between authorship and marketing, and I am personally the weakest link. The time I've spent on this thread alone has cost me an hour and a half or so of editing time, and that is a substantial portion of what I can contribute on an average day.
I will see you all when I can SHOW you the product, rather than just talk about it.
Faust
Lead Editor
Earth 1066 Design Team
