Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Jim Ward and Chistopher Clarke form Eldritch Enterprises

[jaerdaph]

Don't worry: I won't stay.

And that would be a shame.

 

[darjr]

Madness!

Truth is I'm not much of a forum-user and never have been. With the exception of Fin's OD&D Discussion, I rarely visit forums, let alone post to them. But I was getting a lot of hits to my blog from this thread and I was curious to see what it was all about, so here I am.

Don't worry: I won't stay.

I hope you do. I appreciate that you have stopped by.

I hope the new company succeeds and I'm looking forward too what they produce.

At some level I think the thing they should do as a company is run Tower of Gygax or something similar for conventions and other events. Tower of Gygax at GenCon was a ton of fun.

 

[Corathon]

I guess that its a matter of taste, but I liked a lot of the stuff that Frank Mentzer wrote. While the majority of the Fast Forward stuff was pretty awful, Gammaworld and Metamorphosis Alpha were pretty cool. Tim Kask I know only as a Dragon editor, and the other fellow I don't know at all. The residual goodwill for the 1st 3 men is enough to get me to give their stuff a try, but, ultimately, its my opinion of the products and not the creators that will determine what I buy.

 

[JohnRTroy]

I'm not sure what bearing being a "true historian" has in this particular case, since I've never claimed to be such and anyone who actually reads my blog with any attention knows I am anything but unbiased.

To be fair though, at one point you did call yourself a historian in your "about me" box/section (though you've changed that), or sometime the term "explores the history", etc. The only reason I mentioned that comment is because I think a lot of people combine some of what you do with your very formal style and use of analytical neologisms like "Golden Age of Gaming", "Gygaxian naturalism", etc., and see you in that light. I was just reminding people that at the end of the day, Grognardia is more or less the equivalent of an opinion column.

(I'd actually like to see some real historical analysis of the gaming hobby, similar to the great 40 years of Gen Con book that Robin Laws wrote which to me evokes the work of Studs Turkel.)

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy the site. I just think people should occasionally be reminded of that, as in this day and age people blur opinion with fact or news. And I was mostly responding to the guy who said "those guys", which shows that there's a perception that you have staff and are like a newspaper.

 

[JamesM]

To be fair though, at one point you did call yourself a historian in your "about me" box/section (though you've changed that), or sometime the term "explores the history", etc.

In my earliest profile, which I haven't used since 2008, back when very few people read the blog, I believe I called myself a "student of philosophy and intellectual history," which was a reference to my academic background, nothing more.

The only reason I mentioned that comment is because I think a lot of people combine some of what you do with your very formal style and use of analytical neologisms like "Golden Age of Gaming", "Gygaxian naturalism", etc., and see you in that light. I was just reminding people that at the end of the day, Grognardia is more or less the equivalent of an opinion column.

Maybe I'm weird, but my natural inclination is to assume that everything on the Net is the equivalent of an opinion column -- especially the stuff written by guys trying to sell you something.

 

[havard]

While I do not always agree with James' bias, I have always appreciated his analytical approach and many of his observations are very interesting. This is why I often refer to his comments in my own blog, sometimes in agreement and sometimes in disagreement.

-Havard

 

[jennanorm]

Mentzer as a DM

This past February, I had the pleasure of playing 2 adventures written and run by Frank Mentzer at a Totalcon in Massachusetts. I'm old enough to know when D&D was old school, and there's no one out there more old school (or talented) then he is. His take on gaming is that everyone at the table should be having fun, and the rules should never get in the way of that.

 

[crazycongirl]

This past February, I had the pleasure of playing 2 adventures written and run by Frank Mentzer at a Totalcon in Massachusetts. I'm old enough to know when D&D was old school, and there's no one out there more old school (or talented) then he is. His take on gaming is that everyone at the table should be having fun, and the rules should never get in the way of that.

Better than that, Frank Mentzer and Tim Kask will both be attending TotalCon 25 this coming February 2011 to run a full Old School RPG area and are sponsoring the convention through Eldritch Ent!! I've spent time with Frank. He is amazing and I can't wait to see what he and the gang have created through their new company.

 

[MoxieFu]

Dangit! After that first page I was all set to post:

"Someone is WRONG on the internet!"

Now on the second page everybody has to get all nice, and reasonable, and respectable!

I guess I just can't trust ENWorld to get my tabloidal fix...



Thanks guys!

 

[jaerdaph]

I only read about a dozen blogs daily, about half of which are RPG related. GROGNARDIA is one of those blogs. Like anything, sometimes I agree with what James says, sometimes I don't, but either way it's always enlightening and an enjoyable read.