NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 4231617" data-attributes="member: 13892">Hi, Luke. I didn't say all of them. I said many. I don't think that Ken Hite's review is a shill, of course.We both know that shilling your buddy's game by way of review or directed forum discussion is whole heartedly endorsed by many Indie publishers as a valuable viral marketing tool. A quick Google search will dredge up some rather telling links between the authors of many small-press RPGs and the reviewers who give them glowing reviews. A few more Google searches will dredge up some rather telling soap box editorials about how several small-press publishers only distribute review material to 'friends' or other close acquaintances who will gurantee them a positive review.  I'm uncertain if you're aware but, recently, there have been several rumblings in certain online communities about honest peer criticism (as opposed to pulled punches and glowing praise) due the perceived recent spate of woefully explained or poorly edited small-press RPGs (to be clear, I don't think that BW is a game that lacks explanation or editing, I merely think that it's very complex) and, to a lesser, degree because it looks bad. It's a big enough issue that a great many people (including several small-press publishers) think that more brutal honesty and less brotherly love is required prior to the publication of many small-press games. No, it's not. I did note that it's for the pre-revised version of BW, though it's also still very relevent with regard to the degree of 'fiddly' bits that inhabit the game. Not that much changed between editions (though, as noted, I do think that the things that did change, changed for the better). Do stats no longer have Exponents or Shades in the Revised Edition? I believe that they do. Do you no longer have hundreds of skills and traits to track during character creation and dozens to track over the course of actual play. Again, I believe that the answer is 'Yes'. These details are still 100% relevent with regard to how the game functions in its Revised Edition. While it's understandable that you'd prefer people link to reviews that gloss over the specific degrees of complexity with regard to tracking different variables, I do not feel that claiming such variables no longer exist or directing people to reviews that neglect to mention them is honest. This is exactly why I linked to John's review. While parts of John's review are no longer relevant (feel free to spell out which parts, if you like), the sections that deal with the many dozens of variables in play at any given time are still dead on. I think it's probably safe to assume that we disagree on all of this. That said, I don't think that I need to explain my posts any further. If you want to discuss this further, feel free to PM me or email at jdrakeh [at] msn [dot] com.</blockquote>

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