Monte Cook Presents the Year's best D20

[Sir Elton]

Yep, his own standards. He would be foolish to claim that he could judge by anyone else's standards, so he must use his own. As far as I'm aware, Monte has the best selling d20/OGL products outside of WotC itself.

There are people who think Monte's work "sucks." I even communicate with one of those people. D20 junk seems to be produced by just about everyone.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Comments like that don't strengthen the argument from the submitters' point of view.

Getting his fans to eat from his hand is the easy part; but getting those fans to make another purchase from the original source?

Wulf

It works for me as the consumer. I don't know about most gamers, but I have quite a few Years Best SF collections. When I've seen stories by authors that I like, I've gone off and bought their works. So I see Sue's idea as a double benefit. Here's a bunch of great stuff together that Monte's putting in the hard work on sorting through. I'll have plenty of hints as to who does what, so I can go look for more gaming goodies. Right now, there's so much product out there I just don't bother sorting through most of it. A lot of it isn't in the bookstore or gaming store either (not that there is one less than 40 minutes drive from my house).

 

[Umbran]

Objectively speaking, I don't think mechanics are really Monte's strong suit. He's always seemed to me, at least, to have a better handle on outside-the-box creative thinking and had trouble (when he has trouble) with mechanics. Monte is about higher level thinking. Big concepts.

Have you forgotten that as head of Malhavoc, he's more than an author? Some wonderful stuff by Bruce Cordell and Mike Mearls have come from Malhavoc, shoing that Monte's name is also associated with good editorial judgement.

As for the assertion that Monte has better credentials than the ENnie judges, reviewers included-- well, I think that's a transparent case of "hero worship."

Oh, please, Wulf. Stooping to internet mind reading? Are you not an old enough hand around here to know that you should address the content of a statement, and not what you assume to be the author's mental state?

I own three Malhavoc products. I only paid for two of them. I only use one of them - the one I did not pay for, and it wasn't written by Monte. That's hardly "worship". I will thank you to not try to divine my motives through the aether in the future.

Objectively speaking, again, I'd say Psion-- who reads hundreds and plays dozens of products every year-- probably has a better sense of what OGC was good in 2004 than Monte.

Psion has fantastic judgement, no doubt about that. But that doesn't come from simply reading products. Anyone can read products. I've been reading Psion's reviews since the very beginning, and it was clear that he knew what was good product even before there were enough products to have a statistical sample. So how many you've read really isn't the issue.

Monte helped build the system. And then went on to make a company that has been consistently producing some of the best-selling and most acclaimed products for half a decade. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but this stands out to me as better credentials than "I read many products".

I do wonder how much this will "compete" with the ENnies.

Well, Monte's collection has a lower implicit entry fee. But folks will have to buy a book to see the results in full. Meanwhile, the Ennies get awarded at the most visible gaming con of the year, before Monte's collection in September, and cost the public nothing to see the results.

I don't think there's much competition there at all. Do the Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies compete in any meaningful way with the Nebula and Hugo awards?

 

[Krug]

True, and I didn't like that either. I am very strongly against the cult of personality, of putting somebody on a pedastal just because of they are a "big name". I don't like it when actors do it, and I don't like it when others do it. I think a person should be judged on their work, not because of their name.

I have also been thinking, instead of calling it "Year's Best", which is a misleading name considering the process for submission, and the fact that it is selected by one single person, perhaps he ought to rename it to "Showcase", as that does better describe this future product. It is him, showcasing things he likes, not neccessarily the "best" of the year.

Why not just carry it further and rename it the "most mildly interesting D20 rules of the year from one person's opinion that might not gel with yours?"

 

[Sholari]

Personally, I think Monte will do a good job on it, but in principle I think it sets a bad precedent. One publisher judging other publishers work seems like a bit of a conflict of interest.

 

[philreed]

Personally, I think Monte will do a good job on it, but in principle I think it sets a bad precedent. One publisher judging other publishers work seems like a bit of a conflict of interest.

I think it would be worse if he was releasing a list of "the Year's Worst" D20 material. I like it when authors/publishers point out competing work and let their fans know about the good stuff.

 

[Piratecat]

Frankly, I see this as a win-win. Monte gets some exposure and some sales, and a lot of talented authors get their work in the hands of people who would otherwise never see it.

 

[Pramas]

I think it would be worse if he was releasing a list of "the Year's Worst" D20 material.

Year's worst d20, now there's a crackerjack idea, Phil. I think we'd need more than 96 pages for that one though.

 

[philreed]

Year's worst d20, now there's a crackerjack idea, Phil. I think we'd need more than 96 pages for that one though.

Hell, there are days I feel like I could fill a book of that size with my own work. I think I delete more material than I publish.

Sounds like I'd better get to work asking for submissions from authors and publishers. It would be interesting to see how many people submit their material to such a product.

 

[BryonD]

As for the assertion that Monte has better credentials than the ENnie judges, reviewers included-- well, I think that's a transparent case of "hero worship."

Wulf wins one cookie.