Awesome shirt, available here.
The artist also has another nifty Marvel-related shirt, referencing the recent company-wide mega-crossover:
Available in multiple colors, along with some other designs and product types, via this webstore.
DOOM!
Far West
I sorta failed at the whole “reader request week” thing — didn’t get enough questions to quite fill up the week (mostly due to seconding, thirding and even fourthing of requests), and then WOTC decided that it was time to shake up the marketplace, leading to an explosion of work-related stuff taking up my time.
The most popular question, though, came from
So, gather ’round the campfire, pardners — I am here to speak of:
A lot of folks have wondered what I would eventually decide to do with my western/wuxia mashup. (For those who are coming late to the party, you can read of its initial inspiration here, in a post from May of 2007.)
I started it as an RPG — using the FATE rules initially, but found through playtest that I wasn’t satisfied. I moved on to working on it as fiction — a novel, specifically — and, although I’ve like the stuff that I’ve done, this also failed to satisfy me. The work on the page was somehow incomplete to me — strangely flat. Not nearly as vibrant as it was in my head. So, that was shelved as well, as I thought about what was missing — my enthusiasm, mostly.
So, long story short: I’ve figured out the delivery method for Far West — and it not only manages to be a bit of a full circle, but also (as appropriate to the concept) is a mashup.
I’m going to do Far West as an animated web series AND a roleplaying game (and possibly more).
The web series idea is one of several I’ve been kicking around for the past six months or so, and certain developments have pushed it into the realm of possibility. Rather than doing it as a live-action series (cost prohibitive, and also lacking the forward-looking mix of format and presentation that I feel the property deserves), I’m doing it as an animation — but the animation will not be like anything you’ve seen before. Not anime, not 80s-toy-cartoon, not Bruce Timm, not CGI — but a true mashup, all of these and more besides, a mix of styles and media, shifting from something resembling sumi-e in one moment to a moving Spaghetti Western poster in the next. The presentation will be as much an amalgam as the setting itself. The mock-up cover that I once posted is a good shorthand of the sort of look I’ll be shooting for — of course, as a still, it lacks the shifting quality that I hope to hit you with.
The web series will be available for streaming viewing via its own site, as well as youtube and possibly a number of other sites (talks pending). We will also offer “season collections” in higher-resolution for sale as downloads, and as DVDs. We’ll also be offering memberships for access to special content (production blogs, behind the scenes podcasts and video, exclusive merchandise, etc.) — and a slate of Far West merchandise… which will include the roleplaying game.
I haven’t designed an RPG from the ground up in about 10 years (UnderWorld, for those keeping score). Since the release of 3rd Edition D&D in 2000 (and the resulting Open Gaming movement), I’ve been content to develop iterations of other people’s rules systems — D&D, d20 Modern, Mutants & Masterminds, Savage Worlds, etc. I enjoy that — but I’ve also got a ten-year itch to design something purely my own. That’s where Far West will come in.
I’ll be doing a completely new RPG, and I will be posting regular design updates here on my Livejournal (and echoed in the membership section of the web series site). The development of the game will be simultaneous with the development of the series. The finished RPG will be one of the merchandise items available at the site — but it will also be available as PDF download via OneBookShelf, and available in print via mail order… AND your local game stores.
So, there ya have it. Far West is a go.
Watch here for news.
Geeks With Entitlement Issues
I know this will probably bite me on the ass down the road, but honestly, that’s never stopped me before, so it’s not likely to start now.
The biggest reason why the games industry is such a fucking ghetto? Most of its supposed “businessmen” are nothing more than the standard run-of-the-mill Gamer Geek, complete with the usual issues of entitlement. They run their operations (whether publisher or retailer) based on what they “know”, filtered through heavy screens of how they think things should be, and what they’re somehow “owed” simply by virtue of being who they are.
There isn’t a whole lot of effort given to a) knowing what the fuck you’re talking about; or b) reacting accordingly with a business plan.
Latest example? The ubiquitous, self-appointed representative retailer Marcus King.
In reaction to the ridiculousness of WotC pulling their PDFs for sale from legitimate online vendors, several publishers have launched specials to underline their continued dedication to PDF sales. White Wolf, for example, is giving away a PDF of the Exalted rulebook, free of charge, for a limited time. Green Ronin put the PDF of their True20 core rules on sale for 10 bucks, again for a limited time. A smart and reasonable response to the alteration in the market (and one that I wish I could follow, but for the fact that I’m simply not doing well enough right now to be able to afford discounting of Adamant’s products at the moment).
Today in ICV2, ,Marcus King takes exception, and complains that brick-and-mortar retailers are somehow owed matching discounts. He has also taken the opportunity in private industry fora to go on at length about the PDF market, which he knows NOTHING about. He’s not alone — these fora have featured a great many “businessmen” squawking about how the whole ePublishing side of the business should be “burned to the ground”, how “75% of PDF customers are crooks” and other gems — all stemming from their sense of entitlement that they’re somehow owed deference and special treatment simply by virtue of being the 21st century equivalent of niche-market boutique buggy-whip salesmen.
In response to Marcus’ public dumbassery, Nicole Lindroos of Green Ronin offers an Open Letter in reply, wherein she not only spells out the obvious, attempting to educate Mr. King and his ilk, but also quite admirably dishes out some smackdown with the ELBOW OF DEATH.
This year, at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas, I’ll be doing a seminar on “Games Publishing and Retail for the New Media” — during which I’ll be talking, among other topics, about how brick-and-mortar retailers shouldn’t be threatened by the ePublishing segment of the market, and pointing out ways that they could, in fact, participate in it and get some of that income stream for their stores.
I’ve talked about this before, the last time I attended GTS.
Retailers showed zero interest, and today still froth about the “threat” to their business model.
I’m hoping things will go differently this time around… but honestly? I don’t have high hopes.