Not everybody gets real excited about this but I just had another editor hand me remarks about another product. So the next few weeks will writing, editing and layout now for Fifteen Faces. Combine that with continuing to write another RPG...busy little bee here.

So far, gamers have donated $122,055.00 to help Haiti!

According to their website, the above is how is going to Doctors without Borders. I don't know if this total includes their promise to match certain donations or not. However, pretty awesome in any case.

I just want to address the naysayers who say this will hurt them in the short run.

1. I think the sales should be compared more like what the difference would be between a product being sold for free verses one with a cost. There is probably a factor of 100 : 1...as in there would at least 100 downloads for the free one verses the one with a cost. So, the 115000 dollars in donation (so far) and about 4500 - 5000 sales would have not been there. Therefore the 4.9 million in lost sales might only look 49000 dollars or less.

2. 49000 in real sales...100 books. Do you really think the amount of lost sales would have been equally distributed among all of the publishers equally? Therefore, the amount of lost sales for a lot of people would equal far less than the same amount spent on marketing/advertising.

3. Eventually, OBS will get back some of the money from filing a huge tax deduction for next year.

4. The package was for charity and everyone knew it. People (and PDFs) are getting attention now, far more than before this happened. Long term = good =prospect for at least 1 sale or review. Short term = yes but far less than some people think.

To the people who say, we should help people at home first.

Here's an idea...help the people at home. Don't curse a cause because it is popular for a moment and the media is focused on it. Eventually, the media will stop covering them. In the meanwhile, donate somewhere else to thumb your nose at them. Show'em you donate where you choose, not based on if the elite flock to a cause or not.

To people who question the value of a product:

To each their own...curse a product in the bundle, post it online and watch the free publicity come in. Heck, I would even plan ahead of time to make a comment saying product x is not worth being in the bundle.

The amount of products only add to the variety of the package and presents a united front of small press game publishers. Split them apart and watch everything slow down as you introduce more decision making into the process. You want to make one bundle of awesome that people can't deny instead of smaller ones that suck the impulse outta buying it. In short, the more impulsive you can make it, the better.

Finally, I'm sure the idea of doing this bundle was thought of by more than one person. This group would surely not go to different websites and brag about how they were first to join the bundle or how they came up with the idea...that would just be crass to say the least.

At this point, people have donated over 3000 dollars through Onebookshelf.com to help Haiti with earthquake relief. They are matching donations. I have news directly from them that they are releasing a huge PDF bundle for only 20 dollars by tommorrow...which is going directly to Doctors without Borders. The bundle is going to have over one thousand dollars in various RPG products for that amount. It might be worth checking out...even a few treasures would make the donation quite a bargain. I can't wait until the list is completely finalized.

They said they were going to pass the word but they asked for the donating publishers to assist. Hope this isn't considered jumping the gun but I figure any advanced buzz is a good thing.

Not really going to go into a poetic waxing over new year's resolutions but I want to get more done this year. I am looking at the world of RPGs. So far, this has resulted in editing two of my product and working on a third one. I am writing another RPG and doing the beginning stuff for a new setting. Plus, I am going to try to spend a bit more money, hire out for a few small jobs and try to get this train moving a bit faster.

I hired out for each of the editing jobs and it has resulted in increased clarity. Plus, I bought PagePlus X3 and it has allowed to do better layout. I am not a master of it but at the very least, it has done more than Word. I've saved money on making a logo with it...therefore, it has already paid for itself just with that.

No big announcements yet...I've keep everyone posted as things get done.

Tags: role playing game, rpg

My editing goals are starting to take shape. Thanks to Jose LaCairo, I have Divine Quest edited. I've hired someone to look over Divine Homelands.

My other stuff will probably wait since I have to get fully moved into my new apartment. It's not much but the rent is reasonable. Once I am moved in, I will be able to work with fewer interruptions.

RPGLinks: Database for rpgs

Mithril: Wargaming supplies

PlayByWiki: a resource for playing text-based games (rpgs) on the web.

Legendary Quest: Free RPG

Forge: A great site for RPG developers ("pen and paper")

RPGnet: Another great site for RPG developers ("pen and paper")

Basic Roleplaying.com - A Basic Roleplaying fansite containing the Basic Roleplaying Forum, the Basic News, Trifletraxor's big book of Reviews, a BRP Fanzine and a BRP Link list.

www.arcnusmagicus.com

Quantum Muse - Posting the finest in science fiction, fantasy, and alternative writing and art. For free. In our sober moments...

Search Engines
www.scifimatter.com : Nice search engine for sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Scifi411: Another sci-fi/fantasy search engine


Lulu: This is actually a self-publishing site - no upfront fees...worth checking out. One can search for self-produced RPGs and such (hence the copout for putting this link here.)


News Sites

www.flamesrising.com: A news site for rpgs and other things - also has forum and other nice features. They also talk about things other than RPGs

gamingreport: Lists RPG industry information - one can submit news items and it is a bit more RPG focused.

www.plothook.com: This site is good for people wanted to play PBF (play by forum) RPGS. It focuses on d20 but they are willing to try RPGS of any stripe.

This is about a month early but I have gone back and started to rework stuff I put out in the world of rpg pdfs. I can't believe the stuff I missed the first time, misspellings and half baked sentences...thank God that people are relatively forgiving to the indie publisher. However, I think the people deserve something more. I recently received a well-timed favor from a random internet stranger. New software, new art...more tools...that always helps as well. I'll post more on that end when everything is laid out. Of course, this is in addition to working on Cursehunter.

There hasn't been a whole lot of new product released on my end due to personal circumstances beyond my control. I haven't been completely idle has I have been typing away, buying art, editing...in other words, lots of behind the scenes stuff. I also need to manage promotion and work. It's a chicken and egg scenerio. If you don't promote, nobody knows about your stuff...if you promote, then you are taking away time from your work.

Hopefully, I get everything balanced here.

Like I said, I did a review for someone since they actually asked:) I might go back and add past reviews I have done for other games and some for games I did...think of those as designer notes.

Name: Bloodbath Hotel
Publisher: Spectrum Games
Line: Slasher Flick
Author: Gregg Helmberger, Kim Foster
Category: RPG (virtual)

Cost: 10.99
Year: 2009

Action, Drama, Horror, Modern, Occult, Various

Review of Bloodbath Hotel

Overview and Disclaimers

This is my second comp product from Spectrum Games since I also reviewed the Slasher Flick RPG as well. I also contributed a little bit to the core rules, so I received a nod in their special thanks section. Finally, they asked me to review this product for them. I said yes and now I can write this capsule review with a clear conscience.

This is an adventure set up for use with the Slasher Flick rules by Spectrum Games. The copy I received was a 139 page PDF. However, they do the "2 of their pages equal 1 8.5" by 11" thing. Therefore, it will only take about 70 pages to actually print the product. Note when I say page after this, I mean one of their pages.

There is no ToC or index but there are handouts such as player maps and character sheets. The artwork isn't overabundant and what is there is line art. It suits the look and theme of the adventure and of the Slasher Flick line but it won't win any awards either. The book is divided into ten sections of varying lengths (which I'll get to in a moment).

I do not have a lot of bad things to say and what I do have is of the "nit" variety. There are a couple of typos in there. One of them was a missing article and the other was having a bit of Director (GM) text italicized as read aloud material. The only other thing I noticed was a tendency to see a paragraph with the last sentence having an extra half space between it and the sentence above it. It didn't happen all the time but it happened enough to be noticeable.

Section One: Flick Synopsis.

This is a one page overview of the premise of the adventure. Without giving too much away, the players are ghost-hunters investigating the abandoned Hotel Isherwood in Detroit. Of course, it wouldn't be an adventure if nothing happened. A killer is on the loose and the hotel is haunted...

Further sections allows the Director to customize the adventure for his or her players but the above is the default for the adventure, without giving away details. I mean, the section did its job and I have no complaints except to wonder if they couldn't have just merged it with the next section. I would have also added what rulebooks were needed since I noticed later on that some of the characters add special abilities that are not in the main rulebook.

Section Two: History of the Isherwood

This section is nine pages long, with three of them devoted to the history of the Hotel Isherwood and six pages to various descriptions of possible haunted rooms. The history was okay in my opinion but I like they would describe a haunted room and then rate the likelihood from 1 to 5. The rating is given by Barry Hampton (NPC ghost hunting professor) and the reason for the rating is also given rather than just putting an arbitrary number down. I think it's a good thing because it adds a bit more to the RP experience.

Section Three: What's Really going on.

The next four pages describe the killer, why he kills, the tactics he will use to kill his victims and his stats. I appreciate the fact that I have methods and a plan, if I am the director, of killing the players. Most games will give you stats, a bit of personality and a bit of a backstory but fail to give you any practical/tactical advise on how to use the NPC. The authors of Bloodbath Hotel did a good job in adding in the right information.

Section Four: Hotel Description and Key

The first two pages or so explains the conditions surrounding the neighborhood that the hotel is in and why the players are considered cut off from help. It can seem a bit like railroading but the nature of the game, geared about one-shots or short arc campaigns, makes it acceptable but I could see how it could frustrating to someone not used to the game.

Another idea I like was the idea of having danger zones in the hotel. Not only do players have to deal with the killer but the hotel itself can be a source of isolation (collapsed staircase) or slow them down. They have to deal with the cold as well since the hotel has suffered damage, which they take time to explain things like how derelicts would have stolen fixtures to sell or to burn during cold winter nights.

The rest of the sections are descriptions of the floors and various rooms of interest. They did a decent job of using the five senses but they also liked their graffiti. They also included any special features or danger spots.

Section Five: Equipment

This is a short (~4 page) section showing what equipment they would have as ghosthunters. They explained what some of it did but there were no special rules or advantages to having it. In my opinion, they should have just combined with section 6: Ghost Hunting since it was only 4 pages as well. It was a quick primer on the subject but I think anyone with even a casual interest in the subject would not have been really surprised by anything here. I didn't like or dislike it since it did the job but it didn't really go into great detail.

Section Seven: Running Bloodbath Hotel

A lot of useful information is packed into 10 pages. The action is broken down into three acts. The first one is centered around the characters setting up their equipment and exploring the hotel. The second act has the killer acting w/o the character knowing. The last one has the characters either trying to survive the night or finding an alternative exit. More killer tactics, inventive bits to make the game a bit scarier, interesting ways for characters to die...good stuff to help run a game.

Section Eight: Customization and Options

Don't like the time or place? The directors has three alternatives (each of which is a little over a page long). Need to describe a random room? Two pages of random tables help with that. Need a different type of killer or a variant of the original...they have that too. Without giving anything away, the customizations center around making the game even more supernatural in nature. Good ideas abound here. You could even use them for other games if you don't want to veer too much from the default layout for the adventure. It's almost like getting one to two additional full adventures for free or at least a huge head start to them anyway.

Section Nine: Timeline

It covers two days and has the regular unfolding of events or options if you choose to go with any of their other suggestions to the game. The use of a timeline can help organize the adventure but I think it could also have been merged into Section Seven.

Section Ten: Miscellaneous

Like the section says, it has a bit of everything in its two or pages. A random rule for exertion of the killer, description of game handouts and a list of websites for inspiration round out the list. By now, one can see a theme of usefulness but alternative ways of organizing could have made the sections/layout a bit more even.

Section eleven: Characters

Slasher Flicker has primary characters, secondary characters, and tertiary characters. They are centered around the idea of various stereotypes and there are instructions for what to alter depending on primary, secondary, or tertiary. For this type of game, they are perfect since their very stereotyped nature fits into the B-rated Slasher Film. The last section is various maps and other aids for the players. They are already in the book but it is nice to just print one section rather than print a page here or a page there. Of course, some might grip about inflating the size of the adventure as well.

Quick Opinion Summation

The Slasher Flick system is small but efficient...lean and mean or underdone depending on your style of game. Like the core book, they do quite a bit for the number of pages they have. It is definitely not for everyone since some people may not like the additional linear nature of the adventure. There isn't a lot of room or suggestions on how to make sequels to this adventure. There are a few small errors of a grammatical nature and it seems like a bit effort could have evened out the layout of the game. However, as I tried to illustrate here, I believe there is far more good than bad here.

Here is the blurb "If you ever wanted to run or playing in a B-movie adventure, then Bloodbath Hotel is not a bad way to go."

Tags: role playing game

This has been most recently touched on by Warehouse 13 but other series had the same idea and I thought about it each time. How does those heroes get the will to not use those cursed items? They will, in theory, have hundreds (if not thousands) of item whispering to them, promising them dark miracles if they will only get them off the shelf and use them. Wouldn't they either quit or go nuts?

I guess "13" has the dark purple slime but their items aren't cursed so much as they have tuned themselves to the personality of their original owner. Claudia does use them on occassion but mostly for comedic purposes. Shouldn't she have been fired by now?

Another show in the past, "Friday the 13th: The Series" had them made by the Devil and sold by Lewis before he died and the gang took over the store. Their security is just sticking them in a hole in the ground. Whee, I can't imagine not getting nightmares every night or other horrible things happening by having that much evil stacked in a pile.

My point is that the shows don't explore this enough in my opinion. Potentially, this could lead to rich character development with the danger of naval gazing. I think a balance could be struck and the basic idea of gathering the Macguffins could be expanded. Also, it would interesting to see security taken a bit more seriously. Not necessarily physically (Warehouse 13 at least nods in this direction but at the same time, come on...multiple break ins...5 people guarding a huge warehouse 24/7...) but constant vigilance and ego building exercises would be necessary to resist the allure of using the items at all. In other words, the mental and spiritual aspects of the job need to be beefed up.

Not much of a thought, more of a mini-rant that I am trying to address in the paper RPG world.

Summary: Heroes resist temptation too easily or have no real penalties for not living up to expectations. Also, make a nod to beefing up security in all aspects of the job.

I have been trying to pick up some rpg related writing gigs but no success at this point.  I have worked on some additional ideas for my own game.  Right now, I am adding rules for making your own organization and a random chart for investigative actions.  Real life doesn't have half a dozen cops or detectives working on one case full time.  Things have kept me from moving as fast as I like:(