No this isn’t a Sex in the City review!
Running on the heels of what kind of gamer are you - are you a solo gamer? We had some mail last week asking about LQ for solo play. Truth is, we have thought about it. The problem is it is very difficult to find a happy medium. LQ is designed to be a dynamic system where anything can happen and the system can give you the CoS (chance of success). With solo play, you either write for what you think is every contingency, or you dumb it down to three choices. So you either waste boat loads of time writing or you ruin the original intent of the game. OK, so I’m being WAY overly dramatic.
Truth is - I think that in today’s gaming world, there may be a nitch for solo play, even though we would be competing strongly against the high graphics computer games. Any feed back? As always, we’ll react to what we think our customers want!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
What kind of gamer are you?
We run into a lot of different kinds of gamers. Some love the types of things we talk about: cultures, cuisine, trade goods. Others have no idea why anyone would care what happened outside of an actual battle. Let’s give you a little insight into the Board Enterprises way of looking at RPGs: We think they are role-playing games! We think that when you make a decision you shouldn’t rely on your overly mathematical sense of the rules, but in what makes sense for your character. Honestly, we’re not into doing voices and acting out everything that happens, though we know people who go for that kind of thing.
By the way - here’s how you know you’re role-playing and not acting like yourself: Imagine you’re walking into a biker bar where everyone is wearing red bandannas, and you put a blue bandanna around your head. Can you imagine doing that? If you can, you’re likely dead, so I guess you’re not reading this. OK - Different. You and your friends have entered an old abandoned house on a dare. They all say, “You go first”, and you do, without thinking, without trying to convince someone else to, you just go. Your characters do this kind of stuff all the time. No sane person does this. That’s how you know that the actions you choose for your characters are different than the actions you choose for yourself, thus, you are role-playing.
So - Why does this matter? Going back to the famous discussion I had with a magazine editor - I submitted an article in which I described the use of magical healing outside of combat - how would it affect the culture and the urban environment? There was also a thing in there about the use of age altering (youth) magic and other magic used simply for the purposes of beauty. The article even had stats on the modern health care and beauty industries. The editor was convinced that this was some sort of April Fools article. No one could possibly care what happened with magical healing outside of combat he insisted. Well, those of us who role-play - we care. The magazine didn’t last a year, but we’re still here. Maybe that proves something.
By the way - here’s how you know you’re role-playing and not acting like yourself: Imagine you’re walking into a biker bar where everyone is wearing red bandannas, and you put a blue bandanna around your head. Can you imagine doing that? If you can, you’re likely dead, so I guess you’re not reading this. OK - Different. You and your friends have entered an old abandoned house on a dare. They all say, “You go first”, and you do, without thinking, without trying to convince someone else to, you just go. Your characters do this kind of stuff all the time. No sane person does this. That’s how you know that the actions you choose for your characters are different than the actions you choose for yourself, thus, you are role-playing.
So - Why does this matter? Going back to the famous discussion I had with a magazine editor - I submitted an article in which I described the use of magical healing outside of combat - how would it affect the culture and the urban environment? There was also a thing in there about the use of age altering (youth) magic and other magic used simply for the purposes of beauty. The article even had stats on the modern health care and beauty industries. The editor was convinced that this was some sort of April Fools article. No one could possibly care what happened with magical healing outside of combat he insisted. Well, those of us who role-play - we care. The magazine didn’t last a year, but we’re still here. Maybe that proves something.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Hundreds of 100s
At risk of appearing obsessed with numbers: (OK - I am, especially when they represent cash) Expect the Baker’s Dozen supplements to be interspersed among some 100s. Likely first up is 100 Towns. Now we’ve seen supplements that are quite literally 100 names of communities, and they take up one page. That’s not what these are. These are going to be 100 _____s with brief descriptions. Right now the 100 towns book is over twenty pages long, but admittedly, the chart format leaves a lot of white on the page.
Anyway - We asked you what you would want a Baker’s Dozen of, so - Anything you’d like to see 100 of? Towns is definitely first, but we’re eyeing daggers and swords to come soon, likely still this year. Our goal is to put out things you want to see, so we’re more than willing to listen.
As an update, here is legitimately what I think you will see available for sale this year. For us, this is a huge list:
100 Towns, Baker’s Dozen Tribes, Book of Wishes (Yep - first draft of formatting is completed), 100 Daggers (or Swords)
Possibles: The core of City of Rhum (kind of the base on which you can hang the other supplements), Coins of the Road - the follow up to Grain Into Gold that will supply trade goods (more later), d1000 - Mercenary’s Greed (a huge random chart for determining loot carried by the bad guys, including ways to alter it so even d1000 will never get stale), and Urban Developments - a method for creating communities that works exactly the way Grain Into Gold created economies.
On Coins of the Road - This thing has been started and restarted about seven times. The issue keeps being that it is too {expletive deleted} huge. We’ve had to pull out all the discussion on gemstones and make Facets. We’ve had to pull out all the discussions of brand name goods (that relate directly to Fletnern). We’ve had to pull out all the magical items. We’ve had to pull out 90% of the write-ups on the merchant houses and cartels (again mostly Fletnern related). We’ve pulled out the travel time information that was also specific to Fletnern. End result - It’s coming. It will specifically be about “standard” trade goods, with few references to Fletnern and very few rule comments.
We seldom talk only about our products, so tune in next week for something more in line with the flavor of this blog!
Anyway - We asked you what you would want a Baker’s Dozen of, so - Anything you’d like to see 100 of? Towns is definitely first, but we’re eyeing daggers and swords to come soon, likely still this year. Our goal is to put out things you want to see, so we’re more than willing to listen.
As an update, here is legitimately what I think you will see available for sale this year. For us, this is a huge list:
100 Towns, Baker’s Dozen Tribes, Book of Wishes (Yep - first draft of formatting is completed), 100 Daggers (or Swords)
Possibles: The core of City of Rhum (kind of the base on which you can hang the other supplements), Coins of the Road - the follow up to Grain Into Gold that will supply trade goods (more later), d1000 - Mercenary’s Greed (a huge random chart for determining loot carried by the bad guys, including ways to alter it so even d1000 will never get stale), and Urban Developments - a method for creating communities that works exactly the way Grain Into Gold created economies.
On Coins of the Road - This thing has been started and restarted about seven times. The issue keeps being that it is too {expletive deleted} huge. We’ve had to pull out all the discussion on gemstones and make Facets. We’ve had to pull out all the discussions of brand name goods (that relate directly to Fletnern). We’ve had to pull out all the magical items. We’ve had to pull out 90% of the write-ups on the merchant houses and cartels (again mostly Fletnern related). We’ve pulled out the travel time information that was also specific to Fletnern. End result - It’s coming. It will specifically be about “standard” trade goods, with few references to Fletnern and very few rule comments.
We seldom talk only about our products, so tune in next week for something more in line with the flavor of this blog!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Tim the Trapper - A story of empty cabins
I wrote this up for a book on the lifestyles of adventurers (as in how much do they cost and what repercussions are there). Well, it got really long and didn’t fit the book anymore, so rather than throw it out, I’m sharing it with you.
Let’s take Tim the Trapper for instance. Tim comes to the big city with his winter pelts in early spring. He makes a killing selling them to the furriers and he is richer than he has ever been before. Then he goes to the inn and discovers how much they want for a room. Several harsh words later, he decides that he is a tough guy and he would rather sleep under the stars than pay those prices. Evening comes, he settles down and has a nice night in the light woods about a mile from the city.
The next day, he explores the city, buying gear and replenishing supplies. He returns to his campsite, but this night it rains. The next morning, he continues his shopping, wet and not as happy. During the day, he meets Milo the Merchant. Milo is selling fire wood, and Tim cannot believe how much Milo is asking for pieces of wood. I mean, come on, they’re just lying around out in the forest. So Tim comes up with a plan. The little furry creatures are shedding and mating, so it’s not a great time to trap them. So he decides to stay here for a while. He’ll gather wood, bundle it and sell it in the city, just like Milo. So Tim brings a dozen bundles to the city, but only sells three. The next day, he lowers his price and only sells four. That’s when Milo spots him. “Hey Tim,” he says, “I notice that you’re trying to sell your fire wood. Tell you what I’m gonna do. Rather than both of us standing around here all day, you go out and get the firewood, and I’ll sell it and give you half.” Well, Tim isn’t a bookkeeper, but if Milo will sell 12 a day, and give half to Tim, then Tim will still be far better off than getting all of 3 sales. So the deal is made.
Throughout this time, Tim has been improving his campsite. First he set up an awning to keep off the rain. Then he built up the fire pit into something more resembling a fireplace. Then he put up some log walls. Before you know it, Tim has built himself a crude cabin in the woods. Tim sells his firewood to Milo for a couple of weeks, but Tim is getting hungry and he hates paying the huge prices in town for his food. So he goes off for a week on a hunting expedition and brings back enough meat that he can preserve some. He brings his firewood to Milo, but Milo has already found another sucker who will go out into the woods and bring back fire wood for him, and he only wants 40% of the profits, so Tim is out of luck.
Disgusted by the whole urban drama, Tim returns to the wilderness to continue his life of hunting and trapping, leaving his cute little cabin behind. If Tim had succeeded, he would have left his cute little cabin in the wilderness behind.
The point of this little theater was to explain that in the wooded areas around fantasy cities, it would be common to find campsites and even cabins. Some might be in use, while others would have been abandoned. Any woodsman with the slightest bit of survival training would easily know how to build some manner of shelter, even if easy to find caves were not scattered across the countryside. While these shelters would likely fall in on themselves after a couple of years, there should be enough of them around that they would make common random encounters in the wilderness. If you need to, think of them as homeless shanties. They may not be everywhere, but if you know where to look (likely close to the stream), you’re going to find them.
Let’s take Tim the Trapper for instance. Tim comes to the big city with his winter pelts in early spring. He makes a killing selling them to the furriers and he is richer than he has ever been before. Then he goes to the inn and discovers how much they want for a room. Several harsh words later, he decides that he is a tough guy and he would rather sleep under the stars than pay those prices. Evening comes, he settles down and has a nice night in the light woods about a mile from the city.
The next day, he explores the city, buying gear and replenishing supplies. He returns to his campsite, but this night it rains. The next morning, he continues his shopping, wet and not as happy. During the day, he meets Milo the Merchant. Milo is selling fire wood, and Tim cannot believe how much Milo is asking for pieces of wood. I mean, come on, they’re just lying around out in the forest. So Tim comes up with a plan. The little furry creatures are shedding and mating, so it’s not a great time to trap them. So he decides to stay here for a while. He’ll gather wood, bundle it and sell it in the city, just like Milo. So Tim brings a dozen bundles to the city, but only sells three. The next day, he lowers his price and only sells four. That’s when Milo spots him. “Hey Tim,” he says, “I notice that you’re trying to sell your fire wood. Tell you what I’m gonna do. Rather than both of us standing around here all day, you go out and get the firewood, and I’ll sell it and give you half.” Well, Tim isn’t a bookkeeper, but if Milo will sell 12 a day, and give half to Tim, then Tim will still be far better off than getting all of 3 sales. So the deal is made.
Throughout this time, Tim has been improving his campsite. First he set up an awning to keep off the rain. Then he built up the fire pit into something more resembling a fireplace. Then he put up some log walls. Before you know it, Tim has built himself a crude cabin in the woods. Tim sells his firewood to Milo for a couple of weeks, but Tim is getting hungry and he hates paying the huge prices in town for his food. So he goes off for a week on a hunting expedition and brings back enough meat that he can preserve some. He brings his firewood to Milo, but Milo has already found another sucker who will go out into the woods and bring back fire wood for him, and he only wants 40% of the profits, so Tim is out of luck.
Disgusted by the whole urban drama, Tim returns to the wilderness to continue his life of hunting and trapping, leaving his cute little cabin behind. If Tim had succeeded, he would have left his cute little cabin in the wilderness behind.
The point of this little theater was to explain that in the wooded areas around fantasy cities, it would be common to find campsites and even cabins. Some might be in use, while others would have been abandoned. Any woodsman with the slightest bit of survival training would easily know how to build some manner of shelter, even if easy to find caves were not scattered across the countryside. While these shelters would likely fall in on themselves after a couple of years, there should be enough of them around that they would make common random encounters in the wilderness. If you need to, think of them as homeless shanties. They may not be everywhere, but if you know where to look (likely close to the stream), you’re going to find them.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
A little help here?
OK - What’s the deal? It took a new guy from Latvia to notice that the BE website’s product links were busted. Oh I’m sure the guys at One Bookshelf told me they were changing the site around, but you know, didn’t seem relevant at the time, I’m sure. Anyway - if you notice something wrong, let us know. We’ll fix it. No, that is not a request for an exhaustive list of everything you disagree with or find grammatically incorrect on every book, but a little heads up about the big stuff would be appreciated. We can take a little criticism (but only just a little, OK?).
Friday, May 21, 2010
A Baker’s Dozen ... WHAT?!?
So hopefully you read last week’s entry about our new supplement A Baker’s Dozen Villains. We are in the process of wrapping up several other Baker’s Dozen projects, but the question is, “What would like to see?” Some of the ideas are setting, people or characters, stuff, or even plot lines. But if you have good ideas, we’ll listen! The next planned one will hopefully be out shortly. (No, really, soon, not like the time between our last product postings.) It will deal with 13 different groups that all tie together. We think it will be a good way to get some of the ideas we have out there without breaking your wallet.
The Baker’s Dozen supplements are exactly what Board Enterprises is all about - We give you great content without wasting your time and money on the stuff you don’t need. Yeah -Art is the #1 thing that wastes space and makes a supplement cost more. This is the internet - If you’re looking for fancy art, check out any one of the artist sites where incredibly good (but typically unemployed) artists showcase their stuff. It’s free, and if you find something you really like, most of them offer purchase plans for posters and what not. Meanwhile, buy our supplements when you want content.
The Baker’s Dozen supplements are exactly what Board Enterprises is all about - We give you great content without wasting your time and money on the stuff you don’t need. Yeah -Art is the #1 thing that wastes space and makes a supplement cost more. This is the internet - If you’re looking for fancy art, check out any one of the artist sites where incredibly good (but typically unemployed) artists showcase their stuff. It’s free, and if you find something you really like, most of them offer purchase plans for posters and what not. Meanwhile, buy our supplements when you want content.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
A Baker’s Dozen Villains
It’s been a bit since we posted new product, but we’ve unveiled a new product line: The Baker’s Dozen. The point of these products is going to be 13 well defined characters or environments that you can drop into your world or campaign. These are strong starting points that you can use. Not only are they great to start adventures, but they are suited for using in series of adventures, to keep the flow going. Here’s the advertisement we posted:
Need some major bad guys to give your game a little boost? Maybe your players aren’t exactly the law and order types, and they need some allies or employers. No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on, sometimes you just need some villains. Here are twelve thirteen heavies ready to mix it up. Their backgrounds and current organizations are spelled out so they’ll be ready to drop into your campaign at a moment’s notice. These aren’t your run of the mill monsters; these are intelligent enemies acting in intelligent ways in a fantasy environment.
Whereas in other supplements we’ve given you ideas that you can flesh out on your own, here we’ve done the extra leg work for you. This is the first of Board Enterprises’ “Baker’s Dozen” supplements. Each will give thirteen immediately usable characters, locations or items that you can use without wasting time on rules changes, etc. Not only should these characters be a strong addition to your world, but they will help you by sparking more ideas for future adventures, characters and even campaigns.
You can buy it either at RPG Now or at Steve Jackson’s e23. It is intentionally only $2, so it’s easy on the pocket book. Let us know any ideas you have for future Baker’s Dozen supplements. We have a few in the works and are hoping to bring them to market relatively quickly.
Need some major bad guys to give your game a little boost? Maybe your players aren’t exactly the law and order types, and they need some allies or employers. No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on, sometimes you just need some villains. Here are twelve thirteen heavies ready to mix it up. Their backgrounds and current organizations are spelled out so they’ll be ready to drop into your campaign at a moment’s notice. These aren’t your run of the mill monsters; these are intelligent enemies acting in intelligent ways in a fantasy environment.
Whereas in other supplements we’ve given you ideas that you can flesh out on your own, here we’ve done the extra leg work for you. This is the first of Board Enterprises’ “Baker’s Dozen” supplements. Each will give thirteen immediately usable characters, locations or items that you can use without wasting time on rules changes, etc. Not only should these characters be a strong addition to your world, but they will help you by sparking more ideas for future adventures, characters and even campaigns.
You can buy it either at RPG Now or at Steve Jackson’s e23. It is intentionally only $2, so it’s easy on the pocket book. Let us know any ideas you have for future Baker’s Dozen supplements. We have a few in the works and are hoping to bring them to market relatively quickly.
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