New Year, New Blog

 So, it's 2023.

Which means it's approaching 10 years since I started posting on Blogger.

Well, I've decided to move over to a new site as part of that New Project I've been hinting at.

To get the scoop and to continue to follow my ramblings, head on over to: https://a2ndchapter.polyhedral.co.uk/ 

All of my previous posts have been ported over and I hope you join them. 

More than one new thing for 2023.

I teased a new project for 2023, this isn't that post.

This post is about other new stuff that I'm doing in 2023.

First up. I should be releasing my first Fear Itself adventure under the Pelgrane Press Community Content Programme in January.

"Only way out, is up" is almost finished drafting, with playtesting aimed for January and then finally releasing it at the end of the month.

I chose Fear Itself for this rather than releasing another Miskatonic Repository title for a couple of reasons.

1. I think I prefer Gumshoe to Call of Cthulhu / BRP mechanically for playing investigative style games. Plus whilst the scenario would work under CoC, it just fits better under Fear Itself.
2. I have more releases planned for Gumshoe so it makes sense to get that ball rolling to test it out from a writing perspective.

Speaking of more Gumshoe releases, I got some lovely Ashen Stars books for Christmas along with the excellent looking Project Cassandra and a bullet journal to take part in #dungeon23

Ashen Stars is another one of the Gumshoe system games that I plan to write stuff for in 2023. I have a 3 part idea that should be playable separately as well as a progression of a wider storyline. Hopefully get the first one done before June.

Would be great if the core book for Ashen Stars was reprinted before I release them but I have it in PDF anyway so no biggie.

Project Cassandra ticks a number of boxes for me, especially having read a lot about Majestic-12 earlier this year. Spycraft and psychics? Winning. Look forward to taking it for a spin.

The bullet journal is for #dungeon23 which in reality will probably be closer to #scenario23 for me as it's unlikely to be a dungeon focused exercise.

The above is also combined with this mock noteboard that I did for my 2023 tabletop resolutions.

If I can do all those things, the ones mentioned above and my new project which is to be announced then it has to be chalked off as a very successful year.

I know I won't be able to do ALL of that but I'd rather set myself a bigger target for 2023, in the hope it gives me more focus.

Ten Years

You know, if you said to me 10 years ago that I'd go on to do what I've done within the tabletop hobby I would have thought you were nuts.

I mean, I didn't join the army nor have I become a professional hitman but it's definitely been a life changing period.

What happened 10 years ago? The 1st Chapter ended, that's what.

It's weird to think back on it, mostly because my emotions at that time were very ragged and I was both mentally and physically exhausted. I was also very much done with all things board, card, roleplay, war game and comic book related.

I recently had cause to be on the street where the shop was and I took a photo. Not quite wondering "What if?" but more in reflection on whether the 2nd Chapter has only been possible because the 1st ended the way it did... No way of actually knowing I suppose but it certainly gave me pause for thought.

If there's one truth that I can take from that thought, it's this, I value my hobby more now than I ever have.

Probably moreso given the last couple of years of COVID.

So, there it is. Ten Years.

Here's to the next ten.

Onwards and upwards...

Since my last post I've done a few things.

Running & Playing

Ran session two of Midnight Sub Rosa for Pelgrane Press' Trail of Cthulhu.

As someone who likes a visual reference both as a GM and a player I decided to make a "map" of sorts for one of the scenes not depicted in the adventure.  Whilst I could narrate the scene (and I did) I find it helps to have something visual to help guide that narration.

In session one there were no dice rolls, safe to say that there were dice rolls aplenty during this session. Fortunately the investigators recovered the occult text and returned it to Miskatonic University; and now must come to terms with all that they've seen.

I also ran The Expanse RPG using the Salvage Op PDF adventure.

This was the first time I'd used the AGE system that Green Ronin have published. As I understand it the version for The Expanse RPG is subtly different from how it's implemented in ModernAGE etc.  I enjoyed the game and the system and can see me returning to it in the future.

So far that's two new games I've run and I've got more games planned.

Alongside those my two D&D campaigns continue to move along nicely, plus I got to play in a game of the new Judge Dredd RPG run by Ross and playtested a new Eberron Adventurers League scenario with Rich, Shane, Ian, Iain and Pete.  All good stuff.

Writing

I've been struggling a bit with this, probably due to too many other things occupying my brain (see above) and missed my planned DMsGuild release in February. It's fine though because...

Out of the blue, thanks to a random reference by Kevin Y and John D to a certain film about immortals with swords I wrote this.

"Less Than Two" A One Page RPG about immortals who wield swords.

I woke up on Sunday morning with the game largely formed in my head. About 6 hours of effort later it was written, had artwork and I'd made it look all fancy thanks to Affinity Publisher. 

So I decided to publish it!  It's "Pay What You Want" with a suggested donation of $2.

It's available on itch.io here and on DriveThruRPG here.

I've also come up with an idea for a series of horror / mystery adventures. Will likely use Gumshoe given my familiarity with it. It's a question of whether that's a hack using the SRD or whether it's using Fear Itself and/or Esoterrorists to take advantage of the DriveThru Community Content licence.

Either way I've given myself 6 months to at least publish the first part...

First though is finish at least one of the DMsGuild products I've got loosely drafted.  Starting with one about a broken time-control clock.

Mapping

I've decided to pick up an Inkarnate license ($25 for a year).

Main reason I chose Inkarnate over other platforms is that the price includes Commercial Use and with that comes a LOT of assets.  If Dungeondraft had a larger Commercial Use asset list included by default then I may have opted for that instead.

Think I'm getting comfortable with it as an app but notice there's a real lack of tutorial videos out there for it...  So if anyone knows of any please get in touch!

Events

Ok so the main bit of news is that we've cancelled 2021's Tabletop Scotland event.  Full details are on the website here.

In short, our venue is currently a vaccination hub for Perth and there is no end date for that.  As a result the venue management team contacted all event organisers to let them know that they were cancelling all 2021 bookings.  We'll confirm 2022 dates when we can.

In the meantime, I co-organised a D&D Game Day over on the Dungeons & Dragons Scotland Discord Server on Saturday 13th March 2021 (today as I write this). Good variety of games offered up and whilst I didn't play in any of them I'm keen to see what the feedback is like on the event. Maybe we'll do another one?

At the very least I hope it enables the D&D Scotland community to embrace more conventions in general.  Not least of which is AlbaCon in October.  Proper planning for that will start soon.

RPGs in Scotland and New Gamemaster Month

I started 2021 with a few notions in the back of my head about what I wanted to achieve this year

I referred to some of those in my end of 2020 post.

Mostly my hobby goal is to enjoy my hobby as much as I can whilst also introducing others to it

One of the things I did in 2020 was to re-launch the Dungeons & Dragons Scotland community and as referenced in that end of 2020 post it has grown significantly and continues to do so.

The Facebook Group now sits at 830 members with the Discord at 412 and both are growing almost daily.

For 2021 I want to diversify the range of RPGs I run and at the same time create a hub for that "non-D&D" community and so thanks to a few others who play a range of RPGs I created a sibling for D&D Scotland called RPG Scotland.

Currently the RPG Scotland community is split into 3 sections:

RPG Scotland Facebook Group (72 Members) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/rpgscotland/

RPG Scotland One Shots Facebook Group (122 Members) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/rpgscotlandoneshots/ 

RPG Scotland Discord (130 Members) - https://discord.gg/zMvpJP2JB6

Why 3? Well the original idea behind having separate Facebook Groups was to have a specific group purely for arranging one shot games.  The Discord is for both communities rather than having it fragmented over multiple servers.  Will see how things develop over the next month or two but I suspect a merger of the two Facebook groups might make sense.

One of the specific benefits of the RPG Scotland community that I can already see is that if I want to run a game that is more of an "idea" than a campaign, then I can get a group of players for it pretty easily.

What to run though? Well I listed several options in my previous post but also remembered early in January that New Gamemaster Month was about to start.

What is New Gamemaster Month?

Well, it happens every January and involves multiple publishers providing support for new GMs to run their games.

2021's list was - Numenera, Unknown Armies, Trail of Cthulhu, Runequest, Monster of the Week & Delta Green.

I ruled out Numenera, Unknown Armies, Runequest and Monster of the Week pretty quickly due to having ran them before or feeling the systems weren't a match for my game style. That doesn't mean I won't revisit them, more that as something I learn to run then organise a game for inside a month it needed to at least be adjacent to my GMing preferences and ideally new.

Gumshoe based RPGs have been something I've looked at in recent years, particularly with Night's Black Agents, so Trail of Cthulhu was the obvious choice.

So I bought the books (print & PDF) as well as some Night's Black Agents stuff I was missing.

Pelgrane Press provided a free adventure for this, Midnight Sub Rosa, and Roll20 offered a discount on the module so I picked it up there.

The adventure was originally designed as a convention scenario and so can be run in about 4 hours. Knowing that it can also take significantly more than that meant making some tweaks to essentially narrow the focus of the adventure.

I advertised it on the RPG Scotland Discord and quickly had 5 players (the most I tend to have for online games) and made it clear that it likely would take more than 1 session although likely no more than 2.

Telegram made using template at https://www.dholeshouse.org/

First session was last Thursday (4th Feb) and served as a reminder of the different style of play Gumshoe provides.  We played for 3ish hours (part two will be needed) and I can't recall any dice being rolled.  This was mostly down to investigative abilities being used which in Gumshoe terms means you don't roll, you simply "spend" a point to get the clue.  Dice tend to only be needed where a direct test is required e.g. in combat situations.

Fun was had and we should have the next session in a couple of weeks time.

I've currently pitched 3 other games on the RPG Scotland Discord:

Feb 25 19:30 The Expanse RPG - One shot [GM: Dave]

Mar 25 19:30 Polar Light (All Flesh Must Be Eaten) [GM: Dave]

Apr 22 19:30 Star Wars: Prison Break (In or Out?) [GM: Dave]

I've run that latter two a few times at conventions and as one shots in the past whereas The Expanse is a completely new system for me and I just need to decide which scenario to run...

Fortunately I have a few options there.

Community Content Publishing (OneBookShelf)

What, a post so soon?

It's Day 1 of 2021 but I'm not using that naming convention for these blog posts anymore.

I mentioned in my end of year post about potentially publishing content for games other than D&D.

Whilst doing some reading of the other Community Content Programmes on DriveThruRPG I thought it may be of interest to others how this works.

Before we dive in though.

I am NOT an expert on this subject but I have spent a fair bit of time reading the info on DriveThruRPGs website and doing some digging around the interwebs.  If any of this is wrong, please let me know!

If you're creating something that is not tied to an existing RPG and you want to publish it on DriveThru then you have two options:

1. Exclusive
2. Non-Exclusive

What's the difference?  This page explains https://www.drivethrurpg.com/joinchoice.php and here's the table for speed.

	Download Exclusive	Download Non-Exclusive
Earnings on digital sales	70% of customer price you set	65% of customer price you set
Digital sales channels	Only resold through DriveThruRPG.com	Sold anywhere
Earnings on printed sales	70% of print margin*	65% of print margin*
Printed sales channels	Sold anywhere	Sold anywhere
Enhanced title rotation	Yes	No
Bonus on-site promotion	Yes	No

If you want to create something that IS tied to an existing RPG then worth looking at the Community Content Programmes on DriveThru.

Three things to consider.

1. If you're planning to create products for one of the Community Content Programmes on DriveThruRPG then first you need to decide which one. This page lists all of them - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/cc/0/default

All of them give you access to their IP and in many cases provide artwork, templates for InDesign, Word and Affinity Publisher to create content and a variety of other resources.

This is really important to consider when creating something.  If you're wanting to write for a specific RPG then it's an easier decision to make because you are actually writing for that RPG.  If you don't want to lose that 15% or 20% then you have to ensure that what you produce doesn't infringe on copyrights or at the very least uses Open Gaming content.

2. The trade off is in the Earnings %.

In the main the Royalty % is 50% although there is one exception I could find (Savage Worlds) and a few where I couldn't find the %  on the DriveThru website (those in italics).  I'd err on the side of those being 50% too though.

Community Content Programmes	Royalty
Canis Minor (Pugmire)	50% Royalty
Chronicle System Guild (Green Ronin)	??% Royalty
Cypher System Creator Program	50% Royalty
Disciples of the Demon Lord	??% Royalty
DMsGuild	50% Royalty
Free League Workshop	50% Royalty
Genesys Foundry	50% Royalty
Gumshoe Community	50% Royalty
HERO GAMES	50% Royalty
Hero Kids Creator's Guild	50% Royalty
Infiniverse (Torg)	??% Royalty
Jonstown Compendium (Runequest)	50% Royalty
Miskatonic Repository	50% Royalty
Pip Worlds ???	50% Royalty
Savage Worlds Adventurer's Guild	60% Royalty
Scriptorium Aventuris (The Dark Eye)	??% Royalty
Slarecian Vault (Scarred Lands)	50% Royalty
Storypath Nexus	50% Royalty
Storytellers Vault	50% Royalty
Stratosphere (Unknown Armies)	??% Royalty
TinyTrove (Tinyd6)	??% Royalty
Travellers' Aid Society	50% Royalty
WOIN (What's Old Is New)	50% Royalty
ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous	50% Royalty

Stuff not listed would include games / systems like Pathfinder, Powered by the Apocalypse and FATE mostly because they either don't share their IP or have no specific IP to share.  If you're using these then you're not using a Community Content Programme and if you publish for these on DriveThruRPG then you're able to take advantage of the Exclusive / Non-Exclusive options above.

3.  If you're publishing D&D 5e compatible material you have 2 options.

1. DMsGuild
2. 5e OGL / SRD on DriveThruRPG

The former gives you access to the D&D IP and the dedicated D&D platform for customers that is DMsGuild. Although that's with a 50% royalty.

The latter gives you access to (most of) the core of D&D 5e as a game and gives you 65%-70% royalty. Although that's with being in a marketplace (DriveThruRPG) that isn't targeted at the D&D community.

That said it is worth noting that if the OGL / SRD approach means you can publish stuff wherever you like whether that's itch.io or Kickstarter or frankly anywhere.  DMsGuild produced stuff can only be sold via DMsGuild.

Beyond that we get into the area of ownership of what is created.

It's here that I need to clearly state that I am not a lawyer.

Below is a summary from Travis Legge comparing three such offerings.  Travis also isn’t a lawyer, but he’s been involved in self-publishing for many years so certainly a good guide.

DMsGuild	The FAQ states, “Wizards does not own any of the unique IP that you create in your publications. Wizards does own the IP that they contribute, plus the DMs Guild agreement will grant Wizards and other DMs Guild authors a license to use your IP. That said, if your work merits incorporation into canon, Wizards will contact you about purchasing your IP outright.” What this means is that if you create a Wizard named Blinky McScuzzlefort and in an adventure you create for the Dungeon Masters Guild, you have Blinky McScuzzlefort get kidnapped by Mind Flayers (A Wizards of the Coast IP property) that you own Blinky McScuzzlefort and Wizards keeps ownership of Mind Flayers. If Wizards wants to later use Blinky McScuzzlefort in a book they create called “Blinky McScuzzlefort’s Guide to Stuff” they have to purchase that intellectual property from you in order to do so. This seems to confuse a lot of people, but it is really that simple.
OGL	This is the part of the OGL that new creators seem to find the most challenging. When you publish under the OGL, you effectively split your content into two types, which you must clearly designate in the title or legal page of your text. The first type of content is Open Game Content, which is game systems, rules, numbers, stat blocks, etc. This is effectively added to the SRD in terms of ability for people to draw from and use in their own publications. It becomes open source. Anyone can use it, so long as they follow the guidelines laid out in the Open Game License. The second type of content is Product Identity. Product identity is generally Proper Nouns, setting elements, trade dress, storylines, and other non-system items, which you retain ownership and copyright over. Others using the Open Game License can reuse your Open Game Content, but they cannot use your Product Identity.
Slarecian Vault / Canis Minor	These community content programs each list specifics regarding the Product Identity you are allowed to use and the ramifications of publishing under these programs. The Slarecian Vault FAQ, available here, explicitly states that Onyx Path owns the content you create under the Slarecian Vault. This is not the place to publish ideas that you wish to retain ownership of. You won’t. The Canis Minor FAQ, available here, makes the same stipulation. In effect, you are using their Product Identity to contribute to their Product Identity. This is something to be aware of and create accordingly.

If protecting ownership of any Community Content you create is important to you, worth reviewing the wording of these FAQs etc very carefully.