My Tabletop Scotland 2022

With the last Tabletop Scotland event being held in 2019 I had a feeling of apprehension coming into this year's event.

• Not about attendance levels. Our pre-sales had blown the doors off 2019's pre-sales.
• Not about whether people would have fun. Put gamers in front of games and that's largely a given.
• Not about whether our exhibitors would have a positive experience, especially those with us for the first time. Again, put gamers in front of games and other adjacent things then they're going to explore and investigate it, especially if it was something new to them.

The apprehension was one driven by having not done it since 2019, and likely in part due to fatigue thanks to catching COVID post Gen Con.

So what was the apprehension about?

• Was all the hard work put in to prep and plan for the event going to pay off?
• Had I considered every possible scenario and made sure we had an answer to resolve it?
• Did we have enough volunteers? - It's worth noting that there is no such thing as _enough_ volunteers...

Until we opened the doors there was no way of actually knowing.

But there were two other things which I don't think I really appreciated until the event got closer.

1. Was I going to enjoy it?
2. Plus perhaps crucially, would I want to do it again?

To understand number 1, you have to go back to the 2018 and 2019 events.

• 2018 was hard largely because it was the first one we did, but also because this was the culmination of a vision I had which was refined by the others in the team to the point that we knew what the event should be. The problem was that I didn't relax throughout the weekend, which meant I didn't get a chance to savour and enjoy what we'd achieved until afterwards.
• 2019 was hard primarily because we doubled the floorspace and perhaps jumped too soon into that additional complexity. We also had a lot of last minute stuff to deal with.
  As with 2018, I didn't relax during the 2019 con to be able savour and enjoy it.

2022? Well, other than a few tech issues, the occasional decision and some "have we done this?" moments, I didn't actually have anything specific to do during the convention other than chatting to attendees, our charity partners, volunteer & event team, press, guests and exhibitors. In other words I relaxed and was able to enjoy my / our creation. This freedom was largely down to the efforts of the rest of the yellow team and our amazing volunteers, plus of course we'd done it before so certain things just click into place.

The time I was able to spend with folks at the convention was invaluable, especially those friends that I haven't seen since the last event in 2019 and many for even longer. Ultimately the freedom provided me with the fuel I'd been running out of during the preparation.  Which leads into number 2.

To understand number 2, you have to factor in a few things...

• I have a full time job which is very busy at the best of times.
• I was ill from late January through to early May, which was energy sapping. This impacted a chunk of our planning for the con but we muddled through.
• Then I get COVID early August after being at Gen Con.

Alongside those, I think I'd forgotten how much time and effort is spent on planning the convention. In the 2-3 months prior it essentially becomes a 2nd full time job. A lot of that is of my own creation, I obsess over the little things and like to respond to questions immediately. I like to think that obsessiveness helps make the event work as effectively as it does, but who knows right?

As a result, when combined with the above, I felt drained physically, mentally and emotionally going into the convention. All of which had me seriously wondering whether I wanted to do it again.

There's a kind of expectation that Tabletop Scotland will happen every year. An assumed state that obviously we'd want to do it etc etc. I'll be honest and say that it wasn't until the Monday after the convention that I really felt the desire to do it again. That's because everything largely worked as planned, and as a result I was able to relax and even enjoy the convention. But it's also because I've missed doing it, missed the people, missed the thrill of opening those doors and seeing friends old and new come in. 

So, Tabletop Scotland 2023? That's the plan. When we have something to share, we'll share it.

AlbaCon 2021 is soon!

 

Last year AlbaCon raised over £3,100 for a Scottish charity, specifically for It's Good 2 Give who provide amazing support to young cancer patients and their families.

Ahead of last year's event we had no idea whether people would come or indeed if people would pay to play RPGs.

Thankfully they did on both counts.

AlbaCon 2021 is raising money for another Scottish charity, this time it's Penumbra.

Penumbra are a mental health charity and in many respects it's almost the perfect match to an online RPG convention, particularly given the last 18 months where many of us have moved our games online or indeed returned to the RPG hobby to escape from the pandemic.

Every penny that we raise from events, donations and via our D&D Beyond Raffle will go to Penumbra.

We have a lot of companies and individuals supporting us by Sponsoring the convention this year and they're all fantastic humans for doing this.

Our attendees are in for some amazing offers and giveaways throughout the convention weekend.

So if you've got some free time over the weekend of the 2nd & 3rd October, please sign up for events.

If you can't make it then please donate.

If you're a D&D fan, then also consider entering our D&D Beyond raffle. We have some amazing prizes to give away.

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.

Day 366 of Year 2020...

It has been 31 days since my last post and it also happens to be the last day of 2020.

As far as leap years go, it has been a year full of challenge and no doubt many people will be keen for it to be over with as soon as possible.

While looking forward to 2021, I have some hesitation about how quickly things will improve with respect to the pandemic, politics, and ongoing aspects of other things 2020 will be remembered for.

But this blog is not about those things and I am not planning to change that any time soon.

Let us talk about tabletop games.

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I usually start one of these with a reflection on the year gone but I think my most recent posts do that for me.

Some brief highlights?

AlbaCon was a success and raised over £3,000 for an amazing charity.

I published Unsettled Ground. An adventure for Dungeons & Dragons on DMsGuild after taking part in the RPG Writer Workshop.

The Dungeons & Dragons Scotland Facebook Group has grown from 0 to 725 members and the associated D&D Scotland Discord Server now has multiple games running on it every week. Not bad. Naturally there was a big upturn of members after March...

I’ve DM’d more sessions of RPGs than I have since my teens including continuing to DM two ongoing D&D campaigns and running several intro sessions of D&D at work and for friends looking to explore RPGs. My two campaigns are made up of:

• Homebrew set in Forgotten Realms with some flavourings of my own. We hit two years of running this in October and successfully migrated to playing online back in March.
  
  
  
  
  
• The other is a run through of Season 9 of Adventurers League – Avernus Rising.
  
  
  
  
  

I’ve also played more RPGs than ever including playing in games of the Eberron - Oracle Of War storyline with Shane, Pete, Iain and Ian run by Rich.  Fabulous people I would usually only get to see at events like UK Games Expo but thanks to the wonders of online gaming I have the pleasure of spending time with them semi-regularly.

Probably worth a few hobby related lowlights too? Although in the grand scheme of things these really are not that important…

Lots of conventions were cancelled, including Tabletop Scotland 2020.

I haven’t played a board game since March, largely due to East Neuk Tabletop being on hiatus.

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So with 2021 on the horizon, what plans do I have?

Conventions?

If (and it's a BIG if) in-person events are actually possible in 2021 then my plan is to go to the following: AireCon, Conpulsion, UK Games Expo, GenCon, Glasgow Games Festival and I plan to finally go to Dragonmeet.  That’s with organising Tabletop Scotland 2021 and AlbaCon 2021.

If in-person events are not possible then I’ll look at attending an equal number of online conventions, although most likely to play RPGs.

Other stuff?

After completing the RPG Writer Workshop I intend to write & publish at least 3 more DMsGuild products & maybe some other non-D&D stuff too.  I’d like that number to be nearer 6 but that’s going to be dependent on available time which will be driven by whether Tabletop Scotland goes ahead or not.  I fully expect to take part in the RPG Writer Workshop events in July and November 2021 either way.

Alongside continuing to run my alternating D&D Tuesday campaigns I want to run at least 6 games other than D&D for more than a one-shot.  Now that’s not with the intention of starting up another campaign but more a case of running short (2 to 4 sessions maybe) arcs.  What games?  Damn good question…

Night’s Black Agents – Unlikely to be the Dracula Dossier (given the session constraint above) but want to run a short arc, likely one of the published ones.

The Expanse or Ashen Stars or maybe both.  They can offer similar play experiences but are different both in setting and play style.

Mutant City Blues or something else that’s police procedural. Maybe 2021 is the year I run Cthulhu?

I’d like to run some Savage Worlds although unsure what setting I’d use.  I could use this as an opportunity to write some Savage Worlds stuff as I have run games of it at cons "back in the day".

Plus it’s about time I tried out 2d20 (maybe Star Trek?), Cypher, Cortex and a couple of other systems to see if they work for me.

Typing that up highlights the challenge I’m setting but I think it’s doable.  Especially if my roleplaying remains online exclusively.  52 weeks in the year. If I run 3 sessions on average for 6 games that is 18 sessions.

Something tells me I’ll be reflecting on failure with this challenge but that’s why it’s a challenge!

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Before I wrap up it’s probably worth reflecting on my Objectives & Principles...

Objectives :

1. Balanced gaming – This is very RPG centric now.  Nothing wrong with that and a complete u-turn on previous times I’ve checked it.
2. More gaming overall – So, I think I’m still doing this.  Between the campaigns and running one-shot demos of D&D I think I’m “up” on previous years albeit RPG only.  Board gaming has stopped and likely will remain thus until ENT can return.
3. More involved – Interesting one this. Conventions help with this a lot and now with a plan to publish more RPG material I think this will develop further.
4. Event Attendance – Technically I attended 5 conventions this year.  All of them were online.
5. Organise Events – AlbaCon is the shining light for this.  I may revisit other ideas in 2021 depending on how things pan out.

Principles :

1. Only buy it if you're going to use it – Well this took a nosedive in March / April. When the first lockdown came, I started to buy more board games. Partly because I wanted to support Scotland's FLGS’ but also because I wanted some retail therapy. I stopped buying board games shortly thereafter and instead bought a lot of RPG books. Mostly D&D books but also other RPGs and lots of PDFs…
2. Is everyone having fun? Including you? – Continues to be key and is a regular topic when people ask me for advice on running RPGs.
3. Accept that you're going to be the GM – I called this an eternal principle a few years back. It still is and something I’m still very comfortable with. Getting to play is nice though 😉.
4. Change is a good thing and is necessary – This one has never been more evident than now. I’ve historically been resistant to playing RPGs online but when it became the only option, I embraced it.
5. Opinions aren't as important as knowledge and experience – This remains to be a truth for me. I continue to value input from lots of people, moreso when it comes to feedback on conventions I organise and of course with the release of Unsettled Ground. That said, I continue to reserve the right to ignore opinions in favour of relying on knowledge and experience!